Virezma wrote in "Once our Internet didn't work for days after we had switched to faster service, 15 Mbps I think. The guy arrived and it turned out that where we live the maximum capacity is 10, so they had to change us back to 5 Mbps." on Sometimes You Feel Like a Nut
Thankfully, I know the highest speed is available here. I have had it for over a year now. It just gets temperamental at times.
Wednesday, August 31, 2011
Virezma wrote
0 commentsTuesday, August 30, 2011
Sometimes You Feel Like a Nut
1 commentsSometimes you feel like a nut (click here when you are done reading), other times you just feel like a stupid moronic idiot. Is that redundant hyperbole? Here is the scoop, Sunday, the Internet slowed to a crawl. It was so slow, I was wishing for a 56K dial up to speed it up. Remembering what the cable company has told me in the past, I followed the steps.
- Unplug the cord going to the cable box, wait 10 minutes
- Unplug the cord going into the electric outlet, wait 10 minutes.
- Reboot the computer.
- Done
- Done
- Done
It was new just July 2010. What is the lifespan of a cable box? Did we use it to death? Are we cable box murders? Will there be a special place in Hell for people like us? Maybe a room filled with the latest forms of technology, but there are no wall outlets and all of the batteries are dead. The nightmares started immediately, even as I was on the phone calling the cable company, the early symptoms of withdrawal were apparent. My mouse finger started twitching uncontrollably like it was clicking on Internet links that weren't there. Suddenly, I had thoughts of 57 different things I had to check on the Internet, before the slap of reality hit me hard once again. No Internet for you.
Amazingly, the cable people answered within minutes and on a Sunday too. The person spoke excellent English. She ran me through the list of things, but I told her she was speaking to a veteran. I had done it all twice or more, but there is no life left. She ran diagnostics from her end. She could not detect any life either. She was sending out a technician. On Monday. Only between 1:30 and 4:30 pm. I was so grateful, I was almost close to tears. What the hell were we supposed to do until then?
I can't share the time spent until the technician arrived. It is too painful a memory to rehash in my own mind, let alone on a public forum. When the doorbell rang at 1:40 pm on Monday, you would have thought I caught Santa Claus in the act; I was beyond ecstatic. He walked in full of confidence, but without any English. Sheepishly, I led him to the scene of the dead cable box and then left the room. I couldn't watch.
Fifteen minutes I ventured back into the living room to see what progress had been made. He was like a Hawaiian surfing dude, covering the Internet like he was riding a big gun and sailing through the barrel of those waves. When I walked in, he calmly picked up the cable box, which I had thought he must have replaced. After flipping it over, he pointed to something and said...
Switch, on - off! If the earth would only open up and swallow us at times like these... Pin It Now!
Monday, August 29, 2011
Let's Have a Beer Cheer
0 commentsSunday, August 28, 2011
Irene Is Causing Us Problems
0 commentsWeather seems to be our new nemesis this season. If it isn't one thing like the heat, it is another thing like storms. Now, we are getting cancellations from people who cannot leave the US due to their flights being cancelled by the airlines. Where are all of you Europeans who don't need to worry about hurricanes. Come to Budapest!!
Pin It Now!Saturday, August 27, 2011
Weather We Stay or Go
0 commentsNo, I am not having a confusion moment between weather or whether. This last week we had a couple booked for four nights. Somehow, because of the names and the spelling of the names, I was expecting two men, but it was a husband and wife. Not very important to the story, I don't think, just an aside.
They arrived while I was out, but Ron had shown them our superior hospitality to guests. When made it back, they cooed on and on about how much they loved the place, how it was better than the pictures, how wonderful Ron was to them already, and so on. She, though, started complaining about the heat. Yes, it was one of those days where the mercury ran, not crawled up toward the 96 degree mark. I shared the lack of air conditioning in Europe along with a story of a handmade soap company that had a kiosk in the mall until one summer, all the product melted. We all laughed. FYI, this couple live in a high end desert city in CA. They probably only spend the time from the house to the store out of air conditioning.
Having made their plans, they took off. Three hours later, they returned to announce they were leaving us to go to a hotel with air conditioning. She could not handle the hit. He was fine. Yes, they conceded they would be paying more than double what we ask for, but she needs air conditioning to survive. She suggested she may not go out at all while here if the heat continued to beat on her like it had. Quite honestly, she looked like someone beat her with the ugly stick, then dragged her behind a horse though an old west town. I too get sick in extreme heat, so I could sympathize, but really I was mourning the lack of income during a poor year.
