Electronic Gizmos and Gadgets

I now have a collection of electronic gadgets. Each one serves a purpose and saves worry, time, and hundreds of dollars. Let me explain. I am not counting the cost of WiFi at home because I would most likely have some form of WiFi at home with or without these handy gadgets.

Music:

Slacker radio has free service. I can run down the battery listening to music and not worry about not being able to get a phone call. It is refreshed with WiFi at home. The music is downloaded in a "Cache" area. Other services like Rhapsody and Zune charge money for music service. The fees start at $9.99. Savings are $119.88 per year.

"Smart" phone: Palm TX, Kindle

The advantage of a "smart" phone like an android or a blackberry is the ability to run applications and access the internet. The Palm TX has WiFi and is fast. Also can take notes, play games, keep contact information, run spreadsheets, read documents. The Kindle is slow and does not have Wifi. It does have 3G, however. Most data plans for cell phones are $15 to $30 per month. Therefore, I can use it as my connection to the internet when I am not in a WiFi spot. Savings on 3G: $180/year

Phone service

I use pay as you go I only pay 10 cents per minute. Mintues roll over and don't expire for a year. My phone also doubles as a watch, stopwatch, timer, and calculator. Most phone service is $30 per month. I pay about $70 per year. So, I save about $290 per year on phone service.

GPS

A GPS device. No service fees. Verizon charges $9.99 per month for VZ Navigator. Also can be used as a phone book for the points of interest. Savings of $119.88 per year. (That is about the cost of a GPS)

Camera

I know a lot of electronic devices have this built in. But at 12 Megapixel and 3x optical zoom and a good flash, the picture quality is much better than the built in camera of a phone.

My net savings by using all these gadgets instead of an all-in-one phone is $709.76 every year. That is not chump change. Although, all together, they get pretty bulky.

God makes all kinds

If you do not like me because I am ignornat, I can be sent to school and educated. If you do not like me because I am dirty, I can be taught to wash and be clean. If you do not like me because of my unsocial habits, I can be taught how to live in society. But if you do not like me because of the color of my skin, I can only refer you to the God who made me.

Pain

I like pain. It is my body's indicator that I am doing something harmful.

Even the soreness in my muscles after a workout is an indicator that the muscles are healing and getting stronger. They should heal before I use them again so I can gain more strength.

Sausages

Here is another tongue twister: I saw Sid's sausage sauces.

Clams

Here is a tongue twister: Can you do the can can with the clam can clan?

Simplify spelling

This blog is in response to an msnbc article about protesters to the spelling bee. I did not write this, but it is clever and really pushes the point. I did find some similar posts at the Spelling Society.

Having chosen English as the preferred language in the EEC (now
officially the European Union, or EU), the European Parliament has
commissioned a feasibility study in ways of improving efficiency in
communications between Government departments.

European officials have often pointed out that English spelling is
unnecessarily difficult. For example: cough, plough, here, hear, bow,
bough, through and thorough. What is clearly needed is a phased
program of changes to iron out these anomalies. The program would be administered by a committee of top level staff chosen by the participating nations.

In the first year, for example, the committee might suggest using "s"
instead of the soft "c". Sertainly, sivil servants in all sities would
resieve this news with joy. The hard "c" could then be replased by "k"
sinse both letters are pronounsed alike. This would not only klear up
konfusion in the minds of klerikal workers, but typewriters and
keyboards kould be made with one less letter, a signifikant savings.

In the sekond year, bekause of growing enthusiasm, it will be
announsed that the troublesome "ph" would henseforth be written "f".
This would make words like "fotograf" twenty persent shorter in print.

In the third year, publik akseptanse of the new spelling kan be
expekted to reash the stage where more komplikated shanges are
possible. Governments would enkourage the removal of double letters which have always ben a deterent to akurate speling. We would al agre that the horible mes of silent "e"'s in the languag is disgrasful. Therefor, we kould drop thes and kontinu to read and writ as though nothing had hapend.

By this tim it would be four years sins the skem began and peopl would be reseptiv to steps sush as replasing "th" by "z". Perhaps zen ze funktion of "w" kould be taken on by "v", vitsh is, after al, half a "w".

Finaly, ze unesesary "o" kuld be dropd from words kontaining "ou".
Similar arguments vud of kors be aplid to ozer kombinations of leters.

Kontinuing zis proses yer aftr yer, ve vud eventuli hav a reli
sensibl riten stil. Aftr tventi yers zer vud be no mor trubls or
difikultis and evrion vud fin it ezi tu understan esh ozer. Ze drems
of ze E.U. vud finali kum tru.