McLarenblog • Page 67 of 137 • Evaluate products and politics for you.

A Lawyer’s Lesson

12/30/2015 Score Card

I had a rather long chat with a lawyer who I will call Mr. C. He has partially retired from plaintive law in Southern California, United States. I had seen him at the gym for years but had never got to talk to him very deeply. This day, December 29, 2015, he shared with me his past history briefly. His family was Italian and he lived in an Italian community in Rhode Island, United States. Most of the community members had not gone to college. His family did not expect him to go beyond high school. He did get good grades in school. No one ever talked to him to suggest that he go on to college. He decided to join the high school football team and started out being on the first team. As the season progressed he failed to get better and slowly receded into being played less. Next year he made the first team again. His message was that for whatever reason he never gave up. He enlisted into the Navy ROTC and asked that his summer cruse be in Europe. He was assigned to Sicily, Italy. He had not yet moved to Southern California but his trip to Sicily with its wonderful weather would soon be a measure by which he favored Southern California. His sister and her husband lived in Southern California and he soon moved there. He got a job at an insurance company. The insurance company would pay for any schooling that related to the type of work they were doing. For whatever reason Mr C decided to take law classes. He was a very shy person, sitting at the back of the class and afraid to participate in class. He got his law degree and was scared to stand before a jury to argue his first case. He put together two arguments that he had to present to the jury in his first trail. One argument was very short in case he felt too scared and just wanted to end his presentation early. The second argument notes was much longer. On the day of the trial he went on for about twenty minutes giving his arguments to the jury. I sensed that he was rather proud that he chose to stand up so long to give his client the better delivery. He had a point in telling me his story. He told me that he never gives up. I told him that I really appreciate his lesson because I too had practice this and I think, for me, it was out of fear. I was always fearful that I would fail. For me failure might mean loosing my job or less income. When I would walk into a video control room and had to repair a system failure I had learned to just keep at it, never quit. I also learned to attack any problem by first analyzing all the possible possibilities and attacking each one in order of probability. I liken this to circling or walking around a problem. Some times I actually do walk around to get different views of what I have to deal with. I even extend this to my technology studies. I might get a book on a subject I am interested in but if it is difficult to understand, I will buy the item to use it, put together a kit if appropriate, look for other learning options so that I effectively circle the problem and attack it from multiple views. I think this is because I am not too bright and I need to get the subject into my brain by multiple means. This article, I hope, sends you a lesson. Try to not give up. Your self esteem and what other people think of you and possible job security depend upon this. It is not bad to be afraid some times. Sometimes fear is a motivator. For me it definitely is.

Scrivener ONLY Types Red (Part 2)

12/28/2015 Score Card

I have been working on a writing project for years and am annoyed to find that Scrivener ONLY Types Red text. I found out how to correct this. Open Scrivener and put your mouse over the top far left and over the words Scrivener. A drop down menu should appear and from that menu select “Preferences”. When that new window appears on your computer screen select the second top tab at the top of the window with the label “Appearance”. The window will change to show an image quite similar to the one shown below. Take special note of the bottom of that menu window. It is called “Customizable Colors”. Scroll down to select the menu option “Revision Colors”. To the right a color window will show you the current color for the revision change. You can change that color.

Scrivener preferences menu screen showing revision colors.

Google Latitude Gone.

12/07/2015 Score Card

I used Google Latitude to track my daughter’s location when she went away for trips. I figure that girls need a bit more protection than boys. Also, my son would never allow me to track him. Google Latitude was not perfect when my daughter traveled in areas of the United States where there was no cell phone coverage. Where there was cell phone coverage, it was very useful and accurate. I assume this decision by Google’s alleged oligarchy to kill Latitude held no concern for the greater good vs the company profits.

ISIS Believes It Is Working For God

11/21/2015 Score Card

One of the main ISIS beliefs is that it thinks it is working for God. This is so unbelievably wrong for so many reasons.

First: If there is a god, he or she must be the most profound uncaring narcissist and scum bag if that entity actually wishes to see individuals tortured, enslaved and killed.

Second: If there is a god he or she must actually be a bad god much like the devil if that god wants to destroy instead of build and create.

