Aug 31, 2006

No Photos of Suri Yet, But Hey Here's a Bronze Casting of Her First Crap!

This is getting stranger and stranger, now, because there are no published pictures of Suri Cruise, the kid's shit is being encased in metal and put on display. No, really. The Excremental Suri.

To which I think I am going to have to say, I'm done. Either the kid is deformed or the whole pregnancy was a fake done for marketing purposes or something else entirely. Either way, I kind of want to punch Tom Cruise in the face more and more each day. And, doesn't Katie look like a young Valerie Bertinelli in the accompanying pic?

I saw a woman in the morning commute with the same kind of a look. But it worked better for her than for Katie who I just feel kind of sad for.

My WTFMeter has just, officially, exploded.
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Things I Learned Today So Far

I've learned that you can truthfully respond to the officer, "No, I do not know how fast I was going."

Because you really do not.

I found out that an indicated 85 on my motorcycle speedometer equates to "only" 78 miles an hour in the real world, as reported by my GPS unit. That's an almost 10% overestimation of speed. I'm sure that percentage slides alot closer to 0 as your speed comes down but still. That's a rather sizable inaccuracy.

And no, I did not get pulled over this morning. Nor was traffic the utter clusterfuck (hey, utter clusterfuck can be mashed together to form, da da dah, clutterfuck) it was yesterday where the backup started about five miles further south than usual and my 20 mile commute took over an hour.

I also learned that its not a good idea to pop wheelies when you are splitting lanes on your motorcycle. Nor is it considered good form to drop an elbow in the mirror of the ass who's using his friggin' huge truck to obstruct your passage because he's a small minded asshole who thinks that everyone should have to sit in the traffic jam regardless of the basic fact that using your vehicle as a weapon is a felony.

I also learned that too much creamer in your coffee is easier to overcome than not enough.

And that I can easily convince myself that a good long soak in the hot tub that includes stretching is just like a workout even though I know that its not at all like a workout.

Countdown to Coverage

Yet another benefit of working, aside from paychecks with which to pay your mortgage/rent, is health coverage. Some places of work have better health coverage than others. My (re)new place of work is one such place. I have excellent coverage. But it doesn't begin until tomorrow.

So I have to be careful today and make sure not to get hurt until tomorrow and maybe I'll even try to not get hurt tomorrow too.

And then, after work tomorrow, its a three day weekend! Followed by a four day week followed by another three day weekend! Why? Because I am observing 9/11 Day this year and refuse to undertake any work. Its also my birthday and I have found that I'm pretty well useless for production on my birthday so its best to take the day off and do other stuff. Or maybe just sleep in until noon.

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Aug 30, 2006

File Me Under Just Don't Get Podcasting

Podcasting is what all the cool kids are doing these days. Let me see if I understand what's going on.

Someone records some audio of them talking about something of some level of import to them. They post the resultant mp3 on their blog and other people download it to listen to it while on their way to work or on lunch or something else.

I've tried to give a damn about podcasting, I really have. But I just can't care any less than I do. Maybe if I had one of those ginchy car stereos that make connecting my iPod to it super easy and slick but I don't, I use an iTrip. Maybe if I had a two hour commute on a train in which my options would be to sleep, listen or masturbate under my newspaper, but I don't commute that far. And besides, if I want to hear lunatic rantings, I can always tune into Springer on the Radio (yes, Jerry Springer) and listen to morons from the heartland talk about how the liberals are still screwing up the country because he heard it on Limbaugh.

Nah, Podcasting'll have to demonstrate a real benefit to me over listening to some good music in the travel time. To that end, here's a song to share that I've been loving on lately. Manu Dibango - Soul Makossa. Enjoy.

Spam, You're Fired!

What if you were fired by email and your spamfilter caught the email and junked it?

RadioShack Lays Off Employees Via E-Mail

I can see it now, "This is the hardest email I've had to write. You (and 399 other people) are fired. Please don't make this hard on me and reply to this email."

Bad play, RadioShack, very bad and very lame play.
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Doomed to Failure

"Free" music seems to come with an oppresive and stupid amount of hoops to jump through, again and again. Which means, like almost every other attempt to break into Apple's iTunes 99 cent download territory, this too will fail.
For consumers, SpiralFrog's free downloads will come with many more strings attached than Apple's paid ones. Users of SpiralFrog will have to sit through advertisements and will be prevented by software from making copies of the songs they download or from sharing them with other people. They will have to revisit the SpiralFrog Web site regularly to keep access to the music they download. And the songs will be encoded in the Microsoft WMA format, largely incompatible with Apple iPod portable music players.
How will it fail? Let's count the quick and easy ways.
1. Requiring me to continue viewing ads to keep listening to your overly-DRM'ed music.
2. Not allowing me to use the music in anyway I want to. I.e. on my iPod.
3. Attacking the problem from the record label's perspective rather than from the listener's perspective.

First it was a problem that people were pirating music, now its a problem that too many people are buying their music from iTunes and not from the other "rental" sites. Napster rents music, you don't buy it. Many of the other sites do the same thing. And I don't want to have to manage yet another "service", I just want to be able to listen to the music I want, when I want (as long as its not during business hours, grrrrr!).

Until the record companies realize that people are done jumping through hoops for them, all of these initiatives will fail. In the old times before P2P and digital music the record companies could force users to do all kinds of lame tricks to get their music. Not anymore, the listeners have the leashes now and its time the record companies started doing some tricks of their own or the industry will leave them behind like the old dogs they are.
Tags: SpiralFrog is doomed to fail, itunes

How Quickly They Turn

Spraying Poppa
If I'd known how much better iPhoto 6 was than iPhoto 4 (the clunker I've been coping with) then I would have upgraded many months ago. Its faster, deals with large photo libraries much better and looks better too.

It took a little massaging to get it working properly due to some user install errors but is now up and running smoothly for me.

And I got to upload all of the photos in my camera that had been sitting for a little while. This was among them, Graydon learned how to use the spraygun on the hose and almost immediately tried to turn it on me. But I had my crazy hose hound to jump in and take the hit for me. It was great fun to watch Graydon spray Nande with the hose and she loved the attention and the fun.

I can see these two being pals for a long, long time. If only we can convince him to stop pulling on her tail.

And yes, I did manage to stay (mostly) dry.

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Aug 29, 2006

Here's Some Perspective For Ya

South Africa Panel: 336,000 Dead of AIDS in just the last 12 months.

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Ticketmaster Deserves to Lose

From Techdirt: Apparently Ticketmaster Doesn't Like Having Competition because that means they don't make as much ridiculous money from their fee system.

Whoever thought it was funny to add a "convenience fee" to Ticketmaster's already overpriced sales system should be kicked square in the junk by every single person who's had to pay it. Convenience fee was the best they could come up with? How about something that actually sounds like something people wouldn't have too much of a problem paying? Like, say, a recovery fee or a recycling fee or a profit fee? No wait, that last one wouldn't fly. Heck, how about a usage fee if they are so gung-ho on milking people for more money.

Anyway, Ticketmaster is trying to get the laws changed on selling tickets so that they regain their monopoly status and can resume charging people fees without any regard for competition or fairness.

