Uh Oh Look Out, I'm at it again.

Okay so this MIGHT be a bit of a long one but I've earned it. It's been awhile and there's LOTS built up in this genius level skull of mine that you all just have to know about. But I'll try to make it simple in bulleted format.

• Health Care Reform - the plan that has been running between the house and the senate, according to some, sucks. Well okay then, how about you whiny people come up with a plan then? At least with this one somebody has actually made an attempt instead of sat around arguing that it needs to be done and never being productive about it.
• CNN seemed to want its viewers to have sympathy for the congressmen a couple weeks ago because they were going to have an extra long day of debate before their holiday vacation time. Oh those poor bastards. Since when was working for the people who put you in office only a 9-5, 5day/week job? You get paid a crap load of money (compared to most) and get tons of benefits to do that job, so why not try earning it.
• CHELSEA CLINTON IS ENGAGED !!! I don't care, her dad isn't the boss anymore and her mom didn't get to the top this go around so who gives a rat's hindend about it.
• Is it me or is Iran just trying to piss off the whole world? You want nuclear power? Fine, let us show you how to do it correctly and safely. Having a nuclear reactor, supposedly for power generation reasons, buried under a mountain in the middle of nowhere....nope, no red flags on that one. Arrest college kids hiking in the mountains for espionage? Watch a James Bond movie THAT is a spy, not some pot-headed tree-hugging hippies climbing rocks.
• Piracy, how is this a danger in these modern times? I can understand that any ship engaged in activities under NATO direction does not have the power to actually arrest anyone for anything on the high seas (example: crew of a warship stopped and took aboard the crew of a skiff loaded down with opium or some narcotic. They threw the drugs over the side and let them go on their way). But when did it occur that piracy could not be enforced by any nationalities' warship? Everyone loves those Disney pirate movies right? Not really accurate you know. Lots of pirates were caught, tried, convicted and if they were lucky merely hung at the gallows. Some were hung in cages over a cliff near a harbor to starve or die of exposure, their rotting corpses a warning to anyone with thoughts of piracy. No jurisdiction while under NATO tasking, fine. There are laws that apply to the high seas, start an international court of law to deal with the high seas. Model it after the war crimes tribunals in The Hague. See? I'm a freaking genius, and me a lowly bluejacket with none of that fancy college learning.

Okay I can't think of anything else right now and I have to go pick up the woman from work. Which means you're in luck because I'll probably think of something soon and post some more.

UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE !!!

So the nice apartments we moved into here in West Palm Beach from New Smyrna Beach, with the three bedrooms and nice neighborhood and gated community, it's not around anymore. This place got real ghetto real quick. Let's see in the past month, and this is just what we've heard of, our neighbors below us had some bikes stolen from their patio after someone cut open their screen and lifted the bikes over the railing (of course the screen is repaired and more bikes have replaced the stolen ones, duh); two cars were stolen and several others broken into in the townhome area of the development; and police raided an apartment in another building for drug dealing (we heard the concussion grenade and shouting across the parking lot and through our doors and windows). Needless to say we have actively been looking for a new place to go when our current lease is up at the end of September.


Bad news on that front first. Our credit sucks so we wouldn't be able to get any kind of a mortgage with even horrible interest rates. So we won't be buying a place anytime soon so we won't be able to use that $8000 tax credit that expires in November. Our credit isn't even good enough to get an FHA loan from the state (I think that's where that comes from). Also our first choice of where we would have bought into wouldn't even be acceptable to use an FHA loan because of the amount of empty units, units owned but rented out, foreclosures in the area. FHA wants at least 50% of the area to be occupied by non-renters.


