We're back in Prescott after two flight delays and a van ride that defies all belief. If anything would make you believe in demonic possession, our "driver" would. and I'm not sure you can call a mostly-empty apartment home; its more like a place we plan to spend a night or two at, then drive off again. Dinner tonight is a couple frozen pizzas we picked up after we escaped the clutches of our hell-demon van driver, because there isn't much food in the house (for obvious reasons) and we don't want to make anything that will result in left-overs.
But at least we are warm and dry. Last word from northern Michigan was 53 degrees F (12 degrees C) and raining. Phoenix was 108 (42C) when we landed. We stood outside and basked in the heat.
Not sure of the plan for tomorrow or when we are really leaving for Mobile, Alabama. If we don't leave until Thursday morning, we're going to have to make some serious tracks, but I don't know if we can be ready to hit the road in less than 24 hours. Nothing like having a plan.
Well, I'm going to go bury myself in the joys of a high-speed connection for at least a few hours.
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Hot and humid
Well....a couple weeks ago it wasn't too bad here in Michigan. We decided to make an extended trip here for my niece's graduation open house and it decided to turn to true summer. Today we headed up north to Kalkaska/Rapid City/Alden to visit with some friends and Ric's family. It hit 100 up here. I'm sure with the humidity it is about 110 at least. I can say I don't miss the humidity that much when we are in Arizona. :-)
We are staying with a nephew and niece in Rapid City and they will be having the family over and some friends on Saturday so we can visit with them all. I found out today that one of my best friends is away at a conference until Sat night. I hope I can catch up with her before we head back down state to catch our flight back to Arizona.
Hot, humid and no AC .... makes me wish we were still at my Mom's. Lovely AC!
We are staying with a nephew and niece in Rapid City and they will be having the family over and some friends on Saturday so we can visit with them all. I found out today that one of my best friends is away at a conference until Sat night. I hope I can catch up with her before we head back down state to catch our flight back to Arizona.
Hot, humid and no AC .... makes me wish we were still at my Mom's. Lovely AC!
Green
The color green is one thing I miss when we are in Arizona. I can just drink in the color around me while we are here in Michigan. The grass, the trees, even the weeds. I miss the smell of freshly cut grass. (Yes, I am lucky it doesn't bother me allergy-wise)
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Relocating
The open house for Debbie's niece on Saturday was a big success. We managed to get the house all ready and the food all prep'ed without major incident. We finally got everything cleaned up and the house back in order yesterday. The whole thing turned out to be a lot more work than we ever expected, and of course, we have enough food left over to feed a small city.
Today, we ran down to Flint. This is the first time I've been anywhere inside the city limits since we left in 1999. What a mess. The house I grew up in is abandoned, as are about a third of the houses on the street. Most of the businesses are closed and there are large, empty fields where there used to be factories. The only businesses that seem to be thriving are pawn shops and strip clubs. Kind of depressing, but not really unexpected. And it will only get worse over the next few years.
Well, this is just another quick update. We need to go find something to eat other than "open house food." Then tomorrow we pack the car and head on up to see family in the northern part of the state. We will have a "real" internet connection while we are there, so I may be more consistent with the updates. Or not. We'll see.
Later.
Today, we ran down to Flint. This is the first time I've been anywhere inside the city limits since we left in 1999. What a mess. The house I grew up in is abandoned, as are about a third of the houses on the street. Most of the businesses are closed and there are large, empty fields where there used to be factories. The only businesses that seem to be thriving are pawn shops and strip clubs. Kind of depressing, but not really unexpected. And it will only get worse over the next few years.
Well, this is just another quick update. We need to go find something to eat other than "open house food." Then tomorrow we pack the car and head on up to see family in the northern part of the state. We will have a "real" internet connection while we are there, so I may be more consistent with the updates. Or not. We'll see.
Later.
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
In Michigan
We made it to Michigan very early Monday morning. There was a delay in Milwaukee, so we didn't get to Flint until almost 1AM and didn't get to bed until after 3AM. I slept until almost 2PM and never really got motivated. We got some work done for Debbie's niece's open house, but not very much. Today it's raining and is supposed to keep this up until nearly the end of the week. Yay Michigan weather.
Not much else going at this point. I may jump into Twitter and Facebook, but I doubt that will be a pleasant experience at 56K.
Not much else going at this point. I may jump into Twitter and Facebook, but I doubt that will be a pleasant experience at 56K.
Monday, June 15, 2009
Gays and Evangelicals
What do gays and evangelicals have in common? They both act like abused women with their undying loyalty to their respective parties. They just keep believing that this time for sure, the morally defective politicians will do what they promise at election time, in spite of decades of factual evidence that gays and evangelicals are nothing more than a voting block to be pandered to every election cycle.
