The Blog

It's Been a Long Time

2007-09-27T23:18:00.000-07:00

It has been a terribly long time since I have posted to this thing. It's not that I haven't been appalled by the events of the last several months, its just that every time I heard something that ticked me off I didn't write it down. I'll keep this one short and simple because it is 1:23 AM and I want to go to bed soon.

Right now, I'm sitting alone in my living room with the lights off listening to Enya and drinking a beer (Shiner 98 to be exact). Some of you may think that's weird, and it probably is. Sitting here -- reflecting on life -- made me think to write on the blog.

I took vacation time back in August to get away from Houston for a while. It isn't this city that bothers me, it's the people who live here. So, me and my friend Jenna took a road trip to Washington D.C. (actually there are people in Washington D.C. that bother me too). Yes, we drove and didn't fly. "What? Are you crazy?" Yes, I am. If you worked in the aviation industry, you wouldn't want to fly either. The car ride was actually enjoyable, and thanks to my Honda Civic, it was reliable and fuel efficient too. I managed 500.3 miles on a tank of gas at an average of 42 mpg. And yes, I am a smug bastard for telling you that.

I'm getting a dog. Dogs don't judge you or hold a grudge for something that you did years ago. They don't look at you like you are crazy for talking to yourself while you sit alone in the dark listening to music and drinking mediocre beer. Dogs are truly the perfect friend. Cats, on the other hand, are pure evil. I should be getting my new puppy at the end of October.

I'm in the process now of learning everything I can about dog training. Dog Training is a fascinating subject, filled with many points of view (make that polarizing points of view). One side believes you should rule your dog with an iron fist by being the dominate leader of the wolf pack. On the other side you have the folks who believe in "Conditioned Re-enforcers" and rewards with food.... essentially cramming treats down your dog's throat until they are addicted to following your commands. Like most polarized issues, both sides end up looking stupid as they try to discredit the other side. In reality, the real trick to dog training probably lies somewhere in the middle. I'll find out soon enough. It should be an interesting challenge.

Clear and Present Danger

2007-07-22T07:27:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, the sum of all my fears became true.... President Cheney. George Walker Bush signed presidential power over to Richard Voldemort Cheney (Had to get a Harry Potter reference in there) for the duration of his colonoscopy. Dead Eye Dick's bloody reign of terror was born. Fortunately for mankind, the U.S. federal government is incapable of getting anything done within a reasonable amount of time. If Cheney had his way, we'd be at war with 14 other countries, gas would be $9 per gallon, and the bill of rights would be suspended (except for the one about guns). In fact, it's probably a miracle that we are even alive at this point (When I say "we", I mean every living thing on this planet).

Speaking of Pure Evil
Microsoft was in the news again this month. They told investors that they will be spending $1.1 Billion (yes, that's billion, just like a million except with a B) to fix problems with their Xbox 360 game console. It seems the Xbox just can't cool itself for anyone to play a game longer than an hour. The exterior plastic on the 360 turns yellow from all the heat created inside of it. Games crash and lock up (much like they do on Microsoft Windows). The worst fate of all is to get the dreaded "Red Ring of Death". Apparently, a red light around the power button is your Xbox's way of saying, "I just don't want to live anymore." Microsoft should change the slogan for the Xbox from "Jump In" to "Take the Plunge", or better yet, "It's Game Over." The failure rate of Xbox 360s is estimated to be as high as 30%. One internet blogger claims that he is on his 13th Xbox 360 (yeah, lucky 13).

Like Totally Stupid

2007-07-01T10:07:00.000-07:00

"I was not eating or sleeping... I was severely depressed and felt as if I was in a cage... It was a horrible experience." -Paris Hilton

Like you were in a cage??? It's a jail, moron!!! Jail is a cage where they put people who drink and drive and then still continue to drive. This is probably one of the stupidest things ever uttered by anyone in the history of mankind. On the other hand, how can alcohol impair you if you have no intelligence or ability in the first place.

