COVID and riding

On Wednesday, October 21, 2020 at 4:01:56 PM UTC-7, John B. wrote:
On Wed, 21 Oct 2020 09:49:11 -0400, Frank Krygowski

I could have gambled on a used power supply from Ebay, one that was
stripped out of someone else's dead TV, for about $50. Or I could buy a
new TV for maybe $150.
Or just get along without it :-)

I haven't watched TV to any extent for years and years now, partially
because I've lived in countries people speak, and there for the TV
programs are in, some strange language. In fact, I believe that the
last time I watched TV was on a visit to Singapore, where they do
speak a form of English, some 5 years ago and the hotel provided free
TV. I watched Oprah and realized that TV was something that I did not
requite to be happy. Quite the opposite in fact :-)

Its just as well, both movies and TV have turned to utter crap with the TV news turning into nothing more than Fake News Get Trump crap 24 hours a day.. Whatever they do and KNOW is wrong they accuse Trump of doing. It will all be over pretty soon now and we get to look forward to another 48 months of pure lies interspersed with social media censoring any fact negative towards the Democrats.

On 10/21/2020 6:01 PM, John B. wrote:
On Wed, 21 Oct 2020 09:49:11 -0400, Frank Krygowski
wrote:

On 10/20/2020 10:33 PM, John B. wrote:
On Tue, 20 Oct 2020 21:21:32 -0400, Frank Krygowski
wrote:

On 10/20/2020 8:38 PM, John B. wrote:
On Tue, 20 Oct 2020 11:42:55 -0400, Frank Krygowski
wrote:

On 10/19/2020 10:20 PM, John B. wrote:

As an aside, medicines prescribed by a doctor at the "state hospitals"
and purchased at the hospital, are even cheaper then at the village
shop. And, if you are over 65 (and a citizen) the whole trip to the
state hospital is free :-)

Well, that's why your terrible socialistic public health system has such
dismal results compared to the sparkly and expensive system of the
United States!

Oh wait...

We have both "State Hospitals" and "Private Hospitals" and I have been
treated in both and as far as I can tell, the medical care is the same
in both. Doctors here, generally speaking, attend the same schools and
have the same qualifications and in fact my Cardiologist at a state
hospital is also employed by a private hospital and has told me that
if I wish I can attend his clinic at the private hospital "but it will
be much more expensive".

The major difference, other then price, is that the state hospitals
are very crowded. Yesterday, my wife went to the state hospital for
her quarterly checkup - she suffers from high blood pressure, diabetes
and a thyroid problem (all controlled by medicine). She left the house
at 06:00 and returned home at 13:00 - it is a 10 minute drive to the
hospital.

Interesting.


But all things considered we've been married for nearly 50 years and
we are still getting along with each other...

Same thing here! Should we race to 50? ;-)


I recently had to recycle an old TV, for which I now have to pay a fee.
(The trash pickup guys won't take them.) I could have left it at a big
box electronic store for $25, but I decided to "donate" $20 to our
county recycling program instead. Trouble was, the county system took
far, far longer. I figure I "earned" about $4/hr.

I'm happy to support our "Green Team," but not at that time cost.

Here they still repair stuff although I'm not sure about old "box"
TV's as the flat screens are so cheap now and I'm not sure that the
Big Box stores even sell them any more.

This was a flat screen. Apparently the internal power supply board went
bad. Replacement boards were not available, but I could see some bad
electrolytic capacitors, so I replaced those, hoping nothing else was
wrong. No luck.

I could have gambled on a used power supply from Ebay, one that was
stripped out of someone else's dead TV, for about $50. Or I could buy a
new TV for maybe $150.

Or just get along without it :-)

I haven't watched TV to any extent for years and years now, partially
because I've lived in countries people speak, and there for the TV
programs are in, some strange language. In fact, I believe that the
last time I watched TV was on a visit to Singapore, where they do
speak a form of English, some 5 years ago and the hotel provided free
TV. I watched Oprah and realized that TV was something that I did not
requite to be happy. Quite the opposite in fact :-)


+1

It amazes me that people will tell you they just don't have
time to ride bicycles, chase girls, build engines, read
books or whatever and yet they're up to date on a couple of
dozen television programs.

--
Andrew Muzi
www.yellowjersey.org/
Open every day since 1 April, 1971

On Wed, 21 Oct 2020 19:37:54 -0500, AMuzi wrote:

On 10/21/2020 6:01 PM, John B. wrote:
On Wed, 21 Oct 2020 09:49:11 -0400, Frank Krygowski
wrote:

On 10/20/2020 10:33 PM, John B. wrote:
On Tue, 20 Oct 2020 21:21:32 -0400, Frank Krygowski
wrote:

On 10/20/2020 8:38 PM, John B. wrote:
On Tue, 20 Oct 2020 11:42:55 -0400, Frank Krygowski
wrote:

On 10/19/2020 10:20 PM, John B. wrote:

As an aside, medicines prescribed by a doctor at the "state hospitals"
and purchased at the hospital, are even cheaper then at the village
shop. And, if you are over 65 (and a citizen) the whole trip to the
state hospital is free :-)

Well, that's why your terrible socialistic public health system has such
dismal results compared to the sparkly and expensive system of the
United States!

