I woke up this morning thinking about Life Savers. What ever happened to them? You can still find bags of Life Savers, individually wrapped in the candy aisle of the store, but those ain’t no good, REAL Life Savers come in a roll, like the pic, and you keep them up by the cash register, for important impulse buying!

I guess this is a company that has fallen into complacency, or been purchased by a larger company that doesn’t give a rats ass about the good ‘ol days.

As I recall, most common was the Five Flavor pack, with Coconut (Yuck) Lemon and Lime, (OK) Orange (Better than OK) and CHERRY! (The KING of Life Saver Flavors) I remember looking down the hole in the center to see how many I had to go before I got a cherry. If a friend wanted a Life Saver, they couldn’t have the Cherry unless it’s a girl you really really liked.

I also remember that on a rare occasion, you could find a store that had rolls of all one flavor, like your Peppermint and Spearmint, Wintergreen, Butterscotch (yuck) and GRAPE! Nothing is better than that Artificial Grape Flavor!

All my Aunts and my Grandmothers had Life Savers in their purses, and they’d make a roll last a week, instead of crunching up several packs a day like you were supposed to.

I remember the Fruit flavors would melt in your pocket and get sticky but the mint ones were good forever. That white chalky substance was impervious to everything but water. Thats why most of yer fruit flavors were best when stored in an old ladys purse.

So yeah, they’re still around, in those stupid bags, individually wrapped, but the real Life Savers, in the rolls, are not as common as they used to be.

I think everybody’s thought about it, and would like to go back in time, and know everything they know today. I know I sure would! When suddenly things pop into my brain that I re-remember, it makes me wonder how many things I’m NOT remembering. I know there are tons of memories I have that I cannot access, because there’s no reason. Like Life Savers when I was a kid, it was just in my brain when I woke up this morning.

This is my WordPress.com backup to my blog.

Woke up at 3AM from bad dreams, it’s always 3AM. 3AM is the worst hour. It’s the loneliest hour.
I was dreaming that everyone was making fun of me.
“Yeah, you’re fucked up” “You’re the cause of everyones problems”
3AM is good for studying. I used to love it when I got up at 3, turned on my little lamp, and studied. Maybe I should take some more online courses. I kind of have been studying a little, I’ve been studying this audio editing program called Audacity. It’s free and has a lot of good features, in fact, it seems to do everything anyone could need an audio editing program for.One thing that I find shocking is the sound of my own voice. I sound mean. Learning this program means I have been recording my own voice, and hearing my own voice a lot. Peoples voices sound differently when they are played back on a recording than they are coming from inside your own head.
My wife says I sound like a Sergeant. A few people used to call me Sarge where I used to work. I am surprised by how mean and impatient I sound, even when I don’t feel mean or impatient. Another thing that always used to surprise me, is when I would walk past a building with a window, and I’d see a reflection of myself, I’d be very surprised how angry I look. I’d almost jump out of my own skin when I’d unexpectedly see my reflection.

I think I appear totally different on the outside than I feel on the inside.

Last night we were having trouble with the internet. I called the help desk, proceeded in dialing my way through their automated phone system, got put on hold, then disconnected after being on hold for 5 minutes. This seems to happen every time I call. Now I have to call back, I’m pissed. I don’t even want to deal with those people. So my wife calls, 30 seconds later she’s talking sweetly to the tech on the phone, and they promise to have it fixed in 12 hours. We were discussing it afterwards, and she was telling me I can’t be pissed off on the phone. I wasn’t pissed before they disconnected me. It’s hard for me to not get irritated. I’ve mentioned it many times on this blog. But part of the problem is that I sound angry when I’m not, then the second party gets aggravated, and I think, “What’s your problem? I haven’t done anything to upset you!”

Anyway, this is it for this post. It’s 6 AM now, blogger went down in the middle of me trying to post my post and I just found it was back up. Maybe I should call them and give them a piece of my mind?

I love this video so much, I can’t stop thinking about it and I keep having to watch it again.