Good news on that front now. We spoke with a very nice and very helpful person from Rent 1 Sale 1 who found us six places in that original area where we wanted to buy that are for rent. From those six, 3 of them showed promise due to price, acceptable pet restrictions, and pretty pictures available. So that day she took us to see all three of those choices and two of them made the cut (the second one we saw had not been well cared for by the previous tenant, holes in the walls covered with tape and painted/plastered over, nails and screws still in the walls, and damaged doors and hinges). We're waiting to hear back from the R1/S1 lady after she speaks with the owners of the two units we liked on how much they want down and if they'll hold it for a month before we actually start to move in.


This is a VERY nice neighborhood continuously patrolled not by hired security but by PB Sheriff's officers who live there and also as part of a deal with the county I suspect. The two places we like are very nice and each have a different floor plan and have their own pro's and con's so it will be difficult to decide which to agree on between us. One is a 3-story plan with the kitchen and living room on the second floor and beautiful bay window in the kitchen and a half bath on that level. One bedroom is downstairs with a full bath and the garage (this is where "they" will be). The third floor has the master bedroom with 2 walk-in closets and a bay window as well as the third bedroom with its own full bath. The bonus on this one would be that "they" are far away from us. The con of this one is that the stairs are somewhat tricky when bringing furniture upstairs as they go up then have a switchback to continue upwards. The other unit is a 2-story with a large living room and dining room, beautiful kitchen and breakfast nook room. upstairs are all three bedrooms with two of them sharing a full bath. A half bath and the washer/dryer are downstairs near the front door. The bonus to this place is it's $250 cheaper, a larger balcony and awesome kitchen. The con to it is that as you come up the stairs...there are all 3 bedrooms, including "theirs".


Jeanne and Amy have started with Avon so if you want any of that stuff talk to them, they have a website to sell from as well. Chris apparently is starting school again at PBCC but who knows what will come of that. He does however have a "job" of sorts but we aren't allowed to discuss or go into that since other people might actually read this. Aflac is still going slow for me as I have only signed a single direct policy so far and opened no groups. But I am now working under someone else instead of the original person who wasn't all that helpful in the first place. He is still there but this new person is just under him and has taken control of the majority of training and helping out new folks, so that has been a large help so far since it has started.

Our cruise to the Bahamas and Key West was awesome. Hot as hades and more humid than ever but we still had a great time. Dinner was the highlight of every day with the great food and great waiter/asst. waiter that we had (they were brothers). Saw some really neat sights in the Bahamas and in Key West Jeanne started marking off places for us to go in the spring when her mom comes to visit for places to go and see. It was simply great to not have to give a crap about anything for a whole week.

Lately

Okay so here I am in the Aflac Regional Office where I come and make phone calls all day trying to get appointments, it's 830 in the morning so I decided to write a little bit just so that I can say I do update this blog once in a blue moon.

It has been several weeks since I started and I have had 2 (TWO) appointments set, one with Marks Brothers construction and the other with a car importer who wouldn't even let me in the door. I have gotten LOTS of names of people to talk to but for some reason or another they are never there to talk; either in a meeting, not in yet, off today, called in sick, or straight to their voicemail. Oh well the law of numbers must kick in somewhere so I'll find it sooner or later.

Well Jeanne and I will be going on a cruise at the beginning of July (6-10) and we can't wait to go and finally get time to ourselves and to relax. We've been together for 4 years now (I think, you know I suck at telling time) and this will be the first time where it is just the two of us with no dogs, kids, or other family with us (unfortunately Star Wars Weekends don't count as alone time, pity).

Also at the end of June "boy" and his girlfriend will be at their final time to live with us, Jeanne gave them the final date after several back to back events where she found just how much she could take until she had enough. As a hint, it involved recently purchased items returned for the money and also a missing ATM card (2nd occurence). They have been looking for jobs and also for apartments in between their trips to the beach. Well at least I know SHE has been looking alot since she will be on the computer late at night looking up jobs and apartments while he is on Jeanne's laptop playing World of Warcraft. Oh well he'll figure it out when the locks get changed and he's no longer on the lease.

So there you go, an update from me and with some updates from our end. Time to go bang my head on a phone and choke the little stress duck I keep on the desk with me for just this thing.

