Tied

Today I got all dressed up for a court appearance (contesting a speeding ticket).  Wearing nice shoes, slacks, button up shirt, and a tie.

Very uncomfortable.

With a mind as, well, how do I put it… empathetic yet controversial as it is, takes this dressing up versus uncomfortableness thing and tries to make sense of it.  I try to put myself in the “the man’s shoes” and figure out the reason they came up with their jackass ideas.  I couldn’t make heads or tails of it.

Why couldn’t “the man” (whoever he was, or whoever the group was collectively) just think about all the people on a hot summer day and decide shorts and a t-shirt was the nice and respectful thing to wear at events such as court, places of business, or any other special event?  This is my conspiracy: They did it to piss me off.

So anyway, here I am, it’s hot out and I’m wearing an entire suit minus the jacket.  Uncomfortable as I can possibly be.

What a stupid idea.  Why can’t we be more like India where their nice attire is comfortable and breathable.  Like the Kurta:

I vote that this country takes on a new endeavor to challenge this practice and blow this custom out of the water.  The Kurta would be an improvement, but I like the shorts and a t-shirt idea much better.

Who’s with me?

One Shoe

You know what really bothers me?  When you are driving down the street and see a shoe laying in the road.

If you see two shoes, you figure someone got hit by a car.  Ran over.  Kaput.  End of story.

But, what’s the story behind just one shoe?  Why is there just one shoe in the road?!  It leads to so many questions…

Stupid Monkey

I need no source links here.  Just look on any news site, channel, paper, what have you… You’ll read or see a bunch of people up in arms about this cartoon:

People are saying it’s racist and an outrage.  Especially the likes of Al Sharpton and those people that supposedly fight against racism.

Problem is, if these people had an ounce of intelligence in them, they’d realize that this cartoon is not racist against Obama.  It’s not even racist.

The quote in the cartoon says “They’ll have to find someone else to write the next stimulus bill” while showing a pic of a shot down monkey.  There are several inaccuracies when relating this to racism:

• They are comparing the monkey to the person who wrote the bill.  Sure, that would be easily translated as racism if a black person wrote it.  But… it was Nancy Pelosi who wrote it.  Last time I checked, she’s an old white lady.  Obama didn’t write it, he just signed it when it finally made it to his desk.
• Knowing that Nancy Pelosi wrote it, immediately assuming that the cartoon was aimed at Obama is an immediate racist act on it’s own just by assuming it was an attack on one’s color.  Al Sharpton, you are the one calling Obama a monkey.
• Relating a monkey to our brothers from different colored mothers is widely out of date.  We should all know this, especially after 8 years straight of comparing, name calling, sh*t talking, and defamating George W. Bush.  If anything, this cartoon could be considered as racist against white people since monkeys have now been referenced in regard to GWB and, when reading the cartoon intelligently, Nancy Pelosi.

In fact, here’s just a snapshot of what referring to a monkey has been for the last 8 years:

You now, besides the redneck white supremicists in the backwoods of our southern states who have no national voice, people of the United States have honored Dr. Martin Luther King’s dream and left racism behind us.  The people who have not left racism behind us are people like Al Sharpton, who still think the world is out to get him because of his skin color.

You want equal rights and eliminate racism?  Stop this bullshit and fight for something that is actually still an issue.  Why not be pissed off about someone insulting Nancy Pelosi’s or congress-in-general’s intelligence or making fun of the woman who had her face ripped off by a monkey?  Or, better yet, stop trying to put your burnt-out self back in the spotlight and just let it go.  Your work as an anti-racism activist is done, and has been for quite some time.

Now, Sharpton is trying to get the New York Post shut down for publishing this cartoon.  Yup, that’s real smart.  Let’s see… You misunderstood the cartoon, don’t have the intelligence to see who the cartoon was actually aimed at, and want to shut down a company forcing hundreds of people into the unemployment line in spite of a legitimate issue out there – our economy.

Who knows, maybe Nancy Pelosi wrote Sharpton’s speech and we’re all just sorely misunderstanding his statement.

Can’t we all just get along?

Stupid iTunes

I’ve been a major fan of the iPod, iPhone, and iTunes until last night.  For some unknown reason, I pulled up iTunes last night and I got an error message “You’re iTunes library has been corrupted. The file has been rescued and saved to your iTunes folder”.

