Good-bye to a not-so-old friend

 

Not so very long ago, I was presented with a gift of a computer tablet.  But this was not just any tablet it was a new Microsoft "SURFACE".  More than just a tablet, it ran WINDOWS RT, had a removable keyboard (of sorts), a magnificent screen in a similar aspect ratio as a laptop monitor, and 16 gigabytes of RAM.

Windows RT was a new and experimental version of the Windows operating system. It had the look and "feel" of a Windows platform, it had a touch-me screen, but also a rubber coated keyboard covered with little squares with letters and numbers silk screened on them. Imagine the joy of opening the box and seeing the safety film coated screen. The charger was connected with a magnetic (cant buy one of these anywhere) coupler, that fell off anytime you brushed against it or one of the dogs walked past wagging their tails.

But it was new, experimental, and most important... it was a gift.

I had no idea what to do with it.

You see Windows RT looked like Windows, but it came with a few restrictions.  You needed a Microsoft account to turn it on.  It came with abridged, albeit free, versions of MS Office and Internet Explorer. And your Microsoft account got you into the Microsoft store where you could download approved software. Some for free, some cost money which they made easy by constantly asking you for a credit card to keep safely on file for your convenience.

But there was a hook.  If the software you wanted to run was not not approved or not specifically designed for the new ARM chip-set, you would politely be told that it would not run on this computer.  I'm sure it was Microsoft ecstasy.  NO Firefox, no Google Chrome, Opera, no professional photo editing programs, drawing programs, CAD, no major games, no competition.  Your only bidirectional window to the outside world was Internet Explorer and the store.

Imagine Microsoft's surprise when it didn't sell well. 

Then hope came on the horizon.  Microsoft was going to port Windows 8 to the Surface computers. But it was all dashed as the Windows 8 version was crippled the same as RT had been.  No unauthorized software and no incentive for companies to port their programs to operate with the ARM chip-set. Even the eventual upgrade to Windows 8.1 changed nothing.

Imagine Microsoft's surprise when it still didn't sell well. 

So NOW what do I do with it?

Perhaps it was too slow?  MS came out with a version 2, but it was just the same.  Although thousands of us now owned versions one and two of this experimental device, Microsoft decided to cut and run.  So for the past few years we have gotten just the legally required security updates.

There are a lot of smart people on the internet.  As time went by, some of them found ways to crack or bypass the lock that held our poor Surface tablets in chains. But one by one, update by update the vindictive minds at Microsoft changed the keys to the locks and shut them down.

While all this was going on, I paid little attention.  My personal animosity toward Microsoft goes way, way back.  All the way to Windows with Work Groups. I was not "afraid" that they (Microsoft) were going to screw us... I was sure of it.  (That history is for another blog)

Once the keyboard stopped working, and what few programs I was using loaded its storage with so much crap that I eventually reset the whole machine back to factory once or twice, I just gave up.  But I didn't stop using my little tablet. I found its niche.  I took it into my work shop. Because it had no fans, it was more or less impervious to the sawdust and dirt that woodworking creates and spreads all over regardless of the amount of dust collection you install. I set it up on my workbench and clicked on Internet Explorer (IE) and found my way to YouTube.

At YouTube and searching the internet, the Surface excelled.  Over time the WiFi connection became a little slow. But then they gave us an upgrade from IE 10 to IE 11 and that helped for a bit.

But Surface worked fine to help me find parts I needed, keeping me abreast of my favorite YouTubers, and that marvelous screen gave me a wide angle, full-screen view that I didn't need my glasses to watch.

And then it started.  YouTube and other web sites started warning me that I needed to upgrade my web browser. They would stop supporting it "soon".  For the past six months I scoured the Microsoft web site about possible updates.  For a while there was a rumor of a special version of Windows 10 in the offing to save my little tablet.  But the word officially finally came out:

"Microsoft has officially abandoned any plans for further upgrades for the Surface 1 and 2. "

As I expected. They finally got me.  It took 5 years... I'm Microsoft screwed again.

On July 1st 2020, Internet Explorer 11 finally effectively ceased to function on YouTube and most everywhere else.  If I wanted to wait for 15 to 20 minutes for each video to load, I can still see them.  The "upgrade your browser" warnings are gone. My little tablet is finally a paper weight.

So NOW what do I do with it?

It was a good little computer, betrayed by it's creators. For want of a browser, it could have lived on for years.  I'll pack it up in a box and stuff it in some crevice in the house for my children to find after I'm gone.  They can open the box and look at the little Surface and its wide screen and tape covered power connector and marvel;

"What the hell did he keep this for?"

Can you make a Thanksgiving at a restaurant?

It may be a silly thought. I’m sure that people do make a happy Thanksgiving at restaurants every year. And probably have for as long as there have been restaurants and Thanksgiving.

