News Archive - July 2006
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7-31-2006
I am in fucking hell.
I went to a BBQ at my buddy Bill's house on Saturday and really had a good time except for one thing; mosquitoes.
The little fuckers bit the hell out of my legs. I have something like 18 bites on my right leg and another 15 or 16 on my left. The good thing about that is they itch so badly that it dulls the itch in the four bites on my right arm and 5 on my left...and the two on my shoulders.
The bad thing is that I didn't get any sleep last night because of them. I bought this, supposedly, super drug at the pharmacy but it's a joke. It works for about 20 minutes then the 80 degree heat in my apartment starts with the sweating and that depletes the drugs and the itching begins again.
Fuck.
Yankees
Looks like Bobby Areu is coming to NYC to play for the Yanks. With Matsui still out with a broke wrist and Sheffield on the DL it could be a welcomed addition heading for the playoffs. The Yanks are 1.5 games back right now and they need to keep the pressure up. If they don't win the division it's going to be a close one whether or not they get a wild card spot.
7-28-2006
Wal-Mart
Here's some interesting news, Wal-Mart is selling off its stores in Germany and is pulling out of the market there.
I don't think this is a huge surprise to anyone. Afterall, there are no rednecks in Germany.
Speaking of Wal-Mart
And Target, Chicago has voted to force the "big box" stores to pay a living wage of $10 an hour with $3 of health insurance.
No word yet what will happen to the several thousand unemployed workers when WM and Target close shop and skedaddle.
Today in WTF
We once again bring you a reason why the US government should NEVER be allowed to pass a law that has anything to do with computer and/or internet technology.
They have now passed a bill, 410-15, that would force public libraries and schools to ban web sites such as MySpace and other social networking sites. Side effect of their asinine law? Amazon.com could get caught up in this because of the complete and utter lack of any knowledge whatsoever about any technology created in the last 35 years.
Ironically, the acronym for part of this legislation is DOPA. Yes, they are dopes. No, this bill will have no benefit to anyone.
Fuckers.
Once again they're trying to legislate something that could very easily be stopped at HOME with the PARENTS of these kids. You tell your kids to look both ways before crossing the street and not to talk to strangers but apparently that logic can't be applied to the internet by parents who are as dumbfounded by technology as our politicians.
Shame on the House for passing yet another arbitrary piece of legislation that will do nothing but place undue burdens on our severely under-funded public and school library systems. Fuck you all very much you unenlightened pieces of shit.
7-24-2006
And we're back. Been busy getting my other web site up and running and doing some updates while things were popping over the weekend. Now, back to the home base.
On that note; fuck gas prices. New record average for a price of gas was set yesterday at $3.02. I think that's fuckin' ridiculous and it needs to come down. A week ago I spent $2.83 a gallon in PA so there's also no reason for it to be over $3 in New York.
Israel. Well, not much to say about that. They have the right to defend themselves but if this gets any more out of hand than them snuffing out Hezbollah we're in for a real problem.
Hey, Floyd Landis continued the US domination of the Tour de France. He even did it with a crumbling hip joint. I guess it didn't hurt that the other top contenders from various European countries got suspended for dubious involvement with known doping companies.
Ever wanted to know what the top 50 albums are of our generation? Read on, but know this, I may disagree with number 1.
Clerks II
This was opening weekend for Clerks II and you knew that I was going to go see it! I boned up on Red Bank by watching Clerks Saturday and Mallrats yesterday then stumbled into the theater last night for Smith's latest trip to Jersey.
The film is definitely not going to be for everyone as the jokes, sight gags and humor are over the top. If you're easily offended, skip this movie, go see Cars. When you strip away all the dick and fart jokes, and there are a lot of D&F jokes, you have what you almost always have with a Kevin Smith movie; a well written, insightful take on life with a pretty good love story for backup. Well, when I say most, not Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back because that was pretty much all dick and fart jokes.
A couple of nods in the film, as any good Smith movie will have, are given to Affleck and Jason Lee as well as the Milk Maids. Ethan Suplee shows up as do Jason Mewes, Scott Mosier and Smith's wife Jen Schwalbach (and kid this time).
The movie takes place 10 years after Clerks and opens with Dante showing up for work at the Quick Stop, finding it on fire and being forced to move on. A year later, after working at Mooby's, he's in a relationship with a hottie named Emma (Schwalbach) and ready to move to the next stage of his life. Randall is still in tow and Jay and Silent Bob have taken up residence at the new store, still selling weed.
Once the stage was set up Smith indulges in the aforementioned D&F jokes while picking fun at Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, Transformers and racial stereotypes. And don't even make me recount the interspecies relationship...just see the film. Nothing is off limits. The movie culminates in a jailhouse exchange between Randall and Dante that makes the movie shine by taking on the topics of life and expectations, friendship and love.
The finale brings the film all together and puts a cap on the lives of Dante and Randall, and it's happy. The two slackers finally make their own calls and are the better for it and we're better for having seen it committed to film.
