Well, The New TV Sure Is Nice...

...and I owe a lot of thanks to my wife, daughter, son-in-law for it but I really owe most of the thanks to my son whose idea it was to get me one and as I understand who put forth the lion's share of the money to pay for it. Anyway, thank you all VERY, VERY, VERY, MUCH.

I finally got it set up this evening after picking up a HDMI set-top box from Verizon yesterday. Setting it up was a bit of a pain in the arse, mind you not because of the TV but because of the FIOS set-top box. I called in to Verizon tech service to get some help and was on the phone for about 20-25 minutes before someone among the living picked up. We talked for awhile and she said she was testing this and that and asked a gazillion questions about the new box I had just picked up yesterday (I am stressing she was aware of that) and she went on and on about nothing, put me on hold, and you guessed it - we were disconnected at a few seconds under 37 minutes phone time. Due to some recent dealings with Verizon incompetence, I was fuming. So, I decided not to call right back.

I waited bit and then went online to see what I could do myself. Amazingly there under a link for support was another link for TV and when I clicked on that I saw a menu including an option to Activate Set-Top Box or DVR. Guess what happened when I clicked on it, it said I had a new box that needed to be activated. I click on the icon to activate my set-top box and within a few seconds it said the box had been successfully activated. Why couldn't he tech services rep have figured out tha this step was necessary? While necessary though it was not all that was needed and I went to Verizon chat to try to get someone to help me there. It was a task just getting to the chat screen in Verizon Support. I finally got there after about 10 minutes of answering stupid questions that had zero to do with the problem and was told I was 15th in the queue and my wait would be about 15 1/2 minutes. At about 20 minutes of waiting, with no representative engaging in chat with me, was beginning to fill the room and when I looked around, I realized it was coming out of my ars. Yes I was fuming once again.

While still waiting for a Verizon representative to engage me in an online chat, I called Verizon again This time, surprisingly enough, the automated system asked if I was calling relative to my earlier call for tech service and when I responded yes, it put me through to a live person within about a minute or less. I explained everything I could to the young lady who answered my call for help. She was quite pleasant and listened attentively, even when I interrupted to tell her a bit more and I did that twice, or was it three times. Anyway, she giggled when I finished and told me it sounded if I had done my part right. Then she got to work and did this and that. After about a good ten minutes, the box was working, the TV came I an I set it up as per screen instructions. Then I noticed the picture was not filling the screen and I wondered aloud why it wasn't doing that. She had me resize the screen under video settings for Standard Definition override or something like that and it looked great. Then I thought of something else and mumbled it to her because I kind of, sort of, figured I had been a jerk in mentioning the picture size in the first place since I had the TV tuned to a SD channel instead of a High Definition one. Yep, I went back a reset everything as it had been, tuned from the SD to an HD channel and the picture was full screen as it should be in HD. At least now though, I got some lessons on how to change the video settings if need be. When I apologized for giving her extra work, she just gave a young ladylike giggle again and said not to bother.

The one thing she explained to me about the new set-top box that makes it different from older ones is that it is apparently a cheaper model because it does not display the channel mor the time. The older ones displayed the channels as you changed them, or when the set was turned on, for at least a few seconds and then switched to the time. I was used to that but she said the new models did not have that feature. She cheered me up some on that point when she said they may still have some of the other models available and to check wit my local Verizon store. I'll be there on Sunday.

After that as all done, I asked her where she was and she said CA. When I asked where in CA, she told me San Diego. I then told her about how I used to live 120 or so miles due east of there in both Calexico and El Centro, CA many years ago and how a weekend trip to a friends house in Pacific Beach (a neighborhood In San Diego) was like going to heaven right out of hell. Well maybe not in those words but she understood. We talked a bit more about how nice it is out there and such and said our good byes. What a pleasure she was and what a difference from the first tech services person to whom I spoke was she. She, along with another nice lady I dealt with in Verizon customer service this week, actually convinced me that maybe, just maybe, I won't be dropping Verizon and going back to Cablevision as I had supposed might be happening soon.

Now I just need to figure out how to get the every feature of the TV to work. I already set the Wi-Fi connection, adjusted the picture, set the sound, set up an infrared device so the TV's remote works that of the set-top box but will probably change that to the FIOS remote controlling everything since that one is a universal remote when I have some more time and more patience. What I have been unable to get right is how to share pictures and such from my computer via the Wi-Fi connection or how to otherwise use Wi-Fi, such as to surf the net, over the TV. I also have yet to manually hook up my laptop to the television via the HDMI ports on each device. If I get that right, I may use the TV as a monitor now and then for things like a good game like Fallout New Vegas. Yeah, I know, it's dated but I love it. I'll probably try to do that stuff on Sunday, I have other things to do tomorrow on Independence Day.

All the best,
Glenn B

Lynne Russell's Husband Takes Out Assailant

...but sadly also took three shots himself. he is expected to recover. As for the bad guy, the coroner recovered his body and good riddance is all I can think.

