Mini Pop Kids should not sing sexually suggestive pop songs.

Man its depressing when you realize that something you started, and used to really like, has gone withered and sad with age.

I tried to price a computer for someone tonight. I was $800 for something that was really pretty basic. Meanwhile the Dell ads on TV promise to sell you a computer for $400. That's a huge gap.

It makes me want to give up. I used to like selling computers but how do you compare against that? I guess you just get out of the, low budget, computer market. We can still do alright on the power systems, where the person being quoted wants brand name parts. But the era of selling a computer to anyone appears to be over.

This makes me sad. Maybe it shouldn't but it does. I hate having to reflect on my existence.

If you need me I'll be in the corner, staring at the dot on the ceiling.

Blog Question Of The Day:

Why do so many of the new rap songs sound like they sampled a damn nursery rhyme!?!

I'm watching PunchMuch, like I do quite often these days. Its actually a good place to leave the TV if you don't know what else to watch. You get to hear popular music and I find its a good way to learn what I should download for my MP3 collection.

I'm watching this channel and one of the songs to come up is:

Jojo - How To Touch A Girl

Sounds kind of pornographic, does it? It certainly seems more graphic than you'd expect to get from your average teen starlet chanteuse. Unless its Christina Aguilera.

Turns out its not as salacious as it seems. The gist of it is, she suggests that you do all the 'nice guy' things if you want to 'touch' a girl. Nice advice but frankly, I've never found it that successful. In truth, the audacious approach of actually attempting to 'touch' the girl seems more successful, on the balance of probabilities.

I gues that's what I get for taking advice from a 16 year old girl's song.

Blog Song Of The Day:

My Chemical Romance - Famous Last Words

Blog Question Of The Day:

Has anyone else noticed the almost palpable LACK of Christmas music this year? Its almost like they're afraid to play Jingle Bells for fear we'll revolt.

Things That Piss Me Off:

I was driving home today and they played an ad for the radio station. I was listening to ROCK 102 FM and they professed to have the world's largest ROCK library. They made sure to mention this several times during the 30 second spot.

Afterwards they cut to the music. They played Supertramp.

AARRRGGGGHHHHH!!!!!!

I just don't understand people. They make no sense. I'm back to the grocery store thing. I know, you're probably tired of my grocery store observations but I have another one.

I pull into the lot, drive past the front doors and turn down one of the aisles. I see a spot and I grab it, although there was another one that could be argued was better. I walk towards the door and I notice this white car that I'd passed on the way past the front doors.

This idiot was cruising exactly two of the multiple aisles in front of the grocery store. They just HAD to park in the aisles directly in front of the door.

What is this madness? I drove a couple of aisles passed the front door, and found a spot three stalls from the fire lane. This moron was obviously surfing the major two aisles for open stalls and finding none.

Here's a tip. Drive to the store. Pick ANY aisle. Find a spot. Park and walk to the grocery store. Its really not that far.

In the universe of Jay & Silent Bob, characters created by Kevin Smith, there is a fast food restaurant called Mooby's. It is featured prominently in the movie 'Clerks II'.

Referencing this movie, I have to ask:

What the HELL is a Cow Tipper?

Blog Question Of The Day:

Are polar bears vicious?

Things That Piss Me Off:

If I make the effort to go out and purchase my own copy of a movie on DVD then

I SHOULD NOT HAVE TO WATCH PREVIEWS!!!

What the hell is the deal with that? I purchase a copy of Clerks II and there's 10 minutes of previews and ads before the movie. Fine, put them there but don't make me have to hit, next scene over and over again. I paid for the MOVIE not the promotional opportunity for the film industry.

In summation, movie trailers equal bad. Remember it.

Things That Piss Me Off:

I really hate these people that have to be either dropped off, or picked up, right at the door to the grocery store. It is not that cold and/or inclement that you can't walk the 100 feet from what's actually a very good parking spot, relatively speaking.

But no, you're a spoiled, sissified little twerp that couldn't bare to brave the cold or now. You have to completely clog up the entire pathway in front of the grocery store. Because you, in your vanity and self indulgence, just have to walk no further than from the edge of the sidewalk to the door. Its surprising to the 100th degree that you would even condescend to do your own grocery shopping. Heaven forbid you mingle with us, the sad, pathetic unwashed masses that have to procure and prepare our own meals.

Get off your crystal pony princess, and walk in the snow with the rest of us. Your sad, pathetic vanity is making me retch.

Bar people annoy me.

I'm out with friends last night and we're sitting beside this amusement machine. I just didn't find it all that amusing. It was a variation on the typical 'strongman' game. This particular version had the strongman smack a punching bag on a short string. The object being, the harder you hit it, the stronger you were.

Is this really necessary? First of all, anyone that played this game was solidly drunk. Right off the bat they aren't going to score well. Plus this opens up the very likely possibility of some idiot completely missing the target ad smashing his hand into the cast iron of the rest of the machine.

And these winners that actually play the game. Every one of them is red in the face from too many beer. They hit the bag with such expectation. And every one of them, without variation, almost falls on his drunk face because he steps into the punch with such force. I swear some of them were inches from careening face first into a chair from swinging so hard. Then the numbers scroll up, they're a big loser, and they have to walk back, shame faced, to their group of fellow drunkards.

And while we're at it, does the machine itself have to be so annoying? I'm sitting a few feet from this machine but I really don't think it should sound like the roof is going to come down on my head. I know the point of the game is to rattle this things cage but I'm a non-interested bystander. Can we please dull the cacophony so I can enjoy my Pepsi in peace?

Chris's Indian name is Chris Boxoffries

What the hell is wrong with the Blades management?

Every time I go to a Blades game this year I get pissed off. I watch this intro video they had produced and I just get mad. This thing is junk. A total waste of time.

What's the fake French crap? I mean, come on! If you are determined to have your MC sound foreign, then for gawd sake hire someone who's actually foreign. They have this jack-ass introducing players and he's using the most sick-ass weak French (I think) accent that its just pathetic. I'm not French, never will be French, and don't pretend to be good at accents. But I have a feeling I could do as least as well as this asshole.

Can someone out there please explain something to me?

I went to Future Shop this morning. I decided to buy something last night but when I went to London Drugs they didn't have any in stock. I didn't get a really warm vibe from the London Drugs staff so I came home and checked Future Shop online for availability. They had some in stock so I decided to go there this morning, Saturday, to get one.

Its December. People are Christmas shopping. I knew Future Shop would be an absolute gong show. Consequently I got up early, so I could be at Future Shop for store opening. Or relatively close to it, because I didn't want to be one of those geeks that lines up to get into Future Shop. Future Shop opens at 10:00. I was there at 10:08.

It was a gong show. The damn store just opened and the lot was full. Not, lots of cars full but absolutely FULL. You couldn't find a place to park. People were surfing around in endless circles. I grabbed the very first spot I could find and got my business done.

What the hell is going on? How can Future Shop be THAT busy at 10:00 on a Saturday morning. I know its Christmas-time but COME ON!!! That was freakin' insane. I'm glad I didn't procrastinate until 10:30 or something or I'd likely have blown an o-ring or something.

I went to the passport office today.

That was an experience. I got there before the office was supposed to open and there was already a line. A long line. A VERY long line. I came out the elevator and the passport office was to the right. I had to go left to get to the back of the line. I also had to take another left at the corner before I got to the back of the line. It seemed a bit unreal.

I took the opportunity to do some reading while I was in line. Unfortunately some of the people behind me could not be as accomodating. I had to listen, for over an hour, as some pretentious sow, who's major claim to fame was answering phones at a non-profit corporation, told an equally garrulous old guy how horrible it was that she was missing work to be in line. Fine, you think you're important. But what I don't get is how she expected anyone to believe that she needed a passport for work. Near as I could tell, from the several phone calls she made back to her office, they didn't seem to even care that she wasn't in that morning. That they might send her to another country to represent the organization seemed highly improbable.

Clerks II observation du jour:

Jay is wearing a regular baseball cap with the brim cut off.

I've been watching the CBC for about 4 hours now. In that time they have played a lot of SaskTel commercials. Specifically they are playing the SaskTel internet commercial where the state that SaskTel internet now comes with wireless networking.

What I can't be sure of is, why I now have a crush on the actress who is hosting the commercial. Is she legitimately hot or is the repetition making me desire her?

Blog Quote Of The Day:

"Its okay, I'm taking it back."

Blog Question Of The Day:

Which was Shannon Elizabeth's more impressive performance?

Nadia in American Pie
Justice in Jay & Silent Bob Strikes Back

Blog Song Of The Day:

Sound Bluntz - Billie Jean

World of Warcraft News

My Alliance character, Gaidar, has reached Level 46.

Blog Song Of The Day:

You Don't Know - Eminem featuring 50 Cent, Cashis & Lloyd Banks

Anyone that knows something about how to enable comments on a Blogger.com website, it would be appreciated if you could contact me. I have, apparently, enabled comments on my blog but they don't show up on the layout.

I heard someone say something today taht made me stop and think.

"He's an engineer, so he is anal."

I'm an engineer. Does that mean I'm anal?

I just noticed something in the movie 'Sin City'

At the beginning of the movie, when Hardigan catches Junior with Nancy, the first thing he does is blow his ear off. However, in the last act, when Junior comes back as the Yellow Bastard, he has both ears again.

I wonder if this was on purpose of if someone forgot about that point.

I know its a new song but I have a recommendation for Britney Spears. She should do a cover of the new Beyonce Song 'Irreplaceable'.

Blog Question Of The Day:

Should I enable comments on my blog?

Blog Question Of The Day:

Does my head look freakishly small on top of my large frame?

