Wow, I can’t remember the last time I was as busy as I’ve been the last couple weeks.
I just moved to a new apartment yesterday. I have class tonight. I also have homework due for this class tonight. I had to take a midterm online earlier this week (I did it Tuesday after work). I had a group project assignment due last Sunday. Oh, and I had to work Saturday morning and I had to take an accounting midterm (closed book/notes) last week Thursday. Oh, and I forgot to mention the bowling banquet last Friday. Did I say that bowling was finished? No? Bowling is finished! YAY! At least that time period (Friday evening) is now freed up in my schedule. Of course, tomorrow I have a group project meeting after work. Le sigh!
Anyway, with work, school, bowling and moving, I haven’t really had any free time. In fact, I’ve had negative free time, since I took time off of work to accomplish moving tasks. I haven’t even WoWed in over a week!
Anyway, I’m moved into my new place, but I have a lot to do yet. Things to buy, things to unpack and arrange, etc. The fun never ends! More on the new place to come…
(Pretend this was posted yesterday, 5/1/2008. I was too busy to finish this when I started it and had to come back to it the next morning. WordPress used to allow you to change the date of a post, but I don’t see that option any more.)
“Is that an earthquake? No, it’s Rrrrramone!” Actually, no… it really was an earthquake. I felt my first earthquake ever last night! It was a bit surreal. I honestly thought I had dreamed it until I got to work and someone else asked if I had felt the earthquake. So I looked it up, and sho’ nuff, there was a magnitude 5.2 quake in southern Illinois, more than 200 miles away from here. I woke up around 4:40am. . it felt a bit like someone jumping on my bed next to me. Very odd. I’m not sure how long it lasted. . . maybe 10 seconds or so.
This quake apparently occurred along the New Madrid fault line, which was also responsible for one of the largest earthquakes ever recorded in the contiguous US, in 1812. There were no measurements then, but experts estimate it was around a magnitude 8.0.
There was also an earthquake in the central Illnois area somewhere in the 3-4 years ago range. I remember hearing about it, but I slept through it that time. Some family in Madison, WI said they felt it.
If I’m going to live in an earthquake zone, I should just move to California where at least there is better weather!
This poor person ended up paying $106 for three $13 tickets to Three Doors Down.
The charges aren’t all from Ticketmaster though. The “facility charge” is apparently levied by the concert organizers to recoup their cost of using the venue. That sure sounds like it should be something that is included in the face value of the ticket price. All of these fees are tacked on afterward to make the tickets sound cheap until you’re ready to check out. Bait & switch? It’s borderline fraud and Ticketmaster is the worst offender, though they’re hardly the only one. The whole live performance (concerts, theater, sports) ticketing is a real racket. Everyone has their hands in the pot and in the end the consumer gets screwed over every which way you can imagine.
First there’s the weather. Winter is still trying to hang on and Spring is trying to take over, resulting in alternating warm and cold weather and lots of dampness. It fucks with your mind (and sinuses). Just get on with the full-blown Spring weather already (which is not really very desirable either, but it’s better than Winter).
Then there’s fucking March Madness. It’s well named, because it’s insane. Suddenly everyone gives a shit about all these college basketball teams and everyone is filling out their fucking brackets and bragging about being in the lead or correctly predicting some upset. Who the fuck cares? It’s basketball, one of the most boring sports to watch on God’s green earth. Dribble dribble pass dribble dribble shoot miss rebound pass shoot SCORE rebound dribble dribble pass dribble dribble dribble oops foul! free throw SCORE rebound dribble dribble. . . .at this point saliva is dribbling down my chin, since I’m comatose with boredom.
At least it’s almost over. But unfortunately something even worse is taking its place. Today is the Cubs home opener (assuming it’s not rained out). Fuck the Cubs! I used to live a couple blocks from Wrigley, and I learned my lesson. I will not do that again. But even now, though I live more than 2 miles away, the Cubs negatively impact my quality of life. For one thing, whenever there’s a home game it affects traffic on most of the north side. Backups occur on city streets miles from the ballpark. This means it inevitably takes me longer to get where I want to go (often just home from work). Not only that, but I have to deal with the idiots going to night games on the train when I’m trying to get home from work. They’re loud, they travel in large packs and they’re not versed in train etiquette. And don’t even get me started on Cubs/White Sox games.
This took me several minutes to figure out this morning, and it was frustrating me to no end. I figure as a technology person, this should have been easy, but it was not.
So you want to send an SMS text to a recipient not in your address book on your Blackberry Pearl 8100. Maybe you’re texting in a vote for some reality show or you see some SMS number on a billboard or whatever. What do you do? Here it is! (Note BB Pearl software versions may vary. This works for me today on my T-Mobile 8100.)
