 | People are Assholes July 08, 2008 at 1:29am in offbeat |
So I just realized that some jerk-off stole 2 of my girlfriend's plants that were sitting on my porch for sunlight. OK...what asshole steals plants? What the fuck are you going to do with them? sell them? It's just sweet basil and parsley! News flash...They ain't worth much, so its not like you can freakin' resell them for much...if anything. My girlfriend was proud of them, which is what causes me to be pissed off the most...that whatever douchebag decided it'd be fun to steal plants has in turn made my girlfriend upset, which means that I'm upset. So to you Mr or Mrs Plant Thief...FUCK YOU! |
| 2 Comments |
 | Congressmen Matter Too February 26, 2008 at 1:14pm in thoughts |
As I've mentioned before, I'm not one who really likes getting into politics too much, too many times I seem to just get disgusted with how the government is run sometimes, but I just wanted to mention something I've been thinking about. As many know the US Presidential Elections are coming up this November and many, rightfully so, are very much getting involved in the primaries. Everyone seems to be focusing on the presidential elections, somehow believing that by Bush leaving office and a new president, even a Democrat, that the state of the nation is going to do a 180 degree turn and go back to the way it should be. Now don't get me wrong, a new president, particularly Obama in my opinion, could very much help America change its status in the world for the better, but a new president can only do so much. Too many times, I hear of people complaining about some of the lousy laws that are getting passed in this country. Two come to mind, the first being the telecom bill (not yet passed) that grants retroactive immunity to the telecom companies, and the other being the College Opportunity and Affordability Act (PDF). The latter one will apparently cut off university funding unless universities enact strict anti-piracy strategies...in other words, unless the universities do the RIAA and MPAA's dirty work, then they'll lose funding. In my opinion, these bills aren't what I want to see getting passed through congress. People complain about these and a lot of times, I hear people blaming Bush for them. Now granted, the telecom immunity bill, he probably pressured for, but in the end that's not the point. The President of the United States does not make the laws. As a quick refresher, there are 3 branches of government, the executive, legislative, and judicial. The legislative branch makes/writes the laws. The executive branch only approves them. If people are constantly seeing laws that they don't like, the president, in this case, Bush, is not the one to blame. Blame your congressmen, push for your representatives to vote against the bills that you feel are wrong, and push for them to vote for the bills you feel are right. People are constantly complaining about this, yet for some reason, the same representatives seem to keep getting voted into office. The presidential elections are important, but so are the House of Representatives and Senate elections as well. I can't say I've never been guilty of this oversight, but at the same time, I'm not going to overlook this fact next time around. Get involved in the elections, read up on the candidates, both presidential and for your representatives. And vote. Democracy, as jaded as I might sound, can only begin to happen when the people get involved. Vote for who you feel is the best candidate. If you don't vote, that is of course your right, but don't complain later when you feel the wrong candidate was elected. Tags: election2008, rant, politics |
| 0 Comments |
 | Remember When January 24, 2008 at 12:57pm in thoughts |
Normally I don't like talking politics, and I still don't like to, but I want to touch on this point. Remember when presidential candidates, or any position really would campaign and actually say what they're going to do to help the country, city, town, etc? I can't seem to remember hearing that too much anymore. Now it seems that the popular way to campaign and try to win is to lie, cheat, and bash your opponent more than they bash you. I'm truly not a fan of that at all. I want to hear and see what they want to do for the country, not what their opponent has done wrong, or what they claim their opponent has done. It's really a shame that candidates feel they need to attack their opponent in order to win votes. I guess it has pretty much become the status quo now as the strategy to use, but I'd really like to just hear what they want to do to help me, because lets face it, everyone in politics has made their share of mistakes, no one's perfect. So, instead of telling me what the other has done wrong, why not tell me what you want to do to help. This is particularly aimed at the whole Clinton-Obama dispute and I'm really sick of hearing it. /endrant Tags: rants, politics, election2008 |
| 0 Comments |
| Kudos to XFX October 29, 2007 at 10:00am in thoughts |
About a year and a half ago, I bought a XFX nVidia GeForce 7900GT graphics card for my desktop. The card was great. A couple months ago, it started dying. Games would clip, the BIOS screen was all colorful, and even the simplest of graphical operations on the operating system lagged and flickered. I was like "shit" it was over a year old so I figured the warranty was out. I put in a ticket seeing if I could fix the issue. They replied saying that all I would have to do is register the card and that the warranty was still fine. I registered the card and it led me to finding out that the card probably went bad and I would have to send it back to them via RMA. For $8 I sent it back and they confirmed what I already figured. About a week later they told me that the 7900GT is no longer in stock and I had the choice between an 8600GTS 256MB card or I could pay an extra $150 and get the 8800GTS 320. Being that my MacBook