I swear on something holy we live in a god damn cultural wasteland. There is nothing but blindness and blandness, no matter which direction you turn. Every attempt to think in a manner that is counter to the herd and you get trampled by the stupid, unwashed masses as they rush towards sameness and normalcy.

I went to the mall recently. My purpose was to buy a St. Louis Cardinals baseball jersey. They won the World Series and I was going to commemorate the occasion by acquiring their jersey for my collection.

First of all I just want to say that the whole Halloween thing has been grossly misappropriated. I’m downtown at the mall and there are all these stupid people dressed up in costumes. I’m not a big fan of a costume on even the best of occasions but I don’t need to see fairies and people with robot heads walking around the mall while I’m trying to get something done. Frankly I think its kind of stupid, and infantile.

Bygones.

So I go to the one place in Saskatoon that might have the article I am pursuing. It might have piqued my wrath already, had I stopped to consider there was only one place in all of Saskatoon where I might find this item. I wasn’t that far ahead in my thinking at the time. I peruse the store, looking for my jersey and to my great dismay they had nothing.

Then I got mad.

How god damn pathetic is it that, in a city of close to a quarter MILLION people, we:

a) have only one store that sells a wide array of sports jerseys and
b) they don’t have the World Series champions in their inventory!?!

What did they have for selection? About 100 different Saskatchewan Roughrider jerseys. All that had been appliquéd with names/numbers so that they could be premium priced at $169.99. Failing that you could get an Edmonton Oilers jersey. Where the HELL were they back in June? Or, if you happened to be stupid enough to like baseball, there were an assortment of Toronto Blue Jays shirts hanging disconsolately, way at the back of the store.

Is this what we’ve degenerated to? You can like The Riders, the Oilers or the Jays, and other than that you can go stick it in the left ear? Oh, they MIGHT have something else, but its just one sample, and its probably the wrong size, or it’s the away jersey when you wanted the home one. Christ, would it kill us to have some halfway decent shopping options in this outpost on the road to oblivion? How many times do I have to go shopping for something, and not be able to find it? This shouldn’t even have been that obscure. They won the bloody World Series!!!

By this time I was just wound right up about the injustice that is shopping in Saskatoon. I pay my $0.75 for 10 minutes worth of shopping and high-tail it out of the Midtown Plaza mall.

What’s my solace as I drive down Idylwyld, back to a job I don’t like, and that doesn’t like me? God damn Supertramp!!! Christ and bloody hell are we ever gonna stop playing this worn-out re-tread crap!?! This music was annoying twenty years ago, when they were playing it in the 80’s. Why in George’s name are we still being subjected to this piss-poor, deluge of liquefied excrement!?!

If its not Supertramp then we get Trooper. If its not Trooper then they play Rush. Failing that we might get that same god damn Eagles song we’ve heard 800 million times! It never ends.

They wonder why the radio format is dead, and people download music, play iPods in their cars, and burn custom CD’s. They play the same re-tread crap all the time!!! Its 2006 already! I don’t want to hear a Rush song from 1982. The damn Eagles might as well be dead. And Supertramp and Trooper were garbage when they had their first go around. I don’t wanna hear that crap on the radio!!! Play something new! Play something good. Hell, play something new AND good! Just don’t subject me to the same washed out, bland, corporate friendly, meal-ticket sheep-dip that we hear on the radio every damn day. If I NEVER hear Supertramp again, that would be just fine. Shoot Rush in the face. The sound of their brains on the wall would be better than the dreck they pretend is music. Trooper may be Canada’s party band, but not at any parties that people actually go to.

I just want something good, something real. I swear to heaven there must be some new bands out there, struggling to be heard. Let’s play them! Frankly I’d rather hear some crappy new song, from a group I’ve never heard of, then another bloody Supertramp medley of tripe songs that couldn’t get any more pathetic. Maybe New Band X will suck but at least it wouldn't be by repetition. Another chorus of ‘take it on the run baby’ is likely to make me hurl.

I was at the arena tonight, slinging beer to the uninterested. I made a few observations.

Chris seems to really enjoy the beverage gun

A Caesar, a drink I am sure tastes like the foulest swill on the planet, actually looks more appealing when the salt rim is correctly applied.

There are just some people that are patently stupid. There can be only one person standing, available to serve customers, and there is a group of idiots that will, beyond all sense of reason, still stand half the bar away to make their drink order.

People are slobs. When they are done with their current drink, rather than take the 10 steps to the garbage can, will just leave it on the bar. Sick!

Not for the faint of heart!

Blog Question Of The Day:

Why don't they put potato on a pizza?

Congratulations Riders!

Did anyone else get the impression that Kenton Keith had made up his mind that he wasn't going to lose that football game?

I was watching college football this afternoon. Canadian college football. I know, this seems like a peculiar thing to do. When has Canadian college sports garnered any interest from the Canadian media.

Nevertheless, The Score was carrying a Western Ontario game, so I tuned it in. The game itself was unremarkable, but the coverage of it was even less. However, at least they had the game on TV, as opposed to playing some stupid-ass poker tournament. I know they had to fill the schedule with something when hockey went DOA but hasn't interest in poker disappeared now that hockey is back? Why is this shit still on TV?

But I digress . . .

All of this is leading up to a Blog Question Of The Day:

Do those of you that have graduated from a major Canadian college, care about the fate of your college's sports teams? Or is there as little interest from you as there is from our sports media in this country?

I am Spartacus Boy. I will be boycotting this moronic Borat movie. Who's with me?

P.S. 10 points to anyone that can name the reference

I want to take this opportunity to say a few words about baseball. I'm watching the World Series and I can help but be agitated by this annoying custom they have during the 7th inning stretch. I don't believe this is a custom for every game that gets played. Rather, I think they drag it out for the playoffs and I find that kind of offensive.

Why do we have to have 'God Bless America' sang during the 7th inning stretch? What about this occasion suggests that we have to have more overweening praise for the dominant country on the planet. Maybe God does bless America but I have a feeling that would go equally for any country on earth. Even Afghanistan or, god forbid, Iraq. Any kind hearted diety would not discriminate.

Oh, and another thing, as it pertains to tonight's game, and tonight's singer of the 'God Bless America'. If you're going to appear on national TV with the eyes of the world watching you, it would serve you well to go out the afternoon before and buy a decent pair of pants.

I've had enough!

I still and watch TV at night. And every night I'm subjected to the same damn thing. I'm sick of it. It has to go.

I'm referring to this Rogers Wireless commercial. The guy is with his buddies at a diner. He's on the phone with his girlfriend. And in a touching moment he goes to end the conversation and says 'I love you.' Then there is this awful, pregnant pause as he waits for her response.

GAG!!!

After going all mooshy in the knees, the girl replies that she loves him too. All of the tension in the overly dramatic pause is gone, and everyone is happy again.

Except me.

I hate this commercial so much. If the damn girl cared at all about the guy, she wouldn't pause for 2/3 of a standard 30 second commercial before answering her supposed 'love'. And damn Rogers for subjecting us to such overwrought hystrionics.

Bring on the beer commercials.

WoW Question Of The Day:

If you quit the game with the Sword of 1000 Truths in your inventory, does it cease to exist?

Things That Piss Me Off:

Do you know what pisses me off? These idiots that go to the gas station and can't figure out how to park at the pump. I go into my favorite gas station tonight, to put a few bucks worth in the tank to tide me through until the end of the week. The place is busy and there's one spot empty for me to fill at. I pull into position and why do I find?

This idiot has parked nearly perfectly between the two pumps, such that I can only barely get my handle to the back of my truck where the tank is.

I hate that! Park with some danm courtesy. Someone would like to use the pump behind your wide-load ass!!

Well, this is interesting!

I now have a pet. Its a cat. A little black one. She arrived on my doorstep courtesy of my sister. Actually, I was already familiar with this little kitty because she vacationed at my house the week my sister and her husband were in Mexico on their vacation. I guess she must have liked it here because she's come back.

Its a little tough to know right now what my new little buddy is thinking. Even though she spent the week here before, she's scooting around the house right now, checking things out. Hopefully she'll come out of her shell before long and we can play together.

Originally the cat's name was Simon. Then the original owner discovered it was not a male cat. Oops! But the name stuck. I have decided to alter it just a touch and re-christen the cat Simone. A girl cat should have a girl name.

I'm going to go back to chasing Simone and see if I can get a fix on how she's feeling. Everyone say HI to Simone!!

Blog Question Of The Day:

Can someone please tell me why they are playing a Raisin Bran commercial from 1982 during tonight's Monday Night Football game!?!

Ladies and gentlemen,

of Edmonton Eskimo fan club of 2006,

I have one piece of advice for you.

No matter what Danny Maciocia tells you,

There will be no playoffs for you.

NONE!

Oh, there will be playoffs this year,

But just not for you.

You wanted to be invited,

But everyone said no.

There will be no playoffs for the Eskimos.

Things That Piss Me Off:



I developed a new goal for myself, starting this week. I want to get to work earlier. The point of this goal is, so I can take a full hour for lunch, and make my work-day a little more comfortable. To accomplish this goal I have to get up a little bit earlier in the morning, and be more efficient in getting ready. The hardest part of this plan is to get up the few minutes earlier it takes to achieve my goal.



I did everything right this morning. I was up the few minutes earlier. I was more efficient in completing my morning routine. I was out the door and ready to drive away almost perfectly in line with my goal. I even showed the foresight to begin warming the vehicle with the remote start feature.



But what betrayed my plan? What evil caused me to be late (according to my schedule)?



