religious groups need to get over themselves

really, they do:

Christian groups slam new Kidman children's movie - Yahoo! News

i can't believe the backwards ass logic these people imply (actually i take that back. i can. these people are leaders of a religion, logic doesn't account for anything with these people). they, the catholic church especially, denounce books for children and teenagers that clearly are fiction because they either portray witches and warlocks and wizards in a good light (harry potter) or are written by an atheist who is on the church like darcy tucker was on samy kapanen (for the record, i am a colorado avalanche fan). never mind the fact that they, you know, encourage young people to actually sit down and read or anything important like that. its all about ideology with these nuts. they don't want young people to read fiction that goes against core church teachings but they do want them to read a book that is fiction, and goes against core teachings of common sense. betcha didn't know that the bible advocates stoning women who are raped. that's worse than what the muslims do with their rape victims, and that isn't saying much. betcha didn't know that the bible advocates stoning children too.

let's teach about hating gays and lesbians but embrace the pedophiles that lead our services and the cardinals and popes who enable them. makes a whole lot of sense, don't it?

the alternative to 8664: 8665!

yes, for all the wingnuts who support getting rid of 64 through downtown, here's an idea that should be right up your alley- lets get rid of interstate 65 downtown. this plan accomplishes eery single goal that 8664 does with the added benefit of spaghetti junction no longer existing.

here's my idea- we build the east end bridge, and then reroute interstate 65 onto 265. and unlike the plan for 8664, there is a full 2 lane interchange that could probably handle the increased traffic load unlike at the 64/265 interchange which is your classic cloverleaf design. 65 then rejoins its old routing in southern indiana. and due to the recent construction, i believe that that interchange has been redesigned for 2 lanes, saving a little more money. 65 in southern indiana becomes 365 that goes all the way to the river where it will terminate. in kentucky, the old section of 65 becomes 565 until it reaches eastern parkway where at arthur street/preston street, its lowest point in downtown louisville, the elevated highway is brought down and an at-grade parkway is put in its place. the kennedy bridge is therefore no longer necessary and broght down. with the removal of the kennedy, spaghetti junction is also no longer needed. put in conjunction with 8664, in its making the elevated riverfront expressway an at-grade parkway not only does the waterfront become less cluttered, more greenspace is created from getting rid of the kennedy bridge and its other auxilliary flyovers and roads.

then the next step is to 8631, as in us 31, known in louisville as the second street bridge and in indiana as the clark memorial bridge. bringing that bridge down opens up so much greenspace and then provides an unobstructed view of the skyline that the whackjobs crave so much.

you see the problem of getting rid of 64? any other plan that facilitates getting rid of another bridge across the riverfront automatically must become one worthy of study. they are all viable alternatives, and the 8664 people don't dare say that getting rid of 65 or the second street bridge is unreasonable lest they seem like hypocrites. plus they can't say a word about the qualifications of anyone who proposes such a plan because the qualifications of the ones who came up with 8664 are graphics design and computer programming.

so anyone out there want to tell me that my plan won't work and why it won't work?

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best ways to ensure your city stays in the 1950s #64

getting rid of a major east-west highway. no, really.

whackjob tyler allen has decreed in his professional opinion (this guy is not a civil engineer by the way, he is a graphics designer by trade) that the best way to make louisville better is to build a bridge in the east end of the county, reroute the traffic of interstate 64 onto the current 265 and have 64 follow 265 in kentucky and indiana over towards its western terminus in new albany where 64 would rejoin its current signage.

a little background information:

this area is in dire need of an east end bridge. it was in fact logically planned for when, after the gene snyder freeway was completed in the late 80s and the lee hamilton expressway was extended years after that. both were given the designation interstate 265. the only thing that was missing was the connection point in the east end. it was going to happen eventually. also there is a need for a downtown bridge to handle the increased traffic loads on i-65's aging and inadequate span the john kennedy bridge. building a new bridge for 65 would also require a redesign of the confluence of spaghetti junction where 65, interstate 64 and interstate 71 converge. this plan has been unveiled since 2001. the final alternative was released in 2003.

