Steve's Blog

2007-09-10T15:04:00.000-07:00

Floating the Tieton with Jason-- Colberg Whitewater Expeditions

This past week I drove west of Yakima to the Hause Creek Campsite on the Tieton River. This Forest Service campground provides an excellent base for recreational whitewater enthusiasts.

Our older son, Jason, claims that he started rafting on the rivers of Montana with our family, but I must say that he has become a very safety-conscious, professional white-water guide. Further, with the little time he has to go rafting now, he has focused on a fall trip to the Tieton River; in the fall the flow increases as water is released from the reservoir for irrigation. We estimated a pretty steady rate of 6-7 miles per hour. It makes a great trip!

Please see Colberg.com and AmericanWhitewater.org for photos and more descriptions.

2007-07-20T10:32:00.000-07:00

The truth about taxes.
At first I thought this was funny...then I realized the awful
truth of it. Be sure to read all the way to the end!

Tax his land, Tax his bed,
Tax the table at which he's fed.

Tax his tractor, Tax his mule,
Teach him taxes are the rule.

Tax his cow, Tax his goat,
Tax his pants, Tax his coat.

Tax his ties, Tax his shirt,
Tax his work, Tax his dirt.

Tax his tobacco, Tax his drink, Tax him if he tries to think.

Tax his cigars, Tax his beers,
If he cries, then tax his tears.

Tax his car, Tax his gas, Find other ways to tax his ass

Tax all he has then let him know That you won't
be done Till he has no dough.

When he screams and hollers,
Then tax him some more,
Tax him till he's good and sore.

Then tax his coffin, Tax his grave, Tax the sod in which he's laid.

Put these words upon his tomb,
" Taxes drove me to my doom..."

When he's gone, do not relax,
Its time to apply the inheritance tax.

Accounts Receivable Tax
Building Permit Tax
CDL license Tax
Cigarette Tax
Corporate Income Tax
Dog License Tax
Excise Taxes
Federal Income Tax
Federal Unemployment Tax (FUTA)
Fishing License Tax
Food License Tax
Fuel Permit Tax
Gasoline Tax (42 cents per gallon) Gross Receipts Tax Hunting
License Tax Inheritance Tax Inventory Tax IRS Interest Charges
IRS Penalties (tax on top of tax)
Liquor Tax
Luxury Taxes
Marriage License Tax
Medicare Tax
Personal Property Tax
Property Tax
Real Estate Tax
Service Charge Tax
Social Security Tax
Road Usage Tax
Sales Tax
Recreational Vehicle Tax
School Tax
State Income Tax
State Unemployment Tax (SUTA)
Telephone Federal Excise Tax
Telephone Federal Universal Service Fee Tax Telephone Federal,
State and Local Surcharge Taxes Telephone Minimum Usage
Surcharge Tax Telephone Recurring and Non-recurring Charges Tax
Telephone State and Local Tax Telephone Usage Charge Tax Utility
Taxes Vehicle License Registration Tax Vehicle Sales Tax
Watercraft Registration Tax
Well Permit Tax
Workers Compensation Tax

STILL THINK THIS IS FUNNY?
Not one of these taxes existed 100 years ago, and our nation was the most prosperous in the world.
We had absolutely no national debt, had the largest middle class in the world, and Mom stayed home to raise the kids.

What happened? Can you spell "politicians!"

And I still have to "press 1" for English.
===========================
This article is forwarded by my friend, Dan J. in Helena. He says, "I hope this goes around the USA at least 100 times. See what you’re getting into…before you go there."

2007-07-16T21:27:00.000-07:00

This pastor's got guts!!
(from a chain letter originated by Len and Sue Shebosky)

Thought you might enjoy this interesting prayer given in Kansas at the opening session of their Senate.

It seems prayer still upsets some people. Please read.....

When Minister Joe Wright was asked to open the new session of the Kansas Senate, everyone was expecting the usual generalities, but this is what they heard;

*************************
"Heavenly Father,
We come before you today
To ask your forgiveness and
To seek your direction and guidance.

We know Your Word says,
"Woe to those who call evil good"
But that is exactly what we have done.

