Archive for April, 2005


The wait

4/14/2005

You know that something always takes longer to arrive when you want it. Remember that trade magazine I mentioned a few posts ago? Still hasn’t got here. Bummer. Even though I know this is totally normal, it still bugs me. Anything from Maine sent in the mail to me takes almost a week (or more) to get here. It’s not because he doesn’t send it on time or anything like that. It’s because the postal service is really slow where he lives. This is weird because his part of Maine is the only part of the state where mail takes forever to get here. All other parts operate normally. Like I said, it’s just weird.

Waiting sucks. ;-)

posted in blog | Comments Off

One of the lucky ones

4/15/2005

A few days ago I was talking with one of my co-workers. He ran into a string of bad luck. First, he couldn’t afford where he was living so he had to move. Then, he lost his high-speed internet and had to go back to dialup. Before anyone would say “Well, who cares about high-speed ‘net anyway?”, bear in mind that for us computer types, losing high-speed ‘net is like going from a Corvette to a Chevette. The Chevette may get you from Point A to Point B, but it’s a lot slower and a lot more annoying to drive.

It just made me realize, once again, that I’m lucky. I’m lucky to have a roof over my head I can afford, I’m lucky to have my health, I’m lucky I don’t need any medications and I’m lucky for a whole lot more.

I also realized that high-speed ‘net is a luxury. Is it required? Not at present, but, should I ever run a business full time again it will be. Regardless of that, right now it just serves as a nice-to-have thing. I mean, here I am, writing this from my brand new laptop on wireless high-speed internet - I shouldn’t complain (and I don’t).

I guess it’s just one of those eye-opener things when you hear someone else’s tales of woe. You realize that whenever you think about complaining, there is someone who is always worse off than you are. At that point your complaints seem miniscule and meaningless.

posted in blog | Comments Off

Operation: Beater car

4/15/2005

I mentioned Chevette in my last post. In scouring the ‘net to find pics of Chevettes I stumbled across Chevettes.com, a site decided to that awful fucking car. And yes, the Chevette is an awful fucking car. I’ve known a few people that owned them. A word synonymous with Chevette is “cheap”. And cheap they are.

But anyway, it got me to thinking.. “I miss my beater truck”. Recently I sold my ‘87 S-10 because I bought I new truck - and I have no need for two trucks. Since 1998 I have been a two-vehicle owner. Usually it’s one good vehicle and one beater vehicle, consisting of one car and one truck. Since I’ve sold the S-10, I’m back to being a single vehicle owner. Kinda weird when you’re used to having two vehicles.

Just so everyone is aware, being a two-car owner does not make you a wealthy person whatsoever. It is really really easy to own two (or more) cars. As a matter of fact, you will more than likely (if you ask) get a discount on your car insurance for being a multiple vehicle owner. The point is, owning more than one car doesn’t make you some rich wealthy person. Far from it. It just means you own two vehicle. Whoopee.

Owning a “beater” is a time-honored New England tradition. Basically speaking, you have one good car and one beater car. The beater is the kind of vehicle you can just plain drive and not care. If it gets dented, big deal. Scratched paint? Whatever. Missing a hubcap? Wal-Mart takes care of that for 15 bucks a set. In essence, the beater is a throw-away car.

In a few months I am considering getting a beater. This doesn’t mean I’ll buy one. I may or may not pick one up. If I do happen to pick one up, these are the prerequisites:

1) Must be comfy.
Seats must have good cushion to them. Wrecked seats are a nightmare.

2) Must get good mileage.
Somewhere in the neighborhood of 25 to 35mpg.

3) Must cost less than $1200 to purchase.
More on this in a moment.

4) Must have parts readily available.
This means if something breaks, parts are easy to come by to fix the car should something break.

5) Must ride on 15″ wheels.
Tires for 15″ wheels are cheap. 14″ is even better. You can buy brand new rubber for 14″ rims for less than 40 bucks a tire.

6) Must be easy to drive
This means easy to start, stop, turn, etc. Some vehicles just have weird driving characteristics. That I don’t want.

7) Must be plain, but not embarrassing to be seen in.
Just because the car is cheap doesn’t mean you should be embarrassed driving it. Driving a Chevette would embarrass me. It’s small, notchy and weird looking. Driving a Oldsmobile Cutlass wouldn’t because it’s a plain normal-looking sedan. It’s boring, but not embarrassing.

8) Must have some room to haul stuff around.
A car with a good trunk or liftback fits the bill here.

9) Front-wheel-drive would be preferred.
Reason: Traction. Rear drives are fair-weather-only. Can’t have that.

I have some other req’s, but those are the biggies.

Here are some potential candidates (note: these are examples):

1989 Chevrolet Beretta GT Coupe
Cheesy 80’s style, but nice car all around. The ad says it needs a heater core. Not too bad. It still keeps the price under $1200 after work is done.

1992 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme
Not a bad looking car a’tall. Good reviews and few problems.