Third: How did god make it known that any person was told to kill another? How did god tell anyone that a while army should war upon another group? The answer is that some fecal brain cell cleric some where tells his followers that he knows god’s wishes. In other words, this cleric is a mental depraved person using his religion to gain control over his flock for personal gain. This rather succinctly explains how ISIS “leadership” works. This also partly explains why countries that practice the separation of church and state do not get screwed up as easily.

Forth: In reality there is no actual god. But there is the need to believe in god. There are a whole long list of reasons to believe. One reason is history. Religion has been passed down so powerfully that we can not come to challenge its teachings. Most importantly, religion is a pretty darn good comfort mechanism. It is rather creative and clever for making us feel better when our life does not go so well. You believe in some super being to explain everything that we can not explain such as how was the universe created? We just can not believe that we will die and leave this life because it is so wondrous and we are so into it. We just can not conceive of this all ending for us. So, the concept of heaven was made up. We can not accept that we will never see our mother and father when they die so we believe that we will see them again in heaven. On and on it goes, all made up fairy tails. I will never challenge any individuals religion because it is a comfort to them. The problem typically arises when any individual believes in a god actually existing so fervently that they will then come under some cleric’s control. No individual should lick the boots of the cleric or follow that person like a lemming.

Ford Escape, 2006, Cargo Mat Replacement

11/21/2015 Score Card

Our family has a 2006 Ford Escape which my daughter picked out in a used car lot. I wanted a Toyota but my daughter liked the dash of the Escape. Personally, there are a lot of thinks I do not like about the Escape. One of the many deficiencies is the back trunk cover rug.

Original-Mat-flat — Original Ford Escape cargo mat.

It, more than any feature of the car indicates the engineering cheapness. It should stand as an indicator of the car company screwing the customer with cheap product. November, 2015, I finally got fed up and replaced the cargo mat. I went to Home Depot and purchased a 3 foot by 5 foot medium duty mat made from 94% recycled material. It is made by Apache Mills. Barcode: 086364028249. I laid the existing car mat upside down upon the new mat which was also laid upside down.

Mat-being-cut — Image shows the Ford Escape cargo mat upside down and placed on top of the Apache Mills mat, also upside down prior to cutting.

I used the original car mat to cut the new mat. I good heavy duty scissors is all that is needed.

Mat-final-cut — Image shows the original car cargo mat on top of the new Apache Mills mat cut to exact size.

It took less than ten minutes to cut the new mat to size.

Car-Mat-Finished — Image shows finished cargo mat in place.

In the above image, you can see that the mat looks way better. The mat will not slide around like the original mat which was our main complaint. When we placed items on the former mat the mat would slide around when we made turns. The new mat is heavy and stiff and because it is cut exactly to fit the cargo walls, it will not slide around.

Why It Is Not Wise To Say “Islamic Terrorism”.

11/21/2015 Score Card

It has come up in the conservative press and some dim witted Republican politicians that the Obama administration fails to use the term “Islamic terrorism”. The right wing neocons love to pound their chests and think war is honorable so long as it is some others son who dies. It seems the height of hypocrisy that anyone should promote going to war when it usually is some other person who will die. War is the failure of negotiation and diplomacy, it is said. The right wing conservatives it seems have a low IQ level so if you are in that category, let me tell you the logic for not specifying “Islamic terrorism”. A darn good reason is that ISIS makes some claims that help it gain recruits and die hard followers. Put simply for my Republican friends, they gain members if it is perceived that Islam is under attack. For the president of the United States to use the term “Islamic terrorism” seems to paint all individuals who practice Islam as being a terrorist. The ISIS people then can claim that the United States is against Islam and wishes it to be destroyed as a religion. Now for my dumb Republican friends, would that wording play into the hands of ISIS? You bet is would. Let me express this in terms that the NRA gun luggers who seem to populate the Republican party might understand. By the president of the United States saying “Islamic terrorism” puts another scum bag out there for the American military to fight if we go to war with ISIS. If the Republican party insists in using the term “Islamic terrorism” we have more enemy to fight which would be incredibly stupid. I hold little hope because Republicans cherry pick their arguments. They fail to take the time to walk around the problem to gain more facts and see more sides of any problem. Please try to view this from the enemy’s perspective if you can.