The devastation in Haiti is unbelievable. I can't not read the news about it. The Marines arrival should help to get relief supplies to where it's needed. I have very little to say about the situation except - God have mercy. The very sad thing is that these people are either blaming God for this or openly expressing that there is no God. I'm not judging them, the extremeness of the disaster is paled only by the fact that sufficient amount of aid in the form of medical supplies; food and water have yet to arrive for most of the people that need it. People sitting there bluntly saying: "we're dying".
Completely changing the subject, yesterday's football fiasco was disappointing to say the least. These blow-out games in the off-season are ridiculous. How does a team make it that far and then tank in the most important game for that team of the season? Cowboys totally sucked - I'm not a fan in fact I hate that team so it was not sooo terribly bad, but still, they could have put up a much better fight. Last week, the Cardinals got completely blown away. I certainly hope whoever ends up in the Superbowl - that we don't see anything like this. The only good playoff games, imo, are games that are nail-biters, anyone-could-win-the-game-to-the-finish of the game.
I slightly broke diet yesterday in eating 5 tacos and a medium sized plate of spaghetti. I didn't eat anything else, but that in itself is a lot of food. I don't believe a lot of fat calories, though, cause' I used 93% lean ground beef for the tacos, the rest of it is vegetables,hot sauce and fat free sour cream. Today I will be back full-fledged into a strict eating regime that will mirror last week's determination. I figured one of these weekends days I would probably not do as well as the days before it, so there you go.
As for projects, I spent a couple of hours yesterday clearing out dead leaves and rocks and stuff around the plants and then spreading the new landscaping rock around them. I have a lot left to do, but I am enjoying the work and am not really in a huge hurry - mostly because I AM enjoying it. It has become blatantly obvious that the living room carpet needs to be replaced. I have put out some feelers to see about pricing and get that situation rectified, as I want to keep my house looking good. It's just worn down from the amount of foot traffic - both human and dog - that goes through there. I would rather have ceramic tile installed, but I can't afford that right now. Well, I take that back, maybe I could afford the tile - not really sure - but I have no idea how to install it, I would have to watch someone who does it for a living.
So, perhaps I'll give a little more thought and effort to looking into pricing on the tile and seeing about getting someone over to do it - there seems to be several people that "claim" to do have been doing it for a living on Craigslist that are unemployed now, perhaps I could get one of those people over at a bit reduced rate. I just know that carpet is cheaper and getting it installed is much cheaper - one room is not much work for a professional installer.
Anyway, word day is here and I'm outta here.
Have a great day (and keep Haiti in your prayers)!
ben
Monday, January 18, 2010
Sunday, January 17, 2010
Sunday
Yesterday did pretty well with the diet, considering it was a Saturday. Today, I was going to make French Onion Soup, but after reading the instructions, I realized it is going to be an extremely long cooking project that isn't going to happen in a single day. It will have to wait until next weekend. Actually, I think I may go ahead and stew the onions on Wednesday and have them in the fridge for several days - as recommended by several cooks - it allegedly makes the finished version taste better.
They also declare that you should only use homemade broths. Well, unless I'm cooking something pretty soon here either a roast or a chicken, that isn't going to happen, will have to settle for "factory" broths. The idea for this came from my Cafe World game where I see this French Onion Soup and oh, do I love that stuff. I have no idea what the caloric content of such is, perhaps I better find that out as well before making it. I imagine the cheese is the calorie killer - onions hardly have calories and I doubt broth has much, either. Regardless, if I'm going to go to that much work to make the soup, I want to make a lot of it - enough to last several days anyway. To sum this up, I had no idea French Onion soup had so much time for cooking it. Makes me want to make it all that much more.
So, that kind of poo-poo'ed my menu plan for today and was left wondering what to make for afternoon dinner. I have a half ham in the fridge, but I don't feel like eating any more ham right now. I'm thinking of opting for tacos and tostadas. I haven't had tostadas in quite a while - pretty tasty stuff and easy to make.
Watching Cowboys V Vikings. I'm ALWAYS a fan of whoever is playing against the Cowboys, and since both the Steelers and now the Cardinals are eliminated, I might actually be able to get behind that team. The Vikings, that is. I'm not a Saints fan, either, I hope their Superbowl run is cut off.
Tomorrow I think I'm going to put in for an extended weekend for my birthday. I don't even know which day my birthday falls on, but whatever it is, I want 2 extra days off plus weekend. It's already the - 17th today? - that's only 19 days away. I'm really wanting to take a week off - but I want to wait until summer for that. It would be nice to be able to take even a small vacation somewhere, somehow I don't think that's going to happen. There are no signs of recovery - for me anyway - in the economy and until housing comes back - construction that is - our company will be tanking.
And, of course, I am very concerned about whatever decisions are being made about the branch I am working out of - it's just something that I will have to wait out until any news surfaces, though I don't think it will be much longer, in fact, I believe they have already made a decision it just hasn't been made public yet.
Well, I'm going to get back to watching this Cowboys game - Vikings are looking good, my fingers are crossed!
ben
They also declare that you should only use homemade broths. Well, unless I'm cooking something pretty soon here either a roast or a chicken, that isn't going to happen, will have to settle for "factory" broths. The idea for this came from my Cafe World game where I see this French Onion Soup and oh, do I love that stuff. I have no idea what the caloric content of such is, perhaps I better find that out as well before making it. I imagine the cheese is the calorie killer - onions hardly have calories and I doubt broth has much, either. Regardless, if I'm going to go to that much work to make the soup, I want to make a lot of it - enough to last several days anyway. To sum this up, I had no idea French Onion soup had so much time for cooking it. Makes me want to make it all that much more.
So, that kind of poo-poo'ed my menu plan for today and was left wondering what to make for afternoon dinner. I have a half ham in the fridge, but I don't feel like eating any more ham right now. I'm thinking of opting for tacos and tostadas. I haven't had tostadas in quite a while - pretty tasty stuff and easy to make.
Watching Cowboys V Vikings. I'm ALWAYS a fan of whoever is playing against the Cowboys, and since both the Steelers and now the Cardinals are eliminated, I might actually be able to get behind that team. The Vikings, that is. I'm not a Saints fan, either, I hope their Superbowl run is cut off.
