Showing posts with label teevee. Show all posts
Showing posts with label teevee. Show all posts
Tuesday, August 2, 2011
Today's earworm . . .
Thank you, Gray's Anatomy for turning me on to this song. It caught my ear the first time I heard it while watching Gray's with Jameece . . . but once I caught the full lyrics, it had me in tears.
This particular mashup is from one of my favorite episodes of those I viewed with Jameece.
Thursday, August 6, 2009
Musings, ventings, raids, etc
Just a bit of venting. Nothing serious.
1. It seems like ripoff artists are getting more and more brazen all the time. Between idiots who do not know how to make change (and assume that I do not count back my coin and match that count to the math when it is given back to me . . . I've had two of these con artists at various retail establishments in the last month), "scare-ware" scams, "Free" Credit Reports that are anything but, getting honest-to-Ghu checks in the mail with fine print like "cashing this check signs you up for our exclusive service where we charge you $15 / month for a 2% rebate (max $100 / year) on your credit card", "credit cards" that are little more than sweet looking poisoned hooks into one's income stream . . .
Fortunately, my father is an astute businessman who counseled me even as a wee child to read the fine print. I did, and do. As a wee childe, I was also a fan, back when being a consumer advocate was still cool, of TV consumer advocate David Horowitz' wonderful show "Fight Back!" Horowitz's segments on predatory business practices always included "the tip-off to the rip-off" -- the clue that you are headed for a fiscal reaming by buying into a too-good-to-be-true "deal."
The same tools can be applied to the various Internet scams, like the recent Facebook drive-by scare-ware antivirus / anti-porn download. The driveby download popped up a scary looking Windows Explorer window on my Mac (running 10.5.7, not Boot Camped or running winderz in a Virtualization engine) with a dire warning about virii and pictures of nekkid people and the immediate need to remove them by downloading this lovely little .exe file.
However: Windows virii do not run in OS X
Not only that, OS X does not have Windows Explorer windows.
I can see how an inexperienced user might be panicked into buying
Preying on folks who do not know better and in some cases cannot know better pisses me off.
2. "Your Skill In Cooking Has Increased By (a lot more than) 1" -- I got a confirmation this morning of one of the reasons I have eschewed cooking my own meals at my current digs. My roomie, an otherwise reasonably tolerant and calm soul, is a neat freak's neat freak who makes Felix Unger of Odd Couple fame look like Pigpen from the Peanuts comic strip. I am not a total slob -- at least not anymore! -- but I tend to be not obsessive about my immediate surroundings. Common areas are another matter. Roomie informed me that my kitchen cleaning was not to spec, the stove top and counters needed to be wiped down. However, I did those things!!
So, rather than get pissed off and engage in my nominal default (avoidance) behavior and not cooking just to keep His Anality off my arse -- and to save money -- I need to do a better job than the everything but polish the fscking thing job I'm doing now. Part of me -- the lazy, tantrum-prone little boy inside me -- wants to say "Bite me!" and stop cooking. However, since Meece entered my life, I've begun to get a certain enjoyment from cooking my meals. It's more than saving money, it's about crafting something healthful that I will enjoy in the making, the eating and even when I talk to Meece about it. She inevitably suggests variations to my ideas -- some I'd already considered, some that I'd not even thought of.
I know, about bloody time I started cooking. The old excuse -- "Mom did not deign to teach me" -- does not cut it anymore, if it ever did. I've had some good teachers to overcome my lack of childhood instruction. Now I have the positive feedback that enjoying cooking gives to motivate me to try New Things™
3. Naxx-a-ramma, Part Deux. Tyr's been back to Naxx. Phat Lewts dropped from the Lewt Pinatas therein. Tyr even got some phat lewts from there. I'm very close to having a full set of main spec epic gear. My "gear score" -- a numeric measure of equipment quality -- is over 2k (which is OK for normal Ulduar!) now, and there is still room for improvement.
4. Major annoyance last night. One of the USB ports on my MacBook no longer accepts a USB A plug. Visual inspection of the lower case showed that the port appears physically misaligned. Looks like it's going to need service.
1. It seems like ripoff artists are getting more and more brazen all the time. Between idiots who do not know how to make change (and assume that I do not count back my coin and match that count to the math when it is given back to me . . . I've had two of these con artists at various retail establishments in the last month), "scare-ware" scams, "Free" Credit Reports that are anything but, getting honest-to-Ghu checks in the mail with fine print like "cashing this check signs you up for our exclusive service where we charge you $15 / month for a 2% rebate (max $100 / year) on your credit card", "credit cards" that are little more than sweet looking poisoned hooks into one's income stream . . .