Jesus Loves the Little Children
It turns out that sometimes when priests lay the hands of God onto small children, these children grow up to want money for their experiences. The Catholic diocese of Los Angeles announced this week that it would allow $660 million to be used to pay off settlements with victims. Now you're probably thinking to yourself, "Jesus Christ! Where in the hell did they get that kind of money?" Insurance. Child Molestation Insurance to be more precise. You know, just like your car insurance only really really really creepy. I'm not sure what's more embarrassing. Being a church and having to buy molestation insurance, or being the sucker insurance company who decided it would be a good idea to allow the Catholic Church to pick up a molestation policy.

Get to Know Your Candidates
The election season is kicking in early this time around, and it's important for all of you to be familiar with the scum bags you'll be voting for next year. This time we'll focus on Republican Presidential Candidate Mitt Romney. It seems several years ago, the Romney household decided to take a family vacation up to Ontario, Canada. Like National Lampoon's Family Vacation, the Romneys decided to take their dog Shamus along for the ride. Unfortunately for Shamus, there was no room in the family station wagon for the four legged friend. So what did Ol' Mitt do? (This part makes me cry with glee.) He placed Shamus in his doggie cage and tied it to the roof of the car..... THE ROOF OF THE CAR.

iPhone iMania
If you bought a $600 phone/mp3 player, you are too wealthy to be visiting this site. Seriously, leave! The good news about the iPhone is that it's only available on "The New at&t". That should keep "you people" out of my Sprint store for a while. The benefit of having a mp3 player/phone on "The Old Cingular" network is that you can play your gothic death metal while talking on the phone and no one will ever know. Turn up the volume to full blast; with at&t, no one can hear what you're saying anyway.

What's up with Steven?
In August I'll be taking some vacation time for a road trip to the city of sin. Where corruption and gluttony run the show ---Where madams and ladies of the night roam the streets ---Where a person's hopes and dreams can be crushed by one small meeting with misfortune. Oh no, not Las Vegas.... Washington D.C.

So Sue Me Already

2007-05-24T11:35:00.000-07:00

For many years I have claimed that Microsoft was anti-consumer, a bully, and just generally evil. What happened several days ago is just another pathetic example of the world's biggest software maker trying to push a better product out of the way. I'm sharing this quote with you.

"First they ignore you.
Then they laugh at you.
Then they fight you.
Then you win."

Given what Microsoft claimed last week, I'm fairly certain that we are at "Then they fight you." You see, back in 2002 Microsoft lawyers grabbed up a bunch of patents for things that were in the Windows operating system (even when they didn't invent them). They were even so zealous as to try and trademark the word Windows. Everything from desktop icons to double clicking to menus was patented by Microsoft. Surly they invented these back when DOS was around [Steven rolls his eyes]. Last week Microsoft announced that Linux had violated 235 of it's patents and that it would actively seek royalties (tributes) from companies that use Linux. Naturally, Microsoft didn't announce which patents were violated. After all, it's never a good idea to give details when you're lying (like when a politician says they have a plan but never tell you what it is). They've also stated that they have no intention of sueing anyone. Of course not, it would be found out that your patents are bogus and companies would stop paying your mob protection fee. Microsoft declares that Linux has violated it's intellectual property, and even though they never backs it up with evidence, there will always be that thought in the back of everyone's mind. It's a nice way of preventing consumers from switching.

History always repeats itself. Let's jump in our time ship for a second. You think this is the first time someone has brought Linux to task on the issue of intellectual property? You're wrong. Linux was started as a free alternative to the Unix operating system. If Linux stole ideas, it would be from Unix not Windows. A Unix company by the name of SCO sued a user and contributor of the Linux operating system by the name of IBM (ever heard of them?) for stealing intellectual property. The legal battle didn't go well for SCO, at one point they were nearly laughed out of the court room by a judge. The only major effect was that the court case made people leary of switching to Linux. You're probably wondering at this point how a tiny Unix company (SCO) had the nerve or fund$ to go up against IBM. Well, they had a generous benefactor that gave them money (probably out of the kindness in their heart). This benefactor? Oh come now, you knew where I was headed with this story. Yep, you guessed it..... Microsoft.

You'll notice in the future that I've become more of an aggressive anti-Microsoft militant. I've removed Windows from the last one of my computers that actually had it. I'll take cheap shots whenever I can and I won't put up with Microsoft "The Bully" anymore. Many people stand with me. Linux users from around the world are at this very moment are challenging Microsoft to court battles over the royalties that they "owe". Sue Me First, Microsoft is a great website that people are using to express their, shall we say, discontent.

