The new credit/debit chip cards seem to have a high failure rate and they can’t be trusted to work when you need them. My wife had two fail in the past several months at inopportune moments.
I sent my wife and younger son to the crowded Walmart grocery store by themselves because I was just too tired to go. My wife bought a large amount of groceries and attempted to pay with the chip card. Naturally the chip didn’t work and she did not have another method of payment with her at the time. She next tried the ATM in Walmart using the same chip card to get money to pay for the thawing groceries. The ATM locked up with an error signal and she could not get her card out. The electric cart she uses to shop in Walmart also got hooked on the ATM slightly at some point during all the fun times. Walmart personnel came to the rescue and at least retrieved the offending chip card. They rolled the cart of packed groceries to customer service to figure out what to do next.
My son drove back to get me while my wife waited with the melting groceries at Walmart. Fortunately my debit chip card worked and we were able to get the big load of groceries home before any real damage was done. A little excitement in otherwise humdrum day would be my thoughts. My wife had an alternate opinion on the days proceedings. I guess the moral of the story is always have two methods of payment and never trust a chip.
The United States needs less space exploration at the expense of the taxpayer and more space exploitation for profit. Sending humans to Mars is wrong at this time because we should use that same money to establish near earth space infrastructure that can support for profit opportunity in the near future. Look at the human moon landings as the example of a not for profit enterprise controlled by the government and paid for with taxpayer dollars. We landed a few humans on the moon in a heroic fashion at great cost and risk. In return for this great effort we received a short temporary boost in our national pride and a few moon rocks. We should have established a permanent nuclear powered base on the moon at that time for industry, mining, research and military purposes instead of just collecting a few rocks that are really not that critical. We should not repeat this same mistake with an expensive human Mars landing as proposed by the current U.S. administration.
Robots can explore Mars and the outer solar system more efficiently and safer than any human can. Mining our moon and any asteroids we can relocate to near earth orbit has a greater potential for real profit in the near term. A nuclear powered electromagnetic mass driver built on the moon could send large amounts of processed or raw lunar material into orbit around the earth. Space based solar power collection systems could be built with these materials and the resulting power sent to earth based collection systems via microwave transmission. These solar power systems could eventually eliminate the need for any dangerous nuclear plants or dirty fossil fuels on earth. Global climate change due to human CO2 emissions from fossil fuels would be unnecessary. In addition large space based systems could be built that could modify the climate on earth if it is disrupted by nature.
Pride and glory are the primary reasons humans want to put their first footprint on Mars. The vast bulk of people on earth would not be helped by putting humans on Mars. Why not let cheap AI controlled robots go explore Mars instead? No one cares if a robot dies in a slow motion horrible accident. Why not put more taxpayer dollars into near earth space industry infrastructure that will help the people living on this planet? Space industry of this type would create many new jobs on earth and improve the immediate quality of life for everyone. Capitalism in space needs this type of infrastructure to make a profit.
Some bloggers actually pay for fake visitors for the purpose of pumping up their site stats. I think this should be made illegal because it is essentially false advertising. High stats make the blog seem more interesting and advertisers are willing to pay more to put an ad on the blog.
I will never pay for fake visitors to this blog. First of all, I don’t have the money so it’s a moot point. Also, I am just not willing to sink that low for the purposes of vanity or financial gain.
My Soul has been recalled. I am at the KIA dealership in Wauwatosa right now waiting for the inspection result. The recall item can cause a total loss of steering at high speed if not corrected. There haven’t been any accidents yet and kia is fixing the problem. Kia provides a rental car for the week if extensive repairs are required.
Crohnies may find the following interesting. My Crohn’s disease symptoms appear to be partially unpredictable. You never know how you will respond to a new medication, different food or just change over time. Prednisone, Lidocaine gel, Azathioprine, Remicade and many other related medications all seem to help with symptoms most of the time but it seems some type of flare or odd symptom always comes popping out at an inconvenient moment.
I had the flu shot but I believe I had a mild version of the flu anyways characterized by a lot of hot/cold flashes and uncontrolled shaking. The mild flu seemed to trigger a very unpleasant short crohn’s flare which I thought was not going to go away but fortunately it did not last. I have not had anything that painful for a couple years. I contacted both doctors during this flare and asked for some type of heavy duty pain medication for the pain in my rear end. Doctors are reluctant to hand out strong opioid type medications these days because of the opioid crisis so that was a slow battle. I was going to go into the hospital and refuse to leave until they treated the symptoms but the symptoms resolved completely by themselves before any new medication was given. Who knows why?
The GI doctor seems to be pinning the main long term symptom control on a heavy Remicade infusion dosing schedule. I believe this is gradually working. It better work. I saw one Remicade bill on my insurance for $56,000 which I consider to be impressive. I couldn’t even pay for the copay of one dose without MAPP insurance and I get a dose every six weeks.
Prednisone made a dramatic improvement in an earlier flare that I had and there were no side effects at all while I was taking it. There has been a long term change in my symptoms after taking prednisone but I don’t know how long that will last. Doctors do not like prescribing prednisone because of potential side effects.
I have been taking Azathioprine for many years. It does give me a lot of skin tags but other than that I don’t even notice any effects. I take a variety of other medications for Crohn’s related problems which tend to make me a little tired and fall asleep in public if I relax. I slept through the latest Star Wars movie while snoring loudly which probably irritated everyone near me in the cinema. My son tried unsuccessfully to keep me awake during Star Wars but it was hopeless.
I have not been impressed with diet based treatments for Crohn’s. Unless I eat something in large amounts that would upset anyone’s digestion I have not noticed a correlation between diet and Crohn’s flares.
This has just been my experience and all Crohnies may have different results with the same medications or food. So far my GI tract is intact and I would like to keep it that way without any modifications from happy knife wielding surgeons. My normal GI tract has lasted a long time with these symptoms which seems to surprise the doctors. Hopefully I will die of old age long before Crohn’s disease kills me with some lovely side effect.
President Trump’s state of the union speech was fairly reasonable and presidential in my opinion. I don’t agree with every policy Trump advocates but this speech was acceptable. Some of the hero guests he pointed out were even inspirational. The North Korean defector whose legs were amputated and used crutches to escape through China was an excellent example of this group of people.
His proposed pathway to citizenship for daca dreamers is just common sense and in line with the values of the United States. His idea of a “Great Wall” across the southern border of the United States could be done but is not needed and would be a severe eye sore across many areas of pristine landscape. Walls are appropriate for many border areas but drones, other technological devices and an increased number of border agents would be a more intelligent solution. Great Walls are ugly in an open landscape, they are not cheap and they can be breached.
Changing the Afghan war rules of engagement was the appropriate thing to do. Obama’s rules of engagement were getting Americans killed. Wars are not won and ended by choir boys.
Trump’s personal life and harsh stupid statements do not concern me as much as the policies he advocates for our country. Not everything Trump advocates is wrong and Democrats should work with him on areas that are clearly acceptable to anyone with some common sense. Democratic obstruction will only cause their party to lose the next election. If Trump stays with the tone and policy he demonstrated in this speech he will win the next presidential election no matter what the democratic party does.
