Diet Food Delivery Service

I'm going to give a diet food delivery service a shot in trying to lose some weight. I've done all I can think to do that has worked in the past. I get plenty of exercise on that treadmill. I wear a 20 pound vest for 30 minutes in the morning, 30 minutes in the evening before I shower. I have made little in the way of progress. Apparently, I am still not eating right. At least, I am not eating what could help me lose weight. So, started checking into some home food delivery services that are focused on an individual losing weight. I checked into ediets.com at first. I was very interested until I started getting this little service representative asking me if they could assist me. After first turning them down, I decided to get some advice. After I made it clear I was not going to buy a plan that day, that should have been the end of it. But, this representative kept pushing me. So, with that in mind, it made me leery of ediets.

So, I have decided to give diet to go a chance to prove me wrong about these diet food delivery service companies. I am going to try the five day plan (1600 calories) with lunch and dinner first. If I see some real weight loss, I will go for the seven day plan. They are not inexpensive. But, I figured out that the cost is about $20 a day. I spend at least that much on food a day. Looking at it from that point of view, it at least seems reasonable. Diet food delivery has a bad name just from reading some of the reviews. Some people said the food tasted as tasty as cardboard. Diet to Go is considered the best tasting of the diet delivery services. So, I am going to see how things work out. I plan on trying this for about 4 or 5 weeks. That should give me an idea how well this is going to work. If it doesn't work out well, I guess I will be back at square one. I'll keep this as an ongoing series to let folks know how well this works out.

DISCLAIMER: I am not a paid spokesman for Diet to Go.




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Occam's Razor Example

Occam's Razor has many different meanings to many different people. One by Bertrand Russell is just one Occam's Razor example. Russell stated, "Whenever possible, substitute constructions out of known entities for inferences to unknown entities." That is confusing as hell to me. Occam's Razor seems to be used to explain or not explain a variety of pressing issues. Atheists, for example, like to use Occam's Razor as reason enough to prove there is no God because it is an unnecessary hypothesis. Whatever. One definition that seems to find favor with most scientists is this one; "When you have two competing theories which make exactly the same predictions, the one that is simpler is the better." That is pretty close to the one I favor. The Occam's Razor definition I like best is, "The simplest answer is most often correct." With that in mind, the reason for my blog entry today.

I do a little computer maintenance on the side now that I am retired. I like to think there is not a computer problem or Home Networking problem I can't fix. Well, I was wrong. The one that gave me fits was right here at home. My cable signal would intermittently drop for no apparent reason. This has been going on for about six months, off and on. Of course, my first suspect was the cable modem. I swapped out that cable modem, put in one from Comcast. I got the same result. I also had to swamp back the old cable modem for the one from Comcast since it was now apparent the cable modem was not at fault. Comcast was not happy about that. But, they were not unhappy enough to send out a tech to check the cable box. So, knowing that the signal is also going to my router and then to my computer, I decided to put in an old, but reliable router from a few years back. I didn't think this was the problem. Sure enough, that wasn't the problem. My next train of thought was the network adapter on my computer. But, that would not explain the loss of signal to the computers wirelessly connected on the LAN. I started talking to various people on various internet forums. They all had suggestions for me to try, from the connection being bad at the cable box outside, to possibly a rodent in the attic chewing into the cable.

I had tried everything I and several others could think of to do. I was at the point that either Comcast send a tech to check that cable box or I was going to go to satellite and just go to the much hated DSL for my internet connection. But, then one night, about a month ago, I was watching the History Channel when the narrator mentioned a Franciscan friar and philosopher, by the name of William of Ockham. Of course, he is credited with Occam's Razor. That made me think (dangerous though that be) about my situation. What was the simplest solution to my cable internet connection problem? Well, how about the splitter? I've never known of those things to go bad. But, I went and got a new one (about $10.00) anyway. That actually seemed to work for about a week. But, then the cable modem would start resetting itself as the signal was dropped. I was completely frustrated now. As I was reaching for the cell phone to blast Comcast, it was as if William of Ockham spoke to me from the grave. The simplest solution has not yet been attempted. That would be the coaxial cable leading to and from the splitter. I was about to dismiss this idea when I thought, "What have I got to lose?" Well, as it turned out I lost less than $5.00 for about 4 feet of new coaxial cable from the splitter to the cable modem, 1.5 feet of new coaxial cable from the wall to the splitter. I went and replaced the old coaxial cable.

