Random Ridiculous Rants

Over the Edge: Fundraising for NY Special Olympics

2011-07-25T14:43:00.009-04:00

As many of you may know, I have recently joined my friend, Kevin Marshall, in an effort to both raise a whole bunch of money for the NY Special Olympics, and have ourselves thrown off the Crowne Plaza in Albany NY. (And by thrown I mean, in harnesses, and we get to rappel our way down.)

Anywho... donations have been moving along nicely, but it is now our goal to be the NUMBER ONE fund-raising team. Instead of the number two spot, which we now
occupy. So we're asking your support!

Kevin has promised his those donating to him various promotional give-aways for certain levels of donation, and I thought I would do the same for those donating to my campaign!

In order to sweeten the pot (quite literally) I will now beg for donations by bribing with baked goods. That's right, I will bribe you (or your office, or team or what-have-you) with tasty, tasty baked goods for your donation.

- For a $50 donation, I will bake & send you 2 dozen cookies of your choice
- For a $100 donation, I will bake & send you a cheesecake or pie of your choice
- For a $250 donation, I will make & send you you one baked good or 2 dozen cookies of your choice every week for a month!

CLICK HERE TO DONATE!

- The rules -
1) - When you make a donation - use your name & amount - so I can verify that you get delicious baked goods. Also specifying the kind of baked good you would like in your name on the donation - that would be helpful!

2) - Cheesecakes are kind of not-so-mailable. And I hear the United State Postal Service really doesn't want me mailing them. So if you're long distance, please choose cookies or a pie.

3) - If you have already donated one of the said amounts - just get in touch with me to arrange for baked deliciousness delivery.

4) - If you have already donated $20 and donate another $30 - that counts! Just get in touch with me when you make a second donation to arrange for delivery of tasty baked goods.

5) - I reserve the right to take up to 2 weeks to get your baked goods to you. Because if a LOT of folks donate at once, while I'm an awesome baker, I really can't envision making more than a few baked goods in one evening. I have a job and such y'all.

6) - You can also COMBINE efforts. Say you make a $10 donation, and convince 4 people in your office to do the same. ... Just let me know everyone's name and what office you're at - and your office gets cookies!

- The Options -
Cookies I am capable of making
- Chocolate chip cookies
- Snickerdoodles
- Scotchies (Oatmeal butterscotch cookies)
- Mallo-mar cookies (they have marshmallows in em)
- Peanut butter cookies
- Sugar cookies

Cheesecakes I am capable of making
- NY Style Plain Cheesecake
- Pretty much any BERRY cheesecake (straw-, blue-, rasp-, black-, etc-berry)
- Chocolate swirl cheesecake
- Butterscotch or caramel swirl cheesecake

Pies I am capable of making
- Chocolate Pecan Pie
- Apple pie (regular or dutch version)
- Peach pie
- Pear pie

Also, I can make brownies if you do not prefer cookies or a cheesecake/apple pie combination of deliciousness called Apple Torte.

*** Feel free to ask me to make some crazy baked good of your choice that you do not see on the list - I'll let you know if I think it's possible, or if it's something out of my skill range ***

http://2011.kintera.org/faf/donorReg/donorPledge.asp?ievent=438626&lis=1&kntae438626=D6152B3E019F4D6CA211EBE41A04C17C&supId=331656705

The Kindle may Kill Textbook companies!

2011-07-20T16:40:00.004-04:00

Yesterday I blogged about how the Kindle & other E-readers most likely led to the demise of Border's Bookstores. I found that story kind of sad, but I find the Kindle's latest development nothing short of AWESOME! It turns out that Amazon is going to offer rentals of textbooks through the Kindle.

So instead of students paying $700-$900 on books for a semester, and then being able to sell them back to their college bookstore for a measly $100-$300; students will now be able to rent books from Amazon at a savings of up to 80%. Amazon states that it will have in excess of 10,000 textbooks ready to rent for the Fall 2011 Semester for students.

Neat features include that a student gets to pick a rental time. Anywhere from 30-360 days, which they can extend for a day at a time. So, if as in the case of SUNY Oswego, if your final gets snowed out you can continue to plug away at studying for ONE-MORE-DAY if you need to.

Also great is the fact that Amazon is extending its Whispersync technology, allowing students to keep their notes and highlights in the Amazon Cloud, even after the point in time which the rental expires.

Perhaps greatest of all is the fact that as with all other Kindle books, Kindle Textbooks will be “Rent Once, Read Everywhere,” capable. So students can rent it on their Kindles and then read it on their: computer, iPad, iPod touch, iPhone, Android phone, BlackBerry, etc. etc. etc. This will eliminate lugging around anywhere from 25-50lbs of textbooks. And its a bonus that you aren't relegated to the small Kindle screen, but that you can read the book on your larger computer or laptop screen if you would like.

I only wish that Amazon.com had this available while I was in law school. It would have saved a boatload of money and back pain.

Video killed the Radio Star...

2011-07-19T16:24:00.000-04:00

and the E-Reader killed Borders.

Borders announced recently, that despite all efforts to return to profitability or to sell the store to a company that would keep it operational; it is now having to sell the company to a liquidation company. Borders will shut the doors on its remaining 399 stores and let go its 10,700 e-employees.

Many blame this on Border's lack of a popular e-book system. Such as Amazon's Kindle, or Barnes & Noble's NookBook. While Borders did promote the Kobo, it turns out it only owned an 11% share in the company, and that Kobo, is not solely reliant on Borders to provide it with content. PC Mag reports that even though Borders is going under, Kobo is likely to keep on keeping on.

I find the whole thing kind of sad. Even though I own an e-reader, (a Kindle) most of the time I prefer real, hard copies of books. I have hundreds of books in my home and tend to reserve e-books for textbooks or newspapers or books I normally wouldn't purchase, but would read on an airplane.

I was a bigger fan of Borders than I was Barnes & Noble, and Borders always had good coupons & clearance books. I will be sad to see them go. But glad that Barnes & Noble is still holding its own, and that bookstores on the whole have not gone under completely.

Not so much stupid lawsuits, as a travesty of justice.

2011-07-07T14:40:00.000-04:00

So, although all the comments have already been made, I thought I'd give my two cents on the Casey Anthony situation. I realize that many people think it's none of their business. But it does kind of bug me that a murderer is walking free.

Now she may not have meant to actually KILL the baby. But I believe that she at least tried to knock the kid out with chloroform so that she could go clubbing, and accidentally killed the kid.

I also agree with the news media that said the prosecutor made a brilliant remark too late. He said that every lie she told served a purpose, and that each lie GOT her something. And I believe that if the jury had heard that in the opening statement, they may have thought about it more often during the trial.

I think the prosecution also should have played for manslaughter instead of murder. If they played as if they sympathized with the baby-who-had-a-baby, the jury might have been swayed. Played as if they were very sorry for Casey as well as Caylee. And then Casey might have done 10-15 years.

I think it speaks volume that Juror 3 was quoted as saying "I did not say she was innocent. I just said there was not enough evidence. If you cannot prove what the crime was, you cannot determine what the punishment should be."

So not even the jury thinks she's INNOCENT - they just think there was not enough evidence to prove guilt.

I think that it's sad that she's going to walk free, and undoubtedly try to have another kid, cause she's psychologically disturbed and thinks that she'll be a good momma this time.

Celebrate the 4th of July with Veteran Discounts

2011-07-04T15:13:00.002-04:00

This 4th of July, I thought I would point out all of the fantastic locations that give our veterans a discount, in thanks for their service to our country!

Aeropostale – 10% off with military ID
Amtrak – 10% off with military ID
AT&T – 10-15% discount off monthly bill, valid military ID required
Avis – 25% off with military ID
Champs Sports – 10% off with military ID (may vary by location)
DSW Shoe Outlet – 10% military discount 1st of every month (may vary by location; in-store only)
Express (clothing store – 10% off with military ID
Foot Locker – 20% off with military ID
Gap – 10% military discount 1st of every month (may vary by location; in-store only)
Geico – Discount varies, valid military ID required
Home Depot – 10% off with military ID
Hooters – 10% off with military ID (may vary by location)
Hot Topic – 10% off with military ID
IHOP – 20% off with military ID (may vary by location)
Lady Foot Locker – 20% off with military ID
Longhorn Steakhouse – 10% military discount
Lowe’s – 10% off with military ID
Macy’s – 10% off on the first Tuesday of every month (may vary by location; in-store only)
Maurices (clothing store) - 10% off with military ID
Meineke – 10% off parts with military ID. In store only
National Car Rental – Discount varies, valid military ID required
Old Navy - 10% military discount on the 1st of each month with military ID
New York and Company - 15% off military discount
Payless Shoe Source – 10% off with military ID (may vary by location; in-store only)
Pep Boys – 10% off with valid military ID
Regal Movie Theaters – Matinee prices for all show times. Requires valid Military ID (may vary by location)
Spencers – 10% off with military ID
Sprint – 10-18% off. Sprint will also put a “hold” on your line when you are deployed, if you provide a copy of your orders, so you still have the same number when you come back and you do not have to pay a monthly fee while deployed
T-Mobile – Discount varies, valid military ID required
Verizon – 23% discount on monthly bills. Applies only to the military member’s primary line
Walgreens – 10% with military ID every Tuesday (may vary by location)

There may be more local discounts available to you. For instance my local hardware store offers veteran discounts as well... but this is a fairly complete nationwide list.

Give a YAY for the Gay! - NY Legalizes Same-Sex Marriages!

2011-06-25T15:37:00.002-04:00

In the Great State of New York, our Andrew Cuomo just signed the state’s marriage equality bill, mere hours after it passed the State Senate on Friday night. Making NY the sixth state in the nation to legalize same-sex marriages.

Governor Cuomo signed the bill into law after the legislature voted to legalize same-sex marriage with its 33-to-29 vote. New York makes records by beingthe state legislature with a Republican majority that has approved such a same-sex marriage bill. Although much can be said for NY Republicans being a different breed than say Alabama Republicans.

The new law, will allow same-sex couples in New York to marry within 30 days. Which means that allegedly "well-meaning" groups that were spending millions of dollars to try and stop same-sex marriage (for example) can perhaps take some of that money and feed the hungry or cloth the homeless. Or do something worthwhile.

Governor Cuomo gave credit to the four Republican senators who joined the majority of the State Senate's Democrats to vote for the passage of the bill, stating that they were “people of courage.” “I think it was politically more dangerous for a Republican,” Cuomo told reporters late Friday. “The conservative party was threatening them with consequences . . . and they did it anyway.”

And I agree - props should be given to those who do the right thing, even though it may cost them an election. Not that the NY Senate pays much... but it would be a loss of prestige, or some such.

Texas Rangers Draft Paralyzed Player

2011-06-09T10:50:00.004-04:00

This morning on the radio, I heard what I feel like is one of the best pieces of news I have heard in a long time. The Texas Rangers drafted two friends from the University of Georgia: Johnathan Taylor and Zach Cone.

It may not originally sound like much, but Johnathan Taylor is paralyzed from the waist down due to a collision he and Cone had in University of Georgia ball game on March 6th.

The Rangers decided to draft him anyway, because they felt like he was the kind of person that they wanted in their organization. According to Fox News, Texas' Director of Amateur Scouting Kip Fagg said that Taylor's selection was "something we felt was right."

This story made my day today, because it's not often you hear amazingly good news. Usually all I hear on the way to work is war, crime & taxes. But this story made my day, and most likely my week. The Texas Rangers are now my new second favorite baseball team... I'll always be a Yankees girl first.

Cyber Attack = Act of War?

2011-06-04T11:18:00.003-04:00

I'm sure you've all seen in the news, that the Pentagon feels that cyber attacks on the United States will constitute an act of war.

I've got mixed feelings on this. Certainly I don't want hostile governments hacking into the United States business, military info, etc. etc. But just how do you go about proving that the cyber attack was directed by a government, and not just some crazy anarchist in a basement looking to start WWIII?

Granted, the fact that the most recent alleged cyber attacks were traced to IP addresses of a Chinese military facility does lead to a certain amount of suspicion... but again - is that some guy in his off time going "HAHA! Got the US!" or did a general direct him to see just how much US info he could get?

I think it's a slippery slope. I don't think you should get to drop bombs in response to a cyber attack. I think you should get to launch a cyber counter-attack. Force should only be answered with like-force. If someone is hacking into the US - we should hack back into them. Or maybe set up a font of mis-information, so whatever they get by hacking only have a 50-50 shot of being true. I just don't think that military response to computer assault may be the best way to go.

Thoughts of the recently engaged...

2011-02-08T21:50:00.003-05:00

... so I became engaged over this Christmas, and while it was totally one of the happiest moments of my entire life; the whole wedding planning and ensuing nonsense is truly for the birds.

First and foremost, if one more broad tells me that I HAVE to call boyfriend "my fiancee" now, I will alternatively scream and envision punching her repeatedly. Am I the only one who finds the term "fiancee" outdated and pretentious? Is it seriously just me? He's my boyfriend, we're engaged, whatever... at some point he will be my husband, and then I will start calling him that. In between, I will call him what I please, and you can butt your head out of it friends-of-friends (who are really the only people giving me any flack)... when your SOs get you a shiny diamond, you can call them your fiancee, or "affianced" or "betrothED" or whatever archaic term you please... but butt your meddling heads out of my engagement.

Also - in regards to receptions, I feel like businesses hear "wedding" and internally hear "CHA-CHING!" ... for serious, as I scope out wedding halls, photographers, DJs, etc. etc. etc. They have ONE price for parties and ANOTHER price for weddings

(edit - except my newly hired photographer - who is the best woman on the fact of the earth)

It makes me want to get married in the church, and then change into a prom dress and call the reception a "birthday party" with open bar and dancing. It would literally cost HALF of what a "wedding" reception costs.

Well that's it for me for the moment. But it really gets my goat that people use one of the most joyous occasions in life as an opportunity to price gouge. GAH!

Watch out world: your 4 yr old can now be sued!

2010-11-01T16:06:00.000-04:00

Yep, as of Oct 1st, when Justice Paul Wooten of State Supreme Court in Manhattan, found a young girl accused of running down an elderly woman while racing a bicycle with training wheels on a Manhattan sidewalk two years ago can be sued for negligence.

The judge did not find that the tyke was liable, merely that she can be sued.

The relevant facts are as follows... In April of 2009, Jacob Kohn and Juliet Breitman, both 4, were racing their bicycles on the sidewalk of East 52nd St, while being watched by their mothers, Rachel Kohn and Dana Breitman. At some point in their race, they struck an 87-year-old woman, Claire Menagh, who was walking in front of the building and was subsequently “seriously and severely injured,” suffering a hip fracture that required surgery. She died three months later of unrelated causes, and her estate then brought a suit against the kids and their parents.

The Breitmans lawyers argued that the girl was not “engaged in an adult activity” at the time of the accident and was too young to be held liable for negligence. The Kohns did not try to dismiss the action against them. But, the judge found that while "infants under the age of 4 are conclusively presumed incapable of negligence" Juliet was 3 months shy of her 5th birthday, and there is no bright line rule for those over the age of 4.