FROST



I hate frost! It drives me berserk. Especially on a morning like this. The whole plan is predicated on things happening on a set schedule. Needing 10 minutes to scrape the diamond hard frost off ALL of my windows was not in the plan. Now I can live with frost, if I know its going to be there. Usually frost is not that big of a deal. You scrape it off and away you go. But this morning, apparently because I was trying to follow a schedule, it had to be the hardest frost in the history of humanity. I had to lean into the scraper with the full weight of my considerable bulk, just to get this accursed coating off my windows. And each window seemed worse than the last. I was nearly foaming at the mouth by the time I got all the way around my truck.

Blog Question Of The Day 1:

Is there anything more annoying than getting food stuck in your teeth?


I was eating ribs for supper today. First of all, is it just me or does it seem like pork is the more commonly offending culprit for when you get food in your teeth? That and corn. I don't know why but I get corn stuck in my teeth from time to time.

Anyway, I'm eating this rib and you know how you can just tell when you've gotten food down between the teeth, and lodged in the gums? I had that feeling instantaneously. I knew this was going to be a floss moment.

I finish the meal, because why clean out when its likely to get plugged again? But I was no sooner finished and I went to floss. Now I just moved into my own domicile again about a month ago, so I can't be sure of where anything is, and if I have it, whether I'll find it. To my great surprise I have floss. So I use some.

I really didn't think it was possible to store that much food in one's mouth. I swear I pulled half my supper out from between those two teeth.



Blog Question Of THe Day 2:

Is there any feeling of relief more satisfying then flossing out your teeth when you know there's something in there?

My new favorite snack is Cheezies.

I just want to warn everyone. I have a NASTY cat infestation in my house! 8-D

My new specialty is making Chef Boyardee ravioli. I'm actually pretty good at it!

For the record . . .

I LOATHE the new Old Navy commercial with the dog on the clothesline.

Just so you know . . .

there is a HOT TUB in my backyard!!!

For whoever may read this, please come to my house for the weekend. There will be fun in the sun.

Toodles!

My new favorite show is . . .

'So Little Time'

For the record . . .

I have a surprisingly large amount of Cat-5 network cable.

Blog Question Of The Day:

If you're at the point of having sex with someone, how important is it that they be physically attractive?

If the end of a 4” circular pressure vessel, that was under a sustained pressure of 150 psi, were to break apart, the circular end cap would leave the vessel at 102 mph, and hit you with a force of 1885 lb.

Do you know what my favorite thing about MySpace is? Going to various people's sites and getting new song ideas.

MySpace Song Suggestion Of The Night:

30 Seconds To Mars - The Kill

I am going to say something that might not be the most popular comment I've ever made but nevertheless I think it needs saying.

It is not wise to have free and uncontrolled alcohol available at a staff social event when there are people at, or below, the legal drinking age.

What in the hell is the deal with catering companies? I really don't understand how they can be this dense.

I attended a lunch meeting today. Its a tele-conference, with half the people in Saskatoon and the other half in Regina. We are meeting in the offices of an engineering company so obviously we need to send out to a caterer for the meal.

Its pretty standard fare. We get pre-packaged soup and a tray of finger sandwiches. I didn't do a count but there must have been a dozen of those triangular finger sandwiches that you can finish in three bites. I'm pretty hungry since I didn't have any breakfast today. I reach for a sandwich and what do I find?

Mustard! MUSTARD!!! Every single, god damn sandwich has mustard on it. Trust me, I checked, it was on each one.

What the hell is the deal with that? Why do they all have to have mustard on them? I hate mustard. It tastes like wet dog feces. And because I'm so god awfully hungry I have to eat one. Somehow managed to block out the flavor of camel piss concentrated into paste form. But the sandwich was consumed for sustenance and not for enjoyment.

And further more, if they do have to put mustard on every sandwich, why do they have to apply it with a spackle trowel? I've seen the stucco finish on houses that weren't as applied as thick.

Thank god I had a decent supper tonight. Otherwise it'd be tough to hear the TV over my grumbling stomach.

I am developing the biggest crush on Dirty Marie.

Blog Question Of The Day:

Is $2.00 for a single, individually wrapped Pizza Pop a reasonable price?

Blog Question Of The Day:

If it had been up to you, would you have made Anakin Skywalker a Master when he was elevated to the Jedi Council?

There is something about World of Warcraft that I don't understand.

How can you make ONE steak out of TWO pieces of tiger meat?

I saw some Winnipeg Blue Bomber fans today at the Wal-Mart. There was about eight of them, although it never occurred to me to take a specific count. They had on jerseys and hats, and were drinking from Blue Bomber mugs. One of them was flying a huge Winnipeg Blue Bombers flag, the kind that you'd see on a large flagpole. The procession of them walking down the road at Wal-Mart made it look like a parade.

I had an overwhelming urge to roll down my window and shout,

"I SUPPORT YOUR GAY PRIDE!!!!!"

I just finished watching Return Of The Jedi. As I was finishing it, I had to ask a question. Why was Luke so caught up on who and what his father was? As it turned out, his mother was equally as spectacular a intergalactic celebrity. Shouldn't he have been as concerned about who his mother was?

I've spent the past few days converting my VHS copies of the Star Wars movies to DVD. Its a reasonably pointless task to attempt, but then I'm reasonably pointless myself. Nevertheless, as part of the project I have to preview the burned disk to make sure it is error free. Less important with these projects because my copies of the Star Wars movies are permanent. Nevertheless I have previewed the first three (in order of production) and have a few observations.

Darth Vader really lost his menace from the first to the third movie. In Star Wars Vader was the ultimate bad-ass. Then in the second one he goes from being this frightening automaton-like creature, into something human. His 'Luke, I am your father' line just freezes you in place. And well, in the third one he turns out to be a crusty old white man, so that kind of decimates the evil Darth Vader myth.

Princess Leia definitely gets more attractive from Star Wars to Return of the Jedi. Not that she was ugly or anything in the first one. Far from it. At the end of Star Wars, during the medal ceremony, she is five alarm five hot. But most of Star Wars she spends with this cinnamon buns on her ears, and I don't care if you're Helen of Troy, you just can't pull that off. Empire she looked good, and there's no complaints but by Jedi, she was on fire. First there's that dancer-girl outfit on Jabba's yacht, but its in the forest where you really see it. She radiates like the princess she's been proclaimed for two movies.

George Lucas has gotten a bad rap about the quality of direction and the script between the original three movies, and the second prequel trilogy. Let's be honest, some of the work in those first three movies is utter tripe. Now we'll forgive it, because these movies are classics to us. But let's be objective. Like in the prequels, there are segments of the original that are so wooden that you'd buy them as discount lumber in Home Depot. One in particular that stands out is the medical bay scene Empire. Overall its a good scene because it plays to a good plot point; jealousy between Han and Luke over Leia. But the chemistry that is SUPPOSED to exist among these characters is not evident in the scene. They telegraph the payoff of the scene from about 26 miles away. And a couple of the lines are delivered with all the flair of a train wreck. Overall I thought the, romantic tension, at the beginning of Empire was handled with the grace of a rhinoceros on roller skates.

Next on my agenda is to convert the newest three Star Wars movies to DVD. I am sure after I do that I will have another series of observations to share. Until then . . .

For the record . . .

Computer based rips of VHS movies are NOT DVD quality substitutes.

Its a pretty good indication that the concert is a stinker when you're sitting in the middle of the opening act and you can't stop from yawning with the deepness of the Pacific Ocean.

Have you ever completely unwrapped a Mr. Big chocolate bar and set it on the table naked. It really does look like a turd.

Blog Question Of The Day:

Why are the little white pills always the hardest ones to keep in your hand?

I know I just did this one a few weeks ago, but it bears mentioning again based on my experiences this weekend. I am truly in disbelief about something and would dearly love if someone could explain it to me.

What in the HELL is the deal with flip flops!?!

Personally, I find them more irritating that a tick bite inside the ear. I couldn't possibly fathom wearing the accursed things for any length of time. There is absolutely no way I would consider wearing these blasted things on my feet if I had to do any kind of walking.

But here I was, at the air show, and I couldn't stop looking at people's feet. I'm not sure why it started, or what made the compulsion persist, but my over-riding pre-occupation was to gauge what people were wearing on their feet. And there was an appalling percentage of people (mostly young girls I will admit) that were wearing these stupid flip-flop shoes.

My feet are raw tonight, and I was driving, or riding, a Kawasaki Mule most of the day. These idiotic people were wandering around the uneven infield of the Saskatoon Airport in these stupid pieces of cork they call shoes. How can you possibly fathom doing that much walking on something as insignificant as a $0.99 pair of shoes?

At one point I found myself inside the main concession tent with little else to do but wait. And my foot checking compulsion was in full effect. The girls providing the food service were wearing flip-flops! What the hell kind of asinine choice is that? There's any one of a dozen things that could fall on your foot when you're working in that environment, and you've got nothing covering an essentually bare foot. Let us not forget that again, you're spending multiple hours standing, serving people, wearing nothing on your foot to cushion it from the hard reality of our mother earth but a cheap, Taiwanese manufacturer piece of plastic cork-board. I can't help but question the reasoning power of a person that would make this choice.

If anyone knows the answer to the irresistable lure of the flip-flop I would certainly like to know. Without this crucial piece of wisdom, I am forced to continue my shaking head at the lunacy.

Blog Question Of The Day:

Should I download MandiModel pictures?

I have two questions tonight . . .

1) Does anyone have a cure for this sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach?

2) What should I do with my $100 Costco gift card?

Things That Piss Me Off:

I need something explained to me. Explained, as if you were talking to a three year old.

How can the damn server for World Of Warcraft crash so often? These guys have 5 million subscribers, if not more, all paying $20 a month for the privilege of playing this game. By the newest of math that's 100 million dollars a month. That's a lot of money. How in the hell is it that they can't keep the damn hardware stable!?! For that kind of money, they ought to be able to just throw money at any problem they encounter.

