Sorry I've Been a Little Busy Lately

Been so busy lately trying to learn five or six applications so that I can publish some instructional videos on YouTube that you can look at. I think I have a knack for showing anyone how to get off the ground quickly, but I have to do a little “getting off the ground” myself first.  So, what am I trying to learn?

Well, I’m not going to give you a complete list of all that I’m trying to learn, but I’ll give you a short list of 2. The two apps are Unity 3.5 (which is used to write games for your PC, Mac, Nintendo Wii and so on. And the other application is Google’s SketchUp version 8, which is a really neat application that lets you draw structures such as buildings. You can draw for Google Earth and have your drawing be included in Google Earth’s vast map of the world. No experience or drawing talent required.

And of the five or six applications I am going to cover, they all have the potential to turn into very interesting, and high paying careers!

Of both applications, I think SketchUp is the easiest to learn. I have fun putting instructions together (I love to do it) that I am ignoring SketchUp in favor of Unity. It’s just that I’m having such an interesting time with it. But I want to share with you that I have a bit of a voice control problem due to a condition that I have, but I believe I can pull it off.

I should be ready with the SketchUp article and video soon, so come back soon and check it out.

Would You Boycott Apple?

I just got an article in my email from CNet that talks about a move  to boycott Apple because Apple outsources their manufacturing overseas. As a result, the workers who manufacturer Apple products in China work under the most dreadful conditions; cramped and overcrowded factories and inhumanely long hours, workplace hazards and accidents. Americans would not work under these brutal conditions, and it is our responsibility to boycott any company that knowingly allows these conditions to continue. There’s only one problem with boycotting Apple.

Apple is not alone in this practice. A lot of computer companies outsource their manufacturing overseas. And the computer makers are not alone either. Almost no matter what product you want to buy, electronics, kitchen appliances, clothing, and food, is made by workers who live in developing countries and work for pennies. So to pick on Apple doesn’t make much sense. But what do you do? Stop buying anything made overseas? You couldn’t do it because we need those products. But you shouldn’t boycott Apple unless you’re boycotting every company that makes any and every product you use.

No. We’re basically stuck. And it’s hard to point blame. All people, no matter where they’re from, want a better life. We want to provide for our families the best products we can afford. So what we do is go to our employers and ask for raises. And when raises are not forthcoming, we organize unions to gain a bigger voice. But many people criticize unions but they’re basically after what all Americans are after. More money for a better life. However, unions have asked for, and gotten too much.

There are retired union members who live on very generous pensions. More than non-union members do. And when, for the sake of the solvency of the company they work for, they’re asked if they can accept less of a raise (but a raise non-the-less), or give back a small portion of their retirement, they refuse; and for the company, bankruptcy looms. They want to kill the goose that lays the golden eggs. It’s exasperating.

So naturally what happens is that manufacturing in this country is more expensive. The companies have to pay more to make the things we want. But remember what I said about providing for your family. You can now buy a 32” HD TV set for a few hundred dollars because that TV set was made by someone who works for a dollar a day. If it had been made right here in the United States, for $35 - 40 an hour, how much would it cost? I can hardly guess, but I can guess that we would not be able to afford it. At all. Forget about that TV.

I am not a big fan of Apple computers (I like, and own an IPhone, and an iPod) because I think their computers, although very fine computers indeed, are not really any better than PCs, but they sell for a premium price. And Apple, in my opinion, has a irritating habit of putting on airs. But should they be boycotted for doing what everybody else does?

Not in my opinion.

Giving Up. Submitting To Defeat. Is It Wise?

Did You Ever Just Feel Like Giving Up? It’s a common feeling that happens to people when their problems seem overwhelming. They whine and complain as if whining and complaining solves anything. Well, it doesn’t. Neither does worrying (where did I hear the phrase “does worrying add one extra day to your life?”)

