Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Alone (Poem)

I saw this poem a while back and would like to share it.

ALONE

Alone, never quite alone,
I face an empty chair.
And sometimes in silence,
I imagine you are there.
The good companion of the
past no longer here with me.
And yet in some mysterious
way you keep me company.
Thought or spirit?
Does it matter?
Words are meaningless.
I only know that in this
moment of greatest loneliness
I feel that you are somewhere near,
though nothing seen or said.
The bitter moment passes, and
my heart is comforted.
Though my loss is grevious
and the future is unknown
I face the years that lie ahead,
alone yet not alone.

Sunday, April 19, 2009

Dad, Can I Borrow $25 ?

A man came home from work late, tired and irritated, to find his 5-year old son waiting for him at the door.

SON: 'Daddy, may I ask you a question?'
DAD: 'Yeah sure, what it is?' replied the man.
SON: 'Daddy, how much do you make an hour?'
DAD: 'That's none of your business. Why do you ask such a thing?' the man said angrily.
SON: 'I just want to know. Please tell me, how much do you make an hour?'
DAD: 'If you must know, I make $50 an hour.'
SON: 'Oh,' the little boy replied, with his head down.
SON: 'Daddy, may I please borrow $25?'

The father was furious, 'If the only reason you asked that is so you can borrow some money to buy a silly toy or some other nonsense, then you march yourself straight to your room and go to bed. Think about why you are being so selfish. I don't work hard everyday for such childish frivolities.'

The little boy quietly went to his room and shut the door.

The man sat down and started to get even angrier about the little boy's questions. How dare he ask such questions only to get some money?

After about an hour or so, the man had calmed down , and started to think:
Maybe there was something he really needed to buy with that $25.00 and he really didn't ask for money very often The man went to the door of the little boy's room and opened the door.

'Are you asleep, son?' He asked.

'No daddy, I'm awake,' replied the boy.

'I've been thinking, maybe I was too hard on you earlier' said the man. 'It's been a long day and I took out my aggravation on you. Here's the $25 you asked for.'

The little boy sat straight up, smiling. 'Oh, thank you daddy!' h e yelled. Then, reaching under his pillow he pulled out some crumpled up bills.
The man saw that the boy already had money, started to get angry again.
The little boy slowly counted out his money, and then looked up at his father.

'Why do you want more money if you already have some?' the father grumbled.
'Because I didn't have enough, but now I do,' the little boy replied.
'Daddy, I have $50 now. Can I buy an hour of your time? Please come home early tomorrow. I would like to have dinner with you.'

The father was crushed. He put his arms around his little son, and he begged for his forgiveness.

It's just a short reminder to all of you working so hard in life. We should not let time slip through our fingers without having spent some time with those who really matter to us, those close to our hearts. Do remember to share that $50 worth of your time with someone you love.

If we die tomorrow, the company that we are working for could easily replace us in a matter of hours. But the family & friends we leave behind will feel the loss for the rest of their lives.

Italian Shows in Toronto

Toronto is a multicultural city and there are many multicultural TV shows where they talk in their own language. Nothing wrong with that. But, take a look at the "Italian" shows and you will notice that for the most part they talk in English! This is not a multicultural show anymore. What's worse is that one person talks in Italian and another answers in English. What would Johhny Lombardi say to that if he was still alive? And that's his show too!

My mother, who doesn't know one word of English, still watches it but has no clue what they are saying. Shame on these people, you've let the Italians down in Toronto. Go back to your roots and show a TV program in 100% Italian.

Monday, March 30, 2009

24 TV Show - March 30 Episode

Ok, Jack Bauer is infected with a biological agent and there's no cure. He's going to die in, like, 2 days. He's going to have symptoms of dimentia. Oh how convenient...so when he acts all crazy he can be forgiven. But wait! Isnt he going to die? Hhhmm...won't that ruin next season's show?

No worries. I'm sure they'll find a cure in StarkWoods labs. We're up to midnight now. So there's something like 5 or 6 hours left before Jack brings the entire StarkWoods organization down.

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Not Very Bright !

These contractors are installing the steel pillars in concrete to stop vehicles from parking on the pavement outside a Sports Bar downtown. They are now in the process of cleaning up at the end of the day and anxious to go home.



How long do you think it will be before they realize where they parked?