I, personally, will go out of my way to avoid Ticketmaster like the plague they are.

I can't remember if it was Ticketmaster or not but I wanted to print out some tickets that I'd purchased online and the company wanted to charge me an extra $3 per ticket for the privilege of printing them myself. Which was just asinine, they should have given me a three buck credit for not taxing their system and putting the burden of printing on them. Stupid, short sighted and greedy, yep, must have been Ticketmaster.

Still With the Aftermath?

Katrina: One Year Later is a Google News roundup of all the coverage of the damage Hurricane Katrina caused in the southeast of the US. Its easy to see the damage since it looks like a majority of it is still there. Bureaucrats are holding up the distribution of rebuilding funds and people are still living in temp shacks or just gone altogether.

The way the immediate aftermath of Katrina was dealt with by the Bush Administration was shameful, why hasn't New Orleans been rebuilt or even cleaned out? I've heard about people who are going to lose their land because they haven't rebuilt yet because they haven't gotten money to rebuild yet.

And I've also heard that State Farm, contrary to their commercials, is screwing policy holders over like its going out of a style. Denying claims based on bullshit, fudging damage reports and other shenanigans that profitmongers engage in after a disaster.

More money has been thrown at Iraq than at rebuilding and re-invigorating one of our own cities. That, Mr Bush, is truly and irredeemably shameful.

This Can't Be Good

Housing Bubble? What Housing Bubble
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iBroke My iPhoto

So, the astute observer might have noticed a recent lack of posting of photos to my Flickr stream. That's because I've sort of broken my copy of iPhoto and, rather than go back to the earlier version, which I'd never been happy with, I upgraded to iLife 6. Because Apple doesn't sell iPhoto alone I had to buy four other programs that I'm probably not going to make much use of but its the only way to get iPhoto for now.

I don't get software bundles like this. I don't need or want any of the other programs but I had to pay for them anyway. That's just stupid. Why not charge me a higher price $25 or $30 just for iPhoto but you get a better deal if you get the bundle?

Oh well, at least I won't be choking iPhoto 4 with all of my pictures anymore. That'll be nice. But, since I didn't feel like paying $10 to get it here in three days, I won't be able to post photos for a few more days. Which is alright since I haven't really been taking anything noteworthy of late since my life, right now, is commute to work, work, come home. Not much time or opportunity to snap pics, ya know?

I think I need to start working in photo stops to my day, like going by the harbor on the way home. That'll work since they're repaving Soquel (the main drag through town) right now and its making the commute home by car an hour long affair. Which blows. So I am, naturally, riding the motorcycle in today.

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New Word(s) of the Day - Satisfried & Satisfired

Satisfried - done to a successful end resolution but totally burnt out by the effort.

Satisfired - done but you still get fired.

And yes, they have been added to the Fictionarium

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Aug 28, 2006

DNA Results Say He's Still a Pedophile

DenverPost.com - Prosecutors dropping case against Karr after his DNA did not match the DNA taken from the scene. Which means, he's not guilty and has been actively milking the spotlight that even mentioning JonBenet brings with it. He's just another kid molesting scumbag who should be tossed into a dark cell and forgotten about.

Him and his creepy "dead" eyes.

What's Going On

I had my first regular weekend as a working dad with a working wife/mother who needs to be able to go to work on some Saturdays. Which left me in care of our two wonderful and needy little boys. And that's fine. Its a treat really to be able to spend the morning hanging out with my son, playing with his trains (GeoTrax, by the way, RULE!) or trying to figure out how his Matchbox track goes together.

It makes it hard to get much in the way of house projects done. But that's what naps are for, right?

This weekend I had several things that I really wanted to get done and I got the big ones done. The biggest was to get the hot tub moved from the garage back out to the deck and get it filling back up. Many is the night recently when I've wanted to be able to go and soak but could not because there was no tub ready.

It will be ready tonight and that's a big step back in the right direction.

The other side of that moving was to relocate the big desk/bar from the deck back into the garage. No small feat for one person to undertake while the boys slept. But I figured it out and got it done by using my skateboard under the heavy side and driving that sucker back to the garage.

Oh yeah, getting the hot tub back up and running also involved removing a busted up outlet and wiring in a new one. Which was a big deal for me as I don't really like electrical work (one episode with a screwdriver and a hot switch as a youngster infused me deeply with a real fear of what electricity can do). But I got it done and am mostly happy, there's one outlet on that breaker that's not coming back on now but I'll deal with that when I get a chance.

I'm also starting to try and focus on the house projects with more of an outward facing perspective. I.e. if you can walk by my house and see the project then I want to finish that one first. Too many things are half done and it makes the outside of my house look, rightfully, shoddy. And it apparently not bulb season because I couldn't find any for sale at Home Depot to replant the front flower space.

I've been trying to stay up on all of my pal blogs that I like to read and apologize to those of you I haven't had a chance to comment on recently. Its not for a lack of desire, I just can't type one handed while the other is trying to balance a baby and feed him too!

But we are approaching a routine again and I think that'll make everything a little easier to get taken care of.

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Aug 25, 2006

One of the Coolest and Unknown Webgems

Tellme is one of my longest standing favorite web companies. Why? Because I can dial in to their system and get baseball scores, stock quotes, traffic info and more. For free. Its voice driven internet and it should be alot better known than it is.

And I'm sure I don't even use it to its fullest extent. The only drawback that I can see is that you can't use it in a loud place as the ambient noise will confuse the heck out of the voice activated interface.

Anyway, give them a ring and see what they can tell you that you'd like to know. The number is 1-800-555-TELL.

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Who Fired Who? Who Cares

The Bosh:Tom Cruise slams Paramount and says that he fired them, not they firing he. Hahahaha. And don't take meds if you're depressed because he knows what he's talking about. The slapfest shall continue unfettered by reality or sanity.

I'm Sure the Fundies'll Find A Problem with This Too

Stem-cell advance whets debate because now, instead of destroying the embryo, a single cell is removed and can be "taught" to grow into stem cells. No destruction required.

But I already heard someone having a problem with it and calling for more research because its impossible to tell what harm is caused by the removal of the single cell. Notwithstanding the fact that a single cell is removed for genetic testing with a pretty fair bit of regularity and this technique just delays the testing to see if the cell splits and then one cell goes to genetic testing and one goes to the stem cell incubator school.

I'm kind of looking forward to irrational life begins at conception arguments to try and knock this latest advancement. Because someone ALWAYS has a problem with something that science is doing.

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New Word of the Day - Importality

Importality - the process of attaining immortality by importing one's brain of consciousness into a new body, importing immortality. As in that Emilio Estevez and Mick Jagger movie of a few years ago, Freejack, I think.

All this and more over in the Fictionarium.

By the way, didja notice the del.icio.us graphic in the footer of all the posts? That makes it easy to post them to del.icio.us and it took a while to figure out how to code properly. Other sites may be added, not sure if its worthwhile yet but I do use del.icio.us all the time (more so now that I'm unable to blog from work).

