Writing More Blog Stories

I do like writing stories for you, dear reader. I have been doing it for so many years that I just cannot believe it. It is something that I must admit that I never expected to do. It is quite enjoyable for me to do the research on something that interests me and then to post it on here for you to read.

Naturally, I expect that you will agree with what I say. After all, I have done so much work about the subject so how could I possibly be wrong. Unfortunately, that is not always true. Sometimes, what I say may be so unacceptable to you that you could never support my position.

However, as I have written before, your opposition is acceptable to me. I would not like that you are not on my side, but sometimes you are not because you have a completely different point of view. It may even force me to re-consider what I have just written to see if what I had said is correct or not.

Another matter that I am dealing with differently is how to do all the typing for my stories on a particular day. I'm hardly a good typist in the first place. At one time, when I first learned how to type in school, I typed properly using all of my fingers to hit the letters on the typewriter keyboard. However, over the years when I was working in my various jobs, I did not actually do any typing. Rather, I just did the dictating. I had a legal secretary who did all the typing that she took from myself directly or a dictation machine that I used.

Obviously, when I started doing typing for myself, and especially when I did all of the articles on the various news sites on which I worked, I had to do the actual typing by myself. I was not in position to hire anyone to do it for me. I really forgot how to use all my fingers for the typing work and instead, just used one finger on each hand to do it for me.

Sure, that was workable and I was able to type relatively quickly doing the two finger typing. Nevertheless, it was difficult and tiring. Since I was not fast typing that way all the time either, it took quite some time for me to type my articles especially considering their length. I needed an approach to accomplish what I was trying to do. Luckily, I had found one!

I must admit I cannot remember how I first discovered it, but my salvation in typing was a product called "Dragon NaturallySpeaking."

I have used it for a number of years starting quite some time ago. The version that I use today is an older one: Version 12. I was quite fortunate in getting this one because I did a review on it that the Owner was free to use as required. There is a newer version that is available now if you are looking for a software product to use, dear reader.

This program is really fantastic for all of the work that I do. I have to admit that what I do is not all that complicated from a typing perspective. Yet, it makes what I do so simple that it is enjoyable. It plays the role of my "secretary" to whom I dictate my article. It does perfectly all of the typing for me as I dictate to it my story in the style that I want it done. The system can be changed to whatever typing style I want to use.

What is quite spectacular for me is that it has value in how much it can do, how quickly and how few the number of mistakes are. It makes it so much easier for me that I can dictate and have typed at exactly the same time such long articles that you can see on my Website.  It makes my day a lot shorter in doing the work that I perform.

It did take some time to learn how to use the software system for dictation, but not a lot. What is quite amazing for me in this version of the software compared with what I had in the past is my much higher speed of dictation and its accuracy in typing out what I am saying. Of course, there can be typing mistakes that are made in my dictation, but they are so easily corrected as well.

This might be something for you to consider, dear reader, especially if typing a lot bothers you. I have to admit that I do not know if there are "free" dictation typing systems out there for you to use or cheaper ones than the Dragon system that I'm using. Who knows, there may even be better ones than the software system that I'm using. However, all I know is that I really enjoy this one quite a bit. It makes the work I'm doing to produce articles for you, dear reader, so much easier for me. Accordingly, if you are looking for a product to assist you, then I strongly urge you to take a good hard look at the Dragon software.

Now it is time for me to let you know about some interesting stories that I have seen recently.

THE BORDER BACKUP GAME

There is still plenty of trouble crossing the border between Canada and the United States because it takes so long so many times.  It happens even though the volume of traffic between the 2 countries has dropped so significantly although, to be direct, it can take much longer for a border official to approve entry into the United States or Canada for a particular vehicle.

It is so obvious that I do not understand why the Federal Government continues playing its game in its handling of the car and truck traffic at our border crossing. Their border backup game has been going on for so many years. Why it is being done is clearly obvious, as pointed out by Dan Stamper of the Ambassador Bridge Company:

"It’s a crisis,” said Stamper who added it’s been created for political purposes to justify another bridge crossing.

“It feels to us like a punishment to travellers and consumers. They’ve got to have delays to justify the Gordie Howe Bridge,” Stamper said." (Mary Caton, Windsor Star, March 23, 2018)

I do find it strange considering that the Ambassador Bridge Company is moving forward and the Gordie Howe Bridge cost to be built is only around $10 billion now. That amount is a gigantic increase from only a few years ago. Why the Government wants to spend so much tax money is just beyond my belief.

What is also quite strange to me is how much money it is costing private businesses:

"It’s an absolute disaster,” Zekelman said of the truck backlog into Canada. “I’ve been complaining about this for 15 years.

“It limits our ability to be competitive, it limits our ability to draw truckers to come over to pick up loads. It’s hurt our city. It’s hurt tourism. It’s hurt business. It’s an absolute catastrophe.”

Zekelman said delays getting trucks across the bridge into Canada cost Zekelman Industries between $3 million to $5 million annually."

Dan Stamper also raised these points about the reasons for the border delay:

"This is an issue of CBSA has booths available and then don't man them. They won't open the lanes when traffic backs up, and it ends up on the freeway [I-75 in Detroit] and then they scramble around, get a few more people, open a couple more booths — it takes hours to clear it up again."

 

Dan Stamper says the CBSA refuses to use 6 truck inspection lanes that were completed west of Huron Church Road in 2007." (Jonathan Pinto, CBC News, March 23, 2018) 

Hold on, I think I have a solution. Perhaps some of the trucking companies might want to start a nice lawsuit to get back their losses in income every year because of the Government action. Moreover, that might solve the border crossing problems very quickly, forcing the Government to act properly to do a deal. Right now.

WHAT A POOR EXCUSE

I am sorry but the defence put forward by Essex MPP Taras Natyshak about his removal from the Ontario Legislature a few weeks ago for his improper action in the Legislature was not acceptable to me.

His big issue in the Legislature was his action in relation to what he put forward as water pollution that contaminated residents' wells in the relevant area. He held up a bottle of dirty water from the area to prove his point. Here is his comment about what happened:

"I knew, because the rules state that you can’t bring in a prop into the legislature, I had a suspicion that they were going to call me out," Natyshak said. "But sometimes civil disobedience is required to get the message through.

"And I was ready to take that chance that I would be … possibly ejected because I think its important for members of the house to have a visual reference of what the government is saying is clean to drink (in Chatham-Kent)."  (Julie Kotsis, Windsor Star, March 9,2018)

How wonderful! He is an MPP that acted improperly. What a magnificent move on his part. NOT!

In my opinion, not only what he did was wrong but what he said he is still prepared to do is even worse:

"Thursday was the first time Natyshak has been ejected from the legislature, an expulsion that lasted for the rest of the day, but he said he’d do it again.

“I tell you I would do it over and over again because water is life,” he said. “Nothing survives without water. You gotta go to the wall on these things.”

I am truly sorry that he takes such an attitude. I do not see how people will get on his side because he acted so poorly. There certainly are other ways that he could have achieved what he wanted to do in a much more professional and proper fashion than what he carried out.