Magic Jack: Good or Bad?

Hello to all you Googlers who have come here to see what one man's opinion of this device known as a Magic Jack is.

It's coming close to 2 years since I first got the Magic Jack device. I was going through some financial rollercoaster rides - still am actually - and decided to save money where I could. I had heard about the Magic Jack and decided to give it a try. I actually believe it was one of those "too good to be true" stories, considering they only wanted $19.95 per year for the service plus another $20 initially to get the device.

I figured if I could make it work at all, my $27.95 per month home phone bill would go away and that would be a substantial savings right there. Note that that phone bill was bare-bones, basic service that still came out that high every month, mostly because of unbelievable taxation.

I had some problems getting the thing to work at first. Number 1, if you have more than one account user on your computer, the device will automatically reload the software on each user's account as different users access it. When more the Magic Jack is loaded more than once onto the same computer - look out, cause' it ain't gonna work. You have to go into the other user's account and end the duplicated software running itself twice.

When I did get the thing to work, I was amazed at the quality of sound in making phone calls. It's not some thing that has a bunch of background noise and being hard to hear what a person on the other end is saying, it's pretty much crystal clear. Long distance if free. The thing will send your voice mails to your email account - you can actually play back your voice mails on Microsoft Media player! I'm serious, I get an email, click on the link and it takes me to that software and plays it back.

So the pro's and the cons.

Start with the downside: You MUST have high speed internet for it to work. I had that at the time anyway, no problem there and I am not getting rid of high speed internet if I don't have to.
The device itself? Where the nub sticks into a hub portal? Treat it like a package with Fragile written on it - it can't take a lot of "abuse", meaning plugged in and removed too many times. It will loosen up and the device will quit working. Well, really, if you just are careful with it, I'm sure it will be alright. I had a person in my house who would yank the jack out of the hub on my computer, take it to his room and plug it back in.

He was not being careful with it and I demanded he stop doing that. That person no longer lives at my house.

The other con, again, is that sometimes you have to unplug the thing and then plug it back in to get it to work. Not that often and not a big deal. Whether it's plugged in or not, you will still receive voicemail to your email account or, of course, you can call to get your voicemail as well.

Another thing that I don't like about the service is the fact that if you have a problem, you cannot call the company. You have to go to their website and jump through a lot of hoops to get to a "live operator" that is just an Instant Message type of thing. I have yet to "speak" to any of them that actually KNEW - ANYTHING. They all type unbelievably slow making a conversation with them take for freaking ever. I have only had to do that a couple of time, fortunately. Well, one time I did call the inventor - I found his phone number by searching the net for a while, called his home and asked for a new magicjack for free - the old one broke and they refused to send me a new one free. As I said before, you really need to treat these things with care, they ARE a bit flimsy.

The pro's:
Works beautifully, crystal clear sound.
Can change your phone number at any time.
Can take it with you if desired anywhere you go, if there is a computer with high speed internet, you can have free phone service.
The price, obviously, is what is drawing people to it. It's as good as Vonage without the high price tag. In fact, I HAD Vonage - for one month and then dropped that sucky service.

There isn't much to not like about it. At the price, anyone can afford to at least try it once and see if you like it or not. They give even lower prices if you buy 5 years worth at a time. Will the price always be $19.95? I have no idea. I can see where some company will buy it out and jack up the prices, at least a good possibility of that. Still, what do you have to lose? The total start-up price is $39.99 plus tax.

I do not work for Magic Jack, I am a pretty happy customer with it. I have started to turn this particular blog of mine into a critique of different companies and dealings with entities and decided to write one up about this particular product.

Monday

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

My New Account

Chase Bank sends out a coupon regularly in the mass mail for $100 for opening a checking account with them.

I had a Chase account long ago before they closed their doors here, packed their bags and totally left Arizona. I liked that bank then, I have heard they are a big bank mentality now. Well who cares, they are all like that anymore. I currently have a Compass Bank account - I also like Compass but the nearest branch is 6 miles away - in a direction I mostly never go.

There is one on the way home from work, however. I have thought about having an account somewhere where there is a branch close to my house - the nearest Chase is 2 miles away. I'm not a fan of having to drive long distances to do much of any kind of business unless it's something like a Craigslist deal where the gas spent is nothing compared to the deal I'm getting in money saved.

Well, really, the allure is a hundred bucks free. Yes, you have to deposit $100 plus the opening deposit, yes you have to keep the account for at least 6 months, but what the hey. I figure to use that account as my "savings" account. Sorta. I don't have much to save, but what I do, I'm doing it.

