It may be a little bit after the fact but I wanted to see if there was going to be any additional points to the storied headlines from the Republican debate the other night other than the much maligned Rick Perry's forgetfulness. The real story was not his forgetting the third target of his smaller government plan but that no one jumped on the band wagon.
Here was a real opportunity to make real cost cutting efforts a meaningful part of the debate and start identifying Federal programs and agencies that should no longer exist (as if some of them ever should have in the first place). What would have been much more exciting for this political race and for America is if a new competition would have started that night to see who would produce the most aggressive proposal for real government reduction. The starting bid of three programs was not even bid up to four.
There are far more possibilities than those offered. The National Endowment for the Arts, Housing and Urban Development, Education, Energy, Environmental and that is just to name a very few of the big well known areas. There are dozens more of the lesser known that could come off the top that very few have even heard of.
In addition to the outright elimination of some programs, severe cuts to others would help force them to focus on core functions and objectives that serve the purpose for which they were established. As budgets got bigger, the scope of many agencies grew far beyond their original designs as they became an obstacle and stumbling block to the very public they were designed to serve.
Of course this was promoted heavily by those in Congress that felt they had to pass a new law for every whiny complaint that past through their door. Thanks also to every whiner that brought it too them thinking that government is the solution to all our problems. And a special mention to those that execute said laws and regulations and using their own interpretations to enhance what they feel those requirements were really meant to be.
And because every one of those government programs and agencies support a "someone" somehow, there will always be opposition to turning them off. Any of them.
This is a vicious cycle we have put ourselves in and when only one in ten candidates is even willing to 'talk the talk' you know the odds of real fiscal reform (where someone will 'walk the walk') are not in the cards this go around. Don't be fooled by the sound bites and photo ops but instead look for those that will let actions speak louder than words. I'm still looking, are you?
This is Ed Nef with a view from the Farr West.
17 November 2011
16 November 2011
Thomas Paine had common sense
I came across this quote today and knew I just had to share it.
Public money ought to be touched with the most scrupulous conscientiousness of honor. It is not the produce of riches only, but of the hard earnings of labor and poverty. It is drawn even from the bitterness of want and misery. Not a beggar passes, or perishes in the streets, whose mite is not in that mass.
-- Thomas Paine
Did this man know what he was talking about or what? If ever there was a time when this truth needed to be known by it's people it is now.
This is Ed Nef with a view from the Farr West.
Public money ought to be touched with the most scrupulous conscientiousness of honor. It is not the produce of riches only, but of the hard earnings of labor and poverty. It is drawn even from the bitterness of want and misery. Not a beggar passes, or perishes in the streets, whose mite is not in that mass.
-- Thomas Paine
Did this man know what he was talking about or what? If ever there was a time when this truth needed to be known by it's people it is now.
This is Ed Nef with a view from the Farr West.
05 November 2011
Have you read The Book of Mormon?
Have you read “The Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ”? Have you even heard of it? I have and I must say that it is probably the most important book in my life. It has testified to me again and again of the true role of the Savior Jesus Christ. It has added depth and meaning to his teachings, working hand in hand with the testimonies provided by the Holy Bible. It has provided comfort and direction in times when life’s challenges were great. It has been a source of peace and comfort as well as understanding when I needed it most. It is a book that brings truth and clarity, dispelling the clouds that often line the path of life. It builds on the truth and light found from all sources helping me to grow in wisdom and learning as I seek to follow in the Savior’s footsteps, to be like Him and to return to live with our Father in Heaven.
If you have read the Bible or even just parts of it and have felt the richness of the spirit it brings then you owe it to yourself to add unto it by reading The Book of Mormon. If you have felt intimidated by the Bible because it feels awkward to read at times, then start with The Book of Mormon. They both testify of Christ for out of the mouth of two witnesses shall the truth be established.
Fear not what others have told you about the nature of The Book of Mormon either to the good or the bad but rather find out for yourself. The Bible itself was taught by word of mouth for many generations before it was available in printed form by which each person could read and gain testimony for themselves the truth contained therein. The same spirit of testimony that will let you know of the truthfulness of the Bible will let you know of the truthfulness of The Book of Mormon. It is a promise contained within the book that those that will read this book and ask of God if it is true, that the truthfulness thereof will be made known unto them by the power of the Holy Ghost.
I have done this very thing and know without a doubt that The Book of Mormon is true and is the work of God. If you will read it with real intent you will come to know this also of your own accord. I, like many before me, desire that all partake of this special gift. The book can be found at many book sales sites, new and used book stores, libraries and all the usual places but if you would like a free copy now, you can go to mormon.org/free-book-of-mormon. There you will find links to download the book in written form or as an audio book, or you can have a hard copy delivered to you. It is all free but its value can truly be priceless.
The book is published by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The members are sometimes referred to as Mormons and the nickname was given because of this book. I am a member. The web site above will link to other pages that may help answer some questions about the church for those with an interest but what is really important is that you obtain a copy and then read it.
This book is the keystone of our religion. If it is not true then the rest cannot stand, but I know that it is true and I want you to know also, one way or the other, but you must know for yourself, by yourself through the power of God, and the only way to do that is for you to gain possession of this book then obtain that knowledge yourself. One way or the other your life will change by the reading of this book.
May God bless you with this gift as He has me.
If you have read the Bible or even just parts of it and have felt the richness of the spirit it brings then you owe it to yourself to add unto it by reading The Book of Mormon. If you have felt intimidated by the Bible because it feels awkward to read at times, then start with The Book of Mormon. They both testify of Christ for out of the mouth of two witnesses shall the truth be established.
Fear not what others have told you about the nature of The Book of Mormon either to the good or the bad but rather find out for yourself. The Bible itself was taught by word of mouth for many generations before it was available in printed form by which each person could read and gain testimony for themselves the truth contained therein. The same spirit of testimony that will let you know of the truthfulness of the Bible will let you know of the truthfulness of The Book of Mormon. It is a promise contained within the book that those that will read this book and ask of God if it is true, that the truthfulness thereof will be made known unto them by the power of the Holy Ghost.
I have done this very thing and know without a doubt that The Book of Mormon is true and is the work of God. If you will read it with real intent you will come to know this also of your own accord. I, like many before me, desire that all partake of this special gift. The book can be found at many book sales sites, new and used book stores, libraries and all the usual places but if you would like a free copy now, you can go to mormon.org/free-book-of-mormon. There you will find links to download the book in written form or as an audio book, or you can have a hard copy delivered to you. It is all free but its value can truly be priceless.
The book is published by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The members are sometimes referred to as Mormons and the nickname was given because of this book. I am a member. The web site above will link to other pages that may help answer some questions about the church for those with an interest but what is really important is that you obtain a copy and then read it.
This book is the keystone of our religion. If it is not true then the rest cannot stand, but I know that it is true and I want you to know also, one way or the other, but you must know for yourself, by yourself through the power of God, and the only way to do that is for you to gain possession of this book then obtain that knowledge yourself. One way or the other your life will change by the reading of this book.
May God bless you with this gift as He has me.
25 September 2011
Quick change the channel
Boring...change the channel.
Irritating...change the channel.
Annoying...change the channel.
Don't want to think about it...change the channel.
Not interested...change the channel.
Disgusting...change the channel.
I have tuned into too many things over the years I guess that my level of interest has waned a bit. I am not saying this is a bad thing. After you have spent so many hours seeing the same old thing played out in the same old way over and over again, perhaps it is better to change the channel in an effort to find something new, and if not new at least worthwhile and of good report. That isn't always easy to do these days.
Thing is there really isn't a lot of worthwhile stuff out there so you really have to make an effort to find something of good report.
I suppose that part of the reason finding something new is that I have experienced so much of it before and find the new stuff mere copies, imitations, sequels and out and out ripoffs of the previous stuff.
Sequels are o.k. if you are truly building upon the foundation and adding to the flavor of the original, but more often than not it is just someone cashing in on the popularity of the original and not putting a lot of effort into it. Think of any Hal Needham movie done the second time.
Or sometimes, someone thinks it would be a good idea to remake a classic. Trouble is it is seldom if ever as good as the original. They know this and yet they do it anyway. Why? Because they know that if the wait long enough to do the remake, they will have a new audience to play to, one that has not experienced the original and will have no basis for comparison. Do you think Pat Boone would have been anywhere near as successful with "Long Tall Sally" and "Tutti Frutti" if his audiences had heard them done by Little Richard first?
For those of you that do not get the above references, and for those that do but know of some that will not, that is my point. To the young, everything is new and it is all being experienced for the first time. It is still judged for its merit but with little baseline to compare it too it rates pretty well. How else can you explain some of the drivel out there?
For those of us that have been around the block a time or two, the bar is raised. Sadly the bar does not have to move up much to exclude 80% of what is presented in the way of T.V., movies and music.
And that leads me to a problem. My attention span (that was pretty short to begin with) has been cut in half yet again. I can scan the preset radio stations on my car faster by hand than with the scan button. I can scan T.V channels faster than anyone in the room is ready to appreciate and not experience a small case of motion sickness. I can peruse web pages faster than they are meant to be enjoyed. (Don't even bother getting me started on staff meetings.) What I am saying is I can name that tune in three notes (another obscure reference for those keeping score) and decide if it is something that I want to continue with or move on to the next object faster than Simon Cowell can make a buck, euro, or pound. (That reference was at least a little more current I hope.)
