That's internet

From Open secrets.org on Facebook : "The Federal Communications Commission has voted in favor of classifying the internet as a public utility, a move seen as a step towards ensuring net neutrality. However, the debate over the government's treatment of the internet is far from over. Money-in-politics reporter Russ Choma lays out the influence profile of four of the biggest opponents to net neutrality using their campaign contributions and lobbying numbers. What do you think?"  Someone said in the reply "The greater good"  I replied this "To me, when you use the greater good as an argument it is a cop out.. But to me, and I used the same argument of the greater good when voting for Obama in the last election.. I saw him as the better of the two we had as a choice.. Better not BEST.. Better because he was more set in what he had been saying.. Mitt was just flipping from the insane bullshit rhetoric that he had been spewing from the year before until August when he was confirmed as the GOP representative to the election.. I kept seeing the republican commercials and they were saying the same thing as Obama had been saying since... since the 2008 election.. So I voted.. In a state where if you don't vote republican your vote doesn't really count.. Some states are that way.. In Nebraska we want our country to run like it did in the early fifties.. That just isn't going to happen..  Ronald Reagan tried to set the country into a fail mode which very nearly happened.. In between Reagan and Obama were presidents that could have reversed direction but decided not to rock the boat.. Sadly we could have been better off if the policies of president Carter had been locked into place.. I realize everyone says what a crappy president he was but he refused to deregulate wallstreet and because Reagan did that, we had the worst banking crisis ever.. What does this have to do with the internet neutrality??  Truth is everything.. Had there been a republican in the fifth seat rather than a democrat we would be talking completely differently about the net neutrality today.. Truth is if there was a way to have a super fast lane on the internet and a lane where what we have today were the normal I would say let them have it that way.. But you know those who can afford super high speed internet would take the ball and run with it.. those who can't afford to have super fast internet would be stuck with slightly faster than dial up internet, which is what I have here.. The definition of broadband high speed internet is supposedly 25Mbps.. We have never had that here in our podunk town.. But maybe we will.. Highly doubtful.. Was I for or against the net neutrality??  I was for it but my feeling is having the internet classified as utility might in fact be the step in the wrong direction.. I'm not sure, i guess we'll see.. There's always a first time for everything and what I mean by that is maybe this will be one of those rare times when the government might get it right. They might do the right thing, the FCC being the government arm that might do it right.. Hopefully.. There's always a first time for everything.. Keep your fingers crossed, it will get bumpy..

Badge Henry

Snowscape 2015

From the latest Silverton paper.. The fat tire bike ride.. I wondered what those were for..

Family that rides together..

Hard to believe it might have been warmer there than it was here..

The "kick sled"  sleds were made in Silverton for a while.. I would have loved to have gotten one when they were made there if only to have someone ask, "well where did you get that?"  And I would say Silverton Colorado.. But they were forced to leave and they went up over the mountain to Teluride.. 

Maybe not the best "cartoon" to have in the paper as an ice climber had fallen some 900 feet to his death a week before this.. He was free climbing for what was likely just a quick adjustment, but something happened and he fell.. He was showing some other climbers how it's done.. They decided not to do that untie yourself thing.. Smart move..

Snowscape and fire works.. Up there fire works on the forth of July is a 40 degree event.. Imagine being in the flats of Nebraska and the fire works are fairly warm evening, go up to Silverton and it's chilly.. And then watch them in February and that could be downright COLD...  But fun..

Badge Henry

crocnation..

Ok, anyone who knows me this is going to come as a complete surprise to every one.. I did the unthinkable...   I applied to.. AND WAS ACCEPTED... This just makes me well up when I think about it.. I'm one of the 100 finalists to go to MARS..  You heard that right..  I got the letter in the mail yesterday.. I "won".. I won  a chance to be one of the final four to go to mars.. So proud.. How was I selected?? Good question.. First off I sent  a letter to...

