Autocorrect is driving me nuts!

I am totally frustrated with autocorrect. For those of you who don't know what it is, autocorrect is where Apple tries to imagine what word you are trying to write and fills in the word for you. If you catch it in time, you have to go back and fettle the word (See! This is what I mean! I wrote fill in the word and it got all garbled!) and then click on the x to get it to stop trying to think for you. I Googled it and there are several websites devoted to the ridiculous things autocorrect comes up with. http://damnyouautocorrect.com/
is one of them. I laughed myself sick reading some of them. I understand that Siri is the evil spawn of autocorrect, so if I break down and get the newest i-phone, I can expect more of the same.

and All That Jazz

I watched the Miami City Ballet doing Ballanchine and Twyla Tharp on PBS. I recalled when they came to Israel in 1987. Both L.D. and Becca were taking ballet at the time, probably because I always wished to take ballet lessons as a child and was fulfilling my childhood fantasies by giving them things I couldn't have as a child. I dragged them to see Nureyev, the Stuttgart, Kirov, Israel and London Festival ballets, and when the Miami City Ballet came to town (Jerusalem, at the time), I paid extra so they could meet Edward Villella, who was the founder and still Creative Director.
I told him that L.D. was the only boy in his class and he gave him lots of encouragement. He said that when he announced to his parents that he wanted to study ballet, they were horrified and pictured him in a tutu. He told L.D. how hard it was for a kid growing up in New York being the only boy in his neighborhood taking ballet lessons.
After that, Joe Namath, the famous Jets quarterback, took ballet lessons and it became acceptable for sports figures to take lessons to improve their strength, agility and coordination. I'm sure that it helped L.D. become an accomplished snowboarder and Thai kick boxer.
Then, while flipping through the channels, I caught the great "All That Jazz", which was about the great choreographer, Bob Fosse, and enjoyed it as much as I did when I first saw it in 1979. I think it was Roy Scheider's best role and the rest of the cast is great also. You can catch the incomparable Ann Reinking dancing a great top hat and tails number with a young Elizsabet Foldi on YouTube. It will definitely lift your spirits!
It also reminded me of the huge poster I bought when I was in my twenties, I think, of this gorgeous male dancer from the Joffrey Ballet leaping in the air. It was then that I think I developed my admiration of the human form, especially that of male dancers, and eventually led to becoming a figurative sculptor. I'd love to get back to it someday before I forget how to do it!

How Steve Jobs changed my life

I was never conscious of Apple computers and Steve Jobs until the 1990's. My son, L.D. was on the computer at the age of three. I remember him banging on the keyboard and crying in frustration when it wouldn't do what he wanted it to do. Over the years, he and his friends were on the cutting edge of the computer age, and he became my guru (and still is) of anything computer related.
I decided to get into computers more seriously when I was sculpting in stone and was frustrated with making models in clay and then trying to recreate my sculpture in stone. I contacted a brilliant graphics designer, Mark Weinberg, now Principal Design Consultant at Amdocs, who had a small design studio/school, and took lessons from him. I decided to start a company, Anigrafix, which was comprised of a school of computer and graphics design, website development and marketing, and computer graphics, and Mark was my partner. My son, L.D., who was a young teenager, was already developing computer games and consulting with a major game developer who found him on a Compuserve forum and building IBM clones with his friend, Ben, another budding teenage computer genius. They worked for me at Anigrafix and were my web masters and helped develop websites. I learned at the time that a lot of graphics designers and people in the publishing industry used Macs, as did several of my good friends, including the brilliant photographer, Harry Zeitlin, but we ended up using IBM clones at Anigrafix,
mostly because the Macs were more expensive and didn't support some of the software we were using.
I never gave Apple much thought until I got my i-Pod (I have the Classic). I leave it in my car because I like to listen to books on tape and taking it with me when I shop so I can listen to my favorite music. I think I have almost 70 gigs of stuff on it, and I even take it with me when I travel and pick only rental cars that have the hole to plug it in.
A couple of years ago, my son convinced me to buy my I-phone. He knows I am not the swiftest person in the world when it comes to technology, so he reassured me that, even though it would take me a while to adjust to it, I would love it, and I do. I don't go anywhere without it and will probably upgrade at some point. I am really excited about Siri in particular.
I stood in line with my walker and pain pills just three days after my back surgery to buy my i-Pad and I don't go anywhere, including the bathroom if I am going to be there a while, without it. I have a desktop computer and a laptop, but I love to read in bed and have my i-Pad next to me when I am watching tv, in case I need to look something up or check my e-mail. I know why it was one of Oprah's Favorite Things becuse it certainly is mine. I am always looking at the newest apps and games and since I am a news junkie, I love having the latest news and blogs at my fingertips.
I am also a huge fan of Pixar and animated films. My life would have definitely been less rich without all of their wonderful feature films. My personal favorite is WALL-E.
I will miss Steve Jobs. It is sad to lose such a creative genius and visionary, but it feels more like losing a member of my family.
If there is a hereafter, it would be nice to imagine Steve up there redesigning Heaven.

