For those who read and those who don't

I went shopping the other day.  Nothing special, just average, everyday grab a few things kinda shopping and that is when I ran into this.  I was a little tired and wasn't too attentive but I needed some mustard which is one of those things I like to get as a condiment for various assorted eatables. 

As one that is always on the lookout for a bargain I thought it might be my lucky day when I saw a package clearly labeled as 40% more. 

Now in the past I have seen just this kind of thing when a producer is running a special and wants to give you more of something for the same price as a promotion.  "Score", I thought to myself...and then I looked again.

WHAT.  Well duh.  Of course a 20 ounce package contains 40% more than a 14 ounce package.  Why is that a big deal?  Short Answer: IT ISN'T.  They are just trying to make it sound like it should be. 

Next question, Is the bigger package the same price or at the very least a better deal?

Turns out in this case it is a slightly better deal.  I like it when they do the math for you and you can easily compare the price per ounce although sometimes they mix the measuring device used and you still have to rely on your own wit and possibly the calculator on your phone to convert.

But was this even a good deal?  Time to compare again.

Maybe it wasn't such a good deal after all.  And this one didn't even have to scream that the package was bigger, it just was.

After spending way to much time and energy going over and over again the decision making process that makes shopping fun and frustrating at the same time, I threw up my hands and left the condiment aisle altogether.  As you can see I did not have a mustard bottle in my basket.

I am pretty sure Twist and Shout cookies work with hot dogs.

This is Ed Nef with a view from the Farrwest.

AN AGE OLD QUESTION ANSWERED

It is a question that has haunted man and grade school students since someone got the bright idea to teach philosophy in addition to trade related knowledge and skills as regular curriculum.

If a tree falls in the forest and no one is there to hear it does it make a sound?

Well thanks to a heavier than normal breeze that passed our way the other night I think I have an answer.

I was on my way home from a very long hard day at work.  It had been stormy most of the day and I never weary seeing a little rain fall in our desert lands, especially when drought is the talk of many areas and flooding the parts of others.  Having a pleasant medium is not a bad thing to experience.

Just as I was pulling up to the house, I noticed that something seemed out of place.  At first I wasn't quite sure what it was and then that moment was quickly replaced with the notice of an object on the lawn that wasn't there the last time I had mowed.

I tried to investigate further to determine a cause or if a motive could be established because that was about the cleanest tree removal unintentional or not that I have ever seen.  Over the course of a lifetime, if one is paying attention to their surroundings, they will notice life happening to themselves and others and so I have seen my fair share of trees laying on their sides but never I have I seen one that did not bring or at least attempt to bring a good share of its roots and a goodly section of the ground around it up with it.

I paced it off and figure that this beautiful tree of long pine needle was about thirty feet long which equates to about thirty feet tall when it should in its formerly upright posture.  In case you are wondering, I took a picture with my size 12 boot for a size comparison.

The next day I commenced clean up efforts and learned that pine is one of the softer woods which means it was easier to start the deconstruction process as the loppers I used were making quick work of the branches.  It was still going to take some time though as there was a lot of tree to deconstruct.

I quickly filled our two garbage bins and was glad that it was our garbage pick up day today.  As I wheeled the two over flowing containers to the curb, the garbage truck arrived.  This surprised me because we are usually one of the last ones to be picked up in our neighborhood and the cans on the other side of the street were yet to be emptied.  The gentleman driving the truck pulled up and told me that he had noticed my downed tree earlier and that he would take these now and if I had them ready I could put them on the other side for him to empty on his return.  I was grateful for this offer and went straight to work trying to do just that.

He was true to his word and although they were not quit filled to overflowing as the first batch were, they still contained a pretty full load.  Freshly emptied, I began again to fill.  Six bins worth and a few big parts left over that might make for a nice pit fire some night but I finally got it cleaned up. 