As I look at iTunes and realize my iTunes library was cut from over 150 gigabytes of music to a little over 55 GBs.  I cringe.

Then I look at my playlists, of which I have spent probably days worth of time setting up folders and lists just to my likinig.  All gone.  I cringe harder.

Then, thinking that the “rescued file” might just fix everything back to my personal settings like I’ve done when transferring all my music from computer to computer, I locate the .itl file and import it.

Nothing.

I cringe so hard I nearly fall out of my chair.

I look up help articles and forums on just this subject just to find that “Oh ya, iTunes for Windows  in Vista sometimes just gets corrupted.”

Stupid iTunes, stupid Windows Vista.  Can’t we all just get along?

Well, I guess it could be worse… it could be a Zune that gets bricked by the Y2K9 bug (yes, 2009 bug).  (Wilbur, sorry to use you as a public example!).

Anyway, if this corrupted .itl file ever happens to anyone, I found a program that will reimport all your music, settings, playlists, play counts, ratings, the whole sha-bang.  Download it from http://www.ipod-computer.com/.  P.S. It also works great for when you want to download anything from a friends iPod!

Enough is enough, part 3

It’s now two weeks later, I’m still at home, Christmas presents still haven’t been delivered by UPS, and the DOT still refuses to plow our streets.

A buddy of mine sent me the following graph and I thought it held quite true, except the green slice is way too large.  My buddy then exclaimed it was scaled so that it could actually be visible.

I heard in Bellevue they are now asking people to move their cars off the streets.  That would be fine, IF their cars weren’t buried by what the plows have already dumped on top of them!  Our local government is nothing but a bunch of jackasses!

Enough is enough, part 2

It’s now Christmas Eve, I’m still trapped, and we seem to be experiencing another blizzard this morning.

Snow is coming in sideways and we had another 2 inches on top of the foot or more we already had, and yes, we are still in white out conditions.  I’m guessing another 2 inches by the time I’m done writing this post.

I’m grumpy, I have cabin fever, and I’m almost out of smokes.  All I have to drink is hot chocolate and tequila.  I already drank the hot chocolate this morning, and you all already know how I’m feeling about tequila.

The Department of Transportation, in their infinite wisdom, cleared out the main roads (of which there are 2 in our area), but have not touched the side roads (of which there are hundreds in our area).  This means that unless you have a 4 wheel drive or some serious chains, you are not getting out of Silver Firs (the area I live).  Good to know my tax dollars are going to the DOT to handle these situations that I reap no benefit from.  Speaking of, I sure don’t see any buses going through the neighborhood either.

Not to mention, I’m also grumpy because the only snow pants I have are now a waist size that is 4 inches too small for me.  The only boots I have are my snowboarding boots, which as fellow boarder knows, are not good for general walking in the snow.

On top of all this, we (my wife and I), have ordered several gifts two weeks ago which still have not been delivered.  This means that if we don’t get them today, gift exchange will be delayed as several people would be left out.  You’d think that ordering stuff 2 weeks ago with a 3-5 day delivery time would have made it by now.  Too bad not everyone understands that Christmas isn’t just about presents (especially the kids).

I know I’m not alone in all this.  I have heard news reports, friends, family, and people I normally don’t agree with all complaining about the same stuff.

You’d think Washington would be prepared for this kind of storm.  No, we’re not.  Our government is too busy to work out real emergency plans with stuff like evicting homeless from Tent City, avoiding the God-forbidden salt being mixed with SALT WATER, and bickering of religious (or anti-religious) signage in the capitol building.

Pure jackassery, all of it.

P.S. If anyone in the DOT or local government is reading this, for the LOVE OF GOD read and take head of the following articles, these are the words of people who actually know what they are talking about!

• Seattle Times: Sand on roads worse than salt, environmentalists say
• Seattle Post-Intelligencer: It’s time to get angry about city’s snow response

With all that aside, here are some pics of what’s going on at my house:

Who wants to BBQ?

My house last night...

My house this morning...

The snow meter...

My neighborhood

Unlike the president, this bush is trustworthy

Killer icicle

Enough is enough…

We are now in day 3 of the snow storm here in Washington. My house seems to be in the convergence zone if convergence zones.