tyler allen's organization first made local splashes in 2005, four years after the two bridge plan was unveiled and two years after the designs were released. meanwhile, everyone who has lived here before the plans were released knew that a bridge in the east end was needed. that means that before all of those dollars were spent on environmental impact studies, traffic flow studies, and general research of the area, tyler allen or anyone else of his ilk had ample opportunity to present their plan when a study for a new bridge in the east end was commissioned.

also, another factor in this town is that while it is fairly progressive in its politics, it isn't on anything else that would change it much in any way. a lot of people don't want anything to change at all. museum tower, a new interesting skyscraper that would change the skyline was vehemently opposed to even when it was announced that no one in the city would have to pay for it. a downtown arena that was proposed in two places was vehemently opposed to, saying that 50 year old freedom hall (out at the fairgrounds near nothing) was still an adequate place for basketball (it is) and conventions and concerts (its not). then they continually whine that louisville is falling behind indianapolis and nashville and even memphis.

so how does this talk keep your city mired in the 1950s? easy. by talking about this plan, convincing two bleeding heart liberals on the metro council (one of which is the council president) you are wasting time. time that could be used you know, actually BUILDING bridges. so the concrete isn't actually there yet, nor any other necessary material, but it soon will be. and all of this hassling over the study of this plan can take months. that's months that delay the project from going forward. that's also months delayed from getting funding secured. there is no money set aside for this project. yet. but putting aside time
to study this plan can delay any real opportunity to secure funding easily. also the plan presented as it is for the current plan is unworkable. ten years ago, it would have been something to seriously consider, but not now.

here are its major flaws in my opinion.
1. the time when this alternative plan was presented. lets give the wingnuts the benefit of the doubt and say the proposed routing plans were revealed in 2001. its still four years from that time to when these people came up with their plan- way too late in the funding and planning process for the one that has the redesigned spaghetti junction.

2. it does nothing to address the issue of the kennedy bridge. and this is my main problem with this plan. according to what the wingnuts want, or assume from their plan, building a new downtown bridge will be unneccesary because of all the rerouted traffic to the east end will relieve the traffic flow that comes downtown. the media assumed that dewey defeated truman. michigan assumed that appalachian state would be a pushover. kentucky assumed that gardiner webb would be just another victim. problem though- each time they were wrong. you cannot assume any of this, especially when the plan doesn't address any of the other issues, like road expansion of the gene snyder to three lanes in a high wealth part of town, one that is begrudgingly allowing for the digging of an exploratory tunnel for the project. you think that these people are going to give up any more of their land, not to mention deal with the increased noise that construction and additional traffic is going to bring?

3. they haven't studied the traffic patterns of downtown to see whether or not the loss of 64 will affect travel. a real life test happened this summer. 64 was closed downtown for two months to repair the downtown stretch as well as replace bridge joints. i never ventured downtown so i have no personal insights into the matter, but traffic, in a word, was horriffic. the 8664 people and supporters will say that things like that won't happen with the east end bridge built, but they completely misunderstand the issue. while through traffic would certainly take the new bypass, it does absolutely nothing to address the locals. the plan is for 64 to become an at-grade parkway past 65. how would turning a high speed 55 mile an hour suggested speed limit downtown into a street level 35 mile an hour speed limit complete with traffic lights going to help alleviate downtown traffic? yeah, i don't know either.

4. the people who brought up this issue are not, i repeat, NOT civil engineers. nor do they have experience in any sort of civil planning. you know how this plan initially came about? tyler allen, the graphics designer, took a picture of a shot of downtown overlooking spaghetti junction and photoshopped the elevated riverfront expressway out. that's right- 8664 is based on nothing more than a horrific fark photoshop. and then the fantasy went from there. build a downtown bridge. convert the old 64 into a parkway. reroute 64 onto a highway that can barely sustain the traffic it has now. brilliant planning.

i think i have evidence that most people who have heard of this plan think its a folly as much as i do. in the story forums of the local fishwrap courier journal, one person who has some close ties to the movement is spamming the forums up and down promoting a local forum they would have to address any issues the people may have. it isn't that the courier journal isn't for the plan (which is true, they aren't for it) and refuses to give any information about any forums (they haven't yet, but this forum is in another week or so, so give it time), but that these people need to constantly harp on when the forum is tells me that they don't think they have enough juice with the common people. also one thing to note on their website (which i will not link to, use google) is that it does not have any iformation on its two main protagonists tyler allen and jc stites. i can't speak for you, but if someone is proposing a major traffic plan that will affect the traffic patterns of not only one metropolitan area but major national east-west traffic as well, i want to know what the credentials of the proposers are. from the little searching i have done, allen's info is posted. stites is not. from what i can tell, he has nothing to do with the transportation industry or civil engineering as well.