First, the fact that his dog gets more attention than you do should tell you something, Mr. Pietrangelo. But you and I both know that come the mid-term elections, you'll be your usual johnny-on-the-spot self, pulling the lever for the Democrats. Second, most blacks are "second-class citizens" who, just like you, keep right on voting their abusers back into office.
"Please, sir. May I have another?"
Pietrangelo said Obama had spent more time choosing and playing with his dog Bo than working for gay rights since taking office. "If there were millions of black people as second-class citizens, or millions of Jews or Irish, he would have acted immediately."
First, the fact that his dog gets more attention than you do should tell you something, Mr. Pietrangelo. But you and I both know that come the mid-term elections, you'll be your usual johnny-on-the-spot self, pulling the lever for the Democrats. Second, most blacks are "second-class citizens" who, just like you, keep right on voting their abusers back into office.
"Please, sir. May I have another?"
Then Do it Already
I love when rich people complain that they aren't paying enough in taxes. There is nothing stopping Warren Buffet from writing a check to the IRS for 50% of his income if he feels that is his fair share. Other problems with the article:
That's probably because most people making less than $30,000 a year pay more in Social Security than they do in federal income tax and, unlike the writers at the New York Times, are smart enough to recognize that a tax is a tax is a tax even if the government chooses to call it an "investment" in their "retirement."
The funniest bit:
Even, it seems, at the mighty New York Times:
Um, no. Dividends are taxed as ordinary income. On the 2008 tax form, line 9a Ordinary Dividends are added directly into line 22 Total Income. Capital gains are taxed at a lower rate because there is supposed to be some sort of social benefit to long-term investing instead of day-trading, which is yet-another example of the tax system being used to encourage or discourage private behavior rather than just funding the government. If the New York Times is so concerned that "tax system in this country is pretty complicated," why not advocate dropping all the social engineering built into the tax code and going back to a flat tax on all income over $X? While you're at it, drop the facade that Social Security is some sort of investment and just roll it into that same flat tax. The big advantage would be that Ms. Folbre would be less likely to embarrass herself by misreporting on tax issues.
By the way; how much did you make last year, Ms. Folbre? What was the average share of your income paid in taxes? Did you voluntarily pay any extra? No? Huh. Imagine that.
The progressive group Citizens for Tax Justice observes that the percentage of households with income under $30,000 complaining that federal income taxes are too high exceeds the percentage even paying federal income taxes.
That's probably because most people making less than $30,000 a year pay more in Social Security than they do in federal income tax and, unlike the writers at the New York Times, are smart enough to recognize that a tax is a tax is a tax even if the government chooses to call it an "investment" in their "retirement."
The funniest bit:
Misreporting of tax issues is widespread.
Even, it seems, at the mighty New York Times:
...income from capital in the form of dividends and capital gains is taxed at a lower rate than income from labor in the form of earnings.
Um, no. Dividends are taxed as ordinary income. On the 2008 tax form, line 9a Ordinary Dividends are added directly into line 22 Total Income. Capital gains are taxed at a lower rate because there is supposed to be some sort of social benefit to long-term investing instead of day-trading, which is yet-another example of the tax system being used to encourage or discourage private behavior rather than just funding the government. If the New York Times is so concerned that "tax system in this country is pretty complicated," why not advocate dropping all the social engineering built into the tax code and going back to a flat tax on all income over $X? While you're at it, drop the facade that Social Security is some sort of investment and just roll it into that same flat tax. The big advantage would be that Ms. Folbre would be less likely to embarrass herself by misreporting on tax issues.
By the way; how much did you make last year, Ms. Folbre? What was the average share of your income paid in taxes? Did you voluntarily pay any extra? No? Huh. Imagine that.
Close to Being Gone
In about 12 hours, we will be loading luggage into the car and beginning the trek to Michigan for about two weeks. We've pretty much got everything done here that we can do until closer to actually making the final move. There is still some small stuff that can be taken care of, but we are done with the majority of the packing up. Availability of the internet may be inconsistent, so don't be surprised if things sort of languish here for a while.
We did take a break and went to see Up. We enjoyed it, although there is one part of the back story that younger kids will probably miss, and it gets a little heavy in a couple places. I wouldn't put it in the same league as Shrek or Ice Age, but there isn't much that would do well against those. I guess the main thing is that there is a lot more subtlety than some other Pixar films. Based on all the whispered questions from the eight-and-under set at the Sunday matinee, expect to have a lot of 'splainin' to do during the movie if your young 'uns fall into that age bracket.
Well, I'm going to do a little reading, then head off to bed.
