Whines and Rants Archives
As you can probably tell, my HTML skills blow. I just can't seem to catch on. Sure, I'm learning in the most half-assed way possible. And I'm barely doing anything to learn it in the first place. I'm sure my efforts show. One day this might look pretty. One day...
Posted on August 1, 2001 5:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
I've managed to accomplish very little today. I seem to be rather unmotivated lately. Ah well. I did manage to discover that the microphone I bought last night actually DOES work. It's just the microphone jack on my computer at home that doesn't work. Oh well. I'm now on the lookout for a new sound card.
Posted on August 2, 2001 5:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
If anyone was actually reading this, they wouldn't BELIEVE how much anime I've got to watch. And games I have to finish. Lately I've felt that I just haven't had the time, though I'm sure that's not true. I've gotta have at least 20 DVDs to watch and about a dozen games I haven't finished. Blah. I need to become independently wealthy.
Posted on August 3, 2001 3:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
I'm starting to think this was a failed experiment. My life isn't interesting enough to write about, honestly. I think I believed that writing something every day, no matter what it was, would spark some sort of dormant creativity in me. But I don't think it's there. Oh well. Perhaps I should leave this sort of thing to the people that do it well.
Posted on August 6, 2001 11:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
I'm sleepy today. Sleepy sleepy sleepy. I haven't slept well lately. I've half-remembered very bizarre dreams. I should keep a notepad by my bed and write stuff down when I wake up from a dream. But I know I'd probably forget to do it. I think the last one involved people from work. Most people from work don't belong in my dreams. Only a select few are right at home there.
Posted on August 17, 2001 11:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Why am I still up? Why why why? Oh yeah... I'm an idiot. :P
Posted on August 18, 2001 1:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Blah. I've been feeling really lousy lately. Haven't been getting more than 4 or 5 hours of sleep a night. So I ended up going home early yesterday and I slept for about 6 hours, got up for a little while to eat dinner and stuff, then slept for another 7 hours. I still feel exhausted. Some day my body will be nice to me. Some day...
Posted on August 24, 2001 2:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Ack. This pisses me off. Warner's releasing a special edition of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory tomorrow. Because they feel this is a family title, they're releasing it full frame. I guess it's actually open matte, meaning you won't lose any picture, but you'll gain some on the top and bottom, screwing up the framing that was intended. A lot of people wrote in about this. So now Warner's releasing a widescreen edition on November 13th, the day before my birthday. That's all great and happy. The only problem is... it's now too late to cancel my pre-order of the edition coming out tomorrow. Argh! I guess that's one of the problems with pre-ordering... Oh well...
Posted on August 27, 2001 3:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Blah. Blogger's being a pain and not allowing me to fix the problems in my template. I try to save the changes I make and it doesn't save at all. Ah well... I'll fix them eventually.
Posted on September 11, 2001 9:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
I'm left wondering why the local branch of the local community college doesn't have any classes I want to take. Why aren't they catering to me and my interests? What's sad is that other branches actually DO have classes I want to take, but they're a bit too far away for me to drive to as often as I'd have to. Community colleges aren't wonderful, but they're a lot cheaper than real ones. I just want to take photography and Japanese classes, dammit!
Posted on September 20, 2001 1:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Blah. I just got a DVD in the mail. The hub holding the DVD down was completely destroyed. It almost looks like this DVD was returned, re-shrink-wrapped, then sent to me or something. Though I'd think they would've removed the bits of the hub if they'd really done this. There were two security strips under the DVD, holding the DVD up so it didn't scrape against the bottom so much. And the title sticker that's usually on top of the case, holding it closed, was absent. It looks like the scratches are only superficial, so the DVD will hopefully play fine. I'm getting tired of this, though. I've gotten far too many DVDs where the disc has slipped off the hub somehow. I don't know why they couldn't just stick with the CD hub mechanism, since I've had this happen to far fewer CDs. Oh well... I guess that's my rant for the day.
Posted on September 21, 2001 3:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Man... this is REALLY starting to get to me. Last night I get an e-mail from my mom with pictures of my niece from a recent trip my parents apparently made to visit my older brother. Now, my older brother and his family live in Baltimore, which is about an hour's drive away from here. Since I moved down here 5 years ago, my parents have visited me ONCE. Since the baby was born a year ago, they've visited my brother at LEAST a half dozen times. Not once have they suggested that we all get together. Not once have they suggested that we meet somewhere in the middle or something. I know they probably have a short amount of time. And I know I rarely visit my brother, but it always seems like when we do, they'd rather we hadn't. But these are my parents, who I only get to see once a year when I go up for Thanksgiving. It just really gets to me that they don't even consider seeing me while they're in the area.