Oh wait...

We have both "State Hospitals" and "Private Hospitals" and I have been
treated in both and as far as I can tell, the medical care is the same
in both. Doctors here, generally speaking, attend the same schools and
have the same qualifications and in fact my Cardiologist at a state
hospital is also employed by a private hospital and has told me that
if I wish I can attend his clinic at the private hospital "but it will
be much more expensive".

The major difference, other then price, is that the state hospitals
are very crowded. Yesterday, my wife went to the state hospital for
her quarterly checkup - she suffers from high blood pressure, diabetes
and a thyroid problem (all controlled by medicine). She left the house
at 06:00 and returned home at 13:00 - it is a 10 minute drive to the
hospital.

Interesting.


But all things considered we've been married for nearly 50 years and
we are still getting along with each other...

Same thing here! Should we race to 50? ;-)


I recently had to recycle an old TV, for which I now have to pay a fee.
(The trash pickup guys won't take them.) I could have left it at a big
box electronic store for $25, but I decided to "donate" $20 to our
county recycling program instead. Trouble was, the county system took
far, far longer. I figure I "earned" about $4/hr.

I'm happy to support our "Green Team," but not at that time cost.

Here they still repair stuff although I'm not sure about old "box"
TV's as the flat screens are so cheap now and I'm not sure that the
Big Box stores even sell them any more.

This was a flat screen. Apparently the internal power supply board went
bad. Replacement boards were not available, but I could see some bad
electrolytic capacitors, so I replaced those, hoping nothing else was
wrong. No luck.

I could have gambled on a used power supply from Ebay, one that was
stripped out of someone else's dead TV, for about $50. Or I could buy a
new TV for maybe $150.

Or just get along without it :-)

I haven't watched TV to any extent for years and years now, partially
because I've lived in countries people speak, and there for the TV
programs are in, some strange language. In fact, I believe that the
last time I watched TV was on a visit to Singapore, where they do
speak a form of English, some 5 years ago and the hotel provided free
TV. I watched Oprah and realized that TV was something that I did not
requite to be happy. Quite the opposite in fact :-)


+1

It amazes me that people will tell you they just don't have
time to ride bicycles, chase girls, build engines, read
books or whatever and yet they're up to date on a couple of
dozen television programs.

I would except some programs though. When my kids were young they
watched Sesame Street and I do think that they learned a bit from
watching it. But over all I consider TV a waste of time. Why! One
could even read a book and learn something instead :-)
--
Cheers,

John B.

On 10/21/2020 7:01 PM, John B. wrote:
On Wed, 21 Oct 2020 09:49:11 -0400, Frank Krygowski wrote:


I could have gambled on a used power supply from Ebay, one that was
stripped out of someone else's dead TV, for about $50. Or I could buy a
new TV for maybe $150.

Or just get along without it :-)

I haven't watched TV to any extent for years and years now, partially
because I've lived in countries people speak, and there for the TV
programs are in, some strange language. In fact, I believe that the
last time I watched TV was on a visit to Singapore, where they do
speak a form of English, some 5 years ago and the hotel provided free
TV. I watched Oprah and realized that TV was something that I did not
requite to be happy. Quite the opposite in fact :-)

Our new TV is a "smart" TV. My wife watches some TV most nights despite
complaining "there's nothing good on." I agree with the evaluation, so I
don't normally watch TV. (Tonight, PBS is doing its science shows - wild
animals, asteroids, etc. I was sort of half-watching that as I worked on
one of my instruments.)

But the "smart TV" lets us stream content, so we watch some movies, some
web content, some music videos, etc. And our multi-part system can play
DVDs and even videotapes.

Trouble is, the system is complex enough that it frustrates my wife.
It's quite normal to need three remotes. I hoped a programmable
universal remote would simplify things, but it failed. The reason I
hoped to revive the old TV was that she could pop a DVD into its
built-in player and watch a movie without help from me.

--
- Frank Krygowski

On Wednesday, October 21, 2020 at 6:00:01 PM UTC-7, John B. wrote:

It amazes me that people will tell you they just don't have
time to ride bicycles, chase girls, build engines, read
books or whatever and yet they're up to date on a couple of
dozen television programs.
I would except some programs though. When my kids were young they
watched Sesame Street and I do think that they learned a bit from
watching it. But over all I consider TV a waste of time. Why! One
could even read a book and learn something instead :-)
I could read and write by the third grade. I assume that was normal. I had read out the school library non-fiction section and the city branch library non-fiction section before the sixth grade. I don't think that I started reading fiction until high school. And yet my step grandsons cannot read and the youngest who is seven doesn't even know all of the sounds of the alphabet. His 3 year older brother can't read "The Nautilus" The words are too big for him.