Laugh of the Day (Airport Humor)

Sent to me by a friend...and I have NO idea how true any of it is, but it would not surprise me one bit !!!

A DC airport ticket agent offers some examples:

1. I had a New Hampshire Congresswoman ask for an aisle seat so that her hair wouldn't get messed up by being near the window.
(On an airplane!)

2. I got a call from a candidate's staffer, who wanted to go to Capetown. While I started to explain the length of the flight and the passport information, she interrupted me with, ''I'm not trying to make you look stupid, but Capetown is in Massachusetts." Without trying to make her look stupid, I calmly explained, ''Cape Cod is in Massachusetts, Capetown is in Africa.'' Her response - click.

3. A senior Vermont Congressman called, furious about a Florida package we did. I asked what was wrong with the vacation in Orlando.
He said he was expecting an ocean-view room. I tried to explain that is not possible, since Orlando is in the middle of the state.
He replied, 'Don't lie to me, I looked on the map and Florida is a very thin state!'' (OMG)

4. I got a call from a lawmaker's wife who asked, ''Is it possible to see England from Canada?'' I said, ''No.'' She said, ''But they look so close on the map.'' (OMG, again!)

5. An aide for a cabinet member once called and asked if he could rent a car in Dallas... When I pulled up the reservation, I noticed he had only a 1-hour layover in Dallas. When I asked him why he wanted to rent a car, he said, ''I heard Dallas was a big airport, and we will need a car to drive between gates to save time.'' (Aghhhh)

6. An Illinois Congresswoman called last week. She needed to know how it was possible that her flight from Detroit left at 8:30 a.m., and got to Chicago at 8:33 a.m. I explained that Michigan was an hour ahead of Illinois, but she couldn't understand the concept of time zones. Finally, I told her the plane went fast, and she bought that.

7. A New York lawmaker called and asked, ''Do airlines put your physical description on your bag so they know whose luggage belongs to whom?'' I said, 'No, why do you ask?' She replied, ''Well, when I checked in with the airline, they put a tag on my luggage that said (FAT), and I'm overweight. I think that's very rude!'' After putting her on hold for a minute, while I looked into it. (I was dying laughing.) I came back and explained the city code for Fresno, CA is (FAT - Fresno Air Terminal), and the airline was just putting a destination tag on her luggage.

8. A Senator's aide called to inquire about a trip package to Hawaii . After going over all the cost info, she asked, ''Would it be cheaper to fly to California , and then take the train to Hawaii?''

9. I just got off the phone with a freshman Congressman who asked, "How do I know which plane to get on?'' I asked him what exactly he meant, to which he replied, ''I was told my flight number is 823, but none of these planes have numbers on them.''

10. A lady Senator called and said, ''I need to fly to Pepsi-Cola , Florida. Do I have to get on one of those little computer planes?'' I asked if she meant fly to Pensacola, FL on a commuter plane. She said, ''Yeah, whatever, smarty!''

11. A senior Senator called and had a question about the documents he needed in order to fly to China. After a lengthy discussion about passports, I reminded him that he needed a visa. 'Oh, no I don't. I've been to China many times and never had to have one of those.'' I double checked and sure enough, his stay required a visa. When I told him this he said, ''Look, I've been to China four times and every time they have accepted my American Express!''

12. A New Mexico Congress woman called to make reservations, ''I want to go from Chicago to Rhino, New York.'' I was at a loss for words. Finally, I said, ''Are you sure that's the name of the town?'' ''Yes, what flights do you have?'' replied the lady. After some searching, I came back with, ''I'm sorry, ma'am, I've looked up every airport code in the country and can't find a Rhino anywhere.'' The lady retorted, ''Oh, don't be silly! Everyone knows where it is. Check your map!'' So I scoured a map of the state of New York and finally offered, ''You don't mean Buffalo, do you?'' The reply? ''Whatever! I knew it was a big animal.''

Now you know why the Government is in the shape that it's in ! Could anyone be this DUMB ?

YES, THEY WALK AMONG US, ARE IN POLITICS RUNNING OUR GOVERNMENT, AND THEY CONTINUE TO BREED !

A Little Teacup (Inspirational)

I got this from a friend. Really good inspirational story...

I'm A Little Tea Cup....

