Saturday, April 30, 2011

Friday, April 29, 2011

I have "issues".

1. Last night Mr S. says to me - hey, do you remember that guy that broke up with me over the Iraq war?

Me - That guy who told you to fuck off? Hell yeah I remember that guy.

Mr S. - Well I got a linkedin request from him. And, he didn't tell me to fuck off.

Me - What did he say then?

Mr S. - Well, he said to never email him again.

Me - That is just as good as telling you to fuck off. Wow, he has a lot of balls clicking that button to be linked up to you. I take a request like that quite literally.

Mr S. - Well, it was like seven years ago.

Me - Yeah, but he didn't say - don't mail me for seven years. He said don't ever email me again. Now he is scrounging around your contacts? I would have told that guy to eff off.

But I can tell Mr S. doesn't want to do that because they were buddies for a really long time. I have super tardly people I know. So I can understand his resistance. Still, would you add them, or tell them to fuck off?

2. Why is it so hard for people to step out of the way for a second to let faster traffic pass?

I am in the supermarket today picking up salad for lunch. Don't laugh. Those super Safeway's are pretty awesome. At any rate, he was taking up the whole exit, so I squeezed my body sideways to fit though a tiny sliver on the side of him. I wasn't even my normal supermarket surly self. If you want to see me rage out, send me to a supermarket. I hate everything about them. The way women shop. Bleh. I could go on, but it's getting me off track.

As I get past him I hear his wife say something like - honey look out. His reply? Well they can just slow down. Not - sorry I'm in your way.

If it was just this one guy I'd brush it off, but it seems like everyone feels like they are the speed police these days. No one can go any faster than what they are doing. And I just want to punch them all in the neck.

3. Do people not say thank you for holding the door open for them now? Especially men! Women do it too, but men are horrible about this.

Is it just they felt unappreciated all those decades holding doors open for women and not getting a kind word, that they've started to rebel? If so - Eff them! Especially when you go out of your way to hold a door open for someone and they just walk through without even a word.

Thursday, April 28, 2011

Jingle mail is so 2008.

Over the last couple of years I've started shying away from talking to people I know about the housing market. The stories are just too devastating. It isn't that you don't want to know - but you know that it's a sensitive situation and you let people talk to you in their own time.

However, the stuff I heard today - really made my jaw drop. You see, I know a lot of people who have lost houses. In the beginning, people would mail their keys back and let the banks short sale it or do whatever. I know two people who did that. One is living in my crapshack.

This new group of defaulter though, has dug in. Yeah, we've all heard stories of people not paying their mortgage for years. The new group has been paying attention to this. This is the story as it was relayed to me by a childhood friend.

Her friend had stopped paying her mortgage. The house went into foreclosure. It was up for auction at the courthouse. For some reason the auction got canceled that day. The friend scraped together enough money to file bankruptcy before the house was up for auction again. And now the bank can't do anything. It's been three years since she has paid any money for the house she is living in.

Separate friend. Filed for a mortgage restructuring. The bank denied it. She moved out of the house and the house has been vacant for a year. She just got a letter in the mail saying the bank was reconsidering her loan mod.

Now I don't approve of any of this. I understand getting into trouble. And I hate the banks as much as almost anyone. But, this kind of stuff just holds us all hostage.

I mean.. fuck! Why do people think banks aren't loaning money.

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

One wonders how much our nation can take.

http://www.cbs42.com/content/video/live.aspx

I've never seen weather people be so completely speachless.
Mr S's idea for a SciFi movie. Owligator.

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

It is not a social experiment if it's complete bullshit.

There was a couple of topics that came up over the weekend that I wanted to talk about. One of them is about that Washington teenager who faked her pregnancy to show what assholes people can be when it comes to stereotypes and teen pregnancy. Oh so brave. Hurp.

See how inspiring she is?!

"Gaby plans to present her findings to community leaders to help other young women fight stereotypes and find the same quality she discovered along the way -- courage. " Read the rest of the story here.

You know.. when that "Teen Mom" show came out - I watched from a distance. I didn't need to watch the show - but I watched all the media around them. Honestly that show messed with my head for a second.

You see - I am the product of a teen mom. Not a 17 year old teen mom. A teen mom who was a month shy of being 14.

When that show first came out, I thought - wow, times have really changed for teen mothers. I mean these kids didn't seem to have any of the negative consequences I had become familiar with.

In my mothers generation, teen pregnancy did ruin your life. You didn't get to stay in school. Hell, in my grandmothers generation (who was also a teen mom) they "sent you away". Then you came back - not pregnant. So, just being a dropout was an improvement.

Still, being a drop out meant you were pretty much assured life in poverty. Are there exceptions. Sure. But for the vast majority - poverty is the reality.

You didn't get a working skill set. You were taking care of a kid. You didn't create a career and support yourself. The government helped out. Sure, maybe when the kid was old enough you went back to school - but you never were able to advance in any real way because a giant segment was missing from your work history. And what did it matter anyway, because you didn't even finish high school in most cases.

This is the reality of what teen pregnancy used to be.

Kids from these single mothers are at an obvious disadvantage. School is typically not as important in these types of families. Often they repeat what their family history is.

