Oh, for the Love of Manuals!

Photo by: Todd Ehlers License:  CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

First I must apologize for those of you that have noticed the site hasn't been updated in a few days. This was due to a software problem, and yes also to due to a lack of clearly written manuals. So this particular topic is very pertinent.

I won't mention any brand names but suffice to say two things conspired to keep me busy for the last 48 hours.

1. An error in one of my accounts cost of shutdown of some of my software, right after I paid a not a substantial amount of money to renew a subscription.
   
   
2. A good deal of my software is bought and paid for, and that act of buying something used to mean that you got a decent instruction manual. Well those days are long gone. It is one thing to abridge something is it is another thing to completely miss large chunks of information.

This is what caused my conundrum for the last two days. Instruction manuals have now been shortened and abridged to such a point that they give nope your understanding of what is going on. Nor do they provide the author of the document a clear understanding of what is going on or how to accomplish a task. This is a recipe for disaster and very time wasteful.

If I see one more book indicating that I should "click on a tiny icon" (not even bothering to give it a name) I made last go insane. The other thing that is sadly missing now days is detailed descriptions of features or if the information is included it is so broken up with hyperlinks and options as to make the text completely unreadable.

Then of course there is the most common problem. The software update you just received completely changes how the program operates and thereby makes the manual null and void.

The photo at the top of this post is of a 1973 Heathkit (Wikipedia article) manual, which while being brief were incredibly well written. They had to be, because you were assembling electronic kits. This just goes to prove that it is possible to be brief and get give sufficient information. Even the books in my elementary school gave more information about a given topic and what you find in most periodicals today.

Each morning I am rather astounded by what passes for newsworthy material. One problem I see is that in order to keep companies visible on the Internet they must produce material every day and unless you've got a staff of thousands, okay that was a bit of an overstatement, the quality will inevitably go down. This blog is a perfect example each day I miss publishing usually results in the loss of 50 views.

Still there must be some way to maintain quality. Because quality really is the cornerstone of knowledge. It is what enables you to go beyond the written or spoken word because the concept has been fully conveyed. To do that takes time and effort.

Anyway this is just very quick blurb. Just to get things back on track.

 I'll write more tomorrow. Patrick

PS:  It looks like Heathkit store is back in business! I don't know if they ship to Canada yet but I see they have the next generation of their famous "digital clock" which I built when I was a teenager. I have to find out if they ship the Canada and if they do. Well how can I not build another one.

Telephone adventures: What are you going to do today?

 

On the phone again😀

My volunteer job is rather unique in that because it deals with serving the public from an IT perspective (Information Technology) one never knows quite what issues are going to be faced during the day. It can go all the way from simply explaining how do basic tasks on the computer all the way to rather bizarre situations:

There was one person who called in which ultimately had the whole team scratching our heads. There laptop it started rebooting itself and getting stuck in a loop. That is, they would turn it on it would start up, in this particular case they would get the Microsoft windows logo then it would flash and restart over and over again. Every person on the team went through the appropriate list of culprits to no avail. Because we would doing this over the phone at one point it was arranged to use a second laptop with the camera to view the first that was stuck in the reboot cycle. Everyone at the office tried their best to solve this mystery… And then the answer casually was revealed by the owner… The investigation it reached the point where we ask the person to remove the hard drive from the laptop and were about to give them the appropriate instructions when they said: "Oh, I know how to do that, I do it all the time." What ultimately was revealed was that the owner of the laptop removed the hard drive any time there was any problem with the machine. Where normally someone would just unplug the machine this person had gone the extra step of taking the hard disk out. Most importantly, they had dropped the hard drive on the floor three times in total and this was a physical spinning hard drive. The problem had started soon after the third incident.

In the video on this page I talk a bit about this incident, feel free to watch it.

 

The owner of the laptop knew this wasn't a good thing to do under any circumstances and that is probably why they resisted telling us for such a long time. Anyway, we informed them that they needed to do hard drive and that they would need to reinstall the operating system. Unfortunately all the data was lost as the poor old drive had completely packed it in. Lesson learned, the hard way.

