The Question is Right Here

Let's put aside partisan politics for a moment. Let's look at the State of the State of NJ.

The roads are in horrendous condition because there is no money for road maintenance.

Hospitals are closing because there is no money to subsidize them.

The government wants to revamp the entire State pension system, eliminate benefits for State employees because there is no money to fund this sort of stuff.

The educational system in in complete upheaval, teachers and administrators are being let go by the hundreds because there is no money to give to the schools.

Taxes continue to increase in this State where we are considering changing the name from "New Jersey" to "New Taxes". The burden on the taxpayers is at an all-time high.

No services, no hospitals, no highways... where, exactly, is all that money going?

The Things...

After the next Academy Awards in March, we'll start seeing movies in contention for next year. I have not seen "Avatar" just yet, but I'd like to, because I'd be showing support for some quality filmmaking, as well as watching a good story. I saw "The Hurt Locker" and was definitely taken with it. Tough story, well done.

There are a few things I'd like to see changed in the movies going forward. Some tired, old items I could really do without, in theaters and TV.

Let's retire these things and see if we can keep the creativity flowing:

• Do we really need to have closeups of people drooling in their sleep?
• Stop with the ridiculous shots of guys in Speedos. It's been done to death
• Bodily-function humor. That stopped being funny in about the 3rd grade. Enough already
• Vomit. We get the point without sharing the whole experience

I'd like to see some scary movies that are actually scary, not just a compilation of cool special effects. Thrillers like "Silence of the Lambs" were such a great experience. Think about what goes into the story, not just how you can hang the ending in order to set up 300 sequels.

I know that my particular demographic isn't the most attractive to Hollywood, but there are some attempts in Hollywood to make a film like "Shutter Island" worthwhile for adults. I hope they can get a trend going: Well thought-out, written stories that are great from beginning to end. These kinds of films make for some great viewing.

I love movies, and have always considered them among my favorite pastime. I once was an avid collector of pop music, with a ridiculous amount of albums, tapes and CD's in my possession. I cannot remember the last time I bought a CD. I mostly pick and choose from single tracks on iTunes because I can't recall one entire CD I'd be enticed to own. I don't want this to be the case with films.

Burgery

Ok so I might say something like, "I'll grab a burger at McDonald's. Ya want one?"

Some people don't like McDonald's. Fine.

Normal Response:

"No thanks, don't care for McDonald's."

Psychotic Response:

"McDonald's, are you kidding me? I wouldn't eat that crap with YOUR mouth. Do you know what kind of garbage they put in there? Cow hooves, chicken feet, are you kidding me? That stuff is poison! McDonald's is a Communist company!

Please.

Driving Through Church

I wouldn't normally think of driving on the highway in the same frame as going to Church. Although with all the busy people out there leading such busy lives these days, can Drive-Thru Mass be next?

I digress.

I've come to realize that Sunday Mass and a Sunday Drive are opportunities to see a lot of what's gone wrong with us. Really!

First off, where is the hell is everyone going in such a friggin hurry? Speed limits are a thing of the past, I know that, but why the hell does everyone need to drive like they're escaping a tidal wave?

And if you want to see where courtesy has gone, just watch roadway etiquette these days. I've seen people who'd rather die than let someone merge in ahead of them. It might hold them up 15 seconds to let the guy in, but then what would one do to make up that lost quarter-minute. Good god no!

Used to be, if you were one of those idiots who insisted on latching on to the left lane like Bin Laden to a cave, you were open to tailgating and flashing lights. Now all you have to do is be on the road. HEY, GET OUT OF MY WAY! I'M A BUSY GUY YA KNOW!

Being a rude, idiot driver makes no logical sense. But yet...

And Church...Sitting through a service these days is a test of human endurance. I watched a woman come into Mass recently, carrying a Starbucks bag. She proceeded to unwrap a coffee and I what I believe was a blueberry muffin and eat it during the Mass. And seeing a moron on a cellphone during a Mass is so commonplace these days that it's barely worth mentioning.

