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Language

America doesn’t have an official language. (I think I should, but that’s beside the point I’m shooting for.)

I speak American English. I can work with German, French, and Spanish. I am by no means fluent in any of them. That being said I don’t have a problem with broadcast TV or Radio having commercials in other languages. Commercials cater to the demographics of a particular market.

So If I lived in an area that has a high percentage of say, German speaking folks I’d expect to hear commercials in English and German. (In reality, I could be living in the middle of a predominantly German community in America and I’d not hear one commercial in German.)

I actually live in an area with a high percentage of Spanish speaking folks and therefore expect to hear broadcast (by broadcast I mean over the air) TV and Radio commercials in English and Spanish. I’m good with that. Again it’s market demographics.

However, I’m quite confused as to why in my Amazon Prime, and Hulu accounts, where there are specific markers that I prefer ENGLISH, I’m getting commercials and reviews in Spanish and English. It’s about 50/50 lately.

I’m paying for these services. Shouldn’t I have a say in what language is presented? Shouldn’t we all? If you’re paying for a service shouldn’t you have the option to have the service presented in your preferred language?

The vendors paying to have their commercials aired are wasting their money throwing Spanish versions of their commercials into my home.

In fact, I’m less likely to consider shopping those vendors products because I’m annoyed. Not by their product per se, but switching from an American English style of commercial to a  commercial with a Latin flair is jarring.

Latin TV and Commercials are dramatic and attention getting. They’re somewhat reflective of the culture and that’s to be expected. 

When I’m in Mexico I’m always impressed by just how exciting a floor cleaner can be. 

A Mr. Clean commercial in Mexico is very different from a Mr. Clean commercial in America.

As an aside: Fabuloso is actually a nicer product and I use it all the time. Yes, I saw their commercial while in Mexico and when I saw the hotel crew using the product I thought, “That’s a nice smell and based on the bathroom and hotel floors, it works.”  When I saw the product on the shelf in a grocery store stateside I bought it, and have been a happy customer since.

In Mexico, I’m going to do my best to speak, listen, and read Spanish, I’ll even laugh when I blow it and a kind Mexican person corrects my botched sentence in flawless English.

Likewise in French speaking provinces of Canada, I’m going to switch to French and pray that I”m not too offensive with my mispronunciations.

Most of the Mexicans & Canadians I’ve met are very patient, kind, and respectful, that I’m at least trying. Often hilarity ensues when they get what I was trying to say, and then think about how I said it. 

That being said, when I’m home in America, paying for services, I’d like for those services to be presented in my preferred language. 

If I’m brushing up on other languages, I’ll specifically tune in to Univison, CBC en Français, or DW auf Deutsch.

All I’m asking is that my wishes and choices be respected and that other folks wishes and choices be respected too.

Is that too much?

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I suspect we’re about to become dogless.

IMG 0210The last of the dogs is OLD, I mean really old.

He’s had by my count 2 big seizures and with each one he gets weaker.

On the plus side, he’s had a good life, at least since he came to live with us.

We think he was abused and for our part we’ve been able to give him a loving peaceful home.IMG 0004

Here he’s been spoiled, cuddled, loved, even though he’s stubborn as hell, and now he’s nearing the end of his life.

It’s sad but part of nature. 

This guy came from a household that didn’t pay him any attention, and possibly may have abused him. 

In this household he learned to play and that toys were for him. He learned that people loved, and wanted him, and that he didn’t need to be afraid, even when he messed up.

He learned that printers can be barked at when they start making printer noises and spitting paper at him. He learned that his people would laugh at his antics and tell him he was a good boy.

After many years in this household he’s nearing the end of his life.

He’s gone blind, and over the past month or so, has lost a lot of weight. 

He’s learned that when he needs to go outside, his people will carry him up or down the evil stairs setting him gently on his favorite patch of the yard, or on the top deck where he can go inside under his own power. He’s learned that we’ll still tell him he’s a good boy and give him treats.

Up until the past few weeks or so he’s been his usual happy self, but now he’s sleeping a lot and not particularly interested in much. 

Sound like a Grandpa you know?

I’ve been looking for a job using my laptop in the living room so I can be near him when he wakes up.

