the world we have lost

I've been reading this book titled The World We Have Lost. Although it is pretty dry and it is taking me a while to get through it, some of the information presented is rather fascinating. The time period that it focuses on is mostly the pre-industrial revolution period, namely the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

It is interesting, because many of the rumors that it dispelled so long ago are still in effect today. Even i must admit that I am guilty of believing that the "old world" of pre-industrial society was so much better than it became. Since childhood we are led to believe that things like starvation, infant mortality and disease prospered under the life-changing effects of the industrial revolution. Strangely enough, the records don't really support this belief. In fact, in some cases, the mortality rates of the pre-industrial world were actually worse.

As something of a luddite, I was a bit frustrated that my attitude towards industry may be a bit skewed (assuming that the book's statistics are accurate), but it does agree with my belief that our work has changed for the worse. No longer are we employed under a "family" type roof, but by complete strangers now. It is this change in employment that seems to have made the largest impact on our society, by separating our work and home. It's a very interesting read and I heartily recommend it, if you can get through it.

The book also covers interesting some social customs and other experiences that few historians have ever thought to review. There are lots of records of birth and death statistics, but few explaining the personal relationships of everyday people or how they coped with the stresses and dangers of the times. One of the things that shocked me was the fact that the average age at death was around 30 years old. When you consider that many youth spend most of their lives as an apprentice or servant under the roof of a master craftsman, and only had several years to marry and have children, it's a rather depressing thought. There was also a statement in the book that stuck with me that basically said that it was unusual for anyone to get to meet any of their grandparents.

This young life expectancy explains a lot, though. I've always wondered why we never hear of people in the "old world" having to deal with so many of the medical conditions that we deal with today. We can blame some of it on our over-population and what we have done to our environment, but the sad fact is that most people didn't live long enough to have typical "old age" health problems. And if they did, they probably died from them. Sure, they had apothecaries in many towns but who really knew if this root or that ground up leaf could really cure your illness?

There are so many products available today for every possible ailment (no matter how small or seemingly insignificant) that we rarely find examples of them in the history books. Did the inhabitants of the "old world" have their own version of antacids or did they just live with heartburn? Did they even get heartburn, or were they smarter than us in that they knew to take their time when eating? We know that many Asian cultures have known of the benefits of substances like ginseng but did other cultures have their own ancient viagra equivalent? If a woman had really bad PMS, was she burned at the stake as a witch or assumed to be possessed because of her aggressive monthly personality, or did pre-industrial society understand this condition and prescribe some natural dosage of progesterone (yams?) to try and soothe the savage beast?

These are the types of silly questions I often find myself pondering when I get to read about the lives of the people of yesterday. Some of these answers can be speculated based on archaeological findings and written journals, but many seemed to have been lost with time. Perhaps they were too concerned with other more serious ailments to be bothered with these modern day product opportunities. Or perhaps, as I suggested earlier, they just never lived long enough to address many of them.

si senor, make my visit free

I don't know if you've been following the latest Mexican border talks, but the president of Mexico is calling the US move to fortify the border a "grave" mistake. Personally, I'm getting sick and tired of hearing the debate on either side of "the fence". The truth is...if the Mexican government would do something to try and actually improve the living conditions and economic success of their citizens, we wouldn't have to be in this big debate over whether their citizens should be crossing the border. So while the Mexican president tries to issue statements against the border fortification under the guise of "concern" for the safety of his border-bouncing citizens, if he was truly concerned he would do something to better their lives back home.

I doubt that this border fortification is going to be the answer to all of our problems. Many suggest stiffer penalties for businesses that hire illegals and keeping a closer watch on tax funded services. After all, if there were no jobs to be had and no free medical and education, they wouldn't bother illegally crossing the border in the first place.

In the meantime, I may have come up with a solution to level out the playing field a bit. Each year, thousands of Americans go without health insurance and adversely, without medical treatment. Whether their reasons for being uninsured have to do with unemployment, lower wages, or being strapped with a costly high risk life insurance plan, the solution appears to be staring us in the face.

Seeing as illegal immigrants are never denied service, and have access to virtually free medical care that their beleaguered American hosts are not afforded, why not pretend to be an illegal alien when you need medical service? Why not walk into the emergency room every time you want to see a doctor, and give them a fake name in a very convincing accent? Sure, you may have to polish up on your accent but think of the money you may save.

It may be dishonest. It may even be illegal, but they don't crack down on the illegal aliens using these services for free, so what makes us think that the US government would have the manpower to crack down on citizens taking advantage of the same "benefits"?

using email for the "bad" news?

Late last night, I received an email from a close relative informing me that the father one of an old friend of our family had died. My relative explained that the reason why she sent the information to me in an email, instead of a phonecall, was that she couldn't help but cry when she tried to call people to share the bad tidings.

On one hand, I can understand this logic, but I also find that email just doesn't do our personal relationships much justice. We can't hear someone's tone or intent as well, and even if they were crying on the other line, that is what family and friends are for. I was a little confused as to why my relative would be crying over someone whom they didn't know very well, and then realized that the deceased reminded her of her own father, who had died of lung cancer last year. His death had come sudden, leaving most of my family very little time to prepare. It seemed like he was fine one day, with only a bare trace of a chronic cough, and the next day he was using a portable oxygen concentrator, and a week later he was in hospice care.

