Posts with mood annoyed (10)
"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.
ah, Heisenbugs
Mood: annoyed
Posted on 2008-07-02 09:40:00
Tags: work programming
Words: 68
Yesterday I was going to say that, when debugging a problem, I had caused another problem by popping up debugging MessageBoxes. (tip: VB6 does not like coercing non-string-like objects to strings implicitly) But after I fixed that, it turns out that popping up MessageBoxes actually seems to fix the real problem. Arrrrgh.
Happy 4th! Here are 21 hilariously hyperbolic pro-America songs. I recommend "America, Fuck Yeah" (number 21).
Acceptable prefixes for local businesses
Mood: annoyed
Posted on 2008-06-13 15:05:00
Words: 8
weekend at Wash U
Mood: annoyed
Posted on 2008-05-19 14:03:00
Tags: pictures
Words: 104
Carrie's graduation went well. Pictures of graduation are up, as well as pictures of last weekend.
The ceremony was good. Chris Matthews made a surprisingly good commencement speaker. The protest of Phyllis Schlafly happened as planned. (see pictures for more information) My back is pain-free despite sleeping on a foldout bed for two nights so I think I'm officially not a bed snob. I did manage to tweak my knee and ankle but they're on the mend. Also read some good books and did some more math on my Target project.
Game night tomorrow night and a three day weekend ahead. Life is good.
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.
oh well
Mood: annoyed
Posted on 2008-01-05 13:22:00
Tags: house
Words: 44
I think I'll just live in a hotel for the rest of my life. Room service, maid service, etc. It would be a lot less trouble.
Also, does $44/month for water seem high to anyone else? We're not running a car wash or anything...
more washer fun
Mood: annoyed
Posted on 2007-10-25 14:42:00
Words: 123
So last Saturday finally the Sears guy came and quickly diagnosed what was wrong with the washer (incompetent movers unhooked the drum somehow and it fell on all the electronic stuff below it. So it'll cost a few hundred to fix, fine, whatever.
He had to order parts for it and so made the earliest possible appointment to come and fix it, which was next Friday, November 2. That day didn't work for us so he said to reschedule when we got the parts in.
Parts came today, I rescheduled for the earliest Saturday they had, which was November 10. That makes a total of 32 days from calling in service to (God willing) repair. This does not make me a happy panda.
gaaaah!
Mood: annoyed
Music: Metallica - "Outlaw Tom"
Posted on 2005-06-30 13:17:00
Tags: google maps work
Words: 145
Grr! Work is annoying me. I just spent like half an hour setting something up, and I finally got to try it, and it didn't work. So I'm letting off some steam by posting!
Google released an API for Google Maps, which is neat. I'm playing around with it some - made my own map for experimentation. Fun! (I'm open to suggestions for other markers...)
AMD is suing Intel for abusing their monopoly position. The CEO of AMD took out a full-page ad in the Statesman explaining and urging people to read their full complaint, which I did yesterday. Fascinating reading! If it's true, then they have very legitimate grievances.
Yesterday Canada approved gay marriage, and Spain did the same today. Woohoo!
I can't believe July 4 is coming up so soon. I get Monday and Tuesday off, which totally rocks. Planning on a fun weekend!
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