With this week-end’s meat recall, 143 million pounds of beef, the largest recall in history, comes an even more disturbing possibility. A video has surfaced that shows inhumane conditions may have occurred since 1993. That’s 15 years!! Did the government do anything to safeguard that consumers eat healthy food? Did the greedy big business slaughterhouse have the least thought about the public school children who would eat tainted meat? Are California cows happy cows as the advertising slogan claims? You decide.
I’m a huge fan of “The Prisoner,” a British tele series from the late 1960s which I watched when I was a toddler. I was probably too young for that matter, as it has marked me for life. “I am not a number!” was a favorite quote of mine throughout childhood and I still use it from time to time. It came to mind as I was reading all the numbers I have been assigned by a spam e-mail which wormed its way out of the bulk mail filters and into my inbox. The nerve of these spam e-mails, really!
I have been assigned a reference number, a ticket number, a lucky number (oooh, lucky me!) and a serial number. There’s also an international number to call! But I don’t think I’ll be calling it. They want INFORMATION! INFORMATION! But who is their Number 1? That would be telling! Who is Number 2?
I AM NOT A NUMBER! I am a free woman! I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed, NUMBERED OR SPAMMED!
Here’s the series introduction:
When the prisoner wakes up, he finds himself in The Village.
Here’s The Village and its architectural history as documented by “The Antiques Road Show”:
If you’re interested in the DVD boxed set of the complete 17-episode series, it’s available here.
I hate junk mail. I think most of us do. It goes straight from my mailbox to the garbage can and I even have to pay for this nuisance and inconvenience to be hauled away.
Yet I had never taken the time to look for all the addresses and websites to contact to discontinue these pesky intruders. That’s because I never realized just how much of a problem it was until I went away for a month during December/January. I asked one of my kind neighbors to collect the mail for me and when I returned, my jaw just dropped at the sight of how much junk mail had accumulated.
I promise you I am not joking or exaggerating when I tell you that he handed me a huge gift bag larger than a paper grocery bag and it was even literally bursting at the seam! Boy was it heavy. About as heavy as my husband’s 20 lbs. free weight — maybe even more, but I don’t want you to think I’m exaggerating, so let’s just say 20 lbs.
So at first, I thought it might be full of Christmas catalogs (and I love looking at those) or maybe too many of our friends and family didn’t hear in time that we would be out of town and sent their Christmas cards to the wrong address. I knew it wasn’t bills because we do all of that on-line and by phone.
As I was sorting through the mail I made 2 piles: “To Read” and “Garbage”. My “To Read” pile had 2 free professional photography magazines, 1 bank statement, 3 Christmas cards, 1 bill payment confirmation and one newsletter. That’s it — 8 pieces of mail for the entire month and EVERYTHING ELSE WAS JUNK MAIL. … !!!!
So I took matters into my hands and searched the Internet for those addresses to rid myself of that junk because enough is enough! It will work for me soon and I’m sharing with all of you so you don’t have to take the time to do all that address hunting on your own. I just know it will work for you too.
These are free (for now. You know how these things go. They’ll do anything to make a buck.)
These culprits are already making a buck at our expense:
Direct Marketing Association ($1 for 3 years only, then you have to re-register) = www.dmachoice.org/mps
They also have this consumer assistance page to help you be removed from e-mail lists, phone lists, etc. and get a deceased loved one off of lists too.
These guy are selling protection insurance! (Who do they think they are, the Chinese and Italian Mafia put together?)
Green Dimes costs $20 and they’ll bribe you by donating a portion of your hard earned money to plant 10 trees = www.greendimes.com
Forty-one pounds costs a whopping $41 for 5 years only, but they’ll do you the favor of letting you chose which environmental organization you want a portion of your money to be donated to — now remember, you don’t get the tax credit for those donations because you received a service, but they do! = www.41pounds.org
Now here’s a few ways to not get in those mailing lists in the first place:
When you buy a product, be sure NOT to send those warranty cards in. You know the ones. It’s those cards that tell you you must register to protect your item for 30 days. If you don’t, they won’t fix it for free plus the shipping and handling which is twice the cost of a brand new replacement. And, oh yeah, by the way, which junk mail are you interested in receiving?
Buy, rent, join, subscribe only with companies which respect your privacy and guaranty it in their privacy policy.
Don’t donate money to anyone or if you must support that nasty generous habit of yours, donate anonymously by sending a money order with no name or donating in person so they won’t get your name and address (they’ll still give you a receipt), or go to www.networkforgood.org where they send your donation for a processing fee and promise not to give out your information to anyone.
For more participants in Works For Me Wednesday, visit Rocks In My Dryer.
If you’ve missed some of my other posts, just click below:
Welcome back to Thursday Thirteen where I share with you bits and pieces about my life and interests. Today in the spirit of Christmas, I share 13 favorite Christmas movies I watch each year — and even several times each year. These classics help put me in the holiday mood where the world is a little better, a little friendlier and a little happier.
Let me know which ones we share in common and which ones you would add (there are many more I would add, but I only have room for 13 — shhh… I sneaked in a 14th one with #11). Any favorite foreign (non-Hollywood) Christmas movies anyone? If you are a fellow Thursday Thirteen participant, do make sure you leave a comment so people can follow to your post too!!
Here are my picks for a 21st Century Holiday Shopping List, and you can shop right here from the Internet and not have to fight for a parking spot at the mall. Just click on the links to see more and to purchase.
