To Err is Human . . .

Every once in a while I will see this message on facebook:

Wondering what in the world got removed so quickly for whatever reason.  I know it happened quite frequently in 2020 when those who would share false information which facebook (along with other social media from what I understand) repeatedly removed - which is a good thing. Facebook allows millions of people to use their platform and those who work for the facebook company are allowed to monitor that which they work for but sometimes I feel that perhaps contents are taken down in error?  And yet it somehow leads me to believe my privacy settings really are not.

I did not get the above message on my own wall but would imagine that is what others saw as the contents were deleted with a message that Ralph Waldo Emmerson was not the correct source.  Or it wasn’t RWE or something to that content.  Too bad I didn’t think of screenshotting that before deleting.  Hopefully I’ll never have another opportunity to do so.

I LOVE doing cryptograms puzzles.  For the most part I have loved the inspirational quotes and have decided to share them on facebook (as I rarely ever post anything on my personal page) and have been doing so since December 8.  I was booted after posting something that I saw as a RWE quote.  IT IS LITERALLY THE FIRST QUOTE GIVEN when looking up Ralph Waldo Emmerson.  Several sites credit him for saying this quote!  

(I did not find under Brainy Quotes however) I would like to ask facebook (whichever employee took down the quote) “How do we/you KNOW that RWE did not say that?”  “If you are such an authority on RWE perhaps you could provide a name of who actually said?”

I did find one quote simply titled Emmerson. 

Perhaps that is what snowballed everybody just assuming it was Ralph Waldo.  Perhaps it could have been Fred or George or maybe Emmerson is the first name.  Emmerson Johnson.  Emmerson Mahoney.  How do we know?

There is a rumor going around that Marie Antoninette had said, "Let them eat cake"

 My husband said that isn’t true.  How do we know what she said or didn’t say?  We weren’t there.  Was it documented?  Was it referenced?  Was the idea borrowed from another?  Because that’s how we’re supposed to think.  Borrowing ideas and referencing sources.  And what if the sources are wrong?

Human error happens.  It’s why AI was invented. Artificial Intelligence NEVER gets it wrong.  Alexa is ALWAYS right.

We were playing a game the other day 

(vintage collection probably as all the rides about questions are about the past and not the present) in which the card asked the question “Which of the three fairies wear green: Flora, Fauna or Merryweather.  The card gave credit to Flora which is not accurate as Flora wears pink and Fauna wears green. 

Nothing resolved.  Just venting.  Wondering.

The Latest Scam

           Our son Randy is a safety inspector who makes more money than he knows what to do with.  Recently, Richard has started taking classes in order to become a safety inspector also and has been putting in applications for jobs.  One company texted on Easter Sunday to say they had availability and would like to interview him using the internet.  Okay, I get it.  After 2020 many have relied more upon technology for interviews using zoom or facetime or whatever.  Monitoring a lengthy questionnaire does not qualify as an interview in my opinion.

          I was bothered that the “interview” was to take place on Easter day.  After all, he had just received the text message. Usually one will set up an appointment and not just willy-nilly create a spontaneous message through text. We had gone down to Ashland again as Jaime had left her wallet in the car and figured she would need it before we visit with her in a month.  I think he saw Sunday as just an average day and didn’t seem to care about it being Easter.

          So he decides to do the “interview” which I didn’t really feel good about and would have at least waited until Monday – the fact that the company was willing to compromise any Sunday but especially Easter made it feel like a company would be self-oriented and not care about employees.  I don’t know how many questions Richard had answered before he was asked for bank information so the company could be certain about direct deposit.

          Fortunately, Richard did not provide the “needed” information but instead entered that “by law I cannot provide the information until I have already been working at your company”.  After more prodding on the company’s end, Richard typed in “I will not answer anymore of your questions as both you and I know this is a scam.”

          It infuriates me because not all desperate job hunters are wise enough to stop feeding information.  Just like jobhat – asking over a hundred questions ( including social security number) in their “application” .  When a person is filling out the application he/she/they does/do not yet have the job and does not need to provide social until he/she/they has/have the job. I hate that people will prey upon the weakness of others.  I hope they are all caught and crucified at their own expense and not that of the taxpayer.

          Job Seeker Beware!

Cold, Wet, and Two Week Order

 

Yesterday was cold and wet

Bonnie does not like the moisture

as it falls from the sky. 

She spent most of the day sleeping

except for when we took her to the vets. 

 

The governor has issued another

“Stay at home order”. 

It starts on Wednesday and will go

until December second.

Restaurants and bars or for takeout or delivery only

Which, in my opinion, is how it should have been all along.

 

Currently barbers, hair salons, and outdoor recreation are allowed

along with youth programs, childcare, K-12 schools?????

Really?  We’re going to eliminate social gathering activity to 6 people and church maximum at 25 people but it is okay to have contact sports and hold schools with hundreds of children.  What????

I don't see hair salons and barbers as an essential.

