Having gone through the 'game'....I will offer these ten bits of advice:
1. My humble guess is that a quarter of all guys over the age of fifty....have a fair amount of hearing loss, due to weapons firing, heavy equipment or work over the years. Out of every ten guys with problems.....I'd take another humble guess of only one woman with similar hearing loss. Why? Unknown. I'm still waiting for some university to do research.
2. The real cost of a hearing test? Some health insurance policies will cover it.....some work it into the deductible. A typical low-end price is $75, and a typical high-end cost is $225. The test itself takes roughly 40-to-50 minutes. For your general state of mind.....pay the cost and have it done at least once by age fifty.
3. Hearing loss goes across a spectrum. You could have significant loss on only ONE single part of the spectrum. It could go across each spectrum. The only way to tell....is the test.
4. The person conducting the test and trying to sell you the hearing aid deal.....is the same person. Just be aware of that.
5. When the test is complete.....the tester will give you a sheet identifying where your hearing is good or bad. Ask for a copy of this (demand if necessary).
6. Once the tester says you got issues.....the salesmanship starts. The guy or gal will say that they DON'T sell cheap hearing aids and the lowest they sell is $2,750 (the usual low-end). They will fit you with this one and run the bird-chirp CD, and you will be amazed at the quality of the sound.....being better than your damaged sound picks up. Then they will pull out the $6,500 hearing aid and it'll be twice as good or three-times as good as the cheaper $2,750. What the gal is not telling you.....is that the cheaper one has a 'button' which you could max the sound-pick-up double or triple what you had before.
7. The $6,500 hearing aid will always be on sale this month, with $450 off (typically). Act amazed.
8. Are there $1,499 or $1,999 hearing aids that work as well and sold nationally? Yes, at COSTCO. Brand X type devices, and they work the same way (four-star quality).
9. Why the warranty matters? Well.....guys with their first hearing aid screw up and allow water or rain to get it wet and screw it up. You learn after that.....to remove the hearing aids at times of physical action (hauling hay, driving the tractor, cutting grass).
10. There is a difference between the in-the-ear hearing aid and the hanging-off-the-ear aid. If you don't want folks knowing about your issue....the in-the-ear deal works OK. Think about this option before buying it.
Sadly, the hearing aid folks are counting on you spending $3,000 to $6,000 and help pay for their salary structure. You can get a decent deal for less. The battery deal? Well.....yeah.....if you try hard....a typical battery will last you four days. Rechargeable batteries exist.....check into them.
Thursday, 18 June 2015
Wednesday, 17 June 2015
Simply Observations
One. Rachel Dolezal and the "I identify as Black" concept. It's kinda surprising that the label thing has taken quickly with some news media folks and sold across as acceptable. A guy might look at this and say: "I identify as a Redneck" and expect folks to just accept that. Someone might say: "I identify as a meth-head" and expect folks to just accept that. Some gal might say: "I identify as a right-wing conservative Christian and deny gay marriage" and expect folks to just accept that......well.....oh.....that ID doesn't sell well on TV, I guess. Expect tens of thousands of t-shirts to now sell by this weekend....entitled as "I identify as such-and-such".
Two. It's one of those odd stories. The ISIS folks have a fairly decent turn-over situation in Iraq and Syria. So, they have an HR department. You'd kinda be dazed when this comes up.....but they are that 'smart'. The current gimmick of the HR department of ISIS? Well....they pretend to be social workers coming to your door to "help" you. Once inside your friendly side......they use recruitment ideas and get you signed up to be a player. It wouldn't surprise me if they even threw in some benefit chat or gave the guy a coffee cup.
Three. Syria finally came up yesterday and asked the EU for help. Basically.....the one million Syrians in Jordan are now too much to handle. What the EU will say or do? Unknown. If this were a six-month long problem concerning a previous earthquake or tidal wave.....no problem. But this is a potential decade-long issue and you can't say what will happen to the Syrians sitting around in various countries. It's possible.....that none will ever return in this lifetime to their country. To have imagined this a decade ago? Not possible. More Syrians to Europe? There's only two or three countries with an open view on this presently. Oddly, no one ever mentions Russia.
