Friday, December 30, 2016

Nothing interesting, but it's ~something~.

I had to get all my outside stuff done today before the rain. Pre, pre, prepping the garden. It's been rainy so I had to knock down some weeds. I didn't do a garden the last two years because we were in a savage drought. Even last year I started to get worried we might all die.  The ground was just too deep down dry to plant anything. So this year I'm having a freaking garden.

Then next week I guess it's going to get crazy cold.  Thursday the high is only suppose to be 44 degrees! I wish I though that being in Vegas I'd escape that but I think that takes me closer to the polar plunge.

The end

Thursday, December 29, 2016

Wednesday, December 28, 2016

Is the madness beginning to end?

I've been trying to stay out of the news cycle, but I did hear that Sprint is bringing jobs back to the USA. Which I had to laugh about. You see, a few months ago I starting posting about how Trump knew he didn't really have to threaten companies to stay in the US. It was my firm belief that companies were already dieing to come back before Trump was even on the radar.

If an administration stopped being so rough on them they would come back in a heart beat. Trump could act like he was a tough guy, but these guys wanted to come back more than anything in the world anyway. Outsourcing was killing them. Trump would win without having to do almost anything. Can you imagine how bad you have to make conditions that it's less expensive to ship your products from another country into your own country? I was talking to a guy a few months ago who made radio controlled Caterpillar.  You know - the earth movers. Not the tiny bugs. Which I thought was sort of meh at first. But when he started talking to me about all the regulations companies have to go through - it's no wonder why all of a sudden you don't want a guy getting his insides jigged every day. Your going to make it so a guy holds a video game controller instead. He told me that just to turn on one of those machines you need a 10,000 dollar permit for clean air rules. For each machine!

I mean this outsourcing experiment has reached it's natural end. I don't believe outsourcing saved companies that much money. Customer support outsourcing basically killed Dell. They were one of the top computer makers and then they outsourced tech support.  They soon fell of a cliff. They never ever recovered from that and then the recession hit.

For a little while at Comcast the Indian tech support dudes figured out they could just drop calls and their numbers would look good, but I'm sure Comcast call volume went through the roof. I bet there are tons of these stories. I mean, everyone used to have an Indian tech support story. Right? And then on the manufacturing side if you aren't big that is just lunacy. The stories I hear out of startups.

All Trump needed to do was to act sorta tough on a couple of people and all the sheep come prancing home. Google it. It is funny to watch though.

Yes - this was someone's job.



I'm gonna be honest - I was going to handicap shame this Audi. Not post his licence plate or anything, but a handicap placard on your Ferrari seems to be the latest status symbol at Santana Row and I think it's kinda funny.

It's the weirdest mall. It's not in a swank part of San Jose or anything. It's in a completely average part of San Jose. But the mall is hugely upscale. It's the kind of place that you often run across a car like this (Audi R8) and people don't even really notice.

So anyway. I saw this guy pull into the spot and wanted to see if he really did look like he needed the special parking. I don't really care that much, but I do think it's a weird trend right now. He initially pulled into a different handicapped spot that was decidedly less well lit. I was taking pictures of the car when he came back and decided to move it into a more protected spot. It is an R8 after all. As he opened the door - I noticed that it projected the word quattro onto the ground. For no apparent reason at all! And that is completely bad ass.

I think this mall could stop all this fake handicap parking shit by just making a Ferrari zone. It seriously is the only mall I've seen that pulls in crazy cars like that. Not even Walnut Creek has so many consistently fancy cars. . Tesla has a whole area for their cars at this mall. All the rich people want is not not get dinged by us average cars. And close up parking - I guess. Cause they're rich. And I don't really care one way or the other because his effing door lights up the ground with the word quattro. Let him park right up front for effs sakes.



Tuesday, December 27, 2016

Okay, I think I'm going to start unthawing this blog.

I think I lost my way in 2016. The whole year just felt like sandpaper. So I just needed some time to regroup. A lot of time. People don't understand how much pressure blogging puts on you. It's super hard to find something interesting to blog about every single day.

I don't know what you will get for the next few days - but at the very least, CES starts next week and this blog will come alive. I predict it's going to be packed with a ton of unnecessary AI.


Tuesday, December 20, 2016

Christmas Stories.



My city has one of those light shows that draws the whole town. The closer it gets to Christmas the crazier that neighborhood gets. It's just a crush of people. In previous years when I've talked about it, I've always laughed that the lights had to be a disclosure item when you buy a house in that neighborhood.

This year when we were leaving one of the neighbors had their garage open and was watching the forming crowds and I shouted - how do you like living here this time of year? He started to walk towards me. I continued - I always laugh because that has to be a disclosure item. Right? He laughs and says - the number 1 disclosure item. I'm like - really!

We talked to him for a little while because that neighborhood has funny stories to tell. I guess the city actually accommodated him with two power lines to his house to power all that stuff. He said sometimes you can hear the lines vibrating. The other funny thing he said was that if you come the day after Christmas you can get all the photos you want because on the 26th no ones comes. People are OVER it.

I just think the thought of someone getting a real estate contract and seeing that as your number one disclosure item is really funny. On one hand you are like - what the hell. I mean, if your signing in June maybe you don't notice. But by Christmas you can see this from 10 blocks away. But honestly if I light show is the worst of your problems......

I guess the market only goes up.

If you thought Trump was going to lower capital gains rates - why would you sell this year?

I bet they get the best presents.



This way Santa knows what he's going to get with his cookies instead of milk. I think the champagne glass is a new addition. I'm kinda excited to see how far they take this. Santa might spend all night in that one block of houses. Just say'in.