One of the trickiest things to do when you're working with people over the phone or remotely is to determine their level of competency with the equipment they're using. This can be a very tricky thing to do because different people uses vastly different terminologies and the configuration of their machines can be very different. Add to that the fact that there are many different ways to proceed with a computer and the Internet. Not everybody understands that the Internet is a truly two-way medium, that it is reacting to what you are doing with it. Many elderly people see the entire computer as a TV set essentially and they don't understand that there is actually much more going on. They can be very bright and aware but there are cultural upbringing started with the radio and later television and that is how they view things.

Other people don't differentiate between the various parts of a computer if you asked them about their monitor they get confused because they see the machine as a singular device. Some even referred to their machines as a brand name: "My Lenovo is acting up." If you get a phone call like this you know it's going to take some time to figure things out. People that are more comfortable with technology tend to have much for specific requests, like: "My USB ports are dead." These are "usually" relatively quick fixes. ( Personally, these fast ones aren't that much fun. I do like a challenge :-))

Then lastly, you get requests from what I will class as the "People that think they know more than you do and who won't tell you what they've done. But want you to fix it anyway." This group drives us all crazy, especially because they are set ups are usually complicated, overly so, and there is a tendency for them to do things on impulse. For example, one person we work with had USB hubs (Think a USB splitter, one chord in many connections out.) plugged into other USB hubs, it was a real rats nest and all from different brands. The main problem for them was everything was slow. The answer to the problem was that they just had too much plugged in and expected everything to run at full speed. They didn't like hearing that they had to simplify.

So that is what my volunteer days are like and that is what I'm going to do today most likely :-). It's a true adventure!

Patrick

Do you remember when… They said "Computers will make your life more efficient."

I'm running between tasks today and as I'm doing so the thought occurred to me from many years ago that it was touted by all the media: "Computers Will Make Your Life More Efficient!" And they even followed that statement with "it will be a paperless society." Boy if I could go back in time, would I have news for them....

Now don't get me wrong… Multitasking and technology can do wonderful things. But the one thing the daydreamers of yesteryear forgot was the concept of finite time and the tendency to fill everything up. The faster you can go, the more needs to be done, because essentially everything else is sped up as well.

I wonder if we could even handle going back 50 or 60 years. Think about it nothing you know would exist except for the very basic items. Cringe, if you went to the bank you would have to stand in line and wait as they tabulate the answer. Or be astonished by how quickly the representative could do the math in their head. The impulses we normally given to on an hourly basis to check our phones and do other things would drive us crazy, simply because there would be no way to do them. You would have to wait for that phone call or maybe drive all the way home to make it. And if you frequently now talk to your friends around the world, while you could do that you run the risk of one very nasty phone bill at the end of the month. No wonder our parents were terrified the moment they realized the children could reach the phone. In my case, thank goodness my grandmother lived in town because I do remember calling her rather frequently.

It would be the same thing for the news. Let me know in the comments if you've never read a physical newspaper. Top that off with the fact that the reading skills 60 years ago tended to be much higher. English was slightly different. I remember a few of my teachers who were rather tyrannical about the written word. Or at least I thought they were dictatorial. I live in Canada and I still remember in grade three and up having to put two spaces after a period before a sentence could start. The same rule applied to the start of paragraphs, you had to indent them.

The first time I visited a library card indexes were still in use. Years later I remember my joy of being able to log on to the bank were public library with the dial-up modem at 300 baud. That was so slow you could read faster. It was also very easy to overload the system with a complex search. Which I admit I love to do.

No doubt there is a ton of other things that happened which haven't occurred to me...

I was introduced to computers through work when I believe we were at Microsoft DOS 2.0, which came out in October 1983. That is when I heard that ultimately "Computers would make things more efficient". It became a mantra. There were no hard drives in site because they were expensive and very sensitive. When my boss did get one, I was read the riot act by the computer representative: "You must park the drive when you're done with the machine. Do not bump the table. This has a huge storage capacity of 20 MB." "Park" was an actual command you had to run when shutting down the machine. I think the drive itself cost around $600 that is without any of the cards you needed to run it. Well we also got a printer for the office the noisiest daisy wheel type machine I have ever heard. We used to do our printing at lunch while we were all out of the office.

