Why, HP, Must I Be Punished

I all fairness let me first say I am not really neutral on computers right not. I have been dealing for over a month with a three year old HP desktop computer that a local nerd, in the business to save computers, killed after losing 3 years of data.

Yes, I backed up, but to an external hard drive that failed. So I was forced to go shopping for a computer when I did not have the time nor the money. Nor quite frankly was I feeling warm and fuzzy about the boxes or the people that worked on them. But computer shopping I had to do. I am a small business and while I have a laptop for play I need the desktop for lots of year end business stuff and beginning of the new year submissions of art for fairs throughout 2011.

HP had a cyber Monday sale that extended through the following Tuesday and I found a computer, that while not the one of my dreams, met my minimum requirements, fit my budget and would be delivered within a week. The HP Pavilion arrived on December 6th and I unpacked and plugged it in. Suffice it to say I am not a novice at this, but the HP computer with Windows 7 would not boot up so I called tech support and was shocked to find that in spite of all promises to move their tech support back to the United States they are in Manila.

After 2 1/2 hours of trying to become belatedly bilingual I threw in the towel. The HP desktop would not even complete a short smart disk check and would not even begin a long one. I asked to speak to a supervisor. NOW. That took about 10 minutes of waiting. The supervisor, after getting my summation of the problem, wanted to refer the matter to a case manager (they are in the US) so they could get approval to repair my brand new, non-functioning HP computer.

Up to this point (well, accept for the NOW demand) I had been rather nice in spite of carpel tunnel from hitting F8, F9, F10, and F11 keys while rebooting. But repairing the HP Pavilion was not my problem. I bought and paid for a working computer not a repaired computer. They played broken record that they could not okay this. I played broken record that the only acceptable solution was a brand new working computer or a full and immediate refund. The Case Manager would call me back before 48 hours. I could only think of all the files that had to be rebuilt before the end of the year for my small business. Tick Tock.

Twenty-four hours, and two case report reference numbers, later I was called by a case manager. And like being in a doctor's office I had to again repeat all the symptoms of my still born HP Pavilion. I think they had the file in front of them and were looking for any discrepancies so they could negate my claim. Ok, I was getting paranoid. They did approve a new computer which they told me would be $35 more expensive. "Oh, no you don't," I said in a voice that made all the fur kids run and hide, "You eat that." We compromised on $5.35. Let them win the little issues.

I packed up the HP computer in its original box, printed out the approved pre-paid return label and dropped it off at the designated Fedex pick up spot. HP got it the next morning. Time was of the essence because I was informed they would not build my new replacement computer until the non-working HP was returned even though they have kept my money. I was pleased this morning to see they had processed my order. Build Date: December 28th! Maybe.

So I have two questions, HP. One, is why am I being punished for your errors on this Pavilion Desktop? And two, given that I would go pencil and paper before I went Dell, which computer company do I go to when I want to replace my HP Pavilion Laptop? Currently you are out of the running.

Customers used to be right. Now we have to prove we are not guilty and we are still punished via time and money for our mistakes. This mistake, HP, could cost me way through next June because of the fairs and exhibits I cannot apply for because through no fault of my own my old HP failed and my purchase new HP was trash. And your response to a small business owner that used your products has been hostile and frustrating.

More Evidence That I am Strange

WARNING: This blog is not politically correct. I will probably be accused of defaming a national holiday.

Mother used to stare at me from time to time and then pronounce that I was a strange child. Her early decision has been seconded by others. And today, on this eve of Thanksgiving, I am going to just supply more evidence that I am strange. In fact, I take a rather perverse pride in it.

Case in point: I am not fond of roasted turkey. Oh, I love the dressing - well, most dressings. Some families just have really strange tastes in dressings.  I don't like stuffed celery or jello salad and I get barfy just looking at candied sweet potatoes. Why would someone want to ruin a perfectly good food item that way? And I will eat only about an obligitory spoonful of the tradition French cut green beans with slice almonds and canned mushroom soup (see previous statement about ruining sweet potatoes).

