m u s i n g s

Warning:

If you are a relative of Whitney Houston or a close friend, my sincerest condolences. You do not have to read this.

In the last couple of days the simpering, outpouring of grief reminds me of the pandemic when Princess Diana died.

Why must we continually do this.

Yes, it is tragic when someone dies. As an older person, I have lost count of relatives and close friends who have died. Simply too many to count. Whether they are taken at a very young age, after a long battle with disease or whether it is sudden, by accident, a suicide or after a ripe old age. Death, although a major part of life, is always sad. We must grieve. However the false epithets, outpouring of mass hysteria and quite disingenuous remarks as witnessed on Social Media channels is embarrassing. It does a disservice to the real grief we all feel when someone close dies. Ms Houston was not close, at all, to most of us. I also think a lot of people have put their grief out there, not to honour Ms Houston, but to get attention for themselves. This is a well-defined pshycological disorder.

I understand why all the mainstream media does this - it sells ads. Lots of ads. "If it bleeds, it leads." I did not make that saying up. They, the media, did.

In the days before shock, tabloid journalism (Is there anything else these days?)  and Social Media, we could happily live our days in relatively remote, peaceful existence, simply worrying about our friends, relatives and loved ones health and happiness. A notice of a celebrity passing would be in the Entertainment Section … maybe on page 3.

When I see this outpouring of faux grief I sit back, puzzled, wondering where we are, where we have come from and where we are going. Saddens me a great deal.

Maybe, the social webs are loaded with misguided folks. Or. maybe just normal people who have a moral compass that is not pointed int the right direction.

Princess Diana, for example, was famous for winning a lottery. She had no qualifications to place her at the pinnacle of respect other than by her marriage to a Bloke in England. Yes, her new found wealth allowed her to get notoriety and bring some light to good causes. Good for her. Other than that, nothing of note. She won a lottery. She neither contributed to higher leaning, science, the arts, the peace process nor really did anything ... but look pretty. And produce offspring.

Ms Houston was an artist and a fine singer. Probably the owner of one of the best voices to come along in years. Other than that? Not much else to hold her up as a heroine, a beacon, a guiding light nor any of the other platitudes gushed in the last few days. I am sad she died. Sad too as she seemed like someone that fame ate up. But fame was not forced on her. It was her own choosing.

There have been hundreds of those. Instead of idolizing these celebs, the Amys, the Michaels, the likes of Elvis, Janis, Jimi, as I said the list is long, should we not get our priorities in order?

"We as a society seem to be the best entertained and the least informed."

Some quick stats:

A total of 158 Canadian Forces personnel have been killed in the war since 2002.

Over 60 million people were killed in WWII, which was over 2.5% of the world population. 45,400 were Canadians.

Between 1961 and 2009, 133 police officers were murdered in the line of duty.

More than 1,000 firefighters have died since 1848 ( I do not have a stat for recent years)

These to me are the real heroes. The ultimate sacrifice inspires me. 

Please shed tears for them.

Well, if you are going to have a government cash grab, you might as well have an efficient one.

Here's the story …

I needed to renew my plates for my car and the guy at the license place asked if the car was Drive Cleaned in the last 12 months. Yep, it was in July 2011. Well, we need the certificate. He gave me a number to call.

I called them first thing this AM … no way could I get through. So I looked online. There was a form - put in the vehicle info yada, yada… submit.

I assumed it was now in the "ether" of government email somewhere.

About 4 minutes later I get an email from a fella named Alex.

Says, yep you have a  certificate on file.

I was stunned. So I tried the number again wanted to thank this guy personally, probably talk to his supervisor and recommend the Order of Ontario, but could not get through. Alex sent from a general email address, but, what the hell, I replied and thanked him and asked so what did I have to do to get a copy of said certificate.

Expecting all sorts of hoops, I was doing the ramifications in my head, and while pondering … eleven minutes passed…

Alex emails me back!

Email says - "Here ya go - please find attached your certificate."

This is my Provincial Government we are talking about here!

Eleven fucking minutes!

I am taking the rest of the week off. I am not only Gob-smacked, but feel the need to celebrate!

Yep I hate SPAM as much as anyone.

So working at my desk here right now and up pops an email - subject line "coffee news." from "coffee girl". I happen to be sitting here with a coffee in my hand.

The email is plain text, nothing flashy. Says simply, "I was having coffee with a friend, it tasted great. I really like my coffee. The girl asked her friend what kind it was - He said it was "Acid Free Coffee"... Google it. I think it is called Tylers, or something.

So I did.

Now some mitigating circumstances ...

Two of my buddies are completely off coffee on Doctor's orders. I like coffee, doesn't seem to affect me, but have read and heard about too much etc etc

So, I Google Acid Free coffee and find this.

http://www.tylerscoffees.com/

Nice site, rather low key sales pitch ....

SPAM or no SPAM ... I would try this if I can get it. certainly if I was in the States I would order it right now.

Weird, eh? When SPAM works.

Just got back from the garage.

I needed to replace a tire. I thought I t was a slow leak, but the sidewall was damaged so out with the newish damaged tire - in with a brand new one. Life is like that.

The garage I chose - had to be close, as I was losing air rapidly -  was down the street, Queensway Auto Body. Big place that does collision work and repairs including a large bay for steering and tires.

