ratman.com

i used to use stamps.com for all my mailing needs. i wish, that they had taken a page from the uk, and done what they did by making stamps that covered the covers of famous albums. just check these out!

uk rock stamps

why can’t we do this? we had elvis stamps. i presume someday, we’ll end up with some michael stamps. but there are so many classic american music stamps available, we should start showing them off.

the uk’s division bell stamp is also being released on the birthday of david gilmour. what a great birthday present! happy birthday david!

so. come on usps. get with the music!

hi. been a while huh? there just isn’t enough time in the day.

so. i listened to some, but not (as yet) all of the health care summit today. i was quite taken with the passion that the president and the rest of the democrats during what i heard. i was, as usual, not impressed with the republicans. why? because they brought nothing new to the party. nothing. same props. same tired lines. they say they want to do a do-over. because, they say, that the american people want a do over. so. i was trying to figure out, in my mind, what was meant by saying that the american people want a do-over. they base it on polls, so i went to the net to try to determine just what the numbers really mean. here is my best shot. please feel free to tear it apart.

let me first say that i made a ton of assumptions here. but hey. everyone does when speaking of polls.

so here goes. using the 2000 us census, the united states consisted of 281,421,000 persons. in ranges, they broke it out as follows:

i would suggest right mouse clicking on the picture, and then opening in a new window or tab, so that you can follow along with my logic… or else not.

essentially, gallup polled 1009 people. i divided that by 50 states, and rounded to 20 total, because even though i believe that rush or glen are only part human, you just can’t use a piece of anyone really.

take the total population, and figure out what age groups could be represented in numbers. again. i took some liberty here as well, because i am unsure of the quantity of young adults in the 15-24 range. so i simply divided it by 10 and took the number from 18-24. then i figured out the quantity based on my unscientific count of the population per state. then. using my numbers for all including a forecast of the split of ages, i had at it.

bottom line. of the 281 million people that were available in 2000, assuming that this was really the count for today, .00581443% of the population want this health care bill to fail. that is the tiniest of numbers. it is based on a poll of 1000 people. and though none of this is scientific or even near factual, in my humble opinion, i just am unable to see where anyone can say that based on the poll numbers, the population of the united states isn’t for health care. it’s just not possible.

ok. so that was me taking a look at the whole population and basing things on the numbers en mass.

but. here is the real deal. the following is based on gallup. look how far out you have to go to get the percentage to even begin to register?

i’m supposed to believe that the .0000234 blah blah blah figure means that the people of the united states don’t want health care? no fuching way.

my bottom line? fuch the polls. they don’t mean anything. they might be able to produce a temperature, but even then, they are highly suspect. ever had a friend say… hey. when you get the questionnaire from my company, please make it the best ever? and when you did, did you really tell the truth? if not, then you also could have been one of the people polled and said what you thought they wanted to hear instead of how you really felt. i can guarantee you that i could go out, right now, and find 100 people for and against the health care bill. and. i also bet that those people would be able to recite the talking points verbatim, but not be able to deliver any facts that back the points up, at all.

so. forget what the polls say. read and listen to some neutral media. there is some out there. but for petes sake, make up your own mind. don’t be swayed by either side.

if you are against what you consider socialist health care, then simply deny getting into any of the government run options that will be available in your older years. pay the cash out of pocket on what ails you. go ahead. you can’t take it with you anyway. might as well just spend it so that others get rich.

yep.

that’s the ticket!

the good:
two of my kids hooked up with me on twitter. devin and ian. interesting tweets.

my better half has started her observations for school. won’t be long now before kids will be bringing her apples.

there was a reunion of the hudson flight survivors. what a great story.

last weeks house episode was one of the best ever. how i love that show.

looking forward to the start of 24 this weekend.

can’t wait for true blood to restart.

my kids made it through finals. not stellar grades, but they tried hard and did their best. i expect that since they made it through the first hurdle, that it will be easier next time. congrats jon. congrats devin.

the bad:
palin gets a fox network show. holy cow. it must have been god’s will. or. god really does have a sense of humor.

haiti gets wiped out by a natural event. i feel terrible for the people of haiti. i can’t imagine that happening here.

more and more ice is melting at the poles. sure. it’s a natural occurrence. my ass.