So how do I feel about this impersonal email? On one hand, I'm glad that my relative didn't call me in the middle of the night. On the other hand, seeing as this was the father of a friend of the family, she could have waited until the next day to tell me, and I could have consoled her over the phone.

It makes me wonder if people felt the same way about telephones as we do about email. When the telephone was first deployed, were people scoffing at it because it was so less personal than personally visiting someone?

presenting the single product store

Here's a novel concept for a retail shop. I was presented an opportunity to review a site called goingTODAY.com. It is a music retail shop that highlights one product per day at a special price, which is displayed until it sells out. Each night at midnight the store "resets" and a new product is presented.

The site has a "bare bones" minimum of design, so you get none of the obnoxious popups or flashy graphics to distract you. You pop on, check out the product and buy it if it something that you like. Other wise, you come back another day.

Conceptually, it's a little like a virtual sidewalk sale. The store relies on an impulse purchase and a premium discount to attract customers. It's not a bad idea, and I think that if they were to add some sort of RSS feed to the site so that customers could catch the "deal of the day" without visiting the site every day, the idea would catch on pretty quick, and they'd have lots of subscribers watching the feed.

phishing scams on the rise

We've been seeing a number of new phishing scams lately, mostly for fake eBay alerts, trying to get us to login to our accounts at eBay (although it doesn't really send us to eBay, but a fake site that looks like eBay and is hungry for our personal information).

The scammers are getting trickier, going so far as to include links to the official eBay page on phishing and scams. But one thing that still holds true is that is you hover your mouse over the link that they provide to supposedly "update your account" you will see that it points to some other IP or domain name that doesn't belong to eBay.

Somebody needs to figure out a way to go after these scammers and give them a dose of their own medicine. Like creating fake eBay accounts, allowing them to spoof access, only to find out where they are having their products shipped. Once you've got their location pin-pointed, you could setup a sting operation. It would be great.

Unfortunately, fraud is something that the big corporations seem content to let their insurance handle. Even though their insurance premiums may have quadrupled (or more) over the years due to the growth of fraud, they don't care because they simply pass on these additional operating costs to their customers. So in a sense, you and I are paying for the fraud to be taken care of, while many big businesses don't go after the perpetrators in any way.

I know this from experience because we've had our credit cards compromised several times now, and each time they did nothing to go after the thief, even though we had an address that he was having his fraudulent product orders shipped to. They just cancel the credit card account, let the insurance company pay off the bad debt, and issue a new card. Case closed. I guess it is not worth their time and effort to go after the "bad guy" when they can get the "good guy" (that's us) to cover the cost of their insurance by paying higher percentage interest rates.

get your ink on

Apparently, the latest niche market to be tackled in the dating arena is in body modifications. Up first we have a site called Tattoo Lovers which assists the ink-inclined in drawing each other from the crowd of available singles out there. I must admit that I am a bit perplexed and saddened that anyone would use tattoos as their first filter when trying to find that special someone, but I cannot say I am surprised. If people are materialistic enough to filter out others based on the car that they drive or the clothes that they wear, then why not tattoos?

My only complaint about the site is that with the couple posing half-nude on the front page, the young man's tattoo appears to be smeared. For now, I'll give them the benefit of the doubt and assume that he meant for it to look that way, and that the tattoo artist was trying to add more "rolling value" to his skin art. I just wonder if the die-hard inksters will be as forgiving.

ricky gervais = seona dancing?!?

I recently discovered that Ricky Gervais, star of the British sitcom "The Office" and the museum manager on "Night at the Museum" was the singer from the obscure synthpop group "Seona Dancing" back in the eighties. Talk about a small world...and a strange one at that. It's interesting, isn't it? While some burnt-out musicians from the eighties have decided to reform to squeeze some additional money from their aging fans, you get these one-off characters who have managed to establish an entirely new and successful career, regardless of their previous accomplishments. I doubt seriously that his being selected for "Night at the Museum" had anything to do with his fleeting music career. And you cannot deny that he is a "funny chap" isn't he?

Word on the street is that Gervais will be collaborating with Ben Stiller an another film yet to be announced. I'm looking forward to his dry wit. The only thing that I can fault him for at this point is playing in roles that are very similar. While this will likely prove to get old eventually, for now it has us rolling in our chairs.

color and light

A few days ago, I mentioned that I was having a heck of a time removing some wallpaper in our bathroom. We finally managed to scrape all of the paper away, re-texture the wall repaint the room, and I just removed the blue painter's tape this afternoon. It looks great. The paint looks a lot darker at night than we were expecting, though. We were going for a very light green color - it was called "Glass Green". During the day, it looks as expected, but at night it's much more green. I hope we can live with it. I think we'll just have to - I don't feel like repainting again.

I always forget how different a room can look in different types of light. Sunlight can play tricks with the colors - both direct and indirect sunlight offers different hues at times. Then there are all of the different types of light bulbs that you can use. We've been trying to switch most of our fixtures to compact fluorescent bulbs lately, so that has been giving us a different shade of color than we were accustomed to in most of our rooms. And then one must consider the effects of different "filters" of lights: mini-blinds, curtains, even the occasional lampshade can throw an unexpected hue your way. It's amazing anyone ever gets the color they truly expected.

