Category Archives: Rant


Rant

Monday Morning Quarterbacking? Hold My Remote

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I for one am amazed by how many accomplished writers and producers there are on social media and are so willing to share their wisdom by telling the world how they *know* how to produce a show that would be much better than Game of Thrones.

Oh right! 99% of them are not writers or producers and the only thing they’ve put on TV is their remote as they Monday morning quarterback the universe and say things like “lazy writing” because heard a sound clip while watching Deadpool.

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digital pity, Rant

Reading Paper is Weird

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I read in my free time. I don’t think I read a ton: I average between 12-30 books a year. Some of the books I pick up are just long reads (R.R. Martin, Rutherfurd, Michener) while others I rip through mercilessly (Grisham, Tolkien, Rowland, Massey) and manga is almost immediately consumed, but the one thing that I’ve noticed across all of my reading is that I’ve long since abandoned the paper-based book.

For the last few years, whatever books I’ve been have typically been consumed using an eBook reader on an iPad mini with Kindle or some other software. Manga I read on a Surface RT because it has a larger screen than the mini yet is still very lightweight compared to full laptop PC’s.

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Rant

Extortionist For Hire

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MyNorthwest: Zillow slams ‘head tax’ and may grow outside of Seattle

Sweet. First Amazon pushes back, then union construction workers, and now Zillow – the whole city should be in an uproar right now.

You’d think Seattle would know better after all of the Boeing business the state lost to other part of the US. Guess someone forgot the memo and the whole council doesn’t realize that business can simply step out to Bellevue, Tacoma, or pretty much anywhere else in country. Feels like a sizable bill for the homeless. Rather than forcibly taxing companies, why not offer a tax rebate or tax cut for companies that show a track record of helping the homeless through foundations, donations, or new work acts? Nope – the head tax is the city’s solution.

Overall, I feel I have to give Seattle some shit for voting for someone like Kshama Sawant into office – I hope you don’t reward her performance or behavior because as a councilperson, I find her to be delusional, misguided, and so naive that it’s frankly rather embarrassing. Consider the seemingly endless run of taxes and laws for the layman in the city over the years like bring-your-own-bag taxes or sugar-soda taxes or sort-your-garbage fines – where is that money going by the way? – or the you-have-to-rent-to-the-first-bell-ringer but then you’ve got a democratic socialist running around on the city, staging protests, and proclaiming statements for the entire city that this work is OK because in her mind, “Amazon can afford it.” As a shareholder of Amazon, I can honestly say: screw you, hippie. Instead of taking all of these people around the city to protest, why not help them find homes in other towns in the area? Why the fight to keep them in the city? It can’t be a tax play because if homeless, there’s not much taxable income there. As a socialist, maybe she’s not be aware that people can move out of Seattle if they choose to, that they are not required to stay in the city limits. There’s no state-based obligation for anyone to stay where they are and gods know there’s no city mandate that states that everyone is entitled to live in the Pike/Pine/12th/Broadway corridor.

Further, who are you to say what Amazon can and cannot afford? Do you think they have to stay in Seattle? Do you think they can’t find another city to call home? Go ask Connecticut what happened to their business that had been there for decades. You know, the ones that moved HQ’s to New York or Massachusetts which are historically high taxed states. I mean, you do know that they have no state, city, or moral obligation to stay in Seattle, right? Like Expedia, who moved from Bellevue to Seattle, Amazon can go where ever the hell they want.

That aside, I love that fact that you say Bezos is holding the construction of a new building as a hostage. That’s just a smart business move. If I decided to buy a piece of land and build on it only to find out that the taxes I’d be paying would quintuple before I finished construction, I too would have second thoughts. Maybe you should demand that Jeff donate the land to the city for a shelter or something you want to feel warm and fuzzy over. But you must acknowledge that they can build or not build wherever the hell they want. They can build in or move to a city where they are made to feel far more welcome than here.

If Bezos is a bully, take a look at yourself in the mirror Ms. Sawant: you’ll find not only a bully but an extortionist as well.

Rant

Data in the Details

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As the media and the masses battle, march, and generally freak out, there’s been an ongoing comparison of the current government to Nazi Germany, the USSR, and even Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four. I get that comparing everything to the Third Reich is a common practice on the Internet but as everyone is lamenting “woe is me!” or “woe is MY country!” please review these tiny but critical details:

Hitler came to power by rising through the government but he claimed the top spot on his own. He grabbed power.

The USSR appointed their Premier from the senior leaders of the Party. The average citizen had no say in the matter.

Big Brother was given the unilateral power of Oceania at the start of the superstate but when the story opens, the human is likely gone and become just a picture on a poster; it’s Ingsoc that has control over the Proles of the country, who really have no impact on who becomes members of the ruling Party.

This country elected Trump. Assuming that all investigations don’t reveal that something in the election process went awry and let’s be honest: we’ll never have a satisfactory answer to that. There are still people contesting what happened in Florida’s election 2000. We still don’t know who really shot JFK and even if we had an eye witness with a news reel that captured everything turn up tomorrow, we will still not believe it 100%. No one wants to believe the facts in these scenarios and we’ll always harbor some doubt. Even a broken clock is right twice a day.

Don’t ever forget that: this country elected Trump and that makes things very, very different from these real and fictional nations.

Rant

‘MERICA: How It’s Supposed To Work

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This came directly out of my Facebook feed today and I had to snag a screenshot because it actually made me smile. Not the subject matter, no, but that’s a different conversation. No, what I liked in this image are the two comments that happened to bubble up to the surface when I happened to see this post.