Tomorrow I think I'm going to put in for an extended weekend for my birthday. I don't even know which day my birthday falls on, but whatever it is, I want 2 extra days off plus weekend. It's already the - 17th today? - that's only 19 days away. I'm really wanting to take a week off - but I want to wait until summer for that. It would be nice to be able to take even a small vacation somewhere, somehow I don't think that's going to happen. There are no signs of recovery - for me anyway - in the economy and until housing comes back - construction that is - our company will be tanking.
And, of course, I am very concerned about whatever decisions are being made about the branch I am working out of - it's just something that I will have to wait out until any news surfaces, though I don't think it will be much longer, in fact, I believe they have already made a decision it just hasn't been made public yet.
Well, I'm going to get back to watching this Cowboys game - Vikings are looking good, my fingers are crossed!
ben
Saturday, January 16, 2010
Day 6
This is the orange grove that I have talked about before. You can click on any of the pics for a MUCH larger view. That's "my" truck and I backed that sucker a long, long ways in there.
Hol'on a sec while I get my hand oxygen gauge I happen to have in my back pocket....seriously, this is the "thing" they were adding on to in the middle of the orange grove. Why they have that sign there - well no-one there could answer my question, but I didn't die of asphyxia while there.
This is near Tucson. This was the day that I-10 was shut down by Casa Grande and the ONLY way back was to go around. Actually, that pic is showing near Oracle and leaving Tucson. There had been a major crash on I-10, 3 people killed a semi actually blew up all kinds of carnage and waste.
This is the highway - SR77 I believe it was - it was very windy that day. The picture doesn't do the scenery justice - it was a total brownout and it was quite eerie out there in the middle of the desert with the sky all brown and everything around brown as well. This road usually doesn't have anything near the traffic that was on it that day, but it was one of the few roads to take to get to Tucson from Phoenix or vice-versa.
Yesterday, I didn't do quite as well as the days before it, but I'll still take it. A ham sandwich - 2 slices of bread, 1 slice of ham; a can of Chunky Soup - a little calorie laden and probably fat too, but I was very hungry at that point - and I ate a few slices of raw potatoes while making a pot of stuff for the kids to eat - I ate none of that stuff though it was very, very tempting.
Actually, I was working all day long and went into overtime because there was a lot of freight to put away - I was not feeling well for lack of eating. Only after I got home and wolfed down that sandwich and yes, then ate that can of soup did I feel better.
Anyway, I don't remember how to add pics to this site, so I'm going to add one, see if it works, if it does, come back and post more with commentary....here goes:
...well it put the pics at the top of the post. I guess I could have copied and pasted them down here, but what the heck. Wanted to get a few pics up since I haven't posted any in a long time. Going to take some pics of the work we did last weekend on spreading around all the rocks maybe later today or tomorrow.
Computer totally crashed yesterday. Virus. I don't even fool with trying to fix viruses anymore, I have wasted far too much time in the past in trying to deal with them. I just immediately reformat the harddrive and reinstall windows at this point. I can have it down in less than an hour and have enough software installed to be back to normal. I've gotten pretty good at it - I paid someone once to do it for me a long, long time ago, but realized that this was probably going to happen again and again - you get the picture, no way could I afford to have someone come out and fix this thing everytime a kid downloads something stupid on my computer (which always gets them banned for at least a week, sometimes as much as a month) or perhaps I have gone to a website that starts putting stuff onto your harddrive before you even know what's happening.
I have to take the blame for yesterday's junk. Some "thing" popped up on my computer screen and told me I have a virus. Yes, I thought, YOUR virus. Sure enough, this is the same virus that hit it about a month ago. It virtually takes over you computer - you can't access your control panel, well you really can't do anything after a while except to shut the computer down.
Well, anyway, today will probably be something of a battle in the diet world. I'm home, it's the weekend, I usually like to make a pot of something or other and eat it. I'm mildly hungry right now, mornings aren't usually an issue, it's the afternoons, especially on a Saturday or Sunday. Since I figure I will probably end up eating something, I will have to figure what I can make that isn't full of fat and laden with too much calories. I'm leaning towards a chef's salad. I've done the diet thing before - if I start feeling I'm depriving myself, then I start getting hungry even if I'm not, it's all in the mind, just have to figure out how to fight the battle and win.
Prolly a meet-in-the-middle, have a couple of calories, work outside and burn them off type of deal. I have plenty of work to do outside in pulling more grass and getting the rock spread around the plants.
Anyway, hope you are all doing well, I'm outta here.
ben
Friday, January 15, 2010
Day 5
I'm not sure I'm going to keep posting day this, that and the other - just doing it at the beginning of this to try and get a handle on this dieting situation and keep the momentum flowing.
Yesterday's total food intake consisted of the following:
2 slices 9 grain bread
3 thin slices of ham
1 small chunk of sharp cheddar cheese
2 glasses 1% milk
Fry's ran out of skim milk, which is what I usually drink, so I opted for the 1% - milk is on sale and I'm always good with sales.
There is less than 1,000 calories on the above-mentioned list. It's funny when you start actually keeping track of your caloric intake as to how much you are really eating. You think you aren't consuming that much, but when you break it all down, item by item, you begin to realize you are eating far more than you should. In the 5 days I have been on this diet, I normally would have consumed a total of around 15,000 calories by now. If I've even topped 5,000 I would be surprised.
This is really nothing different than budgeting. You get a notepad and start writing down every single thing you buy for a month, sit down after that month is over and make sure you're holding onto something, because you're probably going to be shocked at the amount of waste and excess you will find within the pages of that notebook - same thing with eating, I do believe. Once you realize on your budget where you are throwing your money away - well then you have to decide whether you can live without whatever that thing is or those things or activities are. I've done this budgeting thing a hundred times, I don't recall doing anything like this for dieting.
In fact, this dieting has motivated me to go ahead and get another notepad and start a 30-day write-up of my financial expenditures - all of them whether in person or online - and see if there is anything I can do to cut back. Unfortunately, when you own a home, there are going to be things on that notepad that you spent money on that you probably wish you wouldn't have to, but have no choice in the matter. There will also be things on there that you bought for your house - inside or out - that prolly - you could have lived without.
THAT is what I need to pinpoint. How much am I spending on household items that maybe I could live without. I really see a great connection between spending and eating now that I am writing it all out. Yesterday, I was going to stop at a Subway and get a 6 inch wheat something or the other - I never had time to do it. This morning I am hopeful to change that, I am a bit hungry this morning and a nice sandwich - no cheese or dressings - would be good to help stifle that little nagging that is telling me to eat something.
