THE CASE OF THE DISAPPEARING RANT:))

"SMOKIN" THE KEYBOARD!!

Well, some of you may have noticed that last night's blog about CNN kind of disappeared to-day. Don from Manitoba sent an email wondering if someone had told me it was politically incorrect. Well, yes somebody did.........Me!! As sometimes happens after writing a blog, I have second thoughts about either the subject matter or the way I wrote it. Last night & this morning it was really bugging me about some of the words I had used & a couple of phrases were not sitting quite right either. But, I do stand behind the subject matter!! So, after reading some emails from a few more followers I have decided to re-post it. I did change a few words & took out a few phrases. Don't think it's right for me to refer to somebody else as stupid, even if.......well, you know.

And a big thanks to Rex from The Happy Campers http://www.rexandmary.blogspot.com/ for sending along a tip on how to re-size that top photo on our blog. I've got a little tweaking to do yet but basically his tip worked. I'm sure he wouldn't mind if I passed it along here........

"I GO TO PICSA3 PICTURE EDITING, A FREE PROGRAM FROM GOOGLE, EDIT MY PICTURE AND THEN HIT "EXPORT" A LITTLE BUTTON AT THE BOTTOM. WHEN THE NEXT BOX COMES UP ABOUT HALF WAY DOWN CLICK RESIZE AND TYPE IN "945" PIXELS. CLICK "OK".
GO TO MY PICTURES, OPEN THE FOLDER PICASA EXPORTS AND THEN UPLOAD THAT PICTURE TO YOUR HEADER."

Ok, now for last night's re-appearing rant................

TICKED OFF AT CNN NEWS!!
Probably all the news channels use this "bait the viewer" ploy in their newscasts but since we mainly watch CNN News my complaint is with them. Like dangling a carrot in front of a donkey's nose to get him moving, newscasts regularly use the same bait ploy to drag viewers through a whole newscast. They will often say something like, "coming up after this" then cut to a million commercials. You end up sitting there waiting for the "coming up after this" story right to the end of the newscast. It's an accepted part of duping viewers on the news channels but to-day they really ticked me off!!

Wolf Blitzer started off the usual 5 o'clock top of the hour with news bites of what's coming up in the next hour. One of those stories was about the Conficker Virus now infecting millions of computers. He indicated that it was a scam & eluded to the fact computer users were being taken. The newscast then led off with all the days news & dozens of re-runs they have been playing all day. This went on for an hour & every once in awhile between endless commercials he would say something like, "and coming up, new details on the Conficker Virus." By this time I was soooooo livid because I knew they were dragging the viewers through the newscast with the donkey's carrot.

Normally, this is a harmless, if not questionably ethical way of doing things and it was 5:57 P.M. before they did the Conficker story. A full 56 minutes after they first mentioned it. Story went on to say that people were being scammed by a pop up on the screen saying they could rid their computer of the Conficker Virus for $49.95. (not sure if that was the exact amount) By clicking on that banner or site or whatever it was, it just spread the virus further. And that's what the scam was. People were unknowingly infecting their computers by clicking on that ad.

Now here's my rub!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Why in the screaming hell didn't they lead off with that story in the first place if they had that information in their hands. How many people in that hour fell victim to that scam because they didn't know. How many more computers were infected that didn't have to be. There may have been people on their computers in that hour watching CNN as well. That scam might have popped up on their screen & they may have fallen for it simply because CNN in their "bait the viewer" way of doing business chose to air that story dead last in their newscast. CNN seems to be sooooooooo focused on how many commercials they can possible jam onto the air between their snippets of news coverage. And how many times do you have to re-run the same old clips over & over all day long before the word ridiculous comes into play. And who makes those decisions. And what top paid fancy ass executive at CNN made the decision to-day to put that Conficker warning on at the end of the newscast instead of the beginning. Computer virus's are deadly serious to absolutely everyone & for Wolf Blitzer to stand there for a whole hour with the information he had in his hand to help stop or slow the virus down, & withhold it through the whole newscast was just plain wrong. Either change your tactics CNN or just roll over into the infomercial world.

By the way, I just finished reading Walter Cronkite's book, A Reporter's Life, & I strongly suggest ALL of to-day's news agency's read that book & seriously take to heart & re-learn the ethics of Journalism.

No, I didn't fall for that Conficker scam. I or the public simply do not like being treated as Donkey's, so stick that carrot where the sun don't shine CNN & get on with the business of treating your viewers with the intelligence they deserve!!

Geeeezzzz, gotta go get a fire extinguisher cause my keyboards on fire again!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

THE SECOND COMING OF SPRING:))

COLORFUL BEACH CHAIRS AWAIT SUMMER GUESTS ON THE SHORES OF LAKE HURON AT DEERPARK LODGE http://www.deerparklodge.com/

Well, I sure wish I had something interesting to write about. One month ago to-day we hiked our way into old historic Fort Bowie near the Apache Pass in Arizona. http://thebayfieldbunch.com/2009/03/through-apache-pass-to-historic-fort.html
To-day, I puddled around raking leaves & cleaned up sticks & branches for a few hours. Doesn't really compare to our day at Fort Bowie but at least Spring has returned again after Old Man Winter took a final poke at us a few days ago.
Our snow is all but gone & I'm certainly hoping that was winter's last gasp.

