What a strange way to start a week. I spent the last two hours in an allergist’s office, suffering the scratching and poking of a battery of tests to find out what I already knew: a $45 copay for an office visit makes any trip to a doctor feel like a trip to the proctologist.
Continue reading Random Thoughts – Allergic to Them?
Category Archives: Rant
Condoms: $6 Box or Priceless?
I have no kids. Oh, I like kids and I have almost no issues with kids, actually – I just don’t have any of my own. Am I not going to have any ever? Am I shooting blanks? How the hell do I know? The only thing I’m sure of is that kids are irreversible, which really makes them unique thing in today’s day and age. I mean you can get out of marriage, evade taxes, duck many felony charges (with a greasy enough lawyer), and stave off death for years – even tattoos can be removed. Even if a kid is put up for adoption, they can always find you, given the information stores of the ‘net; hardly reversible. So, as near as I can tell, kids and death are the last irreversible decisions. Irreversible decisions make my feet itch.
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American Idol
I actually didn’t know what to call this Rant because I really don’t know who I’m even Ranting at. One thing is definitely certain: no more American Fuckin’ Idol. Wasn’t having to live through shows like “Punky Brewster”, “The Golden Girls”, and “Mannix” enough? We already had to suffer through the producers from “The Cosby Show” as they searched for “spunky” and “fresh” new talent to replace Rudy when she got too old. We saw the writers of ER keep Carter as an intern for like five seasons because he made a better intern than doctor – don’t ask me about that either: I stopped watching ER a long, long time ago. Why do TV networks feel obligated to feed us such crap?
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Life Imitating Art (Video Game Edition)
OK, so the other day presidential “hopeful” Joseph Lieberman had a press conference because he was concerned about a very pressing issue. As he put it, he was “concerned about video games that spoon-feed blatant sex [as opposed to sex hidden in digital shadows?] and graphic violence.” Very concerned for our children. Good for you Joe, but what’s your solution? Ban the games entirely? I certainly wouldn’t like it and let me tell you why.
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Move or Die!
This weekend started out harmlessly enough. I picked up another four chapters from my “editing staff” and planned to roll them into my master draft copies that I keep. I went to see the Yankees game this Saturday at the Stadium. I had lunch with my parents on Sunday. Seems like a normal and pleasant weekend, no? It’s amazing how leaving out details can alter one’s perception of things.
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Oh. My. God. (Oreo Edition)
I swear that more people read this web site everyday. How do I know this? Because I see some of my “views” randomly appear in the news almost every week. This time it’s not a direct correlation, but it’s pretty freakin’ close. What’s the Rant of today? Oreos versus California.
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iHop?
Given the last dozen of Apple‘s latest products, I’ve been wondering if a) Apple is going to try to patent the lower case “i” and b) if IHOP was going to sue Apple or if Apple would sue iHop for the use of their recognizable i-design. Don’t laugh, either. I think the only thing saving IHOP is the fact that they use all caps for their logo and commercials. If Apple can get a patent for something as simple as a “gum-drop close” button, there’s no reason why they wouldn’t win a patent for one letter of our 26-character alphabet. The patent office seems to have lost it’s perspective on what they’re supposed to be protecting in their offices; Apple is being the opportunistic company that it’s always been, keeping up with Microsoft in the ceaseless patent race of technology companies.
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A Mermaid Wearing Pinstripes?
So there I was, walking under the Major Deegan towards a crosswalk in the Bronx. Was a pretty cool day out and mostly cloudy. Not the best day for baseball, but still not the worse I had seen. The drive down wasn’t too bad and the parking was just fine. This was only the second game that my sister and I had been too, so I was looking forward to it, especially after the week I had – an analog distraction was more than welcome! After dodging the regular collection of scalpers and their typical “Got extra tickets?” and “Need tickets?” banter, I encountered what was a personal first for me…
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Weird End to a Weird Week
Sorta weird anyway. Just feels like this week has gone on for forever and a day. I spent the majority of the weekdays this week at work deflecting questions from people. I spent that majority of the weeknights updating and fixing SharpMT, as the main page surely shows; I don’t think there’s ever been this many “new” posts before. I spent half of yesterday at Foxwoods casino at a Microsoft event and a Pai-Gow Poker table. And now I find myself on the train with a sniffler.
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eBay: Smarter Members Wanted
I’ve been using eBay for a lot of years – I think I signed up with them only a few months after they initially launched the site. Even from the very beginning, I found them to be a great place to find all sorts of stuff – both useful and not so useful – to buy. They always seemed not only have things that were hard to find but for items that were common, you could sometimes find a discount. There’s been a number of changes over the years at eBay and what I find to be the most obvious change is the decrease in intelligence of the users on eBay.
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New Frappuccino! (And more SharpMT news)
Mocha Malted Frappuccino! Had my first one day at local Starbucks and well, I can’t say it was anything earth shattering. I mean, it was good and all, but so is a regular Mocha Frap. Certainly wasn’t as “new” as the Mocha Coconut that was introduced last summer – or the CocaMochanut as I end up ordering it, first thing in the morning.
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Bad Karma Day
I should have stayed home today. From what I’ve seen so far, there’s no reason for me to have gone out in the first place – I should have just blown off work and worked on SharpMT all day, but since that was giving me ImageList related grief – am I the only one that realizes that I can’t add images to the ToolBar’s image list via the IDE? – I figured that I would have a better day if I went out for a while. I figured wrong. It’s just been a bad karma day and it’s not even 8:30 in the morning yet.
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Book is Done!
*w00t* My manuscript is complete! At least I think it is… I know I have no plans to give it another read again – now I need proofreaders to give it the once over and make sure nothing glaring got through – given all of the mistakes that I found during the last blast through it, I’m sure there’s still a whole lot of typos…
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Review: Yankees’ Stadium 2003
It’s that time of year again: Baseball Season is now in full swing and the Yankees had their first Saturday home game this weekend. In a game that is packed full of stats and statistics, what’s the significance of the first Saturday home game? Um, nothing really, but since I have season long Saturday game tickets, it means that I made my first trip through Fairfield and Westchester counties and into The Bronx for a bit of baseball a couple of days ago. The boys won, I fought very little traffic on the way to and from the game, I bought a new hat, and I was able to check out some of the upgrades at The House that George Owns.
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A Moment with a Mermaid
One of the things that I hear almost every trip to my local Starbucks is “You never get the same thing!” It’s the truth, actually. The only thing that stays the same is the size: grande. For most seasons, I usually order iced drinks and in the winter, I usually order hot drinks, but there’s no guarantee of that either. With the exception of the regular cappuccino or latte, there’s nothing on the menu I don’t like – it’s all fair game. I usually check the menu every day, expecting some new drink to leap out at me – Starbucks seems to change the menu monthly by either adding something new or showing something old that they couldn’t fit before, i.e. the Mocha Valencia which they’ve had for years but makes random appearance on the menu – but I usually end up mindlessly staring at it, in the hopes of finding something to order. Much like the insulation that’s in the ceiling of where my band used to rehearse, I hope to find answers to my questions, if I stare at it long enough. What I usually find to be more interesting, and easier to find, is the information I find out by accident.
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