Well, I would go on with this but I just realized it's almost 6:00am and I need to get offa here and started on the day's work.
ben
Yesterday's total food intake consisted of the following:
2 slices 9 grain bread
3 thin slices of ham
1 small chunk of sharp cheddar cheese
2 glasses 1% milk
Fry's ran out of skim milk, which is what I usually drink, so I opted for the 1% - milk is on sale and I'm always good with sales.
There is less than 1,000 calories on the above-mentioned list. It's funny when you start actually keeping track of your caloric intake as to how much you are really eating. You think you aren't consuming that much, but when you break it all down, item by item, you begin to realize you are eating far more than you should. In the 5 days I have been on this diet, I normally would have consumed a total of around 15,000 calories by now. If I've even topped 5,000 I would be surprised.
This is really nothing different than budgeting. You get a notepad and start writing down every single thing you buy for a month, sit down after that month is over and make sure you're holding onto something, because you're probably going to be shocked at the amount of waste and excess you will find within the pages of that notebook - same thing with eating, I do believe. Once you realize on your budget where you are throwing your money away - well then you have to decide whether you can live without whatever that thing is or those things or activities are. I've done this budgeting thing a hundred times, I don't recall doing anything like this for dieting.
In fact, this dieting has motivated me to go ahead and get another notepad and start a 30-day write-up of my financial expenditures - all of them whether in person or online - and see if there is anything I can do to cut back. Unfortunately, when you own a home, there are going to be things on that notepad that you spent money on that you probably wish you wouldn't have to, but have no choice in the matter. There will also be things on there that you bought for your house - inside or out - that prolly - you could have lived without.
THAT is what I need to pinpoint. How much am I spending on household items that maybe I could live without. I really see a great connection between spending and eating now that I am writing it all out. Yesterday, I was going to stop at a Subway and get a 6 inch wheat something or the other - I never had time to do it. This morning I am hopeful to change that, I am a bit hungry this morning and a nice sandwich - no cheese or dressings - would be good to help stifle that little nagging that is telling me to eat something.
Well, I would go on with this but I just realized it's almost 6:00am and I need to get offa here and started on the day's work.
ben
Thursday, January 14, 2010
Thursday
Some pretty horrific images emerging from that 7.0 earthquake in Haiti. Lots and lots of dead bodies laying all over the place. I can't imagine the horror for those that survived and have no food, housing, nothing. Pray for these people - hopefully help gets there quickly.
Nothing much on the homefront. Michael isn't going to school that I know of and JD's younger brothers - 2 of them anyway - are still in Juvenile Detention. JD says they are getting out - on my birthday, lol. My birthday's the 5th. Birthdays are nice, a good day to celebrate one's own life, but when you start racking them up - you don't really look forward to too terribly many of them. Tenants are mostly behaving, the ex-Marine has landed a new job - but is stone broke. I am going to help him out by giving him whatever food I happen to be making. Yes, his rent is paid up until the 1st.
I'll enjoy the lull - a break in anything significant going on in my life - while it lasts. Still dieting, in fact, I only ate a sandwich and less than a handful of potato chips yesterday. Yes, I know, potato chips are laden with fat calories, but when you have only eaten maybe 400 calories total for the entire day, I doubt that matters too much. The funny thing is that I'm not hungry this morning. You'd think after going that long without eating much of anything a person would be ravenously hungry, instead, I have nothing but a little gurgling going on in my stomach - I guess it's reminding me that it's still there and would like a little business to deal with. Customers will be going into it a little later, lol. I figure to get a 6 inch Subway sub sometime this morning - probably chicken - with wheat bread, all the veggies but no dressings on it.
That should keep the caloric and fat calories down on it and give me enough to feel like I've eaten something. I won't eat again until I get home, and then I'll probably make some more chicken - or - if I don't feel like cooking, I will have another ham sandwich and that will be it for the day. I'm not trying to starve myself, but I am trying to get a kick-start on this thing going and drop some pounds quickly. Considering I've been working my @$$ off since I started thing 3 days ago - burning lots of calories - I have to imagine I've already dropped a couple as it is. I will be at the main branch later this morning and will weigh myself on the industrial scale.
As for now, work is about to start and there's plenty to do today - which is nice, keeps my mind off of food - so, c'yall later and have a great day!
ben
Nothing much on the homefront. Michael isn't going to school that I know of and JD's younger brothers - 2 of them anyway - are still in Juvenile Detention. JD says they are getting out - on my birthday, lol. My birthday's the 5th. Birthdays are nice, a good day to celebrate one's own life, but when you start racking them up - you don't really look forward to too terribly many of them. Tenants are mostly behaving, the ex-Marine has landed a new job - but is stone broke. I am going to help him out by giving him whatever food I happen to be making. Yes, his rent is paid up until the 1st.
I'll enjoy the lull - a break in anything significant going on in my life - while it lasts. Still dieting, in fact, I only ate a sandwich and less than a handful of potato chips yesterday. Yes, I know, potato chips are laden with fat calories, but when you have only eaten maybe 400 calories total for the entire day, I doubt that matters too much. The funny thing is that I'm not hungry this morning. You'd think after going that long without eating much of anything a person would be ravenously hungry, instead, I have nothing but a little gurgling going on in my stomach - I guess it's reminding me that it's still there and would like a little business to deal with. Customers will be going into it a little later, lol. I figure to get a 6 inch Subway sub sometime this morning - probably chicken - with wheat bread, all the veggies but no dressings on it.
That should keep the caloric and fat calories down on it and give me enough to feel like I've eaten something. I won't eat again until I get home, and then I'll probably make some more chicken - or - if I don't feel like cooking, I will have another ham sandwich and that will be it for the day. I'm not trying to starve myself, but I am trying to get a kick-start on this thing going and drop some pounds quickly. Considering I've been working my @$$ off since I started thing 3 days ago - burning lots of calories - I have to imagine I've already dropped a couple as it is. I will be at the main branch later this morning and will weigh myself on the industrial scale.
As for now, work is about to start and there's plenty to do today - which is nice, keeps my mind off of food - so, c'yall later and have a great day!
ben
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
The Bug Has Finally Hit/The Casino
I have not been to a casino in quite a while.