And move on is what I do best. Because I have too spend more and more time trying to locate something worthwhile, I have less and less time to spend enjoying that something worthwhile which should. This tends to drive the bar higher still in an attempt to only spend my time on the best of the best.
This behavior also tends to push me outside the typical marketing demographics. I don't seem to mind except now advertising increasingly tends to be an annoyance and intrusion more than the communal interaction intended. In other words, they don't get me and I don't get them.
Let me expand on that just a little with an example. If you search on a news item to get a little more information and it takes you to a news media web site that has an inserted video to go with the text, my advice is to just read the text. More often than not the video, even if it is interesting though short on depth, will begin with an inserted, irrelevant video advertisement. These ads have been shortened to 15 seconds usually but that seems like an unusually long amount of time to put up with to watch a 2 minute segment in this day and age. I have and will regularly hit the mute button on these ads while I wait for what I am really after, but lately I find myself hitting the back button, leaving the site entirely and searching for what I am after elsewhere. And all because 15 seconds has become too long.
It isn't has if there are no other ads being flung at us as the web page itself is usually littered with them. They are static, passive unless clicked on and mostly unobtrusive. These video inserts are more demanding because they have what is essentially a captive audience. That is they are captive only in so far as the person desires to see the content provided. Kinda like regular T.V. in that way. But I am not captive or captivated and so I "change the channel". Often.
So what is the real downside here? There is nothing wrong with trying to avoid crap in whatever form it takes.
The downside is when you get in hyper scan mode it becomes difficult to take it down a notch when you finally come across something worthwhile. It is hard to slow down to a pace that will let you appreciate what you have found let alone slow down to the point that you can immerse yourself in the topic at hand.
And sadly I find myself slowing down less often for other things besides T.V, movies and music. I find myself having a hard time slowing down for people. I mean really connecting with others without having my mind racing off in half a dozen other directions. I find that to be one of the saddest things of all. But awareness is one of the first steps to recovery so I am putting forth effort to keep myself in the present as much as possible and especially around others.
That doesn't mean I will turn off my crap meter, it just means I wont be so quick to hit the next button when I am dealing with a human.
Non-humans on the other hand don't have any feelings so they shouldn't feel offended when I "change the channel".
This is Ed Nef with a view from the Farr West.
Irritating...change the channel.
Annoying...change the channel.
Don't want to think about it...change the channel.
Not interested...change the channel.
Disgusting...change the channel.
I have tuned into too many things over the years I guess that my level of interest has waned a bit. I am not saying this is a bad thing. After you have spent so many hours seeing the same old thing played out in the same old way over and over again, perhaps it is better to change the channel in an effort to find something new, and if not new at least worthwhile and of good report. That isn't always easy to do these days.
Thing is there really isn't a lot of worthwhile stuff out there so you really have to make an effort to find something of good report.
I suppose that part of the reason finding something new is that I have experienced so much of it before and find the new stuff mere copies, imitations, sequels and out and out ripoffs of the previous stuff.
Sequels are o.k. if you are truly building upon the foundation and adding to the flavor of the original, but more often than not it is just someone cashing in on the popularity of the original and not putting a lot of effort into it. Think of any Hal Needham movie done the second time.
Or sometimes, someone thinks it would be a good idea to remake a classic. Trouble is it is seldom if ever as good as the original. They know this and yet they do it anyway. Why? Because they know that if the wait long enough to do the remake, they will have a new audience to play to, one that has not experienced the original and will have no basis for comparison. Do you think Pat Boone would have been anywhere near as successful with "Long Tall Sally" and "Tutti Frutti" if his audiences had heard them done by Little Richard first?
For those of you that do not get the above references, and for those that do but know of some that will not, that is my point. To the young, everything is new and it is all being experienced for the first time. It is still judged for its merit but with little baseline to compare it too it rates pretty well. How else can you explain some of the drivel out there?
For those of us that have been around the block a time or two, the bar is raised. Sadly the bar does not have to move up much to exclude 80% of what is presented in the way of T.V., movies and music.
And that leads me to a problem. My attention span (that was pretty short to begin with) has been cut in half yet again. I can scan the preset radio stations on my car faster by hand than with the scan button. I can scan T.V channels faster than anyone in the room is ready to appreciate and not experience a small case of motion sickness. I can peruse web pages faster than they are meant to be enjoyed. (Don't even bother getting me started on staff meetings.) What I am saying is I can name that tune in three notes (another obscure reference for those keeping score) and decide if it is something that I want to continue with or move on to the next object faster than Simon Cowell can make a buck, euro, or pound. (That reference was at least a little more current I hope.)
And move on is what I do best. Because I have too spend more and more time trying to locate something worthwhile, I have less and less time to spend enjoying that something worthwhile which should. This tends to drive the bar higher still in an attempt to only spend my time on the best of the best.
This behavior also tends to push me outside the typical marketing demographics. I don't seem to mind except now advertising increasingly tends to be an annoyance and intrusion more than the communal interaction intended. In other words, they don't get me and I don't get them.
Let me expand on that just a little with an example. If you search on a news item to get a little more information and it takes you to a news media web site that has an inserted video to go with the text, my advice is to just read the text. More often than not the video, even if it is interesting though short on depth, will begin with an inserted, irrelevant video advertisement. These ads have been shortened to 15 seconds usually but that seems like an unusually long amount of time to put up with to watch a 2 minute segment in this day and age. I have and will regularly hit the mute button on these ads while I wait for what I am really after, but lately I find myself hitting the back button, leaving the site entirely and searching for what I am after elsewhere. And all because 15 seconds has become too long.
It isn't has if there are no other ads being flung at us as the web page itself is usually littered with them. They are static, passive unless clicked on and mostly unobtrusive. These video inserts are more demanding because they have what is essentially a captive audience. That is they are captive only in so far as the person desires to see the content provided. Kinda like regular T.V. in that way. But I am not captive or captivated and so I "change the channel". Often.
So what is the real downside here? There is nothing wrong with trying to avoid crap in whatever form it takes.
The downside is when you get in hyper scan mode it becomes difficult to take it down a notch when you finally come across something worthwhile. It is hard to slow down to a pace that will let you appreciate what you have found let alone slow down to the point that you can immerse yourself in the topic at hand.
And sadly I find myself slowing down less often for other things besides T.V, movies and music. I find myself having a hard time slowing down for people. I mean really connecting with others without having my mind racing off in half a dozen other directions. I find that to be one of the saddest things of all. But awareness is one of the first steps to recovery so I am putting forth effort to keep myself in the present as much as possible and especially around others.
That doesn't mean I will turn off my crap meter, it just means I wont be so quick to hit the next button when I am dealing with a human.
Non-humans on the other hand don't have any feelings so they shouldn't feel offended when I "change the channel".
This is Ed Nef with a view from the Farr West.
12 August 2011
The balanced budget amendment is hooey
With the latest financial crisis in America ever present in the minds of some and totally ignored by others (and sadly those that should be paying attention) new talk of a balanced budget amendment is raising it's head yet again. This is total political hype and haymaking and belongs in the area of things to be laughed at and made fun of and here is why. A balanced budget amendment like term limits and debt ceiling limits is a sign of weakness in the individuals that wish to have them. They are also not realistic solutions to very real problems.
Let me explain. Say you had a weight problem and were trying to get your weight back under control but your will power, resolve, and commitment to diet and exercise were just too great for you to handle. What do you do? Well the first thing I would do is pass a law that would not allow my bathroom scale to go over 200 lbs. I know for a guy my size that that is still considered overweight but really 200 lbs. is only a little overweight and wouldn't put me in the category of obese.
Of course the law of gravity (which wasn't written by me and for some reason can't be vetoed by me) is conspiring against my newly written law. But wait, there is a solution, I will buy a new scale for my bathroom, one that only goes to 200 lbs. In fact let's pass another law that says that no one can manufacture or purchase or own any bathroom scales that allow readings greater than 200. Just think of the spurt to the economy we will have from everyone having to replace all those old scales. And this rule applies to everyone equally because we care enough about you that we don't want anyone to weigh more than 200 lbs.
Oh but wait, what about the lineman who play for the Packers? Sports fans are not going to be please when they open their stat sheets only to find that their team is so evenly matched up with the opposing team with every player on the offensive and defensive line at an average weight of 200 lbs. Perhaps we should create an exemption for locker rooms. But then what should the new limit be for locker rooms? And should that be all sport locker rooms or just those of football players? Would the local fitness gym count?
And what about size? Should a 7 foot person be held to the same 200 lbs. limit, and should there be a lower limit for people under 5 feet tall? What if someone bought a metric scale, would a 200 kilogram limit apply?
I could go on and on but you quickly see how silly this stuff can get and this really is how some of our laws get created, especially the ones that shouldn't be laws in the first place as the bathroom scale represents. It is not in the charter people, it does not belong.
As I have stated before many of our laws are created to prevent you from doing or having something that I don't want you to have or do. Term limits where created as a way to remove a candidate that someone else didn't agree with but didn't have enough influence to remove with a legitimate alternative. You would think that common sense would prevail from the majority but as is too often the case common sense is not that common. How else do you explain the reelection time after time of (insert name here but contain yourself to the top 20 that come to mind)? Of course you have to think that if the people continue to put (insert name) back in office then they fully deserve what they get. And if the people of (insert state) wish to be represented by (insert name) then that is their right and I as a member of (insert other state) should have no say in it other than to make sure I am represented by someone who better expresses my viewpoint than (insert name).
