Christian Bale is a jerk... but that isn't the whole story.

So Christian Bale unloaded on the director of photography on his latest film:

Bale flips out

Could that have gone any worse for everyone? I mean... everyone screwed that up.

Apparently Hurlbut is a bit of a jackass and loves to fiddle around with lighting DURING a shot (could that ever end well?). And Bale apparently had told him before on that film to cut it out. And no one is debating that he screwed up that shoot. So he probably deserved to be dressed down.

But what Bale did was beyond dressing down. He wasn't getting it out of his system, he was making himself more and more angry. There was no way things were getting better for anyone during his rant, including himself.

Where was the director in all this? He should have stepped in long before Bale tried to go after Hurlbut physically and said, 'Enough.' Or sent them both off set to get themselves sorted out emotionally.

Think about this: you have the right to vent your feelings at someone. But the moment you start to make other around you who are just observers and not the object of your ire uneasy or prevent them from during their job, then you're wrong. And when you're the guy in charge, you have an obligation to step in and stop that sort of behavior. Otherwise, you're part of the problem.

I have a question: what the fuck for?

ESPN.com: Reeves to interview with 49ers

Dan Reeves as the Niner offensive coordinator? Christ All Fucking Mighty, why? Why would you hire a retread coach who has a history of not being able to get along with a team's stars? John Elway, anyone? Jamal Anderson, hello?

He's been out of the game in any team capacity since 2003. Not been a coordinator or non-head coach since 1980. Nineteen fucking eighty!

What exactly can this guy offer that the Niners cannot find in a promising young assistant coach in the NFL? What exactly is it that is so magical about Reeves that they will give yet another retread white coach yet another shot at running a team?

What is the upside to this?

There isn't one, that's what the only answer is.

This is a tragedy:

SFGate.com: Deadly BART brawl - officer shoots rider, 22

Awful. Terrible. It looks like that cop executed that man. And he should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law on it.

But the victim has to bear some of the responsibility, too. When a cop tells you to cuff up, to stop resisting, that you are under arrest, you comply. Period. No discussion, just do it.

Why? Because he has a gun and he is a human being and isn't perfect. This is a tragic example that cops can be dipshits and make terrible decisions. But when a cop makes a bad decision, the results can be fatal.

I dunno. I have spent my whole life trying to avoid encountering the police where I might be considered a suspect in something bad. Why? Because only bad things can happen. What good can come of having to deal with the police where they look at you suspiciously?

So I've tried to avoid such situations. I don't start fights, I walk away from assholes. I don't steal. I don't fuck around with people. The few times that I have encountered the police in negative situations, I don't disobey them. I do what they say.

And I've never been shot.

That man, he didn't deserve to die. He didn't deserve to be shot. But he helped create the situation himself. Had he just obeyed the officer, he'd be alive, that is the truth.

Instead, he's dead and a cop is going to go to jail. If there is anything good that comes of this, it is that someone who shouldn't be a cop isn't going to be one any longer. But that's about it.

When a cop tells you to stop, you stop. If you don't, it might cost you your life.

And what did I tell you?

ESPN.com: Denver Broncos fire Mike Shanahan after season falls apart

The ink is hardly dry on Singletary's rushed contract for head coach when what happens? The offensive coordinator on the Niner's last Super Bowl championship team is now available.

Broncos' owner Pat Bowlen owns Shanahan something like $20 million on the three years remaining on his contract; so he would come dirt cheap to whomever hires him. That would obviously appeal to the Yorks.

But of course it doesn't matter since the Yorks rushed into hiring Singletary on a permanent basis.

Would Shanahan come to the Niners again? Probably not. But the point is that here IS someone who the Niners would clearly have seriously considered had their own head coaching position been open. And it would have been open had they just been smart and waited. Singletary certainly would still be available to head coach this week and next (and the next week) had the Niners not rushed to ink him.

Dipshits.

The Niners are fucking morons.

ESPN.com: Niners reportedly to take interim tag off Singletary

"...the 49ers are planning on offering a multiyear contract to Singletary..."

I have a question: what the fuck for?

It isn't as Singletary has somewhere else he needs to head coach anytime soon. It isn't as if he is even a remotely hot head coaching, chic pick anywhere. So why not what until the season ends, the playoffs are over and see what shakes out?

Maybe Mike Holmgren would take up the Niners on an offer to coach them next year. Can't ask until their season is over, which is in all of two days. Why the hurry?

Some other NFL head coach who is better than Singletary is going to get fired after this season. Why not wait to see who else is available then? Again, why the hurry?

There is nothing but good for the Niners to be gained by them waiting a few weeks longer to see who else might be available. If Singletary were to leave in the meantime, so fucking what? While 4-4 isn't bad, no one can say they have seen anything absolutely remarkable about his coaching that would make you think he is going to be a great coach. Except maybe his ass.

This is what is going to happen: Singletary is going to flop next year and they are going to fire him.... one year into a multi-year contract. Yet another waste of money and another year of fans' patience.

Then again, I expect nothing less from the Yorks when it comes to running the Niners into the ground.

You know, it's not just about warranties...

CNN.com: 'Fear of a worthless car warranty'

It's not that buying a Chrysler or GM vehicle might leave an owner in the lurch when it comes to warranty repairs. That's the only thing that people who stumble into buying a new car think about.

The biggie thing is replacement parts. If you've ever had an old car or motorcycle and tried to get parts for it, you know what I'm talking about. I mean, it's difficult enough to get parts for an old car whose maker is still in existence, try that for a car whose manufacturer isn't around anymore. THAT'S the big concern, in my book. Sure, you can always find someone to fix it who knows your car. And for the first couple of years, you'll be able to pretty easily find parts.

But what happens five to ten years down the road? When they stop making new parts and the only source MIGHT be cheap replacement parts and junk yards are finding recycled parts harder and harder to come by?

And think about this: say you buy a new Chrysler or GM piece of shit right now and they DO go bankrupt. Right at that moment, the resale value of your car decreases by at least a third. At least. Does anyone really see a need to take that chance when there are alternatives (Ford or foreign makers)?

I feel bad for the employees of the Big 3. But I think it's time we Americans think if building cars is something we want to sink so much more money into. We don't do it well, we don't do it cheaply, and we aren't buying what we build. So why continue and throw more money after bad?

Of the twelve original firms that were a part of the first Dow Jones Industrial Index (DJIA) in 1896, only General Electric is still a part of it. Every industry eventually dies, every company eventually dies. It sure seems like not only is it the time for the Big 3 to go away or at least vastly change, it's probably a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for government to make the change to new transportation technologies and more invention towards new things.

When is Ron Santo going to shut up?

ESPN.com: Santo: Hall veterans' vote needs change

Enough already, Ron. You feel you should be in the baseball Hall of Fame. We get it, message received. We have been receiving that very same message from the very first day you retired, more so starting the very first day you became a broadcaster.

I have news for you, Ron: it is unseemly to campaign to be included in any group that is deemed to be the best at anything. When you're a broadcaster, it's even more so because you have a pulpit that others who (gasp!) might be truly more deserving than you don't have.

Ron, you're basically telling the HOF voters: 'You clowns don't know baseball greatness when you see it and I'm just the guy to point it out to you... and by the way, I'm THE prime example of greatness you are overlooking'.

Earth to Ron: you're not helping yourself. No one likes to be told (1) how to do their job and (2) that you deserve to belong in their club. Especially in the papers.

Maybe the big problem isn't how the HOF elects post-WWII players. Maybe the problem is that, Ron, you just aren't HOF material. How do we know? Because they people who define HOF material are saying so.

