I like making lists. This one is about the biggest lies we hear almost every day. Most of us don't believe these lies, but a few really naive folks may believe at least some of them.
"Your call is really important to us". The truth is they just wish you would hang up.
"We take this issue very seriously". The truth is one of the following; they got caught doing something unethical, there was a
product failure or someone made a big booboo (like putting a lizard in your salad) and they wish no one had found out.
"Get a $xx rebate!" The truth is you will forget to mail it in the time frame allowed (some as few as 5 days), they will claim they didn't receive it if you did mail it or they will lie and say you didn't send in all the required documents. (Disclaimer,some companies will do the right thing, not all of them are crooks.)
"I promise" The biggest lie of all. Politians promise anything to get elected. Once they are elected, all of the promises turn out to be fairy dust. (Fairy dust doesn't exist.)
"We care". Any statement by politians, companies or large corporations starting with these words is a blatant lie. What they do care about is your vote, either by going to the polls or making a purchase.
"Ask your doctor" The drug manufacturers know you probably don't need this outrageously expensive drug. They have bribed your doctor with food, merchandize and other goodies so when you "ask your doctor" he will prescribe this drug that may not
have been thoroughly tested and probably has some very unpleasant side effects up to and including death.
I know there are more of these big lies, if you know of some more, let me know!
Martha
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Monday, August 18, 2008
What's in this stuff I'm about to eat?
Sometimes I wonder about stuff, like why does my pimento cheese spread have egg yolks as one of the ingredients? Cheese and pimentos yes, but egg yolks? But at least I understood 'egg yolks' even if I can't figure out why they put them in my cheese spread. Some of those other ingredients are a complete mystery!
I know most people don't read the list of ingredients that are in the products they buy. I understand why they don't read those lists; most folks don't have a degree in chemistry. I don't have a degree in chemistry either, but I feel compelled to read the ingredient lists anyway.
I am slowly but surely removing products from my 'buy' list. The first list of things I removed have a nasty ingredient, 'partially hydogenated oil'. This stuff is poison! Artery clogging poison! This made my 'don't buy' list get a lot longer as a bunch of food processors seem to think they have to put this artery clogger in just about everything. Bakers put it in cookies, companies like Kraft put it in everything! And just because the ingredients say '0' transfat, don't believe it! Check the ingredients. If partially hydogenated oil is listed, the product contains transfat. (Lies!)
Somewhere I read that if Grandma wouldn't recognize an ingredient, you shouldn't eat it. I don't remember where I read that, but I have decided that's a good thing to remember. The upside of changing my buy list is my grocery bill has gone down. (I don't go down the cookie aisle any more.)The downside is I have to cook almost everything from 'scratch' and I really don't like to cook!
You would think that not buying all that stuff would make me lose weight. Not true, even though I am not fond of cooking, I am fond of eating what I cook! Sigh!
Martha
I know most people don't read the list of ingredients that are in the products they buy. I understand why they don't read those lists; most folks don't have a degree in chemistry. I don't have a degree in chemistry either, but I feel compelled to read the ingredient lists anyway.
I am slowly but surely removing products from my 'buy' list. The first list of things I removed have a nasty ingredient, 'partially hydogenated oil'. This stuff is poison! Artery clogging poison! This made my 'don't buy' list get a lot longer as a bunch of food processors seem to think they have to put this artery clogger in just about everything. Bakers put it in cookies, companies like Kraft put it in everything! And just because the ingredients say '0' transfat, don't believe it! Check the ingredients. If partially hydogenated oil is listed, the product contains transfat. (Lies!)
Somewhere I read that if Grandma wouldn't recognize an ingredient, you shouldn't eat it. I don't remember where I read that, but I have decided that's a good thing to remember. The upside of changing my buy list is my grocery bill has gone down. (I don't go down the cookie aisle any more.)The downside is I have to cook almost everything from 'scratch' and I really don't like to cook!
You would think that not buying all that stuff would make me lose weight. Not true, even though I am not fond of cooking, I am fond of eating what I cook! Sigh!
Martha
Saturday, August 16, 2008
Circles
By now unless you've been hiding in a cave somewhere with no communication with the outside world, you know the Olympic games are well underway. Since the Olympics are so popular, everyone wants to jump on the bandwagon.
My newspaper is no exception. Today there is an article about decorating with circles due to the fact that the Olympic symbol consists of five entwined circles. This was one subject they should have filed under 'forget it'.
I could maybe have lived with the lamp they chose, and maybe for a little while with some of the other stuff, but when I saw the sofa, I knew right away this was not the kind of stuff for me.
I know that there is always the 'different strokes for different folks', but honestly, could you live with this Marshmallow Sofa?
Martha
My newspaper is no exception. Today there is an article about decorating with circles due to the fact that the Olympic symbol consists of five entwined circles. This was one subject they should have filed under 'forget it'.
I could maybe have lived with the lamp they chose, and maybe for a little while with some of the other stuff, but when I saw the sofa, I knew right away this was not the kind of stuff for me.
I know that there is always the 'different strokes for different folks', but honestly, could you live with this Marshmallow Sofa?
Martha
Thursday, August 14, 2008
No Vista Help on My Website
I really thought by now I would have added pages and pages for Vista help. Not so, because I haven't had to fix any problems with my Vista. Since I haven't had to fix any problems...........well, I have no experience in that area. (I'm not fussing!)
