Clearplay Video Filtering Questions?

http://www.clearplay.com/

Can anyone tell me how this works?

As I understand it, I buy a Clearplay DVD player for $99, and it comes with a trial USB download that filters 250 movies (the list of those movies is here) If I like the service, then I pay a subscription of $79 a year or $7.95 a month, and I get 100 filter downloads each month - do I choose which filters, or do they? Does that mean I have to wade through lists of movies every month? And I rent or purchase DVDs that I want to watch, they don't provide that, is that correct? All the service provides is filter for certain movies?

Miss Moana's First Picture

Miss Moana has drawn lots of times, usually little series of scribbly circles and zig-zag lines that look like she's trying to write chicken-scratch. This is the first time she's ever said "I'm going to draw _____" and then actually made an attempt to. She said, "I'm drawing a sun." And this is her attempt. :)

Latest Car Update

Mr. B spent the day getting records of work done on the car, talking to insurance value assessors, his own agent, etc. And here's how it stands so far:

Our own agent can't/won't do a thing for us. It's not her problem, it's between us and the insurance company of the lady who hit Mr. B.

The other insurance company is being firm on the settlement of $133 to declare our car 'totalled.' Although our make/model of the car has a NADA value of up to $1800 and is being sold for $900-1200, they're sticking to their original arbitrary assessment of $201 as our car's value.

Although the police record states that the other lady was at fault for pulling into a busy main road without yielding to oncoming traffic, the insurance company is insistent that Mr. B is 25 percent at fault because "accidents take two people." It's his fault that he was there, and that he let her hit him.

Our last resort is to prove that we had a rebuilt engine put in, which theoretically adds value to the car. We have that proof, but I don't see them caring.

Mr. B is also collecting data about how much this make/model of car is generally valued at - cars for sale, Kelly Blue Book, NADA. Our bank said that NADA is the standard - but it's impossible to know what the insurance is using to assess the value of our car and they aren't sharing that information. It's their own little secret. They didn't use NADA. Maybe they made up a number. I doubt they'll care how much everyone else values the car at - if they did, they would have used a standard listing from the beginning.

So that's where it stands. Their client hit us, and their concern isn't to help us get our car driveable, it's to pay out as little money as they can, and they know we have no recourse because they have lawyers and we have nobody to go to, no advocate.

What happens to someone struggling to get by with an old car if he gets hit through someone else's mistake and his car is totalled enough to be undriveable and he needs transportation to get to his job? He can't get any kind of working car to replace his for $133. What happens to people in that situation? Luckily, it's more principle for us - we'll have to pay some money because of an insured motorist's mistake, and it's an unwelcome expense for our single income family, but it won't ruin us. We'll still have use of the vehicle, although it's uglier than it used to be. But what about people living on the brink of financial ruin, what do they do when this happens to them?

Car Update

I posted about Mr. B's little accident here; he was hit while driving to work.

The other person's insurance company has finally settled on what they're going to pay to reimburse us for the damage the lady did to our car, which they deemed a total loss: $138. That doesn't even cover the money we paid to hammer the body off the wheel and replace the tires where the metal rubbing on them wore grooves in them.

Here's how it apparently works, according to them:

The car is old. So old that it isn't even listed in Blue Book. They did enough research to be able to tell Mr. B that replacement value, what this particular car is selling for on lots, is about $900. But they placed an arbitrary value for our car of $230-something. Then, one of their agents accidentally marked down that Mr. B was "25 percent at fault." He wasn't, the officer who wrote up the report stated that the lady was totally at fault for failing to yield. But they docked 25 percent off the $230 because of that, leaving $201. And then, since Mr. B plans to continue driving the car instead of junking it, they docked off $68 "for parts." I guess that's what they'd get if we gave the car to them and they sold it for parts.

Mr. B is going to try to take care of this. His sister is visiting from across the country, but instead of getting to visit with her, he'll be spending his one day off this week making phone calls, getting his car-guy to detail the work we've had on the car, and getting other documentation to try and recoup what he had to pay for the damage done to his car by another motorist whose insurance company doesn't want to pay for her mistake.

Moana-ese

Can you tell the difference between these two words?

flahluh

flohluh



Not sure? Okay, here's a clue; pay attention because I'm only going to post this once and she'll expect you to know it - when she asks for her flohluh, she gets very upset if you try to give her a flahluh.



Are you ready?





Flahluh





Flohluh

The Homeschooling Meme

I was tagged by Colleen to play!

1) ONE HOMESCHOOLING BOOK YOU HAVE ENJOYED
School Education by Charlotte Mason

2) ONE RESOURCE YOU WOULDN'T BE WITHOUT
Project Gutenberg's free e-books

3) ONE RESOURCE YOU WISH YOU HAD NEVER BOUGHT
Animal Farm; as soon as I got home, I found my missing copy and now I have two!