All in all, I guess it is best to try and not let it bother me. I don't see how interior designers can possibly plan for every possible light, filter and color combination and their effects, though. Talk about a losing battle!

what's so great about facebook?

I finally created an account over at Facebook today, and I have to ask - what's the big deal? I've been reading articles and blog posts for months about how great Facebook is, and how it is so much better than Myspace, but I have to admit - I don't see why.

The design is cleaner, and obviously less buggy. There appears to be less of the "spammy" approach to their banner ads than on Myspace, but I don't really understand what its purpose is. It basically creates yet another online profile for you, which doesn't even have a readily available URL that you can tell people about, from what I can find so far. You can create a "badge" but I see no point in that except that it advertises Facebook and lets people know that you have a profile. Big deal. I could just put the words "I'm also on Facebook" somewhere on my site and it would do the same thing, right? You can search for friends, but you can't see their profile so you don't even know if it them or just someone with the same name until you "poke" them.

I see the benefit in their "group" offerings, as it seems like a decent way to network with people in your area, or at least your area of interest. I like the clean interface and RSVP functions, as opposed to Myspace's clunky and spam filled groups. I also like that you have to sign up before you can start browsing profiles, as it is one small step in making things a little harder for spammers. But that's about all I am seeing in favor of Facebook.

Can someone please tell me what I am missing, and what is so great about this site? I mean, if all it is going to do is collect email addresses from my mail program to try and find my friends, why shouldn't I just stay in touch using email? What does Facebook offer that I am missing? There has got to be more to it, right?

Although Myspace is a general pain in the ass and somewhat of an overall embarrassment, I have to admit that it was much easier to figure out what it was all about.

minors over majors

I was able to take my family to a baseball game a few weeks back, and we had a good time. It was my kids' first time at a large stadium, and while they barely made it through the first four innings or so without getting restless, I still think that it will be a nice memory for them when they get older. There were a few things that I was a bit disappointed about, though.

First off, the tickets were pricey. This was a minor league baseball game, and yet I discovered later on that my father pays less when he goes to see the Colorado Rockies. It's not like it was a huge game or anything. Maybe I shouldn't be complaining. Obviously, it's not like the tickets cost as much as say...Superbowl, Major League Playoffs or March Madness. But they were approximately 50% more than my father's major league tickets.

I was also frustrated when we arrived to pick up our tickets, because "will call" tickets could only be picked up from one ticket booth on the other side of the stadium. So, after waiting in line, we had to walk all the way around the stadium, and then upon entry we had to walk all the way back to get to our seats. I guess the concept of convenience has only gotten so far as to have popcorn, cotton candy, peanuts and beer vendors walking up and down the aisles.

Another thing that really surprised me was that the safety net wasn't extended to the area in front of us. We were in the third row, by the first base side dugout...definitely close enough to catch a foul ball in the face, and yet the net only extended to a small area just behind home plate. You would think that they could extend the net a little to protect their patrons. Instead, they posted signs near the seats cautioning us to beware of flying balls and bats. It would also have been nice if they had let us know which areas had the net when we ordered our tickets online.

Now I understand that you can get hit by a foul ball in nearly any place in the stadium, but the areas closest to the field can send them "line drive" style right into your face, giving you very little time to respond (or get your glove ready). You would think that in this world of "safety belts required by law", some government agency would require stadiums to protect customers sitting close to the in-field, instead of just letting them post signs of potential danger.

government healthcare - great idea?

There's been a bit of discussion lately about government healthcare reform, and I have to admit that my initial impressions are favorable. I know that it would level the playing field for medical professionals and that some of the insurance and prescription companies would probably be left wondering how they are going to survive any more, since they won't have as much of an opportunity to rip off the American public, but I think that the fact that the healthcare system has left out so many individuals is a testament to the fact that leaving it in the hands of private corporations doesn't work.

What really bothers me is the service to pay ratio in the healthcare system. Think of your typical visit to the doctor's office. You schedule weeks in advance to get an appointment when it is convenient *for them*. When you do arrive on time as scheduled, they have you sit for an extra thirty minutes in a waiting room. It makes you wonder what the point of making appointments is. Then when you are finally called, a nurse does most of the work. She takes your blood pressure, checks your height and weight, asks some questions and writes it all down. Then they stick you in another room to wait another thirty minutes for the doctor to come in. When the doctor finally arrives, he/she then proceeds to ask you the same questions that the nurse asked, spends about five minutes "diagnosing" your illness, and then sends you off with some overpriced "cure-all" prescription for cases that couldn't be definitively diagnosed.

And I paid how much for this service? Imagine if we received this same shoddy treatment in any other industry and then speculate how long that business would last. My sister works in the medical field, and she told me that they overbook by 10-20% at times, full well knowing that there is always the chance that all of their patients will show up on that day.