Twice I asked if they checked for anything left here, but was assured they had everything they needed. The husband was so apologetic, didn't offer to make up our lost income. They spent a month in Italy before taking a cruise here, so they are not paupers. Later that evening there was an e-mail. She forgot her night gown, laundry detergent, and toothbrush. I had discovered the first two items, but not the toothbrush. They wanted to fetch them the following day. I told them one of us would wait around taking turns as we both had things that needed doing.
They did not show until 8pm entering with stories about how glorious their day was and what amazing luck they had. They rode for free on the transport as they look over 70 years old. Personally, I would have paid just to prove differently. On and on they went about how they received this and that for nothing or got away with things. My inclination was to tell them how please I was that someone found luck since we seemed to be hitting the unlucky jackpot with guests. No matter how old I get, people's behavior will always amaze me.
Thursday, August 25, 2011
Wednesday, August 24, 2011
sLOVEnia Photos are Published
0 commentsIf you would like to view the Slovenia photos, they are all in one album in my photo blog at Ryan and Ron Do the World.
Pin It Now!Tuesday, August 23, 2011
I Left My Book in Ljubljana
0 commentsMonday, August 22, 2011
Bled - Not Past Tense of Bleed
0 commentsHonestly, we could wait for breakfast, because the book store did not open until 9am anyway. I was not leaving town until I had that new Gaarner book in my hot and sweaty hands. Of course once I made it into the store, I had to browse the entire English section to make sure no other treasures were left un-salvaged from the throws of being piled in stacks without receiving appropriate attention and a potentially new home. Ron found a book too for our friend Laszlo, who is part Slovene on his mother’s side, so this is a gift from his mother country. On the way out, I noticed stuffed animals all over a few shelves. Some were owls, which were weighted to act as bookends. There were also dogs, cats, but the piece de resistance was this little bull, which was absolutely adorable. When I picked him up, he had the heft of a heifer, but as I set him back into his spot, the saleswoman, a twenty-something, beauty said, “That yuk is a doorstop. That is why it is so heavy.” With a quizzical look, I ask “Yuk?” Again she states with a smile, “A yuk!” Now the light goes on in my head, a yak; she is mispronouncing a for uh. Should I play English teacher? No, there is a bus to catch, so I leave the yuk-yak behind, but know I am going to regret this all day. I was not deprived of stuffed animals when I was a child; at times it is downright embarrassing, but I love them still. They make me smile; they make my heart lighter when I am feeling blue. There are over fifty teddy bears imprisoned in New Jersey in a storage unit just waiting for rescue operations to proceed.
The bus is sitting there waiting patiently for us to board. Had we missed it, there would have been another in an hour, but why wait? The trip is about 1 ½ hours and cost 6.30 each way per person. For the air conditioning alone, it was worth the cost. We were in and out of heavy traffic, causing us to be delayed extending the trip to 2 ½ hours. Some of the scenery along the way was a delightful distraction, but little cat naps took precedent. Those church bells from hell rang every 15 minutes for unreasonable lengths of time that were not in sync with any timepiece that I could tell.
Once in Bled, we stopped at a restaurant across from the bus station. I am not sure what there is to the city, because we barely ventured from where we were left off. Restaurant prices, at least across the street from the station are much higher than in L-city. However, the bowl of garlic soup that I chose was a delectable bargain for 3.90 Euros. Ron had fries, but one thing I have been neglectful in reporting is the wasp problem. It seems all over the country, they have been invaded by a highly unusual number of wasps this summer. Everyone has been complaining about them as well as their aggressive nature. Our guide Palona shared that she was sitting in her yard with her dog. She was stung twice and the dog once, all without provoking the yellow creatures into battle. Others have shared similar stories. No matter what you are eating, the wasps appear from nowhere and hover over the meal. The ladies who have flower kiosks almost need to wear beekeeper outfits, they are so overloaded with flying beezz.