There was some ingenuity employed to make that log into shorter more manageable lengths but more importantly make them light enough that I could move them, but it was done and it is done.  I am going to miss that tree, even if I know that a few more years and a little more wind in a slightly different direction, the outcome could have been much worse.  This is one of the easier things to handle all things consider when life happens.

So that brings me back to the beginning of this little story.  I was visiting with my friend and she asked me what that loud sound was from the night before and I explained about the tree and see nodded knowingly so even if I wasn't there to hear it, it made a sound and was heard.  At least that is what a little birdie told me.

But wait, she was there to hear it.  Forget what I said.  The question remains unanswered.  At least the sky wasn't falling.  This is Ed Nef with a view from the Farrwest.

I tried to take a survey today

in fact I have taken a lot of surveys and some are better than others and some are just plain bad.  Part of playing in Swagbucks land is the opportunity to see a lot of surveys and you quickly get a sense of why we get what we get from marketers and admen.  They just don't get it.  They are looking for what they want to hear from those they want to hear it from.  Anything outside of that is beyond their ability to care.  It is like politicians taking a poll to find out how many people agree with them on how wonderful they are, the rest don't matter.

Lately I have been in the uninviable position of becoming a member of the demographics that are not considered hip, trendy, or spend worthy.  I have been disqualified from more surveys than I get to complete.  Even when I do qualify, it seems the questions are irrelevant and there is seldom any places to give them real and honest feedback.  Therefore, I had enough of not being taken seriously and had reached a point of no longer being able to be serious.  Was this wrong?

I am afraid it was the best response I could come up with at the moment.  I think I got disqualified again.  No, not because of this answer but for something much more trivial I'm sure.

This is Ed Nef with a view from the Farrwest.

Are you going out today?

Black Friday is here.  Does that bring dread or joy?

I have been out there in the past.  I was not always hoping to find that item I had been dreaming about, hoping to be at the front of the line in order to get one of the 'limit of 3 per store' that is promised.  Sometimes I have been lucky and got one of those but no sense setting yourself up for disappointment.

Instead, I decided that it would just be fun to go out and wonder around with the masses of people having no real design, no real plan, just out to get a kick and jolt from the frantic energy that embodies the moment of doors opening and the rush of shoppers looking to score.  Every now and again I would even score a deal myself without expecting one and that is a real score indeed.

If you are in to people watching, what better time or event to participate in than the greatest people show of all.  Of course you wont see every kind of people, there are just way too many kinds to see and in today's world too many people have decided to skip the insanity.  With internet shopping becoming more and more of a usable feature of life, the people that come out to do it in person is a much smaller cross section than times past...truth be told they are the more colorful lot anyway.  But you have to start early because the others that have gotten up before the crack of dawn will be ready to go back to bed and sleep till the crack of noon by 8:30.

So set the wake up timer to start the day at 7, or is it 6, wait did you say some store open at 5?, that means I have to get up and 4 and maybe just run water over my head then hit the street running and...what was that?, some stores are starting Thursday after most have eaten there turkey?  But it is Friday already, did I miss anything?  Is all the good stuff gone already?  If all the people hit the stores yesterday, will there be anything to see or do today?  What about the weirdos?  What do you mean I'm the weirdo?  How am I supposed to have any fun on Black Friday if they already had it Thursday night?  Will there be anyone there to watch?  I should take my selfie stick so I can at least see what I am doing?  That way at least one weirdo watched, mission accomplished.

This is Ed Nef with a view from the Farrwest.

News flash 29 Oct. 2017

This just in from the MSN news site, an article from Newsweek reporter Jack Moore,

"The Clocks Are Changing in Europe But Why Not The U.S.?"

I know it is click bait and I sucked in. I mean, I am a pretty savvy guy and usually am pretty good with knowing what is going on, at least the important stuff, and this did come with a big picture of four guys working on the face of Big Ben which occasionally is taken out of service for repairs but what would this have to do with all of Europe and not impact the U.S. in some small way and would it really matter?