Fortunately, my father is an astute businessman who counseled me even as a wee child to read the fine print. I did, and do. As a wee childe, I was also a fan, back when being a consumer advocate was still cool, of TV consumer advocate David Horowitz' wonderful show "Fight Back!" Horowitz's segments on predatory business practices always included "the tip-off to the rip-off" -- the clue that you are headed for a fiscal reaming by buying into a too-good-to-be-true "deal."
The same tools can be applied to the various Internet scams, like the recent Facebook drive-by scare-ware antivirus / anti-porn download. The driveby download popped up a scary looking Windows Explorer window on my Mac (running 10.5.7, not Boot Camped or running winderz in a Virtualization engine) with a dire warning about virii and pictures of nekkid people and the immediate need to remove them by downloading this lovely little .exe file.
However: Windows virii do not run in OS X
Not only that, OS X does not have Windows Explorer windows.
I can see how an inexperienced user might be panicked into buying
Preying on folks who do not know better and in some cases cannot know better pisses me off.
2. "Your Skill In Cooking Has Increased By (a lot more than) 1" -- I got a confirmation this morning of one of the reasons I have eschewed cooking my own meals at my current digs. My roomie, an otherwise reasonably tolerant and calm soul, is a neat freak's neat freak who makes Felix Unger of Odd Couple fame look like Pigpen from the Peanuts comic strip. I am not a total slob -- at least not anymore! -- but I tend to be not obsessive about my immediate surroundings. Common areas are another matter. Roomie informed me that my kitchen cleaning was not to spec, the stove top and counters needed to be wiped down. However, I did those things!!
So, rather than get pissed off and engage in my nominal default (avoidance) behavior and not cooking just to keep His Anality off my arse -- and to save money -- I need to do a better job than the everything but polish the fscking thing job I'm doing now. Part of me -- the lazy, tantrum-prone little boy inside me -- wants to say "Bite me!" and stop cooking. However, since Meece entered my life, I've begun to get a certain enjoyment from cooking my meals. It's more than saving money, it's about crafting something healthful that I will enjoy in the making, the eating and even when I talk to Meece about it. She inevitably suggests variations to my ideas -- some I'd already considered, some that I'd not even thought of.
I know, about bloody time I started cooking. The old excuse -- "Mom did not deign to teach me" -- does not cut it anymore, if it ever did. I've had some good teachers to overcome my lack of childhood instruction. Now I have the positive feedback that enjoying cooking gives to motivate me to try New Things™
3. Naxx-a-ramma, Part Deux. Tyr's been back to Naxx. Phat Lewts dropped from the Lewt Pinatas therein. Tyr even got some phat lewts from there. I'm very close to having a full set of main spec epic gear. My "gear score" -- a numeric measure of equipment quality -- is over 2k (which is OK for normal Ulduar!) now, and there is still room for improvement.
4. Major annoyance last night. One of the USB ports on my MacBook no longer accepts a USB A plug. Visual inspection of the lower case showed that the port appears physically misaligned. Looks like it's going to need service.
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
The RNC / Palin Nomination
Just a few observations about this week's political convention:
1. I'm going to ignore the speeches. There is nothing that they have said or will say that I have not heard before, and staying out of thrown weapons range of a TV screen is a wise maneuver. Since I'm ignoring the speeches, I'll not comment on them. As Mom told me as a wee lad, if you cannot say anything nice about someone,you're probably going to grow up a blogger don't say anything at all.
2. As to the Palin nomination, which is something that has been blogged to within an inch of its life, I have this to say: the pick clearly was not vetted by John McCain, and even more clearly was a sop to the theocratic wing of the Republican Party. I agree with Barack Obama that the nominee's families should be off limits. Palin's politics and performance as Govenor of Alaska is not. Her resume is thinner than an anorexic starlet on a week-long purge, her management style makes Dick Cheney look like Barney the Purple Dinosaur by comparison, her record on reproductive choice is unsupportable and if, Goddess forbid it, the McCain-Palin ticket wins or steals the election, this 44 year old tyro will stand one 72-year old heartbeat away from the highest office in the land. Don't be fooled by her attractiveness, she's a hardcore Christian Dominionist in sheep's clothing.