Imagine this being real.. I can't.. For one thing it is real but it seems more than a little far fetched because of the logistics involved with keeping however many people alive going all that way.. Had they made the moon the goal of this colony idea I would still be skeptical but at least it would be more like they are in our back yard.. We don't have the heavy lift vehicle yet.. We set a rocket up in December last year and the first to launch from American soil in four years (?)  and it was unmanned.. I remember when they were getting ready to test to shuttle, they were sure it might blow up on the pad or very shortly afterwards.. And this thing was manned, the very first test launch of a shuttle was manned, the very first launch of this new craft would be unmanned, and will be followed up quickly with another launch  a year later.. Wait, did they say it would be a year later before the next launch??  I think they said that.. The shuttle took a few months to turn around, this new "old school" pod will not be reusable.. That's a good idea i guess.. So we are going to go to mars by 2030 ish??  Really, at this rate if we get to mars before the people that were chosen to go on this odyssey children are old enough to retire I'll be stunned.. I'll be dead, and stunned.. But seriously, would you want to go to mars knowing that they are gonna put it as priority number one??  Get you there and return you... Oh yeah.. Not going to return you.. Hope cable tv evolves by then.. Imagine the trip there take 11 months give or take.. They have that long to ponder all the mistakes that NASA made, hoping that the low bidder packed the parachute well enough to survive the landing on the marsian surface which currently includes NO liquid water and only has what NASA says it has.. spare water, enough to water a tree for a week.. Unless you flush the toilet, then all bets are off..  But I say good luck to you, you will get a school named after you.. Maybe they will keep it on the new school they build to replace the one with your name on it.. Probably not though.. Who was he? He went to mars, died three months before the craft landed in the surface.. In, you mean on?  Oh it crash landed.. They are spread over a three mile area of the planet??  That sounds like fun.. Oh, that's why we won't ever try that again??  Hmm..   

They will train for ten years to be the first to go on this trip.. Good luck to the hundred "lucky" contestants.. Hope you know that ten years is a low number.. If you are 18, you will be in your late 30's before this thing goes anywhere.. There is no president urging to get to the moon by the end of this decade and return him home safely.. We do these things not because they are easy, but because they are hard.. Well we don't do these things because they are hard.. Not anymore we don't.. Everyone loves to blame Obama for the shuttle being shut down.. It was Bush who set into motion the shuttle ending.. And logically it looked like the best idea when Obama came into office, but he could have chosen to keep it flying, but didn't. Why?  Because they were only supposed to fly a certain number of missions and they all were beyond their life terms.. They should have been retired before the new century started.. Why they took so long to start working on the next generation space craft is beyond me.. Red tape and egos and companies wanting to get in on the space rocket contract.. But we still have mishaps, rockets that blow up on the pad or during launch somewhere, all countries that launch rockets have all had issues.. I say when another rocket blows up during launch and kills people could be the reason Mars will never have human foot steps on it's surface.. I hope they can get there, but getting to the moon first.. Some smaller goal.. And it would be nice if there was a return voyage from Mars.. That is way in the future..  Go Buck Rogers GO.. 

Badge Henry

Puke fest Mondays

Boy, I wish I knew how to keep viewership numbers up.. Although I've never had a blog that had numbers in the thousands per day-week.. I do have thousands per year but that might be the same five looking every day.. That's nice.. truth is this isn't supposed to have hundreds per day, although it would be nice to have a few every day.. twenty or thirty views last week really made me feel like sticking out my chest and thumping it.. "I figured out how to get viewership numbers up.."   No I didn't, someones browser probably got stuck somehow.. I've opened a page twenty times some how before.. I make zero dollars from all my Google sites, three blogs and two YouTube channels..