He went on to say “A parent’s presence alone does not give a reasonable child carte blanche to engage in risky behavior such as running across a street,” the judge wrote. He added that any “reasonably prudent child,” who presumably has been told to look both ways before crossing a street, should know that dashing out without looking is dangerous, with or without a parent there. Judge Wooten state that the crucial factor is whether the parent encourages the risky behavior; if so, the child should not be held accountable. Here, however, Mrs. Breitman was not cheering her tyke on as she crashed into an elderly woman.

I find it a bit scary that 4 year olds can be held liable. But it seems a sign of the times, our kids have to grow up faster than ever before. Liable at 4 and potentially sexting or drinking by 12... it's a scary, scary world these days.

Obama Streaker Update

2010-10-15T10:32:00.000-04:00

So apparently the Obama streaking does not count. WHAT? According to SiFy news, Alki David does not want to pay unless the White House acknowledges that Obama saw Mr. Rodriquez's nasty bits. Really? REALLY? You want the WHITE HOUSE to acknowledge that the PRESIDENT saw a naked man? First and foremost, the White House is not going to comment, and good for them for not descending to your asinine level Mr. David; second - pay the man the million dollars, he was naked within 10 ft of the president.

Apparently instead, in exchange for an undisclosed sum, Juan Rodriguez has agreed with Alki David to try to streak again, in front of another undisclosed head of state. David apparently spoke with Rodriguez directly, and told the NY Post "Mr. Rodriguez agreed that he was not able to complete all the criteria of the challenge. But he came so very close, and his personal story about why he decided to take such a risk for his family, moved me to provide him with a generous consolation prize."

My thoughts are - you're settling with him Mr. David, you're settling with him so he doesn't sue for the promised $1 million AND damages. However, David has said that despite the "failed attempt," (his words) he has agreed to pay all Rodriguez's sister's hospital bills, Rodriguez's rent for the next year and will provide him with an additional undisclosed amount of cash. This is not too bad, because the rent is supposedly $1,600 a month, and medical bills can get quite, quite costly, so hopefully Rodriguez recovers a couple hundred thousand. It's the least, the very least, Mr. David can do.

Additionally I think Mr. David should pay all of Rodriguez's legal bills. But that may just be me, the rest of you may feel that Rodriguez should pay for his own stupidity.

Obama Streaker Shouldn't Be the One to Pay!

2010-10-13T11:02:00.000-04:00

So as most of you probably know, President Obama got to see a naked man the other day. Not that its likely that he had any desire to see Juan James Rodriguez's manly bits, nor is it likely he had to see them long before Rodriguez was hauled off by the cops, but still nudity occurred.

And Mr. Rodriguez got certainly more than he himself bargained for. Roidriguez was egged on by a website, which stipulated it would pay US $1,000,000 to anyone who streaked in front of the president, with the website name written on his or her chest and shouted the website's name 6 times.

However, instead of an easy million, Rodriguez was arrested, charged with indecent exposure, public lewdness, and disorderly conduct and only released on $10,000 bail. He also claims he spent $1,300 of his own money for the prank, some of it on the specially designed tear-away T-shirt and shorts he wore. Now, regardless of the validity of his own spending on his pre-nudity costume, it is likely that he will have to shell out quite a bit in legal fees and court fees in order to keep himself out of serious trouble.

However, the internet mogul Alki David, who's promoted this insane act, is now saying he's not sure Rodriguez met the terms of the wager. "It's a lot of money," David is quoted as saying. "We're not going to give the money away lightly." WHAT?!? You'll advertise that you give away this money lightly, and it didn't strike you as a lot of money when you put the offer up on your website. And seeing all of the stupid things people are willing to do on TV for far less money, you HAD to have a reasonable suspicion that someone would follow through on this nonsense.

Not only do I believe that David should have to pay up, and soon, I also believe he should share in the legal repercussions. He knows that being fully nude is pretty much illegal in all of the States, and he knows that conducting nonsense around and near the President of the US is also pretty much always illegal. He point blank incited illegal activities, and I don't think that Rodriguez should be the only one to suffer. You shouldn't be allowed to pull ridiculous pranks just because you are rich and escape scott-free.

A car that drives me? Sign me up!

2010-10-12T13:23:00.000-04:00

Google CEO Eric Schmidt recently announced that the search engine giant is actively testing autonomous cars and has already logged 140,000 miles with its test autos.

The way these cars work is through the use of sensors, video cameras and laser range finders in tandem with info collected by manually driven vehicles that Google has sent out to various map routes. The automated cars is then relayed the info gathered by the other cars after it is processed at Google’s data centers.

One of the primary goals of these cars is to, not only, cut energy consumption but to also cut the amount of deaths currently caused by traffic accidents (roughly 1.2 million people per year). Google hopes that with these cars, traffic accidents can mostly be avoided; because even when a human doesn’t see something coming, the car will and will then act accordingly.

Although these vehicles are self-driving, none of them have yet to make a journey without a driver present to take over and additionally, police officers have always been told as to what is going on when tests have been conducted.

If you're interested in more info, you can read more about it here - LINK! And although skeptics think that a fully automated car is a long way off, I'm still hopeful, I would love to be able to sleep my way through my commute.

This week in stupid lawsuits: Paris Hilton vs Hallmark

2010-10-11T15:57:00.000-04:00

This just in, Paris Hilton and Hallmark have finally settled their lawsuit over the use of the catchphrase "that's hot."

Hilton recently sued the Kansas City greeting card maker for portraying her as a waitress in a diner handing a patron a plate and using her "trademark" "that's hot" line. I find the lawsuit completely ridiculous in that Hilton is far from the first person to ever utter the phrase, which she unsuccessfully tried to claim as a tradmark in 2007.

Hallmark argued the card was in the "public interest," which is laughable since Hilton hasn't been of public interest (minus recently being declared persona non grata in Japan) since before her suit was filed in 2007.

The terms of the settlement are unknown and not released by either party, but Hilton had been demanding $500,000. The only word out of Hallmark is the settlement was from the Judge, in that it was a "mutually acceptable conclusion," which hopefully means Hallmark won't be producing any more Hilton cards. And hopefully no one else will for that matter.

Capital Punishment Thoughts

2010-09-28T10:42:00.000-04:00

So last Friday morning at 9am, the State of Virginia executed its first woman prisoner since 1912. Teresa Lewis, 41, was put to death for plotting the murders of her husband and stepson with two accomplices. Lewis was convicted of "masterminding" the affair in which two accomplices actually committed the murder. The accomplices received life in prison (where one of them committed suicide) but Lewis will be executed, as the Supreme Court has refused to hear her case, and the governor did not pardon her.

What's sad is that later evidence has shown that Lewis had somewhat diminished mental capacity, even though she meets the level to stand trial in VA, and it really looks as if she was manipulated in the whole sorry state of affairs.

The crucial piece of evidence that her attorneys wanted considered by the Supreme Court was a letter from one her 22 year old co-conspirators who she had entered into an affair with before agreeing to the murders. Matthew Shallenberger, who killed himself in jail in 2006, wrote a suicide note, in which he claimed full responsibility for the murder plot and suggested that he pushed Lewis into it. It read ... "From the moment I met her I knew she was someone who could be easily manipulated," he allegedly wrote. "Killing Julian and Charles Lewis was entirely my idea. I needed money, and Teresa was an easy target."

However, this evidence wasn't heard, and Lewis had a lethal injection. I feel bad for her. I'm not saying that she shouldn't have spent the rest of her life in prison, but I feel that if the men who committed the actual murders got life in prison, then it's a little unfair to execute a conspirator who didn't pull a trigger.

But I guess I feel that the whole capital punishment in unfair across the board. A couple of years ago, I went to a panel discussion on it, and met both the brother of the unibomber and the brother of Manny Babbitt, a Marine Corp, Vietnam Vet. The brother of the unabomber, who caused untold pain, managed to avoid the death penalty, whereas Babbitt didn't.

Babbitt earned a Purple Heart for courage under fire in the Vietnam war. He was hit by rocket shrapnel that opened his skull, he lost consciousness and was thought to be dead. He was loaded onto a pile of corpses by helicopter operators where he later regained consciousness, surrounded by severed limbs and bodies. He returned from Vietnam suffering from PTSD, exhibiting bizarre and violent behavior. Eventually he broke into the home of Leah Shendel, an elderly woman, and beat her. She later died of a heart attack.

His brother, Bill, turned him in, fully expecting that the war-hero brother would get all of the medical attention he clearly needed and deserved. But instead, not long after being awarded his Purple Heart, Manny Babbitt was executed one minute after midnight, May 4, 1999, in the state of California, on his 50th birthday.

I just remember thinking at that conference... "How ridiculously unfair!" One man who was a national hero, and suffering from mental illness and despair, who should have been sent to a psych ward for life, was killed, and another, who really shouldn't be allowed to live any longer, still publishes books from jail.

And now this Lewis case... I used to think that I was for capital punishment, that some crimes were so heinous that the accused did not deserve ANY chance of ever being able to hurt people again. But... the way the system works currently, the punishment isn't meted out in a fair way, and I think that if Babbitt and Lewis are the people we're executing and Ted Kaczynski is not, then perhaps we shouldn't be executing anyone.

Let's Hear it for the Strippers

2010-09-01T11:54:00.000-04:00

"Thou shalt not strip." ... Funny, I didn't think that was among the ten. But pastor Bill Dunfee of New Beginnings Ministries in Warsaw, OH seems to think that he can add on. That the 10 Commandments are kind of like the Bill of Rights, and he can add amendments as we move along.

Pastor Bill and his flock regularly picket the a strip club about 9 miles down the road from their church. Not only do they picket the club and harass those just trying to go in and see a naked lady, but for the past FOUR YEARS, the flockers have photographed license plates of the club's patrons and asked them if their mothers and wives know their whereabouts.

Recently, the strip club owner and strippers decided to fight back. And I say good for them. The Lord Jesus was friends with out and out prostitutes, and if he could get over that, Pastor Bill should be able to get over ladies taking their cloths off to make a buck. At least these ladies are not on the wellfare system. So that's two points in their favor as far as I am concerned.

Jesus never forced his views on anyone, and in fact, I believe he said something along the lines of "let he who has not sinned cast the first stone." And not since the Virgin Mary has anyone been born sinless Pastor Dave, so I think you should get off your high horse and start trying to be helpful instead of hurtful.

DEA wants to hire ebonics translators.

2010-08-24T17:08:00.000-04:00

Recently, CNN reported recently that the DEA, the Drug Enforcement Agency is looking to hire ebonics translators. My only thought was REALLY? I'm not even sure how that would work. Is ebonics even a consistent language? If I were asked, I would definitely describe it as street slang, which constantly changes and adapts with the times.

Reportedly, the DEA is looking to hire ebonics translators because they feel there is a need due to people trying to use ebonics to evade detection, while trafficking in drugs. The DEA recognizes that it's spoken all the time, like Spanish and Vietnamese, but is becoming more prevalent in drug dealers trying to avoid detection.

I'm not sure that a translator's translation could hold up in court. As of yet, I don't know that there is an ebonics dictionary, and that ebonics doesn't vary from city to city. Is ebonics the same in New York as it is in Los Angeles? Goodness know the English language isn't the same in Boston as it is in SoCal or Austrailia or South Africa for that matter. Is there a reliable source on the nuances and differences of ebonics throughout the world?

The term "Ebonics" -- a blend of "ebony" and "phonics" -- became popular in 1996, when the Oakland California School District proposed using it in teaching English. When the school board came under fire for this decision, it voted to alter the plan, which then recognized Ebonics as a distinct language. Today it is most commonly referred to as "urban language" or "street language" which has crossed over geographic, racial and ethnic backgrounds."

But while the language may be getting more recognition, I'm of the opinion that "translating" it in court could prove troublesome and lead to confusion. As CNN points out, there was controversy during the Black Panther trials in the 1970s, when there was debate over whether the saying, "off the pigs," was an actual threat to kill police officers or more metaphorical. I feel like using ebonics translators hired by the DEA could lead defense teams getting their own ebonics "experts" and suddenly the cost of drug trials goes up and up.

Similiar tragedy, less giving...

2010-08-16T23:24:00.000-04:00

In an article posted yesterday, by the Canadian newspaper the Globe and Mail, it was laid out that Western donors are giving less toward the most recent world tragedy than they have toward other world catastrophic events.

The reason? The most recent catastrophe occurred in Pakistan. It seems that one week after launching fund-raising efforts to help the victims of Pakistan’s recent devastating floods, a coalition of Canadian charities raised only $200,000 for the region. While some might say that this is a substantial fund-raising effort, it pales in comparison to a week after the tragedy of January’s Haitian earthquake, when more than $3.5-million had been raised in the same time period.

More glaring proof can probably be found in the fact that I can't recall having seen a single television commercial here in the U.S. about the floods. When the earthquake occurred in Haiti, you couldn't watch television for more than 10 minutes without seeing at least 3 commercials detailing how you could help. Text message donations were made available, where one could donate $10 by merely texting the word "Haiti" to a certain number. But for Pakistan, not even a commercial with a mere mention of a group, that one could look up, if one were even interested in helping.

If you are interested, I've just discovered you can donate $10 to Pakistan flood relief by texting "SWAT" to 50555. Or, you can check out Save the Children, which is coordinating relief efforts. Or, if you prefer UNICEF is also sponsoring fund-raising relief efforts.

And quite possibly the most offensive part of all this business are the comment's left on the article published by the Globe and Mail. How people can find derogatory things to say and reasons not to donate to needy children is absolutely beyond me. People are people, regardless of where they are hurting, and you can bet that the people who make decisions to start or continue wars, are not the same people who are starving and homeless due to this tragedy. That's like stating that one should not have helped Katrina victims because Americans stick their nose in everyone's business.

------------------ CHART COURTESY OF THE GLOBE AND MAIL--------------------------------

	Total Funding as of Aug. 16/10	Affected population	Funding per affected person
Pakistan floods	$229-million (U.S.)	14 million	$16.36
Haiti earthquake (2010)	$3.3-billion (U.S.)	3 million	$1,087.33
Kashmir earthquake (2005)	$1.2-billion (U.S.)	3 million	$388.33
Indian Ocean earthquake/tsunami (2004)	$6.2-billion (U.S.)	5 million	$1,249.80

Would you still get married?

2010-07-29T14:52:00.000-04:00

So a radio station I listen to regularly has people call in and discuss their problems. I heard one the other day that I just couldn't believe.

A girl called in and said that she and her fiancée were supposed to get married this past June, and that she had been saving for her dream wedding for a long time. However, a month before the wedding she found out that her fiancée spent all the wedding money on a big TV.

She plans to marry him anyway, they've just pushed the date back so that it's later in the year, and she has to start saving money all over again. She quotes the fact that they have two children together, and everyone expects her to get married.

My thought is, WRONG REASONS! This man went and spent your money for your dream wedding on a TV. His priorities are not in order. It's not like he's a crackhead and spent it on crack, cause he couldn't help it, he's got an addiction. He's a grown man, who went out and decided his need for a tv was more important than
1) your hard earned money
2) the work you put into saving that money
3) the dream wedding you had planned out and
4) your reputation

Now don't get me wrong, there may be layers here that I'm not reading into, and I don't necessarily think she needs to dump him, but I think they may want to reconsider the whole wedding. That's not someone I would want to be making sacred vows with. What about you?

There needs to be more outrage!

