Happy? New Year

Another year has come and gone.  Where it went?  I have not a clue.  As Ferris Bueller said:

"Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around for a while, you could miss it."

Unfortunately I've been encountering more and more people who are missing it.  Not the events of life happening all around us, but the MEANING of these events, the "Big Picture" stuff.  I also have noticed that folks are jumping off the rails more and more to little things, humor they don't get, or don't want to admit they don't get.  Internet memes seem more prevalent along with obvious "click-bait" and other posts designed to drive people to act/post/reply out of character.  Is this country just becoming too Politically Correct such that an "off color" joke causes a major meltdown?  Are we so reliant on the nanny state to tell us what is right and what is wrong that we've lost the ability to stick to our own morals/opinions/views for fear of retaliation from the masses?

I've been around for almost half a century now, and those of us in the same "age group", (I don't know what "Gen" it is, X, Y, Z, Me, You, Them, Baby Boomer, Post Boomer, whatever) must be noticing that things seemed different as recently as 20 years ago.  History seems to be repeating itself, but mostly the "bad stuff" is happening again.  So what was going on 40-50 years ago?

Well, here's a list of 50 "items" that turn 50 this year...
http://mentalfloss.com/article/55228/50-things-turn-50-2014

Hard to imagine eh?

Also remember:

• The US was in a war that was run via politicians, not the military on site
  (we left and the "bad guys" took over)
• We were striving to send a man to a celestial body far from Earth
• There were racial, gender and lifestyle conflicts
• We had a president pushing through sweeping legislation  not just the Civil Rights Act, but the Voting Rights Act, Medicare, Medicaid, the Fair Housing Act and major measures on immigration, education, and gun control.
• Science was preparing to take a new leaps in communications, transportation, and computation (as a nation)
• The country was also experiencing a "counter-culture" growth motivating not only citizens but elected officials

Sound familiar?

Guess what though.  We made it out of the 60's.  It just took a while.  Life is a marathon, not a sprint.  Once people either start realizing the consequences (again) of their actions, or lack thereof, OR the system simply self-balances.  We'll be fine.  Just keep calm, breath easy, don't break laws, and treat others with the respect that you demand of them.  As for me...

"I ain't no saint, but I've tried never to do anything that would hurt my family or offend God. I figure all any kid needs is hope and the feeling he or she belongs. If I could do or say anything that would give some kid that feeling, I would believe I had contributed something to the world." - Elvis Presley

Happy New Year!

Shell Station 655 S Ventura Rd Oxnard CA 93030

I am appalled at both the shoddy service and even shoddiest reaction of the manager when it was brought to his attention.

I spent over $45 on gas and then opted for the $13 Economy Wash. Not only were the inside windows not washed, nor the interior wiped down, but there was still dirt and obvious dry spots on the outside of the car.

When this was brought to the attention of the manager, he just stood there. He did nothing.

Not only am I NEVER going back to that location, but I am forwarding this email to any and all social media sites, including Facebook, Twitter, Yelp, etc.

Went to the Chevron station received better service for less money.

S. Augustyniewicz

CDR Salamander: Your Pacific Pivot Playcard

CDR Salamander: Your Pacific Pivot Playcard: Via Australia's The Strategist , a little handy reference card.  Sure, you can pic a nit here and there, but nice visual.

Closed for the Holidays

I'm off this holiday season.






But you can catch my yearly Grinch Report at getgrinchy.blogspot.com.

I've Never Done this Myself but Go Ahead...

