Get a Life PETA

Hey there. I try not to post about the news much, since I have readers across the world and I'm sure we're not all watching the same news, but I have to throw in my two cents in this PETA v. President Obama fiasco. For those of you in the dark, US President Obama had a sit down interview in which a fly decided to swarm around his face and land on his hand. Obama, displaying his awesome ninja skills, swatted the fly with his bare hands, killing it. The camera guy went as far as zooming in on the dead fly.

To me, that's pretty damn cool. A president that's just like everybody else. If a fly is bugging you, don't tell me that you just sit or stand there and let it throw up all over your skin. Hell nah, if you're normal, you swat it away, or get a fly swatter and show it who's boss. The president brushed it off his hand and carried on with his conversation like it was just an everyday occurrence. No biggie, right? WRONG!(Depeche Mode status)

PETA had a huge problem with it. It's a freaking fly, PETA! I like your cause; it's righteous, it's noble, but there is nothing noble about complaining over the death of a freaking fly. Like Jimmy Kimmel said in his show, PETA swears the fly was a gift from Ethiopia. C'mon, really PETA. Are there not enough REAL issues involving whales, rhinos, and all kinds of furry friends that you need to make a statement condemning the president over a stupid fly. I mean, what's next? You're going to come barging through every American door to assure that we have garbage lying around to properly feed the flies? Will there be a bon fire out in New York fueled by fly swatters and fly traps? Choose and pick your fights wisely, PETA. If you continue with these BS battles, you're going to lose a lot of credibility and quite frankly, I think your reputation just took a huge blow over this nonsense. Later.

911, What's Your Emergency?

Hey there. Things are getting a little nuts out here in this place we call the U.S. of A. A few weeks back, a woman called 911 for emergency help because McDonald's had run out of Chicken McNuggets. Now, I see this morning, that another woman (which sounded very much like the first woman) called 911 to request help because a restaurant was out of shrimp. SHRIMP! What the hell? I'm baffled as to why the dispatcher even gave her the time of day, let alone actually send a policeman to the scene. I mean, c'mon people... We have murderers, rapists, terrorists, and what not that need to be caught and we're sending our policemen to a restaurant because they ran out of shrimp?!?!? Really, now? Are we so free of crime that we actually have the resources to go and check this out? Now, I may not have all the facts straight, but it's beginning to get on my nerves, that shit like this is even making it on the news. This isn't news. This is stupidity. Why are we even wasting air time with dolts like this? Don't get me wrong, I love a funny story and I'd laugh my ass off if this was on some kind of TV special called, "When Idiots Call 911", the upsetting part is that police were actually sent. Does anyone know what the protocol for something like this is? Are they obligated to send someone to each 911 call they get? I'm extremely curious as to how our national emergency system works cause I'd be pissed off if I'm getting stabbed and my 911 call isn't going through cause the cops are out there attending to a chicken nugget dispute. Later.

Hell With Pascual & Associates Tax Service

Hey there. Last night, we went off to do our taxes. We've been loyal customers to Pascual & Associates Tax Services. Well, last night was the last straw. Many years ago, on our very first appointment, we were well taken care of and had excellent service. As the years went on, service greatly diminished, prices went up, and the wait time has gone to HELL. EVEN IF YOU HAVE AN APPOINTMENT!!! That is what peeves us the most. We're understanding people. We know sh*t happens so we usually say expect to be called 15 to 30 mins after an appointment. But last night, the wait time was an unprecedented 90 mins. 90 MINS!!!! Even though you had an appointment, you had to wait 90 mins to get called in. That is ridiculous. Every single time that we've had our taxes done, we spend no more than 30 mins in the chair. You pass over your forms, they get entered, you answer some questions, and before you know it, you're done and on your way home... Happy. I was NOT happy last night. After sitting there for an hour, I got up to ask the receptionist how much longer, she calmly looked back and said and least 30 more mins. Hell with that. I grabbed my wife and we went home. Mouthing off in the car and extremely frustrated. We both agreed that they have just lost clients for life.

