READING THOSE SQUIGGLY LETTERS TO CONFUSE BOTS IS NEARLY IMPOSSIBLE EVEN FOR HONEST PEOPLE WITH POOR EYESIGHT.

As I sit at my computer wondering what else I have to do to prepare for Hurricane Sandy, I have been catching up on many of the blogs and emails I hadn't had the opportunity to read.  On one blog I wanted to leave a comment.  I wrote out what I wanted to say and hit publish.  I got one of those SPAM defender thingies that twists letters to make them illegible to the bot.  However, I am not a bot and they are illegible to me with my blossoming macular degeneration.

Using a magnifying glass, it usually takes me several tries to get the letters correct.   When I make reservations at my favorite  jazz club, I encounter the same problem,as I do in some other sites.  It would be great if someone invented another way of giving an answer that a bot could not do, such as a problem of logic or deduction.  Perhaps  there could be a choice of what a bot cannot do but a reasonably sighted human could do?

Just to add to my confusion, I went to ASK.com with the question 

I learned those little boxes might be called CAPTCHA.  I know that when I read: 'Best Practices for Preventing BuddyPress Spam User Registrations on that linked site, I was left more confused and depressed than before I asked the question.  Oh well, solutions aren't always simple, are they?

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HURRICANE SANDY MAY BE A VISITOR SOON

It has been some time since Massachusetts Boston area has had a substantial hurricane.  It is impossible to sound enthusiastic that we may or may not have one early next week.  Listening to the weather can be quite disheartening.  "The storm has already killed 20 people in the Bahamas."

It is a time such as this when I miss the generator my husband had hooked up before he, and later it, went to the great beyond.  Naturally, the plan to get one installed doesn't materialize until too late since the shelves have long been cleared of them at the hint of the storm.

Recalling the great hurricane of 1939 when I was a child, I recall everything that was loose on our farm flying around.  I no longer live on a farm but there are still things in the yard that can be caught up in the wind.  I recall in the 50s that we were told to stay away from windows, frequently ignored by people who have to 'see everything'.

It is impossible for me to believe God takes care of us or he wouldn't have sent a hurricane in the first place and randomly knocked off people who are believers.  Nevertheless, living with the credo of never worrying about anything over which I have no control, the best I can do is try to be prepared as possible. I will pull things into the house that can take off with the wind or see that they cannot be moved easily.  I will have as much food as I can eat, even if the power goes.  Since I have a gas stove (our natural gas has never been lost in such a storm before) I might even be able to heat water or make soup.

The thing that concerns me most, aside from my physical safety, is what will happen during the last few days of the campaign and my ability to vote and follow the results.  Whoever will become president will be, whether I monitor it or not, but it never feels that way.

TRUE THE VOTE: HARASSING VOTERS AS PRO-LIFERS HARASSED WOMEN ENTERING CLINICS

True the Vote is an organization which plans to have one million people at polls to monitor voting, though in fact, their history shows they simply harass voters, often times so that voters leave without casting a ballot just to avoid the harassment.

Voter intimidation is also done by bosses.  There have been multiple reports of jobs being threatened unless workers vote as the bosses wish.  Stephen Colbert explains voter intimidation by bosses.  To understand this intimidation, click here. Republicans have been highly effective to rid states of unions.  This leaves workers with no place to go for help.  We must stop the abuse of power that has taken hold in the United States.  Voting honest people, truthful, who care about all people in the United States is a mandatory start.

It is illegal to intimidate voters.  The FBI is pursuing sources of an intimidating letter sent to Floridians. In eleven days, we will note whether the polls showed clearly what might have happened,; or we may see how successful the forces against ballots cast by the people will be sincerely and accurately counted.

WE WERE NEVER INTENDED TO BE AN ALL CHRISTIAN COUNTRY

The Christian Right is defying our Constitution and trying to make this a country a Christian nation.  Clearly stated in our Constitution, there should be a wall of separation between church and state.  It is in defiance of our Constitution that someone (Ryan and others) would elect a candidate who says, regardless of our laws (Roe vs Wade) he would work to follow his Catholic beliefs.   Though John F Kennedy was a Roman Catholic, he made it clear he would not impose his beliefs from his religion on others.  Paul Ryan has stated the exact opposite. He will work to make laws from his personal beliefs, while Biden says he has been a life long Roman Catholic but believes in other people's right to follow their own belies.

