The Iggblog

In a rare bout of “actual news” on CNN, I saw a clip stating that Bush has put a veto on stem cell research. Asshat. I’d like to see him reason his position without tripping all over that little “separation of church and state” inconvenience that someone ninja’d into the constitution. I’m sure he’d be displeased at watching us pay other countries once they’re done researching and have the technology for sale… but he won’t be in office then, so why worry?

No great loss I suppose. It’s not like it’s a particularly important branch of research. or some crap. sigh. I remember feeling the same fuzzy feelings towards “the powers that be” when we were dropped out of the international fusion research program some years back.

Some day they’ll get it right

Today’s Sinfest reminded me of something I’ve been meaning to whine about for a while… The ATM at work. Typically the ATM comes just before getting lunch, and putting carbs in me comes shortly thereafter… posting to my el-jay gets lost somewhere in the mix I suppose.

Anyways… there’s this ATM at work. An ATM far more EVIL than the norm. Most ATMs are content simply to lick your card, request authentication, take some input, and spit out some cash. That’s cool, right? There doesn’t need to be any interaction. I know my role. The ATM knows its role. All is well and good in the kingdom. But wait, what is this? An interloper approaches the pearly gates of the realm! A newer ATM has been placed in the caf at work, and rests upon the bloody sundered remains of the previous occupant. This new ATM is the most annoying machine of the sort I’ve ever operated. It’s not content to give the sporadic beep or to as aural feedback. Instead it responds to pretty much any keypress with beeps, and it beeps every half second or so while it’s waiting to spit out the cash. And it’s not just any beep. It’s the windows “error” beep. Ironic since this is an IT workplace, and that sound is like fingernails on a chalkboard to my bretheren and me. It drives me crazy to use that damn machine. Every time I stand there waiting for it to eject my 20-spot, I visualize myself stabbing a screwdriver into the damn speaker on the thing.

ok, that’s my whining for the morning. move along, nothing to see here.

Over the weekend, my BeaterPhone(tm) that I’ve been cruelly keeping alive for about 2 years now finally decided to crap out. Basically it refused to take a proper charge when I’d plug it in. I tried to turn it off and plug in the charger in case it would take a trickle or something. But instead of charging, the charger somehow coaxed the phone into turning on… thusly doing the opposite of charging. Besides that, it was dreadful to drive with. It would drop calls pretty much any time I had to switch towers. when I did have “reception” the calls still rarely lasted more than a couple minutes before “ROFL” would appear on the screen and the call would be dropped. Then the phone would spit on my shirt and kick a puppy. See what I have to put up with?

So… I’d had this phone for long enough that I figured it was time for an upgrade. After talking to one of Erica’s roomates (works for Cingular), it seemed I should be elligible. This excited me, as the concept of being able to “place calls” and “receive calls” with my phone was more of a fantasy than anything at this point. The phone I got VaderPhone(tm). The angles and little speaker thingy reminded me of Darth Vader in a way =P. It has a spycam, which is something I’ve wanted for a while but have been unwilling to actually pay for. It also has bluetooth, which is handy for talking to the PDA. It cost me a whopping $29.99, and I even got $10/month chopped off my current contract. Not too shabby. Now I can even make calls from my apartment =O. This is something that was strictly forbidden with my previous phone. I managed to hold a conversation with someone for a while and not get the call dropped. crazy!

You know what’s cool? Getting run off the road. A moron semitruck driver that wasn’t looking where he was going tried to change lanes. Unfortunately for me, I was currently occupying the space that he decided he wanted to occupy. in an effort to continue being as alive as I have gotten used to being, I ended up having to run into a curb to avoid the truck. So my once proud left-front tire turns to spaghetti. I was too busy not dying to get the plate, and didn’t get enough identifying marks off the truck. the trailer was a generic cargo box, and all I could tell about the cab was that it was a newish International. wheee.

I don’t think I hit the curb hard enough to damage the control arm, and I think the wheel is still ok. I just need to get a POS pencil-rubber grade tire to last me until winter. I’m planning on running full snow/ice tires and getting summers next season anyways.

so, how is your week going?

Matt and I decided to go on the warpath and clean out some of the refugees that were squatting in the back of the fridge. We got out all the tupperware containers. The residents of these containers were of varying ages and stages of proliferation. Upon opening one of the less antiquated vessels:

Matt: “Pasta doesn’t go bad”
Me: “Famous last words, man”

Matty wrestles some of the strands free from the mother-clump and takes a bite.
Me: “…dude”

Moments later, various sounds erupt from Matty as he works the garbage disposal.
Matt: “Oh man, that was not good.”

Moral of the story: Pasta goes bad.

Now that my drive home is over…

Motorists today have gone past trying my patience, and are edging towards trying my deference towards humanity as something sacred and worthwhile.

learn
to
drive

Because seriously… when I say “eat razorblades and die in a fire”, I’m only half joking and it’s going downhill.

Traffic!!!