3. One more thing about St. Paul and Minneapolis: I've been there, those towns are lovely places. Hard to imagins such a place overrun with riot cops and no-knock flying squads on pre-emptive raids. It's almost as though the cops are trying to provoke a riot. As for the violent ones among them . . . I'm willing to bet some of them are cops -- agent provocateurs sent in to discredit the nonviolent ones and to justify the $50 million price tag for "security."
----------------
Listening to: Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers - I Won't Back Down
via FoxyTunes
1. I'm going to ignore the speeches. There is nothing that they have said or will say that I have not heard before, and staying out of thrown weapons range of a TV screen is a wise maneuver. Since I'm ignoring the speeches, I'll not comment on them. As Mom told me as a wee lad, if you cannot say anything nice about someone,
2. As to the Palin nomination, which is something that has been blogged to within an inch of its life, I have this to say: the pick clearly was not vetted by John McCain, and even more clearly was a sop to the theocratic wing of the Republican Party. I agree with Barack Obama that the nominee's families should be off limits. Palin's politics and performance as Govenor of Alaska is not. Her resume is thinner than an anorexic starlet on a week-long purge, her management style makes Dick Cheney look like Barney the Purple Dinosaur by comparison, her record on reproductive choice is unsupportable and if, Goddess forbid it, the McCain-Palin ticket wins or steals the election, this 44 year old tyro will stand one 72-year old heartbeat away from the highest office in the land. Don't be fooled by her attractiveness, she's a hardcore Christian Dominionist in sheep's clothing.
3. One more thing about St. Paul and Minneapolis: I've been there, those towns are lovely places. Hard to imagins such a place overrun with riot cops and no-knock flying squads on pre-emptive raids. It's almost as though the cops are trying to provoke a riot. As for the violent ones among them . . . I'm willing to bet some of them are cops -- agent provocateurs sent in to discredit the nonviolent ones and to justify the $50 million price tag for "security."
----------------
Listening to: Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers - I Won't Back Down
via FoxyTunes
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Impressions of the DNC
----------------
Listening to: Neil Young - Lookin' for a Leader
via FoxyTunes I've been following the Democratic National Convention in Denver via teh innerweb. The national party conventions have been one of two exceptions to my "No teevee" stance / pledge -- the other exception is election night.
Without TV, I get most of my news from the various blogs and from newspaper sites. With little "drama" -- national nominating conventions have been almost drama-free since the 70s (Thank you Chicago 1968!) -- the press have been focusing on such matters as Sen. Clinton's formally releasing her delegates to vote for Sen. Obama, and the diehard Hillary supporters who are holding out inder the PUMA (Party Unity My Ass) banner and the vast congregation of A-list political bloggers covering the convention.
OK, impressions:
1. Senator Ted Kennedy -- a very very sick man with brain cancer and other painful infirmities -- gave a speech, a symbolic "passing of the torch" to a new political generation . . . MY generation. Demographers call us "Generation Jones" -- the late Boomers and early post-Boom GenXers. Born right in the middle of the Cold War, too young for the sociopolitical convulsions of the late 1950s and 1960s (most of us were in short pants), too young for Vietnam / the civil rights movement and too old (many of us) for Iraq and Afghanistan. For us, the seminal political event of our young lives was the Iran Hostage Crisis in 1979-81, an event widely credited with delivering the Presidency to Ronald Reagan.
The Lion of the Senate, the man one of Styx's lyrics called "First of the 80s / and Last of the Sons / First in the Hearts of his Countrymen" roared again. Goddess keep you, good Senator!
2. Michelle Obama -- What a classy, smart, eloquent woman! While First Lady Laura Bush has not been the abject embarrassment her husband continues to be, I continue to be impressed by MichelleO. Comparisons to Jackie Kennedy are already being drawn.
3. Hillary Clinton -- I did not vote for her in the primary. If she ever gets the chance to run again -- say in 8 years -- I just might.
4. Karl Rove -- With respect to his commentary: As they say in the US Marine Corps, "Golf. Foxtrot. Yankee."
5. Internet application taking the political blog world by storm: Twitter.
----------------
Listening to: Neil Young - Lookin' for a Leader
via FoxyTunes
Listening to: Neil Young - Lookin' for a Leader
via FoxyTunes I've been following the Democratic National Convention in Denver via teh innerweb. The national party conventions have been one of two exceptions to my "No teevee" stance / pledge -- the other exception is election night.
Without TV, I get most of my news from the various blogs and from newspaper sites. With little "drama" -- national nominating conventions have been almost drama-free since the 70s (Thank you Chicago 1968!) -- the press have been focusing on such matters as Sen. Clinton's formally releasing her delegates to vote for Sen. Obama, and the diehard Hillary supporters who are holding out inder the PUMA (Party Unity My Ass) banner and the vast congregation of A-list political bloggers covering the convention.
