by Matt | Mar 2, 2006 | Aggravation
It could be that my purpose in life is to serve as a warning to others. Or, it could be, that I have bad luck with tires. The tire fairy has again visited me and this time shredded the ever living crap out of my front tire. I knew the tires were getting towards the end of their life, but I didn’t think that the entire tire would explode on the highway. I only have 30,000 miles on those tires, they should have been good for quite a while more. Nope, I guess not. This morning on my way to work I heard a nasty thump, pulled off, and found bits and pieces of my tire as a trail behind me. Better than describing it to you, I can just show you…
I’ve found a set of replacements, I’m done with these, this is the 2nd tire that this has happened to. I thought the first was a fluke. Guess not. I’ve got an appointment to get 4 new tires put on tonight. I hate unexpected expenses like this. Arrg!
I guess I should be lucky, looking at the damage, that I didn’t lose control of the car. Here’s to small miracles.
PS: The grass IN the tire, is from the side of the road I pulled off onto, dunno how it got sucked in there, go figure.
by Matt | Jan 15, 2006 | Aggravation, Travel
Just past a billboard for CitiBank that either pisses me off or is just generally dumb.
Its a solid white board with black letters that read:
“Don’t let your checkbook balance you.”
What the hell is that supposed to imply?
Come bank with us, we balance your life? If you run out of money come see us, we’l help you out? Stressing over money, we’re help to help?
Bullshit, the bank would never do that. So “helping me” is out. What’s left? That I’m stupid or I’m poor?
If I can’t balance my checkbook I must be stupid. CitiBank wants stupid customers?
If my checkbook is unbalanced I must need money. Why would a bank want poor customers?
My brain hurts with the stupidity of that add. Why not say something like “balancing your checkbook made easy”, implying they had some easy, stressfree way of doing something. Or maybe “overdraft protection makes checkbooks happy” implying that if you typically run out of money they might be able to help prevent overdraft damage.
Offering me fortune cookie-esque wisdom does not make me want to bank with you. Morons.
by Matt | Jan 3, 2006 | Aggravation
Not being known for my political correctness, I’m sure it comes as absolutely no surprise what I’m about to say. I agree with Andy Rooney. Andy, that cogery old guy from 60 minutes, delights the world every weekend with some whimsical anecdote about life, the universe and everything, usually in an upbeat Paul Harvey-ish fashion. Apparently Mr. Rooney decided that his New Years resolution would be to not hold back any more in regards to his feelings on various topics. Being of completely politically incorrect mind myself, and, consequently not giving a shit, I tend to agree with him on nearly every point.
I should point out that I got these as a chain letter from a relative, so there’s a good chance that Andy Rooney didn’t say any of these. In that case, I agreed with the original author, whoever that may have been.
I quoteth:
“I don’t think being a minority makes you a victim of anything except numbers. The only things I can think of that are truly discriminatory are things like the United Negro College Fund, Jet Magazine, Black Entertainment Television, and Miss Black America. Try to have things like the United Caucasian College Fund, Cloud Magazine, White Entertainment Television, or Miss White America; and see what happens…Jesse Jackson will be knocking down your door.
Guns do not make you a killer. I think killing makes you a killer. You can kill someone with a baseball bat or a car, but no one is trying to ban you from driving to the ball game.
I believe they are called the Boy Scouts for a reason, that is why there are no girls allowed. Girls belong in the Girl Scouts! ARE YOU LISTENING MARTHA BURKE?
I think that if you feel homosexuality is wrong, it is not a phobia, it is an opinion.
I have the right “NOT” to be tolerant of others because they are different, weird, or tick me off.
I believe that if you are selling me a milkshake, a pack of cigarettes, a newspaper or a hotel room, you must do it in English! As a matter of fact, if you want to be an American citizen, you should have to speak English!
We did not go to the aid of certain foreign countries and risk our lives in wars to defend their freedoms, so that decades later they could come over here and tell us our constitution is a living document; and open to their interpretations.
It doesn’t take a whole village to raise a child right, but it does take a parent to stand up to the kid; and smack their little behinds when necessary, and say “NO!”
I think tattoos and piercing are fine if you want them, but please don’t pretend they are a political statement. And, please, stay home until that new lip ring heals.! I don’t want to look at your ugly infected mouth as you serve me French fries!
I am sick of “Political Correctness.” I know a lot of black people, and not a single one of them was born in Africa; so how can they be “African-Americans”? Besides, Africa is a continent. I don’t go around saying I am a European-American because my great, great, great, great, great, great grandfather was from Europe. I am proud to be from America and nowhere else
It is said that 86% of Americans believe in God. Therefore I have a very hard time understanding why there is such a problem in having “In God We Trust” on our money and having “God” in the Pledge of Allegiance. Why don’t we just tell the 14% to Shut Up and Be Quiet.
And if you don’t like my point of view, tough…
… It was one of those mornings driving to work.
by Matt | Dec 1, 2005 | Aggravation
Well, first and formost, you’re now talking to Gunnery Sargent Doc. Quit your eyeballin’ recruit! Also, I’ve got all the crazy sigs working. I figure I’ll incorporate this into the site somewhere.
BTW, the top one is randomly changing. Refresh and enjoy 🙂
Next, my mouse is dead. VERY DEAD. My wonderful, awesome, RARE, Microsoft Intellimouse Explorer 3.0 has ceased to be. I don’t know if you know it or not, but Microsoft put out the IE3 mouse as a Pro version of their original Explorer mouse. No one really knows why it has a 3.0 version number. They discontinued it shortly after making it, instead focusing on the IE4 mouse, the one with that god-awful “tilt wheel”. Even when you install the Intellipoint software, it skips the v3 version and only lists “Explorer Mouse, Explorer Mouse 2.0 and Explorer Mouse 4.0”. So, not only can you not find the mouse, if you have the mouse, it’s completely unsupported. It’s also the best mouse I’ve EVER used. Ever. And I’ve used a few.
