Product Endorsement

Hello from Sothern California. It is mid-November and I'm enjoying the 84 degree weather, but not the air quality. The fire storms of last week have subsided. They weren’t that near where I live, but smoke filled the air so bad on Sunday that it was impossible to stay out in the sun and the pool was covered with a thin coating of ash, not conducive to taking a swim.

I have been told that California doesn’t have four seasons like the rest of the country, but I beg to differ with you. We have earthquake springs, fire storm autumns, light rain winters and frying of eggs on the sidewalk summers!

Her's something, I have a product I would like to tell you about that really works.

Recently I built a doggie door in a wall leading to my back patio for my bichon, Coco Chanel; it was supposedly to stop her from peeing on my living room rug. The problem was she didn’t like it and wouldn’t use it, but one day something else did!

I started noticing Coco didn’t want to go down stairs and at night she was having nightmares. It made me laugh to see her moving her little legs and crying out in her sleep, but as it turned out it wasn’t that funny. The next night I heard a noise downstairs, when I ran down, I noticed the candles on my dining room table had fallen. I couldn’t believe Coco had jumped on the table before coming upstairs and it didn’t explain the noise I heard. It wasn’t until my cleaning lady came the day after that I found out I had mouse droppings (mouse poop) behind my couch.

A mouse in my house, no f’ing way! Something had to be done and done quickly. I immediately ran to the store and bought a couple of mouse traps. Not the old spring wire action ones, but kinder and more humane mouse traps. They looked like big clamps that would hold the mouse but not squish its little head. I didn’t want mouse brains all over the floor, nor did I want to see mouse blood.

I was told that mice like peanut butter better than cheese, so I placed both in front of the big clamps and went upstairs to sleep. The next morning the clamps were shut, but no mouse was to be found, only the remains after his feast! The next night I used two traps, but again, only his poop was evidence he enjoyed his dinner.

I told my next door neighbor about my mouse problem and he told me it wasn’t a mouse. It was a rat! Only a big rat could leave such large droppings, and he told me I should get rid of it immediately. Since I was feeding it, it probably was setting up house, and would soon invite all his friends in. Well, I wasn’t about to let that happen.

I went to the store and told the guy who sold me the humane traps that they didn’t work as now I had a rat as a house guest. He smiled and said he had just the thing.

He brought me the Rat Zapper 2000. A metal tunnel about ten inches long, closed at one end with a place to put four penlight batteries. The thought of electrocuting something was hard for me to swallow at first, but so was having a rat living in my house!

I bought the handy, dandy Rat Zapper 2000. Reading the directions, it said you should put peanut butter or cheese inside the tunnel and not turn it on the first night. The rat thinks he’s getting food and the next night, you turn on the juice and get him. However, I had been feeding the damn thing for three nights so I was sure I didn’t need to follow that particular step. Besides, I didn’t want a rat in my house yet another night. I placed cheese inside the tunnel, not peanut butter. After all, why give the thing a treat when all I wanted to do was kill it. The hell with having a special meal before death! I turned the switch on and went upstairs to bed.

The next morning, Coco happily ran down the stairs and started barking near where the zapper was. I knew something was up, and sure enough, I saw it. A long and I mean a long, about four inches of long tail sticking out of the zapper. I can’t begin to tell you how frightened I was. And the thought of removing the thing was even worst. I had to run to my next door neighbor for help. He was almost as scared as I was, but he dumped the thing in a paper bag and that was the end of my rat problem!

So I found a product that I fully endorse. In fact, if you ever need one, ask me I loan you mine.

Rants for the week

Okay, so AIG got 1.2 billion in bail-out already. And now they want more! So where did the money go? It surely didn’t flow back to Middle America. To my understanding, AIG insured our government loans to China, (loans that paid for oil from OPEC). AIG backed these loans with mortgage assets that have now defaulted. So if I understand this right, our government gave AIG money to secure the risk on these loans. Did AIG pay this money to China? Is this where the money went, I would sure like to know.? I don’t think this bail-out plan helps America at all. Do you?


Oh, and OPEC, made up of members from Algeria, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Nigeria, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Venezuela wants to slow production of oil to keep prices high. And these countries would like nothing more than to bankrupt America, and I believe they are doing a very good job at it!

And yet another rant: Why does GM need money to re-tool? They have known since the 80’s that we need fuel efficient cars. Why should we bail-out a company that has not kept up with what America needs? All you have to do is look at car sales over the last 20 years to know that foreign small cars are what are being purchased. And why haven’t they re-tooled before this? Maybe we wouldn’t be in this mess if they did ten years ago. I saw an article that stated that the ‘big three’ auto makers' management make 50% more salary than any other manufacturing company in the world! Does this make sense?” And this bail-out is supposed to help American keep their jobs, but no matter what jobs will be lost, especially during re-tooling!

I think Larry Page and Elon Musk of Tesla Motors should buy up some of these plants and start mass producing the electric car. I am sure they could get them cheap. (1) They would have a built in workforce and (2) Mass production could lower the price on their cars and (3) just maybe we wouldn’t have to bail-out these American auto makers who don’t have their act together anyway.

Obama won!

Last night will be a night to remember always.

So the elections are over and Obama is our new President, which is good news! Proposition 2 passed. Now by law, we have to be more humane to our live food supply in California. But Proposition 8 banning gay marriage passed, which is bad news.