I don't go unless I get that feeling. I have to say that, after all of this time, it has finally come back to me. I haven't even thought about going to that place. I am not into losing money, I am not addicted to gambling and I will NOT go unless all parameters are in place.
I have written about this several times, but for me, it's worth going into for fact (for me anyway) of difference between those that want to go to have a good time; those that go frequently because they are addicted; those that go because they are broke (or almost broke, anyway) and are trying to make "mortgage money"; and me - the person that is totally superstitious about the matter and won't go unless all points of the superstitious matter are, in fact, met.
I will NEVER go to a casino out of desperation. It is a losing proposition - the casino will get your money just BECAUSE you are desperate. You play whatever game in a different mindframe. It's not the same as being relaxed and enjoying the experience. I rather enjoy watching people, I always have, there is ample opportunity for such in a place such as that.
I refuse to allow myself to get addicted. Ask Charles Barkley about his 10 million plus losses to gambling addiction. Probably not devastating to him. Any great amount of money is a loss to me. Let me give a face to that: I'm out fifty bucks and I'm reeling. Why did I do that? I could have paid a bill with that money - whatever. Losing is not an option and I do not go into a casino with that fear in my mind, if that fear is present, I won't even leave the house.
There is more. The only problem is the bug is - now - I don't do casinos worknights. I only go on weekends and let me say again, my visits are VERY infrequent. I could tell of the visits of winning this, that and the other, but, the point is made without it - go when you feel the going is good. Beyond that? Learn how to count cards. I haven't done that and I know that the time and money spent would be money earned - and being kicked out of casinos all over the place, but still.
Nother' long break, stuff happens and I have to deal with it.
G'nite.
ben
I don't go unless I get that feeling. I have to say that, after all of this time, it has finally come back to me. I haven't even thought about going to that place. I am not into losing money, I am not addicted to gambling and I will NOT go unless all parameters are in place.
I have written about this several times, but for me, it's worth going into for fact (for me anyway) of difference between those that want to go to have a good time; those that go frequently because they are addicted; those that go because they are broke (or almost broke, anyway) and are trying to make "mortgage money"; and me - the person that is totally superstitious about the matter and won't go unless all points of the superstitious matter are, in fact, met.
I will NEVER go to a casino out of desperation. It is a losing proposition - the casino will get your money just BECAUSE you are desperate. You play whatever game in a different mindframe. It's not the same as being relaxed and enjoying the experience. I rather enjoy watching people, I always have, there is ample opportunity for such in a place such as that.
I refuse to allow myself to get addicted. Ask Charles Barkley about his 10 million plus losses to gambling addiction. Probably not devastating to him. Any great amount of money is a loss to me. Let me give a face to that: I'm out fifty bucks and I'm reeling. Why did I do that? I could have paid a bill with that money - whatever. Losing is not an option and I do not go into a casino with that fear in my mind, if that fear is present, I won't even leave the house.
There is more. The only problem is the bug is - now - I don't do casinos worknights. I only go on weekends and let me say again, my visits are VERY infrequent. I could tell of the visits of winning this, that and the other, but, the point is made without it - go when you feel the going is good. Beyond that? Learn how to count cards. I haven't done that and I know that the time and money spent would be money earned - and being kicked out of casinos all over the place, but still.
Nother' long break, stuff happens and I have to deal with it.
G'nite.
ben
Wednesday
Hump day already.
A very large order going out today. In fact, I have serious doubts that all of that pipe plus all of those fittings are going to fit onto one truckload. It's 50k worth of material, very good for our branch. Hopefully take up most of the day in getting all of this done - though, in reality, there is plenty of clean-up still left to do around the branch.
BTW, all the Cafe World posts I have been doing is more of a interest thing for me than anything - how many people will come to this blog from all over the world looking for tips and secrets for that game? Feedjit is very helpful in telling me where people are coming from and how they got here - almost always a google search or even twitter page results. Feedjit also tells me what the question or words were in the search. I have really started turning this blog into a composite of critiques of companies - good and bad, my Cafe World endeavors and still, of course, my daily life, since I figure that's what a journal is all about.
I am always surprised as well the number of visits of people coming here looking at my Fry's Food Stores entries. Mostly in-state searches, but again, Feedjit tells me where these people are at. I don't think Fry's is anywhere but AZ - it's owned by Kroger and I know Kroger has all kinds of different stores/names all over the U.S.
Coakley v Brown. Talk about political entertainment. It took me by great surprise to read yesterday that there is an inkling of a possibility that a republican could actually win the now-empty (well there is an interim dude) seat that Senator Kennedy used to occupy. The hype is that if Brown wins, he could possibly be placed into office before the "Big Vote" occurs on health care and he would, of course, vote against it.
For the record, I no longer consider myself republican but I also certainly do not agree with the liberal slant, either. I actually have no party at this point. I could say independent, but I haven't really done the research on that "party" to come to any conclusion as to whether I would want to identify myself with them or not. I am definitely on the conservative side of things, but I have found that the republican party is no better at the table in speaking the truth and doing what they say they are going to do than are liberals.
However, I am totally opposed to aspects of this health care bill. I have repeatedly stated my opposition to ramming a bill through just to get one - through, regardless of how much of mine and yours money is going to be spent. For something so enormously huge (yes, repetitive and improper grammer, I make my point) I figure a good year, 2 years however long it takes to look at all the implications and the money and everything it's going to affect before getting a final bill on the President's desk to sign.
Well, anyway, work day is here and I must be offa here.
C'ya later.
ben
A very large order going out today. In fact, I have serious doubts that all of that pipe plus all of those fittings are going to fit onto one truckload. It's 50k worth of material, very good for our branch. Hopefully take up most of the day in getting all of this done - though, in reality, there is plenty of clean-up still left to do around the branch.
BTW, all the Cafe World posts I have been doing is more of a interest thing for me than anything - how many people will come to this blog from all over the world looking for tips and secrets for that game? Feedjit is very helpful in telling me where people are coming from and how they got here - almost always a google search or even twitter page results. Feedjit also tells me what the question or words were in the search. I have really started turning this blog into a composite of critiques of companies - good and bad, my Cafe World endeavors and still, of course, my daily life, since I figure that's what a journal is all about.
I am always surprised as well the number of visits of people coming here looking at my Fry's Food Stores entries. Mostly in-state searches, but again, Feedjit tells me where these people are at. I don't think Fry's is anywhere but AZ - it's owned by Kroger and I know Kroger has all kinds of different stores/names all over the U.S.
