Friday, February 26, 2016

Maybe, maybe not

I got this email last week, about things that will disappear in the next 10 years. Like most things these day, it was kind of misleading. And of course, it's just somebody's  opinion. Anyway, it was interesting and it made me think about those things.

So let's see;

1.      The Post Office
Get ready to imagine a world without the post office. They are so deeply in
financial trouble there is probably no way to sustain it long term. Email,
Fed Ex, and UPS have just about wiped out the minimum revenue needed to
keep the post office alive. Most of your mail every day is junk mail and bills.
Junk mail is all about advertising and marketing. That's not going away. And bills aren't going away either. In my opinion, there are still plenty of people that get their bills via snail mail. But I'll buy that the Post Office, as we know, will definitely go away.  

2.      The Check
Britain is already laying the groundwork to do away with checks by 2018.
It costs the financial system billions of dollars a year to process checks.
Plastic cards and online transactions will lead to the eventual demise of
the check. This plays right into the death of the post office. If you never
paid your bills by mail and never received them by mail, the post office
would absolutely go out of business.
Yeah, I buy that. But not using checks won't lead to the death of the Post Office.

3.      The Newspaper
The younger generation simply doesn't read the newspaper. They certainly
don't subscribe to a daily delivered print edition. It will go the way of the
milkman and the laundry man. As for reading the paper online, get ready to
pay for it. The rise in mobile Internet devices and e-readers has caused
all the newspaper and magazine publishers to form an alliance. They have
met with Apple, Amazon, and the major cell phone companies to develop a
model for paid subscription services.
They got that right - the younger generation doesn't read the paper. Hell, I don't read the paper. I find all the news I need, online. I don't believe that they'll pay for an online version though.
                                                                                        
4.      The Book
You say you will never give up the physical book you hold in your hand and
turn the literal pages. I said the same thing about downloading music from
iTunes. I wanted my hard copy CD. But I quickly changed my mind when I
discovered I could get albums for half the price without ever leaving home
to get the latest music. The same thing will happen with books.
I hope not. While I can admit that I love being able to read on my Kindle, at night, in bed, I still love having books. I know avid readers love having tablets to read on. I get it. I believe this could be true. But it would make me sad.
                                                                            
5.      The Land Line Telephone
Unless you have a large family and make a lot of local calls, you don't
need it anymore. Most people keep it simply because they've always
had it. But you are paying double charges for the extra service. All the
cell phone companies will let you call customers using the same cell
provider for no charge against your minutes.
I haven't had a land line in about 10 years. I don't miss it. buh bye

6.      Music
This is one of the saddest parts of the change story. The music industry is
dying a slow death. Not just because of illegal downloading. It's the lack
of innovative new music being given a chance to get to the people who
would like to hear it. Greed and corruption is the problem. The record
labels and the radio conglomerates are simply self-destructing. Over 40%
of the music purchased today is "catalog items," meaning traditional
music the public is familiar with, older established artists. 
This is misleading. Music is NOT going away. Please. The music industry is changing though. Young people are finding new artists all the time. Just not through the traditional music industry. And those artists, don't want to be a part of the "music industry" anyway. Yes, I can see music radio corporations failing though. Greed ruins everything.

7.      Television
Revenues to the networks are down dramatically. Not just because of
the economy. People are watching TV and movies streamed from their
computers. And they're playing games and doing lots of other things to
take up the time usually spent watching TV. Prime time shows have
degenerated down to lower than the lowest common denominator.
Cable rates are skyrocketing and commercials run about every 4 minutes
and 30 seconds. I say good riddance to most of it. It's time for the cable companies to be
put out of our misery. Let the people choose what they want to watch
online and through Netflix.
Again, misleading. TV isn't going away. But certainly, cable companies need to change their business models to survive! I can watch enough on Netflix and Hulu and On Demand, that I could easily, and happily, get rid of 2/3 of my cable channels! For sure, people are tired of having to pay for a 100 channels to just to watch 3 of them.
  
8.      The "Things" You Own
Many of the very possessions we used to own are still in our lives, but we may
not actually own them in the future. They may simply reside in "the
cloud." Today your computer has a hard drive and you store your pictures,
music, movies, and documents. Your software is on a CD or DVD, and you can
always re-install it if need be. But all of this is changing. Apple,
Microsoft, and Google are all finishing up their latest "cloud services."
It means when you turn on a computer, the Internet will be built into the
operating system. So, Windows, Google, and the Mac OS will be tied
straight into the Internet. If you click an icon, it will open something in the Internet cloud. If you save something, it will be saved to the cloud. In this virtual world, you can
access your music or your books, or your whatever from any laptop or
handheld device. This is the good news. But, will you actually own any of
this "stuff" or will it all be able to disappear at any moment in a big
"Poof?" Will most of the things in our lives be disposable and whimsical?
It makes you want to run to the closet and pull out a photo album, grab a
book from the shelf, or open up a CD case and pull out the insert.
For me, this is just another example of how I want to embrace technology,
but it's so creepy!! I have at least a dozen movies that I "own" digitally. I like it too! Same for some "e-books" I have.
  
9.      Joined Handwriting
Already gone in some schools who no longer teach "joined handwriting"
because nearly everything is done now on computers or keyboards of some
type (pun not intended)
I think they've been talking about this for too long.