Now, it's my pleasure to introduce a new feature to the blog. I call it Poetry: Cheap and Shallow. My mother, the real poet of the family is about to disown me, but here it goes anyway. I call it.....

Ode to Linux
If you think Windows sucks,
Don't lay down all your bucks.
In the distance there's a Vista to view.
So, use something other.
Don't be a slave to big brother.
Get Linux, and you'll never see blue.

Not Ranting for Once

2007-04-22T00:31:00.000-07:00

Every time I sit down to write on this blog, I always rant and rave about current events or things that tick me off. Well, not this time. After last Monday, I haven't watched any news. I haven't been out of this apartment or my office long enough for anyone to make me mad. You're gonna get the real Steven's Life this time. Beware, the uncontrollable wildness may be too much to handle for some readers.

I brought pizza home tonight. Yep, that's what I've done in the last 5 days. I found out that my apartment complex owes me 13 cents. I'm not really sure why, by my calculation I still owe them $4.50 (computers never lie. Am I right?). I lost my ability to record TV shows when my AT&T Uverse DVR stopped working. This would have been a serious blemish on AT&T's record. However, after the AT&T technician showed up it was revealed to me that Time Warner had ruined my ability to watch TV (there was nothing wrong with my AT&T equipment). Those guys always find a way to screw you over, even from beyond the grave. When Time Warner came to disconnect me, they took more parts than they should have out of the box outside of my apartment (Oh wait, I'm 'not' suppose to be talking about things that piss me off). The AT&T guy told me that they do this kind of thing all the time. Fight on brave telecommunications solder.

This has been a peek into my life. You can see why I don't write about it (HEY WAKE UP!! I'm not done yet). It's just more fun for me to write about that guy who didn't use his turn signal, or how those idiots in charge are running full speed into the ground.

I'll be working on the website this week. Adding more Linux things and more beer reviews are at the top of my list. I'd like to get the weather center up and running smoothly and fix that issue with the media page (just don't even look at it). I'll get back to ranting and raving in my next post. It will probably have something to do with gas prices, pollution, and global warming. You know, something to keep those comments just rolling in.

I'll give you 5 million reasons

2007-04-16T23:18:00.000-07:00

I guess I haven't written on the blog in a while because I have nothing good to talk about. I'll try to cover many topics in a short distance.

Prayer Request:
A friend from elementary school was diagnosed with advanced colon cancer last month. Everyone please keep Donna Martine in your prayers. Get well soon, Donna. A very good website.

Virginia Tech Shootings:
Virginia Tech is a large university with a close-knit community. They have a lot of school spirit and fine traditions. Sounds like a school I went to in Texas. Virginia Tech will bounce back from this. Like the Aggie bonfire collapse, this will affect students at VT for many years to come.

What's frustrating to see is the people in the news media (and when I say people, I really mean morons) attack the university for its lack of action. Why didn't you lock down the entire campus after the first shooting? Um, because that's impossible. The University doesn't have a standing army of 6000 men available to it every time something bad happens to stand outside of every entrance to every building. Not only that but the tactic of the school "lock down" isn't a very comforting idea anyway. Why weren't students warned of the first shooting? Again, stupid news media, that's impossible. I know when I was in college, the best way to get word to me was by email.... the university did send out an email and tried to get a hold of people by phone. Still, I would never wake up early enough to check my email. It's not like universities have campus wide loudspeakers that make announcements. The dumbest news conference question of the day was: "Why wasn't the word put out by TV or radio stations?" Holy crap, newsman, that's your freaking job!!! It's called a police scanner. If you don't have one, get one!

The last person I want to see on a tragic day is our president. He just had to make an appearance though. The man has a knack for making death and misery worse. He divided a world united against terrorism. He let 'em eat cake in New Orleans. His administration has broken so many laws and court orders, I can't even recall them all. Not to mention that the white house has Constitution toilet paper in every stall. And now he wants to offer federal assistance in the Virginia Tech shooting case. NO, LEAVE IT ALONE! You and your minions will just screw up again. In fact, for the next national tragedy, why don't you just sit back in your big chair and have a nice big glass of SHUT THE HELL UP!!!