Friday, December 16, 2016

Boy, the whole Obama administration is a mad that doesn't wash off very quickly. Right?  But I'm sure we will get to enjoy it for years to come. Said in the most sarcastic way. Obama has left us a million turds to uncover.

Down, but not out.

December is when the grind that is blogging comes to a head. Blogging is hard enough to be entertaining, but add in a stagnating economy and well - when December gets here I just want to say eff it and take all my weekends back.

It's a lot easier in January to be a clown for your entertainment is all I'm saying. December is definitely funky town though.

Wednesday, December 14, 2016

Sunday, December 11, 2016

I don't care. I'm posting them anyway.



Normally I try to only give you stuff in focus, but I'm suffering from a lack in moral. Normal winter is really getting to me. I can't remember when I last saw the sun.  Californians are allowed to bitch about the rain again right?  The last few years it was kinda sacrilege to complain about rain. But I'm here to cry uncle. Anyway.....

Lacy started doing this about a week ago. But she only does it in the morning and she's pretty squirmy and I usually haven't had any coffee yet. So that basically means you get not completely in focus shots. It is super funny though because she has the whole door. But she's just decided to poke her head out. I'll probably post better shots if the sun comes out. Which is definitely not next week. We get a whole new storm system.







Friday, December 09, 2016

This blog always falls off the rails in December. I'm solar powered.

Wednesday, December 07, 2016

Today I give you cyborgs.



I haven't been staying for any of the talks at my shows lately. I've pretty much been in a "get out of my way and show me your toys" sort of mood. But when I saw that Niel Harbisson was going to talk today I decided to make sure I could listen to him talk. I was super curious why someone would want to put an antennae in their brain if they didn't medically need to. I'm sure he' can't go anywhere without people looking at him. That would drive me crazy.

Apparently he was born color blind and set out to find a way he could experience color. He chose sound as a medium. So - basically he sees color through sound. Which I can't say would be my favorite way. The whole thing definitely brings new meaning to the term "that color is loud". He also can see UV and IR spectrum via sound too. I'm not actually sure how it works because my brain was filled with other things. Like it didn't seem as odd in real life as the impression I'd gotten from the internet. Not one person asked how it worked because - sometimes you just don't think of the right questions because something is so unusual. You are trying to resolve a lot of other stuff in your head first.








Monday, December 05, 2016

Few cars make me more miserable.



I don't get why guys love these cars. But things around the Valley are really slow in December because everyone has their heads down trying to get ready for CES. So this is what you get.

Friday, December 02, 2016

This is all everyone else's fault and not my own.

Buyers Remorse? Trump Supporter Was Foreclosed On By Treasury Pick Steve Mnuchin.

I noticed everyone was crying over this woman today. How mistreated she was. People are cutting and pasting the original article to fit their agenda of how she was robbed. This wasn't some old lady how lost her house. This woman was fully surfing in the property bubble. And I know people only read half of any article, but if they had -

"In 1998, she bought a triplex for $248,000 in Hawthorne, California, not too far from Los Angeles International Airport.

She rented out two of the units and lived in the third. Colebrook refinanced her mortgage in order to renovate the property and help buy additional homes to generate rental income. (And how much you want to bet she refi'd it with a no interest loan? Oh wait read the next paragraph)

By the time the financial crisis struck in 2008, she had an interest-only mortgage on the triplex known as a "pick-a-payment" loan. Her monthly payments ran as high as $2,000 and only covered the interest on the debt. Then she got ensnarled in the economic downturn.

"All my tenants lost their jobs in the crash," Colebrook said. "They couldn't pay. It was a knock-on effect.""

Empahsis mine. This woman was flying too close to the sun and messed up. She has no one but herself to blame. She took extreme risk and lost.

Thursday, December 01, 2016

Obama tried so hard to make us CUBA.

As I tried to get my antibiotic prescription filled today I am totally dumbfounded how this administration makes things that used to be "no big deal" into a major effing production.

So, I drove the 17 miles to the pharmacy. In traffic that is almost 40 minutes. It then takes them 40 minutes to compound the medicine. I.e. add flavoring. Why? I'm not sure. So I either need to wait the 40 minutes to let them do whatever it is they have to do. Or come back. Luckily they had a drug shuttle to the store that is near me which will not put flavoring in antibiotics apparently. But at least I only need to go one town over now to pick it up. All this crap toasted my afternoon. And I still don't have my prescription. If my girl was really sick I would be flaming out right now.

I used to just walk into the vet and boom- antibiotics. Now.... pound sand. The rest of your day is toast.

It's so frustrating how far the grubby hands of government reaches into your life.

So - I took my girl Lacy to the vet today because she has the sniffles a little bit. Normally you go to the vet and you walk out with antibiotics and you get on with your life.

Now apparently the government doesn't let vets compound their own medicine which they have been doing since the dawn of vet time. The compounding basically is just adding flavoring to the antibiotics to make it so your pet doesn't freak out by the taste.

Now I have to go four cities over to get my effin medicine. There is only once place in my area that does it. I could have it sent by mail apparently, and while this bout of sniffles is not an emergency - usually when a rabbit needs antibiotics - it is a full out emergency. You need to get them on it right away.

If they are sick they could die in a day or two. No exaggeration. Now I have to be anxious about real emergencies and I need to start making some kind of plans to work around that. Vets can be open late. Pharmacies not always so much.

The government could have just made it so the tech who was compounding had a special certification. But no. You just aren't allowed. So Obama.