Grocery shopping

I've always known that Walmart was the cheapest place to shop for some time now. This comparison makes my point very well, even though it ranks Aldi the cheapest. I don't even consider Aldi though, as they don't offer many name brands and are limited in sizes, etc. For me, this was/is all about comparing Kroger and Walmart strictly on a lowest price basis.

I buy my groceries one month at a time and have always been able to get more for my money at Walmart. This was even after using a Kroger card for additional savings. I pity the fool who shops at Kroger without one of those, they are paying through the nose for items!

Because my food needs are very basic, as well as the fact that I only eat twice a day, I can usually eat what I consider well for $100 or less a month. On months that I need to use my money to pay a bill or some unexpected expense comes up, I can survive on much less actually.

I do this by eating a lot of single items like chili for example. I always get the Armour Star chili with beans for $1.14 a can and buy 30 cans of it for $34.20. That is supper for a month for me if need be. A couple of boxes of the store brand crackers and this is a very good meal for me!

If I want variety, I substitute Banquet frozen dinners and pot pies. At $1.00 each for the dinners and only 80 cents each for the pot pies, I can save even more!  At these prices I can even afford to buy the occasional treat like beef stew and bean soup.

For my breakfast meal, I sometimes purchase the El Monterey brand family packs of burritos for which I can get a full months supply for about $13. Put one of these on a napkin and pop in the microwave for a minute, and instant breakfast! That and a bottle of water to take my pills with is all I need to last until supper time.


Naturally I spice things up from time to time and add a few more items to the list, such as Great Value pancake mix or maybe a box of cereal and bananas to top it with. And I also buy other items for the supper meal too from time to time, like frozen pizza or maybe even hamburger helper.

The point is, I can eat cheap if I need to. Some might find my way of doing things bland or boring, but it satisfies me and that is all I need. And yes I do include veggies in my diet from time to time as well. I might even make a meat loaf if the mood strikes me.

I have not really mentioned what I drink with my meals, but that is simply water. I used to buy the discount diet soda, but I've found that I like water even better when I eat. Bland yes, but better for you in the long run.

To those who say this diet not healthy, I can say that while I was working, my primary single daily meal consisted of deep fried chicken tenders and taters after work. Considering this, I look like a health food nut now!

They are at it again.

As one of my many news sources, I sometimes click on Yahoo and read their news feed. Imagine my shock when I saw these two headlines on the same newsfeed page:

'Duck Dynasty,' 'American Idol' Suffer Big Ratings Drops in Return

‘Duck Dynasty’ Season Premiere Gets Ratings Boost Following Controversy

Both stories appeared within an hour of one another and both were sourced to the Yahoo TV news site. So what is a person supposed to think? If you click the links and read both stories, you will see that the actual facts are pretty much the same. 

The difference, as usual, is a question of the writer's  or editor's point of view. In the news game, and it is a game, it never hurts to talk out of both sides of your mouth. Covering both the pro Duck Dynasty crowd as well as it's detractors, it's easy to see what the goal of these two articles were. And that is to get the maximum number of people to read the article. After all, ad rates are based on how many people view/read a story and with headlines like this, you get both the pro and con sides reading basically the same story.

Where Yahoo messed up was to post both stories within site of one another. Of course that makes a person want to find out both sides of the story, but imagine the disappointment when they found out the story was basically the same. Perhaps others don't care at all, but I tend to read the Yahoo newsfeed with a jaundiced eye. Too many things don't add up there for me.

TWIT TV fumbles again

I used to think Leo Laporte was a smart man. His Twit TV network seemed to be doing well. But lately, my viewing has tapered off a bit and now, with his latest decision, I probably won't watch at all.

What decision is that? You ask, well I'm talking about the failure to renew Tom Merritt's contract in favor of Mike Elgan,  (Mr. Personality as I call him). Tom may have moved to LA, but I thought his TNT show didn't miss a beat when he started doing the hosting remotely.

As with all such decisions, I'm sure there is more to the story than is being told. At one point, Leo had mentioned handing over more of his duties to Tom, but the handwriting had been on the wall for some time now.

First thing I noticed was Tom's absence on Leo's Triangulation program. I believe Leo passed that off as Tom not wanting to do the show any longer, who knows for sure what happened there. I realize in the business of show, personalities sometimes clash and no doubt Leo would get his way in any such debacle.

And just to be clear, what Leo and his gang do is considered show business. It may all be about tech related stuff, but when it comes to getting in front of a camera, the only thing that matters is how well you pull it off. And Tom Merritt did a great job, he was witty, personable and seemed to be at ease in front of the camera.

Mike Elgan, while I'm sure he is a good tech news journalist, has none of the qualities it takes to be an on-air personality. Maybe Leo thinks he can bring him around and loosen him up a bit, who knows. I have to admit that Fr. Robert Ballecer is doing a much better job than I thought he would do. So maybe Leo can work his magic with Mike as well.