Posted on September 26, 2001 9:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
O.K. I'm SERIOUSLY considering avoiding beef. Sarah doesn't eat it any more after reading Ruth Ozeki's My Year of Meats, so I end up eating it fairly infrequently. We also don't go to Taco Hell as much any more and I often end up going the chicken route there anyhow, so I don't even eat it there. I also tend to just like turkey burgers better and I usually get ground turkey instead of ground beef. Consequently, it seems like when I DO end up eating beef, I feel a bit ill. Last night, we went to Doc Harry's in Centreville and I had a really amazing steak. Now, maybe I got as sick as I did from it because parts of it weren't cooked nearly as much as I like. Or maybe because I ate a bit too much. But I felt REALLY sick. I guess it could've been a combination of a lot of things, but it makes me a bit wary of beef.
Now, I probably won't go out of my way to avoid it. If sausage has it in it, that's fine (though the turkey kielbasa we've been eating lately has been quite tasty). If I'm suddenly in the mood for a cheeseburger, I'll probably have one. If I decide to get steak, I'll make sure the thing's cooked enough and I'll go easy on it. But I'll probably think twice about getting steak at all. Of all the beefy things in the world, steak seems to bother my tummy the most. Though an undercooked or severely overcooked hamburger does it, too.
Don't get me wrong. I'm not going veggie. I'd never be able to give up chicken or fish. And I don't like enough vegetables to do it. But I can see myself letting beef slip a bit. It's just not worth the gastrointestinal distress.
Honestly, I think this is all Ryan's doing. He probably cursed me using his veggie magic.
Posted on October 2, 2001 10:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Let me relate to you my recent dealings with the happy people at Phish Dry Goods. My brother recently graduated from Boston University with a masters degree. I hadn't gotten him anything because I couldn't think of anything at all that he'd need. However, when he told me about the Live Phish set that was coming out, I decided to get that for him. So I pre-ordered it and had it sent to my parents' P.O. Box. Since I was having it shipped the cheapest way available, I was supposedly allowed to use a P.O. Box.
So... a couple weeks go by and I get a call. Apparently, for items over $50, they ship by UPS only, so I can't use a P.O. Box. I tell the guy that I'll get back to him, since I needed to find an alternate shipping address. I talk to John a couple hours later and get an address and e-mail it to them, since customer service was closed. The next day, I get an e-mail saying that they shipped it to the original address using priority mail. I thought that was great. Yay.
However... a week later, I get a box by UPS from Phish Dry Goods. What's inside? Why, it's the CDs I ordered for John. I check the tracking info and it was shipped FOUR days after they told me it had shipped priority mail. So I write them and ask what's going on, telling them that I gave them a proper address and asking why they lied to me about shipping it priority mail. So they write back and tell me that I should've used a physical address. It was like they hadn't read my letter at all. So I wrote back again.
About a week later, I finally get a reply from them, basically saying the same thing. They tell me that if I want the rest of the order to go to a different address, I need to provide it to them. Well, the physical address I gave them after they asked for it was printed at the bottom of that very e-mail, since I'd quoted my original response from them. Finally this past Friday, they left me e-mail and voice mail saying they fixed the problem and the remainder of the order should go directly to John. With a half-hearted apology and no offer to refund the shipping costs on top of all that. So now I get to ship it to John myself, which is what I was trying to avoid by giving them a different shipping address in the first place.
Now, I understand that they're busy with this release and everything, since fans have been waiting for something like this forever. But to lie to me and ignore me... that's just ridiculous. This is probably the worst case of customer service I've had to deal with recently.
Freakin' hippies.
Posted on October 2, 2001 10:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
I keep forgetting that today's a holiday, since I have to actually be at work today. So there's no mail today, which makes me sad, since I love getting packages and I was expecting at LEAST one, if not more. Ah well...
At least I'm taking a few days off this week. Michael and Jennifer's wedding is on Saturday, so Sarah and I are leaving here Wednesday night to stay with her grandparents for a few days. Sarah's grandparents live about an hour away from where the wedding's taking place, so we'll have a place to stay without having to pay for a hotel. Saving money's good.
Posted on October 8, 2001 1:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Where is my Star Wars Episode I DVD?! It was supposed to come out yesterday. The place I ordered it from says they have over 2900 copies in stock. I pre-ordered it over a month in advance. They still haven't shipped it. Not that I loved the movie as much as I loved the original trilogy, but I wanna see all the extra stuff. Gimme gimme gimme!