Anyway, had the rock truck here this morning. I spent the $100 my dad gave me for Christmas on it and some other money I got from tenants. I know, I was supposed to do something for myself with that Christmas money - well, really, I did do something for myself - I was hating the looks of that side of the house.

I have, however, created a ton of work for myself - make that 8 tons of work, lol. Carry all that stuff in little plastic pails? Good workout! Might lose a few pounds hauling all that stuff over there!

Well, I have to twist it somehow to make it sound appealing, cause' honey, carry 16,000 pounds of rocks in little pails for the next couple of days? Not too appealing to me at all.

Anyway, I have to get my mind into that mode - working that is - I'm outta here.
ben

Friday

I have a few minutes before the work clock starts.

Yesterday, on 2 occasions, I thought I was witnessing the end of life for 2 people on 2 different occasions.

1. About a 16 year old boy gets off a city bus and starts running across this major and very busy street - without looking to see if there was any traffic. I'm serious, how that kid wasn't run clean over by that car, I'll never know, but that boy just barely escaped with his life.

2. Car comes up to the street I'm driving the semi. I have no clue why people see a truck and automatically think they MUST cut it off, pull out in front of it, do whatever - apparently we're just a nuisance. This driver flies up to this stop-sign, sees me coming and starts pulling out - without looking the other direction, where a car is coming at around 50 MPH. So, this woman is driving her car out into traffic without looking. Her head snaps the other way and again, I'm telling you - just BARELY gets it stopped in time. A T-bone collision at that rate of speed? She's dead, maimed, whatever, life ain't gonna be the same.

Is it really worth risking and possibly losing your life just to get ahead in traffic?

I don't think so.

I think everyone's license should be revoked and we should all be forced to go in for month's worth of driver training. Just the numbers in physical property damage going down would be worth the expense, not to mention the lives saved. The Department of Transportation is doing ads now to try and tell people not to text while driving.

I mean, really. Should anyone HAVE to be told not to do that? I know, thousands or hundreds of thousands or millions - who knows? - of people do it every day while driving. I watch these people and I agree with the conclusion that it's as bad as drunken driving. Cars weaving in and out of their lanes, trucks driving in and out of the emergency lane, all kinds of craziness in the name and for the sake of texting. I thought using a cell phone while driving was bad enough, this stuff is crazy.

Well, I had other thoughts but time has run out.

Have a great day!
ben

BenB's Made-Up Word Of The Day: Dissment/s

Thank you, thank you, oh yes, thank you very much, you can stop the applause now. Yes, indeedy folks, I have made up yet another word. Okay, I didn't really make anything up, it just popped into my head, I was trying to say "dissing statements" and dissment came out of a brain cell somewhere up there. Amazing I have any of those left. I was writing a reply to a lady on Craigslist who was bashing other posters who were writing about tenants who make demands and do "stuff" to their homes.

Well that's a long story not even going to go into. That situation on Craigslist IS entertaining, however. As I have stated numerous times before, I am easily entertained. Try not to equate that with stupidity, okay? I like being in my own world on my own cyber-planet.

Regardless, it's hump-day. I had something planned for after-work today but it has totally eluded me. OH, yes, now it has resurfaced: another battery for the old Buick. I need to be able to move that car this weekend. I cannot stand the appearance of the east side of my property, and for all the hard work I have put into that area, it still looks like crap cause' the ground is just plain ole' dirt with some strands of grass growing. Now, all the plants I have planted over there look wonderful - which is what is eating at me.

So, 8 more tons of Palomino Gold are being delivered early Saturday morning. I didn't really want it that early, but that was their schedule. Apparently, not that many people want to rise at 6:00 am to greet a truckload of material. Heck, it will still be dark out there! Oh and this project? Going to be a pain in the @$$. There is no way to get a truck to that side of the house. I have to have it dumped on the west side and will have to wheelbarrow it to the east side. Yes, folks, I should be losing a few pounds of weight on whatever days I decide to go forth with that project.

However, a couple of tons will be distributed on the back and west side - where I already have that kind of rock. I didn't put enough down the first time - money restraints - just enough to get it covered and looking good. I don't doubt that this 8 tons won't be enough, either, but it WILL be enough to sufficiently cover the ground over there and make it look nice. Very nice.

This is my idea of pleasure? No, but I can hardly think about going on a vacation or some other waste of money right now - or anytime in the near future that I can see.

Well, enough for this entry, my moments before work starts are rapidly disappearing and I haven't checked the news yet.

