Google and the others

Lately you hear about Google does this or Google does that. Quite often it sounds like people are talking about some omniscient being named Google. One might think Google is God Almighty.

Well, I am here to burst this silly bubble. Google is just a search engine, nothing more, nothing less. It's been around for 10 years now and it sure has changed since it first appeared, though it seems mainly for the worse. Yet, I repeat, Google is just a network of robots, machines. Machines don't think.

All the results you get in Google are the results of its algorithms run by robots. That's why I always knew that any statement about Google made in absolutes is usuaaly wrong. Google does not show duplicate results? Wrong. Google does not show sites without backlinks? Wrong again.

Let's just face the truth. Google tries hard to clean the web of immense junk that now invades our virtual space and of course a job of this magnitude is impossible with any half-decent results. But they try. Unsuccessfully. The web-masters try to game Google. Google tries to clean up their act. It's constant war. Nobody is ever going to win.

Also remember that nothing is eternal. Not even Google. Some day Google will be replaced by something better. Or worse. But eventually it will be replaced. Though it's staying power is amazing, I think its end is near precisely because it's been around for too long.

As I am typing this page I notice the words are disappearing. No! No!!!! Almighty Google found out what I am writing and erased half of my essay..... The keyboard gets stuck. Google... is... watching you.......

More about Medicine

Well, look like my tale of woe is not ended. I had to get TB test in order to have my job application processed. The skin test they administered was on the borderline but they eventually decided that it was positive. I had to check with all the nurses at the clinic. Anyway, one of the nurses tried to scare me into taking some kind of medication for TB. I don't even have TB! Why would anyone wanted to treat some latent decease that your own body successfully conquered, assuming you even have this latent form of the decease?

USA Medicine

Well, we avoided it for a long time but unfortunately last month we had to deal with the phenomenon known as American healthcare system. Healthcare? How about calling it sickcare instead? We knew what we were getting into but it still left us shocked at the stupidity and enormous power of the thing.

Last month my husband got an infection. We were able to diagnose it ourselves. We tried the usual home remedies like cranberry juice and baking soda. Nothing worked. However the pain was becoming too intense so he really needed antibiotic. Well, the doctor asked the usual questions, gave us a prescription. The jerk at the reception refused to quote the price. Can you imagine going to the grocery store and the clerk refusing to give you price for your purchase?  Or ordering something from catalogue without knowing the price? Yet American doctors and their minions allow themselves to render services without telling you in advance the price of these services, meaning they can charge whatever they want. Those bastards!

The medicine itself was only $15. I am all right with that.

Unfortunately we had to go back as the medicine did not take desired effect. The second time they made us wait for an hour and then a nurse, not a doctor showed up. She did not do a damn thing except being surprised that the pain was still there.

One month later we got a bill. Then another one. Than we got too more bills. They add up like to a $900 dollars. Nine hundred dollars just to get a prescription for an antibiotic that cost $15. I expected it to be high but I though more like in the range of $100. Because that's what they basically did: jut gave us a prescription for antibiotic.

I won't even start talking about insurance companies.

Oh, and they refused him MediCal because evidently we are too rich to qualify. Never mind we worked hard to save this money. The way they try into your private life is disgusting. And they also encourage poverty mindset. Well, hopefully we will never be dealing with them again.

This madness has to be stopped.

Unfortunately we all know that it won't be. Not anytime soon, anyway.

P. S. The moral of the story: never ever go to hospitals or emergency centers, they will drain you out of your money. They really don't give a damn about you or your trouble. Forget the whole concept that "doctors want to help people". But in case you do need to visit a doctor, go to a private practitioner. They depend on returning patients so their prices will be much more reasonable. It's not to their advantage to rob you blind as they will only get you once. And that is not a good business model.

Rain

So we finally hit the rainy weather!

The problem with living in the desert is that you get tired of high heat, especially if you don't run air conditioner. Walking outside can be a drag. So it's relief to have some coolness for a while.

Of course the same can be said about the rainy weather. When it rains every day, eventually you get tired of rain. So far, we've been lucky. So the ideal weather is in the middle coast of California, like San Francisco. I've been there but only for a short visit.

In one part you have dry chaparral with few trees. It can be attractive. In the North you have redwood forest that likes to eat fog. I wish we had pine forest here too. 

