3673 I can't seem to get anything done.

Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Anyone who says they’re good at communicating

but “people are bad at listening”

is confused about how communication works.

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I need to go to the Social Security office.  I have some questions, and options I might be able to exercise, but I can't get any information online because I haven't worked in ten years (actually more, but 10 is their cutoff).  Duh?

I am currently drawing benefits on Jay's SS account as his widow.  I'm wondering if my own SS account might pay me more.  And can I draw on Ex#2's account instead?  I know I can if he's dead, but what if he's not dead, just looks that way?  (Ex#1 is dead, but we weren't married long enough for me to qualify.) And if either of those, mine or Ex#2's, will pay more, how do I switch, and how do we make sure Medicare switches, too?

Anyway, the online site said I have to go to the local office if I want details about my account(s).  No appointment necessary.

So on Monday I went to the SS office in Iselin.  I got there about 2:45, met a maintenance guy in the lobby who told me that there was no point in going upstairs, because the SS office closed at 3.  Open 9 to 3.   (Hmmmm.  Good hours, good pay, good benefits - I think I made the wrong choice all those years ago.  Well, maybe they have 2 hours of paperwork after 3.)

So yesterday I tried again.  I got there about mid-morning.  Got off the elevator and found people sitting on the floor in the hall.  Bad sign.  I went to the doors at the end of the hall and found a waiting room about the size of my house footprint, and that room was packed solid.  There was a machine where you put in your info and I guess it issues you a number.  There was a security guy standing a few feet away, so I asked him if it was possible to make an appointment, and he said I should call the 800 number to make an appointment, and he gave me a card with the number on it.  "The card is all in Spanish, but the number is the same."  I said, "Yeah, in numbers we all speak Arabic."  He blinked twice, then laughed.

All those people in the waiting room, by the way, were Hispanic.

I'd been to a Social Security office only twice before, both times the office nearest to the country house, and back then there were only one or two people before me in line.  When I mentioned that to Daughter, and that the people at Iselin all seemed to be Hispanic, she rolled her eyes and said, "Welcome to New Jersey."

So, two half-days wasted.  Sigh.

I have a lot of things I have to do this week, and none of it is getting done.  A lot of it is online stuff, bills to pay, letters to write and get printed, and something has been screwy with my laptop - seems to involve java scripts and/or the Adobe flash player that don't complete and don't clean up after themselves.   My browser gets slower and slower and slower then finally hangs.  I have to run CCleaner to get rid of a lot of orphan files and unconnected stuff in the registry (CCleaner is terrific, and it's free!), then it's briefly fine, and then it slows down again.  I've been freaking out over it.  I've been reIPLing and starting over like every three hours.

What's REALLY weird is that it seems to happen only during "working" hours.  After 6 pm the browser seems to straighten up and fly right.  I did check, I timed it, and it's not my internet connection slowing down, and it's unlikely to be a virus - I've got protection on here like you wouldn't believe.  The protection itself slows things down, but I'm willing to accept that.

I've also noticed that it seems to have some kind of cycle.  It'll be fine for a few weeks, then I'll have a week or two of pain, then it's fine again.  I suspect it may be that I have auto-updating for the operating system and all the other stuff, so components go in and out of phase compatibility-wise.


But mostly, I don't understand.

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I just had a thought.  Maybe today there were only three people ahead of me at the Social Security office - maybe all those other people were just family members and friends who came along for moral support.
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3357 Been a while....

Saturday, September 17, 2011

Intelligence does not automatically convey knowledge.

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It's not like I've been especially busy, although I have managed to get a few things done. I now have a NJ driver's license, TV and internet cable, a house phone, got Hal's paws aligned, and have arranged for gutter cleaning and screening, and a few other things. I've got the pulleys, hooks, and cargo net for the attic, but since the hurricane, rope has been hard to find, so that's not finished yet.

One at a time:

NJ Driver's license

I'd been dreading going to the DMV, because I'd heard NJ DMVs are understaffed, have long lines and inefficient procedures, and everything takes a full day to accomplish. I went in one morning to find out what I'd need to get the license changed and the cars registered. There were no lines, and the people were very helpful. In and out with a list of "gets" and "to dos" in 15 minutes. Back the next day with the required documents for the driver's license.