Notre Dame fames showing how classy they can be:

ESPN.com: South Bend fans shower Notre Dame players, police with snow balls

I actually hope they keep Charlie Weis as coach. If they do, then the rest of us are assured many more years of schadenfreude.

Marbury and the Knicks are made for each other:

ESPN.com: D'Antoni offers playing time; Marbury refuses

So D'Antoni told Starbury that he wasn't in their team's plans and iced him for all of the team's first 11 games. Instead of waiving or releasing him, they clearly hoped he would negotiate a buyout.

So when they actually NEED him to play in game #12, he returns the favor and declines to play when asked to.

I can't really say I blame Starbury. I think anyone in his position would have done the same thing. If you are going to try to fuck someone out of the employment contract you both have signed, then what exactly do you expect when you actually need that person's help down the road?

Make no mistake about it: Starbury is selfish and a turd. But you can't expect anyone to do you a favor after you try to dick them around yourself.

Marbuy just showed that he hasn't changed a lick since he came into the league... and the Knicks showed why they are a traveling circus.

Bob Melvin makes Dusty Baker look like a media guru:

According to media reports, the Yankees offered Sabathia approximately $140 million over six years. The Brewers, in contrast, have reportedly offered Sabathia $100 million over five seasons.

"It sounds like they're overbidding," (Brewer GM Bob) Melvin told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. "If the speculation is true that we've offered CC $100 million, why would you offer $140 million? Why wouldn't you offer $110 million?"

Are the Brewers willing to compete with the Yankees' reported record offer?

"I don't want to respond to that," Melvin told the Journal Sentinel. "It's up to the player to go where the money is."

OK. So you will float out there the notion that the Yankees are overbidding. But you won't 'respond' to the notion that your own team will complete with that overbid? Hopefully, there were several loud guffs or laughs at his response when he said it.

What a bunch of bullshit. And people in professional sports wonder why the media isn't always so nice and friendly to them. Maybe it's because those same sports people are always trying to manipulate the media?

Dusty Baker was the very worst at trying to be a media guru. He was AWFUL at it. When he wanted to use the media to do his bidding, in response to a question he'd reply, 'I don't want to talk about it. But I will say this....'

What the fuck? That's how mediocre, hackneyed politicians deal with the media. Never answer a question, just move the conversation somewhere you want it to go.

I could never understand why any interviewer would tolerate that. If you aren't going to answer my question, fine. But don't move MY interview with you somewhere else like that. I ask questions, you can answer them or not. But you don't run the interview.

Yeah, ok, let's blame the economy:

UAW leader says blame economy for Detroit 3 woes



A little bit self-serving. Actually a lot self-serving.

I don't see a need for Goldfinger to defend the wages and benefits his men and women earn. If your employer is willing to make a king out of you, why would you turn that down? And any union that looked out for anyone but their own members and their interests is not a union you want. The Big 3 as employers are already looking out for themselves and have vast resources to do that. The UAW does that for their own members... and there is nothing wrong with that.

Having said that, it's a bit disingenuous to suggest or ignore that high wages and benefits are not a huge factor in causing the woes of the Big 3. No one questions that employee wages and benefits are a huge factor.

What people like Goldfinger should be doing is pointing out that the wage/benefit issue is SOLELY the blame of Big 3 management. They agreed to pay them, no one forced them to. People like Goldfinger should just put it starkly and simply: how many of YOU people would turn down better pay and/or benefits from your employer? How many of YOU people have hesitated for a second to worry about the present and future health of your employer when they shoved a raise in your face? And if your employer goes belly-up because it couldn't manage its financial concerns, how exactly is that YOUR problem?

And think about this: the Big 3 management made a conscious decision to offer more generous retirement benefits in lieu of better pay just so that their tough financial decisions could be put off until later.... later meaning now. Had the Big 3 dealt with those costs in the past, they wouldn't be such an issue now.

One of the Big 3 is going to go belly up, that much seems certain. And money's on Chrysler being that guy (hard to believe that Cerberus though they could make money off buying Chrysler a year ago, did they actually think things would get better for them?).

One of them should go down and the government should not front any of them a dime to help. Does anyone remember how the airlines got all those loan guarantees after 9/11 and then what happened? United went bankrupt anyway. Government loans to any of the Big 3 will just end up like what happened after guaranteeing loans to the airlines after 9/11: benefiting shareholders.

Two words for those guys: fuck you. Too bad, your investment went south, that is risk you take when you place the gambling game called common stock.

Nope. Give the Big 3 money and they will be back again in six months, or they will make sure their executives are comp'd well and their shareholders get a chance to sell to some other sucker, then declare bankruptcy.

Not a dime.

'Bout freaking time....

So OJ is finally behind bars, probably for life. I guess now he won't be able to help the Goldman's find who kill Ron and Denise. I'm sure they are disappointed.

Simpson in isolation, focuses on future appeal

My hope now is that one of those jurors breaks his/her silence, comes out to the press, and just slams Simpson's attorneys for suggesting that he was found guilty as 'payback'. What a HUGE load of shit that is.

That jury did what juries are supposed to do: put people who would assault or threaten people with bodily harm behind bars. There is NO more deserving person to be behind bars than someone who would physically harm us. There just isn't.

Too often, though, it seems that cops and the courts don't do that. They give a free pass to people (usually men) who hurt others. I'm sorry but if you can only put one kind of person in prison, it would be such people. There is CLEARLY a societal benefit to that, which is to truly protect the rest of us.

I am still surprised how casually a lot of people (again, almost always men) take kidnapping. You cannot hold someone against his/her will, that is against the law and you can and will go to jail for a long time for that. You cannot prevent people from leaving your presence unless you are the cops, it's that simple.

Bye, Bye Juice. The rest of us are safer with you away.

I think Friedman hit it right on the head with this op-ed piece:

Making America Stupid

Drill, baby, drill? Give me a break....

Joy Behar: comedian, 'The View' hostess, tough journalist:

McCain Grilled On "The View": Sarah Palin, His Abortion Stance, His Obama Attack Ads, And More

In arguably his toughest interview yet, co-host Joy Behar asked McCain, "There are ads running from your campaign... Now we know that those two ads are untrue, they are lies. And yet, you at the end of it say you approve these messages. Do you really approve these?"

Goddamn, who knew that one of 'The View' chicks would do the job that the mainstream press has abdicated: asking tough questions and not letting EITHER candidate use interviews as infomercials.

What a bunch of dumbasses.

Stubborn Bunch Rides Out (Hurricane Ike) in Galveston

Whatever. Hey, it's your right to act like a moron, this is America, afterall.

But when you decide that you ARE going to 'punk out' and call for help...

Stranded Galveston residents call in vain for help

... that's when your phony bravado and bullshit is wrong. You are now deciding to endanger the lives of rescuers because you were just stubborn or voluntarily acting stupid. Not right.

And you know what? They should NOT get though people out, not even try until it is safe for the rescuers.

'... because we can't take care of ourselves.'

Dude... speak for yourself, you whiny punk.

Learn to Be Nice to Your Wife, or Pay the Price:
Japan's Salarymen, With Pensions At Stake, Work on Their Marriages
Wow... I can't imagine WHY a women wouldn't want to stay in such a marriage. I mean... it beggars the imagination.

Or not.

Goddamn right.

Powell Calls for Closing Guantanamo Bay


"If it was up to me, I would close Guantanamo. Not tomorrow, but this afternoon. I'd close it," (former Secretary of State Colin Powell) said.