On Wed, 21 Oct 2020 21:57:28 -0700, Tom Kunich wrote:

On Wednesday, October 21, 2020 at 6:00:01 PM UTC-7, John B. wrote:

It amazes me that people will tell you they just don't have time to
ride bicycles, chase girls, build engines, read books or whatever and
yet they're up to date on a couple of dozen television programs.
I would except some programs though. When my kids were young they
watched Sesame Street and I do think that they learned a bit from
watching it. But over all I consider TV a waste of time. Why! One could
even read a book and learn something instead :-)

I could read and write by the third grade. I assume that was normal.
Pretty much for an average kid. It is just ****ing in the wind to say I
could do that in Kindergarten. The point to know was that we didn't have
TV then and were living in the school masters residence of a small
country school that had closed down. so I had access to all the school
reader books and stuff that was sill locked up in the two room school.
Mum was big on using what was to hand and for us to learn to read.

I
had read out the school library non-fiction section and the city branch
library non-fiction section before the sixth grade. I don't think that I
started reading fiction until high school. And yet my step grandsons
cannot read and the youngest who is seven doesn't even know all of the
sounds of the alphabet.

I'm informed that is within the normal range by a teacher with 50 years
experience.

His 3 year older brother can't read "The
Nautilus" The words are too big for him.

Who wrote that and which Nautilis/Natulis is it about?.

On 10/22/2020 6:39 AM, news18 wrote:
On Wed, 21 Oct 2020 21:57:28 -0700, Tom Kunich wrote:

I could read and write by the third grade. I assume that was normal.
Pretty much for an average kid.

IME it's a bit slow.

Of the four kids I know most about, only the slowest had any difficulty
at all in reading by third grade. That is, the kid read a bit slowly and
didn't enjoy it much for a few years, but was fully functional.

One kid began reading about age 3, another age 4, the third age 5.

--
- Frank Krygowski

On Thu, 22 Oct 2020 11:20:16 -0400, Frank Krygowski wrote:

On 10/22/2020 6:39 AM, news18 wrote:
On Wed, 21 Oct 2020 21:57:28 -0700, Tom Kunich wrote:

I could read and write by the third grade. I assume that was normal.
Pretty much for an average kid.

IME it's a bit slow.

Of the four kids I know most about, only the slowest had any difficulty
at all in reading by third grade. That is, the kid read a bit slowly and
didn't enjoy it much for a few years, but was fully functional.

One kid began reading about age 3, another age 4, the third age 5.

Congratulations. In my experience, it depends on the parents and whether
the parents value reading and do stuff like reading instead of being
glued to TV and other activities like reading to and with their kids.

On Thu, 22 Oct 2020 09:42:12 -0700, Tom Kunich wrote:

On Thursday, October 22, 2020 at 8:20:21 AM UTC-7, Frank Krygowski
wrote:
On 10/22/2020 6:39 AM, news18 wrote:
On Wed, 21 Oct 2020 21:57:28 -0700, Tom Kunich wrote:

I could read and write by the third grade. I assume that was normal.
Pretty much for an average kid.
IME it's a bit slow.

Of the four kids I know most about, only the slowest had any difficulty
at all in reading by third grade. That is, the kid read a bit slowly
and didn't enjoy it much for a few years, but was fully functional.

One kid began reading about age 3, another age 4, the third age 5.

Inasmuch as children do not have the ability to think cognitively until
the age of 4 to 5 one has to wonder of what use reading would be.

Therein lies your problem. You do not value the skill, so you don't
demonstrate or encourage it. They'll go on to develop cognitive thinking
better if they can read and have 'information' they can think about.

Early reading is just learning fundamentals, but without those
fundamentals, it can be a hard slog to learn skills/abilities based on
them.

On 10/22/2020 5:45 PM, news18 wrote:
On Thu, 22 Oct 2020 11:20:16 -0400, Frank Krygowski wrote:

On 10/22/2020 6:39 AM, news18 wrote:
On Wed, 21 Oct 2020 21:57:28 -0700, Tom Kunich wrote:

I could read and write by the third grade. I assume that was normal.
Pretty much for an average kid.

IME it's a bit slow.

Of the four kids I know most about, only the slowest had any difficulty
at all in reading by third grade. That is, the kid read a bit slowly and
didn't enjoy it much for a few years, but was fully functional.

One kid began reading about age 3, another age 4, the third age 5.

Congratulations. In my experience, it depends on the parents and whether
the parents value reading and do stuff like reading instead of being
glued to TV and other activities like reading to and with their kids.

I agree entirely!

BTW, the earliest of those readers began "reading" to us during a long
car trip. She was in a child seat in back with some little Beatrice
Potter books. They had been read to her so often that she "read" them to
us by memory. She was not yet three.

--
- Frank Krygowski