Sep 09
Posted: under Fun Stuff, General, Rants, WTF is wrong with people?.
…or at least, MEN’s public bathrooms? The only answer that makes any sense to me is “a woman”. Or maybe one of those creepy dudes who likes to talk to you while you are in the bathroom. I say this because the urinal layout is always not very well thought out, to the point where [...] [...more]
…or at least, MEN’s public bathrooms? The only answer that makes any sense to me is “a woman”. Or maybe one of those creepy dudes who likes to talk to you while you are in the bathroom. I say this because the urinal layout is always not very well thought out, to the point where men seem to be invited to violate one of the basic “man laws”.
Case in point: the bathroom at my office. We occupy a fairly large space, and therefore have a bathroom that is fairly generous in size: three urinals and two stalls. My beef is with the urinals in particular. They are lined up against one wall, two that are normal height, and one that is a “shorty”, the latter I guess being for the children that we hire to slave away in one of our many sweatshops. (Note: a joke, in case any of our HR people are reading this) The shorty is positioned at the left end of the wall, followed by the two normal ones. Most of the time, this is not an issue, since rarely is there more than one person using them at a time. But when there happens to be that occasion when there are two, the second person is put in a predicament: a) take the regular height one, breaking the man law that you always keep at least one urinal between you and your neighbor or b) take the shorty and risk making a mess, or feeling ridiculous for using what can be described as the “kiddie table” of the bathroom world. Sadly, the only real option here is choice “b”, since choice “a” is only allowed in very few situations, most notably concerts and sports venues.
Why is the shorty not positioned in the middle? If I were designing bathrooms, this would be a no-brainer. Yet I have seen this layout more often than not in countless bathrooms everywhere. If I ruled the world…
For those creepy guys mentioned earlier, do us all a favor and read up on men’s bathroom etiquitte (note #11 in particular).
Sep 07
Posted: under General, Rants, WTF is wrong with people?.
Sometimes, I wonder, if in this “age of information”, if we were better off back in the good old days of being in the dark about relatively everything. One of those times was this week, when I read a story that originally broke on the internet regarding the treatment of baby male chicks by chicken [...] [...more]
Sometimes, I wonder, if in this “age of information”, if we were better off back in the good old days of being in the dark about relatively everything. One of those times was this week, when I read a story that originally broke on the internet regarding the treatment of baby male chicks by chicken “farms”.
Apparently, there is little need for males in the poultry industry. This somewhat makes sense, but the way that this problem is handled by the modern egg-producing industry mortified me. Baby male chicks are “sorted, discarded, and handled like mere cogs in a machine “. And when they say “discarded”, they mean the animals are thrown alive into a grinding machine, where they are torn to pieces.
Sadly, these little chicks might be better off than their female counterparts, who are spared the death-machine, but instead get to live a miserable life of what amounts to essentially torture.
This article, which can be read here, stuck with me all week long. I just can’t seem to shake it off like I can with the myriad of other horrible news stories I read every week. It really has me wondering if it might be time to jump on the vegan train. But I know I am only kidding myself. I am not even sure I could adopt a vegetarian lifestyle, much less a vegan one. I like the taste of animals, cheese and eggs way too much. Raising my own animals isn’t an option, and even if it was, I’d end up making them all pets – there’s no way I could kill them myself. I’m too much of an animal softie.
This heartless quote is probably the single biggest thing that made this story poke at me all week:
“There is, unfortunately, no way to breed eggs that only produce female hens. If someone has a need for 200 million male chicks, we’re happy to provide them to anyone who wants them. But we can find no market, no need.”
So it’s OK to throw them alive into what is essentially a shredder? If they have to die, isn’t there some better way we can do this? A gas chamber, maybe?
For me, the question is, what do I personally do from here? Not sure, but I am going to mull it over while munching a chicken sandwich.
Baby chicks at the largest egg hatchery
Jul 21
Posted: under General, Rants, weather.