G'day.

ben

Semi V Car

I was driving to a delivery this morning in Apache Junction. I have been to this site before, a long time ago actually - it's a water pumping station with giant tanks and also additives are put into the water. Anyway, it's a narrow street - but there is a rather large housing complex that this street is a feeder for. In fact, there are only 2 streets in and out of this housing complex, making the street I was turning onto a rather busy one at that.

Well, I'm approaching this side street and hoping no-one comes up to the light from that street so I don't have to bother with the people that refuse to move out of the way. I mean, on a street that narrow, making a right-hand turn, I have no choice but to "take out" the lanes from on-coming traffic. This isn't illegal, either, in fact, you are trained to do this when the situation calls for it.

A late-model Mustang pulls up to the white line to wait for the light to turn green. I've had more than my share of unwilling motorists who simply refuse to back up. The man driving this car was one of them. I swung wide - and stopped -right in front of his car. He sits there and looks at me, I smile back at him - this isn't some ego trip, I actually HATE having to do this just because of the attitudes I get back in return sometimes, but - I have no choice.

He continues to just look at me. He refuses to move. Well, I ain't backing up and the only direction I'm going is forward. I have 160 gallons of fuel in my tank, odds are good my vehicle will far outlast his in terms of sitting there forever waiting for someone to make a move. But really, I am never out to start trouble with people while driving the semi - never. I just sit there and look at him back. He finally motions me to move back to my lane. Yes, I would love to do that if I could. I point at my trailer.

A good minute has passed. He gets this look on his face - indescribable - puts the car in reverse, proceeds to back up - 5 feet. Not NEAR enough room for me to clear his car and finish the turn. Quite begrudgingly, he backs up further. I expected the finger - mostly people do that - he didn't, he was just disgusted that a truck driver had the gall to - follow procedure really - and force him out of his comfort zone. Or pride zone. Or ego zone, whatever.

Again, truck drivers are trained to do that. You are not supposed to drag your trailer wheels over the sidewalk - for obvious reasons. My trailer would have taken out the traffic light had I attempted to simply make an L-turn - as many car drivers think we should be able to do.

You see signs on some trailers? "WIDE RIGHT TURNS" or something similar with a picture. It means the truck needs a lot of turning space to be able to make the turn. The driver prolly isn't wanting to get into a fight with you or make you mad, it's simply that he or she HAS NO CHOICE IN THE MATTER. Were that the general motoring public would have JUST A LITTLE MORE PATIENCE with trucks that are on the road with them.

I truly wish the trucking industry would just completely shut down for a week.
You would be awestruck at what would happen to the entire economy. When's the last time you saw a train pulling up to the loading dock at a grocery store with groceries? Those stores rely on daily shipments of goods to keep their shelves stocked. It didn't come in by oxen pulling a cart.

Do you know how many times a week a tanker truck has to go to each gas station to keep each station's underground tanks filled? A couple of days and they would be done, closed for business. Wal-Empty; Jack-With-Nothing-Box; Emptyway; United No-Fly; Sears - Has Nothing stores. Oh, they might have something left after a week, but it would be next-to-nothing and people would be panicking. Especially for groceries and gasoline.

WHAT, exactly, is it going to take to get people to see trucks and their drivers as their friends, not their enemies? It didn't used to be that way.

Tuesday

In local news - my version of it - Juice and Darnell are going to spend quality time in the local Juvenile Detention hall. Word about such things travels quickly in these "parts". These are the younger brothers of JD - the oldest kid who spends a lot of time at my house playing video games and such with my son. Apparently Darnell has already been on house arrest for some time. These are the 2 boys that tried to steal games from a Fry's Electronics.

The deal with further trouble is that they apparently have been smoking pot, their probation officer puts them through the urine drug testing once a month - and of course it's been "hot" every time for both of them. Their court date before a judge is tomorrow. I expect these boys may find that their free stay at Juvi is not a party and perhaps a short period of time spent in there will give them a change of view about smoking dope while on probation and totally dissing their probation officer in doing such. Well I would call it dissed since those boys know the urine test is going to come back positive for pot use.

Hmmm, well this is an interesting week at work, anyway. When you're regular manager is gone on vacation, it basically means - I - end up doing most everything. Just about guaranteed the guy coming in today will get nothing done around here per se - he will do the invoicing of any tickets that come in but that's about it. I am still attempting to get yesterday's deliveries completed today.