So the reason we were in Bled was to see the castle. I saw the castle from the ground, it seemed pointless to traverse the football length path and then climb up the 399 steps, to reach the ticket office of the castle. Taxi!! At the base is St. Martin’s Church, which had the largest chandelier that I have ever seen in a church. There are pictures in the photo blog. My first impression was that this church was decorated by a gay man. The murals were different, but I could not decide in what way. What did attract my notice were the organ pipes. The organ was gorgeous. If I were religious, I would have prayed to find an escalator or elevator outside to get to the castle. No such luck.
There was a footpath past private homes leading to the castle, so I thought it would have been impossible for a taxi to get up there regardless, so I started the walk. With the first 100 steps, I proclaimed “I am not doing this. I am NOT climbing all the way up this &*$% mountain to see another #$(* castle. By step 101, we had reached the first stairs, a series of 9, with a wide platform, before you make a sharp right turn to access the next set of stairs where there are maybe fifteen before the next platform and so on and so forth. As you can guess, but step 101, I was so out of breath, I could no longer protest anything, but this is when my stubborn Italian nature kicks in dueling with my lazy self. One side is saying “Relax at the restaurant and wait for Ron to come down. Look at his photos and you can say been there, done that.” The stubborn side is saying “Just do this one set of steps. Don’t be a quitter. Your mother always called you a quitter, do you want to make her right after all?”
By the time, I reached the ticket office, when I turned around; there to the left was a parking lot. A taxi could very well have made it up here. *^%$&%$! Oh, but that is not the end of the climb. To actually get to the castle, there are more steps, more inclines of cobbled paths. When you are seeking out a respirator, there is not much interest in history. The rooms were uh, rooms. There were fake people in some doing what presumably people of different eras would be doing, but what was the most magnificent was the view of the lake. Even more breathtaking was this little island on the lake where someone had built a church. It made for a photo opportunity for sure. Having spent so much time getting up this damn hill, we spent a goodly amount of time roaming around looking at the view. However, in the back of my mind, I had thoughts of the yuk-yak in the bookstore and knowing he needed me to adopt him. Just in case we didn’t make it back before they closed, I found an adorable owl hand puppet in the castle gift shop, so I bought him as a consolation prize just in case.
Now, one would think that the walk down would be so much easier than going up, but reality begs to differ. Traipsing on a steep declining cobble stoned path takes some agility and concentration not to slip and go tumbling down, doing a Jack and Jill goes down the hill impression. Calf muscles strain to maintain. Hmmm, calf reminds me of the yak. I really want that yak. We make it down without incident and return to the bus station with a thirty minute wait. A taxi driver offers to take us if he can get 7 total to fill his van, the cost only 7 Euros and a forty-five minute trip since there are no stops along the way. There are only 4 of us interested, no other takers.
As soon as we returned, we double checked our train tickets for tomorrow’s return home. The cheap fare is good on the Citadella train. We leave L-city at 8:50 am and arrive home by 6 pm. Track 7, all set. We headed for the outdoor market to get food for the train ride, but we are too late, all but one stand is already vacated and this one is 85% packed up. They still had fresh figs, which we don’t see in Budapest, so we bought some of those and some grapes. We also tried the milk machine and bought 2 dl of raw milk for 20 euro cents. It was cold and delicious.
Dropping the food off at the hotel, the bookstore was still open and the yuk was waiting patiently for me to come back to grab him from that shelf of despair. The young woman who was here this morning was no longer around. I had told the current clerks of my needing to return. They shared that the morning woman had been to Tibet and when she returned, found the yak for the store. Really, he could pass for Ferdinand the bull, but I guess if you were in Tibet, he would be a yak. Each time they said yuk, we would say yak. They would say, yes, yuk. They could not hear the differences. He is meant to be a doorstop, but is too cute to sit on the floor. He will have to find a place of honor.
There is something about vacationing brings out decadence. We would never think of ordering cocktails at home, but where we ate last night had a 2 for 1 offer on cocktails, so we headed over there for drinks. I ordered a Manhattan and Ron ordered a classic martini. We each received 2 of our orders immediately. My Manhattan was in a cocktail glass used for non-iced drinks, but was filled with crushed ice. Ron’s martini had a sugar coated rim, like you would salt a margarita. Ron’s drink tasted closer to what it was supposed to be than mine did, but really they were disappointing. We are still not sure we have had real cosmopolitans yet.
