My wife and I have pretty eclectic tastes in music: we’ll listen to just about anything. However, neither Alicea or I listen to what I like to call “twangy” country music (some of the more rockin’ stuff isn’t half bad). We spent 11/9 years (respectively) in the South … and we haven’t looked back.
Alicea’s working over at a certain global technology firm based in Redmond, WA these days as an admin, and her office mate loves country music. Check out Alicea’s Twitter feed from this morning…
Alyleth: Got my smoothie - ready for work! Unfortunatly my officemate’s music of choice is country…. KILL ME NOW!
Alyleth: lyrics… no shoes, no shirt, no problem… WTF?!?!?
She just told me the chorus to the next song that came on, and I can’t make this up, shouted to the world (and Alicea’s office), “she thinks my tractor’s sexy.”
Wow. And I thought “John Deere Green” was a lame song.
I just read in Engadget that there’s a new suitcase out on the market that has a battery and motor to assist you in hauling your treasures from place to place. “The PA series of checked baggage features a 12V NiMH rechargeable battery pack supplying power to the wheels when the handle is gripped and the bag is tilted. The bags weighs 10.6kg (23-pounds) which is about 3kg (6.6-pounds) more than standard hard luggage, according to the manufacture.”
HOLY CRAP!!! This is just really sad. So let’s get this straight, not only am I giving up nearly HALF of my allowable luggage weight per bag (50 pounds … that I get to pay $15 for the first bag on some airlines) but I get to spend $1365 for the pleasure!?!
I get my luggage from Target, or Fred Meyer, or Costco. I try not to spend more than $100 for a bag, because it’s going to get just as trashed by the airlines as the expensive stuff, so why bother?
So here’s the deal, why not just rent a luggage cart for $1 and buy a $100 suitcase? Then you can have the other $1264 to pay for the too-narrow, too hard, no legroom, next to the engines, no free soda, middle seat in the back of the plane of your dreams.
I’m not ashamed to admit it, every July I turn in to a cycling fan. I don’t really follow much of what’s going on throughout the year … hell I haven’t been on a bike in 3 or 4 years! But I love watching the Tour de France.
All this doping stuff is getting really old, and I hope one day it all gets cleaned up. Either that or, as my coworker says, just created an “unlimited class” and let them fry themselves with whatever they want to inject.
“First and foremost,” said Patrice Clerc, President of Amaury Sport Organization (ASO), the promoter of the Tour de France), “I want to be the first to congratulate whoever wins the 2007 Tour de France. You are truly a great champion, and ASO thanks you for making our business possible. While we do not yet know who will win the Tour, I feel it is vital we acknowledge that person as the pinnacle of strength, conditioning, and personal sacrifice he undoubtedly must be.”
“Next,” continued Clerc, “I’d like to take this opportunity to accuse the aforementioned winner of using unscrupulous and nefarious methods to obtain this prize, and hereby accuse him — whoever he is — of doping.”
I’ve been a bit out of it lately. Alicea and I spent a full week with a really bad sickness (won’t go into the details). The there was the holiday week, and work is ramping up into another busy period for me. Unfortunately blogging hasn’t been at the top of my to do list.
That being said, I just saw a diatribe from Keith Oberman from his MSNBC broadcast on July 3rd (here’s the link). Keith more than makes up for my lack of words lately.
“Dallas is looking a lot like Seattle these days,” says Ed Stoddard of Reuters in this evening’s story about the flooding happening in Texas.
In Marble Falls near the state capital, Austin, several people were rescued from the tops of their vehicles and even from trees after nearly 20 inches of rain came down in a matter of hours in the latest downpour.
Yeah, so it doesn’t do that here. If Seattle gets a heavy downpour like I was used to in the South people completely freak out. In fact, according to the Seattle Mayor’s Office, 20 inches of rain is more than half of our annual rainfall (36.2 inches). Chicago, Washington D.C., and NYC all get more annual rain than we do here.
Sure, we probably have more rainy days, but most of those are a gentle shower or heavy mist, and they sunny in the afternoon.
But if people keep thinking it rains all the time in Seattle, that’s fine with me. They can stay away we those of us intrepid worshipers of the rain can enjoy our beautify views of the mountains on cloudless sunny afternoons!
I don’t use Facebook either at this time, but I have to say this post from Download Squad definitely nails the reason I don’t use MySpace. Most of the content on there is CRAP. And the navigation is horrible.
It makes sense. Facebook started as a college and university only platform, which right off the bat adds a significant gap between the haves and have-nots. Add a pinch of irritation that users with an IQ above 80 feel when confronted with abhorent Myspace layouts and you have a recipe for the great unwashed to rally around Myspace, leaving the rest of us who can string a few words together as Facebook planted refugees from the ills and distaste of Myspace.
Here’s a screen-grab from one of the iPhone ads, and it exemplifies why I don’t think Apple got it right. Here in Western cultures we read left-right. So WHY would you put the hang up button on the left - when a call comes in? That’s the first button your eye sees, and EVERY OTHER PHONE OUT THERE puts the answer and disconnect buttons on the left and right, respectively.
And how are you supposed to type on a screen with your finger when there’s no responsiveness to tell whether you’ve pressed a key? The tactile response of where you are on the keyboard is important.
I previously wrote that I was “ashamed to be a Christian” … and I need to clarify that statement. I saw Jill this morning at church and she mentioned that she has a problem with that statement. She understands what I’m really trying to say, but the statement itself is a bit “harsh” and easily misconstrued.
So I want to clarify what I meant, for the record (and the other couple readers of my blog).
What I mean is that I’m ashamed of what the label ‘Christian’ means in our society. I’m ashamed of the friggin right-wing religious zealots who have created a stereotype of Christians as single-minded biggoted assholes (pardon my language) who hate anybody who doesn’t look AND think like they do, and do their best to make everyone else share their opinions (otherwise they’re damned, right?).
Jesus taught people to love each other and lend a hand to those less fortunate … he’d do the rest through their hearts and minds. That’s it. It’s not our job to convert the world - it’s His. Our job is to be nice to everyone.
It’s He didn’t teach that we should hate gays. He didn’t say we should never have a drop of alcohol touch our lips. He didn’t tell us that it’s okay to bomb clinics because we disagree with their policies. He didn’t join the Republican Party … or the Dems either.
Jesus said we should all get along (love thy enemies even) and his first miracle was effectively a beer run for a week-long kegger.
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rants | Tagged: Alicea, music | 
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Posted by Nathan Novak
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