Archive for Rant

Trying again….and again….

I’ve said it before, "I need to blog more!".  I’ll say it again.  The biggest issue I have it seems is that no matter how simple the blog framework is, it still poses a barrier to entry for getting the post made.  I have yet to find a web based editor that feels natural to me for creating or editing a post.  I’ve tried a couple of client based editors, and was not ever really impressed.  I know Word 2007 has the ability to publish to a blog, but it seems to be overkill.  I don’t need a full up word processing package to write a post.

Right now I am giving Windows Live Writer a try.  Its a lighter package than word, while having more features than many of the other packages I have tried.

Lets see if this works, only time will tell.

Technorati Tags: ,,,

Comments

Election 2008

This video basically closed out any possibility that I will vote Republican in the 2008 General Presidential elections. I believe, like I know many people do, that there are not many real differences between the two major political parties any more, but so long as the republican party thinks that John McCain is their ideal candidate, they will not get my vote.

This man is dishonest and delusional, there are no other words for what he is. Any presidential candidate who says, on tape, that he disagrees with what the majority of the US Population desires is unfit for office. This man needs to go back to his high-school government course and re-learn the whole “By the people, Of the people and For the people” portion of the lesson.

There is one thing that scares me more than this man though, and that is the blind army of “vote the party line” republicans out there that will blindly vote for this man simply because he wears the badge of the G.O.P. on his chest, and not because they know anything at all about either candidate and where they stand on the important issues.

I fear for the next generation, the burden that they are going to have to shoulder because of this one.

Comments

Coping with things through lists….

When I was in the Navy, everyone had their lists, whether it was list of work to be done, list of people to hate on, list of places they visited…. it didn’t matter. By far the most popular was the “List of reasons to get out”. I had mine, (as I recall it was up to about 160 or so, I’ll have to try to dig it out), and we managed to come up with some others. This is one that circulates from time to time, and was just forwarded to me from an old Navy Buddy.

