Tag rant (18)
An open letter to my phone
Mood: irritated
Posted on 2009-07-16 21:52:00
Tags: rant wedding
Words: 176
Phone:
Hi! How's it going? It's me, your owner. I mention this because it seems like we've lost touch. I was kinda busy today, and got no fewer than 3 phone calls and one text message. Does that ring a bell? I'm guessing no, because I didn't hear about any of these when they happened. The text message I didn't get until hours later! And thank goodness the people calling left a voicemail, otherwise who knows when I would have heard about it?
We've had some good times, you and me, but there's this new phone out called the Palm Pre. Actually, calling it a "phone" doesn't do it justice, but I'm willing to wager it still does such banal things like ringing when it's being called. And today they released an SDK for it which means I can write cool programs and stuff.
So enjoy our time together while it lasts, phone. We're taking this trip to Hawaii soon and I'm thinking the bottom of the ocean might be an appropriate resting place for you...
post-birthday blues
Mood: stressed
Posted on 2009-04-21 13:01:00
Tags: health rant birthday work wedding politics
Words: 297
Thanks everyone for the birthday wishes! I had a nice dinner and post-dinner Rock Band session (we're Rock Immortals now!) and caught up a bit with my family. And we're making really good progress on wedding stuff, so that's gotten a lot less stressful. Also, now I'm 27, which is 33, and next year I'll be 28 which is a perfect number! (after that, it's all downhill, I'm sure)
That notwithstanding, things kinda suck right now. Let me run down why, because I'm sure you're all dying to know!
Torture - So when Ex-President Bush said "We don't torture", apparently what he meant was "We don't torture, except when we do". This is not terribly surprising, but it is a little depressing. (we waterboarded one guy 183 times in a month even after he had given up intelligence) I haven't had the heart to read the memos, but I applaud Obama for releasing them.
Work - The last week of work has been the worst week in at least a year. (I wish I had some sort of device where I recorded how work went that day, then I could track the data over time and say definitively how bad last week was!) This week is shaping up to be somewhat better, but it looks like I'm going to be generally stressed for at least another month and a half.
Teeth - As I mentioned, my filled tooth still hurts, and my mom and djedi convinced me to see the dentist again. And they took an X-ray and it looks like I need yet another root canal, to the tune of $1200 out of pocket. I'm going to get a second opinion, which means more work and stress and time away from work, which means more work stress. Argh.
a cool toy and some anger
Mood: okay
Posted on 2009-04-15 13:21:00
Tags: rant politics links
Words: 204
Cool toy: This ToneMatrix thingy. Note that if you right-click, you can copy and paste music in. My two quick compositions:
0,512,0,256,0,1024,0,0,0,17476,0,0,0,0,0,168
65536,32768,16384,8192,256,0,128,0,320,0,1056,0,4112,0,32776,0
The scale is a pentatonic one (do, re, mi, so, la) which means that basically any combination of notes sounds good. The lack of dissonance gets a little...creepy? after a while, but it's fun to play with. There's actually a real instrument called the tenori-on that does something similar, and an iPhone version. (as well as another iPhone version by Brian Eno that looks even cooler)
Now. Today is Tax Day, and some conservative-types are holding tea parties to protest government spending. (and presumably the deficit?) Let me just say this - if you disliked Bush's expansion of government spending (specifically the Iraq war, Medicare expansion, etc.) and you're protesting, at least you're consistent. If you just hate Obama and everything he stands for, well at least you're being honest. But if you cheerleaded everything Bush did and started worrying about government spending and the deficit on January 20th, then you're not being serious. If you have no suggestions for what you want to cut, you're not being serious. If you favor tax cuts and lower deficits, you're really really deluding yourself.
BSG and Lost
Mood: happy
Posted on 2009-03-19 10:00:00
Tags: rant essay
Words: 595
(spoilers abound if you haven't seen the most recent episode of either!)
Lost is awesome.
Season 4 was pretty good - we learned a lot of interesting things about the island and the Oceanic 6's life after they left. The whole flash-forward structure was pretty neat at first, but eventually it seemed to rob the show of its stakes. We know Jack isn't going to die on the island because we can see him in the future! And there were certainly unanswered questions, like what happened to all the people who weren't in the Oceanic 6, but that wasn't enough for me to stay fully engaged. I thought the season finale in particular tied together some loose ends, but just wasn't that compelling. Interesting, sure, but I wasn't on the edge of my seat. And the whole dramatic tension of having to lie is something that is probably stronger in real life than it is to watch. After all, we're used to watching people lie on TV...