OK, impressions:
1. Senator Ted Kennedy -- a very very sick man with brain cancer and other painful infirmities -- gave a speech, a symbolic "passing of the torch" to a new political generation . . . MY generation. Demographers call us "Generation Jones" -- the late Boomers and early post-Boom GenXers. Born right in the middle of the Cold War, too young for the sociopolitical convulsions of the late 1950s and 1960s (most of us were in short pants), too young for Vietnam / the civil rights movement and too old (many of us) for Iraq and Afghanistan. For us, the seminal political event of our young lives was the Iran Hostage Crisis in 1979-81, an event widely credited with delivering the Presidency to Ronald Reagan.
The Lion of the Senate, the man one of Styx's lyrics called "First of the 80s / and Last of the Sons / First in the Hearts of his Countrymen" roared again. Goddess keep you, good Senator!
2. Michelle Obama -- What a classy, smart, eloquent woman! While First Lady Laura Bush has not been the abject embarrassment her husband continues to be, I continue to be impressed by MichelleO. Comparisons to Jackie Kennedy are already being drawn.
3. Hillary Clinton -- I did not vote for her in the primary. If she ever gets the chance to run again -- say in 8 years -- I just might.
4. Karl Rove -- With respect to his commentary: As they say in the US Marine Corps, "Golf. Foxtrot. Yankee."
5. Internet application taking the political blog world by storm: Twitter.
----------------
Listening to: Neil Young - Lookin' for a Leader
via FoxyTunes
Thursday, March 27, 2008
Cheers and Jeers: O:M edition
So sue me, Bill in Portland Maine, over on Daily Kos. Remember who writes your performance reviews . . .
1. Cheers to Blizzard Entertainment. WoW patch 2.4 is out; Blizz dedicated it to the late, great Gary Gygax. Without EGG, WoW and Diablo would not exist. This patch is nowhere as massive in impact as 2.3 was; at least they fixed several annoyances.
1a. Jeers to breaking my damned UI mods, as usual. I guess you can't make an omlet without breaking UI mods . . . bastards.
2. Cheers to Seanan McGuire. Her Bardic Blondeness is coming to town this weekend. I haven't seen her in more than a decade, and I'm looking forward to paying my respects in person to one of my favorite multi-talented artists. She should be your favorite too. Check out her LJ, website and music for reasons why.
3. Cheers to over a century of fearless journalism. My new favorite political magazine is The Nation. I've been on their mailing list since forever, when ex#2 and I used to subscribe to the dead-tree edition of this august journal of liberal opinion. These guys have been around since the 1860s fighting for the abolition of slavery and continue to cover Stuff That Matters (sorry, Slashdot) like elections campaigns and ongoing corruption without accepting a single dime of corporate money.
4. Cheers to filkerTom-foolery: I thought I was hallucinating when I read that Tom Smith, aka the world's fastest filker, is going to be part of the entertainment for Eschacon'08, the lefty blogger con organized by the influential Atrios in Philadelphia this weekend. I'd love to see his set list for his performance . . . .
5. Jeers to sports memes as workplace motivation. Every company seekd competitive advantage through incentivizing its workforce through a variety of means. I have no problems with most of the ways Management motivate us worker bees. I don't even mind those STUPID motivation posters. However, few things this side of the Veil-between-Worlds piss me off more than big time sports. I was raised in a sports-saturated household. There was always sports on TV or the damned radio, and to hell with me if I wanted to watch something mind-streching like Star Trek or listen to music. To this day, I cannot stand sports or TV. This time, it's March Madness, the 63-game marathon men's college basketball tournament. Pick one of the 64 teams (preferably one that stands a chance of winning) as an identity and rank those corporate metrics against them. Frankly, I couldn't care less weather Gonzanga (sounds a stripper's stage name) or UConn or Louisville wins the damned thing. Please. Make Them Stop!
6. Cheers to the Nurses of Kaiser South Sacramento. My wound care issues brings me in contact with a lot of nurses. When I moved south last year I figured I'd have to move my care (which I did) and I worried about continuity and quality of care. Pam, Connie and Valarie, the triumvirate that change the dressings and track the progress of my wounds throughly impress me.
1. Cheers to Blizzard Entertainment. WoW patch 2.4 is out; Blizz dedicated it to the late, great Gary Gygax. Without EGG, WoW and Diablo would not exist. This patch is nowhere as massive in impact as 2.3 was; at least they fixed several annoyances.