Coakley v Brown. Talk about political entertainment. It took me by great surprise to read yesterday that there is an inkling of a possibility that a republican could actually win the now-empty (well there is an interim dude) seat that Senator Kennedy used to occupy. The hype is that if Brown wins, he could possibly be placed into office before the "Big Vote" occurs on health care and he would, of course, vote against it.
For the record, I no longer consider myself republican but I also certainly do not agree with the liberal slant, either. I actually have no party at this point. I could say independent, but I haven't really done the research on that "party" to come to any conclusion as to whether I would want to identify myself with them or not. I am definitely on the conservative side of things, but I have found that the republican party is no better at the table in speaking the truth and doing what they say they are going to do than are liberals.
However, I am totally opposed to aspects of this health care bill. I have repeatedly stated my opposition to ramming a bill through just to get one - through, regardless of how much of mine and yours money is going to be spent. For something so enormously huge (yes, repetitive and improper grammer, I make my point) I figure a good year, 2 years however long it takes to look at all the implications and the money and everything it's going to affect before getting a final bill on the President's desk to sign.
Well, anyway, work day is here and I must be offa here.
C'ya later.
ben
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Cafe World Tips and Answers Part 3
Question:
cafe world..why have my buzz rating going down since I added another oven
Probably your oven has nothing to do with it. But if it does, it's simply - probably anyway - that you have more customers coming in than you have seats to sit them down at. They stand there, tap impatiently, then leave, bam, your buzz rating goes down. So, watch your game for a while. If there are any customers standing there without a seat, try adding more tables. Sometimes they sit down and have to wait too long to get served. Make sure your serving counters are close enough to the tables and definitely, make sure your waiters/waitresses aren't blocked from getting to your tables. Of course, you could do "auto-serve", where the waitresses magically fling the plates from the counter to the tables without moving.
This is accomplished by blocking your counters in. However, I do not have a buzz rating problem and I do not use fling magic.
Question:
why don't my servers in cafe world on facebook serve everyone.
Either you don't have enough servers or they are blocked from getting to the tables. Again, make sure your counters are close to the tables. I've seen all kinds of cafe layouts, my favorite is a giant U-shape setup where the tables are lined next to each other in - you guessed it - a U shape. The counters are put in the middle. Your servers have fast access to getting the food on the table. If you have more customers than the servers can handle, you'll have to slow down the customers some how. One easy way is to have only one entrance door. Of course, check and see that you aren't able to level up and hire another server.
Question:
how to get rid of neighbors on cafe world.
This is a commonly asked question and there is no way, yet to do that. I do have an idea though, that if you dump them as a friend on Facebook you will probably see their stuff disappear on Cafe World as well, but don't quote me on that as I haven't tried it yet. I don't really know why anyone would want to get rid of neighbors - even if they aren't playing the game you can still get 20 gold coins from them every day and 5 Cafe Points as well.
Question/statement:
setting up cafe world so chef doesn't throw food.
Actually, you want your chef to stand in one place and serve the food and cook it. It saves a LOT of time in having to watch your chef - which would be you - walking back and forth and back and forth, it more than quadruples the time it takes to prepare food or serve it. But, if you REALLY don't want him/her to do that, simply make sure your ovens are not blocked. I block all of my ovens to force the chef to "throw" (I like to call it flinging) the food.
Question:
facebook cafe world samples. I assume the person was asking how to get them. You can get 100 free samples from your neighbors on your Facebook wall whenever any of your Cafe World Neighbors prepare a dish and the application gives them the option to post it on their wall - allowing all neighbors to grab up 100 free servings. I currently have 19,000 free servings in my gift box. You can also get free servings by gifting. You gift your neighbors, hopefully they gift you back. I FAR prefer getting my free samples from my Facebook wall because it's MUCH faster to do than trying to collect all those gifts from neighbors.
Question:
Cafe World don't get points when visiting neighbors
I have no idea, honestly, why you wouldn't get points when visiting neighbors. The only thing I have had happen is that it goes down from 5 Cafe Points to 2 after you have visited enough of them. I have never had that problem, I have no context to give an opinion.
More questions? I'm at level 63 and have figured out quite a lot of this game - though I'm sure there is some I don't know. Still, if you have a question about Cafe World I will be happy to try and give a good answer.
cafe world..why have my buzz rating going down since I added another oven
Probably your oven has nothing to do with it. But if it does, it's simply - probably anyway - that you have more customers coming in than you have seats to sit them down at. They stand there, tap impatiently, then leave, bam, your buzz rating goes down. So, watch your game for a while. If there are any customers standing there without a seat, try adding more tables. Sometimes they sit down and have to wait too long to get served. Make sure your serving counters are close enough to the tables and definitely, make sure your waiters/waitresses aren't blocked from getting to your tables. Of course, you could do "auto-serve", where the waitresses magically fling the plates from the counter to the tables without moving.
This is accomplished by blocking your counters in. However, I do not have a buzz rating problem and I do not use fling magic.
Question:
why don't my servers in cafe world on facebook serve everyone.
Either you don't have enough servers or they are blocked from getting to the tables. Again, make sure your counters are close to the tables. I've seen all kinds of cafe layouts, my favorite is a giant U-shape setup where the tables are lined next to each other in - you guessed it - a U shape. The counters are put in the middle. Your servers have fast access to getting the food on the table. If you have more customers than the servers can handle, you'll have to slow down the customers some how. One easy way is to have only one entrance door. Of course, check and see that you aren't able to level up and hire another server.
Question:
how to get rid of neighbors on cafe world.
This is a commonly asked question and there is no way, yet to do that. I do have an idea though, that if you dump them as a friend on Facebook you will probably see their stuff disappear on Cafe World as well, but don't quote me on that as I haven't tried it yet. I don't really know why anyone would want to get rid of neighbors - even if they aren't playing the game you can still get 20 gold coins from them every day and 5 Cafe Points as well.
Question/statement:
setting up cafe world so chef doesn't throw food.
Actually, you want your chef to stand in one place and serve the food and cook it. It saves a LOT of time in having to watch your chef - which would be you - walking back and forth and back and forth, it more than quadruples the time it takes to prepare food or serve it. But, if you REALLY don't want him/her to do that, simply make sure your ovens are not blocked. I block all of my ovens to force the chef to "throw" (I like to call it flinging) the food.