"And I would not let any of those people go," he said. "I would simply move them to the United States and put them into our federal legal system. The concern was, well then they'll have access to lawyers, then they'll have access to writs of habeas corpus. So what? Let them. Isn't that what our system is all about?"

Every morning, I see the jail bus on the freeway:



And every late afternoon, I see the same bus on the same freeway, just going in the opposite direction that they were in the morning. Just like me.

Every day, I wave to the jail bus. Every day, no one on the bus waves back.

Do you think they just don't like me?

Say do you remember...


...dancing in September
never was a cloudy day?

I.Am.A.God.

A-1 Jerk....


This fucking clown...

TB Patient ID'd As Atlanta Lawyer

What a real stand-up guy. Told not to fly, told not to travel, flew to Europe anyway. Then because he was on a U.S. no-fly list, he flies into Canada and takes a car back across the border.

A real good man, the kind of person you'd want your children to look up to. Endangered planes of other people, complete strangers, because HE didn't want his plans to be upset.

He should rot in hell.

'Public relations' is not 'public diplomacy'...

... any more than 'American values' should be 'American policy'.

Well said, well said.

ANOTHER Stanford trespasser?

WTF?

Second impostor found at Stanford

A true terrorist.


Liberty U student plotted to set off explosives, police say

Start school later in the morning, say sleepy teens

Gosh, I think I have a better idea: get your ass out of bed like the adults you want to be treated like.

Decline and fall of the neocons

Good reading.

According to Juan Cole, a professor of Middle Eastern history at the University of Michigan and a persistent critic of the Iraq war: “Wolfowitz has demonstrated a penchant for cronyism and for smearing and marginalising perceived rivals as tactics for getting his way. Indeed, these tactics are typical of what might be called the neoconservative style.”

Later, douchebag....

Gonzales is keeping Bush from impeachment? Interesting....

Jesus H. Christ, Paris Hilton is 'traumatized' over having to go to jail?!?!?! Wow, we all need to feel badly for her....

"As a man, you gotta punch the guy that fucked your wife."

Glad to see that OJ is out looking for the folks who killed his wife and Ronald Goldman. Oh.... wait... he doesn't have to look for them because he already found the guy who did it: himself.

'"A woman was reading the news on CNN on the overhead television when our food came. Simpson looked up at her and said, "Man, she got old quick. When you think the last time that woman got laid?" He shook his head. "Who knows? You never know in this world what rings your bell. Now, that Heather Graham girl is fine. And that Jennifer Love Hewitt—that girl got booty for days."'

THE OUTCAST
Conversations with O. J. Simpson

Outsourcing the War

There is slang in Iraq now for this jump. It is called "Going Blackwater." To put it bluntly, these private forces create a system where national duty is outbid by profits. And yet these forces are being used for mission-critical activities. Indeed, in January Gen. David Petraeus admitted that on his last tour in Iraq, he himself was protected not by the active-duty military but by private "contract security."

Pathetic.

Gonzales: ‘I Haven’t Really Thought About’ Habeas Corpus...

Why doesn't this surprise anyone?

At today’s House Judiciary Committee hearing, Rep. Brad Sherman (D-CA) asked Attorney General Alberto Gonzales whether any U.S. citizens are “being held today, for over a month, who have been denied habeas corpus or access to an attorney.” Instead of giving an answer, Gonzales replied, “[Y]ou’re asking me a question I hadn’t really thought about.”

No shit? Wow... well, I am shocked...

Read about it here.

Free Paris

(Paris) Hilton appeals to Schwarzenegger for clemency after she's sentenced to 45 days in jail.

Mission accomplished!



Man, I sure am glad that our involvement in Iraq didn't drag on past then!

Nothing like revisionist history.....

Tony Snow Returns: ‘There Has Been No Attempt To Try To Link Saddam To 9/11′

What a crock....

LOSER!!!!

State Department official resigns over 'D.C. madam'

They came over just gave him massages..... Oh sure, that sounds truthful.....

This guy ran USAID. What is wrong with these guys?

“Was he watching the same hearing as everyone else?”

Man, you've got to be kidding... Is W really THAT out of touch? I guess so...

At Least the Boss Was Satisfied by Gonzales’s Answers

Amen.

Why we shouldn't be bailing out subprime lenders or borrowers

Two words: no shit. I don't understand why any of us taxpayers should be bailing out anyone who has a screwed up mortgage. If you end up losing your house, then you end up like the rest of us: renting. But you keep the house with a govt bailout, you get to keep the equity of your investment? Forget it, I'm not at all for subsizing people who have made a bad investment decision.

'If I applied that standard to you....'

Man, Roberto Gonzales is fucked.... and a fuckhead.

On a Very Hot Seat With Little Cover and Less Support

It was no surprise that the Democrats on the panel skewered Mr. Gonzales. But it was also apparent that even Republicans had serious doubts about his fitness for the job.

"I don't believe that you're involved in a conspiracy to fire somebody because they wouldn't prosecute a particular enemy of a politician or a friend of a politician," said Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina. "But at the end of the day, you said something that struck me: that sometimes it just came down to these were not the right people at the right time. If I applied that standard to you, what would you say?"

It was a devastating question — one reflecting pent-up Republican anger not only at the attorney general, but at President Bush as well.

Another dark day for us all.

Massacre at Virginia Tech

What is wrong with us as a society that these things can happen?

You never forget your first....

First Goatse... (NSFW)

Later, douchebag...

"Rank amateurism and swaggering arrogance..."

I dunno about most folks, but when Mitch Daniels said a second Iraq war would cost $50-60 billion (CNN.com post), I knew we were in for an unjust and just stupid war. That 'estimate' said only one of two possible things: either they didn't know what they were talking about or they simply lied about it. I think it was probably both.

But this critique pretty much says it all, it seems....

Iraqi Details 'Shocking' U.S. Missteps

That's here. That's home. That's us.

Carl Sagan: Pale Blue Dot

Seems like Senator Byrd was just about right....

"Tell the World the True Cost of War"

Oh give me a fucking break......

Doing yoga, doggie style

10 Things Your Blogger Won't Tell You...

1. "Hardly anybody reads me."

I KNOW no one reads me.


2. "The more companies pay me, the more I like their stuff."

Shit.... if I could get a company to pay me to talk about their schwag, I'd make love to their stuff.


3. "Did I mention I'm not a real reporter?"

I'm not a real reporter.


4. "I might infect your computer with a virus."

Not unless blogger.com gets infected.


5. "I'm revealing company secrets."

Ain't no secrets from my company that I could pass. I think.


6. "Just because my name's on it doesn't mean I wrote it."

Do you READ the shit on this blog? Do you think anyone else could/would write so bad?


7. "My blog is just a stepping stone to bigger and better things."

Puhleeze.......


8. "I can control what you see on the Internet."

I couldn't care less what you see on the Internet, I'm not your mom.


9. "Blogging just about ruined my life."

Not as much as my outstanding student loans almost did....


10. "I'm already obsolete."


Declaring yourself obsolete implies that you were relevant at some point in the past. I don't think that's a concern here.

Maybe it is time for a draft....

The Case for the Draft

'Probably titties......'


Pacman Jones On Trial

Oh for fuck's sake................. ......................

Don't the CU Police have anything better to do?

Dirty snitches earn $50 for fingering fellow students smoking pot

OK, so signs were posted that pics and video would be taken of violators. So what? What is the big fucking deal?

Bring your own shit.....


So this guy makes the case that employees should be allowed and encouraged to bring their own computers (laptops) into the office:

Bring your own laptop

I work for a medium-sized business (300 users) that requires most of its employees to purchase their own computers (desktops and laptops) and that such computers on the corporate network must meet just a few minimum specs (basically XP Pro and Office 2003).