we need to get these bridges built, the east end one especially. for the love of the city you live or work in, please dump this stupid idea of pie-in-the-sky plan that won't work. or if you keep on insisting on this silliness, next, i'll propose an idea that is equally valid as well as planned and designed.
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it is readily apparant to me that kalkhoven, forsythe, gentilozzi and petit are clueless

the old, true indycar series is dead, in name and by november all practical purposes. and it is the fault of the first three people that i have mentioned in this post title: kevin kalkhoven doesn't know his ass from a hole in the ground when it comes to racing, gerry forsythe doesn't give a shit anymore- he hasn't been seen at a race since april, paul gentilozzi is a rat scumbag who doesn't pay his drivers and was the single force in destroying trans-am (coincidence he's involved in this?). word is that he also hasn't paid his part of the ownership of champcar in bankruptcy court since january of 2003. dan petit bought in this year and so far his influence has been less than zero.

i have just seen two pieces of information that if it weren't so typical of the owners of the series the last 5 years would be distressing. and that's the sad depressing part of it:

Champ Car Departs Portland

By Jeff Zurschmeide

It's sad news for open wheel racing fans, but it appears that Champ Car will not return to Portland for a 25th race in 2008. With the City and the racing series several hundred thousand dollars apart in talks to bring the event back to Portland, it would take a minor miracle to
bring the event back next year.

This is a setback for big-time pro racing in Portland - there's no denying that, but it's also true that the impact on PIR itself will be minimal. With the new pavement being laid this fall, the track will be more popular than ever with the local organizations and regional events that come to Portland. Events such as the Rose Cup Races, Portland Historic Races, and the Columbia River Classic will get a boost from fresh pavement and some redesigned corners.

As we look back, Champ Car has been instrumental in making PIR what it is today. The money that flowed into our facility during the glory years of CART racing helped build much of the infrastructure we use year 'round, and established PIR as a first class permanent racing facility. We get to keep all that investment - and that is a crucial point in our favor.

There are numerous professional racing organizations in the world, and all of them are looking for good venues. With its excellent infrastructure and capability of seating tens of thousands of fans, PIR remains an attractive venue and it won't be long before the next big events are announced for our favorite city park.

this next bit of news comes from a pretty accurate poster in terms of rumors. this is reguarding champcar's top team of the last 4 years newman/haas/lanigan:

They have two new sponsors for their IRL effort, and are loosing one (Medizone) from CCWS. Mr. Newman, has decided against putting his own money into keeping the team in CCWS, and has relented to Mr. Haas's wish to return to Indy to compete against Team Penske, AGR and Ganassi in the IRL. Despite what their personal preferences are, it comes down to money.

The three Amigos have ***** big time, by not following through on several promises, and have generally ticked off several owners, including Mr. Haas.

They have purchased four/five Dallara's. They have signed JW in SB's seat. They are NOT signing Marco, as he is staying at AGR. They are looking to sell their DP01’s.

Will there be a CCWS series nest year? Yes.

While the owners have not put money up to promote the series, they are trying to sign additional European races, in hopes of generating enough funding to ensure there are at least 18 cars next year. They are also trying to get more money for promotion and possibly HD, but again, money is not something they have a lot of. But, they will have to endure one more canceled race (Las Vegas, unless they buy the promoters out) and another upcoming lawsuit.