That was 3 weeks ago. The problem is solved now. The signal has not dropped one time since I put in new coaxial cable to and from the splitter. Occam's Razor, at least in this instance, was 100% correct. To the late (very late) Franciscan friar William of Ockham, I thank you sir. You were correct. But, I bet you never thought your bit of philosophy would be the fix for a broadband connection in the 21st century.




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9/11 Flight Numbers Briefly Reused

Those of you that can remember numbers 911 (September 11, 2001) will also be familiar with the numbers 93 and 175. Of course flight 175 was used by terrorists to plunge Flight 175 into the south tower of the World Trade Center. Flight 93 was when passengers first really started the fight against terrorists by trying to take back control of the jet airliner. Flight 93 plunged into a field in Pennsylvania. Those numbers are etched upon the minds of Americans forever. As a result, those two numbers, along with Flight 11 and Flight 77 have been forever forbidden to be used in designating flights in the United States. That has been the policy for almost ten years until yesterday (May 18, 2011).

Wednesday, due to a computer glitch, United Airlines had the numbers 93 and 175 assigned to two flights. It was obviously an error. United apologized profusely for the mistake. United said the numbers will remain off the books. They also admitted they should have caught the mistake earlier to prevent this from happening. I absolutely agree. The mistake was actually caught before any complaints came into the headquarters of United Airlines. That's a good thing. People are still sensitive about 911 and with good reason. It makes me recall the number of errors that happened that day. I think it was Flight 93 that was warned about terrorists breaking into the cockpit. The pilots, apparently, tried to get verification. I am not sure if they got verification before the terrorists broke into the cockpit or not. But, there were many other things that happened that day that were not due to computer error. This was a day like no other in the continental 48 states. It was a day that "will live in infamy."


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Drive Up Wrong Food Orders

I had a mid-level manager, at Rax Restaurants, tell me back in 1980 that they got approximately 40-50% of their business through that drive up window. So, under no conditions could it take longer than 90 seconds for a customer to wait. They did this to avoid "drive offs." Of course, to get an order in 90 seconds, common sense told me at the time they would get complaints for getting the wrong order. That reason, plus Rax's decision to fix something that wasn't broken (their menu and building style) led to their ultimate demise. Only strong companies like McDonalds and Burger King can survive drive offs. Of course, I guarantee you, they don't have a 90 second time limit. McDonalds tried that back in 2004 for the breakfast crowd. If you waited longer than two-minutes (give or take), you got a discount coupon. That didn't last long.

There are a number of fast food restaurants that are notorious for getting the drive up wrong food order. One of them is KFC. I have been either short changed on what I order, or got dark meat instead of white when ordering chicken. After getting the order wrong twice, the third time I turned around and went back to the KFC drive up. I ordered grilled, all white meat, 3-piece dinner with two side items. I told the attendant I wanted 2 chicken breasts. That cost a couple of dollars more. But, I didn't care. I love that grilled chicken at KFC. I got out of the parking area and decided to check my order. Sure enough, I got two wings and a chicken breast. Mad as hell and not going to take it any more, I went back in the drive up line. The drive up attendant was rather blase and nonchalant about it. I got the feeling this happens to a lot more people than just me.

Now, I admit, I don't go to fast food restaurants very often. If I do go it is usually in the morning for coffee and a biscuit. Occasionally, I do go in the afternoon. I guess I make this post because I am tired of these fast food restaurants getting my orders wrong. Now, I go, on average, about 4 times a month to a fast food restaurant. I dare say on average 2 of those times, the order is wrong. But, I don't just grin and bear it any longer. I go back in line and make them get it right. It seems with all the technology we have in this country, we could get food orders right at the drive up at any fast food restaurant. The absolute worst about getting a drive up wrong food order is Krystal restaurant. Most of the time, I can barely understand what they are saying on the speaker. One reason is because they talk so damn fast! Then they give you a total before you give them the complete order. They act mad because they then have to make a new ticket. That just breaks my heart. I always, ALWAYS check my order from Krystal.

