The Republicans in Washington led by President Trump were finally able come through on a promise to give back to the American people. And what exactly was this promise to give back? Our money of course. This will come as a welcome relief for many who pay taxes and give their hard-earned dollars day after day to the to government. And yet there was some sad news buried in with this otherwise wonderful Christmas gift. The fact that all of the Democrats sitting in Washington voted against tax cuts for the people is nothing less than a disgrace. But it shouldn’t be surprising should it?
After all this is the same Democrat party who removed God from their party platform in 2012 and the same Democrat party who consistently defends Planned Parenthood and the outright murder of babies. This Democrat party is the one who claims to be advocates for women and yet never calls attention to the abuse, slaughter and dishonor of Muhammad’s Islam perpetrated against women and humanity. And let us not forget about the disgusting jokes, obscenities and obscene graphic material exploiting women that is produced on a daily basis by none other than Democrat city aka Hollywood.
So while hard-working Americans will enjoy a little tax bonus coming soon thanks to right thinking people in Washington, we must also not forget how much the Democrat party is hurting America and the world.
Most of us have seen or heard the infomercials and commercials on TV and radio for MyPillow®. Mr. Lindell is a great communicator and he is the founder and inventor of MyPillow®. I want to trust him when he says “I personally guarantee MyPillow® will be the most comfortable pillow you’ll ever own.” But is the MyPillow® pillow really that good? I could use a new pillow because mine is turning a yellow-brownish color. But should I buy a MyPillow®?
Is this pillow amazing or what?
Radio and TV Talk show host Sean Hannity (who is awesome by the way) discusses the benefits of owning a MyPillow® pillow on his radio show. The testimonies found on the MyPillow® website proclaim nothing but praise and adulation for this pillow and the wonders it does to help in sleeping better. With all this positive jubilation I’ve heard and read about the MyPillow® I am nearly persuaded to buy my own MyPillow® pillow just to experience the hype …er… pillow myself. But there is a problem that has been keeping me from purchasing my own.
What about the price
First, the price of the MyPillow® pillow is not cheap. I have seen it for close to $50 at Walmart to as much as $90 online. The high price for any pillow causes me to pause and it certainly does with a purchase of my own MyPillow® brand pillow. And yet, there is an even bigger problem that price holding me back in such a purchase. And this second problem is not an easy one for me to overcome.
There are reviews
What I have learned so far about MyPillow® started with a quick visit to a few website reviews such as Amazon, Walmart, Better Business Bureau and YouTube. All of these sites feature either mixed reviews or some candidly negative opinions about this pillow or the company who makes MyPillow® with positive comments in the mix. Positive reviews and comments are great and essential to sell a product but negative reviews about a product never sit well with me. When I read or watch reviews, I take into account user error, bias, tone, the details provided and the overall quality of the comments within the review. But even honest and fair reviews for MyPillow® seem to expose something unsettling about this product. For starters, the grade letter on the Better Business Bureau website certainly doesn’t help this cause especially when companies pay the BBB to appear on their site. Hmmm.
I have read about and watched reviewers who have cut open a MyPillow® brand pillow and reveal what appears to be nothing more than shredded pieces of foam in varying shapes and sizes. This might not be problematic if this was all there was to tell. Many reviewers claim the MyPillow® is lumpy. That theme repeated itself more often than I think it should have unless it were true. And I can understand why this might be when there are lumps of foam clumping together under one’s head in the form of a pillow! How about the return policy? User experience seems to be all over the map on this one. Some folks claim an easy return while others claim customer service was unhelpful and the high price for return shipping had to be paid by the customer. But back to what’s on the inside of the pillow. Perhaps this foam (or whatever it is) is made of a high quality material and that’s why the pillow is expensive? I do like that MyPillow® is made in the USA.
Questions
So the question that remains still remains. Is this pillow simply a cheaply made pillow that should cost around $10 and some reviewers have suggested but has instead been marketed at a higher price so we the consumer think it’s a luxury pillow? Of course, that would be deceptive and that wouldn’t be good publicity for any company would it? Or, is this pillow in fact a truly a high quality product that one could justify in paying a price of $50 to near $90 or more? Well, right now I don’t have the answer but I do wish I could try out a Premium MyPillow® before I spent more than $10 on my own.
If do get my hands on a MyPillow® pillow I will update this post and give you my first hand…..or head, experience and thoughts.
I want to hear from you. Do you have (or know someone) who has first hand experience with the MyPillow® pillow? Feel free to let me know in the comments below.
This post is a quick review of my experience using X-Plane 11. I hope to help you answer the ultimate question of Should I buy it? while I add some personal comments along the way.
This review represents my experience after running X-plane 11 on an older computer.
My Computer Specs: CPU- AMD Phenom II 945 Quad Core, MEMORY- 8 gb ram, GPU- GTX 750ti OC 4gb memory, HARD DRIVES- Two 500 gb, One 250 gb
Pros/What I do like
User Interface (UI):
Pleasing to the eyes. The UI in X-plane 11 has been given a complete and welcome overhaul from past versions of the sim. Old and new users will find the settings easier to navigate and understand. Whether configuring a joystick, flight yoke or tweaking the sim’s graphics, the simple sliders, added search function and visuals make configuring X-plane 11 to your liking fun and intelligent. I personally enjoy the new layout and views for displaying aircraft, airports, weather and the visual representations of various flight yokes and joysticks simply wonderful.
