Category Archives: Rant
The Terror of Fruit Cake
Hah! Seems that the security checkpoints on the Canadian side of the US-Canada border are having a bit of trouble with the onslaught of holiday fruit cakes that are being shuttled by humans and via shipping services this year. The complaint is that the fruit cakes are too dense to be properly inspected by X-rays alone and that they are having to search these particular packages by hand. Either there’s some truth to this story – I saw it on a TV news report giving it a 50% shot of accuracy – or the Canucks have a oddly large sweet tooth for fruit cakes and want to raid the packages. I’m going with the X-ray problem… it’s more logical than wanting to eat fruit cake.
Review: The Return of the King
Having a Bit of “Down” Time (with an IBM T41)
Not much posting lately, but I don’t know that I’m to blame for that, per se – I’m keeping another running list of topics, actually, so things might pick up soon. Anyway, my hosting company had some major upgrades that they rolled into their server farms, which accidentally sent MT into a “confused” state. I eventually had to install Linux on a local machine here and convert some Perl files by hand. After that I pulled the trigger on a Christmas-present-to-myself: a new IBM T41 to replace my Sony Z1A which is my third notebook this year. Eep!
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Whoa: Blizzard Warning?
Yep. Blizzard warning tomorrow night into Sunday morning. The Weather channel tells me to expect 4-7 inches of snow tonight. Another 6-10 tomorrow and an additional 2-4 tomorrow night. Someone forgot to the tell this weather system that it’s not winter yet – at least they also are saying that it will be 47 degrees again by Wednesday, so it’s not a complete pooch screw. Oh, it’s still a pooch screw, but at least this is going to continue all week. Don’t laugh – it happened last year like that. Of course this makes me astonished while people watching…
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Sikorsky Bridge Rebuilt, Sorta
Having just spent one hour and forty-eight minutes in a commute that was slowed due to one-eighth of an inch of snow in only certain parts of the highway, I thought that some former CT people might be amused (or amazed) to hear that the new Sikorsky Memorial Bridge has been opened on the Merritt Parkway and it’s no longer using metal plates for a driving surface.
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Abortion: Using the Right Argument to Support Your Stance
The other day someone asked me if I was Pro-Choice or Pro-Life and my response was simple: I’m pro-condom. I mean even though the question was fair enough when in context, it reminded me of when people ask your blood type or government party or something. After a couple of rounds of “no, come on, really” prodding, I defended my opinion by stating a simple fact: in Connecticut, I have no say in the matter. As a male, I have no legal recourse to force or prevent an abortion, as women have complete control this decision. In fact, the only thing I can do – and by law, I am required to – is pay a minimum of $75 each month for child support, regardless of marriage, common law marriage, living situations, or employment status. This of course completely side steps the whole issue of abortion but that’s part of the point, actually, and it’s still the best possible argument to this quandary which is something I wish more people paid attention too: to me there’s nothing worse than listening to someone incorrectly argue their correct point.
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Gypped: A Thanksgiving Day Story
More of a poll than a Rant and more for my US readers than not, but this is open to all (as usual) but I have the following question to ask: who had turkey on Thanksgiving Day? Did I? No, I didn’t – not one piece of white meat or a crumb of stuffing. Burnt? No, it was golden brown and looked pretty damned tasty; my uncle never screws up cooking the bird. Dropped? Shot? Fried? Eaten by dogs? No. We didn’t get to it. For some reason my family feels it has to show our Italian heritage by having pasta (and a lot of it) between appetizers and the turkey. It’s an all day event and has been for years on end – most years we end up taking some of the bird home – but this year there was no time left for it. I’ve argued that since we eat pasta all the time we could skip it – meaning that we should be American for a day – but I always lose this argument, and so I had no turkey this year. The pasta was tasty by the way, but that’s not the point… What I want to know is am I the only American that went to a Thanksgiving Day dinner and didn’t have turkey?
