It's all in the Numbers

 Hello Saturday.  The temps outside are a cool 36 (F), and there is snow in the forecast for tomorrow.  The prediction is for about 2.5 inches.  That will be fine.  An easy shovel.  The long range forecast for for temps to stay around the same.  That's fine with me.  

My TV is fixed.  Not in a mechanical way, there was nothing wrong with the hardware.  Thinking there might have been an update that I didn't get, I spent some time on the internet yesterday morning researching why it was only connecting for Netflix.  On the Sony website, I clicked on Chat and shortly there after was talking to Steve.  He asked if he could remotely access my 7 year old TV and I told him he could.  About 10 minutes later the problem was corrected.  I watched what he did, so now, should this ever happen again, I know how to fix it.

I ordered a dog bed for Biggie since he no longer seems to like sleeping on the big bed.  It arrives today.  We shall see if it was worth it.

I saw this and had to laugh.  If you're praying to your deity for assistance in getting Kevin McCarthy elected as Speaker of the House, and it still takes 6 more votes, you're getting an obvious message from your deity, and it's not one that you probably want to hear.

And what about Kev McCarthy finally nabbing victory on the 15th vote?  I watched a short video, sound off.  I'm giving him 7, possibly 8 months.  All it takes is 1 member of the House to object to his performance.  At one point is was 5 members, then he made a concession and dropped it to 4, but in the end, his desperation forced him to accept 1.  Nothing will be accomplished, except for a number investigations into Hunter Biden's laptop.

George Santos was sworn in.  I'm giving him 2 to 3 months before he's arrested, or extradited.  Republicans are already discussing who they want to fill his seat once it's vacated.  I'm betting that since there's a Democratic governor, and the district Santos represents has for quite some time been Democratic, he will be replaced his Democratic challenger, the one who barely lost the election.

Finally, I have to touch on Matty Schlapp and his wandering hands, no doubt he just wanted to reach out for a lost member... of his flock.  I actually listened to the sound bite of the complaint.  Matty had been drinking.  So, is this devout Christian going to say he was drunk?  His victim is trying to sound traumatized, even though he chose to not say "no."  If he was truly unhappy about the unwanted advances, he should have just slapped Schlapp, instead he chose to make a public complaint.  I suspect this story might have legs.

The Fire, The Fury, The Apples

Well, it's a cold, cold day here in Central PA - wind chills expected to go as low as -30 (F), of course that doesn't mean the wind is going to be blowing all the time, it's not.  In fact, it's so cold I'm beginning to believe that down in Washington hell just might be on the verge freezing over, well, at least for the Republican Party and the Idiot Jerk in the White House.  "Fire and Fury" goes on sale today and the Cyclone Bomb it's bringing are freezing the very blood in the Idiot Jerk's veins - you see, evidently there's enough evidence within those chilling pages to define him as a buffoon... at best.  'Childish' I believe is one of the adjectives used to describe him, and that sounds about right.  I'm torn between whether I should buy this book, or pass on it because I might find it the funniest read I have in a while, but it also might be scarier than the scariest Stephen King.
Oh, and I see Appleheads are putting on their 'woe is me' masks.  Bad chips, you know?  Seems like Intel must have left them in the deep fryer too long and now every Apple product out there can be hacked...  Ooops.  But then my relationship with Apple could best be described as "meh."  I'm too diverse an individual to tattoo myself with one brand name.  There's a Sony smart TV downstairs and Samsung smart TV upstairs, I play games on an Xbox one... and a PC, I do a lot of my writing on a Surface tablet, and the PC I do use is an amalgamation of parts, assembled for me by Cyber Power.  My first smart phone was actually a Garmin Asus, which weighed about 8 ounces.  I've never been one of those people who jump on board the 'trendy train,' who buy something simply because everybody else is buying that product.  There are a lot of people out there who just don't understand that Apple is successful simply because they've managed to turn a large number of people into sheep.

So, I'm off today, though I'm still planning on going to my neighborhood Giant to pick up some yogurt and dog food.  Otherwise it will be a day of naps, laundry, and bike riding (inside of course).

UPS, Samsung, Kardashian inside job, and taxes

Well, I didn't go in to work today.  I called and told them I'd be in late... how late I don't know.  You see I'm waiting for UPS to come and pick up that expensive Samsung television that was delivered broken / damaged.  That's right.  It's going back to Amazon.  Last night, while I was waiting for the alarm check in the store to be finished so I could leave, I checked my email.  Lo and behold, there was a communication from Samsung, and once again they apologized for my inconvenience, and once again they confirmed that I would have to pay the expense for fixing the TV.  So I popped on over to Amazon and processed the return.  And, as I said above, they're picking the TV up today.
On the Kardashian robbery?  I honestly think it was an inside job.  You know, just a little something to keep their names in the headlines.  I mean, that bimbo can't possibly have over $10 million in jewelry.  Of course, that may not be the appraised value for her paste rocks, just her idea of what all of that zirconium is worth.
And what about Trump not paying taxes?  Ha, ha.  That his supporters are saying he's a genius for figuring out how to cheat the government?  That's kind of sad. It's Trumplodite mentality all the way.

And I have started looking for another TV.  I have an 8 year old Sony Bravia flat screen now that was rather expensive way back when I bought it.  It has been hoisted around, carried here, moved there, and I've never had a problem with it.  When I emailed Samsung and said I'd be buying a TV from one of their competitors I was right, and it just might be another Sony.

Amazon Prime Failure

Every now and then we find ourselves blindsided by something and all we can do is say WTF.  This just happened to me with Amazon Prime.  It's a fairly good service, for the most part.  I buy a lot from Amazon.  Since most of my purchases are planned out I usually take the standard 5 - 8 day free shipping; Amazon Prime will get it to you free in 2 days.. if you're that desperate.  They have a nice music service, I used mine three times for a total of about an hour and a half.  What I subscribed for was the TV / HD movies.  The free movies tend to be older, the newer ones you have to rent.  This morning, since I had a credit, I decided to rent "The Hobbit."  I was notified immediately that there was a problem:  my viewing device was not compatible.

Above is a picture of my television, a Sony Bravia KDL-46EX500 which is, I said above, incompatible.  Well, let me correct that, it's only incompatible when it comes to streaming HD movies.  This means that if I truly wanted to watch "The Hobbit," I could rent it and watch it in SD (standard definition).  This is what everybody wants to do, isn't it?  Rent an SD movie and watch it on an HDTV?  Needless to say, my subscription has been cancelled and a refund issued.  I suggested to Amazon's customer service department that they require individuals wishing to subscribe to verify their TV's are compatible.  Personally, I don't know anybody who would chose to watch an inferior quality movie on a superior quality television.  To not do so is a failure by Amazon Prime.