Ever notice that you could be watching a show, and then when a commercial comes on, suddenly the volume seems to have increased to an annoyingly BLASTING level?
Well, I've entertained a theory about this since I was a teenager... I always just figured that this was intentional on the television networks side. Think about it! When do you get up to take pee breaks?, Or to take that drink cup to the sink/dishwasher? During commercials right? So naturally it makes sense from a broadcasters perspective to try to keep your attention on the television. That last ditch effort for them to grab your attention with a familiar jingle etc... Hoping you will buy their products etc...
Just a thought!
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Monday, March 22, 2010
Phitter_Phatter, Lets Get At Er...
So my wife and I settled in on the couch together to watch Kirstie Alley's Big Life last night. I loved the commercials before hand and had been pestering my wife to remind me to watch it so there we were watching. Kirstie, seems like any other mom in this world, most of them seem unhappy with something or other to me. But in her case she has chosen to turn things around and bring herself and hopefully millions of others to a happy weight/state in their lives... I think this is a fabulous idea... I remember Kirstie while I was a teenager in shows like Cheers and movies like look who's talking... She was skinny and energetic. I think this whole thing is is inspiring... And at any weight I think she's beautiful but if fitting into a hot dress once again will make her happy then I'm all for it!
That being said, She's got a line of health products on the go and more interestingly to me she has managed to create her own social network called Phitter.com which of course centers around the whole idea of being... well, Phitter :) The graphics and one eye'd critters make the site feel fun and inviting. In a sea of already ample time consuming social networks only time will tell if this becomes a major hit...
All in all, I think it will be a good thing for everyone around her. She's a positive, happy person and we all like to be around those sorts of people right? ...
Cheers!
(NO Phun Intended)
That being said, She's got a line of health products on the go and more interestingly to me she has managed to create her own social network called Phitter.com which of course centers around the whole idea of being... well, Phitter :) The graphics and one eye'd critters make the site feel fun and inviting. In a sea of already ample time consuming social networks only time will tell if this becomes a major hit...
All in all, I think it will be a good thing for everyone around her. She's a positive, happy person and we all like to be around those sorts of people right?
Cheers!
(NO Phun Intended)
Monday, March 15, 2010
Riding the "WIND" of Change...
Anyone close to my family knows that it can be a real bugger to get a hold of us... Well, that's primarily because 8 months ago I received a whopping 600 dollar phone and internet services bill that I just couldn't afford to pay. This was the straw that broke the camels back and coincidentally it put my previously excellent credit in the shit house. The major cell phone companies have a knack for beating up on ordinary people's credit by wrongfully charging peoples accounts then leaving it up to the customer to spend unholy hours on the phone with billing departments and rude credit departments to try to rectify the situation. Bottom line in all this is that they just don't give a rats ass if your in over your head with 600 dollar bills, I'm suppose to pay them more than a weeks pay to get one or two months worth of phone and internet because of some billing screw up? Ughhhh, get it together people...
In our family we have 4 Cell phones active and even more sitting inactive in a drawer in the kitchen, All pay as you go, and all so outrageously expensive that we just simply avoid using them unless we really need to. I use my cell phone more than anyone else here does, but even I limit my conversations to mostly textual means... This is for a couple reasons, one being, why talk when you can text? :) I am so used to conversing with people by text, having been using the internet for conversations since the early 80's. Even before the internet when I was a kid using the K12 dial up networks and BBS's to send and receive messages...