1a. Jeers to breaking my damned UI mods, as usual. I guess you can't make an omlet without breaking UI mods . . . bastards.
2. Cheers to Seanan McGuire. Her Bardic Blondeness is coming to town this weekend. I haven't seen her in more than a decade, and I'm looking forward to paying my respects in person to one of my favorite multi-talented artists. She should be your favorite too. Check out her LJ, website and music for reasons why.
3. Cheers to over a century of fearless journalism. My new favorite political magazine is The Nation. I've been on their mailing list since forever, when ex#2 and I used to subscribe to the dead-tree edition of this august journal of liberal opinion. These guys have been around since the 1860s fighting for the abolition of slavery and continue to cover Stuff That Matters (sorry, Slashdot) like elections campaigns and ongoing corruption without accepting a single dime of corporate money.
4. Cheers to filkerTom-foolery: I thought I was hallucinating when I read that Tom Smith, aka the world's fastest filker, is going to be part of the entertainment for Eschacon'08, the lefty blogger con organized by the influential Atrios in Philadelphia this weekend. I'd love to see his set list for his performance . . . .
5. Jeers to sports memes as workplace motivation. Every company seekd competitive advantage through incentivizing its workforce through a variety of means. I have no problems with most of the ways Management motivate us worker bees. I don't even mind those STUPID motivation posters. However, few things this side of the Veil-between-Worlds piss me off more than big time sports. I was raised in a sports-saturated household. There was always sports on TV or the damned radio, and to hell with me if I wanted to watch something mind-streching like Star Trek or listen to music. To this day, I cannot stand sports or TV. This time, it's March Madness, the 63-game marathon men's college basketball tournament. Pick one of the 64 teams (preferably one that stands a chance of winning) as an identity and rank those corporate metrics against them. Frankly, I couldn't care less weather Gonzanga (sounds a stripper's stage name) or UConn or Louisville wins the damned thing. Please. Make Them Stop!
6. Cheers to the Nurses of Kaiser South Sacramento. My wound care issues brings me in contact with a lot of nurses. When I moved south last year I figured I'd have to move my care (which I did) and I worried about continuity and quality of care. Pam, Connie and Valarie, the triumvirate that change the dressings and track the progress of my wounds throughly impress me.
Sunday, January 13, 2008
There and Back Again . . .
There's a good reason for the gap in my posting: I was in the hosptial for swelling and infected wounds in my legs. While I had my MB with me, I had no way to connect it to the Internet --I guess we're still a few years from what EarthLink founder Sky Dayton called "packetspace."
Ten days of almost no Internet (I had the browser on my cellphone, and that's it), coffee or TeeVee did not quite leave me a gibbering idiot. I was a near-run thing, though.
The most noteworthy aspect of this stay was that they (Kaiser) transferred me to a Kaiser-run skilled nursing facility (KPPACC) in San Leandro, about 100 miles from my current digs in South Sacramento.
I was not amused.
Highlight of my hospital visit: I successfully suppressed the urge to throttle by roommate at KPPACC. Idjit would have the remote for the one TV set the room had and play the most mind-destroying teevee other than political campaign ads or Fox News Channel: soap opeas and sports. Not only that, he'd read the damned paper with the fscking teevee on!
Whotta asshat. I wanted to stuff that remote down his throat, I was so pissed. I chose instead to employ my iPod -- stuffed with tunage from Leslie Fish, The Elders, Seanan McGuire and Flogging Molly -- and headphones to block out the sound; fortunately I had Civilization 3 loaded on the MB, a perfect non-Internet game for whiling away large blocks of time.
I also had The Sims 2 on my phone, another very good game. I'd never had the chance to play the game much until this trip to the hospital, and I got my money's worth from it during the ambulance ride to San Leandro.
M&D also brought me some spare underwear and Guinness pajama bottoms before I was shipped off to KPPACC. I wore the PJs for most of my stay at KPPACC. The tangerines helped stave off the hungries from the notoriously small (and utterly flavor-free) portions of Hospital Food® and the sugarless Jelly Bellies and Gummi Bears were treats I savored.
I managed to read William Gibson's Idoru as well -- I wouldn't say it was better than Neuromancer but it was better than Count Zero or Virtual Light.
At Kaiser South I encountered some utterly awesome nurses and a wonderful doc.
My daughter, bless her, came to pick me up and bring me home. Our first stop on the way home: Starbucks.