Well that is all fine and dandy for the actions of others but what about for yourself? The key words is action and for self. When it comes to being a grown up and an individual we somewhere along the way begin to take responsibility for our own actions, which includes the outcome or consequences of those actions. Some of those consequences are automatic and consistent. If I jump up in the air, I will return to earth (there is that law of gravity again). There are certain rules we all must abide whether we know them or not. We can not impose our will over them just by saying they are not so. And if we say that we weigh 200 lbs. when we do not that is called a lie or at the very least a deception meant for others but mostly for self.
So if it is not a law or should not be then what is it? A GOAL. We can have a goal to have a balanced budget. The proposed law is an attempt to force an action to obtain the goal but it is a forced action and goal both of which are poorly defined, stated and acted upon. The debt ceiling was made into law in an effort to control an out of control government. It is not effective in that it has not made any headway in that regard. Because of it's failure to constrain the government fiscally it has been rewritten constantly to change the total debt limit more times than the number of years it has been in existence. It is like passing a law that says I can not weigh more than 200 only to rewrite it the next day at 201 and the next day at 202 and the next day at 203 and so on and so on and so on.
The other factor that comes into play with these types of legislation is the exemptions. They totally negate the effect you were after by introducing the loopholes by which you can ignore your own rules. We will have a balanced budget every year except when we can't, like during times of war or times of peace or times of famine or times of recession or times of emergency such as tsunamis or floods or hurricanes or tornadoes or earthquakes or depressions or election years or any time one of our neighbors has one of these problems. Oh yeah, and I will never eat chocolate again, unless I have a craving for some that can only be resolved by the ingesting of some form of chocolate.
Getting the idea.
We are the ones that are responsible for achieving our own goals, and we are the ones responsible for defining what those goals are and what rules we will give ourselves to obtain those goals. We then measure our success by how well we achieve our goals or how well we are progressing towards achieving them.
Our elected representatives are put in those positions to fulfill the will of the people. How successful they are is measured by how well they fulfill the will of the people they represent. If the people wish for a balanced budget, a debt ceiling, or a term limit, they do not need a special law enacted. They must take the action to find and elect a representative that will work on their behalf to reach these goals. They must then communicate their desires (goals) and monitor the progress of their representative to see that they are still their representative. If they really wanted a balanced budget then they would pass a balanced budget and with integrity only pass legislation that supported fiscal responsibility.
If we really wanted a balanced budget we also would be willing to accept nothing less. This means not accepting the handouts and entitlement programs that have been used by politicians for years to buy your votes and influence our support.
Just as we know what actions we must take to obtain a healthy weight, politicians know what actions they must take to obtain a healthy fiscal position with which to maintain a strong nation. If they don't, they don't belong there. If they know what they should do but they prefer not to act for their own reasons then they don't belong there. If they are not willing to act towards reaching our goals, simply put, they do not belong there.
If we are not willing to act to obtain our goals then we should not be surprised in the least when our goals are not met. All worthy goals take effort especially if you desire a worthy outcome. And you don't have to have a law written to make it happen. Just do it.
This is Ed Nef with a view from the Farr West.
Let me explain. Say you had a weight problem and were trying to get your weight back under control but your will power, resolve, and commitment to diet and exercise were just too great for you to handle. What do you do? Well the first thing I would do is pass a law that would not allow my bathroom scale to go over 200 lbs. I know for a guy my size that that is still considered overweight but really 200 lbs. is only a little overweight and wouldn't put me in the category of obese.
Of course the law of gravity (which wasn't written by me and for some reason can't be vetoed by me) is conspiring against my newly written law. But wait, there is a solution, I will buy a new scale for my bathroom, one that only goes to 200 lbs. In fact let's pass another law that says that no one can manufacture or purchase or own any bathroom scales that allow readings greater than 200. Just think of the spurt to the economy we will have from everyone having to replace all those old scales. And this rule applies to everyone equally because we care enough about you that we don't want anyone to weigh more than 200 lbs.
Oh but wait, what about the lineman who play for the Packers? Sports fans are not going to be please when they open their stat sheets only to find that their team is so evenly matched up with the opposing team with every player on the offensive and defensive line at an average weight of 200 lbs. Perhaps we should create an exemption for locker rooms. But then what should the new limit be for locker rooms? And should that be all sport locker rooms or just those of football players? Would the local fitness gym count?
And what about size? Should a 7 foot person be held to the same 200 lbs. limit, and should there be a lower limit for people under 5 feet tall? What if someone bought a metric scale, would a 200 kilogram limit apply?
I could go on and on but you quickly see how silly this stuff can get and this really is how some of our laws get created, especially the ones that shouldn't be laws in the first place as the bathroom scale represents. It is not in the charter people, it does not belong.
As I have stated before many of our laws are created to prevent you from doing or having something that I don't want you to have or do. Term limits where created as a way to remove a candidate that someone else didn't agree with but didn't have enough influence to remove with a legitimate alternative. You would think that common sense would prevail from the majority but as is too often the case common sense is not that common. How else do you explain the reelection time after time of (insert name here but contain yourself to the top 20 that come to mind)? Of course you have to think that if the people continue to put (insert name) back in office then they fully deserve what they get. And if the people of (insert state) wish to be represented by (insert name) then that is their right and I as a member of (insert other state) should have no say in it other than to make sure I am represented by someone who better expresses my viewpoint than (insert name).
Well that is all fine and dandy for the actions of others but what about for yourself? The key words is action and for self. When it comes to being a grown up and an individual we somewhere along the way begin to take responsibility for our own actions, which includes the outcome or consequences of those actions. Some of those consequences are automatic and consistent. If I jump up in the air, I will return to earth (there is that law of gravity again). There are certain rules we all must abide whether we know them or not. We can not impose our will over them just by saying they are not so. And if we say that we weigh 200 lbs. when we do not that is called a lie or at the very least a deception meant for others but mostly for self.
So if it is not a law or should not be then what is it? A GOAL. We can have a goal to have a balanced budget. The proposed law is an attempt to force an action to obtain the goal but it is a forced action and goal both of which are poorly defined, stated and acted upon. The debt ceiling was made into law in an effort to control an out of control government. It is not effective in that it has not made any headway in that regard. Because of it's failure to constrain the government fiscally it has been rewritten constantly to change the total debt limit more times than the number of years it has been in existence. It is like passing a law that says I can not weigh more than 200 only to rewrite it the next day at 201 and the next day at 202 and the next day at 203 and so on and so on and so on.
The other factor that comes into play with these types of legislation is the exemptions. They totally negate the effect you were after by introducing the loopholes by which you can ignore your own rules. We will have a balanced budget every year except when we can't, like during times of war or times of peace or times of famine or times of recession or times of emergency such as tsunamis or floods or hurricanes or tornadoes or earthquakes or depressions or election years or any time one of our neighbors has one of these problems. Oh yeah, and I will never eat chocolate again, unless I have a craving for some that can only be resolved by the ingesting of some form of chocolate.
Getting the idea.
We are the ones that are responsible for achieving our own goals, and we are the ones responsible for defining what those goals are and what rules we will give ourselves to obtain those goals. We then measure our success by how well we achieve our goals or how well we are progressing towards achieving them.
Our elected representatives are put in those positions to fulfill the will of the people. How successful they are is measured by how well they fulfill the will of the people they represent. If the people wish for a balanced budget, a debt ceiling, or a term limit, they do not need a special law enacted. They must take the action to find and elect a representative that will work on their behalf to reach these goals. They must then communicate their desires (goals) and monitor the progress of their representative to see that they are still their representative. If they really wanted a balanced budget then they would pass a balanced budget and with integrity only pass legislation that supported fiscal responsibility.
If we really wanted a balanced budget we also would be willing to accept nothing less. This means not accepting the handouts and entitlement programs that have been used by politicians for years to buy your votes and influence our support.
Just as we know what actions we must take to obtain a healthy weight, politicians know what actions they must take to obtain a healthy fiscal position with which to maintain a strong nation. If they don't, they don't belong there. If they know what they should do but they prefer not to act for their own reasons then they don't belong there. If they are not willing to act towards reaching our goals, simply put, they do not belong there.
If we are not willing to act to obtain our goals then we should not be surprised in the least when our goals are not met. All worthy goals take effort especially if you desire a worthy outcome. And you don't have to have a law written to make it happen. Just do it.
This is Ed Nef with a view from the Farr West.
You're an idiot
I got a comment the other day that simply said "You're an idiot". After the initial shock wore off (which admittedly wasn't very big nor did it last very long) my thoughts have turned to it on and off a few times over the last few days. What did they mean by this?
The comment was submitted by anonymous on the page about credit consumers beware so I don't have much to go on. Does the fact that they left the comment on that page mean that they had a difference of opinion concerning the coming changes to the credit rules that were set to go into effect shortly after its creation in March of 2010? Did the subsequent 16 months from the time the entry was written until the comment was made make a difference in the intent and meaning of the original article? Was the time of the entry noticed by the commenter? Was the comment even about the article it was left on or was it meant for another article published or just an overall feeling about my blog in general?