People show up dressed in their Sunday Worst; they show up whenever they want. At Sunday's Mass, the priest was wrapping up after Communion and there were still nitwits showing up. My friend, the Future Criminal, was there today, tormenting his parents. I'm not sure what the fuss is, though, because he was no more disruptive than a typhoon. But people don't remove obnoxious children anymore because people assume it's their right to inflict their little Plagues on the rest of society unimpeded.

And I think nothing says it better than what I experience first-hand these days. While I'm hardly a helpless cripple, I am sufficiently handicapped to the point that I must walk a bit slowly, and with a cane. More than once, recently, I've been shoved past by someone on their way into Church. I can't walk too quickly, but I can still fight, and my handicaps provide me with a nice heavy weapon. But my Christian upbringing was at least good enough that I know it's not a good thing to club someone on the Church steps. Even ignorant morons who don't realize how lucky they are that we are, in fact, on hallowed ground.

Anyway, I'm finished with my amateur pyscho-babble.

What's your take?

Respect?

It's something I hear all the time: people demanding respect. Oh they want it, demand it, do everything but earn it.

Somehow, in this society we've been transformed into thinking that we can get pretty much anything we want if we yell loud enough, or are obnoxious enough or just plan anti-social, "Squeaky wheel gets the grease" type of thinking. But it's our own fault now, that we have to deal with these loud, annoying, half-witted morons. We've glorified them, made celebrities of imbeciles who should better be slapped and sent back home. We've allowed them to equate "attention" with "respect".

I think that's part of the reason we have so many people on medications. They're raised to believe they're entitled to anything they want, and when the real world catches up with that illusion, they need to medicate. It's not depression, or anxiety, it's "slap in the face". Let's face it folks, we have as many commercials encouraging self-medication as we do for laundry detergent.

And the same goes with the whole respect thing. There are so very few people I know who've actually earned my respect. There are a lot of people who have my attention, or get it; there are a lot of people I might even like, but not a whole lot on my list for those I respect.

I don't equate respect with power, either. Powerful people in this country seldom earn their positions anymore. Power is bought and sold (particularly in NJ) like a cheap commodity these days; respect is like platinum in my view. In fact, the people I respect the very most are not what we'd typically consider people of "power". They've gained respect by acting respectful and being respectable.

Being respectable: it's a pretty simple concept. It's the best way to earn respect.

Who's Who?

Hi guys, still me!

I'm really curious about something. When a "help" section of a website is designed, it's like anything else: "let's start at the very beginning...".

When these web companies design their help sections, they offer something called "FAQ's". What they forget to include is "NAQ's" (Never Answered Questions) where most of us would probably find the actual answers we're looking for.

I mean, if I were going to run a Cooking website, I'd have listings for such things as "How to bread cutlets" or "how to roast a chicken"; I'd be doing most people a favor by not including instructions for "how to change a motorcycle tire", ya know?

I was on a site called Linked-In today, and found my inbox stuffed with the usual SPAM messages, only there's no obvious way to report SPAM or violators and the like. So off I went to the HELP Section. I typed in SPAM REPORTING and SPAM VIOLATIONS and the closest thing I found to an answer to that was:

• No. Only your group manager can contact all members at the same time. The Discussions feature was designed to specifically address and prevent spam from an unknown group member. Discussions in groups allows members to communicate with the group or privately with an individual group member without sharing email addresses of the individual members.

Maybe, again, it's a matter of expectations. Maybe these guys set out to design the HELP SECTION to specifically NOT be of any help. I mean, after all, In 15 years of computing experience, I have never, EVER gotten actual useful information from Microsoft's Help site.

And of course, those Web "Forums" where any idiot with a keyboard can deem himself an "expert" and clog up the space with completely useless, inaccurate information.

Or the morons who respond to a posted question with such gems as "I have no idea"

Then why offer a response, Imbecile?"

Anyway, I was just curious why HELP sections offer everything but help?

Ad-on

I'm just curious about something.

We've all become too familiar with Internet advertising. In particular, the ads that pop "under" the page you're currently viewing, rather than pop "up". I see ads for Screen Savers and the like, whenever those pop "under".