In my case, I have been luckier.  Ever since before I was born, my family has held Thanksgiving dinner at home.  For the past 59 years, at my mothers home. Sometimes it was just a few of us, other times there were tables set up all over the house. But it was always at my mother’s house.

And although this delighted me, it was not always a hit with my former wives.  But still it was tradition that reached back into my past much farther than they did. And I was inflexible.

Other holidays have fallen.  Mother’s day, Easter, and last year even Christmas, all home cooked meals that were outsourced, not to carry in, but to dine out. I didn’t complain.  I realized that if I was in my late 50’s that put my mother in her early 80’s.  Cleaning and cooking for holidays is hard work.  It doesn’t matter if it’s for five or thirty family and a dozen or so strays and their families that my mother would befriend and, for a day, make them feel as at home and as much a part of the family as I did. 

We all pitched in to help cook and prepare. But it just got to be too much. So one at a time the holidays fell.  But no matter what happened I still had Thanksgiving.

Until today.

Now I realize that thanksgiving is celebrated across the United States.  And everybody SAYS that it is a day to reflect on friends and family and the few or many gifts life had bestowed on you. People SAY that, but I felt it.  I didn’t realize just how much I felt it until my Mother told me about two weeks ago that she and my youngest brother were looking for a restaurant to make thanksgiving reservations.

I smiled.  I don’t know why I smiled. I certainly didn’t feel like smiling, I felt like running around the room like a spoiled three year old, smashing thing indiscriminately and screaming “No, no, no, no, no!!! “ 

But I smiled.  I offered other alternative and the discussion was long, but in the end fruitless.  Today my mother, my brothers, our sons, and even a new great grandson ate thanksgiving dinner… out.

It took me a while to wrap my head around it.  And I am not a good enough actor to hide my displeasure in the entire affair.  We had eaten many meals at this particular restaurant before and the food had always been good. 

Today I didn’t like a bite of it. However, I couldn’t tell you if it was any good.  I didn’t taste it. I did my best to make light of everything that I was hating, but I’m not sure I fooled anyone.  It wasn’t a tantrum, It wasn’t moping. My thanksgiving was broken and I was realizing that it wasn’t the food.

Since I was nine or so, my brothers and I had been living in a true matriarchy.  My mother was the head of the family.  You just didn’t say no, because you never wanted to disappoint her.  My middle brother traveled from across country to see her.  His eldest son and my eldest son brought their families from states away to see her too.  And my mother was now eighty-three. 

The three hundred pound gorilla sitting in my lap was not about loosing a home cooked meal.  It was about loosing my mother and perhaps my family. Would we still gather in years to come after my mother was gone. Or would we, like so many other families be relegated to seeing each other only during some five or ten year reunion. 

These are questions to which I have no answer. I cannot answer. It’s not just up to me.

So the next gathering is Christmas.  And we will be eating out.  But my attitude will be different. I won’t be secretly grousing about the food.  Because the food won’t matter.  The place will not matter.  Only holding my family close for as long as I can will matter.  And marking every moment we share together.

And that will matter most.

Be Well.

Republicans and Tea Party Go Too Far

In the first 18 months of the Obama presidency, we have seen the Republican members of congress drag their feet, put out misinformation, and finally refuse to even discuss proposed legislation, all the while collecting their paychecks and publicly funded healthcare benefits.

We have seen disrespect for the President of the United States and the OFFICE of the President of the United States on a scale never before seen in modern America.

It’s one thing to disagree with legislation, and quite another to just stop it. No vote, just cause nothing to be done at all. That is not why you were elected and put in office. You are there to govern, to lead, and stating that your feel-bads got hurt, or you don’t like the game so you are not going to play, is not an option. Just like it’s not an option in anybody else’s job.

But refusing to play may be just what we get, if some Republican and Tea Party candidates are elected.

Republican candidates and House Republican Leader John Boehner have publicly stated, “No Compromises,” for the next two years. No compromises means no work. Well, at least no work for you or I, you know the people who pay these guys.

The very definition of a political government is compromise. You want this, I want that, let’s find something in the middle that we can both live with and maybe gets us both a little closer to our goals. The idea of “No Compromise” means no governing. No action at all.

And although many shortsighted people may think that this is a good way to stop what they may not agree with in this Presidency, what do you think is going to happen if and when the political worm turns?

Even if the Republicans were to take back control of both houses, even if President Obama looses his reelection in 2012, what do you think the minority party is going to do? The same thing? You bet.

No republican legislation will make it through Congress because Democrats will use the exact same tactics now mastered by the Republicans.

But its gets even worse. Utah's Tea Party-backed Republican Senate candidate, Mike Lee, talked about the possible “Inconvenience” of a government shutdown to stop what he sees as a run-away budget.