Guess what, we ended up using tons of paper! I remember it was all fanfold and you had to take off the tractor holes on the side of the sheets. Here's an example of a Daisy wheel printer in action (I no doubt have found an example on YouTube )

Actually know that I think about it we probably have saved time and maybe even some paper. I do 90% of everything purchased wise online as well as bills etc. maybe we are getting there 😀.

Take care Patrick

Fractured Days

Photo by: Wenjie, Zhang License: CC BY 2.0

This article might turn into a rant.

Constant interruptions.

Yep, that's what I call the last few days. A collection of small, albeit not intended, disturbances. On a both personal and public level. I'm going to get a little X-Files here but I really am beginning to believe, at least a little bit, that my building and/or the inhabitants even though they are well intentioned go through cycles of disturbance. No sooner does one have a plan in place that there is something that happens. Could be a knock at the door or as it happened earlier today, one staff member ran in flew around my apartment counting of all things garbage cans. When I inquired with another staff member, because the first one it already flown the coop, as to what the heck was going on. The reply was "Last time we ordered garbage bags in masse the size was wrong. So this time, were going to fix that."  ... Yes indeed it was a garbage can audit. I'm guessing that it'd be dropped on the staff out of the blue because the "auditor" was running like mad.

The day went on like this with people running in and to checking the various things. Or wanting to make relatively small talk. Just important enough that I couldn't say "no" to them. There have been a few other days like this in the past week.

Minor chaos presides.

Something is going on with our flooring and painting redo of the building. It was started in a flourish of activity then all of a sudden it stopped before completion. About a week is gone by and I noticed the handyman is doing a lot of part on his own. No word as to what is going on when things will be completed.

Even my computer has gotten into the chaos act. The software I use to create videos for this site and other projects has decided to become rather unstable. Quirky might be a better word to describe it. 20 minute projects turn into an hour-long at least. When I finally finished one project I went uploaded to YouTube and I gotta very ambiguous message saying that it on no one error had occurred. Now fortunately you can go to YouTube and drag-and-drop your material in a standard browser. But the automated system is much nicer because it compiles the video into a finished product and then uploads it. If you do it the manual way you have to check back several times to see if the movie is ready for uploading. The process of compiling and converting the video to the right format is rather lengthy. And so this automation feature is very handy.

Mind you I have a few odd issues to deal with myself and am feeling a little bedraggled. I get this way whenever things don't progress. Where I live, although I love the staff and a general environment it is all very segmented. I really do miss the days when I can get into it six-hour stretch and just work on a project. Over here two hours is kind of the average. The days go by a little too fast for my liking. A friend of mine said to me the other day "Well at least you're not bored." I laughed and said "I am working now more than I ever did when I was younger." And that is true.

Tomorrow will be better I hope, and I'll get more done. I had planned today to get a package out for a board meeting I'm having with another organization next week. That didn't quite happen. So tomorrow's going to be another lightning finish to get it out the door. Because one of our members does not do email. Yes you read that right. Because of their condition they can't look at a monitor. Or any screen for that matter. It gives them a relatively quick migraine.

Okay that's enough for now.
I shall report more tomorrow. Take care everyone and thanks for stopping by.
Patrick

Is an afterlife really necessary?

"Leave room in your life for flexibility."

I am very grateful to be alive, and for me the fact that it is limited the accident of even more value. Knowing that the "spark" will only last so long ensures that it is appreciated and not squandered.

The following is only my opinion, this needs to be made clear because this article might ruffle some feathers. I am an agnostic and while I'm very glad that the world has diverse systems of belief, culture, with an ever-growing diversity it is problematic that some need to know there is an afterlife. From a very simple perspective, nothing else last forever why should the human race be any different.

When something has a limited span there is a tendency to appreciate it more, to pay more attention and indeed learn more from the experience. If the universe (God) said "You are life, but only for a short time." I wonder how that would've changed the world? I don't think the human race would see it is a limiting factor, I think perhaps we might have a tendency to make the most out of what we have. We would still have many issues, but we would have a different perspective for sure. The concept of an afterlife turns the world into an introductory course, because you know the real one comes next, the one that really matters. This can put physical humanity into kind of a throwaway realm. That is a real disservice to all that this world is which is: "A tremendous opportunity to discover and do good." (The reader can make up their own minds as to what the values in that phrase to them.)