4) ONE RESOURCE YOU ENJOYED LAST YEAR
Free art at CGFA.

5) ONE RESOURCE YOU WILL BE USING NEXT YEAR
Travel books by H. V. Morton

6) ONE RESOURCE YOU WOULD LIKE TO BUY
["The Pilgrim’s Progress audio version that Mother Auma plans to use,"- we used this, but not last year. We loved it!!] The resource I would like to buy: Shakespeare plays on DVD

7) ONE RESOURCE YOU WISH EXISTED
The perfect typing program

8) ONE HOMESCHOOLING CATALOGUE YOU ENJOY READING
I rarely look through homeschooling catalogues, every time I do, I start wondering what I'm missing and I start doubting what I'm already using. I do like Veritas, though.

9) ONE HOMESCHOOLING WEBSITE YOU USE REGULARLY
Ambleside Online

10) TAG FOUR OTHER HOMESCHOOLERS
Beth, Miss Roxie, Ginger, and Mama Squirrel

Weekend Post

We have company, relatives who are considering relocating here. It would be nice to have family in the area, and they homeschool, which would be an added blessing!

I'm feeling a sudden desire to curtail my online presence, partially to conserve time, and partially because I seem to have a pattern of sharing too much, and then pulling back. It won't affect my blog, since it's unlisted except among AO lists.

I'll be making up daily schedules for each of the boys this week based on the AO 36-week schedules. I do this every year before we start the new year. It makes the whole year go smoother if each boy knows exactly what he has to do each day.

Here are a couple of pictures taken this week - one is of Kahoa at the county fair, playing cowboy on the merry-go-round, and the other is Miss Moana looking solemn.

A Frivolous Book Meme

From Krakovianki's blog. She's been posting about a craft fair in Poland, which is of particular interest to me because Chopin was from Poland.

1. One book on your desk right now?
The Cloud of Witness edited by Mrs. Gell

2. One book with a bookmark in it that you haven't picked up for a few days?
The Mists of Avalon - I promised myself I would read it for the last five years. Finally, a few weeks ago, I picked it up and read a good bit of it - and was disappointed. I decided not to finish it, but the bookmarker is still there in case I relent and give it a second chance.

3. One book marked with a pencil (or other irregular marker) stuffed between the pages instead of a proper bookmark?
A small Children's Bible (I was underlining something)

4. One book with the cover falling off, or other grievous injuries?
The Age of Fable; luckily, we have a second copy.

5. One book you "ought" to be reading, but don't feel like it?
Too many to choose from

6. One book sitting on the shelf and enticing you to read it instead of anything else?
My son's DK book about Pirates

7. Your most recently acquired book?
The Cloud of Witness

8. One book on your "wish list?"
Norms and Nobility by David Hicks

9. One book you literally threw in the trash?
I haven't ever thrown any book in the trash, but Mists of Avalon may be a first

10. One person who ought to answer these questions?
Miss Roxie and Ginger (that's two, isn't it?)

The Cloud of Witness - moving

I've decided not to post The Cloud of Witness here any more. It's taking over my blog! Instead, I'll be posting it at my homeschoolblogger blog, which I only use for cross-posting some of what I post here.

The Cloud of Witness Wednesday

[362]

Wednesday. Eleventh after Trinity.

Spiritual Pride.

"Are not Abana and Pharpar, rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? may I not wash in them and be clean?" So he turned and went away in a rage.--2 Kings v. 12.

Shall I take on me to change His tasks,
And dare,--dispatched to a river-head
For a simple draught of the element,--
Neglect the thing for which He sent
And return with another thing instead?--
Saying, "Because the water found
Welling up from underground
Is mingled with the taints of earth . . .
Therefore I turned from the oozings muddy,
And bring Thee a chalice I found instead . . .
What matters the water? A hope I have nursed,
The waterless cup will quench my thirst!"
--Better have knelt at the poorest stream
That trickles in pain from the straightest rift!
For the less or more is all God's gift,
Who blocks up, or breaks wide the granite seam;
And here, is there water or not to drink?
Browning.

Never be ashamed of assistance! Like a Soldier at the storming of a town, your business is to maintain your post and execute your Orders. Now suppose you happen to be lame at an assault and cannot mount the breach upon your own feet, will you not suffer your Comrade to help you?
Marcus Aerelius.

Peace begins just where ambition ends.
What makes man wretched! Happiness denied?
No! 'tis happiness disdained.
She comes too meanly dressed to win our smile;
And calls herself Content, a homely name!
Our flame is transport, and content our scorn,
Ambition turns, and shuts the door against her,
And weds a toil, a tempest, in her stead.
Young.