As I've indicated for almost a year, three cars are gone (NHL and RuSport) and there were going to be two new ones, who have vanished. So, you might see Vision II/Three Amigo Racing/Eldon Rassmusson's Wrent a Racer/whatever.

if the collective 5 year plan was to run a once well respected, internationally renowned, profitable series into the ground while simultaneously pissing off the old loyal fanbase to cater to ONE PERSON WHO KNOWS NOTHING ABOUT NOTHING, along with major international sponsors and manufacturers and sell what was bought at pennies on the dollar for hundreths of a penny on the dollar, well i would say mission accomplished, job well done. these people have even devalued the value of the vanderbilt cup just by proxy. there is no doubt in my mind that if given the choice between selling to nascar who knows something about making series successful and selling to anton who is just intelligent enough to not drool on his shirt, they'd sell to anton 5 times out of 4.

so what about those of us who prefer real racing to that contrived shit that the major american-based series are trying to put on the racing public?

shoulda had a get-together in cleveland, chances are it was the last race i will ever go to. not unless some changes are made pretty fucking quick (highly unlikely).

it amazes me, it simply amazes me, how a series could go from reaching a point where it could maybe barely reach relevance at the end of the year to going beyond obscurity with no hope of rediscovery the next.

championship auto racing teams/indycar/champcar 1979-2007

OH MY GOD!!!!

CUBS WIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

this certainly takes the sting out of the cards football season so far. if the fucking st. louise fucking cardinals can win the world series as an 82 game winning wild card, what can the 85 (and counting) game winning DIVISIONAL CHAMPIONS do this year?

irony

A.B.C. Director Charged With DUI

my letter to the editor in the local rag

for context, this letter is a response to one that appeared in the papers on thursday:

I am highly offended by the sexual content in the latest Hardees/Carl's Jr. television commercials known as "Patty Melt" and "Flat Buns." In my opinion, they violate local community standards.

Because you are licensed to "serve the public interest" in our community, I request that you refuse to air these ads. If you are already airing them, I ask you to stop.

As required by law, please place a copy of this e-mail letter in your station's public file, to be readily available to FCC representatives, specifically during the license renewal period for your station.

no, i'm not making that up. someone complained that the newspaper (a print body) had aired an offensive ad and was complaining to the fcc, a body that regulates broadcast media (in other words, not non-print bodies). after i got done laughing at the rediculousness of the letter itself, the object of the letter's venom, and the method of getting the paper in trouble, i sent this off:

Typical social neo-conservative tactics were on display last Thursday. There was a letter to the editor printed, one of about 30, that bemoaned the fact that a racy Hardee's/Carl's Jr. ad was aired and that the newspaper was being reported to the FCC. Re-read that again: a NEWSPAPER was being reported to the Federal Communications Commission, a body that regulates TELEVISION and RADIO.

Don't these people give up or even have one sniff of a clue (apparantly not, but bear with me)? First of all these people have their tactics for getting things removed down to a science using form letters and send the same letter multiple times to the broadcaster and the FCC. Keith Olbermann reported last year that a very high percentage of these FCC complaints, 99.8%, of these came from one group, The Parent's Television Council which doesn't know the meaning of "change the channel", "turn off the tv", or "control your child's viewing habits". Literally one person could send off hundreds or thousands of messages to the FCC to give the impression of mass outrage when it is nothing more than an attempt to get something one person doesn't like off the air.

Second, are these people that stupid to not know that the FCC has no control over what anyone prints? It's why hate speech found in books such as the Turner Diaries are allowed to print. It's why most neo-Nazi material has to be imported to other countries from this one. Those would have been materials long since banned by the FCC because they truely are offensive to any rational human.

Please neo-cons, if you are going to make a complaint, at least get your medium straight. Or better yet, if something offends you, change the channel, turn off the tv, control your child's viewing or stop reading the newspaper. They may all have something offensive you may not like seeing, like the violence in Iraq shown nightly on network news. I think I may send a mass message to the FCC now as well, because I saw something horribly offensive on TV too- Mr. Bush's surge speech.

lessee if it gets printed in the paper or online.