All of the acting is top-notch with Rosario Dawson being the latest hot, young actress to be introduced into Red Bank history as Becky, Dante's (other) romantic interest. Brian O'Halloran and Jeff Anderson both have taken it up a notch over Clerks and since the sequel wasn't shot like it was on a store security camera, it made for an easy to watch film. Mewes, who cleaned up his act over the last couple of years, was still his outlandish self with Smith continuing to make Silent Bob one of the most interesting characters on film...without saying a word.
Having some bank behind this movie didn't take away what made the original Clerks so much fun. The spot-on commentary on life and relationships that Smith puts in all his films is there, only now in color. The film is outlandishly funny right up till the end which is actually happy and uplifting. If you've enjoyed any of the Red Bank films you'll enjoy this one, but just as with Jersey Girl (shut up, it was a good film!) you can see where Smith has gotten better in his writing and directing. Seeing Clerks before stepping out for this film is recommended but not required. You'll miss a couple fan wanks but the story stands on it's own.
I'm biased but I'll give this movie four out of five wheels of cheddar. I have to take it down a point for that interspecies love scene I mentioned...that and because neither Affleck or Lee reprised any of their previous characters. Oh, and no Steve-Dave or Walt Flanagan!
Box Office Commentary
Outside the review for this film I have to comment on the weekend box office take. Pirates of the Caribbean took the top slot again with $35 million and I don't begrudge them that. Hell, it would have been $35,000,008.50 but I decided to support Clerks II on it's opening weekend instead of finally catching that flick. I don't even have an issue with Monster House or M. Knight Shyamalan's Lady in the Water taking the number 2 and 3 slots.
What I do have a problem with, however, is Clerks II coming in at number 6 behind You, Me and Dupree and Little Man. Little Man for fuck's sake! Dupree is a second rate chick flick for the stoner set and I don't think Little Man even HAS a demographic.
Admittedly, Smith's hard core fans were probably geeking out at the San Diego ComiCon this weekend but that's still no excuse. His films almost always do well on DVD and I've seen enough fans show up at his Q&A sessions at Wizard World Philly to do better than $9.6 million.
The other problem this film faced is that it only opened on 2,150 screens which is fewer screens than either Dupree or Little Man. It did have a higher per-screen average than both of those films as well as beating My Super Ex-Girlfriend which debuted on 2,702 screens. Hopefully it'll actually pick up some screens this week and the geeks will be back from San Diego.
7-19-2006
Okay, remember last year when hurricane Katrina blew up New Orleans and people sat in water or on their roof or at the Superdome because the government agencies couldn't get to them?
Then remember later on when Americans got trapped in Mexico when another hurricane hit, and the US government couldn't get them out?
Remember when we pretty much told Americans everywhere that they were on their own and not to expect our government to protect them? Apparently that message didn't get through. Once again I point out that when government agencies can't pull you off a roof in a modern American city, they can't get you in the middle of a war zone, especially if it's not OUR war.
On the same topic...
Israel is pounding the shit out of Lebanon and reports of troops crossing the boarder was on CNN and MSNBC last night.
How does that effect us? Oh, maybe $4 a gallon gas by the end of the summer if not before. Iran getting pulled into the conflict? I don't know, but nothing good is coming of it.
MyWal*Mart
Today in WTF we bring you news that Wal*Mart has started a web site to compete with MySpace. Everything that makes MySpace cool, however, is absolutely forbidden on WM's new site.
I have no doubt that people don't shop at WM for clothes. I mean, have you ever looked at the men's section? If you want a pair of Wranglers, sure, but unless you want to buy 10 NASCAR T-shirts, all for different drivers, you shit out of luck.
WM needs to stick to what it does best, selling cheap food, HBA items and gardening supplies. If you want cool and cheap clothes go to Target or Old Navy.
Do I even have to mention...
It's hot as fuck in NY. Fuckin' summer.
7-13-2006
Ah, crap.
Israel is now in Lebanon bombing the shit out of bridges, the airport and other infrastructure in retaliation for a raid into Israel where two soldiers were kidnapped. This can not end well.
Lou Dobbs
If you don't read Lou's Commentary on CNN.com you ought to. I'm finding myself in agreement with him on a lot of topics including his latest article (PDF 146KB).
Department of Homeland Insecurity
Can you tell me what the difference is between these two lists?
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If you guessed that all the items in List A were on the Department of Homeland Security's list of critical infrastructure that needs to be protected from terrorist attack you would be....
Wait for it...
Every item on List B was NOT on the list of critical infrastructure in need of protection. Apparently Indiana had 8,591 entries on the list while NY State has 5,687
WTF? I'll tell you what, if the insect zoo goes up in flames I'm not going to lose any sleep over it. Matter of fact, wire it up for demolition, I'll light the fuse. There are always more insects but I don't think France is going to send us another Statue of Liberty.
If you're a terrorist you want to do one of two things; kill lots and lots of people or fuck up something so big it's going to cost a ton of money and disrupt the lives of the maximum number of people possible. Blowing up the Super Bowl? Yes. Blowing up a bourbon fest? No. Taking down the financial district in NYC? Yes. Taking down the Kangaroo Conversation Center? No.