Two. It's one of those odd stories. The ISIS folks have a fairly decent turn-over situation in Iraq and Syria. So, they have an HR department. You'd kinda be dazed when this comes up.....but they are that 'smart'. The current gimmick of the HR department of ISIS? Well....they pretend to be social workers coming to your door to "help" you. Once inside your friendly side......they use recruitment ideas and get you signed up to be a player. It wouldn't surprise me if they even threw in some benefit chat or gave the guy a coffee cup.
Three. Syria finally came up yesterday and asked the EU for help. Basically.....the one million Syrians in Jordan are now too much to handle. What the EU will say or do? Unknown. If this were a six-month long problem concerning a previous earthquake or tidal wave.....no problem. But this is a potential decade-long issue and you can't say what will happen to the Syrians sitting around in various countries. It's possible.....that none will ever return in this lifetime to their country. To have imagined this a decade ago? Not possible. More Syrians to Europe? There's only two or three countries with an open view on this presently. Oddly, no one ever mentions Russia.
Tuesday, 16 June 2015
The Thing About Donald Trump
The announcement came today of Trump running for President. For most folks who consider themselves Republicans or leaning-independents-toward-Republicans.....Trump is this nutcase guy who can't win the Presidency but in the space of ten minutes.....says five things that really spark your interest.
Trump isn't a politician, nor does he fit any realistic profile of a guy running for office. Dirt dug up on the guy? For every pound of dirt that any news organization digs up.....Trump has people who dig up twice that much on the newspaper or news organization involved. Pound for pound.....Trump extracts a pay-back.
A couple of guys would sit there and imagine Trump winning.....but when you get down to actually voting for the guy.....I could see one in ten actually voting in some primary for the guy. Maybe if Cruz or Walker said some really stupid stuff.....you might have ten percent of either guy's group move to Trump as some opposition vote.
Would you really want some CEO guy running America.....firing the CIA guy when he did something stupid, or dumping the VP in the middle of some meeting and telling him to just go home? The Chinese? They'd be in utter fear of what this guy might do.....same for the Saudis and the French.
The guy most shocked by a possible win? Trump himself, my humble opinion.
Trump isn't a politician, nor does he fit any realistic profile of a guy running for office. Dirt dug up on the guy? For every pound of dirt that any news organization digs up.....Trump has people who dig up twice that much on the newspaper or news organization involved. Pound for pound.....Trump extracts a pay-back.
A couple of guys would sit there and imagine Trump winning.....but when you get down to actually voting for the guy.....I could see one in ten actually voting in some primary for the guy. Maybe if Cruz or Walker said some really stupid stuff.....you might have ten percent of either guy's group move to Trump as some opposition vote.
Would you really want some CEO guy running America.....firing the CIA guy when he did something stupid, or dumping the VP in the middle of some meeting and telling him to just go home? The Chinese? They'd be in utter fear of what this guy might do.....same for the Saudis and the French.
The guy most shocked by a possible win? Trump himself, my humble opinion.
The House of Clinton versus The House of Bush
Since yesterday's announcement of Jeb Bush running for President.....some people are quietly forecasting (at least in their little world).....this mythical battle of the House of Bush versus the House of Clinton. It's kinda like Game of Thrones or Mad Men series of appealing scenarios that people would like to be a part of or participate in some fantasy world.
Yeah.....things are a bit screwed up.
In this fantasy epic.....the House of Bush would tear up the Republican competition in Iowa and lay down Cruz and Walker in a matter of four weeks after the primaries started. Rubio might be a problem, and they'd have to bring in some heavy hitters to talk the slant against Rubio (he's a foreigner....he's a Mexican.....he's a lawyer.....etc). The House of Bush would then easily win the primary series and ride the white horse into the Quicken Convention Center in the mythical city of Cleveland.
I won't bore you with details, but in this fantasy.....Cleveland-land (double usage of words intentional).....Republican values would be laid out and Fox News would find the sixteen actual Republicans who live in Cleveland-land and feature them with the beast-killer.....Jeb.
A white pony would be brought out by the House of Clinton.....as a joke to Jeb, and the four-month battle "royal" (pronounced the French way) would start up.