What I'm curious is, has anyone ever actually made a purchase in response to an unsolicited ad that appeared on your screen? Not just screen savers, but any product at all?

Nothing is the New No?

Is it just me or have manners gone completely the way of the wind...all gone. Is there no decorum anymore at all? I'm not talking about occasional bouts of rudeness, I'm talking about an entire segment of our population going without any kind of social mores at all anymore.

If my Grandmother asked me if I wanted any steak & kidney pie when I was a kid, I simply said, "No, thank you." I didn't go and hide and hope she would go away. If someone called to ask me a question, I answered the phone and answered the question. I assume it was the same way for most of you, too.

We've scheduled a number of interviews lately. We made the appointments on the phone, and confirmed the times and *poof*, they simply don't show up. No call, no contact. Any attempt to follow up is met with complete silence. Is it cowardice, maybe? Are we becoming a culture of spineless jellyfish? For all the bravado about how "we" don't take crap from anyone, "we" are not afraid of anything, I see a lot of gutless behavior these days.

A friend was having a charity dinner. She sent out invitations to a pretty large group of people, with the usual RSVP request. 80% of the people she invited simply said nothing. No response at all. What happened to simply saying, "Sorry, I can't make it,"?

I don't do anything important via email or text because people conveniently "don't get" those messages. I call or see the people face to face. But that also led me to learn that people lie. Why? No one is threatening them, coercing them.

But what happened to people to make them adopt this "I'll just hope everything goes away" posture? Where did integrity go?

Believe me, if someone asks me to do something I don't want to, or cannot do, I say so. I don't string people along, and I certainly don't just ignore their requests.

Have any of you seen this behavior?

So This Is Christmas...

I was sitting around today, recovering from Thanksgiving, which was quite good, by the way. The news came on and a story was breaking.

A Walmart store in Valley Stream, NY was the scene of the latest piece of evidence showing the demise of civilization as we know it. To leave me speechless, you know something has to be pretty awful.

A crowd waiting for the 5 AM opening of Walmart on "Black Friday" decided 5 AM wasn't early enough, I guess. They ripped the doors of the store off the hinges and a stampede ensued. The herd didn't even stop to look at the man as they rumbled along in their pursuit of the prey otherwise known as "Christmas presents". And what's worse is, one of the people interviewed after insinuated that this was somehow the fault of the store.

So you trample a man to death, and get your booty. How precious that moment will be, Christmas morning, when one presents a gift to a loved one, knowing that, in order to actually get that gift, you had to help stomp the life out of an innocent man.

So if someone has the audacity to hang a "Christmas" decoration, or display a Nativity scene on public property, you can hear the screaming of the morally outraged for miles. I just wonder if people will decry this act of Christmas spirit as loudly?

More and More...

I have kinda had it. And I just wanted to vent this out so I can sleep.

It seems that I've encountered a whole lot of people who, at one time or another, loudly declared that they were going to live their lives their own way, by their own rules, and without caring one damn bit about what the rest of us thought.

So then why do we have to carry their butts when that whole gameplan goes sour?

Wow

I sometimes wonder if these maniacal reactions we see from people, when they're faced with disappointment, really are an indication of some sort of mental disability, or just another sign that we're doing a really lousy job raising our offspring.

When people aren't equipped to handle situations, they either fight or flee. Maybe we can add "totally freak out" to the occasion. There have been a slew of movies like "Fatal Attraction" the past few years, but they don't have the same appeal or attraction because a lot of us know people like that. Still scary, just not so unusual.

They had a series of raffle drawings for the kids the other night at my church. Just pulling tickets for a bunch of toys, etc, no big. But when they finished and announced the last prize, I saw three different examples of just what I'm talking about. There was one boy, big enough to know better, who absolutely threw a fit because he hadn't won anything. He began flinging the folding chairs as he stormed out of the gym. Another girl, also big enough to know better, began to scream and cry that she "wanted something", refused to leave or quiet down, and essentially had to be dragged out by he mother. The last one was another boy who was a little young, so I'm going to pass on that one. Future psycho will suffice.

