Halloween Discussion Forums, Costumes, Horror!

So sorry about that. Yes, throwing a desk, or throwing desks around. Usually I proof meticulously, but sometimes I get distracted by something before I'm done. I hate making typos, but I have only my phone for internet access, and they occur more often than not. Especially since my phone sometimes decides that I'm saying something I'm not saying at all.

Maybe we're all paranoid together. IDK. My daughter works in a Christian bookstore, and she says the books about end-times prophecy are flying off the shelves. At the very least, I think most people have an intuition that we're on the brink of an epochal change, and everybody's nervous about it.

Oh, I know what you mean, I hate making typos too, but I type so fast that sometimes they happen. When they introduced keyboarding class to us in grade 6, my teacher Mrs. Thompson said that she hadn't seen anybody pick up typing that fast, and that I was a natural at it. It must have been because I played so much Nintendo.

I type such long posts that I don't bother to proofread it anymore, besides, I know this forum doesn't recognize certain words as being spelled correctly, even though they are, so I just ignore the red squiggle under the words when I'm posting.

Sometimes I get distracted as well, like the cat will meow at me and I'll turn my head for a moment and then I'll type the same word twice, or miss a word, that's really annoying.

My wife brought the kids to visit her parents today, so I just watched some movies and cleaned up the yard.

On a side note, our anniversary is coming up, and I wanted to do something special for my wife, but she told me that she doesn't want me to surprise her with anything, and that we should just go out and do something together as a family. I was going to do something romantic for her, but I guess that I'll have to think of something else.

By the way, Murf, out of curiosity, and if you don't mind me asking, how long have you and Mr. Murf been married?

It was 44 years this past Oct.

He's five yrs younger than I am, so he's still working.

I hope you and your wife enjoy your anniversary, however you spend it.

Thanks Murf.

I know that in some areas it's expected that people retire at age 65, though it's more of a suggestion as more older people are working now than in previous generations, there are some employers that try to force people into retirement at 65, but organizations like the ADEA are there to fight for their rights, as long as they want to continue to work, and are still capable.

My oldest employee is 77, he's my head chef Raoul, and he has been working here since the 70s. On the day that I signed the papers to close the deal for the restaurant I told him that he would always have a position here for as long as he wanted to be here, and that I wouldn't ever force him to leave, and I've honored my promise. He is extremely passionate about his cooking, you might even call him a artist because he's that good, and he can still perform under pressure when he has to. He has also become one of my closest friends and one of the few people that I trust without question.

I don't know how much longer he will want to do this, but he told me earlier this year that he is slowing down and he asked me to bring in somebody to help out, so that's why I hired the new chef Anthony from Texas to assist him. Anthony does some great things in the kitchen, and he will become the head chef when Raoul decides to leave.

It sounds like you're a wonderful boss, and I'm sure your employees appreciate you.

My husband has the years accumulated to retire from teaching, even though he started later than many, since he was in the military out of college, and taught in Virginia before we moved back here. He has also worked in two different systems here, first the city, then the county. All that affects the age at which you can retire with full benefits, but he has finally reached that point. Now he's wanting to work until he reaches maximum social security benefits for someone born in his birth year. And he feels honor bound not to leave in the middle if a school year, even though that's quite common for retirees. But he doesn't think it's right. So he'll probably teach one more year after this one.

He's tired of the demands and the schedule and really wants to quit. He's in special ed and works with the intellectually gifted. He's not tired of the.students, but he's tired of the government paper work. It is ridiculously time-consuming. He has the reputation of being the best in the system at what he does. Whenever a school needs a person to do this job, he is the one they request, but he likes where he is and won't leave. His principal, who intends to retire about four years after him, has jokingly asked if he won't stay around and retire with him. The principal knows he won't get a comparable replacement.

Your husband's devotion to his profession is admirable. I can understand how that principal feels, sometimes when you already have the perfect person for the position it's almost impossible to find a suitable replacement capable of filling their predecessor's shoes.

A few years ago my head manager told me that he wanted to leave, it wasn't for any specific reason, he just wanted a change, 2 other people held the position for awhile until I found the right person for it. Now I've got a great head manager that knows how to run this place efficiently, she's the type of person that steps up without being asked, and everybody likes her, but as good as she is, she still doesn't compare to what our original manager could do.

Regarding retirement, as I told Mike and Andy a few years ago, I don't ever want to retire, and I'll probably be doing this until the day I die. Of course, I say that now while I'm still young and healthy enough to do this, but I might change my mind when I'm older, I guess it depends on what's going on at that point. I mean, I'm always awake and my mind is always looking for something to do, that's why I'm up typing this right now, but I don't know if I'll still be this way when I'm older.