Ron had asked the saleswomen at the bookstore for a dinner recommendation off the beaten path. We followed up and went there for dinner. As we were walking, there was an American behind us speaking to his walking mate. He was telling the other person that he is a contractor with the US Defense Department for the 4th largest defense contractor they have. As he is continuing to brag, I am thinking if that were my job, I certain would not be sharing the information without caution on the streets. What he was saying about his organization was not about to bring in world peace and only continues to make the US look like a world hungry dictator want to be. At this restaurant, they don’t have menus; the offerings change daily and the wait staff provides the menu. Hence, you don’t know what you are paying until the bill, unless you do ask. We both had beef, Ron’s was with blueberries, mine was with a cream sauce. The beef was chewy, but the portions amble. Had the beef been tender, the portions would have been minimal. We sat outside due to the heat and it was indeed off of the beaten track. When the bill came, we were a bit overwhelmed. It came to close to 50 Euros, double last night’s dinner.
On the way back, we stopped to listen to music on the bridges, walked past where HAIR was being performed, so we could hear the music in ENGLISH, but the voices were not great. One last dessert and coffee and we were ready to go back to pack. And no church bells tonight.
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DisINNfranchised, DisINNabled, DisINNherited
0 commentsYou know how you tell someone you are going somewhere and they just happen to know someone who lives there that you should meet? Well, that is what happened to me and then us. I know this woman Agnes from the Budapest Creativity Group, who I met with to do some coaching. She knew someone here in the city who she thought we should hook up with. I was hoping my grunting an acceptance with an almost inconsequential nod of the head would have made her forget the offer by the time she reached home. Well, she didn’t and within 2 days, had the two of us e-mailing each other with plans to meet. I hate knowing I am now feeling obligated to meet some stranger on my holiday, but now not only are we meeting with Melita, we are bringing her her birthday present from Agnes.
The usual scenario ensued. Melita wanted to meet on the day we arrived, until she found out our arrival was not until 9:30 pm if the train was on time, but that was not counting time to find the hostel and check in either. Then she wanted to meet the next day, which would have worked out well, but her time was 2 pm, which really cut into our day depending on what we chose to do. The next day, we had the entire day tour, so that let out Saturday. We finally agreed on coffee at 10 am today meeting at the hostel and going from there. We stowed the luggage in the luggage room and waited for Melita. She was truly delightful and certainly very chipper. She offered to drive us to the next inn where we were to be for our last two nights. Super! We each only have a carry-on suitcase and I have backpack for computer, camera equipment, chargers, etc, but still it was a great help. She has a BMW convertible and is divorced. Times are not to shabby here. She did tell us that our hostel as well as the alternative community behind it, keeping us up every night, was all once a military complex with the hostel being the prison; we knew that. What we did not know was that the alternative community has been in existence for the last twenty years. There are a number of artists who have studios there as well as the pubs that only open at 10pm and stay open until 6am.
We wander to our new home, ring the bell, and wait. There are reasonable waits and unreasonable waits when you have reservations; this was the un kind. We were finally told to come up, so we carted our things up to the second floor (American, first floor European) to be greeted by a very attractive woman in her bathrobe. It is never a good sign when greeted with “Hi, come in. We have a problem.” Well, it seems there was no room at the inn. Our potential hostess could not remember my ever writing, however, she had the requirement when booking that you write to reconfirm every three days, 4 hours, 43 minutes, since she cannot take credit cards for deposits. I sent so many e-mails, we could be having an affair by now, yet being forgettable, she forgot me. There was no room at the inn, but she asked if we could return in an hour and she would resolve the situation. We had coffee with Melita and wondered where we would stay in a city that was sold out.
Upon returning, we were told that our hostess-not-to-be had a mother who became suddenly ill, causing hostess to tend to her for two weeks in another city. When hostess returned, she was mentally scattered or discombobulated and starting messing up the calendar. Having done this once or twice myself, I certainly understand how it can happen. She offered two solutions. We could have her room and she would sleep at her daughters or she had called a local hotel that happened to have 1 room open for our 2 nights. The hotel charges 77 Euros a night, she charges 60 Euros a night, but she offered to pay the difference since it was her fault. She too is a university instructor, teaches private art lessons, and runs the B and B. She insisted we go look at the hotel to make sure the room was acceptable, otherwise we would have her room. Since we never had a room to compare, the hotel room is clean, has a fan, two skylights and no alternative community behind it. It was fine. We said our good-byes to Melita before coming to the hotel, so we were on our own for schlepping the stuff. No biggie.