Life disappoints sometimes. We don't always get first prize. It might be a good idea to stop the BS of the last 20 years and start informing our little charmers that no, not everyone wins every times. It sounds like common-sense thinking, but I'm starting to believe common sense isn't so common anymore.

The "better" we get as people, the worse off we seem to be. Unrealistic expectations only increase the bad feelings that come about when disappointment hits. Soft-soaping, sugar-coating, rationalizing, it all sucks in my opinion, because the first time these charmers get hit, they're down for the count, and it's up to the rest of us to pick up the slack.

That's ungood, to say the least, huh?

Shaking It Loose...

Being that I am such a tech geek, I keep up on the latest gadgetry, toys, trinkets.

I don't, however, like cellphones at all. I like the technology, mind you; it's the application I dislike so much. We have grown adults walking around using them like pacifiers...when something gets boring, watch them reach for the binky. Kids don't even seem to be aware that life exists even when it isn't on the other end of a cell call.

But my real problem is that I got one for the obvious reasons. Safety, convenience, security. Turns out, mine is turned off a lot for a lot of other reasons. though.

It never rings when I want it to, always rings when I don't. It's a portable invasion of privacy, as far as I am concerned.

And people who have sense of courtesy, manners or civility feel free to invite us into their personal nonsense on a daily basis. And I say nonsense because, as I have figured out, people with brains and class don't hang their filthy laundry for the world to hear. People without those two things have no problem spewing their personal business anywhere and everywhere.

Anyone who has read me here realizes this is nothing new. My un-love of the mighty cell has been around for a while. It's gone from a peeve to an outright dislike. I figure these things aren't going away, I better do something. Legal I mean.

I guess this is my attempt to shake it out of my system.

Ponderances

I do enjoy being silly. Most of the time. But sometimes I really wonder how we can keep smiling when things just seem to get tougher on us. These are some of the questions that come to mind.

I must note that I am just as guilty of the posted sins as anyone else

Sitting and looking at the whole Credit Crunch Fiasco, I can't help but think. There were a lot of people who sought to benefit from the underhanded practices that took place in the credit markets the last few years. Admittedly, there was a lot of sleight-of-hand and misrepresentations, but it just makes me remember the adage, "If something seems too good to be true..." My question is, could every single person who got into these situations, particularly in real estate have been completely unaware of the loaded guns they were picking up when they agreed to sub-prime mortgages?

I think of all the product recalls from a year ago, and how the most recent one once again involved Chinese products (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1063950/Cadbury-recall-chocolate-China-fears-contain-contaminated-milk.html). I just wonder how all the companies that repeatedly violate consumer safety practices in this country remain in business in this country. Will we really tolerate anything to save a buck?

And speaking of bucks...Alan Fishman lost WaMu. He was CEO for 18 days and stands to make over $13 million. Stan O'Neal was at the helm at Merrill Lynch when that firm went by the wayside because of bad investment decisions in the sub-prime lending fiasco. He walked away with nearly $160 million. And the guy in charge of Lehman brothers could possibly net $240 million for his troubles. Are we really going to allow these guys to profit so handsomely from their disastrous leadership? Shouldn't we be screaming to our Congressmen or other lawmakers to see what can be done? If not, why not?

And to finish spitting up here today, I just want to know if anyone can't point out the moment in time when elections became a matter of choosing who lies the least?

What's happened to us?

So Here We Are...

I can't believe how fast time goes by when you're not checking the clock. I don't want to write all that stuff about "how busy" I am, I've been, because sometimes that sounds like you're trying to make a hero out of yourself, when in reality, it's more likely that I'm just a lousy time manager.

Another year has gone by since my friend took her life. I liked to write about her every year, and I missed that opportunity this time around. I promise her a beautiful, lengthy memorialization next year.

