We recently had a section of highway named after Martin and Coretta King. Now, I'm not a big fan of the entire concept of civil rights, since it can often subject an individual to a governmental end around the double jeopardy clause, and the concept has been overly abused over the years. I am a fan of the concept that all people should be treated the same, and all men (and women) are equal.

That being said, you can guess the race of the majority of the audience that attended the formal unveiling of the names, and that is fine, since Dr. King worked so hard and gave his life trying to get blacks to be treated the same as whites. The problem I have is a statement made by one of the "enlightened ones" at the unveiling. Dr. King's legacy is one of peace and equality for all races and religions. So, what does our enlightened female say? "The naming of this road represents my race." Oh, really?

Remember: White people aren't the only ones who are racist.

I'm still alive!

I am still enduring the pain of having dial-up. Fortunately, the local company only charges $7 per month. I have been a pain in the ass for Charter, and I will continue to be a pain in the ass until they decide to extend out to my house. Hell, from the main highway to my house, there are approximately 16 houses. If only 10 wanted Internet and/or cable TV, the cost of extending the lines would be quickly offset by the approximately $700 in monthly revenue, multiplied by 12, multiplied by many years to come!

Anyway, who would have thought that I would be wearing shorts in January?

The American Dream

So, the cable company told me that cable is a no-go for where I'm at. That left Satellite Internet through HughesNet. Now, I'm talking to the DirectTV guy, and he says that even with the special package offer and discounts, that they will require over $300 just for set-up fees, plus my credit card so HughesNet can do automatic credit card charges. Bullshit!! First, if I'm trying to purchase your product for an extended period of time (such as cable, satellite, or Internet), then I shouldn't have to front up some money. Second, nobody-and I mean Nobody!-gets a free shot at charging my credit card each month. So, I voice my displeasure with the DirectTV guy, and he then goes Sotto Voce and tells me that hang in there for a couple of months, since DirectTV was probably going to get into the satellite Internet business pretty soon, and it would be a heck of a lot cheaper that Hughes-stick-it-in-your-ass-Net.

Anyway, yesterday I had an almost totally perfect day. I woke up in my own bed, in my own home, on my own piece of land. I turned on my own TV to listen to the news, fixed a hot cup of coffee, and got my newspaper out of the paper box in my front yard. As I walked out to retrieve my paper, I could see the first rays of sunlight, and the early birds chirping. I walked past my own vehicle and across my own lawn and back. I had breakfast and worked in my workshop for several hours on some models. I did some easy yard work, watched TV, and read some magazines. I carved two pumpkins for my son. Later, I threw some chops on the grill, along with some corn on the cob and asparagus. Afterwards, I took a hot shower and relaxed on my couch. This, my friends, is the American Dream.

Yaaaaaaaahhhhhh!!!

OMFG! Dial-up really sucks. I am in a location where I am too far away from the cable lines and too far away from the nearest DSL node. Therefore, I am stuck using my back-up dial-up connection that I've always had. It looks like the only option I will have for broadband is satellite, which I've not heard good things about. I harrassed my local cable company to come out and do a study, and they did. I'll know the answer to whether they will come out my way next week.

Jeez, buying a house is painful! Our scheduled closing date was moved back four days, and it might be moved back, again. The inspector saw a termite. No, not a termite infestation, not a termite nest, nor any termite damage: He saw a freakin' termite. So, now we have to wait for the termite killer to come and do whatever it is the Orkin man does to keep those pesky termites in check, which means if he doesn't get his thumb out of his ass, the closing date will be moved again. Now, factor in the fact that the insurance company was going to deny insuring the house because of a vine growing up the power cable, and a missing brick on the front porch. A plant and a freakin' brick!

Anyway, the plant is history, and the brick is of a different color, so we will hopefully close soon.

Religion of Peace Strikes Again

Remember: When a Christian burns down a church, it is a hate crime. When a Muslim burns down a church, it is merely a protest.

Everyone loves a good blow...

Well, we survived another tropical storm. TS Ernesto came through at the end of last week and dumped nearly a foot of rain on us. Some of the surrounding counties suffered some serious flooding.

