I'm hurrying towards retirement as fast as I can!

When I rule the world, dealing with petty bureaucrats won't be as difficult as it is now.  I realize the concerns for doing adequate fact-checking and system security but a person shouldn't have to endure being shackled to a telephone in caller limbo (do you really think there are just 2 people ahead of me in the phone call lottery??  My favorite is when the disembodied voice says that there are NO people in line ahead of me and yet I continue to wait and wait and wait).

 I know I have beat this horse to death on numerous occasions but I wish I could get someone in authority to actually listen to me!  I don't need a PhD or a GS 16 rating to tell a group of programmers (preferably high school students or university undergrads who'd be willing to work for beer, pizza and video games) to get a government computer system that is not only secure but user friendly.  It would certainly use less paper as a vast majority of communications would be through this new fangled thing called the Internet.  Sure the number of email messages on the receiving end would be more to read but it's the same information that they'd have to read via the hardcopy that was originated by...well someone like ME.  I know that all the hardcopies that I send to various government agencies are scanned and ultimately sent to my claims agent/examiner but why waste time, energy and natural resources by sending it in the first place????

I'm serious, if I ever can finally GET retired, I'm going to volunteer my time to the presidential candidate of my choice and tell him that I have a dream!  Where all the citizens of this great nation don't have to fill out 2,3,4 or more sets of forms that basically ask the same thing!  One and DONE--One size could fit all, especially if it had a large 'Other remarks' section. ;-) Does my presidential candidate really want to streamline the workings of governmental agencies?  Duplication of effort and of agency forms will be just what the customer ordered! I'm old enough to know where the bullshit traps are but without any real power, it's difficult to navigate them but with a presidential mandate,  I could be a bureaucratic goddess/heroine!

OK, now that I've fixed that problem, what's next in my crosshairs?

How can I have lost my mind...again?!

I have mentioned numerous times to myself and others that nothing will make me feel inadequate as a person and as dumb as a post than having to deal with a 'sick' computer. What I've done in the past obviously isn't working (the definition of insanity: doing the same thing repeatedly and expecting different results) that being contacting my computer smarty-pants son and begging him for help. He didn't believe that I'd done EVERYTHING I could think of doing to get my computer working instead of staring at the purple Ubuntu sceen of death. He nearly screams that I should have had an external harddrive back-up and blah blah blah (which I thought I had since sonny boy had fixed it the last time it'd died). *sigh* I'm trying to adjust to being PC-less. :-( My learning curve on my iPad has been iffy. I am discovering things and I have NO idea how/why things have happened, good and/or bad! I suppose a blind squirrel can find a nut every once in a while (or an computer ignoramus can get something to work on the computer). **double sigh**

The frustrations of dealing with intra/inter-governmental agencies

In the last 3 years, I believe that I have filled out more paperwork, forms and decidedly marginally important documents than I have done in all the rest of my life.  I am seriously thinking of contacting President Obama to volunteer to work (with pay, of course) in helping create a Department of Redundancy.  This department wouldn't actually CREATE redundancy; on the contrary, it would help consolidate processes and eliminate the need to produce the SAME information that each current department of government now requires.  There would be no CA7a Forms for just the Department of Labor; there would be basically the same forms for ALL departments and agencies that are requiring the same information from persons.  That way, these same departments and agencies could actually COMMUNICATE information to/from each other.  Presently, it's like the Department of Labor speaks a completely different language and uses a different alphabet than, let's say...the US Postal Service.  They should also use the same computer system and information processing and while I'm at it, I would also allow secure input from a person's PC to any agency or department.  I am, therefore, my own conduit between the Department of Labor, the US Postal Service, and Social Security Administration and all these agencies want basically the same thing from me.  It is also difficult for me to try and remember which agency speaks which 'language' and whose form belongs to whom. 

I absolutely LOATHE it when I want to actually speak with a representative; I have to plan on spending upwards of 15 minutes just to leave a voicemail which, according to the information stated on the recording, says I shall receive a call within the next 2 business days.  The problem with that is it's like waiting for Larry the Cable Guy to show up with a 2 day window.  If you have to go to work or the store and they call, you have to call them back to be put on ANOTHER 2 business day call-back!  Even if you leave your cellphone number, if you have your phone off and they call you...you go back on the 2 day call-back list.  No call for YOU!