1992 Mercury Cougar LS
Good lookin’ car, but tends to fall apart when the miles pile on.

1994 Chrysler Concorde
Still modern looking, even today - and it’s a loaded car. Possible electrical nightmare.

So you see.. you can get a really decent ride for a beater car, hence the reason I’m considering doing it again. ;-)

One final thing: You can make any car look good with the right paint and wheels.

posted in blog | Comments Off

Okay, we won’t be doing that again

4/17/2005

I know I had my reasons for moving my site, but still.. moving a site is just such a royal pain in the ass. The biggest problem was the archives because I had a lot of crap linked within the site, not to mention images and so on and blah blah. I must’ve edited at least 30 posts. SheeeeEEEEeeszis..

But anyway, it’s all done. Life can go on now. :-)

posted in blog | Comments Off

PhotoDumb

4/17/2005

Been seeing a lot of ads on the tv lately for HP PhotoSmart printers. Before I continue, I just want to say up front that I’m getting real tired of companies abbreviating themselves. Hewlett-Packard? No, it’s “HP”. Computer Discount Warehouse? No, it’s “CDW”. Kentucky Fried Chicken? No, it’s “KFC”. Burger King has tried, and thankfully failed, to get everyone to call them “BK”. What’s next? Barnes & Noble to “BN”? Johnson & Johnson to “J&J”? Are all companies in the future just going to be letters?

Small note: Before anyone gives me flak, yes I know I refer to my company sometimes as “FSP”, however, it only happens on the ‘net and it’s only so I don’t have to write out my company name a bazillion times. I do not make any effort to literally change my company name entirely to an abbreviation.

Anyway..

So HP’s got these PhotoSmart printers. They have these oh-so-happy commercials showing the joys of printing photos. I’ve seen the television commercial where a guy is taking a shitload of pictures of himself. I’ve also seen the commercial of the lady taking photos of her kids and making a pseudo mural on what appears to be a home office wall. In any case, HP is attempting to promote the printer’s “fun factor”.

Here’s what I think about that:

First of all, have you ever printed a photo? It takes forever to print.

Secondly, have you ever purchased “photo quality” paper? It’s really expensive.

Third, have you seen prices for ink catridges these days? It’s insane how much you pay for ink.

In both commercials I’ve seen, the photo paper used (that is seen and more or less wasted) would cost more than the printer ITSELF. Combine that with the ink cost, and you’re looking at spending 200 to 300 dollars EASILY.

Why in God’s name would I want to spend 80 bucks on a crap-ass cheap-o HP inkjet photo printer when it’s going to cost me more than TRIPLE the cost it would just to take it to the darn photo shop for the same thing? I mean, yeah, I won’t get that instant gratification of printing it myself. Come to think of it, it’s not that “instant” at all since it takes forever to print a photo.

I’ll continue to take my photos to the photo place, thank you very much. HP, you can keep your crappy inkjet printers. Stick with the Laserjets, it’s what you do best.

posted in blog | Comments Off

More on abbreviations

4/17/2005

A little note here before I head to bed. I mentioned abbreviations in my last post. Have you ever wondered why state colleges have “state” in their titles? Check this out:

Florida State University is FSU. Take out the state and you got “FU”.

Pennsylvania State University is PSU. Take out the state, it’s “PU”.

Very, very old joke there… and no offense to anyone who goes to FSU or PSU. ;-)

G’night.

posted in blog | Comments Off

Back to Verdana (and Trebuchet MS)

4/18/2005

I switched the fonts here back to Verdana and Trebuchet MS. The Lucida fonts, while cool, just don’t do italics right.. or at least not right to me. They look kinda funky in a bad way..

posted in blog | Comments Off

Biz stuff / Music stuff

4/18/2005

Here’s an update of what’s going on concerning biz and music related activities.

Concerning biz:

I still haven’t received that trade magazine.. and it’s getting to the point of being very annoying. The whole reason I want the mag is to check it out before placing an online order to advertise in it. If I don’t get it within the next few days I may just post the ad anyway. I’m patient to a degree, but this is ridiculous to wait this long for a piece of mail that should have gotten here a lot sooner.

Concerning music:

There is a lot of stuff I have been writing that no one has heard yet. I could just put it up, but that’s just a little side project thing showcasing my instrumental skills. The new material is being designed for vocals and radioplay, something I’ve tried before (and was real close to being successful with it).

My biggest problem is finding a good vocalist. I’ve gone through a few over the years. Some were good. Some were not so good. Small sidenote: If any of the prior musicians I’ve worked with are reading this site, please do NOT contact me asking to work with me again, the answer is no. I have reasons whether good, bad or indifferent every time I part ways with a musician/singer/whatever - so don’t ask.

Anyway, I might try the local circular to see if anyone responds that’s any good. Maybe I’ll get lucky and find a vox that works with my style and has the chops I’m looking for. I’m at the point where I have the tunes put together. I just need the vox to really make it shine.