I had the same sort of problem with the beginning of Season 5 - we had a pretty good idea the Oceanic 6 were going to end up back on the island, so just showing why they arrived at that conclusion wasn't really that interesting to me. But the last two episodes of Season 5 have really kicked it up a notch. I feel like we're back in the heyday of Seasons 1 and 2 (which I watched on DVD and so didn't have the delayed gratification of waiting weeks between episodes) where we have no idea what's going to happen. Yeah, "Namaste" (the episode that aired last night) was kinda about resolving a bunch of loose ends about the Oceanic 6 arriving back on the island, but it did it in a very compelling way. I was on the edge of my seat watching LaFleur come up with a plan for Jack, Kate, Hurley, and Sayid to integrate them into the Dharma Initiative. Even though the Purge is coming at some point we don't know what's going to happen to our folks.
And now a quick Battlestar Galactica rant, which you may have heard if you've been around me since last Friday:
I cannot believe they're at literally the second to last episode (bolding makes me sound angry!) and doing flashbacks back to before the series began...and these flashbacks kinda suck. So Roslin was happy go lucky! And had sisters! And then they and her father were randomly killed in a car crash, but she's stoic, see! Nevermind the fact that they would have all probably died when the Cylons attacked anyway...what is this supposed to tell us about her? We already know she's a tough person. I suppose the whole car crash was supposed to be shocking but I couldn't help but think the writers were just using a cheap device to make me feel sorry for her. Also, so help me if the person she's about to see on this blind date is the person who was driving the other car I'm going to jump up and down and scream "I don't care!" because I really really don't.
In other news, Baltar is still a jerk in the past. Two problems:
- I get that he's a jerk and I'm supposed to hate him. This has been emphasized basically any time he opens his mouth. Not news!
- There are three (now two) hours left to show the fate of humanity and I really really really don't care about Baltar compared to that.
TL;DR version: Lost good, BSG bad.
ok, guys
Mood: angry
Posted on 2009-01-28 16:26:00
Tags: rant
Words: 51
I just answered a phone call that started "This is the second..." to which I immediately hung up, enraged, because I have literally gotten at least 50 calls for the past...3 months? 6 months? telling me that my automobile warranty has expired. What is wrong with you people?? STOP CALLING ME.
"heroes" but not about "heroes"
Mood: annoyed
Posted on 2008-09-23 10:01:00
Tags: rant essay
Words: 411
While watching "Heroes" at the Drafthouse last night, two things pissed me off entirely unrelated to the show.
1. KXAN (our NBC affiliate) kept shrinking the screen to warn us that, after October 2 Time Warner customers won't be able to see their station because they won't pay the reasonable price of less than one cent per customer per day (this happened like 10 times over the two hours). Here's KXAN's side of the story. They also (playing hardball) say you can sign up with Dish TV or AT&T U-Verse to ensure that you can still see everything, etc.
One cent per customer per day doesn't sound like much, but if every channel charged that much...let's see, there are around 150-200 channels in the basic Digital package, and that would be $45-$60 a month when the package itself only costs $65. (obviously Time Warner has a lot of infrastructure to pay for, plus they have to make a profit somewhere in there) So that's a little high. Not to mention the fact that KXAN is available for free over-the-air! I can understand a nominal fee to Time Warner, I guess, but asking for more money for something that anyone in the Austin area can get for free seems a little cheeky.
Time Warner's side of the story (yes, they bought thetruthhurtskxan.com on September 17th!) points this out, although that's mostly their only argument other than KXAN is trying to negotiate through the public, etc.
I would imagine that KXAN has more power here - while switching from cable to Dish or something else is a pain and not always possible, there are no substitutes for watching NBC shows (except for viewing them online or illegally downloading them or something) - Time Warner has better substitutes than KXAN does.
In the end, they had better figure this crap out and I better not miss my Heroes and Chuck and 30 Rock.