2010-07-25T15:34:00.001-04:00

Last month, an 11 year old in Los Angeles committed suicide by hanging himself with a jump rope in his closet. And the first I'm reading of it is now, in the LA Times.

Apparently social workers had been visiting him for years and noted drugs, violence and neglect in his home, complete with a stepfather with a long history of abuse and domestic violence, who was court barred from living with the boy, but often present when social workers visited.

Although he had been placed in a foster home for about 15 months, social workers thought it acceptable to reunite him with his mother in 2008.

The day that the little boy killed himself, he spent the morning at school in an emotional state and crying. He told his school counselor that life was "unbearable," because schoolmates were bullying him, and his mother repeatedly struck him with a hanger and a shoe while his stepfather held him down. He told the counselor he wanted to kill himself. And yet instead of getting help, the boy was sent home to the mother that hit him and the stepfather who held him down to allow it.

The school did think to send a note to his mother and call social workers and police, but after a cursory search for weapons in the home and getting a statement from the mother who denied hitting the child, the social workers and police left. Apparently they intended to gather more info over the next week, but by the next morning it was too late.

LA blames the neglect on communications breakdown. Apparently, in a 2008 case involving a severely abused 5-year-old boy, a review revealed that eight separate agencies had more than 100 contacts with the boy's family, but those findings were not shared. When the child was finally removed from the home, he was so malnourished that his kidneys were failing, his hands burned so badly that he could barely unclench them.

But all these cases see is an article in the LA Times. Which is a start, but why aren't California politicians up in arms about this? Why isn't someone screaming from the rooftops? Someone should fight for these kids, even though their parents choose not to.

American Greed

2010-07-23T14:43:00.000-04:00

Awhile ago, we were all upset by the bonuses that AIG was paying out, despite the fact that it needed government bailouts to stay afloat. The thought being that if you need the government to keep you alive, you should NOT be paying bonuses. I can see both sides of that situation though. The person receiving the bonus, had a contract with AIG, and they may have done NOTHING which inspired the screw up, and so still felt entitled to the bonus which may have gone to pay their mortgage, bills, etc.

However, I confess I cannot understand the most recent example of American Greed, seen in Bell, CA. In Bell, City Manager Robert Rizzo, Police Chief Randy Adams and Assistant City Manager Angela Spaccia have all recently agreed to resign their positions. Why would they do so you might ask? Public outrage. The outrage comes concerning their salaries ... Rizzo is paid $787,637 a year; Adams makes $457,000 and Spaccia makes $376,288.

To make a comparison, Adams' salary is 50% MORE than the Police Chief of Los Angeles. And another member of this same council, Lorenzo Velez, makes only $8,076. To put that in perspective, it is 1% of what Rizzo makes. The mayor of Bell made some lame excuse stating that this is because Velez was appointed, not elected.

I want to know, would the constituents of Bell have elected ANYONE if they knew that their tax dollars were going to be spent outrageously. More importantly, I want to know how these people could have felt entitled to these sort of paychecks? What could you possibly be doing as city manager that made you think you deserved $15,150 every week. To make in two weeks more than a lot of Americans take home in an entire year.

Granted, you could say that baseball players and movie stars should subsequently feel guilty about their salaries. But at least in their fields, it's customary to make that much money. I'm not sure that there are city managers out there that make CLOSE to what Rizzo did. Especially in cities that are not a major metropolitan area in and of itself.

I hope the Los Angeles district attorney was serious in pursuing whether or not these contracts were legal. I can't even envision myself making that kind of money. And one day if I do, I can't imagine making it all and not donating large sums of it to charity... which it doesn't appear that these folks were into.

Random Ridiculous Rave

2010-07-09T12:54:00.000-04:00

Ok, so I came across something GOOD for once in the news that I wanted to share. In the recent age of banks failing, needing bailouts, restricting credit, etc. ... one bank is increasing the credit it lends out, and becoming bigger and better and offering loans to small businesses in often less than optimal areas.

Grameen America, the U.S. offshoot of an Asian microlending institution founded by Muhammad Yunus, is now in its third year of operation in the US and is expanding. This year, the small Bangladeshi bank which already has branches in New York; Omaha; &, D.C. is going to open its fourth branch in San Francisco.

According to Newsweek, since it opened in 1983, Grameen has loaned billions to borrowers around the world, most of these being women below the poverty line. It boasts a 98% percent repayment rate as well. Granted, most of the loans are $1,500 or less, with high interest rates, but the rates are better than borrowers could find elsewhere, and there are some unique practices which Grameen credits its success rate with.

The Grameen model supposedly works because of peer pressure. As do a lot of things in this world. Each Grameen borrower is required to attend a weekly meeting with other borrowers, who, as a group, are responsible for communal payback rates (e.g. the group cannot borrow more money if individual members don’t pay back their individual loans). Each individual borrower must also have add to a personal savings account with Grameen to help create a financial cushion to deal with any unforeseen problems or emergencies while building his or her business.

I think in a world where banking has become faceless, and most people, including myself, have switched to online banking to even avoid dealing with a teller, that this is awesome. It hearkens back to when you had a friend at the bank, who would fight for you and your small business. Instead of a broker on Wall Street, who lumps you in with 1,000-2,000 businesses to spread his risk and save his bonus.

If you want to get involved with Grameen, they have volunteer opportunities here. Or you can just follow them on twitter and promote them with your good PR. They also have a link where you can donate... but I'm against donating to a bank on the whole, even one as nice as Grameen America. If you want to donate, check out Kiva ... where you can lend money to starting businesses in impoverished places, and when they pay you back personally, you can choose to take back your money or invest is a new business!

This week in stupid lawsuits: Stupid attempts at class actions.

2010-07-06T12:35:00.001-04:00

Now I'm sure you've all heard that there's a company out there threatening to sue McDonald's, because Happy Meal toys trick kids into wanting Happy Meals and Happy Meals are BAAAAAAAD for them. And while I do think better parenting would fix the solution, that's not even the winner for stupid lawsuits in the food category.

The winner, would be Ms. Payton McClure, of NYC, who is trying to get a class action together against General Mills, and more specifically, Fruit Roll Ups. Ms. McClure claims to be a lifelong consumer of Fruit Roll Ups and has recently discovered, SHOCKINGLY! ... that these snacks are not actually health food? WHO KNEW?

According to her complaint, Ms. McClure alleges that General Mills failed to properly disclose that its fruit products contain partially hydrogenated oil. Excuse her? Has she ever actually SEEN a Fruit Roll Up ... strawberries don't naturally come like that m'dear, it takes some processing. And second of all, I'm pretty sure General Mills discloses the ingredients of their product every time they produce a nutrition label, which is on every little last box out there, courtesy of the FDA.

The complaint stated that use of the oil cause marketing over the past 6 years to be "false and misleading." General Mills is alleged to have advertised that its fruit snacks were "nutritious," "healthy to consume," "naturally flavored," "low fat," and "a good source of Vitamin C," and thus deserved premium prices.

Ms. McClure it's called advertising. They are TRYING to sell you their product. They are not going to say "See this gummy like fruit-ish product, it's mostly oil and byproducts" ... Instead they say it's "nutritious and healthy to consume" which it is, it really only needs a comparison snack, such as "potato chips" or "a stick of butter." And actually, I don't even think that's fair to potato chips, since I've seen even those advertised as healthy recently.

My favorite advertising for Fruit Roll Ups is THIS video, which clearly shows all of the supposed outrageous lies General Mills has been telling Ms. McClure.

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The other winner for stupid lawsuits this week comes in the form of a law firm, as opposed to an individual. Kershaw, Cutter, and Ratinoff (who previously filed a suit regarding Farmville... that's right, as if the facebook app didn't get enough coverage in life) has decided to try and drum up a class action suit against the iPhone4.

For what you may ask? Have they been exploding? And causing traumatic harm to users and those that happen to be nearby? Have they been proven to be an actual cause of cancer? Are people getting iPhone4 shaped lumps in their heads?

No, not exactly. Kershaw, Cutter, and Ratinoff want to commence a class action against Apple and the iPhone4 based on dropped calls and spotty service. Which to me, if not most people, would seem like a reasonable risk in a cell phone. Not to mention that pretty much every iPhone4 buyer out there purchased his or her phone, sight unseen! Go figure... a new device might have some bugs that need to be worked out. Could this be reasonably common with new consumer technology? NO! It must needs be deviousness on the part of Apple! SUE! SUE! SUE!

Well, that's it for me this week. Be sure to let me know if you hear of other stupid lawsuits going on out there in the big, bad world of lawsuit happy hipsters.

Stupid Russia, tricks are for kids.

2010-06-29T15:21:00.001-04:00

So apparently Russia was not content with just being able to see Sarah Palin's Alaskan home, they wanted to know more of the U.S. Federal officials have charged eleven people with being secret agents of Russia... and I thought the Cold War was over...

The FBI stated that the alleged spies supposed to become "sufficiently 'Americanized'" to gain access to the U.S. government's planning and policy apparatus. The FBI decrypted a 2009 message that was sent to 2 of the alleged spies... it went something like this.

"You were sent to USA for long-term service trip," the intercepted message read. "Your education, bank accounts, car, house etc. — all these serve one goal: fulfill your main mission, i.e., to search and develop ties in policymaking circles in U.S. and send intels [intelligence reports] to C [intelligence headquarters in Moscow]." - L.A. Times.

But what really and truly blows my mind about all of this, is that Russia seems to think it can gloss over the event merely by saying "BUT EVERYTHING ELSE HAS BEEN GOING SO WELL!" Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin stated today that he hoped that the spy scandal would not damage "improving relations" between Russia and the U.S. Really? Really? Have you been drinking the same water as Sarah Palin? What is with you people, we discover you've had spies in the country since the early 1990s and you hope it won't damage "improving relations."

The Russian ministry released a statment defending the alleged spies stating that "They [the alleged spies] have not committed any kind of actions directed against the interests of the United States." Hmmm, so we're just supposed to wait around until they do?

An FBI Agent, Amit Kachhia-Patel, said the spy operation was a "deep cover" assignment filled with "false identities, secret rendezvous, such old-school spy craft techniques" as "invisible writing" and a "cover profession" to blend into American society. - L.A. Times

And Oleg Gordievsky, a former deputy head of the KGB (who defected in 1985 and is now living in the United Kingdom) confirmed that Russia probably has around 50 undercover couples living and spying inside the U.S. He told the Associated Press today that the Russian President would know the number of illegal operatives in each target country, but wouldn't be given their names.

Now, I'm not saying that I don't think we're guilty of the same thing... I'm a bit of a conspiracy theorist myself. I'm betting that our government and the CIA probably have a number of spies in Russia. Difference is, we haven't gotten caught. We're just that good. (Don't make me eat my words in a few months CIA, stay classy)

I don't know how you're going to get yourself out of this one Russia, but please try harder than "BUT EVERYTHING ELSE WAS GOING SO WELL!"

Sarah Palin has to give the money back!

2010-06-25T12:49:00.001-04:00

In addition to the stupidity of writing talking points on her hand and selectively choosing to become offended in regards to the word "retard" ... Sarah Palin is quite possibly guilty of any number of ethics violations.

While governor she was charged with over 20 ethics violation, which she claimed left her with over 1/2 million in legal fees. And then some idiots (who for whatever reason work for her) raised a fund to pay for her defense.

Problem is... she was still governor. This week a ruling from last year was upheld, specifying that the fund was illegal because it used her official position as governor to raise money for her personal gain. However, the independent counsel dispensing the ruling, gave Palin the benefit of the doubt, saying that she relied on bad advice from out-of-state lawyers. WHAT? WHAT?!?!?! Come on Sarah, I may not be brilliant, but I do know that it's bad to use public persona for personal gain. I mean you all but pulled a Rob Blagojevich here.

Now what is really and truly disgusting here, is that though she has to give back $386,000 plus, she gets to KEEP anything made after she resigned. AND she has gone and set up a new fund. Seriously lady? You've made millions off your public stupidity, and now you want other people to pay for your bad behaviour as governor? Her lawyer told reporters she ran up the debts in public service, so a fund was justified. WHAT? WHAT!?!?! You ran up the debts, breaking the law, and committing ethics violations, that was not serving the public, that was dis-servicing the public!

Seriously, why hasn't someone bought this woman a muzzle?

This week in stupid lawsuits.

2010-05-28T09:51:00.000-04:00

So although I still don't think anything trumps Lindsay Lohan's suit, I do find these two particularly amusing.

Hulk Hogan is apparently suing Post Cereal because Bam-Bam beat up a cartoon parody of him in a Fruity Pebbles commercial. His complaint, filed under his real name (Terry Bollea) no less, boasts that he is a "well recognized wrestling champion with long blond hair and a blond Fu Manchu mustache." He argues that Post Cereal used his likeness without permission and he has "been harmed by the false endorsement, including the failure to be compensated for the false endorsement and diminishment of his endorsement value by the unauthorized and degrading depiction in the COCOA SMASHDOWN advertisements."

First and foremost - props to the attorney, Joseph Bain. (his e-mail is in the complaint if you feel the need to e-mail him and congratulate him) Mr. Bain managed to
A) ensure that Fu Manchu was capitalized,
B) look Hulk Hogan in the face and take this complaint seriously
C) managed to insinuate that this commercial devalues Hulk's endorsement value, even though Hulk willingly participated in productions such as: Mr. Nanny, Santa With Muscles and Shadow Warriors 2 ... a sequel to a really bad movie no one has ever heard of. And look at that photo... I mean REALLY! Good job Mr. Bain

But all in all, I think Hulk's in it for the money. Cause frankly, I think getting his butt kicked by Bam-Bam takes his reputation UP a notch.

Also remarkably stupid this week, is the lawsuit from a stripper, a STRIPPER mind you, that a professional football player abandoned her.

Silvia Mena accuses the Washington Redskin's Albert Haynesworth of allegedly impregnating her and then abandoning her. She's asking for $10 million. First of all lady, you're a stripper, he met you at a strip club, what on God's green earth would make you think that he wanted to have a baby with you? Much less acknowledge you in public. She claims he promised to support her and take care of her and blah, blah, blah... how do women never learn that men will say just about anything as long as you take your pants off?

Second of all $10 million? How is does your standard of living merit that? How does raising a kid COST that? Granted, Haynesworth makes a lot of money, but managing to get yourself knocked up by him doesn't mean you should be able to take a windfall.

Mena’s laywer, Salvatore Strazzullo, says, “This man is worth millions. (Mena) has had to apply for Medicaid to take care of her pregnancy.” Yes sir, but this is because she is a pregnant stripper. And last I checked, not that many people were into that. Also, there's birth control AND condoms available, really this is as much her fault as his.

I say Haynesworth should go, get a paternity test and then sue for custody.

Facebook security woes...

2010-05-21T14:58:00.000-04:00

... so due to Facebook's recent security breaches, a recent British poll posits that 1/2 of facebook users are likely to quit. I say "horse-do-do!" Facebook currently boasts over 400 million users and if it goes down to 200 million, I will eat something hat-like in nature.

The poll gave 5 options
30% are "highly likely" to quit Facebook due to privacy concerns
30% said it was "possible"
12% of respondents said that won't leave the site
12% said it's "not likely"
And 16% have already stopped using facebook.