10.   Privacy
If there ever was a concept we can look back on nostalgically, it would be
privacy. It's gone. It's been gone for a long time anyway.. There are
cameras on the street, in most of the buildings, and even built into your
computer and cell phone. But you can be sure 24/7, "They" know who you are
and where you are, right down to the GPS coordinates, and the
Google Street View. The TV show "Person of Interest" isn't as far out as you
may think. If you buy something, your habit is put into a zillion profiles, and
your ads will change to reflect those habits.. "They" will try to get you to buy 
something else. Again and again.
Privacy is just an illusion. It always has been. It's just more obvious now!

Thursday, February 25, 2016

This is awesome!

My man and I have the same color birthstones. Well, not exactly, but close. One is a garnet and one is a ruby. You never see them together, in jewelry. I'm guessing it's because they are so close together in the red spectrum. 

Last month, I happen to be thinking about that and wondering to myself, doesn't anyone make jewelry with both gems together? They must, right?

So I got on Amazon - the largest selection on the planet - to see what I could find. Guess what? I found one!! I was so excited. And better yet, they are cut as hearts. Awwwww. OK, so the ruby is lab created, but still! 


Isn't it cute? I love Amazon :-)

Tuesday, February 23, 2016

Mars and Venus and DIY

I love my husband. No, really, I do. 

But.......

We think so totally different about home improvements and DIY projects. OK, let's be honest, we think differently about almost everything! But that's ok. I don't mind that. However, we are a horrible team when it comes to home improvements and DIY projects! As a matter of fact, we down right SUCK at working together, most of the time. He, wants to just jump right in. I, on the other hand, am asking questions like, where are you going to put the stuff on that wall when you're ready to remove it? Are you going to move that curio by yourself? Because if you are, you have to take things out of it first. (if you break ONE of my little china figurines, you're a dead man) What are you going to use to cover that up with? I can see it in his face, "I got a hammer and a saw, who cares about the rest of that shit!" I have questions about measurements. His face tells me, "I know what I'm doing here!" And, if he wants me to help him with something, he only says 1/2 of the words he's thinking. So I'm left standing there, looking at him like, huh? Then he says, forget it, I can do it. Oy. This is going to be a long Spring.

On the upside though, he's really enjoying having something to do! And he's not tired from working all day and there's no pressure to get everything done in a weekend. Whew. Aaaand, it's going to look awesome when it's done! At least there's a bright side! 

Onward...

Monday, February 22, 2016

let there be light, and other dark tales

It's always so curious to me, how things sneak up on you. Just yesterday, it was still dark when I went to work, and this morning? Dusk. It was awesome. I know it didn't happen overnight but it seems like it. Kind of like when the trees start budding in Spring. One day, you'll notice the buds and the next day, boom! Leaves! 

New subject:
Friday night I had a nightmare. I've had several the last few years. Weird huh? Oh, maybe it's not. But it's weird for me. I don't recall ever having real nightmares when I was younger. Oh sure, weird dreams...like when your teeth are falling out or you're being chased by giant, purple, spider aliens. But not full on nightmares. You know the kind, yelling, screaming, sobbing in your sleep. Whoa. My poor fella. Thank heavens he was there to wake me up and save me from being abducted. Whew! It was awful!

New subject:
Dieting is SO hard. Especially when it's SweeTart Jelly Bean season!! Aaaaaagh!!!
Sigh. Oh sure, I know, I could just have a small handful every now and then. Alas, the only real way to eat them is by the bagful! Phooey. Yesterday at the grocery store, I bought 6 bags. My husband scowled at me. I don't care. They have to last for an entire year! Plus, it makes me happy to have them. At least I know I could have them, if I wanted too. I wonder if that's the same reason alcoholics keep liquor in the house! Ruh roh. maybe this was a bad idea.



Nah
:-)

Wednesday, February 17, 2016

I feel like a real office worker now

Now that I'm bringing my lunch to work everyday, my sweet man bought this cute lunch bag for me so I couldn't stop carrying around used grocery bags;



Now I'm one of 'those' people. It's ok though, it's pretty cute :-)

Tuesday, February 16, 2016

Friday, February 5, 2016

How much does free stuff cost?

Check out this story from earlier this week;


There are a lot of questions about this wanna do study. There are also, many discussions to be had. It seems like another ant and grasshopper thing. There are so many arguments against socialism. There are some in favor of it as well. But while everyone was spouting all the negatives of why this wouldn't work, I couldn't help but think of the people it could help. For instance, think about the single mom, struggling to provide for her family. If she didn't have to pay rent or buy food, would she work part time and go back to school? Better herself? Would she work enough to have the other necessitates and spend the rest of her time raising/teaching her kids. Or would she just work enough to buy clothes and toys and a cute purse and spend the rest of her time watching TV with her kids?  What about a 2 parent family whose dad just lost his job? If he didn't have the stress of worrying about paying the mortgage or providing food, what would he do? If that financial burden was thrown away, would more families stick together? 

You have to admit, it's interesting.

Wednesday, February 3, 2016

Eagle peeping

If you're a fan of eagles, and even if you're not, here are some great eagle cams;

So far, this is my favorite one

http://webcams.dnr.state.mn.us/eagle/

They are still rehabbing their nest but this one was great last year!

http://hdontap.com/index.php/video/stream/pa-bald-eagle-ir-cam

And this one is in Georgia;

http://www.berry.edu/eaglecam/

Everyone could use a laugh

This one made me cry...SO funny!

http://www.msn.com/en-us/lifestyle/family/15-of-the-most-hilarious-test-answers-kids-have-ever-come-up-with/ss-BBoRwiL#image=1