It will be an interesting experiment to be sure, but one I probably won't catch. I feel sorry for Leo, his decision will affect Twit TV much more than it will Tom Merritt. Tom will land on his feet and I believe come out of this even stronger. Best wishes to Tom and his wife Eileen Rivera as they continue their new Twit-less life in LA.

And to Leo, I was with you from the start, watched all of the shows you were involved in, good and bad. But I've grown tired of your ways of late and will probably not watch Twit so much anymore. Good luck to you with the new setup, may you be happy and secure in the knowledge that you have managed to alienate yet another viewer. Maybe that is your goal in life, who knows...

Google doesn't get it

There is a sizable number of YouTube users who are fed up with Google's recent push to have all YouTube accounts added to Google Plus. It's funny, the largest of any of the so-called social media sites must resort to trickery and deceit to recruit new members.

If Google Plus is so great, how come Google has to resort to using it's clout to force the YouTubers into it's fold? Facebook and Twitter never did that and they seem to be just fine. I guess Google wasn't secure enough in it's product to do it the old fashioned way.

I like (and use) a lot of Google products (including this blog), but I want to pick and choose which ones I use, not have it dictated to me by Google! Maybe Google is copying Apple as they have forced their desires onto their users since the beginning of time. Apple knows best, now Google too?

Most YouTubers will go along with the changes, but I can totally guarantee that most a) will not like it and b) will not ever use Google Plus. You can't force people to do something they don't want to do Google, get that through your thick corporate head!

And while I'm on the subject of Google bashing, this push to get everyone using their real name for all Google accounts is bullshit. Pardon my language, but it upsets me to no end for companies like Google to allow people to use their internet handle or nom de plume as the French might say, to set up their accounts and then have the gall to come along and want you to change it to your real name.

I set up my internet moniker a long, long time ago and I am known by that name (mosslack), in all of the sites I visit and use regularly. Now I'm just suppose to change all of a sudden b/c Google has some vision of world peace through people worldwide using their real name? Get real Google, this is real people you are dealing with. We like our anonymity on the internet. We don't care to have our real identities known by every internet scam artist who comes along. Stop living in a dream world!

Those bad boys in the media are at it again!

If you have read almost any newspaper, news website or listened to any news media outlet recently, you have no doubt heard about a little thing called Black Friday. Everyone in this country knows what it is, so I won't bore you with those details. But I thought it would be interesting to see how the news boys reported the success or failure of this year's big event. Keep in mind that all these photo/headlines, were gathered within a minute or two of each other.

CNN Headline

First up, CNN. Looks like things couldn't be better. No need to panic here, What could possibly be bad about this news. Well, it really all depends on how you look at it. If that is all you read then perhaps you might think everything is fine.

Fox News Headline

Hmmm, Fox News has a different slant on it. Can you imagine them actually relating violence to this peaceful event. There must be something wrong with their brains! How could two major media sites see it so differently?

NY Times Headline

Okay, we don't want everyone to panic, so lets go back to the good news again. This time we look at the New York Times. These guys would not lie, so this must be the way things really are, right? Well, we could go across town a few blocks to see what the other side makes of it.

NY Post Headline

Oops, back to more violence, how is this possible in the same city, only a few blocks apart? Someone surely is not getting their facts straight. Either that or they don't want you to know there are problems associated with a democrat sitting in the white house.

USA Today Headline

And finally, USA Today is clueless, as seen by their headline. They don't know, or don't want to say, as they are obviously asking for your opinion.

Okay, just a little holiday fun for the blog this year. Actually it would be funny if it were not true. Unfortunately, even after being called on it, the liberal press still thinks they can pull the wool over your eyes.

How Many Times Has This Happened To You?

One of the all-time best things I used to do when I was working was to come home and relax in my vibrating recliner and listen to my 1968 Magnavox console stereo softly playing music from my MP3 collection. The warm, rich sound from the old console style stereo just can't be beat for it's ability to lull one gently to sleep. BTW, the one in the video linked to above is not mine, but it is exactly like mine, right down to the model number 1P3712. I believe my cabinet is better condition though.

Then one day I came home, had my dinner and decided it was time for a nice little nap. I had iTunes cranking out music on the computer, which was relayed wirelessly to the Magnavox stereo in the living room via an RCA Lyra wireless audio transmitter/receiver set. I turned on the stereo, but no music came out. I cranked up the volume a bit and the stereo went all dark.

Fast forward 3 years, the Magnavox came with me when I moved from Vevay to Seymour, but of course it didn't work. One day, not too long after I moved, I decided it was time to fix it. Heck, I was an electronics tech back in the day, surely I could handle fixing something simple as this. Wrong! Try as I might, I could not get the unit to power up. In fact I broke the tuner dial cord in the process of removing it from the cabinet. I slid the chassis back into the cabinet and forgot about it.