Settled into the hotel, we went to Tivoli Gardens, but on the way, we discovered this fabulous house, needing to photograph it, but we were stopped. It is now the US Embassy and not only is there a guard within the grounds, but one lurks across the street in the shade. They gave us a postcard instead. We checked out a Serbian church, the Modern Museum of Art, and then the gardens itself. There are so many stairs it continually makes me sorry for those who are wheelchair bound. The gardens are humungous and green. Luscious greens everywhere that there are no flower beds, with fountains people can go into to cool off and they are. The last days have been 89-93 degrees with no break in sight. On the way back, a guy came up asking for a coin. We refused and he retorted with “Sorry, but you see this is my job, to ask for money. It is the only work I have so I have to do it efficiently.”
Suffering from the heat, we returned to the hotel for a rest. I wrote, Ron read. Afterward, we ventured over to a pub where they had a 2 for 1 special on a number of cocktails. Neither of us had had a Cosmopolitan before and martinis were not on the list; we each had 2. I am certaint there wasn’t an ounce of liquor in the drinks. Generally I am a lightweight drinker so 2 drinks would hit me between the eyes, but I didn’t feel a thing. For dinner we went to Cobbler’s Bridge dining at a restaurant on one side of the bridge. A young couple sang and played music on the bridge drawing quite a crowd, but we had great seats enjoying the serenade while eating.
Tomorrow we will go to Bled, necessitating a trip to the tourism office. Ron generally has a quota to fill for how many times he needs to visit the tourism offices when we travel. He asks dozens of questions, they give him dozens of answers and brochures for all his supposed needs. As soon as we leave the office, he drops the brochures somewhere because he doesn’t want to carry all of that stuff. On our way out, we met Dennis. Dennis is a university student studying journalism who is doing some research studies for the tourism office. Dennis had great English, but still had those annoying errors. I asked if he had had any native speakers teaching him. His only native instructors were people who came for a few months at a time in high school. He did share with us that all of his university textbooks were in English since the Slovenian market is so small, they couldn’t afford the translations. He also told us all movies and television shows are in the native language. He had to start learning English from 6th grade and it is mandatory throughout the country, but some start with 1st grade. By the time they finish high school, they have to speak English, Italian, and German. Slovenia borders Austria and Italy and both are extremely important to their tourism economy.
Just two doors down from this hotel is a bookstore that has English books. I could not believe that had a new book by Jostein Gaarder, the Norwegian author that must have just come out. I have a list of all of his books, with those that I don’t have marked. This title was not on either list. Tomorrow Bled, but first a shopping trip to the bookstore. Tonight, there is no loud music, no one shouting, no one howling at the moon, nobody screaming in any language, just a quiet hotel room next to a Catholic church that rings its bells every quarter of an hour without any rhyme or reason as to how many times it tolls. They go on forever.
Saturday, August 20, 2011
Castle, Cave, Stallion, Shore = A Full Day
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Labels: alternative space, cave, Lipizzaner, Piran, Postojnska jama, tour
Reader Paul Writes
0 commentsPrison Beds
0 commentsFriday, August 19, 2011
Howl
0 commentsPhotos will be in the photo blog once we get home.
Thursday, August 18, 2011
The Other L Word
0 commentsWe had cleaned out the fridge, taking food that would spoil with us for our meals. Loaded down with four sandwiches, extra cheese cut into thick chunks, two beers (they do spoil when unattended), a large bottle of water, three tangerines, and assorted other goodies, we looked like a catering service. What the conductor happened to walk by again, he looked in, said something like “Oh, you are Hungarian. Good appetite”, in Hungarian of course.
During the trip, I finished the novel that I started when the train pulled out of Deli station: The Dressmaker, by Elizabeth Birkelund Oberbeck. I only brought one other book with me; I am thinking I should save that for the trip home otherwise I will chew on my foot out of boredom. There were plenty of catnaps in between reading, so it wasn’t all recreation. Sleeping on a train takes stamina holding your head in place. It’s not easy.