We did take a break and went to see Up. We enjoyed it, although there is one part of the back story that younger kids will probably miss, and it gets a little heavy in a couple places. I wouldn't put it in the same league as Shrek or Ice Age, but there isn't much that would do well against those. I guess the main thing is that there is a lot more subtlety than some other Pixar films. Based on all the whispered questions from the eight-and-under set at the Sunday matinee, expect to have a lot of 'splainin' to do during the movie if your young 'uns fall into that age bracket.
Well, I'm going to do a little reading, then head off to bed.
Sunday, June 14, 2009
A Better Day
After two days of basically getting nothing done, I would have needed to really work at making this day any worse. But in fact we got a lot of small, fiddly stuff packed and I finished up packaging all the shelves from the various bookcases and curios, as well as getting all the artwork squared away. Pretty much all that is left that can be "pre-packed" is some of the pantry stuff. We've sworn off buying food and plan to eat up as much as we can in the next 45 days, but there is no way we will get rid of all of it. We tend to go nuts when something is on sale; if the apocalypse comes, we're set on mac and cheese for several years. There is also a lot of cleaning supplies that we've stocked up on that can get packed up.
Monday, we fly off into the wild blue yonder to go visit family and friends in Michigan. I'm not sure how much blogging we will be able to do, so don't be concerned if you don't see much activity here.
Well, off to bed.
Monday, we fly off into the wild blue yonder to go visit family and friends in Michigan. I'm not sure how much blogging we will be able to do, so don't be concerned if you don't see much activity here.
Well, off to bed.
Friday, June 12, 2009
Whew! Safe!
And just a follow-up: I see we made it through the transition to digital TV without having to call out the national guard or anything.
Glad that's over.
Glad that's over.
Still Going
Spirit and Opportunity are still chugging away, although it looks like Spirit is well and truly stuck in soft sand. (Not "mud" as some have been reporting; if Spirit were stuck in the mud, everyone at NASA would be dancing in the streets instead of sweating bullets trying to get her out.) If the rover guys can't get her free, it would be a rather anticlimactic end to the most amazing piece of hardware to come out of JPL in a long time.
Same Ol' Same Ol'
I see that after not stepping foot in Flint for a decade that nothing has really changed:
Now that the last few GM jobs will be leaving Flint, how long before this bulldozing process reaches its logical end?
The government looking at expanding a pioneering scheme in Flint, one of the poorest US cities, which involves razing entire districts and returning the land to nature.
Now that the last few GM jobs will be leaving Flint, how long before this bulldozing process reaches its logical end?
Cry Baby Europe
I have to wonder where they find the cry-babies that run the EU. First they were all like, "Waaaaa! Waaaaa! Big meanie Microsoft includes a browser in the OS!" So now Microsoft has an OEM version without IE so PC makers can install whatever browser they want. So now they are all like, "Waaaaa! Waaaaa! Big meanie Microsoft doesn't include a browser in the OS!" Holy crap! Somebody needs a nap!
Jury Duty
Yesterday I had jury duty and ended up being sat for a jury trial. Luckily it was only suppose to last 1-2 days since I am flying to Michigan on Monday. It was a criminal case --- DUI/resisting arrest/aggravated assault.
This was the first time I've ever been part of a jury trial. It has some interesting points and some boring points. My biggest surprise was to learn after the lawyers asked their questions of the witness, the jury could write their questions and they were given to the judge. He ended up allowing almost all of the questions we gave them. I was kinda pleased with one of my last questions of the defendant. He maintained that he was okay to drive after how much he had drunk. (testimonies ranged from "a couple beers, a beer and some wine, to couple glasses of wine and some beer) My question to him was: How much do you think YOU can drink before becoming legally intoxicated and not being able to drive? The judge told him to use a regular can of beer as a measurement. The defendant first said he didn't know, then came up with "according to my height and weight and such ... I would say 10 beers.) All the jurors made some type of "unbelievable noise or chuckle" and I think the defendant's lawyer dropped and shook his head.
Anyways ... we found him guilty of the highest DUI he was charged with (over .20 -- legal limit is under .05 here); guilty of resisting arrest and finally not guilty of aggravated assault. We were split on the aggravated assault. Me and one other person said not guilty right away -- basing it on the what the LAW said. One other person was indecisive. After discussing it for a few minutes, we got everyone to say not guilty. What I felt bad about was .... one gentleman said he still thought he was guilty for that offense, but he didn't want to stay much longer or come back the next day. I wonder how many people this happens to? I was ready to write a note to the judge to ask what happens if we can't get an unanimous vote.
Oh well....my duty is done to Arizona. I doubt I will get another summons before we move out of here. Now back to getting things ready around here for our Michigan trip and moving to who knows where at the end of July.