Posted on October 17, 2001 10:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
I just realized I hadn't blogged at ALL today. How careless of me!
Today was a rather unproductive day. Mostly because I keep pounding away at this stupid problem I'm having with event reporting under Windows 2000. It's just not cooperating with me and I can't figure out why. Every single thing I've read says I'm doing it right. Grrrrr...
And still no Star Wars DVD.
Posted on October 18, 2001 4:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Well, it seems possible that my immune system is starting to fail me. About an hour ago, I started to really not feel so good. Tenderness in my glands (quiet, you) and a general feeling of yuckiness... Hopefully it's nothing, but I wouldn't count on it. Maybe a nice nap will help. We'll see...
Posted on October 19, 2001 5:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
So I'd been hearing this strange sound coming from the rear of my car for a week or two now. For a while, I only heard this strange knocking when I went over bumps, so I thought it was just something shifting in the trunk, though it sounded a bit different than that. But then I started hearing it as I started the car. I looked around back there and didn't really notice anything. But then yesterday, I got a good look under there in decent light. The little strap holding the muffler in place had snapped. Yay. So I took it to Midas yesterday and was informed that I really should replace the muffler. After having a look at it and seeing how rusted it was, I couldn't help but agree. Unfortunately, this also required replacing a large section of exhaust pipe, too. I can't even begin to tell you how overjoyed this made me. Ah well. Hopefully this'll be the last major car repair for a little while, at least.
Posted on October 24, 2001 9:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Today's going to be one of those days... I can tell already. I've been sleeping like hell, which I'm sure isn't helping any. Oh well. Friday couldn't come soon enough.
Posted on October 24, 2001 9:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Gah. This is the second time that I've had Reblogger screw up on me with silly internal server errors. I guess I wouldn't mind it so much if it weren't for the fact that it leaves residue in the comments. Half-comments with no signatures on them are just ugly. As I don't have many comments at the moment, I'm considering moving to a different commenting system. But we'll see. If I was actually doing something useful with this site, I'd get it hosted somewhere I have to pay for it but it'd allow me to do PHP and host the comments myself and stuff like that. But I can't see spending money on the pitiful stuff I do with my site, so... that's unlikely.
Posted on October 31, 2001 10:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Blah. Today I discovered that something was wrong with my camera, so the film hadn't been advancing. Something was wrong with the part that holds the film roll in place, preventing the film from coming out of the roll. So all the pictures I took during Michael and Jennifer's wedding won't come out. Ah well. I guess I hadn't used it in so long that it'd gotten a little stuck. A minor tweak fixed it easily. Yay!
Posted on November 12, 2001 5:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Well, I went to the unemployment office today. That was interesting. As this was my very first real job, I hadn't ever had to go before. I was there for 3 hours, but it was really a lot less painful than I expected.
The nice thing was, when I got home, I had 2 birthday cards waiting for me. :) That sort of thing can really help cushion the blow, oddly enough...
Posted on November 13, 2001 8:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Hrmph. I've managed to get a yucky cold, so I'm grumpy. I blame it on Sarah. Working at a middle school, she's now surrounded by germs daily. I bet some school kid gave it to her and then she passed it on to me. A cunning plan.
Posted on December 8, 2001 1:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Just gotta say... the people who make Smallville are very very very very evil. :P
Posted on May 21, 2002 11:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Sorry I've been a little quiet lately. My computer's been acting up lately and I haven't been able to figure out why. I might have it pinned down now, but we'll see. Until it's fixed, I'll probably continue to be rather quiet.
Computer suck.
Posted on June 25, 2002 1:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
I hate Netscape. I really do. Version 6 seemed neat. It was faster and seemed to have a smaller footprint. Things seemed great.
Last night, I accidentally hit the "compact folders" option on the mail menu, since it's right beneath the "empty trash" selection. Suddenly, 4 or 5 of my mail folders vanished. My inbox was still there. My sent folder with about a year's worth of sent mail was gone. Also my mail about any outstanding orders I had, mail about mailing lists I'd joined, and all of the miscellaneous saved mail I had was all gone. I checked for the files and they were no longer there. But the index files for them were still around, so I can at least see the headers for the mail I no longer have. Yay.
Stupid Netscape.
