Cannot Believe Medicare Covers This!!

Last night while I was trying to get tired enough to fall asleep I decided to watch the very exciting sport of Curling.  Now, don't ask me how you play, but it seems to be like shuffleboard but on ice.  Anyway, this commercial comes on for this product, and I just about died laughing.  The product is called Pos T Vac.  It is a vacuum to help men with their erections.  Now, I have heard of this type of product before but this is the funny part.  It is covered by medicare!!!  I was thinking well you can certainly tell the government is run by men if a sexual aide for men is covered by medicare.  But, I'll bet vibrators and other aides geared towards women are not covered.  Just goes to show you how the government is wasting taxpayer dollars.  I just afraid to find out what new things will be covered once the new health insurance plan gets passed.  I do know there are somethings I would like them to cover but, a sexual aide??  Use your right hand, or left if you are left handed.  But jeez, don't ask the government to help you get yourself off.  I had to check out the website just to see and sure enough, it is covered.  Now, I was completely shocked at the price of this contraption, $550!!   Are you kidding me??  Heck I'll bet you can find something like it in an adult bookstore for less than $50.  Do you really need to bilk the taxpayers for your sex toy??  Come one give me a break!!  Well, I'm not going to talk about this anymore today, but who knows what topic will be raising its head tomorrow!!  Sorry, just couldn't help myself.

Luv Ya,

Nikki

New Venture Guitar Sales

After talking to a friend tonight I might have figured out a new venture for myself and also a way to help my brother with his business.  My brother builds custom guitars and most of his business is via word of mouth.  Now, I have found out there is a way to create a Facebook page for businesses.  I didn't know you could do this, I only thought yo could make fan pages.  And this I knew wouldn't really work to get business in so I never pursued getting a page on Facebook.   So, I am going to discuss this with my brother and see if it something he would be interested in setting up.  Now since he is not computer savvy, I know I will be the one that does this.  I have also been thinking about doing special sales on guitars he already has built as it will cut down on the stock of guitars he has built up.  I don't know if he will go for it all but I am going to try and get him to at least try it.  If it even brings in a few extra sales a year to me it is at least worth it.  Plus, getting the name out there where more eyes can see the guitars is not a bad thing in my opinion.  He really does make an outstanding guitar, and I am not just saying that because he is my brother.  This is all still in the planning stages until I get the OK from him.  Still trying to decide on the layout and what info I should add to the page.  Should there be a click through to the website or should all orders go through Facebook.  Pictures, prices, options to be added, all this need to be worked out before the page goes live.  Decisions, decisions.

Luv Ya,

Nikki

Sleep, Who Needs It??

Sleep, it something that is essential to life yet some of us, like me have a difficult time getting to sleep.  I have been dealing with insomnia for almost my entire life.  Now, I know I can function perfectly well on 5 hours of sleep a night.  However, I have found that six and a half to seven hours of sleep is the best for me.  I am refreshed and have enough energy to be able to make it through the day without feeling tired.  I have also found that if I do get less or more than that I seem to drag most of the day.  I can still function but I don't feel completely awake.  Granted, for me to get more than seven hours is a very rare occurrence, it does occasionally happen.  Getting that much sleep is really bad as it will make it extremely difficult for me to fall asleep the next night and sometimes the night after that.  I try and get my body into a rhythm so that I sleep about the same times everyday.  However, weekends are a bit different as I don't have anywhere I need to be at a specific time, and as such do not set an alarm.  Now, I am beginning to think I may need to start doing this on those days I don't need to be somewhere as it may make it easier on the days I do.  However, I do tend to stay awake longer on those nights and will still get six or seven hours of sleep, so my body clock is then thrown off time.  I am planning on putting this to work this weekend to see if it helps me later in the week.  I will also be researching some books on meditation to see if I can learn something from that.  Well, here's hoping the sandman will visit me soon.

