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James Stabile Monthly Blog |
November 2006 |
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Owner,
Webmaster: James Stabile |
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In this blog you will find monthly discussions concerning the issues of importance and interest to the site's creator, owner and webmaster, James Stabile. These issues include - Discussion of the Month; Entertainment; Health, Fitness & Lifestyle; Politics and the World; Religion & Spiritualism; Technology & Business; and Too Strange, Weird or Just Funny. Peruse the articles in this blog. Remember to read the Disclaimer above for the legal "stuff". Also, please email the webmaster concerning any programming errors that you may discover on this site. Thank you for reading my blog and for the opportunity to share my thoughts with you. |
Dates Important to the Webmaster 7. Election
Day (This is not an all inclusive list of noteworthy dates for the month. The dates listed above are very important to this webmaster.) |
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Topics of Discussion Discussion of The Month November 2006. One more month till 2007. It's November so I'll make mention of my classic Thanksgiving web creation: http://www.jamesstabile.com/thanks/HappyThanksgiving.html. Yes, it's over the river and through the woods to grandmother's house we go... Enjoy Thanksgiving, share the season with people who are dear to you. Remember, as I say in the Health, Fitness and Lifestyle section below, even if you are alone, you need not be lonely. Visit family for Thanksgiving, if not in person do it by mail, telephone or electronically. The mind is a wonderful place to make that visit, as long as you realize that it is in your mind and you should do it in reality, too. Entertainment Black Dahlia A 1940's cops and robbers type movie depicting the search for the killer of aspiring actress Elizabeth Short. A lot of violent scenes and the "F" word - a whole lot of that word. I didn't know people of the 1940's spoke the word. The movie was quite good in spite of the language and violence. Josh Hartnett and Hilary Swank did excellent jobs portraying their characters. I enjoyed the nostalgic aspect of the movie. The 1940's a little before my time, but nonetheless a very exciting time for movies and cops & robbers. Last Kiss A sad, romantic, "girly" movie. It was a story about aging adolescents, approaching their 30's finding their place in life while watching their parents face the difficulties of being senior citizens. When I decided to see the movie I was sure that it would be a tear jerker, and it was. It was sad. Sad because it was so realistic. The movie looked at relatively young adults and senior citizens doing basically the same thing - finding their place in their stages of life. It showed how people of all ages hurt one another, sometimes selfishly and sometimes accidentally, but never the less they hurt each other. Zach Braff and Blythe Danner were my favorite actors in this movie. They played their respective roles so well. They are actually kind of sad characters in general. They both have this sad, lost quality in their eyes. That may be the reason they portrayed their characters so successfully. You almost feel sad just looking at them. Man of The Year A Robin Williams winner. Although there were parts of the movie that seemed to be missing something. The movie started out with a serious Robin Williams except of course when he was performing on his talk show, but his run for president was serious. Within the first 30 minutes of the movie the presidential candidate played by Robin Williams was full of slap slick, jokes and innuendo. All of which makes for a great Robin Williams movie. The movie satires the American political system, possible scenarios for a malfunction of the electronic voting machines and a discussion of legitimacy vs. the perception of legitimacy. The movie dealt with topical, serious and real situations in our political system, which may be the reason for the low degree of real comedy in the movie. This made the movie almost an horror event. Health, Fitness and Lifestyle Holiday time is coming. Be proactive and reevaluate your fitness plan before the holidays are upon us. Eat healthy, get active and relax. Holiday time is traditionally a time that average Americans forego their fitness plans and eat, drink and are merry. Traditionally people gain as much as 5 to 10 pounds during the winter holiday time, November through December. This year try something different - stay committed to your fitness plan and still enjoy those good eats. Monitor your eating and increase your physical activity. Don't abandon your fitness goals. You can enjoy the Holidays and still maintain your fitness level. Fitness is for life, there are no days off.If your family and friends are miles away, it may break your heart, literally. One needs human contact to survive. One needs to feel apart of a bigger group such as a family or circle of friends. People who do not have a "social" outlet tend to develop physical and mental complications. Loneliness can cause or contribute to illness - physical or mental. But remember, living alone or being alone doesn't necessarily means that one is lonely. One can be lonely in a room full of people. One's perceived feeling is the key to the feeling of loneliness. There are many ways for a person alone to not feel lonely. Keep in touch with family and/or friends - email, telephone or visits can keep those lines of communication open. Get outside of yourself and join clubs, groups or committees. Take a class. Eat out, even if you are by yourself. Smile more, even if you don't know a soul around you. In short, don't be afraid of interaction with other people even though you are alone. Know yourself, be good to yourself and go out of yourself, these things will ensure that you are not lonely even if you are