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Aug 24, 2006

The Utter Wrongness of Being Forced to Listen to Another Man Shit

Whoever designs bathrooms for office buildings should be forced to have to use them. Whoever designed the bathrooms in my office building, a shared bathroom model, should be shot. Maybe they should be shot out of a cannon and right into the disgusting sloppy ploppy buggers who inhabit my building.

I've been back at work for three weeks now and I know several of the men in my building by their shoes and by their toilet habits. Which is, well, disgusting.

There's wingtips and cougher guy, he has some issues with, um, loose stools.

There's brown shoes guy who likes a clean bowl before he does his business and then he's all business, wham, plop, wipe, wash, gone.

There's Coughy McCoughinstein. There's the Wheezer who sounds like he's having a heart attack as he grunts a nasty, heavy one plopper out.

And there's the Why Is This Door Locked I'll Try To Open It Five More Times guy, who, as you might guess, doesn't seem to be able to grasp that sometimes the bathroom stall he wants is occupado and he should just move on.

I hate sharing a bathroom with other people to begin with. But I have to share a bathroom with a whole bunch of people and now I know them by their crap habits. And their shoes.

And yes, this post is dedicated to Rambling Rhodes, home of the now quite famous Dirty Mushroom. And lots of disgusting humor.

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Aug 23, 2006

Not All Bad

Its amazing what a little sweat can do for your attitude. One good workout can shift a tired and worn out mind into a body and mind that's more realistically inclined to finding a potential solution rather than dwelling on the muck of the reality of living in Northern California, which is, if you didn't know, one of the most expensive places in the entire country to reside.

I'm still resigned to the fact that this area is far too expensive to seriously consider as a long term place to live anymore. But I'm also aware that the realization opens up many, many doors to other places to live. And I've been here for almost 13 years now, maybe it is time to try another place?

I hear Austin's not too bad.

But I'm going to bed in the hopes that I'll be able to get some real rest tonight. I even flipped the mattress and rotated it so keep your fingers crossed that tomorrow morning comes after some serious rest tonight.

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New Word of the Day - Freaktard

Inspired by today's news about Paramount firing Tom Cruise for his creative suicide over the last year.

Freaktard - a freakin' retard. See Tom Cruise.

Note, some people will object to my use of 'tard in this fashion. Tough shit. I could defend its use by talking about the regression Cruise visited on his career by acting like a moron on numerous occasions but I really don't give a damn right now.

As always, all the new words go up over in my Fictionarium as well. One of these days I'll have to get a few hours to get that site organized properly and make it work better. One of these days.

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Didja Ever Notice?

Did you ever notice how similar tired and tried are? I tired of trying so hard. I tried too hard and am tired. I feel like I'm sitting in the bottom of a huge barrel with just a peephole of sunlight above. I feel like I'm carrying a burden too great to carry but I have to and I have to keep carrying it no matter what. I feel overwhelmed, overtired, overwrought, overextended and just over it.

I'm tired of everything, I'm tired of everyone, I'm tired of looking at housing here and seeing shitholes being sold for a half a million dollars. And decent houses selling for three quarters of a million dollars. I'm tired of the world feeling ridiculously fucking expensive.

I'm tired of everything reducing down to dollars and not having enough of them. I'm tired of knowing that I could work 24 hours a day, seven days a week and still not even be close to having enough. I'm tired of knowing this and lots of other things.

I'm tired of being woken up in the middle of the night by a screaming child, crying baby or by my wife shifting in the bed. I'm tired of our bed that's not comfortable enough to get a good night's sleep on and knowing that a new bed will cost a minimum of a thousand bucks.

I'm tired of the whole goddamned thing. I'm tired of the fucking Yankees winning. I'm tired of the Giants losing and the Dodgers winning. I'm tired of hearing about Terrell Owens already. I'm tired of Chris Berman's voice.

I'm tired of the media deciding what's important for the people to know about and getting it totally fucking wrong. I'm tired of the politicians blowing their goddamned wind around and calling it change. I'm tired of the false war on terror, I'm tired of the lies used to sell it to the people working.

I'm tired of being tired. I'm tired of construction on Highway 1, I'm tired of assholes in trucks blocking the center lane that bikers use to get through traffic. I'm tired of dipshit weasel faced idiots in sported out crapwagons playing awful music at ridiculous volume to show how cool they are. I'm tired of reading about homeless people stabbing each other.

I'm tired of worrying about how I'm going to care for my family. I'm tired of everything in California getting more and more goddamned expensive and with absolutely no end in sight. I'm tired of needing to squeeze my workouts in. I'm tired of not having my hot tub full of hot water and ready for me to relax into after a long day. I'm tired of fighting everything. I'm tired of analyzing everything. I'm tired of having to wonder if my asshole neighbors are going to be out in their garage and I'll have to pretend we have a normal relationship. I'm tired of their fucking dog limping over to my yard to take its shits on my front lawn. I'm tired of their loser friends blocking my driveway because they're too goddamned stupid to give a fuck about anyone but themselves.

I'm just goddamned tired and would really like a good solid night of sleep every now and then. But I've got a workout to get to first.

Oh yeah, I'm tired of not being able to ride my bicycles anymore too. Maybe I'll try harder to get some riding time in but its hard to do with the kids, the dog and the wife all having higher priorities.

And I'm tired of goddamned Technorati's ping completely ignoring updates on my blog for the last four months and then not even working when I manually ping from their site. And I'm tired of waiting for their support to get back to me.

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I Break With Thee, I Break With Thee, I Break With Thee

Now throw some shit on his shoes and we're done. At least that's how I remember the SNL skit about how country divorces are done.

Anyway, Paramount Cuts Ties With Cruise Company because of their belief that his "antics" cost MI:III a whole shitload of money. Well, I don't know about that but I do know that I wouldn't ever pay to see this simpering fool in a movie again after his able demonstration of what a freaktard he is.
Tags: Paramount, fired, Tom Cruise, freaktard

Aug 22, 2006

Del.icio.us Link Dump

I love using delicious (sorry, the periods get tedious to type) and use it constantly to bookmark the sweet stuff while I'm at work and can't blog it or just want to play with it later.

But sometimes I forget about all of the amazing stuff that gets tossed up there. So I'm going to try and post a Delicious Link Dump here every so often to make sure it doesn't fall off the leaderboard without a trace.

And away we go........

Get Outta My Face - a teen blog that wants marketers to back the heck off, especially the fast food marketers.

iProcrastinate - an online list maker with built-in cool features like prioritizations and labels and such. Neat.

How to write in plain English - pretty clear, eh?

Cyworld - the way cuter Korean competitor to MySpace with 90% market penetration in the 20something demographic in Korea. And, without ads, they make $7.78 a year per member which is definitely not chump change. Because, let's face it, MySpace is horrible to look at.

How to build a panoramic tripod head for $10 and X-Loupe turns Canon IXUS (SD series) into a digital microscope AND one more, Researchers take the blur out of shaky photos.

What's that? More? Okay.

WhoCalled lets you plug the Unknown caller numbers from your caller ID and find out who they are.

Hitler shops at WalMart is, you guessed it, an anti-Wal-Mart blog made all the funnier by Wal-Mart's recent retreat from Der Vaterland.