The fact that the commenter chose to be anonymous makes me wonder if it was just someone surfing in the night or was it someone that knows me quite well??? The fact remains that He or She (I can't guess from so little information and I know enough not to make any grand jumps in conclusions) thought strongly enough about something I wrote to take the time and energy (which certainly isn't much) to leave me a comment, even one as simple as this.
The comment was spelled correctly and presented properly with the exception of a period at the end of the sentence which any reader of my blog knows that I am certainly not perfect in the area of perfection, so I do not point this out as a point of criticism but as an observation. Anyone that has spent a little time on the net will note that there are many out there willing to leave comments or take part in discussions that have not grasped the better part of the language from spelling to grammar and it shows up pretty quickly, and as I have stated before if the message is strong and valid it will get through those barriers, but judgements are sometimes made based on the care taken.
I have also spent enough time on the web to know that these kind of comments and many more besides are very common and I would be naive to think that I would somehow be bypassed or exempted from them. Quite the contrary, I have been expecting there to be more and much worse, but there is still time.
The trouble is that as a form of criticism this simple phrase does not serve much use. I have nothing to go on. I actually wish I did. Feedback is a very useful tool or at least it can be, and should be. It is very difficult to administer and to accept (especially around job evaluation time). If emotions can be left out of it (hard to do) then change and growth can come from it. In other words it can be a good thing.
The next thing for me to decide is how do I react to this? As all comments come to me to moderate before being added it would be a simple act for me to hit the delete button and move on. Instead of doing that though, as you can see, I decided to write about it and make it the center of an entry. Now that this is done I will probably still delete it but only as it relates to the entry it was submitted on. Anyone who wishes to add these sorts of comments may feel free to do so here on this page, it kind of fits the topic. Too bad whoever left the comment decided to remain anonymous as they aren't able to receive any credit for this but I will gladly attribute this to all who leave such across the entire web.
I had decide long ago when first starting this blog that all comments would be welcome and accepted with the exception of anything vulgar for which I would attempt to censor appropriately if possible and then publish anyway. I have since decided as editor-in-chief that that will still be my policy to the extent that there is a real contribution, that comments offer some validity and are additive in content, they will be included. That does not mean that they all have to agree with me (I am not a talk show host) but they should at least be relevant. I intend to keep the anonymous option available for those that feel more comfortable not leaving trails all over the place in this day and age of security but I will also gladly add your name or identifier to any comments you wish to present.
There are many sites that force you to register with them before they will allow you to leave a comment or rate a video or interact with them in any way. Life is not like that and neither is this site. You may interact here if you like and to any degree you like. I'm not asking anyone to join a mailing list, I'm just asking you to enjoy.
The other thought that ran through my mind is how do I present criticism and could I be doing a better job. I think if I said that the President and Congress are a bunch of idiots that there is enough evidence presented daily for us to have a common ground of reference, but is that enough. Would it be a mere expression of emotion if that was all that was said? Would it be better if it were at least used as a starting point for dialogue and expanded on with specific examples of areas of idiocy and expanded even further with useful suggestions for improvement?
When looking at a movie review do we stop after looking at the number of stars given in the rating or do we look a little further to see if the reviewer has a similar take on things with common taste and interest so that we can relate their scale to our own? There is always a reason for feeling the way we do and trying to express why is sometimes difficult. When I was a child I didn't like peas but I couldn't explain why beyond the fact that "I just don't". Dang it if school teachers didn't expect more from me as I was growing up. And now I expect it of myself and I will be more aware of it thanks to this one commenter.
The last consideration to be taken, and this is one that is actually pleasing in a strange sort of way, is that this blogger has a reader.
Actually I know that there are others out there that read my site and I am grateful and hope you enjoy. I know that there are some who stumble on an entry and sometimes exit just as quickly when they realize it isn't what they were looking for but some will stay a little while and read and perhaps some will even explore. To one and all I say welcome, thank you, and enjoy. I know I have.
This is Ed Nef with a view from the Farr West.
The comment was submitted by anonymous on the page about credit consumers beware so I don't have much to go on. Does the fact that they left the comment on that page mean that they had a difference of opinion concerning the coming changes to the credit rules that were set to go into effect shortly after its creation in March of 2010? Did the subsequent 16 months from the time the entry was written until the comment was made make a difference in the intent and meaning of the original article? Was the time of the entry noticed by the commenter? Was the comment even about the article it was left on or was it meant for another article published or just an overall feeling about my blog in general?
The fact that the commenter chose to be anonymous makes me wonder if it was just someone surfing in the night or was it someone that knows me quite well??? The fact remains that He or She (I can't guess from so little information and I know enough not to make any grand jumps in conclusions) thought strongly enough about something I wrote to take the time and energy (which certainly isn't much) to leave me a comment, even one as simple as this.
The comment was spelled correctly and presented properly with the exception of a period at the end of the sentence which any reader of my blog knows that I am certainly not perfect in the area of perfection, so I do not point this out as a point of criticism but as an observation. Anyone that has spent a little time on the net will note that there are many out there willing to leave comments or take part in discussions that have not grasped the better part of the language from spelling to grammar and it shows up pretty quickly, and as I have stated before if the message is strong and valid it will get through those barriers, but judgements are sometimes made based on the care taken.
I have also spent enough time on the web to know that these kind of comments and many more besides are very common and I would be naive to think that I would somehow be bypassed or exempted from them. Quite the contrary, I have been expecting there to be more and much worse, but there is still time.
The trouble is that as a form of criticism this simple phrase does not serve much use. I have nothing to go on. I actually wish I did. Feedback is a very useful tool or at least it can be, and should be. It is very difficult to administer and to accept (especially around job evaluation time). If emotions can be left out of it (hard to do) then change and growth can come from it. In other words it can be a good thing.
The next thing for me to decide is how do I react to this? As all comments come to me to moderate before being added it would be a simple act for me to hit the delete button and move on. Instead of doing that though, as you can see, I decided to write about it and make it the center of an entry. Now that this is done I will probably still delete it but only as it relates to the entry it was submitted on. Anyone who wishes to add these sorts of comments may feel free to do so here on this page, it kind of fits the topic. Too bad whoever left the comment decided to remain anonymous as they aren't able to receive any credit for this but I will gladly attribute this to all who leave such across the entire web.
I had decide long ago when first starting this blog that all comments would be welcome and accepted with the exception of anything vulgar for which I would attempt to censor appropriately if possible and then publish anyway. I have since decided as editor-in-chief that that will still be my policy to the extent that there is a real contribution, that comments offer some validity and are additive in content, they will be included. That does not mean that they all have to agree with me (I am not a talk show host) but they should at least be relevant. I intend to keep the anonymous option available for those that feel more comfortable not leaving trails all over the place in this day and age of security but I will also gladly add your name or identifier to any comments you wish to present.
There are many sites that force you to register with them before they will allow you to leave a comment or rate a video or interact with them in any way. Life is not like that and neither is this site. You may interact here if you like and to any degree you like. I'm not asking anyone to join a mailing list, I'm just asking you to enjoy.
The other thought that ran through my mind is how do I present criticism and could I be doing a better job. I think if I said that the President and Congress are a bunch of idiots that there is enough evidence presented daily for us to have a common ground of reference, but is that enough. Would it be a mere expression of emotion if that was all that was said? Would it be better if it were at least used as a starting point for dialogue and expanded on with specific examples of areas of idiocy and expanded even further with useful suggestions for improvement?
When looking at a movie review do we stop after looking at the number of stars given in the rating or do we look a little further to see if the reviewer has a similar take on things with common taste and interest so that we can relate their scale to our own? There is always a reason for feeling the way we do and trying to express why is sometimes difficult. When I was a child I didn't like peas but I couldn't explain why beyond the fact that "I just don't". Dang it if school teachers didn't expect more from me as I was growing up. And now I expect it of myself and I will be more aware of it thanks to this one commenter.
The last consideration to be taken, and this is one that is actually pleasing in a strange sort of way, is that this blogger has a reader.
Actually I know that there are others out there that read my site and I am grateful and hope you enjoy. I know that there are some who stumble on an entry and sometimes exit just as quickly when they realize it isn't what they were looking for but some will stay a little while and read and perhaps some will even explore. To one and all I say welcome, thank you, and enjoy. I know I have.
This is Ed Nef with a view from the Farr West.
19 July 2011
Really, a gang of six?
It is time to comment on the state of the nations budgetary affairs. They are pathetic and only getting worse by the minute. Take the Gang of Six for example. A lousy name which means they have already been placed in the discredit category so no matter what the plan is they came up with, it has already been written off by those who wish to eliminate them as a possible contender for solutions.
And that is all right by me. The gang of six plan is really weak. It does not go far enough. Not nearly enough. To talk of cutting 4 Trillion dollars sounds austere but over a 10 year period it is really just more political ramblings designed to give them bragging rights back home, never meaning to be taken seriously. Even if it was honestly considered by anyone, you would notice that it is very vague in application merely pushing political hot topic buttons but doing very little in the way of reforming a very broken system that is on the verge of an implosion.
No one in Washington D.C. is taking the role of a true leader. No one dares stick their neck out and speak the truth and then take action based on truth. Everyone knows that the first person to present any kind of definable plan is the first one to get slaughtered because know the others have a target with which to aim their slings and arrows. Failure by consensuses is a far safer path for the average politician. And sadly we don’t even have average politicians anymore. They are all sub par.