This was the first time I've ever been part of a jury trial. It has some interesting points and some boring points. My biggest surprise was to learn after the lawyers asked their questions of the witness, the jury could write their questions and they were given to the judge. He ended up allowing almost all of the questions we gave them. I was kinda pleased with one of my last questions of the defendant. He maintained that he was okay to drive after how much he had drunk. (testimonies ranged from "a couple beers, a beer and some wine, to couple glasses of wine and some beer) My question to him was: How much do you think YOU can drink before becoming legally intoxicated and not being able to drive? The judge told him to use a regular can of beer as a measurement. The defendant first said he didn't know, then came up with "according to my height and weight and such ... I would say 10 beers.) All the jurors made some type of "unbelievable noise or chuckle" and I think the defendant's lawyer dropped and shook his head.
Anyways ... we found him guilty of the highest DUI he was charged with (over .20 -- legal limit is under .05 here); guilty of resisting arrest and finally not guilty of aggravated assault. We were split on the aggravated assault. Me and one other person said not guilty right away -- basing it on the what the LAW said. One other person was indecisive. After discussing it for a few minutes, we got everyone to say not guilty. What I felt bad about was .... one gentleman said he still thought he was guilty for that offense, but he didn't want to stay much longer or come back the next day. I wonder how many people this happens to? I was ready to write a note to the judge to ask what happens if we can't get an unanimous vote.
Oh well....my duty is done to Arizona. I doubt I will get another summons before we move out of here. Now back to getting things ready around here for our Michigan trip and moving to who knows where at the end of July.
OK; Everybody PANIC
The WHO (not to be confused with The Who) has declared the first pandemic of the 21st century. Given that the so-called swine flu is mostly mild and rarely causes death outside of the third world (as opposed to the normal seasonal flu that kills hundreds of thousands every year), I'm unsure why it has been given the status of pandemic. Unless the WHO is after more money, more power, or is intentionally trying to create panic which it can then exploit for more money and/or more power.
Time to dust off the ol' tinfoil hat.
Time to dust off the ol' tinfoil hat.
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Digital TV Tries Again
It looks like we will try to implement digital-only TV once again at 12:01am tomorrow. According to that article, there are 2.8 million households that will not have TV in the morning, which sounds like an impressive number until you realize that it's about 2.5% of households. I doubt someone knocked on every door, meaning this number is an extrapolation from a very small sample of households who were contacted on the phone. Those types of surveys usually have error bars in the 2-3% range. I'm also willing to bet that many of the households who say they are not ready for digital-only TV are like my parents and don't realize that they have been watching digital TV exclusively for years through their dish. But assuming the figure does represent actual households, it just shows that some people are incapable of planning even a few hours ahead.
And then they voted.
And then they voted.
Barney Frank (D-Asshatville)
It's great that a member of congress and a committee chairman acts like a six-year-old on national TV. And kudos to CNBC for telling the Stalin-wannabe to go piss up a rope. I realize that I have criticized CNBC and other news networks for sounding more like the aforementioned six-year-old's debating which superhero could kick some other superhero's ass instead of sounding like adults discussing very important issues, but in this case, CNBC had all the class.
Meltdown
State revenues are crashing, people are fleeing, the economy is in free-fall, so what do you do? If you're California, you borrow against future revenues, of course. What is unthinkable is actually returning to the level of spending from a decade ago; that would be catastrophic.
The primary function of government is to hire and pay government workers. All else is secondary.
The primary function of government is to hire and pay government workers. All else is secondary.
Every time I see a video of Daniela Mercury performing, I'm amazed all over again. This video is from the end of one of her typical, hours-long, non-stop performances:
And no, you're not seeing things; About five minutes in, likely overcome by exhaustion and the audience chanting her name, she starts crying. The rough translation (not by me) of her speech after she collects herself:
Gotta learn me some Portuguese.
And no, you're not seeing things; About five minutes in, likely overcome by exhaustion and the audience chanting her name, she starts crying. The rough translation (not by me) of her speech after she collects herself:
You have no idea how crazy and thrilling it feels to be on this stage, trying to do something new in a city that has such a strong and wonderful music. And it's because of this amazing traditional music that I try to reinvent my life and work as an artist. I truly believe we should always focus on the future, moving forward. Brazil has everything it takes to make it work and become a great country, and I believe in that and fight for Brazilian music everywhere I go!
Samba is my root
My national anthem
My way of praying
My carnival
Thank you, Salvador, for respecting my madness and freedom of living!
Gotta learn me some Portuguese.
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Movin' On Up
Apologies to The Jefferson's. (I was going to link to one of the twenty or so Youtube videos of the intro to the show, but the studio in its infinite wisdom has forced Youtube to disable the soundtrack, because everyone knows that all hell will break loose if anyone hears the theme song from a 30-year-old TV series. I mean, whole generations not even born when The Jefferson's was first aired may actually become interested in it as the result of free advertising on Youtube and by God that just cannot be allowed to happen because the studio wasn't the one to think of it.)
