Odds and Ends, 9/27/09

Randy Bachman of Bachman-Turner Overdrive fame is 66 years old today. He's had quite the career in music, having been a founding member of the Guess Who before starting BTO afterwards. It was announced a few weeks ago that he is reuniting with C.F. (Fred) Turner to start touring again. They are not re-forming BTO, but it is expected that they'll be playing a lot of BTO songs on their tour next year in Europe. The only North American tour date so far will be in Winnipeg, and if they don't come stateside to play then I'll be giving some serious thought to flying up to Winnipeg to catch them.

Happy Birthday to Randy Bachman!

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Word came in almost an hour ago from my friend Mark that his dad has colon cancer and will be having surgery in a few days. I've known Mark's parents for years; they have been having a well enjoyed retirement in Modesto California for over ten years. I've always regarded them as a second set of parents during all the time that I've known Mark. Mark and I go all the way back to 1976 in high school. He was the first real friend that I made after my family moved to California.

Don, you'll be in my thoughts and prayers.

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No real movement on the eHarmony front. They keep matching me with women in southern California and Colorado, and I keep closing the matches. A few from southern Arizona will turn up as matches but they're not responsive so I close those matches too.

The only good thing about all of this is that I have time to take care of some projects around the house. Today's was fixing the leak in the spa. Yesterday I didn't do very much aside from catching up some reading and re-establishing contact with a good friend of mine who is spending a lot of her time in Sunsites. I encouraged her to start blogging; she has lots of interesting stories and insights. I could spend hours talking to her.

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It hasn't rained in over a week, so monsoon season is officially over. Last weekend it threatened a little, but that was it. The A/C's been turned off and I'm now back to using the swamp cooler. Lows during the nights are in the mid60s and highs in the days in the low to mid90s. It's a dry heat, and actually doesn't feel that hot.....it's quite pleasant if you're out there to catch rays.

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My interest in shortwave radio may be returning. I picked up the latest copy of Popular Communications this afternoon since it had an article on the Hallicrafters S38 receiver series (I own the S38C). I've also got some other Hallicrafters models.

Years ago I used to spend time tuning in distant stations from all over the world. In the mornings I could get the Chinese domestics. In the evenings it would be South America and Europe, or Australia/South Pacific if it was summer.

Many of the major broadcasters have since left the air. That started about ten years ago as the Internet started to emerge. Twenty-five years ago you couldn't help but encounter Radio Moscow everywhere in the dial (Radio Moscow was always a bit of a nuisance) but they were long ago replaced by the Voice of Russia and I can't recall ever hearing the Voice of Russia.

As I said a few weeks back, things have really changed.

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Don't forget to pet a dog or a cat.

Telemarketers, Part II

In my previous post I detailed one method of dealing with telemarketers. In tonight's post I am going to propose another solution, this one of a regulatory nature. But first, some background, based upon my research.

For several years individual states passed laws and handed down regulations to control telemarketing. Repeated abuses of these regulations by the telemarketers themselves is likely what led to the Federal Trade Commission instituting a national "Do Not Call" registry in 2003. That regulation was of course, fought by the telemarketers, but if the behavior of this telemarketer is any indication I have to wonder why they fought this regulation if they had no intention of obeying it in the first place. In addition, there are several loopholes to the "Do Not Call" registry, most notably that which exempts politicians and their political campaigns. The loopholes notwithstanding, the "Do Not Call" registry is something that should be replaced with what I call the "OK to Call" registry.

There are three reasons why we should make this change.

First of all, a person shouldn't have to ask to be placed on a "Do Not Call" reigstry in the first place. There can be a lag time of up to 90 days when you ask to get on "Do Not Call" before you're officially there, during which your phone company will gleefully provide your new telephone number to telemarketers that include themselves. During that lag time, the new telephone number holder can expected to be barraged with all sorts of unwanted sales pitches, and nothing can be done about it.

Second, the telemarketers are going to violate the "Do Not Call" list anyway. Sure, those of us who are on it don't get anywhere near the number of junk phone calls that we used to, but if you've clicked on that link I provided earlier you are going to learn that there is no shortage of telemarketers who will flat out disregard the "Do Not Call" list. They can call you from outside the country, they can claim that you had a past business relationship with them (that's another loophole), they can claim to be a non profit agency, or they can claim to be taking a survey. The point is, is that the registry as currently set up falls short of achieving the desired results.