The wife and I put in a bid on a house, and the sellers accepted. It is going to feel weird owning an actual home. This house is in the middle of nowhere. Unfortunately, it is in the next county, since the price of homes in my current county are ludicrous. The problem with my county is that an E-5 in the Marine Corps gets something like $800 in BAQ (basic allowance for quarters). This is money that is in addition to his normal salary. Hence, a serviceman with 5 years in can afford to buy a house in the city, but a city employee doesn't make enough to do the same thing.

We are looking at a 3BR, 2BA brick home on over an acre of land with a wired, air conditioned studio behind the house. There are woods on three sides, so we get plenty of privacy. The downside is that I will have to drive about 35 minutes one way to and from work. I work 5 days a week, but I am planning on adjusting my hours to 4 days a week. The house has a gas log fireplace, so we won't have much of a heating bill in the winter. Tentative closing date on the house is September 22. I'll keep you informed...

HP sucks

So, my HP laptop of 2.5 years starts acting quirky. I wondered if it was a software issue, since the system continued to seize up and then give me either a black screen telling me that windows can't run normally, or a Blue Screen of Death. After a couple days of trying to run diagnostics to no avail, I find my OS disk, reformat the hard drive, and do a clean install of Windows XP. Upon installation, I endure the painful process of downloading and installing Service Pack 2 through an 802.11b wireless access.

After everything was done, I tried to use the computer. After about a day, I started getting more BSOD's. I then noticed that the hard drive light would stay solid when the computer would temporarily seize up. If I thumped the computer lightly, the light would then twitter normally and the computer would unseize. It really sounded like a hardware issue to me, with my first idea being a slowly dying hard drive, and second being a dying motherboard. So, I run several different diagnostic programs on the HD, and everything comes back normal. I then try to run a hard drive-intensive program, and get a BSOD.

This is what I'm leading up to, so don't leave yet!

I go on-line with HP Chat Support and get a supposed tech talking with me. I repeat to him my BSOD message, and the tech tells me it is a software issue, and I need to do a clean install of XP. I tell him that I have just done a clean install, and his technical expertise tells him to tell me that I need TO DO IT AGAIN!!! YGTBSM! He tells me that if it continues, then to get back up with him and he would treat it as a hardware issue.

This is on top of the fact that the HP All-In-One printer we bought in May won't feed paper automatically.

I'll never buy another HP product.

Well, I have just returned from a week in Greensboro at the Guilford Technical Community College for a school. It was a tough "train the trainer" type of school, and if you have ever attended one of these schools, then you understand the stress involved. In order to remain in the class, one had to score high on a written exam and perform the required motor skills at 100%. We lost several students on that day.

Here in Jacksonville, we have traffic and congestion, but what I like about the area is if you keep driving for about 10-15 minutes, you will see farm land and cow pastures. In the Greensboro area, it is built up like the typical urban environment. Traffic really, really sucked!

Right now, I'm relieved that I passed the course, and I'm happy that I can use this new certification to make some extra money (about $20-$25 per hour), but I'm also pissed, because I haven't seen my wife in a week and I was really looking forward to spending some quiet quality time with her. What did she do? She volunteered to go to work, which means that she was gone when I got home, and because of our shift schedules, I won't be able to see her until Tuesday night. I think she knows I'm miffed...

Anyway, I stayed in a Hampton Inn in Archdale. The hotel had just installed their new beds. OMFG! These beds are awesome! I need to get one. I was so comfortable...I've never layed in a more comfortable bed. Plus, they give you three down pillows...ahhhhh!

The United Nations

Is there a more useless organization in the world?

Geeks of the world, unite!

I've built plastic models off and on since I was a little boy. It all started with a snap together helicopter when I was 7, along with some small glue together ships that my father brought home for me. B the time I was 8, Star Wars and such became more important, and I couldn't care less about models. When I was 11, we moved to North Carolina. I met a boy the same age who built model airplanes, and he did a really good job with them, and I wanted to build models like him. I built the occaisional airplane until my mid teens, when cars and girls became more important. I was a junior in college and a big fan of Star Trek: The Next Generation when my parents bought me a model of the USS Enterprise. I spent over six months building that kit, using a toothpick to paint several hundred individual windows.

