To all veterans of all branches: Thank you for sacrifice, your bravery, and the example you set for us all. In short, thank you for your service! To all those who have served, and those who continue to serve… Happy Veterans Day!
Be sure to thank a veteran today and always.
For the first time in my life, I volunteered my time to help get people out to vote. Without getting into the politics, it was a wonderful experience overall. I started in early October with a response to a text I received asking if I would be interested in helping to get people to vote. I initially started by calling residence in Texas which I did for two different weekends.
No longer is there a requirement to walk door-to-door to ask people to vote.
The process to volunteer is very easy, as I expected it would be, in our modern times. No longer is there a requirement to walk door-to-door to ask people to vote. Instead, from the comfort of my home, I was able to call to households throughout Texas, Florida, and eventually Kansas as the weeks narrowed in on election day. The Texas and Florida calling was done through an automated system where I would sign in on my computer, the voters information is displayed on my screen, and I am on a single call with my phone that connects me to each person (i.e. I never hang up the phone) which was really easy. I would hear a beep and start talking through my script that displayed on my computer. Based on responses from the person called, I would ask different questions, and eventually end the conversation thanking them for their time.
Overall, the calls were enjoyable. The nice thing about the calling through Texas and Florida process was that it was automated meaning I only would speak to people that answered the phone. If they did not answer their phone, they would not connect with me on the phone. Obviously, this cut down on the amount of time spent on the phone with people that did not want to speak. However, there were some that would answer their phones and then ask to be removed from the calling list.
If you get a call, or text, from a polling place and you ask to be removed from the list, it is the law that you must be removed from their list.
If you were not aware as we are now done with the calling/texting for elections, if you get a call, or text, from a polling place and you ask to be removed from the list, it is the law that you must be removed from their list. The issue that happened during my time helping with getting people out to vote is that some people would say this is the sixth or seventh time your organization has called me today; the problem is that multiple organizations use the same lists which are shared by the state to which we are contacting. In the processes I was involved, both made it clear if someone asked to be removed from a list that we needed to do so.
The other area that I spent my time leading up to election day making calls and texts was of course Kansas. I spent almost every weekend to end the month of October involved in calling programs or texting for Kansas. Again, the process was enjoyable although Kansas had two different processes for calling with one using an automated system and the other we would use our own phone numbers to call voters. The texting part was my favorite as I could send out in batch and respond like email to the responses following a script. This was ideal as I could do these in the evening while watching television or eating dinner. Very easy and again people had the ability to opt out if they did not want to receive the texts.
So, why was I interested in participating this year for the election? To get the word out to get people to vote. We already knew that it was going to be a huge election year with lots of voters. As we wait for states to finish up their vote counting, we see the large numbers that turned out before and on election day.
We should have this type of turnout, and interest, in the election process every election and not just this year during a pandemic. Still, even with COVID-19 cases ramping up, it is impressive how many people across the United States got out to vote early, went out on election day, and participated in the process.
I do plan to take part in future elections to help get the word out. It was a fun process and I enjoyed taking part. I enjoyed talking to voters with their concerns. I can think of a few calls that were extremely enjoyable and could have stayed on the phone with the person to discuss with them for hours about politics, the state of the country, and how we are hoping for change.
I trust you made your vote and participated in our election process.
I hope you had an enjoyable process to cast your vote. I trust you made your vote and participated in our election process. Doing the volunteer process did allow me to understand those calls and texts I had been receiving leading up to when I started volunteering. Now, I try to answer or respond to texts when those come through because I can now relate with what they are doing.
It is funny how bad the old mobile site was and I did not realize it even though I had checked the site multiple times on my cell phone but only realized it was bad when I was going back to read an old post from years ago and realized there was a lot of "dead" space at the top of the page that is not there when viewing on a computer.
The image to the right is the new view which resembles how it appears when accessing on a computer. Basically, I got rid of the odd blank space that was showing up on mobile devices when accessing the site.
If you have any questions or suggestions, please post a comment in the section below.
Doing a search, I did find an announcement from Apple from August 18, 2020 (Apple announces Apple Music radio) about the change in name and the new stations being available. However, I do not recall seeing any tweets, email notices, etc., from Apple about the change when it was rolled out back in August. I just happened to stumble across it one day while looking through my music options.
Three options are offered for live music in addition to listening to your own library, new songs, etc. through the Apple Music app. First, they have Music 1 which features exclusives, remixes, and various hosts for every hour of the day. Next, you have the Music Hits station which includes artists hosting the shows which go throughout the day. The last live radio station is Music Country which is again live hosts, new songs, and discussions with various country artists.
I have enjoyed all three live stations from Apple Music. My favorite and the one I listen to most days is the Music Country. I go through points in my life where I listen to all country, pop, blues, or whatever is trending. Country is a genre that I come back to throughout the year and while I used to only like the older artists from the 90's or early 2000's, I have found that I am enjoying some of the newer artists lately too.
I have tried other streaming services, but I am liking Apple Music the best so far. I think Carrie is going to let her subscription expire with Amazon Music and switch us over to the family plan for Apple Music which is only an additional $4.
Happy music streaming to whatever service you enjoy. Feel free to respond to this post with your favorite service and what you like best about the service.