From Messages, click the Blackberry softkey and select Compose SMS Text.
You will be taken to an instance of your Address Book. (Depending on what is in focus in your Address Book, this step may or may not seem obvious.) Scroll all the way to the top, and select the “[Use Once]” entry.
Type in a phone number on the One Time SMS Text screen.
Click the trackball.
Enter your text message and send as usual.
The problem is in step 2, it’s not obvious what to do. I had some entry halfway down the Address Book in focus at the time. Trying to type in a number results in doing an Address Book search. Only if you’re already at the top of the A.B. does the “[Use Once]” jump out at you. I did a google search on this and didn’t come up with any clear instructions, though a couple people asked the question. So I’m providing this in hopes that it helps someone else figure this out. I wish Blackberry would have made this a bit more intuitive.
Prozac, the bestselling antidepressant taken by 40 million people worldwide, does not work and nor do similar drugs in the same class, according to a major review released today.
The study examined all available data on the drugs, including results from clinical trials that the manufacturers chose not to publish at the time. The trials compared the effect on patients taking the drugs with those given a placebo or sugar pill.
When all the data was pulled together, it appeared that patients had improved - but those on placebo improved just as much as those on the drugs.
What the fuck is with this winter? I am cannot remember one that has been more miserable. It seems like we’ve had more snow, more rain and more bitterly cold days than any winter in a long time. I wouldn’t expect to get all three of those in the same winter, but somehow we have. It was 5 degrees during my commute home last night, and about 3 on my way to work this morning. I recall one day last week when I went to lunch and thought “Wow, it got warm!” When I got back to my desk I checked the temperature. It was 17. How fucking sad is that? It had been so damn cold that 17 felt warm to me.
So just go the fuck away already, winter. I’m so over you. I can’t wait to move on to spring.
P.S. Fuck you, CTA, for your delayed train this morning and your over-crowded, piece of shit* buses every damn day.
*I was on a relatively new bus yesterday, and the driver had to get off the bus several times to go push the back doors closed. This is only one example of many.
If you are in Alabama, Alaska, American Samoa (they can vote?), Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Kansas, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Missouri, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Tennessee or Utah then tomorrow is Primary (or caucus) day for you. Please be sure to vote. This is one of the most important (and, in my humble opinion, interesting) elections of our time.
I’d prefer if you voted for Obama, but even if you vote for someone else the important thing is voting. I think it’s a responsibility as well as a right.
There are a couple reasons, actually. One is that I think that McCain may be easier for a Democrat to beat in the general election. Why do I think this? He doesn’t really have the support of the conservative base of the Republican party. Witness these emails posted on a conservative blog, with people saying that if McCain is the nominee they will abstain (or possibly do a write-in). This can only help us Democrats, and it’s wonderful news. As the author of the blog post points out, some of these people will probably change their mind. . . but not all of them. Unless the Republicans can think of another way of increasing conservative voter turnout, like they did with anti-gay ballot measures in the past, they may be in trouble.
Another reason I’m pulling for McCain is that he is far less odious than Romney. He seems like more of a straight-shooter. Has he ever changed his position on something? Sure he has. And I think any politician that’s never changed their mind should be tossed out on their ass. No one has the right answer the first time every time. Admitting you were wrong and changing your position–when it’s warranted–is worthy of admiration, not derision.
Now Romney, on the other hand . . . I don’t trust him or his hair as far as I can throw either of them. Someone once said that you didn’t know Romney’s position on an issue until you saw the crowd he was speaking to. (If I find the source of the quote later, I’ll add it.) Flipflop. Flipflop. Flip . . . you get the point. Either this poor guy just can’t make up his mind about anything, or he’s an opportunist that tries to have it both ways. I’m betting it’s the latter. Frankly it mystifies me a bit why Republicans are buying into Romney’s purported conservative credentials, when most of them seem to be forged.
McCain, though misguided in many of his positions, seems like the more honorable and trustworthy person.
“Is that an earthquake? No, it’s Rrrrramone!” Actually, no… it really was an earthquake. I felt my first earthquake ever last night! It was a bit surreal. I honestly thought I had dreamed it until I got to work and someone else asked if I had felt the earthquake. So I looked it up, and sho’ nuff, there was a 
First there’s the weather. Winter is still trying to hang on and Spring is trying to take over, resulting in alternating warm and cold weather and lots of dampness. It fucks with your mind (and sinuses). Just get on with the full-blown Spring weather already (which is not really very desirable either, but it’s better than Winter).
