Well, I am almost 65, only four more weeks before the day. At 65, I should be officially retiring, relaxing, and enjoying the rest of my life. Instead, I am looking for work. I need a job to pay the bills resulting from the ladder sliding out from under me last August. It is openly stated, but there is a lot of hidden prejudice against hiring a senior citizen. In the Information Technology world, the interviewers are younger than my daughter.
65 and Looking for Work
February 7th, 2010
Social Networking for Non-Profit Organizations
February 2nd, 2010Social networking is not new to the Inernet. Whether it be bulletin boards, email lists, FTP sites, or Gopher, the desire to form groups existed before HTTP and the “Web.” Tim Berners-Lee created the “Web” to provide a means for scientists to share information. The social networks of today are a natural evolution of the past. Social networking reflects the basic need of humans to congregate together and to share.
FCC Ruling on Wireless Microphones
January 28th, 2010This morning, I received the following announcement from the FCC:
Under a new FCC rule, anyone who uses a wireless microphone that operates in the 700 MHz Band must stop operating their wireless microphone no later than June 12, 2010. All users of 700 MHz Band wireless microphones (and similar devices) – including theaters, churches, schools, conference centers, theme parks, and musicians — will need to retune (where possible) or replace their wireless microphone equipment with other microphone devices no later than June 12, 2010. This action helps complete an important component of the DTV Transition by clearing the 700 MHz band to enable the rollout of communications services for public safety and the deployment of next generation 4G wireless devices for consumers.
For further information, please visit the website at www.fcc.gov/cgb/wirelessmicrophones
VA Healthcare or Medicare
January 26th, 2010After four applications over a period of three years, I finally met the income requirements to be accepted into VA Healthcare. Every year, I must submit a form to requalify for the coming year. I am also approaching my 65th birthday, which raises the question of how does VA dovetail with Medicare, especially in regards to Medicare Part B and D. The answer to Medicare Part D was easy, but not so for Medicare Part B. Read the rest of this entry »
Dealing with Medical Bills
January 26th, 2010I retired at 62 just to have a stable income in a horrible IT job market. The boom days of IT training had ended, and training contracts were few and far between. Health insurance was one of the expenses that didn’t fit in a drastically reduced budget. As I approached 65, the insurance companies wanted $500 a month for a minimal plan. I applied for VA Healthcare, but I still earned too much under the old rules. We were in a state of virtual middle-class poverty. The energy companies and insurance companies were killing our budget. The only hope was to not get seriously injured or sick until I was eligible for Medicare. Read the rest of this entry »
Hanging on by a Thread
January 26th, 2010Since writing”The ‘Oh Shit’ Moment” post, I had another appointment with Dr. Erpelding at the VA Clinic in Billings. This time, I was able to get a CD containing the X-rays from the visit. The CD auto-starts the X-ray viewer used by the doctors to view digital images. It is a really cool tool. When I travel, and hoping that occurs sooner rather than later, I will have the X-rays of my leg should anything happen to re-injure it. Read the rest of this entry »
The “Oh Shit” Moment
January 19th, 2010My wife, Monica, and I were building our own house. We were the designers and the workers, except for hiring a people to help with pouring concrete. We built and finished the basement first, and are living in it. In 2008, we started building the main floor. Monica injured her back in December of 2007. On July 23 off last year, she had surgery to relieve the pressure on the nerve. A Montana winter was quickly approaching, and I was trying to get the roof on before it snowed. I did not want to spend another winter shoveling snow out of a partially framed house. Read the rest of this entry »
Support the Opposition in Iran
June 24th, 2009If you’re on Twitter, set your location to Tehran & your time zone to GMT +3.30. Iranian security forces are hunting for bloggers using location/timezone searches. The more people at this location, the more of a logjam it creates for forces trying to shut down Iranians’ access to the internet. Cut & paste & pass it on pls…
Religious Intolerance
May 16th, 2009In the Bill of Rights, the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution states that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof … .” Freedom of religion doesn’t mean that we need to agree with every religion. It does mean that we need to respect the right of an individual to worship in a manner of their choosing. It means respect of other religions. Whether Christian, Jew, Muslim, Hindu, or one of the thousands of other religions, they all deserve respect.
Freedom of religion is one of the freedoms for which every American soldier has fought to preserve, and many have given their all to preserve that freedom. Religious extremism that denies the rights of other to worship as they choose is not acceptable.
The above was prompted by an article in an Egyptian newspaper and reported in Palestinian Media Watch. The Title of the article was “All Pigs Must Die because they descend from Jews: According to an Egyptian Islamic scholar.” The article actually refers to “People of the Book,” which applies to both Jews and Christians. The article was actually a justification for the killing of all pigs owned by the Coptic Christians in Egypt, as a result of the swine flu. The article also give justification for killing all descendents of Moses. This Fatwa illustrates the dangers of extreme religious views that justify the killing of all who do not believe as they do. At about the same time, a Taliban leader made the statement that they only kill those who are not pure. In this case, they define who is pure. This is the basis of all extreme religious groups. The Holocaust is our reminder of the dangers of ideological extremism.
Because of the extreme views of a few, we cannot brand all Muslems as extremists. Every religion has its extremists. It is our duty to insure religious freedom by never letting the extremists of any religion to determine the beliefs of all people. The war we are fighting against terrorism is a war to protect our freedoms.
Direction Changing Events
March 26th, 2009About three weeks ago, I ordered a bunch of new DVDs and CDs to update my Linux collection. If I am going to blog about Linux, it helps to blog about current versions and not those that are over six months old. Part of that order included Knoppix 6.0. When I booted the live CD, it booted to ADRIANE. I had no idea what was happening, and I had never heard of ADRIANE. I just wanted to look at how Knoppix implemented LXDE as desktop. Listening to the voice feedback, while checking out the LXDE desktop was very disconcerting.
Last week, Verizon was havisng a problem with their cell tower on Red Lodge mountain, and I didn’t have an Internet connection for a day. Since the weather was not exactly warm, I couldn’t work outside. So, I read a book on CSS. The author kept mentioning the need to style for the visually impaired. I realized that I hadn’t really written my style sheets to conform to these guidelines.
This lead to reading the guidelines, and making the decision to change the sytle sheet I wrote for mtlegion.org. Of course, I need to blog about it, as I learn more, so that others become aware of the needs of the blind and visually impaired. It also brought back memories of a blind programmer, who worked for me in the 1970’s. He was my best programmer, my best keypunch operator, and a great friend. He tried to teach me braille and how to use a braille output device, but my fingers weren’t sensitive to the little bumps. Forgot to mention, he was a great cook.