I continued building the Star Trek series of models, along with an airplane here and there, through my early 20's. I then met my first wife, who felt that building models was no different than playing with toys. Again, I got out of the hobby, but kept all of my supplies (airbrush, paints, brushes, spare parts box, etc). My life with my first wife was fortunately short, and when she left I started building WW2 airplanes. I started dating my eventual current wife, and she thought that my ability to take a box of plastic pieces and build and paint it into a replica of the real thing was neat, and she supported my hobby.

I have become semi-serious about building my airplane models. I have well over 100 unbuilt model kits in my closet, and I have a goal of building one of each aircraft flown during the Second World War. I have thousands spent on books, kits, and supplies. I have a gas mask that I wear when airbrushing. I have run out of room in our small house to display, and already have plans on how I'm going to set up my new hobby room when we get our new house at the end of the year.

About two years ago, several model builders who frequented a local hobby shop decided to get together twice a month and form a hobby club. Building plastic models is a small niche hobby. The quality of kits and supplies now are better than ever, but less and less people are getting into the hobby. Think about it: Model building is competing against video games and the Internet. I see it in my stepson: He goes for the immediate gratification of blasting away at something on the computer than the enduring, self-satisfaction of patiently building a kit.

Yesterday I attended my first model convention. A convention is where model builders display their kits and compete for prizes while vendors display and sell their wares. I bought six kits at great rates, along with four more for my son. Looking around, you could see and smell the geek factor. Not many athletic, outdoorsy types there. Instead, there were a lot of fat, brainy geeks and really skinny, pasty-skinned geeks around, plus an above-average number of handicapped individuals (model building is a great hobby for those who are mobility impaired).

Why do I build? For me, it is the satisfaction of creating something with my own hands. I love all things dealing with WW2 aviation, and whenever you build a kit, you tend to read about your subject, and the researching you do is almost as much fun as the build. Because of my hobby, I would definitely have to say that I have an above average knowledge about World War 2, along with WW1, Korea, and Vietnam.

My five-year-old sees me build, and he wants to build. I don't hesitate to purchase easy kits for him, because I want him to learn to build, to research, to follow directions, and to do something other than play video games. Plus, he is the future of the hobby, and so far it looks like the hobby will be in good hands. Last night, he surprised me and the wife when we heard him messing around at the kitchen table for almost an hour, and when he came out he produced a snap together F-22 fighter that he had cut, sanded, and put together completely on his own!

Yes, I'm a geek. I even make airplane noises as I build and admire my models :-)

So, what are you going to prove?

I was listening to BBC World News on the radio this morning, and they did a story of some bitches here in the US who are going to protest the Iraq war by going on a hunger strike. Are you shitting me? What's that going to prove?

Actually, that sounds like a good idea. I hope these cows are successful and starve themselves to death.

Weeding out the gene pool

Every once in a while, I become reinvigorated that the theory of natural selection actually works.

Read:

A 23-year-old Anderson man died Thursday night after he was injured attempting a wheelie on his motorcycle at Anderson Mall, the coroner said.
Michael Neil Ray, of 2020 Cardinal Park, died of spinal and chest trauma at 7:31 p.m., according to Coroner Greg Shore. Shore said witnesses said Ray, who wore a helmet, was attempting the wheelie on a Honda and ran into a building at the mall on North Main Street.
Ray worked at Nutra Plant, which manufactures health food, on Liberty Highway in Anderson, said his father, John Ray.
He is a graduate of T.L. Hanna and attended Greenville Technical College, his father said.
"He was active in his church and was a typical fun-loving 23-year-old," Ray said. "He made a bad mistake today and it cost him his life."
He is also survived by his mother, Linda Chapman, two brothers and two sisters, Ray said.

Dumbass.

Islam sucks

Let's see. Sing a song about "Hadji Girl," and the Muslims raise hell.