Humanity would be better served if we didn't expect an afterlife, but if there is one thing that will be a gift. We can still ponder the many mysteries and ideas out there. But globally for the earth today I don't think we should hang our hat on the idea of an afterlife.

Take care, let me know what you think Patrick

Never Assume Anything. Cherish Everything.

Let the sunshine in!

 Boy if this isn't the perfect article for a sunny Sunday

One of those serendipitous moments when you suddenly realize your place in the world and how lucky one is to be alive and able to appreciate and interact with the world. Indeed just a joy in the realization of the serendipity 😃.

Once again I'm going to say what I've said many times earlier on this blog [paraphrasing myself] "I have seen too many people take too many things for granted…" I am going to add to that statement "and not appreciate what they have." I had to go downstairs earlier this morning to return a phone to someone and noticed that the dining room was full of people munching on food well before the normal lunch hour. Where I live they officially only serve lunch and dinner as well as a midday snack. The unofficial breakfast is because of some additional funding founded during Covid to bring in someone to handle small tasks not related to health care. At the end of this month we lose that wonderful person and will no doubt be going back to a normal schedule. Now, I only eat lunch and dinner so was pretty much unaware of this routine, even though it is been going on for a few years. My only defence for not noticing this is that I am such a nerd I have a tendency to discard what isn't immediately pertinent to whatever project I am undertaking.

 However some of the tenants just don't get it. How lucky we all are that we are for the most part still functioning and have a support staff that the rest of the world should be jealous of. (And they probably are). Yet there are ongoing grumblings about this and that. It kind of pisses me off so pardon me will I choose to stay in a more positive frame of mind. I think that about does it for this short post. I'll include a little video so you can see my general enthusiasms. (by the way: I uploaded a full-size version of the flower at the top of this post in PNG format it is  huge about 26 MB in size but you are more than welcome to download it.)

Have a great day everyone.

Patrick

Mental Sandboxing: The Mystifying Train of Thought

 Have you ever talked with someone whose train of thought or logic appears to be rather mystifying?

Once again, as I get older and reflect on things because I have so much experience to compare the present day to I find myself noticing all sorts of nuances in how people think. The very depth at which they consider a question or probe for an answer. It is fascinating.

I have friends in the computer field, one in particular, who if you give them a question related to technology will really dig in to the issue. They frequently surprise me because they come at the solutions from so many unique angles. This coincides with my own way of thinking although I "elementary school" compared to what this person knows and understands. They frequently leave me at the end of the Friday shift with a little mental teaser on the topic of technology. They know it's going to drive me pleasantly crazy over the weekend :-)

Then I know other people's thinking just doesn't go that deep. They may consider something and really work at it but you can see when you talk to them that they deal with concepts much more superficially. Their mind appears to be just configured differently. This is nothing to do with intelligence or disability of any kind, but both people appear to process the world in remarkably unique ways.-- I may do a video before this little article is finish because it is proving to be difficult to convey in words exactly what I mean. Yes, that is what I will do. A video is in order. But for those that don't have time for such visual stimuli, please consider the following points and/or questions:

What are some of the things that mould the mind?

• Is it just environmental and an early stage or are there actual "types" of minds, the design of which is settlement different?
  
  
• Diplomats are probably critically aware of the subtleties. After all if you didn't take them into account, communication would be a disaster.

 I also suspect, that cultures which incorporate such activities as meditation and ritual might be more aware of mental sandboxing. Human beings are so diverse, more diverse than I think we acknowledge most of the time.

As artificial intelligence develops I wonder how it will view our minds? It is an intriguing thought which at the pace of things it's probably going to be addressed in the not-too-distant future to some extent. I am glad to be around on earth to witness all of this :-). Although I think the human race is in for a wake-up call. Our egos are not going to like sharing the stage with an AI.

