Monthly Archive for July, 2011

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Loving Our New House In Costa Rica

Published on July 7, 2011 in Baby Boomer. 1 Comment Tags: .


I love our new house in Costa Rica.
We haven’t lived here long enough to make it home yet, but it won’t be long.
So far, here’s what I love about our new house in Costa Rica:

  • The countryside, living in the country, living where the farmers live. I never thought I would find myself living on a gravel road, let alone in Costa Rica. In Allen, Michigan, there were gravel roads all around us, but we lived on U.S. 12, formerly a major highway between Detroit and Chicago. It still had plenty of truck traffic. Visitors would remark on how difficult it was to sleep with the windows open (no a/c) because of the truck noise. We lived at the edge of town so the trucks were either upshifting or downshifting as they passed our house. At our new house in Guacimos de Atenas there are no trucks. Only an occassional bus, car or motorbike and then only until dark.
  • Bruce and Frances Jones. Everybody who moves to a new country should have a Bruce and Frances! They would be the first to tell you they don’t know everything about Costa Rica, and they don’t pretend too. But they sure know a lot. They have lived here long enough to know people and places. They are our mentors. Could we have done it without them? Yes, but it would have been so much more difficult. We can never repay them, but we will try. At least, we will try to “pay it forward.” There have been others, but Bruce and Frances were the first gringos we met.
  • Sunrises. I haven’t seen a sunrise (other than on vacation) for years. It was a struggle to roll out of bed at 7 a.m. to head to work. Now I am awake at 5:30 and watch the sunrise out our bedroom window at 6:00 am and I’m ready for a new day.
  • The animals. Aside from the cows and horses and chickens, I love the parrots in the tree beside the pool, the monkeys in the trees just down the hill, the huge variety of birds and their calls, the butterflies.
  • People. So far, we have yet to run into anyone that wants to make our life more difficult. Everyone wants to make our life more pleasant. From the grocery clerk, the hardware store guy, the butcher…
  • The house itself. It is small, very small. Half what we had before. But since we only truly lived in half of that house, our house in Costa Rica will be fine – until we expand. :-) – which will be very soon. We will be adding a master bedroom, changing the guest room into a media room, carport with bodega, and of course, dog fence. A general contractor came within hours of me leaving him voice mail and will have the estimate “soon.”

I have adapted the “tranquilo” life easily. It doesn’t HAVE to get done right now, it will be OK if it gets done later. Internet for example, for a guy that has lived and died by the web, I’m OK that our innerwebs is unavailable here at home. If we need it bad enough, I can drive into town “sometime” and access somebody’s wireless.
Enough sappiness. Here’s the crapola about living in Costa Rica – so far.

  • No friggin’ internet. OK, I gotta take some responsibility – let’s say somewhere in the range of 100% responsibility. When we looked at the house, the guy was using a computer on the internet. Access had been so ubiquitous via wireless or cable that I didn’t give it a thought. Turns out he was using a WiMAX card, which is 512 bps (or something) which is OK for email, but not much else. So we are looking for suitable alternatives.
  • Outrageous car prices. We ended up paying $11,500 USD cash for a 1999 Mitsubishi Montero Sport XL Limited. There are very high duties on cars (to offset low property taxes) so every car is ridiculously priced (compared to the U.S.)

Aside: I’m trying to avoid comparing prices to the U.S. because we. don’t. live. there. anymore. :-)

  • Paperwork. Jeez they love the paperwork in Costa Rica. We paid for the car yesterday (Wednesday), but can’t take delivery until Monday at the earliest because of all the paperwork. After 2 hours with a lawyer to do the deal, the used car guy will call us when we can pick up the car.

I love my new house in Costa Rica. Is there crapola? Claro! There is crapola where-ever you live.
But, it won’t be long before our new house in Costa Rica will be our new HOME.
I love my new house in Costa Rica.

Why Video Games are High Culture and Opera is Money for Old Rope

Published on July 7, 2011 in Baby Boomer. 1 Comment

Guest post written for me while I move to Costa Rica. Pura Vida.
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Sometime back in the 1970’s computer games entered our world, and they have increasingly become the central cultural activity for billions of people worldwide.

Handheld game controller

Hang on a minute, you might be thinking – he just used the word ‘culture’ in the context of video games.

Well, in case you’ve missed the news, today’s best games rival mainstream movies in terms of budget, investment, creativity and production values. The artistic achievements of the best game developers are not to be ignored, and neither is the enormous contribution to the global economy generated in the sector. For many people, games now fill the same cultural niche that used to be reserved for the latest compositions, literature, plays or films – the word ‘game’ is no longer good cause to turn your nose up.

Ok, so games must be ‘low culture’ then? Not necessarily. Consider ‘high culture’ for a moment, and how it is distinguished from culture people actually like. Mainstream audiences in 15th century Italy packed out theatres for the latest Operas. It wasn’t ‘high culture’ they went to see; it was fun, saucy and disposable entertainment –what is referred to these days as low culture. Audiences today are not interested in endless repeats of old operas funded for and by the rich, consuming vast amounts of public money in the process.