Maybe one of the most frustrating aspects is that I'm not 'allowed' to contact any of these agencies via my home computer nor can I file any requested information via any kind of computer link which leads to my next dilemma...the mind-boggling amount of paperwork generated in one's quest for truth, justice and the American way.  I remember when personal computers first came on the scene...they were touting that computers would eliminate the need for actual PAPER!  How droll and amusing!  In the last 3 years, I have generated 18-3" binders worth of paperwork and that's just what I have kept at home as the recipient's of my paperwork have THEIR 18-3" binders-worth of Karen generated crap.  My Department of Redundancy would save a planet's worth of trees currently being made into woodpulp for paper and don't even get me started about the ink!  You're welcome! ;-)

I'm not stupid, son, really; I just don't live and breathe through my computer

I am the first to admit that I am not computer savvy, in spite of owning numerous electronic data devices.  That being said, I did work in the data processing field back when dinosaurs ruled the earth and computers were housed in ROOMS that held less processing abilities than currently are contained in the average cellphone.  It's not that I'm not capable of understanding the functions and inner-workings of computers...OK, it's that and MORE.  I just don't have the energy, time OR inclination to submerse myself in all that is computer. 

I have a great deal of difficulty dealing with my 27 year old son with this dilemma.  This is a child that practically teethed on a computer keyboard.  When he was 6, we bought him a used computer with a tiny monitor from a friend that was upgrading their system.  A few hours after we gave it to him, he was cheerfully playing 'Oregon Trail' and later in the evening, when we realized that the house was MUCH too quiet, we went looking for him.  He was discovered in his basement 'boy cave' happily watching color TV on his new computer monitor.  I asked him how it did it and I got what was to become a familiar eye-roll and *sigh*..."Well, Mom", he said, "I just ran the lines through the VCR and connected it to the cable TV outlet."  I was slack-jawed and asked him who taught him how to do THAT and he said "No one; I just DID it and it worked".  I could read the "DUH, Mom!  How come you're so stupid?!"  Things haven't gotten much better in the last 20 years.  My son graduated with a degree in Electrical Engineering with a double minor in Computer Science and Physics.  He is from Mars, I am from Venus with a degree in Secondary Education with an emphasis in Social Studies.  When I have problems with my computer system I still hesitate calling my son for fear I'll get the *sigh* and eye-roll; in fact, I have contacted friends as far away as Germany to get help before I call sonny boy.  He's a great son but needs more empathy for his poor computer-ignorant Mother.  Maybe after I retire I'll get the hang of this computer stuff and be able to figure out how I just managed to skew the screen and accidentally post something to someone else's blog instead of my own...

Gmail - Inbox - bonbonner@gmail.com

Enough already
Today I did what I didn't think I'd ever do...block some FB 'friends' because I'm just too tired of their pedantic political position. I am a total live-and-let-live kind of person; the kind of person who, though I may not agree with your political or religious beliefs, will fight to the death for your right to have said beliefs. BUT, I reached the point where I was tired of constantly paring and sparing every time I posted something on MY Facebook page. The fact that I don't know how to disengage my cellphone from 'receiving' every FB posting also helped me justify why I wanted the madness to stop. The way I figure it is, if I like something and feel like it might be something that I would like posted to MY FB page, I will do so. I don't think I have to justify everything I post. Furthermore, I figure that if any of my FB 'friends' are tired of my postings, they will ignore them or block me. Meh. In the current political climate, I think there is a LOT of hypocrisy and humor and it's worth sharing. Other than my husband (who is also one of my FB friends). no one is forced to listen to me and my rantings and even my husband owns a set of noise-canceling headphones when he suffers a me overload.

konigink

(1) Kelly Wecker

Planned Parenthood and Contraception

Today has been a day of frustration.  It seems like I spent hours trying to convince a neighbor of mine that the fact that the recent healthcare bill now includes BIRTH CONTROL for women should be a non-issue.  Au contraire it appears.  Said neighbor's religious beliefs prohibit artificial methods of birth control (known to the rest of as as pregnancy and ultimately PARENTHOOD).  He takes issue with being forced to pay his tax money to support something that his religion prohibits and thus this legislation violates the constitutional guarantee of the separation of church and state.  I offered, numerous times, to pay what I estimated might be HIS share of this contraception access (which I estimated it to be about 2 cents) but he demurred.  I then offered to trade the tax burden of all things associated with an unwanted pregnancy brought to term and the subsequent costs of raising such a child.  Silence.  It appears that that cost in mere dollars is subsequently MORE than 2 cents but wait!  It's not an economic issue!!  It's a MORAL and RELIGIOUS one.  Offhand, I can think of at least 6 words for...here it comes, cover your eyes if you are easily offended--BULLSHIT!  If you don't want to use birth control, fine--don't use it.  If you don't want an abortion, fine--don't ever have one.  If you try to fly the flag of religion when it comes to either issue...you are SO busted!  Talk about separation of church and state--keep your rosaries off my ovaries; keep your dogma out of my boudoir.  Mind your own business when it comes to reproductive choices.  Think that your 2 cents is paying for puppies or whatever but do NOT mess with a woman's right to decide her personal, private reproductive choices.  If I have to pay for your extra children's educational needs, then you can pay 2 cents for medical coverage of contraception.  MYOB.