And the last one for this link dump, a repeat but a good repeat, Mobile 17's Free Roll-Yer-Own Ringtones. And they absolutely do not spam, I can attest to that. You sign up, load your mp3 up with how long you want it to play, get in the queue and in about an hour you'll get a text message with a link to a place you can download your ringtone from. My current ringtone is Ziggy Marley's Dragonfly.

And there ya go, my Del.icio.us link dump for this time around.

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Serve, Serve and then Serve Some More

Marine Corps to start involuntary troop recalls because, well, no one wants to sign up to go fight George's illegal oil war. And who can blame them?

Next up will be a retired Marine Corps soldier being called back to fight some more, refusing and then being arrested and charged with some lame ass crime because he didn't want to go get blowed up some more.

How about we start drafting Republican representative's children for the war effort? Where's Jenna and Barbara, let's get them to the front lines, stat!

They should call this what it is, a forced veteran's conscription. And it sucks.
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Is Zooomr the New Flickr?

Zooomr launches way cool photo "portal" feature.

Props to Easy for mentioning Zooomr to me first and now CNET's covering a new feature they're rolling out. You've gotta check it out to understand it, I was thinking it was just a note system but its better than that. Very cool stuff!

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New Word of the Day - Addictionally

Addictionally - an add-on addiction. Or addicted to tacking on extras, either on pizza or shopping lists.

As always, all the new words I create are added to the Fictionarium.

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Aug 21, 2006

Black Hat Disgraces Itself with Fake Mac Hack

Smug Mac User: 1, Hackers: 0 in which the presenters at the Black Hat security show showed a new "vulnerability" out on the Mac Book Pro based on a "flaw" in the wireless software which got a bunch of attention.

Only thing is, they removed some software from the machine to make it vulnerable to the attack. So, oops, dudes but that don't count. And it would seem that they opened themselves up to a lawsuit by the folks at Apple for intentionally trying to undermine their secure machines and sully their name.

Either way, they've lost pretty much every ounce of credibility they might have had. I would guess attendance will be done markedly at the next show.
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Treating Pedophilic Murder Suspects Like Royalty

I heard on the news this morning that self-confessed child killer (and likely a lying attention whore), Mark Karr, was flown back from Thailand in first class and treated like royalty the whole flight. Gourmet food and champagne in the hopes that he'd spill some of his beans before arrival. But no, he's going to milk his "celebrity" for every bit of airtime he can get before he's thrown into a dark cell and forgotten about until someone shoves a shiv into his backside.

This guy is, at the very least, a depraved child molester and, at worst, a murderer. And yet he gets treated like the King of Fucking Siam? His confession has gotten more media play than the striking down of Bush's illegal wiretap scam by a federal judge.

Why? This is murder case that's ten years old and has really no impact on very many people's lives whereas this wiretapping deal is huge and could potentially impact every single person in the country. A radio host the other day ran down a list of how much time was dedicated to the two stories, most spent between ten and twenty times as much time on JonBenet Ramsey's death than they did on the wiretap case.

America, your priorities are seriously fucking out of whack.
{Update: I'm not the only one who thinks so. Jon Friedman at Marketwatch is ashamed of journalism's fixation as well.]
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Aug 20, 2006

Quick Check-In, Then Some Well Deserved Sleep

Its a long way from my house to Reno and back over the course of a weekend. Especially with two little kids and a powerful need to stay ahead of rush hour traffic on Friday afternoon.

But we did it, we had a good weekend, went to a wedding, drank Long Island Iced Teas, pretty well avoided any gambling like the waste of money it is in most casinos, ate decently well for being on the road and got home today to a hound that was truly thrilled to have us back (she was staying with friends).

Also, today marks two solid weeks now since I actively made the choice to never eat fast food again (yeah, e., I know you're waaaaaay ahead of me but its not a race, its about choosing a healthier lifestyle). It was hard not to eat really bad crap out on the road but we didn't and are the better for it now. I think that I will probably write up a personal pledge pretty much to the effect that Fa(s)t Food is just no longer a valid option for putting sustinence into my body. Because its only half food, the other half is poison.

I took some cool photos that I like quite a bit, had some oysters last night and wish that tomorrow was a day off so I could do nothing but sleep off the road drone from 300 miles of motion. At least Donner Pass was pretty beautiful (and snow free) this time of year.

More notes about Reno coming up soon, in fact, I am calling them my Renotes because I'm just that clever (and yeah, I think I'll leave the italic n in there). Or something.

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Aug 16, 2006

Its Witchcraftery I Tells Ya

Check out this image of a clouded up Big Spanish Castle and follow the directions. When you mouse over it, the black and white image appears to be in color as long as you focus your vision on the black dot. The second it wavers, the photo turns black and white.

Now if that's not witchcraft then I don't know what is.

Thanks to danostuporstar for saving it in his Del.icio.us bookmarks at the right time so I'd find it.

Now, since we know its witchcraft, who do we burn?

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Neat New(ish) Flickr Widget!

Yep, I'm slow when it comes to these things these days. But I'll get there eventually. The latest new widget from Flagrant Disregard, the profiler.

Johnny Huh. Get yours at flagrantdisregard.com/flickr

Hmm, I wonder if anyone's made a blog called Fragrant Disregard yet? It would be a good place to complain about public body odor. The other thought I had after this posted and I looked at it is that I have 911 pictures in my Flickr photostream and my birthday is 9/11 (not gonna tell you the year, I'm THAT old). And why yes, that does really suck, at least it has for the last five years. Coincidence? I think not. And no, I do not own a Porsche 911, yet, you could get me for my birthday and I'd never complain about my commute again.

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AOL is Its Own Worst Enemy

AOL wants to dig for gold - literally by ripping up an internet spammer's parents garden in the hopes of finding gold buried underneath it.

And AOL's PR reps could be heard screaming "Noooooooooooooo!" as they ramped up their damage control unit yet again.

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Aug 15, 2006

I Found Me Some Cheddar X!

Ahh, nothing like finding a dusty old lump of Cheddar X and popping it right in your mouth! Mmmm. Actually, this isn't even mine so that makes it even better! And it helps lighten up the mood after that long and dark post below.

1. My roommate and I once: drank a whole bottle of Aftershock (cinnamon alcohol) with tabasco on top, went home, passed out, woke up and then went back to the bar and drank another bottle. Our insides were most displeased with us the next day or three.
2. Never in my life have I: thought that my government would be simultaneously as incompetent and utterly shameful in its actions.
3. The one person who can drive me nuts, but then can always manage to make me smile is: my two year old, Graydon.
4. High school was: too long ago to be painful anymore.
5. When I'm nervous: my stomach hurts.
6. The last time I cried was: when my second son was born.
7. If I were to get married right now, my bridesmaids/groomsmen would be: drunk and disorderly already. And alot of fun.
8. Would you rather run naked through a crowded place or have someone e-mail your deepest secret to all your friends? Heck, why not do both and live a little. I'm not against streaking and I don't even know what my deepest secret is so I'd like to get CC'ed on that email.
9. My hair: is blonde right now.
10. When I was 5: I went to Disneyworld for the first and only time, at least I think it was when I was five. And I saw manatees from my grandmother's apartment over a canal.