The Top 100 Reasons McDonald’s is better than Submarines

1) No McORSE
2) If you have to take a piss, you can go take a piss. No questions asked.
3) You’ll never have to go port and starboard on the fryer.
4) Better pay.
5) The Damn sun.
6) Air.
7) The boxes of food at McDonald’s aren’t stamped “Rejected by Hardee’s” or “Not fit for human consumption”.
8) The ability to call in sick.
9) The ability to quit.
10) McDonald’s doesn’t get their uniforms from the same company as the state penitentiary
11) McDonald’s doesn’t deploy.
12) They have actual janitors.
13) No McDrills.
14) The grill breaks, you CALL someone to fix it.
15) At least your boss accepts that he’s a clown.
16) No McResin Discharge.
17) No all night hydro on the fryer.
18) One word: overtime.
19) Every day is slider day!
20) At McDonald’s, you will never, EVER, worry about being put in
prison for ten years because you told your wife what the secret
sauce is.
21) They pay you for training.
22) You’ll never die a horrible, excruciating death from the crush
depth implosion of a McDonald’s.
23) No steam piping.
24) No time at McDonald’s will you hear your boss give a thirty
minute dissertation over the P.A. on the importance of being
at the register 15 minutes early.
25) They won’t ask you about Taco Bell operations on the
advancement test.
26) You get to leave work EVERY day at the end.
27) McDonald’s will eventually fire the really stupid employees.
28) two words: Happy Meals.
29) McDonald’s doesn’t look like a big black turd.
30) Grimace don’t do Vulcan Death Watches.
31) McDonald’s has a slide out back.
32) To do something at McDonald’s, you look at the color coded chart, not
OP
umpty-squat,chapter
whatever, reference 3, ACN B, rev 1700.
33) If McDonald’s catches fire, you LEAVE.
34) No McSmall Valve Maintenance.
35) No McCOB.
36) Leaving McDonald’s in an emergency doesn’t require a steinke
hood and a lot of praying.
37) The coffee’s better.
38) Someone else makes the water.
39) You don’t have to live there to work there.
40) The only cones come from the ice cream machine.
41) McDonald’s doesn’t go into drydock. (again and again)
42) ALL the tests are multiple choice.
43) Their TV commercials are a lot cooler.
44) Three words: Sea Foam Green.
45) Stock in McDonald’s is worth something. The Nav is a part of
an operation that is 6 trillion dollars in the hole.
46) Special sauce isn’t “hand made”.
47) No McBilges to clean.
48) Opening for business doesn’t require a full day of
preparations and everyone to show up for a brief at 0230.
49) Three words: Stupid ass hats.
50) Personnel inspection requirements are written on the door.
(No shirt, no shoes, no service)
51) At McDonald’s, dislocating your shoulder is not considered
getting the good deal.
52) McDonald’s never had an accident that cause a person to be
stuck to the ceiling impaled on a french fry. (ie. No Mc-SL1)
53) Because you deserve a break today.
54) Even the little Hamburglar is cooler than a goat.
55) Mayor McCheese doesn’t wield a righteous thumb of
indignation.
56) You can choose which McDonald’s you want to work at.
57) If you want to buy your boss a beer, that’s okay.
58) If you want to tell your boss to fuck off and just die
fucking die, that’s okay too.
59) There is no Uniform Code of McDonald’s Justice to deal with.
60) The news comes from USA Today, not Ric Crawford, GS-12.
61) No one will rack you out at 2 in the morning to start the
grill.
62) Chances of you getting called back after you get off work are
pretty damn slim.
63) Putting the pickle on the hamburger doesn’t require an QA-34
and a signature to be used against you in a court of law,
should they want you.
64) The only guy in a silly yellow suit is Ronald.
65) How many McDonald’s were sunk in W.W.II?
66) Fixing the register doesn’t require a rubber room and a rope
man.
67) Nothing on the menu contains the phrases, “Horse cock” or
“baboon ass”.
68) At McDonald’s, the riders would have to leave at closing
time.
69) $2.99 is a meal price, not a daily wage at McDonald’s.
70) You don’t have to go single register operations if someone
spills a Coke.
71) McDonald’s doesn’t require a 24 hour Shutdown Register
Operator and McRoving Watch.
72) McDonald’s doesn’t call your house at 5:30 in the morning
blaring some god-awful antiquated song about a bugler just to
wake you up.
73) No McRadcon.
74) At McDonald’s, your boss will never make you drive him around
for two and a half months so he can spy on Wendy’s.
75) You will never be locked in for 24 hours pretending to
operate everything. (i.e. no McFastcruise)
75.5) You don’t have to come in to work at 7:00 only to wait
around for three hours waiting for your boss to tell you things you
already know.
76) At McDonald’s you will never hear, “Shake machine
troubleshooting team, and all off watch drinkmakers, lay aft.”
77) No McGMT, McEngDep, and McDivision training.
78) At McDonald’s you don’t have to route a 1250 for a new stack
of cups.
79) If you burn a hamburger they won’t take away half a month’s
pay for two months and restrict you to the playground.
80) Knowledge of the material of construction and variable
operating characteristics of the grill are not prerequisites for
operation.
81) You don’t have to take apart the shake machine once a quarter
just because.
82) You don’t have to share your bed with two coworkers.
83) You don’t have to shave off your goatee when the district
manager comes.
84) At McDonald’s, when the toilet clogs, you don’t rig
pressurized air to the shitter.
85) You don’t have to shut everything off and call in the last
shift to start the grill.
86) Early in the morning, you don’t cycle the drink machine on
and off just for practice.
87) You scrub the floors because it’s dirty, not because it’s
Wednesday.
88) There is almost always plenty of parking. If not, drive
through.
89) Don’t like what you got? Take it back.
90) You don’t have to take a turbidity prior to putting a new
catsup dispenser on service.
91) Failure of the warming oven door to open is not a panic
causing event. It will also not preclude you from starting another
fryer or pulling the fries out of the vat due to interlock.
92) No Mc-HPACs.
93) No one hates it so bad they refer to it simply as “The Mac”.
94) No 16 hour days at McDonald’s prototype making burgers in the
middle of the desert for no one.
95) If you wipe up a catsup spill at McDonald’s, you don’t have
to let it dry before you throw it away.
96) They won’t secure one of the register operators to keep track
of the people going into Burger King.
97) You don’t have to have permission from the Manager, Assistant
Manager, and Register Operator before going into the
freezer.
98) At McDonald’s, the toilet paper stays in the bathroom, not on
the dinner table.
99) You don’t have to completely undress to pinch a loaf.
100) ALL of the articles of the Constitution apply to you at
McDonald’s.

