Susan's Scribblings the Blog

Monthly Archives: March 2012

• What’s With All That Money?

  Posted at 1:48 am by kayewer, on March 25, 2012

  The lottery has a huge jackpot right now, and I think the way they handle it is wrong.  A jackpot of $200,000,000 or so is a bizarre sum, and really it is too much for one, two or 20 people to win.  Even the richest men in the world stop collecting expensive cars at ten or twenty or so; after awhile money can be too plentiful to be important, like a dead fad.

  Maybe the lottery should give 200 people one million dollars instead of one person 200 million dollars.  Think of what that money, even after exorbitant taxes, could do for droves of average joes and janes?  A family burdened by hospital bills could dig themselves out.  A family with six children could pay college tuition.  Somebody could start up a business, help a worthy cause or see some place special before they die with one million dollars.

  Sure, one person or a couple with 200 million would not have to worry about expenses for life, but folks in their later years know the value to one dollar and can be overwhelmed with the burden of 199,999,999 more.  Also, the criminal element and folks seeking a quick fix like to go after people with more than one million dollars.

  There is always the question about what one would do with a million dollars, but nobody asks about 200 million.  It’s big and cumbersome.  Of course, in one lump sum, one new multi-millionaire could fix an entire town devastated by floods or other natural disasters, or fund a hospital, or send aid overseas.  In the end, though, we could all use just something extra in our pockets to make life temporarily easier, maybe leave something to our survivors or favorite charities, and splurge on something for ourselves if some is left over.  So don’t you think that maybe the lottery could change their rules a bit and help the masses more?

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  Posted in Uncategorized | 0 Comments | Tagged jackpot, jackpots, lottery, mega millions, powerball

• The Pen is Mightier Than the IPad?

  Posted at 2:31 am by kayewer, on March 18, 2012

  eBay has a new commericial in which execs at a board meeting pick on a fellow who breaks out a paper pad and pen while they all have electronic devices.  The others make references to his being in some sort of pre-IPad stone age and, therefore, not hip.  He proceeds to log onto eBay during their chatter, and he quickly buys a device while his pen then leaks an inky deposit in his shirt pocket.  My opinion is that the pen was crying.

  I, too, had a few words said to me for using pad and pen at a meeting at work recently.  I’m a writer, though, and they work better for me than using a laptop.  Besides, most of the people at the meeting had e-pads and Blackberrys, none of which I had either.  Thirdly, I used a pad in a portfolio which was a present from one of my superiors.  I certainly wasn’t going to pitch it just because we’re in the portable gizmo age.

  How superficial and wasteful we are in this electronic age.  With all due respect to the industry and eBay, who are all out to keep their own families eating three square meals a day after all, it seems there is no end to one-upmanship.  Folks buy an Apple product in November for $500, $600 or more, then chuck it for the next one in March.  The waste products from these things, such as mercury,  go to chemical cesspools in places like India after poor wretches canibalize and rip apart the workings of discarded electronic products (if the article on “60 Minutes” rings true).  We don’t seem to care that we discard so much cyber junk just because a new fair weather friend has come along.

  What is wrong with pen and paper?  Why is the art of penmanship condemned to die?  Is it because we want to be lazy, or because we’re so worried that other people will think less of us if we don’t follow the trend?  It reminds me of stories of products which were useless but everybody had to have, like the Pet Rock.  Remember those?  Think about it:  we paid money for a rock in a box!

  This “cost of WOW” really disturbs me, because we Americans tend to spend a lot of money for little reward.  Is the cost of some stranger’s approval an annual replenishment of a $700 device?  Is social standing valued by jacked up prices on materialistic junk?  No, and I’ll say that to the end.

  In the “Dune” series of books by Frank Herbert, mankind became apathetic with the advantages of electronics, and a few smart people formed alliances with machines to subjugate the dumb public until they rebelled and took back their ability to think beyond the “Wow” factor of convenient devices.  I hope that doesn’t happen in our or our children’s lifetimes.  I’d rather be able to write in cursive with my own hand on something that can be recycled, like paper from a non-electronic tree.

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• Hurling Invective

  Posted at 3:37 am by kayewer, on March 11, 2012

  I can’t figure out why we should have to watch people throw up on television shows and in movies.  I enjoyed the movie “Super 8” until a character got sick.  That ruined it for me.  Sure, it’s a part of being human, but back in the old days people put their hands to their mouths and exited the scene, and we got the picture.  Have we grown so jaded by the sensationism we get onscreen that we need to be exposed to such disgusting behavior?

  Of course we have many euphemisms for the act of vomiting, such as throwing up, hurling, puking, talking to Ralph.  It’s strange how we try to skirt around unpleasant things in life when talking about them, but put them out front visually in movies and shows and call it entertaining.  I’d prefer being bored to watching somebody else’s stomach discomfort in living color.

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• Sign of the Day

  Posted at 3:41 am by kayewer, on March 4, 2012

  Passing by a hospital, I saw a large sign for the “Eye Emergency Room.”  Sure, it’s great to have a place which specializes in eye problems, but would somebody with an eye emergency actually be looking for a sign that says “Eye Emergency Room?”

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