And so at that point of despair when we had to decide internet and "home phone" just wasn't as important as oh, lets say.... taking our kids to the movies, or to the mall to buy them some new clothes... I had to get creative if I wanted to ride out the recession. To make a really long story short I won't go into detail about most of it but as far as internet goes, I found a clever and secure way to receive internet on a router by reprogramming it's software to not just broadcast the network but to pick it up from multiple sources at the same time and provide me with decent enough speeds to read my email or write in my blog etc... I know, family have said to me... "Open wifi? Aren't you afraid you'll be hacked?" My answer is usually plain and unamusing since I just simply don't want to go into detail and explain. However the long and short of it is that along with this modified hardware I was able to set up a proxy in the US on a server that I trust whereby all traffic from my house network is piped to this server through an encrypted connection before it actually gets out onto the real network. HAHAHAHAHA, Did I just geek out of you there? I know and trust this US server and have been using it for over a decade, almost two in fact. So that took care of the network side of things for me. As far as telephone goes, I thought HEY I'll just simply set up a VoIP phone... Works in theory, and in fact sometimes it works flawlessly. However Encrypting every ounce of data that flows out of our house before it actually gets on to the internet has it's drawbacks and it has proved to be simply too much for voip. It is also a challenge when trying to view streaming video etc without a whole lot of buffering as it causes delays, breakups and just a whole myriad of problems. These problems with our home phone have our family thinking we just don't want to talk with them... But it's not true! we love them all, and while we may be a bit awkward we want to keep in contact with them near and far...
So what did we do to fix it? We have already told our entire family and network of friends that our new VoIP phone number is and will remain our home phone number. Ughhh, we don't want to change the number again but have to find a solution to our little phone problem...
There is a new phone company in town... A cell phone company in fact... So we decided to ride the "Wind" of change.. or rather, the "Wind Mobile" of change... They have only been in our local market for a few months and have their own set of issues to deal with but I think it's a good time to give them a chance, I encourage you all to do the same... You have to buy a phone outright, there are no silly plans and a somewhat limited choice of phones however it's the flat rate All accross canada "unlimited" calling that got my nubs in an uproar... We purchased one of these phones today as a family and decided to try it at our house as a house phone replacement, but we also have the flexibility to take it mobile when we go on our little family adventures etc... And for our frustrated family members, we will keep our VoIP number forwarded so you don't even have to change your contact lists... But this time the call should come through any time of day or night... Don't forget to leave a message :)
I am not sure how wind mobile will fair in the market but I do know that I have already seen a 10 cent per minute reduction in my existing pay as you go phone, which I assume has something to do with the new market competition...
I will blog every once in a while to report on Wind Mobile's reliability etc, hopefully it works out but for a flat rate monthly and the ability to call anyone in Canada for as long as we want I think this may be the cell phone revolution we have all been waiting for. I am excited to be part of it!
In our family we have 4 Cell phones active and even more sitting inactive in a drawer in the kitchen, All pay as you go, and all so outrageously expensive that we just simply avoid using them unless we really need to. I use my cell phone more than anyone else here does, but even I limit my conversations to mostly textual means... This is for a couple reasons, one being, why talk when you can text? :) I am so used to conversing with people by text, having been using the internet for conversations since the early 80's. Even before the internet when I was a kid using the K12 dial up networks and BBS's to send and receive messages...
And so at that point of despair when we had to decide internet and "home phone" just wasn't as important as oh, lets say.... taking our kids to the movies, or to the mall to buy them some new clothes... I had to get creative if I wanted to ride out the recession. To make a really long story short I won't go into detail about most of it but as far as internet goes, I found a clever and secure way to receive internet on a router by reprogramming it's software to not just broadcast the network but to pick it up from multiple sources at the same time and provide me with decent enough speeds to read my email or write in my blog etc... I know, family have said to me... "Open wifi? Aren't you afraid you'll be hacked?" My answer is usually plain and unamusing since I just simply don't want to go into detail and explain. However the long and short of it is that along with this modified hardware I was able to set up a proxy in the US on a server that I trust whereby all traffic from my house network is piped to this server through an encrypted connection before it actually gets out onto the real network. HAHAHAHAHA, Did I just geek out of you there? I know and trust this US server and have been using it for over a decade, almost two in fact. So that took care of the network side of things for me. As far as telephone goes, I thought HEY I'll just simply set up a VoIP phone... Works in theory, and in fact sometimes it works flawlessly. However Encrypting every ounce of data that flows out of our house before it actually gets on to the internet has it's drawbacks and it has proved to be simply too much for voip. It is also a challenge when trying to view streaming video etc without a whole lot of buffering as it causes delays, breakups and just a whole myriad of problems. These problems with our home phone have our family thinking we just don't want to talk with them... But it's not true! we love them all, and while we may be a bit awkward we want to keep in contact with them near and far...
