Double Standards July 28, 2003 at 7:56 pm

Oh, I see.. it’s perfectly ok to discriminate… as long as it’s in a Politically Correct way of course.

The double standard that’s so alive and well in today’s world really pisses me off. I’m all for equality, but there’re too many groups today that want equality… but still want to have extra special rights due to being different at the same time. This school is a perfect example… gay people are always asking to be equal, have rights for same sex marriage and the benefits of marriage.. but still have the right for special treatment like this school. I’m all for the equlity bits (not sure how I feel about the marriage though), but let’s make equal actually mean equal, ok?

Just as every spring for the last few years there seem to be news articles about students at high schools having seperate proms. Whenever a minority group does this, it’s applauded and seen as “celebrating their culture” or some other PC reason. But if a group that’s at all caucasian tries to have a private dance/prom.. it’s immediately scorned and called racist. Hello?!? Either they’re both racist, or neither is… let’s have a little consistency.

Note (7/29/03 9:30): To clarify about the school in NY, it’s not the school itself that I have as much of a problem with as the fact that it’s being done with public funds. I do still think this “self segregation” is pretty stupid though… especially when the aim is supposedly for equality. However, if people want a school that’s exclusive for a group? Then do it privately, like parochial schools. I love that so many people are against vouchers because it might mean public funds going to a religious school… but discriminating using public funds this way is ok… uh huh. That makes perfect sense…

Update (7/29 11:30): Don’t know how I did it, but I’d copied the wrong URL the first time.. it’s fixed now.

Hey… a test that I actually kind of agree with June 26, 2003 at 11:56 pm

Well, according to the lastest “test” at bbspot, for which OS you’re most like… I’m Slackware Linux.

You are Slackware Linux. You are the brightest among your peers, but are often mistaken as insane.  Your elegant solutions to problems often take a little longer, but require much less effort to complete.
Which OS are You?

I don’t consider myself brighter then the people I work with though… everyone in the group is damn smart.

Morons… March 22, 2003 at 9:28 am

This and this are just signs of complete sutpidity. I’ve got a few points for these protesters:
– While you have the right to protest, this is going over the line.. you do not have the right to block streets, vandalize, etc.
– These actions are not going to win people over to your point of view, you fucking twits. On the contrary, you’re likely to piss of people, and probably push a few that were on the fence onto the other side.
– I hope the cities you’re doing these things in charge you for the emergency services you tied up due to these moronic acts (like the Firemen who had to cut the pipes so the people handcuffed to it could be arressted).

Here are some gems from the articles:

“We don’t want to alienate people. I hope people realize that political murder merits action that inconveniences them,”

Hey.. guess what? That’s all you’re doing.. alienating people. Stupid!

“You suck,” yelled Larry Chu, stuck in his car outside the Transamerica Pyramid. “Why don’t you all go to North Korea and do this?”

I’m with you Mr. Chu. I’d have leaned on my horn and shouted at these people non-stop if I’d been stuck because of idiots like this.

“Now, at a time of war, these people out here protesting are behaving like traitors,” said Russian immigrant Alexander Gosen. He spent the morning at Franklin and Fell streets waving a sign reading “Viva Bush” on one side and “Go to hell, peaceniks” on the other. “They should all be arrested. They don’t know what it’s like to live under a tyrant.”

I find it sadly ironic that it takes someone who immigrated here to say something like this that I think makes a damn good point.

A band calling itself “Pukers for Peace” vomited on the steps of the Federal Building.

We’ll see how smug they feel if they keep that up and burn a hole in their esophagus. Yes.. you can do that.. look it up.

“This is a great education for our kids,” he said as he explained the protests to his 9-year-old son, Brandon. “It’s like we’re watching the news as it happens. There’s nothing like this in Phoenix.”

Yep, must be one hell of a lesson on how San Francisco is full of a bunch of loonies.

At leasthere’s we have some examples of sanity. Police acted swiftly to block loonie protesters from obstructing people this time. There are a few gems in this one too…

“They are definitely more aggressive today,” complained Van Jones, an attorney with the group Bay Area PoliceWatch. “They gave us inadequate time to disperse, and they violated their own department’s policy.”

Uh heh… “boo hoo.. they wouldn’t let us screw around with traffic and businesses today.. *sniff*” Idiot. They were doing their jobs, which plenty of people (including the mayor, who’s against the way himself) asked them to do. There’s no law that says you get x amount of time to screw with others before you’re told to stop. This from a fricking lawyer!

