Sunday, August 6, 2006, 06:38 PM - Dumb Happenings
I was at the gym this morning and the TV there was playing some Preacher/Informercial in which some "reverend" was hawking a prayer tape that was supposed to "channel God's blessings to the listener" so that his/her finances would improve. Of course, there is a catch: for the prayer tape to remain effective, the listener has to "pledge" $58/month of "seed money" to the good reverend's sacred ministry.
Egads. The last time I checked, Jesus was not in the business of using independant preachers for the creation of magical artifacts. Nor, do I think, Jesus ever promised anyone financial wealth (spiritual fulfillment, yes, but not a 790 credit score).
The prayer tape wasn't even a VHS tape. It was some 10-cent white autiotape with a 2-cent Label Maker PRO label affixted to the top. Geeeez!
I'm guessing that the folks who send this con artist money are the same ones who voted for Bush twice.
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( 3 / 1566 )Tuesday, June 6, 2006, 09:11 AM - Dumb Happenings
If there's ever a tired old nag that needs to be sent to the glue factory, it's the racehorse called "Gay Panic". And yet, Bush seems to trot out this nag every time his poll numbers hit rock bottom. Since his latest approval rating was in the mid-30s, it's no surprise to me that he's choosing NOW to once again "get tough on gays".
I'm really hoping that the Religious Reich isn't as stupid as Bush seems to think they are. Let's look at the Bush resume again:
-- Huge tax cuts for the rich that actually ended up with higher taxes (on the state/local level)
-- Huge deficit spending (because he has not issued a single veto in six years).
-- Terrible foreign policy that has not only alienated our allies, but severely weakened our influence in world affairs.
-- A losing, incredibly costly two-front war that has not only made America LESS SAFE, but has given nations like Iran and Syria carte blanche to develop super-weapons.
-- An immigration policy that is nothing but amnesty by another name. It's just another way for Bush's Big Business Buddies to get cheap labor and avoid paying payroll taxes and Workers' Comp.
-- Energy prices: a 245% increase over six years.
-- And he gave $40 billion to ExxonMobile as a pork-barrel gift (our money, of course).
-- He makes people DISAPPEAR, thanks to the Patriot Act.
-- He taps our phone conversations and reads our emails, thanks to the Patriot Act.
-- He gave Dick Cheney's Haliburton many no-bid exclusive contracts worth billions of dollars.
-- He has built 600 secret prisons in the United States that can house 1,500 people each. They're empty for now...
-- He has abused his vacation privilege to a ludicrous degree.
BUT THE Religious Reich is supposed to forgive all that because Bush just reminded them all that he still hates gays. I really hope they don't ride this tired old nag a third time.
I can see it now: "My son's dead in Iraq, I lost my farm because I can't afford the diesel fuel to run my machinery, my power bill's tripled, and some corporation is stealing my house by using 'eminant domain', but since Bush is going to protect me from the gay agenda, I guess I'll vote Republican... again."
I desperately hope that the Red State folk aren't really that stupid.
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( 3.1 / 1191 )Monday, May 15, 2006, 08:07 AM - Dumb Happenings
Well, apparently there’s a REASON why military suicides are at the highest rates ever. Back in 1997, Congress ordered that all “front line” personnel be psychologically evaluated to ensure that they could handle the stress of extended, full-time, theatre of war. When Resident Bush took over, he suspended this programme.
Only 1 in 300 soldiers get the required evaluation before being sent to Iraq. Moreover, soldiers with deteriorating mental health are mandated to remain in place instead of redeployed to a less stressful assignment.
This is pretty typical of Resident Bush, however. He doesn’t read books and doesn’t believe in science. He’s never served in combat. He doesn’t watch the news or read the paper. So why would he give any credence to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, or any other war-related mental illnesses?
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( 3 / 1440 )Sunday, May 14, 2006, 06:05 PM - Dumb Happenings
I want a new phone. Actually, I want a new phone like Doug's phone. If I had a Sidekick, then I could junk my ancient Blackberry pager that's running on the old TDMA system and now gets only intermittant reception.