Love this story or not, you will not be able to have tea in a tea cup again without thinking of this.

There was a couple who took a trip to England to shop in a beautiful antique store to celebrate their 25th wedding anniversary. They both liked antiques and pottery, and especially teacups. Spotting an exceptional cup, they asked "May we see that? We've never seen a cup quite so beautiful."

As the lady handed it to them, suddenly the teacup spoke, "You don't understand. I have not always been a teacup. There was a time when I was just a lump of red clay. My master took me and rolled me pounded and patted me over and over and I yelled out, "Don't do that."

"I don't like it!" "Let me alone," but he only smiled, and gently said; "Not yet!"

Then WHAM! I was placed on a spinning wheel and suddenly I was made to suit himself and then he put me in the oven. I never felt such heat. I yelled and knocked and pounded at the door. "Help! Get me out of here!" I could see him through the opening and I could read his lips as he shook his head from side to side, 'Not yet'.

When I thought I couldn't bear it another minute, the door opened. He carefully took me out and put me on he shelf, and I began to cool. Oh, that felt so good! "Ah, this is much better," I thought. But, after I cooled he picked me up and he brushed and painted me all over The fumes were horrible. I thought I would gag. 'Oh, please, Stop it, Stop, I cried. He only shook his head and said. 'Not yet!'.

Then suddenly he puts me back in to the oven. Only it was not like the first one. This was twice as hot and I just knew I would suffocate. I begged.. I pleaded. I screamed. I cried I was convinced I would never make it. I was ready to give up. Just then the door opened and he took me out and again placed me on the shelf, where I cooled and waited and waited, wondering "What's he going to do to me next?"

An hour later he handed me a mirror and said 'Look at yourself.' And I did. I said, That's not me; that couldn't be me. It's beautiful. I'm beautiful!!!

Quietly he spoke: "I want you to remember, then,' he said, 'I know it hurt to be rolled and pounded and patted, but had I just left you alone, you'd have dried up. I know it made you dizzy to spin around on the wheel, but if I had stopped, you would have crumbled. I know it hurt and it was hot and disagreeable in the oven, but if I hadn't put you there, you would have cracked. I know the fumes were bad when I brushed and painted you all over, but if I hadn't done that, you never would have hardened.. You would not have had any color in your life. If I hadn't put you back in that second oven, you wouldn't have survived for long because the hardness would not have held. Now you are a finished product. Now you are what I had in mind when I first began with you."

The moral of this story is this: God knows what He's doing for each of us. He is the potter, and we are His clay. He will mold us and make us and expose us to just enough pressures of just the right kinds that we may be made into a flawless piece of work to fulfill His good, pleasing and perfect will.

So when life seems hard, and you are being pounded and patted and pushed almost beyond endurance; when your world seems to be spinning out of control; when you feel like you are in a fiery furnace of trials; when life seems to "stink", try this. Brew a cup of your favorite tea in your prettiest tea cup, sit down and think on this story and then, have a little talk with the Potter…

Saturday, March 21, 2009

Jack Bauer Save The Day (Again!)

Long overdue post: Yes, Jack Bauer saved the day once again. Saved the President...but hey, the FBI still has to arrest him (idiots). Then he's given a chance to get more info from the enemy...but the enemy turns up dead and Jack is framed for that murder (as usual). Then he goes to the senators house and he truly wants to help him if he gives himself up. Almost did. Ding...door bell. Bang, bang, bang...senator is shot (but is he dead?). Once again, Jack is framed for another murder. Now the FBI wants to shoot him on site. Forget about asking him any questions. This FBI head is a total jackass.

Not to worry. Jack will catch the bad guys in the end anyway. Like I said before, those bad guys might as well shoot themselves now and get it over with.

Thursday, March 5, 2009

George Michael Song

I was thinking about this song on the way to work today..."Last Christmas" by George Michael. I've heard the hip-hop version many times and it's great! This morning something occured to me about this song. He sings:


Last Christmas, I gave you my heart
But the very next day, You gave it away
This year, to save me from tears
I'll give it to someone special
Okay, here's the thing now...obviously someone broke his heart last Christmas. Probably almost a year has passed by. So why is he singing a song to that guy that broke his heart that he's not going to be his lover anymore? If he doesn't want him, why go through all the trouble of telling him in a song just for him ? Hhhhmmm...could it be that George Michael he still loves him?