Jenna and I haven't had our hair cut since January.  

Roland asked me to cut his.

My hair hasn't necessarily grown longer - but definitely thicker 

and Jenna looks like a wild woman with all her thick hair.

 

Do not spend Thanksgiving with extended family –

but it is highly probable that some people will. 

Enough people to expose their kids

who will return to the schools and spread the disease. 

And then we will have to shut everything down . . . again.

When will this nation learn? 

 

It’s wet and cold outside. 

I’m staying home not only to stay safe

but also to keep warm.

Invitation Answers post 1

          It has been less than a year since I graduated from the online college that I attended.  Recently I received an email from the school with an interest in candid photos in which I could share my personal story.  I am usually the one behind the camera – or was.  Jenna has taken over that job and has taken countless photos.  I don’t know that any of them say “success” as far as “look where our student is now”. 

          Included was a list of questions which I was more interested in answering with words than with photos.  The first five wanted reasons about why I had gone to college – specifically their school.  Umm . . . because my husband is an underpaid employee who works for your company and thus we took advantage of getting an expensive education for his time. 

          Roland had majored in graphic arts when we were living in Utah.  He was also working from home.  He would spend hours on end at the computer – though he had initially said that the university only expects you to sign in four days a week and then you’re only on the computer for a couple of hours.  NOT true.  He spent more time on the computer with his assignments than he did for work – or so it seemed.  Actually he didn’t.  But he did spend more than 18 hours a week with graphic arts. 

          Graphic arts may be a more demanding field than accounting – especially since he asked to have two classes at a time.  Sometimes two classes felt overwhelming to me – but often one class wasn’t enough for me personally.  I don’t know how people working full time were able to manage.

           I chose accounting – not because I love business and figures.  I don’t.  But I certainly wasn’t willing to go into business or graphic arts.  The other alternative was health care which I believe has to have hands on classes as well.  I mean, it’s not like you can lean into the screen and demonstrate CPR or check vitals or what have you.  I have been trying to balance our personal budget since before Roland and I were married.  I figured maybe I could learn to apply things into my own personal records without actually seeking work in that field. 

           The first two courses I had were computer basics and learning soft skills.  Although I seemed to butt heads with the instructor of the latter, and really didn’t understand why the class was a requirement at first, I did learn from it.  As I have mentioned countless times, my favorite classes had absolutely no connection to accounting other than life skills and the “how to”s for working with people.  I applied these principals into my church callings and later on as a teacher’s aide with the school district.  I had even allowed myself to use my current situations to apply to whatever I happened to be learning.  I truly learned a lot.  Particularly about referencing.  I may have not appreciated it at the time but with all the hoax postings and gullible friends, it has become quite apparent who understands what reliable sources are and who remains clueless. 

                   I have brainstormed over many of these questions and have three pages of notes which should make for at least three more posts.  I don’t wish to ignore what is going on in the states but don’t wish to dwell on it either.  Trump’s promise to “make America great again” has been no different thah Hitler’s promise to Austria or Germany.  Did you know that swastika used to be a symbol of peace? But Hitler was quick about changing that concept. (see here) I know many of my friends already view the American flag in a similar manner.  Trump did not make America great again.  It’s been torn apart since before he got into office.  The tears are bloody and fiery now.

Communication and Knowing my Child

            When Jenna was in preschool, the school district offered a course for parents to communicate with or discipline their children . . . I can't remember how it was worded.  Jenna was going through a whining stage and Roland and I both wished to assist her in overcoming.  Somewhere in my possession, I have the questionnaires as both Roland and I received our own packets of material.  Of course, I can't find them now to pull up an example except for the incentive charts found here.

            The questions were presented in a manner that may have led one to believe that the questions were about the children, but with each class and questionnaire, I felt like the class was really geared toward parenting and understanding ourselves.  It was a fun class, I thought and I really enjoyed getting acquainted with the instructor and some of the other parents.  There was a potluck dinner afterward and a nursery for the children.  It was something I truly did look forward to once a week.

            Jenna did eventually stop whining - but not until after the class had ended.  We were invited back the following year but had stopped attending as the material was exactly the same and we weren't quite ready for a "refresher" but I would review the material on my own every once in a while.  I had even scanned a lot of it, but haven't been able to find the connector to open the scans I had created.

            At the beginning of this school year, Jenna brought home a letter requesting parent/child representatives for a survey that is being conducted by the University of Oregon and child and family services.  Every three months they would send out two surveys - one for me and one for Jenna - to complete and send back.  Her survey was 9 pages.  Mine was always 17. 

            Each of us was supposed to fill out our own survey without discussing with the other.  But after we mailed them in, we would talk about what we had filled out.  For the most part, Jenna and I were right on track.  But I wonder how much different it may have been if Roland had been involved.  Questions included home life, peers, bullying, health, motivation, parenting and school involvement.  Some of my answers make it sound like I keep Jenna a prisoner . . . but there are no comment sections to explain why my answers sound like I watch her like a hawk at all times.  I don't - but because of the distance of where everything is, I generally have to either drive her or she will be picked up by another parental driver and so I generally do always know what Jenna is doing and with whom.