We have lost our spiritual equilibrium
And reversed our values.

We have exploited the poor and
Called it the lottery.

We have rewarded laziness
And called it welfare.

We have killed our unborn and called it choice.

We have shot abortionists
And called it justifiable.

We have neglected to discipline
Our children and called it
Building self esteem.

We have abused power
And called it politics.

We have coveted our neighbor's
Possessions and called it ambition.

We have polluted the air
With profanity and
Pornography and called it
Freedom of speech and expression.

We have ridiculed the time
Honored values of our
Forefathers and called it enlightenment.

Search us, Oh, God,
And know our hearts today;
Cleanse us from every sin
And set us free.
Amen!"

The response was immediate. A number of legislators walked Out during the prayer in protest.

In 6 short weeks, Central Christian Church, where Rev. Wright is pastor, logged more than 5,000 phone calls with only 47 of those calls responding negatively. The church is now receiving international requests for copies of this prayer from India, Africa and

Korea

.

Commentator Paul Harvey aired this prayer on his radio Program, "The Rest of the Story," and received a larger response to this program than any other he has ever aired.

With the Lord's help, may this prayer sweep over our Nation's and wholeheartedly become our desire so that we again can be called "one nation under God."

If possible, please pass this prayer on to your friends. If you don't stand for something, you will fall for anything.

2007-04-20T10:12:00.000-07:00

VOIP -- An update

My initial access to unlimited long-distance phone service was thru Vonage via a cable connection with Comcast. It has worked very well. When the service was up an running and when my phone number had been rolled over from Qwest I cancelled our Qwest service completely and disconnected their wires from our house at the little grey box on the outside wall.

When we moved to another home in the same city, Seattle, I made sure that Comcast scheduled a high-speed cable connection before our move date. Then moving our phones and phone number to the new house was very, very simple. Unplug the Vonage modem from the network in our old house and plug it in at the new house. Voila! We had phone service with our old number at the new house.

I tried Lingo voip briefly but found that their SIP protocol did not work well with the router on my home network. Their incoming signal could not get thru unless I established a DMZ to get the Lingo box outside our router's firewall.

Now I am in the process of moving to Sun Rocket features at a lower price and it has a couple of additional benefits. First, the price is only $199/year; that includes all of the US and Canada like voip. Sun Rocket provides most of the Vonage features, but it also has an international allowance of $3/month at their discounted international rates. That can be up to 100 minutes each month to call anywhere.

Then Sun Rocket has "Anywhere Numbers" that can make up some of the six numbers ringing on your home phone. Added numbers are an additional $3/month. I am using one to replace a land-line phone in Montana that we have used for over 30 years. Our Montana phone number will ring on our Sun Rocket phone--wherever it is--and we can disconnect Qwest and their high monthly charges once more.

So, add it all up:

Go from $24.95/month (plus taxes and fees) on Vonage to $199/year (taxes and fees are included) on Sun Rocket.
Go from $35/month for a land line on Qwest in Montana to $3/month on Sun Rocket.
Call my sister in China at $.03/minute using $3/month allowance = 100 minutes FREE.
Special sign-up bonus for me of 15 months for the price of one year.
Special sign-up bonus for the friend who referred me of $25.

Just compare these benefits of Sun Rocket against the advertisements for alternative VOIP that fill your mail, newspapers and TV.

2007-01-27T12:30:00.000-08:00

Prevent ID and Credit Theft
[ATTORNEY'S ADVICE]

A corporate attorney sent the following out to the employees in his company.

