Musings from too close to the crypt. Random thoughts, valentines, and vitriol from an aging and increasingly cranky boomer who's tired of the public flogging he's taken as an Oregon Public Employee and now as a retired public employee drawing his PERS pension. To people who think I'm getting more than I deserve - bite me! I earned every penny. Please read the notes below before posting comments, or emailing me. They are important!!!
Where is the option (as long as we are dreaming) "Fire the Board AND the lawyers and actually follow all legal rulings when read as plain English!" Oops! My attitude is getting harder to hold in check.
Oh that's right! Being a man of your word you actually will send the poll results to ol' Ted the K! So many people just *talk* about doing things, but you actually DO them. In that light your poll questions are pretty good; slanted but not *too* slanted! Having vented, and sipped a bit of coffee, I'll go back and actually cast my vote now! Thanks for yet one more chance to sound off, Marc.
If PERS were interested in representing retirees, as is the tlegislative mandate, rather than pimping for employers as they are doing, the choice of settling out-of-court would be obvious. wouldn't it. Anazazi1
Indeed they would, but somewhere long about late 2002 PERS stopped being an organization representing EMPLOYEES. Suddenly the EMPLOYERS became a stakeholder and then quick as a wink they became the ONLY stakeholder. They tend to think the money entrusted to PERS as THEIR money, which they are loaning back to us to use in retirement. That way they get the right to call the loan and revise terms "at will". In that regard, they remind me of Citibank or Capital One, who slip those 8 page documents in with your bill. The ones printed in 1 point type telling you, in short, that your interest rate has gone up, if you are 30 seconds late the fees are triple your payment, and doubles for each 60 seconds late thereafter, etc.
I like the poll format here. I think having polls that are sent on to the government officials is a great idea.
While I signed up at Yahoo, I always had difficulty with the site being able to log back in and gave up doing polls. Perhaps others had the same problem, hopefully this will work better with Goggle.
Jan, thanks for your note. I've tried several polling software variants. I like Vizu best because it is so easy to use. Once you've voted, click on comment and you'll be taken to an interesting site that shows the number of votes for each category *and* a fascinating map of where the votes are coming from. It is this feature that makes Vizu superb for getting a feel for how far and wide PERS retirees (and other readers) are spread.
I especially liked the map, only my response wasn't on it. So I changed my vote to the same response, and it still is a no-show on the map. Maybe the program can't tell where I am located, it thinks I'm located somewhere else or my location info is blocked. Is it possible my vote is being taken, but the location is not indicated?
I suspect that the detail on the map isn't fine enough for you to show up singularly. Since I know the general area where you live, I can see a cluster so thick that you don't stand out. Notice that the responses are color coded. You'd probably stand out if you picked an infrequently selected choice. Just a theory. Perhaps you're really posting from Timbuktu in Africa. :-)
The only lollipop in my town is green. My lollipop should be red, so it just doesn't know where my voting brain is located. Must be going by e-mail location or something. It doesn't know where my keyboard and I are. (sometimes I don't know either)
It goes by IP address. If you are logging on through a host that happens to have its central server in Seattle or San Francisco, that's where you'll show up on the map. Since I don't know who your ISP is, I can't be sure how your IP address is handed out.
11 comments:
Where is the option (as long as we are dreaming) "Fire the Board AND the lawyers and actually follow all legal rulings when read as plain English!" Oops! My attitude is getting harder to hold in check.
peg (in thin disguise as MollyNCharlie)
Well, I didn't want the poll questions to be *too* biased :-)
Of course, it was Shakespeare who once said "Kill all the lawyers". Metaphorically speaking, I think ole Will was probably speaking truth.
Oh that's right! Being a man of your word you actually will send the poll results to ol' Ted the K! So many people just *talk* about doing things, but you actually DO them. In that light your poll questions are pretty good; slanted but not *too* slanted! Having vented, and sipped a bit of coffee, I'll go back and actually cast my vote now! Thanks for yet one more chance to sound off, Marc.
peg
If PERS were interested in representing retirees, as is the tlegislative mandate, rather than pimping for employers as they are doing, the choice of settling out-of-court would be obvious. wouldn't it.
Anazazi1
Lance:
Indeed they would, but somewhere long about late 2002 PERS stopped being an organization representing EMPLOYEES. Suddenly the EMPLOYERS became a stakeholder and then quick as a wink they became the ONLY stakeholder. They tend to think the money entrusted to PERS as THEIR money, which they are loaning back to us to use in retirement. That way they get the right to call the loan and revise terms "at will". In that regard, they remind me of Citibank or Capital One, who slip those 8 page documents in with your bill. The ones printed in 1 point type telling you, in short, that your interest rate has gone up, if you are 30 seconds late the fees are triple your payment, and doubles for each 60 seconds late thereafter, etc.
I like the poll format here. I think having polls that are sent on to the government officials is a great idea.
While I signed up at Yahoo, I always had difficulty with the site being able to log back in and gave up doing polls.
Perhaps others had the same problem, hopefully this will work better with Goggle.
Jan, thanks for your note. I've tried several polling software variants. I like Vizu best because it is so easy to use. Once you've voted, click on comment and you'll be taken to an interesting site that shows the number of votes for each category *and* a fascinating map of where the votes are coming from. It is this feature that makes Vizu superb for getting a feel for how far and wide PERS retirees (and other readers) are spread.
I especially liked the map, only my response wasn't on it. So I changed my vote to the same response, and it still is a no-show on the map. Maybe the program can't tell where I am located, it thinks I'm located somewhere else or my location info is blocked. Is it possible my vote is being taken, but the location is not indicated?
J Stevenson:
I suspect that the detail on the map isn't fine enough for you to show up singularly. Since I know the general area where you live, I can see a cluster so thick that you don't stand out. Notice that the responses are color coded. You'd probably stand out if you picked an infrequently selected choice. Just a theory. Perhaps you're really posting from Timbuktu in Africa. :-)
The only lollipop in my town is green. My lollipop should be red, so it just doesn't know where my voting brain is located. Must be going by e-mail location or something. It doesn't know where my keyboard and I are. (sometimes I don't know either)
J.S:
It goes by IP address. If you are logging on through a host that happens to have its central server in Seattle or San Francisco, that's where you'll show up on the map. Since I don't know who your ISP is, I can't be sure how your IP address is handed out.
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