I was an adult before, out of courtesy only, I would have a thin slice of pumpkin pie. Not my favorite. Mom always did two pies for this All American stuffout and I preferred the pecan. Really preferred the pecan. Mom made a superb pecan pie. I soon found out this is not true for all people that attempt this delicacy. For self-defense I have learned to cook a nut topped pumpkin tart (made from fresh pumpkin and not canned) to take to all invitations to Thanksgiving dinner.

All that said I love this holiday on one major level - all the men are out of the way in front of the bowl games, and all the women are in the kitchen cooking, sampling, and dishing the dirt. The TV is on loud enough they cannot hear the peals of laughter. If the men knew what we were up to (beyond cooking) they would never let us alone! Even clean up is fun. Men are back in front of the TV (awake or snoring) and us women are washing dishes while telling horridly funny tales of Thanksgivings past spiced with a few instant replays of the feast just over.

Tomorrow's Thankgiving is all women, and we are mostly thankful we have survived this year thus far. We have relationships that go back 20 years or more. I have known my sister all her life, and Dianne since 1972 and the incident of the burnt lentils. Not a single football game will be watched though Macy's Thanksgiving Parade will be on for the random tea break while cooking and catching up goes on in the kitchen.

I am not sure historically what the men did on that first pioneer thanksgiving. Probably pitched horseshoes in the barn, but I am willing to bet the women did about the same thing we will be doing minus the temperature controlled oven and the microwave. I am taking along all the fixings for that pumpkin tart I mentioned. And I have been assured the sweet potatoes will be baked as they should be.

May your Thanksgiving meal include all your favorites and that Aunt Alice leaves home the cool whip and jello fruit salad with the miniature marshmallows.

We Need Change

No this blog is not about you choice between Republican or Democratic candidates. This blog is about how we allow politicians to campaign. Three years ago I turned off television service in part due to political ads. Haven't missed it a minute. And more and people are disconnecting from their satellite and cable services for any number of reasons ergo politicians are looking for other ways to get your attention: calls on your cell phone so you have to pay for the minutes, calls on your land line if you still have one, fliers, junk mail, e-mail spamming, and billboards and yard signs.

The "off-year" elections have to be the absolute worse for yard signs and junk mail. I appreciate the political contribution of junk mail to my stack of paper for lighting fires since you vetoed my SS increase again this year and the local electrical coop is again raising my rates. Just a tip: I hardly ever bother to open it except to make it burn faster.

Every state has rules about the placement of yard signs but as far as I have noticed they are never followed. One of the rules in my state is they have to be taken down within 48 hours of the election. Like that ever happens. And they are suppose to have the property owner's permission. I know that doesn't happen. I say we just ban them. The candidates can spend their money on holding town meetings and explaining their views if they have any.

But I think it is past time to do away with the 2-year term for congress. I worked for a United States Senator and it is virtually impossible to get up to speed on all the issues within the first two years. What representatives do the minute they take office is begin running for the next term and collecting money to pay of the yard sign bill so they can start ordering more.

Let's change their term to 4 years and elect them on off years from the president. And limit their consecutive terms of office to just two for a total of eight years. If they want to hit the ground running their first term they should maintain 50% of the previous representative's staff for at least the first two years. Believe me it is the staff members that are up on all the procedures and legislation. The only thing the newly elected representative knows is how to get elected.

We are wasting entirely too much time and money on this election stuff and not spending enough of our resources or attention on solving the problems of this nation or world. And that, my friends, goes for both parties!

Oh, and voters - don't select who you vote for based on name recognition. Know their campaign promises. And if you don't know that candidate then don't cast a vote for or against. You can leave blanks on your ballot. Make an informed choice. Not a choice based on that yard sign

I think I am in Love!!!

LED Light Bulbs

I am getting ready for winter and part of that is replacing outside light bulbs. Some years back I had bought the propaganda about the energy efficient florescent bulbs and replaced my incandescent bulbs as they went out. I have been less than happy with the results. They are dim, do not dim with a rheostat, do not get to full brightness before I turn them off, and outside in cold weather are just impossible to see by. And in a motion detector fixture they are impossible. I am frequently out of my car and in my house before the lights on the walkway get above a very faint glow.