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ho-lee crap

Distant space collision meant doom for dinosaurs - Yahoo! News

talk about making something go boom.

hail to the victors valient...?

michigan- severe PWM3D4G3!!!!!11!!

the difference between louisville and michigan- louisville BEATS their pay-bitches. in fact, louisville tried hard to NOT score in its game against 1-aa murray state. after the 8 minute mark, louisville ran the ball eclusively.

for this season, louisville can say they are better than michigan because while louisville has been beaten by i-aa schools, louisville wasn't the #5 team in the nation when they got pwm3d.

look for michigan to go from 5 to others recieving votes in one single weekend.

the true legacy of the bush 43 presidency

this week there was a mining disaster in the mountains of utah. six miners were trapped in a cave-in that blocked the exit completely. it was an accident so massive that seismologists mistook the accident for a small earthquake. in fact they thought that the earthquake caused the cave-in instead of vice versa.

so why bring this tragedy up with the bush debachle? his person in charge of mining safety, richard stickler, is one of those uniquely qualified individuals, no not how brownie was qualified to lead FEMA because he was the (failed) leader of the arabian horse association, but he is qualified because he was a lobbyist for the coal industry. not the miners, the mine owners. so you know what his deal is. similar to how the environmental agencies were stuffed with former lobbyists and presidents of big oil, this guy is there to look out for the interests of mines instead of the people who work them. and he has sure done a heckuvajob in looking out for those interests, as documented in this clip from last thursday's "countdown with keith olbermann" (thanks to olberman.org for the link- http://olbermann.org/ko/video_detail.cfm?id=5503 )

isn't it interesting that in the years since mining deaths have been statistically kept, deaths have gone down from the start of the roosevelt administration (franklin delano) until last year when 48 miners were killed. think about that- in the times when miners used pickaxes and lanterns and canaries to trowl through the earth there have been fewer and fewer deaths until the modern era, with modern equipment and techniques. so one would think that that trend should continue when it would be inconcievable that a person was killed in a mining accident. it hasn't happened.

since the sago mining accident in west virginia, there were studies done of what could make mining safer. congress didn't have the balls to make any of these recomendations federal. and at that time it was quite understandable. the republican christian conservative "permanent majority" didn't have the brain function to question anything that came out of the bush white house. and most of these recomendations co$t $om€ $om€ $eriou$ ca$h. so of course mine operators aren't going to enact them. now look where it got us. those 12 miners at sago have died for nothing because the federal government didn't (or more rather WON'T) learn from the disaster. these six have been added to the list. how many more will it take to get some changes made? 20? 30? 100?

add this to the long list of regrettable legacies this administration has foisted upon the country: an endless quagmire in a foreign country for a resource that it is unable to control because of the unstability the war caused, the scorn of the international community because of human atrocities such as human torture, biological atrocities such as producing about half of the world's greenhouse gases, and this war, the treatment of its own citizens as referenced to the katrina debachle in new orleans and the treatment of its own SOLDIERS wounded and otherwise from extending tours of duty from 6 months to 12 months to 18 months (because since the bush administration has gotten involved in iraq, enlistments have gone down so much to the point where the armed forces have had to raise age limits and change their screening processes to allow more unstable people in), to the conditions of the wounded soldiers' hospital rooms, to the political coverup of nfl player pat tillman's heroic
death/accident/fratricide/deliberate murder, the state of the middle class in this country where universal healthcare is so elusive in this country but not other industialized nations, and on and on.

but after the democrats siezed both houses of congress the rats have been fleeing the sinking ship known as ss. bush 43. not because the dems have gotten things passed (the dems are spineless powerseeking whores just as much as the republicans are); because they don't have a veto proof majority in the house, and they have a 50-49 edge in the senate. no they are fleeing because that bare majority has given the dems subpoena power and the ability to exercize oversight on the executive branch. notable names who have jumped ship: tony snow and the biggest name, bush's political brain karl rove. snow is significant because he is a former talking head of the republican party's cable mouthpiece the fair and balanced fixed noise ERRRRR fox news channel. rove is especially significant because it was his lowdown, unethical, devisive, confrontational, uncompromising, christian sympathetic, hot button strategies that not only got republicans in power, but also got democratic congressmen
fighting for their political lives trying to defend their records but also trying to (unsuccessfully) get campaigns on issues that mattered. he wanted to build a permanent majority in congress to ramrod its policies through the nation.

it may have worked.

for the wrong party.

and lets pray to [insert favorite deity or generic one here] that it isn't too late for the country (and the world) to get over the disastrous legacy of the worst president in the history of the modern free world ever.
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laptop update day 22

which actually should have been day 15. you see, it has actually been in
town since last week. plenty of blame on me for not calling back after i
got a message on the machine. however, compusa still doesn't get a pass
from me- i had ordered a hard drive backup before this mess started, and
when i started the machine back up, it was basically a brand new system
(meaning no backup had been restored). a hd backup costs 99 bucks, i will
getting my money back. although i only had it for a month, a month is
still a good amount of time to install and aquire stuff. i lost a big
chunk of the images that were taken in cleveland and others that i had
saved across teh intarweb.

oh well. alls well that ends well. i guess...