And yes, there were some inefficiencies. Because I already have a valid NY license and no violations, I didn't have to take any tests. But I still had to fill out the forms and pay for a "temporary permit". When they took my picture, the woman asked if it was ok, "but this one is just for the temporary permit", so I said "yeah, it's ok, although I don't think of myself as having jowls". THEN she entered the data from the forms for the permanent license. I was under the impression I'd get a temp that day, and the permanent would be mailed, but then at the end she handed me the permanent, with the "temp" photo on it. Duh?

So I paid for a temp, AND for a perm, and she entered the data twice, once for the temp and then again for the perm, and I never got the temp. Uh, why not just skip the temp part entirely, and why make me pay for something you never had any intention of giving me?

I can't register the cars until I switch the insurance. I called my NY agent, and it was really simple. She said the insurance is even cheaper in NJ.

Daughter and I talked about Suzy Suzuki. Daughter has an 11-year-old Honda 2-door, and with the Nugget getting bigger, it's getting harder to get her in and out, so I'm going to give 4-door Suzy to Daughter.

Now I'm just waiting for the new insurance cards, and I can register Fred and Hal.

TV cable, WIFI cable internet, house phone

That all came as a FIOS package, for just about as much as I am currently paying for broadband internet alone. I had thought I could drop the broadband, but unfortunately there's no other way to get to the internet from the old house, so I'll have to keep it a bit longer.

The cable TV is annoying because there's just so much to choose from. I guess I'll find out what I like at some point, but in the meantime it's so overwhelming I find I don't watch at all. Which, actually, may be worth the cost.

I haven't handed out the house phone number at all, but the damn phone rings every half hour - people trying to sell me things (yeah, I got on the nat'l do-not-call list, but it'll take a while for that to take effect) and calls for the folks who used to have this number. Apparently they were deadbeats. Most of those calls are from collection companies. I recorded a message saying that "I do not answer this phone. I've had this number only since 9/2, so I'm probably not the person you're looking for, and I do not buy anything on the phone. I do check messages, so if you are certain you want to talk to me anyway, leave a message."

Nobody leaves messages, but the phone continues to ring about every half hour. There doesn't seem to be a way to turn the ringer off.

The internet connection is fantastic! I can actually watch YouTube videos right off, without waiting for them to load.

Hal's alignment

After the latest new tire application, the tire dealership told me that Hal needed alignment, but they preferred that BMW do it. It didn't seem too bad - no shimmy or pull, just a little less nimbleness in handling - and I don't drive him that much, so I didn't get around to it until this past week. The nearest BMW shop is a over a half-hour away down roads packed with shore traffic, so I waited until school started to take him in. The procedure took a half day and cost over $200, and now he's pulling to the right.

Crap.

Gutter cleaning and screening

Damn Gum tree balls. The gutters were so packed last winter that they filled with ice, and dumped ice and water down the driveway. Dangerous. In the past few rain storms, they've spilled water out about four feet before the downspouts. Annoying.

I was afraid it would cost a small fortune to get some kind of leaf and ball proof covers, but turns out it'll be less than $600 for both sides of the house roof and the porch roof. That's about half what I expected, given that two cleanings a year would come to $300/yr.

Installation is next Friday.

Attic pulleys

Attic access here is a drop-down ladder/stairs hatch in the upstairs hall. Those ladders are steep and because of the hinges they feel rickety, and I'm never comfortable on ladders anyway. So in every house I've lived in, I've installed pulleys so I don't have to carry anything up and down the ladder. One pulley in a rafter at the top and one that raises and lowers at the bottom halves the weight, too. At the bottom I use a fishnet arrangement to hold the stuff going up.

I have all the materials to do it except for the rope. I need 50 feet of clothesline-like rope, and it just doesn't exist anywhere right now. Every place sold out when the hurricane was coming. So I wait for restocking.

Family

The company SIL Hercules works for is, um, an Irish firm famous for crystal. They were bought out a while ago by a British company famous for china, especially featuring, um, a particular shade of blue. Anyway, they're consolidating and trimming, and Hercules' department is getting drastic cuts - except for Hercules. Last spring he and Daughter were invited to Ireland for a week. He thought it was to install a software system, but in actuality it was for the honchos to get a look at him, and after that trip he was offered a fantastic opportunity within the company. He recently spent a few weeks in Pa. in training, and is leaving today for five weeks in Ireland.

The two of them are pretty upset. The Nugget is about ready to get her belly off the floor and start crawling. He's afraid she'll change a lot before he gets back. Daughter bursts into tears at the drop of a "bon voyage". They're both so tense they argue about little things, like which GPS he should take. They've got a Skype-like computer arrangement, and a video camera, so it shouldn't be so very bad. After all, it's not like he's headed for Afghanistan or something.