He gets upset if he wakes up alone. I think he wakes up not knowing exactly where he is.

All I have to do is speak to him, reassure him that all is well, he’s safe, and someone is guarding him. Typically, he’ll breathe a sigh of contentment get a drink of water, and go back to sleep

He’s snoozing now, chasing bunnies in his sleep. That’s a good thing, at least in his dreams he has a chance of catching them. He was never fast enough to catch them in his youth, but he loved chasing after bunnies and squirrels.

I’m melancholy about his ending and can only comfort him. Well, that and share a bit of my breakfast bagel with him, which he highly approves of.

It’s tough letting go of someone you love. I’ve always thought of my dogs as people not lesser beings. Generally they’ve picked me to be their human, not the other way around. 

It’s been a honor to have been their person. Even in the heartbreak of losing them I’ve been happy to have had them in my life.

I’ve decided that there will be another dog or two in my life. I’ve also decided that I’m going to get rid of used rugs, (placed on the floor to keep the elderly dogs from slipping on the hardwood,) the well used dog beds, and many of the toys. That will give the new dog(s) a fresh start in their new home, a place which they can make their own.

Oh, it won’t be for months at least. I’m not going to be ready to open my heart again until it’s healed from losing Red.

A friend of mine says that your dogs that have passed will send you a new dog who needs you as much as you need them.

I hope he’s right.

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Completely Unacceptable

Just my opinion.

Former Vice President, and Current Presidential Candidate Joe Biden insulting a 21 year old student on national television is demonstrative of Candidate Biden’s lack of qualification.

The young person asked a legitimate question.

Joe Biden demonstrated with one sentence why he does not deserve to be President of The United States.

“You’re a lying, dog faced pony soldier.“

bidenblowsit3.pngFirst of all, what the hell does that even mean?

At Joe Biden’s age, he should understand that he’s essentially interviewing for a job. He should also be able to answer a direct question;

“How do you explain the performance in Iowa, and why should voters believe that you can win the national election?”

Rationally and courteously, instead he asked an irrelevant question then resorted to bullying and dismissiveness as his response.

His campaign has tried to brush this off as a joke. Did he apologize? Did he make any attempt to answer the question, or indicate that he was joking? No? He wasn’t joking. 

Even more disturbing is that the crowd laughed. Someone, ANYONE in that crowd should have stood up and called him out on his behavior. 

This man is nothing special, he’s not a god, he doesn’t have to power to have someone arrested for speaking out against what is clearly an inappropriate response to a young voter.

This is not to say that the young person was incapable of defending themselves but given the circumstances, I could see them needing a moment to regain their balance. 

An older, more experience person should have given them that moment. While reminding Joe Biden that he is choosing to serve the American People. No one is forcing him to run for election. Choosing to serve America, means treating everyone with courtesy and fairness.

This is not the first time Biden has been insulting or dismissive. 

I think it clearly shows us that he is not a candidate worth voting for.  The last thing we need in the Office of The President is another elitist who believes they can do no wrong and  above question or reproach.

It’s time for Biden to throw in the towel. 

Retire Sir. Leave the field while you still have some honor.

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Used to be a saying, “You can never find a cop when you need one.”

These days I suppose that may still be true. 

Personally, in my misspent youth i never had any trouble locating the police. More properly, they never had trouble zeroing in on where I had been. Usually by the time they got to the location, I was already gone. There was that one time when I took a page from Briar Rabbit. For some reason police don’t like trekking through swamps at 3am…

Go Figure!

Today, Lawyers are much worse than the Police ever were. They’re in everything we do. Funny thing about it is what happens when you’re actually calling a Lawyer and offering to pay them.

Over the past year, I’ve tried to engage no less than six lawyers and None of them have returned my call(s). I guess lawyering means that you don’t have to worry about income and you can afford to blow potential clients off.

Good for them, I guess. 

Bad for those of us stuck in an ever increasing web of rules, regulations, law, and general bullshit.  

Lawyers have a great scam going, they’ve complicated things to the point that they’re indispensable on the government side of the equation and then charge us obscene amounts of cash to provide guidance out of the mess.

I don’t know if you’ve noticed but they’re about as specialized as doctors. Now you not only have to engage a lawyer, but you have to know which speciality of the law they practice.