Kidnap, torture, and mutilate two American soldiers? Nope, not much in the way of rhetoric there. Where are the Muslims speaking out against such barbaric actions?

Nazism and Communism are nothing compared to Islam. I keep my fingers crossed for a true "crusade."

Back from the dead (almost)

About two weeks ago, I started to develop a pain on the left side of my rib cage. I figured it was caused by a heavy bout of coughing the night before, and that I possibly pulled a muscle. It actually started as a dull ache while at work, but by that night the pain was so bad I couldn't lay on my left side. I figured that I might have cracked a rib, since there seemed to be a central spot on my left ribs that hurt when prodded. I endured the pain all week. Some days the pain was worse than others. I was taking 600-800 milligrams of Ibuprofen at a time. Then 9th rolled around, and I left work early because I was starting to hurt. This time, Ibuprofen wasn't helping as I sat on my couch. The pain began to radiate up into my shoulder and around the front to where I felt pain when my heart beat. I went to an urgent care facility, and the doc tells me that I have pneumonia in my lower left lobe! He gives me two shots, one for pain and the other an antibiotic. Well, my wife was working, so my mother wants me and my son to stay overnight with her, so I agree. As the night progressed, the pain on my left side got worse, and I realized that I was having some difficulty breathing. Early Saturday afternoon, my wife arrives to pick us up. I get up off the couch to take a leak and I collapse in the bathroom because I can't breathe. It was the most frightening experience of my life, and it made me very aware of my own mortality. I was taken to the hospital by ambulance and admitted for four days. I had developed double pneumonia, and I had fluid building up in my left lung. I was scared!!!

I am currently recovering at home. Each day I get a little better. I've had a whole shitload of antibiotics pumped through my body. I was prescribed a schedule II pain medication and a schedule II cough syrup. Woohoo! Take both of them and you are in La-La Land for hours.

What I remember the most about the experience was the fear I saw in my wife. She was definitely worried, and I have no doubts about the limits of my wife's love. That first night, she wouldn't leave my side. I had to make her leave the next day to clean up and get some rest. I don't know how I got lucky enough to get such a caring wife, but I hope everybody who reads this knows how much I love her.

Anyway, I can't wait to go back to work. I'll probably be out for at least another week. Fortunately, I have over 900 hours of sick time saved up.

AIDS awareness

My second rant of the day:

I just saw a queer on TV who was lamenting over the issues of AIDS. He brought up the topic of more money for research into curing AIDS and AIDS awareness.

Let's address the first issue. Money going into AIDS research should be rerouted for cancer research. AIDS is essentially a lifestyle disease, and as such we know how to avoid contracting it. We still don't know what causes cancer, or how to cure it. AIDS (or, more specifically, HIV) is a virus, and man has never been able to cure a virus. With the exception of a very, very small minority, those who have AIDS got it based on their own life choices. It takes two to tango...but many totally unexpecting, healthy people contract cancer every day.

Issue two. People are screaming for more money for AIDS awareness. Is there anybody here who is not aware of AIDS? I thought so. I don't give a shit about AIDS awareness in Thailand or Africa: That is an internal problem that the respective countries should deal with. I don't want any of my tax money going to Nigeria because a bunch of breeders are having unprotected sex. I view it as nature's way of controlling the population.

Cancer research? Absolutely! AIDS research? Keep your dick zipped!

Mail in rebates

Time for another rant, and this time it is about the mail in rebate.

Last week, I got a catalog from Hewlett-Packard. This was a mail order catalog. That means that I received this catalog in the mail, and if I were to find something that I wanted to order, then I fill out the order form and mail it back with my payment, and the company then mails back the product that I ordered. Simple, right?

So I'm looking at the some of the items HP is selling, and I notice that some of the products - Hewlett freakin' Packard products - being sold are offering a mail in rebate. Does anybody see the stupidity in this? I receive an HP catalog in the mail. I order a proprietary HP product through the mail. HP sends me the product I ordered through the mail. Now, upon receiving the HP product that I ordered directly from HP, I have to mail back to them a rebate form. HP will then send me my rebate.