Tags: hail, rain, tornadoes, weather, wind
It hasn’t rained in for-freaking-ever here in Minnesota. As in, every piece of vegetation around these parts not tended to on the daily is brown, crunchy, dead, or all of the above. As in, we are almost 8 inches shy of normal precipitation this year already. And we were way off the year before that. [...] [...more]
It hasn’t rained in for-freaking-ever here in Minnesota. As in, every piece of vegetation around these parts not tended to on the daily is brown, crunchy, dead, or all of the above. As in, we are almost 8 inches shy of normal precipitation this year already. And we were way off the year before that. 2007 was only our first summer here, but that one was extremely dry as well. And never mind all the talk about snowy Minnesota. We’ve suffered through 2 winters so far without a decent snowfall. I didn’t even know it was possible to have a dry winter.
When I woke up this morning to take the dog for our walk, I was baffled when upon opening the garage door, I saw that it was pouring rain outside. It literally took me a moment to figure out what was going on, and how I should deal with it. My inner dialogue went something like this:
Me: “What is this wet stuff?”
Me2: “You remember that – its rain, stupid.”
Me: “Rain, eh? Can we still walk in it?”
Me2: “Not unless you want the entire house to smell like wet dog when you get home from work”
Me: “I’m confused now. I don’t know what to do!”
Or something like that, anyway. I didn’t have a stenographer, and it was early. Of course, that rain lasted all of about 2 hours, then the sun came out, diligent as ever, evaporating the bone Mother Nature threw us.
Fast forward to this afternoon, riding home on the bus. The closer we got to the Northwestern ‘burbs, the blacker the sky. By the time I got in my car at the Park N’ Ride, I had three severe weather & tornado warnings on my phone, the wind had picked up so much it stole my sunglasses off the seat of the car as I was driving. By the time I got home, the rain had started – a straight deluge, followed by more insane, tree-ripping-out-of-the-ground wind and some light hail. Yessiree, you have to hand it to the Midwest, it does weather a bit on the crazy side. Like an alcoholic or drug addict, it can’t ever do something on a small scale. It’s either all or nothing.
Side note: Wow, I bitch a lot about the weather. San Diego is becoming more affordable every day, and is looking better and better every day. I don’t think even I could bitch about 70 and sunny 7 days a week. Meh, I bet I could.
Frustrating Update: it appears as if my blog is angry at me for long neglecting it for the fast-living, crazy world of Twitter (feel free to follow me!) and Facebook, and the video above isn’t working in some browsers. You can see it over here at YouTube if you’re so inclined to do such things.
May 20
Posted: under General, Rants.
Tags: minnesota, weather
It’s nearly 95 here today, with winds gusting to at least 40 MPH. Wondering how hot it would be if it were calm… Yesterday, at one place in the state, it was over 100 degrees, while in another, it was 34. How did a huge crack not just form down the middle? It snowed last [...] [...more]
It’s nearly 95 here today, with winds gusting to at least 40 MPH. Wondering how hot it would be if it were calm…
Yesterday, at one place in the state, it was over 100 degrees, while in another, it was 34. How did a huge crack not just form down the middle?
It snowed last weekend, and now we are stiflingly hot, 3 days later. An ice cube would last about 30 seconds out here.
Oh, and it’s tornado season!
This state is messed up.
Apr 09
Posted: under Fun Stuff, General, Praise, Rants.
Tags: blogging, rainn wilson, twitter
I have been kicked squarely in the balls. And it is forcing me to rethink this blog and my lack of involvement in it. Let me explain a little. Those that read this blog regularly (thanks Mom!) may or may not know that I am on Twitter, a kind of mini-blogging social network app that [...] [...more]
I have been kicked squarely in the balls. And it is forcing me to rethink this blog and my lack of involvement in it.
Let me explain a little. Those that read this blog regularly (thanks Mom!) may or may not know that I am on Twitter, a kind of mini-blogging social network app that allows you to blurt out random crap via your mobile phone, computer, typewriter, fax, and morse code. (Ok, maybe not that last one, but I’m sticking with at least the first two). People who “follow” you can read whatever you decide to write. If you’re funny/interesting enough, you gain followers like the Pied Piper. If you are boring enough, they will stop following you shortly after they start following. I usually fall somewhere in the middle of those two extremes.