alone. By the way, some people thing that if they are alone then they are not worth a fancy meal or a meal out or a clean house or matinee or a special celebration or a holiday or any of the things that people who are not alone do for themselves. This is crazy thinking. If you are alone, then you are entitled to all of the pleasures that people who are not alone share. Be good to yourself. You are worth it - alone or not alone. As you read this blog you may feel so tired that you just might fall asleep right on top of your keyboard. If so, don't reach for those energy drinks. Energy drinks are full of sugar. Just like eating a donut or a piece of candy, you may feel good immediately after you consume it, but 60 to 80 minutes later you may really pass out from lake of energy. Instead, have a cup, 1 cup of regular coffee, take a short walk or take a 20 minute nap. You will feel more alert. By the way, moderate coffee drinking is good for you. Coffee in excess, like most other good things, is not good for you. Politics and the World North Korea says that it has performed its first ever nuclear weapons test. Did they really and how safe and successful was it? We don't know, yet. The major question here should be, "Does North Korea or any country have the right to develop and test nuclear weapons". In the ideal world, no country would have or need nuclear weapons, even the United States, but this is not an ideal world. In this imperfect, real world countries do have nuclear capability, so, why not North Korea or other countries? Does a country have the right to arm itself and defend itself against warring countries? I say yes, if the country acts responsible. In any case it's up to the United Nations or some other world organization to develop, maintain and monitor such developments. The United States of America is but one country in the United Nations. The USA is but one country in the world of nations. The United States must start acting like a member of the world organization not the leader. I think the Bush Administration has diminished world respect for the United States. It has made the United States seem to be a ruthless, irresponsible and tyrannical power in the world. The United States should set the examples for the rest of the world. The United States must become a partner, a compromiser, and a peaceful negotiator in world affairs. The Bush Doctrine defining world dominance must end. The Bush Administration will end, the Republican selfish, uncompromising, exclusive control of the United States' government will end, so too will world hostilities end if all of the nations of the world would united and form a legitimate, genuine world community of nations. Women are finally gaining power in Spain's one time male dominated government and life. The Vice President of Spain is a woman. Vice President Maria Teresa Fernandez de la Vega is becoming an outspoken leader in women's rights in Spain. She is making a difference for women in every aspect of Spain's life. Spain's socialistic government is recognizing women's place in the government and in many other areas of daily living. Governments and countries are made up of men and women, both should be free and equal in all maters. Non-sexist, non-racist and non-bias in general must and soon will exist throughout the world. When this happens equality and equity will be realized. At that point, all people will share the responsibility of peacefully existing in this world. Governor Jeb Bush is not welcomed in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Protesters in Pittsburgh denounce Florida Governor Bush. While Jeb Bush was on his way to a Pittsburgh political fund raiser for Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum, Bush encountered a group of vocal and active protester. They were unwelcoming and downright disgruntled with Governor Bush. I think they were disgruntled more with what the Governor represented, the Republican Party, than with Bush personally. This is a sign of the times. In early October, the nation is showing it's dissatisfaction with the Bush Administration, the Republican controlled congress and with the Republican Party. A majority of Americans are upset with the direction that the country has been going. They are upset with anything right, conservative or Republican. It's about time. The terrible way in which the Republicans have directed the United States is finally catching up with them. Americans are finally discovering the real agenda of the Republican Party and the conservative right. Deceit, lies, cover ups, general incompetence and a lack of respect for the American people are becoming unmasked in the Republican Party, the Republican controlled congress and the Bush Administration. We are mad as hell and we are not going to take it anymore, may be the political call in the mid term elections come November 7. Religion and Spiritualism What is this world becoming? Two Palm Beach County parish priests allegedly embezzled over 8 million dollars from their parishioners over a forty year period. One of the priest confessed as to the reason he stole the money from his congregation - he thought that he deserved it. He said that he considered himself the CEO of a big corporation and he wasn't being paid what he deserved. Come on now. He was a parish priest. What happened to the vows he pledged when he became a priest? In the Catholic Church, clerics, including priests, monks, nuns, in short all called to the religious vocation, are servants of the people of God. This is mandated by the founder of the Christian Catholic Church Jesus Christ. Money, power, prestige can corrupt the disciples of Jesus Christ. I have written several times in this blog about the misguided wealth and general inappropriateness of many in the Catholic Church hierarchy, but these fellows are too much. My suggestion for these two guys, quit the Catholic Priesthood and get jobs as CEO's or political leaders, that's