A commercial Daniel might enjoy.

Aquariums are cool. But the message "Visa debit is easier than cash or checks" is nonsense. Easier than checks, yes. Easier than cash, no. And what using a debit card in place of cash has to do with taking your daughter to an aquarium on a Tuesday, I cannot imagine. Of course, a lot more people are free to spend time with their family on a week day since the depression has put so many of them out of work. But why is the kid not in school? Finally, the CGI is slick, but very fake.

I'm glad I don't have tv.

Pardon my grumpiness. I have a terrible head cold. Probably the result of an exhausting 17-hour travel day on Saturday. Yesterday I took a dose of generic NyQuil because the cough had become so painful, and so I am dizzy and groggy now, the inevitable after-effect (for me at least) of the dextromethorphan.

 

daniel;

check out the Aquarium in Okinawa... supposed to be a good one...

as far as the commercial, great music, great announcer, the card?? well, cash is inconvenient because it can be stolen. in my state, the most i can be liable for on unauthorized credit card charges is $50 and i dont know any financial institution that holds one to even that small amount.

personally, i dont do debit. rather get the service now, pay for it 20 days later

 

Regardless of what their advertising, with the Moody Blues as the audio track makes it enjoyable.

 

According to Yahoo Travel, the shortest time to Okinawa is 19 hours. Guess I'll put that trip on the back burner, even if they do have a good aquarium.

Not sure the liability limit on credit cards applies to debit cards.

If they steal your cash, they get some money. If they steal your card they've got your identity and you've got years of hell ahead trying to sort it all out, even if the bank reimburses you for the charges they make.

Oh, the best aquariums I've seen are at Atlantis Resort, on Paradise Island, Nassau, The Bahamas. Truly amazing.

I would not compare aquariums with diving, though: Very different experiences. In an aquarium you see a lot more marine life, and you have the educational resources explaining what everything is and (ideally) how it interacts with its environment. Diving, you don't see nearly as much, but actually being there, in the water, gives everything a presence it lacks when seen from the vantage point of dry ground. The same as the difference between a zoo and an African safari.

 

oh i would agree that diving is probably a much nicer experience and the best part of that is you would be underwater so you would not have to learn to swim

 

[busily scribbling notes to oneself]

Dextromethorphan .... gotcha

 

Not "nicer," just different. But you do have to be able to swim, at least if you want to learn to dive safely.

I assure you, it's not a nice high. The stuff is a fairly effective cough suppressant, but the after-effect is miserable, and lasts pretty much the entire next day. I would not use it, but it's the only over-the-counter cough suppressant, and I was in serious pain from the coughing.

 

I agree Daniel. I was disappointed the ad had so much CGI, nature can do better than CGI. I use a credit card all the time, I find it easier than cash, I don't use cheques.

I also don't get the connection between going to an aquarium on Tuesday with my daughter and a debit card, it isn't like the guy doesn't have the money.

I take my child out of school when I believe the activity we will be doing is more educational than the day in school. A day at an aquarium would qualify for that. I took my son to england during the school term, I took him to Uluru and Coober Pedy during school term. The child might have been a home schooled child, in which case the excursion to the aquarium was part of her schooling. I met a home-schooled family in Alice Springs and they all wrote a journal of their travel as part of their education. Life is an education.

 

I haven't had a cold in forever, at least 10 years, so will have to take your word on that.

 

That is very true. Life is the best education you will ever receive. Unfortunately, most people don't appreciate it

 

Not that I would know anything about education, being an uneducated bird brained Aussie.

 

Trust me on this, Pat: I know enough "edumacated" folks to realize a piece of paper with fancy Latin scribbling on it really isn't worth that much. I always want to know if these folks have practical - eg real world - experience to back it up. Sadly, they usually don't

I have a cousin who is - on paper - much smarter than I am. She is married to a guy who is - again on paper - much, much smarter than I am.