Quite frankly, I'd love to know just WHO was polled, because if these stats didn't include high school students, then they're majorly skewed. I mean granted, all stats are skewed, but still.

The world has come too addicted to facebook to quit. Sure you might change your privacy pictures ... or take down / un-tag those photos of you upside down on a keg in a short dress (not me though, I love those photos), but I say the likelihood of quitting facebook is SLIM.

I think the pole should have had more realisitc options.
1 - I quit and I'm not going back ever, regardless of any new privacy procedures
2 - I quit till it's safer
3 - I am quitting UNLESS there are new saftey procedures enacted
4 - I'm not quitting, but I'm taking down those photos of last weekend, and that note my opinion of the CIA's usefulness to this country.
5 - I'm only likely to quit if there are more safety breaches in the future.
6 - I'm not quitting, ever, facebook is my crack... and I'm never going to rehab.

I feel like you would have gotten more honest results.

Seriously, I'm one of those people who facebook is one of my drugs. I'm out to disprove Dunbar's Number.

What is wrong with people?

2010-05-20T15:04:00.000-04:00

In case you haven't heard... a Malawi court today sentenced a gay couple to 14 years in jail for practicing homosexuality. 14 years! Really? REALLY? The court cites reasons such “gross indecency” and “unnatural acts” under a British-colonial era law.

This blows my mind. There's also various quotes from citizens of Malawi saying that homosexuality goes against their "culture" and their "religion." Well you're religion is your own business, but I've got news for you folks, there is no wholly straight culture on the face of the earth. Homosexuality has been around since the dawn of time, and if you think your culture is free of it, it's just because you didn't notice it before.

I was pretty disgusted when a school in Mississippi told Constance McMillen that she couldn't bring her female date to the prom. And then cancelled the whole prom instead of being forced to honor her equality. And while devastating to a high school student, a prom is a small thing in the grand scope of life, and the regonition she brought the cause, not to mention the cash and job offers she got herself, seem to have worked the whole situation out in her favor.

But JAIL TIME? For merely being human? And refusing to forego love when you find it? That's disgusting! DISGUSTING! And this is not American prison. This is a hard labor camp. These gentlemen will more than likely DIE than survive a 14 year sentence. So now it's a death sentence for being gay.

Seriously third world countries, if you want to start being recognized by the rest of the world, start acting like it. Minus parts of the South of course.

What not to do in a bad economy...

2010-05-19T12:18:00.000-04:00

So it comes to light recently, that Bristol Palin, hypocrite daughter on one-time VP candidate Sarah Palin, will be commanding $15,000 - $30,000 per speaking engagement. These prices are set by Single Source Speakers, a group that boasts Drew Brees among its speakers, but really no one else of note.

Palin's available speaking topics include: "Abstinence, Conference, Fundraiser, Pro-Life, Special Event/Holiday, Women's, Youth." ABSTINENCE? You want to pay Bristol Palin, a girl who couldn't keep it in her pants at 16 $30,000 to speak about abstinence? That amount of money is someone's ANNUAL salary! If she's such a good kid and a good Christian and the whole 9, she should take every penny she makes from these speaking events and donate it to those who need it.

I recently commented that I would rather go see Snooki, from MTV's Jersey Shore speak than Bristol Palin. Little did I know that Snooki is currently commanding $10,000 just to SHOW UP somewhere, and probably get drunk there as well. Yep, that's right folks, 10 large for just showing up and acting like Jersey trash. Awesome.

I wonder why I got a law degree. I mean really, going out and making an ass our of yourself in public seems like a much lazier and easier way of making a living. And it looks like it pays better too.

And back in 2007, at an all time high, apparently before having to take yet another stint in rehab, Lindsay Lohan was offered $350,000 to have her 21st birthday party at a nightclub. This of course was before her more recently plummet toward ridiculousness.

Come on people! Are we really shelling out this kind of money for this kind of stupidity? You don't get to complain about what a horrible state the economy is in if you keep fostering this kind of nonsense.

Boycott morons, that is all.

Spare Change Charities part Deux

2010-04-29T12:07:00.001-04:00

Alright friends, I am not giving up on this idea, just putting it on hold while I sort some things out with it. But a lot more goes into it than I hoped. I need to do several things.

1 - find two other directors to start this thing up with me
2 - write articles of incorporation
3 - hold an organizational meeting
4 - create by laws
5 - file with the state
6 - apply for tax exempt status
7 - figure out the money part
8 - start a records book
9 - open an account with a bank
10 - open an account with paypal

I think I will get started on the Articles of Incorporation after I'm complete the resource of whether a charity that raise money for other charities will meet all of the federal and state rules.

Spare Change Charities

2010-04-20T11:06:00.000-04:00

So oftentimes in my life, I feel like I am not doing enough good. And I really would like to set up something called Spare Change Charities... but my legal skills are not good enough to know how to go about setting up a not-for-profit. Basically all I want is a paypal account, where people can send spare change, and then I can cut a month check from that account to the specified Charity.

Basically, I was thinking that it would work with people just donating their spare change at the end of each day/week/month/year ... whatever they wanted to commit to. And each month we would pick a different charity to which the grand total would go to.

Say your bank account has $1000.46 cents in it at the end of the day. You could donate your spare change each day, or at the end of each week, each month what have you.

But I'm thinking if I wanted to try this, I could dig myself a big whole if I went about it wrong. And I really don't want the IRS chasing me down for crimes committed on good intentions ... so if anyone has any suggestions as to how to go about this endeavour, that would be AWESOME!

Bullied to Death

2010-03-31T10:30:00.000-04:00

I'm sure everyone has seen on the news at this point, the suicide of that poor girl in South Hadley, MA. 9 teens have been charged with crimes relating to her death.

Phoebe was a pretty Irish girl who had started school this year as a freshman at South Hadley High. She had a fling with a senior football player, which apparently made some other girls jealous, because when it ended, the rentlentless bullying began. This girl had her books pushed out of her hands, cans chucked at her head, was continually called a slut, often times following her up and down hallways to do so, etc. etc. etc. A lot of this happened in front of teachers. Who apparently did a whole lot of nothing. Her mother called school administrators twice to complain about what was happening to her daughter, again, no result.

Proof positive that America has just become numb to how horrible high school students can be to one another. I remember high school, and I remember how mean kids can be to one another. And it is much easier in that environment to agree with other students that so-and-so is a slut, rather than stand up for her. Because standing up for someone may cause bullies to dump you and land you in the bullied group instead.

And maybe I have rose coloured hindsight, but in all four years of my high school, I don't think anyone was as awful to anyone as these kids were to Phoebe. Yeah we may have called people sluts, but it usually wasn't to their faces, and screaming it at a girl in front of a teacher would have ended someone with detention and some counselling sessions. And while there were fights, I don't recall a lot of one way, never ending assaults, and again, pushing someone's books out of their hands or throwing a can at them would have gotten you punished. Yet everyone seems to have looked the other way with these 9 nasty children.

I think social media has a lot to do with bullying getting worse. When I was in high school, there was no myspace, no facebook, no twitter. If you wanted to call someone a slut, you had to actually say it to someone. And it was sure as shit going to get back to that person that you had done so. Then came myspace, and the ability to belittle people without ever having to face them. They say at 42% of kids have been cyber bullied these days. All you had to do was create a fake page, with some easily grabbed fake pictures from the internet and start harassing whomever you felt like behind the shield of anonymity. It went so far that there was that crazy mother who helped her daughter trick another school girl into thinking that she had an internet boyfriend and then pretending that the boy suddenly hated her. This cause Megan Meier, also 14 at the time to hang herself in her closet as well.

It became so easy to bully someone online, that everyone became desensitized to it, and bullying in real life just gets worse and worse. And while some people say that these 9 teens did not cause Phoebe's death, it was a suicide, I say horseshit. Yeah, Phoebe has to take some of the blame, because she made a choice. But she was a 15 year old, in a new country at a fragile age, tormented by children so hateful and unfeeling that they continued to mock her on a facebook page set up in her memorial AFTER HER DEATH! They then proceeded to brag on their own facebook pages that they had "fooled" the cops when questioned. What are parents, and we as a culture, doing these days that kids have come to this?

While I don't think that these kids are guilty of manslaughter or anything similar. I do think that there need to be serious consequences to what they did and a serious amount of counselling as well, otherwise we could be looking at tomorrow's sociopaths.

Legalize it!

2010-03-24T14:54:00.000-04:00

In an effort not to write about the health care legislation, which I feel has been overdone, and really, if I hear one more opinion about it, I may just scream, I choose another topic...

It looks like California may be voting on legalizing pot. And not just in the medical sense (excuse for a minute here while I stop my siblings from packing their bags and loading up the caravan).

Today, Los Angeles County elections officials must turn in their count of valid signatures collected on a statewide legalization initiative. The Los Angeles Times reports that the number is virtually certain to be enough to qualify the initiative for placement on the November ballot.

Now, I'm not a pot smoker, but I say go for it, California. I'm not a pot smoker, but I am for the legalization of marijuana (and across the board, not just medically). Because I think it has the capability to take a chunk out of our defecit, create new jobs and generally boost moral. Because honestly, who's happier than stoners who aren't worried about being caught? And I think it has the benefit of making sure that all the pot sold would JUST be pot, you wouldn't have to worry about your kid accidentally smoking some sort of laced pot and getting addicted to crack/rocks/speed/whathaveyou.

Now, I think there should be serious limits and regulations put upon it. I think you should have to be 21, same as beer. I don't think you should be permitted to drive high, go to work high, or do any of the things you should not be doing drunk, while high.

Plus, can you imagine the jobs that would be created while scientists discover what the legal limit of being high is? Previously, unproductive, pothead members of society could be employed to just smoke pot all day while scientists poke and prod at them like monkeys. (Because I honestly don't think you could get a monkey to smoke pot, and therefore, humans would have to be used.)

And, instead of paying cops to head out and destroy marijuana farms and pot gardens, (which can be a deadly form of employment if the pot farmers are heavily armed) we can pay those same police to just inspect whether or not pot farms have licenses, and if they don't impose a big old fee, which will also help us out of the national deficit.

And I don't think we have to worry about our kids starting on coke or speed, because suddenly pot is legal. If properly restricted to age groups, it will still be as "cool" as booze is to teenagers. And kids are smart these days, they just want to be in an altered state, they don't want to be dead.

And it's not just California (although they are definitely getting the most buzz) Nevada has measure for 2012 which would allow state licensed pot stores. And a campaign in Washington State hopes to put a legalization measure onto the fall ballot as well. And I say go for it. Let's use drugs to dig this country out of its deficit.

This week in stupid lawsuits!

2010-03-12T02:15:00.000-05:00

Alright, apparently this week is the week to file the stupidest, most frivolous lawsuit you can thinkg of. . .

Let's start with LiLo, as I'm sure you all know, Lindsay Lohan is suing E-trade because of the Milk-a-holic Superbowl commercial. She and her idiotic lawyer apparently feel that the Lindsay baby obviously represented Lohan, and as such, she is due 100 million dollars. First of all Lindsay, I'm sorry that Labor Pains is all you've put out (well film wise at least) in the past few years, but really, you can't be this hard up for cash. I mean, I hear you've been on Project Runway. And I know you must be miffed that the Obama administration told you that you were not the positive role model they were looking for when they were campaigning, but this is not the way to stage a comeback.

First of all, you are not Madonna or Cher. Get the hell over yourself. When I hear Lindsay, I don't think about you. I think about people I know with the name, or the E-trade baby, matter of fact. When I hear Madonna, I think of Madonna. Hell, even Angelina's got a better claim than you.

Second,in your birth year Lindsay was the 39th most popular name. That's 39 out of about 1 million names people could have chosen for their kids... pretty damned popular. And apparently it's maintained it's popularity through to today, with many baby naming sites calling it "a very popular name for girls" and ranking it 302 out of 4276 today. And while Baby Name Wizard does note you as a famous Lindsay, it also calls you "tabloid fodder."

And third, what does it say about you, that the second you see a slutty, substance addicted character, you instantly jump to the conclusion that it's all about you? Do me a favor, go get your tubes tied, today.

And to the Lohan lawyer, even if you had a leg to stand on, it's call a parody. Did Tiger sue Saturday Night Live? Does Bill Clinton attempt to sue the NUMEROUS TV commercials and radio ads that impersonate the hell out of him, and poke fun at his extra marital affairs and loose ways with the truth? I hope Lindsay paid you up front, cash money, cause otherwise, you're as dumb as she is and you two deserve each other.

-------------------------------------------------------

My second favorite, remarkably stupid, favorite lawsuit of the week, was filed by Karen Salmansohn, a self-proclaimed, self-help guru. She, is apparently trying to sue her ex-fiancee because he pledged to leave his wife and have a baby with her.

Ms. Salmansohn, I have known from a young age, that men, will say anything, and I mean ANYTHING to have sex with you. Hell, they might even buy you fertility treatments. Why did no one tell you this growing up?

You told this man on your SECOND date, that you longed to have a child. Well there is mistake number one. You KNEW he was still married. Mistake number two. You fell for the line "I wish aliens would come down and remove my wife so I could marry you right away." Mistake number three. (And lady, I've fallen for some dumb lines, but that takes the cake!)

This man was playing your game, figuring you could not get pregnant, (I mean, you're 49 and it's a first child!) sure he dumped cash and presents and all sorts of stuff on you. He was nailing you. He was happy. Sure he promised you all sorts of things about a baby he never thought would appear. Empty promises are easy to make. When you got pregnant, his little dream world shattered. He remained with his wife, he stopped paying for your high ticket lifestyle. Go figure, it's happened to millions of women. Get back up off your ass, and go back to work.

You don't get to sue a guy because you were dumb enough to believe that he'd actually leave his wife and family. Sure he gave you an engagement ring, but last time I checked, bigamy's totally not cool in these United States, and ummm YOU KNEW ABOUT HIS WIFE AND KIDS! Sue him for child support if the kid is his. But as for you, you're dumb, and I would never hire you as my life coach. Maybe that's why you need this lawsuit, all of your customers have walked away huh?

I also hope your lawyer is charging you upfront! Cause there's another case I would not take on contingency.

And that is this week in remarkably stupid lawsuits. Anyone else hear about other stupid lawsuits?

Tiger Woods, Sorry for all the wrong reasons

2010-03-02T13:05:00.000-05:00

I know I'm late to the game on this, but it took me awhile to collect my thoughts. Did you know, that the little stunt that Tiger Woods called an apology two weeks ago, drew more viewers than the Winter Olympics and the war in Afghanistan COMBINED? Granted, EVERY major news station and channel shut down what they were doing to play this man's forced, scripted, crap excuse for an apology. Now, I for one, don't really think he owes the public an apology, merely his wife and his sponsors, but if you're going to do it... do it right, don't do what Tiger did ...

I happened to be at the tire place when this garbage came on, and both me and the man I was sitting and chatting with in the waiting room thought it was going to be about Joe Stack, flying his plane into the IRS building in Texas. However, nope, it was Tiger. In the words of the crazy man I was talking to "REALLY? This shit trumps wars, plane crashes and Haiti?"