The next time you order checks have only your initials (instead of first name) and last name put on them. If someone takes your checkbook, they will not know if you sign your checks with just your initials or your first name, but your bank will know how you sign your checks.
Do not sign the back of your credit cards. Instead, put "PHOTO ID REQUIRED."
When you are writing checks to pay on your credit card accounts, DO NOT put the complete account number on the "For" line. Instead, just put the last four numbers. The credit card company knows the rest of the number, and anyone who might be handling your check as it passes through all the check-processing channels will not have access to it.
Put your work phone # on your checks instead of your home phone. If you have a PO Box, use that instead of your home address. If you do not have a PO Box, use your work address. Never have your SS# printed on your checks, (DUE!). You can add it if it is necessary. However, if you have it printed, anyone can get it.
Place the contents of your wallet on a photocopy machine. Do both sides of each license, credit card, etc. You will know what you had in your wallet and all of the account numbers and phone numbers to call and cancel. Keep the photocopy in a safe place. Also carry a photocopy of your passport when traveling either here or abroad. We have all heard horror stories about fraud that is committed on us in stealing a name, address, Social Security number r, credit cards.
When you check out of a hotel that uses cards for keys (and they all seem to do that now), do not turn the "keys" in. Take them with you and destroy them. Those little cards have on them all of the information you gave the hotel, including address and credit card numbers and expiration dates. Someone with a card reader, or employee of the hotel, can access all that information with no problem whatsoever.

Unfortunately, as an attorney, I have first hand knowledge because my wallet was stolen last month. Within a week, the thieves ordered an expensive monthly cell phone package, applied for a VISA credit card, had a credit line approved to buy a Gateway computer and received a PIN number from D.V. to change my driving record information online.

Here is some critical information to limit the damage in case this happens to you or someone you know:

We have been told we should cancel our credit cards immediately. The key is having the toll free numbers and your card numbers handy so you know whom to call. Keep those where you can find them.
File a police report immediately in the jurisdiction where your credit cards, etc., were stolen. This proves to credit providers you were diligent, and this is a first step toward an investigation (if there ever is one). However, here is what is perhaps most important of all (I never even thought to do this.)
Call the three national credit reporting organizations immediately to place a fraud alert on your name and Social Security number. I had never heard of doing that until advised by a bank that called to tell me an application for credit was made over the Internet in my name. The alert means any company that checks your credit knows your information was stolen, and they have to contact you by phone to authorize new credit.

By the time I was advised to do this, almost two weeks after the theft, all the damage had been done. There are records of all the credit checks initiated by the thieves' purchases, none of which I knew about before placing the alert. Since then, no additional damage has been done, and the thieves threw my wallet away this weekend (someone turned it in). It seems to have stopped them dead in their tracks. Now, here are the numbers you always need to contact about your wallet and contents being stolen:

Equifax: 1-800-525-6285
Experian (formerly TRW): 1-888-397-3742
TransUnion: 1-800-680-7289
Social Security Administration (fraud line): 1-800-269-0271

===================
Thanks to Jim Sewell and Sharon Valance of Helena, MT for forwarding these tips.

2006-02-21T18:09:00.000-08:00

Drug Prices at COSTCO

Marlene J. Ruston
Senior Benefits Program Specialist - Retirement
WMATA
600 Fifth Street, NW
Washington, DC 20001
mruston@wmata.com
(202) 962-2843 (work)
(202) 962-2293 (fax)

Marlene J. Ruston 12/21/05 8:39 AM
Please read in its entirety. The e-mail is lengthy but informative.

COSTCO! read this... Let's hear it for Costco!! (This is just mind-boggling!) Make sure you read all the way past the list of the drugs.

The woman that signed below is a Budget Analyst out of federal Washington, DC offices. Did you ever wonder how much it costs a drug company for the active ingredient in prescription medications? Some people think it must cost a lot, since many drugs sell for more than $2.00 per tablet. We did a search of offshore chemical synthesizers that supply the active ingredients found in drugs approved by the FDA. As we have revealed in past issues of Life Extension, a significant percentage of drugs sold in the United States contain active ingredients made in other countries. In our independent investigation of how much profit drug companies really make, we obtained the actual price of active ingredients used in some of themost popular drugs sold in America. The data below speaks for itself.