So it bugs the crap out of me that people are taking about how brave this Washington girl is about exposing stereotypes of teen mothers. Which is the most useless social experiment I've ever seen. You want to know what useful social experiments are? Trying finding out what life was like from someone who actually grew up with a barely teen mother. Those kids don't have a choice. Those kids are going to find most things in life harder because of who their parents were. Their families are completely dysfunctional.

This "social experiment" was basically the modern day equivalent to carrying around a hard boiled egg that was called bad names.

So...... brave I tell you. So brave. Not. There should a social stigma to furthering this cycle.

Monday, April 25, 2011

Easter for Athiests.



Home made BBQ sauce, and ribs.



6 ounces of tomato paste.
2 cups brown sugar.
1 cup stone ground mustard.
1 cup catchup.
1/2 cup soy sauce. I use low salt.
1/4 cup vinegar.
1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce.
Fresh garlic. I'll say a shitload. Your mileage may vary.
Honey. ( a bunch)
Whiskey. Canadian preferable. But, whatever makes you happy. Recipe calls for 2 cups. But you can adjust.

Put 80% of the sauce onto ribs. Put in oven for 3 hours or so. When they get close to falling of the bone, put on the grill.

My message to the future.



Sometimes when you break into a project, you don't know if the guy who worked on it before was incompetent - or just didn't have any choice. I understand people not wanting to nuke everything from outer space and starting over. Which is my future plan.

Retrofitting doesn't always go seamlessly. Then you wind up with a klugey hack. Like what I have. Other than ripping it all out - you have little choice.

I didn't think there was a sprinkler system on earth I couldn't easily make more efficient. I was wrong.

Sunday, April 24, 2011

Happy.. er, um.... Spring Break?



Thought the attack on Christmas was ridiculous? Well, now Easter doesn't exist. And you can't call it good Friday either. According to the corporate world.

I don't care what you call your holidays, being an atheist and all. They are all food holidays to me. Still, you people can't get over your petty differences? You'd rather sanitise every holiday rather than embrace them all? Good job assholes.

Saturday, April 23, 2011

Dogs love trucks.



But they love sidecars better!

I've gotten a picture of this chick before. But, she's upgraded bikes. She used to be in a war style sidecar motorcycle.

Friday, April 22, 2011

I vow this blog is going to stop sucking next week. It has been slim, slim pickings on anything interesting for months. It isn't that I have stopped trying. For a minute I thought that maybe everything interesting has already been seen.

The next couple of months should have interesting stuff. I always hate to plug what I have going. Because a lot of the time it sounds more interesting than it turns out to be.

If I'm wrong though and this stuff sucks, the world will have truly died.

Plus, my car sugar is getting low. I even wanted to stop and take a photo of a lambo a few days ago when I had the trench digger. You know I'm bored to death of those. That shows how low my car sugar has gotten. But Mr S. wouldn't let me stop.

Monday, April 18, 2011

This is where you laugh.

You can always tell how brutal a project is - by how bruised I am. And, I am definitely on the crack whore times infinity scale of bruising. I have two hand size patches on both thighs. They used to be dots, but they have all melded into one giant mess. An embarrassing mess actually.

I even told Mr S. - if I have a medical emergency in the middle of the night and you need to call someone. Just tell them I was in a car accident. Otherwise you are going to jail.

Stump grinding? Mark it off the list. That is the shittiest job ever.

Then I had to wade through the shipwrecks of previous sprinkler projects. I had to cut some trenches and kept running into pipes. Only half the pipes didn't do anything. The guys who ran the system before dug a trench then laid four lines. And of course I got all frustrated one day about a month ago and went all hulk and broke the one on the bottom of the pile. Which has been the biggest bitch ever to fix.

Sunday, April 17, 2011

I have never hated sprinkler guys more than I do now in my whole life.

Saturday, April 16, 2011

Stump grinding: definitely something you should pay to have done. Cause that sucks ass.

Friday, April 15, 2011

I have no thoughts.



Taxes vaporised all of them. But hey - the LaRouchies were at my local post office. They'd come out from San Fransisco. Kind of unusal. First.. how did they even know my town existed? And second.. how did they know my town existed? We are a little off the beaten path.

Thursday, April 14, 2011

One exclamation or two?



I am probably an outlier, but I think gas never hits 5 bucks a gallon. Excepting spikes for hurricanes. You will see a complete collapse of use. 4.50 was max pain in 2008. We aren't any richer than we were in 2008.

Diesel is already approaching 5 bucks a gallon.

Of course - there are still a few countries we aren't having a conflict with. So I guess it's any ones game.
Good news: gas prices are so high, there is barely anyone on the road. Bad news: the ones who remain are going well below the speed limit. And - I want to solidly punch them in the neck.

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Obama sends love letter to wall street and banks.

The market reaction to the presidents speech was fascinating. Said in the most sarcastic way.

Wall street guys and banks are some of the most socialist people on the planet. They couldn't be happier to have a president who is willing to redistribute wealth. To their benefit. It's the most un-level playing field I've ever seen.

With a wink and a nod PMB tells them - look, I'm gonna make it seem like I'm sticking it to you. But you are too big to fail, so we know that is all bullshit.

