Gateway problems

I didn't go to Waukon, to see Senator Grassley, this morning. I was running low on money, and I didn't want to spend it all on gas for the trip. Jim called me yesterday, and told me that he couldn't go. Tomorrow Linda Lucy, who is a representative for Senator Harkin, will be in town. I'll try to see her. I want to suggest that they extend the (Cash for Clunkers) program to buying used cars as well as new.
I got a new memory stick, but the Gateway is still acting funny. It has trouble loading at times, and then things bounce around. I'm thinking that it is memory problems, but it might be that Mandriva Linux doesn't work well with the Gateway.
I'm still waiting for the AC adapter from Ebay. It's been over a week since I paid for it. I may have to contact the seller. The new memory stick that I got today is acting like a 64 meg. stick and it should be 128 meg. I'll have to contact that guy as well.
I think I'll wait for the other memory sticks, and see if they make a difference. It will be easier to load a modern linux if I have more memory.
I took some pictures yesterday, but I have to download them to my Windows machine and then to my good laptop. I'm tempted to make my good laptop a dual boot system. That means that I'll be able to choose whether I want to boot to Linux or to Windows. I'll have to lose all of my bookmarks, and the extra programs that is so good to have. I'll have to reload Adobe Acrobat and flashplayer. Also I'll have to find Java Runtime Environment.
On the disability front, Remember to go to Vocational Rehab. if you get into college. They will pay about 1/3 of your tuition. That varies with their funding so don't count on it. That means that if you are going to a junior college, more of your Pell grants can go to your living expenses
Also look into the (Work Study) program. If you are getting student loans, that might not work so well, because what you make there is deducted from the student loans. If you are collecting unemployment and going to school that might be a better fit.
You might think about bonds for investment. I got burned buying individual bonds. I didn't think that GM would go bankrupt, but they did. Also I bought bonds in a company named Rouse. It turned out that they were bought by GGP, a company on the verge of bankruptcy. I also bought bonds on Aventine, and they went bankrupt. I couldn't win.
You can buy funds or ETFs of bonds. A couple of my favorite bond ETFs are TIP and JNK. TIP is an ETF of Treasury Inflation Protected Securities. If inflation goes up so will the yield of this fund. Keep in mind that they are U.S. government securities.
JNK is an ETF of Barclays Bank's high yield corporate bonds. At least it's a collection of bonds so if one company goes bankrupt you won't be devastated.
JNK is yielding 13.16%, today. TIP is yielding 5.13%.
I did well with both TIP and JNK.
I uploaded a picture of the Upper Iowa River from a viewpoint at Phelphs park in Decorah.

Still waiting

I got an e-mail from the guy who sold me the AC adapter for the Gateway. He wants me to leave feedback. But I haven't gotten the AC adapter, yet. I don't know what is holding it up. One problem is that Decorah is so out-of-the way. Our mail is always late.
I bought a 40 gig hard drive for the Thinkpad, this morning. I'm thinking of having a dual boot system on it. I'll put Windows 2000 and Suse linux on it. That way I can choose which operating system to run. I was thinking about doing that with my good laptop. It has a 35 gig hard drive and I'm only using 5.
I talked with Jim this morning. I showed him how to leave comments on my blog site. He just told me hi. I asked him if he wanted to go and see Senator Grassley tomorrow. He'll be in Waukon in the morning. Jim said he would get back to me but I doubt that he'll go. The Senator will be there in the early morning and Jim doesn't get up before 10.
On the disability front. If you have low income, don't forget to apply for heating assistance. In Decorah, that is handled by Community Action. Joan Nelson runs that. They are in the basement of the Smith Building on Montgomery. While you are there you might as well get some free food. They have a food bank that you can use for something like 6 times a year. There is also a food band at the 1st Lutheran Church on Broadway ST.
Yesterday I mentioned how ETFs are replacing mutual funds. Some of my favorite ETFs are:
(DTO) Powershares double short crude oil, bets against the price of crude with 2 times leverage
(VDE) Vanguard Energy, a long energy play
(UYG) Proshares ulta-long financials, long financial with 2 times leverage
(SKF) Proshares ultra short financials, short financials with 2 times leverage
(USO) United States Oil, Long US oil
(UGA) United States Gasoline, long US gasoline
(DZZ) Deutsche Bank Short Gold, shorts gold with 2 times leverage
(SGG) Barclays bank sugar fund
This is just a small sampling of ETFs to be found. I invested in all of these and more when I still had money from my Social Security settlement. I did pretty well until I decided to play it safe by investing in General Motors preferred stock, to play it safe.

Gateway problems

I swapped the hard drive from the Gateway to the Thinkpad. Unfortunately it quit booting from the CD. I don't know why. I couldn't load a smaller operating system and it just isn't right, anyhow.
I then went back to the Gateway. I put a PC133 memory stick into the Gateway. It worked good and I got Mandriva Linux working pretty well. Then I took the Gateway to the co-op where I wanted to download the updates. It needed to upload configuration information to Mandriva. The co-op wouldn't let me upload anything. I gave up and went to Magpies.
There it got flaky. It wouldn't even boot right. Apparently the PC133 memory got hot and started to drop bytes. The lesson is to just wait for the right sticks. I've got eleven of the PC100 sticks coming from Ebay, next week. I just have to be patient and bide my time until they get here.