5 million strong and growing:
It seems that the white house has lost some emails that may have been important in the "Alberto Gonzales Inappropriate Firing of U.S. DAs for Political Reasons Hearings" (This scandal has a long title because with the bush administration you have to be very specific when referring to scandals). How many emails did the white house lose? Only 5 million. I heard that they were able to recover two emails. One from Carl Rove with the subject "Don't delete all of the emails on the server. Wink Wink." and another from Scooter Libby to Dick Cheney with the subject "Why won't you take my calls? :'(". The white house was suppose to be keeping emails per a court order from the "Someone in the White House Leaked The Name of a CIA Agent, But it's Not Treason If We Do It" Scandal. I'm sure they use Microsoft Outlook for email, and we all know how much of a piece of crap LookOut is. I'm sure this is just an innocent mistake rather than a malicious attempt to hinder an investigation. The administration would never do something like that.

Tax Time:
I'm going to quote the Beatles.

"Let me tell you how it will be;
There's one for you, nineteen for me.
'Cause I’m the taxman,
Yeah, I’m the taxman.

Should five per cent appear too small,
Be thankful I don't take it all.
'Cause I’m the taxman,
Yeah, I’m the taxman.

(if you drive a car, car;) - I’ll tax the street;
(if you try to sit, sit;) - I’ll tax your seat;
(if you get too cold, cold;) - I’ll tax the heat;
(if you take a walk, walk;) - I'll tax your feet."

I did my taxes on my own this year. Even with help from my dad, I'm never going to do it again. Hours filling out all of that crap for a pathetic rebate and a chance to go to prison if you screw up something. It isn't painful enough that they take 25%, but they have to torment you with endless paper work too. It makes me long for the national sales tax. Just take my money if I buy something and leave me alone.

The best part of paying your taxes is that you can be assured that it doesn't go anywhere (actually, it goes right back to the rich people who aren't paying taxes). You see, your tax bill every year goes to paying for the interest of all the loans that the government has taken out over the years. Keep in mind that your money isn't paying down the loans, it's just paying the interest. Kind of like racking up a $10,000 credit card bill and only making the minimum payment. The government's debt will still be around next year for you to pay the interest again. Hold on, Steven. You made a pretty bold statement at the start of this. Rich people getting my tax money? Come on, you're crazy. Look, It's simple. Rich people and banks (anyone who has so much money they don't know what to do with it) loan the government money because they know they can get interest from the loan and make some more money. Us common folk (poor suckers) give a significant portion of our income to the government. Our government uses the money we give it and pays the interest to the rich people and banks it owes on the loan, and more times than not, takes out more loans. Check out this site on our national debt. You owe about $30,000.

Good Bye Time Warner:
Large bills and poor service left me disillusioned with the cable and internets provider. In the end I was paying about $100 per month for 62 (bad looking) channels and roadrunner internets. I've got AT&T Uverse now. 200+ channels, 18 HD channels, a DVR that records 4 shows at once, and I get all of the internets. All of that will be about $85 per month. The best part was when I went to turn in my time warner equipment. It only took them about 5 minutes to close my account (a record for Time Warner to do anything) and then they gave me $16 back. They've sucked for 6 months, why change your ways for people who are dumping you. I expected to pay to end my service with you (after all I paid $100 just to get set up with your service).

To leave you I'll include these lyrics from Monty Python....

"Some things in life are bad
They can really make you mad
Other things just make you swear and curse.
When you're chewing on life's gristle
Don't grumble, give a whistle
And this'll help things turn out for the best...

And...always look on the bright side of life...
Always look on the light side of life...

If life seems jolly rotten
There's something you've forgotten
And that's to laugh and smile and dance and sing.
When you're feeling in the dumps
Don't be silly chumps
Just purse your lips and whistle - that's the thing.

And...always look on the bright side of life...
Always look on the light side of life..."

Nothing Really New

2007-03-07T18:37:00.000-08:00

Not a whole lot of new things going on in my life, I just thought I'd write on my blog. I've been battling with Time Warner Cable again. Why won't you idiots just tell me what I owe you? And why does it take 3 to 5 business days to change out a cable modem? It really shouldn't take more than 30 seconds.

