Hello! Seems Blogstream is having server issues; this is why I hadn't updated this blog as previously planned. I wanted to post my comments Re: the election, both nationally and local (the one public question on the ballot especially, since it affects my place of employment). However, with BS down this weekend and the ongoing server problems...
Please be aware I have another blog at wordpress, and I'll be using that for most of my blogging. This place will serve as a mirror and/or backup whenever the WP blog isn't working.
Once everything on this end is OK, I'll have something to post tonight. It'll be posted both here and at WP. Thanks for your patience!

Hello blog readers,

It is never an easy decision to move. whether it's to a new house or school. In this case, it's to a new blog host. Nothing against this one, but after creating a separate blog for work, it is just easier to have all my blogs under one roof. One place, one login, one less hassle, one less password to remember. Besides, I want everyone to be able to comment on entries, not just members of this blog host.

In time I'll download and save the best of entries from here then post on the new place. What will happen to this place? I'll hang on to it long enough so people can find the new place. I still have to update links on my web sites, mailing lists, boards, email sigs, etc.

Thanks to Blogstream for being there when my webtv died on me. I had to get out the really old Jurassic Classic (and subsequently lost my other blog host because I didn't -- couldn't! -- update within 90 days) then find a new blog host. BS was there and it actually worked with my old classic webtv. Two years was a good run, but now it's time to move on and get a fresh start. Oh, here's a link to the new blog, but only one entry so far. There will be more this weekend. I call it "The Whatever Blog" for now, and that title may change soon.

The Whatever Blog

It is now Week 2 of going without our local WISH-TV (Channel 8) and WNDY (Channel 23). That means no watching CSI or Dave Letterman. No watching my favorite weather broadcaster and her dead-on forecasts. No Colts games or Young and the Restless. Why?
LIN TV, the parent company of WISH and WNDY, is asking our cable provider to pay a fee to carry it's broadcast signal. Almost all the local broadcast channels charge a nominal fee to cable providers in exchange for carrying their signals. However, LIN wants to charge more and as of last week pulled all their channels from Brighthouse's lineup. Not only are 125,000 Indianapolis Brighthouse customers going without these two local stations (unless they've acquired alternative means to pull in the signals), more than 2 million cable customers in several states are now deprived of all channels owned by LIN.
It's rather frustrating for people to do without so long. WISH has offered a $50 discount coupon for those Brighthouse customers to switch to DISH Network. That is hardly the solution at my house where we're on limited income. Even buying an antenna is not doable now; we simply cannot afford it. My elderly mother is going without her morning shows such as Price is Right and Martha Stewart. I don't get to watch Letterman or CSI or 60 Minutes. And we can kiss the Colts games goodbye.
You know, LIN and its stations can kiss loads of advertising revenue goodbye. If 125,000 local cable subscribers are not watching Channels 8 or 23, that means that many the stations' advertisements are not reaching. More than 2 million Brighthouse customers nationwide are presently not reached by advertising. Ad revenue fuels a TV station's virtual existence. Right now frustrated cable subscribers are calling and emailing WISH in protest, but the most effective way is venting to the advertisers. Maybe refusing to watch LIN's stations altogether, thus not viewing the ads, will force LIN to pull in its horns.
So far LIN is not backing down, and it's increasingly unfair to Brighthouse customers. Granted, Brighthouse is being wonderful to its customers, offering alternative means to watch LIN's stations free of charge. The majority of Brighthouse's subscribers here live in the old city limits, and I'm sure several of these families are on fixed or limited income. No way could they afford to switch to another provider, not in these uncertain economic times. No other local broadcast station is doing this to its viewers, knowing the potential financial fallout that could result if signals are pulled from Brighthouse. I know it's not very good of me to wish it, but I hope LIN's stations feel this very deep in the wallet. LIN has to come around sometime and stop this nonsense. In my opinion, Brighthouse is not the big villain in this mess; it's all LIN's fault.