Congress has never been known to ‘win the day’ on their own. They need someone to take charge, providing direction and purpose while providing the salesmanship necessary to placate the American public into non-confrontational acceptance of their new deal. Presidents have traditionally carried that burden or assumed that role. Don’t look for that this time around. This is one lesson that Obama didn’t quite learn from the Clintons and he is paying the price.
I don’t think he will pay the price nearly to the degree he deserves. There are still far too many people that are blindly in love with whatever they think he is. I hope they don’t wake up too late to realize the party is over and they have wasted the whole evening waiting for a prince charming who will never arrive.
As for the debt problem, reality says to me that we have it every bit as bad as Greece, and some of the others, we are just living in denial big time. The deadline will come and go and very little will be noticed by most. The real damage is yet to come as a last minute knee jerk reaction deal will be made that will allow the politicians to take a photo op, slap each other on the back and proclaim victory for our side (which ever that might be). Then the slide down hill will continue until the next masqueraded crisis rears its ugly head causing us all to take anxiety pills will our leaders forestall the inevitable. And all the while we are in our day of reckoning now and most don’t even recognize it.
This is Ed Nef with a view from the Farr West.
And that is all right by me. The gang of six plan is really weak. It does not go far enough. Not nearly enough. To talk of cutting 4 Trillion dollars sounds austere but over a 10 year period it is really just more political ramblings designed to give them bragging rights back home, never meaning to be taken seriously. Even if it was honestly considered by anyone, you would notice that it is very vague in application merely pushing political hot topic buttons but doing very little in the way of reforming a very broken system that is on the verge of an implosion.
No one in Washington D.C. is taking the role of a true leader. No one dares stick their neck out and speak the truth and then take action based on truth. Everyone knows that the first person to present any kind of definable plan is the first one to get slaughtered because know the others have a target with which to aim their slings and arrows. Failure by consensuses is a far safer path for the average politician. And sadly we don’t even have average politicians anymore. They are all sub par.
Congress has never been known to ‘win the day’ on their own. They need someone to take charge, providing direction and purpose while providing the salesmanship necessary to placate the American public into non-confrontational acceptance of their new deal. Presidents have traditionally carried that burden or assumed that role. Don’t look for that this time around. This is one lesson that Obama didn’t quite learn from the Clintons and he is paying the price.
I don’t think he will pay the price nearly to the degree he deserves. There are still far too many people that are blindly in love with whatever they think he is. I hope they don’t wake up too late to realize the party is over and they have wasted the whole evening waiting for a prince charming who will never arrive.
As for the debt problem, reality says to me that we have it every bit as bad as Greece, and some of the others, we are just living in denial big time. The deadline will come and go and very little will be noticed by most. The real damage is yet to come as a last minute knee jerk reaction deal will be made that will allow the politicians to take a photo op, slap each other on the back and proclaim victory for our side (which ever that might be). Then the slide down hill will continue until the next masqueraded crisis rears its ugly head causing us all to take anxiety pills will our leaders forestall the inevitable. And all the while we are in our day of reckoning now and most don’t even recognize it.
This is Ed Nef with a view from the Farr West.
13 July 2011
I'm Back
Hello everyone. I'm afraid I've been a little busy lately, and more than a little distracted, but I have returned to share thoughts and insights but probably just to rant and vent.
In fact I have been so upset and angered by this countries lack of discipline, integrity, and sensibility while being driven by an overwhelming self-centered selfishness and an overpowering level of stupidity that my emotions got caught up in it all and I couldn't quite bring myself to compose from a reasonable centered me so I gave it up for awhile.
Anyone that has been watching the news for awhile will have noticed the insanity that has laid claim to the world around us and often makes it tempting to retreat into hibernation or at the very least begin practicing the life of a hermit.
But alas I am too far entrenched in day to day living to commit that form of social suicide. And neither should you if you are experiencing the same level of frustration of that external world that tries so hard to dominate our lives. It is at this point that we must stand and say "nuts to you" and move on with what we do, and that is to live the good life and fight the good fight. To accept anything less is to deny our true inheritance.
So what was the trigger that brings me back around. A little news article on the radio this morning that reported President Obama praising someone other than himself, a republican no less that goes by the name of Mitch McConnell. You have got to know that you are way off base when no less than Obama and Harry Reid are calling your ideas a 'serious proposal'.
So what is this 'serious proposal'? How about letting the President raise the national debt ceiling without GOP support. That's right, the Senate minority leader is suggesting that Congress forgo its duties and responsibilities and hand the President the last keys to national destruction. I don't know why they would bother since all three branches seem to be working in a concerted effort to accomplish the same willful degradation of the remnants of a once upon a time fine upstanding and well respected country.
If you understand the debt crisis at all, or even just a little you are shaking in your boots right now along with the rest of us, but it is not the core of the problem. It is not even center stage of our drama or worse yet in the eyes of the people that matter most, the citizens of this nation. It is also just one symptom of a long list of symptoms plaguing our country right now and its future is hanging in the balance.
Someone from the White House said "never let a good crisis go to waste" but the scary truth that walks hand in hand with that is 'if you don't have a crisis now, make one'. I don't know how much of what is happening is fabrication and deliberate manipulation but I have seen enough to make me think that there is a definite plan being played out and there are some who think they will gain power by allowing events to unfold the way they have. Over the past several years (and decades and beyond) these types of events have led those in power to excuse themselves in taking action that has undermined our freedoms and our liberties. And for all intense and purposes it is happening again. Just as we now joke at the cliche of 'do it for the children' (although I still hear that one used time and again) we are not laughing at the effects it has had on our lives. Last time we were all too willing to do 'whatever it takes' to maintain our homeland security. This time we will do 'whatever it takes' to maintain our economic security. And all the while we have willingly done 'whatever it takes', we have done so without really realizing what was taken. The physical and economic security that was once in our hands as been placed in the hands of another, and now we have neither.
Where is that country that was so highly praised for freedom and liberty and was hailed as a land of opportunity and righteousness? Where is that people that stood proudly for one nation under God and valued it so highly that many would willingly give their lives in defending it? Where are the voices of reason in the tumultuous din of stupidity?
It is not all gone...yet. It is not all forgotten...yet. Fear not to add your voice to reason. If it sounds like stupid and feels like stupid, please don't be afraid to say so. When stupid looks itself in the mirror, truth is revealed and reason can stand. It is time to let laughter and ridicule drive stupidity back into the long forgotten shadows from whence it came.
History is replete with examples where stupidity runs rampant, but it only last for awhile. For those of us looking for the better way, having lived it and knowing what it is, there is still a light of hope that all is not lost. There is still a chance for the return of sanity. And although I am predicting that there is the potential for some serious hard times ahead, both economically, politically and socially, there is still an opportunity for much good to come from all this. That is what I continue to look for, hope for and pray for. I hope that you will be doing the same.
This is Ed Nef with a view from the Farr West.
In fact I have been so upset and angered by this countries lack of discipline, integrity, and sensibility while being driven by an overwhelming self-centered selfishness and an overpowering level of stupidity that my emotions got caught up in it all and I couldn't quite bring myself to compose from a reasonable centered me so I gave it up for awhile.
Anyone that has been watching the news for awhile will have noticed the insanity that has laid claim to the world around us and often makes it tempting to retreat into hibernation or at the very least begin practicing the life of a hermit.
But alas I am too far entrenched in day to day living to commit that form of social suicide. And neither should you if you are experiencing the same level of frustration of that external world that tries so hard to dominate our lives. It is at this point that we must stand and say "nuts to you" and move on with what we do, and that is to live the good life and fight the good fight. To accept anything less is to deny our true inheritance.
So what was the trigger that brings me back around. A little news article on the radio this morning that reported President Obama praising someone other than himself, a republican no less that goes by the name of Mitch McConnell. You have got to know that you are way off base when no less than Obama and Harry Reid are calling your ideas a 'serious proposal'.
So what is this 'serious proposal'? How about letting the President raise the national debt ceiling without GOP support. That's right, the Senate minority leader is suggesting that Congress forgo its duties and responsibilities and hand the President the last keys to national destruction. I don't know why they would bother since all three branches seem to be working in a concerted effort to accomplish the same willful degradation of the remnants of a once upon a time fine upstanding and well respected country.
If you understand the debt crisis at all, or even just a little you are shaking in your boots right now along with the rest of us, but it is not the core of the problem. It is not even center stage of our drama or worse yet in the eyes of the people that matter most, the citizens of this nation. It is also just one symptom of a long list of symptoms plaguing our country right now and its future is hanging in the balance.
Someone from the White House said "never let a good crisis go to waste" but the scary truth that walks hand in hand with that is 'if you don't have a crisis now, make one'. I don't know how much of what is happening is fabrication and deliberate manipulation but I have seen enough to make me think that there is a definite plan being played out and there are some who think they will gain power by allowing events to unfold the way they have. Over the past several years (and decades and beyond) these types of events have led those in power to excuse themselves in taking action that has undermined our freedoms and our liberties. And for all intense and purposes it is happening again. Just as we now joke at the cliche of 'do it for the children' (although I still hear that one used time and again) we are not laughing at the effects it has had on our lives. Last time we were all too willing to do 'whatever it takes' to maintain our homeland security. This time we will do 'whatever it takes' to maintain our economic security. And all the while we have willingly done 'whatever it takes', we have done so without really realizing what was taken. The physical and economic security that was once in our hands as been placed in the hands of another, and now we have neither.