Over the next little while, observe your friends and colleagues to really get an understanding of what I've been talking about in regards to mental sandboxing. Let me know if you agree or disagree or have an entirely different angle which I haven't even thought about.

Have an excellent day. Take care,
Patrick

Why your computer slows down and Tips for avoiding bogus software

 Tips to improve PC performance

 One of the more frequent calls and requests I get at home as well as when volunteering is a person's computer being slow and/or pop-ups appearing on their desktop. Usually after a little investigation we find that "Optimization" software has been installed, sometimes repeatedly and from different companies.While no one can fault anyone for trying to keep their device running well it is important to understand that overall these optimization products which promise you greater speed, safety, and cleaning, on the whole don't work or can in some cases damage parts of the software the computer requires to operate properly. This is particularly true if the optimization product is free.

So here is a brief list of a few do's and don'ts as well as other tips to hopefully demystify why a computer might slow down in the first place. These are focused on Windows but the general concept can be applied to any computer or other electronic device. (For the purposes of this article "programs" and "apps" are the same, just different terminology for software.)

Reasons Your Computer Is Running Slow

1. The reason a computer slows down is usually due to one of three things. They can occur together or separately:

• Too many programs are running. Frequently when you download and install something, as a convenience, it sets itself up to start automatically when you turn the computer on. As more things are added to the computer chances are the list of programs starting up automatically grows. How you stop this from happening is different for each program. One thing to watch out for is when you first install the program if you have an option to choose a "custom install" that is the better way to go. If you choose the quicker option then there is no way to tell what really gets installed or how. If after you choose a custom install if the procedure looks too confusing I would personally recommend that you do not install the software.In my experience this is the most common problem

• .If the computer is about five years or older be aware that current apps often make the assumption that they will be installed on new hardware. As a result they use up too much memory or just expect the computer to do too many things at once. By "things at once" this may be something in the background which you don't see. Regardless be patient with older computers and realize they cannot do the latest and greatest things quickly, and sometimes not at all.

• Computers and their components do wear out. The hard drive may be reaching its end of life. One of the first things are hard drive will do regardless of its kind, mechanical or solid-state, is slow down. So if your computer is getting very slow make sure to backup all your material.

 

Free Software

2. Absolutely avoid all Free programs. Unless you are very clear about what the program is and does. Any program that calls itself a "Cleaner" or "Optimizer" should be treated as suspect. Cleaning a computer is a complex process which usually involves taking out software. Same goes for optimizing. There is no such thing as a quick fix. The problem with free programs is, they have to make money somehow and so they will be installing ads and other potentially unwanted programs. If you really must have a certain free piece of software then do diligent research. While there are many good free programs out there there are literally thousands of pieces of crap.

Be also aware that many free bogus programs masquerade as legitimate ones. This is especially true of virus checkers. The best way to spot something that is bogus is to look at the webpage address. All legitimate companies will have very clear names and usually a ".com" or ".org" suffix. Again as in other propaganda the fakes will probably be at the top of the list in search engines. Nefarious companies know how to manipulate the listings. Look down the list of results and check for several reviews. If you are unsure go to an actual physical store to buy or inquire about a product.

3. Sometimes despite all your best efforts after several years especially if the computer is used every day the machine will slow down because of all the changes made. Important note: only consider doing the following if you have made a backup of your documents and other important items.

In this case you may wish to have the operating system reinstalled. All modern computers and devices have this option and it will take the computer back to its original state when you first plugged it in after getting at home from the store. Be aware it will erase  everything, which is why you need to back your documents up before hand. Before doing this to make sure that it is not a physical issue like a hard drive going bad or other component in the computer wearing out. This should only be done by a technician or skilled person.

4. On most search engines the first few results in regards to apps or software downloads are advertisements. Go much farther down the list. Once you find the product page for the item you are considering getting to another search with your favourite search engine to find reviews of the product from several sources. Please be sceptical, because once something is downloaded and installed on your machine it can be more complicated to remove it if the product turns out to be a scam or useless.

5. The best way to keep the computer running properly is to use a minimum of software. If you are installing something new consider removing something old don't just let it hang around. If you are into free games then if you can I would suggest getting a separate computer just for that. Free games are notorious for including other unwanted programs. So if you got to go to the candy store make sure you're doing it on another machine. My own personal advice is avoid installing all games on any machine you use for work.