I've also worked for companies that provide computer equipment for its employees and don't allow any other computers on their corporate network.

I think the level of IT support is about the same for each, just different.

With my current employer, the problem is three-fold: employees are cheap; employees buy the wrong equipment; and employees fuck up their computers with non-work stuff. We're constantly fighting with agents who are too cheap to buy up-to-date equipment. One agent just this year complained that we should support Windows 98 still. Cheap employees will always make IT folks' lives difficult because they simply don't feel like IT equipment that is secure or keeps support costs down is their problem.

Right now, we have employees constantly buying the wrong equipment. Doesn't matter how clear we make it to them, they will buy the wrong stuff. Then they blame us. Or they expect us to buy the equipment for them and then seek reimbursement from them (uh... no). It's awkward to have to instruct a non-IT person on what to buy and often it fails. Not my problem, but that is the reality of it.

And lastly, our users are constantly fucking up their computers with non-work related stuff. Basically someone surfing websites they shouldn't be or using P2P stuff away from the office or the like. And then we get to clean it up. Happens all the time and it's a huge drain on resources.

But buying/providing equipment for employees is no party either:

Laptops get stolen. In the 15 months I have worked for my current employer, not one laptop has been stolen. In my 18 months at Nortel Networks, a laptop A WEEK was being stolen from just our own building. When people are financially responsible for their own stuff, they take care of it.

People constantly complain when they can't install their own applications. Or if their company-provided machine isn't exactly to their liking. Users often figure that they should be able to use their assigned-computer in whatever way they want away from the office.... which is bullshit. Don't like the rules about use of your company-owned computer when away from the office? Then use your own when away from the office.

And then there are people who want or demand that they be able to use their own personal computer in the office even if assigned a company-owned one. No matter what precautions you take, there will always be a hard-core group of employees who will demand use of their own computers on the corporate network. Unfortunately, this group of people often tends to be very vocal, too.

Half the time, employees will not like having to buy their own equipment, half the time employees will not like having to use company-owned equipment.

Again, though, from an IT support standpoint, it seems to me to be about the same amount of effort needed, just in different ways. Generally, computer users don't seem to take as much care or pay as much attention to their IT gear as they need to, whether it is theirs or the company's. Either way, most users depend on IT to fix the things they have fucked up... but probably shouldn't have been fucking with in the first place.

The problem when you have a dedicated IT staff is that people are just not as careful with their computers (theirs or the company's) as they would be if they had to solve their own computer problems. IT staffs everywhere spend WAY too much time and effort fixing problems that end users have caused because they were fucking around, letting their kids fuck around on their work computers, or just not paying attention.

But whatever, it's my job.

So just where IS the true outrage about high gas prices?

Gas is running just about $3.00 a gallon here in Palo Alto. From what I can tell, up about 50-60 cents in just the last two to three weeks.

Yet I just read how gasoline consumption in this country is going to grow by another 0.4% this year.

People bitch, bitch, and bitch about how gas prices are outrageous, about how we should boycott the oil companies and all that shit. Yet we Americans haven't yet even begun to conserve gas. We haven't lessened our consumption a bit. But people are talking boycott? If they haven't been bothered enough yet to even conserve, how realistic is any talk about a boycott? It isn't, that's the answer.

I don't hold it against the oil companies for getting the price they do on gas. We have proven time and time again that gas is price inelastic: big changes in price result in little change in demand. So why shouldn't they charge as much as the market will bear? We don't do anything but bitch about it, we just buy it anyway.

We all love capitalism.... up until the point it doesn't work to benefit us. Are the oil companies in cahoots with each other over price? Ummmm... fuck people, get this through your heads: THEY DON'T NEED TO BE. Americans have shown time and time again that they don't care how much gas is, they will still buy SUVs and drive to the corner store for a pack of gum instead of walk. Why SHOULDN'T the oil companies take advantage of that?

I don't put any weight into all the hand-wringing and bitching about gas prices. Until there is a clear drop in demand, then it means nothing.

We're just reaping what we've sown. Average MPG for cars in the U.S. is far below what it was in even the early 1980s. Why? Because we wanted bigger and bigger cars and SUVs, we just didn't care about gas prices. The gas crunches of the early and late 1970s proved that.

Now we're just having to lie in the bed we made. I don't feel sorry for the American public at all.

Ummmm......................................................

Why in the hell wouldn't you just do what normal, sane people might do: weigh your luggage at home on your niffy, dandy bathroom scale instead?

Luggage that has a built in digital scale

So this woman jumped onto Highway 101 from an overpass not too far from where I live, killing herself:

San Antonio overpass jumper identified

I ride over this overpass on my bicycle on a fairly regular basis. People have put roses and bouquets and stuff into the fence that she hopped over, as a memorial to her.

Everytime I see that, I want leave my own note:

This woman, she deserves not our sympathy, she deserves nothing but our scorn. She wanted to take her own life, which is horribly sad. But the moment she decided to brutalize and horrify innocent people with her decision, then it became simply an act of incredible selfishness. People hit her body, people ran over her corpse. Doesn't putting others through that sort of horror make her seem just a little bit selfish?

I don't hope she burns in hell or anything like that. But I do hope that wherever she might be, she understands that what she did was so wrong and so cruel to many, many others.

Grrrr.... some renters just don't get it..... ....

I have new tenants.

I hate them already.

To summarize their shitty behavior so far:

1. Ask us to rent them the apartment two weeks after it becomes available. Beg us to, really. We can rent it to others who will move in immediately. Fine, we'll do it, they sign the lease.

2. They call back two days later: can we move in a week early? So now I have to hustle around, find contractors to help 'turn' the apartment, re-arrange my own schedule. But I get it figured out.

3. I call to tell them the good news. Oh, sorry, we're going to stick with the original move-in date. Now I'm pissed. Fine, see you then, slam the phone down.

4. TWO DAYS LATER they call again and ask if they can again move in a week early. I know what's going on: they currently live in a condo they themselves have to rent out and are now in a pinch to have to move early so their own new tenants can move in early.

Now I'm really pissed. Absolutely not, I tell them. They whine and bitch, want to talk to my boss. Go ahead and talk with her, she and I are on the same page. And we are: she tells them that it's my decision and that's it.

Get this: they tell me that they have even scheduled movers to come on this earlier date even though I didn't tell them that it was ok. Dumbasses.

It's just all about money. They don't want to have to pay rent on two places at once.

So I tell them no. And they are now threatening to not move in. Knock yourself out, we have your deposit AND first-month's rent. Do ME a favor and don't move in. We'll have two months of YOUR money to find someone new.

They finally STFU and back down.

Goddamn people. What ever happen to common sense? Or just not making YOUR problems MY problems?

Doesn't plastering this in the media defeat the point?


KTVU here in the Bay Area has been running with this 'Top Story' all morning, both on TV and online:

Baby Abandoned At SJ Fire Station

This isn't a 'top story'. It isn't even a story.

But what it does is defeat the whole point of the law that allows women to leave newborn children at any hospital or fire station in the state. When women who might end up having to take advantage of such a law see the media attention paid to it, they aren't going to do it. Instead, they are a lot more likely to do what the law hoped to stop: more dangerous abandonment of newborns.

Thanks a lot, KTVU, you guys are morons.

Do these Bush people actually believe the bullshit they spout?

I mean, really. Does Rice actually believe what she apparently said? Did she actually say all this with a straight face?

They fucked up going into Iraq in the first place. It's ALL been one big 'tactical error', starting with the decision to go into Iraq.