World of Warcraft

Today, at 2:15 local time, the Warrior known was Telkor, in the region of Felwood, did slay the demon Xavaric. And in doing so, he acquired enough experience points (XP) to reach the exalted status of Level 60.

All hail . . . Telkor, King Ding-A-Ling!!!

I think I would rather shoot myself in the abdomen than watch six back-to-back episodes of Everybody Loves Raymond.

I love Wikipedia.

Words can not begin to express what I experienced today.

So I won't try.

Blog Sports News:

Today in golf, at the Saskatoon Wildwood Open, Wayne Guenther completed the final round with a 78, for a three round total of 245, to win the 3rd flight by two shots.

When asked to comment he replied, 'I finally had a good round.'

Aishwarya Rai is incredibly hot.

I'm just going to throw this out there. Maybe I'm right and maybe I'm wrong. But I have an idea for this whole Hezbollah-Israel crisis.

We take away their guns.

They can go ahead and have all the war they want. They can war it up until the end of time. But they can't shoot bombs or bullets at each other. They have to go at it, hand to hand. Or stick to stick, or rock to rock. They can kill each other to their hearts content, but they gotta look in the eye the guy they are killing.

I have a feeling that 99.9% of them will lose their nerve to make war when they gotta look another human being in the face before they smash a rock into it. Its pretty easy to play the 'big man' role when you order a rocket strike on people from 300 miles away. Its not quite so easy to kill a bunch of people when you have to do it, one by one, by knocking them in the head with a crooked stick.

If the rest of the world could all make a pact to not let these idiots in the Middle East have any guns, or bombs, or rockets or military hardware, maybe this thing could be put to some kind of rest. Of course we won't do that, because there's too much money and pride in continuing war. But its a nice idea.

Kylie Ireland has the BEST radio voice I have ever heard.

I have a question about sub sandwiches.

What the hell is the deal with all the lettuce!?!

I have never understood this. You go to any of the major sub sandwich places (Quiznos excluded because they run the sandwich through that crematorium for bread) and you get about half a pound of lettuce on your sandwich.

Why!?!

First of all, to the best of my knowledge, no one gets a sandwich for the lettuce.

'Hi, I'd like a chicken sandwich. Can I have extra lettuce and please, go light on the chicken.'

That just doesn't happen. Lettuce is a garnish, and a poor one at that. Does lettuce even have any kind of distinguishable taste? It seems more likely that the lettuce is there just to give the sandwich bulk and make you feel a little better about the $8 you're spending on a sub.

Given that its there just to provide bulk, do they have to go so ape with it? I bought a sub today and the guy couldn't wrap it properly because of the bushel of lettuce he put on the bun. I don't think I should have to say 'go light on the lettuce' when I order a sandwich. I like a little lettuce on my bread, because it makes it crunch, and like I said, I feel better about my $8. My god, when I need a special lifting apparatus, and specific structural support for my bun, because the lettuce is overflowing, I consider that a problem.

And that's my last complaint. You order a sub, they put a yard of lettuce on it, and when you go to eat it, 96% of the surplus lettuce falls out. So they slice up lettuce to put on my sandwich, only to have it fall out and eventually end up in the garbage. This is just wasteful. Plus I feel slightly morose about throwing away a pile of lettuce that's more copious than the grass clipping when I mow the 4 acres of yard at my old house. But I'm not going to eat the lettuce all by itself, because like I said earlier, lettuce has no distinguishable taste.

So, in conclusion, I would like to say, sub sub operators, knock it off with the lettuce. Let's bring the application of it back to reality.

World of Warcraft News

Ballzelf is a homo

World Of Warcraft News

If someone in your party turns you into a bat, it does NOT grant you the power to fly.

World Of Warcraft News

Quote of the Night: 'One's down! Two's down! I'm down!!! WTF!?!'

Signs of the Personal Apocalypse

You can begin to have a sense of finality about your descent into social insignificance when you click the 'Invite Friends' button on the social networking site MySpace and the website gives you an error and shuts down.

Lance Bass of N'Sync is gay.

This is about as surprising as the sun setting in the west.

World of Warcraft News

Anyone that can decipher:

LF2M 4 UBRS!!!

is a homo

Things That Piss Me Off:

The City of Saskatoon and their parking meters have earned my wrath.

I had to go downtown today for a doctor's appointment. It is something I'm beginning to dread because it seems to cause me parking grief every time. I park near the office building I need, about 3/4 of a block down. I found a spot, which given my experience from yesterday, seems incredible.

Like a good citizen I put my dollar in the meter. Plunk, it goes. Nothing registers on the display. WTF!?! Maybe its broken. I put my quarter in. Plunk it goes, and up comes 0:15 on the display. WTF!?!

The damn machine ate my dollar. Now I can't put another dollar in, because I only brought just enough coin to plug one meter, for exactly as long as I planned to stay. So I'm effectively screwed. I have to walk away and accept that I'm getting a parking ticket.

Does this not seem wrong? I would like to complain to someone because I did put my dollar in, they are going to collect it, and I shouldn't have a ticket. Of course this is a complete waste of my time and I'll just pay the ticket and go on with my life. But doesn't something like this violate the law of karmic goodness or something?

Blog Question Of The Day:

If you could take in anything you wanted, or had anything delivered that you wanted, could you live for a week inside a bathroom stall?

The management of the Saskatchewan Roughriders football team should be ashamed of themselves.

At the end of the first half of yesterday's football game, the quarterback for the Toronto Argonauts got absolutely rocked. He was hit so hard that his helmet flew off, and rolled five yards away. At the conclusion of the play, he lay on the field, unwilling to get up.

The quarter was over and the teams headed off to their dressing rooms for halftime. Toronto's quarterback, Spergon Wynn, did not accompany his teammates. He remained immobile on the turf. The training staff huddled around him, attempting to attend to his injury. A few people become a lot of people, as considerable concern was placed on what had happened to him.

Meanwhile, the half time show amassed on the field, ready to spring into action and perform their routine. Yesterday's event was supposed to be a couple of hundred little girls, who had attended a cheerleading camp, performing a choreographed sequence.

Now I get that this is perhaps the only chance these girls will ever have to appear on the field at a pro sports event. I appreciate this is a big deal for them. However, this Toronto player appeared to be seriously injured. Not broken leg and couldn't walk injured, but stretcher, back-board and ambulance injured. The Toronto quarterback was being treated as if he had a major injury.

After a brief pause, they let these little cheerleaders onto the field to do their dance. It was the most classless thing I have ever seen. Little girls and their Trailblazer captains, are running, and dancing on the field while this football player is being loaded onto a back-board, for transport on a stretcher. These girls are cavorting and playing around group of medical people, huddled over an immobile football player on the field. These stupid patterns they are trying to perform are disrupted by the ambulance that comes onto the field to pick up the injured football player. It was surreal in its lunacy how they would carry out the ultimately pointless half-time show, when a player had suffered what appeared to be potentially devasting injury.

I, for one, thought that continuing with the half-time show, when a Toronto player was down with a serious injury, was both disrespectful and inappropriate. Show some class and get the player off the field before you provide entertainment.

Blog Question Of The Day:

Can anyone explain to me who would be STUPID enough to fill out a mortgage application that came to you in an unsolicited email that linked to a Geocities webpage?

World of Warcraft News

Anything Elite sucks.

I bought gas today.

Why aren't we rising up in protest about this? I spent $82 to fill my tank today. Granted it was almost empty but that kind of bill seems like a touch much. Isn't this the type of thing that other people around the world would riot about? Why is there no mass assemblage in the streets about how we are being systematically sodomized at the pumps?

I'd pay $1.159 a liter for gas if I was getting something for my money. If I knew I was going to drive on perfect roads, because I was paying this much for gas, then okay. I drive around this province and its damn near required that you have the ground clearance of a 4x4. If my tank was being filled with gasoline compiled half of ethanol, then I'd be okay with the price. If it was the cost of progress, and the move from a non-renewable, to a renewable resource then okay, I'll pay the luxury tax.

But one dollar and sixteen cents per LITER so some Arab, or Albertan producer, or worse and American processor, can get fat and lazy because he has a a precious commodity, that just sticks in my throat. Or more well said, I would like it to get stuck in my pocketbook. Canada is one of the world's leading producers of petroleum, and I still wait nine months for surgery, watch our military helicopters crash into the ocean, and pay more per capita for income tax than anyone short of Holland. And at least they have legal drugs and prostitution.

At $1.159 a liter, I want to know, what's in it for me?

I am going to CLERKS II on opening weekend.

Who's with me!?!?!?!

I just noticed something.

There is a direct parallel between the two Quentin Tarantino films, Pulp Fiction and Kill Bill. (I group both Kill Bill films together because they are, in essence, one film) One of the heroes in each film, who are actually villians, if you stopped to think about it, have a revelation, and recant their ways. At one specific, precise moment in time, their lives change, and they trade their villianous ways for a path that is more virtuous.

In Pulp Fiction, Jules and Vincent are shot at by a crazy kid with a hand cannon. He fires off every round he has, from close range, and doesn't hit them a single time. After this event, Jules decides to abandon his so-called evil ways, and walk the earth. This is in apparent reference to the David Carradine TV show, Kung Fu. David Carradine is one of the stars of . . .

Kill Bill, where the heroine of the movie, Beatrix Kiddo has her own epiphany, 7/8 of the way through the second movie, where she realizes she is pregnant. As she later explains in the flashback that presents this event, this was the moment that she realized that she couldn't be a killer, and a mother, in the same breath. So, like Jules, she abandons her evil ways. She doesn't go back to Bill, let him think she is dead, and tries to start a new life as someone's wife, and a mother, and a simple music store clerk. And if you've seen the movie, you know how that works out.