Question:
facebook cafe world samples. I assume the person was asking how to get them. You can get 100 free samples from your neighbors on your Facebook wall whenever any of your Cafe World Neighbors prepare a dish and the application gives them the option to post it on their wall - allowing all neighbors to grab up 100 free servings. I currently have 19,000 free servings in my gift box. You can also get free servings by gifting. You gift your neighbors, hopefully they gift you back. I FAR prefer getting my free samples from my Facebook wall because it's MUCH faster to do than trying to collect all those gifts from neighbors.
Question:
Cafe World don't get points when visiting neighbors
I have no idea, honestly, why you wouldn't get points when visiting neighbors. The only thing I have had happen is that it goes down from 5 Cafe Points to 2 after you have visited enough of them. I have never had that problem, I have no context to give an opinion.
More questions? I'm at level 63 and have figured out quite a lot of this game - though I'm sure there is some I don't know. Still, if you have a question about Cafe World I will be happy to try and give a good answer.
Tuesday
Day 2
I usually don't eat anything in the mornings anyway, so who knows how I'll fare today on the "reduced caloric intake" plan. Otherwise known as a diet. It isn't really that hard, it's mostly just watching the portions sizes of what I may happen to be eating and also eliminating eating anytime near bedtime. Meaning - for me - about 3 hours minimum. I put the number at 6:00pm and if I go over a little, not the end of the world. I stepped up my output yesterday after getting home from work. I also pushed a broom for about an hour yesterday at work, that's got to count for something as well.
Well that's cause' it was kinda slow at work yesterday. Today looks to be an all-day marathon. 1 pickup at a jobsite; 2 deliveries; and a trip downtown. That should pretty much consume the entire day. Take that back, I just looked into the truck routing system, now there are 4 deliveries instead of 2 plus more pickups. Yes, the day should be cashed in pretty fast.
Well - back to the dieting junk - I am totally bypassing any restaurants that start with a J and has a dummy in a box/B and has a porcelain statue for it's ads/Giant yellow M and has a clown as it's mascot. And other places like that. In fact, if I don't come across a Subway somewhere, I just won't eat. Subway finally got in their version of a light ranch dressing - of which I have them put on sparingly anyway. I mostly do salads there - vegetables do not usually have much calories attached to them.
That should focus me for a while. My tenant is using a place called 24 hour fitness. I thought he was going to Lifetime Fitness. He says there are no contracts and you only pay first and last month's monthly fee in advance. $70 upfront. Not bad, really. I'm assuming the days of contracts at those places are over - people do not want to get locked down into a long-term contract for a - fitness center. I also gaffe at the thought of putting down $75/$100 plus just to register you. It's simply going into a salesperson's pocket. Bunk. So, I think I am going to check out this place, see if what he says is true and then make a decision. I gotta have a good boost in this workout situation, a couple of months worth of a fitness center would help me along considerably.
Well, as normal at this early hour of the day, the work day is almost here and I must be offa here.
G'day.
ben
I usually don't eat anything in the mornings anyway, so who knows how I'll fare today on the "reduced caloric intake" plan. Otherwise known as a diet. It isn't really that hard, it's mostly just watching the portions sizes of what I may happen to be eating and also eliminating eating anytime near bedtime. Meaning - for me - about 3 hours minimum. I put the number at 6:00pm and if I go over a little, not the end of the world. I stepped up my output yesterday after getting home from work. I also pushed a broom for about an hour yesterday at work, that's got to count for something as well.
Well that's cause' it was kinda slow at work yesterday. Today looks to be an all-day marathon. 1 pickup at a jobsite; 2 deliveries; and a trip downtown. That should pretty much consume the entire day. Take that back, I just looked into the truck routing system, now there are 4 deliveries instead of 2 plus more pickups. Yes, the day should be cashed in pretty fast.
Well - back to the dieting junk - I am totally bypassing any restaurants that start with a J and has a dummy in a box/B and has a porcelain statue for it's ads/Giant yellow M and has a clown as it's mascot. And other places like that. In fact, if I don't come across a Subway somewhere, I just won't eat. Subway finally got in their version of a light ranch dressing - of which I have them put on sparingly anyway. I mostly do salads there - vegetables do not usually have much calories attached to them.
That should focus me for a while. My tenant is using a place called 24 hour fitness. I thought he was going to Lifetime Fitness. He says there are no contracts and you only pay first and last month's monthly fee in advance. $70 upfront. Not bad, really. I'm assuming the days of contracts at those places are over - people do not want to get locked down into a long-term contract for a - fitness center. I also gaffe at the thought of putting down $75/$100 plus just to register you. It's simply going into a salesperson's pocket. Bunk. So, I think I am going to check out this place, see if what he says is true and then make a decision. I gotta have a good boost in this workout situation, a couple of months worth of a fitness center would help me along considerably.
Well, as normal at this early hour of the day, the work day is almost here and I must be offa here.
G'day.
ben
Monday, January 11, 2010
Monday
Yesterday, I took no small amount of pleasure in watching fully 5 teenaged boys attempting to push my old Buick back up the driveway into it's parking space. The battery is dead and I will have to get a new one for it, it simply won't hold a charge.
The humor was because of their words: "This car doesn't look that heavy" after I told them it was going to be hard to get it up the driveway. After 5 attempts to just get the thing up over the curb, my neighbors came running over and yes, we got the car up the driveway. BTW, how does a car "look" or "not look" heavy?
There are people in our neighborhood that would have reported it to police, who would have come out and put a red sticker on it and eventually, have it towed off for not having current registration. In fact, one individual makes it a habit to turn in every neighbor on the street for alleged blight violations. I had no idea I wasn't the only one that had received such notice in the mail from the city. There were no violations on my property, nothing ever happened. I tend to like to keep my property maintained, no looking like s***.
The weekend flew away like a jumbo jet taking off at the airport. All that rock stuff was definitely worth the effort, but - it's like there never WAS a weekend.
The man that started the stuff the other day when I pulled up in the truck apparently had a sudden change of view as well. Perhaps because I threatened to call the police if he ever threatened me again. It's much easier, in dealing with an ex-con, to simply say you're going to call the law than to try and butt heads. He was at my next-door neighbor's house, talking away with me as if nothing had ever happened. I went along with it - easier to be friendly than not - to see where it would lead.
Well, I ended up leaving anyway and that was the end of that. This is the dude that was taking pictures last week of me and the truck. Whatever.