I'm making a go of the new career. I'm not knocking the cover off the ball by any means, but I am following the right path, it seems. I just attained my first promotion. The promotion doubled my pay scale, so that means it really matters. I look at my kids, every night. Every single night. And while they are lying there sleeping, it reminds me of just how much they depend on me, and also reminds me of the responsibility I absolutely have to to live up to. So there's no time for the "victim" mentality. Things took a wrong turn, and I was feeling wronged. Yeah, and that will buy about half a cup of coffee and little else.

So that means a lot of hours, a lot of work, a lot of aggravation. And only a little blog time. It's funny how much you can miss that.

Some other things I miss:

• Music. Music I looked forward to driving to; music I couldn't wait to buy. This isn't the lamentations of an old fool looking for the Beatles to come back. I was always a huge Popular Music fan, very progressive, always on top of the latest. What we're being fed now is crap. Pure, adulterated techno-tweaked garbage. I can't wait for the next "movement."


• French Fries. Fresh sliced potatoes (ok maybe frozen, alright?), deep fried in vegetable oil. And that's it. No sprayed-on seasoning (I'll do that myself pal)and better yet, no sprayed-on starch or whatever the hell that gunk is. It turns the fries into finely seasoned styrofoam. Yuck, barf, whatever you want to interject there. Gimme potatoes and oil and maybe some salt. I'll worry about my own arteries.


• Human face-to-face conversations. You know, the ones that aren't interrupted by cellphone calls. See, if we're chattin', and that call comes and is more important, that's your prerogative. But I'm done and I'm walkin'. These damned things have become like baby pacifiers for grownups. People can't seem to be off them for more than a minute. Technology isn't always great, I guess. I see them lining up outside Walmart every morning here, so they can get inside and start making their cell calls. Just friggin' stupid, in my opinion.

So what else is going on...? I don't think my interest in a Presidential election has ever been this low at this point. I hope it gets a little more engaging before November. I don't want another vote of mine to be cast for the lesser of two evils.

Oh, and, I think giving someone a "self-help" book is somehow contradictory, don't you? There's a group of folks I spend time with, and lately they've been on this whole "improvement" kick. I don't think that's bad at all. Heck, none of us is a finished product. But one of the ladies was talking about it, how she was going to fix a lot of things about herself. She then listed all these traits, habits, etc., about all these other people, and how they annoy her. And while she stated that she was going to be sure not to do any of those things herself, I couldn't help but think there was just one more correction she might want to consider, you know?

Hmmm...I'm also having a problem with the commercials from the drug companies lately. There's one where the woman is discussing an asthma drug, but she's a silhouette. You can't see her face or anything. She's like a spectre. Kinda like those idiotic Charles Schwab commercials, where they turned everyone into cartoon characters. And this other commercial, for some fibromyalgia medicine; they have probably the most annoying woman I've ever encountered as the spokesperson. I wonder if that's how they cross-market drugs? You'll need to buy the company's tranquilizer after a few viewings of the fibro drug commercial.

Oh alright, it's not all bad, ok? I'm just letting loose a little. I would love to ask you this: Is being feminine and exclusive trait? I mean, if a woman is all feminine, pretty and elegant, does that somehow detract from her other qualities? If she has pretty hair, can she not be smart and strong? Is femininity a bad thing to admire?

I'll leave ya with that. My many self-improvement categories include one for talking to much. I'm working on it.

Brain Seeds

Lots of idiocy to talk about, I'd rather just sow it all right here in one article.

One of the kabillion things that annoy me is this: I really don't mind doing laundry. Really. What I don't like is the fact that when everything is washed and dried, it needs to be folded. And what bugs me there is, as I go through the basket, everything is inside out. Everything, every time.

Enter The Genius. In an effort to combat this time-wasting problem I devised a strategy: as I took my clothes off this week, I would turn everything inside out. Only took a few seconds a day.

So today was the day I hit the washer. Everything in, inside out. And then into the dryer. I brought my smug, righteous self down to the dryer when I heard the buzzer, prepared to be all proud of my ingenuity. I grabbed the clothes in one heap, dumped them in the basket, and carried them to the table to fold.

And there, lo and behold, was every garment. Inside out.

I give up.

And there was a damned sock missing, too.