We want to say that our main gripe with them is that they cannot manage their time correctly. Considering that 30 to 45 mins is needed to prepare taxes, why in the hell would you schedule appointments every 15 mins??? That's just ridiculous and stupid time management. If you know that you can't get it done in 15 mins, then why would they make their customers wait? They have about 8 tax preparers, all handling their business at the same time. During the time that we sat there waiting, we only saw one couple leave. ONE COUPLE! Are these people preparing taxes or are they socializing?!?! Don't they know that people HATE waiting. It was extremely frustrating. Ugh...

I checked out Turbo Tax this morning and was able to get em done in no more than 30 mins. Quick, fast service. Turbo Tax is the best damn thing the government has come up with since, well... tax refunds. If you can plug in letters and numbers, than I would suggest going with Turbo Tax. Quick, easy, and convenient. AND NO WAITING!!! Just how I like it. Later.

Back at Work and a Broken Box

Hey there. So I'm back at work... Vacation is finally over and that sucks. My wife and I so did not want to come in to work today. Especially since it's Martin Luther King Jr. Day and the kids have the day off and we're here, at work. As soon as we walked in the office, a coworker tells me to call the boss before I get started on working. Damn, can't I get settled in first? You know, a cup of joe before I get hounded? So I sit at my desk and call the boss to see what's up. Looks like he's not going to be in this week so I'm boss for the week and he left several instructions for me. Which includes a meeting, of course... Ugh... I'm not even up to speed yet and I need to represent him in a meeting. Hopefully, I'll be able to get out of it. So I then turn on the computer and open my Email. Bracing for the worse... Yup, just as I expected. A shitload of Emails. So many Emails, that I had to wait approx. 45 mins for the computer to put them all in my inbox! Close to 800 Emails. Ugh. I sooooo don't want to be here right now.

Anyways, this weekend was quite eventful. I had (notice the had) a good size projection big screen. You know, those old ones that are bulky as hell? I got it from my uncle when we moved into our home. I needed something better than a 23 incher to display in the living room. The color of the big screen was always off. Blue and green were essentially the same hue and it finally got to me. I decided to open up the bad boy to see what was the problem. As many projection screens go, the blue color gun was busted. It didn't display a projection while the the red and green ones were working fine. I found where you can adjust the color and was hoping that maybe it just needed fine tuning and as I was adjusting the color, the screen turned to a red color and after a few seconds of that, it turned black. Crap. I think the TV just died on me. I was not able to get the screen to come back on and after reading up on it online, I discovered that I was not alone and many people described what just happened to me. How the blue color always goes first and before you know it, poof, you're tv is just a huge box sitting in your living room. I ended up calling a few repair people to see how much it would cost to repair it. Prices ranged anywhere from $300 to $500. Damn, screw that. I went online to look for another TV to buy. So where do I go? Craigslist.com.

I browsed around there and people were selling their busted TVs. All saying the same thing. Blue color is off. I finally found one that is slightly smaller than our original TV but it works perfectly. All for $100! Can't go wrong with that. So I Email the guy and he hooks it up and on Sunday, I take my cuz's truck over there to pick it up. The dude was cool and even helped me load the sucker in the truck. So I take it home and it's "small" compared to our old TV but you can't complain in getting a 50 inch or so TV for $100. And the best part? YOU CAN TELL THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN GREEN AND BLUE!!! YES!

Damn, just remembered that I'm at work. Gotta knocked down most of these Emails. Later.

I've been Axed by PPP

Hey there. I'm a little ticked off that I received an Email from Pay Per Post, stating that my blog no longer qualifies to accept opportunities. They go on to claim some bullshit about "weeding out blogs" and keeping only the "elite" blogs for their advertisers. This upsets me extremely. Not only because I've been axed, but because their requirements are so minimal (90 days existence, no porn) that I don't see how they're are going to choose these elite blogs. I've only been around for about half a year and I think I've done pretty well. I definitely woutldn't classify myself as "elite" but if you think about it, elite blogs would already be well established and I'm sure that they wouldn't be hanging around PPP to make a couple of bucks when an advertiser that go directly to the blog owner. It just doesn't seem right to me. I'm pretty sure that Social Spark is next in line to be weeded out so warning to all friends that are members. The man is out and he's passing judgement...

Later.

Olympic Game?

