Coffee heat rising

Please. Unnerve Me Some More!

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The credit union’s servers are down. Been down for a good half hour. I ask you: can anything be more unnerving?

Who or what has hacked their servers? Or if the things just collapsed of their own weight, how much data have they lost?

Oh well. I wrote two checks that I neglected to enter in the check register. Can’t get into the online account to take a peek at them, so…guess I’ll just have to enter mystery payees in Quickbooks.

Speaking of hacking, at the Scottsdale Business Association our IT guru reminds us that the CryptoLocker hack — where the crooks tie up your entire computer system by inserting an encryption code and then demand that you pay to get your data back — is spreading and is pretty serious stuff. The crooks now demand that you pony up money within three days. If you don’t do so, then at that point even they can’t  unencrypt it. He said most recently a large law firm had all of its data scrambled and lost. He says typically the ransom demand is around $300 and advises it’s best to pay up — and quickly.

He also reports that anything that’s mapped as a drive, such as an external disk drive or DropBox, is encrypted by the CryptoLocker hacks. About the best defense, apparently, is to back up data manually and then unplug the back-up drive. Meanwhile, never click on an unfamiliar e-mail message — that’s where most of the attacks are coming from: the instant you open the e-mail the software invades your computer — and of course keep your browser and antivirus software updated.

Or buy Apple hardware: Cryptolocker targets Windows machines.

 

Puppy!

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So Sunday we raced out to Wittman between choral events to view and select the puppy. Here she is:

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(Click on the images for larger, higher-resolution views)

Whaddaya think? Cute? or Not Cute?

She doesn’t have a name yet…figuring out what she should be called is the next project.

Breeder Lindsay thinks this pup is the quietest and probably the least assertive of the litter, the concern being that Cassie could get competitive with another female. Personally, I think Cassie will be fine. But time will tell.

IMG_1758She’s SO TINY at five weeks: no bigger than my shoe. In this photo, she looks like a sable (fur with two or three colors on each shaft) or a  tri-color (red, white, and black), but Lindsay believes she’ll be red and white. Corgis change color dramatically in the first few weeks and months of life.

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Mmmmm! Shoe! Good to eat! 😀 She may be the quietest of the litter, but in Corgi language that does not seem to translate to “retiring.”

IMG_1770Puppy. Kill. Starfish!

IMG_1776Puppy. Kill. Finger!

IMG_1792Whew! Hunting is hard work!

IMG_1795She found a cave and took it over as a nest, where she promptly fell asleep.

IMG_1796Back in the den with brothers and sisters!

The Third-Worldization of America: Proceeding Apace

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Lineman_changing_transformerThe electrician and his sidekick were here this morning to install a few outlets at hip height, so I don’t have to crawl painfully on the floor to plug in a vacuum cleaner, a laptop, or a heating pad.

This guy, Dave, has been the electrician of choice for the past 30 years, so we’ve become casual friends. We’re both beginning to enjoy the vicissitudes of old age — he more than me, I’m sure, since he does a lot of physical work. While the two men were working, I was fiddling with installing a new battery-run doorbell (one of the previous Happy Handyman homeowners took out the hard-wired doorbell!), and I remarked that compared with the one I put in eight or ten years ago, it’s a piece of junk. That, of course, kicked off the Going-to-Hell-on-a-Handcart conversation.

Dave remarked that he feels unhappy in the 21st century, because so many changes keep coming so fast. He doesn’t like either the changes or the pace of change.

I said, well, if you’ll recall that’s exactly what our parents said when they got to be our age.

He said, that’s true. But there was a difference between 20th-century change and 21st-century change. In the 20th century, the changes put people to work: people had jobs. The opposite is happening now. Fewer and fewer people have jobs, and those who do don’t have very good jobs. Then he clucked about the stupidity of sending all the decent jobs offshore — and the harm it’s doing to America.

One thing that’s good about having a trade, I said, is that they can’t offshore electrical installation.

That’s true, he said. But the problem is, when people don’t have decent-paying jobs, they can’t afford to have maintenance work and improvements, like installing outlets where you can reach them, done right. So they either don’t do them, or they just jury-rig things to try to keep them going as long as possible.

You’ve been in Mexico, he continued. You’ve seen how the construction and infrastructure are thrown together, just enough to hold it up for a few days. That’s because nobody can afford the material or the skilled labor to do a proper job. They toss things up, they patch things together just so they’ll last until tomorrow. When tomorrow comes, they’ll figure out what to do then.

Well, that kind of thing is happening here more and more. When repairs need to be done, they either don’t get done or they don’t get done right, because people can’t afford to hire an electrician or a plumber. They’re just not earning enough.

Holy sh!t.

I think I’ve talked before about the Third-Worldization of America. As Dave said in passing, the only people who benefit from the changes we’re seeing today are the very wealthy and the upper-level, extravagantly paid executives of huge corporations.