Where is that country that was so highly praised for freedom and liberty and was hailed as a land of opportunity and righteousness? Where is that people that stood proudly for one nation under God and valued it so highly that many would willingly give their lives in defending it? Where are the voices of reason in the tumultuous din of stupidity?
It is not all gone...yet. It is not all forgotten...yet. Fear not to add your voice to reason. If it sounds like stupid and feels like stupid, please don't be afraid to say so. When stupid looks itself in the mirror, truth is revealed and reason can stand. It is time to let laughter and ridicule drive stupidity back into the long forgotten shadows from whence it came.
History is replete with examples where stupidity runs rampant, but it only last for awhile. For those of us looking for the better way, having lived it and knowing what it is, there is still a light of hope that all is not lost. There is still a chance for the return of sanity. And although I am predicting that there is the potential for some serious hard times ahead, both economically, politically and socially, there is still an opportunity for much good to come from all this. That is what I continue to look for, hope for and pray for. I hope that you will be doing the same.
This is Ed Nef with a view from the Farr West.
25 February 2011
Tales of the HP, Part Three.
It isn’t over yet, there is still much to be done. IE 8 is o.k. but I still like Firefox better so I need to get a copy and get it loaded. I did save all my links in the backup process; at least I hope I did. Speaking of backups, I will need to figure out a good way to transfer my old files back onto this box, and set up a good back up program. I should be able to use the one that came with the portable unit I got at Costco and since that is where I stuck my files anyway it may be a good way to transfer back the files. At least that was the thought when I picked it up in the first place. One back up drive should be able to support two different computers, right.
Optimist.
As I think back over the last few months and having to try and come up with solutions to the problems I faced, one thought ran over and over again in my mind; if I can’t get this working again then I will just have to get another computer, but if I had to get a new computer what would I do now? If I had it to do over again would I go this same route or would I try something different? Because of the problems I have had the last thing I want is something that will give me more problems, and I don’t want to spend any more money on this than I have to.
On my last three computer buys I have spent the extra money up front thinking that I was getting better quality, performance, and time before obsolescence only to find that I only got a small increment if any and that the problem quotient was still there. I readily admit that I will think long and hard before even considering an HP again. This has left a bad taste in my mouth for their products, and I do mean that with a plural. Maybe it is the platform and I should switch from PC to Apple.
I have spent a lot of time thinking about that one also, but like the PC, Apples are not perfect. They are far from being cheap let alone inexpensive. If they were half the current price on any and all models the whole story of personal computing would have to be rewritten.
They are also every bit as proprietary as anything out there. This is both good and bad. Good in that they should be in an excellent position to tackle compatibility issues but bad in that there is definitely a monopolistic feel within the platform. But with all this control they should also have a handle on quality issues, especially for the money they charge. That expectation is not born out based on some things I have read. My brother put it best when he told me to go to the local Apple store and take a look at the line at the service counter.
For now I will give the old HP one more shot. I kind of have to with all the time, effort, and money I have invested in this thing. It is too bad that the world is moving so fast and technologies are changing so quickly because some days I would like to go back to an older box that ran simpler software and still seemed to do what I needed it too without too much fanfare. Actually it seemed to do the basics at least as fast as the current boxes do. Bulky is bulky no matter what your time-frame of reference is. It is hard to say which technology is pushing which. Does new software require new hardware or does new hardware dictate new software? All I know is you can never have enough of either when it comes to gaming. And lately it all kinda seems like a game. And one that is getting harder to win.
Either way I will press on and let you know what happens. A lot has been happening in the world lately and without a blog to share my comments with the office has been taking the brunt of my soap boxing escapades. They will probably be glad for the reprieve.
As always, I am Ed Nef with a view from the Farr West.
Click here for Part One of the HP adventure or
click here for Part Two of the HP adventure.
Optimist.
As I think back over the last few months and having to try and come up with solutions to the problems I faced, one thought ran over and over again in my mind; if I can’t get this working again then I will just have to get another computer, but if I had to get a new computer what would I do now? If I had it to do over again would I go this same route or would I try something different? Because of the problems I have had the last thing I want is something that will give me more problems, and I don’t want to spend any more money on this than I have to.
On my last three computer buys I have spent the extra money up front thinking that I was getting better quality, performance, and time before obsolescence only to find that I only got a small increment if any and that the problem quotient was still there. I readily admit that I will think long and hard before even considering an HP again. This has left a bad taste in my mouth for their products, and I do mean that with a plural. Maybe it is the platform and I should switch from PC to Apple.
I have spent a lot of time thinking about that one also, but like the PC, Apples are not perfect. They are far from being cheap let alone inexpensive. If they were half the current price on any and all models the whole story of personal computing would have to be rewritten.
They are also every bit as proprietary as anything out there. This is both good and bad. Good in that they should be in an excellent position to tackle compatibility issues but bad in that there is definitely a monopolistic feel within the platform. But with all this control they should also have a handle on quality issues, especially for the money they charge. That expectation is not born out based on some things I have read. My brother put it best when he told me to go to the local Apple store and take a look at the line at the service counter.
For now I will give the old HP one more shot. I kind of have to with all the time, effort, and money I have invested in this thing. It is too bad that the world is moving so fast and technologies are changing so quickly because some days I would like to go back to an older box that ran simpler software and still seemed to do what I needed it too without too much fanfare. Actually it seemed to do the basics at least as fast as the current boxes do. Bulky is bulky no matter what your time-frame of reference is. It is hard to say which technology is pushing which. Does new software require new hardware or does new hardware dictate new software? All I know is you can never have enough of either when it comes to gaming. And lately it all kinda seems like a game. And one that is getting harder to win.
Either way I will press on and let you know what happens. A lot has been happening in the world lately and without a blog to share my comments with the office has been taking the brunt of my soap boxing escapades. They will probably be glad for the reprieve.
As always, I am Ed Nef with a view from the Farr West.
Click here for Part One of the HP adventure or
click here for Part Two of the HP adventure.
Tales of the HP, Part Two.
I found one (a portable backup hard drive), looks about right, on sale, says it’s easy to use, preloaded with backup software…let’s try it.
After much rebooting I was able to get the computer up and running longer than 3 minutes, plugged the backup drive in and started to copy files over. The best I was able to do was move 1.9 Gb before it crashed. This is not good.
I was not going to trust my data to someone I could not talk to first that should be able to save the data before rebuilding the computer. I chickened out and took it to a different local PC shop, one that advertised free virus scans and one I had been in once before when I went shopping for a particular piece of computing hardware with a friend. I was hopeful.
Too hopeful it turns out. You can’t run a virus scan if you can’t get the computer to run at all. Minimum diagnostics charge was $69, thank you very much, but they go through it totally and test each part then let you know what it will cost to repair before fixing…yada, yada, yada. I got the call the next day saying come pick it up it is ready to go. I go there and the lad tells me that they ran a hard drive check disk, found some bad sectors, repaired them and it ran fine. I asked if they ran the free virus scan and he plugged it in to their monitor to show me. It crashed three times before he sheepishly turned to me and said “You probably want to leave this with us a little longer.”
Several days go by and still no word so I stop in after work to see what the verdict is. He thinks it might be the memory but he also is not getting consistent readings. He has been pulling components out of my box and putting it into one of theirs then running the test piece by piece so at least this time they are using good method. The techie tells me that the hard drive is working fine. This is good news to me since that is where my data is. So I ask “Can you save the data?” to which he replies “yes, we usually charge $79 to transfer data.”, and I reply “WHAT, you have got to be kidding me?” but he wasn’t.
I then decided that I could do that part of the job myself if I only had the right tool. I found it in their shop, a box which will act like a portable hard drive when you insert your internal hard drive into it and then power it up and plug it into the USB port of another computer. I talked him into giving me a break on the price, he gave me $5 bucks off, and off I went $100 poorer but at least on my way to saving the photos.
Having a little mechanical savvy I was able to open up the box, pull the internal hard drive, build the portable unit, plug into my wife’s laptop that she is using for school, transfer the files, return the internal hard drive to its original position inside the HP desktop box, put the case back together and start feeling hopeful again.
I then immediately hooked up the new recently bought portable backup drive from Costco to the wife’s laptop and did a proper backup of all the files on her computer including the newly transferred files from the HP. This was another ‘whew’ moment.
Off to the UPS store and the computer was now on its way to PC repair store number two, the original one intended to do the repair work under the extended warranty. The repair tech contacts me a few days later saying he couldn’t find the power cord that I know I took with the box to UPS to be shipped, but he said it was o.k. he had one available. He then asked me several times making sure that I had backed up my data. I assured him I had made every effort to do so and that is why it took so long to get it to him from the day I first submitted the claim. This to me was confirmation that I had done the right thing in making sure I had my files off the computer before sending it in, a system rebuild was in the works and I could feel it.
A week went by but being busy with work I hadn’t had time to notice or do much with home computers anyway so I just let it be. About the time I did start to wish I had it here though it showed up from UPS, on a holiday no less. I unpacked the box trying not to get the packing peanuts everywhere. There was a note inside stating that they had replaced the System Board (Mother Board for us old timers) and power supply (evidently the power cord got lost along the way), and had run a “burn-in for more than 19 hours and everything is working fine”. They also installed fresh OS with all driver and window updates. Does this mean I am truly back in business and that I can run my computer without fear for the first time in its life? Honestly, I don’t know.