Hey there. As most of know by now, the Olympic games are well into their second week and many competitions have been held and won. I love the games. I think it's because I'm so competitive that I want to see my country go out there and kick ass. Well, last night I was up watching the games, as I have been these past two weeks. On the local channel, I see the big name sports going on. Track & field and high diving, stuff like that. On the "Olympic" channel, I see the "Race Walk". WTF!?!?! That's right. Race Walk. I couldn't believe it. I've never heard of such a thing. Someone was going to get a gold medal for being able to walk real fast. It was the women's race and my first impression of it was, "Damn, they look like fish trying to walk on their back fin." I even got my wife up so she could see it.


I'm for diversity, I'm for great atheltic feats, but I'm not sure that power walking should be an olympic competition. There has been talk that baseball will be removed from the olympic games. Now, I'm not a baseball fan. I find it quite boring (to watch at least) but nevertheless, I recognize that it takes atheltic ability to be able to perform at a high level. Especially when you're up against the best in the world. And from what I hear, baseball will be removed as an olympic game starting with the next olympiad in London. C'mon on now. We are going to keep power walking but get rid of baseball??? Unless I'm missing something, that is stupid. Maybe the race walk is an age old tradition that has been around as long as the loympic flame. If it is, I can understand why you want to keep it around. But if it's not, it's got to go. Later.

Man Sized Food?

Hey there. I was talking to my compadre today and I was venting about how Doritos will now have less chips in their bags. I mean, they're small as it is already, why make them smaller for the same price? I remember back in the day, the 99 cent bag was pretty big. Today, it's almost half the size of that. Why? Economy sucks. Companies are trimming costs by putting less of their product in containers and charging us the same amount as before, if not more. Fuck that. I'm so not happy about it. But what is my compadre's solution to this? Create "man" sized portions and "woman" sized portions.

His solution made me laugh, and laugh hard. He then proceded to tell me about "man sized" cup of noodles. I've never hear of em, but his pic made me think. Some companies have already started this, bigger is better trend and I think it started with Hungry Man. I mean, is it really smart to advertise food differently to different sexes? And I don't mean different products or gender specific products. I'm talking about one product, different approaches. Let's use the example of Cup O Noodles. C'mon friends, we've all had em. They're like the universal "need food now" item. Whatever brand it is, we call em all Cup O Noodles. Anyways, if you were an advertiser, would you advertise a "man" sized portion and a "woman" sized portion? Is it a smart idea or is it more business savvy to have a single sized product? Just a couple of thoughts that are running through my mind right now. Later!

Shipping Charges Suck!

Hey there friends. Our little one has decided that she's not so little so she needs a "big girl bed" instead of her toddler bed. Since she tosses and turns while sleeping, we figured that it wouldn't be a bad idea to get it for her, so we spent some time this weekend looking for a bed for her. My wife is the home decorations manager (god knows I have no sense of fashion or decor. lol) so she was looking for something that would already match what the girls have in the room. Well, the kids used to share a room so we got bunk beds back in the day. Our son has one and our middle child has the other, we figured we can give our little one the other bunk bed since it'll already match the one the girls' room. This meant that instead of getting our little one a bed, we'll be getting one for our son. So as we're browsing, online of course, we come across a few that we like and will match his room decor. The problem? $100 for home delivery!!!! I was like, WHAT!?!?! I'd rather go and drag it home... Sears.com states that it's not available for "$1.99 shipping" since it's an "oversized" item and it weighs over 150 lbs. Target.com just flat out denied me the option to pick it up. We were forced to pay the $90 or so for ground shipping... We didn't get the bed, since we're mulling it over. If I had a truck, I'd be over at Sears and be like, "Load it up, fellas", and be on my way home, WITH NO SHIPPING CHARGES! Oh man... I need a truck.

A Switch From Blogger?

Hey there friends. I've been contemplating a move from Blogger to another blog platform. I believe that the only reason I'm staying is because it's my first blog and I've grown familiar with what I can and can't do on Blogger. And that's my problem... I know what I can't do and it would suck to have to leave because of some "imperfections".

First and foremost, I cannot upload Excel files. Maybe it's just me and you can't do this on any platform, but I have a few games that I would like to share with you all and I cannot get them to upload on Blogger. HUGE issue for me. Who wouldn't want to come here and then get themselves a free dose or Pac Man or whatever. lol I guess the fact that I'm restricted is what's bothering me. I figured, it's my page and I can do as I please, but the fact that I can't upload a file is taking that "power" of freedom away. Would I be able to upload files on other blogging platforms?

