I’ve never gotten around to writing about it here, but over the years some of my state’s blue laws have given me gout. For those of you not from the east [where blue laws are most often found], a blue law is a law that is so outdated that it has become laughable and impractical, yet it’s still an active law for some unknown reason. Want an example? It is illegal in Devon, Connecticut to walk backwards in public but only after dusk. See? Asinine. One of the best known blue laws in CT – and the one that once got me to write to my state representative – is the law that states that alcohol may not be sold after 8PM and not at all on Sundays.
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Category Archives: Rant
Driver Wanted – Repairs Be Done!
As I’ve mentioned before, I leased a new Jetta last month, turning in my 2001 Passat early, for a cheaper lease payment. The Jetta has been a lot of fun but it’s not without its problems. On this, the day of my sixth trip back to the dealership, I find myself with yet another rental car and a dire case of leaser’s remorse. I warn you that this is a long story, even by my definition, but I consider this therapy to get it all out there at this point…
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Ghettopoly
Heard about Ghettopoly on the news the other day and almost pissed m’self. Of course, it’s causing all types of outrage. Having heard that, I opted to check it out, to see what the outcry was – after all, the only people that should be pissed off about it is the makers of Monopoly for copyright infringement.
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Sorry Boston – Not Meant To Be…
Wow… so, like this was not the first item for sale, at Fox Sports tonight, but it was still available after the 11th inning… just another thing they screwed up during this post season:
Thank you, Mariano (MVP) and Boone (HR).
Continue reading Sorry Boston – Not Meant To Be…
Baseball Update: ALCS, Game 3
Pedro throws down Zim in a baseball fight?! Zim is a 70+ year old man that has been in baseball for over five decades. Pedro – known for beaning batters as much as Clemens – tells the bench that he’ll bean them in the head, from the mound, yet doesn’t get tossed. He’s also a cock-gobbling cry baby that whines about flu like symptons in August, when he’s getting shelled by whole teams at a time, and needs to be suspended for 4 games.
Pedro is such a cock bite.
Shriners: Screw you
I’m all for organizations that help the needy. I’ve donated to the September 11th fund and countless other organizations that send me a yearly envelope for donations. I give my clothing to Good Will rather than throwing it out when it’s still wearable but might not fit me anymore. I’ve donated to both my former high school and college, almost on a yearly basis. I buy a poppy for Memorial Day and give cash to armies, scouts, cubs, cheerleaders, and other retail store front collections. Tonight I got a call from the Shriners and they will never get a red cent from me again.
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Stupid Drivers Are Universal
Over the weekend I was driving down a major local road and nearly had an accident. I was in my Jetta and going down a left-turn-only lane, past a bunch of cars that were stuck behind a slow moving tanker in the right lane. As I was turning left, I was where I was supposed to be, but a guy that was stuck in the slow traffic opted to change lanes. He cut out in front of me, sans signal of course – hell, he didn’t even look in the lane! – causing me to swerve and stay on the other side of the road, while he took off down the left-turn-only lane. He still ended up behind the tanker, and was sworn at in at least three languages, and I got out unscathed aside from a rare bit of road rage. I do take some solace in the fact that stupid drivers are found everywhere, as BWG points out.
Excuse Me – You’re in my Seat
So I went to the last game of the regular season this past Sunday at Yankee Stadium. My father got us all some great, great seats – it was supposed to be my parents, my sister and I – in the main box section by home plate… the good seats, with padded backs and waitress service and are up behind the Yankees dugout. My parents bailed on the game after they saw the 70% chance of rain that was schedule for the entire day but my sister and I decided to take a shot. It was a very, very memorable game, but not for the reasons you think!
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Driver Found
A few weeks ago I get a letter from VW about my leased Passat. Seems they were offering me a chance to get out of my lease nine months early, if I leased another VW. I asked my father – who’s worked in the car business for over twenty years now (and given it’s been in either management or finance, he’s the de-facto resource for car purchase questions) – if this was really possible. I figured that they would take my remaining payments and roll them into the new lease or something. He told me that a number of car companies do this occasionally, to clear out the remnants of a model year, and since October starts the car year, it made sense. I now have a 2003 Jetta, but it meant a number of trade offs that I was more than willing to make…
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Praise to a Bronx High School (School Uniforms Edition)
Heard this on the news this morning – after first 15 minutes of post-Isabella hysteria reporting of course – and it made me want to cheer for a number of different reasons. The story was that a high school principal from the Bronx had forced two high school girls to wear skirts made out of black trash bags for a day of school. Why? What happened to the principal? That’s the good part of the story!
Continue reading Praise to a Bronx High School (School Uniforms Edition)
Maintenance!
While building and testing SharpMT, I’ve been forced to rebuilt my entire MT server. Net effect: bookmarks will have changed and trackbacks might be broken. Otherwise, business as usual. I also now have a test server set up at home, so this should be a one time debacle!
Express Pick-up? Hardly…
A couple of weeks ago, CompUSA had a killer sale on a DVD burner. Actually it’s a DVD+R/+RW/-R/-RW/-RAM burner – Sony has been making a couple of models that has burned in all of these formats for a while now, but a few other manufacturers (in this case I/O Magic) recently caught on as to why this is a good thing. The fact that the media people have screwed up the works with five formats is a whole other pooch screw of an issue, but I digress! I missed out on this past sale because my local CompUSA sold out and I was still in Washington (local stores there were also sold out) when the sale was running. Today, I noticed (as did Steve) that Circuit City had the same I/O Magic drive for $150 after multiple rebates… if this wasn’t a perfect set up for a Randy-esque afternoon I don’t know what else would be.
Continue reading Express Pick-up? Hardly…
Stranded at the Airport
When suffering a three+ hour layover, there’s are worse airports to be than Chicago’s Ohare. They have a Chili’s and that means margaritas, so it’s not that painful, but still. If I had to spend more than ten minutes in CT’s own Bradley International I’m certain I want to consume my removed-using-a-grapefruit-spoon spleen, but since that’s where I’m headed, it’s rather moot. What I find to be amusing, however, are the things that can roll through one’s mind while stuck at an airport.
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Tipping, Part 2: Washington Musings
A long while ago, I had to vent a bit about the recent trend of retail tipping. Long story short, I pondered why fast food restaurants employees were putting out tip jars and why we would tip people simply for doing the job that they are paid a full wage for. Over the last few days, I’ve been in Redmond, Washington and have discovered that the trend has been going on around here, with one key difference – it isn’t the politeness of the workers, though… that seems to be a side effect of just living out here.
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When?
When? Such a simple question, yet in this instance there seems to be no easy answer. Time is a tricky business but I’m only asking for a single point in time to be named for a very simple event. When? I ask it of a department of my state government – a learned group of people that are mathematical scholars and engineers – and these are the people to ask when concerning a question involving four dimensions; only scientists can truly appreciate the nuances of Time. When? I don’t ask it of historians because this question is about our present and eludes to the future; the past isn’t applicable to my question. My question is simple in nature but unanswerable in this reality: When can I drive on Interstate 95 without getting stopped in traffic?
Continue reading When?