So what did we do to fix it? We have already told our entire family and network of friends that our new VoIP phone number is and will remain our home phone number. Ughhh, we don't want to change the number again but have to find a solution to our little phone problem...
There is a new phone company in town... A cell phone company in fact... So we decided to ride the "Wind" of change.. or rather, the "Wind Mobile" of change... They have only been in our local market for a few months and have their own set of issues to deal with but I think it's a good time to give them a chance, I encourage you all to do the same... You have to buy a phone outright, there are no silly plans and a somewhat limited choice of phones however it's the flat rate All accross canada "unlimited" calling that got my nubs in an uproar... We purchased one of these phones today as a family and decided to try it at our house as a house phone replacement, but we also have the flexibility to take it mobile when we go on our little family adventures etc... And for our frustrated family members, we will keep our VoIP number forwarded so you don't even have to change your contact lists... But this time the call should come through any time of day or night... Don't forget to leave a message :)
I am not sure how wind mobile will fair in the market but I do know that I have already seen a 10 cent per minute reduction in my existing pay as you go phone, which I assume has something to do with the new market competition...
I will blog every once in a while to report on Wind Mobile's reliability etc, hopefully it works out but for a flat rate monthly and the ability to call anyone in Canada for as long as we want I think this may be the cell phone revolution we have all been waiting for. I am excited to be part of it!
Sunday, March 7, 2010
Where there is Energy, there is life...
During world war I, it is believed that Lieutenant-Colonel William Casey said "There are no atheists in foxholes". The aphorism indicates that in times of extreme stress or fear, such as warfare, all people will believe in or hope for a higher power.
I certainly can not claim to have endured this type of extreme stress, my desensitized media view of war is all I have to claim. War for me has been nothing more than news stories and the occasional conversation with grandparents and great uncles and aunts who have actually lived with the great wars. Life itself however is stressful on it's own no matter how you slice it. There are always times in your life when we feel destitute, perhaps distraught with the sense that things just can't be worse. The loss of a loved one, a pet, or hitting financial rock bottom when you have a family to feed and keep sheltered. These types of stresses in my own life have always seemed to bring with them that periodic search for a creator, God, or just some explanation for what is happening to me. It does seem at least in part that Lieutenant Colonel William Casey was right in assuming that we have a built in question about who we are.
But, what is the answer?
Well I don't know the answer, and I certainly don't understand the question really. I will also be so bold as to say that no man nor woman really truly understands the question for if you did, well if you did, you would simply just be your own creator. Life is to the very core more complex than our 3.5 pound brain can calculate. This I am sure of 100% and at the end of the day I put to you the very thought that "you do not need to know everything!" It is not important that you understand it all.
Does all life eventually question it's own existence? The Christians would have you believe that it is only man who seeks God, but really, this is not possible to verify this to any degree of certainty. The Latin word "Extraterrestrial" simply means outside or outwards from earth or not originating from earth. But in my own perspective I can only say that my position here on earth is relative and relevant only to me. From my own position as the observer I am the center of my own universe, and everything around me near and far is simply existing in their own micro or macro universe with me on the extraterrestrial side of their perspective. I am then, as alien to them as they are to me. But having said that, everything in and around me seems to be interconnected in some macro universe that all holds a purpose for everything around and through it.
The universe, to me, appears to be so vast that no amount of human knowledge can or will understand it fully. But are we mere creatures that have emerged under opportunistic circumstances. From a Biochemical, Evolutionary standpoint, it seems nonsensical to me to think that life is not possible somewhere else in what I view as an infinite space. If it is infinite, then there must be a chance for life somewhere else. Isn't it possible that where there is Energy, there is life? I believe that God has always existed and that the very universe is simply just part of God itself therefore we exist in the universe as part of God as a whole. This belief is not blind entirely, it is something that just makes sense. It is somewhat akin to the idea that we are not external to God but actually an integral part of what we call God. I guess that makes me a Pantheist.