We in America are facing major issues with the start of this major recession, which I’m afraid will last for a couple of years. Unemployment is raising and our financial sector in an absolute mess, not to mention how the housing market is in shambles. So I can’t understand why in the 21st century we still don’t accept gay marriage? In this day in age, people are finding it harder and harder to meet the right person and to stay in a committed relationship, so who cares what sex they are. Give me a break! Thank God they found each other. Shouldn't we just be celebrating love, no matter who it's with?

I just was going over all the State Measures for California before I vote tomorrow and Proposition 2 really bothers me. It states certain farm animals be allowed for the majority of every day to fully extend their limbs or wings, lie down, stand up and turn around. Limited exceptions apply. I wonder what these exceptions are? Anyway, they are asking farmers to be more humane to our live food supply. The ads against it say it would be costly and force us to buy our eggs from Mexico. Why would we resort to buy eggs from Mexico?

So here’s a shame on you rant for the day…Shame on you who would buy from another place because of better regulations and cost. Who cares what it costs is? Why shouldn’t we be more humane to animals?

I saw a movie called ‘What the Bleep Do You Know’ and in it, a Dr. Masaru Emoto presented some pretty significant evidence that water crystals reacts to negative and positive stimulation. Since mammals are 98% water, we too react to this stimulation. Maybe, just maybe this would mean we are eating negative stimuli. Just think of it, we are all affected by what we eat. That’s enough for me to vote for better treatment of confined animals. Why would anyone not vote to be more humane?

Mind of scientist- heart of a romantic-voice of a writer

I just finished the final edits on my first novel, Lightning Strikes and I wanted to get the word out and connect with everyone I could.

To begin, I guess I should start with who I am. It is an interesting question, as I have been defined by my job for so long, I only hope I will be defined by my writing in the future.

But who is anyone anymore? Soon, we will be defined by numbers: our social security number, our telephone number and zipcode. I just saw something on the subject and it floored me. I don’t know whose campaign it’s for, so don’t get mad if it is political, but if you’re interested here’s the link: http://aclu.org/pizza/images/screen.swf.

It frightening that numbers are more important than who we are in this computer-assisted world. All companies need to do to learn anything about us is—look at our numbers. Don’t get me wrong, you see I love numbers. I’ve sold them for years. Complex algorithms and advanced visualization techniques are my specialty. —Have you ever noticed everyone’s second question, after asking our name, is what do you do for a living?

So what I do for a living is sell software tools. When I first started selling, I sold engineering workstations to a group mapping the galaxy, and now they HAVE finished mapping the known universe. Cool, isn’t it! I have also sold flight test analysis and visualization software to aerospace companies, and forecasting tools to investment banks and AI (Artificial Intelligence) stuff. One comment on AI—artificial intelligence is better than no intelligence at all. I have sold analytical tools to prove theories for physicists and even sold tools to measure Sun spots. I am really proud of the projects I been involved with and believe I’ve helped accounts be more successful in making data information. But am I only defined by my professional career? Sometimes I think so. However with this glorious media, I hope to be known as a writer and the author of a new and exciting novel Lightning Strikes, historical fiction with a twist.

A LITTLE SCIENCE KNOWLEDGE

I have been doing research for an article I am writing and had to look up Dr. Edwin Hubble. Do you know who he was? I believe we as Americans can be proud of the Hubble Telescope launched in 1990. It was a great achievement—combining innovated thinking, determination and a product that lasts beyond planned obsolesces. (Whose idea was planned obsolesces anyway?) Okay, so we have had to tweak it in space a couple of times and it was a very costly project but it only proves; when you fail, pick yourself up and fix it! All you have to do is look at the pictures we’ve received to know how successful it has been. One of my favorites is the nebula called ‘God’s Eye.’ The coloration is from different particles around the nebula. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helix_Nebula

To answer my own question, in 1925, Ernest Hubble announced to the world he had proved the Universe was larger than just the Milky Way and it was expanding! It changed astronomy forever and I find that fascinating. Once we determined there were other galaxies out there, science advanced imagining and visualization to see further and deeper in space. Since I am writing an article on the String Theory, specifically the M-theory and its eleven dimensions along with Multiverse and had to research him.

A LITTLE FRANKNESS FROM BEN FRANKLIN

I just finished an historical novel with a sci-fi twist that takes place in the year 1752, twenty-four years before the American Revolution, and a unique time in history. One of my characters is the great scientist and philosopher, Benjamin Franklin. While researching him I came across a piece he wrote in his last Almanac that just might give us something to think about.

When asked by a crowd why they should pay heavy taxes to the government Ben Franklin answered in the voice of Poor Richard: “Friends, taxes are indeed very heavy, and if those laid on by the government were the only ones we had to pay, we might more easily discharge them; but we have many others and much more grievous to some of us. We are taxed twice as much by our idleness, three times as much by our pride, and four times as much by our folly.”

A LITTLE SHAME ON YOU RANT

My first shame on you, shame on me, shame of them rants—Shame on the American Stock Exchange for using credit default swaps. Who put it back in to law after being banned in 1909? And shame on us for not being aware of this deregulation. How could anyone believe that the greedy would govern themselves?

I have other rants and will add to this weekly, I hope. If anyone else has any good “shame rant” to share, please let me know.

Oh, I have question to ask and would like your answer if possible. What small things are you doing to go green? I have changed my light bulbs and carry fabric bags to shop. Okay, so that's not a lot but I've done some big things too. New more efficient bathrooms, but I haven’t tackle the kitchen yet. I'm just interested what other people are doing out there in the blogosphere to help go green? All suggestions might end up in a article, so let me know what you have done to go green.