Learning Spanish, Update

 How hard is it to learn another language?  I know French fairly well, though I wouldn't consider myself fluent.  I can read it and understand most of it.  It was my favorite subject in high school, the only class in which I got straight A's.  I have built on that base by watching YouTube videos and by studying it in Babel.

A few years ago I realized that knowing Spanish would be a good idea, since I live in California and there are many native speakers here.  So I took two semesters of Spanish at the local junior college and then began studying that in Babel as well.  Now I am studying it much on my own, using the many lessons and reading stories on YouTube.  I figure it will take 1 or 2 years to become fluent.  My time estimate is based on what other students of the language have reported on YouTube.  If they can do it, so can I.

Avoid Internet Scams

About a week ago I was scrolling through YouTube and saw an ad for an IQ test.  For fun, I took the test, but at the end I was told I would have ot pay $9 to receive my score.  No problem I fired up PayPal and paid the $9 -- or thought I had anyway.  The next day my PayPal account revealed that instead of taking the $9 the vendor had charged my account $29.90, and indicated that this would be a recurring monthly charge.  None of this was authorized by me and I complained to PayPal and they removed the recurring charge but would not remove the first charge of $29.90.   So much for the safety of using PayPal.

I tried to reach the vendor directly though their website, but the website would not allow any messages to themselves unless you were a registered user.  The company was in China, no surprise there.

A few days before this episode I had ordered a glucose monitoring device from a Chines company for $25.  However, they charged my PayPal account $65 instead and also put me on a recurring charge, unauthorized by me.  I got PayPal to reverse the recurring charge and got the excess chare refunded.  There is a lesson to be learned from this:  if you order something through PayPal, unscrupulous vendors will have access to you PayPal account and will rob you blind with charges you never authorized.  I doubt that I will ever receive the device I did order and paid 25 for.

Here are my suggestions to avoid getting ripped off by unscrupulous vendors:

1. Never directly order anything advertised on YouTube.  Instead, check Amazon.com to see if you can order though them.  Amazon is honest and fair, and you can return anything you ordered with no hassle and no questions asked, and receive a refund.

2  Never directly order anything advertised on FaceBook; check Amazon to see if they carry the same thing.

Trump Ends the War in Gaza; Woke Right Damages MAGA Movement

President Donald Trump's approval with the public is riding high, especially since he was able to negotiate an end of the Israeli-Gaza war and release of of the surviving hostages in Hamas hands.  The Democrats are so jealous that they posted several items on X.com claiming that Trump copied Biden's peace plan and the hostage release was already in the works, thanks to Biden, when Trump took over.  Pathetic, to say the least.

The Dems found a private group chat online by young Republicans, in which the members made several really stupid and destructive statements, including one member stating "I love Hitler" and another stating Democrats should be put in the gas chamber and still others expressing animosity towards the State of Israel.  This is significant because a major part of the Democrat strategy is to convince the public that Republicans are Nazis and fascists.  It is a desperation move, but the young fools in the group chat breathed life into the left's slander.

There is a bad section of the conservative movement, known as the Wole Right, who are anti-semitic and strongly oppose Israel.  These Young Republicans in the Chat Group apparently identify with these people and should be condemned and ostracized by mainstream MAGA.  The unofficial leaders of the Woke Right are Tucker Carlson, Candace Owens, Mark Dice and Marjorie Taylor Green.

Most members of MAGA are strongly supportive of Israel and want to help jews.  We have been distancing ourselves from the Woke Right, as we sense they are bound to be more of a problem than a help to the MAGA right.

Online Advertising Scams; Fake YouTube Posts

YouTube BS to Attract Readers

 The weather here in Hollister is finally turning cold.  I am sitting here in the backyard watching the large havest moon ascend in the sky.  Life is a battle and I am in retreat.  I am also freezing.

I am amazed at how much out and out fraud is present on the internet today.  The commercial online advertisements are a disgrace.  All sorts of fake gadgets are advertised when you bring up many posts on YouTube.  A maxim to keep in mind is this:  if its too good to be true, it's a scam.  Don't be a sucker.

One of the most current is a device said to steal content from Netflix.  The advertisers "hope Netflix won't find out about it."  Now you can watch several online content providers "for free."  Don't be too appalled, the device doesn't really work.  A lot of these scams allow you to return their nonfunctioning junk for a refund, knowing that many will not bother.

Another item that appears to be fake is a gadget that you plug into a wall socket and it somehow greatly decreases your energy bill.  Oh yeah, that sounds totally plausible.  (Sarcasm)

Another source of gross falsehoods is found in the YouTube postings.  I am referring to the post's title page, not the post itself.  Apparently, YouTubers can lie lie hell in the title page without any worry of negative action by YouTube.

For example, there has been several utterly false claims about the Tyler Robsinson case, the suspect accused of assassinationg Charlie Kirk.  One post title page claims that during his court hearing, Tyler and his mom and dad begged the judge not to give Tyler the death penalty, with an AI produced image of the three Robinsons crying in court.  

Another such post claims Tyler sent his parents a video or him chained to a bed in his cell.  Ridiculous, Tyler has no ability to make any videos or send them from his cell.  

Still another post claims Tyler has now been convicted and sentenced to death.  No trial has yet occurred, so the claim is as fake as fake can be.

Don't bother reading such posts.

Dust In The Wind

10:50 PM – I am still in a blue funk over the deaths of my dog Kodi and the murder of Charlie Kirk.  It’s like a constant form of mental fatigue.  I don’t want to do anything, I don’t much care about anything.  Do the dead know that they are dead?  Do they know what happened to them?  Where are they now?

 I remember back in 1970 when my mother-in-law died of cancer. I was attending night classes at San Jose State.  As I walked along the dark campus, I looked at a street light and saw that its brilliance seemed to be swimming in my tears, and I asked “Mama, where are you?”  I grieved over her now permanent absence from my life, through natural forces that I could neither understand nor control.

Tonight I feel the same sorrow for Kodi, my dog.  Maybe there is no afterlife for dogs or even humans.  Maybe Kodi is nothing more now than dust in the wind.  If that be true, I want to be with him wherever and however he is.  If he is just dust in the wind, then I want to be dust in the wind with him.  Eventually, I mean.

However, I have no intention of speeding up the process, so do not worry about that.  I will live my life as long as God or nature dictates.