the state of illinois needs to get it’s act together. i have no idea who i will vote for because they all seem a little self involved and dirty as well. why do things have to be this way.

j. p. morgan chase made a ton o money and will be paying huge bonuses to some of it’s employees. why are we letting this happen? who’s money are they using for this?

a snowplow trashed our mailbox last week. bummer.

the ugly:
pat robertson, the bitter old religious man, made statements this week that even god can’t believe in. so why did he make them? maybe he’s just old and tired. may be he’s just an idiot.

sports players are said to have guns in the locker room. why?

mark really did use steroids. what a revelation!

nbc has lost it’s mind with the leno conan thing. they will simply loose more viewers to the far superior letterman show.

shameless plug:
windows home server. don’t just take it from me. search the web. find any number of reviews and what it can do for you articles to see why everyone should have a server at home. i absolutely recommend this for everyone. what are you waiting for? go get one!

sorry. i couldn’t find anything i wanted to specifically chat about that started with the letter ‘b’. but i did find some interesting ‘b’ articles. there are links below for your perusing:

bugatti going to auction after living under water for 70 years.

‘bra color’ charity campaign on facebook.

‘beck’ rambling again.

boxee—the xbmc media center spin-off that took web video by storm—has just released its first public beta into the wild.

sorry. i know. boring. maybe ‘c’ will be better!

bit.ly.

i hate long url’s. really. hate them. so. i use bit.ly whenever possible. i hope that they continue business, as many other have gone away. but. whenever possible, you should use a short-ner to make it easier to share long url’s. especially in twitter and fb links. just makes it easier.

just something to think about.

well. not really. have to finish 2009 for techjoe. doesn’t that sound like fun?

trying a new project this year. it’s the whole 365 pictures which = 1 picture a day. i took 13 yesterday to get one that i liked. guess i’ll put it up sometime today, along with a new one.

sat around the coffee table this morning gabbing with the wife over a cup of java. best part of the day. no fighting kids. the dogs are lounging. we can talk like adults!

don’t really want to go outside today. it’s 0 here in beautiful aurora. 0. that’s cold. snickers hobbled back in from his run this morning. didn’t see a problem with his pad. guess he was just cold.

let me say it again. i love my droid phone. it just works. and with the google voice hook up. it makes calls cheap and that has lowered my phone bill. love that. plus the network support for whilst being in the house? what could be better! who cares that there are 100000 apps for the iphone. most are bubble apps anyway. better to have quality than quantity.

my newest feature here will be the saturday shameless plug. i search a lot for software. i am kind of a junkie. this years new years resolution is to find free, or really cheap software that makes my life easier. to that end, here is my plug for the saturday shameless plug:

flock browser.

i am a news junkie. i also have a fb and twitter account. flock makes the use of social networks and news feeds, well, easy. there is a sidebar that controls all the action. you can post between all the social networks almost effortlessly. it’s based on the firefox browser and does a wonderful job. i highly recommend giving it a try.

to all… i hope that you had a terrific holiday season! that it was safe and that it was warm.

i think that first, i would like to say kudos to my far better half. she has worked hard at her schooling to become a teacher. i have no worries what kind of teacher she will be. she is a caring and understanding individual. and that is just a part of what will make her a great teacher. her grades throughout the year have been high, with a 3.9 4.0 average. she still also manages to keep things going on the kid front at home.

frankly. she remains my best friend!

jonathan continues to amaze. he’s got good grades and is continuing to grow into a young adult. it is so interesting to watch. his hand eye coordination has improved, thanks to any number of shoot um up games that he plays constantly. he takes drivers education classes this summer. going to be a long year. i can feel it.

devin is moving along in his normal direction. being an adhd kid has it’s drawbacks, but even though his studies have suffered a bit this year, when he’s on, he is really on. i presume that he has what i have. too many things going on and never enough time to complete any of them. he enjoys some of his subjects more than others, as was my way in school as well. in his 5th grade year, he had a teacher that believed kids wouldn’t have any homework to take home, and worked very hard at making that happen. however. i really believe that it has hurt him more than helped him. ultimately he will be fine. he knows it. and so do we.

