Me

Computer Issue

There hasn’t been a post today because my computer decided (without my permission and over my objections) to upgrade itself to Windows 11. It’s been a bitch. The “upgrade” changed all sorts of stuff. My browser now says it’s being managed by my organization and I need to contact an administrator to change anything. My search engine is now Yahoo as a default, and many things have changed, right down to my bookmarks being reset to a version from 6 months ago.

It’s going to take a bit to fix all of this.

By Divemedic, ago

Cord Cutting

One of the things I am doing is changing the way that we handle Internet and Television. That system is a ripoff thanks to what they call “bundling.” My last bill was $230 for CATV and Internet. We don’t get any premium channels. I am trying to figure out what I am getting for all of this, but I have seen Greek instruction manuals that are less confusing than our cable bill:

  • They charge me $102 for Internet service that is nominally at 800MBps. When I check it, the best I get is around 50-70 MBps. My in-laws live 2 miles away and are getting 250 MBps, according to speedtest. So I decide that I am not paying for speed that I’m not getting and look to see what a lower speed would save me. Lowering my speed to 400 would actually RAISE my bill by $22 a month. Going to 200 would raise my bill by $34 a month. Yeah, I know that they have a disclaimer that says speed can vary, but only getting 10% of what they are advertising seems to be a stretch.
  • Now on to television. My wife watches far more of it than I do, but I do occasionally watch. Mostly movies, hockey, and old television shows. My wife loves watching shows like medical dramas. I can’t stand those, but we gotta keep the wife happy. They charge us $91 for 185 channels. Cutting it to the 125 channel option would save us a whopping 94 cents per month. If I go to only 10 channels, it would save me $40, but I can get those same 10 channels with an antenna for free.

They bundle them together, and the bill claims that with discounts, I am being charged $130 a month. Seems reasonable, so how do they arrive at my $230 biil?

  • Add-ons. They charge us $30 for three cable boxes, another $10 for DVR service, $6 for the remote controls so we can use their cable boxes, and $38 a month in service, sports, and local channel fees, Then add in the taxes, and the total bill is a quarter grand. $3k a year for cable and Internet. Believe it or not, this is the best of the providers in our area. We tried DSL. That service has even slower Internet. T-mobile has a home Internet that works over 5g cell towers, but there is a 200gb per month data limit. That isn’t going to work if we stream. They are raping us because there are really no other options.

So I called them. We are getting rid of cable TV and cutting the Internet speed to 400mB/s. Why pay for 800 when we never get speeds that high, anyway? If it continues, I may even cut it further. We already have Amazon Prime and Netflix, because they were free with other things that we already have and pay for. So here is the plan:

  • Internet: $87
  • Netflix: Free
  • Amazon Prime: paid for through other means
  • Paramount+ $12/mo
  • Hulu (with ads): $8/month
  • Peacock (with ads): $5/month

So it will cost us $25 for TV and $87 for Internet. Once we see if there will be any hidden charges, especially from the not-so-transparent Internet provider, we can consider upgrading to the “no ads” version of the above services, which will cost us an additional $19 per month. However, we just cut our cable/internet bill from $230 to $112 per month.

By Divemedic, ago

Personal Annoyances

There are some things that commenters say, not just on this board, but on the Internet in general that really make you come off as being less intelligent. As the owner of this site, I am not going to prohibit them, but I do want people to be aware that saying these things makes people want to ignore anything that you have to say. Call them my pet peeves. I will still post comments like this, but I can’t promise that I won’t roll my eyes while clicking the “allow publication” button, nor can I promise that I won’t make fun of you for it:

  • Using “HONK!” in a comment. I get that you are trying to sound smart by calling things “clown world” but it really makes you look like a moron. When I see this, it is a sure indicator that the rest of the post will not make a coherent point and is guaranteed to be annoying. Make your point without it.
  • Writing a comment that so poorly uses the common rules of English grammar that your post is indecipherable. Honestly, I just skip your comment without reading it when I see things with tons of deliberate misspellings and poor grammar. Life is too short to spend several minutes rereading your comment and trying to decipher what you meant to say.
  • Don’t purposely misspell names to sound clever. Obozo, Teabaggers, Trumpf, Bushitler, Magats, all of those are juvenile put-downs that do nothing to forward a real exchange of ideas. It usually is a huge distraction from whatever point you are trying to make.

It reminds me of how people used “word” for everything back in the late 80s. You would say, “I love chocolate ice cream,” and someone would reply with: “Word.” Feel free to roast me for being a grumpy old man in the comments to this post.

By Divemedic, ago

Disappointed: My Rant

My ongoing series about carrying in hospitals has been a bit of a disappointment to me. I am receiving a number of messages, comments, and emails warning me about raising a fuss with an employer about firearms. A couple of points:

Nurses in Florida are in extremely short supply. Good emergency nurses, even more so. To the point where hospitals are paying bonuses of $10,000 a year just to accept a job there, on top of their pay. Considering that nursing is an associate’s degree, a nurse fresh out of school who is starting with no experience is being offered $70,000 a year is pretty good money.

