Current Mood:
Happy
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Archive for the 'Rants' Category
Current Mood:
Violent
I am so tired of having this happen, I feel that I need to blog about it. At least once a week I head out to my car to go somewhere, and I find a folded piece of paper stashed into the side of my car door by my mirror from the same Chineese Buffet that’s not even in my neighborhood. This doesn’t just occur once in a while, it occurs almost weekly, and sometimes daily over a periods of time. There are so many reasons this form of advertising is just plain wrong!
#1. You are wasting paper, and killing trees for no apparent reason other than to litter my neighborhood with your useless forms of advertising.
#2. You are littering our yards, cars, and streets with the paper you leave in hopes of obtaining more customers. Do you know how many of these useless sheets of paper are piled up in my hubby’s car because he never cleans his car - far too many. Do you know how many of these I find in my backyard - far too many!
#3. For as much money as you’ve spent on killing trees and stashing papers in our cars you probably could have taken an ad out in the newspaper (still killing trees though), or put up a billboard.
#4. I am NEVER going to eat at this restaurant because it continually hounds me with it’s advertising. It’s like an 800# that just won’t let up. You can stop anytime now!
#5. I don’t care that you have an all you can eat lunch for $4.99 - it probably sucks just like the reviews I’ve read about your restaurant.
Many of you who read regularly know that I am not a religious person. All the usual disclaimers apply. If you are religious, and offended by opinionated atheists/agnostics, you should stop reading now. I will not argue religious philosophy.
OK. With that out of the way, I have something to get out. Throughout history, music has been an evangelical mechanism. I don’t have an issue with that. Religious music has generally never made any bones about it’s undying endearment for its belief in ghosts and magic, and for the most part, I’ve been cool with it; even enjoying some overtly religious soul music simply for the fact that it grooved like nobody’s business. All this music is, on it’s surface, religious… and you know it.
Here’s my beef. It seems that there is a trend lately amongst Christian bands and musicians to mask their religiousness in metaphors with double-meanings. In fact, I was recently duped by one of these bands that seem almost proud of their deceiving wordsmithery.
I had mentioned this local band on Twitter and quite quickly another Tweeter pointed out that they are a Christian band. Not really paying deep attention to the lyrics, and not ever really hearing mention of the normal themes of overtly Christian rock, I asked for confirmation, which quickly arrived, direct from the mouths of the band.
Every song, every metaphor, is something to do with jesus… not hot love, not daily struggle with losing sight of your dreams, not the angst and displeasure associated with growing old… it was full of religious double-speak; a heavy veil put down on what is ultimately a Christian agenda… and the band is proud of it (sourced from a mail to that other Tweeter). It is obvious that this band has thought about this. There is no mention of even so much as thanking god in any of their material.
They are purposefully deceiving people and seem to be taking pleasure in it. Premeditated deception is unforgivable, no matter the subject. Using religion in this case (something that I have a long-standing distaste for) makes it a little worse for me. It’s like tricking me into eating foie gras by telling me it’s tofu.
And they aren’t the only ones. There are several albums from rather mainstream artists out right now that are doing the same exact thing. I don’t know what’s up with this, but it’s creeping me out. I’m no prude, but as I said above, I like to have a clue about where the music I’m listening to is coming from.
I won’t mention the band in question here. They don’t deserve any attention directly and are simply an example of what I see as a trend that bothers me. I’m not sure that the person who set me right wants to be mentioned here, but if she/he is reading this… thanks.
And on the humorous side, here’s an article from our local satire magazine that pretty much sums up what happened to me.
Laugh. This whole episode is funny; even to me.
Two months in, the great experiment where I replaced my primary computing platform with Ubuntu is going somewhat well, with very blatant missing items. Most basic things have been replaced and I must admit that I prefer Gnome, as I have it set up, to Windows. What I don’t like is the mish-mash of what feel like half-finished applications that are used to get it all going.
First, the list of definitely missing items. Most of these are specific pieces of software that I have not found a direct replacement for. Some things are purely bitching, and some are what might be considered a real beef.
- Digsby is not available for Linux yet. This is a new, but super cool social-networking app. Without it, I’ve lost track of Facebook, MySpace, and for the most part IM because I keep forgetting to start Pidgin, which I don’t want to auto-start because I’m not always on the internet.
- Applications not in the repo are still too difficult to install. Try installing Flock on Ubuntu for an example. There’s no standard method, and therefor, getting software that doesn’t make the repo is tough. Managing third party repos is possible, but requires technical know-how and not all apps are in ubuntu-compatible form in repos.
- No Photoshop. Gimp is close, but it’s not a replacement. No other app I’ve found even comes close. I have to keep a Windows VM on my laptop just for Photoshop and Digsby, but it is a pain to start.
- Adobe Air is still not updated to 1.1. A lot of cool multi-platform Twitter apps are built on Air. The older version leaves certain features, like saving passwords, not possible. This simply illustrates the fact that software vendors just don’t see a free desktop as viable.