The rock project is almost done, but - I can't go on any further with this, it's time to go to work!
Ava' great day!
ben
The humor was because of their words: "This car doesn't look that heavy" after I told them it was going to be hard to get it up the driveway. After 5 attempts to just get the thing up over the curb, my neighbors came running over and yes, we got the car up the driveway. BTW, how does a car "look" or "not look" heavy?
There are people in our neighborhood that would have reported it to police, who would have come out and put a red sticker on it and eventually, have it towed off for not having current registration. In fact, one individual makes it a habit to turn in every neighbor on the street for alleged blight violations. I had no idea I wasn't the only one that had received such notice in the mail from the city. There were no violations on my property, nothing ever happened. I tend to like to keep my property maintained, no looking like s***.
The weekend flew away like a jumbo jet taking off at the airport. All that rock stuff was definitely worth the effort, but - it's like there never WAS a weekend.
The man that started the stuff the other day when I pulled up in the truck apparently had a sudden change of view as well. Perhaps because I threatened to call the police if he ever threatened me again. It's much easier, in dealing with an ex-con, to simply say you're going to call the law than to try and butt heads. He was at my next-door neighbor's house, talking away with me as if nothing had ever happened. I went along with it - easier to be friendly than not - to see where it would lead.
Well, I ended up leaving anyway and that was the end of that. This is the dude that was taking pictures last week of me and the truck. Whatever.
The rock project is almost done, but - I can't go on any further with this, it's time to go to work!
Ava' great day!
ben
Sunday, January 10, 2010
Sunday
It was very nice, yesterday, to get all those boys out there working, without complaining, working hard for at least 4 hours. Maybe it was longer than that, I didn't check the clock, I only know that around 5:00pm or so, they were visibly worn out and I ended it there. There is still several thousand pounds of rocks to haul all over the place, but it will get done and I will be happy.
Fact, I'm already happy, the east side of the house is starting to finally look something like I envisioned it to. I did want to erect some sort of overhand or awning over there for shade purposes in the summer and move my BBQ grill over there. Not yet is all I can say, not yet. There are still plenty of other things to be done over there and it's all about hours spent at this point, not money.
Changing the subject, the ex-Marine lost his job. He apparently had a scuffle with the Ops Manager of the company he was working for and now he's unemployed. One thing I can say is that he is paid up for the month of January and also he gets a check from the military every month for his disability - whether I see any of that next month or not remains to be seen. It's obvious he's hurting financially because he isn't going out much at all - quite abnormal for him but it costs money to go to bars and karaoke and all that stuff. I'm not sweating it - yet. It's only the 10th, he has time to find a new job - yet - but as we all know, jobs aren't exactly available in excessive amounts right now.
Meanwhile, I am still receiving $100 per week from one tenant and the other switched from weekly payments to bi-monthly. I give regular room rates for paying bi-monthly, he was paying a full $65 more for the "priviledge" of paying weekly. No big deal.
Today - going to continue work on getting the rock hauled all over the place. I'm attempting to decide what to make for Sunday dinner - I usually do something a little more extravagant than other days worth of eating, but I have no ideas popping into my head yet. I was thinking a roast, but it's alreayd almost 10:00 am - getting a little late for that. The usual suspects are just not clicking - I want something different today. Maybe go to the store and look around and get some ideas just standing there - looking.
In fact, great idea, I think I'll head up there right now before all this work business gets started and I won't have time!
C'yall later
ben
Fact, I'm already happy, the east side of the house is starting to finally look something like I envisioned it to. I did want to erect some sort of overhand or awning over there for shade purposes in the summer and move my BBQ grill over there. Not yet is all I can say, not yet. There are still plenty of other things to be done over there and it's all about hours spent at this point, not money.
Changing the subject, the ex-Marine lost his job. He apparently had a scuffle with the Ops Manager of the company he was working for and now he's unemployed. One thing I can say is that he is paid up for the month of January and also he gets a check from the military every month for his disability - whether I see any of that next month or not remains to be seen. It's obvious he's hurting financially because he isn't going out much at all - quite abnormal for him but it costs money to go to bars and karaoke and all that stuff. I'm not sweating it - yet. It's only the 10th, he has time to find a new job - yet - but as we all know, jobs aren't exactly available in excessive amounts right now.
Meanwhile, I am still receiving $100 per week from one tenant and the other switched from weekly payments to bi-monthly. I give regular room rates for paying bi-monthly, he was paying a full $65 more for the "priviledge" of paying weekly. No big deal.
Today - going to continue work on getting the rock hauled all over the place. I'm attempting to decide what to make for Sunday dinner - I usually do something a little more extravagant than other days worth of eating, but I have no ideas popping into my head yet. I was thinking a roast, but it's alreayd almost 10:00 am - getting a little late for that. The usual suspects are just not clicking - I want something different today. Maybe go to the store and look around and get some ideas just standing there - looking.
In fact, great idea, I think I'll head up there right now before all this work business gets started and I won't have time!
C'yall later
ben
Saturday, January 9, 2010
Cafe World Tips - Part 2
Edited: I found a link to Zynga for a fixit-ticket. Basically you fill out a form or something on Zynga about whatever's happening in your cafe that is not working, which is usually connectivity issues. http://zynga.custhelp.com/app/utils/login_form/redirect/ask
If you don't have an account with Zynga you will have to create one, no big deal. It's the only real thing I know of you can do to complain about issues that are affecting the way the game is playing.
Anyway my first post about Cafe World with tips has generated quite a lot of interest. If you are here from a Google search or Twitter reference, please do a search for Cafe World on my site and you will find the other posting about it.
Today someone posted on Facebook their answer to losing a lot of servings due to a connection error - immediately refresh and usually that brings back your lost servings. Well, Cafe World definitely has some serious issues, but a lot of people are complaining to them about it and I do hope they are making it top priority.
I'm currently at level 62. I have about 175,000 servings of food on my counters. I leave one counter open so that all the free 100 servings that are available from your neighbors can be used. That's my biggest tip right there. GET NEIGHBORS. You don't need to purchase an e-book to figure this game out, you just have to play it and stumble across stuff until you have your own system down.
You can easily get neighbors by visiting Cafe World's Facebook wall. Everytime Cafe World posts something on there, people leave comments - thousands of them - to add them as neighbors. Adding neighbors is tedious work but it's worth it. I have 104 of them right now, my goal is eventually to get to 1,000.
