Annoying stuff

What a waste of time! We've started watching the TV show 'Dr. Ken'. It is funny so I searched the Internet for the earlier shows. I downloaded it from one of the sites which was a huge mistake. I should have known but even though I was suspicious about the download (it ended with .exe) I downloaded it anyway. It was supposed to be a torrent of the Show.

Well, long story short, suddenly things began to change on my computer. Popups and stuff. Instead of the homepage from Mozilla Firefox some other page opened. They wanted me to check my computer because apparently it was too slow. I needed updates and things like that. I couldn't get rid of these popups. And the starter page changed every time. I couldn't even find the Mozilla startup page anymore.

So I went to my Program Manager on the computer and discovered a whole bunch of new programs installed. I uninstalled them and my computer was almost back to normal except for Firefox. The advertising sites still popped up when I started the browser. I searched the Help site and followed a few suggestions but nothing helped. This program was stubborn. I finally downloaded an AdWare Extractor and that did the trick. Back to normal. I've used that program  a few months ago when I had trouble with popups. Actually they were voices on my computer--advertising.

My 'Housecall' program from my Virus program 'Micro Trend' did not detect any problems and gave my computer a clean bill of health. In other words it was useless.

So my advice on this second last day of the year is this: ALWAYS MAKE CERTAIN YOU ARE SURE THE SITE YOU ARE ON IS SAFE!!!  Don't download everything that promises you something for free. IT PROBABLY IS A TRAP! Beware! You've been warned.

Stay safe

HAPPY NEW YEAR

#Snow

Watching the snowflakes falling from the sky can be enjoyable and it is nice to have a blanket of fresh snow on the lawn. Not so much on the driveway, especially when it begins to accumulate and get so deep you need snowshoes to walk on it.

Children love snow, because now they can build a snowman and make Snow Angels.

Snowmobilers also love their snow.

However, snow can also be a bit of a nuisance and drive a man literally crazy. Here is a little story about such a man. I don’t know who wrote this. I’ve had it for long time and when I read it for the first time I nearly killed myself laughing. Read it and enjoy it:

Warning: Coarse Language

Snow

Dec. 8              6 pm: It’s started to snow. The first of the season and the wife and I took our cocktails and sat by the window watching the soft flakes drif down over the area. It was BEAUTIFUL.

Dec. 9              We awoke to a big beautiful blanket of crystal white snow covering the landscape. What a fantastic sight! Every tree and shrub covered with a beautiful white mantle. I shoveled snow for the first time in years and loved it. I did both our driveway and our sidewalk. Later the snowplow came along and covered up our sidewalk with compacted snow from the street, so I shoveled it again.

Dec. 12            The sun has melted all our lovely snow. Oh well, I’m sure we will get some more before the lovely winter is through.

Dec. 14            It snowed 8 inches last night and the temperature dropped to 20 degrees below zero. Shoveled the driveway and the sidewalk again and the snowplow came by and did its trick again.

Dec. 15            Sold my van and bought a 4x4 Blazer so I can drive in the snow. Bought snow tires for wife’s car.

Dec. 16            Fell on my ass on the ice in the driveway. All that was hurt was my feelings.

Dec. 17            Still cold (below zero in the a.m.) and icy roads make for very toughdriving.

Dec. 20            Had another 14 inches of the white shit last night. More shoveling in store for me today. That goddamn snowplow came by twice.

Dec. 22            We are assured of a white Christmas because 13 more inches of the white shit fell today, and with this freezing weather it won’t melt till August. Got all dressed up to go out and shovel (boots, jumpsuit, heavy jacket, scarf, earmuffs, gloves, etc.) and then I got the urge to pee!!

Dec. 23            I was going to go ice fishing today, but my worms froze and I didn’t  want the fish to break their teeth on my bait.

Dec. 24            If I ever catch the son-of-a-bitch that drives that snowplow, I’ll drag him through the snow by the balls; I think he hides around the corner and waits for me to finish shoveling and then he comes down the street 100 miles an hour and throws snow all over what used to be my lawn.

Dec. 25            Merry Christmas! They predict 20 more inches of the fucking white stuff tonight. Do they know how many shovels full of snow 28 inches is? To hell with Santa, he doesn’t have to shovel that white shit. The snowplow driver came by asking for a donation; I hit him over the head with the snow shovel.

Dec. 26            We got 28 inches and then some. I must be going snow-blind or have a severe case of cabin fever, because the wife is beginning to look good to me.

Dec. 27            The toilet froze. If you go outside don’t eat the brown snow.