The router went nuts on me last Friday night, as i was getting ready to watch my Friday night fare on my new addiction, the Roku...  The router couldn't connect to anything wireless.. So my roku, moms roku and her computer were all no go.. There was a time when the roku couldn't interface with the router and I thought it was the router but it was in fact one of those rare times that roku main frame was down.. That is so rare when it happens.. Same as with Netflix, it rarely goes down, mostly because it can be very expensive in number of users they can lose fairly quickly. I know I tried for four hours to get the router to work.. The simple hookup didn't work.. And after trying for a few hours I tried to get the old netgear router to go.. It is the strongest of the three I have.. But it went bad and I thought it still had a little life to it yet.. Turns out it didn't.. Well that leaves the old 150.. Hope it still has a little in the tank.. By midnight I had the oldest router running.. How old is the oldest router?? Around four or maybe even five years old.. But the new router, the TP, is six months old.. To me, if you spend a lot of money on a router then it should last a while longer than a cheapy.. I have seen routers for under fifty dollars and this one was one of those.. They should tell you that this router has a lifespan of your normal everyday housefly.. I don't know what the expectant lifespan of a router is regardless of cost.. I think a year or two.. This router has a two year warranty, which sounds good until you try to get something done with it. For me however, Saturday would see me trying to get it to work again, a last ditch effort to save me the hassle of trying to send it to the manufacturer, and it worked, three or four dozen tried later it worked.. so what was the issue with it??  Good question.. It's one of those things that every computer related thing happens, it stopped working, and then as suddenly as it stopped, it started.. Happy days I guess.. But it makes you stay on constant edge about the router or whatever goes goofy.. How long will it last  or more to the point, should I get a replacement just in case.. I mean it's nice to have the old router as a back up, but there is a reason for it being a backup.. Why it was replaced in the first place.. 

There are certain foods I don't like.. Certain foods that I don't like but I can't explain why, or never could explain why.. Then my niece  got married to a guy and he was at a family members house and he said there are certain foods he doesn't like and it is the texture.. THERE IT IS.. The texture.. That and certain foods give me the pukefest issues or as i call it refund..   That is no more evident than today's breakfast cereal.. Malt o meal which is a wheat cereal. Hot cereal.. For the longest time I ate what was called Zoom, and it was a wheat cereal, hot wheat cereal.. Then about last June the stor stopped stocking it.. In a panic I started searching everywhere for it.. It wasn't in a store in another town.. IT'S JUST GONE... Looked for it on line and yes it was on Amazon but it was cost prohibitive.. Cost to much to get it, had to buy a case at a time.. Then i found another brand,  a cracked wheat cereal and gave it a try.. It wasn't the same as the Zoom, but was good enough.. Everything about it made it ok to eat.. Then about a month ago they stopped stocking it and i checked at every store I could to try to find it.. It couldn't be found, so last week I got the malt o meal.. This stuff has the texture of almost nothing. Tastes ok, but it is the texture that isn't sitting well right now.. So the search will continue for something better.  It's texture that kept me from getting Cream of Wheat.. And this stuff is the same.. Not what I wanted.. But I was willing to try..


Badge Henry

Show for show sake

I knew the day would come when I would see an episode of the show Weeds that I would want to share in some form.. And I found it on YouTube..

Season 4 episode 9: Little Boats..   This is a fairly dirty language show, so fair warning.. and it covers all manner of content..   The humour within this entire show is dark.. But is extremely funny.. In a later episode Bob Odinkirk has a guest part.. He of the Better Call Saul part in Breaking Bad and also in the new show Better Call Saul, the prequil as they call it.. His part in Weeds is as a druggie at a rehab center with Celia..

Badge Henry

so much too much

With all the choices listed above there are 43,200 options in that menu, If I counted right.. So many choices, so little time..  This entry is for the Russians who found my blog in the past 48 hours.. This might be what the fighting is all about..

Badge Henry

..and then the world stopped rotating

Rotating.. Stopped... The world... Yep.. They voted down the school bond issue again for the third time, 1079 for to 933 against   with the nays having it by 146..Not the close shave they were hoping for no doubt.. Earlier votes were by 105  and 64, and the thinking was likely that they were getting closer, let's give it a quick go again and see how close this vote would be but this was a loss. In a town that size, with two thousand votes cast, that was a nasty figure..  I don't have a dog in this fight, not living there in town, and I think part of the problem with the vote this time was partially the news papers fault.. They are pro the bond being passed and that's not the problem here.. From the start of the campaign to get this past from two or however many years it's been going on the paper is pro getting it passed, but then you have stories before the bond election that make you think maybe they are in fact against it. For one thing they need a new swimming pool, and they keep harping that they want this to be state of the art where it comes to treading water.. Truth is what they have is better than a lot of towns.. But here's the kicker, a little town called Chappell has a swimming pool that was built back when water was invented that is still there.. Who built this time ignoring building?? And yet the 'burg needs a new swimming pool   aquatic center, and they want it built to include a really cool neato slide.. There's a town in Colorado that has a slide like that, actually two, and the swimming pool it connects to is like three football fields long, and has been there since I can remember.. It is open year round and is open air exclusive.. That being in Glenwood Springs.. Another time ignoring building...

