About jjsteich

Status:

Considering a Move Abroad 

Currently Lives:

Citizen Of:

United States

Education:

Eastern Michigan University
  2000 to 2004

Michigan State University
  2004 to 2008

Some Forum Posts:

Ecuador Welcome Forum: To move or not to move, that is the question:

Those are words to remember, LuckyDawg. Thanks for sharing that.

Ecuador Welcome Forum: New Data doesn't leave Ecuador looking very good.:

Somebody else also commented already on this source, the Heritage Foundation, but they sounded a trifle biased, so I thought this objective description of that organization might help the discussion: The Heritage Foundation is a conservative American think tank based in Washington, D.C. Heritage's stated mission is to "formulate and promote conservative public policies based on the principles of free enterprise, limited government, individual freedom, traditional American values, and a strong national defense."[1] The foundation took a leading role in the conservative movement during the presidency of Ronald Reagan, whose policies drew significantly from Heritage's policy study Mandate for Leadership.[2] Heritage has since continued to have a significant influence in U.S. public policy making, and is considered to be one of the most influential conservative research organizations in the United States.[3] So, given their stance, I would say that if you think, like the Heritage Foundation does, that Medicare and Social Security are scams that need to be eliminated, then you probably will not be happy living in a country with a Socialist president and a constitution that, while not well enforced, does protect the rights of the environment and the indigenos. Me? My grandparents were socialists who helped start workers unions in the Chicago area and were friends with Eugene Debs. Heard of the 40 hour/5 day work week? Yep, the labor unions brought that about. Nothing in that report made me fear a move to Ecuador. Even the corruption & bribery just make it sound like Chicago when I was grwoing up.

Ecuador: Vegetarian Food Access in EC:

We haven't yet traveled to EC but we are looking forward to checking it out. We have both been vegetarian for over 30 years. The basic foodstuffs of EC look like we would not have much trouble, so I am asking those of you who have experience, are there good vegetarian options at restaurants. (We do eat eggs & dairy, but not fish).

Ecuador: Banned from International Living (IL):

I agree with Mickisue that IL gets some of us noobs looking into the issue of expat living. I started reading their blog but found that it was limited to things that served their interests, not necessarily mine. In order to find out more information, it was up to me to do more research. Nothing bad to say about IL, except that even when I asked for the weekly digest of posts, I still seem to get daily emails from them about the latest breathless "find."

Ecuador Welcome Forum: computer problem:

Pogo is not your problem, and they will never be the ones to investigate. I will try to give some long distance advice here--I am in the US (long range planning for move to Ecuador just starting), but I have had a lot of experience with the problems you are mentioning. 1st-the main problem is browser hacks when you (anyone) downloads "toolbars" when installing games. The providers don't mean to expose you to risk, but they simply don't program those toolbars tightly and 3rd party hackers exploit them to insert code into your registry. I am assuming you run Windows. So if you get one of those messages give your PC the 3-finger-salute (ctrl-alt-delete) which will bring up Task Manager and stop any programs that are running. Next, go to your program manager and delete any programs that you have added that you recognize as toolbars. Honestly, toolbars are the #1 source of virus hacks I encounter. Next, open a browser and download Malwarebytes (malwarebytes.com). It is free and will scan and remove problem entries on your computer. Next download Ccleaner from piriform.com, another free program. Run the analyzer to see how much garbage you can delete & then delete it. (Oh yeah, always best to back up everything first, but if you are having the problems you say you are, you might want to just let it fly). Finally, if you ARE running Windows, then by all means go to Microsoft Security Essentials and download all of the AV and Malware protection offered there free. They have made great strides in improving their AV protection for their OS, to the extent that the U of Michigan is transitioning from a paid McAfee protection to the free MS system. They have literally thousands of servers and multiple thousands of PCs and they are confident about it--which makes me (a private citizen with no paid connection to U-M, MS, or McAfee) confident, too. Lastly, I have no knowledge about the availability of these programs for DL in Ecuador, I don't know enough about how intercountry access to programming works, but I know that Malwarebytes and Ccleaner are opensource programming, so they should be available. MS is more restrictive, so I don't know what is available there. I said earlier that I assume that you are running Windows, b/c if you run Mac OS X or any variety of Linux, you would not be having this problem. If you need more help with this, feel free to email. I'm sure I'll need info help in the future for moving to Ecuador.

Date Joined:

9/27/2011

Total Posts:

10

Posts/Day:

0.00