The guy who greeted me was great - ordered a replacement tire, did all the right stuff and was not that expensive. Probably could have shopped around for a cheaper tire, but this was neither the right time nor place for that! What do you do when you go to a place to have a tire repaired and find it is not repairable. OK, put it back on I will have this towed to a cheaper place? No. They did not gouge me that is for sure, but it certainly was not the "deal of the day."

He then called me over "Hey, you are leaking oil under here.

That's never good.

He put the car on the hoist and went underneath. The diagnosis was that the oil drain plug on the oil pan was leaking. We both figured it was simply loose. No, it was not loose. It was completely stripped.

Having done a bit of DIY mechanic work I knew what could be involved. 

Now, I had just recently had an oil change.  Here is where the problem started. I will couch that and say "probably" or "may" have started.

A month ago I went to one of those local, fast, oil-change places. I am not naming names here because there is no proof they are at fault. But, prior to getting that oil change - everything was fine avec da wheels.

The mechanic today, while I watched him, surveyed the situation. The oil plug was completely stripped and in trying to take off the oil filter - it was not threaded on right. It was jammed.

To remedy the situation there were two possibilities. The first would be to get a new oil pan. Not cheap. The second, would be to try to repair the oil filter area and then re-tap the oil plug socket and put in a larger size oil pan plug.

I asked him his recommendation. He said lets try the second, but was concerned about the oil pan being too damaged. He said however, if it does not work, we will have to go for the new oil pan, but promised that if he cannot fix it he will not charge me for the first attempt and only charge me for the new oil pan work. Fair enough I said - have at it.

I really enjoy watching someone who knows what they are doing. He finally got the oil filter off. A complete mess. And dug out the oil pan plug. He cleaned the filter area thoroughly and re tapped the drain to accept a bigger plug.

Both of us satisfied with this - he proceeded to do an oil change.

The quick service oil change place, although attractive at it's price was ultimately the cause of an unnecessary cost - assuming they, the fast place, did this.

Having done a bunch of oil changes myself, on old cars that I once had, I did not think twice about going to a fast oil change place. How tough can it be?

Well, perhaps, too tough for the guys I went to. Seemingly, according to the mechanic today - they stripped the oil plug screw, probably using a hydraulic drill to secure the bolt, resulting in a leak, and did not screw on the oil filter properly - they just jammed it on - more than likely in haste. They are a fast oil change place, no? 

I park on gravel and never noticed the leak. Had this guy not caught it - he said I had lost a lot of oil to date, that would have been a blown engine ...  in excess of two grand.

The bitter taste of poor quality lingers long after the sweet smell of cheap price has long gone.

Price vs cost. Here endeth the lesson.

By Peter Mosley

The top searched for words last year.

Every year I look for this as I like to include it in lectures and speaches.

Hang on!!!! These are not "searched for" words? These are words people typed into "their Googley!"

They meant to type these it into their Navigation Bar. But, I betcha, if you asked 10 folks on PCs, more than half do not know what it is. And, furthermore, I will put this test out there ...

"Ask 10 people what browser they use on their PC?"

I am not talking the small percentage of us that inhabit the Net on a regular (Meaning: round-the-clock) basis. So don't ask one of your Netizen or Geek friends - ask some real folks. You can tell real folks they do NOT have a Twitter account!

I have done this!!!  Way more than half say they use Google as their broweser. I ask them if that means they have the Chrome browser ... no my sceen is black, they tell me. Ok then ...

Now, I am not talking about Yokels, nor Seniors who are just discovering the online world, or for that matter, computers in general, I am talking about well-educated folks that have no clue. These same folks use computers at work on a daily basis. I bet there are millions and millions of them. I run into them all the time. Mostly on Facebook.

I have been so fortunate to have been a Mac user since day one, which was 1985 in Canada. Most folks I know use PCs. And the vast majority of those folks have missed out on experiencing the joy of the relationship with a computer, namely a Mac, and inherently the relationship with the Net. Oh, and sadly Alice, the Net is not Facebook.

In the early 90s, "AOL" was today's Facebook. Those folks who did not know what a URL was, nor where their browser's Navigation Bar was, nor how to copy and paste, nor scroll ... God it goes on and on doesn't it? They all went to AOL. It was easy and shiny. Today they go to Facebook.

I was reading an article recently and the writer said he gets way more information from Facebook and Twitter than from Google. Oy! Son, you need to go outside and play for a bit. Both literally and figuratively. In itself, that is probably the dumbest thing I have ever heard. It also is the laziest.

"Oh and on your way outside, CLEAN UP YOUR ROOM!"

How can you do your work if you cannot use the tools?

Ask these same ten folks, mentioned above, about bookmarking?

First, they probably do not know the term. Oh? You mean my favorites? Yep. Then, ask them if their "favorites" have sub folders? Are the favorites sorted? Oh, do you use a social bookmark site? Do you use a favorite toolbar?

This is why Facebook has become so popular. Just like AOL did in the 90s and as witnessed by your friends, who online for the first time, sent you a thousand jokes ... old jokes, the same old jokes that you saw 15 years ago ...

It will stop. Trust me.

I have faith in us humans. I really do.  Eventually, we will get sick and tired of all this drivel.

I was looking at a "Year in Review" type article, or predictions or NY Resolutions. But instead I want to share some hope.

I got sick and tired of TV, that was 15+ years ago. Last year, I made a Creative Manifesto for myself to follow. My resolution, my dream and my hope of hopes is that all we will see on the Net is each other's creative moments. Nothing more, nothing less.

Peace