Dec. 28            I set fire to the house. Now that white shit won’t cling to the roof!!!

#Star Wars:The Force Awakens

I went to see the new Star Wars movie, the seventh installment in the series. I would have waited a few weeks before going to avoid the crowds, but I went with my son and grandchildren and they were eager to see it.

I saw the six Star Wars movies that came before and I remember how thoroughly I enjoyed the first one. I can still see the huge Star Ship flying overhead on the big screen. I was impressed and full of excitement. It was something so new and mind-blowing. Of course, I was much younger then and still possessed that ‘Sense-of-Wonder’ that I seem to have lost somehow. I envy the kids who see something like that for the first time.

As I said, I would have waited to see the movie. We got there about ¾ hour before the movie started and already there was a long line-up of people waiting to get in. Many may have bought their tickets on line--if not all of them, the way we did. The four of us managed to secure seats in the last row. Most of the seats were already occupied when we finally walked into the theater. It was okay, though, because the screen was huge.

The movie has smashed all Box-Office hits, making a billion dollars in 12 days and it hasn’t even hit the Asian market yet. Obviously, the hype before the release had something to do with that, but it also proves that there are millions of loyal Star-Wars-Fans out there. I am one of them, but then I’ve been a life-long fan of Science Fiction, and movies like that are a dream come true for me. I am also a Star Trek fan.

What I’m going to say about ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ will probably anger some Fans, but this is my take of the movie. It was an okay movie. I’m not saying it was bad or that I didn’t enjoy it—I did enjoy it immensely, but there wasn’t anything that got me overly excited. It was more or less a rehash of the very first movie, only with new characters and a somewhat different plot. I wasn’t ‘Wowed’ by the story. Neither did I see something that was really new. The battles in space and on land were fine; the action was good, the characters likable—but nothing new. I've seen it all before.

As I’ve said, I may have lost that ‘Sense-of-Wonder’ and I miss that. Possibly, because I’ve seen so many movies, read so many books, and am writing my own stories may also contribute to the factor that I am more critical now. Will this stop me from going and watching the next installment of Star Wars? Absolutely not. I hope I live long enough and keep my wits about me to be able to do so, but I’m also waiting for a movie that brings new ideas to the screen.

Star Wars is also being presented in 3D. I might have enjoyed that more the way I did with the movie #‘Avatar’. That one blew me away. The story in that movie was not new, either, but the experience of 3D was wonderful and thrilling. Perhaps somebody will come up with the ability to show a movie as a #Hologram. Now, that would be an ‘Out-of-this-World’ experience and mind-blowing—to be right there with the action, like in the #Star Trek series and movies. Perhaps not quite so physical, because that would almost be scary. We haven’t reached that level of technology yet and may never reach it, but I read somewhere a long time ago: What a human mind can conceive is possible.

Not  so many years ago nobody ever thought computers would be so much a part of our daily lives, but look at what is happening: A personal computer is pretty much part of the way we live. We do our banking with a computer, book vacations, search for information, and even buy tickets for the movies on line. We have telephones that are used as cameras, as storage mediums and transmitters of information and pictures. They can be used to store and play music, used to text somebody and so much more. Not even Science Fiction writers predicted the world we live in now.

We don’t know where we go from here. It is exciting and even a bit scary, because what can be used for good can also be used for evil. The future may be wonderful or terrible, depending on how we use the things we discover. Let us hope that what the movie Star Wars entertains us with never happens in real life. Let it stay just a figment of somebody’s fertile imagination. Let it be fun and entertaining and nothing else.

May the Force be with you.

#Planet Earth, the alien planet

Sometimes I feel as if I’m living on a different planet, a hostile planet---like Mars. Last night we had minus 29 C, that’s 20 Below in Fahrenheit for you people who didn’t have to change to the Metric system or are refusing to change.

It doesn’t matter how you measure it, it is damn cold. You can’t go outside without getting dressed like an Eskimo—pardon me, an Inuit. Got to be politically correct. I don’t see what difference it makes what we call the people who live in the Arctic. Eskimo was good enough until now. Suddenly it isn’t anymore. Anyway, I went outside to feed the birds and put on my snowmobile suit. I don’t have a snowmobile, but the suit still comes in handy. I wear it when I barbecue outside. Yes, I still barbecue in winter. After all, I’m a Manitoban and we are tough, but that still doesn’t mean we don’t freeze. We just accept this friggen cold weather and the snow that goes with it.

Last week I had to blow the snow off my driveway three times. It usually takes me one hour to do that and it is good exercise. It means I have to walk for one hour and push and pull the blower every time I change direction. It gets tiring.

