Hot Problems - Double Take

936 Little Blobs

An interesting graphic showing an average US citizen's life expectancy measured in blobs.

Click on the graphic or the link below to go to the site to see some interesting facts about how the colored blobs could relate to your life and have to others.

I've spent around 36 blobs on this blog. I wasted about 72 blobs on a failed marriage. The Beej has been in my life for over 122 blobs.

Heck, I've pretty much been a blob all my life, come to think of it.

936 Blobs

I ♥ Hearts

After getting a new computer, I've had to d/l my favorite games again. When I was younger, I used to be an arcade freak, but now that I'm older I find I don't care all that much about those sorts of games, even though there are PC versions of most of my favorite ones. No, I have come to love my computer card game versions, such as Hearts.

I've previously posted my best games from my Hearts games on my last computer - I'm sure they were thrilling posts to this blog's readers. I probably won't do that again, but I'm going to post a couple of screen shots from this new version of Hearts. Sorry. This will most likely be a one-time deal.  Maybe not.  I might do an update of my win/loss record after a thousand games;  that will probably be in five years or so.

I really like this new version; I didn't think I would because it, like this computer, was different and I'm getting to the age where I don't really like new things, preferring the things I'm familiar with...broken in and comfortable, like a favorite pair of sneakers. It didn't take long to get comfortable with the new Hearts game and I'm of the mind that it's programmed to be more "fair". (With the last Hearts game it seemed as though I didn't just play the three computer opponents individually, but that they ganged up on me!)

What's really cool about this new version are the sound effects: a little "doom" sound (for lack of a better word) when the queen of spades is played and a breaking glass sound when Hearts are "broken". It also keeps a running tab of how many points you've taken during the trick and you also get a congratulatory message if you catch all the tricks. "You've shot the moon!"

The neatest thing is when you win a game and get all the little floating hearts which explode when they float upwards:

The only thing I wish I could change in it is my player name; it goes by what I named the computer when I first booted it up.  It did allow me to change my computer opponents to Huey*, Dewey and Louie - not from the Disney ducks, but the names of the robots in the old sci-fi flick Silent Running. I really liked that movie and so did my British friend Elle.  It makes me think of her when I play the game.  I also think of my good online friend Barb's dad when I play the game, even though I never met him, but she once told me he loved to play cards and esp. Hearts. 

* I need to change that to the proper spelling.  I always get that wrong when I spell it.

It's also cool that you can save a game and also that it keeps a running count of games played/games won.

I've already played more games than that shows, though, and have won half of the games played.

Yep, getting old. I used to get enthused about going out to the bars and getting drunk or making a road trip on the spur of the moment. Now? I'm happy to play Hearts and listen to online radio.

Monday Monday - The Mamas & The Papas

A Crock of Kroc

This was the Today in History entry from the widget in the right-hand column:

























I've been to McDonalds less than half a dozen times in my life.  A couple of times was when I was with my sister and her then-husband when we were in Amarillo. He loved the franchise and I never understood why.  OTOH, he thought macaroni grew on trees, so.... Another time was after work and a co-worker asked if I wanted to go eat breakfast and that he'd buy.  I jumped at the chance, but would have turned it down if I had known he wanted to go to McDonalds.  Another time was when I was going to go the the movies but knew I didn't have time to eat anything but fast food.  The McDonalds was just a few hundred yards from the theater so I got a burger there and wolfed it down in time to catch the flick. 

I also ate there a few months ago when I got a craving for french fries and a chocolate milk shake.  (I like to dip the fries into the shake - better than ketchup!)  They DO make good fries and shakes, but I prefer burgers from just about anywhere else. Pampa has a couple of locally owned hamburger joints that make MUCH better burgers than McD's.   I stopped at Sonic the other day and asked the girl who brought me my food if they were always that busy.  She mentioned that McDonalds hadn't finished their new building - I then remembered they had torn down the "old" one (probably ten years old or so) and was building another one.  It looks like the same size as the last one.  Hmmm....

It wasn't the quality of their food that kept me away from  McDonald's, though, but rather a political reason.    It was the early 70's and I was becoming politically aware.  Nixon was President and I was starting to work my first real, paying jobs.    When I first started working, the minimum wage was $1.90/hr. then it was raised to a whopping two bucks an hour.  Whoopie!  I worked for the county mowing the graveyard and courthouse lawn- we were allowed to put in 50 hours/week, but the county, being a govt. entity, was exempt from having to pay overtime.  That meant we could make a hundred bucks a week.   Even back then that wasn't a lot of money. (At least it didn't seem that much then, but it could probably buy as much as three times that amount now.  Gasoline was .28 cents/gallon and you could rent an apt. in my home town for fifty bucks/month)

I was in the school library during study hall and was reading the paper and read an article about Ray Kroc having Nixon on his yacht.  The article said it happened quite often and questioned their relationship.  It made me question it too and made me do some more research. 

This was long before the Internet, so I had to dig through all sorts of periodicals, but I eventually found that Nixon had vetoed several minimum wage increase bills sent to him by Congress.  I also found out that the largest employer of young people was McDonalds...young people who also comprised the vast  majority of minimum wage workers.   It didn't take a genius to figure out that there was more to the Kroc/Nixon connection than appeared on the surface. 

Since that time, however, I've come to conclusion that the min. wage isn't necessarily a good thing.  A free market should set wages, not Congress or unions or Presidents.   Even if there has to be a minimum wage, I think there should be a provision for training wages and an exemption for the youngest workers.  (the young me would be furious at the me I am now) The best thing of all would be for government to stay completely out of regulating prices or wages or subsidizing any industry.