In England at least – correct me if this is not true in your country – the incredibly small, well-heeled minority of people who regularly put on pretty frocks or coat and tails and “go to the Opera, dahhling…” should remind us of the remaining autocratic dictators of the world. They carry on feasting, drinking fine wine and spending public money on their favourite entertainment, while telling us all what is valuable culture and what is not. The problem is, these are the self-same people who also end up in positions of political and artistic power. Their upper-class biased ‘arts’ funding decisions help to perpetuate our social divisions.

To take a glowing example of so-called high culture, perhaps the Royal Opera House in London should be left to earn the money it needs for its endless re-runs. The Arts Council of England should be funding exciting artistic developers like Rockstar Games and Bioware. Their art is innovative, exciting, original, relevant, socially aware and creatively contentious, and should be considered no less an ‘art’ because it is digital and actually in demand.

It is ironic that in England, conservatives & Thatcherites make up the majority of Opera’s audience. The natural selection of free-market philosophy and Tory economics would have condemned Opera to the history books long ago, along with the Steel industry, small local shops and coal mining. Opera should be left to fend for itself, in the same arena as commercial repeats on ITV dodgy middle-aged cover-bands rehearsing in garages, and Bingo halls.

Royal Opera house interior

They are selling old rope, which is fine if you are into it – but they can’t tell us its ‘high culture’ and therefore worth spending taxes on.

In comparison, our game industry is a vibrant cultural treasure. The UK games industry sees up to 30 million pounds a week pass through the nation’s tills – making an enormous contribution to the economic well-being of our country through VAT and jobs.

How much public money is given to the Royal Opera House? Well, around 26 million pounds a year – enough to fund 28 Primary schools. What on Earth do they need that kind of public money for when they only have a regular audience of a few thousand toffs?

Funnily enough, the Royal Opera House has not been hit by any cuts – in the midst of an economic crisis which is threatening basic services for the poor.

Tonight I’m heading home to experience Rockstar’s latest and frankly staggering artistic achievement LA Noire.

It was £39.99 and won’t all be over when the fat lady sings.

 

Gez Hebburn is a writer, musician and keen gamer based in south-east England. He is currently working on music for documentary projects, and composing audio network stock music that he hopes might one day end up in a game.

Top Ten, er, Eleven Most Controversial Typo Fails

Published on July 5, 2011 in Baby Boomer. 0 Comments

Guest post while I move to Costa Rica. If I never return, blame Costa Rica… Pura Vida.

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Ty-po (tp)

noun. Informal

Definition:

  • A typographical error.
  • A foul misspelling, or misplacement of wording.
  • Editorial screw-up

My understatement for the year:

We’ve all been the victim of typos, and, although humans are far from perfect, Spellcheck can only help us so far. However, when a single person’s work goes through a series of development stages, and passes through the watchful eyes of the editor, management, designer, and other important bodies, one would expect the copy to have been analysed to the point where words and letters no longer have a meaning.

Since I am all of the above, it’s hopeless for me. But prestigious publications have plenty of proofreading chances.

Here’s a rundown of the top ten eleven, controversial typo fails:

 

11) The San Francisco Chronicle had everyone concerned and confused when they said “Boeing loses $70 million due to misplaced coma”. Not only is that a typo, but it’s a typo about a typo.

10) In Florida, the St. Augustine Record celebrated their anniversary with the front-page headline, “100 Years of Pubic Service”. Unless St. Augustine is the waxing capital of Florida, this is probably a typo.

9) A typo in the reprinting of Shakespeare’s Hamlet slipped by six different proofreaders, and it’s one of the most famous theatrical phrases in history. It read “To be or to be”. That is definitely not the question.

8) In an L.L. Bean back-to-school catalog the toll free number accidentally started with 1-877 when it should have been 1-800. This lead to all customer calls to go to an unrelated company in Virginia. L.L. Bean paid the company an unnamed sum of money (probably six figures) to immediately become the owner of that misprinted phone number.

7) An edition of the Bible printed in 1862 included a numeric mistyping in Revelation. The number of the Beast was written upside down, changing it from 666 to 999. “Sarge! Got someone on the line asking for a Damian”.

6) Even the Wall Street Journal makes mistakes. In an article ridiculing a conference on critical thinking the Journal slammed our former surgeon general “C. Everett Coop.” Only they spelled his name wrong. It should have been “C. Everett Koop.” Critical thinking eh. Oh, the irony.

5) Christoph Luxenberg, an ancient Semitic language scholar, argues that the Koran has been mistranslated all throughout history. According to Luxenberg the Koran passage that promises martyrs virgins upon death is wrongly translated, even from the oldest of Aramaic sources. Instead of 72 huris (virgins), martyrs are supposed to get 72 white grapes, or raisins.

4) Merriam-Webster’s New International Dictionary, published in 1934, accidentally created the ‘ghost word’ Dord, and defined it as “density”. Webster’s chemistry editor at the time, Austin M. Patterson, submitted the slip for the entry which was written as “D or d, cont./density.” Consequently, it was interpreted as single word. The word ‘dord’ went unnoticed and remained in the dictionary for five years before catching the eye of editor, Philip Babcock Gove. By 1940 dord was finally removed from the dictionary but has since created its own strange little cult status amongst the literary world. Gove went on to write an article for American Speech magazine titled ‘The History of ‘Dord’”.