	Consumer price	Cost of general active ingredients	Percent markup
Celebrex: 100 mg (100 tablets)	$130.27	$0.60	21,712%
Claritin: 10 mg (100 tablets)	$215.17	$0.71	30,306%
Keflex: 250 mg (100 tablets)	$157.39	$1.88	8,372%
Lipitor: 20 mg (100 tablets)	$272.37	$5.80	4,696%
Norvasc: 10 mg (100 tablets)	$188.29	$0.14	134,493%
Paxil: 20 mg (100 tablets)	$220.27	$7.60	2,898%
Prevacid: 30 mg (100 tablets)	$44.77	$1.01	4,433%
Prilosec: 20 mg (100 tablets)	$360.97	$0.52	69,417%
Prozac: 20 mg (100 tablets)	$247.47	$0.11	224,973%
Tenormin: 50 mg (100 tablets)	$104.47	$0.13	80,362%
Vasotec: 10 mg (100 tablets)	$102.37	$0.20	51,185%
Xanax: 1 mg (100 tablets)	$136.79	$0.024	569,958%
Zestril: 20 mg (100 tablets)	$89.89	$3.20	2,809%
Zithromax: 600 mg (100 tablets)	$1,482.19	$18.78	7,892%
Zocor: 40 mg (100 tablets)	$350.27	$8.63	4,059%
Zoloft: 50 mg	$206.87	$1.75	11,821%

Since the cost of prescription drugs is so outrageous, I thought everyone should know about this. Please read the following and pass it on. It pays to shop around. This helps to solve the mystery as to why they can afford to put a Walgreen's on every corner. On Monday night, Steve Wilson, an investigative reporter for Channel 7 News in Detroit, did a story on generic drug price gouging by pharmacies. He found in his investigation, that some of these generic drugs were marked up as much as 3,000% or more. Yes, that's not a typo... three thousand percent! So often, we blame the drug companies for the high cost of drugs, and usually rightfully so. But in this case, the fault clearly lies with the pharmacies themselves. For example, if you had to buy a prescription! on drug, and bought the name brand, you might pay $100 for 100 pills.& nbsp; The pharmacist might tell you that if you get the generic equivalent, they would only cost $80, making you think you are "saving" $20. What the pharmacist is not telling you is that those 100 generic pills may have only cost him $10!

At the end of the report, one of the anchors asked Mr. Wilson whether or not there were any pharmacies that did not adhere to this practice, and he said that Costco consistently charged little over their cost for the generic drugs.

I went to the Costco site, where you can look up any drug, and get its online price. It says that the in-store prices are consistent with the online prices. I was appalled. Just to give you one example from my own experience, I had to use the drug, Compazine, which helps prevent nausea in chemo patients.

I used the generic equivalent, which cost $54.99 for 60 pills at CVS. I checked the price at Costco, and I could have bought 100 pills for $19.89. For 145 of my pain pills, I paid $72.57. I could have got 150 at Costco for $28.08.

I would like to mention, that although Costco is a "membership" type store, you do NOT have to be a member to buy prescriptions there,as it is a federally regulated substance. You just tell them at the door that you wish to use the pharmacy, and they will let you in. (this is true)

I went there this past Thursday and asked them. I am asking each of you to please help me by copying this letter, and passing it into your own e-mail, and send it to everyone you know with an e-mail address.
---

P.S. from Steve: I received this email from a friend along the high-line in northern Montana, Dorothy R. Other than correcting one of the percentages it comes to you exactly as I received it. Please add comments if you either confirm or question this information.

2006-02-01T21:06:00.000-08:00

La Galleria -- Fine Italian Cuisine

We bought a restaurant in Edmonds today. Our younger son, Josh, is coming back from Montana to run it. It has been operating as an Italian restaurant for 19 years under a variety of names and owners; two recent names were Ciao Italia Ristorante and Ciao Stella Mia. Josh will be the owner/manager with the new name La Galleria.

In case you are in search of great Italian food and a selection of fine wines, check it out. Edmonds is on the Amtrak line just north of Seattle and it has the terminal for the Kingston ferry. La Galleria is located at 546 5th Ave S, Edmonds, Washington. It turns out that 5th Ave S is the same as highway 104, so driving north from Seattle on I-5 then exit 177 north-west from I-5 towards Edmonds/Kingston ferry (Do Not take the ferry turnoff) takes you right on to 5th Ave S. It is only a few blocks from the ferry terminal or the train station. Map

2006-01-11T22:30:00.000-08:00

Retired but very much alive!

There is a saying, "Grow or Die." Well, I have been working on the internet, managing web servers and developing web sites for the past several years. It has been satisfying and I have been able to help out some businesses, individuals and organizations; however, there is so much more that I am interested in and a disciplined approach is appropriate.