And one of the big controversies over replacing our light bulbs with fluorescent "eco" bulbs, is those bulbs aren't really very eco friendly. Sure they save on energy in a fixture where you turn it on and leave it on for an extended period, but they also contain mercury, and dropping the bulb or improper discarding of the bulb is an environmental hazard. Besides they take twice the materials to make and are dangerous on stairways and entries where they often are not on long enough to come to full power before the owner stumbles down the stairs.

So today I was in the hardware store looking to stock up on light bulbs - the incandescent ones - since I had used all my stock up replacing florescent bulbs and I keep hearing this rumor they are going to outlaw light! I was standing before the huge array of light bulbs trying to remember all my light fixtures inside and out so I would get enough and of the right variety when a clerk asked if he could help. I explained I was looking for LIGHT bulbs and that did not include those horrid florescent ones. And he informed me that he hears that a lot these days.

This was in Taos where the trust fund babies are definitely eco-terrorist connected. I had almost whispered I wanted the OTHER bulbs. He pointed me to the LED bulbs. I know LED. They first made an appearance in little things like book lamps that clip on your book cover, or personal headlights for crawling in attics, or solar fixtures, etc.

But LED's have gone big time and come in all shapes and sizes and to fit all fixtures. Top watts seems to be about 1.5 as compared to the 75 watts for an incandescent. And they last 9 and 10 times as long. I am test driving two for that dark walkway from the driveway with the motion sensor, and if I am happy it is off to get some more. Meanwhile I am collecting the florescent bulbs in a bag to take to the transfer station with a note that some of them still work within the parameters they were designed for which isn't light.

Jet Noise: The sound of freedom?

Low flying military plane over Wales

In April North Wales farmers called for a ban on low flying RAF military aircraft because of damage to livestock. The RAF route was also used by the United States as well as other countries. Now the United States Air Force is seeking to fly low over our mountains here in New Mexico claiming there will be no damage. Been there and done that. They have tried this before. Before they invaded Iraq the second time. Who are they planning on invading this time? Iran? North Korea?

Low flyovers means 500 AGL. That is 500 feet above ground level. And the ground level in Northern New Mexico and Southern Colorado, like in North Wales, changes rapidly and drastically. That is rather the point. They want to train pilots of C130 and CV-22 Ospreys to fly such variable terrain. I have flown in a C130. That lumbering troop and cargo carrying aircraft does not change directions rapidly, let alone pull out quickly. And the Wales route was approved for one set of air craft and opened to others - and other nations as well. Besides what happened to simulators. People don't die when a pilot makes an error in a simulator.

The routes the Air Force proposed for these "training" missions before included the Philmont Boy Scout Ranch, the Val Vidal Wilderness and Wildlife refuge (you cannot even hike in that area some months), the tops of chair lifts at Angel Fire, Taos and Red River Ski areas. Also effected were the migratory flyways of the Canadian Snow Goose, the Sandhill crane, and the endangered Whooping Crane. Our area has become a refuge of Red Tailed Hawks, Golden and Bald Eagles and Great Horned owls which are threatened in other areas.

And tourists. Let's not forget their migratory patterns. They would definitely be endangered. The mountain communities of Angel Fire, Taos, Red River, Raton, and Las Vegas, New Mexico plus Trinidad, Pagosa Springs and Crede, Colorado depend on tourists for revenue. They flock to the mountains for bird watching, fly fishing, golfing, hiking, hunting, skiing, horseback riding, and just plain old peace and quiet. All would suffer from noisy aircraft flying low.

In addition to tourists we have ranchers with cattle and buffalo. And large herds of antelope, Big Horn Sheep, mountain goats, deer and elk. And humans. As an Air Force officer's brat I have lived on bases and at the end of runways. When in the third grade near Ft. Briggs in El Paso, Texas the subject on the playground all too frequently was another crashed jet, another lost parent. One jet crashed just a half mile from our house. We biked to a hill to overlook the crash site. The pilot did not eject because he was trying to guide the malfunctioning plane away from our school.

You can have choices sometimes in flat open land but not when a mountain suddenly appears in a cloud.