The town here needs a new police station, which needs??? MONEY.. That's right, they need money to get that done.. Truth be told the perfect building or location would be the southward school when it gets leveled (assuming the school will get built by whenever, it will get built eventually)..

The paper also reported most recently on the raw sewage spill in a part of town.. This was contained to a small area but that type of thing is a swayer of votes, and don't think it isn't.. The paper does report on things beyond the school bond issue, but leading up to the vote, the weeks leading up to the vote, they reported on the fair grounds needing renovations, the swimming pool, and the sewage spill, with the sewage being the latest happening literally days before the election.. So while the editor had a letter the day before the election urging people to vote yes, I think the events leading up to the vote made more people realize that they will be gouged for more money after the bond issue gets approved, they will want the sewer to be worked on, and the fair ground renovations WON'T be a tax but rather donations.. Donations is like a tax.. Truth is the swimming pool is used by a very small number of people.. If I had the vote to tax for the swimming pool I would vote no.. Same as with the golf course renovations last year or whenever that was done.. But that was an occupational tax of some sort and they figured how much could be spent for each thing they wanted, renovations to the golf course, a new water treading park, STREET REPAIRS.. Good idea there, keep the sewage from bubbling up, priority number one..

So what's all the hubub about??  The school illustrated above, and what a school.. Or it could be.. You see the big part there in the right, taller and bigger than the rest of the building?? You know what that is??  Neither do I, they have this bond they want passed, they are showing the picture of the school on flyers and such but beyond the school being pictured, they aren't giving any details.. Would it be a good idea to show what kids would be where? Say the upper left part is where all the second graders would be.. I count three wings of a school that will house five grades (K-4) Is this a two story structure or single, what are the dimensions?  Will it be built with a bomb/tornado shelter??   Lunch room is in there, somewhere.. The bigger part as asked earlier is the gym??  I mean that's a nice looking mall.. or something else, but school??  Could be that too..  They need a campaign, they need a well thought out campaign to get this passed, take the time, canvas the town.. Talk to people, don't just throw a quick town hall type of thing together five days in advance of the vote.. Take a year and really work it.. show people, you have public access channel there in town cable tv there, get videos (plural).. Make a campaign and really work it.. It's been toss it together and sell in via ads on radio, the news paper.. Use all avenues and get it to be topic number one at coffee shops.. And take your time, the last three were rushed, I know they want it now, and everyone will say well it's really gonna cost more next time, it was what 15 then around 18 and this time was over 19 million.. That sounds like it is going up, but it is the same price, the dollar is just devaluing  That and they keep tweaking the building, I say get the building to be final design, and then really put the sell on..

And also the paper has run something, a couple of things. One they have been saying recently that it is replacing only the two oldest schools, when it is in fact replacing three.. (the third won't be leveled) And they also ran somewhere, in a line in a story that it would be county wide voting.. Why would that be county wide? Granted they have kids in the school from the entire county and beyond, I think, but this was just the school district, if you pay taxes in that school district, you vote there.. I had to email the courthouse and find out we are not in the district..  And really, you know they want so many things to be built sooner than later, the swimming pool, the police station.. More than just that.. they had a street the was done last summer, a whole street from the tracks to the only stoplight in town.. (there are four but two are out on the south business street).. That was needed .. I guess, but what with the raw sewage spill it makes you wonder what the priorities are.. We know they will get streets and utilities (infrastructure as it were) built in the new east district (AKA Cabela-ville) area and not take care of that raw sewage issue anytime soon, because while the spill happened at a very inopportune time it has happened before, actually fairly regularly.. 