Presumption of Dumbness

Lately I have been thinking of getting  some "eddication". Since university is out of the question due to financial reason, I have been researching community colleges. Well, as you know, community colleges are not very high on the scale of "respect" but they are comparatively cheap and you will get the degree you want, which is just as good as the one from the university.

So what are the requirements? Well, it turn out that you have to prove with your official transcript in the sealed envelope that you got your high school education. What is even more insulting is the fact that if you happened to have a degree from some other college (not the one you are applying to) they will equate college with high school diploma!  I shudder to think what kind of hoops you have to jump through if you happen to have a university degree from another country. Do you have to take GED test?

In this system you are presumed stupid until you can prove that you are average and can at least read and write. But wait, isn't everyone supposed to have at least high school education? That's right but have you really graduated from high school?

This kind of stupidity permeates the whole system. If you are a teacher, for example, you are presumed to be a criminal, a child molester a fraudster and what not. So you have to pass a  fingerprint test to prove that you are not before starting a job. Why sealed transcripts? Dob you have to ask? You are presumed to falsify your records to make you look good on paper. Funny it's never even occurred to me to do that.

This whole educational system is designed to take as much money from you as possible. You have to pay to take tests that prove that you are not as dumb in order to get certificate for some stupid job that any trained monkey can do. In other words

Presumed Dumb until Proven Average.

The Salton Sea

The Salton Sea is one of the biggest (if not the biggest) inland lakes in California. It is salt water lake and it appeared more or less by accident when the waters of Colorado rivers broke a dike and eroded two watercourses whose waters eventually filled the Salton Basin. The Salton basin is one of the lowest places in the United States.

So we had to see this famous sea. One can imagine a nice beach community with shady palms, luxurious houses and clean sparkling sand. Imagine the yachts sailing in the distance and gay Mexican music in the air. The streets are bursting with tourists who have hard time to decide which Mexican restaurant to choose: they all look so inviting with their bright colour facades and salsa music. You get the picture.

Well, as you have probably guessed the reality was pretty disappointing. There was a Yacht Club Drive there but no yachts in sight. Not even a former yacht club building: how did they get a street with the name like that? The brightest building in town was a high school: painted in garish yellow colour with a picture of a wild cat. I could not read their motto.

Well, Salton City is located right in the desert so the plant life there is minimal. A little bit of chaparral. And, no, they have no palms there to speak of. A few we saw at the beach looked very pathetic and a few were burnt. There was one Mexican restaurant but it looked spooky. Very few people outside but that is pretty much a norm for any California town, especially desert towns.

It seemed somebody had high hopes for a real estate boom in that area. For example the aforementioned Yacht Club drive had two lanes separated by the inner strip. There were quite a few new looking houses, new but very ugly. But I saw some ads advertizing cheap houses, like around $100000 which is more than anyone should pay for that area.

Probably the most shocking part about this "sea" was fish. The beach was covered with dead fish. It seems that it gets so hot here that tilapia does not have enough oxygen to breath. They grasp for the oxygen in the air because the heat does something to the water that deprives fish of oxygen. Once the high wind actually revived them. It looks like now they have the annual fish die-off. There were also lots of birds who evidently were not interested in dead fish but preferred them alive.

The general impression of the place was rather dreary and the opposite of the picture I described above.

Thomas Aquinas College

As we drove out of Ojai by the scenic route among the hills past the ranchos we saw a sign for Thomas Aquinas College. We thought it was rather a curious place for a college, it not exactly in the middle of nowhere but certainly off the beaten track. The drive-in was kind of hidden but we foundit way and drove right in.

The first unpleasnt surprise: it turned out to be a private school so not only one could not drive in but one is not even supposed to park outside the gate! We did  so we got out to take a quick look but the security guard told us that we were not supposed to park there. But when he found out that we just wanted to take a quick look around this unusual place he said it was all right. So we went in.

So as the name implies it is a Catholic school or rather college for high school or even graduates. The complex is located right at the foot of a mountain and it has magnificent view. The buildings have kind of old fashioned look not like these awful-looking modern day institutions.

 We visited a chapel: it was quite big, more like a church than a chapel with Vatican style altar. They were some workmen outside taking a break. Right outside the chapel you get a splendid view for what ordinarily would be considered a backyard.

The complex behind the main building had Spanish mission style architecture with its signature arches. The whole place was spacious and open, the atmosphere was quite relaxed. One could tell it was an expensive school. Well, it was fairly close to Ojai.