Christmas has come and gone. Today is Boxing Day. Nothing to do with boxing, but I can see the people in the stores today pushing each other to get to the items advertised as ‘Door crashers’. Sometimes they have only one of those items. The odd boxing match might just happen then.

We don’t go shopping on Boxing Day. Usually, the prices stay low for the rest of the week, because now it is ‘Boxing Week’. I have to admit, there are some pretty good bargains to be had. I bought myself a fishing reel from Cabelas—on line. It will be delivered to my door within the next couple of weeks and it didn’t cost me any shipping charges. Can’t argue with that and it beats standing in line in the store or even driving there. Everything done from the comfort of my home. I bought it as a ‘Before Boxing Day’ sale and the price was within my budget. Now I can’t wait to go fishing again.

It was an item I actually needed. Many people go out and spend a lot of money on items they don’t really need, but it is a good deal they can’t turn down. That’s one of the ways of getting into financial trouble—and many people do at this time of year.

Electronic items are the big items now and now is the time to buy them. That’s how I bought my printers a couple of years ago.  The printers were cheaper than the replacement cartridges. And that is how we fill our garbage dumps! We live in an age of utter waste. Nothing gets repaired anymore and nothing lasts, either. It is a shame.

We had a toaster oven that stopped working. A small micro switch that  would have cost pennies would have repaired it but you can’t get spare parts, so we bought a new one and took the old old to the dump. The batteries in the ‘Sniffer Sweeper Vacuum’ my wife owned went dead. When I called the manufacturer the woman told me they didn’t have replacement batteries, because you couldn’t replace the original one, which was nonsense. The batteries would have been so simple to replace. You didn’t even have to solder anything. I could have bought batteries from China: 10,000 for $1,000. Obviously not an option. I needed only two and I had no intentions of opening a store to sell batteries.

The woman’s advice was to buy a new ‘Swiffer’. Wonderful advice. They had a summit in Paris discussing how to clean up the air and the environment which will cost the countries that ‘have money’, like Canada, billions of dollars and the loss of jobs. How about forcing manufacturers to build items that last and can be repaired? That would be a great start to clean up the environment and wouldn’t cost billions to implement. It may even create jobs.

Or how about putting effort into developing a drug that cures the common cold? What brings that up? Well—I have one right now. Got it as a Christmas present. Actually, I probably got it a few days before Christmas from some unknown donor and after incubating inside my body busily creating millions of germs it made its appearance in the morning of December 24—just in time for Christmas Eve. It started with a scratchy throat and developed into a burning throat and a cough. The war is on. Now I’m drinking plenty of water, eat cough candies and take the occasional cold-medicine, which does nothing but give me a dull head.

I didn’t let that spoil my Christmas. I still ate the ham and the dumplings my wife made and devoured the red cabbage with gusto; I had a glass of eggnog and a bottle of beer and snacked on more cookies and chocolates I should have. But what the heck—it is Christmas. We are allowed a few indiscretions when it comes to eating. Plenty of ham left. The kids and grandchildren celebrated with us and it was fun. Yesterday, we went to our son’s place and stuffed ourselves with turkey. It was tender and tasted great. He and our daughter-in-law went all out and did a wonderful job. There is nothing better than getting together with family sharing a scrumptious meal and a drink or two.

There should be a new law that declares every day ‘Christmas’. Wouldn’t it be nice to be in the Christmas spirit each and every day? To give presents to each other instead of exchanging bullets and bombs? To love our neighbors instead of hating them and wanting to kill them because they are different from us? Instead of destruction there would be construction. Everybody would work and have no time making plans who to kill next. Now that would be the best present of all and the world would be a much nicer place, even if it is an alien planet with extreme weather. We can deal with that.

Enjoy the rest of the year. 2016 is on its way.

We mustn't forget about our feathered friends who are also suffering in this cold

#Christmas

It's Christmas Eve. We celebrate Christmas on the 24th of December according to German tradition. But we also celebrate it on the 25th, on Christmas Day. Why not? We combine both traditions.

Christmas is a time for families to get together and celebrate the birth of Jesus. Yes--Jesus. Some people seem to forget this. For them it is all about presents and eating turkey or ham. I am not really a religious man; I don't belong to a church group and I don't go to church except for weddings or funerals. However that doesn't mean that I am an Atheist. I believe in the teachings of Jesus.

Was Jesus really God's son? We don't know and will never know, but does it really matter? What matters is what he preached and taught. He preached love, peace, and forgiveness. And that's what we need in this world more than ever. It is strange that all our problems come from the part of the world where Jesus was born. There is so  much hatred there and most of it stems from religion. Not all religions preach peace and tolerance and that is sad.