3) If a spelling error is made on a computer it can be rectified easily enough. A tombstone, on the other hand, is more of a headache to alter. Isaac Bashevis Singer won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1978, and when he died from a series of strokes in 1991 his wife, Alma Heimann, made a slight error in the document which included the intended text for his tombstone. The company responsible for producing the stone even contacted Heimann to correct to her mistake but she merely replied “Do it as I gave it to you.” So with that, the tombstone was printed with the title “Isaac Singer, Noble Prize winner”. It wasn’t corrected until 1993.

2) During President Woodrow Wilson’s time in office (1913 – 1921), his first lady Ellen Wilson died of Bright’s Disease in 1914. His grief was arguably short lived and he remarried Edith Galt in 1915. As their love for each other blossomed, many gossip columns and Washington WAGS dived at the chance to ridicule and comment on the relationship. In 1915 a gossip column in the Washington post was commenting on the social behaviour of President Wilson, and hit the mark rather unintentionally. The comment should’ve been “Rather than paying attention to the play, the President spent the evening entertaining Mrs. Galt.” The first edition took on slightly a Freudian twist and read “…the President spent the evening entering Mrs. Galt.” While he did have sexual relations with that woman, it’s fair to say they probably weren’t that overtly passionate. Wilson suffered from a serious stroke in 1919, leading Edith Galt to take the reins in his absence, which further lead to her being given the unofficial title of America’s first female president.

1) In 1631, the Royal Printers in London printed what was meant to be a reprint of the King James Bible. However, they made one major typo in the Ten Commandments and forgot to include ‘not’ in an important sentence. The sentence in question read as “Thou shalt commit adultery”. Considering this was a time of repression where sex and adultery were very taboo subjects, the result couldn’t of been worse. The publishers were fined 300 pound sterling (over £40,000 by today’s standards), deprived of their printer’s license and the historic impact of this notorious cock up has led to that edition being referred to as The Wicked Bible. 1,000 copies were printed in total, however, most of them were ceased, burnt and destroyed. In the entire world today, only one copy is available for sale at the princely sum of $89,500. If Ryan Giggs ever finds salvation in God, let’s hope he doesn’t bag this copy.

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This article was produced on behalf of PrinterInks – the leading suppliers for ink cartridges and toners throughout the UK and Europe.

Geeky Animated Gif Monday

Published on July 4, 2011 in Baby Boomer. 0 Comments

Fireworks

Sixty Is a Great Age for the Gold Scam

Published on July 2, 2011 in Baby Boomer. 1 Comment

Guest post while I’m packing and shipping and flying to Costa Rica. I shall return. Maybe. Pura Vida.

We sold some gold we had lounging in the back of drawers. But I donated the nice gold watch I got from my Mother to St. Vincent DePaul. By accident. I had some other value-less watches (according to the appraiser) mingled up on the car seat and I ended up dumping them all in a bin that I donated. The watch guy said he would have given me $75 for it. Ah well, pura vida.

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Yup, they think when you turn sixty you become senile and the screws start to loosen. The
problem is that sometimes it’s true. Take gold, for instance. I decided that now is a great time to sell platinum, gold, and any precious metals I may have and not know about. What could be so hard about selling gold? The ads are
flooding the internet; they’re practically knocking down my door, begging to buy my gold. I was about to
find out.

I dug up the ugly old heirlooms that had been crowding the back of my closet, and were
probably my undiscovered fortune. I then googled ‘sell gold’, with thousands of results. “They’re all the
same,” I thought, and promptly closed my eyes and let my mouse decide. I’m buying a new mouse. It’s
all its fault. It chose the wrong site. The site it chose had flashy colors and banners. I started looking for
the fine print, but when the headache began behind my eyes, I just clicked the big buttons that
said “Yes!” and “Sell now!” Note to self: big flashy buttons with exclamation points are not a good sign.

I promptly received a big envelope that requested some basic information, and that I deposit my
gold HERE. I did so, and chucked it into the mailbox. And therein ended the company’s “fast and efficient
service!” I waited days, then a week, and then two weeks. Nothing. Now I know my patience level is not
what it used to be, but I didn’t think I was unreasonable in calling to find out when I would receive my
new fortune. After a lot of back and forth, and no answers, with my money nowhere in sight, I started
getting nasty. Boy, you don’t want to be around me when I get nasty. Those girls probably needed to
wash their ears out with soap and water by the time I was done.

Moral of the story: keep your gold, or don’t trust your mouse. They say that getting cash for gold really can be easy, when you’re dealing with the right site. Why am I always on the wrong site? It must be only old geezers like me who get the wool pulled over their eyes. Oh, my gold? Fat chance. It’s right now padding some Mafioso’s pockets. I
guess undiscovered fortunes just aren’t my thing.

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Mark Rich has since learned his lesson, and is something of a gold expert. He recommends Captain Cash for Gold for reliability and fast service.