Celebrities, on the other hand, get hundreds of thousands of dedicated followers. Most of us follow like sheep, just loving the fact that we get to peer ever so slightly into their personal life. The results are sometimes disappointing when we find out that they are just as boring as us, but with more money.
Today, I had had enough of Rainn Wilson (“Dwight” from The Office)’s repeated re-tweets and constant product pitches, and told him so by Tweeting
“@rainnwilson I’m sorry, but we need to break up. I don’t follow celebtwits for RT’s and product endorsements all day. GL in The Office, tho!
The response from Rainn:
“Check out Rays blog! RT @raychampagne Im sorry, but we need to break up.I don’t follow celebtwits for RTs and product endorsements all day.”
So far, I have been inundated with reponses from his followers, most who actually agree with me. Which makes me wonder, is it too harsh to knock down a celebrity for something I get for free, without any contract or expectance of what I’m going to get out of it?
I have had about as many hits on this blog in the past hour as I have had all time. And I haven’t updated in over a month. And before that it was spotty at best. I have been thinking lately that it’s time to get back on the horse, I guess this was the boot in the ass I needed.
Twitterati, if you’re reading this, add my RSS feed to your iGoogle, I’ll try and mildly entertain more frequently.
Feb 25
Posted: under Rants.
Tags: Comcast, DVR, User Interface
I have become more and more impatient and angry with Comcast’s lack of quality when it comes to their UI on their DVRs. Seriously, who designed this piece of $%#@!? Things that we have become so accustomed to in the web world as far as layout and functionality goes seem to be lost on whoever [...] [...more]
I have become more and more impatient and angry with Comcast’s lack of quality when it comes to their UI on their DVRs. Seriously, who designed this piece of $%#@!? Things that we have become so accustomed to in the web world as far as layout and functionality goes seem to be lost on whoever designed this crappy software. Man, they make enough money, why don’t they upgrade this thing by hiring a professional UI team to rethink the whole system?
They really should take a page out of the Mac playbook and give the people something that would give them the one-up on their competition…USABILITY! I have used DirecTV’s DVR before, and it is light years from the crap that Comcast stuck on us.
Is this too much to ask?
Jan 15
Posted: under Fun Stuff, General, Praise, Rants, WTF is wrong with people?.
Tags: cold, minnesota, winter, WTH is wrong with people?
…your garage door freezes to the ground overnight, and when you go to open it the next morning, it rips the 2X4 supporting the track right off the wall….this happened to me this week…twice. Last night was officially the coldest that I have seen it here yet. It never went above -1 in the city [...] [...more]
…your garage door freezes to the ground overnight, and when you go to open it the next morning, it rips the 2X4 supporting the track right off the wall….this happened to me this week…twice.
Last night was officially the coldest that I have seen it here yet. It never went above -1 in the city yesterday, and by the time I had taken the dog out when I got home, it was -7 in the ‘burbs. Predictions were for the temp to drop and the wind to pick up, with an ambient temperature of -21 and a wind chill in the -40 to -45 range. Balmy!
Around 7:00, I stepped out to grab something at the grocery store for dinner. Glancing at the temp on my way out, I saw that it had dropped to -11 in a matter of an hour. I regretted even having to make the walk from the car to the grocery store door. Luckily, on this end of the trip, I had the relative protection of the garage to look forward to.
While waiting in line to pay for my goods, I couldn’t help but notice the woman in front of me. She was holding just a single box of popsicles. I wrestled back in forth in my head whether I should ask why popsicles in January in Minnesota, and when she finally glanced back in my directtion, I spoke up.
“Popsicles? Really?” I said.
She laughed. ”Yeah, my husband called me at work and said ‘pick up some popsicles!’. I told him he’s crazy. So now he’s at home, sitting outside by the fireplace, waiting for some popsicles”.
I laughed – a little – while I digested what I just heard. Good thing it was her turn to check out, ’cause I really had nothing else to say.