Lynne who, you may be asking! You remember her don't you, the attractive anchor of CNN once upon a time. She was accosted in a Motel 6 parking lot (she will never live down that she was staying there) and pushed into her room by a gun wielding assailant. Once they were inside the room, her husband Chuck de Caro, also a former CNN employee and a former member of the Special Forces exited the bathroom, saw what was going on and moved in front of the night stand on which they had two pistols. Lynne reportedly made her way to the table and put one of the guns in her purse, turned to her husband and asked him if he thought there was anything in the bag they could give the aggressor. The husband reportedly replied "Oh yes, there is" took out the pistol and wound up in a blazing gun battle with the dirtbag, expended all the rounds in that pistol and then grabbed their other one and started firing that one too. The alleged criminal is history. More here.

Now, I did not write this post to merely tell you about what happened but to ponder a single question. Why didn't Lynne Russell turn, pistol in hand and start firing while she apparently had every advantage of surprise, which would have allowed her husband to grab the other gun and do likewise? Actually, it's not a question you or I need to answer but it may wind up being a question that she and her husband keep asking for all the years they have remaining. Would have, could have, should have been - I am not going there but my bet would be they will be plagued by that question and with what may have been had she started shooting first.

Hopefully though, all will be well for them because one never knows just how one will react when under the gun. For all she knew or thought, that was the best way to get him.

Here is wishing a speedy and full recovery to her husband Chuck de Caro - American hero and most certainly Lynne Russell's hero.

All the best,
Glenn B

Walmart - What The Fuck Is Wrong With You

Of course, by now, Walmart has issued an apology for having made the ISIS flag cake. Too bad their apology is half assed as they use the excuse that their employee did not know it was an ISIS flag. They have missed not only the point but the whole frigging boat, they went way overboard with this one. Now they are floundering in a sea of political correctness arse kissing and hoping someone will throw them a life preserver because they have apologized. I am no fan of any state flying the flag of the Confederate States of America but I am a fan of free speech. While I understand the right to free speech guarantees no government interference with that right, said right ought to be held dear by a business entity like Walmart that makes its billions primarily off of hard working Americans.

I would bet I could walk into a Walmart tomorrow and get a cake decorated to look like: the Little Red Book, the words Mein Kampf, the abbreviation USSR, an atomic bomb explosion (mushroom cloud), a map of Vietnam, a Cuban flag, a North Korean Flag, the image of Che Guevara, and image of Pol Pot or Stalin, or many images or words that would most certainly be extremely disturbing to many United States citizens. They would probably use the same excuse, if I was successful in getting cakes decorated likethat, that their clerk had no cue as to what was being represented.

Likewise though, even though all the businesses I am about to mention have stopped selling Confederate flags, I'd also bet that I could purchase merchandise with words or images on them, like those just mentioned, at or through those businesses. In fact, it seems certain that I can: Walmart, Amazon, Ebay, Sears (is this supposed to be okay because they do not offer it in red), Target and Etsy. Read, here, the reported reasons why some of them refuse to sell the Confederate flag.

Now tell me, should not the sales of all these other items be banned by them likewise according to their own reasoning! We live in a world of hypocrites and political arse kissers but I do not have to shop at them and neither do you. Then again, maybe you do have to shop at a place like Walmart or those other places sometimes but even if you do, then why not shop there less frequently and spread your money around elsewhere. Let them feel some space in their pockets - at least until they make amends or do business equally for everything and everyone instead of them pandering to political correctness.

You know, as an afterthought, maybe I should t be addressing this post to Walmart with the question of what the fuck is wrong with it. Maybe I should be asking America because folks we are the ones who allowed crap like this to happen.

All the best,
GB

What Idiot Would Use This Cell Phone Case...

...and not expect that at some point he might get himself shot? Shot by whom - by a cop or by a person legally carrying a firearm who felt threatened by it when the moron pulled it out to use his phone and inadvertently pointed it at one of them.

I have to pretty much agree with almost everything the cop in the video said except maybe for the fact that it is not just cops who have to be concerned about this when it comes to morons who would use one of these pistol shaped gun cases, it is all of us. Even if unarmed and I saw a guy pull one out, with me thinking it was a pistol, and it was pointed at me or mine, I might try to take him out to defend myself and my loved ones. Really folks, I think that if you buy and use one of these, you are asking begging for trouble because sooner or later one of these is going to get someone hurt or killed.

All the best,
Glenn B

I Am Not Concerned At All...

...about a threat to my safety at the beach due to shark attacks. I am not about to go to the beach let alone go swimming in the ocean any time soon. Of course, I might go fishing and fall overboard into the chum-slick and then I be worried some. What about you?

All the best,
GB

Typical Leftist Too Stupid To Realize Being An Anarchist & A Communist...

...are mutually exclusive of one another. Watch and listen here to the second guy that was interviewed, in the linked video, about an attempted flag burning the day before in NYC. The brain surgeon, rocket scientist, Che wannabe revolutionary type, potential flag burner who said it is the guy in black ball cap and black shirt, get a load of what it says on his shirt (evidently it's okay for a leftist to advocate murder). What would you expect of a leftist loon who probably never paid attention in school and who likely does not have a clue as to what is either an anarchist or a communist.

Yesterday, I heard Kuby, of the Curtis and Kuby show, belittle the intellect of the patriots who were defending the flag while trying to show how superior was the intelligence of the leftists who wanted to burn the flag. It was an amusing skit but sadly, I think Kuby probably believed what he was saying. To me, it's obvious he struck out on that one when more of the evidence was viewed.

All the best,
Glenn B