Vonage isn’t all bad, Bar-baric 180, icy

We have had a bittersweet relationship with Vonage over the years.  The biggest problem has been spotty performance.  Sometimes the call just flakes out and you can hear the other person but they can’t hear you or vice versa.  Well Vonage just included a feature on our account that I like, voice to text transcription of voicemails.

We already had a nice set up with Vonage where any messages we had were sent to Ali and my email accounts as a .wav sound file.  Well transcription takes it to the next level.  Now we get a text version of the message dropped in our email, it’s great.

It’s a smart move by Vonage considering the need for a real home phone line becomes less and less as time goes on.  This is a nice little feature that might keep Vonage off my chopping block for a little while yet.

If you have seen any of my various workout videos you will know that a lot of them are tied into various challenges that are posted monthly on the bar-barians forum. Well this month I am actually the one that came up with the challenge which is kind of cool.

It is called The 180.  The challenge involves doing alternating pull ups and chin ups, switching your grip at the bottom of the motion with out dropping off the bar.  Unlike some of the challenges which can be a pain because you have to accurately time them or others that are too physically difficult for the average body weight enthusiast to attempt, this challenge is very simple, yet difficult at the same time.  It scales to the individuals ability.  The goal is simply max amount of repetitions.

So far the forum participants seem to think this is a good challenge.  I was pumped that even Zakavelli himself ( a legend in body weight feats) thought it was a good challenge.  Since it is my challenge, I will certainly attempt it several times throughout the month.

Back home they are enjoying an ice storm today.  Last night I had the front door wide open.  These days make me quite content in my decision to leave Berks County 1200 miles behind a decade + ago.

Florida’s new governor made an announcement about his plans for state workers.  Tricky Dick Scott wants to put state employees and their benefits in his cross hairs.  His plan to balance the budget and create jobs is to lay off 5% of the state work staff and attack the remaining workers pension plan. (which includes me)

Scott has portrayed the Florida pension plan as some money sucking, in the red,  monster.  The truth is the Florida Pension system is actually very well funded and managed, currently rating as the third best program in the country.

These changes could potentially not only affect me but all workers in the plan including, teachers, firefighters and law enforcement.  A large part of the reason people commit to working these type of jobs is the security a pension offered them, even if their wages were less than the private sector.  Now, that jobs in the private sector are hard to come by, the have nots want to feel better about themselves by tearing down state workers as well.  It’s bullshit.

This reactionary measure is like everything else, it is a band aid to fix a short term budget issue.  When the economy rebounds and the private sector is living high on the hog are they going to restore these benefits to state workers? Nope, of course not, they would be gone forever.

Only in Florida could a crook that pleaded the fifth 75 times during his companies Medicare fraud case get elected governor.  Does this look like a guy you can trust? Unreal.