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

24 TV Show - March 2

Saw 24 last night. Very tense episode. The head terrorist is in the U.S. and planning another attack. Jack Bauer got wind of it and is going solo (yet again) because in his words "there's no time" to tell anyone else or get permission to torture the suspects. Heck, he'll even torture them in the White House. Yea, Jack was in the White House when the terrorist attack occur. And where did it occur? Why, in the White House ofcourse. The terrorist managed to capture the President.

But not to worry, because Jack Bauer is there to save the day. Well, maybe not last night, but just wait until next week. He's been in this sort of sticky situation before and he's gotten out of it with the many dead terrorists that paid the price. Why don't the terrorist just call it quits right now and shoot themselves? They're going to die anyway!

Anyway, next week this is what I predict will happen: Jack will shoot every terrorist there and save the President. He's pardoned and won't have to go to jail. But wait, we have another, what 8 or 9 hrs to go? So, lets prolong this and start hunting for the traitors who helped those vicious and nasty terrorists. Jack will save the day next week. Stay tuned.

And another thing...doesn't everyone (including Jack himself) realize that when a major threat happens, that by some coincidence it always takes 24 hours to solve it? Are they all that dumb that they can't see this pattern emerging?

Monday, March 2, 2009

Would you use this PUBLIC toilet?

Would you use this toilet?























Hhhm...take a look at how it looks from the outside view:


Monday, February 23, 2009

Rogers Internet Ad

Have you seen that Rogers Internet ad of some guy showing how fast their non-Rogers connection to the Internet is? He's trying to play a video from the Internet but it doesn't play smoothly (because, ofcourse, he's not a Rogers customer). You can see the video on this link if it's still there.

This is a bunch of crap from Rogers. What are they comparing? Here's my experience with Rogers (which uses shared cable) and their competitor, Bell (which uses DSL):

I have Rogers ultra-lite which means it's their slowest of the slow service (for $30 per month no less!). When I download a large file the speed is apprx. 50 kb/s. When I play a video, it's very choppy...exactly like the one that Rogers is comparing in their ad.

Now, let's compare Bell's DSL, which I have as well. I have their lowest speed as well and I'm paying less than $30 per month. When I download a large file the speed is MORE than 6 times that of Rogers: apprx. 310 kb/s. This is a huge difference.

My son just asked me why I'm writing this. Because I hate companies like, Rogers and others, that mislead people with outright lies. Why doesn't Rogers compare apples to apples, oranges to oranges? Come over to my apartment and let's run a comparison. I dare you, Rogers !!!!

Sunday, February 22, 2009

Hasta La Vista, Norton Ghost !

Finally gave up on Norton Ghost. It seems like a full-featured backup program, but crap, why does it take almost 2 full days to backup mydocuments folder? Never mind backing up the entire drive image. This is unworkable. Back to the drawing board, you Symantec boys. Man, where is Peter Norton? Did he retire to some south Pacific island? He should be on top of these lousy programmers at Symantec. Fire the lot and hire some smart cookies instead. This product, which is version 14 should not be out in the marketplace. Man, this is version 14, not version 1 !!!

Anyway...I evaluated another product not worth mentioning the name. Then I went back to one that I've used before (when it was free). I'm running the trial version now (thank God for trial version -- hint hint Ghost...). This one is called Smart Backup by Jam Software. Here's the link: click here for link.

What this does is basically make a duplicate copy of any folder you want. It saves the folder structure the same as in your computer. Other programs make their own unique files and basically you can't do anything with them unless you use that program. With Smart Backup, it's just a straight copy.

Okay, now the obvious question: Why would I buy this when I can just copy all the files manually to the backup device (in my case and external hard drive) ? Because when you re-run it, it will only copy changed files and not all of them again.

Side Note: some of the free programs don't allow this feature. They copy everything all the time. So, what's the point? That's unworkable as well.

At this point, I'll probably end up with this solution. Oh, one last item...there is an option to save the files as Zip (compressed) and it allows you to password protect the Zip file.

Thursday, February 19, 2009

Giving "The Ghost" Another Try

Giving Symantec's Norton Ghost another try. First time I tried to do a backup of my entire MyDocuments, Music and Video. Big mistake! The estimated time is between 37 to 41 hrs. Geez !!! So, am changing my tactic. I'm going to do separate backups of certain folders, one at a time.