Lately

Well hello there everyone, I bet you're wondering where the hell I've been lately and if you're not wondering that then you should be. I have been sorta hired by Aflac (yes the duck company) and been busy studying to take a test to be licensed in Florida to sell insurance. It's pretty silly to be taking this test since the only part of it that would apply to me and Aflac in general would be the ethics and laws section of it all.

Anyways once my background and fingerprints get into the system I'l be able to take the test and finally have a job where I can start making money again. It will be all commission based but the bosses at the office have lots of ways to help and are extremely friendly and helpful whenever I have a question about something. Also once a commission is made they offer lots of ways to receive it to make it easier for me.

So hopefully by the end of the month I'll be out there selling to people. Of course the rest of this month is just chocked full of fun too. Mid-month Chris ("boy") has his court appearance for his arrest in february though we are confident it will be thrown out, of course he is lazy and hasn't called Volusia county about the reason he was picked up in the first place. At the end of the month I found out that I have to go downtown for jury duty, first time in 4 years or so, yay.

Also between those two times Jeanne's mom is coming to visit us here and lots of stuff has already been planned. The two of them will be wandering around looking at swamps and stuff during the week since I'll probably be at work (I hope) and during the weekend we'll be going down to Miami to see MetroZoo and spend a night at my mom's house (surprise), and then a sunday spent at the Deering Estate where they'll be having a big seafood and art festival on the grounds.

Okay back to the study stone and time to make some mashed potatoes for lunch mmmm

Ungrateful Bastards

A plane scheduled to leave Columbus, Ohio the other day for Orlando, Florida was delayed and finally cancelled after 10 hours, during which the airline and its ground crews tried repeatedly to de-ice a plane that overnight had literally become frozen to the ground. These ground crews used three trucks of de-icing fluid (a single truck usually lasts for 3 days of de-icing operations) and yet the aircraft was still too iced up to fly safely. The company, AirTran, finally cancelled the flight and placed the passengers on another flight of theirs to Orlando. Not only that but they gave each passenger a free round trip ticket at a future date. Rarely does a company, especially an airline, take the hit for something like this and make good on the experience by not offering but giving each passenger what amounts to their money back in the form of a free round trip flight later.

So being the happy, forgiving, and social Americans that these passengers were they right away complained and moaned and whined about their so called most horrible experience they've ever had. Oh shut the hell up you babies. Is it the airline's fault that the weather turned to crap and put the plane under so much ice that it couldn't even move? Is it their fault that you were surprised that in January in Ohio that it is actually snowing and cold enough for ice to form? Be lucky that you still go to Orlando within the same 24 hours that you were expecting to anyway.

The most horrible experience ever? Try having your spouse shot in front of you because some crack-head wants the $5 you have. Try seeing your best friend's face smashed by a piece of valve that blew out due to high pressure in the line, all while you stand 2 feet away chatting about what the night's movie is going to be. Try riding through in a convoy and stopping at an intersection only to have a 9-year old child smile at you as they throw a hand grenade under the truck in you. Horrible? How the hell is sitting in an air-conditioned airplane with drinks and snacks and a bathroom available for you horrible? Sitting in an airport terminal for hours though there is plenty of shopping for you to do and restraunts to eat at is not a horrible thing. An inconvenience maybe, but not horrible. Shut up, deal with it, and get on with your whiny bitching life.

Everyone, meet Fred. Fred, meet stupid-world.

This is Fred. Fred is a decently sized red clay brick. Fred is the brick that I want to use to stab stupid people in the face with. Many of you just stopped just now and thought, "But wouldn't it be hard to stab someone in the face with a blunt heavy object like that? Wouldn't something sharp be more useful?" Yes a sharp object would be more useful when stabbing someone, however the stupid people who need to be stabbed with Fred do not rate the quick and easy stabbing of a knife or glass shard. They deserve Fred. With Fred it would most likely take several attempts to successfully stab someone in the face leaving them with a more beaten and bludgeoned look. That's the point, to beat some sense into the person who is on the receiving end of Fred's happy hugs.