Lighting:
Impressive. The lighting in X-plane 11 is simply amazing and in my opinion, more realistic than ever. I have been using X-plane 10 global the past few years and after first running the X-Plane 11 Demo, I immediately noticed a vast daylight improvement over the previous version of the sim. The sun is more dynamic and bright, with better rendered shadows–as one would expect on a bright sunny day. At night, HDR lighting adds more realistic vibrant lights on cars, buildings, aircraft and runways. (Note: need a good graphics card with at least 4 gb ram I recommend for HDR and to utilize maximum effects within the sim)
Sound:
Good. Aside from the ATC audio, general environment and aircraft sounds are quite realistic and pleasing. Audio for default X-plane 11 aircraft is generally acceptable. I have found aircraft audio mostly depends on the aircraft you fly and their original quality, whether payware or free. (As expected, payware aircraft tend to be more realistic both visually and sound-wise)
Clouds:
Clouds appear to be softer and whiter in X-plane 11 but my FPS did take at least a 10 point frame rate drop when flying in heavier fog/cloud layers. Clear skies it is.
Frame-rates (FPS):
I have been pleasantly surprised by the improvement in frame-rates in X-plane 11 over X-plane 10. (Settings for my machine are 4x anti-aliasing, HDR High, Shadows on, Scenery Options Medium -Low, Reflections off. ) My system is quite old but even with my older processor and the GTX 750 ti 4gb I was able to hover around 30fps when flying in my hometown (KEKA, KACV)*. At these settings within the Demo Area I was able to get around 22-23 fps, clear day and even better FPS at night. )
Graphics/Autogen:
Overall the default textures for terrain, buildings, road-networks, airports etc. are fantastic in X-plane 11. Days (and nights) are more realistic than ever in X-plane 11 with the new haze (particle system?) that has been added to the atmosphere. As mentioned before, HDR lighting makes street lights, runways, and aircraft lighting look real. Yes I enjoy lights. With a decent graphics card (the more memory the better) visual settings and lights will look great in your sim. The trains/traffic have even been updated in X-plane 11 too!
Addons, Plugins and Tweaking
If you like tweaking, modding and using addons you will love X-plane 11 because adding custom content is a breeze in X-plane 11. (The FlyWithLua plugin is a great example)
While I completely enjoy and welcome the new easier to navigate and appealing layout of the UI, I still find myself wishing I could control certain settings. This of course is my coming from using X-plane 10 which allowed control over those settings in the UI. For example I would like to be able to disable birds, deer and boats. I see no options to disable those. And if fire and balloons still exist within the game (haven’t seen them yet in X-plane 11) a disable option would be welcome for those too. I would also like to be able to control the number of cars on the road, and the number of roads, separate from the number of buildings. For me adjusting them is from a cosmetic and a realistic stand-point. (My town for example has many roads, but very few cars or buildings.)
Sounds:
ATC in X-plane 11 make work more realistically than in it did in previous versions of X-plane but I wouldn’t know because I haven’t tried it yet. I find the synthesized voice that is used completely unbearable to listen to. Some default aircraft such as the helicopter produces some wonky rotor sounds which sound more mechanical than realistic. Screeching tires sounds are better but still exist in the default Cessna 172 which I don’t like.
Steering/ Controls:
It might be just me, but I find the steering/rudder controls of the default Cessna 172 and helicopter erratic and somewhat difficult to control on take-off. New users especially users coming from FSX may have some difficulty at first.
Clouds
While generally clouds and fog in X-plane 11 are good we know they could be improved visually in terms of their shape, definition and overall appearance. Thunderheads and storm clouds should appear like tall menacing thunderheads (cumulus cloud) rather than layers of stratus. Contrails in X-plane 11 need fixing (more on this in the graphics section below).
Graphics:
Of course the visuals can always be improved and I know the X-plane developers are working hard on so many awesome aspects and improvements for X-plane 11, including realistic clouds and autogen. However, aside from unrealistic ATC audio, two areas that really distract my flying is the terrible rendition of airline contrails when viewed at a distance and the deer/birds that pop up when you least expect them. Right now default X-plane 11 is showing black/grey contrails which are hardly realistic. The first time I saw it I thought the plane was on fire. I will be looking forward to new longer and actual white aircraft contrails (as seen in FSX) which would improve the visuals greatly in X-plane 11. Being able to disable unrealistic looking deer and birds on the runway would be fantastic too. Thank you Laminar Research.
Should You Buy X-plane 11?
If you love flight sims such as FSX or Prepar3d, than yes of course you should buy X-plane 11. X-plane 11 runs better and the atmospheric visuals are impressive. In addition, the improved UI and the realistic lighting is enough to give this simulator an emphatic positive recommendation from me. However, I also recommend first trying out the Demo for X-plane 11 before you spend the money on the full version (either on Steam or via X-plane.com). With the demo version you will be able to see how well (or poorly) the sim runs on your particular machine while you experience the new user interface, flight controls, included aircraft, weather and lighting systems this great flight simulator provides. And let’s not forget about the plugins and script addons which help this sim too.
Final note: X-plane 11 is always being updated and improved. Users can opt in or out of beta’s releases of the simulator if that is something that interests you.
*KEKA/KACV – as of this posting these default airports did not feature airport buildings/hangers but I did add custom created content in my game.
Disclaimer: The opinions and information expressed in this review are my own and are based on my own experience. These views or opinions are not intended to reflect the views or opinions of Laminar Research nor any of the developers of X-plane 11 in any way.
tinkerXperience 