Anyone notice the Libor has been falling for weeks? And why wouldn't it? There is no downside risk.

It is just the most frustrating thing in the world. I am the type of person the administration should be courting. All I dream about most of the time is buying the shittiest crapshack and making it a place someone would want to live.

If I had a million dollars in cash - which would buy me three houses in my area. I can't find one reason I would want to buy a house. Not one. This is accounting for inflation and everything.

Even taking into account rents have increased 10-20% in my area in the last couple of months. It just isn't worth it.

My whole life, construction has been a large viable part of the economy. Now a house should not be an investment? Effing ridiculous. Houses are the way that most people accumulate wealth. Since forever.

People don't hit it rich in the stock market. They don't have rich parents. They buy a house and sit on it, and they become more wealthy in the long run. They also buy houses for other people to sit in. Since not everyone can afford a house nor wants to own one. It's just the way the world works.

Or used to work.

All I know is wallets everywhere slammed shut today.

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Qaddafi is playing PMB like a chump. Right? Or he too crazy to know the longer this goes on, the more pissed O's base gets.

Monday, April 11, 2011

Left says Obama is a racist. Almost.

I don't know how else you would interpret all the "racist war" talking points. I mean, they are calling President Money Bags a racist, without actually saying the words.

Awkwaaaaaaaaard.

And notice how all of a sudden they are bent with GE. It's the first time I've seen a call for a boycott. Didn't Glenn Beck do that?

Old white people protest Obama. It isn't the tea party - so who cares?

I thought some of you might find it interesting what the left is up to. There haven't been many of these since Obama took office.



International Answer finally comes out about an Obama war. They have been noticeably absent at a lot of the other protests I've been at.



Even the Animal Liberation Front showed up at this one. A pretty rare sighting. At least for me.



This guy must have been stuck in a time warp. He knows we have a different president. Right? Plus the fact that he looks liked he just walked out of a touring car, made me laugh. He probably has a jag with three Obama hope stickers on it.



Standard protest fare. Che always turns up at these things.



Make out. Not war. I thought it was sort of cute. Still... old white guy.



What the eff is this? A group I'd never heard of before.



This guy was on stilts, but became not stilty when he learned they weren't going to march for 45 minutes. Slacker.





Code pink was there en mass. I was convinced Medea Benjamin was there. All of her other code pinkers were there. And I still think the above picture is her. Even though she wasn't dressed in pink. She was also sitting slightly away from the code pink group. Compare here.

Sunday, April 10, 2011

Friday, April 08, 2011

When I get stressed I close down. I'm sure you know I will be back when I have something interesting.

Tuesday, April 05, 2011

Monday, April 04, 2011

Movies, movies, movies.



Part of that movie "Hemingway & Gellhorn", is being shot in my town. I was hoping to get a shot of Nicole Kidman. By the time I found the site, they were busing the extras off the set. I will try to see if they are still set up tomorrow.

The interesting thing though, was this giant green screen. At first I thought it might act as a curtain. Though it didn't seem to block out much.



Sorry for the sun flare.

Sunday, April 03, 2011

Saturday, April 02, 2011

Look - my boobs are coming through. Like it or not.

The last thing I wanted to do today, was go up to SF. I have so much to do. My back yard project. And taxes.

Still... I hadn't fed you anything interesting lately. So I trudged up to the city. Because I am a giver. Say it!



Immediately I noticed things were different. Barely anyone was dressed up. Not like the previous years. I don't know if things went super nova last year and burned itself out. It was so crowded. Here.

This year I decided I wasn't going to put up with all of that. And I was going to be uncharacteristically pushy. Not in a mean way. But you have to understand how geeks work! They see something shiny and they just stop in their tracks and drool. They can't move.

You know what makes them move? BOOBS! And, not even exposed ones.

Things are normally so crowded - you leave behind all of your personal space. The previous years I left feeling a little groped. Well maybe groped is dramatic. It isn't like they were doing a full hand cup. Maybe a full elbow. And whatever.

This year I decided I was going to shove my chest out and push my way through. With my boobs. And almighty gawd - it worked!

Sure, half of wondercon felt my boobs. Knowingly or not. But not one person got even the slightest upset with me. So if you hear anyone bitching about that chick elbowing her way through the crowd with her boobs. That was me.





Sara Underwood from Attack of the Show.

Friday, April 01, 2011

Cherries are assholes.



Cherries have to be my most favorite thing in the world. And, no one plants cherries here anymore. "The Valley" used to be filled with cherry orchards.

Some say that evil capitalism came in and destroyed the orchards. Ta da, Silicon Valley was born.

The truth is - cherry trees are almost as worthless as owning a panda. They are super neat until the tiniest rain comes in a screws your whole year.

Why do we even have these things that can't reproduce on their own? Even the tear that falls from your eye, after loosing the entire crop - will destroy the next years crop. Just out of spite. Assholes.

Two years ago, a little rain split the whole set crop. Then last year, rain made all the blossoms fall off. Now I'm forecasted the tiniest of rain, and I'm gonna have to put a raincoat on this tree.

Assholes.