To make matters worse, you get to deal with the insurance companies and their incompetent billing systems and specialists. You can follow your policy guidelines to the "t" and it won't matter - you'll still be billed for something as if it wasn't covered. Then it will take six months to a year before you finally convince someone at the insurance company to pay for the service that you paid your premiums to cover. Then you're sitting pretty, feeling smug that after spending so much of your time on the phone with these morons you finally got what you paid for, only to be contacted a year later by a commercial collection agency asking you to pay the very same bill that you thought had been taken care of. Again, we pay how much for this shoddy service?

So when it comes down to it, the idea of government healthcare for all is very attractive to me. Sure, it may end up operating like a big mismanaged HMO, but at least as citizens we have some power to change the way things are done with a vote. As opposed to our current privatized healthcare system, in which all we can do is stick out our tongue, say "ahhhh", and swallow that bitter pill every month.

downsizing

We all go through this little dilemma at times - when to get rid of some of the stuff we have accumulated over the years, sometimes unknowingly. Furniture is a big ticket item that costs a lot to move and takes up lots of space, so in my experience it is one of the first things to go when going through one of those downsizing phases. Although there's nothing quite like purchasing a new room's worth of furniture and seeing how it changes a room, there's also nothing quite like having less furniture to carry up and down the stairs when you are relocated.

In the small town in which I live, many of the homes are built on steeply sloped streets and as such, many are sold furnished. I can't imagine trying to load or unload furniture from these older Victorian homes. And I especially cannot imagine a large moving truck trying to navigate the streets.

When we sold our last home, we sold lots of furniture. We had purchased a very expensive high-end black leather home theater seating set, which consisted of sofa, loveseat, chair, and ottoman - each with matching chrome legs. It was very European styled and very plush and comfortable, but it was also very HUGE! There is no way that it would have fit into our current living room. In addition, it would have cost us quite a bit more to move it, too. Our moving van was nearly full. We would probably have had to rent a second van and pay twice the fuel fees.

Sometimes I wish we could have moved it with us. We tried to sell the whole set at a garage sale, and sold all but one piece - the chair, which we still have. Believe it or not, we almost made money off of it when we sold it used. Since nobody was interested in buying the entire set at a discount, we ended up selling each piece for more. It wasn't a bad deal when the smoke had cleared.

I'm starting to feel the bite of that downsizing bug once again, as I casually glance into our garage and storage areas of our home. Do we really need all of this stuff? Is it worth storing these items that me *may* one day find a use for, simply because we have the space to store it in?

beyond the typical hardware store

After writing my last post, I started to wonder if perhaps I just haven't been looking in the right places for the right kind of home improvement products. The little local hardware store here in town is terribly expensive with many of the products they sell, and the bigger chains seem to all sell the same products. I even thought of looking into art supply stores that might sell some sort of texture appliqué that I could use to create a more interesting effect on my wall.

I often think that consulting with atypical sources can lead to some truly interesting results, as long as you select similar quality materials. One approach is to investigate other cultures. So what do they use to repair their walls in China? How about Brazil? Maybe they don't have drywall...

Home improvement products in other countries like the UK may offer some interesting alternatives, if the shipping and exchange rates are acceptable. One of the largest stores in the UK is called Anglian home improvements and they cover all kinds of unique product lines that we don't typically see here in the states. Why is it that I've never seen a traditional styled conservatory on any of the homes in the US? They have them in several styles from classic Victorian to more cottagey garden finishes. I don't even think I've seen them in the high end million dollar homes here in the US. Why not? They add such an elegant touch.

I guess I'm just tired of having the typical covered porch. So I've made the decision that my next home is going to have some sort of a conservatory outside...and zero wallpaper inside!

wallpaper should be outlawed

We've started to refinish our bathroom now, and it has served as a none-too-friendly reminder of how much I hate wallpaper. Although the previous owners managed to lay down several coats of paint on top of it in a mock textured style, the edges were still coming up and my toddler even pulled a strip off one day.

Wallpaper is such a pain to work with. Putting it on is no easy task,and taking it off is three times as bad. I can't believe that they still sell it. Even though we rented a steamer, it is still pulling the top layer of paper off of the drywall, so I'm going to have to figure out how to re-texture the walls. Right now, they are smooth, but for the newly crated "scars" from the wallpaper that we removed. I looked into that spray texture stuff, but it is ridiculously expensive for the amount of coverage it provides. You need like a dozen cans to cover a decent sized wall. We also tried the little granules that you add to the paint bucket and although they did manage to hide most of the blemishes, you need to apply several coats on top of it to get them to not rub off with the brush of a hand.

There really needs to be a cheaper and easier way to repair drywall surfaces.

get the skinny on your skin

I recently ran across an opportunity to review a site online for a new product that utilizes the juice of an Asian fruit called "red gac", that is used to treat the skin. And get this - they say that it treats it from the inside out. As someone who frequently experiences bouts of dry skin and occasional cracked and peeling fingers, it is refreshing to know that the skin care industry is still examining alternatives to traditional applied lotions. After all, in the majority of occupations, how can one expect to be able to apply a lotion of any kind and have it not get washed off?

I've been one of those silly people who has paid lots of cash for expensive "miracle" lotions that were supposed to protect and nourish my hands, only to have to reapply and reapply several times over throughout the day. When you're spending so much on expensive lotions, the last thing you want is to have to apply them so often that they run out so fast. I've tried taking supplements like Vitamin E, which are supposed to help, but how can one ever be sure that they are making any difference?