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Slamming The Door Closed

Today saw the end, the final end, of a chapter that's been waiting for closure since I walked out last February. The final appeal was filed, the last salvo was launched and it was a vicious one, that's for sure.

For those of you scratching your head at all the crypticism. When I quit my job last February, I did so because my then employer reneged on a commission that was owed to me to the tune of about $5k. This was after I'd truly done a kickass job for a major company event. So kickass that people at the event went out of their way to tell me what a kickass job I had done. And everyone within the company went out of their way to say what a kickass job I had done. Everyone, that is, except the owner of the company. She couldn't even be bothered to thank me for all of my hard work, couldn't even bother to offer me the next day off after putting in an entire week's worth of work in three days, couldn't even bother to pay me the damned money I had earned working my tail off for the event.

Now, this was the final straw in a long, long build-up of acrimony. Me being the camel, I dealt with her bullshit for years before it got to the point where I had to either stand up or lie down for good. And I stood up. And I remain proud of the fact that I stood up. And I remain proud of how I handled the increasingly corrosive working environment. And I remain proud of the fact that I saw the event through to the end despite my massive misgivings about the course of the company, despite my massive misgivings about making the ungrateful bitch any more money knowing that she would put it in her pocket and demand more.

I did it, not for her, but for me. Because I took the event as a personal challenge. I saw it through to its extremely successful completion because I needed to know whether I could. And I not only could, I can.

So let's fast forward through the last several months. My unemployment claim was denied because I, supposedly, quit without cause. I appealed it, had a hearing, lost the hearing because the judge didn't keep his facts straight and appealed the hearing's findings.

Which brings me to today. Today was the final day in the long saga and its over one way or the other. At this point, I'm not expecting the decision to be overturned. I think it would be really nice if they did, aside from the massive vindication it would give me, it would also mean a rather sweet chunk of change in my pocket for the effort. But the payoff for me has already been had.

In the process of the appeal, I had to write a final letter to the board of appeals and had to prove that a copy had been sent to my previous employer. The same went for her. And I got her letter last week so I had all the ammo I needed to blast the shit out of her and her lies and bullshit. And I did, I didn't include anything untrue but I also did not sugarcoat it one bit. I detailed my massive involvement in the event to make it quite clear how intentionally misrepresentative her letter was and how shameful it was of her to denigrate my work so disgustingly. I went out of my way to take each of her "points" and shred it, I shredded them like a rabid cat on PCP and then I turned some of the fury on her and shredded her too. Within the scope of the letter, of course. I detailed her "leadership" model, I detailed the revolving door policy that saw literally dozens of good people get hired and then subsequently fired on her whim or for bullshit reasons or they quit out of frustration.

And there was plenty of frustration for them. A company increasing its revenue every year and yet without much of any reinvestment in the company infrastructure. A company increasing its revenue every year and yet the benefits were continually reduced. A company increasing its revenue every year and yet it was incredibly rare for an employee to be there longer than a year because they got so tired of the hard work and crappy compensation and worse example set by the boss.

Bitter? Fucking A' yeah, I am.

But its all over now, barring any histrionics on her part. But she's really a coward at heart and I sincerely doubt she wants anything more to do with me. In fact, I'm sure that when our paths eventually do cross again, she will do just about anything to avoid coming near me. Not because I've ever been threatening to her in anyway but because she's basically a scared old lady desperately clinging to what shred of youth she once had. And she hates me, deeply and without the slightest reservation. Which is fine, I pretty much thoroughly despise her and wish nothing but a long, slow painful demise for her after the loss of her company and any tainted monies she's weaseled from customers has dried up and blown away too. Not that I would ever have an active hand in accelerating her downfall, I'm not stupid, I know to keep my hands to myself, especially here since I am a thoroughly disgruntled ex-worker. But ah the daydream schemes I've come up with! Delicious doesn't even begin to cover some of the revenges I've thought up but that will never happen. Because I have no interest in further intertwining my life with her sad and twisted existence.

It felt good to send the letter to the appeals board and know that she'd be getting a copy as well even though I can all but guarantee she won't read it since she can't handle criticism at all since she has always seen herself as the Queen of Sheba, or maybe she thinks she's Cleo-fucking-patra (still, inside joke that means something to only a few but you know who you are).

Sometimes doors get closed with a quiet whoosh as the air is pushed ahead of it. And sometimes the door slams closed loud enough and hard enough to bring down the entire building with it. I'm hoping for the latter.

Note: My old company is not named, my old boss is not named. Intentionally. Let's leave it that way.

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Aug 14, 2006

So Wrong and Yet So Right

Without preamble and most certainly without apology, I give you the Japanese Paris Hilton Doll. The Gallery of the Absurd very, very rarely fails to deliver the goods and this was a triple grand slam of humor.

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Aug 13, 2006

Just What Does "Excuse Me" Mean in Spanish?

I just got back from a trip to Bullseye Hell, that is the local Target, and it was a pretty unfun trip. The store has been torn apart by utterly indifferent shoppers who thought nothing of throwing things they've taken off the shelves onto the floor rather than put them back. Which meant it was really hard to find anything that I wanted and needed.

And I must have said "Excuse me" to people that had blocked the aisle with theirs seven or eight times. Not one single time did the person acknowledge me or move their goddamned cart.

So I can only conclude that "Excuse me" is a horrible insult in Spanish or I live in Assholeville. And since I know that "Excuse me" doesn't mean anything in Spanish, I will have to conclude that I live in Assholeville. Which I already know but had sort of forgotten due to lack of widespread exposure.

I've said it before and I'll say it again right now, I simply cannot wait to move away from this town and its rampant assholery.

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Aug 12, 2006

She Must Have Learned This One from Bush

That is, ignore something long enough and it'll eventually go away. Hopefully.
Driver gets 70 speeding tickets in 5 months and threw them away as soon as she got them because she assumed that the authorities wouldn't do anything if she didn't pay them.

Which is to say, she's an utter moron.

What I love is that she's now facing an $11,000 fine and a potential loss of her license. Potential loss. That just blows my mind.

And now I'm sure she's still speeding around like an idiot but this time without insurance because there's no possibility any insurance company would draft her a policy based on her history of extreme recklessness. And the fact that she's incredibly stupid, of course.

Aug 11, 2006

The Coolest Damn Google Maps Mash-Up Ever

Okay, this is about the sweetest thing I've ever seen done with Google Maps. Its a combination of Google Maps with a real estate database that tells you exactly what your house is worth now, what its been worth, how much houses in your neighborhood are worth and more.

It is simply too fucking cool for words. Just go try it out and see how ridiculously overpriced houses are in your neighborhood. Or is that just mine where houses are all going for $600K?

Go check it out now. Its called Zillow and it is going to save us a crapload of money when we sell this place and buy a new place.

A big thanks to the3ph17 for mentioning it to me tonight. We finally met up for a beer after work and it was a pleasure hanging out with him. Next time let's get together in a place where its not so noisy, eh?

PS It had already been posted to MeFi. Three times.

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Driving Slow in the Fast Lane

The fastlane is for driving faster than the slowlane, its not that damned complicated but it might as well be brain surgery.