In my own faux pass, I realized this morning that the power reader has only $1.67 left on it. With no hot showers, that could last a long time, but - of course - morning is time to take showers, now isn't it? I'm hoping against hope I get dispatched downtown to do a transfer so I can take a few minutes of my break time, stop at the house and load money onto it. I have Michael to thank for this one - even though it IS my responsibility. The card reader always starts beeping at the $10.00 mark. It will continue to beep until someone pushes the button to stop it. The beeping is the annoyance to let you know that you are, indeed, almost out of power - $10 is enough to last more than 2 days right now - and you'd better do something about it.

Last time Michael did this, I warned him to NOT do that again. So, I figure he needs to pay somehow - I'm sure I can think up some chore that needs to be done that will reinforce the idea of not pushing the button on that electronic device not matter HOW annoying it may be.

Well, I also figure to put a couple hundred on that card this time and not have to worry about it for quite a while.

Work day approacheth. I know of 3 deliveries so far, but I haven't checked this morning. The second delivery is almost nothing in terms of material, that one will be easy. The first one is the huge order from yesterday - it's pulled but not wrapped or loaded. I dunno what the third one is.

I'm outta here.
Ava' good one.
ben

Monday

The bantering continues. Iran is playing a game - or is playing games - with the entire international community. It would be comical if it weren't for the fact that all of this entails the possibility of nuclear warhead capability in the future for that nation. Any humor in it certainly dies when considering what the Iranian government is doing to it's own people - or at least those that are taking a stand against it and - getting killed in the process.

Monday hath arrived. Not that it's the "Dreaded Day" - just that there is so much work to do, I am not sure that one day will suffice in completing it. So why am I sitting here, typing out an entry? Cause' I ain't signed in yet and I won't be for another 14 minutes.

The last couple of weeks have been nice in terms of having several days off. I intend on asking for a week off here in the next month or 2 - I have plenty of vacation hours saved up and now my floating holidays are reset. Actually, I get a day off for my birthday, perhaps I'll just ask for that entire week off.

Lots of stuff floating through my head these days. Life isn't quite what it needs to be right now. Eeking out a living, having 3 strangers living in my house and basically accomplishing nothing in terms of any eternal sense is not setting well with me. This has nothing to do with New Year's Resolutions, btw. My only resolution started already - to dump some pounds gained after the house fire. I have tried a few times, lost the weight and put it back on, I'm going to try again. I'll undoubtedly break the resolution - but hopefully not before I shed at least 10 pounds, I have 20 that needs to go. I was tipping the scales at 210, it's around 205 right now, getting to at most 190 would be a nice start.

Speaking of weight loss, the newest tenant took all 3 dogs for a walk yesterday. He wanted to do it - you get all kinds of attention when walked dogs that are that large - and yes, he's definitely capable, the man works out daily and has huge arms. Prolly if I started walking those dogs every day I would help myself get some pounds dumped. I'm in some sort of rut that I am finding difficult to break for whatever reason.

Anyway, I haven't much more time this morning, so I bid you a good day and a Happy New Year.

The Face Of The Recession

Do you see it?

It's all around you. They're there. At the convenience store, at the grocery store, the gas station. They're all around you yet you'd never know it.

They might be driving an Escalade or any kind of late-model, shiny, glitzy looking vehicle. You look at something like that and see wealth, not poverty.

You might see one pull into the driveway of a huge, 2 story house. There's nothing wrong there, those people are well off.

A U-Haul truck appears in your neighbor's driveway. You wonder what's going on there, they haven't said anything about moving?

Do you see the news reports of the food banks desperate for donations?

Churches asking for help?

Do you ever see the ads on Craigslist? People asking for food or shelter - or both?

I will continue to state that we are in a depression until I see something otherwise.

Perhaps, for New Year's Resolutions - we should be thinking about how we can help our neighbors - if in the position to do so - instead of looking at what we can do for ourselves.

BTW, those people driving that fancy SUV? That thing is scheduled to be re-po'd and the house they walked into is in foreclosure - they will be homeless and without transportation soon. The parents lost their jobs and unemployment hardly scratches the surface of living expenses. Better than nothing - yes - but.

Oh, and about helping your neighbors - well - you'll probably have to look for clues about whether there is something going on financially over there or not - they probably won't say anything to you about it. You'll have to reach out and offer the help, they most likely don't even want to talk about it to anyone, much less ask for handouts.

Not judging anyone. But it is time that we all come out of our shells and start to SEE what's going on around us. People are suffering. Possibly, if you see the need, there is something you can do about it. The government? can only do so much.

Just sayin'.

ben