One quick way to lose the respect of your family, friends, and co-workers is to just whine and complain all the time. You’re not even supposed to do it a little bit. It’s destructive. I remember hearing that “When you complain to people about something bad that happened to you, you’ll find that most of those you tell are secretly glad it happened to you”. So don’t give them the satisfaction of hearing you complain.

Believe it or not, we as humans have a wonderful power that God gave us. It’s the will to win. Even animals have it. Most people waste it by quitting too early, but sometimes it surprises us by coming out at our most desperate times. I once heard a story that was supposed to be true. I don’t know all the details but apparently a wild cat, like a mountain lion or a Puma (I’m not sure) had gotten loose, or escaped from a zoo or a circus.

People ran for their lives, but one small boy was cornered by the big cat and it was getting ready to pounce. Suddenly the mother of the child jumped to his defense and she did the only thing she could. She balled up her fist and shoved it down the cat’s throat. She was injured, and lost a lot of blood, but both she and her boy survived. I even heard of a mouse whose baby mice were threatened by a hungry snake that attacked the snake and saved her little ones.

There is a great power in this ability to dig deep down to find the courage, and face adversity and suffering head on, solve the problem, and come out on top. But some people are easily defeated because the problem they’re facing isn’t immediately threatening. Like smoking cigarettes. Most people know that smoking cigarettes is bad for you, will eventually cause cancer, and will kill you. But it’s not going to kill you yet, today, or even in the next month. A lion will kill you instantly, but you can put off quitting your habit for now.

Most smokers who want to quit will eventually quit trying. But you must believe that whatever your goal, you must never never quit. If you continue to fight, you will eventually win. You might be poor and want very much to be richer, like say in the middle class for instance. But you might not feel that you’re good enough, or smart enough and you might feel that the deck is stacked against you. You might feel inferior. That you have no right to want to be a little better off in life. Well snap out of it. God made you in his image. God doesn’t create inferior people.

If your path to a better life is to be a professional, like a doctor or an engineer who designs electronic medical equipment, then do it. It may be very difficult, but it can be done by anybody. Yes, even you.

The thing you have to remember is that no matter what obstacles get in your way, they’re not really obstacles. They’re opportunities. Opportunities can be scary because some goals are difficult. But because they’re difficult, they’re more rewarding when you finally achieve it. By yourself. One thing I have always believed is that if you’re rich, the worst thing you can do for your child is pay his or her college tuition. Let them pay for it themselves. Let them work to earn it. Because if you pay for it, they’ll always expect you’ll be there to rescue them whenever they need help. They’ll learn valuable lessons. They’ll be better and more mature adults and a lot more capable of doing whatever it takes to handle whatever problem comes up.

The gift of self-reliance is more valuable than tuition money. The lessons you learn from overcoming barriers to accomplish some goal will make you a much more successful person.

Good luck.

The Politics of Getting Sick.

When a young man, or a young woman attends medical school, they usually follow a plan. A list of courses, called a syllabus, that they need to follow in order to become doctors. But there are a variety of specialties that a person can study. Neurosurgery, psychology, cardiology, and so on. It really doesn’t matter what specialty they’ve undertaken as their specialty, the list of subjects that they must study is designed to prepare them for their ultimate mission in life. And the purpose of that mission is to treat the sick.

In the course of handling your care, doctors do tell you, and advise you, to eat right and exercise. They also advise us to stop smoking. Patients rarely follow this advice, and doctors are trained in only curing illnesses. Not on preventing them. Today there is an epidemic of health problems that can be traced back to patient’s bad health habits, the way they eat, and their lack of enough exercise. And the results of these bad health habits are obesity, cancer, heart problems, sleep problems, depression and so on. When these patients were young, they didn’t have these health issues due to their youth and fitness levels. The issues manifested themselves as they got older, and after years of sedentary lives, overeating and of course eating the wrong foods. Supermarkets sprung up after world war II, and TV dinners became popular, Pizzas, Hamburgers and Cheeseburgers, and so on. But what we are really supposed to eat breads and grains, vegetables and fruits, dairy, proteins, and fats.