So...it is back to school for awhile. Straight west of our Washington home in the Maple Leaf community within Seattle, less than a mile as the crow flies, is the North Seattle Community College. They have a special program that I call "the old guy program" designed for people in my age bracket to continue their education at a reduced tuition. We have to wait for a week after normal students complete their enrollment to make sure there will be space. Do you know of any advanced computer/IT classes that are bulging at the seams? So waiting was no problem.

Of the four IT faculty members only two are teaching this quarter; one fellow took a high-paying industry job and another is off enjoying the benefits of a fellowship elsewhere. The result is that the most reasonable course of study is UNIX networking or UNIX networking or UNIX networking in a LINUX environment. Well that is what I chose. My particular course is IT 140 -- UNIX Scripts for Network Administrators covering primarily Bash and Perl scripting for Linux.

---------------------
Our old Honeywell mainframe for the Office of Public Instruction used a version of UNIX called Level 6. They called it a minicomputer, but it had enough computing power to keep track of the state's public schools--students, teachers, transportation, federal grants and all the other financial issues. Public schools are the largest single item in the state budget and we passed out all that money very efficiently. We had COBOL, FORTRAN, a great database language and a great script editor. To begin with in the 1970's this was a room-sized computer but we upgraded to rack-mounted hardware with hard drives that were only the size of washing machines; the disks were removable too. Well, I was only a user on this system so I had no cause to study the system administration for it.

Now with free versions of LINUX readily available and with LINUX providing most of the horse power to drive the INTERNET, it is time to pick up some of those system skills...Stay tuned.

2005-11-09T13:42:00.000-08:00

VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol)

Anyone wanting unlimited phone access should check out VOIP. You may be able to cap your total local and long distance phone bill at under $20/month. The features that phone companies like to add for an extra cost all come free as a part of the service...voice mail, caller id, 3-way calling, call forwarding etc...free!

The main requirement is broadband internet, either DSL or cable, and a location in a covered area.

My first experience was with Vonage starting a couple years ago. We have cable broadband, so when the Vonage modem came I was eager to get our entire phone service switched over. All phone companies are required to give up your phone number so you can roll it over to a new service provider. For us, that was taking an existing number with Qwest in Seattle and rolling it over to Vonage. Vonage was the "receiving" company in this transfer so they were responsible for the number transfer process as follows: You give them authorization, they obtain the number from Qwest and notify you when the transfer will occur.

When we received our notification

I called Qwest to discontinue our land-line, copper-wire service
I went to the phone box on the outside of our house and physically disconnected our internal house wiring from the Qwest overhead telephone wires
When I connected the Vonage modem to one of the phone jacks inside our house, all of our phones became active on the new VOIP service with our old phone number.

Now here is a real gee-whiz feature. When we moved to a new house across town I had the cable broadband connected right away. Then instead of calling the phone company to have our number moved I simply unplugged my broadband, ethernet network and the Vonage modem in the old house and reconnected them in our new house. Voila!!! Our phone service with our normal phone number was up and running. Oh yes, I also disconnected Qwest in their phone box on the outside of the new house.

Alternates. The Vonage modem can easily plug into one of the ports on my ethernet router. I have also tried VOIP service from LINGO. Lingo is slightly less expensive, it is available in more states, and it provides more extensive free long distance coverage than Vonage, however, it did not work for me. The quality was lower and there were more disruptions where I would lose service. Specifically, the Lingo modem must be outside my network firewall in order to work; this requires setting up a fixed network IP address for the modem in the DMZ (outside the firewall). When a power failure, reset or any other event occurs, this delicate balance fails and Lingo goes offline. Lingo technical support was accessible, but who wants to be calling for tech support, and how do you do it when your phone system is off-line?

My friend, Ken, uses VOIP from SunRocket (http://www.sunrocket.com/) and he has been very satisfied. Their modem, called a "gizmo", is easy to set up, the service is only $199/year, it includes two free phones and some international calling in addition to the usual free calling in the US and Canada. What a deal!