So let us forget all the turmoil in this world for a few days and celebrate life, celebrate the goodness that must still exist somewhere among humans. We are a vicious species. Perhaps some day we will evolve and finally eliminate the hunger for power, greediness, hatred and intolerance toward those who don't think like us and believe in something different. Perhaps some day humans will learn to be tolerant and live in peace with each other and the animals that share this planet.

I can't wait for that day.

Merry Christmas

#Justin Trudeau and the #Liberals

Well, the people who voted for the Liberals and our new illustrious leader Justin Trudeau should be happy now. The way I see it they’ll plunge us into a country with a huge debt load and the economy on a down spiral. As they already discovered, there isn’t enough money to pay for all those things they promised to do. This means borrowing or raising taxes. They have no choice.

The future does not look rosy for Canada. Our Dollar is loosing value every day, which is a good thing for exporters but not for the importers and the average Canadian. All the things we import are costing more now—much more. We may have to forget about eating fresh vegetables and fruit in the winter.

I have no idea why the Liberals are in such a hurry to bring all those refugees into our country. Now they are talking 50,000 by the end of next year. Has anyone actually sat down and did the math? How much are those people going to cost the Canadian Taxpayer? And all those children!!. We’ve had five families come to Winnipeg and they’ll be settling in Altona. There are 35 children among those five families. THIRTY FIVE. Are you getting that number? That means seven children per family. And I’m sure they are not finished yet. With the child support coming in they’ll be busy making more babies—if there aren’t already some in the way.

Besides, they are already asking for larger homes. With that many children they want 4 and 5 bedroom homes. We are not geared up for families with so many children. Most houses and apartments have two or three bedrooms. Building anything with more than three bedrooms costs too much money. Who will pay for those expensive homes?

I can’t understand the mentality of these people. They’ve lived in camps for a few years, not under ideal conditions, and I’m certain they didn’t have much to eat. Why would they bring more children into the world under those conditions when they already had too many as it is?

The 50,000 refugees the Liberals will bring to Canada want to bring their relatives over. Why not? After all, Canada gives away money to everyone who holds out a hand and asks nothing in return. They’ll be supported for 2 years (and beyond) for doing nothing but relaxing. They won’t have to work with all that money and the donations coming in.

I remember when I came to Canada; nobody gave me anything. It was getting a job and pay my own way—swim or sink, that was the motto. And that’s the way it should be. I paid for my trip to Canada, there were no handouts. I demanded nothing and got nothing. And that’s how it was with all my friends who came over here to ‘find our fortunes’. Some of us did, some didn’t. Anything we possess now was earned the hard way—work and save. The pensions we get we earned by paying into the plan, like every hardworking Canadian citizen did and is still doing.

Certainly, we have plenty of freeloaders in this Country. People who believe the government owes them something—which boils down to one thing: the Taxpayer. The people who work and build up this country, they are the ones paying. And our government gives away that money so freely. Let’s hope the newcomers get jobs and pay their own way as soon as possible, the way we all did. Unfortunately, with our economy the way it stands now, finding jobs will be difficult, but, maybe, the Liberals who promised so much will find a way to remedy that.

As I said before, I hope I am wrong with my negative outlook. Perhaps it will be a good thing to bring people into this country, especially young people. We need them to pay their fair share to keep the economy growing and to pay for all the old people who are retiring. That’s how it works; old people retire and make room for the younger generation to step in and take over their jobs.

My fear is that cultures and religions will clash some day. That will create friction and problems. Canada is supposed to be a melting pot of people of different backgrounds. Let us hope that the newcomers leave their rigid and intolerant believes behind and adapt to our way of living. We are supposed to be tolerant and loving—that works both ways.

I didn't even mention all the money they are spending on meeting to demands of our Indigenous population. Much good it'll do, anyway. They'll be asking for more. 

I hope you all are finished with your Christmas shopping. I don’t know how long we can still use the word ‘Christmas’, so use it while you still can without being charged with some offense.

Peace to the world, to you, my friends, and have a

Merry Christmas

#The Debt Crisis

It seems most people have a financial problem these days. Apparently, they spent about 160% of their disposable income, which means they live above their means.