But the portions of these food items is what’s important. We’re supposed to have much less red meat, less egg and cheese (dairy), and much more fruits and vegetables. Lately, there has been a movement to juice ourselves to health. And it’s having a positive impact on those of us that are juicing. The first thing juicers do is detoxify themselves in order to lose weight. They fast and only drink a concoction made up of kale, cucumber, ginger, celery and lemon. Then of course they change their diet to eat more solid foods, but they cut out, or severely restrict meats, and dairy (eggs, cow’s milk, and cheese) and make a wide variety of different juices that they mix themselves. They mostly follow the advice of Dr. Joel Fuhrman who wrote the “Eat to Live” book. The result is a complete reversal of illnesses such as heart disease and diabetes.

But despite these inspiring results, doctors still treat patients with pills and medicines. If a patient asks about juicing, doctors nod, and say things like “uh huh”, and “I see” but steer patients back to their medications. It’s because that’s how doctors were trained. They prescribe these medications even though they are known to have adverse side effects. But there is another side to this situation.

The reason that doctors and hospitals exist is because people get sick. But it’s the reasons that doctors have jobs, and hospitals exist. But doctors need to advise healthy life styles. It’s their duty. One of the earliest doctors, Hippocrates, who came up with the Hippocratic Oath that doctors know by heart, said this: “Let thy food be thy medicine and thy medicine be thy food.” Hippocrates knew that eating the right foods, in moderation, had a positive effect on the patients who were ill. But doctors, who I’m sure have heard this quote before, rarely follow it. And the reason is pretty simple. Hospitals throughout the United States employ millions of people. I believe that hospitals try to do good by their patients and want them to be healthy. But the problem is that in order for hospitals to exist, people need to be sick. I worked for two hospitals over 10 years (I was in desktop support) and whenever we had a low census (a term that hospitals use to indicate when business is good or bad) it was not seen as a good thing (although I’m sure that the hospital doesn’t really want people to develop health problems, but it’s good for business). It hurts business when hospitals have a low census, It is in the best interest of the hospitals that people get sick.

But the real culprit in this health crisis are the drug companies. If you search the internet it’s not hard to come up with stories of payoffs by the drug companies to doctors. The task that the drug companies want the doctor to perform is to steer the patient toward a certain drug that they’re selling. Drug companies need to stay in business too, and doctors talking to patients on the subject of going on a juicing diet is detrimental to the bottom line of the drug companies. But also to the doctors and hospitals as well. So what do you do if you’re a doctor? Or a hospital? Do you tell the patient to take the medicine you’re prescribing or do you try to steer them towards a healthy life style? If you choose the former, do you reveal any negative information about the drug, as some doctors have done?

I remember the day when you never saw a commercial by law firms on TV. Today, I see commercials on TV put out by law firms hoping to make a profit themselves by suing the doctors and hospitals. A practice formerly known as ambulance chasing, but which today you see more and more of. They want their cut too. And this has the undesirable result of making health care extremely expensive. A problem which caused the government health care program that’s due to affect all Americans next year in 2013. This event is worrisome when we see the massive fraud in both Medicare and Medicaid.

And the fraud is unavoidable. Because the government puts restrictions on how much they will pay for specific medical services, hospitals and doctors don’t make good money helping the poor and the elderly. Money has a effect on people. It spawns greed. Fraud will absolutely and definitely happen to the health care program when it eventually begins. This means taxpayer money will be lost, and money having to be redirected from other sources such as Social Security, or raised by raising taxes. This means that the taxpayer will certainly lose. And in case you haven’t noticed, we’re in a lot of debt right now to the tune of 14 trillion dollars and this debt is barreling unabated at runaway speeds towards 15 trillion. So what can we do?