I know that I'm sure as sh*t not going to depend on a pension/Social Security to be there for me in my old age, which is why I'm looking out for my family from now with the choices that I make. I know a lot of people, regardless of age or background, that can barely get by, and with the cost of living always rising above their ability to sustain themselves, it's just going to get harder for them as time goes on if something isn't done about it.

By the way Murf, I don't know if you watched it, but I forgot to mention that on Nov. 6th there was a tv special called Wicked: One Wonderful Night, it was a 2 hour special with musical performances, cast interviews, behind the scenes moments, and a preview of Wicked: For Good.

My family forced me to watch it, and it was a living nightmare for me, but I'm sure that you would love it.

Lol! I would have watched it if my TV could bring in anything other than a smattering of religious channels. Before the HD revolution, our tv reception was excellent. But it's been diminishing steadily since that change away from analog. We'll never get anything again unless we re-up to the internet, which my husband seems loath to do. He's always feared that TPTB could spy on us in the privacy of our home through it

There's been a turn away from Cynthia Erivo in our family since she took the role of Jesus in JCS last summer. Even my daughter is reluctant to attend Wicked: For Good because of that. However, I think I will go. I enjoyed the first part and want to see the story conclude.

Social Security: I think you are wise not to count on that. It's always been a Ponzi scheme. And I don't think it's uncommon for business owners to work as long as they like, without regard for conventional retirement. It's a totally different mind-set from working within a bureaucracy.

My family will be going to watch pt. 2, but I'll wait until it's available digitally. I'm already going to have to put up with a plethora of musicals and Hallmark movies because it's the Christmas season, and there's only so much suffering that I can stand.

I usually go and do other things while they watch that stuff, but sometimes the kids tell me that they want me to stay and watch it with them, and it's hard to say no to them. If only they understood the sacrifice they are asking of me.

Regarding your husband's suspicions about being monitored, well, he's absolutely right. But here's the thing with that, every single piece of technology that we use today is designed specifically for the purpose of monitoring us, if he thinks that the phone and email he is using on a daily basis isn't already tracking his activity, then I'm sorry to say this, but he's being naive about it.

Why do you think that they make technology so accessible to everybody? In the 90s when the internet and cellphones were introduced, only the people that could afford it had access to it, but now it's affordable and accessible to almost every single person on the planet.

The only reason that I learned how to use computers and the internet is because they were teaching it to us in school, and I'm glad that I learned those skills back then, and when I started working I decided to purchase a computer and I got a phone for my mother and myself.

These days everybody and their mother has a Facebook profile, and they use complex algorithms to track your online activity. Sure, they tell you that it's to enhance your browsing experience by using the information that they gather to suggest content they think that you would be interested in, it's also used to generate ads that are specifically designed to target you based on your browsing.

Social media is the worst of these, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter or what the Hell they're calling it now, Tik Tok, and Youtube are not only making our society stupider, but they have made everybody perfectly comfortable having everything about their personal life, and browsing behavior tracked as long as they can fill their day with cute cat videos and pointless memes.

Andy is extremely smart for not having a Facebook profile, I don't have a personal profile, but my wife does to stay in contact with family, and we also have Facebook and Instagram profiles for our businesses because every business these days needs to have marketing to survive.

There are ways to cover your tracks online, a private browser will give you some protection against tracking, but your employer, school, and ISP can still know every website you visit. There are other, more technical options, to help prevent tracking like using VPNs, and router and ghost browsers, but nothing is a hundred percent tracking proof, as every program that we use is deliberately created with a backdoor for that very reason, but the truth is that as long as you aren't doing anything wrong, then you shouldn't be worried about it.

With that said, I know that you said that you have a smart tv, and if you were to hook up internet to it then you would have access to some good content. However, if you want to get the full experience of browsing online like you would with a computer, then you could use the HDMI input to connect a desktop or laptop computer to it. That's what I do for the living room tv, and I can just sit here on the couch typing this. Look at it this way, you paid for a smart tv, you might as well enjoy the full capabilities it has to offer.

On the other side of that, I recommend that both you and your husband watch this 25 minute video for a more detailed explanation. You might remember this guy from about 15 years ago, but if you don't then you can look him up for more information.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VFns39RXPrU

You should also watch, if you haven't already, the movie Enemy of the State from 1998 starring Will Smith, Gene Hackman, and Jon Voight. That was almost 30 years ago, and it certainly reflects the current state of our society.