You can't argue with free

A couple of years ago, I started entering online sweepstakes. So far, I have won 10 sweepstakes. The biggest one was a Canon/NFL sweepstakes which included a very nice Can Rebel Xti camera with a big lens and bag, 4 tickets to a Dolphins game, a pair of Canon binoculars and the opportunity to join the press corps on the sidelines for a quarter and shoot pictures. One of my pictures was featured on the NFL website.
I have also won money, gift certificates for restaurants and for merchandise, CDs, and beauty products.
Altogether, I have won thousands of dollars of free stuff. Well, not exactly free, because you do have to report winnings over a certain dollar amount to the IRS and pay taxes on it. Canon was kind enough to send a check to pay the taxes on their prizes.
I enter ones I see advertised on tv and others I find on sweepstakes sites online. If it is a recurring contest, I bookmark it with the ending date and every day. I run through the bookmarked entries and send in my entries. When they expire, I delete them. It probably takes me about 20 minutes a day. Some people actually do this as a job and sell the stuff they win on Craigslist or e-Bay. There is even a new series on one of the cable channel about sweepers, as we call ourselves.
Just today, I got a call from HGTV that I had won a $100 gift certificate!
One of these days, I hope to win a trip or a car or a dream home. After all, someone has to win and it might as well be me!

How to train women entrepreneurs

I was having my nails done yesterday when a young boy, who appeared to be about 7 or 8, came in selling candy. It looked like the small packets you can buy at Halloween in a big bag at Target or Walmart.
"$2 for one packet", he said with an almost straight face, as he sized me up for my sucker value. I was incredulous, but my bargaining powers had no effect on him whatsoever. I needed a packet of M&Ms like a third leg, so I asked him what he was going to do wih the money and he said it was for the Boys and Girls Club, again trying to keep a straight face. I asked him what he did at the Boys and Girls Club and he said, "Play"! Needless, to say, I, the consummate sucker for little kids, now had a packet of M&Ms in my purse.
Five minutes later, a little girl, who looked to be about 5-6 appeared with a similar box, but she only asked me for $1 for the same candies. I'm wasn't sure if this was due to her inexperience in assessing my suckerableness (sucker ability??) or whether whoever sent her out told her how much to ask, so I told her that I had just paid a young man $2 for the same candy and that she should also be asking $2 each. Turns out the little boy was her big brother.
I probably should have told her to ask for $2 a packet, put $1 in her pocket per sale and give her brother $1, but she probably was too young to grasp that level of con man(or woman)ship. Anyway, the sucker now has another packet of M&Ms in her purse, and the little con man and con woman in training are probably going to be able to afford the new I-phone before I am.