2. What is it with stupidly-titled shows? Last night we saw a preview for Yes Man which is about a Man who decides to say Yes to everything. There was also Sex Drive which is about a guy who Drives to California to have Sex. It makes me think they started with the title and came up with the lamest, most straightforward interpretation of it and then made a movie. Cut it out! (yeah, yeah, Yes Man is based on a book, but the book has the same stupid and literal title)
things that, upon further reflection, really piss me off and have come up recently
Mood: annoyed
Posted on 2008-09-03 15:19:00
Tags: rant essay
Words: 364
Abstinence-only education
This is in the news because Sarah Palin supports it, but it really didn't make me angry until I thought about it for a while. I understand teenagers having sex is bad (in a relative sense) and abstinence is a good thing and all that, but the fact is that around 60% of high school seniors will have had sex at least once before they graduate. (saw this recently, although I can't find a reliable citation at the moment)
If you think condoms are immoral (looking at you, Catholic Church) then I can at least understand the objection here (not that I agree), but imagining that not telling kids anything else except "don't have sex, it's horrible, etc." will make them (teenagers! the most rebellious age group?) just decide not to have sex, despite the fact that hormones are raging.
Not telling these kids about how to protect themselves is irresponsible. Only 15 percent of Americans support only teaching abstinence.
"Traditional" gender roles
This weekend, there were some books and movies and stuff in the beach house we rented, one of which was "Husbands Who Won't Lead and Wives Who Won't Follow". This really grinds my gears (I read like half a page over breakfast and couldn't continue). Firstly, the existence of gay couples is brushed aside with no explanation or anything, which almost makes me more upset than if one were arguing against us directly.
But even beyond that, this is flat out sexism. And what is the justification for this? I know that's the way it was in the past, because men were slightly stronger so they could go kill the mammoths while the women cared for the children, but I don't see anything fundamentally good or bad about that. Why is sex supposed to determine our role, and not personality and the particular relationship we're in or whatever? This is a conservative point of view ("conservative" in the this-is-how-things-were-done-in-the-past-so-we-better-keep-doing-them-because-the-past-was-awesome-compared-to-now) but why is it pushed by religions as well? I know there are a few small examples of this in the Bible ("Wives, be submissive to your husbands") but I just don't get how this fits in with anything else.
best day ever
Mood: happy
Posted on 2008-06-17 09:16:00
Tags: movies rant links
Words: 288
You can download Firefox 3 starting at noon our time. (you might be able to Help->Check for Updates... as well - not sure when that will be turned on)
Gays can marry in California today! Here's an interactive map of the legal status of gay marriage/civil unions in all 50 states.
Last night at Kung Fu Panda (which is still good, by the way, I'd probably even see it again) we saw a trailer for Fly Me to the Moon which is about three stupid flies that tag along on the first moon landing. This makes me angry. The graphics quality looks meh, it's filled with bad and stupid and pointless puns and the smart fly is named "Iq". Judging by the trailer, you're supposed to think that the idea of the fly on the moon is just so awesome, we'll have a bunch of characters say "Nat's going to the moon!", "Your boy is going to the moon!", "We're going to the moon!", etc.
Also, (and here's where I go off a bit) apparently there's some problem with the capsule and the flies have to save the day. This (aside from being stupid) I find offensive - it took years and years of hard work and dedication and lost lives to get us to the moon, not some stupid-ass flies fixing some problem or whatever. Next up: some scorpions are going to Normandy! And the Allies can't win the battle without them! So they go around and sting some Nazis or something! After that: well, you get the idea.
Maybe the 3D will make it way more awesome but somehow I doubt it.
In the vein of bad movies, a review of The Happening that contains all the spoilers.
this is the beginning of the end (of moving)
Mood: worried
Posted on 2008-03-12 09:53:00
Tags: moving rant smashbros wii
Words: 423
Last night we got our stuff ready to pack, which means the whole moving thing is happening soon. People are coming over tonight to help us pack (thanks, people!) and we'll be living out of boxes for a while...the movers come for real on Saturday. Until we get settled in at the house we may be somewhat incommunicado, so call me on my cell phone (or better yet, call djedi on his since mine seems a bit unreliable). Moving brings out the worst in me, so I will likely be crabby and irritable and unhelpful for a while, so being incommunicado isn't the worst thing in the world. (sorry, people around me!)