Kansas Town Requires Residents to Carry Guns
From Lubbock Online via WordSoup: From Kansas, the state that had many schools pull evolutionary theories from textbooks, comes a new provision in one town to make owning a gun and ammunition mandatory. City council members think the move helps make the community safer. Those who don’t keep fire-arms in their homes face fines.
Un-freakin’-believable. I wonder preventing that would-be pickup truck [car] jacking will be worth the massive increase of accidental shootings… it could cut down on teen pregnancy though, although there would be a higher male body count as a side effect.
WTF – AT&T Wireless Edition
Last week I switched my cell phone service to AT&T Wireless because AWS was offering a Microsoft SmartPhone from Motorola that no other carrier was offering. You could find it online for about $550 and CompUSA was offering it for $199 after rebates and with a new service agreement. Going to AWS wasn’t a major issue for me, seeing as all of my other phones were GSM based and were unlocked to run OK with AWS SIM’s, and I knew that AWS had decent coverage in Connecticut. Or so I thought – I found three dead zones in one day and T-Mobile (my former and future carrier) had bangin’ coverage there – and now I want out of my contract with AWS. Of course there’s a snafu – I would be Randy if I didn’t have a snafu…
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Traffic Optical Illusion
Interstate 95 (i-95) has a speed limit of 55 miles per hour (mph); that means that at any given time, a motorist cannot legally drive faster than 55 mph. i-95 also happens to have a minimum speed requirement of 40 mph, meaning that a motorist cannot legally drive slower than 40 mph, unless it’s otherwise marked (construction zone). So, the question is this: if drivers on i-95 are required to drive between 40 mph and 55 mph, what should happen during my daily commutes, when most drivers are cruising along at 15 mph? Can I place the driver in front of me under citizen’s arrest? Probably not. What a gyp, after investing over two hours each day in what can only be called mobile parking while going to and from work. What’s even worse is that I consider today’s evening commute to be good because it was less than an hour long and I didn’t have to use first gear while on the highway. My commute is 31 miles long. Someone should be arrested for that.
Help Wanted
It’s an international opportunity to be sure, but I doubt that Yamaguchi-gumi have a need for a US-based gaijin that only speaks American. I mean I easily outweigh the average Japanese resident and I’m on par with the national height over there, so that’s a plug, but unless they need a coder, I doubt I’d be of use to them. I can’t even launder money without a Maytag and Tide. Just as well – I’m sort of attached to my pinky fingers after all.
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The Madness is Spreading!
Consider this to be a ghost written Rant: today I’m writing about an Episode that my sister recently had at a Dunkin’ Donuts and it sounds like I’ve thoroughly warperd her mind after years of subtle influence. Actually, it’s something I would have done, given the recent decline in the quality of attitude in Dunkin’ workers – a growing number of them are barely considered “alive” these days. It’s not all of them but there are enough to make my sister’s recent Rant justified.
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Work Ethic: Alive and Well in America
Saw a little segment on the news today and it proves that the work ethic is alive and well in America. It centered around five high school students that are from the east village of New York City and it’s chock full of moral issues and snafus. The story was cracked by the Problem Solvers of Fox 5, although I would have loved to have heard the initial call that started the investigation. You see, the kids got nicked for acting as prostitute imposters. Yeah. I know. Made me go “Hm.” for the second time this week.
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Tis the Season
And so begins the holiday season of 2003. Did I see my first Christmas set of decorations in the mall? Before Halloween, so that’s not it. Actually, just the passing of Halloween starts the retail shopping sale spree, but that doesn’t mark the start of the season either. First holiday commercial? Circuit City has started with a Jingle Bells playing POS hand scanner (that’s point of sale) but that doesn’t start it either. It’s actually quite simple: the Gingerbread Latte and Peppermint Mocha Latte are back at Starbucks for the next couple of months. In lieu of holiday inspired world peace, this’ll do quite nicely.