So, the replacement process has begun. It’s my birthday in a week or two so Lauren’s gotten a few emails with links to mice I think I might like to own… only as a hint of course. Top of my list is the Logitech G5.
It’s laser. It’s running at 2000dpi. It’s got a removeable, customizable “weight catridge” to make the mouse heavier or lighter. Best of all, and this is my main motivation, it’s got on-the-fly sensitivity adjustments. How cool is that?
The top of the line Razor mouse is also a maybe, but I’m heavily leaning towards to Logitech at this point. I’ve got 5 other Logitech devices on my desk and none of them have ever disappointed me.
Moving on, SavvyNation is taking shape, as well as a mini-design for Chris (fear not bud, it will be done). I’ll be sending out a mass email (or posting it here too) about the purpose of the site as well as asking for suggestions on designs, content etc. I’ll also be looking for a right hand man/editor who can devote nearly as much time to it as I can. If anyone is exceptionally un-busy at the moment, let me know.
That’s about it for the moment. Hope everyone had a good holiday. I’ll post more shortly.
by Matt | Oct 23, 2005 | Aggravation, Movies
Saying Doom the movie was “good” somehow seems like dirty pool, especially after I lambasted The History of Violence for having too little background story. I’ll just suggest you leave your disbelief at the door for this one. It wasn’t bad, it just requires a certain appreciation for the genre… or blood, whichever comes first.
Also, correct me if I’m wrong, but wasn’t the character “Sarge” the hero of the Doom series (I’m thinking Doom3 was the only one that mentions him by name). Or am I thinking of the Quake series. I know one of them was simply a Marine and the other some sort of officer. My memory is fuzzy on which one was which. You can tell I was really into the “story” of the games can’t you?
At any rate, its sort of a shame they didn’t go with the whole “hell demon” angle. Then again, blunt references to demons, hell, and the evil escaping from it probably wouldn’t have made it past American censors. So, when you can’t make monsters the old fashion way, what do you do? Genetically engineer them of course! Oh well. At least the movie got made.
I was actually pleasently surprised with the first-person bit. Interestingly done I thought. Not quite as cheesy as I figured it would be. Then again, I was giving this movie a lot of slack.
Ok, so it wasn’t good. I tried really really hard, but its still represents the typical movie Hollywood makes from video games. They need to let some gamers tackle the next few. I have high expectations for Halo, especially with the guy from 28 days later involved.
So… Mexicans. I know you were wondering when I’d get to that. It seems that our hispanic friends have even less ability to watch a movie than most annoying movie goers. Yes I’m talking about you gangsta rappers and pain-in-the ass white teenage girls. Wouldn’t want to leave any groups out now would I? All of these groups have one thing in common, their inability to pay attention for more than 30 seconds at a time. Couple that with cell phones, boyfriends/girlfriends and not shutting the hell up and you’ve got a portion of the population that I wouldn’t mind detaining on a small far away island. The hispanic people bring a whole other variable to the equation however: small children.
Don’t even get me started on the fact that small children should NOT, under any circumstances, be allowed to see a movie like Doom. No, these wonderful folks bring multiple, sometimes DOZENS of 4-9 year olds into movies like this. Then, as if that wasn’t enough, they completely forget to parent them while they’re there. The kids run up and down the stairs and isles, throw popcorn at each other, STAND up in their seats, all sorts of shit. So, while a whole brood of birth control mistakes runs rampent, Dad sits there, on his cell, watching the movie.
Everyone needs to be extremely thankful that people like me are patient. I’m constantly “this” close to slapping the shit out of people.
I digress, just, for me, at least try to be a parent. Don’t be stupid. And hang up your fucking cell phones.
Out.
by Matt | Oct 7, 2005 | Aggravation
You know all those problems I’ve been having with my internet. Remeber that most of my packet loss from from Level3, outside Dallas. Well, check this shit out:
Blackout shows Net’s fragility
“The source of [the] difficulties is a feud between two big backbone Internet companies–the long-haul networks that most consumers and even most businesses ordinarily have little to do with. One of these companies, Level 3 Communications, has cut off direct communications with rival Cogent Communications, causing many of each company’s customers to lose access to potentially significant swatches of the Net.
…
It’s impossible to say precisely how many people are affected. Many customers of the two companies, and customers of the ISPs that use one of the networks, buy connections from several providers simultaneously to avoid outages of this kind. However, many businesses, individuals and even some ISPs have so-called single-homed network connections, which means they depend on a single provider to reach the Internet.
…
According to Cogent, between 5 percent and 10 percent of its customers were affected. Level 3 did not provide an estimate. Because some of those customers could be ISPs with thousands or hundreds of thousands of their own customers, the number of people affected could range into the millions.”
Someone will die. Death. The End. Finito. If I find out that the reason my internet sucks balls is because these two are having a pissing contest, I litterly will file a complaint with the atorney general and see what my legal options are. I’m not fucking around. I’m so angry it’s giving me a migrain.
Oh, and because I’m so pissed, here are the main 3 phone numbers for Level3. I publish these because I want them to know what it means to fuck with a geeks internet,
These numbers are all in Colorado.
1. 303-410-7294
2. 720-888-1000
3. 925-398-3000
Fuck’em. Death from above!
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