Played a little Smash Bros last night - did the easy job of unlocking (spoiler alert: highlight to read) Snake , and then djedi got up to 29% in Subspace Emissary (the adventure mode). Next up to unlock I think will be (spoiler) Captain Falcon , so I might do that tonight. (Just kidding! Tonight is packing)
We've been trying to get cable/internet set up at the new place for a while now. We scheduled Time Warner to come out February 29 to hook it up, and the contractor guy said that the signal coming into the house was too weak and a supervisor would have to come out and look at it. Last Friday I called Time Warner to see what the deal was (the contractor said someone would call me to schedule an appointment), and luckily the woman was able to schedule an appointment for that day. So someone did come out to the house, did the same stuff as the contractor, and verified that that was indeed the problem. (not sure what the deal was there) He said engineers (I'm an engineer!) would have to work on the problem outside but I didn't need to be there or set up an appointment or anything.
So yesterday I call Time Warner to see if they know if the work's been done or when the work will be done, since we're getting awfully close to moving in. Using their nifty callback feature, I get a call 10 minutes later, and the woman said that in fact the last guy hadn't scheduled anything to be done and that someone did need to be at the house. Le sigh. So that's scheduled for Friday along with hot tub stuff.
But it's annoying to have to always call after anyone does anything to confirm what they said/actually get the next step of the process to happen.
thanks a lot, someone
Mood: angry
Posted on 2008-03-07 17:03:00
Tags: rant
Words: 304
Someone is to blame for this.
I called Time Warner, and they said they could come out today to fix the cable (yaaaay!). They said they'd call 30 mins. beforehand and djedi volunteered to wait for them.
At 4:30 I get a call on my cell phone, no caller ID, and when I pick up I hear nothing. I let djedi know that that was probably Time Warner and he heads up there while I wait for another call.
When he gets there he calls my cell phone and he can't hear me. Calls back again, still no heary. So I call him back on the work phone, and we figure the Time Warner guy must have called, not heard anything, and given up. Craap.
So I call Time Warner and after 5 minutes (most of which spent locked in a stupid phone tree...luckily I remembered where I went before to talk to a human ("0" didn't work)) I get a hold of a friendly person and he sends a message to the tech that "I'm" at the house and to call djedi's cell number.
Then I call djedi back (on the work phone) to let him know, and we chat for a minute. Then my cell phone rings again so I hang up hurriedly and pick up. It's the tech, but he can't hear me. I rush over to the windows, call him back, still can't hear me. I rush downstairs, get out of the building in the open air. Call him back, still can't hear me. Finally I go back upstairs and call him on the work phone, he can hear me, then pass on the news to djedi.
Synopsis: Time Warner kinda good, my cell phone is at least partially and I'm guessing mostly dead, I am extremely angry and irritable.
I do not heart huckabee
Mood: annoyed
Posted on 2008-01-18 10:19:00
Tags: rant politics
Words: 237
Dear Mike Huckabee,
Hi! How's it going? Is it OK if I call you Mike? Great. Anyway, Mike, I read you had something to say about marriage. Something like this:
Well, I don’t think that’s a radical view to say we’re going to affirm marriage. I think the radical view is to say that we’re going to change the definition of marriage so that it can mean two men, two women, a man and three women, a man and a child, a man and animal.
some interface complaints
Mood: annoyed
Posted on 2008-01-14 10:39:00
Tags: rant house
Words: 134
So I'm getting quotes on homeowner's insurance. Called up USAA and it was pretty easy (and cheap!) but I wanted to compare with someone. State Farm doesn't do online quotes for our area, so GEICO it is.
- It asks the distance to the nearest fire department. How am I supposed to know this in general? Can't they figure it out since I gave them the address?
- Who thinks that selecting years (or dates for that matter) from a drop down box is easier than typing in four digits?
- Now they're asking if I've purchased the home within the last 12 months...but if I say yes and put in our scheduled closing date, it complains since it's in the future. I guess I'll say no, but I think the most accurate answer is yes. Gah.
big day
Mood: nervous
Posted on 2008-01-09 09:18:00
Tags: rant work mortgage house
Words: 89
Big work meeting today after lunch.
We met with our mortgage guy yesterday and everything seems to be in order, so bully for that. After work we're gonna view the house again and then, in all likelihood, make an offer, which is exciting! This just in: the house was not used previously to manufacture methamphetamines (yes, this question is on the seller's disclosure).
Also, $32 per month is a ridiculous sum of money to pay to a homeowner's association, for use of a pool that we'll probably never use.