Pandemics and terrorism

This week I got my annual flu shot. Because I am 65, the nurse told me that it is a much stronger dose. My arm felt like someone swung a hammer at it for the next two days, but having had the Hong Kong flu in 1968, where I thought I was going to die, I wouldn't miss getting my shot for the world.
I went to see "Contagion", which is about a global viral pandemic. It scares the crap out of me to think how easily terrorists could spread a lethal virus. Of course, they would have to have an antidote and hope that even if they did, the virus wouldn't mutate and be immune to the antidote.
It must have unnerved everyone in the theater as much as it did me, because everyone rushed to the restrooms to wash their hands when the movie ket out and I saw a few women pulling hand sanitizers out of their purses, but with so many things becoming resistant to antibiotics from overuse coupled with the mobility of the world population, we should be more concerned about this type of terrorist attack than someone flying a plane into a building.
In the meantime, I am disinfecting my remote, doorknobs, the lightswitches, the toilet flusher handle.....

9-11 and other terrorist attacks

I have been watching all of the specials on 9-11 and I'm not sure how to put it in perspective.  Most of the people around me and in most of the US, for that matter, have had limited personal contact with the world outside of the United States, so, of course, for them, this was the most horrendous thing that has happened since WWII, and I am not for one minute arguing that it wasn't a horrible, horrible thing. 
But if I were to ask you to compare that attack with the number of rockets and mortars that were fired over the border into Israel by terrorists between 2001 and today (more than 9330) (and that doesn't count other types of terrorist attacks by armed gunmen, knife wielding men, suicide bombers and terrorists driving their cars deliberately into innocent civilians), there is no comparison.
 
Yes, more people were killed on 9-11 at one time than those killed in Israel, but the percentage of the Israeli population killed by terrorists since 2001 is far greater than the percentage killed in the United States.  Just last month alone, eighteen people were killed in terrorist attacks in Israel.

Just today in Jerusalem, members of 13 terrorist cells were arrested.  They had intended to detonate a bomb on a bus or at a shopping mall.

You had better believe that if the United States had even one rocket come across its borders, there would be instant retaliation, and no one would say boo about restraint or make excuses for the terrorists or condemnations by the U.N.  It would start a war just like it started the war against Iraq, (even if we attacked the wrong country), when we were attacked on 9-11.  And, if this new terrorist threat materializes, G-d forbid, the whole country would be looking for blood and cheering the soldiers on as we hunted down the perpetrators, even if they came from our "ally", Pakistan.

Americans are not used to seeing the police clear an area and watch little robots go down the street and pick up some child's forgotten backpack because someone called in a possible bomb threat, nor are they searched every time they go into a restaurant, club, mall, supermarket or theater because of a terrorist threat.  There is no conscription law in the U.S. and soldiers don't have to do reserve duty until they are 50 or 55 when they are discharged from the armed services.  Americans don't have bomb shelters in almost every building, and certainly not in every neighborhood.  Americans didn't have hear sirens wailing and run to their sealed rooms and put on gas masks when Saddam Hussein fired his missiles during the first Gulf War.  Americans didn't have to build a wall around its embassy in Cairo to protect the people inside from rioting mobs.  Americans don't have to worry about their children being blown up on the way to school, or at a pizza restaurant, or on a bus going to a resort town or killed by rockets.  Most Americans don't even know a family who has had a son or daughter in uniform in the last 10 years.

When I lived in Israel, my children and I experienced all of those things.  My children escaped terrorist bombs because they were on a later bus or at the pizza place on a different day.  I knew people who were killed in terrorist attacks.  They were neighbors and friends.  My children were in our sealed room with me during the first Gulf War and my son, who is only 29, has fought in two wars and will be in the Reserves until he is 55.  My daughter-in-law was also in the Army, as were her siblings and every one else in her family.
 
These are just a couple of examples of what life is like in the U.S. compared to life in Israel.

If the US doesn't stand behind its only real ally in the Middle East, these things could happen here.

Don't say I didn't warn you!

Things you think about while on the exercise bike at the rehab center

I've been going to physical therapy at a local rehab center for almost a year. I had back surgery 6 months ago but still have some residual pain and numbness in my leg and foot, so my fabulous physical therapist, Jackie, has been trying to get me back in shape.