Deer across the street

I included a video I took of a deer that was across the road from where I live, last night. The sun was going down and I used my $20 camera, but at least I got a picture of him. I was about 20 feet away and it's remarkable that he stood still for so long. My neighbor feeds them corn.
I'm at Java Johns and I'm having troubles with the blog, today. Yesterday I clicked on something to translate the blog into Hindi. I didn't realize that, once that was clicked, it would only be in Hindi. I was blogging away and my words came up in another language. I would like to be able to transmit my blog to India in their language but I also need to be able to communicate in English as well. Maybe in the future we'll be able to do this. I would like to have my blog translated to Mandarin in China and Hindi in India. I have the feeling that I have more in common with those people than I do with the majority of people in the US.
On the computer front. I think I'll take the 5 gig. hard drive out of the Gateway and put it into the Thinkpad. I'll load Suse 10.3 and get it running as well as it can. Then I'll give it to Jennell. Local Decorah people will know who I mean. She's been needing a computer for years and she just can't afford one. This should do the job.
I think I'll get a 40 gig hard drive on Ebay for the Gateway. I'll then load a dual boot system. I'll probably go with Windows 2000 and Ubuntu 9.04. I'm still waiting for the AC adapter and memory for the Gateway, but it's on the way.
My tip for the disabled is to go to school while you are waiting for your Social Security to come through. You really have nothing to lose. If you are going to college you can live on student loans and Pell grants. That means you are still elgible for Social Security. If you get a job you can't get Social Security.
A problem might be that they may decide that if you are doing so well at school you aren't really disabled. That could be a problem, but school gets harder the longer you are in it. The stress of school may well cause your symptoms to return. If that causes you to drop out of school, you have a better case for your disability. If you succeed with school you are in a better position to get a better job.
Don't forget to apply for food stamps while in school. Students loans aren't income and Pell grants are usually applied to tuition so you should be eligible.
If you do have to drop out, your student loans may be discharged due to disability.
I missed entirely on the lottery, last night. I don't think I was even close on any of the numbers. I'll keep at it. I need to do something about my spiritual guide misleading me.
On the investment front. Have you looked into ETFs (Exchange Traded Funds) rather than mutual funds. The commissions are less, there are fewer fees, you can trade them like stock (minute to minute) and they cover a wide variety of trading options. Look into it, mutual funds are so, yesterday.

You have to fight for your disability

Not much is happening in Decorah. It's cloudy and not too hot. It's a nice day but it looks like some rain will be here in the next hour or so.
I bought some memory sticks on Ebay. They were cheap and I'll use them on laptops that I refurbish. I'm thinking about getting a larger hard drive for the Thinkpad. It may not be worth it. It is rather slow, anyway. I think I'll just download a form of Linux that will work on an old laptop. There used to be something called (Damn Small Linux). That ought to do the trick. Of course, the problem will be getting both the wifi card and sound card to work at the same time. I'll have to research it.
I'm thinking about having a section devoted to talking about disability, as that is something I'm familiar with.
Today, the topic is applying for Social Security.
They make you wait for six months after you've lost your job to apply. Apparently, you aren't disabled until six months after you've lost your job. You should probably go to their office and fill out forms anyway, since SSI (state supplemental insurance) may cover that six months. They usually won't give you SSI until you are eligible for Social Security (Catch 22). That could take years, but it doesn't hurt to fill out the forms, since the payments will go back to when the forms are filled out.
I don't know if I showed this picture before, but it's a scene on Trout Run Creek, near the fish hatchery.
My lottery picks are: 3,20,42,44,46. The powerball pick is 13. Again I would like to point out that I've never won even $3 on the lottery, but I keep dowsing for the numbers.
I downloaded (Damn Small Linux). It loaded live on the Thinkpad. The problem is that I couldn't check the sound system. It didn't seem to have any applications that I could run. I think I could get the wifi card working but I'm not sure of how I would know. I missed the graphical User Interface. I just couldn't figure out how to get things to work. Maybe I need the manual.

I uploaded a video that I took with my $20 camera, as an experiment. It's a view from the porch of my home. I intend to get some videos of some of the coffee shops I go to soon.
It's another hot day, and I'm hanging out in air-conditioned coffee shops. I'm now at Java Johns. I've already been to Bookends and Beans and the co-op.
There was an explosion in downtown Decorah, last night. Hart's Tea and Tarts blew up. Apparently the daughter of the owner was killed. A friend of mine lost his office, which was above the tea room. I haven't been by there yet, but I'll get some pictures for the blog.
The Thinkpad is working well but I'm running out of hard drive space. There are over 100 updates that need to be uploaded but I have no space. I'm thinking about taking the 5 gig hard drive out of my Gateway and putting it into the Thinkpad. I'm waiting for an ac adapter for the Gateway. It should be here soon. If I have the adapter, I should be able to get the Gateway to work. It would probably be a better machine than the Thinkpad, anyway. We'll see.

Work the System

I was at Barnes and Noble, this morning, and found a book named (Work the System). I came home and ordered it at Bookends and Beans for two reasons. One: I like to support local businesses. Two: It won't get here until after I've been paid for July.
I leafed through it a bit and it seemed like something an employed person might get more from than me. I figured that there might be enough to justify paying for it, though.
While on that topic, I bumped into Dave W. You might remember that he has been unemployed for a few months. He's applying for school and disability from the VA. He's busy filling out forms and finding out what he might be eligible for.
He's hoping to get paid unemployment while he is taking classes at a Junior College. He's also looking into what the VA might do for him. He was discharged back in the 70's with an honorable discharge, but it might have been a section 8. He's sending forms back and forth. I figure that at least he should be able to get some medical care from the VA. At best he could be getting a pension, like I did.
I had 1 number right, on the lottery. That's better than usual, but it still doesn't pay anything.
The Thinkpad is working pretty well, but I couldn't use it for blogging. There was a hangup with the password. I noticed that this computer didn't even require a password to get to my blog. I wonder if this computer somehow conflicted with the other one.
I included a picture of the inside of Bookends and Beans. It's kind of plush and comfortable, here.