This post isn't about copyright. It's about oil and how the price has more than doubled since it bottomed at $32.70. The Ay-rabs said they wouldn't be happy unless oil was above $70.
Everybody remembers last summer, right?
This post isn't about copyright. It's about oil and how the price has more than doubled since it bottomed at $32.70. The Ay-rabs said they wouldn't be happy unless oil was above $70.
Everybody remembers last summer, right?
Tuesday, June 09, 2009
More Packing
We managed to get rid of a couple things today that we really didn't look forward to moving. So now the apartment is slightly emptier and our cash reserves slightly better thanks to Craigslist. Why anyone runs a classified in the paper anymore is beyond me. Even if you ignore the cost, we decided what we were selling, took pictures, set up the ad on Craiglist, were contacted by buyers, negotiated the final price, and got the stuff out of the house and cash in our hand in less than 24 hours. Try that with a conventional classified ad.
We're getting pretty close to having the bulk of everything packed that we can do without for the next 7 weeks. The storage room is getting fuller and the apartment is getting emptier. Woohoo!
We're getting pretty close to having the bulk of everything packed that we can do without for the next 7 weeks. The storage room is getting fuller and the apartment is getting emptier. Woohoo!
Happy Negative Christmas
Scott Adams has a good idea for a new national holiday: Negative Christmas. Instead of buying stuff for other people, everybody gets rid of stuff. I'd take it a step further; instead of Christmas and Negative Christmas, I vote we replace Christmas with Negative Christmas.
One of the largest sources of credit card debt is Christmas. Enough already.
One of the largest sources of credit card debt is Christmas. Enough already.
Reason 54,763 Why We Don't Pay for Cable TV
Article on what's wrong with cable financial shows. The top of the list should be taken to heart not just by financial shows, but by every news show, talk show, etc.
None of the networks will pay the least bit of attention to this or any of the other sixteen points, which they have every right to do. Just like I have every right to take my dollars elsewhere.
1. Stop Yelling. Stop interrupting. Stop Talking Over Each Other: This is not Jerry Springer, its serious business. People’s retirement and investments are at stake. Please treat it that way.
None of the networks will pay the least bit of attention to this or any of the other sixteen points, which they have every right to do. Just like I have every right to take my dollars elsewhere.
The Year Without Summer
According to the NOAA Climate Prediction Center, parts of the United States will find out that cold is a bigger problem than warm. I doubt it will be as bad as the last Year Without Summer if for no other reason than we have better food preservation and distribution. But it will be interesting to see what the public response will be to the evangelists of anthropogenic global warming when their kids are still wearing winter coats on the 4th of July.
And yes, I'm swinging back to a larger number of smaller, single-topic posts rather than large, multi-topic ramblings. For now. This likely won't be the last time I switch.
And yes, I'm swinging back to a larger number of smaller, single-topic posts rather than large, multi-topic ramblings. For now. This likely won't be the last time I switch.
The Cominig Collapse
A series of short articles that tries to put our debt level in perspective (part 1; part 2; part 3;). It's simple, really; if you have too much of X, more X is unlikely to solve the problem. As a diabetic, if my blood sugar is at 300 mg/dL (normal is 70 mg/dL), I'm unlikely to lower it by eating a pound of animal crackers dipped in chocolate frosting (mmmmm; making myself hungry). Likewise, the Obama "stimulus" is unlikely to accomplish much because it depends mostly on people who are already drowning in debt running out and borrowing more money.
Have a nice day.
Have a nice day.
Monday, June 08, 2009
Sift and Sort
Spent the day hauling stuff out of all the nooks and crannies we had stuffed it into and then packing it into bins. We seem to have done slightly better than usual in the accumulation-of-useless-junk category. We are going to Craigslist several large items that have outlived their usefulness or are just too heavy to bother moving. If they don't sell, I'm not sure what then; maybe donation or maybe we take them with us after all. Tomorrow, I will make a pile of small stuff that won't be making the trip. I probably won't bother to sell it; it will just get donated to one of the second-hand shops around here. We should have a lot of stuff ready for the moving van by the time we go back to Michigan in a week. If we don't we could have some difficulting in getting moved out of here by the end of July, so we are really going to be pushing over the next few days.
Well, I'm not tired, but I need to go to bed. I should watch a movie or something.
Well, I'm not tired, but I need to go to bed. I should watch a movie or something.
Saturday, June 06, 2009
Tim Hawkins
Never heard of this guy until this morning:
Can't think of a better way to start the day.
Can't think of a better way to start the day.
Starting to pack
Tonight we got all my Precious Moments things packed up. We ran out of packing peanuts on the 5th big bin, so we can't say they are all "officially" done yet.
In the morning or later in the evening, we probably will work on the other knick knacks -- especially the stacking dolls.