ALONG OUR MORNING WALK

Weatherman has a nice Easter week-end lined up so maybe it will be a good time to begin the big clean up in the motorhome. All the bins have to emptied, cleaned, & re-organized. The inside has to cleaned from stem to stern & the carpet should probably be steamed cleaned. If I was handy I would pull that carpet out of there & replace it with a tile or wood laminate floor. I said......IF I was handy:(( And WHY would the manufacturer ever have put carpet in the bathroom!!!! Dumb, dumb, dumb. OUR FRONT YARD POND BUDDHA IS WEARING A WHITE HAT THIS MORNING

Had a big 4 hour coffee blow out last night with an old friend at a nearby coffee shop. In our case a coffee blow out now consists of one medium Tim Hortons coffee for me & a half pint of milk for my buddy Jim. He actually quit drinking coffee altogether a few years back. I'm down to 4 a day now & have been at that level for nearly 10 years. It's a far cry from years ago when we would seemingly drink the stuff by the pail full in our long chats in the many coffee shops in the Stratford Ontario area. Jim & I have been best friends for nearly 30 years now & in our coffee shop heyday used to meet every Monday & Thursday nights for coffee at 7 P.M. Jim broke an alcohol dependency habit about 34 years ago & I'm coming up on 30 years in October. I met Jim in my first week of sobriety & we've been best friends ever since. Up until last night we hadn't got to-gether for a good old round house chat in about a year & a half. As usual it didn't take us long to solve all the world's ills & establish ourselves once again as just a couple of wild & aging guys. Remember the Muppet Show? Remember the two old guys in the balcony, Statler & Hilton? Yep, that's me & my old buddy Jim alright:)) I STOCK THIS POND WITH FROGS EVERY AUTUMN

Another friend emailed this week bringing to my attention that I had spelled the word Curmudgeon wrong on our website. He noticed I had an S in there. Well, that is intentional, simply because I've always liked the sound of the word better with an S in it. Cur-smudge-eon. Good one Fred, you sharp eyed old devil you.

Ron from the Shoutbox noticed that since re-doing the format of the website, the top picture doesn't stretch all the way across the page. I wished it did but suspect a problem with the photo format not matching the blogger format may be the culprit. I have tried different photos but all with the same results. If anyone has a solution for that I would be happy to hear from them. I did initially have a lot of problems getting the wording to fit because it kept bleeding off into the gray area to the right. Had to not only reduce the size of the printing but also had to take out most of the text. I like the newer look better than what we had, but yes there is room for improvement. A LITTLE EARLY FOR PICNICS AT THE 5 SEASONS ESTATES, BAYFIELD

And thanks to Don out there in Brandon Manitoba once again for bringing to my attention the brake recall notice for the Workhorse Chassis. He spotted it on RV Net. http://www.rv.net/ You Workhorse drivers can check it out here..... http://www.rv.net/forum/index.cfm/fuseaction/thread/tid/22625788.cfm

The snow you see in to-day's blog pics is gone now. The pics were taken yesterday & I didn't have any new photos for to-day. Besides, how exciting can a picture of somebody raking leaves be...................:(( AS MUCH AS I DISLIKE WINTER......IT SURE CAN BE PRETTY

OUR PHOTO ALBUMS http://picasaweb.google.com/stargeezerguy/

OLD MAN WINTER HAS DONE US A NASTY!!

A VERY COLD LITTLE PORCELIN BIRD


On Sunday, birds twittered in the forest near the pond, sunshine filtered through the pine boughs & I was merrily raking leaves & pine needles in my neighbor's yard.
To-day that tranquil early spring scene has been replaced by gray skies, icy cold winds, & trees bent low under the heavy weight of snow. Old man winter has done us a nasty!!
CONTRASTS....TROPICAL SCENE ON LAMP vs WINTER SCENE OUTSIDE

Electricity went out about 10:30 & stayed that way to nearly 1:30. I was out in the motorhome at the time it came back on firing up the systems for what I figured might be a move back into the rig before the house became too cold. Seems almost everytime we have some kind of storm here....our electricity goes down in this area. NO, THOSE ARE NOT REAL SUNFLOWERS

Kelly's back from Spencerport so she headed over to the Lodge to begin organizing things for the busy tourist season fast approaching. Also, the electricity was on over there & they had heat!! She phoned a couple of times to see if the electricity was on here yet.....nope!! Sat in the big chair with my warm security blanket & Motormouse on my lap as a heat source. Got myself caught up on my RV & Astronomy magazines that had piled up over the winter. The house was stone silent & I always find that a little eerie because we always have music playing in the background. I don't like silence.....it makes me think!! MY WHEELBARROW IS RIGHT WHERE I LEFT IT SUNDAY!!

Weather is looking the same for to-morrow but one whole day of sitting in the house is enough so I'm going to pull a rabbit out of the hat & find me something different to do. Two days in row like that is too much..........has a tendency to, well you know...............................make me think eh !!
NO PHOTOS FOR THE WEB ALBUM TO-NIGHT

OUR PHOTO ALBUMS http://picasaweb.google.com/stargeezerguy/