Support our troops: end the war now so they can all come home ALIVE.

How long should it take to bag a book?....


So I'm at my local chain bookstore this morning. My daughter is with me and she's getting ansy, so when I end up at the checkout counter with my one book, I'd like to get going reasonably fast.

First mistake: having that expectation.

The cashier, a guy dressed like a slob in his early 20s, he took going on a minute just to bag my one, 8"x10" book. I mean, it was surreal watching him struggle to get it in. Not one minute to ring me up, nope, that was already done. Rung up, paid, change already given back. Going on a minute just to bag my book.

I think he technique was flawed. Instead of flipping the bag open first using both hand and then putting the book in, he was trying to use the 'edge' of my 300 page tome to 'slice' open the plastic bag's mouth.

In any case, what kind of piece of Samsonite do you have to be to be so challenged just opening a plastic bag?

After almost a minute (no exaggeration) of watching him struggle, I finally said, 'I'll take care of it', reached over, and took the whole thing from him.

I guess those are the kind of things they don't teach you in school, no?

Straight? Hate gay people? Go.Fuck.Off.

What is it about people hating gay people? You do your thing, they do their thing, all is well.

I mean, what kind of sick, nosey fucker do you have to be to worry about who someone else sleeps with?

Good for this guy, way to stand up to homophobic assholes.

A woman jumped from an overpass onto 101 not far from where I live. Nice, really nice. If you want or feel like you need to take your life, I have sympathy for you and I want you to get help. But the moment you make taking your own life a horror for someone else, you're a fucking bastard. Plain and simple.

All those folks who were involved in the accident after she jumped, they can't feel good about any of it. But the person who first struck her, that person has to be in some world of hurt. Thank you, jumper woman.

How can this be?....................


FBI agents don't all have assigned fbi.gov emails addresses by now? Even if there is money to do it, why hasn't it been done by now?

And we expect FBI people to catch Bin Laden? They're probably hard-working folk in that agency, but good luck with that. If your bosses can't even get you an email address by now, you probably don't have the tools or support you need to do much.

One reason why I'm not a firefighter anymore.....


I was out on a bicycle ride this morning and passed by a senior assisted-living facility. Basically an apartment complex for elderly people.

Anyway, a TON of fire engines and trucks converged on it while I was in the area. It reminded me of one reason why I'm not a firefighter anymore.

What was going on was that there was a general fire alarm that had been tripped at the apartment complex. If it had been a medical/EMS call, it would have been just an ambulance with maybe a fire engine/truck only. There were five pieces of apparatus on this call. And four of them were parked near the complex, they were 'staging', waiting for orders from the first-arriving officer to tell them what they needed to do.

Anyway, when I was a firefighter we had in our district one of the largest such apartment complexes in the state. A huge one. We would go on such general fire calls about every other week, all of them (fortunately) false alarms.

Once, a DOZEN pieces of apparatus showed up on one call. Turns out that someone called 911, said they needed the fire department, and then hung up. Then wouldn't answer a return call from the dispatch. In that case, you assume the worst and send everything required for a full-on general alarm.

When I got to the scene, it turns out that one resident had fallen and sustained only a minor bruise. But 18 different pieces of apparatus (fire engines, trucks, ambulances, chiefs, etc.) showed up simply because the caller didn't think things through.

The caller was the daughter of the patient, a woman in her forties, clearly able to understand that what she did wasn't too smart. I asked her to come outside and pointed out to her that because she (1) hung up on 911 before adequately answering their questions and (2) didn't answer the return phone call, all these people had to show up at 3am for nothing.

Her response: 'Hey, that's your job. Don't tell ME I did anything wrong.'

That kind of attitude is a major reason why I left being a firefighter. People simply not taking responsibility for their own behavior and expecting others to pick up their pieces. The second part of that job, that IS the job. But the first part of that, that's bullshit. So, so, SO many people who come into contact with the fire department, they simply are shitheads who don't or won't take responsibility for their own behavior and become indignant when someone even vaguely suggests that they should.

The rule of thumb we worked with is that 80% of the calls to 911 come from only 20% of the population, the 'frequent flyers' of our society. They get themselves in a jam and decide, fuck it, call 911. You never walk away with a feeling you've helped this 80% of the calls, you usually walk away feeling at best incredulous that people are that selfish, but usually feeling manipulated.

'We're family here!'............

I hate hearing that from anyone when they're talking about a workplace or employer. It's such complete bullshit.

I've worked for some real gems and some real shit employers. But they all have one thing in common: they are all called 'work'. There is a reason why they are distinct from 'home' or 'family': they aren't.

Some workplaces show distinct similarities with dysfunctional families: supervisors set the tone and have all the power in the workplace, they often are the most dysfunctional people there, they treat treat strangers better than their own employees, etc. But people should never make the mistake of thinking that a workplace or employer is somehow a 'family' in any intelligent sense of the word.

When I hear that 'family' thing, I immediately think of workplaces that have those motivational posters on their walls. Employers or their agents who actually say that they are like family there, they are the kind of people who think actual improvement of any sort can be made by putting up a poster.

Sickening.

'Ummmmm... so that apartment is how many square feet?'...

We're advertising for an apartment of ours that will be vacant soon. The Craigslist ad we have posted lists the usual: square feet, # of bedrooms/bathrooms, amount of rent, date it'll be available, etc.

People can't read. It's really true. A call today went like this, which in many ways is typical:

Caller: 'Uh... hi. I saw your ad on Craigslist for the apartment.'

Me: 'OK. Good.'

C: 'Well, I wanted to know more about it.'

M: 'OK. What do you want to know that the ad didn't cover?'

C: 'Ummm... well, when will it be available?'

M: 'The ad said it is available after (such-and-such a date). So that's when it will be available.'

C: 'Got it. Any way that the apartment will be available earlier than that date?'

M: 'Sorry, but no. The current tenants have a lease until that date.'

C: 'Oh... OK. So how many square feet is the apartment?'

M: 'The ad said it is (so many) square feet.'

C: 'OK. And the rent is (so many dollars) a month, right?'

M: 'That's right, that's what the ad said.'

C: 'Got it. And it's two-bedroom and one-bath, right?'

... pause ...

M: 'I'm not sure. What did the ad say?'

C: 'It said two and one.'

M: 'Then that's what it is.'

C: 'Uh..... OK.... So you're sure that it won't be available before (date)?'

.... pause ...

M: 'I'm sure.'

C: 'Not a chance, huh?'

... pause ...

M: 'What other questions can I answer for you?'

... and so on.

I mean, fuck..... What is it about so many people who look for an apartment? They can't read? They look away from the computer and they forget what they just read? Not every caller has been like the one above. But a surprisingly great number of them.

It's like that video 'Fry Day (Out)', the one that made the rounds on the Web, that has the dog who tried the Jack in the Box drive through and Jack has the voice of Jack Nicholson. The one where the dog keeps asking for fries. 'Who put the 'freak' in French fries?'.....

Just like that. Except different.

The bullshit with and about bicyclists...


So for the whatever time in my life, a dipshit motorist didn't bother to look, pulled away from the curb, and cut me off, almost running me over.

He eventually saw me in his rear-view mirror, pulled over, rolled down his window, and shouted an apology as I passed. I didn't say anything back, I was still too pissed about seeing my life flash before my eyes again because someone can't be bothered to act as if someone else's life depends on him to drive attentively. Because, gee, it actually does.