I also like the fact that this new R.G. Skin Revitalizer is derived from a natural fruit, so you don't have to worry about nasty side effects. I've used expensive lotions that were supposed to help with severe dry skin before, only to discover that they burned or caused allergic reactions or hives because of scent-enhancing chemical additives.

Anyways, I saw this new product via PayPerPost, and it sounds quite promising for anyone who, like myself, has had regularly occurring skin problems and has practically given up on that miracle cure. When it comes to these types of new medical breakthroughs, anything is worth trying once in my opinion, as long as you can afford it.

age defiance

As something of a musician, I recently attended a free conference call which discussed some of the modern aspects of independent music marketing, and one of the things the speaker touched upon were the "myths" that people new to the scene tend to fear. One of the things this gentlemen suggested to be a major myth in the industry is that one can be either too young or too old to "make it" or make any waves in the music industry. While this statement may prove successful at providing warm fuzzies for all the thirty-something-and-ups on the line, in reality I don't think that he is exactly correct in his assertion. While it is true that the music *should* be the first and foremost thing that sways someone to be a fan, let's face it...if you are of a certain in a certain genre, you just don't get the respect.

When it comes to being too old to be "cool", I'm sure that in the genres of rock, blues and country, there isn't such a roadblock. But try getting into pop music or even electronic music at the ripe age of forty and see how well you do, particularly if some of your success hinges on live performances. As much as I don't want to admit it, I'm guilty of it just the same as the next guy. I went to an electronic show, saw a guy in his early forties and asked my friend, "what the hell is that guy doing on stage?" Now if I had already known who he was, of if he was one of the "dinosaurs" of the electronic music industry (who already earned his respect when he was younger), I would have felt differently...most likely. But he was for lack of a better word a "newbie", and as much as I hate to act ageist, I judged him as an "old newbie" which means he's up against more of a challenge than a regular newbie.

If you're still following this ridiculous example, all I can say is that I find that it is a shame that certain genres of music are still so wrapped up in image that breaking into a scene will be twice as hard for people who don't fall into that certain imagery. As much as I would like to think that the faceless internet is changing the way that we feel about such things, I myself stand as a shocking (and embarrassing) example that it hasn't changed very much at all. Sad, isn't it?

Then again, if the "old man" who was performing had really good kick-ass music, I may have felt a little differently. It's hard to say for sure.

from baby to boy

My mother was looking at some photos of our son the other day and made the comment that he no longer looks like a baby anymore. He now looks like a little boy. At first, I laughed, and then it hit me that she was correct. When did this happen?

All of a sudden our baby is a boisterous little boy. He's still in diapers (which we are working on), but aside from that the gurgling, googling and cuddly little tike has changed his persona. He's more independent. He's changed his taste in toys and in food. It's amazing, really. When we're kids, our parents are always saying that we grow up too fast. As children, we think the exact opposite. After all, high school could never pass fast enough for me. But now I understand my parents' sentiments exactly. You turn your eyes for a moment and your kid is about to start school. Turn away once more, and they're on their first date.

My son will be having his birthday soon. We're still undecided on what kind of party we want to throw for him. The idea of a tribe of three year olds running and screaming around our home is a nightmare to me. But we've got to have a party for him, right? So we've picked up all of the standard items - the cake mix, the icing, the balloons and streamers, the party invitations, and the plates and cups. We thought about renting a "moon walk" or having the party somewhere else, but at this age it almost seems like overkill. After all, the kids don't even know what a birthday really means yet. I just hope that most of the parents decide to stay with their children, instead of dropping them off. This age still borders on the curious toddler phase, and while our home is quite baby proof, I hate the idea of chasing each kid around.

hunting for a response from hunter

I must admit that I am a bit disappointed in the Hunter fan company. We moved into our home and replaced all but one of the ceiling fans - the one in our master bedroom. Unlike the ones that we replaced, it is fairly new and looks nice, fits well with our decor and it seemed to work okay - at first. However, it started acting a little strange after a few weeks. First, it started turning itself on in the middle of the night. We thought that there may be some sort of timer or thermostat control for it, but I couldn't find anything. Then, I figured that there might be a remote somewhere in our home that was sending out a signal at the same frequency that might be causing it to turn on. However, this was happening even when everybody was asleep - the fan would turn on automatically at midnight.

We just dealt with it for a while, and then it started acting out in other ways. At times, it wouldn't respond to the remote. We never could get it to switch directions - it would just make a clicking sound. Then it stopped working altogether. I have tried replacing the batteries to no avail. I dismounted the entire unit, checked the wiring and everything was in order. I am guessing that it is the remote signal receiver that is causing the trouble.

While I had the fan down on the ground, I was able to retrieve the serial number for it. I checked out the Hunter website to see what kind of warranty this fan is supposed to have. It supposedly has a limited lifetime warranty. In fact, Hunter advertises this warranty for all of their fans. So I submitted a request to their customer service via their website. I haven't received a response, and it has been several months. I've been meaning to call them up on the phone, since their web contact form is apparently worthless, but I will probably have to take the entire fan down to get to the serial number again. I thought I wrote it down somewhere, but of course I cannot find it now.

