The Dr. the disability people wanted me to see

Had an appointment to see one doctor the Disability people wanted me to
see. I think this one will screw me over. An older lady. My mom saw her
and thought "when the hell did she get her degree?"

We had problems on some questions and she got pissed. The main one was
over drinking. Like when did I begin and how much was I drinking at the
peak of my drinking, and I did not understand the question, so at some
point when there was repeated confusion over the answer of frequency,
she just gave up and yelled at me and went on to the next question. I
don't think she understood when I told her I was already 18 when the
state raised the drinking age to 21, and I was "grandfathered" in.

She did some of the same damn tests like I got in 3rd grade when the
school psychologist did them and told mom there was nothing wrong. Like
repeating a list of numbers, apparently, I can do up to 8 forward, but I
had problems doing them backward like more than 4 or so. It was early in
the morning so I wasn't quite awake anyway.

I got a chance to explain what the other doctors have discussed with me
in that I should seek BVR help in finding work in which I can work alone
or with few people, same days and same hours, a job not exposed to the
general public, and one in which I won't get into trouble.

I lost 2 jobs in the past 5 years, one of which I had for 10.5 years.
The one counselor said there's got to be a problem and they've nailed it
as far as I'm concerned. Now that we know what it is, we can go forward
from there.

The old lady was not nice, antagonistic, and generally an unqualified
and the wrong person for me to see. The way she asked some questions
instead of the way they were on the paper (I believe) might have
resulted in some differing answers.

I'll have 2 people saying the same thing, then this lady screwing me
over. The form I filled out will agree with the other 2, and not this
lady.

Hopefully her getting pissed at me illustrates the kind of problem I
have getting along with other people. I did tell her I have a problem
trusting people in authority, and that because of things I may do
innocently enough has the potential to result in other people getting me
in trouble. I didn't want to explain the problem with the head shaped
lollipops and the one girl thinking I was sexually harrassing her.
That's embarassing enough. I've told that joke to others who got it and
thought it was hilarious.

She's going to end up saying there's nothing wrong with me, I'm sure. I
told mom as we got back in the car after this that I felt she was going
to screw me over on this whole thing. The fact she got mad at me
illustrates my problem of getting along with other people, which is part
of my Asperger's. It affects relationships and employment. I do not
funtion well in a social setting with other adults. It will be a
lifelong condition and will make immediately finding paid work
difficult.

This lady, Ruth H., is also the type of old person I had the unfortunate
chance to encounter at Giant Siegal, and the same type of people that
pissed me off a lot. Not good for them to send me to her.

Is your computer a spam-bot? Signs to look for

Your computer may be sending out spam and you don't even know it.
Judging from recent experience with a friend's computer, I have a few
signs to look for to see if your computer has become a spam bot and you
may not even know it!

- Obvious Symptom #1 - Constant "random" rebooting, especially on a high
speed connection: Constant unwarranted rebooting is also a symptom of
your hard drive about to go bad, so install a SMART monitor for your
hard drive to make sure it's not going bad. There are shareware ones,
trialware ones, and Sourceforge has some that are completely free. See
if it has settings that will cause it to sound off an alarm of impending
failure or the possible hiccup before it happens. If it doesn't alert
you before a reboot, then it's possible that your hard drive is OK or
the software doesn't know what it's looking for.

- Symptom #2 - Your friends get less spam when your system is off and
not connected to the net: This happened with a friend's Windows 98
Second Edition desktop. It was really coincidental, but what a
coincidence. We took his "old" system offline, and it was replaced with
Windows XP Home edition. Then we screwed the lid on tight with Spybot
S&D, Comodo Personal Firewall, Ad Aware 2007, and AVG Free. The result
was me getting much less spam than previously, so much less it's not
funny. So if your system is running Win98SE or just "randomly"
rebooting, take it off the net for a few days if you can. Take the drive
out and have someone else look at it with whatever tools they may have.
If your system doesn't reboot while off the net, backup your personal
files, locate all the installs you put on there, and reformat and
reinstall. It's drastic, but it's better than being a spambot.

The rebooting may be the spambot running as a rootkit, so your software
to protect the system may think it's supposed to do that. It's either
downloading new instructions or updating info it will send out, and well
we know Windows 98 needs to restart to recognize the changes. If you
can't find the problem lurking in the hardware, then it's software.

