Tweet me a message!

Are you heavily involved with multiple social networking forums? If not how can you possibly get through your day?

Your Blog(s) to tell your story of the day, FaceBook, MySpace or whatever is hot this week to keep up with your network, the rest of the day, and of course the new internet must be a part of Tweeter!

It was silly enough when politicians tried to show they were just regular folk, with pages on FaceBook and MySpace, but now they are moving to Tweeter. For the uninitiated Tweeter is supposed to capture the moments of your life between your blogs! A Tweet is a short message no more than 148 characters in length.

A whole industry has grown up around Tweeting. There are apps for almost all Browsers and platforms. I have found great joy in TweetDeck, and various apps for IE8 and FireFox.

So many Tweets are flying through the internet cloud at any one time that Tweet has lately been suffering some server overloads and delays.

Ultimatly I am forced to ask why? Don't get me wrong, I like Tweeter, I’m hooked. I tweet all the time (tiredoldguy), but really why? Do we need this level of minutia in our lives today? Social Networking is great, and lots of fun. But have we gone a little overboard just because we can?

America in trouble

What is the future of the United States of America? It is my theory that downstream for this country everyone will be in one of three businesses, agri-business, military business, or a service business.

I am worried that our younger generations with their computers, laptops, notebooks, pdss, ipods, mp3 players, and gaming consoles know how to rip the latest tune or text message their friends at the speed of sound, but cannot read a newspaper, have no concept of current events, and appear to be getting no real education.

We are pouring tons of money into the education system. Most of it never reaches the classroom, and since the creation of the Department of Education was created in Washington to remove local control of schools from parents, regulation not education is the rule.

I am currently mentoring a friend (I love a good buzz word as well as the next guy) as she makes her way through college. The latest trend is “distance learning” not a bad concept in theory. One professor in any location can serve students in any branch of the school or even an individual not connected with the school. The problem with the way it is implemented here is that there is no “face time” with the professor. If the class had a several hour video chat it would be incredible, instead, things get posted that make you wonder where these students were on school days. I’ll give one example and move one. The discussion was about the 80/20 rule and its use in logistics management. On a response to a posting the student said “I didn’t know the government built the highway, that’s not fair to the railroads”. How can a college student not know about the history of the Interstate Highway System and its connection to the Cold War!

All this brings me back to the beginning. The way the country is going now, we will always feed the world. We are good at it. Sometimes unfortunately better then feeding our own. We are also very good at making war. We make good weapons and just like feeding the world we are good at it. Everyone else not in agri-business or the military will be in some service roll to support these industries. Now these are very board categories, when I say agri-business, I talking about everyone from the farmer to the food manufacturer. In the military the range is from the front line to the munitions factory. Anyone not in either of the first two industries will be in the third. Just by its nature this is the broadest group with the most opportunities. These jobs include the entertainment industry, the legal and health industries the hospitality industry, and all of the other service industries required to run a nation.

Unless we do something drastic quickly the students of today will be in no position to compete with the world of tomorrow.

Sprint rip off SOP!

Sprint did me in! I listened to the Sprint salesman and believed what he said, Barnum would have been proud. I was shopping for an internet aircard for my new laptop. Sprint said they had a sale, a free card, UNLIMITED BANDWIDTH, $60 a month.

Now, I don't consider myself stupid. I asked the salesman at the store is the internet usage unlimited, he said yes. I asked again, "I can use this as much as I want with no overage or other charges", he said yes. My bill arrived, WOW, STUNNED, BREATHLESS, $250 in overage charges! Turns out the plan I signed up for was only for 5GB not unlimited.

I went ballistic at the store. Ripped the manager a new asshole and found out that this is SOP (standard operating procedure) and happens all the time. They continue to do because most people don't fight, they just follow. Not me, not anymore, not in these times when every nickle counts. I got a partial credit (about half), but it's not enough. I am planning my attack now, BBB, Internet, Letter wriying.

I'll keep you posted.

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End of the month

We have reached the end of another month. This one was more interesting then most because I became another year older. Next month will also be a good month because my bright, beautiful, and generous baby sister has her birthday.

Birthdays, anniversaries, deaths, births, graduations, are all way points that effectively breakup our normal day to day patterns of living. In the movie "Last Holiday", we hear a great soliloquy on how we end up in our normal rut. The funny thing is that each New Years Eve, we resolve to break out of that rut, but most of us never do. Why is that? I think it is fear of change. Personally I don't handle change well at all. Major changes scare the dickens out of me! What do you feel is holding you back? Let me know, let's compare and contrast.

Collage Classes

Busy, Busy, Busy. I never thought at this age that I would be up to my neck in school work. I am helping a friend get an associate degree in Logistics/Supply Chain Management. That's quite a mouthful. Much of this degree has been done by "distance learning". I am not at all impressed with its execution at Ivy Tech. My friend is taking four classes this semester, all over the Internet. I'm sorry but this is not the way to learn. I might be able to accept the class if it had a set meeting time online using a video conferencing / video chat facility where at least you could interact with the "professor". The way the classes are currently constituted, the teacher posts a syllabus at the beginning of the semester, class assignments, discussion boards, and tests are listed along with the method of posting desired. The student does the work and posts the material in the proper place. At some point the teacher reviews the work and leaves comments. But there is no real interaction, no real give and take student to student, or student to teacher. This method might be OK for large freshmen survey classes, but it should just not be allowed for core courses.

The day after

Well Valentines day has come and gone. I'm far enough away from the death of my wife so that I didn't turn into a pool of jello. But, for the time being it's just not the same. No giddy rush to buy flowers my wife didn't want (she loved getting them but would never admit it). No finding the perfect chocolate bark or chocolate cherries. No stuffed bear.

My father was blessed by finding love again after my mom passed away, so I hold out the hope that I will not old alone!

A Strange Journey

Today is September 23rd 2007. This is the first day of fall and the temps are going to be in the high 80’s. This has been a very strange year for me so far. My wife died in April, and I had to stop work in March because of medical problems.

Since March my life has been in a downward spiral that is an amazing tail of bureaucratic red tape, and extreme generosity. If not for the generosity of friends I would have been out on the street by the end of March.

I have found this simple truth in America today. If you are rich, a child, an illegal immigrant, or born into the welfare system, you are protected and have your advocates. If you are working class from working poor to upper middle class and you fall on hard times you are in serious trouble. The most common responses I received to my calls for help were "I would love to help you, but there is nothing I can do." Also, on this side of the equation is the fact that in Fort Wayne / Indiana, there is no central contact for aid. You must deal with dozens of agencies, all with their own policies and paperwork, much of it duplicate. I also found that if you have limited mobility it is an added burden. Most of the government agencies will not come to you, and they will not tell you that a phone interview is allowable unless you really press them. Additionally I cannot figure out for the life of me the usefulness of the Trustee offices. Their paperwork is staggering, the requirements are bizarre, and its frankly easier to get blood from a stone.

The other side of this equation if the generosity of friends, and neighbors. At one point a friend cosigned a loan without question. Friends and neighbors ran errands, brought in food, and ultimately their intercession saved my life.

I was one of the fortunate, I am now getting the care I need, in a facility with some amazing people. There are many others out there who are not getting the help they need. Fort Wayne city council is willing to fund all kinds of questionable development projects, but you never hear them talk about funding more housing for Fort Wayne Housing Authority, you never hear them talk about increasing and simplifying the Trustee office support programs, and you Never hear them talk about aid for senior citizens. I guess we are not a Politically Correct enough group.