Posted on June 30, 2002 4:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
So I decided to try to fix my computer last night. I thought I'd fixed the weird losing time/eventually freezing often problem, but it hadn't totally gone away. So I went into safe mode and deleted every device I had. I figured Windows would get everything back just fine with its Plug 'n' Play magic. Three hours later, everything was fine again. :P
Unfortunately, the odd freezing problem remains. I'm thinking of maybe trying a Windows 2000 upgrade to see if a new OS would fix the problem magically. I don't know why it would work or even why this happened so suddenly, but it's worth a shot.
Posted on July 27, 2002 7:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
O.K. I could SWEAR that I pre-ordered the Lord of the Rings DVD coming out on Tuesday. I even remember telling Sarah that I might as well get it since the extended edition was so expensive and not out until November (though I ended up pre-ordering that one last month anyhow) and I wouldn't have to switch discs to watch the whole movie that way.
Unfortunately, a large amount of my mail was eaten by Netscape recently and I no longer have the mail I keep of non-shipped orders. I've also checked my usual haunts and there's no record of that order there.
Maybe I'm hallucinating. I've gone mad, I tell you. Mad!
Posted on August 1, 2002 8:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
It sucks when the shoddy business practices of a company like Encore Special Events can mar an otherwise beautiful occasion. I'd definitely recommend steering clear of them for your catering needs.
Posted on August 2, 2002 12:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
This is starting to drive me really batty. I've known for a while that most drivers around here are pretty stupid. Shifting across 4 lanes in one go through heavy traffic, cutting me off, and all sorts of sillyness has become fairly commonplace to me. But there's one thing in my morning commute that really gets me. There are several places getting on and off 66 where the exit ramp is quite long, merges with the on-ramp, then gets right back on 66. So many many cars decide to get off 66, take the exit ramp, then get right back on 66, so they can skip maybe 20 cars' worth of traffic. Which causes more slowdowns as they try to reinsert themselves into the flow. And they slow things down by getting in the way of people actually trying to get on 66 in the first place. It's just idiotic, illogical, and plain rude.
Grr.
Posted on September 23, 2002 11:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
I'm sure everyone's tired of hearing people rant about Ticketmaster. But... now it's my turn.
Maybe I'm silly, but I figured that I'd get the best seats if I did the Internet presale they were doing for a show. So I logged in at 10am when it was supposed to start... and nothing. I checked several times during the day and there was still nothing, so I gave up for a while. Around 3:30, I checked again and it had started at 2:45. Gah. Luckily, I was able to still get decent seats. Not in the center but still not bad.
But... $20 extra for 2 tickets? The tickets already cost $40 (which is absurd) and then on top of that I have to pay $10 more per ticket? It just makes me weep. Soon enough I'll end up paying for a whole extra ticket by the time I'm done with "convenience" fees.
Posted on September 25, 2002 3:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
It's October. And I had to turn on my air conditioning last night.
This disturbs me.
Posted on October 2, 2002 8:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Note to self... just because it doesn't LOOK sunny out, it doesn't mean that the sun isn't hiding behind those clouds, just waiting to burn you. Ouch.
Posted on June 3, 2003 8:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Jeez... I thought the rain had finally stopped. But no! Yesterday we got a downpour. When I came home, I discovered that the rain had been going practically sideways. We'd left a window or two open to keep the apartment from becoming an oven while we were away. Several of my books that were near the window were soaked. I guess I learned my lesson, but it's never really happened before. An occasional drop or two has found its way in, but never to this degree. Luckily, only one of them suffered any major permanent damage. It's just bizarre how wet everything got. Even the carpet just inside the balcony got wet and that's a good 7 feet or so from where the roof protects us.
Stupid rain.
Posted on June 13, 2003 12:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Well, I finally got around to reading the latest Harry Potter book. Took me 2 and a half days to get through it (which is actually surprisingly quick for me, considering the length of the book). And I must say that I'm rather disappointed. Might be some possible spoilers here, so if you intend to read it and haven't, don't read this.
For a book that took this long to write, it seemed rushed. There were things hinted about in the beginning of the book that never actually went anywhere and it makes you wonder whether they were intended to be used at some point, forgotten about, then hurriedly tied off at the end when the editors wanted a book. The death scene seemed silly, preventable, and unnecessary. It was as if she'd convinced herself that someone had to die and so she did it, whether it made sense or not. It often seemed like she didn't really know how to write "dark". And I know these kids are 14 or 14 and under a lot of pressure and all, but jeez... with everyone biting each others' heads off for the first 500 pages or so, I almost couldn't stand to read it. The pacing didn't help, either. There were 100 page stretches where nothing really happened. And instead of the schoolwork being sort of a backdrop and framing to the action, it often ended up being the action. Also, main characters would disappear for very long stretches for some reason.
