First Snow of Winter 2006-2007

Lubbock’s first snow of Winter 2006-2007 happened overnight. Supposedly, it was only going to snow an inch and not stick. Yeah, that was a tad off-base.

God Has His Guns Up

Social Security

I’m not a huge fan of forwards, but I received this one today and is quite interesting.

Perhaps we are asking the wrong questions during election years.Our Senators and Congresswomen do not pay into Social Security and, of course, they do not collect from it.

You see, Social Security benefits were not suitable for persons of their rare elevation in society . They felt they should have a special plan for themselves. So, many years ago they voted in their own benefit plan.

In more recent years, no congressperson has felt the need to change it. After all, it is a great plan.

For all practical purposes their plan works like this:

When they retire, they continue to draw the same pay until they die.

Except it may increase from time to time for cost of living adjustments..

For example, Senator Byrd and Congressman White and their wives may expect to draw $7,800,000.00 (that’s Seven Million, Eight-Hundred Thousand Dollars), with their wives drawing $275,000.00 during the last years of their lives.

This is calculated on an average life span for each of those two Dignitaries.

Younger Dignitaries who retire at an early age, will receive much more during the rest of their lives.

Their cost for this excellent plan is $0.00. NADA..! ..ZILCH…

This little perk they voted for themselves is free to them. You and I pick up the tab for this plan . The funds for this fine retirement plan come directly from the General Funds;

“OUR TAX DOLLARS AT WORK”!

From our own Social Security Plan, which you and I pay (or have paid) into, every payday until we retire (which amount is matched by our employer). we can expect to get an average of $1,000 per month after retirement.

Or, in other words, we would have to collect our average of $1,000 monthly benefits for 68 years and one (1) month to equal Senator! Bill Bradley’s benefits!

Social Security could be very good if only one small change were made.

That change would be to:

Jerk the Golden Fleece Retirement Plan from under the Senators and Congressmen. Put them into the Social Security plan with the rest of us.

Then sit back and see how fast they would fix it.

Today’s Entry in the “DUH” Department

Parents are suing Starbucks because served hot chocolate spilled onto their child daughter was too hot. No shit? Hot chocolate? Served hot? What is this world coming to? Next we’re going to see someone sue McDonald’s for coffee being served hot.

Oh, wait. That already happened. And the stupid lady won the lawsuit which prompted McDonald’s to add to their coffee lids and cups the phrase “Caution! Hot!”

Again, no shit? Seriously? We’re this sue-happy these days?

http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2006611160497

Merry Christmas – Apple Style

Only Apple would create mailings containing the following image.

Irony At Microsoft

In a fittingly ironic scenario, Microsoft’s “iPod killer”, Zune, is incompatible with Windows Vista, Microsoft’s long-awaited new operating system.

So – not only is Windows Vista five years in the making, Zune’s production was rushed so that it would be released in time for the Christmas buying season and not made compatible with Microsoft’s state-of-the-art operating system.

Big Changes at tomsepper.net

In case you didn’t notice, tomsepper.net has undergone a huge revamp.

The biggest change, for me at least, is the fact that I’ve stopped trying to reinvent the wheel. For the past three years, I’ve developed my blog system from the ground up. It was functional, but not very user-friendly. Instead of continuing development of it, I have joined the legions of Word Press users.

The web developer/programmer/designer in me is in denial about the transition, but I know it was the right move. Word Press is far more powerful than anything I could ever attempt to write. I’m already amazed at its power and usability. I’ve modded this theme fairly well; one day I anticipate writing my own.

Luckily, there was an import utility that allowed me to import my 200 posts from the previous three years without much hassle. I didn’t have to manually reenter three years worth of posts! I did have to go through and categorize them, but that was time well spent. Now I just need to go through them again and double-check the post itself, i.e. images, links, formatting, etc.

If you notice something odd, use the contact page. That is.. when I finish it.