Of course the phone and cable giants ATT, Qwest, ComCast, Bresnan etc have their johnny-come-lately, me-too, more expensive offerings for the uninformed customer and those with inflated brand loyalty.

2005-06-26T15:26:00.000-07:00

Snookered about Mars!

Did you get an email about Mars lately? Did it read something like this?

The Red Planet is about to be spectacular! This month and next, Earth is catching up with Mars in an encounter that will culminate in the closest approach between the two planets in recorded history. The next time Mars may come this close is in 2287. Due to the way Jupiter's gravity tugs on Mars and perturbs its orbit, astronomers can only be certain that Mars has not come this close to Earth in the last 5,000 years, but it may be as long as 60,000 years before it happens again. The encounter will culminate on August 27th when Mars comes to within 34,649,589 miles of Earth and will be (next to the moon) the brightest object in the night sky. It will attain a magnitude of -2.9 and will appear 25.11 arc seconds wide. At a modest 75-power magnification Mars will look as large as the full moon to the naked eye. Mars will be easy to spot. At the beginning of August it will rise in the east at 10p.m. and reach its azimuth at about 3 a.m. By the end of August when the two planets are closest, Mars will rise at nightfall and reach its highest point in the sky at 12:30a.m. That's pretty convenient to see something that no human being has seen in recorded history. So, mark your calendar at the beginning of August to see Mars grow progressively brighter and brighter throughout the month. Share this with your children and grandchildren.
NO ONE ALIVE TODAY WILL EVER SEE THIS AGAIN.

Well at least that last line is absolutely true. That is because this event happened back in August 2003!
Thanks for the tip from Alex Kahl's Virus and Hoax Alert.

==============================
Compare this to my previous blog. As with politics, religion, relationships and health care there are sometimes multiple plausible versions of reality. ...Steve

2005-06-21T11:04:00.000-07:00

Earth is catching up with Mars -- Once in a lifetime event

MARS SPECTACULAR! The Red Planet is about to be spectacular! This month and next, Earth is catching up with Mars in an encounter that will culminate in the closest approach between the two planets in recorded history. The next time Mars may come this close is in 2287. Due to the way Jupiter's gravity tugs on Mars and perturbs its orbit, astronomers can only be certain that Mars has not come this close to Earth in the Last 5,000 years, but it may be as long as 60,000 years before it happens again.

The encounter will culminate on August 27th when Mars comes to within 34,649 589 miles of Earth and will be (next to the moon) the brightest object in the night sky. It will attain a magnitude of -2.9 and will appear 25.11 arc seconds wide. At a modest 75-power magnification

Mars will look as large as the full moon to the naked eye. Mars will be easy to spot. At the beginning of August it will rise in the east at 10p.m. and reach its azimuth at about 3 a.m.

By the end of August when the two planets are closest, Mars will rise at nightfall and reach its highest point in the sky at 12:30a.m. That's pretty convenient to see something that no human being has seen in recorded history. So, mark your calendar at the beginning of August to see Mars grow progressively brighter and brighter throughout the month.

Share this with your children and grandchildren. NO ONE ALIVE TODAY WILL EVER SEE THIS AGAIN

-------------------------
Courtesy of Lanny Rounds and Gary & Cecilia Helming

2005-06-19T15:44:00.000-07:00

Father's Day 2005 has been great

My older son called yesterday to see whether I would be available for a little outing. It turns out that when he was growing up his mother would take our two boys to a place called Moose Creek Campground about 10 miles west of town. She would have a blanket and a book while the boys were free to investigate, catch frogs, play in the small stream and generally enjoy the outdoors in Montana. Now our son, the FATHER of two boys himself, is looking for places where his own sons can roam.

He picked me up at 8am this morning so we could go to early worship service (father's day is on a Sunday this year!) and we headed out to investigate some places up towards the mountains East of Seattle.

It may take some more investigations but in the mean time it is very heart-warming to have a loving son who takes both his father and son responsibilities seriously.

Catching frogs paid off. His major endeavor these days is organizing National Science Decathlon so other youngsters can also have fun with science. The first ever national competition was earlier this year and organizational/fund raising efforts are gaining momentum.