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laptop watch day 21- laptop update

there is none. i have no news, which is good and bad. its good because i don't have any of these pointless worthless calls from compusa saying that my computer is still being worked on. this was after i specifically told them not to call until its here. which is also a downside; its bad because 1) it still isn't here and 2) the way my luck has gone, they misconstrued the message as "don't call". considering that it took a second call to them for them to explain the limbo i'm in, this is not a good sign.

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update- resolution (?)

i just got off the phone with a local compusa rep. apparantly (from what i understand) the delay is not their fault, its the bureaucracy of how to repair which is holding things up. because the laptop is under warranty, the people who provide the warranty service wanted to make the requested repairs themselves, or acer requested it. from what this person said, most likely acer. so in reality, this is outside of compusa's perview. now the problem is that the people who has my laptop has to get the correct cds to actually perform the service. plus, they _still_ have no eta of when the repair is going to happen. someone is going to recieve a lot of hell for this, whether it be acer or the warranty service provider.

am i still mad as hell? yes. am i mad at compusa? other than the fact that until now, they had not explained to me one iota of what the hell is actually happening, not as much. however, it shouldn't have taken this long to explain the process and what was going on. they still aren't ranking highly in my book.

i did however get two things accomplished. i told them that i only want to be called when they have an eta and when it actually is back at the store.

i really think that this whole process could have been avoided by me downloading a vista image and reinstalling vista myself instead of playing it safe.

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reason number 3 why the indy "racing" league fucking shouldn't exist or come into existance

he walked away folks. but if his cranium and the nose of another car hit just right...

reason number 2: all of the things anton george has said were evil about CART (engine leases, road courses, penske, foreign drivers and foreign influence) now exist in his league. fucking hypocrite.

reason number 1: it allowed nascar to co-opt the term race into nascar race. it allowed the boring, repetitive oval racing to become ratings hits. before 1995, the american concept of a racing car wasn't a stock car, IT WAS AN OPEN WHEEL CAR. as a real race fan, it simply kills me to know that because of a temper tantrum fuelled power grab, ALL forms of racing in this country has suffered.

except for nascar. that is even if you can call it "racing".

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update

today i got a call from compusa. laptop is still not here, but it's still being worked on. i don't understand this- why am i getting updates on this thing? IT'S NOT HERE which is the only thing i care about. i am still very , very mad, compounded by the fact that when i called them up 30 minutes later (because i couldn't get to the phone until that time) i got their answering machine. customer service they are not excelling at. tomorrow, i'm going to call them and ask them directly three questions: 1. what is _really_ wrong with my computer, 2. why does it take TWO weeks to re-install an operating system, and 3. why does any laptop need to be sent to any repair center just to reinstall an operating system?

i am especially upset because this is not the compusa service center that i remember. before when i had taken my desktop in for more serious repairs, i had gotten it back within the week and it had stayed inside the jefferson county borders. and if that call that i got was in response to a 1000 charachter message that i sent to customer service of the national compusa website, that was an extremely weak make-good on their part.

also, i pretty much had not the day of hell at my job (manager of a mcdonald's) but something damn close to it. my good days are really good, my bad days put simply fucking suck. i was missing 4 people that night for a variety of reasons: one was sent home for insubordination, one was sorting out some personal issues (issues that i know about, but am not going to divulge here), one quit the day before because of some issues (issues that i really don't know about, but still wouldn't divulge here if i did) and one didn't show up. i managed to get one person to come in, but for the night i was down 3 and we had a busier than normal night both in the lobby and in drive thru. in addition to all of this, last saturday i had worked 11 hours, 6 at my store, 5 at another because that manager had to go to the hospital (i was assured that they would be back in a minute. which turned out to be 300 of them. i had gotten up at 8 to get to work by 10 and didn't stop working until 1122.
pm.) plus had to work an additional 2:30 the next day because the employee who quit mentioned above, quit as i was getting ready to head out the door.

