Category: Rants

I just want this election to go away.

I’m so sick of all the crap on TV, the random recorded message phone calls two or three times a day, and the pile of direct mail I get everyday. I sent in my ballot weeks ago, folks, quit frickin’ harassing me! I think because I’m registered as an unaffiliated (no party) voter that I get more crap as I’m one of those critical “swing” voters. Or something like that.

I’m also getting sick of all the signs in people’s yards. There’s a strong Kerry supporter living up the street from me that is surrounded by Bush signs. So he not only has the standard-sized Kerry signs all over his yard, but he got one of the gigantic signs you typical see on large plots of land on major highways, and stuck that in his front yard, right underneath his American flag.

Really, folks, what are we trying to prove? All of the signs in the world are not going to change too many people’s minds, especially in Oregon where many folks have long since mailed in their ballots or dropped them off at an official ballot drop off (or, in some cases, people stupidly putting ballots in these unofficial drops).

I think that in 2008, I’m going to vote based on who sends me and bugs me with the least amount of crap. If I get something in the mail from you, get a phone call from your group, or get a solicitor at my door that represents you, you’re a point. The person/measures with the least amount of points will get my vote.

G’night from the couch. That is all.

Not very often does my youngest daughter (10.5-months old) sleep in past 6:00 AM, especially the last week or so as she’s been teething. When I looked at the clock this morning, saw that it was 6:30, and she was still asleep, I was quite happy, rolled back over, and went back to sleep, setting the alarm for 7:30, as I didn’t have to be at work until 9:00 today.

At 6:45, the phone rings. I know it’s my mother-in-law, as she always calls stupidly early. I ignore it, knowing she’ll just probably leave a message. Five minutes later, the phone rings again. I drag my grumpy butt out of bed, get the phone, it’s the mother-in-law.

“Did I wake you?”

What I wanted to say was “Yes you did, you psychopath! What could be so important that you need to keep calling me several times before 7:00 am?”

But what came out was “No.”

Her big emergency that she felt the need to call me at the crack of dawn for? She wanted to make sure that, since she was going to be gone on Friday, that we recorded Ronald Reagan’s memorial service for her.

This is a woman who doesn’t give a rip about politics or the people involved until the people die — then suddenly she has the utmost respect for them (unless they’re Democrat, then she’d probably be dancing on their grave).

And since we don’t get the local NBC affiliate very well on our TV (which is what she expects us to record), we’ll probably be recording the CNN version — which I’m sure she thinks is a stupidly liberal network, and she probably won’t even watch it, even though it will be the exact same video and memorial service.

I’m sure I’m not the only one that is dumbfounded as to why this woman is still on American Idol, while this woman, this woman or even this guy are not? That’s because the system is flawed. Quoting the article:

Interviews with telephone companies, data consultants, federal agencies, and fans expose a flawed system in which tens of millions of votes are potentially lost. Indeed, evidence shows that the only people choosing the next American Idol are the ones lucky enough to get through–or skilled enough to get around–tremendously overtaxed phone lines. While overzealous fans have accused Fox of tampering with results, one fact is indisputable: Technology is thwarting democracy on American Idol. Power-dialers can skew the vote. Text-messagers have an unfair advantage. And potential hackers have a powerful new incentive to alter the vote tallies: betting on the outcome through Internet gambling sites. Despite fans’ repeated accusations of inaccurate results, Fox is sticking with a voting system vulnerable to serious manipulation and tampering.

On top of this, Jasmine is from Hawaii, where, by the time the viewers there see the show and start voting, the phone lines are much less busy and easier to get through on.

Yes, I know, I’m weird for watching American Idol, but at least the folks on there have some friggin’ talent while the morons on all those other reality show don’t.

This stupid MyDoom worm is slowing things down for me like you wouldn’t believe, and it’s causing e-mail server admins to block anything remotely looking like the virus. I’ve been trying to communicate with a tech support contact of mine who’s working from home and using her Yahoo! account. They just blocked my e-mail for “550 Administrative prohibition” — whatever the hell that means.

Now there’s a variant of it going around, and SCO is offering a reward for the capture of the SOB who created this. Meanwhile, there are jackasses who are cheering the creation of this little bastard.

This thing is pummeling my servers. They’re all sending the packets to the bit bucket, but it’s still unwanted traffic that has to be looked out. UtterlyBoring.com was down for a while this morning because the server its on was getting pummeled with e-mail requests with the virus. And for all of SCO’s faults, is this worth it? I’m not fond at all of what SCO is doing to the open-source community, but is taken down the Internet’s e-mail system as a whole a proper revenge? Hell no. My servers are running Linux or Windows 2003 — two great OSes, but they’re getting beat up, despite having nothing to do with SCO. Is that fair? No way.

SCO deserves what they get, but the rest of us don’t.

Please don’t drink and drive this holiday season. Bad things happen.