Hmm… what is it about traffic that is so infuriating? Most people know me as a pretty stable guy. I don’t often appear upset even when I am, and I never raise my voice. Usually if I have something to say, it’s calm and well thought out. Traffic is the only exception to this. I can often be found yelling obscenities at or near the top of my lungs at the “parade of morons” or “flock of fucking idiots” in front of me. If you’ve observed me getting angry in traffic, you’ve only seen a fraction of how I get when I’m alone. I reflexively tone it down when I have company. And no… I’m never tempted to get out of my car and “do something about it”, because that is just about the most shortsighted thing anyone could do when road rage sets in. I might wish them dead by some sort of divine intervention, but I retain my higher functions with respect to my own actions when I’m “all fired up”.

To the best of my reasoning ability, it seems to me that it’s people playing down the importance of traffic. The rules are simple. Mind-fucking-buggeringly simple. There is no rulebook, there’s a rule pamphlet which outlines right of way and rules of the road. IT’S NOT COMPLICATED. Right of way laws are so insanely simple and intuitive that there really shouldn’t even need to be a rulebook for them in the first place. Basically if you take a positive action (changing lanes, merging, entering a rotary, turning) which causes someone maintaining a steady path to significantly deviate from it, you are probably violating their right of way. There are exceptions of course, but generally speaking. Basically, exercise “common courtesy”. Click >>here<< for an explanation of courtesy, since it's probably news to you. There are links on the page if this concept intrigues you and you want to read up more on it. Don't forget to tell your friends! For example: if you have been waiting to turn into traffic for a while and no holes are opening up, you are not accruing "right of way points" that let you barge into traffic just by virtue of your having been inconvenienced at the stop. You fucking wait until you have an opening! Nobody else on the road is required to care how long you've been waiting there! Same thing if you've been riding the passing lane and your exit is coming up... Just because there is no clear opening between the semitrucks to your right doesn't mean you dash across traffic with reckless abandon to get to your exit. It's your problem for planning poorly in the first place, nobody else in traffic gives a damn or is required to give a damn where you are going or how you plan to get there. If you miss your exit, you go to the next one and turn around. Believe it or not, there are those of us who do this instead of risking dozens of lives to save a handfull of minutes. For the love of all that is holy, the left lane is the passing lane not a travel lane. You pass and get back in the right lane. Nobody cares if you don't like changing lanes frequently. That's how traffic works. If you don't like it, write your senator or some shit. Don't take liberties with everyone else's right of way. And don't get me fucking started on turning signals. Few things show as much carelessness as not letting everyone else on the road know what you're planning to do. How the HELL can you participate in traffic and not use your turning signals. They should be much more active on ticketing for failure to do this. I've seen far more near-accidents from failure to signal intent than from speeding. I guess the thing is that nowhere in life do I observe more carelessness or lack of respect for the well-being of others than on the highway. People get in their cars and drive "their way" following what rules they see fit when they see fit, completely oblivious to how it relates to anyone else on the road. What is beside or behind them is not relevent. It pisses me off because while you are in traffic you have the ability to KILL others with mere carelessness, whereas in other areas of daily activity you can only really annoy. You're driving a weapon, and acting like a complete braindead fucking idiot on the road is deadly. I saved my life 4 times on the road today. In each case I was driving in the center lane at a steady velocity, traveling the speed of traffic. I had to take drastic corrective actions to avoid being hit by people. Not because they were avoiding something, but because they were not paying attention to their surroundings and were ignoring the rules of the road… just drifting in and out of lanes like the king/queen of the damn road. Although I had more near misses today than normal, being confronted with deadly situations at the hands of the careless public on the road is not anomalous. This, I suppose, is why get so angry sometimes in traffic. Don’t tell me to curb my wrath till everyone else on the road stops treating traffic like an amusement park ride. Start ticketing for something other than speeding, because dammit that’s not the fucking problem. Sorry for the length, but not for the language.

The server for iggdawg.com (aka “that warm place in my room on which Dezzy sleeps”) went down on friday. The bearing in the main drive went ou thursday night sometime, and it was so hot that I almost burned myself when I went to remove it in the morning. I got a new drive from ComPooSA and managed to get the server back up yesterday. Luckily the old drive operated for long enough to get all my data off it before the thing went into BBQ-mode.

Anywaqys, if any of my adoring public wondered where I was on AIM over the weekend, or why my links wouldn’t work, that’s why. I’m sure both of you were very worried.

AIM can choke on a dong. Earlier today I got booted off my main acct (iggdawg555) and couldn’t log back on. it just decided to hang halfway into authentication. I’m still unable to log in. So I dug up my old college acct to use for a while, and now it’s doing the same exact thing. nobody else in the office is having any issues with AIM, and I’m not having any other connectivity issues with any programs. wheeeeeeee.

Also, Dan0 if you’re reading this the time is now 2:57. I’d IM you but I can’t.

I was reminded of the cereal incident the other day when I saw a note my boss left on his desk. He’s a pretty cool guy and generally prefers the direct approach. Ambiguity is no good any way you slice it, right? He’d had a few issues with people not returning things after “borrowing” them. Odds and ends off his desk, his chair, etc. The note reads:

“If you take anything off my desk or steal my chair I WILL FUCKING KILL YOU. This is not a joke but a written threat. Thanks!”

There isn’t much wiggle room there. It’s certainly a lot more direct than putting you name on a post-it and slapping it on the chair.