Well, this is something that’s difficult to start, but we need to start a jucing movement. Start to eat right and exercise. Get a juicing machine because it makes getting your veggies. I like it because I drink the juice quickly. And hopefully, as you start to lose weight, and start to look and feel younger, and hear from the doctor that you can cease taking the heart medicines, your cholesterol medicine,  or your diabetes medicine. It won’t happen overnight. The disadvantages that I spoke about are certainly going to happen. There’s no stopping them. But the nice thing about going on a health kick involving eating right and exercising is that you personally will suffer less than everyone else. The downside to this newfound health of yours is that you can now work longer, and you’ll have to in order to pay for taking care of all those sick American citizens. And those taxes will certainly be misspent and stolen. But at least you’ll have your health.

I hope this article inspires you to adopt a healthy life style, as we have in our household. And that you in turn inspire others to do the same. Because it affects the most important person you know.

You!

Buying Music. How We Did It Then, and How We Do It Now

I remember buying music in the past. It’s way different than the way we buy music now.

Remember 78’s? Admit it, you don’t know what I’m talking about, do you? Well, a 78 refers to records that sold during the 1940’s and 1950’s, that spun on your record player at 78 RPM. They went out of style by the time I was a teenager. By then, record albums spun at 33 and 1/3 RPM, and 45’s spun at, you guessed it, 45 RPM. By the way, 78’s and 45’s got you two songs. One on each side. Albums got you more music, but you mostly got only one or two of what were considered hits. Unless it was a hit album, meaning that every song was at least decent.

I remember as a kid, going to the record store with my parents, seeing them select a 78 from a table where they were organized, then take it to a booth and listen to it. It was a “try it before you buy it” deal. If they didn’t like the record, it would be put back in stock.

That’s the way we used to buy our music. Record stores were essential.

Then came the audio tape. I actually remember seeing, although not a lot, albums on tape. No. I don’t mean on cassettes, but on reel to reel. Imagine having a reel to reel tape recorder in your living room. We used to have entire stereo systems in our living rooms. And if you had a reel to reel tape player, you would have to manually feed the audio tape through the mechanism, then turn the dial to “play”. The nice part of that was that you didn’t have to turn the record over to hear the other side. The whole thing played continuously until the entire album played. Hopefully it was a hit album.

That’s another way we used to buy our music. Record stores were still essential.

Then came record clubs. Like Columbia. And you know what they used to do? Send you an album that you never ordered, along with a bill. And the hope was that you would pay for it. And  if you did, you became a member of the record club. That’s OK if you live out in the boondocks, where there are no record stores, but I lived in New York City, where there were tons of record stores.  They actually sent me an Allen Sherman record. I never paid for it, being a kid with no money. And they sent letters demanding payment, which I ignored. And of course, since I never actually ordered the album, they had no case, so I got a free album. At that time, Allen Sherman had a hit song called “Hello Muddah hello Faddah”

That’s yet another way we used to buy our music. In record clubs. But I used to go to the Blue Note a few blocks away instead. Record stores we still needed but record clubs were an option.

Then tapes got small. No more reel to reel. Now they were in cassettes. Which you could play in boom boxes, or portable tape players, like Sony Walkman devices. They were cool dude! But record companies lost a lot of potential profit because all we did was buy blank tapes, borrow albums, and copy them onto the blank tapes, and we essentially got the music for free, or at least for the cost of the blank tapes, which were not that much.

But the folks who sold us music decided that we needed quadraphonic sound. What’s that you ask? That was the next advance from Stereo. You see, mono records were well, mono. You only  needed one speaker. But stereo had two speakers and you were able to hear pianos on the left, and horns on the right. But quadraphonic had four speakers. That way you had more separation. It would be like being in a concert. They thought it was going to be a big hit, but alas it never caught on with the public.

Another flop? The 8-trac tapes. I don’t remember if they had recorders that you could buy but you could buy prerecorded music on them. But they had a problem. They would switch tracks right in the middle of the song. Imagine you’re living in the 70’s, dancing the night away, getting your grove thing on with some lovely lady on the dance floor when suddenly “clunk!” the music stops, you stop dancing, your lady love stops as well. Then another “clunk!” and the music would continue right where it left off. Not cool man, not cool.

But the record stores are still in business at this point.