However, as we soon found out that it was on every station, we settled down to watch and ridicule it. What I find most disgusting is that Tiger does not appear contrite at all. Sure, he's sorry he got caught. He's sorry he's losing MILLIONS in endorsements and publicity. But is he sorry he cheated on his wife and made the paprazzi even more eager to chase his children around? No. He's sorry he got caught. If he could go back, do I think he would change what he did? No, I think he would find a better way to hide it, so that he wouldn't get caught. I don't think he would alter his ways one stinking bit.

What I believe truly drums this point home, is that he didn't even WRITE that apology. It was clear from his amateur reading of it, that someone else penned it. Including stage directions. (Now pause, Tiger, look at the camera, attempt to well up some tears)

Also proving he's not sorry, was his refusal to take questions. Tiger, in an extremely childish move, chose the press, and informed them that there would be a statement, no questions. C'mon Tiger, even children get questioned by their parents when they sneak candy before dinner.

It was a bad call, all around. I mean, two months after being caught? You should have either apologized the next day (black eye, golf club wounds and all) or not apologized at all. With all the bimbos out there telling us you're every move, if you hadn't said anything, half of the nonsense would have been chalked up to rumor. If you had apologized the next day and THEN hid out, you could have gone the way of Elliot Spitzer, who sure, had to resign; but is now appearing on Colbert, and in other public venues, managed to keep his law license, and is raking in the cash again. And Spitzer broke the LAW, Tiger, he's guilty of soliciting, paying for sex, and breaking the Mann Act (which while ridiculous, is funny) ... you, you just cheated on your wife. Bill Clinton lied to the public, committed perjury. You, again, just cheated on your wife. I know you have more money than both of these men, how is your choice in PR guys so poor? Both these men took questions, lived their public shame, and came back up. They're both on top of the world right now, and their wives stayed with them. (And stayed docile during their apologies.)

I didn't think you owed the world an apology to begin with, but since you chose to make one, you should have done it right. Take the questions, live the shame and get over it. Don't hide behind a scripted apology. Because all it really said to the public was "please buy things with my name on it again one day"

Also funny was that Playboy model Loredana Jolie Ferriolo was upset that Tiger did not apologize to his mistresses. Really Loredana? You KNEW he was married, you KNEW he had kids, you KNEW who he was. You KNEW you were supposed to shut up about it and not talk to anyone about it from the get go. If anyone owes anyone an apology, you owe his wife one. And I agree with Elmer Smith about you... go "file a classless-action suit on behalf of all Tiger's spurned sluts" ... see if you can't grab some of the cash he's so worried about losing.

Terrorist Act or Suicide?

2010-02-22T14:35:00.000-05:00

Although Tiger Woods' pitch to the public and advertising agents to "please be able to respect him [e.g. promote him/buy things with his face on them] again one day" took front line in the news last week, the more important story to me was the story of Joe Stack.

Andrew Joseph Stack, was the man who flew a small plane into an Austin building housing IRS offices, killing himself and one other person, Vernon Hunter, an IRS worker and Vietnam vet. From all the photos, Stack looks like an average dude about my parents age, who ran a software consulting business. But from his manifesto, or suicide note, which can be seen at Smoking Gun ... it appears there was more going on in his head.

A lot of folks I know are calling him a "home grown terrorist" ... and while I feel what he did was despicable, I'm not sure I agree. Terrorism I feel is defined pretty well in the non-definition given by Wikipedia... "Terrorism is the systematic use of terror especially as a means of coercion.[1] At present, there is no internationally agreed definition of terrorism.[2][3] Common definitions of terrorism refer only to those violent acts which are intended to create fear (terror), are perpetrated for an ideological goal (as opposed to a lone attack), and deliberately target or disregard the safety of non-combatants (civilians)."

I'll grant you that Mr. Stack targeted civilians, but he certainly wasn't trying to coerce anything, nor did he seem to have a coherent ideological goal. He was very upset at the tax system in our nation, and convinced that unless there was a body count, no one was going to notice his need for change.

I go back and forth on dubbing him crazy or not. Sure we would all love to pay less taxes. And sure we would all love to see the extremely wealthy pay their fair share. But from the photos in the news it looked like he had hobbies, a house, children, a paying job. Paying income tax didn't give him diseases or make him homeless, or even cause him to not be able to afford a guitar. He merely wasn't one of the wealthy elite. He may not have had enough money to travel to exotic locations or to buy a Mercedes. Maybe he wasn't going to be able to retire as early as he originally would have liked. That doesn't seem like the most hard up life that there is out there. And it doesn't seem like a reason to off oneself. So on that line of thinking, I do think he might have been a little unbalanced.

But he also makes good points. After the Great Depression, a lot of bankers did off themselves. And now, if our bankers and Wall Street screw up royally, they get a bailout, and then they get their bonus, while laying off the people who make a fraction of what they do who will never see a bonus. The people to whom that bonus would have been a lifetime of salaries... and to whom it may mean staying in their home, feeding their kids, etc. Not just whether or not they're going to remain a millionaire that year.

And while Stack's manifesto did say he's sure he wouldn't be the first or the last to feel this way, it did not encourage everyone to go out and attempt to blow up their IRS office. So in short, I don't feel that he's a terrorist. I feel that he's a tragedy... He had some good points, and it looks like at one point in time in his life he tried to be an activist and get people to hear those points, but failed. I think it's sad that he felt he had to end his own life. I think it's sadder still that his daughter calls him a hero to the press. That adds insult to injury to the Vernon Hunter family. But saddest of all is that a man who could have really just used a good shrink and a raise is getting dubbed a terrorist.

Resolutions Update 2/17/10

2010-02-17T13:08:00.000-05:00

Well midway through February lets see where I'm at

1 - Lose (AT LEAST) 25 pounds. = Nowhere, working two jobs makes it real hard to diet. I am eating 5 or 6 salads a week, but I'm eating crap too. Boo.
2 - Get toned in addition to losing the weight. = Nowhere, working two jobs makes it real hard to find time to exercise. Hopefully I will be able to quit one, or reduce hours at it soon and make gym time.
3 - Start waking up earlier. SUCCESS - I've been out of bed each morning by 7:15 ... I don't know how much more I'm getting done, but I feel like I'm more up on my blogs, and that I've had time to pack lunches!
4 - Start saving more money. Some success - since I've been packing money, I've at least been saving on lunches, but I haven't really been putting much away.
5 - Start being more positive. Some success - I'm trying to stay positive. I think the healthy eating and maybe a raise might help
6 - Stop biting the nails. = Nowhere. Man this is a ridiculously hard habit to kick.

Ok, having an update helps, because maybe it will help me to get back on track. I appreciate all diet and any nail biting tips as always!

The Fat Tax ...

2010-02-16T11:08:00.000-05:00

... we've all been there. You get on the airplane, and the person that is seated in the seat assigned next to you is already halfway into your seat. And the flight is going to be 6 hours. Great.

However, it appears that some airlines have been going out of their way to make things more comfortable for the little people. Pun intended. Air France for one... has made its move. It will be charging passengers over a certain weight for a second seat at 75% of the cost for the first seat. The passenger will then accommodated by linking the two seat belts across the two seats to form one seat belt for the larger passenger. And Air France is quick to point out that this will only be done for fully booked flights, overweight passengers will be refunded the second chair price for flights that happen to miraculously have a spare seat on them.

Now I know this may be unfair for certain passengers. Say you're just extremely tall. 6'8" and 300lbs. By no means are you unhealthy, however, you probably do not fit in the seat for a variety of reasons. I mean there's no way your legs will fit in the extremely small space provided. Are they going to charge you for an extra chair? Maybe the one in front of you? Perhaps they can remove it and charge you for extra space for your legs?

I believe that all airline seating should be redone, with human beings in mind, instead of 8 year olds. However, until that is done, I would say that I am probably in favor of the fat tax. I have been smushed all the way into a third of my seat flying home from Europe. And it was one of the most horrible experience of my life. When the guy got up to use the bathroom the girl on the aisle seat, who was practically sitting in the aisle begged the stewardess to move us... alas, it was a full flight.

Southwest, however, in true Southwest form, appears to have gone overboard. It appears Kevin Smith, creator of all things Jay & Silent Bob, was forced to leave a Southwest flight. Smith was told that he must be able to fasten his seatbelt and lower his armrests in order to remain on the flight... after doing both of these, and asking the passengers around him whether they objected to his presence... and receiving negatives from everyone, he was STILL ejected from the flight. I think this is kind of ludicrous. From the photos I have seen of Smith, he is not the passenger I would object to, in fact, I think he is significantly smaller than most of the folks I object to. Smith has been accused of a publicity stunt to promote his new movie... but I don't think so. For one, Bruce Willis stars in it, and for two, Southwest is good at hating: both slutty dressers and moms. And third, do you really want to be called fat by the entire nation just to promote a movie?

Smith has also been criticized for not flying first class or in a private jet. And I agree with him... yeah he has money, but he's not going to hold on to lots of money if he pisses it away on things he feels he doesn't need. He's also been criticized because he has bought second seats on Southwest in the past, and had done so for this flight, but had changed his flight schedule to go home earlier. Just because a man buys a second seat in a flight for comfort reasons, does not mean he should be FORCED to on all occasions. If I ever have boatloads of money, you can bet I'm buying a second seat on all of my flights, because I don't like strangers touching me. Hell, I'd probably shell out for the private jet.

And Southwest's one concession after throwing Smith out of a chair that he fit into, with no complaints from his fellow passenger, was to offer him a $100 voucher. Which I'm pretty sure did not even cover his flight.

But I think the best point Smith made was in his twitter account, where he asks if Southwest treats its STAFF the same.

Video Killed the Radio Star

2010-02-11T13:38:00.000-05:00

So Google Buzz has made its appearance. Touted as "one part Facebook, one part Twitter, one part YouTube and one part Flickr," many seem to think that Google Buzz is out to get Twitter and Facebook. I think that's a bit harsh. Google just wants its share of the market. The Droid phones look surprisingly like the iPhones but I don't see anyone freaked out that Verizon(HTC) is trying to push AT&T(Apple) out of the market. Matter of fact, it seemed to be expected that Verizon would find something to draw people away from the iPhone. I don't even remember there being this much outrage when facebook killed myspace.

So the pros.
1 - it automatically loads all of your google contacts as contacts for you.
2 - it puts up your google photo, no uploading.
3 - it constantly runs in g-mail, so you can keep both things open at once, in one window!
4 - there's no annoying character limitation as with twitter
5 - it's something new to try, and new procrastinations are always welcome in my life
6 - when people are "buzzing" it makes me think they've thrown precaution and work to the wind and are daytime drinking. this makes me giggle.

And the cons.
1 - the automatic follow thing, not so cool if you've ever e-mailed a boss from your personal e-mail
2 - it broadcasts your location to the world, "buzzing" at work - your boss now knows, "buzzing" from your phone from a sporting event on a day you called out of work - double bad news
3 - the order in which things update is confusing ... there's no "most recent" vs "most popular" as there is in facebook
4 - it's a little harder to figure out how to change your settings than the rest of google's products
5 - it apparently can grab photos from your phone without you uploading them. this can be disastrous, especially if you taken drunken phone photos
6 - it's getting kinda spammy with all the e-mails it sends me, I can see the buzz notifications right alongside my inbox, no need to e-mail me too google
7 - I still prefer facebook's ability to write on people's "wall" and such

All in all, I'm gonna give it a go. I'm a social person, I like social networks, I also like new technologies. And hey, it may lure me away from twitter for good. Because it looks more twitter-ish than facebook, and more interesting than twitter too.

Well that's me, anyone else have pros & cons to add?

I am a Frequent Flyer Mile Whore...

2010-02-10T15:32:00.000-05:00

... yes, I know the language is inappropriate, but it's true. I will do ridiculous things for frequent flier miles. I am a member of two programs. Continental Airline's frequent flier and United Airline's. Continental is attached to my bank card, so for every dollar I spend on the card, I get a mile. Awesome. They also e-mail me other offers, like "change my electrical provider and get 3,500 miles" which also helped, because the electrical provider was 1) cheaper than NiMo, 2) local, and 3) offered a green energy option. Again, awesome. Continental has sent me on 3 free flights in the past 7 years. I <3 them long time.

Recently, I have discovered two online programs through Continental's frequent flier

1) E-miles
2) E-rewards

These programs both allow you to earn frequent flier miles without purchasing anything or really doing much at all. E-miles has you look at offers and gives you 5 frequent flier miles for every offer you look at (you don't have to buy any of the offers or sign up for anything, but if you do, you get MORE miles) and E-rewards give you money/miles for filling out surveys, none of which have taken me any longer than 8 minutes. And both programs partner with more than just Continental. I have earned 750 flier miles from E-miles and 1,000 from E-rewards already.

With United, I am only a member, because I am a member of mypoints.com, where I can redeem my points for miles with United, which I then either sell on e-bay or trade with someone who wants those for Continental on any number of various trading sites.

I am sharing this information with the hope that some of y'all might know of other survey/offer/what have you programs out there where I can pick up more frequent flier miles. I blame the crazy snow storm and all your photos thereof for making me stir crazy and feeling a need to fly off to various and sundry locations. But seriously to have earned 1,750 miles through two programs which eat up no more than 1/2 hour of my week... I want to know if anything else is out there, cause I will sign my tuckus up!

Conan needed a better contract attorney.

2010-01-20T14:54:00.000-05:00

I know it's a bit of old news, but it looks like it may be wrapping up with Conan taking $32.5 million and getting another $7.5 for his staff. And really, I don't normally side with people who make shit-tons of money... but in this case, I think Conan needs a better attorney.

Sure, there's the side of it that says NBC can schedule their programs any-which-way they want, and Conan should honor his contract if "The Tonight Show" was moved back. But I'm with him. That's not "The Tonight Show" anymore. When he signed on, he was supposed to get the same Tonight Show that's been playing for decades, in the same time slot. He picked up his family, staff, etc. and MOVED across the country. And seven months later, they're breaking his contract.

Think of it as a nurse who moves across the country, packs up the kids, house, etc, for the promise of a day shift at a hospital, so she can be home when her kids get home from school. Then the hospital after seven months says "If you want a job, you have to work nights." I'd imagine the union would have something to say about it. Granted, the nurse makes less than Conan, and has other concerns, but shitty move NBC.

I think this deal is not enough, I think that NBC should have to pay Conan what they would have paid him for the next five years, and that he should be allowed to host whatever the f%*& he feels like and not have NBC's check be cut down by other monies he makes. NBC should suck it, they f&*%ed him over and they should feel the consequences. The end.

Alright, now that that rant is over with... and anger is abated, I'm off to buy a Team Conan shirt... and never watch Jay Leno again. What a schmuck.

Where have all the inexpensive books gone?

2010-01-13T11:09:00.000-05:00

I'm a big fan of reading. I will read pretty much anything set in front of me. I probably get through 2 or 3 books a week depending on what I'm reading. But what makes me angry is that books are so freaking expensive. On amazon.com, I can purchase many of the computers games I would like cheaper than the books I would like, (both being under the used category). This may be because I am picky and want a book in somewhat decent quality, with the cover attached, but go figure.

At most of my favorite used book stores I've been seeing an increase in price as well. Which really befuddles me, I should not have to pay $12 for a used book that was $16 at new retail. That's not really a bargain at all, I could probably get the book NEW with a coupon that would take as much off at Barnes & Noble or Borders.