I don't know of any firewall software for Win98SE, but if I do find it,
I will definitely use it. I have a feeling my friend put something on
there without knowing he did (a trojan horse install) so he can't be
blamed at all, but we're still investigating the problem - after all,
the computer still works, we might as well make it work the way it's
supposed to!

I would recommend anyone running Windows 98 SE that's constantly
rebooting without warning to try my suggestions and ask their friends if
they get less spam when their own system is offline. The system file
checker may not see the problem either. This problem is probably not
limited to any one version of Windows either. What I think is happening
is this stuff sits in your computer looking over the data on your hard
drive scanning for email addresses, then spams anything it finds.
Sneaky, ne? Check your running processes and if you find anything that
shouldn't be there, try to find it on your drive, and then end it, but
if you can't find it that way, it's deeply hidden - might as well
reinstall everything.

Check out the Maganvox MWR10D6!

Nice comparison page for before and after shots of video recorded by my new DVD recorder.

The Petty Bastards at the Store are trying to appeal the decision!!

Well, I can't say I was going to be surprised, but I sure am pissed as
hell that Debbie Laurie is trying to appeal my unemployment compensation
claim against the store.

They are STILL harping on the LIES that Bonnie claims she heard me
saying I wanted to buy 10 more boxes. THIS IS A LIE.

They are claiming that I had no intention of reporting the error - I did
tell people around me, but I also had no idea what to do. THERE IS NO
RULE THAT SAYS EMPLOYEES _MUST_ REPORT SUSPICIOUS PRICES. PERIOD.

I DID NOTHING WRONG.

THE UNION WAS BOUND BY THE TERMS OF THE CONTRACT.

The Unemployment Review Commission can dismiss this without further
notice, and I hope they do. They have no basis for their appeal.

Getting some things done

I finally got an oil change for the car on Friday, and the guy I went to
said he said the threads beginning to show through on the right rear
tire. So knowing that was going to need looked at, I headed right up to
WalFart and got 3 tires.

They really should explain all the extra fees instead of just pricing
the tires one price or include them. The tire I had gotten about a year
ago I don't remember being so much. After it was done, the price went up
another $30 or so. Tire recycling fee? There were fees that got added in
and I was charged sales tax on. If these are state-mandated fees, I
shouldn't have to pay SALES TAX on a FEE. It ended up being another 45
cents on those fees which aren't a product that got sold, but another
form of tax.

My friend's mother in law bought a new 'puter with Windows Vista on it.
Oooh.. bad move. But anywho, her old one made for WinXP he got to have
so I spent some time on it yesterday formatting the HD and
repartitioning it. I was able to use the Dell WinXP Home editon install
CD we had, and we did get prompted for a product key which we also had.
First thing once XP Setup was done was take a bunch of updates. And then
after that some installs and Service Pack 2, and some more updates. Then
I screwed on the lid tight with Spybot Search and Destroy and Comodo
Personal Firewall. These free pieces of software are excellent. I'm glad
I discovered Comodo's software. Locks down access to important system
files and monitors any changes made to the system - new files, folders,
and system keys - it keeps track of it all. Some people may have been
leery of free security software in the past because of getting hacked,
but for once Comodo's firewall is the real thing. The only thing I wish
it did was help block advertising graphics and flash animations. At
least with Firefox 2.0 on there, it can be trained to block cookies from
certain sites as well as graphics. Now to add a flash blocker, too.
Comodo even blocks intrusions. ^_^

I put Xvid in there, WMP10, AVG, Ad Aware, SDP's downloader (need to get
TZD.EXE in there, too). He's got an install for Super(c) but I've not
run it yet. Fortunately, the system will be getting a DVD burner, so
after that I'll be looking for free DVD player software for him and of
course DVD authoring and burning.

I'm not done with their system. There's another partition to format and
a few more pieces of CD rom software to install and then move their
important stuff off the Win98SE system and see about getting it to stop
randomly rebooting. The HD is healthy, so I wonder if the power supply
is acting up.

I just want to be left alone but these ----ing people keep invading...

So anywho, I get my Unemployment benefits. On a prepaid VISA card. I was
not expecting that. I was expecting a check from the state.

Then 2 days later, I get this letter from J&FS saying that I have to go
through some stupid county "One Stop" program for "re-employment"
services, evaluation for skills, etc.etc. I went through this same
bullsh!t in Carroll county. There were these 2 guys from some other
agency. We were forced to watch stupid pipe dream videos. We were forced
to try writing a resume. I don't know how to write a resume. I hate
writing resumes mainly because I'm not that good at it. I can't possibly
put what I need on one to get someone to consider hiring me. We made one
up and then blindedly mailed them out en masse. Not one of those efforts
even got a call for an interview. No cover letter to explain why I was
sending this out. These 2 guys felt this sort of action would get
something.