Court jesters would line up with NBC, CBS, and ABC to help the House of Clinton as much as possible. Old white male court jesters would line up with Fox News to help the House of Bush.
About a week before elections in November of 2016.....people would wake up from this dazed experience and ask themselves.....do they really want either the House of Clinton or the House of Bush in reality? The answer is.....NO.
For this reason, I suspect that Jeb....while with honest and good intentions.....is on a marginal campaign and will not be able to mount any clear numbers of success in Iowa, or the first five state primaries that occur. He might take five to eight states by the end, and be part of the convention battle in Cleveland-land (it's a catchy phrase.....you must admit). But in my humble opinion....Jeb is sixteen years too late for this epic run (he is the better Bush, I do admit).
So, in your fantasy world......this all-out battle between the House of Clinton versus the House of Bush.....it's just fake. Don't get pepped up over nothing. Settle back.....drink some PBR....eat a bran muffin....and watch some repeats of the Rockford Files. It'll be more entertaining.
Yeah.....things are a bit screwed up.
In this fantasy epic.....the House of Bush would tear up the Republican competition in Iowa and lay down Cruz and Walker in a matter of four weeks after the primaries started. Rubio might be a problem, and they'd have to bring in some heavy hitters to talk the slant against Rubio (he's a foreigner....he's a Mexican.....he's a lawyer.....etc). The House of Bush would then easily win the primary series and ride the white horse into the Quicken Convention Center in the mythical city of Cleveland.
I won't bore you with details, but in this fantasy.....Cleveland-land (double usage of words intentional).....Republican values would be laid out and Fox News would find the sixteen actual Republicans who live in Cleveland-land and feature them with the beast-killer.....Jeb.
A white pony would be brought out by the House of Clinton.....as a joke to Jeb, and the four-month battle "royal" (pronounced the French way) would start up.
Court jesters would line up with NBC, CBS, and ABC to help the House of Clinton as much as possible. Old white male court jesters would line up with Fox News to help the House of Bush.
About a week before elections in November of 2016.....people would wake up from this dazed experience and ask themselves.....do they really want either the House of Clinton or the House of Bush in reality? The answer is.....NO.
For this reason, I suspect that Jeb....while with honest and good intentions.....is on a marginal campaign and will not be able to mount any clear numbers of success in Iowa, or the first five state primaries that occur. He might take five to eight states by the end, and be part of the convention battle in Cleveland-land (it's a catchy phrase.....you must admit). But in my humble opinion....Jeb is sixteen years too late for this epic run (he is the better Bush, I do admit).
So, in your fantasy world......this all-out battle between the House of Clinton versus the House of Bush.....it's just fake. Don't get pepped up over nothing. Settle back.....drink some PBR....eat a bran muffin....and watch some repeats of the Rockford Files. It'll be more entertaining.
Sunday, 14 June 2015
Civilization and the GPS
Last Thursday, I left on aI s four-hour drive from central Germany to Leiden, Netherlands. For six years now.....I've been a dedicated GPS guy. I haven't been lost since 2008. I've got a fairly new GPS.....eighteen months old. When I bought it......it came with a update deal for one year. So around December of last year.....I did the last big update of the system.
So I'm driving along about two-and-a-half hours into this trip.....when I start to look down at my amazing little gadget which is feeding me eight significant factors every second or two (location, speed, course direction, kilometers left, kilometers since start, the route ahead, etc). There's something now occurring of a unique nature.....the red road ahead and land features are rapidly disappearing.....I've got about a kilometer in front of me with some road left, then NOTHING.
I'm kinda freaking. Nothing.
Sure enough.....forty seconds pass and I'm in uncharted territory. It makes no sense. I've got full connectivity, full power, and a European map (not a Germany-only) map loaded.
I start to look at the autobahn area and note......it's all brand new. New blacktop, new signs, new landscape, new trees planted, etc. All of this....probably since January.
I figure maybe.....after five miles of this.....we will come to the old road area and it'll all come out great.
Well.....this took roughly twelve miles.....before suddenly terrain appeared and a road appeared on the GPS. Data starts to flow. My nerves start to return to normal.