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10 3/4 ounces of canned corn doesn't seem like much. Unless you drop that can on your foot, and you don't have a shoe on when you do that. Then it's a Sherman tank.

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The Idiots at Blogger still think I'm a Spam-bot. I have to do one of those idiotic word verifications every time I want to Blog. Maybe if I go there and shake one of the losers around like a windsock, they'll get the idea that this is at least a humanoid?

The funny thing is, I have another Blog here on Blogger, and I saw that a bot had posted an entry there.(I think Nancy saw that, right?) So for all the bullshit precautions these morons take, the Bots still get their work done. And humans have to do word verifications.

If they don't fix it by August, I'm shutting down and Blogging elsewhere.

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I'm going to miss the late, great George Carlin and his humor. Funny guy.

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Curious...

I just wonder about something. When one gets hired to go to work on a Tech Support desk, do they take you inside and do something to your brain?

I mean, imagine you are choking on a chicken bone...you race to the hospital and when you get there, they treat you by handing you a book of chicken recipes.

That's really the level of response that seems to come back every time I contact a "Help" desk.

I once thought about becoming a Help Desk Analyst. I figured I'd have to be studying a long time before qualifying for that job.

Maybe not?

Out On The Verizon...

Being that I am a male, I have a genetic predisposition for exaggeration. You know, as in the 300-pound tuna I claim to catch is more likely a 5-pound bluefish.

But this is not an instance of complete exaggeration. This is a true, documented event. There will be some slight embellishments, which will be noted throughout. Be afraid...be very afraid.

I plugged a phone into the second phone line in the house. I picked up the phone to dial and was treated to ear-shattering static (embellishment). I then began my ordeal.

I called 800-427-9977, which is the customer service number I was eventually able to extract from the Verizon website. I had to navigate through 10 steps on the site to get that number (embellishment).

I called the number, and was greeted by a lovely, warm female voice. This automaton inquired as to the purpose of my call. Once we came to our joint conclusion as to who I needed to speak with, "she" transferred my call. The line rang once, and then disconnected. I called back, and surprisingly, was greeted by the same female voice. We went through the same process, and again, 1 ring and disconnect. This went on until the fifth try when I actually got connected to a female voice belonging to an actual human being. Said human being told me I had reached the wrong place, and that I needed to call 800 275 2355.(not an embellishment)

Commence dialing 800 275 2355. To my utter shock and surprise, I was greeted by the very same female robot! Our reunion did not go well. We went through the foreplay and she sent me on my way to the repair center. I was treated to a repeat of the 1-ring-disconnect process 5 times. Each time I called back, I played footsie with the robot. At one point, when she asked me what I was calling about, I asked for a salami sandwich. She couldn't understand that (not an embellishment).

Upon reaching the next level of human contact, after 20 minutes, I was told by the human lady that I had to go outside the house (in the rain, not an embellishment) and plug a regular phone into the "interface" attached to the side of the house. Believe it or not, I actually had a "regular" phone in the house! I went outside onto the squishy lawn and found the interface. I had the foresight to bring my Phillips-head screwdriver with me (memories of prior experiences, mind you). Happily, I found that the screw in the interface was a flat-head screw. While I was readily available to find a regular phone in the house, a regular screwdriver was another matter.

I found one eventually, in the draw with the kitchen utensils (such a better place to keep one than a toolbox). I made it out to the "interface", talking to myself at this point, and opened it. I plugged the "regular" phone into the line and got the same ear-shattering static from a few hours ago (embellishment).

So now back to my automaton. I went through the dial-foreplay-1-ring-disconnect process. 9 times. NINE TIMES. Imagine what a stud I was feeling like, NINE TIMES in an afternoon. On the seventh try, the automaton told me her first name, and by the ninth we made a dinner date for Saturday (embellishment).