You could have knocked me over with a feather when I heard the news. Scooter Libby is guilty. It will take some time before my tiny brain can come to terms with the fact that a Bush administration official lied to cover up something.

Speaking of Bush, his daughter Jenna is writing a book. Yes, that's right, the family that proved Darwin's Theory of Evolution dead wrong now has an author in it's ranks. 'Like, oh my gawd. It will be so totally awesome. You can just read it or whatever.' We stopped the OJ Simpson book; why can't we stop this one? Proceeds from the book will go to Unicef, so you can be assured that your money will be thrown away.

In technology news:
After Micheal Dell (of Dell Computers) decided to retake the reigns of his company, he created a website that consumers could go to and tell Dell what they wanted on their computers. Well, the results came in and a vast majority of people said they wanted the choice of buying a computer with Linux on it rather than Windows. After saying that they would do it, Dell changed their minds and are evaluating their options. In other words, Microsoft is using the purse strings (the cost of Windows) to control whether or not Dell offers Linux. Microsoft, a bully? No way. Dell, a bunch of cowards that don't care about customers? Yes.

It was also announced that the FAA will be switching to Linux and the Google web-based office packages. Why pay for something that you can get for free. Even a government bureaucracy has figured this out, why haven't YOU?

You're coming to a sad realization. Cancel or Allow

2007-02-19T07:03:00.000-08:00

Apple has released my favorite Mac ad of all time. It features the Mac, the PC, and a Secret Service Guy. If you haven't seen it, Check It Out.

This week, another sport was plagued by rumors that one of it's participants was using a performance enhancing substance. Shame on you Micheal Waltrip's Car, you've managed to embarrass nascar (a feat in itself). It's a sad day when even cars resort to juicing like that. As for nascar, unless you can show me that your drivers could survive a Houston freeway in a Honda Civic, I'm just not going to be impressed.

One sad realization that I came to this week was that the city of Houston could 'go up' at any minute. What I'm talking about is that there are so many pipelines, chemical plants, refineries, and petroleum storage facilities that the odds favor Houston just blowing up some day. The best news is that we don't need the terrorists help on this one; we can do it on our own. Several nights ago there was a pipeline explosion a few miles to my north. You know by now that I wouldn't be mentioning this unless someone did something stupid, so here it is. It seems that a bulldozer operator hit a 31" pipe of something explosive. The operator was lucky that the explosion didn't occur right then and there. The construction workers called the owners of the pipeline and the pipe was monitored for several hours. The explosion didn't occur until 6:30pm. Now you may be asking yourself, what caused a spark hours after the initial accident? Well, it seems that the workers left the bulldozer running..... THEY... LEFT... IT... RUNNING. My sad realization is that I live in this city. The city that brought you the San Jacinto River fire. In fact, if Houston, TX was covered in 10ft of water it could still (by some strikingly stupid act) blow up, boil off the flood waters, and then burn right to the ground.

What a Mess

2007-02-11T23:10:00.000-08:00

And no, the title doesn't have anything to do with my apartment. Ok, it does. I just ended a work week and not a whole lot of cleaning or housework went on here during that time. I find it hard to care for something that just sucks money and doesn't actually belong to me. One of my co-workers is building his first home. While I won't be able to do that for several years, my interest has been sparked. I've begun to notice things that I hate about apartment living. My neighbor takes a shower at 9:30pm every night. Hearing people take showers or close cabinet doors or walk around or run the water in their sink doesn't bother me as much as 'knowing' that my neighbor takes showers at 9:30pm every night.

The top news story this week (because our news media is so good at what they do) was about a crazy astronaut. Here's what we learned from this event: If you are going to drive 900 miles to kidnap someone who lives in your own town, make sure that you are wearing a diaper so that the jury knows without a doubt that you are insane. If only Scooter Libby was wearing a diaper when he spoke to that grand jury...