Then a few days ago, a video was posted by one of the people I subscribe to on YouTube.  He is an electronics tech guy that features various items he comes across and then shows what it takes to fix them. One of the latest was an Astro-Sonic stereo similar to mine. Hearing it in working order got me to thinking pretty hard about mine again.

Armed with a newfound sense of blind ambition, I once again removed the chassis from the cabinet and brought it into my room where I placed it on a cardboard sheet lying on my bed. During my previous attempt to fix it, I had removed a couple of wires in order to check the power transformer. I decided I should first re-solder those wires to their proper location before proceeding.

Then just for shits and giggles, I decided to check the output voltage of the power transformer to see what it was putting out. Making sure the unit was off and the volume was turned all the way down (there were no speakers attached), I plugged it into the power. When I switched it on, I noticed right away that the dial lights came on. This did not happen the last time I messed with it.

Feeling confident that the power transformer was at least putting out enough voltage for the dial lights, I decided to test the actual output of the secondary. To my great surprise, it measured around 50 volts. Feeling brave, I next took a measurement of the B+ voltage and it was -34 volts, just what it was supposed to be!

Okay, now I'm starting to get excited. "It's alive!", I thought to myself. Rather than risk any damage to the audio output transistors, I decided to hook up a set of speakers for further testing. Found a set from another stereo and I was ready for a sound test. Fired it up once more on AM and heard static coming from one of the speakers. Checked the balance control and sure enough it was turned all the way to one side. Set it to the middle and switched the power on once more. Now I had static in both speakers!

Adjusted the tuner and found WLW out of Cincinnati, not bad at all. Most of the band was very noisy, due to the close proximity of the computer. So I decided to try the FM band. Found a dipole FM antenna and hooked that up, FM came in very clear on several local stations! I could not believe it. The stereo had fixed itself, LOL. Check this video out to see how it sounds.

Of course it didn't. My theory is the power cord has a bad spot in it. I suspected this the last time I worked on it, but never actually hooked it up to the stereo, opting instead to use a multimeter to test the continuity of the cord. So at some point, I fear this will happen again, but for now I have ordered a replacement dial cord string and when that arrives I will fix that. A couple of the controls also need to be cleaned, so a can of DeOxit is in order as well.

Once those minor things are addressed I will clean it up real good and put it back into the cabinet. Then I can enjoy the rich, warm sound once again. I've missed nap time in my recliner. Yay!

NFL/October Rant

Hello? NFL? Anyone home? I just want to know who is in charge of dividing the teams up for the AFC. I'm sure I'm not the only one who has noticed this, but how did you guys miss the obvious solution?

Here is the current team division for the AFC:

If we take a look at each division, one by one (starting at the top with the East), we see the New England Patriots. Certainly Foxboro, MA is the most eastern AFC team there is in the U.S. Both of the New York teams, the Jets and the Bills, easily qualify as eastern. But what about Miami? Hmmm, let's hold that one out for now.

Next we look at the AFC North with Cincinnati, Cleveland and Pittsburgh. All of those teams fit in the pattern, but Baltimore seems a bit out of place. Once again, we will hold that one out.

The AFC South, right away we have a problem here. Indianapolis does not fit in a picture of the south, no way, no how! Hold that one out. Tennessee, Houston and Jacksonville certainly fit the bill here.

The AFC West is the only division which is completely in order. Kansas City, Denver, San Diego and Oakland are all west of all of the other teams. Okay, Kansas City and Houston are about equally west, but Houston is way too far south to be lumped in with the other teams in that division. No changes to be made here.

The solution which should be obvious to all of those who have half a brain, move Miami to the South, there is no more southern team in the AFC. Move Baltimore to the AFC East, it is right there is the same area as the other East teams. Finally, move Indianapolis to the AFC North, where it belongs. Problem solved.

The NFC is much easier. Switch Carolina and Dallas and everything lines up. There you go NFL, you are welcome.

Let's see, what else is going on. I have operation clean up my junk and make a little money in full swing. Since I started I have sold 5 items on eBay for a total of $111.87. Right now I have 18 more items listed with a bunch more to go.

I started this project to raise a little money for Buick parts and I have managed to order the window run channel rubber/felt pieces I have been waiting on for so long now. Once these are installed I will be able to roll my front windows up and down and can then drive the car without fear of getting soaked in a rain storm. Yay!

Learned that my son (Chris) and his family will be up from Arkansas hopefully the weekend of the 18th. I really look forward to seeing everyone as I have missed them a lot. I really miss those days gone by when they lived nearby and I used to regularly see them and hang out in the garage while Chris worked on his stuff.

Also got signed up late in September for my social security benefits, which should be starting in January of next year. While it certainly won't make me rich, hopefully it will be enough to pay the bills so that I can continue to live here at my present location as it is pretty much perfect for me. The way I have it figured it will be enough, but my financial advisor (Autumn) is not so sure.