Comments

Credit Cards and your Financial Safety

We have all heard about the trick of putting “Please Check ID” on the back of your credit card in place of a signature to make it harder for a thief to use your card. Apparently this doesn’t work. Well John Hargrave of www.zug.com gave this and more a try in a desperate attempt to get anyone to actually deny a purchase based on his signature. Check out the Credit Card Prank and the Credit Card Prank 2 and see just what it took. Personally I cannot recall the last time that my signature was actually checked my signature or asked for photo ID.

After doing some research I found some info on the Visa website for Small Business owners. It seems that you cannot just have a note to check ID in the signature block. The merchant is not required to accept the card in that case. But you can have it in there along with the signature.

Comments (1)

Nugent: Gun-free zones are recipe for disaster – CNN.com

Nugent: Gun-free zones are recipe for disaster – CNN.com

WACO, Texas (CNN) — Zero tolerance, huh? Gun-free zones, huh? Try this on for size: Columbine gun-free zone, New York City pizza shop gun-free zone, Luby’s Cafeteria gun-free zone, Amish school in Pennsylvania gun-free zone and now Virginia Tech gun-free zone.Anybody see what the evil Brady Campaign and other anti-gun cults have created? I personally have zero tolerance for evil and denial. And America had best wake up real fast that the brain-dead celebration of unarmed helplessness will get you killed every time, and I’ve about had enough of it.

I like what this guy is saying, an armed nation is far better off than an unarmed nation. Criminals will always be able to get weapons. So if you take them away from the law abiding people then you have just made life so much easier for the criminals. They know that the police cannot respond immediately, they have a window of opportunity to act before they are in danger from someone who carries a weapon, so the crime still happens. Now think about if every person carried a gun. Would the petty thief still try to take your wallet, knowing that instead of leather they could be getting lead? Would the shooter at Vigrinia Tech still have killed 32 people, or would he have been stopped much sooner if one of the bystanders had been armed? Face it folks, gun control is just a knee jerk, selfish, reaction from people who are unable to see the reality of the world around them. Gun control has caused deaths in its own right, I lay the blame of Virginia Tech firmly at the feet of the gun control lobby. Face the facts, guns arent the problem, nor the solution, they are simply tools. Cope With It!

Comments

April Showers?

April showers bring May flowers…..

Isn’t that the saying?  Well I don’t think this is going to help.

April-Snow

Global Warming?  Where?

Comments

Guardsmen overrun at the Border

Guardsmen overrun at the Border

Does this smack of “Act of War” to anyone else?

Comments

U.S. experts join missing jet hunt – CNN.com

U.S. experts join missing jet hunt – CNN.com

This article has really annoyed me in two ways.  It goes out of it’s way to mention that there was 3 Americans on board, but snubs the nationalities of the other passengers.  Why?  Are they any less human for not being Americans?  Are they any less valued?  When our media stops this kind of arrogant reporting then the rest of the world will begin to stop perceiving us as “Ugly” Americans.

Also there is a parenthetical reference at the end where it mentions a plane landing at an airport hundereds of kilometers (miles) off course.  One kilometer and mile are not equivalent, if you are going to do this give actual measures to show the relationship between them.  But more importantly if people are so ignorant that they cannot understand that a kilometer is a measure of distance then trying to equate them will only further their ignorance.

Comments

Intelligence oversight, ethics top Democrats’ agenda – CNN.com

Frankly I see only one way to improve the ethics situation in Washington.  Establish term limits for all members of Congress.  Only by eliminating careerism in our elected officials, can we get them to serve the Nation’s best interest, rather than their own best interests.
Intelligence oversight, ethics top Democrats’ agenda – CNN.com

Comments

U.S. town may encourage firearms – CNN.com

I like this guys idea, and thinking.  Why sit there and wait for police who could take a significant amount of time to arrive when you have the constitutional right to bear arms and, in most states, the right to shoot anyone who breaks into your home.
U.S. town may encourage firearms – CNN.com

I agree that a safe and secure society is the responsibility of all members, not just a select few who wear a uniform and a badge.  To paraphrase something I heard once “An armed society is a peaceful society”.  I don’t know who said the original, nor exactly how it went, but there is something to it.  Think about it, how much crime is committed today that wouldnt happen if the perpetrator knew for certain, or at least had a strong reason to suspect, that the victim was carrying a handgun?  It’s not a panacea for all crime, there will still be some, unfortunately it seems to be part of the human condition, but I would think that it would seriously reduce the current levels we deal with every day.

Comments

« Previous entries Next Page » Next Page »