Since I live in a community where there are a lot of seniors, the average age of the people who I see at pt every day is probably 80, probably because we, as a population, are living longer, but also because we all have Medicare and supplemental insurance and can afford to go-a hot issue in this election.
Anyway, while on the bike, I started wondering what people there were thinking about while pedaling away, since most seniors don't take i-pods to listen to while at physical therapy, if they even know what they are. Are you thinking about your worries, are you making mental lists of all the things you need to do, are you thinking about your family, friends or world peace or what?


I asked the lady next to me and she said she was thinking about a stupid, hurtful thing a "friend" had said to her 2 years ago that she had voiced for the first time that morning in a group. She said her "friend" was too stupid to know she had said something stupid and didn't think it was hurtful, which led into a discussion about the difference between an ignorant person, a stupid person, a book smart person and a people smart person, and how you always remember the hurtful things people say to you forever, because they eat at your stomach, heart and brain. Just think of some of the stupid, insensitive things people say when making condolence calls or when they hear that someone is seriously ill.  Been there, done that.

She said that now that she has actually voiced the words, she could put it behind her and that maybe now her stomach would stop hurting, so I told her I was happy for her that she could do that.  She said the "friend's" husband had called her to invite her over for dinner, but she declined.  She said she had forgiven her but it sounded to me like she is still going to need some more time or that she has decided to exclude someone stupid from her life.

My son is always getting after me to be careful about what I say on Facebook and how to reply to things privately instead of publicly-something I am still trying to get the hang of, and I try every day to be less judgmental, but if I offend anyone with something I say, I guess you can either call me on it or ignore me. Just don't let it eat on you. If there is anything I have learned in this past year dealing with illness, mind-numbing pain, having your life change because of things beyond your control, and knowing you can never live the life you used to live, it is not to let things people say eat at you.  Life is too short.


Still, I guess the lesson is that you have to engage your brain before you put your mouth in gear.

In the checkout line at Target today

I was in the checkout line at Target and noticed that the woman in front of me had a Rolex gold watch like mine. 
Now before you start thinking that I am some rich bitch, the watch was a gift from one of my ex-husbands with a contribution from my father, who gave me an old Rolex watch he bought in 1954 for $500.  I had "traded" my ex's Rolex Submariner for an updated model for his birthday and told my Dad that it had gone up in value.  When my Dad heard this, he told me about his watch.  I convinced him to take it to Rolex and get it cleaned so he could wear it (at the time he was wearing a Timex).  To his surprise, Rolex told him that it would cost him $250 to clean and recondition it, and his response to that was he could buy 5 Timexes for that price.  When they told him it was worth $2000 (today it probably would be worth triple that price), he gave it to me to use as a trade-in.  Sadly, my Dad passed away the following year, so I wear it for sentimental value, since it is the worst timepiece as far as accuracy I have ever owned.
Anyway, I had a discussion with this lady in front of me at Target about something I had seen on t.v. about how muggings have gone up dramatically because of the economic situation, especially if you are wearing expensive gold jewelry.  I told this lady that I was having my watch reappraised because it was probably now worth more than my car.  She said she should probably look into having hers reappraised also.
Then we started talking about the ridiculous prices Rolex dealers, especially jewelry stores, charge you to clean the damn things and the lady behind me chimed in that she knew of a place locally where the certified watchmaker charged a lot less.  I asked her if she knew him and she said he was her fiance.
When my appraiser came today, I told her the story and she said she knew him well and had done business with him and that he had several fiancees over the years but never married any of them, but that is another story.
What struck me later is that it was ironic that two Rolex wearers were shopping at Target, whereas before this recession, maybe neither of us would have been so cost conscious, and that we would end up networking with another lady in line on how to save money on watch repairs.  Go figure.
Now I have to figure out how, on a small retirement and Social Security, I am going to pay for the increased insurance premium.