Are you really that fucking dense that you're incapable of noticing that you're doing under the goddamned speed limit in the fast lane? Are you so absorbed in your fucking reality that you don't notice all those cars coming up to pass you in the slow lane, giving you dirty looks each time? Would a giant foam middle finger deployed in your face help you to recognize that you're a goddamned road hazard?

How about if I pull in front of you and slow down to forty miles an hour? Would that help you realize that you are the problem? That you are the cause of road rage and accidents because of your determined need to block the fast lane with your piece of shit car that doesn't go over 60 miles an hour?

No? I didn't think so.

The same goes for the teenage poser fuck with his hat on sideways in his Honda with a stupidass huge spoiler on the back, a hand on his chin and a resolute inability to push the accelerator down, at all. And he's got to drive in the fast lane because he's such a fucking stud and only losers travel in the slow lane regardless of the fact that he's not even going the goddamned speed limit.

Sometimes I really hate living where I do. The pervasive fuck-you mentality is just tiring to put up with.

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Aug 10, 2006

I've Got Posts to Post, Really, I Do

I've got plenty of stuff on my mind these days but I'm finding that, by the time I get home from work and the kids are asleep and the house is quiet, that I'm just too damned tired to really be able to put any brain-brawn behind anything of real substance.

There's plenty going on though. Chinless Joe got beat in Connecticut and will now try to get re-elected as an independent. Good for him, I hope he gets his freakin' chickenhawk ass handed to him again and then just fades into limp-dick obscurity.

Floyd's still guilty until his lawyers can prove his innocence.

The Brits saved our asses from a potentially seriously ugly day in the friendly skies over the US. Thanks England. Its not like today was the attack day as reports are saying they were a couple of days away from a dry-run to test security but still, this could have been truly horrific.

The Dodgers finally lost.

And I'm sure there's plenty more. From my own end, I'm working again and enjoying what I'm doing but its tiring work, brain tiring work. And I miss seeing my family during the day as I've gotten very used to. Graydon cried when I had to leave this morning and that makes it so much more difficult. But the work is interesting and I like it, I also like being treated with respect by my co-workers and employers, which is something I'd forgotten happened in decent jobs. I'd gotten so used to being treated like dirt that it was easy to forget what a good job is like.

Of course, the job isn't perfect. I can't listen to my music during the day, which really sucks because there's nothing else to listen to, just keyboard tapping, phone calls and conversations. And there's no way I can keep a bike in my cube to go on rides at lunch which also sucks because I loved getting out and riding instead of eating crappy fast food.

But I am making a concerted effort to, brace yourselves, never eat fast food again. Its hard to consider a never statement like that but its an ideal to strive for and that's what I'm going to do, strive for it.

Next week I'm going to go play golf after work instead of commute home in the crawling traffic so that'll be nice. The course is literally right next to my office, in fact, I could drive a ball through the window if I nutted it just so.

As in all things, there are good aspects and not so good aspects. I'm trying to keep thinking about the good aspects.

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Aug 9, 2006

New Word of the Day - Prettiot

There are some many terms to use to describe the attractive moron. But today's new word came to me while watching Elizabeth Hasselbeck get all huffy and stupid about Plan-B on The View (I saw it on YouTube via The People's Republic of Seabrook cut me some slack).

Prettiot - a pretty idiot. Of which there are plenty.

As always, all the new words can be found over on the Fictionarium.

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Aug 8, 2006

Perspective

Just so people don't think I'm completely off my nut and foaming at the mouth about people I've never met cheating at a cycling event I've never been to, I wanted to make a quick extra post to clarify things.

Here is the center of my world. Well, him, his little brother and his mom, my wife. They are what I would go completely off my nut and foaming at the mouth for.

While I may have strong opinions about things like cheating in professional sports, I'm also pretty firmly grounded in my reality. That is, my family and doing everything I can to love and enjoy every moment I spend with them.

Even more so now that I'm back working and lose such a large chunk of my time with them everyday. Its a damned shame that people can't spend all their time with their kids and family. It really is. Think about what fantastic human beings we could raise if we were able to be there with them all the time.

But the pay, just like pay for the people who are hired to instruct them, sucks. While people in glass towers make millions and millions for shuffling goods around and figuring out some way to screw someone else. Or some preddiot (yes, that's pretty idiot, that post'll come tomorrow) that literally does nothing of any value and yet is worshipped like a freakin' goddess.

And then I remember where my focus lies and where it should be. On him, on my baby boy and on my wife (and Nande, of course) and on making our lives as full and fun and fantastic as possible.

More Floyd - Comfortably Dumb

Alright, my response to comments in this post have grown into another post about this Floyd Landis and the Tour de France since there are some voices debating it.
My previous comment addressed some of the direct questions posed by Amelia, /J and e. One of which was to question how I can dismiss Landis as a cheat and yet still stick by Barry Bonds. My comment's are below.

Another thing, the two issues are completely distinct and seperate. Floyd Landis' case has absolutely nothing to do with Barry Bonds. Nothing. Talking about the two in the same sentence tells me you're fishing for a correlation that just isn't there.

In Floyd's case, yes there are alot of questions. Some of which, I don't believe can now be, answered. I do see how it's hard to understand how his levels could be 11:1 one day and not register in the other 8 tests he passed. Yeah, I would have demanded a second, different lab perform the tests on Sample B as any lab anamolies would have been resolved by that. And its true that he drank beer and, according to him, he drank whiskey the night before. And lots more holes in the case as well, I'm sure.

And then there's the evidence to the contrary. He failed two tests performed by people who do this for a living. Do not have access to who's piss is who's. I don't think his case is bolstered by the posing of ever new theories about what happened. I've heard people talk about testosterone like its a brand name and not a class of steroids, some say you can't derive immediate benefit from them and then some say it can nearly instant and your recovery is greatly enhanced. His own team has had a history of cheaters, he was the fifth rider in two years to fail a test. Remember this was already the Tour de Shame with Ullrich and the others not racing for cheating? Hell, some are speculating that he was drunk on Stage 17 and that's how he thrashed it.

In the end, it'll be some decision arrived and the entire Tour de France will look lame. In the end, another sport is tainted by cheating and cheaters.

If Floyd Landis is somehow exonerated of the charges against him then I will happily be the first in line to apologize to him. I just don't see it happening. There's too much money, pride and more at stake. Besides, Landis is done with the bad hip.

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Aug 7, 2006

Whodda Thought I'd Miss the Gecko?

So it would appear that Geico, the idiot's car insurance company, would retire the incredibly stupid and annoying gecko and replace it with an even dumber and more annoying ad campaign?

Yeah, let's hire the aging and ever more pathetic Charo and the over-the-top annoyances of Little Richard to hawk crappy car insurance! That's a good idea.

No, its not. Its another really stupid idea and your commercials make me switch the channel away from you immediately. Wow, that's good marketing. For your competitors. Nice work, Geico.

PS. Sierra Mist advertisers, your ads are bad and annoying too. Any ad featuring Kathy Griffin is bad and annoying, please stop.

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New Word of the Day - Scammo

Today's new word is so simple it must have been invented already. But I'm not checking so I can take credit for it.