Truth: too few motorists act like bicyclists or even pedestrians exist. Is it intentional? I hope not. But it's very true: too many drivers act like it's only other drivers they need to pay attention for and to. Believe me, bicyclists can't act like that. Just think about it: how many times do bicyclists collide with cars? Not anywhere near as often as cars colliding with bicyclists. Why? Because you HAVE to look out for cars when you're cycling. Motorists don't see it that way.

Is that criminal? It should be if someone else is seriously injured because of it. A car is a potential weapon, there is simply no argument about that. You injure someone with a weapon, intentional or not, that can be considered a crime. Intent doesn't mean shit, which is where a lot of people screw up when they talk about criminal law: you don't have to intend hurt or malice to be guilty of a crime.

In any case, it's bullshit how seldom motorists are prosecuted for injuring or killing a bicyclist or pedestrian.

Truth: too many bicyclists act like traffic laws don't apply to them. Hey, asshole, guess what: they do. Stop signs mean stop, red lights mean stop, if there is a bike lane it means you use the bike lane. I don't know where this arrogance most bicyclists have comes from, but it's just as bullshit as motorists who ignore bicyclists. This attitude is so pervasive, though, that I am the only bicyclist I know who actually stops at all red lights and stop signs. I've had other bicyclists curse me because I stopped at a stop light and they almost crawled up my back wheel. Fuck you, buddy. Get a brain, exercise some maturity, and obey traffic laws like everyone else.

Whatever. I just hope my days don't end because some dipshit couldn't be bothered to look in his mirrors.

What a surprise......

So this former high-level Bush administration official has been arrested for trying out a dip-shit shoplifting scam on Target. And the president is 'shocked'.

I'm sure he is. If it were the Vice President, that'd be one thing because laws literally don't apply to him. But an administration official who has the time or is 'lowly' enough to even have to shop at Target (you don't actually think people like Scooter Libby and Cheney actually shop for themselves at all, much less at Target, do you?), he isn't powerful enough to ride out that sort of behavior and keep his job.

Man, what a jerk. But he picked the right chain of stores to get pinched for it. Target apparently is renown for its shoplifting/theft detection and response.

It's a simple yet inelegant scam: buy something, take it out to your car, return to the store with the receipt for the something in hand, go back and get another of the something, make a beeline for the return counter, get your money back, go home with the first something you purchased AND the cash for it in hand.

And he got pinched. That's not all that surprising. What isn't surprising at all is that he is yet another 'conservative' Republican who in action (1) doesn't think the law applies to him and (2) is simply and literally a crook. Consevatives LOVE to spout off about being tough on crime and all that, yet they do things like this themselves. Not that Democrats don't. But Democrats aren't so sanctimonious about telling the rest of us about such virtues being so important in others. In others but not as much in themselves.

You know how this dance goes from here, though: he pleads that he was under a lot of mental stress in his life, he didn't know what he was doing, and he goes into alcohol/drug rehab very soon.

Which is all bullshit, of course.

You don't hatch or execute such a plan multiple times because you're depressed or under stress. Why would you do something so stressful if you were already under stress?

This guy's a fucking crook and should go to jail. Hopefully he does and gets to spend it with folks he said in his past life should be in the can for crimes like his.

Barry used steroids? Well, I am shocked! SHOCKED! ...

... to use a quote from Claude Rains' character in 'Casablanca'....

WTF? Is anyone who knows anything scientific about steroid use all that surprised that, gee, Barry's been on the juice for a number of years now? His physique shows almost all the classic signs of steroid and HGH abuse (no apparent acne) and has for many years now. Why the surprise?

Apparently this new book, 'Game of Shadows' by San Francisco Chronicle reporters Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams, meticulously details basically irrefutable proof that Bonds has used steroids and HGH for a long, long time.

The amazing thing about the book is that apparently most of the research was done on public testimony and culled from public records. This is very much different from much of the reporting that has so far been done on Bonds because they almost always relied on anonymous sources. A lot of the source material in the book apparently comes from testimony from named folks. Uh oh for Bonds....

But this isn't new ground, nor is it going to change people's current perceptions of Bonds. At this point, you're either a Barry Hater (me included) or a Barry Apologist... if you care about Barry at all. This book isn't going to change any minds, although it may make some currently indifferent about it all Barry Haters.

I don't know how Barry's body can say it any lounder: he's done steroids... and he's done a LOT of them. Just look at his body now. When you stop using steroids, your body reverts and regresses. Gee, what a coincidence that he doesn't have nearly the muscle tone or lean muscle mass that he did just a year or two ago. More stringent steroid testing and him suddenly looking like he's no longer on the juice? Hmmmm...

Fucking dork factor in all this: Mark Fainaru-Wada used to be known simply as 'Mark Fainaru' until he married a woman whose last name is 'Wada'. And, so cute, they each decided to hyphenate their respective last names with the other's last name!

Why?

What a dorky and lame thing to do. Weird, too.

Dana Reeve, may your soul rest in peace.

'You know, you don't have to be an asshole everyday...

... you can take a day off once-in-awhile.....'

So I'm cruising to work this morning. Minding my own fucking business, like I usually do. I let people merge without giving them a hard time, I signal before I change lanes, I don't tailgate, etc.

But it's 855 in the AM. Carpool lane time is about to end. That lane's getting more single-driver cars every second. My rule is when 850a hits, that lane is mine. So I go.

And I get some dickhead who decides that I shouldn't be there behind me. He's got two, his passenger looking decidedly uneasy at his front bumper being so close to my rear one.

I'm passing cars in the next lane at a good clip; so that's not the issue. He's pissed because I'm one person in what is still an HOV lane for less than five more minutes.

Give.Me.A.Fucking.Break.

So I head off towards the airport because I work near it. And he's still tailgating me. I can see his passenger giving him the business because he's acting like a moron. He finally gets next to me, pointing his finger at me, obviously saying that I shouldn't have been in that lane. So how do I respond?

I laugh and wave. Fuck you buddy, you're on my pay-no-fucking-mind-list today. Or any day, for that matter.

What is it with some people? You have so few problems you have to decide to make ME one of yours? Grow up.

John Kerry should be thanking his lucky stars right now.....


So I just read how this Army general actually said on TV that '(things in Iraq are) going very, very well from everything you look at.' The dumbass actually said that. He said it with a straight face, too. Unreal.

In any case, John Kerry should be thankful right now that he didn't win the presidency because no matter who became president in 2004, the war in Iraq that he would inherit was going to become a quagmire and we are seeing it now. The moment we went to war, the only outcome for at least the U.S. was for it to end badly. If the stars were REALLY against the thing, Iraq would also dissolve into civil war and sectarian violence... oh, wait... that's what is going on right now.

Had Kerry won, do you really think people would generally be blaming now former President Bush for the quagmire? Nope, they'd blame Kerry.

Bush made this shit-sandwich that is Iraq, it's only fair that he and his bunch have to eat every bite of it now. They got us into the mess in Iraq, they should have to pay the price for it now.

I mean, it sounds silly but it's really true: Kerry and the Democrats in general should be thankful that given the war in Iraq, they are the minority party and didn't win the presidency. Let the people who made the bad decisions have to live with the consequences of those bad decisions.

BTW, I support our troops. That's why I want them to come home alive right now.

So no irate towed-car owner.... yet....

Strange, no one has called on me to inquire about their car being towed last night from our apartment complex. I'm beginning to think that maybe the owner was smart enough to realize that, gee, it was towed because I had illegally parked it on private property.

Actually, one tenant of mine said she recognized it as a vehicle that has been parked at the complex a couple of times. But that really doesn't matter. If anything, it makes their violation more egregious because then they should have recognized where they parked was illegal.