Its also curious that in both movies, the reformed villian, has a moment where they are tested in their resolve on this new path. In Pulp Fiction Jules has to talk Ringo and Funny Bunny out of pushing him to kill them. Guns are in people's faces, and its very tense, but he manages to escape the situation without busting a cap in their asses, as he so succinctly puts it. Likewise, in Kill Bill, Beatrix has to talk another assassin out of making her kill her, at the moment of her revelation. Beatrix could easily have dispatched her so-called dispatcher. But instead she finds a way out of the situation that does not involve bloodshed.

Now I don't know if these parallels were intended, or they just kind of happened. Nevertheless, it is interesting to note them. Or maybe it just seems so because its 1:30 in the morning.

Blog Question Of The Day:

If someone gave you $1,000,000 and said you had thirty days to spend it, on things you could get inside your house, what would you purchase?

Grant's House Of Style

You can not wear flip flops with jeans.

I don't really think you can wear flip flops any time. They are about the most useless piece of footwear I have ever seen. I have serious issues with anyone that wears them as normal footwear. The flip flop was never intended to be worn as a shoe for daily use. It has, as its only practical application, the walk to the pool or the beach from your hotel room. Or, if you happen to be someone luxurious enough to have a lush backyard, then you can wear it for trips through the foliage.

But you can't wear them with jeans.

The very concept of wearing flip flops with a pair of jeans creates a ludicrous contradiction. What are you? Are you dressed for rugged outdoor-ness? Are you casually strolling through the garden? It is an unresolvable dichotomy. On one hand you have your jeans on, and you're dressed for polite society or a day of work. Then I look at your feet and their basically naked. Oh, except you have this pad of plastic cork attached to your foot with a flimsy plastic cord. You look like a moron. You look like an ass. As politically incorrect as it is to say, you look like a homo.

Just don't do it. Spare yourself the ridicule of being stared at and pointed towards. Spare us the indignation of having to get upset by such an asinine choice of footwear.

Just get some regular sandals. It amounts to the same thing, but doesn't look as gay.

P.S. Don't wear socks with your sandals.

If you look closely, you will notice that today's date is 7/11.

Don't you think we should all go out for Slurpees?

World of Warcraft News:

Foder is a homo

Blog Fake Website Of The Day:

http://www.bakedpotatoesargross.com/

Blog Poll Of The Day:

Who do you like better?

A) Angelina Jolie
B) Brad Pitt

Leave it to Future Shop to be a complete gong show.

I go to that accursed store to get myself a Sirius satellite radio. I'm driving to Watson and back by myself tomorrow and that's a lot of boredom to handle at one time. So I thought I'd get myself a radio and listen to something while I travelled the highways.

The buying was not such a big deal. I found what I wanted and it was $20 cheaper than I'd expected so it worked out really well. The portable electronics guy rang up my purchase and all I had to do was get my products swiped for de-magnetization and I was ready to go home.

Future Shop had ONE clerk manning the front.

What the hell is that? Sure, its only Friday night and they're not that busy, but just one clerk? There were ten people lined up to pay and/or clear the magnetic gateway. And they have one poor schmuck that's supposed to handle all of this. Some retarded floor manager is just rocking on her heels over by customer service but ringing people through the till is not HER responsibility. So the typical wait for service at the Future Shop front counter remains ten deep, even though its Friday night and not a busy time in the store.

Can someone please explain to me why, like lemmings, we continue to frequent these non-customer friendly establishments?

I need an opportunity to vent. This is nothing I have any hope of affecting any kind of positive change on. The only hope I have for a sense of improved emotion is to speak out about it, loudly.

I just got screwed out of $1330.

I think we all know about credit card promotions. If you sign up with X card they'll give you Y number of Air Miles, or some other commodity the scale of which is absurdly small, relative to what you've spent to get it. I, with my MasterCard, had something called FirstHome Dollars. What this plan did was, for every X number of dollars I spent with my MasterCard, the credit card company would chip in some almost infinitessimally small amount towards a down payment on a house.

Normally this would be a good arrangement for the credit card company. Who waits long enough to buy a house to accumulate any meaningful amount of credit in their account? What worked against MasterCard in this instance is, I've had this card, and this plan since the day it was issued to be, back when I was 18. That's a long time and a lot of purchases on which to accumulate FirstHome Dollars. So it stands to reason that I'd amass quite a few.

As you all know, I'm buying a home now. So by the obvious extension, I want my FirstHome Dollars. So I phone up the good people at MasterCard and ask them to forward my money. At first the guy didn't know what I was talking about but a couple of prods and he got the point. He was happy to fulfill my request and told me he had to close out my account. I didn't care as I'm only buying one FirstHome.

So the statement comes in the mail today. I was all excited as this was half my downpayment. I open the letter and it says $2500 on it. What the hell is this!?! That's only 2/3 of my money! Where's MY MONEY!!!

I fretted about it for about an hour and I couldn't take it anymore. I had to know what the story about this was. So I called up MasterCard and asked them what the hell was the deal with this? The guy again didn't know what I was talking about but he went off the line for a couple of minutes and got the scoop for me.

Apparently you are only allowed to withdraw a maximum of $2500 from your FirstHome Dollars account at any one time.

What the HELL is up with that!?! Under what logic would you ever buy two FirstHome's?

The explanation I got was, you could transfer the remaining balance to a close family member, like a son or daughter. Now explain to me, how would I have a child that could use this, if I'm getting my FirstHome now?

Idiots! So now I'm out $1300 and I don't feel particularly good about it. If any of you want to switch from MasterCard to VISA in protest, feel free to join me.

I had perhaps one of the most annoying moments of my life this morning.

Earlier I told the story of how I went to the medical clinic and they gave me grief about how I didn't have a current health services card. If you look at your card you'll see there's a number on the back you can call, about updates to your information and getting a new card.

So I called the number.

This is how pathetic things have gotten with these phone-in procedures. They want you to call in but you don't even get an actual, live person. They make you leave a series of messages, based on pre-recorded questions.

What's your name, including correct spelling?

What is your address?

What is your home and work phone number?

After each question is a repetition of the same, three option menu. Do you want to hear the options again? Do you want to re-record your answer? Do you want to continue? The whole ordeal makes you feel like a trained circus seal. Which might not be so bad but it makes you feel like an autistic trained circus seal.

Saskatchewan Health should be shot, stabbed, pissed on, scraped up and deposited in a hole full of feces for foisting such an abomination on us. If I wanted to feel any more neglected, abused and taken for granted, I'd probably actually use the Saskatchewan health services system.

All around, I give the experience a fat ZERO.

Wednesday . . . both a blessing and a curse.

Blessing - I got the second half of my tax refund.

Curse - The almost endless patch for World of Warcraft.

I think the best part of being the controller in a company has to be handing out the pay stubs every two weeks. It must feel kinda like being Santa Claus.

If . . .

. . . you are playing World of Warcraft, and

If . . .

. . . you are questing at the north end of Felwood and

If . . .

. . . you are a Level 60 King Ding-a-Ling and

If . . .

. . . you are killing Deadwood furbolgs

Knock It Off Already!!! I'm trying to complete the damn quest!!!

Blog Question Of The Day:

Is it possible to buy a brand new IROC?

Things That Piss Me Off:

I haven't really teed off on anyone lately but I think the time has come.

I went to the medical clinic this afternoon. I've had these blood tests outstanding for quite some time and it occurred to me that if I went right after lunch, I could satisfy the condition of going 12-16 hours after my last ingestion of medication.

I go in there and she asks for my Saskatchewan Health Services card. I'm used to it because they ask for any card before they'll help you out these days. She looks at the card and says, "oh, your health services card has expired."

The only response I could muster to that was, "so?"

"Well, we're not supposed provide services when your card has expired."

Just take my blood already! God, christ, like I'm supposed to know my stupid health services card has expired. I haven't used the stupid thing in a year and a half! And I'm supposed to notice that the idiotic sticker has expired!?!

The health services card is the most idiotic implementation that has ever taken place in the history of the Saskatchewan government. The land of free health care and oh, now you have to show a card to get free services. But if you don't have a card, they don't really care! You still get free health care. So what's the point of the stupid card? Apparently its for the purpose of annoying me. And providing an opportunity for sanctimonious office staff to give me grief when I'm not really in the mood to be getting my blood taken in the first place.

P.S. Future Shop sucks goat balls. They advertise games for $19.99 and then don't have any of the games in question, in stock in the store.

You are never more annoyed than when you hit the 'Suspend' key, that is conveniently placed next to the 'Escape' key on your keyboard, and you screw up the really complicated drafting procedure you were enacting.

Well that was a game!

The Oilers made a liar out of me. When they lost their goalie in game one I figured they were done. When they went down 3-1 in the series I thought they were done. But they kept coming back.

Two teams showed up for a hockey game tonight. Both teams brought their best game. Tonight it was apparent that one teams best game was a lot better than the others.

Can someone tell me what the deal is with the parking lot on the north end of Confederation Park Mall? I tried to get into the mall from the north side this evening and the experience was nearly enough to make me homicidal.

First of all I couldn't hit the entrance to the stupid mall. They put the damn 'Welcome' sign between these two paved stretches. One in, one out, wouldn't you think? No, one's for the stupid buses. So I had to make a loop through the bus park and back onto the street.

Next I look for a place to park. The bloody lot is all twisted up into little clumps of parking spots. I drive up to the place that is near the door I want. I can see lots of spots available here. But can I get to them in a convenient manner? NO! The only place into this clump is well back from the door so I have to drive past the place I want to be, turn around in a full part of the lot (again a clump of parking spots) and go back to the entry.

Then, when I'm leaving the lot I have to stop for a STOP sign. But the sign is about a hundred feet back from the actual intersection. So I go through my stop sign, and get to the intersection, and this guy coming from the other direction thinks I'm trying to cut him off.