We arrived fifteen minutes late, in the other L word, again better than expectations. There were innumerable stops for ten to twenty minutes, but no passport control to hold us up. We had no idea where to go to find our hostel once we arrived. We only had 2 ½ months to prepare for this, but that is a map thing. Everyone knows I don’t do maps, but Ron is Mr. Map. He fell by the wayside on this one. We walked 2 blocks in the wrong direction, before we asked for directions.
Once we were turned around, our hostel was a breeze to find. I have to say even in the dark, this city has more graffiti than Budapest ever thought possible and that is a real stretch. The hostel is a converted prison. Our room is an old cell, needless to say, there is only one window that opens on high, with bars on it, preventing any cross ventilation and is HOT. The temperature when we arrived was still in the mid-80s. More about the hostel later. It is time for a b and b = beer and bed.
Frommer Readers
0 commentsMy wife and I are getting much good use of the 8th edition of your Frommer's on Budapest, which we brought on our our two month sabbatical from the US. Normally, I wouldn't write the author of a guidebook, but we saw in the book that you live full time in Budapest and we thought we would share our good laugh with you. In walking down Andrassy Street looking for a place to exercise in-doors, we had been led to believe there was a fitness club at 68 Andrassy street. As we walked there we discovered the fitness club was since out of business, but the EcoCafe next door looked good. We went in that day in the first week of our being here and have gone back at least three times. It has freshly baked organic bread and kifli, sandwiches and good coffee.
Next door to the Eco as you probably know is the Lukacs Cukraszda. As we walked by it after breakfast, all my wife could remember was that it was noted in your guidebook. Well, being curious and on vacation I stepped inside to see if I could take a look at the menu. To the right of the door seemed to be a board with writing that looked like a menu, so I headed that way before being abruptly stopped by one of the waiters. It was literally two minutes to 9:00 and it turns out that the Lukacs does not open until nine AM. So, as I'm a potential customer two minutes before opening, I was surprised and miffed that the response of the employees was to insist that I leave.
When we got back to our apartment, we looked at the Frommer's just to check what you might have said about Lukacs. Of course, we howled when we read your insights about the manager's attitude. You had hit it right on the head. We definitely wouldn't go back there.
Leaving on Railjet Train
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Made in America Second Take
0 commentsHere is another view of "Made in America", the good old price fixing. No, this is not all-American and surely you could find the same in other countries, but does dissuade buyers to buy without comparative shopping whenever possible.
"The industry is abuzz this week over a class-action lawsuit filed against Apple and six of the big publishing houses alleging ebook price fixing. Amazon is mentioned several times in the press release, which states, "The complaint claims that the five publishing houses forced Amazon to abandon its discount pricing and adhere to a new agency model, in which publishers set prices.'" To read the rest and my source, go here.
Wednesday, August 17, 2011
Reader Comments on Nose Sucking
0 commentsTuesday, August 16, 2011
Do You Need Your Nose Sucked?
2 commentsIf you don't know the saying "truth is stranger than fiction" you must have at least thought something along those lines at some point. Anyway, I belong to a recycling group here that originated in Tuscon, Arizona and spread throughout the world. There are now 4,969 groups with 8,648,943 members.
The basic premise is that if you have something you want to rid yourself of, you post it to your recycle Yahoo group with WHO NEEDS in the subject line. People who want it, e-mail you for it, giving you the option of who gets it. Likewise, if you need something, you post NEED and then the item you need. Years ago I discovered Freecycle and wanted to start an English group here in Budapest, but since there was a group here already, I had to get permission from the current group leader. He refused permission, but offered a compromise. All posts to the Hungary group would be bi-lingual Hungarian and English. That worked for me. Over the years, I have been a major contributor of getting rid of things from furniture to old computer supplies. The only time there was something offered that I felt in need of was a pile of books for school. I was the only taker.
Not that you have the premise, this post came through my group today in the e-mail. I am only giving the English translation of the original Hungarian post. Dear Hungarians, please don't spoil the humor here by getting rational.
The message:
"We would like to get a vacuum cleaner. Mainly because the only way we can suck our baby's nose is to use the vacuum (with a special adapter).This is why it is very important to get one.