You see.....I've been through a massive change in life. For roughly fifty years of my life.....I readily accepted being lost on an occasional basis and it was just part of life. With the GPS revolution.....I follow my status....my route.....my remaining time left....etc. I know where I'm at.....throughout a four-hour trip to the Netherlands. I can't imagine not having this capability at my disposal.
Returning from the Netherlands? Well....it's safe to assume.....I didn't take the same route.
As for updating my GPS? I'm agreeable to doing the update.....but the old side of me.....hating to spend money on things....is peeved. I will have to throw 40-odd Euro into some stupid GPS update, and I may have to do it yearly.
So I'm driving along about two-and-a-half hours into this trip.....when I start to look down at my amazing little gadget which is feeding me eight significant factors every second or two (location, speed, course direction, kilometers left, kilometers since start, the route ahead, etc). There's something now occurring of a unique nature.....the red road ahead and land features are rapidly disappearing.....I've got about a kilometer in front of me with some road left, then NOTHING.
I'm kinda freaking. Nothing.
Sure enough.....forty seconds pass and I'm in uncharted territory. It makes no sense. I've got full connectivity, full power, and a European map (not a Germany-only) map loaded.
I start to look at the autobahn area and note......it's all brand new. New blacktop, new signs, new landscape, new trees planted, etc. All of this....probably since January.
I figure maybe.....after five miles of this.....we will come to the old road area and it'll all come out great.
Well.....this took roughly twelve miles.....before suddenly terrain appeared and a road appeared on the GPS. Data starts to flow. My nerves start to return to normal.
You see.....I've been through a massive change in life. For roughly fifty years of my life.....I readily accepted being lost on an occasional basis and it was just part of life. With the GPS revolution.....I follow my status....my route.....my remaining time left....etc. I know where I'm at.....throughout a four-hour trip to the Netherlands. I can't imagine not having this capability at my disposal.
Returning from the Netherlands? Well....it's safe to assume.....I didn't take the same route.
As for updating my GPS? I'm agreeable to doing the update.....but the old side of me.....hating to spend money on things....is peeved. I will have to throw 40-odd Euro into some stupid GPS update, and I may have to do it yearly.
The Clearance Story
If you hold a security clearance.....every five years....this 'dimwit' security guy will appear in front of you (doesn't matter if you work for the Pentagon, State Department, Homeland Security, FBI or whoever).....and he'll hand you a disk and demand you spend roughly two hours filling in various questions so they can investigate your background. They want your addresses, travels, financial information, mortgage information, potential mental health issues, family background, etc.
The 'dimwit' will take this info....in digital form, and incorporate it into their massive database. The last time I did this (2009).....I asked the 'dimwit'.....how exactly do you protect this? In the old days.....it was in paper form and went into a folder. The 'dimwit' simply said it was protected and I had nothing to worry about. I just looked at him, the floppy involved, and knew the guy had no idea what he was talking about.
Well....this past week....the DC crowd came to admit that the Chinese cracked their stupid firewall, and got all the files.....apparently all of the present, future, and past employees (that kinda includes me).
The 'dimwit' crowd? They are a bit shocked. They can't explain how this all occurred but an investigation is underway.
No one will talk numbers.....but if they took everything.....there's probably over two million folders of a personal nature involved.
Hostility and anger? From what I've read.....there's some senators fairly peeved, and government unions want a 'bill' fixed up......a permanent and everlasting financial check service to protect all present, future and past employees with a clearance, and a one-million-dollar liability insurance for each individual.
What will the Chinese do with the info?
Every time that some State Department or CIA guy makes it tough for China.....the Chinese will pull the guy's folder, and hand the personal info to some Chinese connection in Las Vegas. He'll find "Barney" who will take the info and sell it to a ID-theft guy in Dallas. This Dallas guy will use the ID and info to charge tens of thousands on this CIA guy's account. Six months down the line.....the poor CIA guy will wake up.....and try to get the cops or FBI to hunt down his ID thief. With present behavior.....nothing much will happen until the CIA guy hires a P-I and does his own work. The CIA security department? They will freeze this CIA employee and suspend his clearance.....possibly for six to twelve months. His value? After a year.....he'll give up on the CIA as a career and find something new to do. He's finished with them.