Once again the Confederation Park Mall proves to be an unholy blight on this city. I'd tell you to write your councillor about it but we all know that no one in Saskatoon cares about Confederation Park Mall.

The funniest thing happened on the golf course today.

We were waiting on the 18th tee box at Moon Lake. I should clarify this by saying we were playing the Moors as our back nine, since they have 27 golf holes at Moon Lake. The ninth hole of the Moors set has as its final hole, a par 5 that goes along the shore of the actual Moon Lake.

There was a backlog of people waiting to tee off so we had time to kill at the tee box. Since we were at the lakes edge, a couple of the guys thought they'd spend the time practicing their drives. To accomplish this they were hitting range balls they had in their bags, into the lake. The goal of their efforts was to drive one all the way across the lake to the shore on the other side.

To end the suspense I'll tell you that no one was able to make it across the lake. Based on the success of the others, I suspect I might have been able to. I do not, however, have any excess balls in my golf bag that I was willing to sacrifice to the attempt.

With his last spare ball, one guy teed up and reared back for a titantic swing at his golf ball. He intended to really tie into this ball. It was, however, not a great day for golf today. It rained all day, and everything was slick and wet. The guy followed through on his attempt but the slippery situation caught up to him. His driver tomahawked out of his grip and went flying through the air. Like a boomerang it whuw-whuw-whuw-ed through the hair, before splashing down into the lake about 10 yards out.

Its not nice to laugh but damn was that funny!

Well, that was an exciting game!

I do, however, think the Oilers gave that one away. My opinion was that after two periods they had it all but wrapped up. A good solid effort in the third effort and they lead the Stanley Cup series by one game.

They didn't put in a solid effort.

But to their credit, they made a comeback. And the tying goal was spectacular. I recall using an expletive when I saw it.

But disaster struck. Not once but twice.

I mean no disrespect to the Oilers. I really hope they can prevail in this Stanley Cup series. However, based on what Coach McTavish said in the press conference, I think the safe money is on Carolina.

One of the keys to understanding me is found in the following song:

Pixies - Wave Of Mutilation (UK Surf)

Things That Piss Me Off:

Do you know what I hate? Websites that proport to have a 'picture of the day' but then the picture never changes. Or, it changes once a month, thus negating the concept of the 'picture of the day'. Or even more infuriating, at least for me because I still check the damn site every day, the 'picture of the day' is a revolving series of just 5 pictures. So, while the picture does change from day to day, if you've seen the whole series, there's not a hell of a lot to be gained by checking anymore.

And yet, like the eternal optimist, I still look, just in case they've decided to stop pissing me off. It hasn't happened yet.

Don't eat radishes.

Things That Piss Me Off:

Traffic in Saskatoon sucks. I had to go somewhere this afternoon. From Delco, in the north end, to the university, which is more or less in the center of the city. There is no reason this should take any more than 10 or at worse 15 minutes. I gave myself half an hour. Can you believe it wasn't enough!?!

If you refuse to invest in an air conditioner, why don't you try this:

Cheap air conditioning!!

My new favorite golfer is:

Virada Nirapathpongporn

Things That Piss Me Off:

Do you know what pisses me off? People can be so damn stupid in the name of speed.

I'm working at this rock concert tonight. There's two items that are served: draft beer and bottled vodka coolers. Now draft beer is easy. Open the tap and pour the beer into a glass. You can't do that any other way but fast. But coolers are another thing. Having to open the bottle and then pour the liquid into a glass takes some time. Certainly longer than pouring a draft beer. And its more cumbersome because there are multiple steps.

Now the first problem with this is, most girls are wimps. Not all of them mind you, but a healthy majority of them don't like to twist the cap off. Its not a purely female thing either, as there's a minority of guys that are children about protecting their hands from the slight burn of twisting off bottle caps. So they have to resort to a bottle opener. This adds a further complication to an already labor intensive activity.

This is where it gets stupid. And its not just the bottle opener people, but they are the worst culprits of this. They go to open the bottle and they just let the cap fly wherever. I have a problem with this. First of all, you wouldn't do this in your own house. How many people, especially girls, would let the table or the floor become littered with bottle caps? Why is this then okay to do in a public space? Second of all, how much time are you really saving by not catching the cap and throwing it in the garbage? I mean really! Eventually you have to pick up all the bottle caps. And the haphazard manner in which you let them fly means you end up having to grovel on the floor to get a lot of them. WOuldn't it be more expedient to use the half a damn second it takes to catch the cap and throw it away when you open the bottle!?!

I have to tell you this story. I have to tell you this story because its just so . . . damn . . . sad.

I bought an air conditioner last spring. It was a big 10,000 BTU bastard, complete with a remote. It was going to make my house frigid. But just about the same time I got this great idea I should buy a house, and stop paying rent all the time. Which seemed like a good idea at the time but has since proven to be untrue. But I digress . . .

So now its a year later and I don't want it anymore. I have no house to install it in, and when I do buy a house, its damn well going to have central air conditioning, because I don't do this, swelter for the character of it thing. I've got lots enough character from all the other burdens I carry. But I digress . . .

What to do with the air conditioner? Well, I bought it at Wal-Mart. Let's see if I can return it. So we drive off to Wal-Mart to see if they'll take it back.

Not being stupid, I go up to customer service with my reciept first, because I'm not carrying this heavy bastard into the store, only to find out they won't take it back. That would be stupid. So we enter into negotiations with the well meaning, but otherwise inept girl at the customer service desk. I know they try but they've obviously been imbued with NO authority, so it makes you wonder why they have to man the counter that needs a decision to be made, in almost all cases. But I digress. . .

It took calling some managers but they concede that yes, if everything is on the level, they can probably take it back and refund my money. Oh goodie! So I go get the air conditioner from the truck and haul it in to be inspected. One of the stipulations was that it had to be as I said, unopened and unused.

This is where it gets stupid.

To verify that the air conditioner is unused, they have to open the crate. Keep in mind that the box is obviously untainted from when I picked it up in the store. The original tape remains on the seams. The UPC sticker is still in place. The damn thing is virgin. But her manager has told this girl that she is supposed to open the box and make sure everything is intact.

So she does.

What does she find in the box? Manual is still its plastic sheath. The remote still has the plastic sticker on the buttons. The free batteries for the remote are still shrink-wrapped. The styrofoam packing has not been disturbed and clings tenaciously to the air conditioner itself. After much discussion with another, equally clueless Wal-Mart employee, they agree that they have to take the actual air conditioner OUT of the box to inspect it. Keep in mind that everything up to this point has been absolutely VIRGIN in the box. So these two girls struggle and fuss, because this unit has never been out of the box and is stuck to the tightly packed styrofoam. So finally its out and they set it on the counter.

We're not done yet.

Having gone through that entire ordeal, they now concur that to follow their managers orders, they need to get a second air conditioner off the shelf, open it, and verify that everything in the box off the shelf, is identical to what they've just opened in the box I brought in. So the entire ordeal is repeated a SECOND time, complete with fussing with styrofoam, and two woman trying to manhandle a very heavy, unwieldy electrical device.

Conclusion? The two air conditioners are identical. I get my refund.

So what was accomplished? As I see it, only one purpose was truly served by this idiotic procession. Some $9.00 a hour Wal-Mart night manager has proceeded to make damaged stock out of what were otherwise completely factory perfect air conditioner packages. All this Captain Wizard would have needed to do was wheel my box out onto the floor and put it next to the other air conditioners. The next time it was 30 C it would have disappeared from the shelf with no one the wiser for its 1 year vacation in Watson.

I have given a name to my pain.

It is . . .

polka

My new name is Tuemar. It is your job to guess where I came up with this.

Perseverance

Continuing in a course of action without regard to discouragement, opposition or previous failure.

Things That Piss Me Off:

I hate when someone is chatting with you online and then the just mysteriously disappear. No warning, no anything. They just stop responding. Then they go 'Away' and often they'll then go 'Offline'. And you're left wondering, what the hell just happened to that person?

A few random thoughts for a Friday night:

Go Oilers!!!

Chad Michael Murray has gotta be the luckiest guy on the planet. He's starred in movies with Lindsay Lohan, Hilary Duff and Elisha Cuthbert. I think the devil lost out on that deal.

Does anyone want to buy a house in Watson, Sask.?

Does anyone know where to get a non-offensive calendar, but no puppy dogs or flowers or such boring crap?

Did I mention, go Oilers?

Blog Question Of The Day:

Why do I always wish for things that are completely impractical?

Things That Piss Me Off

Some idiot gave me a parking ticket today. And the annoying thing about that is, it wasn't for having an expired meter. This model citizen took it upon himself to write me up for having expired tags on my license plate. I guess he hadn't been able to tag anyone for a real parking ticket that hour, so to make his quota he had to write me up on a trumped up charge. Granted, somewhere along the line my sticker for Nov 06 fell off, but still I think its awfully chicken-hearted to go outside of his duly appointed duty just to mess up my day. Yes, its probably within his discretion to write the ticket but let's be real. He's supposed to be writing parking tickets not fleecing the masses for any indescretion he might realize. Is this the same jerk that's going to flag me down for a jaywalking ticket.

People are idiots.

I have a question.

Why have all the essential PC utilities gotten so incredibly bloated? I was on a new computer today and needed to open a PDF file. I went online to get Acrobat Reader. Its a freakin' 21 MB download! What the hell is that? I just want to read a PDF. What the hell was wrong with the simple, basic package that let me do that?

This has gotten out of control. Stop plugging up the software with useless crap! Leave it simple and basic so it doesn't take an hour to download. Geesh!

Dibco Underground
UMA Engineering
Wheatheart Manufacturing
March Consulting
Suncorp Valuations
Central Water Conditioning

and then . . .