So I say this to the world now, stop being stupid. Stop arguing stupid things, stop paying money for stupid things, and if you think you're one of the stupid people then just stop talking. Hold your breath for awhile until the edges of your vision start to get closer and closer. Bang your head on the wall for a few minutes or just ask the person sitting next to you to hit you with the waste paper basket. I thank you and Fred glares at you threateningly.

Oh Well

So apparently not many people give a flying rat fart what I have to say or think here on this blog page anymore so I’m just going to start rambling to myself about past memories and anything else that comes to mind regardless of whether it’s current events or something that just pops into my head at random. It is my personal idea that the human brain can only hold a certain amount of information and from time to time it requires a cleaning session, a field day of thoughts if you will. As an example, I used to be able to recount from memory everything I had read about the history of the Zentraedi; an alien race of giants from the Robotech book and cartoon series. Then one day I sat down and wrote out an entire timeline and description of this history, filled almost five pages, and to this day there is barely a spec k of Zentraedi history that I can remember. So in the hopes of moving on and letting go of everything in my past that I try to hold onto since most of it seems to have been a series of screw ups and let downs, this is what will be filling these blog pages for the coming future posts. If you don’t like it tough shit, deal with it. My page, my rules, my thoughts, my posts.

Official Study

Hello there everyone, today I’m going to share something different with you my loyal readers. Over the years I have learned many things that are quite easy to realize and yet so many people either don’t care about them or they just don’t understand what is going on. I will present these things to you in a bulleted list format since my mother has told me that the long paragraphed posts that I have been doing are too long for her to read and she wishes for me to make a Condensed Reader’s Digest version of each one for her since she apparently has the reading attention span of a 9-month old boston terrier/beagle mix puppy. So here is my list of observations and if anyone things I deserve the same government money as all those other studies that go on to show the blatantly obvious then go ahead and send me a check or money order (or come visit with cash in hand).

• My new puppy is dumber than the walls he keeps losing fights with
• Majority of students do not care about passing their classes because they believe they will make it big in the music or movie industry and just have to drink and party the rest of their lives
• Some school officials refuse to admit that their schools have a gang problem so as to keep parents happy in the hopes that they won’t lose attendance when those paranoid parents send their kids to “safer” schools
• Parents these days need to beat their children more often, not necessarily in public but at least punish them once in a while for being such rotten creatures. Use a wooden spoon or a shoe now and then
• Every country in the world hates every other country still
• Cars with huge tires look so cute since they resemble life-size Matchbox or Hot Wheels toys
• Firefly should be brought back on the air with new episodes
• Everyone deserves the same size bonuses as the CEO’s who steal money
• Video games don’t kill people, actions taken by stupid people who are too pathetic of taking responsibility for what they did do
• Parents have come to believe that school is simply a day care facility for them to use and expect school personnel to raise their children for them
• Pipe smoke has the scent to make you think of sophistication, a den full of books, and brandy (or whisky)
• Cigarette smoke has the scent to make you cringe and think of cheap beer, squirrel hunting, and motor oil stained underwear
• Star Wars is awesome
• Star Trek…eh sometimes
• People drive really stupid these days, they prefer to speed in and around other drivers and endeavor to shove their SUV’s up the exhaust pipe of the small econo-car in front of them
• Obama is an amazing orator and has a lot of work ahead of him, but I am very optimistic
• Slavery is no longer a reason to expect better treatment, you were not a slave, your parents were not slaves, get your own job
• Racism is the stupidest reason ever used to promote violence or hatred
• I like pig; ham, pork chops, bacon, roast pork, all of it
• If we could have our wishes my wife and I would have Chinese food almost every day (preferably PF Chang’s or May Wah’s; a local place here that is amazing)
• My mother needs to sit and read my posts in their entirety you lazy lady geez.
• My niece likes me more than her own parents since she sleeps in my arms and not theirs. Nyah nyah
• I miss all the game nights my friends and I have had in the past; Xbox party nights, D&D sessions, Star Wars RPG days. Good Times
• Only four people actually read this at one time or another
• I need a job

Good day and have a root beer float for me.