Then came CD’s. For the first time ever, a record could actually be played over and over again, countless times and no matter how much you played it, it would essentially sound great, just like new, even the 10,000th time it got played. Or the millionth time. That’s digital. It lasts forever. Not the disc itself, but the music as long as it’s digital. Hopefully you backed that CD up to tape before you spilled that drink on it, or scratched it up really bad.

But now, are record stores needed anymore?

Not really. Music got digitized and now is sold online where  you download it from giant servers . ITunes, Amazon, Napster and other companies all sell music. And it’s played on digital music players like iPods, Zune’s and other iPod knock offs. Even on your iPhone. But you don’t really need to buy music at all, if you don’t want to.  Just subscribe to Pandora Radio. And just listen for free.  But if you’re buying, you usually buying it on line. And probably from iTunes. That’s the way we buy music now.

I still see record stores around. There’s still a market for vinyl. But once that die hard breed of old music lovers die off, the record stores will either adapt, or die. 

It’s OK to Pray for Peace, But is it OK to Protest War?

Why do people protest war? I mean, I understand why we pray for peace, but it's a complete waste of time to protest war because war is unavoidable. It's in man's nature to fight and thus start wars. And we've been at it since the very start of our existence. In fact, those that protest wars will support wars if they believe in the goal of whatever war we happen to be fighting. And although we really want peace, we are the first ones to start wars.

Now, I want peace, but I recognize that peace has one distinct disadvantage. If you have peace long enough, say for 100 years, you start to get complacent. You get used to it. You get comfortable. You expect it and you begin to feel as though it’ll always exist for you and your people.  And what, you might ask, is so wrong with that? Just this. You essentially start to let your guard down. It's a funny thing but in order to have peace, you need to be perceived to be strong. Other countries need to fear you. And it helps if in fact we are strong. The enemy must know that if they fight against us, they're going to get hurt and it's going to be painful. That understanding keeps the peace much more effectively than any protest, or any peace talk, can ever do. That's because people, and countries understand and respect strength. They know not to mess with it.

War also keeps your army much more prepared. Armies fight better if we have recent war experience. When war happens, armies get tuned up, and soldiers get good at it. Imagine if we suddenly get into a major war after 250 years of peace. Every war hardened soldier that we could have relied on to train and lead our young men and women has passed on and what were left with is essentially an inexperienced force. But that doesn’t hold for the enemy. While we were at peace, probably due to our strength, the enemy was at war with other countries, and they’re now battle hardened. And we’re not. A big advantage for them.

Now, if I were the enemy, and I knew that the citizens of my enemy (that being us) were protesting the war, I would try to use that to my advantage. I would send agents to infiltrate the protest movement so I could stir things up some more. I would also try to push my agenda and try to gain some converts. It’s surprising how dependable your enemy’s unhappy citizens can be. I, as America’s enemy could never trust them, or respect them, but they would be useful to me. There’s nothing like a wide-eyed idealistic idiot can be for making trouble on your behalf.

The fact is that there are just some really bad people in the world. People who want to cause trouble and hurt others. These are the evil among us. They’re all around the world. People are basically good and honest. But some people are evil. Painting rosy pictures of love and peace is fine but essentially useless. There are many “Hitler” and “Karl Marx” types among us just waiting for their turn at creating a new world based on their ideas. And they’re looking for opportunities to start wars. And try as you might, you cannot negotiate peace with them because usually peace does not work out to their advantage and does not help them to obtain their goals.

So pray for peace. Pray for world peace because that’s what we should have. But also pray for the enemy, that they see the world as we see it. That they see that a peaceful world, and a free world because it is a better world where freedom is guaranteed.

Just don’t hold your breath. And get ready to be disappointed.

Will Space Aliens Ever Come To Earth? Or Have They Already?

It’s probably one of the oldest questions asked by people both past and present. Are space aliens here? I really and truly believe that the universe has other life forms, of all types, spread out all over the countless galaxies. Plant life, animal life, and intelligent life. With all sorts of activities going on, highly advanced societies, invasions maybe, or wars, explorations, and so on. And all within their neighboring stars and galaxies. But I just don’t think they’re here on our world. Here’s why I don’t think so. Let’s look at it from a human perspective.