I have watched the snow pile up and using my wife’s car in the driveway as a “watch yourself get effed in the a” meter. Her car is inches away from being completely buried. It could now be easily mistaken for one of the completely overtaken bushes in the yard.

I took my last drive for what could be days today. There is about 14-16 inches of snow on our street. In fact, you can only tell by familiarity of the land where the yard stops, the sidewalks begins and ends, and the street starts. Not a prime environment for a VW Passat that is lowered by 2 inches.

The thought that keeps coming to mind is “if this is global warming, I don’t see what the problem is”. However, now that I have said that, I am thinking back to the movie “The Day After Tomorrow” and it may not seem like such a stupid unrealistic movie.

I am one that loves snow as long as it doesn’t trap me. I don’t think I love this snow anymore.

My snowmobiles are 500 miles away. Yup, that doesn’t help me much.

My dog is sharing the same sentiment as me. He was having the time of his life when this started, but now he gives me this “go f*** yourself” look every time I take him outside to do his business.

Ya, I’m ready for this to be done, but unfortunately, it doesn’t look like this is going away anytime soon. The forecast says snow for another week.

Well, I guess I should be happy as I’ve been wishing for a white Christmas for years and now it looks like we’ll get one.

Stay tuned to see how cabin fever sets in. This should get interesting.

Good ol’ Emo Jokes

If you’re anything like me, you just don’t understand the whole Emo thing.  Drama queens.  Attention whores.

I remember when people were sent to psychiatrists or other type of specialist to help resolve the issues that these people have now made a trend.  Apparently, doctors got lazy and we are now annoyed by the likes of “My Chemical Romance”.  Anywho, on this note, it’s time for some good ol’ Emo jokes:

Q: How many emo kids does it take to screw in a light bulb?
A: Three. One to replace it, and two to write a poem about how they miss the old one.

Q: What’s the difference between emo grass and normal grass?
A: Emo grass cuts itself.

Q: What’s the difference between an Emo kid and a dead baby?
A: The baby doesn’t cry.

Q: How do you get an emo kid out of a tree?
A: Cut the rope.

Q: What’s the difference between an emo kid and an onion?
A: You cry when you cut an onion.

Q: What do you call an emo kid laying in the road?
A: A speed bump.

Q: How many emo kids does it take to make a microwave burrito?
A: Four: One to write about it on LiveJournal, One to post a MySpace bulletin, One to take a picture of himself in the mirror with the burrito, and One to microwave the burrito.

Some laws actually have good reason

Four words:  Secure your motherf***ing load!!!

We have a law to secure loads for good reason.  If you don’t secure your mothf***ing load, your sh*t will fly out and cause damage, injury, or death.  All because you are too f***ing lazy to tie your sh*t down.

This morning I was on my way to work when a white bucket flew out of someone’s truck a couple cars ahead of me.  It looked like it was rolling over to the side and out of my way, but a semi drove by and the wind knocked it straight in front of my car and i hit at about 40 mph…  I hit it twice, first time it bounced back in front of me and then came back for round two.  It was a 5 gallon bucket versus a 3300 pound car… guess who won?

At least I won this battle.  I’m sure there was an accident shortly after as I looked in my rear view mirror and saw cars swerving to miss it.  So, I called the department of transportation to advise of a “cleanup” need.

Luckily, my fate wasn’t like either of the links I provided above, but I did get some scuffs.  They look like they’ll buff out, so this still ended well at least.  Just frustrating as hell.

I’ll say it again… secure your motherf***ing load!!!!

You can’t recruit me!

As most of you know, I used to work at AT&T/AT&T Wireless/Cingular/AT&T (again)/at&t Mobility. As most of you have heard through either myself or my good buddy the Cranky Monkey, that company used to be cool to work for, but things were stripped away until it was quite possibly the worst place to work. Today, someone from at&t Mobility HR called and offered me a job back with the company.

Here was my response:

“I would be interested if the pay was worth it, the benefits were like they were 4 years ago, the bonuses were good, there was ample room for career growth, cups, straws, coffee, and tea was in the break room, it wasn’t in Redmond, the cell phone was completely free, no travel, and never had to work over 45 hours a week on salary…”

Then she replied:

“So, do you know anyone else with your skill set?”