            We don't have the best eating habits.  We are all overweight.  But generally, we are happy.  Especially Jenna.  I enjoy when she is singing because I know she is happy.  I think often her singing grates on Roland's nerves.  He doesn't care for my contemporary Christian music either.  What's cool though is he will play Disney music.  He will blare up the Beetles when neither Jenna nor I are in the car with him.

            Jenna doesn't get bullied - or at least that she knows of.  I may have already mentioned it before, but her personality will actually frustrate bullies as she compliments or thanks them for their snide remarks or will ask the "bully" if he/she needs a hug.  Jenna doesn't believe that it is true, but there are several students who look up to and admire her.  She is well liked without being popular.

            We both wish she had that one true friend that she could hang out with.  She's a very friendly girl, but she doesn't hang out much with friends the way I did or had the opportunity to.  It helps that we have family home evening - a rarity compared to even her LDS peers here in Oregon.  I know she has friends in Utah who still do it.  It's a different world from when I grew up.

The Things We Learn

          In these two posts (here and here) I mentioned how much Jenna loves learning about her family members. Until we had played Chatter Matters, she hadn't known that Roland used to play the trombone - or anything about his childhood really.  Usually it's just her and I, but she did manage to rope Roland into playing with us between conference.  After she won the game, we continued to go through the "family room" and "my room" cards so that Jenna could know Roland a little better. It reminded me of when my sibs and I would force the Ungame questions upon my dad.

          My parents actually did three listed on the card - hiking was more of a seasonal activity  or annual thing - and it was usually a part of either a daytip or full vacation so the specific places we hiked were Yellowstone National Park or Timpanogos Cave in American Fork, Utah.

           I don't know that shopping was ever restricted to just the weekend.  Movies also occurred on days other than the weekend.  I chose number one for myself as they took us to church which falls on the weekend.  By process of elimination, Jenna and I guessed that Roland's family would go shopping choosing from just those four.  Church was definitely out and they didn't seem like they'd be much for hiking. His parents (well his dad in particular) liked to have drinking parties - but that wasn't on the card.

          I remember going to the drive-in theatres when I was younger.  Mom and Dad had taken Patrick and I to one drive-in theatre called the Woodland.  The walls that surrounded the theatre were decorated in colored bubbles - like on a loaf of Wonder bread - but with more colors. 

There was a playground area for children to play before the movie started or even during intermission (because there was usually a double feature or sometimes movies that actually had an intermission; but we may have been asleep by then. 

          I also remember going to different movie theatres with my family both as a child and an adult;  Roland says the one and only time he'd ever gone to the movies with his parents is when he was an adult and had paid for all three of them to see "Kelly's Heroes"

 

Not all multiple choice, but once again Jenna and I had both predicted that Roland would answer "Watching TV".  I don't remember actually ever sitting down to watch TV as a family - unless it was something like "The Wonderful World of Disney" 


Mostly we played games or talked.  I don't know any families who read together.  Unless it's the scriptures - which I don't imagine would amount for "more" time spent.

          I don't know that Roland's family watched TV together either.  It was long before cable, and the TV offered only three stations.  There were no remotes and so the kids had to act as the remote and turn the station to whatever dad wanted to watch. 

       We learned that his father had only a fourth grade education and would often get drunk and come home and line up his children and say, "Your mother and I don't owe you a living".  I think my mom's dad may have been that way.  She said she was scared of him and when he would get drunk he would smack her mom around.  She was determined to give her children a  family environment different from the one in which she had been raised. 

         Roland's family didn't believe in families like mine - nor did I have any clue that families like his existed.  As I grew up, I realized that my family was not the norm. when we had all worked for Snelgrove's, for example, (each of us having worked there except for my dad) we would take the change out of our pockets and Kayla's would remain on the kitchen table for a few days.  None of the rest of us would take it as we knew it did not belong to us.  The money would have been gone in a heartbeat with many other families. The older I get, the more unrealistic my family seems.  That's too bad. 

          I don't know about Roland's side, and I don't believe he knows either.  But he counts Uncle Ted as family, and so with this question we all answer Uncle Ted - who celebrated his 100th birthday in February (I don't know why I didn't post about it to my blog; I did to facebook)

          My parents met at a Church dance.  I was surprised to learn that Roland's parents had met at a dance also.  He said his dad had been going with another girl at the time but had told his mom that someday he was going to marry her.  I think she just laughed it off - probably rolled her eyes as I did when Roland proposed to me.

          It had surprised us all when Roland said his favorite movie was/is "Oh, God, you Devil"  He received it for Christmas one year because he had said it was his favorite.  I have only seen him watch it one time.

          It's great how some memories will trigger others.  I think these questions are great conversation starters and I am happy that Jenna prefers this interaction over spending time on electronic devices.