Corporal Capital

How far should humanity go to prevent pain and suffering? Oh wow am I going to make some friends with today’s topic. Many people think that spanking their child is a form of abuse and should be prosecuted to the highest extent of the law and yet on the other side of the coin just as many people believe that if kids were spanked more often then they’d have more respect and discipline and not act out like spoiled little brats. It’s all in the parenting and how much effort the parents are willing to put into the raising of their children. In the long run it’s usually the lack of respect and discipline that leads children to commit crimes simply because they don’t respect the laws or those whose property they affect. True many times it’s poverty that is a root cause of crimes such as theft but I’m talking about really heinous crimes like arson, murder, rape and kidnapping. There are many more but it’s early and I can’t think clearly about crimes right now. The punishment for many of these crimes is usually psychiatric help (if the arsonist is good at talking their way out), life in prison, and in some extreme cases a death sentence. These sentences are usually guaranteed to keep the criminal out of the public eye and away from any future victims for the rest of their lives while locked away, and yet these crimes are still committed every single day.

Amnesty International is an organization I first learned about while I as in high school, their main purpose as I was led to believe was to fight for the rights of and free those wrongly imprisoned around the world such as political prisoners, jailed artists and others of free thinking. A noble cause to be sure, however in recent years they have been fighting against the sentences handed down to those who are rightly imprisoned of crimes, even heinous crimes like murder. So instead of fighting against wrongful imprisonment they have expanded their arguments to include any punishment which they deem is cruel or unjust regardless of whether or not the criminal is guilty or not. Clearly they have never asked the majority of crime victims what should be done with the perpetrators of these horrible acts.

Crime rates are higher now than any other time in history worldwide. Why? Possibly because criminals in recent decades are not afraid of the punishments that can be meted out against them which in most cases end up being:
· Probation
· Fines
· Minimal prison time.
If a drug dealer is simply fined a few thousand dollars for something they did they will gladly pay off their fine with the same funds they have gained from doing the crime before going back to the same business. Hardened criminals will even do their sentenced time and not be reformed as the proponents of jails hope they will become, they simply scoff at the “no no bad dog” reasoning behind it and go back to their crimes as soon as they are released.

Long ago criminals had something to fear from possible sentences they might receive for what they did. They were happy and almost jubilant to receive prison time though people rarely survived prison sentences since the alternative punishments included:
· Flogging
· Hanging
· Stoning
· Beheading
· Maiming
· To be drawn and quartered
· Left to die slowly in a gibbet (those cages hanging from trees or other visible location as a warning

These are the days of criminals with “records a mile long” as they say, back in the time of those just mentioned punishments criminals who were caught rarely lived long enough to have a criminal record started other than to log their trial, sentence, and date of execution.

I’m not one to enjoy another person’s pain, heck I’ll probably pass out or vomit if I ever had to see something along the lines of those punishments. But somewhere along the line of humanity’s march of progress we have forgotten how to keep one another safe from rampant crime and horrible violence. Progress doesn’t always lead to improvement.

In the wild west of the 1800’s there were public hangings of violent criminals, we’ve all seen them in the movies. Punishments like that were used widely to spread the end result of criminal activity. It was the Middle Ages that had the most gruesome of punishments (yes that scene at the end of Braveheart was a common occurrence back then), and yet less than a hundred years ago punishments became less severe and crime rates rose. Two hundred years ago if someone killed somebody they were going to hang from the gallows, and not fifteen years after the fact either, within a week they were swinging and people forgot who they were.