Also, more and more, that empty space on each side of my page is getting to me. I don't know why it didn't bother me before. I guess it was just the "newness" of blogging that I felt happy with it only because I now had a small space to call my own. I really want to expand it all the way as of right now, I have not figured it out. I'm pretty sure that a new template would fix this. Maybe I should look into that.

Maybe I should be looking into getting my own domain. Tranfer all my stuff over. I wouldn't know how it would work though, but I'm sure they would have a "help me" guide or what not. Maybe I should start looking into that.

Or maybe I'm just being a little bitch. lol I know that there are millions of people using blogger and if it was really bad, they would all ditch it for something else. Eh. Guess it's just something to think about. Later.

Lakers Down 3-2

Hey there Lakers. The Lakers pulled out the win, despite a very sloppy game. It was nothing to be proud of, but a win is a win. I loved the post game interview by Gasol. "I didn't want them celebrating on my home court, with champainge and crap." Classic stuff. lol Man, the Lakers, again showing why they are the Western champs, bring it to the Celtics in the first quarter. Killing them in every stat. But that was just about it for the half. They fell asleep in the second quarter and let the Celtics claw their way back from a 17 point deficit and cut it to 3. For the first time this series, the Lakers win the 3rd quarter. A huge plus considering that the Lakers are being killed in the 3rd quarter of every single game this series. Then, there was the fourth quarter... Again, the Lakers lost their lead. Again, the Lakers lost their composure. But this time, they didn't fumble the win away (unlike game 4. As you've probably noticed... I didn't write about game 4 since I was extremely upset with the Lakers that I didn't even want to relive that game).

That's right, we won the game, but we didn't WIN the game. The Celtics merely choked at the end and we held on. Paul Pierce was careless with the ball so Kobe steals it, Kevin Garnett misses two HUGE free throws, Lakers fumble the ball with seconds to go in the game but the Celtics can't come up with the steal. I'm extremely disappointed. I was expecting us to bring it to em, kick some Celtic ass and make the Celtics think that they're in trouble. Instead, I get a half assed effort and just enough effort to hang on to a victory in the 4th quarter. Lakers should have won by at least 15, instead... it's a nail biter going down to the wire.

It was a little funny watching the game tonight. I have this bet going on with my wife that if the Celtics win the title, I'll get her a Coach bag (or any other bag or bags of her liking) and if I win, I get me a new tattoo. It was funny because she's not a basketball fan and is just going against the Lakers for this bet but as she was watching the finals minutes, she was like, "Oh my god, I'm feeling nervous.". lol I was like, "Babe, now you know how I feel with all the games." She comes back with, "But this is only because if they win, I'll get my bags. There's nothing on the line on the other games so I don't care." Or something along those lines. lol My babe, you gotta love her.

Game 6. Tuesday. Boston. See you there. Later.

Lakers Down 2-0

What the hell is wrong with the Lakers? Down 24 points with 8 minutes to go in the 4th?!?!!? Not to take anything away from the Celtics, they are in the finals for a reason, but the Lakers should not be down 24 points. Especially when they are considered a high offense team. They need to get their shit together or they WILL lose this series. Only after playing inspired (if not desperate) basketball in the 4th quarter, did they slash that 24 point deficit to 2 points. It was interesting to watch, but if they had played better in ANY of the 3 previous quarters, we may have won game 2. WAKE UP LAKERS!!! These are the finals and unless you play a full 48 minute game, you are going to LOSE!!!!!

Guitar Fiend

Hey there. Yesterday, I played guitar for the first time in quite awhile. I have a Kirk Hammett 602 and yesterday as I attempted to play some stuff, I noticed that I'm awfully slow, hammer ons and pull offs are nowhere near where they used to be and my timing was completely off. I'm going to have to spend a little more time working on my chops. One of my favorite songs to play, Master of Puppets, was completely butchered by me yesterday. I got a little down on myself and decided to put my gear away.