I must admit. This makes me feel a little leery about the fact that I replaced every other fan in my home with a Hunter fan.

screening for bugs

It's a shame that we have such a large insect population. There are times when I would love to just open our windows at night. We do have screens on them, but I find that certain bugs are getting in through the screens, mostly those small obnoxious fruit flies that see to sprout from nowhere. In fact, I've had bags of fruit waste that were airtight, and somehow they end up with fruit flies in them. It's almost as if the flies had laid eggs in the fruit before we disposed of them, which makes me wonder if we're not consuming fly larvae when we eat fresh fruit. Ugh.

Our home has those neat double hung windows, so that you can open either the top or the bottom. The screen covers the entire window, which is good for keeping out insects, but bad for taking photographs. We get lots of types of wildlife that come very close to our home, sometimes close enough to warrant a photograph. Unfortunately the screen renders most of my through-window shots fuzzy. It's a shame because I love the double hung windows, but I hate the fact that the screen covers the entire window. There's no way that I would be able to get this close to a deer with my camera without a window and slightly angled faux wood blinds between us.

For anyone with small children, I would heartily recommend double hung windows. We were often concerned about our toddler pushing out the window screen and falling out, but with double hung windows you can open the top half of the window (which is out of his reach). When my daughter was little, she used to drive me crazy by pushing out the screen for our french doors leading to the backyard. I couldn't stand having to reposition that little black rubber strip to try and get the screen back in place, because it never turned out right. There was always some slack in the screen after that, and I knew that at some point she would just walk up and push it out all over again.

to feed or not to feed

This is one question that we've been pondering lately. Our home is nestled in the Ozark woodlands and we had a late frost this year that managed to cripple many of our fruit and nut bearing trees. As such, the birds, squirrels, deer and other animals are going to have a hard time finding food this year. On one hand, we have experts telling us that this is natural selection, and that if the deer population,for example, were to die off a little, that this is okay. However, I can't help but wonder if the strange late frost that we saw could somehow be part of the effects of global warming or other man-made environmental problems.

We decided that we will, at least, try to feed the birds a little this winter. If the squirrels get into it, that's okay. I'm sure that they can use it, too. As for the deer, I don't believe that we will go out of our way to provide food for them, but we will continue to compost our vegetable waste as we have been doing, and if our method isn't quite deer-proof, then so be it.

too much credit?

We've all heard the phrase "burdened by debt", but what about credit? It's rather common knowledge that lending institutions evaluate your potential debt as well as your actual debt when issuing a loan approval. So, even if you only owe $1000 in credit card bills, if your total available credit for that credit card is $15,000, that is going to be a factor when considering your approval. So why can't credit card companies understand this? Why do they feel the need to voluntarily raise our credit limits without our consent?

As you can probably guess, I'm a bit miffed right now as I just received a letter that one of my credit cards has raised my limit by about 50%. What a joke. Unlike some people who might gripe and complain about not having a high enough limit, this is much more than I need. Not that I'm planning on taking out any loans any time soon, whose approval might hinge on this credit limit. I just don't like the idea of a credit card company doing something like when it is not by my request. It also makes the idea of credit card theft that much worse. After all, if someone were to steal my credit card, they're going to have quite a bit more fun with it before they max it out.

how secure is secure?

The online registration company called RegOnline has recently announced that they are now Level 1 PCI compliant. So what does this mean to you or I? For me, I can respect that this company has taken their site a step further to guarantee the safety of their customers' credit card details, and I can certainly appreciate that. But I am a web developer and know a little about this type of stuff.

What does it mean to you? Honestly, probably very little. As much as I can appreciate that companies are taking these extra safety precautions with their customers' payment information, I doubt that the average web consumer is going to notice. It seems to me that many consumers don't even know yet to look for the little padlock icon to see if a page is secure, much less to research what level of security a site is offering when they place an order. And even if a consumer was concerned and knowledgeable enough to read what type of encryption a site uses, would they know enough to verify that what they read was accurate?

It seems to me that most users trust a site's security based on how they feel about that company - its brand, its popularity, whether it has a brick and mortar counterpart and whether they have shopped at it before. Sure, the phrase "your credit card purchase is secure" can be a consolation, but I think that at this point these words are more-or-less taken for granted.

Seeing as RegOnline is an event registration service for professionals, it is quite possible that their tech-savvy customers know enough to look for a string level of encryption before plugging in their credit card information and clicking that submit button.

I guess we should feel fortunate that many web developers are taking the high road when it comes to their customers' payment information, since customers seem to be, on the whole, unaware of the potential ramifications of ordering via an unsecure website. Sometimes the behind-the-scenes attention that companies pay to their customers, without their customers knowing, is what makes all the difference. Other sites that shirk their security options may quickly find their customers' information being compromised, and one of the best ways to lose a customer is to inadvertently make them vulnerable to fraud.

do not call me...forever!

I just read an article stating that a congressman in Pennsylvania is trying to push a bill through that would make the national do not cal list a permanent "unsubscription". What a great idea! The only thing better than this would be if they were to instead offer an "opt in" list. Problem is - who in their right mind would actually *want* to receive telemarketers calls? I wish they would create one so that we could find out.