Unarmed security guards in Florida have to take a 40 hour class. They are easily replaced, and there is no hospital that is going to fire a nurse over their disagreement with the opinions of a security guard, barring unusual circumstances.

With that being said, I am not dumb enough to give the guard any of those unusual circumstances. I was polite and that is why it pissed off that guard. It went like this:

Security Guard: That law doesn’t apply here. You can’t carry a gun here because (reasons covered in other post)

DM: Really? I didn’t see that in the statute. Can you point me to that law, or cite the number? I would like to read it for myself.

SG: (produces Facebook page of local cops) See? The cops even say so. Just trust that security and the police know the law better than you do. It’s our job to worry about the law, you guys just need to worry about the medicine. If you see anyone that you think might have a gun, let us know and we will take care of it.

So like I said, Mall Ninja is practicing law by reading Facebook posts. So if THAT is the reason why I get fired, so what? Nursing shortage- I will have another job within a couple of days. Even so, that is why I have the emergency fund that I talked about last month. It’s called “fuck you” money. Don’t let someone use money to control you. You should be working on your financial independence.

To my second point, and the thing that really has me disappointed: If those of us in the freedom/gun community are too afraid to even ask questions of a security guard about gun policies at your place of employment, then how are we ever thinking that we will use those guns to defend your rights? If you won’t even risk pissing off a Mall Cop at your job, how will you ever use those same guns to defend freedom? If so, the entire argument about the Second Amendment is moot. You might as well turn them in for some gift cards. Think about how far you are willing to go in defending your rights.

I would also add that the nurses in the emergency room tend to be on the Conservative end of the spectrum. It’s hard to see what we see and still have a bleeding heart. I have already had in depth conversations about guns with several nurses and Doctors at the new job. Most of them belong to the local gun club, and there are even a couple of III% and Molon Labe stickers on vehicles in the parking lot. A couple of us are looking to setup a range day, and one nurse I was talking to is a precision rifle shooter who builds his own rifles and rolls his own ammo because factory isn’t precise enough. He was telling me about a 1,000 yard range that he makes the drive to. This is the most progun ED that I have ever worked in.

By Divemedic, ago

Specialization is for Insects

In a recent comment, Big Ruckus D said that I am a Renaissance man type. I recognize that I have a broad knowledge base, but that is largely because of a sense of curiosity at how things work, an inability to sit around and be a couch potato, a sense of adventure, and a lot of luck.

I have had a couple of professions, a lot of jobs, and quite a few hobbies that turned into obsessions. Because I have usually had more than one job, there is a lot of overlap. There were times when I had three jobs and worked more than 90 hours a week. During the fall of 2004, there was a stretch there when I was working 144 hours a week. (Considering that there are only 168 hours in a week, that was a busy time.)

The most interesting people that I have ever met were older people who had a lot of stories to tell. That, combined with a love for the Heinlein quote I read as a child about all of the things that a human ought to be able to do, and I have always aspired to learn lots of things. I have made every attempt to make my story an interesting one, and I have done a shitload of stuff over the years.

In the course of doing these things, I have managed to collect half a dozen college degrees in Art, Medicine, Nursing, Fire Science, as well as administration and management. I’m currently working on my Master’s degree. If I decide to get my doctorate, I will likely finish it just before I begin collecting social security, so I don’t think I will try for that. When I earned my last degree (nursing), I was old enough to be the grandfather of my youngest classmate, and older than all but a handful of the instructors. Some of the nurses at the hospitals where I did my internship told me how inspiring it was to see someone “as old as” I was still going to school.

So here are some of the things that I have done:

Professions:

  • I was a Navy sailor for 6 years. They taught me to be an electrician and an electric motor rewinder. I also learned to love fighting fires as a part of the ship’s Nucleus Fire Party.
  • After I got out of the Navy, I tried running my own business, a motor repair shop. It turns out that I didn’t know much about running a business at the time (I was only 24 and had never had a real job). I lost my ass and moved back to Florida after only 2 years, where my first job was as a construction electrician. I did that for about 6 months, but moved on. It was too hot, too hard, and too little pay.
  • I was a civilian automation electrician for about 8 years: PLCs, robotics, motor controls, power transmissions, that sort of thing. I learned a lot for this job: I can rebuild gearboxes, do limited welding, repair conveyors, Jetway bridges, cold rolling steel mills, induction annealers, microwave welders, variable frequency drives, vector drives, inverters, and aircraft ground support equipment, etc. I worked at the Orlando Airport, a stainless steel pipe and tube mill, a factory that makes Skylights, an orange juice bottling plant, a paint factory, and for Disney (where I made robots dance while dressed like chickens).
  • Firefighter/medic: When I got out of the Navy, I was a volunteer, then part time, and then full time as a career. I liked it more than being an electrician, so one slowly pushed out the other to become my main job, but I still had a lot of side jobs (see below). In all, I spend over 20 years putting out fires and taking people to the hospital. I did every job in the department except fire chief: Firefighter, paramedic, HAZMAT, technical rescue, DHS certified safety officer, EMS supervisor, truckie, Company Officer, Instructor, Rescue diver, Public safety diver, wildland firefighter, and I even trained as a SWAT medic for a time. Then I retired from that and:
  • I was a high school science teacher for 7 years.
  • Now I am a Registered Nurse