I tried bidding on Ebay, and I've been finding that the used Sidekicks sell for 80-90% of what a new unit costs. No thanks. I then called T-Moble customer care and the told me (and I'm not kidding), "The Sidekick is so popular that we can't waste these phones on upgrade customers". Oh.. I see... So only brand new customers get to buy the cool phones!
What a crock. I am very disappointed. It also seems like major corporations do very little to retain their customers once they've secured them under contract. All they seem to care about is grabbing the "new" customer. And that doesn't even make any sense. After all, you KNOW if your existing customers are paying their bills. A new customer is an unknown quantity. They could opt fot the "free" phione and then never send the company a dime in service fees. I've seen it happen that way all the time when I sold phones for Cingular.
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( 2.9 / 1523 )Friday, May 12, 2006, 07:28 PM - Dumb Happenings
SO... I told a friend (and former employer) that I would help him out with selling phones at the local baseball stadium. I got Doug to drive me to the train station so that I could get to the stadium without wasting gasoline.
Well... Like a fool, I forgot the damned entry pass! So I had to catch the train again going in the opposite direction and then walk two miles home.
Doug drove me out *again*. This time I have the entry pass.
I just don’t understand why my mind just doesn’t function correctly. I just forget things -- a lot. It’s been like that my whole life (which at least means it’s not alzheimers’ disease). But I get so tired of feeling stupid all the time. I’m just such a loser.
Because I’m so stupid, I managed to get Doug pissed off and disappoint a friend at the same time.
I hate myself.
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( 3 / 1305 )Friday, May 5, 2006, 05:41 PM - Dumb Happenings
Y'know. . . I never thought I would find a type of cheese that I DIDN'T like. But last night, I managed to do just that. There's a Wegmans' grocery store in the Baltimore and Wegmans is the Mecca of grocery stores. I's got a huge aisle dedicated just to CHEESE. So Doug and I have been trying out a new kind of cheese each week.
Well, I tried this imported German cheese (with the writing in German, and an English translation in very small print). It was just listed as "traditional German semi-soft cheese". I cut the package open and the first thing that I noticed is that the cheese smelled like POOP! I'm not kidding! The cheese was also really oily. The "semisoft" texture was the same consistancy as poo also.
UUURRRGGHHH!!!!!!
It looked like cheese, but that was about it. I almost threw up when I took a good whiff. It went right into the trash.
It was only then that I thought: Are the Germans actually KNOWN for making good cheese? :P
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( 3 / 1009 )Friday, April 21, 2006, 09:06 AM - Dumb Happenings
It just got a lot more expensive to live in Maryland . About ten years ago, the legislature got the bright idea to deregulite the power industry. After all, it worked *so* well in California! What was supposed to happen here was the introduction of power competition, and this competition was supposed to keep the prices in check.
Well, it's ten years later, and there's *no* competition and the government price restrictions are about to dissolve. The result? BGE (the power company) is going to raise *everyone's* rates 72% because they *can*.
Maryland is already one of the most expensive states for power. After the rate increase, only California will be more expensive (co-incidently, the only other completely deregulated state).
Personally, I don't think private industry can be trusted with utilities. I think they should be run by state or federal agencies in order to keep prices down.
Our governor also inked a sweetheart deal for BGE in which customers can phase in the rate hike over two years, but pay *interest* as if the phased hike was some sort of loan. Wonderful.
So this hike, along with the 224% increase in gasoline prices since 2000, make me wonder: how are we supposed to pay for this?
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( 3 / 1203 )Thursday, April 6, 2006, 08:32 AM - Dumb Happenings
Downtown Baltimore has got to be the RUDEST place on Earth to drive. Every morning when I drive to work, I feel like I’m playing a minor role in a new “Mad Max” movie. Today was no exception.