Welcome to Minnesota indeed.
At -21.8 the weather station took itself offline (OFL). Smart machines know when to call it quits, unlike some dumb humans.
Dec 20
Posted: under General, Rants, WTF is wrong with people?.
Tags: animal cruelty, University of Minnesota, WTF is wrong with people?
December 18th probably started off well for Annie, a Golden Retriever (maybe not her real name) in Western Minnesota. It’s hard to know exactly, but I’d like to hope that she woke up that morning, she got herself something to eat, maybe did her business, got a nap in, and do whatever else it is [...] [...more]
December 18th probably started off well for Annie, a Golden Retriever (maybe not her real name) in Western Minnesota. It’s hard to know exactly, but I’d like to hope that she woke up that morning, she got herself something to eat, maybe did her business, got a nap in, and do whatever else it is that dogs do on a daily basis.
Her day didn’t end so well though. Seems that some jackass decided that it would be fun to shoot her and leave her for dead in a snowbank. She lay there clinging to life after being shot twice in the neck and stomach. Luckily, some good samaritan came along, lifted her out of the snowbank and got her to a hospital. After stabilizing her as best they could, she was transported to the University of Minnesota, where she underwent several surguries to fix her abdomen, esophagus, diaphragm, and ribs. She’s been given a 60 to 70 percent chance to live, and if she does pull through, will have many special needs for the rest of her life.
I am truly outraged at us as humans when I hear about things like this happening. And I don’t know why every time I hear about stuff like this, I still get stunned. The total apathy some people have for the life of animals so close to us as humans, namely cats and dogs, our pets, is appalling. I get that not everyone understands the human/pet bond, but even the biggest dog-hating people I know wouldn’t stoop to levels such as this. I really hope they catch the sick sonofabitch that did this and shoot him or her and leave them for dead in a snowbank somewhere. And I hope no good samaritan stops by to help.
This whole scenario, of course, assumes that the shooter was a random person who saw a dog and thought it would be fun to shoot it. If this were the act of Annie’s owner, then I would just be completely speechless. That reaches a level of cold-heartedness that isn’t even on my radar.
Read the complete story at the Minneapolis Star Tribune
Annie after surgery
Dec 15
Posted: under General, Rants.
Tags: disappointment, Mad Jack's, NFL, NFL Sunday Ticket, Patriots, Victory Grill, Vikings
We live near a newly-opened bar/restaurant called the Victory Grill. At first, we were very happy that we were blessed with a bar that is literally walking distance from our house, and that it had all the comforts that a so-called sports bar should have: great food, flat-screen TV’s with the NFL Ticket, and a [...] [...more]
We live near a newly-opened bar/restaurant called the Victory Grill. At first, we were very happy that we were blessed with a bar that is literally walking distance from our house, and that it had all the comforts that a so-called sports bar should have: great food, flat-screen TV’s with the NFL Ticket, and a staff that remembered their regulars and treated them with the kindness that you’d expect from a “neighborhood bar”. It opened last spring, and we quickly became fans and frequented the establishment on Friday and Saturday, even the occasional Tuesday Bingo tourneys during the summer to escape the freaky steamy Minnesota nights. We were psyched, and looked forward to the NFL season so that we could watch out-of-market Patriots games at our “neighborhood bar”. Sadly for us, that dream became a nightmare when fall rolled around.
Let me digress for a second. If you advertise that your bar/grill has the NFL ticket, you better damn make sure that you not only cater to your local sports teams, you should also make sure that you make the out-of-market fans like us feel welcome as well. That’s why you got the NFL ticket, right?