Anyway, in the words of Fenster in 'The Usual Suspects':



'Fuck 'um.'

So I had to have someone's car towed tonight....

I knew that at some point in my illustrious apartment managing career that I'd have to do it. And it scares the crap out of me.

It's a typical scenario: someone parked his SUV in a tenant's assigned spot. She catches up to me and rightfully wants something done. I do my due diligence: go around to EACH tenant and see if they own it or know who does. Not a peep. Call the cops, have the plate run to see it is it stolen and it isn't. Call my property management bosses, leave voicemails for everyone because... well, it's Friday night, no one's going to be on-line.

So I call a tow company and they come right out. While they are hooking up the SUV, I'm thinking, man, I hope the owner doesn't come back right now. I've seen people get REALLY pissy about their vehicle getting towed. Like fighting mad.

Then I think, uh... actually if they ARE going to come back maybe it SHOULD be now because there is one more guy here on my side (the wrecker driver) than later on. Fuck...

So now I'm typing here at my desk, in my upstairs apartment, half-waiting for a thump on my door, followed by a, 'Hey, why the FUCK did you tow my car?'

But it's one of those things where I'm just someone who was just doing his job. It isn't my fault that someone acts really presumptuous and parks on what is clearly private property and in what is clearly someone else's parking space.

If it were me, I'd be really pissed, too. But I'd be really pissed only at myself for doing something so stupid. I would never blame someone for just doing his job. But I don't think most people (men anyway) are like me in that aspect. People get REALLY weird about their cars, even if they act like morons with them.

This sucks. I don't think it's me, I think most people in my position would feel like I do right now: on pins-and-needles, waiting for someone to come back for the car and just waiting to get it all over with. I shouldn't feel fear right or anxiety now, that isn't right. But yet, I do. I made sure my front door was double-locked tonight, that I keep the noise down so maybe whomever comes looking for me, they won't think I'm home and leave me alone.

Not right, man. Why should anyone who is just doing his or her job feel this way because others are selfish and/or dumbasses?

Never any reason for this.....


Another person was stuck and killed by a Caltrain train this morning, not too far from where I live.

Trains are big. They're noisy. In spite of what some people will unbelievably claim, they do not sneak up on people.

Little kids? Unsupervised, I can see them getting themselves into danger with trains. But then where are their caregivers? Same goes for the invalid or those suffering from dementia or otherwise cannot care for themselves (hence, they are supposed to have careGIVERS).

A couple of deaf teenagers were killed not too far from there on the same tracks about twenty-five years ago. They were walking on the tracks in the same direction of travel as the trains on that pair of track. Not smart, but you can't save people from their own stupidity. Deaf or not, just how old do you have to be to realize that, gee, maybe I shouldn't be here?

It just perplexes me to no end that there is even ONE such death a year on any stretch of track, much less the one a month that happens to Caltrain. It's just so senseless, so needless.

It's reported by the train engineer that this person deliberately stepped out in the path of the train. If that's true, wherever that person's soul may be, I hope he's in a bit of discomfort. Such a selfish, hurtful thing to do to anyone else.

What I don't understand about Islam is......

... why it gets such a bad rap compared to Christianity? Or why it gets tied to what crazies do in its name while Christian shitheads who do what they do in god's name get a free pass.

I mean, there are crazies who say they practice Islam and do the crazy things they do in the name of Muhammad and/or Islam. But they aren't true Muslims. They are people who have co-opted the name of Muhammad to do evil deeds.

Just like many Christian crazies. Jim Jones comes to mind very quickly. David Koresh is another. Even Oklahoma bomber Timothy McVey was something of a Christian nut.

Why is it we immediately tie Islam to the crazies that say they are Muslims, but we don't call all American veterans nuts since McVey was an Army vet (along with two of his co-conspirators, Terry Nichols and Michael Fortier)? I mean, when you look at the Oklahoma City bombing, you could just as easily paint the U.S. Army with the same brush that many people have painted Islam in association with World Trade Center.

I guess someone needs to explain it to me.

WHY do people on BART do that?

OK, so why do so many BART riders switch train cars? I mean, it seems like every ride on shitty BART that I take, at least a half-dozen people move between cars. It isn't as if the cars are so full you can't find a seat in any of them, they are all about equally full on most trains from what I can see.

So what's the attraction of one car over another? It's not bothersome or anything, just strange to me. Why would you want to subject yourself to the danger of passing between cars while the train is moving if you didn't have to?

If you think it's so you can move away from that weirdo in the first car, sister, I have news for you: there are weirdos on EVERY BART car.

If you are one of those weirdos, hoping that better women are in the next car, sit your ass down and just enjoy the ride.

'Ma'am, what do you want me to do?'....

So I'm at my local Safeway this evening and this woman's debit card won't work at the checkout stand. She's basically being a PITA (pain-in-the-ass), but the supervisor/manager guy is handling it I think perfectly. A case study...

Woman: 'Your card reader isn't working right'.

Manager: 'Ma'am, that just isn't true. Literally hundreds of people have used that card reader today and you are the first one to have a problem with it. If you look, no one behind you in line is having a problem using it. The problem isn't the card reader, it's your card.'

W: 'Well, I KNOW I have money in my account, I just checked today.'

M: 'OK, well, then there is our ATM machine, you can just take money out and pay by cash.'

W: 'I don't want to pay the $1.50 fee. I'm not going to pay that fee. YOU people, Safeway should pay that fee for me.'

(long pause)

M: 'Ma'am, we can't do that. I can't do that. If you suggest to me something I CAN do, I will happily do it for you.'

W: 'Well, I have money in my checking account. I will sign whatever you want for my groceries, I'm good for it.'

M: 'Basically, you want me to take an IOU.'

W: 'Well, it's YOUR card reader that is causing the problem.'

(longer pause)

M: 'Ma'am, it's busy. We have a lot of customers and a LOT of grocery stocking to do. I'm not here to solve the problems with YOUR debit card. Either withdraw money from your account at that ATM and pay for your groceries that way or just buy your groceries another time.'

... and he walked away.

Good for him. Good for ALL checkers everywhere.

Note to the General Public: other people aren't obligated to solve your problems or make changes to their policies because of your problems. They SHOULDN'T if you are presented with viable options (using the ATM in this case) but refuse to choose one.

Personally, if I were that manager, I wouldn't have wasted any more breath than to say, 'Ma'am, we accept cash, check, food stamps, or a SUCCESSFUL credit or debit card transaction.' And left it at that. No arguing, no bullshit, just say that and leave it at that.

So I'm here, at our colo(cation) site....

.... waiting for the 'all clear' on our server coming back to life. We had to run it out here so we weren't doing back ups of our remote locations over the wire. Bring it here, hook it up, bring it back to life, get back ups going, go to sleep, and in the morning, voila!, hopefully things are back to normal.

A GREAT substitute for iTunes: ml_iPod

So I found a great substitute for that piece-of-shit application called iTunes. It's called the WinAmp iPod plugin (aka ml_iPod). When coupled with WinAmp (a really great free music player app), it does everything you want iTunes to do except fuck up your iPod or your iPod settings.

The only unfortunate thing is that you can't subscribe to podcasts through (big surprise) iTunes. So if your favorite podcast is only available through iTunes, too bad. But whatever, it's still a great app.

Don't get me started: mind-boggling cell phone behavior...

So SFGate.com has a 'Two-Cents' edition, for people to list mind-boggling cell phone behavior they have witnessed... or (more likely) subjected to. Interesting.

I don't know where to start with morons on their cell phones. At least once a day I see it or have to defend myself from it. Today it was the jerk in the new Mercedes who decided that talking on the phone was more important than using his turn signal and cut me off.