After too many months of struggling with a bad Internet Service Provider, I pulled the plug on PeoplePC this week and went back to – gasp! – MSN. When I inherited my sister's old Dell, I was thrilled at last to get online with the PC. No more getting online solely with the balky, really outdated WebTV. I still use the little black box for some basic routine online tasks: email, quick editing of pages, and keeping up with the WebTV newsgroups. But using the box to access certain sites, such as Yahoo or Gmail was next to impossible.
So I searched for an affordable ISP and settled for PeoplePC. Hey, it was cheap, less than $12 a month, and very basic. You know that old saying, "You get what you pay for"? Well, it rang all too true these past weeks when I got increasingly frustrated with PPC's lackluster performance. Bad connections (Yes, I'm on dialup), no connections, bad scripts which Windows doesn't handle very well if not at all, and clueless tech reps whose help was no help at all. I called PPC back in April after nearly 2 weeks of no Internet, at least on the PC. I had to uninstall the software and do a workaround so I can at least get online and stay connected longer than the usual ten minutes. No joke! They sent another software CD, the same version of what I had. So I installed the thing, and problems persisted. When I called again, the tech could tell I was really pissed. I was angry and told him my old webtv, despite its slowness and age, outperforms PPC which is not saying much for this sorry excuse for an ISP. He then asked, after my tirade, "What is the color of your Start button?"
Okay, so I stayed with PPC for a while, and the service continued to perform fair to poor. The last 2 weeks, I had to delete "bad" access numbers, thinking that would help. It didn't, and PPC continued to slide into non-performance. I got kicked offline too many times, and I kept getting the Windows popups about bad scripts. Last week I had it out with the PPC rep. I wanted to cancel the account but the rep kept telling me "You can't have two internet accounts." I was referring to dumping PPC and going back to MSN. At least with them I can keep my webtv for free while paying for a full service ISP. The rep tried to talk me out of cancelling, and I threatened to call the state attorney general if my PPC account wasn't cancelled right now. That wasn't a light threat or bluff. Then the rep changed his tune and canceled the account. He said I could keep the peoplepc email account, but he lied about that. My sister tried to email me at PPC but the message bounced back as undeliverable.
Now that I'm back with MSN, and it's a joy to use, despite the flack Gates and company get for their products. I can actually connect and stay connected, and I don't need no stinkin' "accelerator", thank you very much.
To all WebTV users who are considering a good ISP: Stay away from PeoplePC! You'll get nothing but crappy service and big-time headaches.

I ate Roma and round tomatoes this week. Lots of them. And I ate loads of fresh fruit, blueberries and peaches. I had homemade salsa from the Mexican restaurant, and I just bought fresh herbs and more fruit. Guess what? I'm not sick. Not a speck of nausea or diarrhea. Well, I am nursing a slight head cold, but I doubt it's from the "tainted" tomatoes.
With the media attention on tainted produce and the FDA trying to pinpoint where the salmonella contamination originated, I thought, "Why not figure out what happened between the field and the dinner table."
Methinks someone along the line didn't practice personal hygiene. Someone didn't bother to wash their hands. Didn't we keep hearing this during the media's Disease of the Month reports back in the '90s? Didn't they say the greatest deterrent to and defense against foodborne disease is scrupulous handwashing? School kids get it right. They wash their hands after every bathroom break. I have yet to see a kid who has not washed his or her hands after using the toilet. Same thing in home ec classes: Wash your hands before cooking. We see safe hygiene practices all over the Food TV shows. Even Emeril and Rachael Ray know to wash their hands before and after handling raw food, especially raw animal products. We see them pump the soap and lather up. So why don't we see more produce pickers and other food handlers do the same?
When I was in high school, my foods teacher was adamant about handwashing. She even inspected our hands before we even got near a pot. I still wash my hands before cooking, and many times during food preparation, and especially when handling raw animal products, like chicken or seafood. I wash all fresh produce before cutting and cooking. It's not just dirt I'm washing off; it's pesticide residue and any other extraneous matter that may have sneaked on the surface. Hey, we're talking plants that were in the dirt, in the elements, getting bird poop on them and God knows what else. We're talking produce picked by folks who don't get a proper bathroom break, not even given the 20 or 30 seconds to wash the hands before picking. Then said produce is further handled by people who don't wash their hands. Grocery store personnel, restaurant workers, cooks, servers, even the consumer who picks over the tomatoes and strawberries. Don't forget the hungry diner who didn't wash hands before ordering. Upon being seated, I always go the restroom to wash my hands. It's a common courtesy to myself, even if my server or the line cook neglected to wash hands.
So eat and enjoy those fresh summer fruits and veggies, but for God's sake...WASH YOUR HANDS! And don't forget to wash your produce before cooking and eating it.