If that doesn't smack of click bait I don't know what does but I clicked anyway.

It turns out that this was yet one more lame story done twice a year, every year to remind us of daylight savings time.  Europe is on a different schedule and adjust this weekend while the U.S. will do their clock change next weekend.  Yippy skippy, end of story....or is it?

I read further and there were some words about which countries use daylight savings time and which do not.  How it started with the war for productivity and ended only to be turned on again later.  How research shows that it messes with our body clocks and can result in an increase in car accidents.  There were a couple of other 'facts' thrown in that sounded interesting but there was this one paragraph that made me question the whole article:

Americans will have lighter mornings and darker evenings because of the earlier sunrises and sunsets in what is a tradition initiated by former President Benjamin Franklin to conserve energy, according to Live Science.

I went to the Live Science web site and learned a little more about daylight savings time from an article by Jeanna Bryner, Live Science Managing Editor.  It looks like Jeanna spent a little more time developing her article and although Jack did not copy and paste his exactly perhaps he should have as I could find no mention of a President Benjamin Franklin in Jeanna's.  Perhaps she corrected it shortly after it was published I do not know.

Then again maybe I am missing something.  After all, President Benjamin Franklin is on the $100 bill and he was at least 10 times more important than President Alexander Hamilton who is on the $10 bill.  Besides, why would you put anyone other than a president on your money?

And I wonder why I bother to validate anything.

P.S. I am against daylight savings time, always have been, always will be.  It is dumb. Period.  but that is a subject for another time.  Not this week, maybe next week, unless you live in Europe.

This is Ed Nef with a view from the Farrwest.

Gosh, I hope I answered this one right...

I'm pretty sure I nailed it.

This is Ed Nef with a view from the Farrwest.

I heard this...

...the other day and found it rather profound.
       
           "A dog never barks at a parked car."

At first hearing it caught my attention and then I began to ponder upon it.

I have been barked at by many a dog in my days.  I have seen dogs bark at leaves, bark at the moon, bark at other dogs, and cats.  I have seen dogs bark at the wind, and unseen forces on the other side of fences.  I have seen dogs bark at basically anything that moves and some things that didn't but that they thought did (get of the couch and take your dog for a walk).  I have seen dogs bark for no other reason than that they have heard another dog barking.  However I can't say that I have ever seen a dog bark at a parked car.

I have been chased by dogs, some with intent to do me harm and some for play.  I have been chased on foot, on bike and on motorcycle and car.  I have never enjoyed it much when being the chasee, but the chaser seemed to be finding some satisfaction from it even if there was little chance of capturing the prey.  And if the dog caught the car what would it do with it?

I have heard that we have a tendency to notice motion, that our eye is attracted to it.  I am sure someone will be more than willing to say it is a link to our hunter/gatherer forebears that was a survival instinct that was handed down from the days of living in caves.  Personally I think it is handy for noticing when someone loses a ball that is coming into the street and braking or swerving before the little someone that lost that ball heads out to retrieve it.

Regardless of the source or reason, the ability to notice movement is swiftly followed by the decision to act on it...or not.  The fact that movement or action is more likely to be followed up with more movement and action is kind of a way of life.  That is why they call it reaction.  It is easier to react to something that is already in action.  The term 'critical mass' is basically a moment when the amount of reaction goes 'viral' and then everyone is doing it.

Everyone is doing it.  How often do we read a book, see a movie or tv show, vote for a candidate or proposition, recycle, eat kale, run a marathon, park in the wrong spot, criticize a group, boycott a store, protest a cause just because 'everyone is doing it'?

I will freely admit that I have in the past and in the present and in the future done things based on the recommendations of others, but with age and experience I have also not done things based on the recommendations of others.  I still prefer to choose my own walk.

