Tanged Up In A Twist Of Fate 121/ Windows 8 and the Government shutdown, Scott Carpenter, God/ The President told me to do it, Wonderland, odd bits.
tomwisk
Posted on October 13, 2013
Ten some days into the government shutdown, I’ve began to notice similarities between it and Windows 8. First of all, they’re supposed to work most of the time but don’t. Second, a lot of people got it even though they really didn’t want it. Thirdly, it sounded like a good idea at first but needs modifications and nobody seems to want to do them. Okay, let’s look at the first point. The government was put together by some of the wisest men of their time. They dealt with problems that were germane to their lives, freedom of religion, the press, the right to vote (for free men) and the right to self govern. They ignored women, native Americans, non-whites and slaves. Salves were freed, got the vote. Down the road the decided women deserved the vote. Native Americans we’re still trying to square up with them. They took their time figuring out how to finance the operation of the government. I noticed the problem. We started with whoever could get support could run. Then they started to align by ideologies. There were Whigs, later Republicans and then Democrats. The Communists, Women’s Rights and Socialists joined in. Not to mention the Dixiecrats. It’s a work in progress.
Windows 8 is a system designed by Microsoft. The technigeers (I made that up. They’re neither engineers nor technicians and are not competent in either field.) They came up with a brilliant idea. It worked on tablets. Some jacka** thought it would work great on laptops. It doesn’t. Now there are probably thousand of users who had this system foisted on them and didn’t complain figuring that Microsoft would send updates to the operating system. They haven’t, though I have to say they’re sympathetic. And they have helped me. The problem was that they didn’t test it out.
Okay, back in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries inventors created inventions. They tested the product until the product worked. Apprentices learned to work on projects until they worked. If your product failed on a national level, you lost all your money and your reputation. On a local level you might get ridden out of town on a rail or worse. We don’t do that anymore.
A solution: If a product doesn’t work we should notify the company. If the government doesn’t work, notify them. Remind them they serve at our pleasure. 2016 is coming up and it’s time for a change. Now, if you like your Congressperson keep them but don’t bitch when they don’t look out for your interests. Avoid candidates who offer solutions that appeal to religious prejudices. Avoid the candidates who offer ideas who offer solutions but no nuts and bolts solutions. And most of all avoid the crazies. Let’s work to get common sense back into government. Personally, I’m neither liberal, conservative or moderate. What I want is a government that takes care of its people at the same time eliminating the bloating we’ve acquired over the years. It can be done if we demand it. One point in an NBC survey a whole lot of people are looking to fire the entire Congress. Remember 2012?
Scott Carpenter died this week. He was one of seven who embarked on something we’d never done before, putt a man in space. We’d been beaten there by the Soviets, but we pushed it farther. We wound up putting men on the moon. We had the Space Shuttle followed by the Space Station. Now kids show interest when we send somebody up there but by and large it’s taken a back seat to other things, like the Kardashians or the celeb du jour.
So far, two people have found a new plea. The President was monitoring/speaking to me in my brain. Used to be you pled insanity and spent a whole lot of time weaving pot holders and talking too therapists while under great medication. Now riding on the dislike of the President, they blame him.
ABC premiered a take on Alice in Wonderland. AIW and TTLG are two of my favorite pieces of fiction behind the bible. Alice is nice, I hope they kind of add a more fantastic twist to the story. The Cheshire Cat disappointed me, he was a tad too bloodthirsty for me, but I saw the Disney first. The last scene of the White Rabbit, Knave of Hearts and Alice going down a yellow brick road. That’s the Wizard of Oz.
I start Nutrsystem on 11/15. I bought a new scale, it was cheaper than the one that crapped out and is more accurate. The old one died after I tried to change the battery. This one takes AAA batteries and installation is idiot-proof. I’ve been overestimating my weight by seven pounds.
Got the Toshiba back. The go-to guy moved. his wife/girlfriend/significant other gave me instructions. She neglected one minor detail, the street the shop is on is a turn-off another street. A $3.50 turkey jerky stick from a Seven-Eleven got me almost there. It was kinda spooky because the first time I was looking for the shop I wound up in the same industrial plaza.
Visit http://jesterkingblog.wordpress.com/about/ on Wednesday. It’ll be fun.
Gotta go watched TMZ and my IQ dropped at least 10 points.
See you in the funnies.
Windows and Politics, what’s to like about either! We drink the Kool Aid, vote for change then same old same old until 30 years down the track Ronald Reagan is a respected statesman!
All politicians are actors. Reagan just did as an “honest” job. You know it’s hard to believe that he was once quite liberal. I’ve been listening to the “toss the rascals out” people. The problem is, they have no solutions only ideas that appeal to the dissatisfied. We need common sense politicians who can balance the needs of the people with the need to keep government manageable.
People with proper common sense know better than to become politicians!
Could not agree with you more on the broken government/Windows 8 issues, Tom. As you correctly point out, both are designed for the designers rather than the users. If you think about it, most things that don’t function — phone trees, India-based tech support, legal documents, the list goes on and on — don’t work for precisely this reason. Thanks for adding your voice to my lone drumbeat of complaint out here in the consumer wilderness.
Wendie, we have the option to pick who serves us in Congress. We need to ask questions and not be put off by rhetoric. In 2016 we need to ask the candidates HOW they’re going to fix it and the effect on us. We have to speak up. Pass it on.