To start off, there is no “main road” into downtown Baltimore. They are all really narrow roads that date back to the horse-and-buggy era. You’re also not allowed to park on these streets ANYWHERE during rush hour -- but people do, all the time. Their modus operandi is “I’m just going to stop off here for a newspaper and a pack of cigs”. Meanwhile there is a line of cars 20 units long behind this rude bozo.
So this morning, I was trying to merge from i83 onto Saint Paul Street where, lo’ and behold, someone was parked illegally at the end of the merge lane. To avoid hitting this parked car, I had to make an emergency acceleration and yank my car to the left.
It did not help matters that this ultra-yuppie in a “historic” VW Beetle saw my predicament and actually SPED UP in attempt to prevent me from AVOIDING a car accident. Well, a Civic Hybrid beats almost every car in a 0-30 acceleration (thinks to the electric motor assist), so I avoided having a wreck.
This did not satisfy the ultra-yuppie, however. He honked his horn, sped up, and PURPOSEFULLY tried to sideswipe me. Then he got in front of me and slammed his brakes to the floor to try to trigger a rear end collision. (There was no chance of that. A hybrid has regenerative braking, which stops the car in 2/3 the normal distance.)
He did the attempted sideswipe / forced-collision manoeuvre two additional times over a one mile stretch. What he just didn’t get is this: in a wreck between a VW Beetle and a Civic Hybrid, the hybrid would crush the Beetle -- like a bug! The ultra-yuppie is lucky that I am a very skilled driver who knows how to make emergency defensive manoeuvres.
Finally, the ultra-yuppie turned off Saint Paul Street. But as he turned right, I thought: “Buddy, there are decaffeinated brands that taste just like the real thing!”
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( 2.8 / 1869 )Friday, March 10, 2006, 08:06 AM - Dumb Happenings
I already knew that HP had outsourced its Tech Support department to India. What I didn’t know until last night is that they also outsourced their spare parts order centre. The arrangement was so bad that I was unable to order the spare part I needed.
My TabletPC is three years old. It uses a special magnetic pen for input and navigation. Recently, the pen has started to have trouble capturing my handwriting. So, logically enough, I decided that I would order a new pen from the spare parts hotline.
The guy who answered on the other end had a very thick accent that was difficult to understand. When I told him what I needed, he said “That’s impossible! Digitizer pens don’t wear out!”
That’s funny, I thought , no one said that when I did a pen replacement 18 months ago! And it solved the handwriting problem until last month.
Before I could contradict him, he transferred me to Tech Support. This was pointless, since the warranty on my computer expired three months ago. (Which is why I was going to buy a new digitizer pen instead of just asking for one).
So the Tech rep proceeded to transfer me back to sales -- but to the wrong department in that division. The rep there only knew about PDAs, and insisted that there are no electronics in a PDA pen (that is true for a PDA but not for a TabletPC).
So I got transferred again. The next guy insisted that a TabletPC was “corporate” product, not a “retail” product. So I got transferred to corporate sales.
Over at corporate sales, the rep said he didn’t understand how I could own a TabletPC if I wasn’t a corporate customer (answer: I bought it off eBay from a doctor who was using it for business.)
When that rep said he was going to have to transfer me somewhere else, I gave up. This whole process took an hour and I still don’t have my new pen. Well, there’s always eBay.
Gotta love Corporate Outsourcing!
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( 3 / 1465 )Sunday, March 5, 2006, 08:13 PM - Dumb Happenings
Today totally sucked. It all started with my computer getting totally screwed up by Microsoft's latest greatest product: Internet Explorer 7. It didn't work, wouldn't uninstall, and made a lot of *other* things not work too (including System Restore). The long and short of it is that I had to do a complete reformat/reinstall.
Then mom called to complain about how my younger brother is lazy, greedy, and arrogant. He declared yesterday that he was too much of an "artist" to ever have a job. He said that he intends on *never* working.
So of *course* that means that mom is going to cut me out of her will so that Andy will get my inheritance (so he can be an "artist".)
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