Third, establishing an "OK to Call" registry would keep telemarketers occupied with those who actually want to receive the calls in the first place, assuming of course, that there is such a thing as a large number of telemarketers who are willing to obey this kind of law. Granted that the "OK to Call" registry is going to be a very short list, but with some 300 million Americans or so I'd think that there'd be a hundred thousand or so who really wouldn't mind getting these calls. Of course the telemarketers are going to argue that one hundred thousand is a small number, but my response to that is that if they really think that then they should go to the bank and ask for one hundred thousand pennies and take them all home and count them. I might even be off in my estimate, as that there might be five hundred thousand Americans who are lonely and would like someone, even a telemarketer, to call them up and ask them how they're doing.

Of course, one question is, is how do we pay for setting up an "OK to Call" registry?

First, anyone who decides to become a telemarketer should be forced to buy a license from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). I'd be tempted to make the license fee something like five hundred million dollars, but if we do that then they'll set up shop in India, so we're going to have to make the license fee a lot lower. I propose five hundred dollars for a company license if they operate from within the United States, and fifty million dollars for each license for every caller in India that they would like to use.

Second, those who wish to be on this list should also pay. I think that anybody who wants to be on this list should pay a one time registration fee of one hundred dollars. If they're lonely and they want people to call them, a one time fee of one hundred dollars would be cheaper than several psychriatric visits to address their loneliness issues. Furthermore, anyone who is stupid enough to want these calls should be fined one hundred dollars in the first place.

Third, there must be no loopholes whatsoever for a telemarketer not wishing to use the "OK to Call" list. None whatsoever.....absolutely, positively. If a telemarketer is caught violating this rule, they should be fined ten thousand dollars, and then forced to watch stupid commercials for thirty days while strapped in a chair if it's their first offense. If it's their second offense, then the fine should be twenty-five thousand dollars and they should get one hundred days in the chair. As for the stupid commercial that they should be forced to watch, I'd like to suggest that one of that loser singing about his credit problems while driving that clunker......make them watch that one over and over during their waking hours. (That might be a violation of the "cruel and unusual punishment" clause in the Constitution but I think it's worth a court ruling).

I'm sure that there are some other reasons that I could come up with as to why we should do this, but it's been a long day and I'm starting to get tired. If you can come up with a fourth or a fifth, then please feel free to post a comment.

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I had a meeting with one of my financial planners today (I use two of them). We're on the same page. For the first time he mentioned precious metals and other commodities as an investment. He was open to gold and silver the last time we talked; now he's volunteering metals and commodities. He said that inflation and devaluation of the dollar is a concern of his. He sees more upside potential in silver as I do.

I've been a fan of the precious metals for several years now. I bought lots of silver back in 2003; I now wish I had bought more of it. I did buy some gold too, and yes I should have bought more that as well. But with multitrillion dollar deficits and a concern that the Chinese will stop buying our debt, I have to wonder if we're in for some hyperinflation of the dollar.

I may start buying gold again. And some silver.

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Interestingly enough, my employer has issued some guidelines for those of us who are involved in social networking sites or blogging. I can identify who I work for, but if I do so I must abide by their code of conduct, and make it clear that I'm not speaking for the company.

As it is, I'd rather not identify who I work for, but that's not because I want to talk about work and the people I work with/for. It's instead that real people are involved, and what they do in the workplace is not for public consumption. I don't think they would like it if they were to stumble across this blog and then read about themselves. Additionally, when I come home my employer ceases to exist. I have the work life and I have the at home life. I'd rather keep a wall up that separates the two.

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I will be in Portland, Oregon for a few days next month, visiting longtime friends Ken and Gillian and their family. It's something that I do every year, save for last year when they were down here in Arizona.

If my budget and vacation time permitted it I would try to make it up there once a month or so. Ken and I have been good friends since 1988, and I have known his wife Gillian since 1990. Both have been with me thru the good times as well as the difficult times.

I think Oregon's a neat state and I always look forward to going.

Telemarketers, Part I

One of the several aggravations that life presents us with is unfortunately, those people who most of regard as only slightly better than child molesters, and those people are called "telemarketers". They have been an annoyance to anyone who has ever possessed a telephone number, and even though there are now a lot more laws and regulations on the book that regulate their activity, the reality is that the bastards will still call you even if you've taken the time and trouble to get yourself on the "Do Not Call" list.

So tonight's commentary is going to be one method to deal with them. I really wish that I could claim credit for this as being one of my original ideas. The thing of it is, is that I can't. What I am about to pass along to you was inspired by a column written by the late Mike Royko, and my recollection is that he wrote about this sometime in 1987. I filed it away in my memory, and it wasn't jogged until a telemarketer cold called me at 7:00 AM sometime in the first half of 1992 when I was working for Lockheed in Sunnyvale.