(I have no qualms about racing and getting in front of such drivers. I simply do not want to be behind them when they cause an accident.)

Or last week having to listen to someone yak away on their cell while I'm in a stall in the same public restroom. I think that is the epitome of rude. I'd be super pissed if I figured out the person I was on the phone with was in the bathroom talking to me.

I turned down an IT job in part because the supervisor who was interviewing me decided to both take a call and then take and respond to email on his Treo. The call came first. But when he stopped to tap out an email, I stopped talking. He actually had the gall to wave me on and say, 'Don't mind me, go on.' Yeah... sure, asshole.

I'm always in credulous when those sorts of things happen in interviews. I mean, yeah, job seekers are usually/often on the begging end of things. But all employers still have to compete for the best talent... and you don't do that by being rude or making people feel as if they don't matter.

Actually, I have one befuddlement about people using cell phones: why do you have to talk so loud? Cell phone microphones are designed and made to pick up voice sounds near them, you don't need to speak loudly. In fact, in most environments you can actually talk more softly than you usually would.

Yet, I get on Caltrain or BART and people practically shout. It's really amazing.

Are they STILL looking for that goddamn whippet around JFK airport?

ESPN.com: Psychics help in search for missing prized whippet

JHC.... They haven't looked for Amelia Earhart this much. Wish I had that much money to throw at such a thing.

Then again, I really don't wish that. Rich people on average are just as happy/unhappy as the rest of us. I'm not rich nor have I ever been. But believe me, it's very true.

The only thing I know or have heard regarding the Winter Olympics: Bode 'Fucking' Miller. What a loser. Talked, talked, talked, ran his mouth SO much leading up to the events and then laid an egg five times.

Do non-American athletes behave like him, too? Or is it just Americans?

So I finally bought an iPod.... Got me one of them new-fangled music player thingies....

Picked up the 30gb iPod that plays videos. We'll see how much I like it. I love my tune-age, but I'm not much of a gadget guy. I'm actually looking forward to being able to listen to podcasts instead of having to read the paper five times over and over when I take BART to my occasional work gigs in San Francisco.

The damn thing even came with white stickers of the Apple logo. Give me a break. I just dropped a small fortune for this thing, and now I'm going to advertise for you for FREE? Wow, such chutzpuh...

One thing I've never liked about the iPod is iTunes. What a piece of shit application. I've had to configure it more than a few times for folks where I work and I just hate it. Someone should come up with a freeware app that does all of it better. Please.

I've got 5200 songs? 20.1gb's worth? Cool....

I'm against the death penalty, period. No exceptions.

That doesn't mean that I think those who are sentenced to death are generally swell folk, that they somehow are usually anything but evil people.

But you can't take back putting someone to death and we have already almost certainly put innocent people to death. That's reason enough to stop.

So this guy is on death row for shooting a cop in what appears to be a clear case of self defense:

FOXnews.com: Railroaded Onto Death Row?

(I don't usually read or watch anything branded 'FOXnews', but it was the only coherent story I could easily find about this.)

That guy shouldn't be on death row if what is presented as the facts of the case is true. I mean, it beggars reason that this guy should in the same ZIP code as a death row, much less on it.

(Note to Mr. Maye: don't smoke pot with your toddler child around. It's sad that someone has to tell you or anyone not to do that. Use.Your.Fucking.Head.)

Well, I think THIS blog might become one of those 'numerous blogs', spank me very much......

The Smoking Gun: Foxy Felon Threatens TSG

Nice.

So I work for this medium-sized company. We have some salespeople who are bastards. Always want something for free, never want to pay for anything... which is pretty ironic since they more than most people should understand that there is truly no such thing as a free lunch. But then again, a lot of salespeople enjoy trying to fuck others over to get their lunch for free...

One guy, he wants me to customize Outlook to do CRM stuff. He's a jerk, he's just too cheap to pay for one of any number of retail products that does EXACTLY what he wants and he wants in-house support instead of having to call an 800 number. Basically, he wants to be able to dial me up at 2am when his cobbled-together thing goes south.

No can do, I tell him. The company doesn't want us working on stuff gratis for salespeople that they should be buying themselves. But here are several suggestions for different retail programs that do exactly what you want...

Guy blows a gasket, says all he hears from me is 'no', that I'm not doing anything for him. Basically, pissed that I won't do what he wants for free.

Ummm.... well, when you don't want to pay for anything, what sort of answer do you expect?

Funny thing is that had he just been nice, I would have offered to him FOR FREE the project I had just done on my own time that does exactly what he wants. For free. But since I had done it on my own time and not at the behest of my employer, I'm under no obligation to tell him shit. So I don't.

I think there is a lesson to be learned here: if you're just nice to people, they will do nice things for you in return. When you act like an asshole, people decide they have better things to do than to do favors for you.

This guy could have saved himself probably $1000 or so... if he had just been nice.

You reap what you sow.

So through one of my favorite websites, BoingBoing, I found this blog entry about bag searches at the exits of retailers:

(BestBuy) Receipt Check

Basically, he had a run in with the security folks at his local BestBuy. Been there, done that.

Working retail is a tough, tough gig. I did it while I was in pharmacy school, did it in college, it sucks. People crap on you all the time.

Empathy tells me to treat such employees as well as I can. But still I don't stop for such searches. I shop at my local Fry's in Palo Alto about once a week and I never stop. I don't make a big deal about it, I just continue walking as if they didn't say anything to me. I am polite and as courteous as I can be.

But I'm not a thief; so they can't say they saw me five-finger anything because I haven't. Besides, the guy at the door couldn't have seen or pretend to have seen me do such a thing anyway, which is one of the basic guidelines when it comes to detaining a shoplifter: you have to have seen the guy actually gain possession of the item AND kept him in continuous observation since that point.

The moment I paid for an item, I own it. They don't have any claim to it anymore and it's mine. So why do I need to prove to anyone that I own it? The onus of proving ownership is now on them, not me.

In any case, people will say that it's a minor inconvenience and that I'm not helping any situation by not submitting to such a search. I counter that it's a needless minor inconvenience and one that people should not accept just on principle. I'm not a thief and I'm not going to willingly go along with being treated as one.

If Fry's or BestBuy wants to bar me from entry into their stores in the future because I won't submit to such searches, go nuts. I won't argue that I have no any right to shop where I want solely on my own terms, that's fair enough. But once your PRESENT sale, our PRESENT transaction is complete, sorry but go search someone else who doesn't mind.

Now would I refuse a search if they threatened to call the cops on me? Depends on how much time I have to burn. If I need to be somewhere quick, I'd probably give in and just go on with my life. But if the cops DID show up, I'd fight it. At that point, what do I have to lose? I'd sure welcome a modest settlement for false imprisonment from Fry's or whomever.

But I wouldn't give the cops a hard time. Whether you're right or not, cops are ALWAYS in the right, at least until a court says otherwise. And like it or not, it isn't Fry's security personnel but the police who are the sole entity in our society who CAN lawfully arrest you. So you don't want to piss them off.

Basically, we each have the time to be left alone, especially when it comes to non-governmental entities. My business is concluded with Fry's or Best Buy or whatever store and I'm leaving. You have no right to pester or molest me, I am not bothering you.

It's one of the most underrated rights we have in society: the right to be left alone. This is certainly one of those times I wish Fry's and Best Buy and other stores would remember that.

BTW, if you've ever wondered what those numbers on that big yellow board at BestBuy mean:



... here are your answers:

Retail Secrets: Best Buy Wall Numbers