I won't be able to get any practice in today since we have 4 parties to attend at 3 PM. Scratch that, it's now 3. It was 2 graduation parties and 2 birthday parties. We're not sure how we're going to divvy up out time among the three... Then to top it off, I'm expecting a delivery from Lowes today. I am extremely upset with them because I wanted to lay cement on our back yard to extend our patio and the delivery was scheduled to arrive on May 7th or 8th. It is May 31st and they are now just getting around to delivering my cement. Damn bastards. So we wont be able to go anywhere until that arrives...

Hopefully, that shipment won't come late... I've had my yard all dug up for some time now and our dog, Odin, loves to roll around in the dirt so I need that cemented so that I don't have to wash the dog every other day. lol

Checking out the Autozone site. I need to give the car an oil change. Gotta find a good deal since the economy is so bad. I think I'm going with the filter and 5 qrts of oil for $15. That sounds good. I'm off friends. I'll catch ya later.

Captivity

UGH! I rented this out from Netflix and finally had a chance to sit down and watch it... BUT THE STUPID DISC DID NOT WORK!!! So now I have to wait until they send me the replacement and considering that this is a 3 day weekend, it'll take forever for it to get to me. Ugh!

Google

Hey there. Looks like I got a new sponser. I'm giving this Adbrite a shot since Google claims that there was "clicking fraud" on my site, causing my account to be disabled. Now, I understand if there was an issue on my site, but I would've appreciated a warning or better yet, suggestions to prevent this so called fraud. Instead, I just get an Email stating that it's disabled. I was pissed. But after doing some research online, I find that I'm not the only one whose account was disabled without much proof, since Google will not disclose any infomation what so ever. There's a lot of unhappy bloggers out there that Google has just shut out with out so much of a warning and once you're blocked out, you are blocked out. No point in trying to get back in the program. So eh... I don't write to advertise, but I wouldn't mind having a little something here and there. It's just upsetting that you can be shut out from a program, especially when you're not at fault.

Abortion?

Hey there. What's with this woman from Yale claiming to have impregnated herself 9 times and forced her body to miscarry each and every time for the sake of art. I call complete bull shit on this. I understand that people will some pretty weird things in the name of art but this is not art. This is just plain wrong. I don't know if she's doing this for her 15 mins of fame, considering that the shock value is so high. Yale has come out and quickly attempted to squash the whole thing by saying that the student, Aliza Shvarts, was submitting her work as "creative fiction" while Shvarts, herself, claims it was very real. Supposedly, she received semen samples from males, only god knows how, and she inseminated herself, my best guess would be with a turkey baster if she wasn't doing the guys, and on the 28th day after her mentrual cycle, she would ingest these herbal abortion remedies for force a miscarriage. She video taped the whole thing and collected blood samples. She did this for a total of 9 months. 9 months!!! She plans on showcasing her "exhibit" by having her blood swirl around some thing hanging from a ceiling and her videos playing on walls. Is this woman screwed up in the head? Would you want to display the intentional killings of an unborn? And for what? To claim it as art?

Society

Hey there. I was in a discussion with a friend about her lunch and she was discussing with some of her colleagues on whether eating fruit before or after a meal is more beneficial than the other. I told her that I remember reading somewhere that eating fruit a good 15 - 30 mins after a meal aids digestion. She said that she remembered someone saying to eat fruit before to help you feel full.

This made me think for a second and went on to say that society now a days, doesn't know what good for them. You read about all kinds of shit online, see all types of ads on TV, either promoting or demoting products. I expressed this thought to her using a runner as an example. Doctors and what not say that it's beneficial to run, better circulation, good exercise. But, you also hear the opposite side of that, running puts a heavy strain on knees and feet, and to a lesser extent, causes fatigue. She laughed. She told me that she sees my point, stating how she wanted to join a cycling class to help strengthen her knee, since she has a bum knee. Her husband, on the other hand, thought it as a terrible idea, because... she has a bum knee.

Proteins are good, proteins are bad... Carbs are good, carbs are bad... then there's the ultimate... "medicinal" marijuana is good, marijuana is bad. C'mon people. Who are we to believe in this day and age? Before you know it... we'll start hearing that food is bad, causes fatness and obesity. 2 mins later, we'll hear that food is great, provides the nutrients that a "growing" body needs. WTF?!?!!?

You just can't trust what you see or hear anywhere anymore. lol Until I decide what to believe, later.