A few weeks ago while out doing yard work, our neighbors and I started talking. We usually catch up social distancing style keeping our distance while we put yard work on hold. We talk about shows we are watching, recommendations for the other household to watch, etc. Kelly asked if I read very much or listen to podcasts and I told her I go through periods where I read a lot and then go to the other extreme where I do not read much at all. She suggested I should check out audio books and had a recommendation for me.
Normally, I we only listen to audio books when going on trips. Start the audio book as we leave Topeka and drive to where ever we are going with the book playing the whole time. Usually, we get to our destination and then finish the book on our way back to Topeka following the trip. Our most recent trip to Dallas/Houston, we started a book and it was so long that we ended up finishing it when we got back to our home.
I have tried doing podcasts which again I go through periods where I will listen to them and then not listen at all. I know they are what all the cool kids are doing and I enjoy them, but I find that I cannot listen to them at work because you know, I am working, and have to pay attention to the podcast, so it does not really work for me. I have tried to listen at home, but usually watching TV and cannot focus on the podcast.
The recommendation Kelly had for me was A Very Punchable Face by Colin Jost. It was excellent! The audio book through the Topeka Public Library is read by Colin Jost, so you can hear his tone while he reads his book. I really enjoyed the experience.
I would listen to the book usually at night when going to bed. Spending anywhere from 15 to 20 minutes listening to one night I listened for a good hour before going to bed. I had told Carrie I had started the book and then proceeded to crack up throughout the book, so I would have to stop the book and fill her in on what was so funny. I won't do that here as I would recommend read, or listening, to the book as it is good! Carrie is on the waiting list to get the audio book too as she heard me laughing so much she wanted to listen to it too.
I finished the book and immediately checked out Bossypants by Tina Fey. I am early in this book only starting it Friday night, but it sounds like it is going to be another good one. For now, I believe this will be my new thing to listen to books as I get ready for bed as I am enjoying the process.
It is possible that as I listen to audio books that I might go back and revisit podcasts again and try to get into the habit of listening to those again. First though, I will continue on this new audio book listening track. I am so happy that our neighbor told me about the book and started me on this new routine.
Fall weather is here! Hard to believe it is supposed to snow tonight. It seems that the cold and snow came out of no where. We had been having such nice weather the past few weeks, months, and then snow is in the forecast.
I have heard some "experts" say that they are predicting a bad winter. Lots of snow... cold... and more snow. We will see what happens. The way 2020 has gone so far, I could see us getting a blizzard or two to finish out the year.
Today, I did leaves for the first time this year. I am not sure I did leaves at all last year. Instead, I let the trees in our yard drop all of their leaves and then called to have someone come out and get them. Seemed to work well, but I am sure our neighbors did not like our doing this at all. Back yard had leaves that went over your shoes in most spots of the yard and of course when the wind would blow, it would throw the leaves all over the place in our yard and neighbors yard too. Even with fenced in back yard, the leaves can manage to find their way out of our yard and into other yards.
I probably do the lazy method for doing leaves. I do not like to rake so I usually use the mower to mulch and then go over them again to bag. Yes, causes more trips around the yard to do this method, but less bending over to pick up leaves. For the work today, I have two full bags of leaves. This was only the front yard and both large trees in the front basically have not dropped many of their leaves. The back yard, I decided not to do at all as there are only a few leaves on the ground in the back.
Meanwhile, our neighbor in back of us has already done his yard multiple times to pick up leaves just this past week. I am sure he cringes when he sees our yard, leaves everywhere, and I won't even go into how the yard looks in terms of grass. Oh well!
Now we wait to see what the weather brings tonight through tomorrow. Just how much snow will we get? Always fun with the first one or two snows and drivers in Topeka. Be safe and when we do get our first big snow, I am sure I will post about it here.
Saturday Night Live has been on the air since 1975. During that time they have had a number of performers doing their skits with focus on whatever is happening currently in the news, the United States, or the world. The last four years, we have seen a lot of Alec Baldwin playing Donald Trump to open the show. The majority of the times when Alec Baldwin opened the show, they were funny skits that made me laugh.
For the 2020-2021 season, we have Jim Carrey playing Joe Biden to open the show which has happened each of the first three episodes. Normally, I like Jim Carrey when he has played roles on SNL, his movies, or even his latest TV show Kidding on Showtime, but so far, I have not enjoyed the opening to the show each of the three times. They were not funny and wonder if someone else could have played Joe Biden instead. The best person to play Joe Biden was Jason Sudeikis, but I have to wonder if they asked him and he was not available.
I certainly watched SNL when I was growing up and through the years. I have gone through stretches where I did not care for the cast, the skits, and did not watch but maybe clips. The past few years, I have been watching the whole thing. Again, sometimes the skits are not funny at all, dumb, or they put in death into the skit which always seemed odd.
My favorite part of SNL is Weekend Update. Colin Jost and Michael Che are perfect! I enjoy their back-and-forth and their jokes almost always get a laugh out of me. I love how they are always trying to throw the other cast member under the bus with comments about how the other one made a comments about something inappropriate.
For whatever it is worth, I will continue to watch SNL, likely not laughing at the opening skit, but always looking forward to Weekend Update.