In the middle of all of that, I had a lot of second jobs:

  • Used car salesman (I sucked at it. Only did it for 4 months. Sold three cars, made $900 in commission. Like I said, I sucked. I couldn’t lie to people and get them to buy something I knew was a bad deal.)
  • Automotive chemicals salesman. (After this one, I realized that I can’t sell shit- no more sales for me)
  • Underwater tour guide (Fun, but the pay was low. I only did it because I got to dive for free)
  • SCUBA instructor (Free diving, free classes, discounts on SCUBA gear)
  • One year, I had a job putting Christmas lights on the outside of tall buildings
  • Critical Care Paramedic
  • Paramedic on an interfacility ambulance
  • Janitor
  • I mucked out horse stalls for the Budweiser Clydesdales for a bit
  • Lifeguard
  • I worked at an aluminum injection molding plant, making Bar B Q pits. That work was mind-numbingly stupid, even worse than being a janitor.
  • Instructor at a Vo-Tech school. At various times, I taught motor controls, phlebotomy, paramedic, and EMT.
  • I was a consultant for various companies. I was getting $200 an hour for my time. I couldn’t get steady work, but for about 6 months, I made some serious cash. There is a story there, and I will tell it on this blog some day.
  • I designed, built, and sold rotary phase converters that allowed people to run three phase motors on single phase power. Made a bit of spare money at that one.
  • When I was a kid, my brother and I helped out on my Uncle’s farm. I will never forget watching him castrate a hog when I was only 9 years old.
  • I once helped out in milking rattlesnakes (for venom).
  • I had an FFL and sold guns for awhile. Never made much money, but had fun and bought some guns wholesale. Had a table at some gun shows in Virginia. Sold guns out of my house, back when you could just run a classified ad in the paper. Bought SKS rifles for $79, sold them for $99. I must have sold dozens of those things.

Hobbies:

  • HAM radio General ticket
  • SCUBA master diver
  • Home automation
  • this blog
  • robotics
  • IDPA Sharpshooter
  • amateur gunsmith
  • I tried being a stand up comic. I was mildly funny, buy couldn’t come up with new material fast enough to do more than a couple of shows. I did a great bit about farting in the space shuttle, but I wasn’t good enough to do more than that.
  • I was a semi-professional racquetball player. Never was good enough to take the next step, plus you can’t win enough to pay the bills and chicks don’t dig it, even if you tell them you are a professional athlete.

Then there were the interesting events:

  • I was twice homeless for a time. (1994, and 1999)
  • I went bankrupt once, about 15 years ago. I lost everything.
  • Then there was the year that I made so much money that I owed the IRS more than $230,000 at the end of the year.
  • I was arrested twice, once for attempted murder, but no charges were ever filed and they eventually let me go (that is a different story, also interesting). That was a long time ago, when I was young and dumb.
  • I spend three nights in a Federal prison as a prisoner. (That’s another story that you may or may not find interesting, and also a long time ago, when I was dumb.)
  • After all of that, no convictions on my record. (again, it was a good story) Haven’t even had a traffic ticket in more than 2 decades.
  • I once testified against my boss in Federal court. He was a real scumbag. He got away with it, and I hope he burns in hell for what he did to those people. That was also a pretty good story, but I can’t tell that one. Gag order.
  • I’ve been married three times. This is the last one. I have grown as a person, and this one is the one that I want to be with. It’s been a decade now, and we are just a great fit.
  • I have travelled to 48 states (all but Wisconsin and Minnesota) and 35 foreign countries on 5 of the 7 continents.

So I have done a lot of stuff. Some of it interesting, and some of it things that I had to do to pay the bills. Some of it was hard, some paid well, others didn’t. When I write it like this, it seems a lot more eventful that it was when I was actually doing it. I was just trying to get through life and have a bit of fun, but it certainly looks busy. I don’t see how people can get to more than 50 years old without a list of things that looks like this.

If you are still young, don’t sit there and be boring. You only get one shot to experience all that life has to offer. Get out there and don’t waste it.