Let’s assume that space aliens are actually here. If they’re here at all, then they have to have traveled here, am I correct? Now let’s discuss space travel. There are three kinds of space travel. Interplanetary, interstellar, and intergalactic. We here on earth can live only to about 70 to 100 years before we die, so really long space travel is out of the question for us, and we’re pretty much restricted to interplanetary space travel, and there are even limits for that. It’s something we have no experience with, at least not manned interplanetary travel. And if for some reason  we wanted to travel to our solar system’s furthest planet, Pluto, it would take us about 23 years one way. A married man would probably not go and a single man would probably go, since there would be women crew members on board, but how could both of them plan a future together? Life for 46 years? On a space ship? Going stir crazy?

But wait! Couldn’t an astronaut be put into some kind of cryogenic sleep? Sure, it’s possible but for them to come back home after 46 years, many of their family and friends gone, their children now seniors with their own grandchildren. We’re just not cut out for very long treks across space. And they these unlucky hero’s might even be required to spend at least a few years on Pluto to make the trip worthwhile. So better make that an even 50 years. Now, it’s possible that our solar system has life on one of our eight other planets (or seven planets if you don’t include Pluto), but probably not intelligent life. So an interplanetary journey would only be worth it for science, research, and for other reasons, but not for finding intelligent life forms.
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What if we discovered another life form on a planet that was circling around another star? The first thing that comes to my mind is how would we discover that? But let’s put my doubt on hold for just a bit. Let’s say we know that there is life on a planet orbiting a faraway star. And that this life was indeed intelligent. I very much doubt we would bother to travel there due to the great distance and the very great expense, and great risk, of such a journey. But which star this planet is orbiting around would be pretty important too because the closest star to our very own Sun is approximately 4.25 light years away. But suppose that’s not the star with the populated planet. We might find life on a star that’s even further away.
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And if what if we discovered life on a planet in another galaxy? Well you can just forget about it! It’s just too far.
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But besides the immense distances and our rather short life spans, there is the question of expense. Would it be feasible to build a ship that was durable enough (it would have to be), with enough fuel, and certainly enough provisions, not to mention the amount of intense training required to make the trip to even another star? I don’t think so. Not even if we found out that another planet on a nearby star, while devoid of life, did have at least an abundance of pure gold, diamonds and other rare and precious metals and stones. But now that you understand the problems with such a trip would entail for us, you can appreciate that an alien life form would also have.
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What about life span? How long do they live? 100 years? 1,000 years? Or longer? If they lived to 1,000 of our years, that would help a very little bit, but it wouldn’t be enough for a long trip. Would it be worth it for them to come here? It could be, but if they’re indeed here, why do they make themselves so scarce? Assume that they’re here for a minute, well if they’re here, why are they here? For what purpose? They haven’t made contact (I don’t believe), and they haven’t stolen our resources, assuming they wanted to. But how do we know that would want our resources? That’s something that a human from earth would want. Aliens may be very strange to us. We always assume that they’ll be humanoid (having a head, a torso, two arms, and two legs) but they may not be. And what they want may be beyond our understanding. They may communicate in a way that we couldn’t understand. And it’s even possible that they have come and gone a long time ago and were adept at erasing all evidence of their prior visit! Or if the evidence is still around, we might not understand it enough to recognize it. I could go on and on but I think I have made my point..
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Warp speed? Transport systems? Possibilities, but only possibilities. Suppose not?
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Ladies and gentlemen, I truly believe there are life forms out there. In fact, I also believe that there are an abundance of intelligent life forms spread out in thousands of galaxies all over the place, and that they have developed societies and study art, science, religion and so on.
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I just think they probably have better things to do, or are involved with other life forms that are closer, and more interesting and advantageous than we are. I don’t think they want to bother with us. Even if they could.