Pro has pretty much become my primary machine, the 8600GTS would suffice and it has DirectX 10 too which was great. So I'm getting an $8 GeForce 8600GTS. I find it nice that XFX was willing to help me out in getting my hardware fixed. I know I read that in order for the warranty to be valid I have to register the card within 1 year of purchasing it. The fact that they helped me out when I was a slacker and didn't register speaks volumes on how they treat their customers...in my opinion, well. So in a couple days, I will have a brand new video card. People can say that well if it's a good company then the hardware shouldn't break/fail. I take the approach that even the best hardware fails on occasion. I've done tech support work, I know about hardware failure. What matters is how the manufacturer deals with these failures. XFX was good about making sure they got back to me in a timely fashion and fix the issue. Definitely good customer support. |
| 0 Comments |
| Here We Go Again...Jack Thompson at it Again October 24, 2007 at 1:50am in thoughts |
 So I was watching an interview on FOX with Jack Thompson regarding Manhunt 2. It was pretty much just as I expected...Jack Thompson putting himself on this giant pedestool claiming the game should be outright banned. He claimed a corrupt ESRB and stores selling these kinds of games to kids as reasons for banning. He calls the fact that Manhunt 2 went from Adults Only to Mature a blatant sign of corruption in the ESRB. Jack goes on to say that because the game can be sold to kids, it should be banned. He says that children should be protected from this. He said kids can go onto Amazon.com and buy the game or go into stores and do the same without a parent. First let's touch the Amazon.com option. To shop at Amazon legally, you need to either be 18, or have a parent/guardian supervising. The conditions of use for Amazon say:
Amazon does sell products for children, but it sells them to adults, who can purchase with a credit card or other permitted payment method. If you are under 18, you may use Amazon.com only with involvement of a parent or guardian. Amazon reserves the right to refuse service, terminate accounts, remove or edit content, or cancel orders in their sole discretion.
So if someone goes onto the site and buys something, they should be 18, and if they are, then what is all the fuss about? If they aren't, Amazon reserves the right to cancel orders should they deem the buyer to be ineligable. Now while Amazon cannot physically monitor who is using their site, what parent in their right mind would give their 12 year old a credit card? And in terms of physical stores like Best Buy and GameStop, well that's the store's policy on whether to sell the game or not. So why the hell, Jack, are you going after the game? Go after the stores if you feel so strongly about limiting sales to minors. Jack compares this protection of children to the protection from porn. Okay, adult sites have age checkers to prevent those underage from registerring for their sites. But what about the countless sites that offer free previews or have pictures on their front page. Any unsupervised kid on a computer without some sort of filter could google "sex" and bring up hundreds of thousands of different sites. So Jack, are you going to push to ban all computers? While you're at it, why not ban the entire internet? It still comes down to one question. Where the hell are the parents? I'm not a parent, but isn't it THEIR responsibility to monitor what their children do, play, watch, see, etc? My parents did that to me, and at the time, I HATED it. Looking back at it now, I'm glad they were the way they were. I sure as hell will not let my future kids play certain games until I feel they are old enough. At the end of the day, this is the big thing. The parents should be responsible for their kids. But parents will try to pass off that responsibility to someone else instead of taking responsibility for their kids. I mean the games all have ratings clearly marked on them. E for everyone, T for teen, M for mature. I don't know enough about the inner workings about the ESRB to be able to dispute or agree with Jack's claims of corruption, but looking at the games I own and their ratings; the ratings are pretty doggone accurate. The ratings even give a brief reasoning for the rating. There are also plenty of websites with resources for parents about these video games. The parents need to be involved with what their children play. Banning a game is only going to help parents shrug off their responsibilities. I will say that I have no problem requiring stores to check for ID when buying M-rated games like they do with tobacco and alcohol. The games are not being banned, and you're still having a process to help protect the children. As far as I'm concerned, this would be a viable option to protect the children and the first amendment that Jack seems to be ignoring or at best, twisting it to fit his purposes. Several states have tried this, but seem to have the law struck down by the court systems. Jack, why don't you spend your time lobbying for this instead of trying to ban games. The First Amendment allows for freedom of speech, and freedom of expression. Video games definitely fall under this category. While I do agree with Jack in that children need to be protected, banning video games, or a video game is not the way to do it. Jack seems to have a record of twisting the amendment around to help him attempt to win his arguments. While that tactic may not be unique to him, the First Amendment allows for game makers to make whatever kind of game they choose. In the end, Jack Thompson was just being Jack Thompson. It's a shame because he seems to have a lot charisma about his "cause". If only he would put it towards a more, how shall we say it, reasonable endeavour. You can watch the interview here [Youtube.com] |
| 1 Comments |
 |  |  |  |