Luv Ya,

Nikki

Internet Mechanic

OK, so for the past 2 days I have been attempting to help someone diagnose a problem on their vehicle via the internet, Evony to be exact.  Now he has sent me pictures of the areas under the hood I had asked for, told me what it is doing, what it is not doing, etc.  The problem is that he says he is not getting heat inside the car.  The engine is fine and warms up but no heat to the heater core.  The hoses are hot by the water pump and thermostat, but are cold at the core.  Now, he it automatically thinking the core is blocked, hence no coolant flow through the core.  So, I ask, is the inline heater valve working, no valve he tells me.  Hmm, no valve.  Could you take some pictures of the heater hoses and send them to me?  Sure!  So I get the pictures and no valve.  OK.  Try taking off the hose from the water pump and hook it up to your hose and try and run water through the core, but at the same time have the hose off the thermostat so the water doesn't go into the cooling system.  But before he does this I ask is the radiator full?  He looks and he says yes, but is kinda like jelly.  I said you don't have the right mixture then, and it is freezing.  He says when he bought the antifreeze the guy said it was premixed.  I said, check the bottle.  It is straight antifreeze.   I tell him to fill with at least 1 gallon of water if he can get it into the radiator.  He says it is too full to do this.  OK, take off the hose from the water pump, and let it drain into a container.  OK, this he does and puts the hose back on and he can now get a little over a gallon into the radiator.  Now run the car for about 15 minutes and see if you have heat.  Yes, heat is working!!!  All in all a good feeling for helping someone with a problem.  Now I have always been interested in cars.  My father worked on his own cars and was a mechanic at some point.  So I caught the car bug early, about 6 years old.  I would be under the cars with my Dad, helping (probably getting in his way but he never said anything) when ever I could.  Now my Mom wasn't thrilled about me getting all dirty, but I loved it.  I know how to do my own work, but somethings are beyond what I can do, either because of tools, cannot get under the car, or just don't know how to do it.  Although on the older cars there isn't much I cannot do.  It is the newer cars with all the computerized stuff I have the problems with, as you need computers to read the computer.  Oh well, a rather nice feeling to help someone solve a problem, even though I wasn't there to get dirty.  DARN!

Luv Ya,

Nikki

Wayback Machine

So, I'm just sitting here thinking about how times have changed.  I mean like the differences from when I was a child and kids today.  Started as I was watching TV and someone mentioned how different things were when they were a child.  Now, I grew up in the 60's and 70's.  I know not the greatest times for fashion but still a very interesting time to be a kid.  The United States was in the middle of the Space Race with the USSR, in the war in Vietnam, The collapse of the Cubs in 1969, Psychedelic rock, hippies, free love, Disco, Star Trek, Star Wars, this list goes on and on.  But the biggest difference is the way we were brought up.  Times were freer, less worries, just a safer time in general to be a kid.  Played kick the can, ghost in the graveyard, the normal sports, but didn't have cell phones, iPods, video games, unless you count Pong, no computers, had to handwrite your homework, had chores to do when you got home before you could go out and be with your friends.  And half the time you would just got to your friends house and ask if they wanted to go out.  No calling or texting before, cause, you couldn't, why, no cell phone.  Well, you could use the landline, which was all you could have.  Cable was really only for those who couldn't get broadcast cause they were too far from the transmitting antenna.  And here in Chicago you had 2,5,7,9,11(till midnight),26, and 32.  Radio was mostly AM with the big stations until about 1974 when some of the new FM stations started.  Cars were much cooler then too, they had style and class, and you could tell the makes and models apart.  None of this cookie cutter stuff that goes on with the car makers today.  And parents could punish you like they cannot today.  Now I am not an advocate of beating a child but I do feel society has gone too far the other way.  Everything is too politically correct, if you were not good enough to play a sport, you found another interest that you were good at.  This way you could find your niche in life and not have delusions that you will be the next great sports hero when you are not good at it.  Yea, it hurts when you cannot do something you want to do but suck it up and find something you are good at and you should still have the fun and joy in that.  Plus, life is full of disappointments and the sooner you learn that the better you will be later in life.  Now, I am not saying to take all disappointments lying down, but learn from the mistakes you have made and better yourself.  I am saying all this because I have the feeling that when today's kids get older they will not be able to handle disappointments in their lives like their parent because a lot, not all have been spoiled by today's society.  They have been coddled and protected from everything that they haven't learned how to develop the thick skin needed to function in the real world.  Who knows, maybe the Mayan's might be right as some of the children that society has chosen to overprotect starts to rule the world you will have wars because someone crossed their eyes at someone else.  I just pray to the Gods that they don't have the button to the nukes.  If anything, it will be man who will destroy the earth with the constant wars, and fighting.  Well, I seem to have gotten a bit of the subject, but not really as it is all relevant to the topic, change.  I know change for the most part is good, but change an also be bad if not done for the right reasons.  Society has a tendency to overdo its protections, and as such strangle progress.  Well, that is the ramble for tonight.

