> I tell folks if you don't vote in an election...whether it's for taxes
> or millage, or people involved...you have no right to complain about the
> outcome.

That depends -- if tyhey did the researcyh & wor to understabd the cabdidates,  parties & issues, & then chose staying home because of a lack of "No  Confidence" option on the ballots, I might allow it, without criticism. I'd  prefer they actually chose to work on election day at the polling stations, so  as to prove they have an interest in the process.  I tend to vote in early  polls, then work the full day (16+ hour day for $250 or so)

> When they know someone is there who will stay involved, they're a bit
> more likely to behave themselves, so to speak...and get the work done,
> instead of just collecting a paycheck. Before elections, they give us the
> thumbs up...afterwards, they give us "the bird". :P

My country's leader's father, qwhen he was PM, has literally done that twice,  out here in the west, yet people keep electing the piece of poo, & then elected his son based on pretty much only his last name--he's never done anything of  worth for the country or for anyone, that I could find!

& now he seems to be more concerned with advancing the CCP than in doing his 
job to make Canada as great as it can be.

> Apathy Error: Strike any key, or none for that matter. 

It is like that: "Pause, or strike any key to speed it up"

& telephone voicejails (computerized answering menu system) do the same to 
allow oldbies & their dialup phones to connect with an operator, in spite of  not having a mobile or other push button phone)

>> When you're diabetic, as you know, you need to watch your sugar intake.
> My A1C has never been below 5.4, and never above 6.1 -- when I was in the
> ER the other night (heart rate had dropped to 44...they think it was a bad
> reading from the pulse oximeter), the sugar was 110...right in the middle of
> the normal range. I'm most likely to become type 2 diabetic, although my BMI
> (body mass index) has me as "obese class II".

A1C is the blood sugar level? 
So you went from under 6.1 to a hundred and ten?! & that's a normal reading? I  thought 7 was the maximum for healthy?

My BMI was over 50 somewhere, but I've lost 60 pounds since then & it's still  high, but the term "morbidly" has dropped from my descriptor as "obese" -- I'll hopefully be done my Phase One on Wednesday(300 even), then I'm going to speed  it up for the next 50#, & maybe 100, & see what I'll do there -- likely hold  between 180 & 220, as that's healthy for my 6 foot frame!

Even at morbidly(deathly) obese, people didn't see it - they might describe me  as "getting a bit overweight," if they saw me standing.

I saw it, though -- & most importantly, I felt it as I drag my mighty carcass  up the stairs every night with only one fully working leg doing the work.

If I can reduce this extra strain on my heart, hopefuly, my average BP (tested  weekly now) will drop to normal without the meds I take daily, to keep my heart from exploding or otherwise retiring, from overwork.

Health is all we got, at times -- it's important to do our part to keep  everuything going.

>> Monsanto is evil, as are those in power who are partnered with them &
>> raking in millions a day by monopolizing and controlling critical food
>> supplies.
> There are a bunch of lawsuits out there right now for various things.

Yup, & they laugh, as they bring in 5 $600/hour lawyers against the country  farmer's one volunteer(pro bono) lawyer, & a whacjk of scientific evidende  thyat says, simply that there was Monsanto DNA found growing in his field --  the judges rarewly sdes beyond that & have to aghree, the man had patented  product in his possession, & look at the nicve men from Monsanto,. not forcing  it to become a criminal issue & arrest/imprisonment, so yes, we'll award  Monsanto 50% of the man's shrinking acreage, all his remaining cash-on-hand,  after legal feesfor the community lawyer to go beyond his mandates in a trial.  (mainly they only do cpimselling, advisements, letters, small claims court, &  free defense lawyer for criminal charges. They'll offer the defendant some fee  choices to help him in court against Mnonsanto.

Then M's lawyers send this lawyer 500+ letters & faxes & phone calls a day, as  he has to log all as a minimum charge for the firm he's in. Itt's pure evil  harrassmnemt, & bullying.

One lawyer up here won his case, as ghe was bright enough to fire his lawyer  before he was broke, & simply point out that he's not responsible to prevent  wind & bees from carrying Monsanto pollen into his cornfield -- that's  Monsanto's job t protect their patented product/species.

But he was still. bankrupt from this & that's Monsanto's goal (if he'd lost, he would be out Monsanto's court costs in hiring 5+ high-end lawyers & several  scientific experts to testify); with today's problems for farmers, that would  easily bankrupt most -- other farmers see this destrtruction & run before they  get to court, accepting any offer to settle eve though it's still going to hurt them financially. But they won't be utterly bankrupt.

Too many pols are monetarily corrupted by this corporation to grow a set &  stand up to this assault on decent farmers everywhere. Shut the /blanks/ down,  outright!

Buy all the seeds the monks in Turkey's mountains have to sell & only grow REAL wheat from now on & corn - I don't have a source for pure corn yet, but the  wheat is good up there.

We cabn't be dependent on factory involvement in our basic food needs.  We've  ben eating non-GMO for 20,000+ yeasrs & our bodies have adapted to this; who  knows the long long term damage by modifying our diet to be all non-natural?

I can't afford pure organic stuff, but I try for healthiest as we can afford.

If we had the room & space, I'd go for growing our own wheat, making flour from it, & having decent bread only.

> With so many farmers quitting, due to the high costs, that's going to
> mean less food overall. Many folks who go out to eat waste so much food
> that it's pathetic. I remember seeing a sign at a buffet that noted "take
> all you want, but eat all you take".