Movie Review:
The ability to record TV has presented me with the opportunity to watch very well known movies that I have never seen before. Tonight I watched 2001: A Space Odyssey. Let me give you my synopsis. Monkeys find a rock. Some guy goes to the moon and finds a rock that looks like the one the monkeys found. Then a computer named HAL goes crazy and kills everyone on a space ship except a guy named Dave (HAL probably runs Windows Vista). Dave (like the rest of us) suffers through 20 minutes of 'really groovy' special effects. His space ship ends up in a bedroom. He gets old and sees a rock that looks like the one the monkeys and that other guy found. Then a baby floats toward earth. The End. I just can't believe that they were able to pack 5 minutes of really bad story into a 2 and a half hour movie like that, it's amazing!

The "Wow" Starts Now

2007-02-04T20:59:00.000-08:00

Boy this week was stupid. A lot of very dumb things are happening in our world, and I want you to be aware of them. Firstly, as you are buying groceries in the near future, please stop by the frozen foods aisle and check out the American Idol Ice Cream. No, sadly, I am not making this up. Dreyer's, how can we ever thank you? However, American Idol Ice Cream is helping me with my diet, because I never want ice cream ever again!

Number 2 on my list of "This week in Duh" comes from the lovely city of Boston, Ma. You were the only major U.S. city to freak out about an ad campaign for a cartoon movie (a campaign that's been going on for over 2 weeks already). Once you finally discovered these 'Lite Brites of Terror', you did what any city would do. You began to detonate them. However, when you detonate a suspicious package, you're suppose to move it into an open field before you blow it up. Boston decided to take a different approach when they blew up one mysterious package right where they found it.... under that highway overpass (good thing there wasn't a really big explosion). Forget about emboldening the terrorists, we're doing their work for them.

Microsoft released it's much-anticipated (not by me) Windows Vista this week. While, the 'Golden Dope Trophy' should really go to those sheep out there who spent $100 for a new Windows 95 desktop theme, the trophy is going straight to Microsoft instead. You see, their new operating system has a slogan: "The 'Wow' Starts Now". They're right, 'wow' was the first word that came to my mind when I saw this. American Idol Ice Cream doesn't sound so bad anymore.

Remember, stupid could be contagious. Stay smart people.

I'll Stop Talking About the Wii Now

2007-01-29T19:34:00.000-08:00

I got a Nintendo Wii. It happened quite randomly. I simply walked into a Game Stop and asked the 'dude' behind the counter when they were expecting their next shipment of Wiis. He mumbled something and picked a box of them off the floor. It's extremely fun. It's motion sensing controller really puts you in the middle of the action (and in doing so, gets my fat lazy ass of the couch).

As you may have noticed, the blog has changed/improved since you were last here. If you've never been here before, then I'm not really talking to you. You are really looking at a blogspot page that I've tied into my website, and if you don't know what that means, I did something with magic. You can now add comments to my posts. And I can more easily archive my posts (and when I say 'more easily', I really mean that I don't have to do anything at all).

I'll make this post shorter for those of you who are attention challenged. I would like to acknowledge that tonight is the big Microsoft Windows Vista launch. For those of you who don't know, Windows Vista is a new desktop theme for Windows 95. But seriously, the new version of Windows (or Winblows as I call it) offers a bunch of new innovative features such as..... um..... uh.... wait a minute, I know I can think of.... uh..... at least one..... no, I can't.

I Just Want to Play With My Wii

2007-01-29T19:03:00.000-08:00

Jan. 22nd 2007
I Just Want to Play With My Wii
Sunday Jan. 21st 2007. North America. United States. Texas. Houston. West Side.
Rumors had been spreading around the internets for about a week (Click Here) that the new Nintendo Wii would be on sale at Target, Best Buy, and Circuit City. I became attached to the idea of having one when people told me how fun it was. Plus, it is something to do in a sometimes boring apartment. The idea of getting a pet has crossed my mind, but with my apartment's pet policy the Nintendo is cheaper. I really want a Nintendo Wii, but I'm not willing to live in front of a retail store. The sale was on Sunday morning, so I ventured out to see if I could get a Wii without wasting a lot of time.