GREAT! just what we all need, more complexity!

To illustrate the point, have you noticed that when you deal with an insurance company, or a utility, or virtually anything else lately, you get read a long assed list of terms & conditions that two sentences in, start sounding like the teacher in a Charlie Brown cartoon?

“Blah Blah Blah”

Even renting a damn car there’s page after page after page of bullshit.

All of this bullshit is legalese and cannot possibly be comprehended by at least 25% of average people. Hey, read any newspaper in print or online and you’ll see that even ‘educated’ people, you know, the people who insist they’re our betters, can’t write worth a damn. We have people in professional positions that don’t know the difference between there, their, and they’re.

Given this, how can you possible expect ‘less educated‘ people to fully understand what the hell they’re signing and agreeing to after a barrage of several pages of legalese?

My Dad used to say that the best thing we could do for this country was put all the lawyers on a cruise ship, sail it out to the middle of the Atlantic and sink it.

I think his comment was based on two factors. 1) Lawyers complicate things. 2) Our government is rife with lawyers. 

Dad was always fond of the “Twofer”, and of doing business with a handshake. His word was his bond and to my knowledge he kept his word. There may be evidence to the contrary but let me keep my childlike illusions.

As a kid, I knew two things. Avoid entanglement with the law, and avoid, as much as possible, drawing the attention of the government:

Pay your taxes, don’t screw around with too many deductions and play it straight enough that the IRS, FBI, or any government agency didn’t come snooping.

Capone was our cautionary tale. Xaviera Hollander added a little color to my minimalist philosophy as I reached adulthood.

With rules, regulations, laws, and all the other complications in our lives it’s made me start to consider the following:

To play it straight, is automatically more expensive. To play the game loose and fast, keeps money in your pocket, and gets you to your goal faster.

Being a stand up guy means you’re going to get screwed. Nice guys don’t get shit except being shat upon, and honest people increasingly are being seen as fools.

So where does that leave us?

It leaves me considering coloring outside the lines. 

A quote from Captain Reynolds in Firefly or Serenity really rang true with me;

“Come a day there won’t be room for naughty men like us to slip about at all.”

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Now, can we get back to business?

Trumpnews.jpgIt’s been a week hasn’t it?

Trump delivers a very nice state of the union address. Regardless if you hate him or love him, it was up lifting, positive and heart warming.

Nancy Pelosi demonstrates her frustration and disgust with The President.

Trump is acquitted.

(I’ll bet Nancy was throwing stuff after that vote)

pelosipissed.jpgAnd Trump’s “Victory Lap” was embarrassing.

Mr President, you need to keep your list of enemies private. That way, when they disappear you can shrug your shoulders, maintain plausible deniability, and assign your shittiest investigators to “determine” what happened. On inconclusive results you can say, “I don’t know…”ultimatebs.jpg

When you’re handed a victory, you should just say something like, “It’s as we’ve always maintained, this was a purely political stunt. Now that this matter is cleared up I & the Whitehouse will be able to get back to work.”

You see, that would freak out your enemies far more than letting them know they’re your enemies. They’d never know if or when you were coming for them.

You might want to ask President Putin for some pointers… 

That’s not to imply any collusion between you and Russia. It’s simply acknowledging that President Putin was a spy and there’s no doubt in my mind that he knows how to deal with enemies.

For that matter you might consider hiring some Southerners. My Dad once told me, “If you have a run of really bad luck, look for an enemy.” Which is to say that Southerners have long known how to smile in the face of adversity and then just when their enemies are least expecting it. They put the knife where it can do the most good.

Just a couple of thoughts for your next four years.

OH STOP!

We all know that Trump is going to be The President four more years. The Candidates from the other parties are… Uh, well, Pitiful! Based on what I’ve seen I wouldn’t vote for any of them to wipe my ass.

To be sure, I’ve been looking. For once in my life I’d like to cast my vote not for the lesser of two evils, but for someone that I actually believe in.

You know, someone who’s honorable, dignified, logical, has great personal presence, and who’s in the game for the people, not them self.

I don’t give a shit what color they are, their sexual preference, or gender.