Finally if you absolutely need or want to download a free program or app, do so  only at the company website for the product. Do not go to third party download site. There is no guarantee that these sites have quality control and they may in some cases bundle additional software in with the product you are actually intending to get.

At the end of the day, please remember that it takes money to run a website or create a program. Companies need to generate revenue somehow and that includes ads and free programs. During the installation of any software there is always a section where they ask you to agree to a license or other document. It is worthwhile to read these. You will be surprised what a lot of them say in regards to extra software or advertising.

Stay save everyone, enjoy the Internet.
More tomorrow :-). Patrick

How aware are you of your thoughts?

If you think about it, when an idea occurs to you it's a moment of mental focus. You suddenly become aware that you have an "idea" and then proceed from there. Ever wondered what's going on in your head the rest of the time? Clearly, you are thinking and doing things, and hopefully not on too much mental autopilot (See related article: Presence of Mind ).

When I was in my 20s I went to a psychologist trying to deal with my spasms brought on by my Cerebral Palsy rather than using drugs. One of the things they had me do was in the morning carry with me a recorder and then during the next session with him we would review what was picked up. There was a little prep involves in that I was asked to not hold anything back just verbalize what ever occurred in my head. Boy was it an eye-opening experience. I could not imagine a 1/5 of the thoughts that went through my head. At the time it was very negative and very emotionally based.

Now, it is my belief that when you have Cerebral Palsy it is like being a biological biofeedback machine. There is a tendency for your body to react a little more obviously to every single stressor. It literally means that you get a clearer indication of what is affecting emotionally and environmentally. I suspect in an able-bodied individual these things might go unnoticed. But together the doctrine I turned a disability into a positive, combined with the awareness of what I had been saying to myself.

In a nutshell what came out of it was, it is not the grand big thoughts you have that effect your life to a great extent, it is the small ones, the ones in the background they fly underneath your radar which have a massive cumulative effect. If you're lucky and they're mostly positive and you are probably a great person to know right now. But in this crazy world you might have also taken on a lot of baggage or have avoided dealing with things and it is built up. So I suggest you grab your self a recorder and for the next few days pick a time every day when you record your conversations and thoughts.

The routine should go something like this:

1. Pick a time which you can consistently do this.
   
   
2. Make an agreement with yourself to verbalize everything that occurs to you. This may seem odd at first but after a day or two would become second nature and that's when things will get really interesting.
   
   
3. Let a few days pass before reviewing the recording. This is to give you some distance from whatever you were verbalizing so you can listen to it a little more objectively. If you have a trusted friend you can get them to sit in with this review. It can be very useful to have a second opinion.

You will be amazed at first what bubbles to the surface.( I sure was… To this day I still remember the first few recording review sessions with my psychologist, I was flabbergasted. ) Then of course the next step is to make a plan to move forward. It is likely he will find this recording ritual in itself not only revealing but it may help to lighten your load by getting these thoughts out in the open.

When I was doing this it was all on cassette tapes and I kept doing it for a long time, ending up with a closet shelf of stacked cassettes. I wish I had kept them because they would be very interesting to review right now. How often do any of us get to listen to ourselves 40 or more years ago in such fine detail. Heck I may start a audio archive and review it a few years from now. It would be an interesting the side project :-).

Have a great day everyone and thank you for visiting. I'll be putting up a video this weekend on some topic. As always if you have an idea just leave a comment.

Take care Patrick.

Entitlement: The Darkest Sin.

 

 I have met many people throughout my life thus far and a fair number are truly astounding individuals. They not only get a great deal out of life but add tremendous amounts back in creativity, effort, and sheer inspiration. These people are most often tremendously happy. They understand that it takes effort and engagement to truly benefit from all life has to offer and they don't shy away from a challenge.

