These are fake bolts. Just picking up the package tells me they are made of tin. The markings are larger than the real thing, obviously to trick the uninitiated. The quality of the bolt finish was also bad, maybe even as bad as the $18 camera I used to take this picture.I had to call the government office today and was put on hold by the robot. The recording said the Social Security handles 50 million people per month. What the hell? That’s more than half the working population. If you are already getting a check, why phone the office, so why that many? Are they saying that number of people are trying to get government assistance? I guess it would add up, if you get three people on welfare in the same house, why work for a living? A reliable source tells me welfare is $850 per month, consisting of $674 cash and $176 in food stamps. (The stamps are really a credit card.)
I mentioned this to Teri, who knows the ropes. She pointed out that was Federal rates. Most “recipients” (as would be recognized as welfare cases) are on the State rolls. This tweaked my interest, tell me more. It is called SSI, which she refers to as “white man’s welfare”, adding that women have a hard time qualifying (something to do with differing work history rules). The message I’m getting is that one should only work if one can get ahead in the world. Working just for a living is verboten. If you can’t get ahead, don’t work.
Technology is not self-correcting. When I got the new cell phone my number remained the same, but somehow I was cancelled off the no-call list. If you ever need proof the system of elected representatives has broken down in America, look into the history of that list. Eighty million people signed up the first pass and something like one hundred a fifty million by now. Yet telemarketers still exist because of that dismal excuse that they need the jobs. Throw the pack of them out on the streets, if they’ll bother people, they’ll do anything for a living, dammit.
The good news is I was able to reverse pretext the stupid “representative” who called me back. She said I won up to $2,500, whoopee! I was able to finally find out who was behind those “survey” calls that don’t give the opt-out message required by law. They make you repeat your number and they call you back. Tomorrow I publish it on the Internet. The offending outfit is Travel Partners USA. I have their office number and extension of the head ass-hat, David. Time for some fun at their expense. Hey, I’m allowed a little recreation too, you know.
TriviaChallenge, the game that replaced Ridiculist, has gone the way of NTN. Remember NTN? Used to be that great satellite trivia game that let me party for free for five years, and why? Because the questions were real trivia, that is, the answers were all things you had to study, to figure out, or things that the average person just knew you ought to know. Like elements on the Periodic Table with different letters than names. Such as Pb for Lead, Au for Gold and Hg for Mercury. But NTN and now TriviaChallenge have suffered the same fate: unemployed actors. They wind up with jobs writing these questions, and now up to a third are topics taught in all those phony “acting schools”. The only good thing is it keeps them from becoming telemarketers.
Who else but failed actors would know the name of a movie when the only clue is “opened on January 24, 1992”? (I’m serious, acting schools actually teach subjects like that.) Around 10% of the total questions now follow that format. Worse, many of the movies are so obscure none of the players know them when the answer displays. Yet, there is one idiot called Grimmmlet that gets them all.
I’ve watched the first two episodes of “The Sopranos”. It moves along well and keeps the sub-plots to a minimum. The actors are ugly enough to tell apart and they have really done well on a small budget. One swimming pool, one strip joint, one restaurant, and a few vacant lots. Everything else is filmed in a small room. My question is how long can they keep it up? Sooner or later, they, too, will need scripts written by unemployed actors.
Trivia. I’ve got the real kind for you. Did I already use this one? I’ll chance it. What is the meaning of the word “samba”, the dance? It is a South American slang expression that means “to rub navels”. I’ll buy that.
Music wise, a couple of developments. Big Jim is finally on my email list. I think he accidentally had a junk filter enabled that was blocking everything important as well. When I first met him, he was a singer but I saw him play guitar last weekend. The other thing is my new format is revealing that not all my music is suitable for sing-a-longs. It means new artists are proving dynamite crowd-pleasers. Pearle and I used to sit out in her sister’s candy yellow Mustang listening to old Neil Diamond tapes.
That’s good because I know a lot of his music from that experience. I would never have listened to “old lady” music on my own. Now, one of his tunes, “Forever In Blue Jeans” is climbing to Number 1 on my lists. Followed by the Georgia Satellites “Keep Your Hands to Yourself”.