Speaking of the two major booksellers. If going in there isn't bad enough, then there's all sorts of expensive coffee and candy that tempts me while I am there as well. So aside from the Border's clearance rack (which is fabulous for cook books) ... I am making a commitment to stay out of large booksellers.

On of my favorite resources to turn to is www.paperbackswap.com ... if you're not a member yet, I suggest it. Also, you should write me as your recommending member, user name = maeno83, because I am awesome! And it will get me extra credits, which will get me extra books, which you should do for me, because again, I am awesome. Anyway, getting back on track. If you register 10 paperbacks with them, you get 2 free credits. A credit gets you a free paperback from anything you can find amongst their listings on the site. The catch is, when someone requests one of your books, you have to send it off and pay for postage for it to get to them, BUT when this happen, you get another credit, and another free book! Yay! My one downside with this is that I hate giving up books, so I only list crap books which I would be ashamed to have in my impressive library one day, and the problem with these crap books is that few other people want them either. Therefore, my stash of credits has dried up.

I do find amazon.com and half.com useful for used book as well, because sometimes you can find good books for around $1. The problem is, the shipping makes them ridiculous, unless you order a pile from the same shipper, which is usually what I try to do. Plus then I eventually get a big old pile of books at my door, which makes me happy.

I also joined the Double Day book club online ... you know, get 5 books for $0.99, and you have to pay for 4 books and shipping over the next 2 years. Well I bought one of those books with my 5 cheap ones, because it came at half price, and I have 3 more to get over the next 2 years. I plan on waiting a bit more for different stuff to go on clearance (about $5 on the site) so I only have to spend $20ish (including shipping) on my next 3 books. This scored me 9 books for about $40, which I think is ok.

Does anyone else have any suggestions for places to locate cheap/inexpensive books. I miss SUNY Oswego's last day of the library sale, where you could load a giant paper bag with books for $5. There should be something like that in the Capital District.

Resolutions Update

2010-01-08T13:28:00.000-05:00

So... I've started the diet. I'm not really good at sticking to it everyday. But I would say I ate healthy for 13 out of 15 meals this week. I did not really do any exercise, because I have also sucked at the getting out of bed earlier department... so let's see

Today = weight: 178 lbs (still gross);
toned muscles: still none;
time I got out of bed 8:00 a.m. (not a huge difference, I know);
money I put aside this paycheck $0 (small check this week, planning more next week);
positivity - pretty good today
nails bitten recently? - yes today (I have NO willpower)

I have also resolved to stop biting my nails. Making that #6 ... but I totally suck at that, because I chew them when I'm not even thinking about it. In fact, I'm pretty sure I bit at a nail today. Again, I have no willpower. Ah well, we will see where this goes.

Hot new technology: No more privacy.

2010-01-06T11:24:00.000-05:00

So with today's new Smart Phones and social networks such as Facebook and Twitter... you can assure that everything you do these days can be broadcast to the world instantaneously.

From getting married to giving birth. Now to the couple that updated their facebook relationship statuses and tweeted about their new married state at the altar. I'm not sure that's the correct time and place for smart phones and twitter. It might be, if say you were drunk, and in Vegas. Then yes, the marriage is not sacred and not profound. It is Britney Spears, and tweeting makes sense. However, you appear to have been married in a church, in front of friends, family and God... and I feel like you might have wanted to take that a little bit more seriously. The guy's YouTube page makes some statement about how they aren't all that internet obsessed, they merely wanted to share with friends and family who were out of town. Seriously dude? If these people are that close to you, they KNOW you're getting married, you can show them wedding and honeymoon photos later.

I have friends from college, who are having their second child, and keep us all updated on facebook. I'm very much less offended by this. The miracle of birth is something that should be celebrated by friends and family, and many of them will not be allowed in the hospital with you as hospital staffs have better things to do than try to find space for the 50 odd people that would love to be with you. Tweeting about birth makes a given amount of sense to me. Of course, when your child is 14 ... it may scar him, but maybe at that age our children will be used to having been on facebook their whole lives long. Of course, this will make it that much harder for any kid that was ever picked for anything to ever live it down, because there on facebook will be pictures his parents took of whatever embarrassing story/incident/time of life it was, because to Mom and Dad those stories are cute, not ones that are going to ruin your high school social life.

Then there's the dead scandal of all the politicians facebooking/twittering/playing solitaire when really, they should be using the public's money to do something productive. I just wonder if we haven't gone a bit too far with wanting everyone to share in every moment of our lives. (Or in the case of politicians & celebs ... know that we're doing something important every second of our very important lives) . Frankly, I don't care to check in with Paris Hilton ten times a day to see what she's been doing. She hasn't been interesting since the sex tape.

Now I don't want to go the way of Miley Cyrus or John Mayer and swear that we've become dependent on the internet and we shouldn't use it as often. Because, really, that's kind of stupid. We've become dependent on toliets and forks, I think Cyrus and Mayer should go without those for a week and then get back to us.

But I feel that while social networks are fun, and keep us entertained, especially on boring train rides or that slow hour at the office, I still feel like somethings should be private and respected. There won't be any live social networking at any of my major life events. Y'all will either have to be there, or be subjected to the thousands of pictures afterwards. The good old fashioned way, in a facebook album.

New Years Resolutions

2009-12-31T11:21:00.000-05:00

Alright, I know that every year, everyone makes New Years Resolutions that they inevitably end up breaking. However, my first resolution this year is not me, I am actually going to have some follow through. It's a new decade and there's a number of things I really want to do.

1 - Lose (AT LEAST) 25 pounds. I've really gotten fat here lately kids. I'm considering the Special K diet, or the diabetic diet (as suggested by my mom ... which when my Dad got Type II, he did drop 60 pounds, it's worth considering ... but I lurve carbs... lurve them)
2 - Get toned in addition to losing the weight. (I'm considering a pair of Sketchers "Shape-ups" ... plus the ice skating ring opens up, and there's some exercise)
3 - Start waking up earlier. There's all sorts of things I could do if I could convince my body to wake itself earlier. I used to be up all sorts of early and I feel like I got more crap done then.
4 - Start saving more money. My friend Tom has gotten a new job with a financial institution and has put me in fear of having enough money to retire one day. Or, ever pay off my loans.
5 - Start being more positive. Sure life is not as great as it could be, but it could be a whole lot worse. I want to start going back to church on a regular basis, and start being grateful for everything I have, instead of upset about what I don't have.

I plan on keeping a hard copy journal to see things are proceeding on a daily basis... I know that you all aren't interested in my daily... but I'll try to keep weekly updates of myself here too, that way people can judge me. Judgment always helps me succeed in my goals.

Today = weight: 180 lbs (gross I know); toned muscles: none; time I got out of bed 8:03 a.m.; money I put aside this paycheck $0; positivity - pretty good today.

iPhone Apps: The Good, The Bad & The Ugly...

2009-12-17T13:32:00.000-05:00

It's the age of the iPhone, that much is clear. They're everywhere, and some of them are quite pretty in their shiny cases with their shiny screens. I mean even the name is cute, with the little i and the big P and whatnot.

But I believe the apps thing had gotten a little out of control.

Now, don't get me wrong, I think that there are some pretty good apps. Such as the LexisNexis app for lawyers. I think this one is awesome. Opposing counsel cites some case you've never heard of in trial? NO PROBLEM! You've got your iPhone. You ask the judge for a short recess, as you suddenly need to use the bathroom. In the bathroom, you pull out the trusty iPhone, log on to the Lexis app, you look up said case, find a case that distinguishes it, and SCORE, you argue the snot out of the other attorney. This app = useful.

I think that there are other useful apps, such as anything that do the GPS directions things, the Zagat app (so you don't eat bad food ... although I personally prefer just chancing restaurants in cities I don't know), hell, there's even apps that will train you in CPR, which could come in very handy one day.

However, then there are some of the stupidest apps in the world. Take for instance, 5 Minutes to Kill (Yourself) ... an app provided by Adult Swim (which contradictorily, I'm in love with), which is a game in which rather than going to a meeting at work, you have to find something in the office with which to kill yourself. Now, to give this game credit, the game office has a shark tank. However, people are probably playing this game at work, as the commercial advises that you should play it during boring meetings. I would bet a number of these people work for state governments (No offense Miss Cleo... I was thinking of the legislators themselves). And I'm just waiting for the day when someone DOES off themselves at work as opposed to going to a meeting, and this app is found on their iPhone and the family sues the creators. It'll happen. I'd place money on it. $5 says it happens in the next 3 years, you can hold me to it.

Also on my shit list (pun INtended) is Poo Log, the iPhone app where you keep track of your bowel movements. The only people that should be keeping track of bowel movements are patients with some sort of disease in hospitals and people who have submitted themselves for medical experiements (and therefore being paid handsomely). I mean, really, there has to be something more productive to do with your time than to keep track of when you make stool. Come visit me instead, I'll teach you how to knit.

Somewhat humorous to me is the National Threat Advisory app. So you can keep track of just how f*%@ed the good ole US of A is. However, I think at the point when you are hiding in your bunker with all of your canned goods because THIS is happening, it's not a good likelihood that your iPhone will have service. Actually, I think you should step into your bunker now, just to see if it has service, if not, you might want to get on installing a satellite on your bunker.

Also great is the HELP ME app. Which basically you spend $1 on to have a fast way to dial 911. Seriously? SERIOUSLY? Who can't dial 911? And unless you keep this bad boy on your first page, it's going to take more time to use it than to CALL 911. I'd love to meet the genius who dreamed this one up and see how many people actually bought it.

I think this shall be my new career goal. Designing and putting out there absolutely ridiculous iPhone apps. I'll make millions. Fucking kangaroos.

Getting pulled over...

2009-11-18T12:45:00.000-05:00

A friend shared a good getting pulled over story last night, so I thought I would share, and then let share my own favorite getting pulled over story.

Trevor's story - Told first person for effect
So last night I found a liter of tequila in my trunk, and I thought "Great! I'll pick up some margarita mix on the way home and get smashed tonight." So I'm driving from here to the Price Chopper, and I see the red and blue start swirling, so I pull over. And you know how officer's usually wait a few seconds and let you sweat it out before coming up to your window? Not this guy, he troops right up, and says "Do you know how fast you were going." I of course become a blank slate of innocence and state that no, I do not know how fast I was going. The officer barks out "53 in a 35... but that's NOT why I pulled you over! Do you know WHY I pulled you over?" Again a negative from me. Officer states "I pulled you over for the use of an illegal radar detector."

I inform the office that I do not have a radar detector. He asks "Then why, just as I started shooting radar did you SLAM on your brakes." The honest answer would be "Well sir, because I was flying, and nearly missed the entrance for the store where I'm going to pick up mixers so I can go home and get wrecked." I choose instead to say "I dunno, it must have been a fluke, you can search my car if you want, I've got nothing to hide."

Now at this point, the officer decides to search my car. There's nothing in there but my kid's play toolbox, some pistachios in my glove box, and my backpack, which has my tattoo lotion (for my sleeve, which is about halfway done), some tattoo magazines and some notebooks and school books in it. Officer searches the car, comes up empty, asks to see the glove box, I comply. Says "whats that?" at the bag of pistachios, I say pistachios and hold them out for him. Asks to look in my son's toolbox, I open it up, it's got play tools in it. Then goes "Whats in the backpack?"

I, not thinking, say "Oh just some magazines and some lotion..." The cop pauses, stares at me, chooses not to search the backpack, and as I realize what he's thinking and start blurting out "No, no, not like THAT...." he gives me a look that tells me he clearly does not believe me, tells me to slow down and have a pleasant evening.

Mae's story
One Easter, I decided to spend the holiday with my cousin, who was a member of the United States Marine Corp in Athen's GA. I was travelling from Oswego, NY and suffice it to say my train was not what we like to call timely. When I arrived my cousin and some marines were less than what one would describe as sober. I got a hug and a "I hope you can drive, cause we certainly can't."

We get in the car, and I start driving toward the base, the guys continue putting away the second 30 rack, which was purchased sometime during my second train delay. On the way back there's a police stop. I can't turn around, because it's flat land, they would see me and they would chase me. I start wondering what Georgia jail is like.

Officer takes one look inside the car and asks me to step outside of it. At this point I should mention, I'm a NY licensed driver, driving a Virgina car, registered to some guy's parents whom I've never met, in the state of Georgia with passengers from various and other sundry states and a back seat full of near 60 beer cans.

I get out of the car.

Officer "Ma'am... have you been drinking?"
Me "No sir."
Officer "Ma'am... have THEY been drinking"
Me (no way I can lie here) "Oh yes sir."
Officer "Ma'am, you do know it is illegal to have an open container in a vehicle in the state of Georgia, right?"
Me (stuttering) "No sir, I just got off the train from NY, so I could spend Easter with my cousin, because he's in the marines and its our first holiday where he didn't come home, and my train was late, and they're all marines, so they were drinking, so I had to drive, and I'm just trying to get them back to the base, and I think I'm lost and I'm sorryyyyyyyyyyyy" (I think I'm near tears at this time.
Officer "You can get back in the car, ma'am. Gentlemen OUT!"

The boys pile out of the car, and my cousin, smart man that he is, goes to parade rest, so being drunken marines, do the rest of the guys. They start barking at the cop like he is a drill sergeant. Apparently this must make the cop feel good, because he lets them all pile back into the car. And he does not confiscate the beer.

Officer comes back around to my side and says "Ma'am, I've already got 3 drunk drivers and a van full of 16 Mexicans, none of whom seem to have a green card or a license, so I don't need any more paperwork tonight, so you get these boys home safe and don't let 'em drink any more tonight."

I of course, promise whatever the nice Georgia cop want to hear, thrilled I will not have to call my parents for bail on easter weekend, and drive off. Only to let the boys keep drinking once we were at the hotel.

-----------------------------------------

Anyone else have funny "I got away" stories? Love to hear them.

Do Scammers Have Souls?

2009-11-06T11:38:00.000-05:00

Two things will certainly go up in a bad economy. Crime and scams. I know about the crime, cause Marc is swamped at work. The scams appear obvious from other things, for instance, craigslist's new SCAM ALERT which is shown now before you can look at jobs on their site. I say good job craigslist, because I would say about half the help wanted that are placed on craigslist are scams.

Granted, most of us know we cannot make thousands of dollars working from home. And would definitely not pay someone $150-$500 to send us a kit. And granted if you explained it to some of the poor saps who fall for it as "Would you pay a company that much to interview you?" they might come around and realize the scam for what it is.

Also big props to craigslist for the "FUN FACT" - telling you if you find out the scammer's affiliate ID and report it to their affiliate marketing program, you can get them fired. Sweet.

What makes me a little angrier though, are the regional area help wanted dot com sites. Long name, not so much on the amazing results. These places advertise as the best place to find a job, on the radio, in the paper on your tv. Because of their ads, you think, "huh, that site is probably legitimate and wouldn't let scammers in to take advantage of me." Craigslist, you kind of already know is a scary, scary place with scary posters and less than legitimate job offers. However, you would expect an employment site to sell it's space at a higher standard. Not. So. Much.

Browsing through my local Queensbury results in this system, I often come across "23 people needed IMMEDIATELY! Work at HOME! Make $5,500 - $8,000 a MONTH!" or "PAID ONLINE SURVEY TAKER-*Part Time* !CLICK HERE!" And these are in the legitimate results, not off to the side where even stupid people will recognize that they are an ad. This ticks me off. Sites that purport to help people find employment, should at least help them find legitimate employment.