Currently, you need to renew your choice *not* to receive calls fro telemarketers every five years, and it doesn't apply to non-profits, political calls, or contacts from companies that you are already a customer of.

the killer rent

About ten years ago, my wife and I were very excited about a business idea that we were developing for a new nightclub. We did the research, checked out demographics, looked at necessary equipment and supplies, devised a unique "theme", and tried to come up with costs and funding. unfortunately, the only areas that we could even come sloe to renting were in the scariest parts of town, where people frequently were robbed, mugged, raped and/or shot. Trying to find affordable space for rent in a more "friendly" area, as would be more befitting for an all ages (16+) nightclub, was proving to be near impossible. In the end, we couldn't get a loan from the bank since k=nightclubs were too risky and we didn't have enough money of our own to invest.

At the time, it was very frustrating, but looking back, I can understand why the bank would have taken this position. We were young and naive, inexperienced, and neither of us had any economical prowess. We had a dream,and we were "hip". Ironically enough, I'd be much more prepared and experienced to try and start something like that at the age I am now, but I am definitely not as "hip" or aware of the trends as I once was. This got me thinking...

How do new businesses open up that truly appeal to the younger crowd? If the majority of these types of business are started by boomers and the over thirty crowd, how do any of them manage to still appeal to the youth of today? Maybe they don't - maybe that it why there is such an alarming rate of failure for ventures like nightclubs. You've got old people who are trying to relive their youth by running a "cool" business, but without timely and insightful details from the youth they are appealing to, how would they ever create a successful business model?

Unfortunately, there are few young people who would be able to fund their own ventures of this sort, especially in larger cities. Imagine a twenty-something year old in Manhattan trying to start his ow nightclub. Ha! With those rent prices? Best of luck. Unless he's got a day job as a New York personal injury lawyer or he is a trust fund baby, I don't see how it could be done.

There are some nightclubs that have been around for a while, and manage to stay on top of the trends. Perhaps their deejays keep them in check. Or perhaps they provide the environment and they depend on their younger employees to define the ambiance. It just seems like it is one of those situations where society has set up an economic hurdle that prevents young people from entertaining themselves. Instead, they have to depend on older folks (with deeper pockets) to hopefully offer something to them that appeals to their longing for what is "cool".

branching out the business

One of the things that I focus on with my business is the concept of "multiple streams of income". It is something that I have seen mentioned quite often, and it makes sense from a diversification point of view. It's like investing. You don't want all of your eggs in one basket. Your income source should be no different. Imagine how one could minimize the effects of layoffs by having multiple streams of income. You lost one job? Darn. But at least you've got a few others to pay the bills while you fill that income void.

It's difficult to pull this off, though, when you spend so much time at one place of employment. When you work 40-50 hours or more per week at one job, how do you have time to establish another? Especially if you've got family, or a social life in any way? For me, multiple streams of income has often meant as many different internet based opportunities as possible. There's affiliate marketing, paid blogging, advertising, web design, etc. It's the subject of countless ebooks on the market today. But is this really a new concept?

Although we like to think of traditional forms of employment consisting of only one paid job, I have discovered that the "multiple streams of income" philosophy has been working in small towns like mine for years. As an example, I recently had to mail a package via Fedex. Being in a small town, we don't have a Kinko's or large office center. We do, however, have a second hand consignment shop that is also a Fedex authorized shipper. They also ship packages via UPS. They also offer copies, faxing, and other office assistance for a fee. They also put out a weekly flyer with paid advertisements for local business. They even sell skin care products and cosmetics from companies like Avon and Mary Kay. In a nutshell, they do it all. And it is probably the only approach that could have allowed them to remain in business for so long in a town of only 2500 people. It's either that, or appeal to the tourism market.

second guessing "home"

I've moved many times in my past - perhaps too many times. Although I'm fairly satisfied wit the town that we now call home, I can't help but second guess whether we made the right decision at times. Not that there are glaring imperfections with our current home town (aside from the local politics), but I do often wonder if we made the decision too quick.

I met a fellow transplant to the area this week, and we were discussing the tourism market and I was complaining a bit about the excessive tourism at times. He immediately made me feel like something of a fraud for calling this place my new "home", and said something along the lines of, "well it sounds like you should be looking for another home town". Are things really that black and white? Am I not allowed to hold any contempt for the town we have chosen to live in? Am I supposed to just accept everything about it, no questions asked? What about any hopes for improvement? I'm not one of those people who moves to anew place and immediately hopes for it be more like the place that they left. I just see opportunities for improvement here and there. Is that such a crime?

Maybe we should have kept looking. How long do I need to live in a place to either accept it or reject it as my new home? What is the appropriate "grace period" for such an evaluation?

Part of my feelings of despair probably have to do with high expectations,and perhaps some misleading city branding. I was led to believe that residents were valued as much as the tourists, and I often wonder if that is really the case. There were other towns that we looked at in other states that had similar dependencies on tourism. One such town was called Montreat and it was located in North Carolina. From what I could tell, they get much of their tourism from business travelers, and as the name might suggest, from professional retreats. It didn't really have a downtown area with shops, although Black Forest is very close by, and Asheville is pretty close, too.