I am not surprised. I’m thinking back when our generation was young. When we got engaged and eventually married, we bought a ring for a price we could afford. It didn’t have to be a huge diamond. A nice ring was just fine. Our weddings were not huge. We didn’t invite every person we knew or were acquainted with, and our parents didn’t spend a fortune on our wedding. We got married in the church hall or we rented a small hall in a restaurant. We had no big socials before the wedding, just bachelor parties for the guys. No big dinners, just some guys getting together, playing cards, drinking beer and watching x-rated movies on a small movie screen. There was no sound and they were mostly boring. The women had showers where the women brought small gifts; nothing that cost a lot of money.

After we got married, we usually moved into an apartment, and then we saved for a house. When we thought we were ready and had enough for a down payment we bought a small house, a starter house, and then we saved some more and maybe a few years later, we bought or built a larger house. We moved up slowly. We bought used cars which we paid cash for.

We didn’t have huge screen TV’s (they didn’t exist yet. We felt fortunate when we could afford a color TV. A 20 inch screen was large) and we had rabbit ears. If we wanted to get fancy, we put an antenna on the roof. All we spent was the cost of the antenna. Everything after that was free. The few channels we got were plenty. There is only so much TV time we allowed ourselves. We had rotary dial phones and our phone bills were small. It was good enough to get in touch with friends and relatives. We didn’t have to stay in touch 24 hours a day.

I am, of course, talking about the average people. There are always exceptions, both ways.

Now let’s talk about the way it is now with the young people:

They already go into debt buying a huge diamond ring. The wedding needs to be huge. They hire a wedding planner, because that’s the way to go. In our days we planned our own wedding. We didn’t trust a stranger with that. All that drives up the cost of a wedding.  I’ve heard of weddings that cost up to $30,000.00 (WOW!). You can buy a brand new car for that and still have money left over.

They go on ‘Destination Weddings’. Getting married at home isn’t good enough anymore. And the couple expects the guests, the bride maids and the best man to accompany them at their own expense, of course, not bothering to ask if they can afford it. That, to my mind, is presumptuous.

When the young couple buys a house, it has to be large. A small house won’t do. They need a new car. Interest rates are cheap right now, so they max out on the mortgage and on the loan for the car, not thinking of the future when interest rats go up (and they will!).

They need all the newest gadgets, like a huge screen TV, and as many channels as are available. The movie channel is a must. It doesn’t matter if they have time to watch every program offered or not. They need to buy the newest computer, a tablet, and, of course, they both need their own iPhone, or whatever is the latest fad. The cell phone is important, so they can phone each other and everyone they know all the time; and they need to be able to get to the internet anytime they want to wherever they are. Everybody else does it. They have no conversations anymore when they get together. Everyone seems to be busy checking their messages constantly or texting someone.

Rabbit ears or an antenna on the roof don’t work anymore. The TV program providers have seen to that. They force us to buy their service. And it is expensive.

Now you can subscribe to music channels for your car. For a price, of course. Young people need that. We older folks don’t need them, because of the music offered. I call it ‘noise’. Besides, I’m not paying money so I can listen to my radio in the car. I have a flash drive or CDs with my music.

People spent too much money on all the new gadgets, if they need them or not. They may not even be able to afford them. And that is the problem. Nobody seems to have heard of compromising or ‘sacrificing’. They don’t want to wait until they can afford what they want; they need it right now. That’s seems to be the newest thing. RIGHT NOW.

Well, we all like to do and want things now, like traveling or buying something new, but sometimes we just have to wait. Wait and save, and maybe sacrifice something else if we want an item that costs a lot and may take a large chunk out of our disposable income. Sadly, many people don’t know how to budget. When it comes to mathematics, they seem to have no idea how that works. The formula is simple: You can’t spend more money than you earn. You must balance the scale or end up in a deep hole you may never get out of.

Again, there are always exceptions. There are still people who are reasonable and who think ahead. They buy when things are on sale not when they need them. They make sure they can pay off their credit card bill every month, because they know that once you got yourself into a position where you can’t pay off your debts it is difficult, nearly impossible, to catch up. They buy within their means, what they can afford. They know trying to keep up with the ‘Joneses’ is a foolish thing; trying to pretend they can afford to spent money they actually don’t have just to impress friends and others is irrational and downright stupid.

Unfortunately, the government that is constantly trying to ‘protect’ its citizens from making a bad move by implementing new laws that sometimes don’t make sense, is of no great help. Our new Liberal government will be setting a bad example. They want to borrow money to get the economy going, because interest rates are cheap right now, ignoring the fact that eventually interest rates will rise again. They’ll be plunging our country so deep in debt our grandchildren won’t be able to pay it off.

I’ll leave you now with this unpleasant outlook and glimpse into our future.

Right now we are in the middle of a small snowstorm; perhaps that is the reason for my gloomy mood.

Have a nice day.