Do scammers not feel guilty? I mean it is true, as P.T. Barnum is credited with saying "there's a sucker born every minute." I guess one attitude would be "well, someone's going to take advantage of these poor schmucks, may as well be me." But I personally think I would feel kind of guilty taking hundreds of dollars off of someone just trying to find a way to work at home so they can stay home with the kids too. Or someone disabled or whatnot. I mean granted, about half of the money scammers gets probably comes from lazy people, and that I guess I don't feel as bad about. But how is anyone in the world ok with ripping off stay-at-home-moms and disabled folks?

I merely feel that scammers should be held to some sort of "truth-in-advertising" commitment. Such as saying "While this program COULD potentially earn you eight thousand bucks this month, it is more likely to earn you $8, that's right 8 dollars."

Bah, scammers. Part of the reason I have to believe in karma & purgatory. And no, the two are not mutually exclusive.

Things That Make Me Angry About Elections

2009-11-04T13:14:00.000-05:00

Now, don't get me wrong, I'm a proud American, I think that it's fantastic that we get to choose our leaders, and that I'm allowed to wear pants, go to school and move around with my head uncovered. I am by no means trashing our nations. I am however trashing the political system that I believe would disgrace the founding fathers.

3 things that are wrong with elections
1 - They are a giant waste of money
2 - They inspire politicians to lie
3 - Mudslinging

1 - The money.
It seems today, that elections can be bought. As pointed out by a friend of my recently, Mayor Bloomberg spent $100 million to his opponent Bill Thompson's $10 million. It won him the election. By a mere 5 points. I'll leave alone the fact that he probably should not have been allowed to run at all, due to previously law regarding term limits, and even leave alone his comments about the term limits when they concerned his predecessor. $100 MILLION dollars? I don't think I could spend that much money in my lifetime. Do you know how many starving babies could be fed with that much money? How many dv clinics could be funded? How much could be put toward curing cancer? $100 MILLION on an election you should not have even have been allowed to run in? You're not FDR, Mr. Bloomberg, and you kind of make me a little ill in my stomach. Which is not to let Mr. Thompson off the hook, $10 million would feed an awful lot of babies to.

However, I should mention that Bloomberg is not even my favorite. My favorite is Jon Corzine (who has FINALLY been voted out of office). Corzine bought a Senate seat in New Jersey in 2000 with $62 MILLION of his own dollars (and Lord only know how many more millions of other people's dollars) and then purchased the governor's seat for a mere $38 million in 2005. (the $3 million he outspent Doug Forrester by in that election really seemed to do the trick). This year he only spent around $26 million, which could be why he lost. Or it could be that Jersey is sick of him. Or all the bad press concerning the Jersey officials and their myriad wrongdoings lately.

Is a political office really worth that kind of cash? I mean, with that kind of money, you could be a savior to humanity? You would really rather be know as a political schmuck than the next Mother Teresa? You WANT to be the governor of Jersey? The armpit of America? Really? I'm disgusted... so let's move on

2 - The lying.
Elections cause politicians to lie. They will say ANYTHING to get elected. There apparently must really be some kind of super high that comes along with being a political schmuck. I'm going to run down Obama's promises. Bear in mind here, I'm not ripping apart just Dems, I realize Republicans lie too, it's just Obama is the biggest and most recent. And GW part deux, (while one of the loves of my life) would just be too easy.

Let's see now. Obama promises.
a - CHANGE - My favorite... Now, on a day to day basis, has that much changed for you individually since Obama took office? Other than the Today Show and the Colbert Report not having as many president jokes because this one's a decent speaker. The problem with promising CHANGE is that until you sit in the chair, you don't realize how little you can actually change. There are still people who can tell you what to do, even when you're the boss man. (e.g. Alan Greenspan)
b - Bringing the troops home. Shucks, as far as I can see... we're still shipping 'em out. Even my baby brother, signing up in this democratic administration, due to my mother's insistence he not sign up under GW, may still have to ship out under Obama.
c - repealing the military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy as well as the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) ... hmmmmm, it appears that we are still discriminatin' with the best of them.
d - "End income tax for seniors making less than $50,000" ... HA! lies! Grandmas are still paying taxes.
e - "Double the Peace Corps" - ambitious. Yet not done. I guess he does still have some time on this though. He only has to find 16,000 more volunteers before 2011.
f - Getting GITMO closed - now granted, he did put in a good faith effort he, he was just shown up by the courts and the Senate. Another example of not being able to CHANGE as much as you promised.
And there are other promises... but I'm done hating on 'bama for awhile.

3 - The Mudslinging
Let's use a local one for this one. I live in the North County. And Marc and I's favorite race to watch was the Washington County District Attorney race. Now, you think two men running to uphold a county's laws would want to watch those laws concerning libel and slander. Or at least help each other maintain good reputations so that they could appear as models to their community and state; whose laws they are running to uphold after all.

Not. So. Much. ... Incumbent Kevin Kortwright disclosed an e-mail sent by Robert Winn (also a former Washington County DA) inviting the Granville police to an open bar party (following his 1997 win) and asking the police to "lay low" as a professional courtesy. Winn claimed it was a (poor attempt at a) joke, and that Kortwright broke the law by obtaining the e-mail from a sealed court case. Kortwright stated that it was a crime that Winn planned on driving drunk and letting others drive drunk that night. He also stated he did not get the e-mail from the sealed court case, but from a grieving mother, whose son was killed in a car accident in 2003. However, one does have to wonder how he located said grieving mother and his willingness to exploit her.

The other sad fact. These gentlemen are both Republican and both incumbents. And as far as I'm concerned, both fuck-ups. Dear Democratic Party, where were you? You got Gillibrand elected up here. Put in some more freaking effort. Maybe hand out free rabies vaccines or something.

But it seems libel is the way to go up here. In nearby Essex county, two republicans were again running for the D.A. position. Debra Whitson accused Julie Garcia of doing cocaine and living with a convicted cocaine dealer. Now, first of all Ms. Whitson, doing cocaine never kept anyone out of office, and second of all, make sure you get all of you facts straight, because now Ms. Garcia has hired Lake Placid attorney Jim Brooks to sue you. Again, Dems... just rolling over and playing dead at this point? Seriously, I kinda think you guys could have ran a well groomed monkey in either of these races and taken them.

(side note, the mudslinging in the Corzine/Christie race WAS entertaining, as Christie is kinda heavy and was accused of "throwing his WEIGHT around to get out of parking tickets" ... there were commercials of Christie moving slowly and you could see him tummy go thump-thump this was an that ... that did make me giggle. and also want to move to Jersey and vote for the guy, because who wouldn't try to get out of parking tickets?)

The nicest elections I ever saw were sadly enough, at Albany Law School. Where Lord knows, people will say all sorts of shit behind your back. However, in the elections for student government, each student was always careful to speak about themselves and what they hoped to accomplish instead of trashing their opponent. Possibly because it was a small environment, and you would have less friends if you were openly an ass. However, the north country has proved the same is not true of small communities on the whole. Goodness knows it's not true of all collegiate environments either. In SUNY Oswego, the mudslinging was fierce. And even if you won, the runner up just sued you for breaking some minisciunal election rule and get your ass thrown out of the election and take your place. (3 years in a row Oswego... you're a sad, sad, student gov't)

Ways to fix the problems.

1 - Spending caps.
2 - Polygraphs while speaking. At all times.
3 - You're only allowed to talk about yourself and your ideas. Period.

I'd start feeling like my vote mattered again.

Fudging the numbers in a bad economy...

2009-10-27T12:36:00.000-04:00

I think that a lot of the colleges out there are not being 110% truthful with their incoming students. Which is a shame considering how much money they will be taking from them.

Take Sage with all of their 98% commercials. I can probably recite the commercial that's how many times I've seen it. I would love to see the number breakdown however. How many of that percentage is "employed after graduation" and what percentage "continued their education."

Take Albany Law School. I believe they count me as "employed" even though I'm scraping by with two non-legal jobs, as are quite a few of my friends. I also wonder if they count part time folks who are taking legal work here and there when they can as "employed." And they also cut the LLM tuition this year to $15,000 ... one THIRD the normal cost. A THIRD? Dollars to donuts that all of the kids who signed up for that sweet deal are factor into Albany Law's EMPLOYED OR continued their education numbers.

I just think that it's a shame in such a crappy economy that universities cannot be honest with their students. Especially when all of these universities have policies that ensure their students be honest with them. Just set forth straightforward stats.
X % of students are employed in their field of study
Y % of students are employed, but not in their chosen field of study
Z % of students continued their education
That was prospective students can get an accurate assessment of what their chances are. Instead of thinking "oh yeah, there's no CHANCE I'll be in that 2%" Because the reality is, it's much larger than 2%.

It's a bad precedent to start off your student-university relationship on a lie. Because really, in the end it doesn't end up working out for you. Sure, you got their tuition, but will you ever see an alumni gift?

Alternative Apple Pies

2009-10-23T00:02:00.000-04:00

Alright... 'tis the season for apple creations, and well, there are only so many apple pies a girl can eat. I thought I would share with you a few of my favorite alternative apple pie recipes and if anyone has their own apple pie alternative, I would LOVE for you to share it with me.

Apple Torte

You will need various ingredients

For the CRUST
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter (1 Stick) or Crisco
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1 cup flour
(I usually make two batches of crust at one, and buy the Crisco containers that come in three packs, I use one of the wrapped Crisco Vegetable Oil packages and double the rest of the recipe)

For the FILLING
- 8 ounces cream cheese (1 Package)
- 1/2 cup brown sugar (not firmly packed, just a fill the measuring cup w/out packing down)
- 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
- 1/4 teaspoon almond extract
- 1 egg if large or extra large - you may need two eggs if using medium eggs

For the TOPPING
- 3-4 apples, any kind, I prefer MacIntosh or another soft apple
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/2 cup toasted sliced almonds

And then enact the various steps

1 - preheat your oven to 350 degrees
2 - find a pie pan - 9 inch for a more shallow torte, 8 inch for a deeper dish torte
3 - mix the ingredients for the crust together, you can start this with a spoon/mixer, but it's usually just easier to get in there with your hands, you'll end up having to finish it up that way anyway
4 - roll out the pie crust, and place in your pie pan(s)
5 - blind bake the pie crust for 10 minutes (blind baking is setting the pie crust in the oven with either pie weights or some wax paper and some dry kidney beans and then baking by itself e.g. w/out filling)
6 - mix together the filling ingredients until creamy and smooth - while you can do this by hand, it is tiresome and takes forever - about three minutes with an electric mixer on medium-high should do it
7 - pull crusts from blind baking - let cool while you perform step 8
8 - core, peel and slice your apples, i always make sure to slice mine VERY thin, cause that's the way I like it, but slices can be made to taste
9 - put apples in bowl, mix with cinnamon and sugar
10 - pour filling into pie crust(s)
11 - arrange apple mixture over the filling
12 - scatter toasted almonds on top of the apple mixture
13 - bake in the oven at 350 degrees for 1 hour
14 - refrigerate for at least 1 hour - then serve

SUGGESTIONS
1 - always use REAL/PURE vanilla extract in the filling, imitation can be substituted for the crust, where you won't really know the difference, but you will notice in the filling
2 - purchase pre-sliced almonds, to toast them, just throw them in a non-stick skillet and toast on the stove-top for 2-3 minutes
3 - have your ingredients at room temperature when starting - trying to work with cold butter/crisco and cream cheese is a nightmare
4 - if desired caramel sauce (store bought or homemade) can be drizzled over this torte to make it extra-special wonderful ... in the words of a former roommate "I'm just sayin"

------------------------------------------------------

Crispy Pear Crisp

Again, you will need various ingredients...

- 6 pears - sliced, my favorite are Bartlett
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon (which will be divided)
- 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
- 3 tablespoons chilled butter, cut into small pieces
- 1/2 cup regular oats
- 1/4 cup coarsely chopped walnuts

1 - Preheat oven to 375 degrees
2 - Toss pear slices with lemon juice
3 - Combine the granulated sugar, cornstarch, and 1 teaspoon of the cinnamon stirring with a whisk or a fork
4 - Add the cornstarch/sugar mix to the pears and lemon - toss until coated
5 - Place the pear mixture into a baking pan
6 - Mix the flour, brown sugar and the other teaspoon of cinnamon until combined
7 - Add the chilled butter and mix until the mixture turns crumbly
8 - Mix in the oats and walnuts, stir until combined
9 - Sprinkle the flour/butter/oat mixture over the pears in the baking pan
10 - Cook for 40 minutes, or until the pears are tender and the topping is golden brown
11 - Let cool for 15-20 minutes, serve warm

SUGGESTIONS
1 - Steps 6-8 can be performed in a food processor or blender to speed things up
2 - Serve with ice cream - vanilla or maple being the best choices.

Okay friends - your turn - share your recipes!

Quality Customer Service

2009-10-20T12:07:00.000-04:00

Quality customer service? Where has it gone? I have decided recently that most corporations in an attempt to save money have skipped out on the "service-with-a-smile" lesson and just handed out the "how-to-flip-a-burger" lesson before sending their newest employees out into the work environment.

The other day, I made a McDonald's run from my office. For two reasons. 1) I felt like crap and special sauce always makes me feel better (hold the dirty jokes please) and 2) Marc collects the McDonalds pieces too, we're trying to win some money on getting fat here. Don't judge us.

Now, as I was going from the office, I had a few orders beside my own, and some coupons (I love the Entertainment Book). I tried to make my order clearly and slowly, as the woman behind the counter taking my order appeared to only be able to cope with 1 word every 4 seconds. She had to call the manager twice during my order, once to make sure they still served a double-cheesburger meal and once to ask about my coupon. But needless to say, after about 4 minutes, we had ordered my four burgers, three things of fries and two drinks. Not exactly FAST food... I'm pretty sure I could have already been served my meal at my favorite diner, but, all in all, I'm not too upset with cashier-girl. Although none-too-bright, she seemed to be making the best of it by coming to work at McDonald's and trying her hardest.

However, the associate (or Scary-looking-surly-employee - SLSE for short) who was putting my order together was a completely different story. During my ordeal with cashier-girl I managed to mention a couple of times that my order was "to-go" and sure enough, on the ticket that spit out of the register, after we were finally done, read "take-out" in shiny-new-printer-ink black letters. However SLSE began to load my order on a tray. As she threw the first burger casually toward the tray, I said "Excuse me, ma'am, but my order is to go." This earned me a surly stare and a grunt. She turned around, picked up some more burgers and began to slam them on the tray as well. Ok, maybe she had not heard me. I said "Excuse me, ma'am, but my order is to go please." This time SLSE just ignored me. She then got drinks and fries, placed these (none-too-kindly) on the tray as well and shoved it toward me with another grunt.

Not wanting to upset her, because she looked like she would jump the counter and fight me (and those acrylic nails looked like they could cut my throat), I said, "Excuse me ma'am, but could I please have a bag, because my order is to go." I even held up my receipt with the shiny "take-out" printed on it as proof! She ignored me again, at which point I looked helplessly at register girl, who mumbled something to SLSE. SLSE then turned around and glared at me and asked "WELL WHY DIDN'T YOU SAY SO IN THE FIRST PLACE!" And proceeded to grab a bag and fling my food purchases into in haphazardly. I did not point out that I had said so in the first place, because again, the acrylic nails were terrifying.