Only one way to find out, plug it in and try it out. So that is what I am in the process of doing. I took care to plug all the various wires and cords back into the same places they came out of (more or less). With fingers crossed I hit the power button and waited for the lights to dance. Of course the first attempt ended in a mouse that wouldn’t operate and a keyboard that quit after a few taps of trying to operate a computer without a mouse. I quickly called back the PC store who suggested I buy a new mouse since they sometimes go bad or try plugging it into a different slot and see if that works. The mouse and keyboard worked fine before I started all this so there was no reason for them not to work now and besides, I have a serial mouse, not a USB mouse so there is only one place to plug it and the keyboard into, and they are color coded from HP and no I didn’t get them mixed up thank you very much. It turns out Microsoft is still not as plug and play as they want you to believe so the computer had to decide what drivers to use and then needed a reboot. One reboot later the computer recognized the keyboard and mouse and I could try again.
Next thing I noticed is that I have in essence a new box and that there is nothing loaded on it but the newly loaded operating system. All the rest is gone. I still have the software disc for MS Office and such so not a big deal although it does require reloading everything with subsequent re-registering and reconfiguring and rearranging and just redoing everything that you had done once before. (These really are remarkable time saving devices aren’t they.) So I have Office on here now and IE8, both running on the newly updated 64 bit Vista with Service Pack 2. I also have my Anti-Virus software package running; it was the first thing to get loaded and updated.
Of course I have already done several system updates as suggested by Microsoft’s Windows update and currently have another 18 waiting for me since I just loaded MS Office. I have also had to reload a version of Adobe Acrobat reader which is required to read all the manuals and read-me docs that seem to be everywhere these days. I also tried to load Adobe Flash Player but that one got hung on me. In fact I already have 4 system problems that need checking for solutions, 2 for the HP and 2 for Windows. Actually when I pressed check for solutions it went looking for 18 of them. I hope this is not a sign of things to be with this system.
I will try to follow the software manufacturer’s suggestions, keep everything current and updated, treat this computer with the kid gloves I always have and hope that things are going to be different this time around, thinking that maybe I did just get a quasi-lemon last time and that I am fully repaired and now I can surf the web and compute without fear, and my productivity will go through the roof as my creativity soars by with the broken barriers of hardware limitations.
Optimist.
This is Ed Nef with a view from the Farr West. If you are ready to see the conclusion Click here for Part Three of the HP adventures. If you missed the beginning Click here for Part One.
After much rebooting I was able to get the computer up and running longer than 3 minutes, plugged the backup drive in and started to copy files over. The best I was able to do was move 1.9 Gb before it crashed. This is not good.
I was not going to trust my data to someone I could not talk to first that should be able to save the data before rebuilding the computer. I chickened out and took it to a different local PC shop, one that advertised free virus scans and one I had been in once before when I went shopping for a particular piece of computing hardware with a friend. I was hopeful.
Too hopeful it turns out. You can’t run a virus scan if you can’t get the computer to run at all. Minimum diagnostics charge was $69, thank you very much, but they go through it totally and test each part then let you know what it will cost to repair before fixing…yada, yada, yada. I got the call the next day saying come pick it up it is ready to go. I go there and the lad tells me that they ran a hard drive check disk, found some bad sectors, repaired them and it ran fine. I asked if they ran the free virus scan and he plugged it in to their monitor to show me. It crashed three times before he sheepishly turned to me and said “You probably want to leave this with us a little longer.”
Several days go by and still no word so I stop in after work to see what the verdict is. He thinks it might be the memory but he also is not getting consistent readings. He has been pulling components out of my box and putting it into one of theirs then running the test piece by piece so at least this time they are using good method. The techie tells me that the hard drive is working fine. This is good news to me since that is where my data is. So I ask “Can you save the data?” to which he replies “yes, we usually charge $79 to transfer data.”, and I reply “WHAT, you have got to be kidding me?” but he wasn’t.
I then decided that I could do that part of the job myself if I only had the right tool. I found it in their shop, a box which will act like a portable hard drive when you insert your internal hard drive into it and then power it up and plug it into the USB port of another computer. I talked him into giving me a break on the price, he gave me $5 bucks off, and off I went $100 poorer but at least on my way to saving the photos.
Having a little mechanical savvy I was able to open up the box, pull the internal hard drive, build the portable unit, plug into my wife’s laptop that she is using for school, transfer the files, return the internal hard drive to its original position inside the HP desktop box, put the case back together and start feeling hopeful again.
I then immediately hooked up the new recently bought portable backup drive from Costco to the wife’s laptop and did a proper backup of all the files on her computer including the newly transferred files from the HP. This was another ‘whew’ moment.
Off to the UPS store and the computer was now on its way to PC repair store number two, the original one intended to do the repair work under the extended warranty. The repair tech contacts me a few days later saying he couldn’t find the power cord that I know I took with the box to UPS to be shipped, but he said it was o.k. he had one available. He then asked me several times making sure that I had backed up my data. I assured him I had made every effort to do so and that is why it took so long to get it to him from the day I first submitted the claim. This to me was confirmation that I had done the right thing in making sure I had my files off the computer before sending it in, a system rebuild was in the works and I could feel it.
A week went by but being busy with work I hadn’t had time to notice or do much with home computers anyway so I just let it be. About the time I did start to wish I had it here though it showed up from UPS, on a holiday no less. I unpacked the box trying not to get the packing peanuts everywhere. There was a note inside stating that they had replaced the System Board (Mother Board for us old timers) and power supply (evidently the power cord got lost along the way), and had run a “burn-in for more than 19 hours and everything is working fine”. They also installed fresh OS with all driver and window updates. Does this mean I am truly back in business and that I can run my computer without fear for the first time in its life? Honestly, I don’t know.
Only one way to find out, plug it in and try it out. So that is what I am in the process of doing. I took care to plug all the various wires and cords back into the same places they came out of (more or less). With fingers crossed I hit the power button and waited for the lights to dance. Of course the first attempt ended in a mouse that wouldn’t operate and a keyboard that quit after a few taps of trying to operate a computer without a mouse. I quickly called back the PC store who suggested I buy a new mouse since they sometimes go bad or try plugging it into a different slot and see if that works. The mouse and keyboard worked fine before I started all this so there was no reason for them not to work now and besides, I have a serial mouse, not a USB mouse so there is only one place to plug it and the keyboard into, and they are color coded from HP and no I didn’t get them mixed up thank you very much. It turns out Microsoft is still not as plug and play as they want you to believe so the computer had to decide what drivers to use and then needed a reboot. One reboot later the computer recognized the keyboard and mouse and I could try again.
Next thing I noticed is that I have in essence a new box and that there is nothing loaded on it but the newly loaded operating system. All the rest is gone. I still have the software disc for MS Office and such so not a big deal although it does require reloading everything with subsequent re-registering and reconfiguring and rearranging and just redoing everything that you had done once before. (These really are remarkable time saving devices aren’t they.) So I have Office on here now and IE8, both running on the newly updated 64 bit Vista with Service Pack 2. I also have my Anti-Virus software package running; it was the first thing to get loaded and updated.
Of course I have already done several system updates as suggested by Microsoft’s Windows update and currently have another 18 waiting for me since I just loaded MS Office. I have also had to reload a version of Adobe Acrobat reader which is required to read all the manuals and read-me docs that seem to be everywhere these days. I also tried to load Adobe Flash Player but that one got hung on me. In fact I already have 4 system problems that need checking for solutions, 2 for the HP and 2 for Windows. Actually when I pressed check for solutions it went looking for 18 of them. I hope this is not a sign of things to be with this system.
I will try to follow the software manufacturer’s suggestions, keep everything current and updated, treat this computer with the kid gloves I always have and hope that things are going to be different this time around, thinking that maybe I did just get a quasi-lemon last time and that I am fully repaired and now I can surf the web and compute without fear, and my productivity will go through the roof as my creativity soars by with the broken barriers of hardware limitations.
Optimist.
This is Ed Nef with a view from the Farr West. If you are ready to see the conclusion Click here for Part Three of the HP adventures. If you missed the beginning Click here for Part One.
Tales of the HP, Part One
O.K. so I have been off line for a while. Not totally a bad thing but not a great thing either.
The computer finally gave up on me. What a pain. First one side of my dual core processor locks up making everything run very slowly. This lasted about a week. It was at this point that I contacted the American Express warranty people. Since I bought the computer at Costco and used my Costco American Express card they extended the warranty by one year. I am kinda glad I did.
I have had issues with this HP Pavilion box on and off since day one and it finally got so bad that it became unusable. I was never sure what the cause was as the problems acted differently each time. Of course the first thought is that you have picked up a virus or some nasty software but that is the first thing I checked for and except for a few spy-ware cookies I was clean. (Practice good surfing habits people.)
In the past I have contacted Costco’s concierge service which comes with new electronic purchases. They act as an intermediary for user issues and are very friendly, patient and helpful. If they are unable to solve directly (I am guessing the 80/20 rule were 80% of all new customer problems can be handled with the same 20% of the questions/answers) they will contact the manufacturer on your behalf. The first contact was to help me create the initial back up disc for the operating system that no one seems to ship with new computers anymore. The machine would not cooperate in making the disc for me so HP agreed to send me the backup Disc directly. Problem solved, back to work.