Scammo - ammo for scammers, that is, your marketing information is scammo.

As always, all the new words can be found over on the Fictionarium.

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A-Holes Gone Wild

So you think Girls Gone Wild is the best thing ever? Here, read this and realize the kind of prick you're sending money to and the lifestyle your $9.95 plus shipping and handling is enabling.

Too busy to read it (it is a long article with no pictures, sorry)? Okay, how about the allegations against Joe Francis? Such as, getting an 18 year old girl drunk enough to not give a damn (at the time) that Francis took her virginity? How about assaulting a journalist assigned to cover his story? How about threatening his landlady's life after the garbage men woke him up one morning so that she had to get a restraining order against him.

Girls Gone Wild may appear to be the ultimate party but its really just sad exploitation of drunk girls.

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Aug 6, 2006

They Must Really Need the Money

Sorry, one last post before bed.

Even dead people can't escape AOL in which AOL refuses to stop billing a man who died nine months before, the account hadn't been used, the credit card used for the account had been deactivated and the "customer service rep" verbally abused his daughter.

Gee and their shareholders wonder why their stock certs aren't even good enough to wipe their ass's with?

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Bracing for a Paradigm Shift

Tonight marks the end of one chapter and tomorrow morning is the beginning of the next. I start back to work tomorrow and am looking forward to hitting the ground running.

There are lots of great things about this new job that make it different from a typical new job. The first is that I know this company very well, I worked for them before during the dot com boom and then bust. I was laid off during the bust but not because of a lack of production on my part, it was simple economics. My client couldn't stay with us anymore and therefore my main reason for being there ceased to be. So I had to go.

But I took alot of good memories and excellent skills with me. And I never lost my respect for the two owners. Something I think is quite telling is that I invited them both to my wedding but not my (then) current boss. Because I had no interest in sharing my day with her because she didn't have any respect for me or anyone else who worked or works for her.

I always stayed in touch with my old company, they'd kick down some Giants tickets every now and again, we'd go to lunch every once in a while and I have had nothing but the utmost respect for both of them and how they run their business.

But there are lots of other things that I'm looking forward to about this job over just another job. I will be working primarily on Mac OS machines again which I very, very strongly prefer. I will be working with people who understand the business and understand that you need a proper set of tools with which to perform at your best. I will be working with like-minded individuals who are also capable and willing to come together as a team to accomplish company goals.

So I am looking forward to getting back to work, earning a paycheck, getting decent healthcare again and starting to push my career forward again.

As I've said many times, if I'm going to have to work for someone else, these are the people I want to work for. They are good people who treat others with respect and that means that they automatically will get my best effort because they deserve it.

There are always downsides but they are pretty easily overshadowed by all of the upsides. I will be commuting a bit further than I was before. But that's a short term issue as the job will also give us some home mobility as well. We are going to be able to sell this house and move closer back to town where all of our friends are and where we are more comfortable. And that is one of the huge motivating factors for me. I can't wait to put this house and this neighborhood in my rear view mirror because I will not look back for a second.

And, on that note, I'm going to go and get myself some decent sleep so I can hit the ground running in the morning.

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A Curious Word

Anyone who's read this blog knows that I'm a wordgeek, either inventing new words or just tripping on words for being funky or funny or just strange. Well, today's funky word is.....rectify.

Doesn't it seem it should signify something kind of naughty or dirty?

Man, I'm gonna rectify her sooooo good!

Maybe its just me or the bare sip of coffee I've had this morning.

What other words sound like they should mean something dirty and don't? Or vice versa?

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Aug 5, 2006

Cheating

Its pretty well official now, Floyd Landis' miracle comeback on Stage 17 of the Tour de France was artificially inspired and he has been pretty well completely shamed as a cheater and will not be lauded as the winner of the toughest bike race on the planet. Instead he will be, rightfully, shamed as a big fat (figuratively) cheater. Which he is.

What pisses me off about this garbage is the asshole athletes thinking that they are going to get away with cheating at these levels. He knew he was going to get vigourously tested and he cheated anyway. And now Oscar Pereiro, the real winner of the Tour, does not get his parades and untainted accolades as he deserves.

So, it will be made official soon, Landis' "Title" to be Stripped and his response? "I didn't cheat and my lawyers are gonna prove it, so there." To which my reply is, "Two positive results equal you're a cheater and a liar. No please just go the fuck away, you stinking cheat."

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Oh Yeah, the Other Great Thing About Today

I almost forgot the other great thing about today, well now yesterday.

I have a job again!

I start working again on Monday and am working for my previous company that treats people with respect, pays them well and understands the concept of investing in the company. Unlike my last job where my boss was an idiot who made people crunch data on crappy computers with 14" crt monitors, where we printed 300+ page documents in-house, where there was a direct and inverse relationship between the company's earnings and the reduction of benefits.

Oh yeah, I'm still bitter about my last job. But not for much longer, I'm moving on and up.

The downside is that I will not be able to spend as much time with my family as I've gotten quite used to these last few months. And I will truly and deeply miss it.

But regular paychecks and a great working environment (the office works on Macs too!) will help to offset that some.

So yeah! I'm excited to get back to work even if it means less time surfing the web looking for trouble. And if I've gotta work then this company I'm going back to work for is the best resolution. Plus, I'm making more money than I was before too so that just makes it even better.

Other downstream positives include the fact that this job represents mobility for us. We can actually sell this house, get away from our asshole neighbors and move to a town and a place where people aren't such colossal pricks to each other for no reason. And maybe our next neighborhood will have people that have respect for themselves and others, what a concept!

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A Rough End to a Great Day

Today was a really great day for us in many ways. We had a wonderful time at a group called Together in the Park that gets a whole bunch of kids together to play games, paint, play with bubbles and do some quality socialization. Graydon always has a ball playing around and trying to hang out with the bigger boys. And I shot some decent photos, a couple of which might go up on Flickr.

And, after a couple of naps for the boys and a walk for Nande down in the slough where I could get her some running time and try to take some more photos of the egrets. Oh yes, the egrets, the other morning when we went walking there were several dozen of them hunting for food. Big, beautiful white birds and it was pretty wonderful to watch them, even more so when they were startled and a whole bunch lifted up to fly around for a few moments. After the boys had some naps, we loaded up into the car and drove up to San Francisco to go see the Giants play the Rockies.

I'd interviewed last week and was given a set of sweet Club Level seats with a parking pass and the two little guys got in for free!

Grady had a great time when I'd let him run, run, run through the Club Level with me trailing him closely. He was fairly out of control a good portion of the time but he had fun and only bashed into a couple of people while we were out playing.

And Mr. Barry Bonds hit his #723 before the bottom of the ninth shenanigans that saw him tossed by a bad umpire with a big chip on his shoulder and a totally inconsistent strike zone. But, by that time, we had already done a tour of the bleacher section and were making our way out to the car to load up and head for home ahead of the throngs. So we missed the ugliness which included alot of trash being thrown on the field after Bonds got tossed out of the game. And that's fine, we didn't need to have that crap happen and I'm happy to have missed seeing it. And the Giants lost, again. That makes their last 11 game record a pretty pathetic 1 and 10, that's one win and ten losses in their last eleven games. All while the freakin' Dodgers have run 7 straight. Put a fork in the Gyros, they are done.