where you both belong. The one priest who confessed about the CEO thing said that a lot of the money stolen was used to help other people. If that is true, then it's still no excuse. I often wonder why "people of the cloth", regardless of religious affiliation do these kinds of illegal, unethical or inappropriate acts. Do they not understand that they as well as every person is responsible to God for their acts on Earth. They preach to us, the guide us and they prepare us to met God, do they not realize that they too will be required to met God and be judged. If they do these outrageous kinds of things they must believe one of the following: they are above God's laws, or they don't care about eternal life, or they do not believe that God and the afterlife is real. In any case, they are to be despised and also pitied. Technology and Business Miami-Dade County Major wants wireless Internet for the entire county. The mayor is seeking to reach all of the citizens of Miami-Dade County by providing universal wi-fi. Good for the people of Miami-Dade County. However, will there be a cost involved. The wireless access may be free, but will it really be free or will it be paid for in other ways. Perhaps the government will add a new tax or a hidden utility charge? How safe and secure to the users as well as the network is this universal Internet access? I just can't believe the government providing anything free to it's citizenry. The practice of free wireless Internet access is catching on across the United States. Airports, libraries, coffee shops, malls, etc. are becoming an Internet Mecca for hundreds of people. But a governmental body offering anything free? I don't know about this one. What about quality, security and dependability with this county wide Internet access. Something tells me that all of the above may not be first rate and state of the art due to the public nature of the access. Private companies providing wi-fi Internet access are interested in a consequence to this access, business, money spent or advertisement by the people taking advantage of the access. Government, something has to be motivating these county leaders to offer such service, something in the form of a pay off. Beware. Perhaps such commodities as cable TV, telephone service and Internet service should be left in the hands of private entrepreneurs. Competition, quality of service and customer satisfaction should keep private commodities at affordable prices and competitive in regards to security and service. The government has no place in these matters. Technology and shopping - great or a bust? What the heck do I mean by that statement. Shopping - not virtual, actually in store and technology - electronic cash registers, put the two together and if not conducted wisely the result could be expensive to you the shopper. If you've been reading this blog over the past few years, you my know that my discount department store of choice is Target. In the month of October, in the last 3 out of 4 visits to Target, I have been charged for more items than the number of items that I actually bought. The first time that this happened, as I was leaving the checkout area I did my usual perusal of my sales receipt. I usually add up the prices of my merchandize before checking out and usually have a pretty good approximation of the total bill. This time the bill was actually around $6.00 over my approximation. That seemed too high even when tax was accounted for. Yes sir, there were two items that I had purchased that the cashier duplicated on my receipt. So, I marched back to the checkout, waited until the cashier was finished serving the next customer and explained the situation to the young lady and received the six dollars and change to reconcile the transaction. The very next Saturday morning at the same Target the same thing happened. I had been charged for 3 items two times each. I marched over to the checkout to explain, this time I was irate. I explained to the young girl that she had charged twice for each of the 3 items. She was gracious about refunding me the money caused by her mistake. I told her that she needs to be more careful with the scanner and that this same thing happened the last weekend. She told me that I was going to get my money back. I told her that the money was not the point. The point was that I was overcharged by human error two times in a row and that this is unacceptable. The third Saturday while shopping at the same Target I counted the number of items that I was intending to purchase. I did not enter the checkout of one of the young girls, I chose an older looking cashier. She took her time scanning my merchandize and guess what, the number of items on the receipt was the same as the number of items in my shopping cart. I wanted to thank that lady for taking her time and for the care she showed in doing her job, but I didn't want to sound corny. On my fourth visit to Target I had to go to one of those young things at the checkout and as luck would have it, I was charged twice for a $3.50 item. I had counted 14 items in my shopping cart, but there were 15 items on my receipt. I immediately brought it to the cashier's attention and asked for my refund. I told her that I was unhappy and that this had happened 3 times out of the last 4 times that I was at Target. She said that this happens all the time because the scanner goes too fast. I said yes, and you should be more careful about it when you scan an item. I said what about the people who never check their receipts. I said that Target is making money illegally. She said that she was just doing her job. I told her that I appreciated her honesty and her pleasant disposition, but I was very upset with Target. I should file a formal complaint at the store, but I didn't and probably won't. And that's the problem with technology and the checkout. Solution: buyer beware. |
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