----------------
Listening to: Sun Green & The Imitators with Neil Young & Crazy Horse & The Greendale Chamber of Commerce - Be the Rain
via FoxyTunes
Ten days of almost no Internet (I had the browser on my cellphone, and that's it), coffee or TeeVee did not quite leave me a gibbering idiot. I was a near-run thing, though.
The most noteworthy aspect of this stay was that they (Kaiser) transferred me to a Kaiser-run skilled nursing facility (KPPACC) in San Leandro, about 100 miles from my current digs in South Sacramento.
I was not amused.
Highlight of my hospital visit: I successfully suppressed the urge to throttle by roommate at KPPACC. Idjit would have the remote for the one TV set the room had and play the most mind-destroying teevee other than political campaign ads or Fox News Channel: soap opeas and sports. Not only that, he'd read the damned paper with the fscking teevee on!
Whotta asshat. I wanted to stuff that remote down his throat, I was so pissed. I chose instead to employ my iPod -- stuffed with tunage from Leslie Fish, The Elders, Seanan McGuire and Flogging Molly -- and headphones to block out the sound; fortunately I had Civilization 3 loaded on the MB, a perfect non-Internet game for whiling away large blocks of time.
I also had The Sims 2 on my phone, another very good game. I'd never had the chance to play the game much until this trip to the hospital, and I got my money's worth from it during the ambulance ride to San Leandro.
M&D also brought me some spare underwear and Guinness pajama bottoms before I was shipped off to KPPACC. I wore the PJs for most of my stay at KPPACC. The tangerines helped stave off the hungries from the notoriously small (and utterly flavor-free) portions of Hospital Food® and the sugarless Jelly Bellies and Gummi Bears were treats I savored.
I managed to read William Gibson's Idoru as well -- I wouldn't say it was better than Neuromancer but it was better than Count Zero or Virtual Light.
At Kaiser South I encountered some utterly awesome nurses and a wonderful doc.
My daughter, bless her, came to pick me up and bring me home. Our first stop on the way home: Starbucks.
----------------
Listening to: Sun Green & The Imitators with Neil Young & Crazy Horse & The Greendale Chamber of Commerce - Be the Rain
via FoxyTunes
Monday, November 5, 2007
Catapulting the Propaganda on cable teevee, and Why Cable Internet Is Evil
As all five of my readers know, I absolutely HATE television. I do not, and will not own a TV set. While my new roomie, bless his lupine soul, has satellite TV at our place and I had Comcast cable TV at my last place, I refuse to buy a set.
Speaking of cable internet versus DSL: AT&T Yahoo! consumer aDSL beats the holy snot out of Comcast cable for internet access. While cable IS faster and a bit simpler to set up (your computer is configured by default for cable over ethernet, DSL configuration is a bit harder), aDSL is a LOT more reliable. Back when I lived near CSUS, with both my first set o' roommates and my own place, the DSL went down a total of twice, and a power-cycle of the CPE and router fixed the issues. World of Warcraft latency was usually under 25 milliseconds -- not too bad at all. When I lived with Evil Otto, thanks to the wonders of cable "bandwidth sharing" the connect speed would drop to the point where WoW latency exceeded 1500 milliseconds; web pages and email took forever and a day to download (so I knew the game issues were not Blizzard's servers).
Not to mention what Comcast is doing to Bittorrent users . . . never has a problem with Bittorrent when connected to SBC / AT&T Yahoo! consumer aDSL. Of course, if Comcast hoses Bittorrent, it will also hose World of Warcraft updates because these updates are distributed using the Bittorrent protocol.
Moral of the story: do not get cable internet. Ever.
Back to the evil that is cable teevee. Even though I don't own a set, many public places where I spend time have sets tuned to Fox News, CNN or ESPN. It is very easy for me to ignore Faux News and Conservative News Network because of the sheer idiocy the hosts. For some reason ESPN is harder to ignore but the sheer inanity of big-time sports -- not to mention how addicted certain parents of mine are to teevee sports -- makes me more sensitive to it.
Anyway, I saw an ad the last time I was exposed to the toxin that is ESPN that made me go "WTF?" The spot was a generic VISA card ad. What made me go "WTF" was not the usual conspicuous consumption / debt overload stuff that makes me want to puke. The ad is basically a parade of consumers buying stuff they don't need with their VISA cards . . . then one of the parade of customers offered Federal Reserve Notes -- cash -- instead of a VISA card to pay for his purchases. From the look on the clerk's face you'd think the customer offered to pay for his crap with a used condom. Two thoughts went through my head at this point" one was "Why is cash treated like a leprous dead badger with AIDS?" When last I looked at a dollar bill, it said "valid for all debts, public and private." Just what is the Wall Street / Madison Avenue politico-economic axis of evil REALLY trying to say? To me it sounds like "Cash (and by extension, the government that issues it) cannot be trusted but VISA (and by extension the private sector) can be."