Wikipedia says:
Have I just defined my religion? If so, it is newly defined to myself as well but perhaps it is exactly what I have done here. I have always believed in God but through all the conversations I have had with Christians, Jews, Muslims, Bhudists etc I could never quite place my finger on it so to speak. The very idea of Pantheism seems to follow the ideas that I feel are important while explaining somewhat the very foundation of the place where I physically exist.
Just a thought,
Don...
I certainly can not claim to have endured this type of extreme stress, my desensitized media view of war is all I have to claim. War for me has been nothing more than news stories and the occasional conversation with grandparents and great uncles and aunts who have actually lived with the great wars. Life itself however is stressful on it's own no matter how you slice it. There are always times in your life when we feel destitute, perhaps distraught with the sense that things just can't be worse. The loss of a loved one, a pet, or hitting financial rock bottom when you have a family to feed and keep sheltered. These types of stresses in my own life have always seemed to bring with them that periodic search for a creator, God, or just some explanation for what is happening to me. It does seem at least in part that Lieutenant Colonel William Casey was right in assuming that we have a built in question about who we are.
But, what is the answer?
Well I don't know the answer, and I certainly don't understand the question really. I will also be so bold as to say that no man nor woman really truly understands the question for if you did, well if you did, you would simply just be your own creator. Life is to the very core more complex than our 3.5 pound brain can calculate. This I am sure of 100% and at the end of the day I put to you the very thought that "you do not need to know everything!" It is not important that you understand it all.
Does all life eventually question it's own existence? The Christians would have you believe that it is only man who seeks God, but really, this is not possible to verify this to any degree of certainty. The Latin word "Extraterrestrial" simply means outside or outwards from earth or not originating from earth. But in my own perspective I can only say that my position here on earth is relative and relevant only to me. From my own position as the observer I am the center of my own universe, and everything around me near and far is simply existing in their own micro or macro universe with me on the extraterrestrial side of their perspective. I am then, as alien to them as they are to me. But having said that, everything in and around me seems to be interconnected in some macro universe that all holds a purpose for everything around and through it.
The universe, to me, appears to be so vast that no amount of human knowledge can or will understand it fully. But are we mere creatures that have emerged under opportunistic circumstances. From a Biochemical, Evolutionary standpoint, it seems nonsensical to me to think that life is not possible somewhere else in what I view as an infinite space. If it is infinite, then there must be a chance for life somewhere else. Isn't it possible that where there is Energy, there is life? I believe that God has always existed and that the very universe is simply just part of God itself therefore we exist in the universe as part of God as a whole. This belief is not blind entirely, it is something that just makes sense. It is somewhat akin to the idea that we are not external to God but actually an integral part of what we call God. I guess that makes me a Pantheist.
Wikipedia says:
Pantheism is the view that the Universe (Nature) and God are identical,[1] or that the Universe (including Nature on Earth) is the only thing deserving the deepest kind of reverence. The word derives from the Ancient Greek: πᾶν (pan) meaning "All" and θεός (theos) meaning "God" - literally "All is God." As such Pantheism promotes the idea that God is better understood as a way of relating to nature and the Universe as a whole - all that was, is and shall be - rather than as a transcendent, mental, personal or creator entity.[2] Pantheists thus do not believe in a personal or creator god. Although there are divergences within Pantheism, the central ideas found in almost all versions are the Cosmos as an all-encompassing unity and the "sacredness" of Nature.
Have I just defined my religion? If so, it is newly defined to myself as well but perhaps it is exactly what I have done here. I have always believed in God but through all the conversations I have had with Christians, Jews, Muslims, Bhudists etc I could never quite place my finger on it so to speak. The very idea of Pantheism seems to follow the ideas that I feel are important while explaining somewhat the very foundation of the place where I physically exist.
Just a thought,
Don...
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