Monthly Archives: December 2020

The Inexact Art of Advertising

Posted in Advertising by

I am told that these advertisers on the Web have a way of knowing just what a person might be interested in. As such, they only send ads that might interest me. If that is the way it is supposed to work, it has failed on me. Not only do I have little interest in any of it, my purchasing power is pretty weak. I don’t buy things unless I need to. Occasionally, I do buy things that I want, but that rarely coincides with anything advertised, on the Net or TV.

They keep advertising these games. Other than chess and solitaire, I don’t play games on my computer. I prefer to use it in more productive endeavors. If Microsoft keeps trying to take control of my computer, I just might break out my Atari and put it it work. Oddly it seemed to be able to do most of what I needed and then some. Moreover, I didn’t need to worry about the Chinese or Ruskies trying to look over my shoulder to see what I’m doing… Not that it would do them any good anyway.

I record the programs on TV that I want to see and I have become expert at at fast forwarding. I can watch an hour show in roughly 40 minutes. I know. The advertisers pay a lot of money to put those shows on and I should watch the ads. I don’t see the point it though. They are advertising things I don’t need or want. What good would it do them if I do watch their ads. I have two computers and, truth be told, I don’t need either of them. I can’t buy any new cars. The old 2008 model I have will likely be the last I’ll ever buy, unless it breaks. There is certainly no way I would ever be able to buy a ‘his and hers’ pickup. It would be ridiculous anyway. I only drive but about 60 miles a week anyway.

In my last post, I already mentioned the Medicare garbage they uselessly throw my way. I already have all mine settled. Between Medicare and our aux. insurance, I’ve hardly paid a dime on medical. Considering I’m 73, that’s not too bad.

The ones that really get me are those ads for AARP. They came out in strong support of Obama care and I will never forgive them for that. When I talked to my insurance agent, I told him I wanted nothing to do with any policy that had to do with AARP. He laughed and said it was kind of going around. I suspect that AARP may rue the day they made that choice. Then again, given their politics, they just may not care. (Also, my best guess is that Obama offered a little persuasion.)

Now, let’s see. There is that company that advertises those shipments of meat. Sorry guys. You’ll not get any orders from me. Kroger or Walmart is good enough for me– and I don’t have to wait for it.

As you can imagine, I can go on and on.

Funny… After playing a game of solitaire the other day, I noticed a web ad that said something to the effect that Ford, F150s are less expensive than I think. Okay. It doesn’t hurt to look. Fine. I clicked on it. It took me to a page that had virtually nothing on it except a button with the word ‘go’ on it. That took me to a page advertising Chevrolet pickups. Now I wonder how that happened. Anyway, I have no interest at all in pricing Chevrolets so I immediately left the site and went in and watched advertisements on the TV.

Medicare Season

Posted in Advertising, Deceit, TV Advertisements by

Medicare season is over, I think. During certain times, people on Medicare can make changes. Apparently, every insurance company in the states knows that. Also, they apparently know those who are on Medicare. I generally get a phone call every other day, sometimes two in one day. They all want to tell me how good their system is compared the rest. Sometimes, they don’t do this so well. For them, English is obviously their second or maybe third language.

I would hope no one in their right mind would discuss their medicare with someone who barely understands English. The other day, I had some sinus problems so I took some antihistamines, put my phone on the charger and went to sleep. I was just about dreaming really nice dreams when my phone started making noises. I jumped up, ran to the other room, picked up the phone and said, “Hello.” Afterward, a woman started her spill about her Medicare system. If you think I kept my cool after that, you don’t know me. Then I spent the next half hour going back to sleep. By the way, dreams don’t work like video machines. Not only was I not able to pick up where I left off, I had no dreams at all.

The irritating thing is, I pay for my phone. The advertisers don’t pay one dime to use my phone and yet they get full use of it. To be sure they advertise about their wonderful plans on TV. Through November and half way through December, all station breaks have Medicare ads, sometimes two. On occasions, I’ve seen the same ad twice in a row. Well, at least that is on them. They pay the bill, every bit of it. Do they help me pay for my phone? Forget it.

Then, of course there are the flyers that come in the mail. It ought to be illegal to make a flyer look like official mail. I have to scrutinize each and every one before I toss it. I have a fear the one I toss just might be real. That’s just not right. They do it on purpose. Everyone of the flyers look official as can be. If I were to respond to one, I would not chose any of those who are trying to deceive me.

I think maybe that I will put a special ring on my cell phone for those I want to speak to. The rest can just sit there and let it ring. After a while they just might get the hint. But then I am something of a realist. I’m not holding out much hope.

Purgatory

Posted in Christian values, Religion by

Today, I received a pamphlet in the mail from Catholics. I do not know if it was a church or just an organization. Nonetheless, I noticed that the pamphlet had a paragraph on purgatory. It surprised me because I thought they gave up on that hoax. The scam had been uncovered ever since Bibles were readily available and people could read the scripture for themselves.

Nonetheless, this is the hoax. When a person dies, they go to purgatory during which time they pay for all the wrong they did. If someone, usually a relative provided things of value to the church, then it could be used to lessen the time the person spends in purgatory. Hence, wealth was used to help relatives into heaven.

There is one thing that the wealth accomplishes to this day. It makes the Catholic church rich. It was the whole purpose of the hoax. The Catholic church needed money. So, one of the clerics came up with this idea.

Firstly, there was no talk of purgatory until centuries after Jesus’ resurrection.

Second, if you have a word processor and you were to load the entire Bible into it; then did a word search on purgatory, you would not find it. It is not there. There is nothing there that resembles it. Certainly, Jesus did not use the term. He used the term hell and He used the term Heaven. On at least one occasion, He used the term paradise, but not purgatory. If there were such a place, don’t you think He would have said something about it?

Third, Jesus made it quite clear. There are those who will go to heaven and there are those who will go to hell. There was no mention of purgatory.

Finally, a word about wealth. No one, but no one can purchase salvation. If there was a purgatory, God would not want anyone’s wealth. If God wanted it, he could make more wealth than what is on earth. However, wealth serves Him no purpose. For what is He going to use it?

Moreover, if you stack all your good works on top of each other, it would not begin to reach to heaven for just one person. God is not impressed by anything you do in your pride. The only thing he respects are the things you do in the name of Jesus. That which is done without faith in Jesus is as filthy rags.

It is one of the biggest lies that Satan teaches, that we can impress God with what we do with our hands or what we give him without faith. Certainly faith in the Catholic church will gain you nothing. On the contrary. In God’s eyes it is idolatry. God’s word should be the foundation for our faith, not some edict from Rome.