An “Inconvenience?” Really? Let’s see Mike, you might be inconvenienced if your paycheck comes a week or so late, but the healthcare for you and your family will continue. Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, the Post Office and other Federal Government agencies would come to a stop. Inconvenience? Putting people lives and livelihoods on the block to oppose a sky rocketing budget deficit?

Let’s pause and look to see just where that deficit came from.

When Clinton administration finished, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, they left a budgetary surplus of $86.4 billion in fiscal 2000. Again that was his last year in office and does not count any Social Security surpluses.

That was the budget condition that George W. Bush and the Republican held Congress inherited when Bush took office. In 2008, the last full year G.W Bush was in office, the Presidents budget request optimistically projected that the deficit for all of 2008 would total $410 billion.

I call his proposed budget “optimistic” because by October of that same year, 2008, the budget deficit had ballooned to 10.2 Trillion, that’s TRILLION with a ‘T’, dollars. This was not because of the 9-11 attacks, it wasn’t just because of the wars in Iraq and Afganistan, this was primarily the 700 billion dollar Government bailout of the banks and Wall Street.

And who had restricted the enforcement or eliminated the Federal rules governing those businesses? Obama? That would have been one hell of a trick as he would not take office until January 20th of the following year. It was George W. Bush and the Republican held congress.
According to the Treasury, the Bush administration added an average $500 billion dollars a year to the deficit, every year starting in 2003.

As I record this, the U.S. NATIONAL DEBT CLOCK is reading just under 14 Trillion dollars. That means with all the “wild spending” that President Obama and the Democrats are accused of, amounts to less than 4 Trillion dollars since October of 2008, four months before President Obama even took office.

And that does include Social Security, all the extra bailouts, and the stimulus package, which President Obama and the Democrats were forced to make to fix the fiscal irresponsibility of the previous administration.

What is the Republican war cry? “Cut the deficit!” How do they plan to do that? By extending the “Bush Tax Cuts” past their December 31, 2010 expiration date. .Those very tax cuts, right now, account for approximately 25% of the overall budget deficit, according to the Congressional Budget office. That’s about 3.5 TRILLION (with a T) dollars! Who has to make up the difference? You and I.

I’m not here to tell you who to vote for or who to vote against next Tuesday November 2nd. I’m saying that you should spend some time, not only listening to MSNBC or FOX News, NPR and others, but do a little digging of your own. Find the facts.

“But Chuck, how do you know all this stuff?”

I’m sitting in front of a computer connected to the internet and if you are watching this, so are you. Use Google, use Yahoo, use whatever is your favorite search engine and type in your questions. Or follow the links I have posted below. That will get you started.

But don’t just blindly believe what any politician is telling you. They are trying to get your vote and will say whatever they think you want to hear to get it from you. Don’t give that vote away cheaply. It’s yours, you earned it. You earn it everyday that you go to work, mow your lawn, take care of your family, and pay you taxes. You earn it the old fashioned way, by living everyday the best you can, as an American. Don’t let anyone sucker you out of it.

I found all of this in a little over two hours, and typed this up to boot.

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Where did I find all this stuff?

Federal Employeee Health Care Program. No waiting period for Congressional members or their families and no “pre-existing conditions” are refused.
http://www.opm.gov/insure/health/

Congressional disrespect
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/09/09/gop-rep-wilson-yells-out_n_281480.html

Congressional Republican Misinformation
http://www.seiu.org/2009/07/republican-misinformation-about-health-care.php

http://www.youtube.com/user/PoliticsNewsPolitics#p/u/420/PqjIt8kUUJo

Use of the “Filibuster” by both parties
http://newsjunkiepost.com/2010/03/02/republican-obstruction-at-work-record-number-of-filibusters/

Rep. John Boehner, (R-Ohio), Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.)
http://www.npr.org/blogs/itsallpolitics/2010/10/28/130895390/house-republicans-vow-no-compromise

Mike Lee’s Government Shutdown –
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/10/28/mike-lee-government-shutdown_n_775405.html

Clinton Budget facts: http://www.factcheck.org/askfactcheck/during_the_clinton_administration_was_the_federal.html

Bush projected budget deficit
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/02/12/national/main3822385.shtml?source=RSSattr=HOME_3822385

October 2008 deficit

http://money.usnews.com/money/blogs/new-money/2008/10/09/maxing-out-the-national-debt-clock.html

National Debt Clock
http://www.brillig.com/debt_clock/

Bush Tax Cuts
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/30/AR2010073002671.html

Who gets the Bush Tax Cuts
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39317328/ns/politics/

A written version of this Vlog will be on my Blog as soon as I can post it there.
http://distorteddogma.blogspot.com/