( matrouska sp?-- little help Steve?)
Tomorrow afternoon I am going over to an ex-coworker's house for a card making get together. There will be 2 of us that got laid off and 2 that are still at AAA. It should be a fun day, I"m looking forward to it.
In the morning or later in the evening, we probably will work on the other knick knacks -- especially the stacking dolls.
( matrouska sp?-- little help Steve?)
Tomorrow afternoon I am going over to an ex-coworker's house for a card making get together. There will be 2 of us that got laid off and 2 that are still at AAA. It should be a fun day, I"m looking forward to it.
Friday, June 05, 2009
Decisions
We're waiting to hear back from a couple jobs that Debbie applied for. If those don't pan out, then we will be leaving Arizona. To where isn't real clear at this point, but most likely someplace between here and Florida. We will be spending the next couple weeks starting the packing process and the weeding out process. Today we donated a bunch of books to one of the local libraries. We'll start putting some of the big stuff on Craigslist in order to cut back on what we have to move. Most of what we have is just cast-offs and second hand junk, so there isn't much that we're real attached to anyway. Besides, purging the junk is good for the soul, or some such. It's definitely good for the back, as in not having to move so much crap.
So we're off on the next adventure.
So we're off on the next adventure.
Wednesday, June 03, 2009
Finally
Our Maui pictures are finally up on Flickr. I was a little disappointed; we only managed to take 637 photos and one video in the week we were there. I still have some cleanup and comments, but for the most part, the collection is good to go.
The job was made far more frustrating that it should have been due to our upload speed being cut to as low at 16KB/s and bugs in the Flickr Uploadr creating a real mess in our Flickr account. But it's done, so enjoy!
The job was made far more frustrating that it should have been due to our upload speed being cut to as low at 16KB/s and bugs in the Flickr Uploadr creating a real mess in our Flickr account. But it's done, so enjoy!
Tuesday, June 02, 2009
Cap'n Crunch - 1 Nutjobs - 0
Some poor mental defect had her case against the good Cap'n dismissed:
And just to make sure the message got across, when addressing the possibility of re-filing the lawsuit, the judge said:
Why isn't this guy being nominated for the Supreme Court? Or, for that matter, why isn't he running our banks or our car companies? I guess I should just be thankful we have at least one District Judge with his brain in his head instead of being stored in a jar in some dark room somewhere.
And just to make sure everyone gets the picture, this isn't some bored, rich, slightly unbalanced person who bought a box of Cap'n Crunch with Crunchberries thinking it contained fruit, got the box home, realized it didn't, and over-reacted. This barely-humanoid nutjob had been crunching through Crunchberries for four years before she figured it out.
I just hope California is one of those states that charge people like this the full cost of their stupidity.
In this case . . . while the challenged packaging contains the word "berries" it does so only in conjunction with the descriptive term "crunch." This Court is not aware of, nor has Plaintiff alleged the existence of, any actual fruit referred to as a "crunchberry." Furthermore, the "Crunchberries" depicted on the [box] are round, crunchy, brightly-colored cereal balls, and the [box] clearly states both that the Product contains "sweetened corn & oat cereal" and that the cereal is "enlarged to show texture." Thus, a reasonable consumer would not be deceived into believing that the Product in the instant case contained a fruit that does not exist. . . . So far as this Court has been made aware, there is no such fruit growing in the wild or occurring naturally in any part of the world.
And just to make sure the message got across, when addressing the possibility of re-filing the lawsuit, the judge said:
In this case, . . . it is simply impossible for Plaintiff to file an amended complaint stating a claim based upon these facts. The survival of the instant claim would require this Court to ignore all concepts of personal responsibility and common sense. The Court has no intention of allowing that to happen.
Why isn't this guy being nominated for the Supreme Court? Or, for that matter, why isn't he running our banks or our car companies? I guess I should just be thankful we have at least one District Judge with his brain in his head instead of being stored in a jar in some dark room somewhere.
And just to make sure everyone gets the picture, this isn't some bored, rich, slightly unbalanced person who bought a box of Cap'n Crunch with Crunchberries thinking it contained fruit, got the box home, realized it didn't, and over-reacted. This barely-humanoid nutjob had been crunching through Crunchberries for four years before she figured it out.
I just hope California is one of those states that charge people like this the full cost of their stupidity.
May Stats
Now that I finally convinced web-stats to not count our own visits, we have more-meaningful statistics for the site. So naturally, I'm going to annoy all of you with that information. You're welcome.