It is only fair to mention the absolute best at getting your drive up food order right. That would be Chick-fil-A. I can count maybe on one hand the number of times they got my order wrong in the past five years. The people are always pleasant and professional. It is hard to be professional when you are on your feet all day in these restaurants. It is terrible working conditions and the pay is lousy. But, Chick-fil-A always manages to overcome these problems. So, next time you go to a fast food restaurant, make sure you check your order. Chances are, they got it wrong.



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May 21 Doomsday

All my life, I have heard predictions of the last day of earth, the apocalypse, end of the world as we know it (that should be turned into a song), etc. Once, when I was in the 8th grade, there was a prediction of the world ending. I remember that one best because I asked my mother if I could stay home from school. She informed me that I was going to school, end of the world or not. So, I went to school thinking every loud noise was Gabriel's Horn. Since I am still here, and presumably you are also, you know the outcome of that "end of the world" date.

The latest calamity is for May 21, 2011 aka May 21 Doomsday. By my math, that is eight days from now. So, what is up with this new "end of the world" prediction? It started with Christian radio host Harold Camping stating that all Christians will be caught up in the Rapture. Five months later, the world as we know it will end on October 21, 2011. Mr. Camping has generated a lot of publicity as a result of this prediction. I can't say I am surprised by this latest prediction. If you remember, at the start of this year we experienced birds dropping dead to the ground, fish kills, cattle mutilations in Vietnam and other animals just acting strangely. I said at the time, this is going to generate a lot of end times discussion this year. Now, I don't know if Mr. Camping made his prediction before these events or after. I'm thinking he made them afterwards.

The problem with this latest Christian end times prediction is, like all the other Christian end times predictions, it goes against the Holy Bible in Matthew 24:36 which clearly states unequivocally, "But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only." Which means only God knows for sure. Not even the Angels in Heaven know. Mr. Camping's rebuttal to this is that this passage means it applies only to the "pre-tribulation" period and does not apply to modern times. I'm curious where in the Bible he interprets that. These kind of people, in my mind, are a detriment to Christianity itself. You have so many people interpreting the Bible to fit their own agenda. It is frustrating. I just choose to believe that only God knows when this world will end. Not Mr. Camping or anyone else knows the exact date of the end of the world. David Koresh also had his predictions. I think everyone remembers what happened to him.

My point is that you should not take people like Mr. Camping seriously. He even states only 200 million people will be caught up in the Rapture. How can he know this? He is placing himself on the same level as God. That is a dangerous practice by anyone. The only thing this sort of thing has ever been proven to do is generate publicity for the one making the prediction. I suspect Mr. Camping's May 21 Doomsday prediction will turn out to be likewise.



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Dell Dimension 8100 Specs

Back in January of 2001, I bought a state of the art computer. It was the Dell Dimension 8100. I was immensely proud of it. It had 256 megs of RAM (which was unheard of at the time), a 250 Gig Hard Drive, 1.3 mhz processor and all the bells and whistles one cold have hoped for in 2001 of a computer. I bought it thinking this computer would probably be my last since they won't be able to improve on this computer. Of course, I was completely wrong on that. I have bought 2 other desktop computers since that one and one laptop as well. For a long time, I placed this computer out in my storage shed amongst the heat and humidity of the Gulf Coast of the USA. I was thinking it's usefulness days were over. This was three years ago. I decided I needed an old computer for a server with my wireless printing I was going to be doing. So, I decided to retrieve the old Dell Dimension 8100 from the storage shed.

I was thinking it would not even boot up. Surely, the power supply was zapped after three years. As it turns out, I was right. I got on ebay to see if I could possibly buy a cheap power supply for this old computer. I didn't expect to even be able to find one on a computer that is over ten years old. Well, there were dozens of power supplies for this old Dell Dimension 8100. I found one that was $24.99 plus shipping and handling of $4.95. I thought $30 was about right. I got the power supply within three days. I took out the old power supply, put in the rebuilt power supply and pressed the power on button. It booted up to the setup screen. I just went to the default settings and then the computer booted right up to Windows XP (which came with Windows ME originally). I was amazed. But, that amazement was short lived. The system fan was not working and heat was building up quickly inside the computer. So, back to ebay again and bought one for less than $10 including shipping.