Full disclosure;

I actually agree with some of Trumps opinions and policies. I also agree with some of the Democratic policies. Please remember; I have maintained for years that neither party has all the answers and extreme polarization is not serving the best interest of the American People.

Do I like President Trump? Uhhh rarely. Did I vote for President Trump? Nope. Did I vote for Hillary? Absofuckinglutely NOT!

Had Hillary become President, I’d have seriously considered becoming a citizen of Russia. At least then I’d have known what I was in for.

To her credit though, She apparently knows how to deal with her enemies. Albeit she’s sloppy. The trick is to be able to keep your hands clean. That’s why there are professionals for these sort of things. Erase the drives or tapes, THEN have a terrible fire! Didn’t we learn that with Richard Nixon’s infamous 18 minutes?

The problem with being Machiavellian or implementing Vlad Dracul’s way of governing is that you can’t nibble on the barrel. You have to go all in. You’ve got to commit totally.

As it turns out, few people have the stomach for it.  Which may be why world governments aren’t more fucked up than they are.

I actually see that as a sign of hope. Hey, gotta see the positive where you can…

In other events:

I thought going into this week that I’d extricated myself from a company whose website I’d been maintaining for years.

Uh, NOPE!

I don’t know if it was their intention but they really fucked me up. On the plus side it confirmed that I was on the right course and made the right decision. On the down side every email, & text really pissed me off. Honestly, I had expected it to be difficult because I’d  been too nice.

breakuptxt.jpgI gave them months to prepare. After spending 4 hours on the phone Friday & Saturday with the hosting company it appeared that their website was fully and completely their own. Then, I’m guessing that they got an estimate from a couple of web designers and shit themselves.

After that, they came back at me, trying to guilt and manipulate me into maintaining their site. 

The problem is, that each message pushed me into a rage. So I lost a number of days because I just walked away from the computer and couldn’t look at anything digital. 

I went so far as to shut down all the tech just because I was tired of being needled. Phone, computer, even my apple watch. I do like the simplicity of my good ol fashioned wind up watch.

You’d think that would be a good thing. No Tech for days on end…

Well, yes and no.

Yes, because it’s remarkably quiet and there are fewer distractions.  

No because when you turn the tech back on, your shit explodes with all the missed messages and you’re stuck scanning and deleting all the BS in one long irritating session. (Next time, I’m going to have a whiskey or two while dealing with it.)

After spending yet more time writing a polite email explaining that I wasn’t interested in teaching them HTML, CSS, and JAVA. Wherein I attempted to describe the basic mechanics and suggesting that they use a pretty nice tool they already have, that’s completely graphic and requires no knowledge of HTML. The whole time I was writing this polite email, I was receiving texts that read like those you get during a bad breakup or divorce.

Anyhow, after sending the email, they sent me a snotty response. “Fine,” I thought, “They finally got it.”

The next day they try again to engage me, it almost felt like they were trying to trick me into helping them.

I was walking around the place asking myself, “Was I not clear? Did I write above their reading level? What part of ‘No’ don’t they understand?”

Then I realized they didn’t want to understand what I was saying.

They wanted it to be personal, painful, and ugly. In effect it was a form of bullying. So I just blocked any communications from them. (Thank you Apple!)

I have other things to do. One of which, is living my life on my terms not the whims of others. To do that, I need to not be pissed off all the time.

In retrospect, I should have turned them loose years ago. The very first time they complained about the price.

That’s a lesson/note to self for the future, “If someone bitches about the cost when you know you’ve lowballed it… Walk the fuck away! It’s a losing proposition.”

Today, I’m feeling better. Oddly, I’m not missing them or their bullshit in the least. Go figure!

Now I’m ready to tackle some things I promised real “Friends” and can do so without being annoyed by people who claim to be my friends only when they’re ramping up to ask me for something.

Job Search:

I was trying to rewrite my resume when all the bullshit above was going on. I simply gave up. I’m going to be using the weekend splitting time between it, writing in general, and keeping promises.

There has been no activity at all on the resumes that I’ve already sent. I’m getting down to the wire and fingers crossed I’ll still be able to pull my ass out of the fire.

Hope everyone has a happy weekend.

I’m sure as hell going to try!