Now the steam is blasting out of my ears (not an embellishment) and oh man, I am ready! I am going to give someone a miniscule piece of my fragile mind. And just at the moment, the sweetest, most Grandmotherly voice answered the phone that didn't disconnect this time! I was totally disarmed and deflated, and I humbly and quietly told her everything I had done, and that I still needed repairs. I do not, however, need a date for Saturday night (embellishment)

Verizon told me that I am scheduled for repairs tomorrow, between 1 PM and the year 2015 (embellishment). I hope they fix it so that I can use my other line to stalk the automaton (not sure about this yet...)

The Grandma asked me something about Verizon FiOs, but I think not. Cablevision is my provider at the moment, and I only have to make 3 attempts to buy my Pay Per Views before I get to watch one. I don't think you can beat that.

Oh and Blogger STILL thinks I'm a spam-bot. Maybe that's why Verizon's automaton was so mean to me.

Hillaryyyyyyyyyyyy

So Hillary Clinton, that Standard of Righteousness and Honor, apparently didn't get the facts quite right about a little visit to Bosnia. She told people that her aircraft made a "corkscrew landing", and that she and her party had to run off the plane under sniper fire. Well, the film footage shows events a little differently than she described. As in, no corkscrew landing, no running (in fact she was seen posing for pictures with different groups, including a bunch of 7th grade girls) and no sniper fire.

I keep reminding myself that this woman is supposed to be honorable.

This whole thing is like me recounting my tale of falling off Mount Everest, when the truth is, I rolled out of bed onto the floor.

Pants on fire?

The Things We Don't Think Of?

A friend posted an entry about her laptop going on the fritz. She was ok with it, because she was covered by a warranty. However, she was told that it would be up to 3 weeks before the work would be done.

That happens a lot. No matter what you want to get done these days, "3 weeks" seems to be a magic number. It takes approximately 12 hours to build a computer, start to finish. The whole thing. So what exactly goes on there that it takes them 3 weeks to replace 1 part?

Someone suggested, however, that the 3-week period is caused by the sheer volume of repairs. Yayyy, there's a great advertisement for your product, huh? "Our Stuff Breaks Down by the Thousands!"

I noticed something else that has me curious. I needed to buy something for my kid's science project, and the product (a very simple item) was tagged with "ships in 2 to 4 weeks".

So, when an order hits the warehouse, do they print it out and tie it to a snail? I mean, the dumbest guy I know could take an order off a printer and find the item in less than a week. I think about the actual dynamics, you know? What happens between today and 4 weeks from now, you know, like step-by-step?

And don't get me started on the whole "Same Day Service" thing...

Can We Cut It Out, Please?

It seems to me that the media are going to do their very best to cut down this Miley Cyrus/Hannah Montana kid. The scrutiny is bordering on the ridiculous. I fully believe that no one in this country is happy with anyone who is a positive role-model, and will not rest until they find some kind of flaw. It's just stupid.

The latest idiocy comes in the form of a blog post over at Consumer Reports Magazine. Apparently, in the latest "Hannah Montana" movie, there is a scene where the girl and her father are riding in the back seat of a Range Rover, and, *gasp*, she isn't wearing her seatbelt.

OK, this isn't a discussion about the merits of seatbelt use. This is me taking umbrage with the media in their relentless pursuit of imperfection. Yes, she's a role model to kids. Yes, if she was seen smoking a joint or drinking a shot I'd be a little (emphasis on little) upset with her. But I'd be willing to bet that few, if any, of the kids who saw the movie would remember either way if she was or was not belted in. And I'm talking about a kid who is asked without any prompting, of course. (I just asked my two girls if they remember the scene. Insert blank stares here).

As I said, if she were glamourizing underage drinking, teen sex, or drug use, I might get a little bugged. Seatbelt use should be mandated by parents. Period. Household rules should not be set (or for that fact, influenced) by a Disney star. If someone's parenting skills are so weak that a mistake by a teen idol could completely undermine their rules and regulations, maybe Consumer's should be posting about that. I see that as a bigger problem.

This isn't even about seat-belt use, if you ask me. It's the media putting a good, decent kid under a microscope and probing until they find the slightest chink in the armor. And the message that sends is, "Kids, you'd better be perfect before you walk out that door in the morning."

That bugs me more than Hannah Montana forgetting to buckle up, you know?