Of course, from the standpoint of someone who has a massive distrust for the current regime of corporate overlords in DC, you have to wonder. Is government issue cash money on the way out the door? Perhaps it is. Thanks to the "War on Drugs," cash transactions of more than $10k must be reported to the IRS to ferret out money laundries. Then there is the terrorism angle . . . I'm sure that dealers in weapons, explosives and other things needed for terror operations do not take credit cards (then again, the 9/11 guys got the job done with box cutters . . . and Home Depot takes plastic . . .).
Anyway, there is a long history of private currencies in the US -- Hmmm...something to think about.
Speaking of cable internet versus DSL: AT&T Yahoo! consumer aDSL beats the holy snot out of Comcast cable for internet access. While cable IS faster and a bit simpler to set up (your computer is configured by default for cable over ethernet, DSL configuration is a bit harder), aDSL is a LOT more reliable. Back when I lived near CSUS, with both my first set o' roommates and my own place, the DSL went down a total of twice, and a power-cycle of the CPE and router fixed the issues. World of Warcraft latency was usually under 25 milliseconds -- not too bad at all. When I lived with Evil Otto, thanks to the wonders of cable "bandwidth sharing" the connect speed would drop to the point where WoW latency exceeded 1500 milliseconds; web pages and email took forever and a day to download (so I knew the game issues were not Blizzard's servers).
Not to mention what Comcast is doing to Bittorrent users . . . never has a problem with Bittorrent when connected to SBC / AT&T Yahoo! consumer aDSL. Of course, if Comcast hoses Bittorrent, it will also hose World of Warcraft updates because these updates are distributed using the Bittorrent protocol.
Moral of the story: do not get cable internet. Ever.
Back to the evil that is cable teevee. Even though I don't own a set, many public places where I spend time have sets tuned to Fox News, CNN or ESPN. It is very easy for me to ignore Faux News and Conservative News Network because of the sheer idiocy the hosts. For some reason ESPN is harder to ignore but the sheer inanity of big-time sports -- not to mention how addicted certain parents of mine are to teevee sports -- makes me more sensitive to it.
Anyway, I saw an ad the last time I was exposed to the toxin that is ESPN that made me go "WTF?" The spot was a generic VISA card ad. What made me go "WTF" was not the usual conspicuous consumption / debt overload stuff that makes me want to puke. The ad is basically a parade of consumers buying stuff they don't need with their VISA cards . . . then one of the parade of customers offered Federal Reserve Notes -- cash -- instead of a VISA card to pay for his purchases. From the look on the clerk's face you'd think the customer offered to pay for his crap with a used condom. Two thoughts went through my head at this point" one was "Why is cash treated like a leprous dead badger with AIDS?" When last I looked at a dollar bill, it said "valid for all debts, public and private." Just what is the Wall Street / Madison Avenue politico-economic axis of evil REALLY trying to say? To me it sounds like "Cash (and by extension, the government that issues it) cannot be trusted but VISA (and by extension the private sector) can be."
Of course, from the standpoint of someone who has a massive distrust for the current regime of corporate overlords in DC, you have to wonder. Is government issue cash money on the way out the door? Perhaps it is. Thanks to the "War on Drugs," cash transactions of more than $10k must be reported to the IRS to ferret out money laundries. Then there is the terrorism angle . . . I'm sure that dealers in weapons, explosives and other things needed for terror operations do not take credit cards (then again, the 9/11 guys got the job done with box cutters . . . and Home Depot takes plastic . . .).
Anyway, there is a long history of private currencies in the US -- Hmmm...something to think about.
Friday, September 7, 2007
Friday, July 20, 2007
Friday, July 6, 2007
Mr. Rogers, Destroyer of the Youth of Amurika!
Free parenting advice form our "friends" at Fox and Friends
"Can you say 'fscktards'? I knew you could . . ."
And all this time I thought it was something else.
That's what you get when you put a convicted child molester with over 100 confirmed kills as a Marine sniper in Vietnam in such a position . . .
"Can you say 'fscktards'? I knew you could . . ."
And all this time I thought it was something else.