I first thought it was my good friend Chip calling me up, but when I answered it was some fellow from Shearson Lehman American Express instead, and judging from his accent, he was not someone who grew up in North America.......not that it mattered really, unless he was inexperienced in dealing with North Americans such as myself who frequently suffer from a sense of humor.

Anyway, I don't remember the guy's name, but when he introduced himself and stated why he was calling, a light went on in my head as I was remembering what Mr. Royko had written some five years earlier. He wanted to know if I was interested, so I indicated that yes, I wanted to hear more. The result of course, was that scripted speech of what a great investment opportunity would await me if I were to consider using the services of Shearson Lehman American Express. I was treated to a rundown of what their return on equity of the previous five years had been, followed by the obligatory disclaimer that past performance was of course not a guarantee of future performance. I patiently waited for the canned speech to end, as that I knew exactly what I was going to say once he reached the end of it. It seemed to go on and on like someone taking fifteen minutes to tell a bad joke, but he eventually came to the end, and asked me what I thought.

I responded with "This sounds really good. I'd like to invest one million dollars."

There was a pause.

Then he said something to indicate that he wasn't sure that he had heard me correctly.

I came back with "You heard me. I'd like to invest one million dollars, with one condition". I was for the first time in my life, applying Mr. Royko's idea. I wasn't sure what the reaction was going to be, but that didn't matter as that I was having some fun.

"What condition is that?"

It was at that point that I repeated what Mr. Royko had suggested.

"If my investment fails, then you agree to kill yourself."

A pause. A pause of about two seconds. A pause long enough to where the gentleman from Shearson Lehman American Express was processing what he had just heard. A pause that was long enough to give me time to wonder whether or not he was going to take me seriously. And a pause short enough to where I could keep myself from busting up laughing over what I had just said. A pause that was followed up by his response.

"Mr. Mosier! One does not bet one's life on an investment!"

I then thought, he fell for it! He fell for it! He took me seriously!

Then came my response.

"Well why not? Do you have any idea how hard I had to work for this million dollars?" I also stated something to the effect that if I was going to invest this million dollars with a firm that had a good track record like his, that I expected a return on my investment that he was willing to guarantee to the point of killing himself if my investment were to fail for some reason. While I was rambling on about this, he kept saying over and over "time out" and when I got done, I waited for his next statement.

"Mr. Mosier?"

"Yes?"

"Thank you very much for your time." He hung up. That was it. That was the end of the conversation about investing, and I never heard from Shearson Lehman American Express ever again.

I have no idea if the gentleman ever discussed this with his supervisor or his co-workers. There is no way of knowing if anyone he knew at that firm suggested to him that he was the victim of a joke, or the victim of someone messing with his mind. I think I'm reasonably sure though, that no one had ever suggested to him that he agree to kill himself if the investment failed, and I'm reasonably sure that he would remember the conversation if he were to be reminded of it.

In the years since, I have had several other telemarketers call me. I have used other means to deal with them......some that were not as laughable, and one instance that I'm not sure that I would ever want to recount to anyone. I'm not getting junk calls like I used to, with the exception of those years in which we are having an election, in which case I am inundated with "robocalls" that defy the kind of interaction that I had with the gentleman from Shearson Lehman American Express.

Unfortunately I don't have an amusing method to deal with the "robocalls".

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I am pleased to report that eHarmony is no longer crashing the browser. Perhaps sending in those error reports to Microshaft, excuse me, Microsoft, helped with ending that.

However, I think I've exhausted all of the Arizona and southern California matches, as that my new matches seem to be coming from Colorado and El Paso, Texas. I guess I'll have to start dialog with those out of state women.

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Work is going real well. I have decided against posting anything about corporate activity or politics. My situation is extremely good there, but the less I say about what's going on the better that everyone else will be. I will say that I am a candidate for promotion next year.

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I'm having a lot of fun with this blog. I may not be posting for the next few days; I have transitioned to a "new normal", and I will likely be on the dance floor the next few nights.

Test Post

This is a test. I'm trying to figure out some things here. This post will be removed in a few days.

Precious metals prices

April Wine



A photo of my cats. Moe's the black one, Larry's the grey one.

Trying Again with the Online Dating Thing

I don't like to admit it. I mean, I really don't like to admit it. I don't like to admit that I have in the past, used online dating services and have started using them now. Like a lot of things that emerge, it has some plusses and it has some minusses but there are some days when it's hard to tell which one of those is ahead.

I first tried the online dating thing back in 2002 sometime. That was match.com. I think what inspired that was a friend and co-worker having some success in meeting dateable women, and I thought what the hey, I'll give this a try too. I signed up for match.com for three months, and at the end I couldn't wait for the subscription to expire. I was finding that participating in local singles events and going to the Sunday Singles dances (which we haven't had now for years) was plenty of fun and was enabling me to meet women.