Why, oh why, don't they just give me the damned rebate by discounting the price? I did some research, and I found that the reason why many stores/companies offer the mail in rebate instead of an immediate discount is because they count on a certain percentage of the clientele to NOT send in the rebate form. They know that some people will forget, and others just won't bother with filling out and mailing in the forms.

My choice, and what I tell the salespeople at the various brick and mortar stores, is that I will shop around for the lowest price, but if the discount can only be obtained by mail in rebate, and the store won't accomodate me by reducing the price at the register, then I will take my business elsewhere.

Ahhh, religion...

Well, many Christian groups are in a furor over the release of the movie, The DaVinci Code." Calls are out for boycotting the movie, and many are screaming that the movie (and book) is blasphemous, yada, yada, etc...

Imagine if the movie was about Muslims....!!!!

National Law Enforcement Memorial Week

Monday is National Law Enforcement Memorial Day, and is also the beginning of National Police Week.

If you haven't thanked a police officer for working shitty hours, for mediocre pay, and putting up with other peoples' bullshit, then this week would be a good time to do it. Honor those men and women who run towards danger when others run away. Honor those who unlock your cars, chase snakes out of your garage, arrest drunks, and die trying to serve their communities.

Of course, you are probably one of those people who don't even think about cops unless you need one. Or, you criticize the police for not stopping speeders in your neighborhood, and then you bitch when you get stopped and issued a ticket for speeding in somebody else's neighborhood.

Addictions aren't diseases

One of the things that really burns my ass today is when somebody does something wrong, and when they get caught they blame it on their "addiction," and call it a disease. I don't care what the government and doctors say, an addiction is not a disease.

Blaming an addiction/disease for your actions just reinforces my argument that people today do not want to take responsibility for their own actions.

People aren't forced to smoke their first cigarette. People aren't forced to take their first hit of illegal narcotics. People know that they shouldn't be abusing prescription narcotics, but they do it anyway. How is this a disease? These are life choices.

Then, one night, they drive like an ass and crash into a barricade. Oh, me, oh, my! It's not my fault, I have an addiction. I have a disease. Please take pity on me! I need rehab.

One of the things that going to rehab supposedly does is keep you from getting your addicting substance while giving you a lot of time to contemplate your addiction and your place in life.

Guess what? Jail provides the same benefits.

Typical Kennedy

Patrick Kennedy, son of shithead Ted Kennedy, crashes his car into a police barricade, staggers out of his vehicle, and then gets a happy ride home because of his political standing. He denies being impaired by alcohol. Typical Kennedy. Being under the influence of any impairing substance, whether it is alcohol, OTC drugs, illicit drugs, or prescription drugs is all the same. I guess we should be happy he wasn't driving a female passenger across a bridge!

Why, why, why do you people up north keep electing these dumbshit Kennedy's?

My boycott

I've decided to boycott the boycotters. No more Mexican food for me (at least at the places that closed for the boycott).

There is no doubt, I am a lucky man!










 

They aren't very smart, either.

So one of our local Mexican restaurants closed down on Monday to participate in the national one-day boycott being done by Mexicans. Whoa! They really showed me. They lost a day of work, a day of wages, and a day of profit by not opening. Hell, I didn't even feel like eating Mexican, anyway. For what it's worth, I didn't even know the damned store had closed until I read the paper this morning.

Yup, they really showed me!

Read this:

MIAMI BEACH, FL -- In an odd twist of fate, a sister caught her sister's last minutes alive - without even knowing.Maria Ramoutar and her sister were in separate cars on their way back from Miami Beach when Maria saw a fiery car crash. She decided to videotape it with her cell phone.Four people inside that burning car died, including Maria's sister.Maria didn't find out it was her sister till the next day. Now she says she wishes she would have done something to save her.


Typical lazy American. Another person who lives by the idea that she doesn't need to take responsibility for her own actions, and she won't do anything if it doesn't affect her. I hope she lives the rest of her life wondering if she could have saved her sister. This woman is another typical asshat who likes to slowly drive by wrecks, hoping to see something really gory. Suck it, bitch!