Total site visits for May was 223 Of those, 151 are suckers that keep coming back for more. The other 72 were just poor fools who landed here by accident and quickly left. But the most-interesting part is the break-down by operating system and browser. We'll start with OS:
XP - 69.5%
Vista - 19.7%
Linux - 4.5%
Mac - 3.6%
Other - 1.8%
NT - .9%
Vista is shaping up to be the biggest Microsoft flop since Windows ME. XP was five years old when Vista was released on January 2007, and is now well over seven years old, and is still more-popular by a 3-to-1 margin. Worse, many PC manufacturers are still offering XP as an option on new PC's, the equivalent of buying a 1962 VW Beetle with rusted out floorboards that burns a quart of oil for every gallon of gas, when you can get a Prius for $100 more. Two years and a service pack after Vista's initial release, drivers are still a problem (we can only print from our old XP laptop) and a lot of software doesn't run or runs with issues (at least in the 64-bit version; I've never used 32-bit Vista). I'm going to be very interested in what happens when Win7 is officially released later this year. Will people just leap-frog Vista or will everyone cling to XP until Microsoft forces the issue and stops issuing security updates?
Maybe it's just the type of people this blog attracts, but I was surprised to see Linux top Mac. I had high hopes for Mac when Jobs was pushing innovation and mostly keeping prices in line with comparable PC's. But now that he's out of the picture, Mac is going back to its rape-the-faithful philosophy, emphasizing immediate profit over market share. The last "refresh" was a complete joke, replacing completely outdated, overpriced hardware with slightly less outdated, overpriced hardware.
NT? Really? Running a 16-year-old unsupported OS on the web? Why not run MS-DOS? I have a shrink-wrapped copy if you have a system with a 3.5" floppy drive. Seriously.
Browsers:
Firefox 3.0 - 36.8%
MSIE 7.0 - 36.3%
MSIE 8.0 - 10.8%
MSIE 6.0 - 7.6%
Netscape 6 - 4.5%
Other - 1.3%
Safari 3 - .9%
Chrome 1.0 - .4%
Firefox 3.5 - .4%
Firefox 2.0 - .4%
(Let me guess; whoever is running NT is also the person running Firefox 2.0. You just really really like having a virus-laden zombie PC.)
Firefox is (barely) in the lead, but only because IE is fragmented across three versions. Combine those, and IE is well out in front with 54.7%. But that still puts Firefox closer to IE than the usual figure of just over 20% for Firefox compared to IE's 70%. Given the low number of visitors we have, it's likely a skew is being introduced by one or two routine visitors that have Firefox. It's also interesting that people don't seem to be anxious to be a guinea pig for Firefox 3.5. Given all the problems they've had getting that puppy out the door, I can't say I blame them.
This year should be interesting in the PC/internet world: Win7, Firefox 3.5, Chrome (which I haven't tried but may yet give a spin), HTML 5, Wave, plus the continuation of Moore's Law which gives every household a wretched excess of computing power for the price of a single month's rent. The crappy economy is holding things back; when we get past this in a year or two, things get really interesting. I'm not predicting The Singularity, but in 18-24 months, there will be a significant shift in how we use these little boxes.
Lunch time!
Total site visits for May was 223 Of those, 151 are suckers that keep coming back for more. The other 72 were just poor fools who landed here by accident and quickly left. But the most-interesting part is the break-down by operating system and browser. We'll start with OS:
XP - 69.5%
Vista - 19.7%
Linux - 4.5%
Mac - 3.6%
Other - 1.8%
NT - .9%
Vista is shaping up to be the biggest Microsoft flop since Windows ME. XP was five years old when Vista was released on January 2007, and is now well over seven years old, and is still more-popular by a 3-to-1 margin. Worse, many PC manufacturers are still offering XP as an option on new PC's, the equivalent of buying a 1962 VW Beetle with rusted out floorboards that burns a quart of oil for every gallon of gas, when you can get a Prius for $100 more. Two years and a service pack after Vista's initial release, drivers are still a problem (we can only print from our old XP laptop) and a lot of software doesn't run or runs with issues (at least in the 64-bit version; I've never used 32-bit Vista). I'm going to be very interested in what happens when Win7 is officially released later this year. Will people just leap-frog Vista or will everyone cling to XP until Microsoft forces the issue and stops issuing security updates?
Maybe it's just the type of people this blog attracts, but I was surprised to see Linux top Mac. I had high hopes for Mac when Jobs was pushing innovation and mostly keeping prices in line with comparable PC's. But now that he's out of the picture, Mac is going back to its rape-the-faithful philosophy, emphasizing immediate profit over market share. The last "refresh" was a complete joke, replacing completely outdated, overpriced hardware with slightly less outdated, overpriced hardware.
NT? Really? Running a 16-year-old unsupported OS on the web? Why not run MS-DOS? I have a shrink-wrapped copy if you have a system with a 3.5" floppy drive. Seriously.