So, I got that fan back in about three days also. Put it in and the Dell Dimension 8100 is running like a charm. I am impressed. I really thought about giving it to a school before I put it in the storage shed. But, most schools will not take a computer that is over five years old. So, this ancient, but still viable computer is still running, doing its job like the day it was born at a Dell manufacturing plant over ten years ago. Dell doesn't make computers as reliable as this old Dell Dimension 8100 any longer. They have dropped below HP insofar as most popular brand of computer. But, ten years ago, Dell couldn't keep up with demand. That old Dell Dimension 8100 is still paying dividends for the price I paid so long ago.

I started to name this blog entry "The Computer That Wouldn't Die." But, I feel that is too generic and an affront to an old reliable Dell computer. I plan on keeping it as long as I can get parts now. Hopefully, people on eBay will continue to sell parts for this old Dell Dimension 8100.





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Osama bin Laden - Dead At Last

As basically everyone on the planet must know by now, Osama bin Laden met his destiny in the form of U.S. Navy Seals on May 1, 2011. Purportedly, he was shot twice; once in the head and once in the chest. I guess the Seal team wanted to make sure he was dead. I don't blame them. Once President Obama announced this late Sunday night, wild celebrations broke out all over America. A sense of American pride was shown that I have not seen since September 12, 2001. The best news was that no American troops were killed or captured in the raid. That is something that plagued President Jimmy Carter in the botched raid to rescue American hostages from Iran. That failed attempt encapsulated his entire failed presidency. Many people were starting to compare President Obama to President Carter. I still feel that is a valid comparison. However, at least on this incident, President Obama has set himself far apart from the Carter Presidency.

Of course, the predicted threats of retaliation have come forth from terrorist groups such as al qaeda. However, I think it safe to say al qaeda is not the feared group they once were. Ten years of assassinations, capture of leaders and battlefield deaths have taken their toll. They can still carry out attacks on soft targets such as train depots, malls and possibly sporting events. But, they will never be as strong as they once were. Osama bin Laden was not only their spiritual leader, he was the symbol of Jihad. Now, that is all gone.




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Obama Birth Certificate Controversy 2011

Barack Obama revealed his much awaited long-form birth certificate
this past Wednesday (April 27, 2011). But, in no surprise to me at all, the birthers believed it to be a hoax. Those that believe the long form birth certificate to be a hoax are pointing to Adobe Illustrator, which is used by computer graphic artists, that the document is altered. In fact, they are saying the document has nine different layers. They view this as proof the long form birth certificate is altered. Jean-Claude Tremblay, a leading software trainer and Adobe certified, says the layers are common software scanning byproducts. Mr. Tremblay further stated that the layers are a result of OCR attempts to translate characters or words into text. I have to agree with him on this point. I have used OCR software (Optical Character Recognition) before and have noticed this oddity in the end product. Looking at it, I remember telling my brother (we were making a scan of his drivers license for a passport) it looked altered. We worried if the federal agency would give us grief about it. They did not.

I have to go on record (if you do a searcyh of "Obama" on this blog, you will see my disdain for President Obama) as saying this entire birth certificate controversy is on par with the ridiculous assertions of the "truther movement." Both are a waste of time and money. But, both groups are fanatical in their respective belief. Personally, as I said in a post on HubPages (birthers vs truthers) that this entire thing smells of being contrived. Obama, if nothing else, is the consummate politician. My own belief is that he has played this entire controversy up for as long as he could to generate sympathy for himself in a time when his poll numbers are dropping like a rock. It did not seem to work. What baffles a lot of people is why Obama even bothered to give credence to the birth certificate issue in the first place. Donald Trump is now saying he forced Obama's hand to release the long form birth certificate. I can't disagree with him. The only good thing for Obama is that this has certainly disqualified Trump as a viable candidate for the Republican Presidential nomination. As for Obama; people are still going to question his place of birth. He has only added more fuel to the fire with this long form birth certificate sideshow last Wednesday.


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