The point of getting neighbors is what I already touched on. When you are cooking something on your stove, you usually get a pop-up that says something like congrats, you have just done a dish of the day, do you want to share with your neighbors? ALWAYS click accept. It posts on your Facebook wall and all of your neighbors can get 100 servings of it. I currently have around 15,000 servings of food in my gift box simply from acquiring those 100 serving portions. They seem to be able to stay in there indefinitely. I have on counter that I use for those dishes, the rest of my counters are all full of stuff I have been cooking for - a couple of months now, I think.
I'm totally out for Cafe points. I like the competition with my neighbors to stay ahead of them, lol. Plus, of course, you level up on counters and ovens. I have gotten all the counters and ovens that you can currently get, the only thing I have left to acquire is the lobster dish which I think is at level 63 or 64, can't remember. The levels take more and more points to get to as you move on up. The next level for me? I have to get 30,000 Cafe Points to get there. A bit ridiculous when you figure that the only reward you get for doing all that cooking is 5,000 gold coins and nothing else. A lot of people are complaining about that, too, hopefully they'll give more incentive to keep cooking.
Now, the next biggest complaint I see is your buzz rating. People complain that it is always low. Well, if it is, there is something wrong with the layout of your cafe. That's plain and simply all there really is to it. I have an almost constant 105 rating, the highest you can get. If yours is low and you would like some help, you can send me a pic of your cafe or ask to become neighbors and maybe I can take a look and see what's the deal with it. But, I would suggest you rearrange stuff in your cafe and get your serving counters as close to the tables as possible. Buzz rating goes down because customers are waiting for a seat to get food. You'll see them stand there, tap impatiently and then leave. You also see your rating go down when they leave, pissed off because they had to wait too long.
Lol, well that's what they are intoning, you don't like to wait forever to get seated at a restaurant either, do you? I didn't think so. One tip that helped me when I was having trouble was to get rid of extra entrance doors. I had 3. When I got rid of 2 of them, my buzz rating went up to 105 in less than a half an hour. The point is that it takes longer for your customers to get to the tables - you don't get buzz scrapped for that, they just don't want to wait too long for a table. You can try adding more tables as well.
The game is addictive, that's all I can say about it. I have stuff cooking all the time. I love the way they have different amounts of time set up for different dishes. There are lots of improvements they could make and they have compiled a list of the most popular things people are asking for, but really, the biggest thing is to get the game running smoothly. It's a beta application and I have found that stuff always has some kinds of problems attached to them.
If you have any questions or want to become neighbors, simply leave a comment below and I can try to help you, especially people just starting to play the game and trying to figure it out.
If you don't have an account with Zynga you will have to create one, no big deal. It's the only real thing I know of you can do to complain about issues that are affecting the way the game is playing.
Anyway my first post about Cafe World with tips has generated quite a lot of interest. If you are here from a Google search or Twitter reference, please do a search for Cafe World on my site and you will find the other posting about it.
Today someone posted on Facebook their answer to losing a lot of servings due to a connection error - immediately refresh and usually that brings back your lost servings. Well, Cafe World definitely has some serious issues, but a lot of people are complaining to them about it and I do hope they are making it top priority.
I'm currently at level 62. I have about 175,000 servings of food on my counters. I leave one counter open so that all the free 100 servings that are available from your neighbors can be used. That's my biggest tip right there. GET NEIGHBORS. You don't need to purchase an e-book to figure this game out, you just have to play it and stumble across stuff until you have your own system down.
You can easily get neighbors by visiting Cafe World's Facebook wall. Everytime Cafe World posts something on there, people leave comments - thousands of them - to add them as neighbors. Adding neighbors is tedious work but it's worth it. I have 104 of them right now, my goal is eventually to get to 1,000.
The point of getting neighbors is what I already touched on. When you are cooking something on your stove, you usually get a pop-up that says something like congrats, you have just done a dish of the day, do you want to share with your neighbors? ALWAYS click accept. It posts on your Facebook wall and all of your neighbors can get 100 servings of it. I currently have around 15,000 servings of food in my gift box simply from acquiring those 100 serving portions. They seem to be able to stay in there indefinitely. I have on counter that I use for those dishes, the rest of my counters are all full of stuff I have been cooking for - a couple of months now, I think.
I'm totally out for Cafe points. I like the competition with my neighbors to stay ahead of them, lol. Plus, of course, you level up on counters and ovens. I have gotten all the counters and ovens that you can currently get, the only thing I have left to acquire is the lobster dish which I think is at level 63 or 64, can't remember. The levels take more and more points to get to as you move on up. The next level for me? I have to get 30,000 Cafe Points to get there. A bit ridiculous when you figure that the only reward you get for doing all that cooking is 5,000 gold coins and nothing else. A lot of people are complaining about that, too, hopefully they'll give more incentive to keep cooking.
Now, the next biggest complaint I see is your buzz rating. People complain that it is always low. Well, if it is, there is something wrong with the layout of your cafe. That's plain and simply all there really is to it. I have an almost constant 105 rating, the highest you can get. If yours is low and you would like some help, you can send me a pic of your cafe or ask to become neighbors and maybe I can take a look and see what's the deal with it. But, I would suggest you rearrange stuff in your cafe and get your serving counters as close to the tables as possible. Buzz rating goes down because customers are waiting for a seat to get food. You'll see them stand there, tap impatiently and then leave. You also see your rating go down when they leave, pissed off because they had to wait too long.
Lol, well that's what they are intoning, you don't like to wait forever to get seated at a restaurant either, do you? I didn't think so. One tip that helped me when I was having trouble was to get rid of extra entrance doors. I had 3. When I got rid of 2 of them, my buzz rating went up to 105 in less than a half an hour. The point is that it takes longer for your customers to get to the tables - you don't get buzz scrapped for that, they just don't want to wait too long for a table. You can try adding more tables as well.
The game is addictive, that's all I can say about it. I have stuff cooking all the time. I love the way they have different amounts of time set up for different dishes. There are lots of improvements they could make and they have compiled a list of the most popular things people are asking for, but really, the biggest thing is to get the game running smoothly. It's a beta application and I have found that stuff always has some kinds of problems attached to them.
If you have any questions or want to become neighbors, simply leave a comment below and I can try to help you, especially people just starting to play the game and trying to figure it out.
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