All posts by Randy

Rant

Old Habits Die Hard

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Over the last few years, I’ve been toying with the idea of changing my blog engine. It’s not a change I’d take on lightly: SharpMT is still my primary blog writer and that’s tightly coupled with MovableType… yet, I’ve had a less than happy feeling with MT over the last few years, mostly because SixApart keeps talking about their new hotness that I won’t be offered on my MT5 instance. Sure, they continue to update MT5 with security updates, but their updates are a nuke-reinstall-in-place which makes my feet itch, and I wasn’t keen on having to shell out Enterprise pricing for my little corner of the intertubes.

Simply put, the biggest challenge is that my blog is… old.
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Rant

GTA V in the news. Again

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Business Insider Australia: Target And Kmart Have Taken Grand Theft Auto V Off The Shelf Over Violence Against Women Claims […] Two of Australia’s major retailers, Target, and now Kmart, have pulled the controversial game from their stores in the wake of claims of misogyny and violence against women, including the ability to have first-person sex with prostitutes and even watch it. In one example, a sex worker was killed with an axe in the game. A Charge.org petition bearing 40,000 signatures on it was sent to Target and yesterday, the company announced it was pulling the game.

I am appalled.
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GeekStuff

GoPro: A Mini Review

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I make no claims to understand a lot about photography. One the only things I’m certain of is that a good photographer can capture an awesome picture regardless of what technology they use and you can spend thousands of dollars on camera equipment and still take shitty pictures.

I had heard of GoPro before and said “Wow, that’s a pricy camera I don’t need.” I’m as removed from an athlete as I can be; the most extreme sport I participate in involves bacon and lunch. Neat device, but I said eh and moved on. Then one day I was at the park with Jolene and Kyle and I saw a 7 year old run by with a GoPro attached to his chest, with a harness. My head exploded. I thought this was the most amazing thing evar. Think about it: you put one of these things on your kid and you can show your kid what the world looked like when he was young. Three days later I had the required hardware in hand; almost three weeks later before I finally tried to set it up and was some time after that before we used it on Kyle…

Basically, about a week before the kid turned two, we put a GoPro on his chest and send him down Main Street at Disneyland.
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Rant

#RE2PECT: After the Walk-off…

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While everyone thanks Jeter as he exits the diamond, I for one want to pass along a word of thanks to A-Rod. By getting banned for the entire season and taking himself out of the spotlight for a change, Jeter didn’t have to waste any time defending the team or fighting drama in the press as he has often had to, as A-Rod’s captain: he was able to focus on baseball in the not-being-in-the-spotlight way he’s always approached the game.

(to be completely honest, I said to Jolene last night, huh… where is A-Rod in all of this? because I sorta expected him to be sniffing around all of Jeter’s press… I had to go to Wikipedia before I realized he had been banned all season… guess I didn’t miss him.)

Rant

And Now, A Word on Modern Politics

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From MSN I lifted this quote:

“”So we take these actions, and now Republicans are mad at me for taking these actions. They’re not doing anything and then they’re mad at me for doing something. I’m not sure which of the things I’ve done they find most offensive, but they’ve decided there going to sue me for doing my job,” Obama said in his speech at picturesque Lake Harriet.”

Why can’t I talk about this to almost everyone I know? Because most people I know will immediately jump to one side of the aisle or the other and defend what they know to be right. They will sling comments that make the Other Side look stupid or silly or wrong. And that automatically negates any valid talk about anything to do with this problem or any other governmental issue.

You see, whether Obama has actually “overstepped his limits of power” or if Congress can actually sue Obama for “doing his job” as he sees it… no matter who is right in this situation, the next effect is that the quote above, from our President’s own mouth, could be easily and simply paraphrased by anyone in the world as: “”WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!” Obama said in his speech at picturesque Lake Harriet.”

Our leader has been reduced to this? “They’re mad at me”? Really?

Oh, America: how proud we must be, today.

GeekStuff

Console > PC

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Fans of PC gaming chide me from time to time about why I game on a console (or hand held) rather than a PC…

Recently I saw that Rocksmith 2014 was on sale at newegg.com as a download. Since Jolene gave me the 360 version which came with a cable (and a new guitar!) I thought it would be neat to have the ability to move around the house with a laptop and play.

Some sales are more trouble than they’re worth but it’s good to have a modern reminder why consoles are simply better at all the things.
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Rant

X

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When I write up a blog post, it normally doesn’t take very long. I write from the top of my head, sometimes the heart, and other times from a puddle of bile; stream of consciousness or capturing thoughts in a SharpMT window… the editing can take a while but the writing almost always comes quickly.

Except for today. Today I’ve started and re-started this post and I can’t seem to focus. I keep looking up at an azure sky and getting lost in my thoughts, thinking of times long past and continuously feeling surprised that these memories took place in WA, rather than in CT.

It’s summer again in Redmond and the weather will be happy for the next few months…

I’ve been here for ten years.
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Rant

The $15 Minimum Wage: Why It Will Harm More Than Help

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The $15/hour minimum wage will not help the majority of people in America; in fact, it will hurt the lower and middle classes in a substantial way.

Having said that, I just became very, very unpopular among the people in the Pacific Northwest. I feel like there’s a ton of people here that want to support a higher minimum wage… I just think they’re being very, very short-sighted.

In fact, if we approach a minimum wage increase in such a cavalier way, we are going to end up hurting the people we’re trying to help and shrink the middle class at the same time.

DO NOT WANT.
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Rant

Hm – NBA Edition

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MSN: Oprah latest entertainer interesting in buying Clippers

Hm. How long until people look past the shock of Sterlings’ comments and realize that his girlfriend secretly recorded a private conversation that landed in the hands of TMZ – leaked? stolen? paid for? – and resulted in the possibility of a NBA team that is currently good enough to be in the playoffs?

Since NBA teams just don’t become available for sale everyday – unless they are from Seattle – I’m very, very close to calling shenanigans on this whole thing.
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Rant

Hall of Famer

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MSN: Coolest cars in song – Red Barchetta (1987)

Amazing the difference a year can make. Rush wouldn’t have been considered for an article such a this… in fact, MSN could have been guaranteed a huge flux of hate mail for leaving Red Barchetta off the list. Now, a year after Rush has been accepted into the Hall of Fame, they are #3 on the list of cool cars, ahead of Springsteen’s Pink Cadillac. Color me happy.

Of course, MSN will still get flooded with emails from Rush fans for this post: Red Barchetta was written in 1980 and released in 1981, on Moving Pictures. Any similarities to “The Last Chase” is strictly coincidental, but I’d forgive MSN… taking the time to do the research on the R&T article and track down a picture of a Ferrari 166 will do that to ya.

Hell, what can’t a Ferrari fix?