Yes you could call me a supporter of public punishments as a way of keeping criminals from being criminals. Minor offenses such as theft, corruption, bribery should be punished by setting up a grate in a public area, tying the criminal to it, and flogging the crap out of him. The number of lashed to be determined by the severity of their crime. Stole $100; 5 lashes, stole a car; 50 lashes, tanked your investment firm and caused thousands of people to lose their savings and homes; flay the flesh from your bones (maybe a bit extreme but not to those who are affected by them). In relation for crimes more horrible than those little misdemeanors public hanging is always an option again. Also I’m quite sure a rape victim would be immensely happy to throw rocks at a criminal’s head until he was dead.

Criminals these days have more rights than the people they affect and of course it’s not fair. It is time that we gave them their rights back by ensuring that the criminals are punished in the most memorable way so as to deter others from following their example. Maybe we’d have more teachers or police officers or even truthful politicians if somewhere along the line of their childhood and being raised they saw the result of criminal activity and instead decided to keep those criminals from ever happening. Maybe. Maybe I need a pork chop.

Stop and Think

Okay first of all I’d like to retract some of my comments the other day about John Travolta, his son, and scientology. I did not have all of the information that I have now that makes me realize that it wasn’t the scientology of it all that kept him from taking the medicines, it was an agreement between father and son to stop taking already prescribed medication that had stopped working effectively. I respect that and of course still send my sympathy and condolences to the Travolta family.


See, how hard was that for someone to apologize and mean it, and then get on with life. So many times I see something happen, one side apologizes for what happened and yet the other side either scoffs at the apology or gets hostile, offensive, and sometimes even violent towards the first party. What the hell people? Howard steps on Lucy’s foot at a dance club, “I’m sorry, excuse me”, says Howard. “Excuse you? I don’t think so, what do you mean stepping on my foot, these are expensive shoes you #*&$ing @$$&*($”, replies Lucy. Usually this is followed by slapping or kicking and inevitably a gunshot, sometimes by someone not even involved in the original festival of language usage. Recently a young man and his friends were pulled off of a subway train car in Oakland, California for what, I don’t’ know yet. At least two of his friends were handcuffed already when he begged officers not to use a Taser on him, he was then put face down on the ground with his hands behind his back as an officer began to handcuff him. He struggled, of course since not everybody likes to be restrained; at this point a second officer drew a sidearm and shot the man once in the back. The bullet passed through the young man ricocheted off the pavement beneath him and reentered his body and hitting at least one lung. He died at the hospital seven hours later. There was an amateur camera person filming this entire scene and of course he posted the video on the internet and released it to the media as well (whether or not he made money off of it I do not know). Right away the man’s family and an entire community rose up and demanded that the officer who fired be arrested, put on trial, and there were probably several calls for him to be killed as well. The officer has since received numerous death threats, most likely through the mail, phone, email, and shouted threats from protesters (since there are protesters everywhere these days).


Just the other day he resigned his post as a transit cop and has reportedly moved three times due to threats already. This is a horrible and bad thing to happen I’ll give you that but of course nobody is even thinking about he feels or even whether or not this was all an accident. Nobody ever stops to think about something before reacting quickly and unfortunately many times, violently. It has already been reported that this officer has been very distraught over what happened but of course nobody cares about how he feels do they. So stop and think about it for once, look at the past in all police involved shootings. Stop and think about every time you see a police officer walk past you and like me your eyes go to his belt to see if you can identify what his side arm is. Have you seen a police officer’s belt lately, there are dozens of things hanging off of that strap of leather. Sidearm and spare ammunition, nightstick (or expandable baton), handcuffs, radio, keys, notebook, cellular phone, and numerous other things that I can’t even possibly identify are all on his belt. Now take an even closer look, which one is his sidearm and which is his Taser? I usually can’t and I’ve studied and read up on all sorts of firearms for more than 20 years, and even more than they look alike is they are holstered right next to each other. Have you noticed that yet? No you probably haven’t since you’re probably already ridiculing me for actually defending such a cruel animal of a Gestapo-like police officer such as this aren’t you?