Thanks"
(translated by moderator, Betty )
Sunday, August 14, 2011
Made in America
0 commentsThis friend of ours sent out this news piece about a US special on television called "Made in America" with Diane Sawyer. The premise of the e-mail was that Sawyer, a famous television journalist went to different peoples' homes and had removed everything that was not made in America. My guess is that America was ethnocentrically defined as the USA, not Canada or Mexico, or any country in the other Americas, like Central or South.
Once all was identified as being from some other non-USA origin, the houses were empty. One house had a piece of ceramic, that ubiquitous hand print in clay that children make in school for Mother's Day. Although there was some discussion about whether to get rid of it or not, because the child was from Vietnam and had been adopted. Technically, the hand print was not of American origin.
The end result and conclusion was that if Americans, US, not other OTHER Americans, would only spend a paltry $65 more a person per year, we or rather they could buy "Made in the USA" for all of their purchases. What was left unsaid was that many people would have 1/45 of the things they now have to dust and vacuum, since in reality not all things they want are "Made in America" in the size, shape, color, style, or let's face it, quality we have come to expect from the Koreans and Japanese.
There were two things that came to mind with this whole expose'.
1. Are all of the raw materials for all of these "Made in America" products grown, produced, or created in the USA before the final product is created? If you want to see what the USA has to offer, you can visit here to see the items state by state.
2. If so many people want to create jobs and are so concerned with the American economy, why is Walmart and Sam's Club thriving and pushing out small privately owned business that pay fair wages and care for their employees?
If you are concerned about the American economy and jobs be proactive to change the corporation laws. However, we know they have politicians in their pockets, so those changes will never happen.
Thursday, August 11, 2011
Slug Time
0 commentsOkay, I have been feeling like a slug, not getting much of anything done. I attribute it t the days of August, where I have worked on so many projects from the time school is out that by now, I am running out of gas. What has kept me busy is reading new books for classes for fall. After ordering a number of new books for classes, I have to read them to see if they are as good as they were portrayed. A couple are, but they would be so far over the comprehension level of my students, they cannot be used. One was sufficient, interesting and will be used for my Race and Ethnicity I class. Darn they are going to have a lot to read.
As a reward for my slovenliness, we went to Szimpla Kert with Fulbrighter Jeff Frawley to test drive a new beer made with honey. It is not pasteurized, so from keg to keg it will be a bit different. Ron and I had stopped at a taco stand on the way. As good as the quick dinner was, I was almost too full to drink a large beer. All I had was one burrito. When the two others wanted round 2 of beer, I had to pass. Next time I will not eat first. It will be worth it for this beer, delicious. Anyone want to join us for a brew, give a yell. I am open to repeat visits.
Monday, August 08, 2011
All in One
0 commentsIn this age of technology, we can access more information in one day as opposed to what was possible in a year's time just a generation ago. Teaching university, I enjoy staying abreast of what is happening in technology and other areas, so I subscribe to different newsletters. However, I found one site that may rescue me from all of that. It is called Mashtop. Mashtop is an aggregation of other sites and stories, giving me a taste of what is available. If it is something that tickles my interest, I can read more. This is a great time saver, not having to page through long newsletters sifting out information. Because it has more than just technology, just about anyone will find something of interest. Check out Mashtop here.
Pin It Now!Saturday, August 06, 2011
British Countdown
0 commentsThrough our meanderings yesterday, we happened to pass by the British Embassy. These signs were blazing on either side of the entrance. I took these with my phone specifically for our friend Jennifer Norcross who will be attending the main event.Sorry, Jennifer, I cannot make my version do the countdown.
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Art Nouveau Museum
0 commentsAfter saying good-bye to our Polish Canadian guest Anne, we ventured to the Art Nouveau Museum. It is a private museum, which had some strange differences. Some of the exhibits were for sale. When Ron mentioned this to one of the workers upstairs, she said "Sometimes the lights need to work, sometimes the gas." When Ron questioned whether the sale items were to pay operating costs, she affirmed this.
One thing I learned is that I don't like Art Nouveau inside anywhere near as I do outside. I love the architecture, but could do without the decor and design of furniture. When I asked for a brochure, I was told they didn't have any more than the one in the window. The cashier gave me their "new" website, saying the other one was no longer any good. When I looked at the site she gave me, it was for the Budapest underGuides tours for Art Nouveau. With misinformation like this, it is no wonder they need to sell the displays to cover the bills.
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