The Japanees AUYCE I like, has a rule: anything you can't eat will be packaged  up for take out & charged at full alas carte prices (not cheap); when the  former big boss was in, he'd waive it or charge me a token $2 for even $30  worth of leftovers to take home! I'm more careful now & able to plan my re- ordering to be within the limits of all at the table.(a few pieces of sashimi  for the pets is okay, though)

> I don't spend as much time on Facebook as I used to...mainly on there now

Same. Used to be 10+ hurs daily, now it's about 2 hours weekly, & even that's  too much, IMO.

> for my ham radio traffic net groups. My internet was out for 4 1/2 hours
> Tuesday afternoon and evening, so I couldn't browse the web or do email
> (except minimally through my smartphone), and could only do BBS things via
> the host console. But, I just logged on to do QWK Mail (always), then some
> minor file section and bulletin updating, and very few doorgames. While I
> am on Twitter and Skype, both are used very sparingly.

After one long power outage a couple years ago, I bought external battery  charging packs, enough for every device & we keep these at 100% load, for  emergencies -- as Hydro(electricity) tells you, while in their voicejail, to  check info on outages at www. somewhere you can't get to if you have no  electricity! &, to save hours on hold, I'm happy to go to the site (now  bookmarked on my phone)

I can pop into Defacedbook to communicate with family & friends, & update  neighbours on what I find out.

& read books I've downloaded, clear email on my phone, & otherwise occupy 
myself until we have lights again. I can even  use UberEats to order food from  a farther out restaurant that's still ful.ly operational (usually charge $2-3  more for distance, but that's ok, to get hot food when we have no stove)

>> I can easily do the math to figure it out -- but I'll save that for
>> when I draw up our contracts. I'm just chattimg now.
> Most kids nowadays are lost above a count of 10 fingers and toes, if
> they don't have some sort of calculator. I can do a lot of calculations
> in my head, but I'll never be as fast as my late father was. He was the
> comptroller for the local Swift Independent Packing Company office in
> town for many years...it was that job that transferred us from Miami,
> Florida to Little Rock, Arkansas 45 years ago.

I could always do up to 3 figure arithmetic, even some thing random like 482*93 in my head, often faster than someone else could put it into a calculator & get the answer, just to see the answer I called out was fully correct!

I'vbe taught uy son to do the same; not to those ranges yetm, but he's  improving quickly & knows the value of doing it your head, to save finding  paper or calculator (I preferred paper+pen as my backup calculator)

Saw a scene in a sitcom yesterday:
Missy: Can I borrow your calculator? Sheldon: I'm using it
Missy: No, you'rter jnotk you're playing a game. Sheldon: *points tyo head* Yes, & that's how I'm currently using it.

In schol I was the walking Calculator, Dictionary, Thesaurus, Textbooks(every  one we'd had to date), & Encyclopedia -- it worked for me, as I was innately  lazy (but intelligently so, aka "efficient")

>> So a 10% holder would get over $330bn on exit.  Even Kevin O'Leary
>> would have  his pants tighten on hearing that!)
> But, they take none of that with them when they die. Everyone came
> into this world as naked and broke as I did, and they're going out the
> same way.

Yup, but I've learned if you need someone's time or expertise/etc, the best  thing to offer him is what he wants (in Kevin'd case it's fast easy money,  guarasnteed to be 2X+ his investment)

I would offer him 80% of a company's new earnings afdter he takes over, & using
 
newdiretdcions he's implemented, as I don't bneed to have hundreds of billions 
-- I need billoins, yes, to do akll the projects to help others I want to.

I spent the important learning parts of my life walking up the road with  nothing but 50c or so in my pocket -- I'm happy to end it the same way. . .

> I dropped all my "friends", and while folks can "message me", I don't
> have a "friends list", per se...and don't even post on my timeline.

I prefer to have a bunch of people I actually know as "friends" on Facebook, as I can interact some with people I like, & usually their friends are not too far awry from their & my core values.. . It reduces the amount of garbage I see  when I do go in & scroll through my timeline for a bit.

I've installed an ezxtension(FBP) that hasdonec wonders to organise my timeline in ways that work to MY enjoyment (noe of that manipulation the owners do to do illegal psychological xperiments on us with)

Now it shows my stuff in chronological order, with actual friends' content  showing first.

> It's your exhaust pipe and exit ramp. :P

Yup. & it does a fine job, usually, in that capacity -- I do the occasional  audio test to confirm it's in working order.

> I told my wife one night that "my head was so far up my butt, that I
> could see my throat". Without missing a beat, and grinning wryly, she
> said "That's why your eyes are so brown!!". 

Nice one! *time-travel High-Five with Janice*

> Since I rarely drink carbonated beverages in any form any more, and have
> given up chocolate, caffeine, and candy, I haven't had a kidney stone in
> over 2 years, and my heart rate (with medication) is half of what it was
> when I was diagnosed with atrial fibrillation last summer.

I'm the same re sodas, but I do drink a lot of caoffee -- as a medicine, not as a simple beverage. I don't eat candy -- any I get, winnds up in my kids' mouths before I can blink!

I ti8hnk that's what I'm atrisk for -- mny doc said if I go into any  tachycardia(fast fluttering pulse/heartbeat) I'm to call 911 without delay.

>> Yup; mine has the female rinse, but that's it -- the rest of the water
>> features are for the back cargo doors. (scrub, rinse, massage, enema) &
>> there's a warm  air dryer for all.
> I wish I could afford one...but right now, finances are tighter than a
> frog's butt underwater.

And that's water-tight!

I saved up, a bit at a time, with the goal in mind of getting one of those  funky toilet, modern, powered seats.  Not cheap, 'tis true, but I knew it was  what I needed (& it was); I had the guy throw in the initial installation for  free (he had to commission & pay the plumber himself.); We know how to move it  to a new location, if & when needed -- I'm not, at $1,200, leaving it behind -- we kept the original plain seat to put back on.

--- BBBS/Li6 v4.10 Toy-6