- Audio is, for all purposes, broken in it’s default config. I had to follow a bunch of online instructions to get flash and thick apps to share the audio without making me restart Firefox in order to play music in an app after being on something like YouTube. This is simply unacceptable. Something as basic to modern computing as audio should be seamless. On my desktop, it took some time and effort to get the spdif turned on. However, I will say that it works better than the Windows drivers on the same box.
- Suspend doesn’t work. Why offer a feature if it doesn’t work? The wlan card never comes back… basically making suspending the laptop worthless.
- No free office package is as good MS Office 2007. Say what you will about Microsoft, but they’ve been at it longer. Their apps are good, solid, and feature-packed. For basic word processing and spreadsheeting, the free alternatives work fine, but I don’t think I’d recommend them for business power users. There’s a difference between “usable” and “mostly satisfying”. IMHO Microsoft doesn’t have much to worry about yet.
- An update killed X. Imagine my horror when X would not start after updating. I was away from home when it happened without access to the internet (yes… I didn’t reboot before I left home), so troubleshooting the rather cryptic error presented by the gui was impossible. When I got home, I found that apparently the permissions on one particular directory got messed up. Easily fixed, but not something I’d put on someone not technically inclined. An update should never do that.
Happy Friday all. It’s been another terrible week here in the salt mines, but things don’t really change much. I’m either bored out of my skull or being harassed by the throngs of good-intentioned idiots who all seem interesting in nothing more than trying to force very expensive processes and systems into being free. The biggest frustration with my job is the fact the the following conversation happens at least 2-3 times a week.
Them : “You need to reduce costs in area x”
Us : “Cool. We can eliminate component 7 from area x because only .0000034% use it and we can save 20%”
Them : “That is COMPLETELY unacceptable. We cannot REDUCE SERVICES. Oh… and by the way, while I’m thinking about it, we need to add 4 more components to area x while we’re talking about it. So… when can I have the 20% cost savings?”
Us (as blood pressure hits an all time high) : *gasp*
Them : “Thanks for understanding” (then they leave)
So today, I’ve been working on web servers and listening to music. I do enjoy doing technical work, when I can get it. I haven’t been bothered by the usual financial and strategy stuff and can do what I think I do best, bit-fiddle. Kicking web servers is kind of a hobby of mine and this one is a very complex little job. Next week, I’m scheduled to begin working on phase two of a coding project that I started a couple of months ago. I’m geeked about that. I’m not the greatest code-chunker in the world, but I do enjoy it.
The list has gotten pretty short lately, sadly. I long for the days of huge, multi-stage, million dollar IT projects that had hard deadlines that were bordering on insane. At least then, I was busy and didn’t have time to take breaks and work on blog entries. Speaking of blogs, in the past few weeks we’ve gained a number of readers and we appreciate that. We’ll be trying to be a little more regular with the posting around here.
So happy Friday everyone. I will be stopping and getting beer on the way out of town tonight and tipping one in your honor tonight. Thanks for reading.
Subjects for upcoming blogs : Limoncello, How An Atheist Was Tricked Into Enjoying A Christian Band (and later pointed in the right direction by a kindred soul on Twitter), & the unbelievable twists and turns in the preparation of jello shots.
In case you can’t read it, it says “Slasher Sale BERGER $88″. Do you know what it means ’cause I don’t have a freakin’ clue. Berger is a local car lot, so I suspect that it has something to do with cars, but who the hell knows? A good length of 28th St was lined with these signs which did nothing to tell me the message they were trying to convey.
I appreciate that local businesses are trying to drum up business, but there are two issues with this. The first is that 28th St is already commercial enough. We don’t need 5000 identical signs that mean NOTHING junking the place up. The second issue is that these people couldn’t be bothered enough to make a sign that made sense. As a result, I can’t say that I can be bothered to ever shop with these people (to be fair they are a GM lot and buying a GM car in my mind would equate to buying a timeshare in the swamps).
BAD advertising!
Current Mood:
Pissed
Things should be fucking rainbows on Sunday. Things should be light, airy, and unassuming in a way that makes old ladies cry and little children squeal with glee. Things should be considerably better than I imagine they might be.
Things should be that pale color of old nitrocellulose guitar finish, with a smell that surrounds memories of happier days that never happened.
Instead, darkness follows me like a heavy black cape waving in the water behind me. Its fabric, old and worn, draws everything in around it like a black hole. The future disappears as soon as it becomes the past.
Humanity wastes the very air all around, a drain on my ability to draw the heavy breaths required to stay under through it all; just to return to the surface and find not enough air before being lunged back into the cold, lifeless, dark abyss.
It’s all around, in everything that happens and everywhere I go. It sits on my chest, rips at my hair and laughs maniacally while eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Relief, I’m afraid, is no option. Relief’s not on the menu; and the ingredients aren’t to be had at this juncture.