Poor poor doggie!

Freedom of the press, freedom of speech. Two basic American rights. The lack of which compelled the founders to form the country.

What if the USA made it illegal to read or listen? For example, you can print your newspaper, but it is illegal for anyone to read it. Or you can say anything you want, but everyone caught listening will be arrested. What if a government tried to deny its citizens freedom TO the press? Or, on the other side of the coin, what if the government tries to control the information you have access to: if you don’t want to read THIS newspaper, you can’t buy a different one. If you don’t like what you hear, you can’t listen to something else. If you don’t like any of the programs on TV, you can’t go rent a movie or watch something on the internet?

To me, it seems possible that this is what the US Government is aiming for.

A lot of people here watched the World Cup on a website, www.atdhe.net. The cable TV showed some of the World Cup Games, but a lot of games were played at the same time. Cable TV here didn’t have the capability to show them all, even if they wanted to. ATDHE showed them all. Live. At the same time. Here in this multinational society, there were people watching every game.

Then American football season started. ATDHE showed every game. TV here showed two, or maybe only one game at a time. I watched the game I wanted to watch on ATDHE. But I could tell trouble was coming. The games started getting cut off before they were over. Then there would be a message the stream was stopped because of copyright violations.

In February, 10 sites were shut down by US Homeland Security. Read the article HERE. What does streaming sports on the internet have to do with homeland security? Nothing! I think someone, probably the NFL, “persuaded” homeland security to close the sites. Like the movie industry years ago apparently “persuaded” the FBI to spend their resources tracking down people who copy DVD’s.

The NFL broadcasts I was watching weren’t pirated, the game was live, there was Norwegian or Finnish or Icelandic or some language I didn’t even recognize during the breaks. There were foreign commercials, and foreign commentary. If the NFL doesn’t want anyone streaming the football game, why don’t they go to the guy with the camera there at the stadium and tell him to stop? It’s all crap. The NFL doesn’t want me to watch the foreign streaming video, but they authorized the stream. The foreign broadcaster (apparently) has permission to broadcast the stream, but somehow it becomes a copyright violation simply because I choose to watch?

Apparently nobody got arrested, the websites just got different URLs. Nobody apparently was doing anything illegal, except the Department of Homeland Securitys’ seizing of peoples websites. ATDHE is HERE now. In the article, it says another site was already up on a different site by the time the article was printed.

Very recently, Department of Homeland Security asked Mozilla (the makers of Firefox web browser) to remove an app that allows users to bypass the websites the Department of Homeland Security has illegally seized, read that article HERE. Mozilla said no, Hurray! Imagine that: the Department of Homeland Security asking Mozilla to assist them in their illegal activity! It’s getting complicated! And you can bet that Homeland Security will pressure Mozilla to comply.

I think the USA is heading down a terrible path to corruption. A long time ago, the movie industry influenced the FBI to spend it’s resources on copied CDs and DVDs. And now it seems that someone, probably the NFL or some US sports industry, has influenced the department of homeland security.

I have to say that I agree that the intellectual property issue is a valid concern, but it is not a job for the FBI or the Department of Homeland Security.

Since 9-11, The US Government has the illusion that it has the power to do whatever it wants whenever it wants to whoever it wants. As long as the US citizens allow the government to do this, the illusion is reality. Now it seems the US Government is angling for a way to control the media its citizens have access to. US law enforcement agencies are being swayed by big corporations, (if that’s what you call the Movie Industry and the Sports Industries).

It starts small, by testing control of the sports, but this is the beginning of an ever tightening grip on what information sources we have access to.

This is how a pair of shorts came, compressed into a brick, we had to soak them in water to get them to open. They are my new jammies.
A cat my wife is trying to tame. I like to call her Big Titty Kitty. But only when the wife’s not around.
A pollen-y cactus flower. click to enlarge
Creme Brulee after dinner at the Ritz on our anniversary.
Hope you had a good weekend and have a Wonderful Week!