I was taken by the fact that Montreat was tucked away in this gorgeous mountain valley and there was this awesome historic college campus with unbelievable stone buildings in the center of town. There was also a very nice park that tied into hiking trails and camping. It seemed like a really cool place, until we saw the prices of the homes for sale. We couldn't touch them. It surprised me that it would be so expensive, being located in the middle of nowhere. I could understand if we were talking about homes along the Eastern coast, as I have noticed that in areas like Beaufort NC real estate prices are fairly steep. But Montreat is in the Western half of the state, closer to Tennessee.

The residents that I spoke with seemed happy with their decision to live there, but who knows how they really feel about the tourism and their dependence on outsiders for their town's well being. Those aren't the types of opinions usually shared with outsiders. I should know - I'm guilty of hiding these details myself when I get questions from out of town visitors. You've got to be careful what you say and who you say it to. It's difficult to really discuss with others the effects of tourism on our local economy, and if you make any kind of negative statements about tourism, you're hitting too close to home. After all, many of the residents here survive off of the tourism industry. Threatening their life blood with a mere differing opinion can cause sparks.

So I'm left trying to deal with my emotions and queries on my own, or with other residents who I know to already feel much the same as I do. It's not that I'm totally against tourism. I think that like anything else, it is good to have a balance of these types of things in any economy. Our economy is heavily weighted towards it, though - you might even say that it is our *only* industry. As such, I often see decisions made that don't seem to take into account the voice of residents who don't rely on tourism for their daily bread. Seeing as I have chosen to make this my new hometown, I have to admit that it worries me. If that makes me less of a "local" because I'm not chipper about everything going on around here, so be it.

if they can put a man on the moon...

If they can put a man on the moon...

Finish that sentence! LOL. I see this so often and while I sometimes find the analogy a bit overused, at other times I can't help but add my own little pet peeves to the list. For example, why haven't we figured out the twenty hour work week yet? Or how about a cure for ridiculously obnoxious medical conditions like athlete's foot or acne? How about a permanent cure for headaches? Why is it that all we get are different sorts of headache treatment? If we can clone a sheep, and we know what causes things like headaches and acne, why can't we find a cure? I've seen a number of "as seen on TV" products advertised in places as common as Wal Mart, but are they really effective or is it just more spin?

It's like the whole laser eye surgery argument. Is it really as effective as safe as we hear? Are the horror stories just negative spin being created by the eyeglasses and contact lenses industries? Why isn't it fully covered by all insurance companies yet? It just doesn't make any sense to me. Couldn't you call laser eye surgery, for those who are eligible or have the right kind of vision problems, a "cure" for bad eyesight?

On a totally unrelated note, what about alternative energy? Why can't we figure out how to make a car that can outperform our gas guzzlers - maybe one that runs on greenhouse gases? Or how about eliminating things like telemarketing? After all who (aside from the telemarketing company) actually wants to receive telemarketing calls? It may not seem fair to suggest putting those types of companies out of business, but let's give them a chance to prove that their "customers" want to be on the receiving end of those phone calls. Let's make all telemarketing available on an "opt-in" basis only. Sign up here if you'd like to receive obnoxious recorded phone calls about crappy products that you don't need. Ha!

Honestly, when you see all of the stupid things that we allow to permeate our culture, it makes me wonder if there isn't some truth in all of those conspiracy theories stating that we never really made it on the moon. Maybe we should rephrase the analogy that start out with "If we can put a man on the moon".

Instead, maybe we should start it with the phrase, "If we're *smart enough* to put a man on the moon, how come we're so stupid with our approach at so many other things?"

got mystery headaches?

Do you or someone you love suffer from mystery headaches? Well, file this post under Night Guard, TMJ, Bruxism, Tooth Grinding, NightGuard.

My wife used to get headaches fairly often when she was younger, and her parents were quite worried about it. As usual, doctors are quick to prescribe a battery of tests and blood work, when the problem turned out to be something much less malignant. They found out that she was just grinding her teeth at night. Apparently, this is a common problem that can easily be avoided with a basic dental night guard. It is something that doctors should be providing more information on, instead of immediately assuming that the headaches are being caused by something much more serious. You may as well try the easy fixes before jumping off the diagnosis deep-end.

the elusive pagerank

Has anyone else ever wondered why Google doesn't offer some sort of basic PageRank lookup utility on their website? What gives?

Why would a company as large as Google fail to see the usefulness of having a page *on Google* that allows one to lookup their *Google* RageRank? Instead, we're left having to install goofy tool bars and use third party websites that may or may not be accurate. I just don't understand it. There are all kinds of websites out there that allow one to lookup their website pagerank, and they are obviously interfacing with a Google API somewhere, so why no direct lookup utility on Google?

Perhaps Google is committed to allowing others to make money off of its PageRank utility, and doesn't want to strike a deathblow by offering it themselves. It would be a little like eBay offering a spelling search function to their users, effectively killing off the unique offerings of misspelling sites that survive off of affiliate auction sales. But in Google's case, Google could offer a simple pagerank lookup, and still allow other webmasters to manipulate the API for more detailed and enhanced ranking displays.

I guess it is all part of Google's confusion tactics. Gotta keep everyone guessing to retain supreme power...