Music Downloads The teens and music lovers will enjoy Amazon’s new music downloads for their iPods, MP3 players, cell phones and other musical gadgets. Starting at only 89 to 99 cents per download, it’s in anybody’s price range and can be given even to paperboys (do they still exist??), teen gardeners, babysitters and others you want to recognize with a gift but don’t want to spend a fortune on. Your own kids will love a more generous download amount, and you will love this clutter-free gift which won’t be sitting around your home gathering dust.
Video Downloads Forget driving to the video store or messing with mail order video memberships. Now you can download your videos straight from your computer. Video downloads can be either rented or purchased from Amazon, a trusted Internet source for years, not a new fly-by-night company you’ve never heard of before.
Planet Earth – The Complete BBC Series is “a tour de force … a masterpiece,” wrote the New York Times. Using revolutionary new filming techniques, with a budget of more than $25 million, “Planet Earth” is the epic story of life on Earth as you’ve never seen it before. The Chicago Times praised it as “an absolutely extraordinary achievement.” Five years in the making, using 40 cameramen spanning 200 locations, this 11-part series is hailed as the ultimate portrait of our planet. It also features a 150-minute documentary about our future. “Simply radiant” said Entertainment Weekly and “breathtaking” according to Time Magazine.
The Bible Experience: Old Testament (Inspired By) You can no longer say the Bible is boring or that you don’t have the time. Now you can be entertained during your long commute by an unprecedented cast of more than 400 actors, musicians and clergy, including Denzel Washington, Angela Bassett, Bishop T.D. Jakes, LL Cool J, Forest Whittaker, etc. in this dramatic audio recording of the Bible. Even the youngest child can “read” the Bible by listening to the Old Testament, the New Testament or the Complete Bible and the whole family can gather around, too. This audio Bible is from Zondervan, the world’s leading Bible publisher.
LEGO Mindstorms NXT This is much more than a toy, it is science lessons in a box and was recommended to our son by his science teacher, a research scientist who participates each year in the DARPA Urban Challenge with Autonomous Robot Cars. Mindstorms is exciting for children and teens (adults too) and will nurture their curiosity. Parents will love that it’s not some mindless, brain-rotting toy. If you missed the posts about the Urban Challenge, you can click here and here to learn about the cars that drive themselves and will be picking up our groceries in the very near future.
iRobot 560 Roomba Vacuuming Robot, Black and Silver The Jetsons have finally arrived. This round vacuum may not look like a robot, but it will automatically vacuum your home, spend extra time in the dirtiest spots and return to one of its two battery chargers to ready itself for the next clean up and you won’t have to lift a finger. Spend the extra time laughing with your children, cozying up with your spouse or pampering yourself.
This great carnival of shopping list ideas was thought of by Chili at Don’t Try It, where the rest of the participants are listed.
![13455 - gare de Lyon [EXPLORED 28/05/2024]](https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53752339973_4f727f5e70_s.jpg "13455 - gare de Lyon [EXPLORED 28/05/2024]")
recall in history, comes an even more disturbing possibility. A video has surfaced that shows inhumane conditions may have occurred since 1993. That’s 15 years!! Did the government do anything to safeguard that consumers eat healthy food? Did the greedy big business slaughterhouse have the least thought about the public school children who would eat tainted meat? Are California cows happy cows as the advertising slogan claims? You decide.
for their iPods, MP3 players, cell phones and other musical gadgets. Starting at only 89 to 99 cents per download, it’s in anybody’s price range and can be given even to paperboys (do they still exist??), teen gardeners, babysitters and others you want to recognize with a gift but don’t want to spend a fortune on. Your own kids will love a more generous download amount, and you will love this clutter-free gift which won’t be sitting around your home gathering dust.
is “a tour de force … a masterpiece,” wrote the New York Times. Using revolutionary new filming techniques, with a budget of more than $25 million, “Planet Earth” is the epic story of life on Earth as you’ve never seen it before. The Chicago Times praised it as “an absolutely extraordinary achievement.” Five years in the making, using 40 cameramen spanning 200 locations, this 11-part series is hailed as the ultimate portrait of our planet. It also features a 150-minute documentary about our future. “Simply radiant” said Entertainment Weekly and “breathtaking” according to Time Magazine.
You can no longer say the Bible is boring or that you don’t have the time. Now you can be entertained during your long commute by an unprecedented cast of more than 400 actors, musicians and clergy, including Denzel Washington, Angela Bassett, Bishop T.D. Jakes, LL Cool J, Forest Whittaker, etc. in this dramatic audio recording of the Bible. Even the youngest child can “read” the Bible by listening to the Old Testament, the New Testament or the Complete Bible and the whole family can gather around, too. This audio Bible is from Zondervan, the world’s leading Bible publisher.
This is much more than a toy, it is science lessons in a box and was recommended to our son by his science teacher, a research scientist who participates each year in the DARPA Urban Challenge with Autonomous Robot Cars. Mindstorms is exciting for children and teens (adults too) and will nurture their curiosity. Parents will love that it’s not some mindless, brain-rotting toy. If you missed the posts about the Urban Challenge, you can click 
The Jetsons have finally arrived. This round vacuum may not look like a robot, but it will automatically vacuum your home, spend extra time in the dirtiest spots and return to one of its two battery chargers to ready itself for the next clean up and you won’t have to lift a finger. Spend the extra time laughing with your children, cozying up with your spouse or pampering yourself.
Infinity Goods blog 