all of this adds up to one upset, angry and frustrated manager. the good people don't stay, the bad ones stay way too long and we can't get people to care about the job at my store. at the other store, well, they had become the first ever to average into the ronald level of service at mcdonald's (a total of less than 145 seconds of the monthly average of the time it takes a car to place an order and recieve an order in drive thru plus the average of the time it takes an order to be made). that's at the other store that is a part of the same organization i work for. both stores average the same amount of sales. but one does exponentially better.

the only reason i'm still there is because i know that i am doing the best i can with what i have. but lately the people, mainly the crew people are getting me down. it's making work life that much more unbearable.
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upsetting

House Passes Bush's FISA Law - American Civil Liberties Destroyed

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/08/05/house-passes-bushs-fisa-law-american-civil-liberties-destroyed/trackback/

for the record, my democratic congressman was one of the 179 who had the sense to vote no. much love to the two republicans who care more about people's rights than to give them up playing the fear card.

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blogger posting for dummies

or the chronically lazy.

i don't care much for any of the bells and whistles that posting can
provide with all the colors and formatting. i found out that i can post
to the blog via e-mail (to an undisclosed address).

the benefits:
i can simultaneously post and send someone an e-mail at the same time. so
if i have the chance to send someone a nasty complaint letter, it can be
sent to both at the same time.

hitting the tab button actually tabs over instead of to the next element.

the downside:
that last post i made about my laptop? sent via e-mail. the formatting
is all screwed up, nothing really can fix that, unless i use an e-mail
client that can handle the html based code the blogger system is based
on. and with my browser of choice being opera, that isn't going to happen
anytime soon, but like i said, i can do without the bells and whistles of
just getting something off my chest.

--
post made via Opera using Opera's revolutionary e-mail client:

http://www.opera.com/
^^^look for this for crappy e-mail posting.

all this...to reinstall an os?

those who know me know that i'm not much for complaining.

okay, yes i am.

backstory: two weeks ago my laptop wouldn't boot up fast enough after a
restart. a restart which was caused by microsoft vista (surprise
surprise) unable to download and install updated drivers correctly. it
for some reason could not download and install any ati drivers worth a
damn. why is this important? when the ati device program fails after
waking up from sleep or hibernation, wireless internet fails with it. one
way to fix that- restart the computer. so i restart the computer. before
now, booting had been pretty much instant. now it was suddenly taking 5
minutes. so like a dumbass, i turn off the laptop by holding power, and
turn it back on. now vista won't start it has a startup recovery program
which has worked before. now? butkiss. startup recovery doesn't work.
so you're thinking "why not install the os?". the answer is, i would
have, but the disk that came with my laptop doesn't look like an install
cd. instead it looks like a can-your-computer-run-vista cd.

so deciding to err on the side of caution, i take it to the local compusa
where i had a 2 year warranty. i explain my problem. they take it in. i
expect to get it back by tuesday (i had taken it in on sunday morning,
there was a line of machines ahead of mine, the earliest they could get to
it was monday). so no big deal. i don't have a laptop for a few days,
all is well.

i really should stop assuming things.

i take it in on 7-22. i get a call reguarding my computer nearly a WEEK
later on saturday. this call isn't about "your computer is ready". no,
no. this is a call stating that acer has approved all changes, it has
been sent to the repair center. by the way, they tell me this after i
drive to the place with my laptop bag expecting it to be there.

huh? did i miss something here? all this is is a just-reinstall-the-os
problem. i know that, and i'm not that technically inclined. ok fine,
wait some more.

today, i get another call. the woman on the other end is garbled as hell
on the answering machine so i call up there and i say point blank is my
computer up there right now. she tells me that it is at the repair
center. so i drive up there again, thinking that i finally get my
computer back after two weeks when all it needed was an os reinstall.
again, i take my laptop bag up there. guess what. again i'm told that it
isn't here, it has been sent to the repair center. but isn't this the
repair center? no it isn't.