Further bulletins as events warrant. ;-)

posted in blog | Comments Off

Back to gAIM I go

4/19/2005

Here’s the thing that sucks about instant messaging: Everyone uses something different. I have people that use Yahoo, MSN, AOL and ICQ. I remember back in the early days of the ‘net everyone used ICQ and so did I (I still do).

Well anyway, being that I may get some Yahoo Messenger and MSN contacts coming my way pretty soon, I decided to give gAIM another go. My one big yap about the software was that you couldn’t change the font - but then I found out how to do it. It’s difficult, but you can do it. You have to manually edit a text file called gtkrc buried deep in a folder. I found it, edited it and now the font is much more to my liking.

Granted, that was a pain in the ass, but gAIM is free to download and use so I suppose I shouldn’t yap much about it. It’s totally possible that had I found that Windows FAQ before, I never would have switched off of gAIM to begin with.

At least now I have an ad-free messenger that connects all the “big” instant messengers. Hopefully this will work out for a while - I hate switching instant messengers. (grin)

posted in blog | Comments Off

Can you buy a friend for 20 bucks?

4/20/2005

Guess what, I’m doing the Yahoo Personals again. AAaaahahahaaaaaahahahaa (insert mad viking dance here). This time around I’m doing it a little differently. Previously I just posted a profile and waited for responses. This time I didn’t bother with one and am not going to. I just scout the posts and fire off messages to whoever floats my boat. I sent 4 messages today, and got 2 responses back. Not bad a’tall I say. Not bad.

It was cool to get responses but at the same time initially weird. Why weird? Because before it’d take forever to get a response from anyone. So I thought about it a bit. Then I remembered something.. “Oh yeah, you have to pay to respond.” And yes I paid over a 20 dollar month’s subscription which is what it costs to respond to people.

Bear in mind that Yahoo Personals used to be free a long time ago when the Earth was young, Man was new and dirt was still warm. Well.. maybe not that long ago. But anyway, during the “free years”, there used to be a shitload of spam going through that system, so getting a response was tough at best. The required subscription stopped that cold, so people who use that system these days get messages from actual people. In addition, the subscription weeds out all the cheap bastards who want something for nothing. Some would say “20 bucks a month? darn, that’s expensive.” Not really. Try pricing it against a dating service. The cost doesn’t seem that expensive when you think of it that way.

Does it label me “desperate” to use the personals on the ‘net? Hardly. I use computers a lot so it fits right in with my personality. And it’s not like all of us are extreme social bugs hopping around in happening places. Most of us (including yours truly) work for a living and don’t exactly have the time to do that. Besides which, the majority of girls I’ve dated have come from some sort of online interaction (As a matter of fact, the 2nd girlfriend I ever had came from a DOS based BBS back in the early 90’s when I was still in my teens).

I have one huge advantage with online dating compared to years ago: experience. With age comes wisdom. Here’s what my age and wisdom have taught me (take notes):

1) Humans are disgusting.
We are. All of us. Whether it’s taking a leak in the shower, farting in bed, picking the underwear out of the crack of your ass when it rides up or whatever it is, we all have a “gross” factor. Gross factor is usually determined by your scent, cleanliness (or lack thereof) and how much gross stuff you do in public. Your gross factor is significantly decreased if you practice something called common sense, such as showering every day, wearing a light-scented deodorant and not picking your ass in public OR WHEN WITH WHOEVER YOU’RE WITH. Like I said, it’s all common sense there.

2) Talking and commonalities are important.
I am far past the point of just getting sex with a girl and then calling it a night. Years ago, that was my #1 goal - I’ll admit that. For most guys, that’s still their goal. I, on the other hand, appreciate a girl who can actually talk about interesting stuff I like, like cars or cheesy British humor or whatever. It’s like this: If the goal is sex, once you have it.. where do you go after that. Nowhere, that’s where. It’s better (to me) to have a girl you can actually hang out with and enjoy spending time together. If, for example, I took a girl to a ‘cruise night’, she spots a car and says “Hey, that’s a 1969 Pontiac Judge GTO with the Ram-Air hood!”, I would be so impressed and probably say “Um.. marry me now.” (grin)

3) The only time anyone says “outgoing person” is in the personals.
You will never hear anyone say “I’m an outgoing person.” At least I haven’t. The only time I’ve ever heard this is in personal ads - and I typically AVOID girls who put that word anywhere in their personals post. To me it just sounds like a generic phrase used because you couldn’t think of anything else to say. Bad call. Small note: I think it would be frickin’ hilarious if someone put “I’m an ingoing person”. That would rock.

4) Someone with a “sense of humor”
I positively hate that phrase and I see it ALL THE TIME in personal ads. I saw it back then and I still see it today. Sense of humor, huh? Well, what do you think is funny? Do you find farting bunnies funny? Do you find Democrats funny? Do you find Rice Krispies funny? What humor sense are you looking for? Show by example, such as “I think Monty Python is funny” or something similar. Don’t be generic. If I wanted generic, I can call my credit card company and listen to the automated system tell me my current balance.

So to girls out there: Yes, your ads are being read. ;-)

posted in blog | Comments Off