Sometime around early 2004, I decided to give match.com another try. What happened then was that I wasn't impressed with the "selection" that the singles groups had. Oh, there was never any problem meeting women. The problem was meeting dateworthy women. Let's face it. There are a lot weirdos out there, and yes, we have them on my side too.

In the second half of 2004, match.com was actually starting to "work". I dated this one lady named Jennifer for about 2 1/2 months. I liked her, but not to the point of wanting to get serious with her. Then Kathleen came along after I told Jennifer we weren't going to make it, and my sense then was that "hey, this can actually work!". Two months later Kathleen ended it because of medical issues (hers), and it was back online again. Match.com didn't seem to "work" for the rest of the year though it did introduce me to Dyanna in 2006. I always liked Dyanna and thought she was quite the babe, but for some reason we couldn't seem to have an intimate conversation.

Now I'm back on the market, and I'm using eHarmony now. I have heard this come highly recommended by a friend and co-worker, and after going through their lengthy battery of questions I was initially impressed. Some of that shine may be wearing off, but then again maybe it's also the process of getting used to how it works. The jury is still out on this one, but here's what I've learned so far.

One, for some reason eHarmony likes to crash the browser. I know that I haven't got the latest and greatest Internet Explorer version installed, but I'm not going to use IE8 until we're using IE8 at work. Even if I were to be using IE8, some of your super slick websites may ferret out some glitches with the browser. Regardless, it's a bit frustrating trying to review your matches when the browser keeps crashing.

Two, eHarmony does real good at finding you matches some 500 miles away from you. OK, maybe their matching criteria is so strict that I've already managed to exhaust the Tucson-area matches in two days. I'm getting a lot of matches from southern California, and I'm "closing" them as that I'm not sure the distance thing will work in the first place. Yeah, I like to get in the truck and visit San Diego from time to time....there's some interesting rock formations near the Imperial County line and San Diego is a neat city. I considered relocating there about twenty years ago. But I think that's out as far as driving to meet someone goes. I don't even like to go to Phoenix to meet someone, but at least I can get to Phoenix and back in the same day.

Three: I'm now going to say something good about eHarmony: I get the sense that they really want to see their customers succeed in finding a match. I wrote in a question about whether or not it was possible to talk to a "live" person rather than email, and within 24 hours they got back to me on that one. Yes, it is possible, there's an 800 number available 24/7. And they're responsive in another way. A lady in Capistrano Beach that I turned down wrote in to them to ask them if I would reconsider....and a customer service rep advised me of that. If I want to re-open the match, let him know and they'll take care of that.

Four: Something else good to say about eHarmony: their screening process weeds out the scammers. I've been contacted by Nigerian scammers on Match and on another site. Although they are taken care of quickly by Match, the scammers won't have the patience to wade through the questionnaires that eHarmony throws at you. eHarmony also offers an identity verification service that's "free" with their higher-priced package (which I've signed up for). No scammer would go in that far.

Five: eHarmony also has some other bells and whistles that I haven't yet taken the time to explore, such a s a secure two-way anonymous phone call setup. You can talk to your match without having your phone number revealed to that match. Since I've got some cellphone minutes to burn I might do that if I am talking to someone outside of Tucson (big "if"). I haven't had any problems though with women misusing my phone number.

It is way too early to rule on whether or not signing up on eHarmony was the right thing to do. All I can tell you is that I don't have buyer's remorse on it yet. But I also don't know if I'm going to continue if no match is found when my term expires.

I just wish that there were more "eligible" (by their standards) women in Tucson to choose from.

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Kerry Livgren, who got a mention in my last post is recovering from a stroke. From what I can tell his family is encouraged by his progress thus far. There is no way to contact him, (he's got a lot of irons in the fire anyway), but I hope that he'll be making some more music. I have some of his post-Kansas CDs and I recommend them. I should get some of his other CDs.

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My cousin Kathy is visiting her brother Todd up in Phoenix. She and her husband came down to Tucson on Friday along with Todd's family, Amber and Annette. We hiked Sabino Canyon after sundown, and we were down in Tombstone for most of yesterday. Coming back, there was a really nasty storm that included hail. We had supper at the TTT truck stop off I-10 in Tucson before they headed back to Phoenix.

This was the first time that I really had time to "visit" with Dan. He's a good guy; the kind of guy you would want with you if you were to go out deer hunting. At one point in Tombstone yesterday him, Todd and I were solving the world's problems while the women were shopping.

After the previous weekend, their visit was therapeutic. I needed it.