One of Larson's Best

Students of Comparative Religions?

Mother always said a lady should never discuss politics, sex or religion especially if she wanted to keep her friends. My father on the other hand informed me that I should study all about these subjects before making an arbitrary decision.

And so at a very young age I became a student of politics and religion. Sex didn't interest me until far later. And I admit to putting of the major decisions on all three for longer than my classmates. Being a student of sociology and anthropology in college certainly added fodder to my comparative religions studies.

So when recently a friend declared that the Serenity Prayer was the words of God I quickly informed her it was written in the 1940's and appears no where in any religious tome of which I was aware. Since, I was by her definition a pagan, I was of course wrong. I have been declared wrong before like at lunch with some very religious friends that were talking of the miracles of the gospels. Actually only one miracle is common to all four of those that appear in the Bible. I have always maintained that the most "religious" of my friends are the least informed about their own religion let alone those the declare wrong. Now a study proves that: A new survey of Americans' knowledge of religion found that atheists, agnostics, Jews and Mormons outperformed Protestants and Roman Catholics in answering questions about major religions, while many respondents could not correctly give the most basic tenets of their own faiths.

Forty-five percent of Roman Catholics who participated in the study didn't know that, according to church teaching, the bread and wine used in Holy Communion is not just a symbol, but becomes the body and blood of Christ.

More than half of Protestants could not identify Martin Luther as the person who inspired the Protestant Reformation. And about four in 10 Jews did not know that Maimonides, one of the greatest rabbis and intellectuals in history, was Jewish.

I probably learned more about religion in my study of religious art and icons than most members of a religious sect learn in church. They get the watered down chapter and verse view without the overall picture of the context of that verse. And in most cases they take the opinion of their religious leaders. They do not think for themselves.


Ever play gossip as a child? As the "Word" gets whispered around the circle the mean changes until everyone breaks out in giggles when it is revealed what the original message was. Well, gossip has been going on in religions for thousands of years. And to that has been added translations from one language to another, and the edicts of religious leaders to include what they want in the various tomes. For instance in the King James version of the Bible only four out of 104 gnostic gospels are included. And most Christians think that Matthew, Mark, Luke and John were four of the disciples.

Now these "students of their religion" and are telling us what the Constitution of the United States says or what is written in the Koran. I doubt they have read all of either of those documents or all of the Bible. Heaven help us if a man from some pulpit makes it to the oval office of the White House.

So do you know which of the miracles of Jesus appears in all four included gospels?

News Recess - same o', same o'

I have not been checking up on the news in the last month. Too much reality going on in my own life. It was the explosion of yet another oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico that drew me into the slush pile of news.

Earl seems to be much ado about nothing. Huge storm but it seems to be staying away from the Eastern Seaboard thankfully. Course it doesn't take much to make it turn and head inland. Better safe than sorry.

And there was a sniper and another hostage situation, and a suspicious package in the Miami Airport. I had a suspicious package once. At the Toronto airport. I had purchased and had gift wrapped a hand crafted jack-in-the-box for a dear friend. The x-ray machines did not all the mechanics and springs and cogs. It had to be unwrapped and put into baggage. Like the airplane is safer with a bomb below the seats instead of in the cabin? Almost a decade later I boarded a domestic flight with the spare clip of my Walther PPKS in my carry on. Fully loaded clip. The gun itself was in the trunk of my car. Nobody batted an eye.

The latest real news, in my opinion, is sneaking in under the radar - or under the sniper and the hurricane. I think drug companies pick their times to release bad news. Seems the drugs given to women for osteoporosis are now guilty of increasing the chance of esophageal cancer. There was a time that medicines were episodic. Now the drug companies have mined a how population of people that are put on a drug for the remaining days of their lives. Don't change your life style or diet - just take this little pill forever. If on no other level this "cure" is very damaging to liver and kidneys that were designed to filter toxins from our bodies.

On another note, Tony Blair is on a book tour and actually saying bad things about his old bud GW. The good news is GW doesn't have a book out. It is all, however, rather depressing. I miss almost a month of world news and nothing seems to have changed. Maybe I will tune back out.