Hwd Video Sux — but that’s just my subjective opinion.

I was in one of those video stores tonight to return a movie. I rented “Cars” a few days back. I was in the mood for an animated story, and Cars fit the mood.

Took it home to play it, got about 20 minutes or so into the movie and the scene froze. Nothing I could do would make it work. It did have a scratch on the shiny side, but it didn’t look that bad. But apparently that one scratch was enough to bollix up the laser thingie. I went “eh” and figured I’d return it and get a refund.

Turns out Hwd Video, according to the well-trained corporate-ette in the store, will give you only this very special “refund” — they’ll give you a credit which is good ONLY for that specific movie. In other words, they’d give me another copy of Cars.

She explained it to me: “Because otherwise, you could get to watch another movie for free.” Left me gaping. Huh?

Continue reading “Hwd Video Sux — but that’s just my subjective opinion.”

Bumper Snicker

Saw a bumper sticker on a car ahead of me in traffic a day or two back. It said only

1.20.09

Took me a minute, but I finally figured it out and laughed out loud. It’s the date of the end of the House of Bush.

Can’t be too soon.

The Good Stuff

atheist.jpg

If you’re new here, you may not know this about me: I’m an atheist.

Yep. And here’s where you find out why.

A reader on another blog I frequent, Unscrewing the Inscrutable, posted a comment that got me thinking about it:

It does seem to me that most of the people here have some problem with christians and christianity beyond that toward other religions and superstitions. And I am willing to hear if or even why this may be true. […] I’d really like to hear. And it’s ok to be blunt.

My answer was:

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. Continue reading “The Good Stuff”

Just testing.

Still learning how to use all the bells and whistles of WordPress. Wealth At 10 Below 

Here’s a pic of a blue jay I took recently. It’s on my Flickr site, and the thingie I just downloaded allows me to link to those photos and show them here. 

If you click on the pic, it will shoot you over to where the original is. Cool plug-in!

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Day 14 – Too Much Hank

Weighed myself at the gym today, and I’m down about 8 pounds. So I’m losing about four pounds a week. Is that good?

I know I feel different. My workout today really felt good — I powered through it, and upped several of my weights for next session. I can really feel the mass difference in my arms and shoulders. That 8 pounds is 8 pounds even with this increase in muscle mass, so I think I’m down a good 10 pounds, if we’re just counting padding. Continue reading “Day 14 – Too Much Hank”

Dumb as a Post

yoko.jpgAn old cowboy friend used to tell me stories of the time he was hired to teach mule packing to the U.S. Army.

Mule packing” is when you load supplies onto a mule, using ropes, tarps and rigid boxes or special canvas bags, to carry them into roadless wilderness areas. Yeah, it sounds weird that the Army would want soldiers to know such things, but if they’re called upon to conduct quiet operations in remote mountainous or wilderness areas, it might be the only way to take food or weapons along in amounts larger than individual soldiers can carry.

Like a lot of things that sound simple but aren’t, there’s an actual technology to mule packing — keeping the load balanced, limiting the total weight, tying the proper hitches and knots, and even quite a bit of mule psychology. 

 

Continue reading “Dumb as a Post”

Two More Down

mccain.jpgGiuliani out, John Edwards out.

Giuliani wasn’t ever going to get it — he’s not all that popular even here in New York. Despite Fox News’ hammering us day after day with the phrase “America’s Mayor,” he was never suited for the White House. He’ll become CEO of some corporation, and make more millions, and we’ll all be better off.

Still fighting on the GOP side: McCain, Huckabee, Romney and Ron Paul.

Still fighting on the Democrat side: Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.

I wish the Ron Paul camp well. I will always believe that everybody has a right to equal access to the White House, and to equal publicity and consideration if they’re a serious candidate.

I will always disagree, for instance, with those people who say Ralph Nader shouldn’t have run, or that he “helped” George W. Bush get elected. The White House is not some prize that’s intended to go only to the mainstream candidates.

Continue reading “Two More Down”

America, Interrupted

bush.jpgTime Magazine takes Bush’s State of the Union address and details the word frequency.

He used the word “terror” 23 times, but the word “future” only 13, and “hope” only 11.

He used “security” 13 times, but “freedom” only 9.

“Nation” got 24 mentions, but “citizen” only 10.

He spoke of “Iraq” 39 times, but “Afghanistan” only 8.

“Enemy” was important enough to mention 12 times, but “peace” only 8.

“Education” got 4 mentions, but “faith-based” and “holy” each got 3.

The word “science” did not appear.

 …

Followup: A commenter at Pharyngula, Brian W., has pointed out an error in this post:  

Um, Bush DID use the word science.

“On matters of life and science, we must trust in the innovative spirit of medical researchers and empower them to discover new treatments while respecting moral boundaries. ”

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2008/01/20080128-13.html

He also used the words “sciences” and “scientists”.

As I said over there: My bad, Brian. I’m another of those Americans who can no longer bear to hear Bush speak. I used the word list from the Time Magazine site, trusting that it would be complete.