If you a happen to be visitor 10,000 to my blog site, please email me and let me know that you were the auspicious person.

Blog Song Of The Day:

Evanescence - My Immortal

I've had this movie quote in my head all day. Its not really applicable to my situation as the actual quote is about love, relationships and sexual orientation and the ambiguity that goes along with it. If you've seen the movie, you'll recognize the emotion that was portrayed in the moment it was said. And the last half of the last sentence really sums up, for me, how my life has changed in the last day.

So if Kevin Smith will forgive me, I'd like to quote 'Chasing Amy' for you now:

Oh, it's that simple? You fall in
love with me and want a romantic
relationship, nothing changes for you
with the exception of feeling hunky-
dorey all the time. But what about-
me? It's not that simple, is it? I
can't just get into a relationship
with you without throwing my whole
fucking world into upheaval!

It took an extra year but . . .

Mama I'm comin' home

I know they mean well, but don't you hate it when the kid that's pumping your gas cleans the windows, and does a really piss-poor job of it?

I was in the country today. That means, dirt roads, bugs, and all that goes with being off the highway grid. Consequently my truck was (and still is) a mess. I pulled into Wynyard and decided to stop for some gas. I didn't think anything of it when I left the kid at the Co-op to fill the tank. I was thirsty and needed to decide on what I wanted to drink.

Witness my consternation when I come back out and get in the truck after paying 113.9 cents a liter for my gas, and the front window is a smeared mess of bug gut remnants. I know he was just doing his job, and he certainly meant well by cleaning my windows. But if you're gonna do the job, can't you take the extra two seconds it takes to make sure that the job you do, is actually a good one. Driving right into the sun I did not need a smeared up mess of bug guts on the screen in front of me.

Blog Question Of The Day:

How does a restaurant decide what is going to be the 'special' for that day?

Blog Survey Of The Day:

What's your favorite online content? (What website do you check the most often?)

What's your favorite offline content? (what file(s) on your local machine do you look at the most often?)

Blog Word Of The Day:

gank

Blog Song Of The Day:

Godsmack - Serenity

Blog Question Of The Day:

Is it mathematically possible for every team in a major professional sports league (NBA, NHL, CFL, etc) to finish with exactly the same record?

And if so, how do they break the painful logjam that would ensue?

If a touchpad mouse was actually a good idea, don't you think they'd have built them into regular keyboards by now?

I'm sure this is probably getting old but I need something explained to me.

Why does the world care so much about the nature of Katie Holmes upcoming childbirth? Since when did stuff like this matter to us? So what if she wants to pay heed to the idiotic rituals of a half-baked excuse for a religion! This shouldn't be something with which we occupy our time, or our print media.

Yes, the concept of 'silent birth' is asinine. Or 'quiet birth' as the media has been forced to re-christen it, as their initial ravings on the subject were countered by proponents of Scientology. Is the 'religon' of Scientology stupid and moronic? Yes it is. But unless I'm mistaken we all agreed to leave persecution on the basis of religion behind us. It is unevolved to make fun of someone's pursuit of faith. Even if we think the faith is puerile and baseless.

Leave it alone. We shouldn't care if Katie Holmes wants to be duped. She's happy and I'm sure the child will be loved and well cared. If they want to foolhardily try and hold the passage in solemn reflection that's there business. Maybe it'll pay off and the baby won't cry as much when its small. Who are we to say it won't work?

I need something explained to me.

Why is it important that everything get shredded? I don't understand this. You give someone a shredder by their desk and every piece of paper they don't want anymore has to be shredded. Why!?! Can you not put it in a recycle bin and maybe use it as scrap paper? Or just leave it a refuse piece of paper? What's really accomplished by shredding it into little strips? I don't understand this.

Grant's Birthday Wish:

An honest kiss from a beautiful girl.

Blog Definition Of The Day:

Satyriaris - Uncontrollable sexual desire in a man's behavior

Can someone please explain to me what the point would be of closed captioning American Idol?

Should I get one of these?


hot tub

I was sitting in my living room yesterday at lunch looking for something to watch on TV. I don't get many channels at the current time because my satellite dish is improperly aligned. One channel I do get is WGN from Chicago. They were playing the Cubs season opener at Wrigley Field. This brought to mind for me the question, who should my MLB team be, now the the Expos have been cruelly excised.

Should I adopt the Chicago Cubs as MY team?

whack bag

I want to alert all of my blog readers to a culinary classic that for the most part remains hidden in obscurity, long from the lights of celebrity. And this which I speak of is the Quiznos beef deep sandwich. While an unassuming name, trust me friends when I tell you that the delight to the pallete is not to be overlooked. It is sheer delight to the senses. Quiznos has been strong on chicken sandwiches, and I've taken to their savory delights on many an occasion. Now the masters at Quiznos have trained their skills on the beef line of sandwiches. And their attempts have been an unqualified home run. I look forward to my next meal and the chance to sample another beef sandwich sure to thrill the senses, a prime rib sandwich.

That's all from me. Now its back to the kitchen for more scrumptiousness.

And now, just for Cowan!

Blog Song Of The Day:

Chingy - Balla Baby

Blog Tip Of The Day:

If you need to e-mail someone at STC, don't put the word -pussy- in your email. Their spam filter will bounce it.

I had a strange dream last night.

I was driving ATV's around Warman. I met my cousin Bruce for lunch at a Subway. Then afterwards I was just driving around Warman looking for the computer store he was supposed to be working in. But he took the afternoon to go golfing, so he wasn't there. The computer store turned out to be in the back of a drug store on a side street.

After that I ended up chasing these people on other ATV's that were devil worshippers. I was something like a police officer, but only for capturing satanists. I partied up with some other people and eventually we caught enough of them that we could have a softball game.

I'm not sure why we wanted to have a softball game but we did. We played on a field that was too small so everyone was hitting towering shots deep into the outfield. The 'home run' line was putting it over the railway track that was in the outfield.

The team I was on should have been the winner but we ended up way behind and needed 18 runs in the last two innings to force a tie. There were several people from my childhood on the team I was playing on. We were just coming up to bat in the second to last inning when I woke up.

Can anyone think of a cheap, easy way to get the elevation along the length of my driveway?

Blog Song Of The Day:

Neverending White Lights - This Longing

Blog F.Y.I.

Rudy Huxtable grew up NICE

I spent 20 minutes trying to get to Credit Union Centre. What the hell is up with that? How is it that they make the right decision, and build the arena in the north end and then completely bollux the traffic routing into the facility? I don't get it. It was a playoff hockey game. Yes, there was nearly 8000 people at the game. But come on! I shouldn't need 20 minutes to get into the parking lot. That's just crazy.

Color me unimpressed.

P.S. The Blades sucks.

Today was a red letter day!

I finished the last of my contractor improvements to my house. Well actually, I didn't do anything to reach this point, but I shepherded things to this point. The plumbers were in today to move the water lines for my washing machine to the back of the house where I intend to do laundry from now on. By lunch everything was hooked up and the final puzzle piece was in place.

I monkeyed around with some stuff after work tonight. Since the garage addition is finished, for the most part, I put some stuff back there. And of course I moved the laundry equipment to its final spot.

Its good to be done!

Is it illegal to steal from someone that is trying to scam you?

Blog Question Of The Day:

If you could add one hour to your day, what would you spend it doing?

It doesn't matter how much sleep you get before you do it, getting up at 5:30 sucks.

Blog Song Of The Day:

Gob - Give Up The Grudge

Who picked the size of the perforations on a roll of toilet paper? Did you ever take a look at how small one square of toilet paper is? I had some time to contemplate this question this evening. I looked into it. One square of toilet paper is approximately the size of a Post-It note. A Post-It note!!! How can you get any business done with that much paper?

Things That Piss Me Off:

I really hate when you watch curling and they say 'Good shot' after every throw. Some of the shots are absolutely abysmal. Don't say 'good shot' when they've totally carped it! You don't have to call them a loser, but at least spare me the damn 'good shot' comment when you've given up a steal of three.

I've made a decision.

The Ottawa Renegades need me.

The CFL can't afford to have the Ottawa franchise disappear from the landscape again. And there's absolutely no reason why it should. There is nothing about the Ottawa situation that makes it especially prone to losing vast sums of money. I place the blame for their woeful situation squarely on the owners. If you piss away millions of dollars then of course you're going to have monumental losses. Its all about careful planning.

I love the CFL. Call it bush league but I think the brand of football is exciting, and I've always rooted for its underdog nature. Now I want to be a part. I'm not a millionaire, or someone that can root out millions of dollars from the woodwork to cover vast losses. I'm just a guy that loves the CFL, is a prudent fiscal planner, and truly believes in his product. So why not me? Give me the team and let me see if I can't make this work. Everything is there for a successful franchise. Let's give it a shot.

Can you make peanut butter if you put peanuts in a blender?

I have successfully navigated my way into my garage.

Blog Question Of the Day:

Could you capitalize on a sure-fire (100% guaranteed to work) plan to endless wealth if you knew that it meant being part of a scam?

Okay, I am officially pissed off now.

I went to a lot of effort, and even more expense, to get myself an attached garage to my house. There was considerable anguish that went into the decision to do this, and then to try and realize the dream. But I did do it, and now it sits in my yard.

And I can't get into it.

I spent nearly an hour this evening, trying to get my truck into the garage. It was to no avail. There is absolutely no way I'm getting in there any time soon. Its all this damn snow! And compounding that is a huge dip in what should be the driveway of my yard. The snow is slippery and I can't get any traction. Then I slide into the dip in the driveway and I can't keep going towards the garage. So I go back, and try again. Over and over its the same thing. Too much slipping and sliding to make it through the small portal that lets me into salvation.