Dear router,
Mood: irritated
Posted on 2007-11-28 18:47:00
Tags: rant
Words: 43
Yes, I know you cut out occasionally even though I haven't complained about it. Please stop. Lines like this:
Nov 28 18:22:31 cantor kernel: r8169: eth0: link down
Nov 28 18:22:33 cantor kernel: r8169: eth0: link up
are pretty darn indicative you're rebooting.
Dear internet,
Mood: irritated
Posted on 2007-11-28 18:44:00
Tags: rant
Words: 65
If you have a "Remember me" box to log in, please do so. It makes me more irritated to have it not work (and therefore wonder "Am I even at the right site?") than to not have it at all.
P.S. Yes, I know that these things work on cookies that can be deleted. I, however, am lazy and don't clean through mine. Excuse rejected.
united way iPhone giveaway - bleck
Mood: blah
Posted on 2007-11-26 14:18:00
Tags: rant
Words: 113
I just got a second email reminding me that if you donate to the United Way now, you're entered to win an 8GB iPhone. Color me unimpressed. Doesn't it seem kinda backwards to entice people to donate money with a prize? Maybe McElroy Translation (who donated the prize) should have just donated the money it cost to buy it - it's not like Apple donated it or anything.
Worse yet, this sets up the idea that you're not donating; you're buying a chance at the iPhone. Will you be so eager to donate when there's no possible reward?
(I understand this is a cranky attitude about it, and probably it's not a big deal)
number of boxes left: 30ish?
Mood: relaxed
Posted on 2007-09-29 00:05:00
Tags: rant
Words: 537
We're making real progress here - furniture is set up, and we have most of the essentials (toiletries, a sleeping bag to sleep on the bed, computers, TiVo, etc.), but there are still lots of boxes to unpack. It is starting to feel more like home, though. Pictures will come (as will some sort of party) when the boxes are gone.
Allergies have been hitting me hard for the last few days. They come and go seemingly randomly throughout the day. Nose running is bad, although feeling sweaty all over is much worse. The dust with the boxes isn't helping, I'd imagine.
We used Bekins for the move. Our stuff got here Wednesday which was really fast, much faster than we had expected. (only a week after they packed and loaded it!) We lost a table lamp along the way, and an alarming number of mugs were broken. The boxes weren't in great shape - a few had been torn open and such, worse than normal wear and tear that I would expect. (and worse than on the move up there) The couch got a little scratched up (how did this happen when it was wrapped in tape?), the desks are a little more flimsy (the entertainment center, which we're getting rid of, borders on dangerous), and the washer was apparently resting on the washer hoses because they're both bent out of shape and don't seal. Maybe this is more in line with a "normal" experience...it's just that on the move up (with the same company), everything seemed in the same condition that we left it in. Oh well.
djedi shipped his car with Dependable Auto Shippers and arrived quickly, without scratches, and they were even washing it when we pulled up!
As I was driving around over the past few days, I saw the following billboard:
We think rush hour is a misleading term.Now, ads are dumb, but this seems to reach a whole new level of dumb. It took me a minute to realize the first line was unrelated to anything Time Warner. (is "rush hour" supposed to be some sort of internet thing?) But after that, I'm supposed to think of Time Warner as all buddy-buddy with me? Which cable company would you prefer to have a beer with?
We think like you think. Time Warner Cable
(no subject)
Mood: calm
Posted on 2006-08-15 10:01:00
Tags: pictures rant terrorism
Words: 206
Pictures from this weekend are up. There are some good ones of the nephews :-)
No! Liquids!
I have a great link at home that I don't have in front of me about how the goal of terrorism is to terrorize. If we get worried and upset and scared and stop flying every time a terrorist plot is revealed, isn't that what they want? If this is really a "war on terror" (yeah, yeah, I know), we can't be surprised when plots are revealead and so forth.
Other things that make me mad: people who have no concept of risk. In 2004, 42636 people died in car accidents. Right now you're 10-200 times safer (depending on what metric you use) flying than driving. And yet people will get panicy about flying (to be fair, it can be a little scary) but then speed in their car, not pay attention to the road, drive while buzzed/drunk, etc. Really, this is even worse because you could hurt/kill not only yourself but others if you're in a car crash.
So I guess my point is - drive safely! (and I mean this as a directive, not a "hope nothing happens"-type statement) Don't talk on your cell phone too much, etc., etc.
This backup was done by LJBackup.