“I feel like they’re tactically keeping us from peaceful assembly,” said Chantal Kovash, an elementary-school teacher from Marin.

Newsflash: Blocking traffic, building entrances, etc.. is not a legal “peaceful assembly” you twit. Note for those that wonder why so many people think the public school system is becoming an indoctrination to liberalism.. here’s a good example. She’s a school teacher!

Police Sgt. Felix Bilbao, working the Bechtel protest, shook his head emphatically when asked if he had urged his men to move faster on the crowds Friday. “I don’t think there’s anything different about what we’re doing today,” he said, as a bus full of arrested protesters was taken away. “Our job is to clear the street, and that’s what we did.”

Right on.. some people appreciate this. I hope they know this.

We’ll see what other stupid things the loonies do as this goes on. And before anyone thinks I’m equating being against the war as being a loonie.. I’m not. I can respect thinking the war is wrong, and I can respect you protesting it if you feel that way. But the people in these articles were not peacefully protesting, they were vandalizing and being public nuisances. There’s a difference.

This just cracks me up… February 3, 2003 at 1:47 pm

Classic:

cnnsucks.jpg

And people wonder why CNN has fallen in popularity lately. Well, here’s a clue: Your people are freaking morons. Not to mention the attempt at looking like MTV-NN on the headline news channel is just annoying as hell.

T minus 5 days and counting… January 21, 2003 at 9:42 am

No, I don’t mean until the Super Bowl.. well, ok, so it’s the same day. This Sunday is my birthday.. and not just any birthday, it’s the big 3-0. Man… 30. Starting to feel old…

Hey.. the cam worked! December 5, 2002 at 2:10 pm

Caught her digging in the yard:
webcam_2002-12-05_094328.jpg

Not sure why she’s digging.. we’ll have to see if she found another ancient buried rawhide stick in the yard.

The Summer-Cam is online! November 17, 2002 at 6:32 pm

So I’ve got a cheesy webcam setup now… the Summer-Cam.:
webcam_2002-11-17_152533.jpg

It’s simply a cam pointing in my front-yard, and yes, it looks blurry. I wanted to protect it as well as I could so for now it’s in a ziploc bag that’s as sealed as I can get it. 🙂

The software I’m running takes pics at 10 second intervals, and I’m keeping 24 hours worth of pics around.

Elections Suck! October 30, 2002 at 11:50 pm

No, I don’t mean that I don’t like having the power to vote, I just mean that the time before elections in the U.S. sucks ass. It starts a few months before election day, and seems to get exponentially worse as the day approaches…. of course, I’m talking about the ads! All the commercials on TV seem to fit into one of two categories:
1. Ads of the “Candidate A sucks/is stupid/should be in jail…etc.” Then in small type or a quiet whisper, “Paid for by the committee to get candidate B elected”
or
2. Ads of the “I’m here for you… I’ll work my ass off and do my best” type done by people who’s acting skills leave a lot to be desired.. .i.e. you can see through their phony crap from the moment they appear on TV.

One of the worst campaign mottos (for lack of a better word) right now has to be Gray Davis’ “Experience you trust. Values you share.” If Davis’ record is “experience you trust” then what the hell would it take for you to want to fire someone? This guy has done blatent taking of bribes (what else can you call passing things for people immediately after they donate to your political fund?) and blowing some major problems like the power issue. Anyone that votes for him based on his past experience is a bona-fide moron.

Now the values part… while I don’t agree with much of what he stands for, I can at least respect people for voting for him based on them. If you agree with him, then at least that’s a reason to vote for him. But experience… sheesh.

This election has to have the worst choices for governor I’ve ever seen. None is the best for the job, it’s a case of voting for the least horrid candidate. And what’s with all the propositions every year for more money for schools that they promise is really going to only go to the schools this time… even though every other one in every last election that’s passed seems to have either failed to do any good (dumping more money into education isn’t the answer) or didn’t really go to schools like they said. Anyone remember prop MM? That one immediately jumps to mind as there are still signs at local schools touting work due to that one… so why even more money so soon when MM is still in the works?

The school bonds and such always seem to be funded by taxing property (i.e. homeowners). IMNSHO.. if it’s tax that only property owners will pay.. then only property owners should be able to vote on it. Of course the same people that don’t own property and are always immediately for such bonds, are usually the same ones that bitch when their rent/lease is increased. Hello? Why do they think they suddenly have to pay more? It’s because their landlord now has higher taxes to pay (which they voted for) which they’re going to pass onto thei tenents whenever they can… duh! Think next time.