Listen to the workingmen. They’re the people who are on the ground, trying to make a living with American jobs — you could say they’re the canaries in the mine. And in my opinion, they have a clearer, truer view of the health of our country’s economy than does any theoretician in academe or any politician in Washington.

What they have to say will curl your hair.

Image: Lineman installing a new transformer. Dave Pape. Public domain.

This post was included in the Carnival of Wealth at the feisty iconoclast Greg MacFarlane’s site, Control Your Cash. Thanks, Greg! 😉

 

Obamacare Side Effect: Fewer Jobs? Or More Employers?

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Have you been following the Republican far right’s latest misrepresentation about the Affordable Care Act? Twisting a statement in an appendix to a Congressional Budget Office report on the ACA’s progress, the crazies claim the government admits that affordable health care will kill 2 million jobs.

HOLY mackerel! We’re all flying toward Hell on a skateboard!

What the budget office’s authors actually said is that once people no longer have to hold onto a full-time job, willy-nilly, in order to maintain health insurance, about two million American FTE jobs may be vacated by those who retire early or elect to quit working full-time so as to follow more worthwhile pursuits, such as rearing their children, spending their time in volunteer work, becoming self-employed, or simply living slightly less miserable lives.

That is different from the loss of two million jobs. It doesn’t represent the disappearance of jobs. It represents a reduction in the number of people forced to work at a certain type of employment.

As a practical matter, the CBO is probably right in saying that quite a few people will find better things to do with their time than trudging through the rat-race five or six days a week. I can’t even begin to count the number of people I’ve known, over a lifetime in said rat-race, who have said that the only reason they didn’t start their own businesses was that they had to have health insurance and they couldn’t afford it or wouldn’t qualify for it if they weren’t on an employer plan.

If these dreams now can be made to come to pass, will that actually cause the loss of umpty-umpteen gerjillion jobs?

Consider: Jane quits her job because she’s tired of working for the Man and she thinks she has a better idea. She starts a cleaning business. Within a year, she employs five cleaning staff and an admin to answer the phone. A year later, she’s regularly contracting with an exterminator and a painter, and she’s hired an accountant.

Her old job back at Avaricious Industries, Inc., may or may not be replaced with two part-time positions devoid of benefits. But in the process, she has created jobs for nine people, three of them self-employed in businesses that also create jobs for workers.

Okay: Annabelle, the lazy bum, just goes home and takes care of her kids, thereby creating…nothing? Nevvermind that one graduates from Johns Hopkins medical school and becomes a cancer researcher, another grows up to be a nuclear physicist, and the third goes to Africa to lead an NGO and, at the age of 63, wins a Nobel Peace Prize. As a woman and “just a housewife,” Anabelle’s obviously a drag on society.

So if for every two workers who quit a job, one of them founds an enterprise that ends up employing, on average, five other workers, it would seem that a “loss” of 2 million FTE employees should result in a net gain of five million new jobs.

New lies, anyone?

Gluten-free, Meat-free, INCREDIBLY Delicious!

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Finally beginning to unwind, after two or three stress-inducing weeks, aggravated by the fact that this week the ditzy annoying chores just don’t seem to want to  let go of me!

Monday, I thought Aaaahhhh! A whole day to myself in which to do MY thing!

Well. No. Meet with client half the day.

Tuesday, I thought Aaaaahhh! A whole day to myself in which to do MY thing!

Not quite. Add up billable hours, having been unforgivably lâche about keeping track of time and charges. Documenting $1500 worth of my time consumes five hours of unpaid time. Nice.

Quarrel with annoyoing Semi-Demi-Ex-Boyfriend and in doing so announce there’s no way I’m spending Thursday evening with him and current New Girlfriend, so there and leave me alone.

Observe that blood pressure is hovering in the lower stratosphere.

Wednesday, I thought Aaaaahhh! A whole day to myself in which to do MY thing!

Uh huh. Run from pillar to post. Deal with Yard Dude, who announces he’s showing up right this minute with a ton and a half of quarter-minus gravel and wishes to spread it. Supervise this. Race to choir, not having cooked the dog meat I carelessly left out on the counter. Cook dog meat upon returning around 9:15 p.m., while working on new version of maps to send to graphic artist for novel.

(YES!! NOVEL!)

Learn that Sunday is pick-a-puppy day in Wittman. Explain to breeder that Sunday is not good: choir all morning, and then a huge full-choir Evensong chivaree requiring elaborate rehearsal to which we are asked to bring enough potluck to feed 23 guest choir members. I will not have time to make the two-hour round-trip between here and Wittman between the end of Sunday morning service and the 4:00 p.m. choir call. Too bad, says she: you want dibs on the pup, you show up Monday. Otherwise you can drag in on the 15th. God damn.