Then there was the "required" making of phone calls. I sat in the room
with the phone for over 30 minutes and couldn't make any. I eventually
somehow managed to make 1 call. It was to some 1 man office, the
recipient of that call explained, and he wasn't hiring. The call ended
quickly after that. I am one of those people who can't just pick up the
phone, blab about whatever there is I'm supposed to say, and presto get
an interview for some place that won't hire me.

I hate the interview process. It doesn't help that I never got a job on
the few that I actually got, nor that one guy who blasted apart my
resume and said that he didn't see anything on there that would indicate
I'd be there 6 months from now. While I didn't get the job, I did find
out they hired some idiot studying computers in college - he didn't know
anything about them - and left the job after 3 months. Heh.

The 2 guys from that thing explained they get paid based on how many
people got hired from their "help" which I took to mean they'd find out
what we knew how to do and go out and speak to potential employers and
get our foot in the door. Which is what they didn't do.

I guess they didn't get paid because for all I remember, nobody got jobs
from that colossal waste of time.

This going to this "one stop" thing is completely bad timing. And on top
of that, I have to see a doctor the SocSec people want me to see based
on my filing for some sort of evaluation. I'm going to get screwed
again.

I can't just take any job. I've signed up for BVR services and hope they
reply soon. They should be able to understand my problems and find a job
where I'd fit in.

But why can't these people just proceed on stuff and let me be alone?
Criminy!!

Maggie recorder is nice

I'm starting to like the Magnavox DVD recorder more as I continue to use
it. What's interesting is that the disks done with my Cyberhome lock up
the 'puter when I stick it in the DVD drive. However, a disk I did with
the Magnavox loads just fine - I shudder to think I'll have to re-do all
those disks made with the Cyberhome unit. However, the recorded video
quality _is_ better in the Maggie, so I guess why not. And I can now
begin the project of putting my subtitled Ranma 1/2 tapes on DVDs. They
have the original title cards, not replacements!

Editing that you're able to do on the Magnavox unit include naming the
disk, editing chapter marks and menu thumbnails as well as title names
with more space. I should have gotten one of these instead of the
Cyberhome unit. It may see less use the more I use the Maggie.

Also: The Jakks Pacific Ms. Pac-man 5 game unit I bought in 2006 after
Thanksgiving has required 2 fixes to the controls. The first thing I had
to do was remove the springs under the fire buttons. They would jam when
I had to press them a lot while playing Galaga or Xevious. I hate that.
A couple days ago, I opened it up to reduce the sensitivity of the
joystick. It would get stuck after pressing down, which of course
frustrates anyone trying to play Ms. Pac-Man. As soon as I completed
that, I was finally able to break the 50,000 point level. Now to find
that book I had.

I can also tell people that the ROMs used in the unit are pretty much
the original games! The programmer's signature in Xevious comes up if
you do the right thing. The bugs in Galaga will indeed stop firing after
a while if you leave the right ones on screen and just wait. The hold
positions in Ms. Pac-Man do indeed work if you get the ghosts in the
right place. I found the ones in the 2nd blue board, and I saw one spot
where the ghosts and Ms. Pac-Man go past or through each other on the
board after that! You play enough times and you see strange things, like
Mappy popping through one of the trampolines to the one below. I imagine
it was a glitch or a bug of some kind.

I bought it because there had been no home version of Mappy when it came
out for the Atari 2600, which I find odd. Oh well.

DVD Recorders and Valu City

Did some investigation into the DVD recorders selection at one local
Valu City, as I'm considering getting another recorder because of my
Cyberhome unit needing some Luvincare that I'm anxious about doing. I
feel it needs some lubrication on the laser assembly. Oh well, I'll get
it done.

tonikaku...

Up first is an RCA DRC8052. Crossed this off quickly due to one owner's
report that it's too sensitive to the mysterious anti-copy flag in video
signals off TV. Some cable / satellite systems apparently set this flag
in the signal. About the only way to defeat this problem is to use a VCR
or other tuner device with composite out and route it into a magical
box, one of which I have. ^_^

Next up was the Sanyo DRW500. Some negative things about it was found,
though a supposed Firmware Update can be had to fix those issues, if you
can figure out how to burn the update CD right. A rumor is out there
that it defeats macrovision. I decided to pass on this one.