I must also admit that I'm getting a bit tired of the gimmick of people not telling people things and the trouble that causes. You'd think that, by now, everyone would've learned that lesson but they most definitely haven't. It almost seems like it was worse than ever.
Maybe my expectations were too high. But I guess I just expected a more polished product after all this time. It was my impression that she had this whole epic basically plotted out beforehand, but this one really lacked focus in its plotting. I guess the turning point in a series is more difficult to write. And yes, I know I couldn't have done a better job. But still... I don't make millions for my writing.
Posted on July 6, 2003 2:11 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Argh. This country is getting more and more scarily insane.
Posted on August 6, 2003 9:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Apparently, according to Sarah, my butt is gone. This was one of the unforeseen consequences of losing so much weight (another is actually losing weight from my wrist area, so my watch no longer fits very well). It's sad, in a way, since this was probably the only area I'd ever been complimented on by someone who I wasn't involved with at the time. Of course, the compliment came from my girlfriend at the time's mom, so... it was creepy.
Maybe it's better that I have no butt.
Posted on October 6, 2003 12:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Great. I look like a total lunatic in this year's school pictures. My eyes are wide and my smile is eerie. I think the photographer said something bizarre (I believe I remember him saying something like "Now give us that Sunday smile!" or something like that) and I was trying not to laugh at the weirdness of it. So now I just end up looking like a maniac. With a 5:00 shadow at 2:00 in the afternoon.
Yay! I look like I shoot up at work!
Posted on November 17, 2003 12:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
That was the most pathetic snow storm. Totally missing us after they predicted one to three inches? Bah! And I was gearing up for at LEAST a delay in the morning. Ah well. Bitch bitch bitch.
Posted on January 15, 2004 9:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
One of the unfortunate side effects of losing so much weight is that it seems like the fat took some of the muscle with it. It's been a while since I've had to lift things at work and once this week I dropped a computer a short distance (not far enough to break it) and almost dropped a printer. I guess I'm just not used to the difference in strength. It's not that these things are too heavy for me. It's just that it feels like they're heavier than they were. Or maybe it's because I don't have as much fat to lean them against. I don't know.
I guess I'll need to start working out or something. Yucky.
Posted on February 20, 2004 3:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
The Cure is going to be at the HFStival this year! Argh! This is a show I can't afford and don't especially want to go to. But it's The Cure! I've never seen them live at all. Blah. This is very mean of the universe.
Posted on April 16, 2004 9:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Since Speakeasy has a new thing where you can tell them you'll be moving at some point, I tried it out. A couple days later, I got a call from one of their people saying they ran a test on the phone line at the new place... and all I can get there is IDSL. Which, as I recall, seriously blows. Just checking Speakeasy's site, it'd cost twice as much for 10% of the bandwidth. Not really what I'm looking for.
So... despite the rather high cost of cable around here, it looks like I'll have to go for cable. The kinda nice thing is that our channels will finally come in nice. The bad thing is is that now I have to do research on cable companies and switch ALL my e-mail addresses on every site and mailing list I'm on. :P At least basic cable isn't too pricey (only about $14 a month at both Cox and Comcast), so that'll be good.
But still... blah... as if moving wasn't going to be a hassle already...
Posted on June 18, 2004 10:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
I think I've finally joined Ryan in hating Best Buy and I'm not sure if I'll ever shop there again, even if it's the only place in the universe that has what I want or need.
So I went there to buy a flash drive for Sarah because she desperately needed one for a school project. I bought a 512MB one and brought it back to Sarah. I then checked their web site and saw that the price on there said it should've been on sale for $20 cheaper. I go back to Best Buy with my receipt and a print out of the web page and go to customer service. I present the documents to them and ask for an explanation. They tell me that the price online tends to be lower than in the store. I then tell him that you can buy online and then pick it up in the store, so that makes no sense. So he tells me that if I buy it online, I'm not actually buying it from the store I'm picking it up at. Even though it comes out of their inventory.
...
This made no sense to me whatsoever and I think it's a stupid way to do business. You can't tell me that Best Buy and bestbuy.com are two separate entities. What I was being told here was that if I'd ordered it online for store pickup and waited for someone in that store to grab it off the shelf for me and slap a sticker on it, then I would've gotten the sale price. That's insane.
I don't care if it's their policy or whatever. It's stupid. And it's really stupid to treat a loyal customer that way, in my opinion. So... screw you, Best Buy.
Posted on April 29, 2005 10:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)