Browsers:
Firefox 3.0 - 36.8%
MSIE 7.0 - 36.3%
MSIE 8.0 - 10.8%
MSIE 6.0 - 7.6%
Netscape 6 - 4.5%
Other - 1.3%
Safari 3 - .9%
Chrome 1.0 - .4%
Firefox 3.5 - .4%
Firefox 2.0 - .4%
(Let me guess; whoever is running NT is also the person running Firefox 2.0. You just really really like having a virus-laden zombie PC.)
Firefox is (barely) in the lead, but only because IE is fragmented across three versions. Combine those, and IE is well out in front with 54.7%. But that still puts Firefox closer to IE than the usual figure of just over 20% for Firefox compared to IE's 70%. Given the low number of visitors we have, it's likely a skew is being introduced by one or two routine visitors that have Firefox. It's also interesting that people don't seem to be anxious to be a guinea pig for Firefox 3.5. Given all the problems they've had getting that puppy out the door, I can't say I blame them.
This year should be interesting in the PC/internet world: Win7, Firefox 3.5, Chrome (which I haven't tried but may yet give a spin), HTML 5, Wave, plus the continuation of Moore's Law which gives every household a wretched excess of computing power for the price of a single month's rent. The crappy economy is holding things back; when we get past this in a year or two, things get really interesting. I'm not predicting The Singularity, but in 18-24 months, there will be a significant shift in how we use these little boxes.
Lunch time!
Long Time, No Blog
Not sure what I've been so busy doing since Friday that I haven't found the time to blog, but it hasn't made me money or gotten me a job, so it couldn't have been too important. Today we walked downtown so I could check up on a couple job leads. I've noticed something that seems to be common practice that I wish companies would stop doing: claiming to have job openings on their web page when in fact there are no job openings. Filling out an on-line application is very time-consuming, especially for companies that use the totally crap-tastic Kronos software on their web sites (which is most of them) and ask stupid questions like, "Does it make you angry when criminals get off on a technicality?" What that has to do with working a cash register at Lowes is completely beyond me. Then to find out that I've just wasted my time really pisses me off.
And no, the job hunting thing isn't going well.
Anyway.
GM is gone. Michael Moore has some thoughts about it. I agree with some of what he says, but retooling a car factory to make tanks is a very different proposition than retooling a car factory to make solar panels. Not to mention that there isn't enough silicon to appreciably increase panel production anyway. But at least he makes more sense than the granola crunchers cruising around in their Prius Smugmobiles. I haven't seen Flint since the day I quit Hurley and nothing Moore has to say makes me ever want to. The city I grew up in is dead and buried; best to just leave it.
When someone that is really smart points out flaws in your security product, you can either fix the flaws, or you can try to shut them up. You won't need to read the entire article to guess which approach the manufacturer of what are supposed to be the best locks in the world is taking. But read it anyway; it will remind you of every encounter you've ever had with a corporate bureaucracy. If I was running R&D at Medeco, I'd have this guy on my staff instead of trying to piss him off or shut him up.
When governments started paying private companies to hang red-light cameras at intersections, those of us who said these would be used to monitor every car on the road were accused of being tin-foil hat wearers. Well, guess what?
To end on a more up-beat note that normal, what happens when you hook a video camera on the back of a hawk? Video that is as awesome as it is nauseating. Watch full-screen to get the full effect.
Well, I think today's batch of photos are finally done uploading after 12+ hours. I really hate asymetric internet. When the job situation is straightened out, I'm looking into different options. This is just nuts.
And no, the job hunting thing isn't going well.
Anyway.
GM is gone. Michael Moore has some thoughts about it. I agree with some of what he says, but retooling a car factory to make tanks is a very different proposition than retooling a car factory to make solar panels. Not to mention that there isn't enough silicon to appreciably increase panel production anyway. But at least he makes more sense than the granola crunchers cruising around in their Prius Smugmobiles. I haven't seen Flint since the day I quit Hurley and nothing Moore has to say makes me ever want to. The city I grew up in is dead and buried; best to just leave it.
When someone that is really smart points out flaws in your security product, you can either fix the flaws, or you can try to shut them up. You won't need to read the entire article to guess which approach the manufacturer of what are supposed to be the best locks in the world is taking. But read it anyway; it will remind you of every encounter you've ever had with a corporate bureaucracy. If I was running R&D at Medeco, I'd have this guy on my staff instead of trying to piss him off or shut him up.
When governments started paying private companies to hang red-light cameras at intersections, those of us who said these would be used to monitor every car on the road were accused of being tin-foil hat wearers. Well, guess what?
To end on a more up-beat note that normal, what happens when you hook a video camera on the back of a hawk? Video that is as awesome as it is nauseating. Watch full-screen to get the full effect.
Well, I think today's batch of photos are finally done uploading after 12+ hours. I really hate asymetric internet. When the job situation is straightened out, I'm looking into different options. This is just nuts.
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