something else you should know about me, i am about as emotional as star
trek's vulcans- outwardly stoic, interally a raging inferno. i am not
happy. so i ask when should i get my computer back. i'm told a week to
10 days. and i'm pretty upset with the on-site repair center. one, they
call with updates on my computer when all i want is it back. i don't care
where it is, just as long as its in the store when you call me. this
endless game of phone tag does me no good whatsoever. two, obviously
there is a more serious problem for them to have to send it off to an
off-site repair center and for acer to approve any changes. a problem
that i have not been made aware of. three, (acer is getting hit with
this) acer tech support is CLOSED on the weekends, and CLOSED during
non-business hours central time. plus their tech support phone number is
found nowhere on their website. i had to search other sites just to get
told i was unable to get tech support until monday on a saturday night.
plus e-mailing my problem did me no good, because i got a response back on
tuesday.

so you see, as a consumer, i am about fed up with the entire process. i
want my computer back and if i can't get it back i want to know why.
compusa could have saved this post and my bagging on them heavily if they
said well beforehand what was really wrong and when i should get it back,
information i just partially found out today.

bottom line- compusa is good for purchasing hardware for your computer and
installing it quickly. but in terms of actually _fixing_ the damn thing,
much has left to be desired. as soon as the warranty is up on the laptop
at that place, i'm not going there for any sort of repairwork on either my
desktop or laptop ever again.

edit:  this is the problem verbatim from the guy who initially took my laptop.  tell me this doesn't sound like a quick fix:

Unit comes in under warranty/TAP. The unit is Stuck in a boot cycle. unit blue-screens and restarts. Unit comes with battery and no AC adapter. No other accessories.

sports update

i'm not a real big sports fan, but i am a fan of baseball, hockey, the chamcar world series and university of louisville ________.  occationally i'll post something of interest from either of those worlds.  for example:

CUBS WIN!!!

• um, the cubs win their game tonight against the philadelphia phillies 5-4 on a wild pitch in the bottom of the ninth.  coupled with the brewers 8-5 loss to the mets, the cubs take a percentage points lead in the central, their first lead all year long.  look out national league, these aren't your typical cubs (at least not yet.  and hope it stays that way!).  uncle lou getting himself thrown out of the game on june 2 has turned out to be the move of the season.  since that time, the cubs i believe have lost somewhere in the vicinity of 15 games.  come playoff time, the cubs are going to be a hard out, because this team is now scoring runs and pitching effectively for a good portion of the season.  
  
  and i don't think they've peaked yet.
  
  the cubs are winning without the benefit of the long ball.  last week against the fucking cardinals, the cubs scored all of their runs on singles only.  in st. louis.  besides, if we're flawed now, i'm not too worried.  look a the title the fucking cardinals fluked into last year.

• in champcar related news, or will be i predict, scott speed and scudiera torro rossa look to be parting ways.  i think its fair to say the american involvement in f1 turned out to be a bust on all fronts- the us gp was a failure but i believe that that has more to do with that coked up moron and destroyer of open wheel racing anton hulman george than bernie ecclestone or max mosley.  because of geroge, that contrived form of racing that most people find popular, nascar, has destroyed most of everyone's conceptions of real racing.   real racing doesn't constantly turn left for 3 long boring hours  for 500 miles every week for 36 weeks, nor does it have to manufacture championship chases because one team nailed it and ran away with races during the season. but i digress...  

              i believe there are only three logical places scott will end up: nascar, sportscars, or champcar.  and considering  all options, i think there is a 55-45 against that he goes to champcar, the money in nascar is  something that champcar now can't offer and probably never will be able to due to management's ineptitude.  

              but then again, champcar is far closer to f1 than nascar, so you never know.


listening to :  bart ehrman - misquoting jesus (which is not a song by the way, its an audio book.  go listen to one, you may learn something)

i hate blogs.

i really do.  so why have one (this being my second which probably won't be updated often if ever)?  basically because there are some (okay a lot) of items that really bug my conscience nationally and locally and even in small portions of teh in-tar-web that i have opinions on that people either don't care about or don't share my views in which cases, i get shouted down or ignored or dismissed.  so i guess i will be here posting things that bother me and at my other web log (my.opera.com/ctk) i'll post some more things that bother me.

pretty simple concept, ne?