Overcook meat while doing English-major graphic artistry. Write long explanation of what I thought I was trying to do and how I screwed it up, addressed to a guy who thinks in three dimensions, not in the long straight railroad-track lines of the highly verbal. Pray to god he has some idea what my excuse is. Fall into the sack at 11 p.m.

Thursday, roll out of the sack at 5:30 a.m.. Absolutely positively do NOT think Aaaaahhh! A whole day to myself in which to do MY thing!

Don’t. Be. Ridiculous.

Fly to Scottsdale with business associate, there to chair networking group meeting. We stop by Sprouts on the way home, my having inspired her with the story of … yes, indeed: the most INCREDIBLY DELICIOUS, MEAT-FREE, GLUTEN-FREE all-in-one hot dish that I invented last week and that, as we carpooled eastward, I realized I could take to the potluck on Sunday — in a slow cooker.

So it’s like this: Eggplant, lots of onion, and incredible packaged tomatoes.

Pomi strained tomatoesFirst off, if you can, get your hands on some boxed tomatoes by an outfit called Pomí. The Sprouts here has taken to carrying these products. They’re expensive, they’re worth every penny. If you can find them, just buy the best canned tomatoes you can find, preferably low-salt (good luck with that! 😉 ). Then the basic stuff you’ll need is a nice fresh eggplant or two, a good onion, a clove or two of garlic, a sprinkle of feta cheese, and maybe some carrots or celery. Or both. Other stuff is optional: flavorings, extra veggies like spinach or kale, and whatEVER.

You need:

• Eggplant
• Onion
• Garlic
• Powdered cumin
• Dried herbs (I used herbes de Provence, but fines herbes or just about any other flavor you like will be fine)
• Carrots
• Celery, if desired
• Anise, if desired
• And the like, if desired
• Mushrooms, if desired
• Salt & pepper
• Feta cheese
• Olive oil

Slice the eggplant length-wise into pieces about 1/2 to 1 inch thick. Sprinkle each side of the slices with salt. Take a rack out of the oven and set it across the kitchen sink. Place the salted eggplant slices on the rack and let sit for 1/2 hour to an hour or so, depending on your mood and schedule.

Roughly chop an onion and chop a couple cloves of garlic. Pour a little olive oil in a wide frying pan and gently cook the onion over low-medium heat until it’s soft and beginning to caramelize. As the onion is cooking, also add cut-up carrot, celery, or other aromatic vegetables. Flavor to taste with cumin and herbs. Add the garlic toward the end of this process.

Then rinse the salt off the eggplant slices; dry well with paper towels or a clean kitchen towel.

Preheat the oven to about 350 degrees.

Remove the onion and veggies from the pan. Add a little more olive oil. Again over l0w-medium heat, gently brown the eggplant slices, two or three at the time, until they’re nice and brown on both sides. Remove the eggplants from the pan.

Place a layer of about half the sauteed aromatic vegetables in the bottom of the pan. Lay the eggplant slices over this. Pour about half the tomatoes over them. Top with the rest of the aromatics and the remainder of the canned tomatoes. Sprinkle the top with feta cheese. Bake in a medium-hot oven (about 350 to 375 degrees) for about 20 to 20 minutes, until heated through.

This really is delicious. If you have a no-dairy eater, you can serve the feta on the side instead of baking it into the dish. Should satisfy the most picky eaters at your table!

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Read. The. Statements!

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The credit union’s bill-pay system is set up to pay the monthly Cox telecommunications bill in two chunks: a slab from The Copyeditor’s Desk to pay the (alleged) high-speed Internet connection, vital to doing business, and the rest from personal checking to cover the land line and the various indescribable bullshit the company uses to jack up its prices. It emits these transactions automatically, without my having to do anything special to make that happen.

This morning I opened the statement that came in last night’s mail. (That’s right: in the abysmal straits to which the U.S. Post Office has sunk, mail here is often delivered after dark.) Lo! It was ten bucks more than the total allotted monthly payment!

Dayum!

Annoying close comparison between last month’s bill and this month’s bill revealed that, for no discernible reason, Cox had ratcheted up the price of the Internet connection by a little over nine bucks.

Note, however, that they did nothing to ratchet up the speed of their interminably tardy “high-speed” service.

Ah, well.

So I called and, once connected to a human (only took about 10 minutes…), asked for an explanation.

Right away, without even any whining or caviling from me, the youthful-sounding man on the other end offered a $10 “discount,” good for a year.

Welp, it doesn’t solve the ultimate problem. But it’ll save me $120 in 2014.

Better than a hit on the head.

I sure do wish cell phones came with unlimited extensions, the way land lines do. Actually, somewhere I heard of a service that allows you to have your cell phone ring on a land line, thereby converting your land-line phones to de facto extensions. But alas, I’m afraid you prob’ly still have to pay for the land-line service to pull that stunt off.

Which is an aside.

The PF take-away: Always open every statement, no matter how routine it looks, and read it. And when confronted with something new, annoying, or bizarre: Question Authority!