The back to back comments made me smile because I know that if I post this image to my blog or my Facebook page that I will immediately piss off everyone I know.

Unilaterally.

Continue reading ‘MERICA: How It’s Supposed To Work →

Rant

“COPY!”

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USA Today: Trump is ‘unfit for the presidency’

Interesting thought, after seeing that USA Today has taken their first stance in a presidential debate which is kind of a big deal since it’s been printed for 34 years now.

For all of the people chest thumping that “The media is out to get Trump” has it every occurred to the same people that the most presidential thing that POTUS has to do is influence people without having to resort to threatens and violence? Meaning that if the entire media pool of the US is against your candidate that it means that he was *unable* to gain any influence from them.

FWIW, if the media went the other way, I would change “chest thumping” to “lamenting”, “Trump” to “Clinton”, and “he” to “she” but still be asking the same question. IMHO, if you can’t get *any* sway in the mainstream media before you get elected, it’s a pretty clear sign you shouldn’t be elected.

Rant

Life Lesson #7452: Fancy Fridays

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After living on the west coast for almost 12 years, I’m always shocked at how shocked I feel when I see someone in a suit, even when walking around downtown Seattle. Maybe it has changed over the last decade but the east coast I remember has always had the terms “business attire” and “business casual” in their HR manuals for workers. Especially as you approach the financial centers of New York, Boston, and D.C. The almighty tie on a person immediately declared that person to be “respected and in power” of a job.

Long story short, I’ve always called bullshit on this thought process.

Continue reading Life Lesson #7452: Fancy Fridays →

Rant

Feel The Burn!

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Honestly, I still think of this as a tag line for an STD or UTI medication.

With the Democratic caucus recently completed in WA state – and the Republican primary at least five weeks away – repeat visitors to my blog and Facebook page have likely been surprised that there hasn’t been as much commentary on the Presidential hopefuls as there have been in past years.

In truth, the field on both sides of the aisle have left me mostly speechless.

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Rant

Is it Alive or is it Memorex?

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The Telegraph: Microsoft deletes ‘teen girl’ AI after it became a Hitler-loving sex robot within 24 hours […] “Tay” went from “humans are super cool” to full nazi in < 24 hrs and I’m not at all concerned about the future of AI

Call me a bit cynical, but how do you know this is a problem with the AI and not what could happen to a human if you take away all responsibilty, social graces, honor, and morality?

Given how the 2016 primaries are running, worry about the humans that have turned into this – the AI can be shut down, rebooted and debugged.

Rant

Objects May Be Closer Than They Appear

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betanews.com: Online gamers hit by sexist, racist and homophobic abuse

…and? Anyone that’s looked at any collating reports from Tweets across America have seen this same conclusion. Over and over and over again.

Make no mistake – I don’t doubt the data or report. For over three decades, insulting people online has been far easier than not – culminating in the formalized John Gabriel theory – and now that social media has gone mainstream, it’s a superset of the online chat room, Usenet, or even BBS communities that used to be ripe for insults.

That’s why I don’t understand why this is news, meaning that it’s called out that this is happening to online games – it’s just one slice of the whole digital community.

Rant

Inland Resource Center, San Bernardino, CA

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For all of the people screaming about Muslim this and that, keep in mind that religious people have been killing other people over religious differences since there was a religion. Catholics were getting killed and killing others over religious differences years before before Islam even began. And during that time, keep in mind that not every Catholic was killing or condoned killing – you can’t judge an entire group of people by the actions of a few. Bad apples, spoiled barrel, blah blah blah: however sad it is, this is not a new phenomenon so please keep your outrage focused on the people responsible and not the overall religion.

For all of the people screaming against laws the restrict guns, keep in mind that there were a lot of guns on the scene in CA none of them came from the victims in the Resource Center. Even though everyone in the building had the Constitutional right to own a gun and use a gun, no one had them with them. And why on earth would they? Can you imagine someone bringing their gun with them to an annual seminar at work? Simple fact: you cannot carry a gun with you 24/7 and even if you could, it is impossible to maintain concentration enough to carrying it safely, which means you shouldn’t.

For all of the people screaming for stronger gun control laws, keep in mind that there is no way to keep all guns off of this planet, much less out of this country, and CA has already some of the strongest laws in the nation, yet here we are. Simple fact: the NRA is right in that guns aren’t killing people but the people holding them are. For all of your plans and shouts to BAN BAN BAN you are exclusively targeting one part of the problem and it’s not going to solve everything if it even helps anything. People screwed up enough to open fire on a room of people can just as easily show up with a gas can and a match. While I personally believe the Second Amendment gives citizens the right to bear arms for the explicit purpose of forming a militia in defense of the nation, rather than everyone having the right to own a closet of guns, up to now our courts have said otherwise. Until Numero Dos is either clarified or overwritten by a new amendment, the current interpretation is that people can own whatever they want provided they meet the requirements of their state knowing full well that they can drive arms to wherever they want.

For all of the people that think they are right and the “other side” is wrong, keep in mind that you need to shut up right now, since there is no single fix for this problem. It will take a combination of ideas and the only way to enable that combination is to consider multiple options. If you are screaming your point of view so loudly that you are unable or unwilling to consider that there is another point of view or possible solution, not only are you are very likely wrong but you are very likely more concerned with being right and not fixing a God damned thing.

Just some things to keep in mind while you unless your angst on Facebook and post your virtual bumpstickers to Twitter.