I was visiting with them once and they were upset because it was a weekend, and the toilet was broken. Every plumber they had called was not returning their call, and they were going frantic

I lifted the cover off the toilet, and sure enough, the chain had become detached from the flapper. So I rolled up my sleeve, reached into the fresh water tank (They were horrified at that, perhaps they thought the poop was stored in there), hooked up the chain again, and FWOOOOSSSHH

It never occurred to either of them to actually lift the cover off the toilet and give everything the once-over. The most simple thing in their sad little lives, they have to hire an "expert" to look at.

They visited with me when I was building the home at my hobby farm. Just watching me hang drywall made them visibly uncomfortable. It also saved me a ton of money.

 

How did their watching you hang drywall save you money? You'd have had to hire someone to watch you had they not been there? Hmmm.

In Thomas Jefferson's day, most people did all their own work, except for the heaviest jobs, which they did collectively with their neighbors. Most people had all the skills necessary to provide themselves with all their needs and they lived a subsistence life. Today, labor is specialized and most people have a single job skill and can do none of the work needed to provide themselves with any of their needs. As a result, life expectancy is now double what it was then and the diseases that killed most people in their 20's are virtually unknown in the industrialized world. We have communications, transportation, vastly better nutrition, and leisure time.

I have virtually no useful skills, but even I can open the back of a toilet to check for a disconnected chain. That is not a "skill." Refusal to look into a toilet to see why it is not flushing is a neurosis, not a lack of a useful skill.

 

I know what you mean Jay. In my early days as an adult I would see people who failed to understand simple mechanical principles and I thought they were simple, turned out they had a university educations normally, and as such could most likely understand things I could not. It was at this point I realised you shouldn't think someone stupid because they couldn't do what you can do, as they can likely do something you can't and I don't want to think myself stupid.

 

That was poorly worded on my part

Doing most of the drywall, plumbing, framing, electrical, etc on my home saved me a ton of money. I've always enjoyed that sort of work, though NOT as a profession

Much like tinkering in the shop, it's a way for me to relax. I couldn't handle it as a job though

It made my cousin and her husband visibly uncomfortable watching me hang the gyproc. Part of that has to do with the fact they feel physical labor is something only "simple" people do. I find that sort of disdainful attitude towards physical work to be lame, to say the least

Did I also mention they're terrible with finances? They are an absolute catastrophe on budgeting for their lives. Despite a combined income ranging from 3-5 times what I make, they are only one paycheck from complete and utter ruin, living in a cardboard box

If that were to happen, I'd generously donate a cardboard box ....

 

I'm willing to give everybody the benefit of the doubt. Sadly, there are folks who feel superior to others, due to possessing a piece of paper with fancy Latin scribbling on it

I have several pieces of paper with fancy Latin scribbling on them. When folks ask to see them, I usually have to rummage around in the basement, in an old dusty cardboard box full of dead petrified spiders, to find the musty pieces of paper with fancy Latin scribbling

I will honestly state my life experience has been the best "teacher" for me. The parts that resulted in the pieces of paper with fancy Latin scribbling on them, well, that was just the icing on the cake

 

Just to put in my vote for the best aquarium I've ever been to: Anyone who hasn't been to the Monterey Bay Aquarium in Northern CA needs to go. I grew up in the area, so that was the "local" aquarium. Imagine how disappointed I was when I traveled elsewhere and realized that it wasn't typical.

I have never been to an aquarium that could come close to rivaling Monterey Bay. Even supposedly "great" aquariums (such as the one in Mystic, CT) disappointed me when I visited.

 

Daniel, may I suggest the old-time remedy of honey and lemon?
When OTC cough suppressants would not TOUCH my son's deep cough, I finally, remembered this, and warmed up 2 Tbls honey, to which I added 2 Tbls lemon juice (just out of a bottle), and had him sip that down at his own pace.
It was the first night in a week that he slept straight through.
I've heard that Apple cider vinegar can take the place of the lemon, but I've always used the lemon in it.