This program does look like it's feature rich but clunky. I'm trying to cancel my backup and even the Cancel seems to be taking forever. Why? It's probably trying to erase all the folders it created. I dont have the patience to wait 41 hours to do a backup. There must be a simpler way!!!

[later]

Lesson learned: never start a backup late in the day

(Almost) Free Long Distance

We've been trying out this amazing device called MagicJack. Basically you plug that into a USB port and then plug a phone into that device. As long as your computer is turned on and logged unto the Internet, you can call any phone for free long distance or local calls throughout North America (U.S. & Canada). You pay a one time-fee of around $40 and $20 per year after that. Well worth it!

Oh, they give you a U.S. phone #. You get to choose the area code. They don't have Canada yet. :( . Others can call you from a regular phone and your phone would ring.

It's quite an interesting concept. Their website: www.magicjack.com

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Vol 1 online

Finally got volume 1 of Truths of the Spirit World online...6 more volumes to go.

Monday, February 16, 2009

Trying to get rid of the "GHOST"

Had help from Scotty, of WinPatrol. I killed all running tasks of Symantec. I ran the uninstall of Ghost and it seems to work. The Ghost is being exorcised !!! Scotty tells me that another program is trying to run itself on startup. But that's ok, because its the Ghost that says I must reboot for a complete uninstall. Saving this post and rebooting...

...rebooted...

Am trying to re-install Ghost. It still gets stuck on the install. The status bar isn't moving. But I do see it in the program files.

[later]

Well, even though the Ghost got stuck, it still showed up in Program Files. So I ran it. Lo and behold, it worked. I backed up a small folder just to try it out. Anyway, the advantage of Ghost is at least Symantec has online chat with a live person to help you. I didnt use it yet as I was off to do something else offline.

First impression: The Acronis interface seems much nicer. The Ghost interface seems dated, but if it can do the just, it doesn't matter. I'll try it again soon. It's late now...and if there's one thing I've learned: never do backups late in the day because they take too long to do and you have to babysit them (answering the prompts...just like a baby).

Trying to Install Norton Ghost

Emphasis on the word "trying". I downloaded the trial version of Symantec Ghost. I gets stuck on the install screen. Why? I'm running the latest of everything (Vista, etc). Scotty, the WinPatrol doggy, warns me that some programs want to start themselves on startup. I answer Yes. But, still this thing cant even install itself. Doesnt look promising, but let's give this one another chance... :(

...tried to install it again...total failure. It gives me "error 1500. Another installation is in progress." I can't even un-install it. It's in the twilightzone. It's not installed totally and I cannot even choose to re-install it or to repair it or even to uninstall it. It's put crap in my computer and I can't do anything about it !!!

I should rename this blog: FRUSTRATIONS OF USING A COMPUTER. I wonder if a Mac is this stupid/complicated/crazy/broken.

Classmates Spamming

Someone who's promoting Classmates is spamming me. When I click on their link I get the message that this offer isn't available in my area. I go to Classmates.com to report them. And guess what? Try sending an email to classmates. It's almost impossible to find a link to send them a message. Geez. They dont want to be contacted. Why would I give them 1 cent if they make it hard for me to get customer support???

Here's the spammy email I received: [ok, this is where things dont work again. I cant paste here. Why doesn't blogger allow it??]

Ofcourse it didnt Work!

Yea...just as I expected. Acronis backup failed. The program stopped working. Geez, man. Why cant someone write a decent backup program that works? Microsoft's backup that comes with Vista is almost useless. And that took over 12 hours to run. Just deleted that backup image.

I'm thinking of trying Symantec Ghost. ...ok, Symantec has a trial version of Ghost ver 14. I'm downloading it now. Will report back how that works.
Trying the trial version of Acronis Disk Backup. It seems to have a lot of options and features but can be confusing of what to do on the first time I do a backup. If I do an image backup and then backup all of mydocuments does that do two backups or one? What if I restore? Which one will it restore. Need to get these questions answered...geez

Monday, February 9, 2009

This is my first Blog Entry

Yup, my first blog entry. You can also visit my website at: http://www.meilach.com