Well from now on, I think I'm going to Burger King. Because at least the whole "Have it your way" motto leaves them in somewhat of a better mood. (Although I do have to point out that I did not make one special request in my McD's order)

I was tempted to write the franchise owner a letter concerning my horrifying experience and decision to switch burger joints. But I felt, why make that woman's life worse (because it obviously sucks so much already she can't show other human beings normal courtesy), and well, I'm lazy, and that process would involve finding a stamp, and an envelope.

And what really talked me out of the whole affair was that I think it might be industry wide. This morning, getting some Dunkin Donuts, in order to rectify the whole not-really-being-awake thing I had going for me this morning, I attempted to order 1) medium coffee and 1) blueberry muffin. I had a coupon for the coffee, which I both mentioned and presented before making my order, so as to prevent any confusion. I was excited about my coupon, because it would bring my order under $3, which was all the cash money I had on me, and I wouldn't have to locate my debit card in my catastrophe of a purse. Well Miss Casher (MS) rings me up and pronounces "$3.30." I look abjectly confused, because a muffin is a little over a dollar and my coupon made my coffee $0.99 cents. I ask "But I had a coupon?" MS glares at me, as if I have done something wrong at this point and goes "Well I already put it through, you'll have to use it next time."

Now, I'm not normally a fussy person, but REALLY? REALLY? I said "Excuse me, but no, I really do want to use it this time, and I did have it ready before the sale, so if you could just get a manager, that would be great." MS stomps (16 year old fight with your mom style) over to an older gentleman and stage whispers for awhile about what a problem I'm being. Manager comes over and asks "And WHAT is the problem here?" Again, as if I have done something wrong.

MS has now upset the woman behind me in line, who has been waiting for a bit who goes. "This lady had a coupon, she gave it to the girl there, who ignored it and then told her she couldn't use it, she had it in the beginning, and maybe if you all were a little more helpful, we would have BOTH had breakfast by now!"

As this Dunkin Donuts is in a gas station, we were now attracting attention. Manager managed to apologize and actually comp my muffin (yay!) and gave the lady behind me a free coffee (because of the wait). As for whatever reason, she appeared more upset and more liable to jump the counter than I was.

I don't get what the world has come to. I get that food jobs are not glamourous jobs and that sometimes customers are jerks. Trust me, I know, I work part time at the Home Depot, and if I ever won the lottery, I wouldn't quit, I would just start asking the jerky customers "Do you treat everyone this way or only people that you feel are beneath you?" So I get it, I do, customer are sometimes stuck-up jerkfaces. But I am never a stuck-up jerkface, I REALIZE your job can suck.

So I have a few things to say to the food workers of the day

1 - You have a job, that's something to say in this economy.
2 - McD's does not even pay minimum wage, in most of the ads I've seen for them hiring, it's been around $9 an hour, which is better than a lot of jobs in this economy.
3 - You get free food for working there. Maybe you should try a Happy Meal and get happy.
4 - I have a coupon, you probably use coupons too, deal with it.
5 - I come to McD's/DD HAPPY, because I have a coupon or a "free-breffus-sandwich" McD's monopoly piece, and I'm excited about warm-happy-cheap-breffus. You should not have RUINED MY MORNING by the time I leave.
6 - If you are really so freaking miserable, apply to Wal-Mart to do the overnight stocking, where you won't have to interact with anyone. This might even be a public service, and qualify you for some sort of grant. Look into it, please.

Cover Letter Courtesy - Addendum

2009-10-20T02:15:00.000-04:00

Lately I have been receiving letters along the lines of ... "We have received your application, are forwarding it along to the "decision-makers" (or synonym) and will let you know in the future if an interview is to be scheduled."

I kinda like this letter. It's much better than a rejection letter, and is really all I wanted, acknowledgment that I applied.

Dieting between two jobs

2009-10-15T10:35:00.000-04:00

Ok, basically since being let go from evil-corporation-that-shall-not-be-named, I have put on roughly 20 pounds. This is due to two factors.

1 - I moved in with and began making dinner for Marc. Marc does not eat diet meals for dinner. So when I make an amazingly scrumptious, ridiculously calorie filled meal for him, it's not like I then pop a Lean Cuisine in the oven and eat that instead. I totally share in tasty, tasty, too many calorie goodness. Marc also keeps junk food lying around. Because he likes junk food. And when I am weak, I like junk food too. Also when I am tired. Also when I am sick. Also when I am stressed. Ok, so pretty much always.

2 - I am working two jobs, basically around 12 hours a day most days in order to make less that I made working the one evil job. This is to pay for the ridiculous amount of debt I am in, and rent, and other expenses of life. Now one would figure this would make meal planning easier. And for the most part, it does. I take 3 pieces of fruit, a diet meal, a protein bar and a yogurt to job 1 - these are consumed between 8am and 4pm. Then I go home, shovel another diet meal and some veggies and go to job 2.

Then problem then is, when I leave job 2 at 10:30-11:00 p.m. I am STARVING again. I usually solve this problem by grabbing a burger, or binge eating on the massive amount of candy that is always lying around our home. Because screw cooking anything at that hour, and celery sticks just aint gonna cut it at that hour.

Did I mention between these two jobs that I pretty much never work out? Because I'm exhausted all the time. So it's not like there's work-out time that can make up for the extra calories.

Endgame? I need suggestions - does anyone know anything wonderful that I can eat late at night that won't completely screw over the day of d ieting? Drinking water does not cut it here either people, I tried that route. It is NO GOOD. What would be especially helpful in this scenario is a portable snack that tastes good and won't ruin my day. That way, I could take it to job 2 and eat it maybe an hour before I leave, so that I burn some of it off.

Also - does anyone know any QUICK calorie busting routines. I am thinking of maybe trying to get up 15 minutes earlier. It would be great if anyone knew some quick tricks that might aid in burning some calories that would not completely eat into the very little sleep I get.

Thanks all! And best of luck to anyone else who is trying to lose weight/exercise/find a real legal job in this market.

Road Rage

2009-10-14T10:40:00.000-04:00

Every morning as I drive down the Northway, I consider just getting off an exit, finding the nearest Staples and buying a banner that says "KARMA GETS TAILGATERS!" ... This of course, is for the moments during my commute when I'm in a good mood. Most of the rest of the commute is spent yelling things like "WHAT ARE YOU FREAKING CRAZY?" and contemplating flipping people off. However, since I get on the Northday quite a bit upstate, I do not flip people off, as well, some of them probably have shotguns, and are probably crazy, and I'd rather not die in traffic, even in an unconventional shot-gun death in traffic, even if it would make the news.

Seriously, I really do not understand people who think that pushing back and forth through traffic gets them anywhere. The Northway backs up, and it comes to a standstill, yes, this sucks, but freakin deal with it. You nearly colliding with 8 or 9 vehicles in order to get off the exit a mere two spots ahead of where you were (because you were right behind me at exit 12, and managed to get off exit 7 a whopping one space a head of me) blows my mind. It blows my mind even worse when you have CHILDREN in you car. The only thing that makes these maneuvers okay is if one of those children is DYING and you simply must get the to the hospital. Of course, the manner in which you are driving pretty much ensures a good possibility that you will have company when you get there.

The exit is pretty much the point in time when I wish I had another sign that would pop up from the top of my car (written backwards so as to be read clearly in mirrors) that said "HAPPY NOW? NEARLY KILLED ME (and 4 others) AND WE'RE STILL GETTING INTO TROY AT THE SAME TIME!" ... but that would be a big sign, and it would be hard to rig a pop up mechanism. Although a real live pop-up, as opposed to internet ads would be a good twist in life.

Today on my commute, some woman, whose front bumper I COULD NOT SEE, that's how far up my but she was, swerved into the middle lane, cutting off a gentleman who honked at her and shook his fist, then tried to quickly swerve back into the left lane in front of me.... as this would have put her somewhere in the middle of my vehicle, as there was no room to cut me off, I honked. She responded by have what looked like a seizure and flipping me off. I mean all out seizure to... it looked like she was either death metal rocking or slamming her head on the steering wheel.. Well ma'am, I'm sorry for keeping up with the traffic flow and not allowing you to cut me off. Try to keep the crazy down and not cut off the poor guy behind me, who funny enough is now speeding up to not let you back in. Please don't ram his car. Also, stop shaking your head like that, no need to give yourself whiplash BEFORE your inevitable accident.

Of course, this no where near blows my mind as much as the article I read about the Bronx woman the other day. 31 year old Carmen Huertas, after have enough to put her at .1382 stuffed 7 girls aged 11-14 into a sedan (4 door, not a minivan or anything) and proceeded to drive. While driving, she even managed to ask the girls such things as "Who thinks something's gonna happen? Raise your hand. Who thinks we're gonna get into an accident?" Yeah, there's nothing like terrifying a group of young girls before you flip the car, kill one of them, break anothers legs and pretty much injury the crap out of the rest of them. And funny enough, you get to live. Please, please, please get locked up for the rest of your life.

I think everyone should have a drivers test every five years. Possibly more often, because the things that happen out there are scary. Oh yeah, and if you drive drunk, your license should just be yanked. No second chances with a good attorney, etc. etc. That shit should just be taken away for a year or so to give you time to contemplate the horrible things you might have done. Screw with your own life all you want, but when you go putting kids at risk, how do you live with yourself?

Girl Halloween Costumes

2009-10-09T15:28:00.001-04:00

Halloween costumes for ladies are ridiculous. RI-DIC-U-LOUS! The main thing that bothers me about these costumes is that there is really nothing to them ... take for example this young lady at the right here .... How everyone at the party is NOT going to see her bajingo at the end of the night is beyond me. I mean seriously? Can you even wear panties with this costume? I vote no. And other than Britney Spears, who goes out without panties on?

Yet another thing that bothers me is that for the $0.25 cents worth of fabric that is shown here, ladies are charged anywhere between $45.95 (if it is on SALE) to $77.95 for these ridiculous costumes. That had better be real gold thread on that puppy, and I had better be able to take that cold thread out for the dress, put it in an envelope, and mail it to "Cash-for-gold.com" when I'm done to get at least SOME of my money back.

The other thing that bothers me about these costumes, is that none of them look anything like the person or profession they are suppose to represent. I mean seriously, when have you even seen a nurse or a cop that looked like these two?

My roommate and I were going to get costumes like these a couple of years ago, put them on and when people asked questions such as "What are you? A nurse?" or "Are you a cop?" We would say, "No, we're dressed up as strippers." Because seriously, although I have never seen a nurse or a police officer dressed in either of these costumes, I have, in my short life, seem some strippers, and this about fits the bill.

Two years ago, I went as Rainbow Brite... a childhood favorite. Now this young lady here must have no hips whatsoever, because this photo does not quite do the piece of material I ended up with, justice. I ended up with a skirt that pointed down in triangular fashion with just enough material to cover about what my skimpiest bathing suit cover. And it cost me $49.95. Then I went out and bought about $10 more worth of fabric in order to stitch into the skirt, so that I could go out and get my drink on properly, and not worry about showing everyone my very awesome Rainbow-Brite underwear. Which portrayed the actual characters and was not a travesty, like my costume.

The ideal is, I want a costume that I look good in, but do not have to worry about falling out of. And preferably do not have to worry about wearing heels like -----> those in again. (Cause man did my feet hurt!) And that's what I blame my poor decisions from Rainbow Brite night on, the shoes, not the booze.

And I don't want to go the only other route available to women... a seemingly long dress that I will inevitably trip on, when (that's right, you got it) getting my drink on. Or it's likely that I would drag those epic looking sleeves through some sort of greasy food at four in the morning, when I am either A) trying to get a taxi cab to drive through the McDonalds window or B) chowin

So for this year... any suggestions? I would like an in between look.... and I do not have many costuming skillZ. I can sew a straight line by hand, but as for coming up with, and cutting out patterns. Fah! Ain't happening.

Cover Letter Courtesy

2009-10-06T12:30:00.000-04:00

So after entirely too many years of education I am working two jobs that do not have anything to do with my education. Crappy economy, yes I know. However, there still seem to be a number of jobs out there that I am qualified for, I know this, because I apply for them daily. Many of these jobs require a cover letter describing why I am suited to the employment they are offering. Now I know it would be silly to apply to a job without a cover letter, however, jobs that just require a resume, you can usually send a standard form cover letter, which you have drafted previously, and make minor changes, such as date and employer address.

Personalized cover letters however, take me some time. I sit and think about the job and think about the skills required for the job and the skills I have and how best to analogize the two to show that I am the best candidate for the job. This can some times take me up to half an hour, and I am by no means an idiot.

Now most of these cover letters are what you would call "normal," describing my work history and why it makes me a good candidate to work in the future for said employer.

EXAMPLE "In my most recent position with "X" I learned how to effectively communicate with people of varying backgrounds and ranges of understanding. As a hearing representative I would deal with both represented and unrepresented workers' compensation claimant. These claimants would vary from day laborers who speak no English, to medical doctors, to anything in between. It was my job to obtain a clear and concise history from each claimant to establish whether or not "X" would be responsible for their case. Through my time with "X" I learned how to interview varying individuals quickly, concisely and in a manner in which each claimant felt he or she could be frank with me. I feel that this experience makes me an excellent candidate for position "Y.""

However, sometimes, in writing 10 or 15 of these cover letters in a week gets boring, and mind numbing. And sometimes I apply for jobs that I know I will not get (e.g. they required 5 years experience or that I be number 1 in my class' grades), and I figure maybe I can at least get an interview if I entertain them in my cover letter.

EXAMPLE "I am an excellent candidate for dealing with new and challenging experiences. I am a quick learner and learn new tasks with remarkable speed. In high school, I worked on a farm one summer and the first task we were assigned was to "wrassle" up the sheep to be sheared. I had never "wrassled" sheep before and did not know that the task could prove difficult if one weighed approximately the same amount as the sheep one was trying to "wrassle." However, within three tries I was successfully tackling sheep and pushing them toward the conveyor which led them on to their annual haircuts. I feel that my willingness to try new things and the speed at which I assimilate new task would make me an outstanding candidate for position "Y."

However, regardless the cover letter. I only get a response from 1% of the applications I send out. Now I know that it is a crap economy and it is the employer's world. But I still feel that each of these companies, firms, agencies, etc., MUST have a standard form rejection letter on hand...

EXAMPLE "Dear Candidate "X." Thank you for applying for position "Y." Company "Z" received many qualified applications for this job, and regretfully cannot hire all of the applicants. While your accomplishments are noteworthy, Company "Z" has hired an individual it feels is better suited to the position. Company "Z" wishes you the best of luck in your employment search" x______________ (which is then stamped with a signature stamp by an underpaid secretary)

See. That took me 1 minute. 60 seconds. Maybe I could do that as a job, write standard form rejection letters for various and sundry companies so that the world will feel less suicidal as a whole.

And really, who doesn't at least write you a 60 second letter about the sheep wrassling experience when you're applying to a law firm worth billions? That didn't even get a giggle out of the underpaid secretary reading it?