Recently I have been in contact with another segment of humanity however, those that feel the world owes them something. They feel they are "entitled" to something. It doesn't matter what they feel they should get for free, and I use the word Free deliberately because the same people also insist on not putting in any effort. Never mind changing any aspect about themselves. They seem to be continually seeking to get more, and for their efforts they get only frustration. It is because they are not willing to be involved in humanity itself. They want to have all the benefits and not change any aspect of themselves. They just keep going and going and going... And are astonished when I or someone else tells them that the reason they are not getting what they want is because they are not willing to accept responsibility for whatever it is. To clarify this I'll give you an example:

Someone in my building wanted to get a dog actually became almost a demand because they were in a wheelchair. I got curious at this point because they already have a pet cat. I asked him how they were going to walk the dog several times a day and their response was "Oh, I will get the staff to do all that." Pursuing this I then asked "Most dogs need a fair bit of attention, they are very social, are you aware of this?" The response was "I will treat them just like my cat." At this point I became a little concerned because dogs and cats are very different animals. Cats are independent and don't really need connection or to be social. Dogs on the other hand might go a little crazy treat them like a cat. As we talked it became clear to me that what this person wanted was an imaginary image of what they thought taking care of a dog was. Not at all the real thing. Personally I be worried about the poor dogs mental health. Not to mention I think it would be a disastrous situation in the long run because this person doesn't think things through. They just desire the image of something. Most importantly, the desire to have something but they don't plan on changing anything about themselves.

To give you another example I recently met someone who demanded that they can do whatever they want whenever they want. This would be relatively okay if they were able-bodied and could take care of any situation they found themselves in. But there was an expectation in their demand that someone else would be there to clean up or deal with any unforeseen issues. Not to mention my place is an assisted living building which means that the staff take care of the core health needs. They are not butlers, and frankly even if they were there are limits for even a butler. Again this person's perception were very one-sided and the entitlement was very much obvious. They felt that the world really old them something big because they had become disabled. That kind of attitude never works and frankly gets me pretty riled up.

Indeed I suspect people like this with this overriding entitlement and the perception that they have all the fun and there none of the responsibility is probably what at least partially led them to their current health concerns. You cannot drink 15 cans of Coke a day and not expect your body to absorb it without any incident. This is not hyperbole I have met people that do this and expect their life to just go on and on fine. Then they bitterly complain that someone should have fixed things when it does not and that "someone is never them".

I wonder what it takes to wake these people up. Their attitudes are of course their own choice but that is why I called this article "Entitlement: The Darkest Sin" because it really is their choice and in my perception they are making the worst choice possible, one that has negative repercussions for all those around them.

It reminds me of the Star Wars movies in some respect. You have the Dark Force, which appears to be easy but carries with it a tremendous cost personally. Then there is the Light Force which offers effort on the part of the person but will end up benefiting many. Life I think is very much like that, you get out what you put in.

When I look at all the great wonderful people I have known, and have yet to meet. It is obvious they have made a commitment to society and the greatest sense. They also have great understanding which has been achieved by effort and labour. I really do believe there is no easy way to kind of fly through life. That is how it should be, because we learn the best when we put effort into the task. At the end of the day I have had a great life, and continue to have a great life. I have absolutely no regrets. :-).

Those that feel entitled however are miserable and often confused. They see individuals like myself as receiving special treatment magically. Again they are not looking deeper. I collaborate with people and work out ways to achieve things which benefits everyone involved. I want the world and humanity to grow and achieve its own goals. It takes some time and indeed effort. There is simply no getting around that. I will forever be grateful for the ongoing engagement and super creativity of everyone in the world who is undertaking similar tasks.

So if you know anyone who is "Entitled" trying to get them to change because effort is needed if anyone is going to alter their path. Every one of us if we are successful will not be the person down the road we are today. Life is dynamic and fluid and human beings are part of that. To be in the entitled state is to be stagnant and still it which is guaranteed to create conflict and incompatibility down the road.

The best skill they can learn is to embrace change and to learn how to let go of perceived power. Power after all is not the dominance over something, it is in truth learning about that very something and growing with it so at the end, All sides benefit.

Take care everyone. Once again have a great day. I have a couple of videos in the works and I think I'm going to add this one to them. Yes it looks like I'm going to have a busy weekend. So check back next week on this article to see if I've added a video. I will do my best. And as always learning in the process.

Patrick