The next time was when the Hardware and/or Memory started going flaky. I never could tell which if either was really bad but during the experience I got a lot more familiar with some of the system diagnostic tools. With the support of the concierge I ran many different diagnostics but without a clear, consistent indication of what was wrong we couldn’t proceed to fix anything. This is also the time when I began to suspect that all the different Microsoft updates might have had something to do with it. It seemed like every time I turned around there was a new critical update that needed to be loaded, and when I did load them sometimes things got better and sometimes things got worse, sometimes much worse. It was in this phase that I learned about Vistas ability to return itself to a previous version. That came in handy a couple of times but again I never really was able to identify what the real problem was or what really fixed it.
And here is the rub. The computer would go on these ‘rants’ if you will for several weeks marked by excessive CPU time, or constant hard drive activity even when the computer should be in sleep mode, or the most irritating action of all, the reboot out of nowhere. I have heard that you should leave your computer on all the time and I have heard that you should leave your computer off when not in use. I have gone both ways and at this stage I don’t think it really matters either way. Based on the way you use your computer and frequency it becomes more a matter of convenience versus energy savings from my point of view.
Either way, the computer over its life has acted up on several occasions, diagnostics would turn up one problem or another without consistency, and then after a few aggravating days and sometimes weeks the computer would right itself and all would be well again. It would run perfectly normal for weeks and months with no rhyme or reason.
Unexpected reboots are generally not a good sign and that was always a good signal to me that something was acting up again with mine. Sometimes it was in the middle of the night and the next day when you went to use it you would notice that it had done a reboot. Sometimes I think this was legitimate as a new Microsoft update had been pushed out and it require a restart. It would take a little digging to see if that was the cause but it didn’t explain all of the non-use reboots, not by half.
It is when it started rebooting in the middle of what you were doing that really gave cause for alarm, and much frustration. There is the case where you get something hung up and you have to do a hard reboot yourself, it is a pain but that is a fact of life with these computers running Microsoft. It is something else entirely when it happens on its own or is accompanied by the blue screen of death. This last episode got so bad that I could no longer use it for any amount of time without it crashing in the middle of whatever I was doing. Bad news for me…and bad news for my data.
I finally gave up trying to figure it out and contacted American Express Warranty service, described the problem with what my attempted corrections had been and they agreed to send it in for repairs. Now I face my second problem, the service repair shop they use is a local PC store that has a store about 10 miles from home; however, the store they use for warranty work is located about 70 miles from my home. No problem, I could just run it down there myself and have them fix it while I wait and I would be back in the chase. I neglected to think about the fact that I would have to drop it off and leave it with them for who knows how long before they could get to it, diagnose it, repair it, and return it. On second thought, send me the shipping instructions.
Ah yes, the shipping instructions. They were sent fairly quickly…to my e-mail account…that is accessed through the internet…by… (I think you got ahead of me on this one)…my broken computer. O.K. the internet is everywhere and so that wasn’t as big a problem as it might have been but still one I had to work through. The next problem was slightly bigger.
The instructions said to take the shipping slip to the local UPS store, they would box it and ship it for you, all you needed to bring was the box, power cord, back up operating system software, and the signed authorization letter for the local PC store to do the work. On this signed letter was a place to enter your description of the problem and a paragraph warning of the chance that through the repair of the computer it may be necessary to do a rebuild of the system, in other words wipe out everything on the computer and start all over with a fresh load of the operating system and this my friends means that any files and photos you had loaded on your computer that didn’t reside in another spot would be lost forever.
Now you would think that someone that has had this much problem with their computer would know enough to have backed everything up (and at this point probably several times a day) and you would be right…except for the several times a day. I couldn’t remember when the last time I had done a back up so I wasn’t sure where to begin and I knew I had a lot of photos…a lot of photos which means a lot of backup space was required. That shouldn’t be a problem as I had plenty of CDs and DVDs with which to do this but it would be a lot more convenient to get one of those new portable backup drives, plug it in and let it do it all in one big sweep. Now which one do I get, how big should it be and how much should it cost? Back to Costco.
This is Ed Nef with a view from the Farr West. Click here for Part Two of the HP adventures.
The computer finally gave up on me. What a pain. First one side of my dual core processor locks up making everything run very slowly. This lasted about a week. It was at this point that I contacted the American Express warranty people. Since I bought the computer at Costco and used my Costco American Express card they extended the warranty by one year. I am kinda glad I did.
I have had issues with this HP Pavilion box on and off since day one and it finally got so bad that it became unusable. I was never sure what the cause was as the problems acted differently each time. Of course the first thought is that you have picked up a virus or some nasty software but that is the first thing I checked for and except for a few spy-ware cookies I was clean. (Practice good surfing habits people.)
In the past I have contacted Costco’s concierge service which comes with new electronic purchases. They act as an intermediary for user issues and are very friendly, patient and helpful. If they are unable to solve directly (I am guessing the 80/20 rule were 80% of all new customer problems can be handled with the same 20% of the questions/answers) they will contact the manufacturer on your behalf. The first contact was to help me create the initial back up disc for the operating system that no one seems to ship with new computers anymore. The machine would not cooperate in making the disc for me so HP agreed to send me the backup Disc directly. Problem solved, back to work.
The next time was when the Hardware and/or Memory started going flaky. I never could tell which if either was really bad but during the experience I got a lot more familiar with some of the system diagnostic tools. With the support of the concierge I ran many different diagnostics but without a clear, consistent indication of what was wrong we couldn’t proceed to fix anything. This is also the time when I began to suspect that all the different Microsoft updates might have had something to do with it. It seemed like every time I turned around there was a new critical update that needed to be loaded, and when I did load them sometimes things got better and sometimes things got worse, sometimes much worse. It was in this phase that I learned about Vistas ability to return itself to a previous version. That came in handy a couple of times but again I never really was able to identify what the real problem was or what really fixed it.
And here is the rub. The computer would go on these ‘rants’ if you will for several weeks marked by excessive CPU time, or constant hard drive activity even when the computer should be in sleep mode, or the most irritating action of all, the reboot out of nowhere. I have heard that you should leave your computer on all the time and I have heard that you should leave your computer off when not in use. I have gone both ways and at this stage I don’t think it really matters either way. Based on the way you use your computer and frequency it becomes more a matter of convenience versus energy savings from my point of view.
Either way, the computer over its life has acted up on several occasions, diagnostics would turn up one problem or another without consistency, and then after a few aggravating days and sometimes weeks the computer would right itself and all would be well again. It would run perfectly normal for weeks and months with no rhyme or reason.
Unexpected reboots are generally not a good sign and that was always a good signal to me that something was acting up again with mine. Sometimes it was in the middle of the night and the next day when you went to use it you would notice that it had done a reboot. Sometimes I think this was legitimate as a new Microsoft update had been pushed out and it require a restart. It would take a little digging to see if that was the cause but it didn’t explain all of the non-use reboots, not by half.
It is when it started rebooting in the middle of what you were doing that really gave cause for alarm, and much frustration. There is the case where you get something hung up and you have to do a hard reboot yourself, it is a pain but that is a fact of life with these computers running Microsoft. It is something else entirely when it happens on its own or is accompanied by the blue screen of death. This last episode got so bad that I could no longer use it for any amount of time without it crashing in the middle of whatever I was doing. Bad news for me…and bad news for my data.
I finally gave up trying to figure it out and contacted American Express Warranty service, described the problem with what my attempted corrections had been and they agreed to send it in for repairs. Now I face my second problem, the service repair shop they use is a local PC store that has a store about 10 miles from home; however, the store they use for warranty work is located about 70 miles from my home. No problem, I could just run it down there myself and have them fix it while I wait and I would be back in the chase. I neglected to think about the fact that I would have to drop it off and leave it with them for who knows how long before they could get to it, diagnose it, repair it, and return it. On second thought, send me the shipping instructions.
Ah yes, the shipping instructions. They were sent fairly quickly…to my e-mail account…that is accessed through the internet…by… (I think you got ahead of me on this one)…my broken computer. O.K. the internet is everywhere and so that wasn’t as big a problem as it might have been but still one I had to work through. The next problem was slightly bigger.
The instructions said to take the shipping slip to the local UPS store, they would box it and ship it for you, all you needed to bring was the box, power cord, back up operating system software, and the signed authorization letter for the local PC store to do the work. On this signed letter was a place to enter your description of the problem and a paragraph warning of the chance that through the repair of the computer it may be necessary to do a rebuild of the system, in other words wipe out everything on the computer and start all over with a fresh load of the operating system and this my friends means that any files and photos you had loaded on your computer that didn’t reside in another spot would be lost forever.
Now you would think that someone that has had this much problem with their computer would know enough to have backed everything up (and at this point probably several times a day) and you would be right…except for the several times a day. I couldn’t remember when the last time I had done a back up so I wasn’t sure where to begin and I knew I had a lot of photos…a lot of photos which means a lot of backup space was required. That shouldn’t be a problem as I had plenty of CDs and DVDs with which to do this but it would be a lot more convenient to get one of those new portable backup drives, plug it in and let it do it all in one big sweep. Now which one do I get, how big should it be and how much should it cost? Back to Costco.
This is Ed Nef with a view from the Farr West. Click here for Part Two of the HP adventures.
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