during the year, i was also able to hear from my oldest son ian. he seems to be doing fine. there were some bitter moments in our initial conversations, but we seemed to get through them. i miss him. there are times, when i find his early pictures, that i can think back to the fun times we had when he was younger. i soured those times by trying to get him to follow a more traditional path. i know what it is like to not follow that path, and i didn’t want his life, nor jon or devins, to be like it has been for me. but. he is his own man, and for that, i am thankful. here’s to you, ian. i hope things are going well.

my dad is doing terrific! he turned 79 this past october. i always feel bad for him in the winter because owning a miata makes winter drives more like skating with sheet metal. but he’s doing fine and is a pleasure to have around. when ever i think about it, i realize that he has seen everything. from the beginnings of sound and video, to blue ray disks, the internet and our first african american president. he is, without a doubt, a wealth of information. and i cherish every moment we have.

barb and john were able to visit us a couple times this year. they are influenced by the ‘grandchildren’ effect. that’s when the grandchildren use the powers of their minds and cause you, as a parent or grandparent, to have a need to see you in person, instead of on a skype call. it’s always a good time. and we are guaranteed to eat browns chicken (though. as of this writing, browns had filed for bankruptcy protection. bummer.)

the year itself was full of surprises. we elected a new president that is working hard to help get the country back on it’s feet. the whole experience has taught me that as much as you can wish for change, one man can not do it alone. it takes far far more. i hope that some more of our fellow countrymen and women learn that lesson. i am still a strong supporter of our president, but i admit to being a little bit sour of some of his attempts at change. i believe that his voice should have been much stronger during the health care debate. though i understand the idea of allowing the congress create the bill, it is his leadership that should have helped keep the fox and friends gang from becoming a detrimental voice in its creation. if i have a wish, for 2010, it is that any nmuber of fox folks become unable to speak. its not that i don’t believe in the ability to speak freely. it is that fact that when you speak, the truth should be what is spoken, not the twisting of words to fulfill your own agenda. glen, rush, michele and the like do that almost constantly. and their stirring of the pot can only do harm instead of good. that is just a pity.

it’s like the bears. at the beginning of the season, with the addition of a new and previously successful quarterback, it seemed that the bears would be almost unstoppable. yet. it proves the point that it takes more than a single change to reach the outcome that you want. i think that the addition of cutler to the bears showed the other, previously hidden holes, that weren’t visible prior to the addition. that we need receivers. that our offensive line is old yet also young and less experienced. yet. i don’t blame the coach. i think he did, and does, a fine job.

work was ok. i have lots of respect for most of the people that i work with, and for. reiling is there from back in the comark days which make the sap part of my job bearable. and i also work with a very bright group of ‘techies’ which makes the day go by well.

past that, the year went by pretty much like i expected with all the things that have happened. the economy sucks. the value of our house isn’t what it was. nor are any of the other houses that we have lived in, with the exception of the house in elgin. but. i believe that will change over the next year or two, yet i hope that the changes are gradual and are not the same as they were before.

but. i am thankful that my family is healthy. my job is secure for the moment. my friends are all in pretty good shape. and coffee hasn’t been outlawed!

i hope that this is a great year. i believe that it will be.

i hope that all is good for you as well. that your world is full of happiness and that all goes well for you.

thanks for reading. enjoy your day!

here is a friend of mines site. i enjoy his humor and his drawings. political slant. good humor. give it a try. what can it hurt?

http://oftheseends.com

see ya there…

today i removed the sign up that had been a part of my site for months. the way that health care is being directed, isn’t the change that i voted for. it’s just such a shame. i was so supportive of real change, and instead seem to be getting much the same with a government bill. i tried my best to support it, but the direction is just wrong.

i don’t blame president obama. he gave the congress a job, and they went at it. unfortunately, there are so many congress-people with their own agenda’s (not the peoples) that it just won’t pass like i would like it to. i most certainly blame the old guard. those congress folks that have been in place for far too long. i think that there should be term limits. i think there should be a way for them to then get and be able to use the feedback from their districts in more ways. i am tired of listening to them say that they don’t support something. they are supposed to be the mouths of us, and their personal opinions should carry little to no weight.

but that’s just not the way it is. so. the next voting season for me will be to work on getting the current out and a new breed in, if there is one. if not, i will simply keep my vote in my pocket. i will however vote for president obama in the next presidential election, unless he does something that no longer warrants that vote. again. i don’t blame him. i think, instead, that he has allowed the short comings of both parties to come to light.

and that light, is considerably dull.