Not so with the Victory Grill. The first game we watched was great, the manager there was over-accommodating and changed one of the three TV’s above the bar to the Pats, albeit without sound. That was acceptable, since there was a Vikings game on at the same time. We were happy. A few weeks later, however, we were treated with the cold shoulder when we tried to watch the Patriots game and get the sound of ANY game when the Vikings were not playing that afternoon. The reason, we were told, is that this was a “family restaurant with a sports theme” and that the only time they turned up the sound was when the Vikes were on. We openly wondered why they had spent the money for the NFL ticket if they were only going to televise and announce the Vikings, which could be found on any local TV station. The answer was still “we are a family restaurant with a sports theme” and that we could watch the game in the private room in the back and have the sound on to our liking. We reluctantly agreed, and made plans to utilize the offer when the other local, somewhat overcrowded sports bar was not an option. In fact, we even watched a couple of games there, in the back room, away from the other sports fans, all by ourselves, just because it was the only place to go. It was nice, the single large room could be split into two smaller rooms with a mechanized divider, each getting their own TV and sound to themselves if there was a conflict of interest. We even met a cool group of Patriots fans there last week, and planned to gather there this week to watch the Patriots/Raiders game. I wish the story happily ended there, but it didn’t.
We arrived at Victory Grill this week (early, so that we could stake out our spots), headed to the back room, and saw that there were two people already there, waiting to watch the Vikings game. Not a problem, we thought, since the room was dividable, we would be able to watch the Pats on the other TV if they just closed the divider. As soon as we suggested that out loud, the two people sitting in the huge room said that they were there to watch the Vikings game and the Gophers hockey game and that the room was “always closed on Sundays”, which we knew was total BS. As I had mentioned, the room was open to whoever got there first to watch whatever game they desired. I never thought it would be open to only two people who wanted to watch two sports events at once. Upon asking if they really needed to watch both events as a twosome, when the (dividable) room clearly holds 60+ people, the response was “I’m an employee, and that is the way it is gonna be”. After a brief argument, we realized that he was right, it was going to be that way, and the restaurant management was going to back him. We walked away, and headed to Mad Jack’s, another bar a few miles away.
As always, Mad Jack’s was supportive. The manager on duty asked us which TV we would like to watch the Patriots on as soon as we walked in the door (without us even asking, BTW). See, they have the NFL ticket too, and are more than happy to accommodate non-Vikings fans. We have since decided to swear off Victory Grill, and only watch the rest of the season there, where we feel more welcome (albeit sans sound when the Vikes are on).
Next year, we are planning to just buy the NFL ticket and avoid this mess, but I really feel that we could have been treated better at our “local bar”. Shame on you, Victory Grill, and a lot of of praise to Mad Jack’s for making us feel at home while we’re away from home. I guess that’s why Mad Jack’s has a packed house every Sunday and you are struggling to get customers. Good luck, I hope that you survive this horrible economy. You should be trying to garner good paying customers like us, yet you seem to be catering to the likes of employees, who probably are stealing from you, or at the very least, are getting drinks and food at a discount. In my estimation, you probably lost at least $200 in revenue that our group of Patriots fans could have brought you today. And that’s just today. I again say “good luck”. You have lost yet another gaggle of paying customers. And I can’t wait to go to Mad Jack’s next weekend.
Dec 14
Posted: under General, Rants.
Tags: cold, minnesota, winter
I know that one of the things that you are supposed to expect when you live in Minnesota is that winter is going to be harsh and painful. But it seems like that it really snuck up on us this year and then attacked like a sniper. I just looked at the temperature outside on [...] [...more]
I know that one of the things that you are supposed to expect when you live in Minnesota is that winter is going to be harsh and painful. But it seems like that it really snuck up on us this year and then attacked like a sniper. I just looked at the temperature outside on my remote weather station, and it’s a whopping -3.5. Combine the 30MPH+ wind and driving blizzard-like snow, and it is now -20 degrees to human skin. Combine that with the fact that it was 33 when I woke up today and we’re talking a crazy temperature shift of like 50 degrees in less than 12 hours. Wow.
It’s supposed to get to -31 tomorrow. And as luck would have it, our furnace is slowly dying, making some crazy sounds that remind me of the tornado sirens we hear on a much more frequent basis than we’d like. I’m hoping that the techs that come in tomorrow at 8AM can fix the problem on the cheap, but that dream is fleeting at best. I’m not sure if working from home tomorrow is a blessing or a curse. Brrrrr! Winter is here early!