But what they will more than likely do is take advantage of this last election with the no vote getting more momentum and reword the vote to where a no means yes and  yes means no type of horseshit.. And that is really what it is when you do that is make the public that you want to vote for it say no and the people you are trying to confuse say no just like they have been.. What a horseshit mandate..  It's why the last bond was passed on the last school  and why this one might need hell freezing over to pass.. Who trusts the government??

Badge Henry

(P.S.  That was my fault, I shut this blog down because of an issue.. This entry  was more guess on the numbers and everything else is my opinion and really that's all it is.. I mean it took a while to come up with that game plan, what with watching how the events are unfolding.. Interesting comments on the radio website by the superintendent of schools there, and I've said they should spend more time on getting this passed.. As far as the amount of effort, I can't say there was or wasn't enough.. Calling the vote nearly 50-50 is so not even right this time, I think if they could have a vote again in three months that it might be ten votes more either way but had they gained drastic amounts towards the yes side I would say it might be two more tries to get it to pass.. However they went the opposite direction, and the feeling might be the next vote could be a loss by 200 or more.. The loss this time by 146 is way the wrong direction and as I said the news of raw sewage the week before couldn't have helped.. I put something on my facebook to remind people that if this passes or even if it doesn't they will likely start talking about the need for the police station, swimming pool, street repairs..   The list goes on and on.. )

(P.P.S. I just wanted to add one more thing, in the comments either on Facebook or the radio stations web site someone said the taxes in town are already too high and that is true, they have a high tax rate there and my feelings are that if people made more money that maybe the tax wouldn't hurt as much.. Nebraskans voted for a raise in the minimum wage so there could be relief, BUT.. That won't be noticeable for very long as prices will rise to compensate for the wage increase.. They will only have a three month window to get the bond issue passed before the wage increase is swallowed by cost of living increases...)

The AXEMAN cometh

I came across An article online (a site I follow on facebook) and they talked about what shows are about to be cut during this second half of the viewer season and there aren't too many surprises.. Of the shows that are slated to get cut are these that I have yet to watch but have access to all of by way of already have them on a flash drive.. First of all the show Extant, I have from episode 3 on and everytime I try to watch it something makes me want to watch something else.. I initially heard the show was a mini series with Halle Berry, who normally does feature length movies. I know this is a good show but after reading the article today I read where the show was picked up for a second season..  Although being brought back for a second season with an almost entirely new cast, that could spell doom for the show before it even gets a show on.. Will it be on in the summer again or run with the big boys in the spring here..  My second show, Stalker, this is a fairly decent  thriller, and seems to be getting run down by critics.. I like the show but could see it canceled mostly because of it's thriller feel.. Move it to Friday night and get that cult audience...   Agent Carter, I will admit to watching this as a relative to agents of shield but it made me snooze so.. I won't miss it.. Haven, I watched that a little. As with any show that I start usually I will doze through the first few until I figure out the cast and who to root for.. This show lost me after the five I usually watch as a way to really try to get into it..

New shows that are yet to run or have run and I haven't seen yet, the show Slap or the slap, this one in the commercials that I saw for it during the super bowl, looked moderately interesting but how can a show be a full series.. I can see a miniseries but not a full series and not a full season or two or three, I feel like this show is like that one last year "Hostages" where everyone gushed about it and I got swept up in all the hype and got stuck watching it.. It was an alright show but it was cancelled at X-mas time and allowed to run the final shows through the end of it's series which gave the creators time to end it although not entirely ended.. A continued to type of end, such as the show ends but they give you a taste of it continues on, you think of how it ends.. I both like and hate those shows.. If you have an imagination you might could think of the continuation, and if not it just pisses you off..

The shows i am currently watch via netflix : Fringe is through the first season, and already Olivia has been to the other world,  and when that happened it was strange.. She was in the Massive Dynamics building, in the elevator going down, stepped off on one of the floors and we watched her looking out the window of the building she was in as she was stunned to be looking out at the second building in "there's two of everything" episode and that included what was two.. The twin towers that don't exist in her time/world, do in the other world.. And season two starts tonight..Fringe is still one of the best shows that was ever on tv, I rank it up with Breaking Bad, or at least through the first season it equals BB..