Luv Ya,

Nikki

Feeling Mellow

I have just taken a relaxing bath and am listening to some music on my iPod by Gary Stadler.  I just love this type of music to help me unwind from the day and to help me to fall asleep as I can seem to lose myself in it's gentle soothing melodies.  I also seem to be able to let my mind wander a bit from daily thoughts and into the peaceful wandering of nothing in particular.  I have many cd's that would fit this category on my iPod.  I find it does help me to slow my racing mind and let me drift into a nice state of mind in which I can seem to find answers to problems that just seem to elude me during the quickness of the day.  However, my mind always seemed to work better in the evening and into the night.  Which could explain why I have always had a difficult time sleeping at night.  But get me into daytime hours and sleep usually would come easily.  I guess I really do fit the nickname of Vampire as I do prefer the night hours.  First of all, being as I am fair skinned and always burn in the sun the night was my refuge.  I don't spend much time in the sun, and if I am out during the day, I do like the shaded areas.  Well, the combination of the bath, nice soothing music and the fact that it is 4 am and did wake up early this morning is starting to get me to the point in which sleep is not too far off for me.  So, I will just say goodnight to all, and will talk to you soon.

Luv Ya,

Nikki

Evony

I have gotten myself hooked on a web game named Evony.  It is somewhat like Microsoft's Age Of Empires, but played entirely online.  In it you are the Lord (or Lady) of your own town.  You will grow your town by adding buildings, researching in the academy, plotting resource plots and then building walls and defenses.  You join an alliance to help you stay safe from other players who wish to plunder your town for resources, or to even take over your town.  So, you need to train troops and work with your fellow alliance members to protect each other.  It is very addicting as you wish to protect what has taken time and for some money to build your town(s).  Plus if you are in an active alliance  there is the alliance chat to help you communicate to fellow alliance members.  Diplomacy skills are put to the test in this game as is strategy skills.  This is definitely a game in which teamwork is a plus.  Trying to play this as an individual not in an alliance will not get you far as you will be attacked for your resources and you will have no way to gain resources from other alliance members to help you rebuild your town.  You will start the game with just a Town Hall and 1 town.  From there you can also gain more towns and prestige.  As you gain rank and titles you can then add towns to your empire.  Having more towns helps you protect yourself, and makes you less attractive to attack.  That is until most players have larger an more towns themselves.  This is when having a strong alliance is a must as the higher ranked alliances seem to just by their actions and strength keep their members safe from attack.  I would suggest anyone who is interested in playing this game to go to evony.com and sign up.  If you would like to play on the same server that I play on contact me and I will give you all the info to get where you need to be.

Luv Ya,

Nikki

So, as the last post said, I am a procrastinator.  Well, that also goes with my blog as well I suppose.  However, I feel that unless I really have something to say I really don't wish to waste the bandwidth to just say nothing has changed.  But I do guess I should keep things updated a bit in order to keep interest in my blog.  I don't talk about nonsense normally but if you ask my friends I do talk nonsense a lot.  My mind does tend to wander quite easily, as I can switch subjects easily, and confuse others.  Sometimes it is quite fun for me but others seem to get annoyed at times especially when I do it a lot.  Part of the problem is that my mind does go from subject to subject rather quickly and I just want to get the thoughts out so I don't forget them.  This also does backfire on me quite often too though.  I suffer from insomnia and as such I cannot seem to quiet my mind to sleep easily.  So, I will be trying to keep on one topic for each blog instead of having a blog that wanders from topic to topic.  Plus, I think this could also help others find a specific topic they are interested in.  I do have a wide range if interests that keep my mind busy.  So, there is a good chance I my hit on a topic that would interest you as well.  On a side note, you may find some ads on the blog from Amazon for books, movies and other items I may be talking about.  This as a way for me to let others know what I am talking about if it something they don't know but are interested in it after I have spoken about it.  Plus, it might also be way to open up a dialog about a subject that is new to you.  As I am typing this I am being distracted by a friend's daughter who is busy tickling me.  So, since I have completely lost my train of thought I will close this blog for now.

Luv Ya,
Nikki

Getting Started

Throughout my life, I have been a procrastinator. I know this and have been told many many times by parents, teachers and others in positions of power. I have tried working on it, but, life always seems to throw something at you you were not expecting. And so the best intentions to get things done just seem to pass you by. So, this past week with nothing to do I had all the intentions of cleaning and organizing my place, but, nope, nada, not one bit. Yes, I was also fighting depression too this week as reflection of the past year had set in. Have some issues there I have to deal with too. So all in all it was just a very relaxing, as in I didn't do anything, week. I'm disappointed I didn't get the thing done I wanted to, but, as most of the world procrastinators say, "I'll get to it another day.". And with that I close this blog for today. OK, OK, I'm getting to it!!
Until Later!
Nikki