Next pair are interesting to note - the Magnavox MWR10D6 and the Funai
SV2000. BOTH are made by Funai and sold by Magnavox. More often than
not, people who have bought the Magnavox unit (dubbing it "Maggie") have
been very pleased with its performance, as well as the Funai SV2000,
which is also a unit once sold at Walmart. Both units also seem to some
people to be the very same unit. The Maggie unit requires Svideo In to
be enabled via on-screen menu. I may be considering one of these units.
The general opinion I got - if it screws up badly, you either check the
media you're using or take it back because it's most likely defective.
You shouldn't have any trouble with these brands.

The Apex DRX9200 is the last unit I took a look at. Some people claim
Apex units improve picture quality instead of degrade it, but reports on
this one was mixed at best.

One thing I found out is that there seems to be 3 brands people rave
about as being the Top 3 among DVD recorders: Pioneer, Lite On, and JVC.
A friend of mine has an ILO which is a Lite On variant, according to
some info I once looked up. Picture quality in various recording modes
appears to be very good. I know my friend's ILO does particularly well.
Then just behind those are ones made by Magnavox and Funai.

I really want to consider one with a hard drive, though. That way I can
spend the time recording something digitally and then the unit can burn
it to a disk and should the disk become a high tech drink coaster, no
worries because I can try again fairly quickly without having to sit
through the initial phase all over again.

The main thing to look for is Do I have a defective unit right out of
the box? I think it would be pretty easy to figure that out if it
doesn't work as you expect it to or it starts screwing up pretty
quickly.

More info on why I won

Saturday I got an envelope from the unemployment review comission. Today
I got one from Jobs and Family Services. I was not expecting one from
them, considering how I was expecting things to go.

The J&FS letter says my unemployment benefits claim was ALLOWED.

I taped that phone call we had. I opened the other envelope I already
had.

What's interesting was that the store's story changed Yet Again, this
time trying to say I was fired for Failure to Accurately Register Sales
in addition to the other 2 they've repeated all this time.

The store Has No Rule that says employees must notify management when
they suspect that an incorrect price has been entered into the computer.

REASONING they allowed my claim:

The employer alleges that the claimant engaged in willful misconduct and
dishonesty.

(The number of times I turned in found money or one lady's purse and
they want to try slapping this on me. And even after I "worked" with
them to resolve the issue about how much I paid for the cereal.)

However, the evidence does not establish that the claimant was
dishonest. He took the merchandise to the service desk where a cashier
with some managerial responsibilities allowed him to purchase the
cereal. She did not advise him that he should first bring the matter to
the attention of management.

Claimant was not responsible for entering prices into the computer.
Another employee made the error which created the situation that
ultimately resulted in the discharge of the claimant. The claimant used
poor judgement in purchasing products that he knew were incorrectly
priced. However, his conduct does not amount to an act of dishonesty.

The evidence does not support the employer's allegation that the
claimant violated three work rules. There is no evidence that the
claimant failed to accurately register sales. The claimant's job is to
scan merchandise which has already been priced. The employer has not
shown how the claimant abused Accu-Scan. The employer has provided no
evidence of a specific rule or policy which would have required the
claimant to report suspicious prices to management.

Due to his excericise of poor judgement, the claimant was deserving of
some discipline. However, he did not engage in wrongdoing of a
sufficient magnitude to justify his immediate termination.

Therefore the hearing officer finds that I was discharged without just
cause in connection with work within the meaning (of some section of the
Ohio revised code).

And there it is.

I win.

I WON!!!!!

I FREAKING WON MY UNEMPLOYMENT REVIEW!! Finally after 6 months of this crap I finally got someone to hear my case and saw it the same way EVERYONE ELSE saw it!!!

The main things pointing to MY FAVOR:

J&J Foods has no rule that provides that employees must notify management when they suspect that an incorrect price has been entered into the computer.

The Evidence does not establish that the claimant was dishonest.

The claimant (Me) was deserving of some discipline, however he did not engage in wrongdoing of a sufficient magnitude to justify his immediate termination. Therefore, the Hearing Officer finds that I was discharged without just cause.

I stand to collect quite a bit!! I will keep you updated as to how petty my former employer is when it comes to any appealing they may try.