CHANGING YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS

Today I changed my ISP (Internet Service Provider). Most of you will understand that means a great deal of time will be spent doing all the work that goes along with such a change. Men find what I say less familiar a process they didn't have to change their name when they got married, but those of us who did recall the many hours spent in notifying Social Security, School Alumni Offices, Professional Organizations and all those many places where our names are listed to identify us. Today the task spreads out to having to contact all those people who notify you about everything in the most convenient way, through email. Changing my ISP did not really necessitate all this work had I not had a preference for a non-Web-based email program. The first step is notifying everyone in my address book. I presume, since there are so many, that some will not get the message because their mail programs will think the large number of recipients represents 'spam'. Those sent back as undeliverable will have to have their refusal message checked and any that indicate anything other than clear evidence the person has shut down their mail, they will need to be sent individually to avoid the spam checker.

From past experience, the process will go on and on because someone, someplace or something inevitably gets forgotten. When that process is finally settled, some new time consuming project will find its way to me.



There is no doubt in my mind that I will miss some important ones and, since my old provider will not forward my mail to the new one for a day, I will have to wait to see if I have a hint of some I might have forgotten. I have remembered all the bills I pay on line, some subscriptions, and will even get around to letting my primary care physician know how she could reach me (in the unlikely event that she might wish to send me results to a test for which I have been waiting a few months now. Though I haven't received the results, the bill for the service had no difficulty finding me.

This process, aside from its being an exercise in frustration, really points out good and not-so-good web site creators.

IMPROVISATION

There is something about gray days that goes far beyond depressing the sun and me. Waking up to the dark takes me a few minutes to guess whether I am awakening from a nap or it is really morning! Rain falling gently adds tiny sounds, randomly, that keep me aware that Nature has taken control of my yard and the outside world in a manner to keep me indoors. That, in itself, is not unusual. My world is, for the most part, indoors.

Like most others, my day begins with ablutions, creaking, moving to start joint lubricants flowing, putting things away that weren't put to bed last night, then turning on the computer, loping past it on my way to the kitchen. BBC News is my home page. The world news is more depressing than the weather but one article catches my eye. It reads: Brain Surgery with a DIY drill. It is about a remarkable neurosurgeon from the UK who visits the medically ill-equipped Ukraine and helps a surgeon-friend perform operations. While I had previously written about my discovery of the meaning of innovation, I have now learned what it truly means to improvise. Previously improvisation immediately associated my mind to Jazz. I then recalled learning, when my first child was born half a Century ago, that I didn't need all the equipment made to care for babies. I didn't need a 'bathinette', for example (for which I had neither funds nor space), because the kitchen sink did just fine. I have no idea when I first improvised but this is my first association to the realization that lots of things have multiple uses. Today we learn that even medications for one purpose may be used for another by accident or a physician's improvisation of use.

Having been told since I was a child that I have a creative mind, that meant little to me until I realized it said I could solve problems and survive when I had few other tools for the task. With the aid of a blender, I improvised baby food at a fraction of the price those little jars would have cost had I the money to buy them. There was no Internet then, nor even the how-to books or TV shows there are today. There was no Martha Stewart, no HGTV, no 'This Old House' and rarely instructions other than from my friends or relatives who might have known more than I but were not always helpful or accurate with their instructions. People are often ready with advice for things that 'should' work though they never tried their ideas themselves. This is how I also learned that innovation requires an ability to think in terms of cause and effect. It is shocking that not everyone sees those two in succession. The concreteness of that sequence is brought home to anyone who has ever tried to program a computer. "If this; then that."

Now if our war-mongering Administration and politicians could have been more creative, innovative and improvisational.......ah, but that is a rant, not a blog for today.

SOMETIMES YOU JUST NEED TO KNOW WHEN TO QUIT

I've written this blog almost daily since last August. The challenge for me has been to examine my head and find a subject daily. With the help of the computer, Google and the Internet, something seems to get into focus after a few minutes of searching. Today I am drawing a blank, which leads me to the conclusion that my brain went on a mini-vacation.

My body is eying my warm bed. Waiting from the storm to arrive from the Northwest tonight, the temperature has chilled again. The thermostat is set to lower near midnight so the house has begun cooling for a few hours. My creativity has cooled with it.

Tomorrow I will arise and tackle the world, refreshed. Meanwhile the world will continue to self-destruct. Like the Terminator, "I'll be ba-a-ck!"

THINGS WE'VE LOST

It is not beyond my ability to comprehend that in this age where CEO's must cut costs and raise profits (or they won't get their obscene bonuses), products must change. Cheez-it used to be one of my favorite snacks.
I do not recall that, as a kid, I had to have a napkin in hand to wipe the oil off after getting a handful of the 'regular' crackers. I stopped eating those. Then Cheez-it came out with a low-fat version, many CEO's or owners of the cracker later. Gone was the oily hand and the cracker tasted cheesy as it had before. Then another innovation came out and the taste was changed. Now the cracker is like eating a cheese-flavored blotter. I have stopped eating those.

Getting smaller and smaller amounts for the same price is preferable to me than changing the formulas. However, I guess there is a limit to just how little an amount of product for which people will continue to the pay the same price. I guess when sales go down the manufacturer cheapens the recipe. I recall when Tootsie Rolls were delicious, soft and chewy.