By Divemedic, ago

Job Update

This new hospital is a much different environment from the old one. The first several weeks are spent learning every policy and procedure that the hospital has- and they have policies and procedures for everything from pregnancy testing to inserting foley catheters. They want things done a certain way, and they spend quite a bit of time making sure that you know what that way is. I am busy doing online training while I am at home- they pay you an extra 4 hours a week for doing it. So you work your three 12 hour shifts, do your online training, and get paid for 40 hours.

The ED is about twice the size from the old one, with three times the staff. It’s more organized, better managed, and the employees seem happier. On my first day, they presented me with a welcome card that was signed by dozens of the nurses working there.

It will take me a few months to get fully up to speed, but things are much better than they were at the old hospital.

By Divemedic, ago

When I Was Poor

A man was shot on Rivertree Circle in Orlando. This area is one of the “bad neighborhoods” in Orlando. It isn’t Pine Hills or Paramore bad, but that is mainly due to the fact that the “bad” area isn’t that large. Still, this is the Americana area, which is one of the worst areas for crime in the Orlando area:

  1. Pine Hills
  2. Paramore
  3. Washington Shores
  4. Americana Blvd
  5. Semoran Blvd
  6. Kirkman Road
  7. Metro West

Hearing about that neighborhood brings back memories.

Shortly after I was divorced 25 years ago, I was homeless for a time. Friends letting me shower at their place or sleep on the couch occasionally. The amount of child support I was paying, combined with the fact that the court ordered me to pay all of the credit card debt from when we were married meant being without much money. The child support and credit cards were automatically deducted from my pay, which only left me with $720 per month to live on. I walked everywhere and only ate on the days I was at the firehouse for work. I lost 40 pounds that summer. After two months, the small amount of money I could save enabled me to save $500 for a down payment to get a buy here/pay here car and allowed me to get a second job and live in that car.

Once my income was a bit better, I was able to split a two bedroom apartment with a roommate, and the Americana area was the only one we could afford. My half of the rent and utilities was $300 a month. I just checked- the rent in that area is much higher now. A two bedroom in that area costs about $1500 a month nowadays. For a crime ridden ghetto neighborhood.

The neighborhood was so bad that delivery drivers would refuse to deliver pizza or other meals in there, so you had to go get it as take out. Not even a pizza. One of the few places that used to deliver there was a place called “Steak Out.” They have since gone out of business in Florida, but it wasn’t that the food was bad. They delivered a complete steak dinner, the meals were decent, and the prices were reasonable. It’s just that they routinely got robbed at gun point. I was able to order from them once a month or so. It was a special treat.

I once ordered a meal from there, and just as I was biting into the salad, there was a knock at the door. I opened it to discover the delivery driver standing there, disheveled and beaten. He asked to use the phone, because he said he had just been robbed at gunpoint. I immediately drew a handgun, and his eyes grew wide as saucers, and I asked him what the guy looked like. I never found him. The critter was long gone.

In short, I was broke and had to live in a shitty, crime infested neighborhood. It was the kind of place where you didn’t go outdoors at night, unless you had a death wish. I spent a year living there, and then got out.

That was a rough time in my life, but I didn’t sit around and wait for handouts. I worked at the Fire Department, and on my days off I worked a second job as a janitor at Sea World. I went to school during what free time I had and got my paramedic. That got me a $7,000 a year raise. I also quit my janitor job and got a second job working for an ambulance company, which paid much better than janitorial work. I didn’t have to be poor any longer.

Don’t give up. Hard work and a bit of smarts can get you out of whatever situation you are in.

By Divemedic, ago

Piling On

I was awakened this morning at 5 am by a text message from the charge nurse at my now former job. He wanted to let me know that they were calling me off for my scheduled shift today. I responded that I already knew that, as they had told me last week that I was no longer on the schedule. I respect this nurse and he wasn’t part of the decision to let me go, so no hard feelings.

Then I got another text message from management at 9am that reads:

We removed you from the schedule for the rest of this week. Good luck to you in your new job. Our loss is their gain. Please return your ID badges at your convenience.

I haven’t worked there for 3 weeks. That means I have already received my last paycheck. There is no reason for me to go back there to return my IDs, and it is therefore not convenient to me.

By Divemedic, ago

Amazing

I am still on the text messaging group that my (now former) job uses to communicate with employees. I just got a text message that all employees need to attend a mandatory training session on Tuesday the 23rd so they can be trained on the new Philips cardiac monitoring system that is being installed on Wednesday the 23rd. It seems that they just spent a quarter of a million to replace 3 year old monitoring system with a new monitoring system. Now I know why they can’t afford to pay anyone.

By Divemedic, ago

Dammit

An hour after losing my job and promising the wife that I won’t spend any money until I start getting paychecks again, I get an email from Sportsman’s Warehouse that looks like this:

By Divemedic, ago