I may be the one upset later. They don't know for sure where he'll be working after the building he's in now is closed. I just bought this freakin' house after Daughter assured me they wouldn't be moving for a very long time, if ever. I'll be very annoyed if they move away, leaving me here.

Sigh.
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1786 My Empty Mind

Tuesday, April 29, 2008

I was going to write about listening to an opera on NPR the other day. I wanted to write about how it was the absolute WORST opera for radio. (I don't know what opera it was, didn't catch the name.) It's hard to write an entry saying what I want to say, because I don't know the terms any more. I once did, there's words like libretto, score, aria, uh, other stuff, but I just don't talk about opera with anyone, so I don't know the right words.

And then I thought, "Well, I can look it all up on the internet....", and then I realized I didn't want to look it up, even though it would be easy.

Why? Because it would mean learning, however temporarily, something I don't particularly need to know. Something I once knew and have forgotten.

I've always had a habit of learning what I need to know when I need to know it, and then promptly forgetting it when I no longer need it. I learn quickly and easily, and thoroughly. Within three months of Jay's diagnosis, I knew everything there was to know about brain cancer in general, and oligoastrocytoma in particular. By the third year, I knew enough to figure out a problem with a stage 2 clinical trial in immunotherapy that Jay was in, explained it to the neurosurgeon and oncologist, and they halted the trial. In the year and a half of the trial, none of the experts had figured out why half their patients were going blind. I nailed it.

Another habit I had was that in many areas I'd learn not so much the answers, but where I could find the answers. You don't need to know something if you know someone who knows, or know what book it's in.

Now that I'm, ahem, mature, I find that I'm purging more and more of the clutter in my mind. I'm less and less willing to carry around information I don't need, and with the internet at my disposal, there's less and less that I need to know.

There's less and less that anyone needs to know.

In the old days, like say Victorian England and before, the educated classes were amazing, men and women. They all knew all about literature and the arts. They all played at least one musical instrument. They knew about plant and animal classifications. They easily read Latin and Greek, and spoke at least one foreign language fluently, and one or two others passably well. They were familiar with all the major philosophers, usually reading them in the original languages. History and political systems (as opposed to politics) were dinner conversation.

The middle classes were perhaps not so broadly educated, but let's just say that today's college graduate probably could not pass an 1860s eighth grade public school final exam.

Even the uneducated people had to know a lot to survive. If you had sheep, you had to know sheep husbandry, birthing, shearing, processing wool, carding, spinning, dying, weaving, besides all the other things necessary to simply survive. Woodworking, soap making, sewing, mending, bread making, canning and preserving, everyone had to know something about everything, and the poorer you were, the more you had to know. Otherwise, you died.

I look back 30 years, before home computers and the internet, and if there was something you didn't know, it wasn't easy to find information. If you could afford to, you hired an expert. Otherwise, you'd better know everything you needed to know, because you weren't going to get any further than the contents of your mind would take you. The role of schools was to fill you as full as your capacity.

Now, we don't need to have much in our heads, because it's all easy to find.

What does this mean to the future of education? There are people now who ask why we still teach math, when calculators are so fast and easy. Do we need to teach skills that a machine can do faster and more accurately?

Maybe we don't need to teach facts at all? How much do you need to have in your head when it's all so easy to find?

Maybe we should concentrate on teaching communications and research skills, logic and discrimination, and analysis and synthesis? The skills needed to use the internet? And only the skeletons of other disciplines, for awareness only?

(And please, please, please, homonyms and spelling! I am so sick of reading about how wonderful is the site of a robin after a long winter! And people who loose their keys - mental image of wild keys running free through the woods.)

I think that within the next few decades, that's the direction education will be heading. Kids have always been bored in school, wondering why they have to learn history or algebra, when they'll "never use it". That's always been a difficult argument to counter, and it's going to get worse.

Oh, yeah, that opera, and why it was unsuitable for radio. The music was ten minutes of the same four notes, repeated, then ten minutes of a different four notes, repeated, then .... all the way through. The singing was the same. No words that I could discern, just "Eeeeeee aaaaaa eeeeee aaaaaa ooooooo oooooo eeeeee" very long and drawn out, and not much of that, mostly just the exceedingly mind-numbing music. There must have been a lot of silent acting and action on stage, but that doesn't show on the radio.

If anyone knows what opera that might be, keep it to yourself. I don't need to know.
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