Target opens first, so I headed there. Several people were standing around the electronics counter waiting for a lacky to appear. It turned out that they were also hoping to get a Wii, however, the 'red shirt' informed us that none were to be had. After hunting down some breakfast, I went over to Best Buy. The parking lot was nearly full. Vehicles had people sitting in them. 60 or so of America's nerdiest were lined in front of the store. Getting a Wii today was now hopeless, but I headed over to Circuit City anyway. The parking lot was virtually empty at 9:20am (remember this fact for later). I was literally the only customer in the lot. Surely there would be crowds if Circuit City was actually selling Wiis. I waited anyway, and after about 15 minutes a mother and her two kids pulled up next to me. She got out of her minivan (I think that's what it was) and asked if I was there to get a Nintendo. I explained that I wasn't sure if they were actually selling them, at which point she claimed that there was an ad in the Houston Chronicle. Alas, there was hope! 10 minutes before opening, more cars began to appear in the lot and the mother decided to start a line at the front door. When I walked up she reminded me that I was there first and invited me to the front. There I was, standing right next to the front door. I've out-smarted the masses. I'm going to get a Nintendo Wii, and I'm going to be first. You could feel the excitement in the air. They opened the doors and everyone entered (every man for himself style). The 'red shirts' directed us toward the check out counters where the following exchange of words occurred.

Lacky: Can I help you, Sir?
Me: uh, Nintendo Wii
Lacky: Can I see your voucher?
Me: Um..... can you see my what?
Lacky: Your voucher?
Me: What the hell is that?
Lacky: We only have 15 Nintendos, and we gave out 15 vouchers.
Me: I was the first person here. When did you give these out?
Lacky: 9:00am

Bam! It was like being hit by a bus full of republicans running away from President Bush (I just had to make that joke.) In order to keep standards high here on the blog, I won't go into my thoughts just after this occurred. I would like to say, that in a capitalist economy, consumers spend money to acquire goods and services. They don't have to pluck a golden ticket from a Wanka Bar just to be able to spend their money. Circuit City, this was a pretty sucky thing to do, especially to all of those little kids who were there.

Frustration and anger are very prevalent in this city. I was able to walk out of that store with some dignity only because I've lived in this city for 7 months now and I'm used to bad things happening. There is a certain brand if Houstonian that I will never get used to, however. I call him/her the 'arrogant bastard'. These people often become active in traffic and have a way of bringing out the worst in other people, even in the silliest and most unimportant situation. Unfortunately, there was one of them behind me in line at Circuit City. When I stepped out of the way, he held his voucher high in the air, turned to me, and gave me a smirk that said "ha ha, I win." Someday, sir, you'll run into someone who isn't able to control their violent tendencies like I can. You may have a Nintendo Wii, but you are a jerk. It's not what you have but who you are as a person.

Crazy? I was Crazy Once

2007-01-29T18:56:00.000-08:00

Jan. 17th 2007
Since I'm trying to add content to the webpage, I figured I'd add something to the blog about what's happening with me. I've finally got a respectable entertainment center going in my modest living room. How can you go wrong with a HDTV and full surround sound (provided by Polk Audio)? I've gotten one of my computers to act as a Tivo. It can record 2 shows at once and hold around 200 hrs of television. It houses and plays my entire music collection, handles streaming internet radio, displays photo slideshows, and can even surf the internet. Naturally, it runs linux.

The great ice storm of 2007 rages outside. It's really more like, that time we didn't see the sun for a while. Everything is sort of wet outside... not exactly frozen. I'm not leaving my spartment, however. I know that every Houstonian out there views this as the end of the world. If you think those people are bad on normal days, wait until they are faced with cataclysmic destruction.

You know what's crazy? ..... Camping outside of Best Buy. I made the mistake, back in November, of going to Best Buy before the launch of the Nintendo and Sony consoles. I just wanted AA batteries. At first I thought Best Buy was selling tents, then I realized people were living out of them. I'll admit it. I want a Nintendo Wii. But, you aren't going to see me dressed in my Darth Vader costume, sitting on a lawn chair, telling people that I am their father. If you are willing to live outside of Best Buy for 3 days just so you can have a chance at getting the new Playstation 3, you have a problem that can only be solved by counseling. I understand that there is a desire for the next and greatest thing, but have patience. Video games are suppose to be fun. You aren't suppose to take them seriously. Two months after witnessing that scene, you still can't purchase a Nintendo Wii. There'll be a shipment of them arriving Sunday at the Best Buy on the corner of Hwy 6 and Westhiemer. "It will be in our Sunday ad, and you are welcome to wait in line." Uh, no thanks.