I just can't believe the shoddy tech training that must be going on at certain institutions across this country.  My particular rant today focuses on imaging technicians. Now I have worked with, and have been worked on, by various medical technicians before.  You know, physical therapists, flobotomists, x-ray, etc.  In most cases, they seem to show some knowledge or compassion for the patient under their care.  This was not the case at my last visit to get some scanning done. Some background:  The particular scanning done involves receiving an injection of an indicator, and then lying down in an apparatus, similar (so they claimed) to an MRI chamber for some immages to be taken, slowly, by a camera of sorts. Then you leave, only to return after a few hours to repeat the process sans another injection.  The technician was quite thourough in her explanation of the machine and the procedures, she didn't seem very familiar with, nor sympathetic to the "patient experience".  The machine was uncomfortable, clostrophobic, and plain old intimidating. Following the 2nd round, I asked if, at any time during her training, had she ever been in one of these devices.  Her answer floored me. She had NEVER been in one, even to just feel what it was like to lay in a  tube for an indetermanent amount of time. So, she has never had a clue as to what her patients are going through. I have several friends in the physical therapy or health care profession. The flabotomisists tell tales of themsevels and their lab partners practicing IVs and drawing blood on each other, the physical therapists work out with their classmates, heck even the security folks have to take a mace or taser hit to complete their training.  I'm pretty sure that flight attendants have to dive down the exit slide and use their seat-back as a flotation device once ro twice.  So I wondered, as I lay there listening to the A/C fan and the overhead light buzzing, why can't these imaginqg techs or CAT Scan operators spend an hour or two in one of these machines? I think then, they'd have a little more understanding and patience for their patients (customers).  When you were growing up, did you ever see a Ford salesman drive a Chevy?  How about a Sears salesperson at JC Penny's?  Where did the IHOP servers eat lunch?  Yep IHOP. Aviation crew-chiefs get their names painted on their aircraft because they go up in them post repair.  Now it seems that everyone is just there for the paycheck.  The old adage "Customer's Point of View" doesn't seem to be in the lesson plans of the "Do no harm" oathed medical community. Why?  Is it a money thing?  I doubt that Obama Care or health system reform will change this.  It's not just the medical community though. Too many have lost the notion that good customer service makes return customers.  When you produce a physical thing like Apple, Honda, even McDonalds it's not too difficult, but when you're pure service, the felling of content or comfort that your customer experiences in your presence IS the product.  Words like compassion and empathy (look them up) come to mind.  Sometimes the good old days were better. 

Ho

Lion Eyes

Well, I took the plunge, I updated my MacBook to OS 10.7 Lion on my late 2007 MacBook today.  I've been playing around it for a few days, and here are some observations, both thumbs up,  thumbs meh, and thumbs down

THUMBS UP!

• [About This Mac] shows much more info in a pretty cool graphic format - Selecting this from the Apple Menu launches System Information, but there are several more choices of what to look at. 
  
  You can still see the general overview (Including your computer model (i.e. MacBook Late 2007) but you can also look at displays, storage, memory and even check your maintenance status, coverage and connect to support.apple.com all in one place!

• Re-Size a Window from any Corner - Finally! you can grab any corner of a window to re-size it.  That Windows pattent must have expired eh? 

• Smaller Footprint - Looks like Lion takes up less disk space.  Interesting...

• Snappier - I swear, even on this old machine, it's faster than Snow Leopard was.  Could be more efficient code.  Even Safari loads faster. 

 

THUMBS MEH...

• Launch Pad - Why would I want this?  Isn't the doc, application folder, finder or even spotlight enough ways to find an application?  Go ahead and delete the icon from your doc, the application is still in the Applications folder.

• A few new wallpaper files - No new screensavers. 
   
• Contacts - There's no way to get back to the "old look" of the contacts file.  Nothing dis-functional or anything.  Just don't care for the new look.
   
• Unsupported Apps - I only got one reported incompatible application.  DropBox was "quarranteened" in a separate folder because it was not compatible.  The fix?  Download the new version from DropBox.com.

THUMBS DOWN!

• Carbonite won't play - This isn't Apple's fault, but it still sucks for me.  I got in touch with Carbonite and they promised me a fix "real soon" as well as an extra month free!

• Jesting about Jestures - Apparently, my MacBook is too old to support multi-touch jestures.  No, I'm not going to by an external trackpad just to three-finger swipe what I can do via a funtion key or hot corner.  

Well, that's a quick, 1st look at this thing called Lion.  I'm sure I'll have some more stuff in the near future as I actually start using it for real and not just playing around with it.  Apple seems to have made the upgrade to Lion pretty darned robust.  The only part that took really long was downloading the thing from the App Store over my cruddy DSL connection.  Once I started the install process, all the screens were informative and provided ample feedback that something was indeed happening.  Again I can't believe it's working on an almost 4 year old platform!

I do have a feeling that the next iOS update (any name suggestions?  Tabby, Main Coon, Russian Blue, Persian anyone?)  won't run on this platform.  There might be a spot on the forced harware upgrade death march for me next time. There might be a MacBook Air in my future as well.  😜