So here’s my alternate explanation for what happened, and this of course is purely speculation and in no means the actual truth until this man gets his day in court. The young man is pleading with officers not to use a Taser on him, when he is put into submission to be handcuffed he struggles back (as many people do anyways), and the officer standing over him reaches to pull his Taser and use it on the young man. Instead he mistakenly pulls his sidearm and fires a single round into the young man. Plausible, I think so especially after all of the police shootings you see and have read about. How many of those previous shootings involved an officer firing only one round? Not a whole lot hmm? Everyone always reports on the police shootings where two or three officers fire off nearly a hundred rounds of ammunition (certainly reloading their weapons at least once) in response to a hostile act.


Okay I’m done, now think about it while you enjoy some tasty lasagna like me. Stop and think. Two very easy things to do and yet not so easy.

New Year, Same Crap

Well here we are in the New Year, 2009 oh boy I can’t wait to see what stuff has happened already. Five days into a brand new year and already we have another conflict in the Middle East, a celebrity’s child died, and crappier customer service. I hope you all enjoy my thoughts on these subjects but in actuality I’ll be amazed that you’re still checking the blog site.


So just before the New Year some Hamas folks decided to lob a few rockets into Israel, this broke a cease-fire that had been in effect for about six months. It’s been over a week now and so far Hamas’ expert rocketry marksmen have managed to kill four people, only one of them a soldier. Meanwhile Israel has responded by “precision” bombing, artillery fire, and ground troops. In the same amount of time the IDF has managed to kill over five hundred people and wounded who knows how many in a response that is very similar to swatting a fly with a truck. Of course both sides have taken the moral high ground in this latest fracas; unfortunately both sides have taken their own moral high ground and fortified it with land mines, concertina wire, and machine gun bunkers. It’s times like this when Israel responds to the smallest thing with airstrikes and artillery that makes me think things that many people would think is just not believable. That thought is that Jewish and Israeli people of today can’t use the Holocaust of the 1930’s and 1940’s as an excuse to be rampantly violent as they are in this latest round of fighting. Thanks to the technological edge that Israel has over their opponents, who are lucky to have electrical power in their cities for more than an hour a day, the massive amounts of destruction that they can easily deliver makes them (in my eyes) appear as the aggressor and the big bully on the block picking on the poor kid who has nothing. More on that technological edge and the futility of it at a later date.


Jett Travolta died the other day after having a seizure while vacationing with his family in the Bahamas. It has been said that he hit his head on the bathtub either during or after the seizure which might be the actual cause of his death but hey I’m not a doctor so what do I know? I like his father’s work of late and my sympathy goes out to the family because of this. But a small piece of me remembers that the Travoltas are scientologists and as such are big fans of organized medicine and the bullcrap that ensues from such a group. But wouldn’t a little bit of medication avoided this seizure problem that Jett was known to have had?


Crappy customer service is what we all hope to have every time we go shopping. Just the other day the wife and I were at our local Wal-Mart Supercenter coupon shopping since we still have only one job between the two of us when we saw a neat little bobble-head stormtrooper. It was cool, a nicely painted 501st Legionnaire standing at attention with his blaster rifle at his side. Unfortunately there was no price to be found for poor lonely Trooper Denal so we went to check out with the hope that the register would solve the mystery. Nope it just created a confused cashier until wifey takes poor Denal to the customer service desk; here’s where it gets fun. The helpful people behind the desk told her, rudely of course, that the item wasn’t in the system and could not be sold. She asked to speak to a manager and instead a stock clerk came from the back to tell her the same thing and to add that the group of items shouldn’t have been on the shelf in the first place. So not only did these CUSTOMER SERVICE oriented people not help a customer be happy with a visit to their store, but they refused to sell an item that was no longer carried because it couldn’t sell in the first place. God Bless America and everything it’s turning into.

Sarcasm, yet another dish served fresh every day.