Anther show Weeds is really getting good now that they have gotten rid of the U-turn character, that was just going down the wrong direction.. Now the potential is there for this show to rank right back up there with it's more serious counter of Breaking Bad.. Weeds has a dark humour to it that I like.. Mary Louise Parker is the perfect Nancy character, I just love her and her reactions are just priceless..

Last night (early this morning actually) I got done with watching my late night shows and checked what might Netflix have hidden in their queues of movies and tv shows and there it is.. The classic of all classic tv shows.. M*A*S*H* ... Not the entire run, just 122 episodes and that includes the most important cultified first three seasons.. The most important of the entire series, and through the first two seasons of the next top guy.. But this is the more important.. I have those first three and the first three shows from season 4.. So that's in rotation even though I've seen those shows.. I've heard Seinfeld could be coming to Netflix.. Just a rumour right now but who knows.. That would really be pretty cool..

Badge Henry

Mistakes.. I've made a few

So we get some cat grass yesterday, the seeds and the planter are together in one convenient set up, getting it that way and you can make it quickly.. The mistake I made and I won't ever do this again, I got it out and started to put it together, but we have a dish set just for this and I make a fatal flaw, I let the cat help set it up.. That sounds innocent enough and for most people it might be a good thing to let the pet help. Our cat isn't as much the pet as she is the owner of us.. So when I start the grass I set it up and she is right there to make sure I am doing it right.. Yep, a nod here and there and you swear you can understand her goofy ass catness.. Yep, got the soil in there, the seeds next, yes very good .. I know if I don't watch you set this up you will screw up.. So I get it all set, get the seed watered and then set the bowl on the fridge and cover it with the lid and now.. it's gonna be two weeks.. Maybe.. Wake up this morning to a cat looking at the grass bowl.. Looking quite intent to have the grass today..  I tell her it won't be ready for a week (Lying to her, hoping she will understand.. it will be closer to two weeks) And she is just like a little kid.. "Can we open our presents today?" ...


I sent my older brother an email with the four models of lawn mowers I've whittled it down to, four of the five or six I am looking at, but to be fair the other two are refurbished and might not be in true contention for that reason.. Refurbished can mean as simple as a model being returned in an unopened box to one that was opened but upon closer inspection found that electric wasn't manly enough.. There's just some guys who love the smell of gasoline and the fumes they produce.. Where I started using an electric mower when my dad got the first one back when I was in grade school.. I really didn't like the very first one, it looked very foreign to be a mower.. But after pulling the draw rope on the last gas mower we had and having my shoulder pop out of the socket, I decided an electric mower where you pull a lever back and it starts, that's  a lot better and very easy on my arms by the time I had switched my thinking my left arm had popped out of the socket as well..  The mowers I had whittled it down to, three had grass catchers which weren't an option when I got the last one.. But that model, the Black and Decker mean green machine lasted 8 maybe even 9 years..  It went toes up this past fall during the first of what would have been three final mow mulching sessions, the third might have been a week before Thanksgiving if you can believe I would have gone that late..  But it went out and never came back.. So I needed a new mower, but not immediately because the season was essentially over.. Anyway the grass catcher was never even thought of since the mowers have a mulching blade on them.. And these that I am looking at all do as well.. So why have a grass catcher?? Mulching the grass clippings is better for the lawn, isn't it??  Well leaving the clippings on the grass is better for the lawn, but having the ability to get the clippings is good for a few things.. One as a weed block in the garden.. Second as a good way to make compost in a compost heap, or in my case a compost tumbler...  Also having a grass catcher at the end of the season for the mulched leaves/grass combo just sounds like a really good idea.. So that is the way to go.. Which did he pick??  He was smart and just said they all look good, and liked the grass catcher as well.. Thanks for nothing I guess but it didn't matter, i told him all the models have been at the top of my list at different times so, they might be a rotation again before i make the fatal decision..

Badge Henry