So, start figuring three-hundred such guys a year. The Chinese aren't stupid....they will start selling their data to the Russians and French. Eventually.....a whole generation of CIA employees will leave and things will have to be restarted with some new crew.
The damage done? Worth billions.
All of this......tied back to the security 'dimwits' who kept telling people that they could hold their private information secure.
The White/Black Gal
Over the weekend, I've tried to read through and make sense out of this Spokane, Washington gal.....Rachel Dolezal.....the NAACP chapter president in Spokane.....who was born white into a Montana family apparently and they had adopted several black kids as part of the family. Rachel at some point, went off to college and studied black studies.....getting a degree in the area of expertise, and then married a black guy for a couple of years. For five or six years.....she's cut off her family and mostly pretended for the most part....to be completely black (frizzy hair, dark tan, etc). Most folks in Spokane thought she was black, so it's come to them as a bit of a shock.....she's a white gal pretending to be black.
I don't see a big deal with this myself. We have folks who pretend to be religious and they aren't. We have folks who pretend to be Republicans and they aren't. We have folks who pretend to have college degrees and they don't have such degrees. We have folks who pretend to have morals and certainly lack them. We have folks who claim to be such-and-such.....but aren't who they claim to be. We have quarterbacks who pretend to be qualified or capable.....signing mega contracts......then fumble around through a season and demonstrate they aren't quarterbacks. We have news journalists who pretend to know something.....but don't know much of anything. We have bankers who know just about everything except banking. We have mechanics who say they can do a simple brake-job, but can't do the simplest of brake-jobs. And we have think-tank idiots who appear on CNN, but barely can speak to the topic they were brought in.....to chat about.
Course, being the head NAACP person.....means you get a free ticket to the national meeting (wherever they hold the meeting), and you can just imagine this gal flying in, and shaking hands with a hundred black VIPs and they each have some irritation that she's not supposed to be there. Folks will stand around in the hallway.....gossiping on how they can 'fix' this or prevent this from happening in the future. It'll consume half the off-camera action for whole weekend.
As for the family angle? I'm guessing that she just likes being noted as "black" and it's part of some simple gimmick to get noticed. Heck.....there might be a couple thousand folks looking at this.....buying some frizzy hair stuff.....getting a tan, and showing up at their office HR shop to note their properly ethnic status change. Personally.....none of this should matter. But for some odd reason, we've made it matter, which is odd, if you ask me. If I were her parents.....I'd just send her a note and say that we've made the change too.....becoming Mexican or Hispanic and include some picture of everyone in some Mexican-style clothing.
I don't see a big deal with this myself. We have folks who pretend to be religious and they aren't. We have folks who pretend to be Republicans and they aren't. We have folks who pretend to have college degrees and they don't have such degrees. We have folks who pretend to have morals and certainly lack them. We have folks who claim to be such-and-such.....but aren't who they claim to be. We have quarterbacks who pretend to be qualified or capable.....signing mega contracts......then fumble around through a season and demonstrate they aren't quarterbacks. We have news journalists who pretend to know something.....but don't know much of anything. We have bankers who know just about everything except banking. We have mechanics who say they can do a simple brake-job, but can't do the simplest of brake-jobs. And we have think-tank idiots who appear on CNN, but barely can speak to the topic they were brought in.....to chat about.
Course, being the head NAACP person.....means you get a free ticket to the national meeting (wherever they hold the meeting), and you can just imagine this gal flying in, and shaking hands with a hundred black VIPs and they each have some irritation that she's not supposed to be there. Folks will stand around in the hallway.....gossiping on how they can 'fix' this or prevent this from happening in the future. It'll consume half the off-camera action for whole weekend.
As for the family angle? I'm guessing that she just likes being noted as "black" and it's part of some simple gimmick to get noticed. Heck.....there might be a couple thousand folks looking at this.....buying some frizzy hair stuff.....getting a tan, and showing up at their office HR shop to note their properly ethnic status change. Personally.....none of this should matter. But for some odd reason, we've made it matter, which is odd, if you ask me. If I were her parents.....I'd just send her a note and say that we've made the change too.....becoming Mexican or Hispanic and include some picture of everyone in some Mexican-style clothing.
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