There are a lot of people who do seem to be having problems with Vista and there are a lot of sites with 'fixes' for Vista. One thing I have noticed, is that a lot of the 'fixes' are to make things act more like Windows XP.
Nothing wrong with that I guess, but to me that is going backward instead of forward. I have Vista on this laptop and I want to use it as it was intended.
There are some problems with Vista and I am not denying they exist. The biggest problem for me is what Microsoft did to Outlook Express. They took away the only redeeming feature that led me to use OE in past versions of Windows; the ability to use more than one Identity in the same user account. The rationale was 'users should set up separate user accounts'. That's all well and good, but I have several email accounts and I used a separate Identity for each account. Gmail to the rescue here!
Not only did they 'cripple' the email client Windows Mail, but it was buggy at the start. The deleted folder wouldn't empty and the old fix for this problem in Outlook Express wasn't possible with Windows Mail. So then MS came up with Windows Live Mail. Ugh! Ick! No way, Microsoft, Windows Live Mail just doesn't cut it. Thunderbird works quite well. No separate Identities in Thunderbird, but deleted mail will delete.
I am not sure what they did to Internet Explorer, but a lot of folks have seem to have problems with IE7. I don't use IE unless I have to because it still contains ActiveX, a favorite of drive-by spyware.
Those problems are easily fixed for me; I just don't use them most of the time. There is one little problem though that I have learned to live with, although I would like a 'fix'. Why doesn't Windows Vista remember my folder settings!
Martha
There are a lot of people who do seem to be having problems with Vista and there are a lot of sites with 'fixes' for Vista. One thing I have noticed, is that a lot of the 'fixes' are to make things act more like Windows XP.
Nothing wrong with that I guess, but to me that is going backward instead of forward. I have Vista on this laptop and I want to use it as it was intended.
There are some problems with Vista and I am not denying they exist. The biggest problem for me is what Microsoft did to Outlook Express. They took away the only redeeming feature that led me to use OE in past versions of Windows; the ability to use more than one Identity in the same user account. The rationale was 'users should set up separate user accounts'. That's all well and good, but I have several email accounts and I used a separate Identity for each account. Gmail to the rescue here!
Not only did they 'cripple' the email client Windows Mail, but it was buggy at the start. The deleted folder wouldn't empty and the old fix for this problem in Outlook Express wasn't possible with Windows Mail. So then MS came up with Windows Live Mail. Ugh! Ick! No way, Microsoft, Windows Live Mail just doesn't cut it. Thunderbird works quite well. No separate Identities in Thunderbird, but deleted mail will delete.
I am not sure what they did to Internet Explorer, but a lot of folks have seem to have problems with IE7. I don't use IE unless I have to because it still contains ActiveX, a favorite of drive-by spyware.
Those problems are easily fixed for me; I just don't use them most of the time. There is one little problem though that I have learned to live with, although I would like a 'fix'. Why doesn't Windows Vista remember my folder settings!
Martha
Tuesday, August 05, 2008
Spam is down?
Could have fooled me!
According to my latest issue of Consumer Reports, "spam, spyware and virus have declined 'significantly in the past few years". They got this information on their new 'State of the Net survey'.
Consumer Reports has in the past been considered by me to be a reliable source of information about just about everything. But this little tad of information has me totally bewildered. What kind of folks were taking this survey? This statement makes me wonder about all of the other reports they publish.
On the contrary, Consumer Reports! Spam, spyware and virus have NOT declined significantly in the past few yeas, but are more and more prolific all the time! Since 2006 the total amount of spam in email has increased from 56% to 80%! Anyone who has used the same email address for any length of time can vouch for that. (Unless they have a really industrial strength spam filter. Even then spam gets through.)
Source: Spam Report
Spyware has changed it's face so maybe some folks think it's down. The 'change' has involved more rootkits, key loggers, Trojans and worms, all designed to steal your money and identity. New virus are being intoduced every day. I suspect the folks who took that survey probably are mostly behind corporate firewalls with an IT department working feverishly to prevent all of the bad suff from ever reaching the work stations of clueless users.
They should have sent the survey to those techs working behind the scenes!
All of the above reinforces the old saying 'Don't believe everything you hear or read'. (And now with PhotoShop you can't believe everything you see either)
Martha
According to my latest issue of Consumer Reports, "spam, spyware and virus have declined 'significantly in the past few years". They got this information on their new 'State of the Net survey'.
Consumer Reports has in the past been considered by me to be a reliable source of information about just about everything. But this little tad of information has me totally bewildered. What kind of folks were taking this survey? This statement makes me wonder about all of the other reports they publish.
On the contrary, Consumer Reports! Spam, spyware and virus have NOT declined significantly in the past few yeas, but are more and more prolific all the time! Since 2006 the total amount of spam in email has increased from 56% to 80%! Anyone who has used the same email address for any length of time can vouch for that. (Unless they have a really industrial strength spam filter. Even then spam gets through.)
Source: Spam Report
Spyware has changed it's face so maybe some folks think it's down. The 'change' has involved more rootkits, key loggers, Trojans and worms, all designed to steal your money and identity. New virus are being intoduced every day. I suspect the folks who took that survey probably are mostly behind corporate firewalls with an IT department working feverishly to prevent all of the bad suff from ever reaching the work stations of clueless users.
They should have sent the survey to those techs working behind the scenes!
All of the above reinforces the old saying 'Don't believe everything you hear or read'. (And now with PhotoShop you can't believe everything you see either)
Martha
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