That's what you get when you put a convicted child molester with over 100 confirmed kills as a Marine sniper in Vietnam in such a position . . .
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
Arrrrggggghhh!
Memorial Day is fast approaching in the good ol' USA. In celebration of that holiday, my employer is holding a "Memorial Day Film Festival."
Now, being a vet, I'm all for celebrating Memorial Day. Americans often need to be reminded that blood and valor are the currency that purchases liberty, and to honor those who've paid for it on our behalf and in our name.
So far, so good. However, the "movies" that the events committee has selected make me want to gag: "Hogan's Heroes" . . . "Sgt. Bilko" . . . and "Gomer Pyle, USMC"
This is not a "TV makes RichO twitch" thing. It's the fact that Memorial Day is not about teh laugh track.
There are far, far better choices available . . . like the following:
Saving Private Ryan, Platoon, Flags of Our Fathers, The Killer Angels, Pearl Harbor, We Were Soldiers Once.
Now, being a vet, I'm all for celebrating Memorial Day. Americans often need to be reminded that blood and valor are the currency that purchases liberty, and to honor those who've paid for it on our behalf and in our name.
So far, so good. However, the "movies" that the events committee has selected make me want to gag: "Hogan's Heroes" . . . "Sgt. Bilko" . . . and "Gomer Pyle, USMC"
This is not a "TV makes RichO twitch" thing. It's the fact that Memorial Day is not about teh laugh track.
There are far, far better choices available . . . like the following:
Saving Private Ryan, Platoon, Flags of Our Fathers, The Killer Angels, Pearl Harbor, We Were Soldiers Once.
Friday, May 18, 2007
The few, the proud, the antisocial . . .
Hello. My name is RichO and I am an antisocial misanthrope.
Over the last couple of months, I've gone into a mode where I am not particularly interested in talking to anyone, no matter how close our relationship may be. Some of this has been my less-than-optimal health; pain in my legs will do this to me. At other times it's an overpowering urge to climb into a hole and pull it in after me.
I know, this is really strange coming from someone who spends his workdays talking to people on the telephone and his recreational time playing D&D or WoW. I don't really understand why this is so. I just don't feel like going out to the movies (most of which are excessively loud, overly expensive and just-plain-obnoxious), or hanging out with friends, barhopping / drinking (I tend to be a morose drunk that starts singing obnoxious songs like "Men of Harlech" in what I believe is the original Welsh from a bad recording of the movie Zulu) or doing the kinds of spur-of-the-moment things I'd grown accustomed to over the last year-plus. Of course, I don't feel like watching the evil that is television either.
What I want people to know is this: it's not about any of you, or my relationships with any of you. If I have an issue with you, I'll tell you all about it. It's about me and a need I'm feeling for isolation and control in my life. If I don't return your calls and my entry on your AIM buddy list is dark, it's not because I'm mad at you. Or crazy. Or involved in a new relationship. Or being recruited for a bizarre cult. Or recruiting for a bizarre cult. Or joining a mercenary company. Or commanding an elite strike force of GMs. Or modeling pants made from cabbage . . .
Music to muse by: True Believer, The Elders.
Over the last couple of months, I've gone into a mode where I am not particularly interested in talking to anyone, no matter how close our relationship may be. Some of this has been my less-than-optimal health; pain in my legs will do this to me. At other times it's an overpowering urge to climb into a hole and pull it in after me.
I know, this is really strange coming from someone who spends his workdays talking to people on the telephone and his recreational time playing D&D or WoW. I don't really understand why this is so. I just don't feel like going out to the movies (most of which are excessively loud, overly expensive and just-plain-obnoxious), or hanging out with friends, barhopping / drinking (I tend to be a morose drunk that starts singing obnoxious songs like "Men of Harlech" in what I believe is the original Welsh from a bad recording of the movie Zulu) or doing the kinds of spur-of-the-moment things I'd grown accustomed to over the last year-plus. Of course, I don't feel like watching the evil that is television either.
What I want people to know is this: it's not about any of you, or my relationships with any of you. If I have an issue with you, I'll tell you all about it. It's about me and a need I'm feeling for isolation and control in my life. If I don't return your calls and my entry on your AIM buddy list is dark, it's not because I'm mad at you. Or crazy. Or involved in a new relationship. Or being recruited for a bizarre cult. Or recruiting for a bizarre cult. Or joining a mercenary company. Or commanding an elite strike force of GMs. Or modeling pants made from cabbage . . .
Music to muse by: True Believer, The Elders.
Friday, April 27, 2007
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