I also wish there was some sort of prerequisite for voting on propositions. There needs to be some way to determine that people actually understand what voting for or against actually means before they can vote on it.. too many people seem to have no clue what a proposition actually means, but will vote one way or the other based on what someone told them, or because that’s what someone on TV told them to do. I know that personally, if I dont understand a prop… I don’t vote on it! I’d rather not have a vote count toward or against a proposition that I don’t understand (thereby voting “neither”) then vote for/against something when I don’t even know what that vote means.

Lastly… exercise your right, and get out there on election day! If you don’t vote, then STFU! Don’t go out and vote? Then you have no right to complain!

Finally October 27, 2002 at 2:12 pm

So the site is back online after being down for a couple days… and I decided to switch to MovableType too.

I learned a few things:
1. Don’t try using the gcc 3.x sse and 3dnow [Ed: That’s see,387.. not sse,3dnow.. oops] fpmath extensions… of course the docs mention this, but I didn’t bother reading that first.
2. Really don’t use those options when building something that’s kind of important… like, say.. glibc. D’oh!

Anyway, I don’t know how often I’ll update the ramblings posted here, but I do like this software a lot more then phpwebsite.

Can people really be this dumb? July 2, 2002 at 6:03 pm

Another repost… this time from July 2nd, 2002

The following occurred a few months ago while I was purchasing a few movies and some software at Fry’s Electronics:

First warning sign

After waiting in line for a few short minutes, I moved to a cashier and placed my pending purchases on the counter. The helpful clerk scanned in the items and told me the total. She then ran my debit card, and then had a puzzled look on her face. She asked the clerk next to her for help, who told her that her computer had frozen. He suggested she reboot it… which she didn’t know how to do. After rebooting, it allowed her to scan the items in again…. and again froze when trying to process the card. After another 2 trys, it wouldn’t even reboot, and all of the cashiers were reporting the same problem. At this point, I probably should’ve just left.

She’s got a calulator and sample sheet… this should be easy, right?

Now that the floor manager realizes the worst has happened and that the computers are down (God NO!) everyone goes into what we’ll call Manual mode. In manual, every cashier is given a small pouch which contains a carboned ledger, photocopied sample sheet, and a tiny calculator.

Thinking this can’t be hard, as she’s got instructions, I decide to wait it out and get my merchandise. I know I’m in trouble when she can’t even start filling out the ledger, nevermind it has nice labels and she’s got that little “cheat sheet” to go along with it. I actually started showing her what to do… which went ok for a few minutes, but she kept writing the prices and amounts on the wrong lines (i.e. she wrote three lines of the items, then the prices all shifted down a row… so they didn’t line up).

Uh oh! Math’s involved now!

Next came time to add up the prices. The items I’d bought were priced (IIRC) $24.99, $16,99, $14.99 and $9.99. I quickly added up in my head (25+17+15+10 is 67, minus 4 cents is $66.96) a total… granted, I’m probably a little better at math then the average person, but this isn’t rocket science here. She proceeds to add up the totals on a scratch piece of paper (yes… she ignored the calculator in her hand) and came up with something like $66.82. I corrected her, and had to explain about 5 times what the proper price was… which she finally agreed on. She actually corrected it once… and was still wrong.

Now it was time to add on tax! Woah.. we were in real trouble now. She had absolutely no idea how to start this. I told her, “just multiply the total by .0775 to get the tax..” and she looked like the proverbial deer in the headlights. The helpful clerk next to her (who’d already completed a full transaction during this time) explained it to her as well… it was at that moment that the computers suddenly came back up. Even though we were about 95% of the way through the transaction… she did it all over from scratch in the computer (although I’m willing to bet it was faster that way).

Conclusion… or whatever.

My question is this: How can someone with such a complete lack of basic math/money skills function in today’s society? Even worse, why the hell was she hired on as a cashier? What really scared me was that maybe 3 clerks were able to complete a transaction in the 15 or so minutes the computers were down (yeah… I should’ve left… or just filled out the damn ledger myself).

I’ll admit I’m biased… I used to work at the SD Zoo way back when.. and ran snack carts several times. We’re talking no register: only a crappy calculator with sticky keys and a bag of money. I used to be able to do $1200 of business in a day have less then a dollar discrepency… which I guess was unheard of as I was immediately labeled the “cart dude” after the first time I did it. Man, if I’d only known… 😉