Life goes on

Four years ago, in June 2013, I retired from my job and from my profession and left US a month later. I had lived there since 1976 with a 16 month break in 1982/83. Now I live in Berlin, Germany. Many ask me how I feel about having left and whether or not I wish to return. Well, I feel good about having left and do not wish to return to the States and do not even miss it; although, I miss my friends. How come?

It must be because I lived a full life, had a great career, married five times in the States, lived in 4 different states, traveled in all but the New England states, experienced life fully. Occasionally I reminisce about some of my experiences and I feel joy that I had them, never wishing to repeat them at all.

I remember my first step outside of the airport in Austin, TX, late at night in July, 1976, a young kid in a brand new place feeling that Texas muggy heat. Not much was known to me about the US outside of the movies and books -- it was all new. For the first few weeks I wanted to return home so badly until one day I looked up into the skies and saw clouds. Those clouds looked just the same as they looked at home. Then that evening I looked up at the Moon -- still the same Moon. I started to melt.

Then I dived into the American experience full speed. I loved it, I loved Austin, I loved Texas, I loved listening to country music, going to .

I found a girlfriend who lived on Nueces Street and drove her 65 Rambler with a hole in the floor (she called the car Ramblerett). She was beautiful, smart, fun, I will never forget those beautiful long legs and many, many hours spent in her poor-student apartment with no air conditioning, skin to skin. (I must tell a secret here, she was my teacher during my orientation months in Austin. Oh well, I never said I was perfect.)

She introduced me to Willie and Waylon, The Eagles, Freddy Fender, Johnny Cash, Simon and Garfunkel, Emmy Lou, Bonnie Raitt, and many more; took me to Broken Spoke, Split Rail, World Armadillo Headquarters to dance, bowling in some bowling alley on Lamar street, Barton Sprigs to swim and play frisbee (and have my first joints). I made friends with some of her friends (Luis, his wife and baby girl come to mind).

I had a huge number of wonderful experiences, those experiences were uniquely beautiful and could not be repeated. I did not miss a beat. There is much more to tell.

Inserts and the like

I have been torn between posting thoughts on my blogs and Facebook. Recently and regrettably Facebook has been winning. But now it's time for the blog. so, here it goes.

Most of you occasionally find inserts in your newspaper or receive them directly by post with a bunch of advertising in them. Many of you, I surmise, dutifully examine them for any "deals" that may be hidden in there. I don't and I actually strongly dislike receiving them and even detest their existence. Here's why.

I suspect that the advertisers' motivation for using inserts is to gain sales. Nothing particularly wrong with that as a concept. Every business's existence depends on selling what they produce. So, what's wrong with inserts? And here I will venture to answer this question without doing any research and base it all on my observations, common sense, and stuff I learned during my graduate study in business.

Many are susceptible to being nudged into wanting stuff they really do not need just because it is a "good deal." I believe advertisers know this and tailor the ads with that in mind. To me that is very unethical.

Then there is the rest of us. What is wrong there is that in the first place I did not ask to receive the inserts and am forced to deal with them one way or another (time, etc).

Then, lots of resources (paper, paint, storage, distribution, printing machines, and a lot of other direct and indirect investment) are invested in the insert I get only for me to make no use for it. Thus, they are wasted.

Next, my labor is exchanged for something I do not want and do not use. How so? Someone pays for the insert I get? Who? Well, it is I who pays for it (with money I got in exchange for my past labor) if I eventually use the advertiser's product and pay the regular price not taking advantage of the "deals" in the insert.

Bottom line is that I resent inserts.

Windows 10 and the external sound card

After resisting for a long time and checking all the compatibility issues, I decided to finally upgrade my laptop to Windows 10. It all went rather smoothly. Everything worked, except ...

I have this external sound card, the "8-CHANNEL 3D USB 2.0 EXTERNAL 7.1 SURROUND SOUND BOX W/DIGITAL OUTPUT, USB-SND8."

When the upgrade was finally all done, the sounds came just from the laptop's regular speakers. No problem, I said, just need to assign my card as the default sound device and things will be fine again. Well, not exactly, since Windows 10 threw in a new thing. Soooo ...

I found the sound setup dialog and made sure that the external sound card was set as the default, but now there was no sound at all. I immediately checked all the connections, the device was on, everything looked as it should, but no sound. I went to the manufacturer's website and found out that this device was not (yet, I suppose) compatible with Windows 10. Great, I said to myself and started looking for another USB sound card. 

But then something told me to investigate a bit more and, after trying all I knew how, I did the following. I marked the USB speakers in the sound setup dialog, clicked on "Properties" and (eventually) "Levels." 

Sure enough the little Speakers and Line and Microphone speaker icons were all marked with a "No-no" sign. I unchecked them all and it all now worked fine.
 
I thought this might be of use to somebody else out there.