Since the parked car does not react to the dog barking at it, the dog losses interest and quits barking at parked cars, but if the car is moving it must of course be reacting to the dog barking at it.  And if the dog is only barking at moving cars and ignoring the parked ones, it is only in reaction mode even if it things it is the one causing the movement.  In order to get the dog to bark, motion must be added to the equation.

Therefore is it better to be the dog that thinks he is driving the reaction of the car by barking and chasing it or to be the chasee that is causing the initial motion that attracts the dog that gives rise to the chase in the first place?

Another saying goes, 'If you are not the lead dog, the view never changes', but even if you are the lead dog that is leading the 'chase' the view may be different but it also never changes.  At least until you are winded and you can return to the home-front knowing all is safe and well again.

This is Ed Nef with a view from the Farrwest.

I woke up early this morning...

...and took a look out the mirror.

It was one of the scariest sights I've seen.


I think I need a new mirror.


This is Ed Nef with a view from the Farrwest.

Looking for good journalism is like...

I was perusing the Bing news site today and came across the articles about 50K residents having to evacuate the German city of Hanover so that officials could safely diffuse or remove five unexploded World War II bombs.  They included links for the story for both article and video and this is what it looked like for video:

One of these things is not like the others, one of these things just doesn't belong...

This is Ed Nef with a view from the Farrwest.

Humorous comments on government...

Someone sent this to me some years ago and as I read it again now I still find it all to relevant to our times of today.  I hope you enjoy it as I do.

1. In my many years I have come to a conclusion that one useless man is a shame, two is a law firm, and three or more is a Congress. -- John Adams

2. If you don't read the newspaper, you are uninformed; if you do read the newspaper, you are misinformed. -- Mark Twain

3. Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But then I repeat myself. -- Mark Twain

4. I contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to
lift himself up by the handle. -- Winston Churchill

5. A government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul. -- George Bernard Shaw

6. A liberal is someone who feels a great debt to his fellow man, which debt he proposes to pay off with your money. -- G. Gordon Liddy

7. Democracy must be something more than two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for dinner. -- James Bovard

8. Foreign aid might be defined as a transfer of money from poor people in rich countries to rich people in poor countries. -- Douglas Casey

9. Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys. -- P.J. O'Rourke

10. Government is the great fiction, through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else. -- Frederic Bastiat

11. Government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it. -- Ronald Reagan

12. I don't make jokes. I just watch the government and report the facts. -- Will Rogers

13. If you think health care is expensive now, wait until you see what it costs when it's free. -- P.J. O'Rourke

14. In general, the art of government consists of taking as much money as possible from one party of the citizens to give to the other. -- Voltaire

15. Just because you do not take an interest in politics doesn't mean politics won't take an interest in you. --
Pericles (430 B.C.)

16. No man's life, liberty, or property is safe while the legislature is in session. -- Mark Twain

17. Talk is cheap... except when Congress does it. -- Anonymous

18. The government is like a baby's alimentary canal, with a happy appetite at one end and no responsibility at the other. -- Ronald Reagan

19. The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of the blessings. The inherent blessing of socialism is the equal sharing of misery. -- Winston Churchill

20. The only difference between a tax man and a taxidermist is that the taxidermist leaves the skin. -- Mark Twain

21. The ultimate result of shielding men from the effects of folly is to fill the world with fools. -- Herbert Spencer

22. There is no distinctly native American criminal class... save Congress. -- Mark Twain

23. A government big enough to give you everything you want, is strong enough to take everything you have. -- Gerald Ford

Some things really haven't changed much over the years have they.

This is Ed Nef with a view from the Farrwest.

Super Bowl prediction for 2012

I know it is after the fact but I predict that the Green Bay Packers will lose their first game after the announcement that Madonna will be the half time show at the Super Bowl and will mar an otherwise unblemished record. They will continue to be so disappointed in the NFL's selection of half time entertainment that they will be unable to complete a proper trouncing of all future competitors. This will enable them to pull out of the final rounds of play without having to be exposed to the already overexposed baggy old noise maker. I'm just saying.