mothers day…
by ratman on May.09, 2010, under family
mom
you were my mother and my friend,
which was unusual.
somehow our characters still blend:
your wisdom and my will.
i turned, and you were there for me;
i spoke, you understood.
i felt cared for, but also free;
you loved, and i was good.
i’m fortunate that i was born
to someone just like you;
i love you still. though you are gone,
you live in what i do.
love you mom.
shawn
stamps…
by ratman on Mar.06, 2010, under things
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!
not enough time on my hands…
by ratman on Feb.25, 2010, under last time i mention this, politics, soap box, things, wtf?
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!
‘c’…
by ratman on Jan.17, 2010, under the alphabet
china.
i was shopping today with my wife in the kohl’s store. there was a rather pleasant display of dishes from fiestaware. i have always loved that stuff. my grandmother had it. i remember that it was colorful and fun. i was looking at the price, and per place setting for a plate, bowl, small plate, cup and saucer, it was $48.00. and to top it off, it was made in china. china. i know that the cost to manufacture in china is less. i, of course, get the information from any number of informational sites on the net as well as a pretty good handle of the economics of such things.
china is a country that is full of misnomers. we believe that china is a country full of progress as manufactures are always heading there expecting that their profits will rise because it is just beginning to allow it’s huge population to do things, that for a long time, have been banned or frowned upon.
the chinese now drive. have cell phones. are allowed to do, just enough more than they have been, to make it seem as thought they are progressing.
yet. last week, google, a company of extraordinary talent to break down walls and allow for things to change, placed a bet that, i believe, they will loose, unfortunately. they suggested that they will no longer block or scan web inquiries through their service. while i believe that it is the correct thing to do, i also believe that the chinese will react, as they have, by blocking things on their own, as they did with the imdb database. that seems so silly and must be extraordinarily frustrating for the people of china.
i wonder sometimes how many people in china know of the world around them. the world beyond what they are actually allowed to see. i think that it is better than it was, but would be willing to bet that there are many thousands of people that have no idea of the liberties that are available to them, even in the enclosed way that they are in china. i picture it as if an alien life form came to this planet and had to try to learn to understand our ways. what culture shock it would be.
i also believe that if china sped up its adoption of a more free society, that one day, they would be more of a leader of the free world than even the united states or russia.
call me crazy, but if that did happen, then i think there might be the possibility that more business would flow back to the united states and we would again begin to make things here. it was such an early strength that this country had. we were a leader in so many ways, only to see it be taken from us because of cheap labor and inexpensive materials. not unlike the days when driving a car from japan was thought to be so anti-american. sure. we pressed those automakers into building cars here. but they still do it with parts and materials generally produced in every country but our own.
i remember the original walmart. they only sold products made in the usa. that didn’t last long, because, they simply couldn’t be competitive. and now that china owns so much of the us, thanks to years of them buying it up, when will we be able to take back what we gave away?
my hope of the next 50 years is that the trend reverses. that the people of china are allowed more human freedoms and rights. that we are able to recoup more manufacturing and design than we have now. that we are able to share all of our fortunes, world wide, with every other country. yet, i refuse to hold my breath for that to happen.
come on america! let’s take it back and show the world that we can lead and follow. that we can help when we need to and are humble enough to know when we need to ask for help as well. we will all be richer for it.
my week in review…
by ratman on Jan.16, 2010, under family, friends, shameless plug, soap box, technology, things
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!
a ‘wtf’ moment…
by ratman on Jan.10, 2010, under last time i mention this, soap box, wtf?
last week at work, as happens to us all, i had to make a trip to the washroom.
on the wall. apparently someone had a sneeze and left a ‘present’ on the wall above the urinal. later. someone spent the time to create and tape up a ‘wtf’ note right next to it.
now. that wouldn’t be so bad except that on the list of ‘wtf’ moments, that would be a low priority moment for me.
a much higher priority would be that it also seems that our office has a number of blind people that use the urinals. seriously. there are times where i swear that a small lake has been formed. for me, that is a much more important ‘wtf’ moment. i mean. geez.
and then there are the people that grab a towel or two, and at the same time let one of two hit the floor. how can you not take a moment and pick up your mistake? it just takes a sec. why not spend a sec? why?
i can only imagine what the bathrooms of these people look like at home.
‘b’…
by ratman on Jan.10, 2010, under the alphabet, things
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.
sorry. i know. boring. maybe ‘c’ will be better!
saturday shameless plug…
by ratman on Jan.09, 2010, under shameless plug, things
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.