But I am pretty disgusted with the San Francisco fans for such an utterly lame display of non-class by peppering the field with trash. That just drags the entire team and the city into the gutter and San Francisco is better than that, far better. It makes me sad to think that people would react that way.

On the way home, we made great time until we were just about down the grade on 17 coming into Scotts Valley when Grady made a funny wet coughing noise in the back. And then vomited. And then started wailing loudly as he quite obviously felt like crap. It would appear that a combination of stadium food and the roller coaster ribbon of asphalt that is 17 were a bad combination.

But he's fine now, we got home alright, he got a quick bath and then we laid on the couch and watched some Sesame Street before I laid him down for the night.

I feel awful for him even though he's just fine. And my car smells like partially digested garlic fries. Yeah, nice, eh?

Time to go load up the photos from the game and see what I got. Keep your fingers crossed for some good action!

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Aug 3, 2006

Job Asset and Strengths Profiler

So I've been putting in alot of time working on my resume, reposting it to Monster, figuring out where my best skills and aptitudes are and learning quite alot about myself in the process.

This was initiated in part by Amy's ENFP post about the results from an online Jungian Briggs-Myers test she took. I took it as well and "scored" as an ENTJ - extraverted (I checked and they used extra several times) Intuitive Thinking Judging. Which makes my personality most closely aligned with a Field Marshall, i.e. fit for command, able to think on my feet and adjust plans accordingly while keeping an eye on the objective(s) at hand.

And I've just finished another test, this time at Monster.com, called the JASPER (you may have to login or register, sorry), which is short for Job Asset and Strengths Profiler. The results of which have given me some immediate input and insight into making myself more attractive to prospective employers as well as finding a job or career that addresses my particular interests and talents.

According to the Jasper (since I hate ALL CAPS I'm going with Jasper) I am a Type 3: Visionary with unique strengths: Innovative, Expressive, Multi-Tasking and Questioning. What I want from work, according to the results, is to dream big and to foster my creativity and knack for innovation, my colleagues think of me as a creative, abstract thinker who's fun to watch in action and I offer not only new and better ideas for how things can be improved, but also the courage to pursue them.

Which is all nice information but Monster takes it a step further and has some proscriptions to making positive use of this information to find myself in a more fulfilling job that makes use of my unique talents and abilities.

Which I'm going to start putting into action now.

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Abandoning FireFox

So I finally got fed up enough with FireFox and all of its myriad annoyances to ditch it for a faster, better and less memory sucking browser. Yes, there will be a period of adjustment as I get used to Camino but I'm already liking how fast it is and I'd already shut off all of my FireFox extensions to try and figure out a couple of stupidities it was doing (or not doing as the case happened to be) so I really won't miss them.

Now I've gotta go and change my Google Adsense Referals because I can't, in good conscience, recommend people switch to FireFox when it really became more of a nuisance than a necessity.

How could I hate FireFox you ask? I'm glad you asked because I'll tell you.
1. Memory leakage or suckage - FireFox has a really annoying tendency to start eating up memory and will eventually be using a gig of memory or more in both real RAM and virtual space.
2. Spinning beach ball-itis - FireFox will get to the point where it simply refuses to do anything. It will just spin and spin and spin. Sorry but I do not have the time to wait for the browser to get its head out of its butt and start working again.
3. Quitting - when FireFox gets to the point where it won't work it will also get to the point where it can't be quit without force quitting. And sometimes that didn't work and I'd have to force quit from the Task Manager screen (or whatever its called on the Mac).
4. Restart in lieu of quitting - I've had to reboot my machine because even the force quit from the task manager wouldn't work sometimes.
5. Downloading - an inability to track down a stupid setting that would allow my old laptop to download from YouSendIt and not from my new laptop. Exact same configuration but yet it failed every single time and that just gets old fast.

And that's more than plenty to condemn FireFox in my opinion. I've already imported all my bookmarks into Camino and am impressed with its speed. We'll see how I do without those nifty extensions but really there are only a couple that I need to use, most are just want to use. And I can live without them for a better experience.

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Gary Coleman Can Suck My Balls

I understand that everyone's gotta make money but being a paid shill for a company that preys on poor people with his CashCall ads is pretty despicable.

These paycheck advance places charge exorbitant interest rates for short term loans because they can. Everytime I see his ugly little mug, I want to kick it in. Its just like Al Sharpton shilling for a company that does the same thing but uses your car as collateral. Yeah. If you can't pay them back fast enough and with their 30% interest rate tacked on then you lose your car and are in far worse shape than you were before.

These places are filthy bottom feeders and I'd have no problem with them being put permanently out of business. Preying on poor people is pathetic. Now, let's talk about preying on the wealthy and we'll have something.

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Aug 2, 2006

New Word of the Day - Sentimount

Oh yeah, this is the way some guys work their mojo and get a little sack time. Its the offer of the shoulder to cry on in the hopes that a moment of emotional weakness will lead to some bow-chicky-bow-bow, that is, some sexing.

Sentimount - pretending to give a damn about a girl's (or, in rare cases, a guy's) emotional turmoil in order to exploit her temporarily weakened emotional state to get some sex. Try not to be a sentimountal fool.

As always, all of my new words can be found over in the Fictionarium.

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Aug 1, 2006

New Word of the Day - Funnoying

Hi kids (yep, I'm wearing that one out today) you know what's funny AND annoying? Why that would be funnoying.

Funnoying - being both funny and annoying. Like its annoying that my favorite shorts no longer really fit me and funny because I'm skinnier now than I have been in about ten years so its funnoying.

As always, all my new words are listed, for you convenience, over at my Fictionarium.

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Thoughts on Mel Gibson

Yes, we all know Mel Gibson drove drunk the other night, got pulled over and turned it into a soapbox rant about Jews.

And he's now apologized twice for his anti-semitism that he says isn't anti-semitism. And he blames the rant on the alcohol.

Last I checked, alcohol loosens inhibitions and acts more like a truth serum than a make-up-hate serum. Alcohol doesn't put new thoughts into your head, it lets out the ones that have been banging around in there.

So yeah, good for you, Mel. You've now joined Tom Cruise and Arnold Schwarzenegger as movie stars that you couldn't pay me to go see any of your movies ever again as I've lost every shred of possible respect I ever had for any of you.

Yeah, you were good in some movies but your off-screen person is a pretty disgusting and reprehensible douchebag. And the sad part is that you're not playing a role in real life, that's who you really are.

A hate-mongering anti-Semite drunk douchebagnozzle. Good for you. Now please go back to Australia and shut the hell up with your garbage.

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What a Great Role Model!

That's right, kids, you too can be a stripper who fights crime! Woohoo! Beware of pole grease and make sure to gather up all the dollar bills, kids! It's Strippella, the Game!

Oh yeah, turn down your volume before clicking this unless your co-workers really like loud cheesy soundtracks.

The game itself is lame and barely playable, like Donkey Kong in a thong and with big boobs.

And, oh yeah, happy August!

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