The Indiana Republican Senate candidate from Indiana believes that, if a woman gets pregnant from a rape, God intended for her to have that baby.  While our Constitution clearly states that t here should be no religious test for elected office, it would seem that people with any common sense would understand that the man's logic is faulty and he should not be making medical life-altering decisions for others.  If God were in control of a rape which most people do not believe (even other religions believe in some evil force like a devil) than why assume God is the only force behind life?  Does God deliberately birth special needs children, and if so, why would a benevolent God do that? 

Rationalizing what God thinks is very dangerous.  We have no evidence anyone has ever directly spoken to God, not even the Pope.  It is all hearsay with no proof.  To make laws off this distorted logic is absurd.  There are those men in the background of the government who wish to replicate the Taliban values for women.  However, men are married to women and they have a great investment in whether they are forced to support unwanted children or have to raise the product of a rape along with their natural morn children.  I would hope they see the danger in the thinking of self-defined demigod.

 

WHERE HAS MY STRESS-FREEE LIFE GONE?

Having decided to live a stress-free life for whatever years are left to me, I freely confess that the Presidential campaign is  making that pledge to myself very difficult to keep.  Stress is minimized if I avoid ever watching the Fox News Channel, anyone leaning in a Republican direction, or people wasting their vote to 'make a statement'.(which is known only to themselves.as they whistle to the wind).

Tonight I strayed even further off course.  Feeling sorry for my house guest, I strayed further away from my pledge by forcing myself to sit still for a whole half hour and watch Jeopardy or was it The Price Is Ruight?   Focus on anything other than picking apart everything one can find to pick apart of the debate between Romney and President Obama is doomed to failure at present.

Even Facebook has been hi-jacked by the campaign.  My ears are ringing with the slogan, "It's not about Obama; it's about yo' Mama."  As I drive, I want to tear campaign signs off lawns.  I tense at voices that sound like Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter, Paul Ryan, and countless others whose messages make me want to scream, "How can you be so wrong?"

Oh well, it is, at last, time to go to bed. I'm too tired to write a blog tonight.

THE LAST DEBATE BETWEEN ROMNEY AND PRESIDENT OBAMA

Just as beauty is in the eyes of the beholder (subjectivity) so is the response to debates.  I'm sure the Republicans could see nothing wrong with their candidate while I though Romney was the same empty shell as always.  I thought it of interest to see how he was perceived else where.  Click here to get the English version from Al Jazeera.


I thought most reports would be the same, but I was wrong.  They really saw different aspects and commented.  BBC News can be seen here.

HOW TO BE OLD

You can't learn to be old until you gets old.  Now you might ask, how do you know when you have gotten old.  The answer is the one my mother used to give me about kneading bread dough.  You knead it until the dough 'feels right'.  My next question was, "How will I know when it feels right?"  With dough, it feels right when it no longer sticks to your fingers and gets springy.  With old age, it is when you realize that you can no longer do many things you used to do, no longer want to do the things you used to do,  and no one else needs you to do the things you used to do.  In fact, things don't 'feel right' any longer.

To be old properly, you have to give up things graciously and gratefully.  When you no longer can do things to the standard you always required, you have to learn to do new things.  When arthritis makes doing work with your hands requiring fine hand coordination, you might have to find a new hobby  or someone to do the job you used to do by yourself.

It is wise to sell equipment you will no longer use while it still has some resale value.  (I never mastered that one and have a full house of things that are now becoming collector's items),  When new technology requires a long learning curve, you just have to accept it as a fact of living in the 2000 year millennium.  It may have happened somewhere but I have neither heard nor seen such an occurrence as having .  As you watch all the friends of your own age pass on to the celestial, eternal playground,  it is important to separate yourself from the simple similarities such as age or training.

Aside from all the tasks which go on , even through our gallop to the next phase, maintenance and preservation of your body will remain the single most time consuming and important task.  When you spend more time staying healthy than anything else you do, you have gotten old.  Live with it.  The next step requires no lessons.