Now they are jaw-breaking rods that taste like chocolate flavored wax. I stopped eating them.

Since conglomerates buy up everything possible for them, the little guy that invents a great product is wooed into selling out for huge profit. The new owner then proceeds to work the current magic of the day by turning a wonderful product into a tasteless piece of junk food with few redeeming qualities of taste or nourishment.

Some things from the past are worth bringing back, but I doubt much of it will happen in my lifetime.

CLIMBING OUT OF THE PIT

Whether it is death, divorce, or something else....when life makes a radical change in your life for which you feel unequipped, you need to write a new life script. Unprepared for the new life ahead need not be devastating. Grieving is one process through which one must pass; planning for life without that person, job, home or whatever is a second.

Somethings which no one can take away from us are memories. For some these might be predominantly positive; for others negative. It is much easier to move on when the loss has been welcomed. Anger fills the emotional gaps in many of us because emptiness is too painful to bear, making anger an easy filler. When left with the emptiness of life which anger alone cannot fill, new coping skills must be developed. If the loss was a parent, closeness continues to be felt because the parents are introjects and live in our heads. The loss is great if the parent remained as the only life partner. If the loss is a spouse, indeed the entire day must be planned and scheduled anew. If the loss was a job, it is as much an identity lost as no longer being a Mrs. Someone or a Man in a twosome. If the loss is one of the senses or a limb, the road back to a satisfactory level of functioning is a long, hard one.

Before one can begin a life change, the reality of the loss must be faced. Functions the lost person filled must find replacements. That done, then activities shared may cease. If continued, new companions for those must be found. Much depends on one's activities prior to the loss. Two people who lived velcroed to one another have much more life to replace when one is lost. A well-rounded person has friends and activities that may or may not be shared with their partner. Whether it is death or divorce. those who socialized mostly in the companionship of other couples will find that couples tend to want to keep the balance. Single women are often too threatening for a variety of reasons. Widows and divorcees seem to find others like themselves...it seems there are plenty of both around. Widowers and divorced men have far less trouble ( from my observations) finding companionship. That may be because there are more available women and because they can look for younger women. The down-side of that is that when they marry younger women, the wife (if she has had no children) wants one or more so they end up starting their adult life over as a parent to infants, seeming not to mind that they will be beyond retirement age when their children are still in school.

In this new script, family and friends should be one of the most important elements. Maximizing one's health is critical. A healthy diet, rest as much as is needed (since the amount varies with each individual) is uppermost in priority. Those fortunate enough not to have gross financial worries can spend more time working out a budget to include those recreational activities of greatest interest; sometimes travel, concerts, theater and movies, time to read or whatever keeps someone balanced and relaxed.

More simply, most of us will survive loss but the quality of life can be manipulated to be more positive than negative. 'Stay connected' should be the phrase of the day.

USE OF THE INTERNET

Earlier today I wondered how people use the Internet differently. A few friends and I agreed that people use it to stay in touch with the world, family, friends, current events, current technology, hobbies, history, learning, and too numerous uses to mention. When I went to trusty Google with the question, "How do people use the Internet?" At the top of the results was a Pew Internet Typology Test which I took. I learned that I am a Connector. 8% of the population uses the computer more and are called Omnivores. The median age of Connectors is 38. That made me chuckle because my age will skew that figure some!

Of the eight IT devices asked about, I have five. 86% of my group has broadband internet at home. Take the test and do make life easier for the research people who want to shove us all into little boxes of stored data. Like the soldiers who served and died in Iraq, we can be lumped collectively as IT users, secondly in categories in which we may not be identical to others in the category but we will share many elements in common with others in it.

WHEN IS A ROSE NOT A ROSE

Apparently there is a site that promises more money earned by a woman on her back than most professions offer. Nicole McClelland writes in Mother Jones: "Sites like SugarDaddy.com lure young women by offering them far more money than they could get in most professions. What's wrong with this picture?" Read the article, for it raises issues rarely mentioned in US economy reports.

The government uses cold monetary facts to determine poverty. It includes money income, non-cash benefits (though food stamps and housing subsidies don't count), looks at income before taxes, excludes capital gains or losses, and all family members are counted; most telling is a statement among other criteria, that

• Although the thresholds in some sense reflect families needs,
• they are intended for use as a statistical yardstick, not as a complete description of what people and families need to live

It does not really take into account what happens to people who cannot afford to pay for medications, who have lost housing due to improper calculations of mortgages or loss of job , and whatever drives people to take desperate measures to survive.

Articles are beginning to appear about what pushes people to Revolutions. In Haiti poverty is being driven by people cutting too many trees. In India, poverty has driven people to sell organs. Poverty drives immigration. Lack of education is a major factor in driving people to poverty even in better economic times. Illness, especially cancer, AIDS, and illnesses of the body and mind which require large expenditures for cure or even for palliative measures creates poverty. Wars create poverty. The number of orphans in war torn countries create poverty not only through lack of education but through the destruction of family bread-winners by death or maiming and loss of physical ability to work.

Poverty has been most noticed by the poor; the wealthy seem to be sheltered. More studies should be done and articles written. The media deserves tp be be censured for the lack of attention to these real issues we face. Our leaders should learn that "So?" is a disgraceful response to questions about what is facing our troops and so many others in our world today.