So the damn thing sits in my yard, unused. And thus I'm pissed off.

If you need me, I'll be cursing at the heavens.

They really don't make it easy on a guy to stay fit and in shape. Its a sporting event on television and its nearly non-stop food commercials.

Tasty looking chicken sandwiches tantalize you from the screen.

Mouth watering pizza's taunt you during 30 second teases.

Hamburgers the likes of which you'll never see in a fast food place, call to you with seductive voices.

Popcorn shrimp dance in your eyes.

Its all too much. How can I work on my diet and fitness level when all of these food commercials inundate me from the TV screen!?! I'm losing my grip!!!

By the way, I think I'll buy a new Gillette Fusion.

Saskatoon drivers SUCK!!!

I had no less than four driving adventures as I came into the city this morning. For those that know Saskatoon, the places named will make sense. For any others, bear with me, as the stupidity knows no geographic bounds.

As I always do, I came in from in the east on College Avenue. I needed to be in the north end, so I had to get onto Circle Drive. To accomplish this there is a merge lane that takes you from College Drive going east-west, to Circle Drive which at that point is going north-south. So I get behind someone on the merge lane. And they come to a complete STOP on the merge lane. WHY!?! There was room to get into traffic. The flow was light. There was no reason to stop, for criminy sake. Nevertheless they did, as I cursed a mean blue streak.

Then I continue around on Circle Drive, as I approach the bridge over the South Saskatchewan River. Some moron comes flying up off the Attridge Drive merge lane. There is a cargo truck ahead in that lane. So with barely a nickel's width of room, this idiot goes Mario Andretti and cuts up into my lane, ahead of me, necessitating brakes and more cursing.

I managed to make it several blocks before another Captain Wizard showed himself. I stop for a light at the Quiznos on Circle Drive and our latest genius pulls a U-turn at the turning of the light, right in the face of oncoming traffic. It was a beat-up looking van so I guess he has nothing else to live for.

Our final act of moronic behaviour followed quickly on the heels of the previous one. The light at Circle and Northridge was clearly red but someone in a red Blazer had a desperate need to be somewhere. So after a hesitation (thus marking this as a conscious decision) the jackass drives through the intersection. Compounding the idiocy, they also made a lane change as they passed through the intersection. The final definition of this ridiculous behaviour is evidenced as I happened to pass Colonel Impatient a block later, as their pushy behaviour put them behind a large truck at the next light, which was not able to get going quickly on the snow covered streets. Just another example of why patience often does win the day.

Suffice it to say, I was glad to reach my destination and stop driving. I didn't think so much stupidity could show itself in one 10 minute period.

What's the deal with this newest trend in spam advertising? Why is every second email I get an offer for a free gift card to something? And its always American chain stores that are 'supposedly' offering me a free gift card. And if you read the fine print (which I sometimes do just because I'm bored) you'll note that its limited to US citizens only. So why spam the whole world with this crap? The least you could do, as a halfway reasonable human being, is buy a damn mailing list that contained only US mailing addresses. But no, these annoying emails have to go out to the whole world.

Does anyone actually GET a free gift card? Or is the whole thing just another pointless internet scam? I get so tired of the crap that gets perpetuated on the internet. At least with the email jokes that go around, you get a chuckle or a funny picture. But spam just annoys you.

If no one really gets anything, and everyone gets annoyed with the emails, what's the point?

Blog Question Of The Day:

What is the best AC/DC song of all time?

I am not happy with the Town of Watson. Their plowing of the streets left me with a drift in front of my yard that I actually had to SHOVEL before I could get into my garage.

NOT HAPPY

I have to tell this story about my trip to Mexico. . .

We had possibly the worst flight times ever. Our flight back to Canada was scheduled for 3:50 in the morning. Our ride to the airport was listed to pick us up at 1:00 in the morning. This is a full half day after the check-out time for the hotel, which is pegged at 12:00 (noon).

Obviously we were unenthusiastic about being 'homeless' for half a day. So we inquired about whether it would be possible to keep a room for a few hours, so we could shower, change, and basically have a home base as we finished our last few hours in the tropical paradise that is Puerto Vallarta. Our multiple inquiries, with multiple suggestions were all met with the response they were 'too busy' and couldn't spare a room. The one concession we got was that we could have a 'hospitality room' at the end of the day to clean up, and get ready to wait out the evening. Reluctantly we leave our rooms at noon. I abandoned the home I'd had in good ol' room 6103.

So the afternoon ends and we're sweaty, hot, and probably a little smelly, from being by the pool, swimming, drinking, and enjoying our last few hours. We inquire about this hospitality room we'd been promised. Our request is met with blank stares. Finally we got across the point that they'd PROMISED us facilities to get cleaned up in, so we wouldn't have to travel looking and feeling like homeless people. After more confusion we manage to get a key to a room so we could shower, change, and so on.

The key they give us is to room 6103. It had been empty all along.

I have come to a conclusion.

Coldplay is by far the most over-hyped band on the face of the planet.

Blog Song Of The Day:

Reliant K - Who I Am Hates Who I've Been

What kind of corollary can be drawn from the observation that you think a rectangle with two circles drawn under it seems to represent a penis?

I gotta say something. . .

What the hell is wrong with technology? Why is it that we can't find a way to seamlessly move from one state of existence into another? How is it that we have to leave backdoors and deadends to everything as we move forward?

I have a problem. The 'computer' that controls my pilot unit can only store approximately 45 days worth of performance data before it needs to be downloaded. To get the data off the controller, I need to connect it to a regular computer, like a laptop. But do they make that easy?

HELL NO!!!

To connect to this controller I need a 25 pin serial connection. Do you know how hard it is to find a computer with a serial port on it? Its damn near impossible! First of all, anything portable, like a laptop, does NOT have a serial port on it. If you want a laptop with a serial port on it, it has to be old. OOOOOLD!!! Next of all you have to be able to communicate via the serial connection. Does Windows want to communicate over a serial port?

HELL NO!!!

So I waste 6 hours and another 8 on driving there and back . . twice. And in the end I don't have my data. Plus I'll probably LOSE some of it because it doesn't look like I'll have this problem solved before the 45th day.

Technology pisses me off.

Blog Question Of The Day:

How does one decide if they are blowing their nose too often?

Blog Song From a Movie Of The Day:

White Zombie - The One (from Escape From LA)

I think 'Falling Down' is definitely Michael Douglas' best movie.

Blog Song Of The Day:

Kid Rock f/ Sheryl Crow - Picture

This is what a caustic burn looks like.

For the record . . . sulfuric acid is hard on your clothes.

If you get a chance, go to the Burger Pit in Foam Lake. They make a good burger and the fries and gravy are outstanding.

Blog Question Of The Day:

Is it wrong to enjoy a PG movie for reasons that were never intended?

Blog Question Of The Day:

If you're the only person on a boat, and its about to sink, do you have to go down with it?

Things That Piss Me Off:

The Kiss Cam

Who's genius idea is this? Let's turn the camera on unsuspecting people in the audience of a hockey game and make them engage in a public display of affection! This is an idea with no down side.

WRONG!!!

What if the couple you feature aren't even there together, but just happen to be seated next to each other? It could happen.

What if the couple is actually sitting next to each other, pointedly ignoring each other because they were arguing about some spilled chili fries?

What if they NEVER kiss in public?

What if she's underage and its a felony? Or he's underage and its a misdemeanor and a $50 fine?

Referring back to reason number one, what if its your buddies girlfriend and you've always harbored a huge crush on her, like that song Jesse's Girl?

What if they're really clueless enough to not realize they're on the JumboTron?

What if the couple is just embarassingly bad kissers?

There's about 603 more reasons why the Kiss Cam is a bad idea, but I think I've successfully argued my point. This is just another example of stupidity brought to us by the people self-appointed to be 'cute'. They make me want to vomit.

Things That Piss Me Off:

I was riding along to Winnipeg on Monday night. It was late when we were approaching the city and the night was pitch black. The radio was our only entertainment and we were noting good songs so I could make a compilation CD for the guy that was doing the driving.

For the most part I knew the singer/band and the title of the songs that were coming up. However they played a new one that I'd never heard before. But do you think that they'd pause between songs to name the artist and song title, so I could put it on the list?

NO!!!

I hate that. The one time you need them to tell you the song title and they skip it. I wish there could be a rule that they couldn't play a song without telling you the artist and title, either before or after the song played.

Had Star Wars been made 10 years later, don't you think Bruce Willis would have made for an outstanding Han Solo?

I am a huge Brittney Bottoms fan.

Things That Piss Me Off:

You can spend countless hours, and thousands of dollars putting high tech equipment into a water treatment plant. All of these tools and devices provided to make the water plant automatic, sophisticated, and easy to use. Dollars are spent on top of dollars, with device working with device, all to create a seamless operating experience for the water treatment plant operator.

And what do you find when you check on the operator, sitting studiously at his computer terminal. A god damn game of solitaire is being played on his desktop INSTEAD of the sophisticated control system that is supposed to be on the machine.

I have made a decision.

The Rock is my current favorite actor.

Things That Piss Me Off:

Windows is so stupid. Pay attention as I outline all of the steps I carried out.

1. Opened Explorer
2. Opened my Word document
3. Clicked the Print button
4. Closed Word

It asked me if I wanted to save my changes. What changes!?! I just printed the document. Printing is not changing. Pay attention!!!

Things That Piss Me Off:

I hate the song 'Big Yellow Taxi'. I suppose at one point it might have been an okay tune. I don't know, its original release pre-dates my interest in music. But it is not such a great song that it deserves the endless parade of cover versions that exist. It seems like every artist with even the slightest bent towards a nostalgic folksy-pop sound has to cover this song. It drives me up the wall.