Hope’s cruel joke is played on the Hammond yet again. Man… is that butter sweet.
Current Mood:
On Ice
So it’s obviously been a hectic couple of days around here. If you’re following Char’s blogs, you’ll get that her car broke down again (second time in two weeks), Char got a ticket in Kentwood for the license plate being in the back window, a building blew up a couple of blocks away from our house yesterday, and we are finally getting around to having the drywall in the east bedroom fixed up so we can move Clare out of her smaller room and make it into an office for Char.
Me? Well… it’s good you didn’t ask yesterday. I’d have recommended hand-grenading the whole freaking place. Today is better, though. The drywall guy showed up this morning and got the drywall in. He’s coming back on Friday to sand and settle up. I got Char’s brakes back under control (another broken brake line) actually in record time; it took me only about 30 minutes.
I took the day off, so I’ve been spending some time playing guitar and generally chilling out. The day off will at least make this week less stressful overall, which is good for me.
Current Mood: Angry & 
Angry & Violent
Why did I choose Montana - I don’t know, all that I know is that I think my head is ready to explode into many little pieces after my week that only began yesterday. So, my car is still broken, Brad ordered the part to fix the brake fluid leak last night and I was able to get it today. I am hoping, praying, and even beseaching a higher power that this will fix my car and I’ll be able to be on my merry way again soon - VERY SOON! I hope.
However if my day finishes the way it’s been it wouldn’t be too big of a suprise to me if my car doesn’t get fixed because of something else. So, the day began by hauling my tired booty out of my warm bed to bundle up and take Brad to work. Clare and I came home, watched some tv, and I snoozed on the couch to help catch up on my lack of sleep from the night before. The door bell rang, I assumed it was the pestery people that come around every time it snows wanting to shovel my sidewalk for $3 - however it wasn’t. Brad had found a drywall guy to come give us an estimate on fixing the wall in the room that is to be Clare’s, and this was him. He told me it’d be a couple hundred dollars, and that he might be able to get me in later this week. SWEET! So, with any luck Clare might be moved into her new room by Springtime.
My day isn’t sounding so bad you say - oh you just wait! So, Clare ate lunch, and we got ready to go to school. As I was driving down Breton I noticed a cop in the left hand lane, I wasn’t speeding so I wasn’t worried. Oh no, he pulled me over - in the school parking lot! I’m grumbling, wondering why I was pulled over. He asks for my license, registration, and proof of insurance. Since this is no longer my car I am rumaging through papers in the glove box. I found the registration, but no proof of insurance. I couldn’t even find the expired one for this past year, as I knew that I had this years on the dining room table. Apparently having the old license plate on the car (even though the new plate is in the window) is considered having an expired plate. COME ON! It’s not even my car! I explained that the old plate is still on there because it’s been on there since Brad bought the car in 1997, and the screws are rusted into the car. Oh no, apparently they come off he says. He was kind enough to not give me a ticket, however I need to take the proof of insurance with me to the Kentwood courthouse to prove that I have it within 14 days or else I get a $150 fine for several years. What bull s$%#! Gee thanks officer. I think I need to go make some brownies.
Edited to add: Thanks for taking the $125 from me city of Kentwood! YOU SUCK!
Current Mood:
Martini Mood
So, this is a picture of my car (not my exact car, but my car type) - I love this stupid car. It’s the grocery getter station wagon I never thought I’d want. But alas, with a husband, a child, a dog, and places to go - I needed a big car to haul our stuff. And haul she does. I have packed more stuff in this car than ever thought possible. For the most part she is reliable, and gets me around town and accross the state, and sometimes even accross the country. That is until today when she couldn’t even get me accross town. Once again my brakes went out. I was on my way to take Clare to school, and I got close to half way there when my brakes went out - yet again. UGH! I called Brad, he had a meeting this afternoon so he was unable to help me out. I made my way home, I had enough brakes to get me there without dieing. Unforturnatley I had to keep Clare home from school with no way to get her there. I felt like such a failure as a mom, not able to get my own child to school for an education. I ate the remaining 4 sugar cookies with chocolate frosting in a binge to help me feel better - unfoturtunatley it didn’t work. Instead I settled for a nap on the couch while Clare watched some tv upstairs. We did do something educational though by working on our “Math Box” activities.
The “Math Box” is good and bad wrapped into one. Every month the teacher sends home a sheet of some activities to do at home with parents, and they have to return the calendar with 10 activities or more written on it. I think it’s great to have a clue as to what they are working on at school, and to be able to help Clare with improving her math skills, but when things get busy around here I tend to forget about the “Math Box”. Which means we always seem to cram in those activities at the last minute. Ah well, with any luck we’ll improve in our motivation and get them done earlier in the month.
Now we just need to fix my stupid car. The part is in, tomorrow I’ll get it, and with any luck I’ll be back on the road by the end of the week. Happy Freakin’ Monday!