Does anyone else find it disconcerting that Bin Laden can run a worldwide terrorist organization from a hole in some mountain in Pakistan but Bush can't run the US government from Washington D.C.? That's a sad, sad commentary on our country right now.
Finally!
A web browser whose sole purpose is to find porn pictures and make your browsing and organizing more secure. Ah, technology.
Higher Education
Should a college that has an endowment of $11 billion and annual tuition of $42,000 be upset that the state government isn't sending $538,000 in taxpayer money their way?
I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that tax payers probably aren't upset over this. Princeton, on the other hand, not happy.
7-12-2006
The courts get one right
Okay, two actually. In a ruling last week a federal judge found that Utah video companies that were sanitizing Hollywood movies were violating copyright laws.
I watch movies on TV and I hate it when I know stuff has been edited out for broadcast, especially when it's language and instead of just bleeping the offending word they dub an entire sentence or phrase (Yipee-ki-yay Mr. Falcon comes to mind).
Some movies become unwatchable when they do those cuts. Ever try to watch Dogma or Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back on TV? Completely ruined. Horror movies, dramas with hot, naked broads...all lesser films on TV because you miss out on parts. A History of Violence is a helluva a movie but cutting out some of the violence, language or nudity for TV, or DVD's like in Utah, would irreparably alter the film. Violence was an Oscar nominated film for a reason, changing it makes it a lesser movie.
Ratings are put on films and tell you if it's rated R and why. Violence, nudity, adult language or sexual themes...it's all spelled out. If that's not your bag then that movie isn't for you. Don't give me this "Well, I might like the film except for the violence, nudity and language." No, no you wouldn't. That film is what it is BECAUSE of those things and taking them out makes it, potentially, a different film.
Losing one nude scene from Titanic doesn't change the film, losing the language and sex and possibly, violence, from A History of Violence totally changes the movie.
I'm happy that Hollywood won this battle. Hopefully these chuckleheads in Utah won't find a loophole.
Number two in today's story is that the FBI search of Congressman Jefferson's office is legal! That's possibly the best news. It means that getting elected to Congress doesn't give you a safe haven (your office) to hide your crimes in. And they quaked with fear...
Economics
News out today (PDF 121KB) that the economy has "improved" under Bush because the budget year ending in September will have a deficit of only $296 billion instead of the originally expected $423 Billon. Oh, like $296 billion is a good thing?
Listen, it's still shitty news any way you shake it out. Not just because of the war or the disasters throughout the country over the last year but Bush's tax cuts suck. How many people reading this got ANY benefit from that tax break that amounted to anything significant?
I didn't see one red cent from his tax cuts. Rent is up, taxes are up, gas is up over $1, housing prices are through the roof...none of which makes my life any easier. If you're making over $100k a year you're probably in good shape, the rest of us are just getting more poor.
With the elections coming up I'm worried. Voting in the Republicans again will just put us in worse shape, it's more of the same. Vote in the Democrats and they'll have subpoena power in the government and the final 2 years of Bush's administration will be bogged down in hearing after hearing after trial. Nothing will get done.
The only positive side to that is that the Clinton administration shows that when the president's party is not in charge of the House and Senate he has trouble spending money. That's what led, partially, to our trillion dollar budget SURPLUS. Even though the tech bubble popped like a virgin's cherry on prom night, a surplus is a surplus.
Democrats in charge in Congress may be a positive by default but not necessarily. I can say that I'd rather vote them in just to change SOMETHING in the government.
Come 2008 we're really going to be in the shit, however, as there isn't a good candidate in site for the presidency.
Parental Licensing
Seems that there are a bunch of laws either in effect or being debated in various states about the rights of a pregnant woman's fetus. I'm not going to argue for or against the various laws but I'm going to point out one case, the murder of Chelsea Brooks.
Apparently the boyfriend and two other people killed her while she was 9 months pregnant. Now, here's where I flipped out; Chelsea Brooks was 14. She was 14 and 9 months pregnant. Anyone see anything wrong with this or is it just me?
I'm thinking that making various laws protecting a fetus could be avoided by an even better law, one that requires potential parents be licensed to have a kid in the first place. You have to have a license to drive a car, scuba dive, fly a plane, drive a motorcycle, carry a handgun (in some states) or remove asbestos from houses. Any of those can be dangerous in their own right but how dangerous might the child of a 14 year-old be? She could grow up to be the next Aileen Wuornos.
She's definitely going to be fucked up when she gets older and realizes that her and her mom are looking to date in the same pool of men.
I think potential parents should have to take a week long course in raising kids. They should have to pass a written test that proves they aren't complete morons and a drug test to prove they aren't going to birth a crack baby. Alcohol and drug addicts are disqualified. Smokers have to pay a premium and have insurance, just like on a new car, that covers all damages caused by their bad habit.
Also, if you or your husband can't hold down a job, no kids. Multiplying so that you can keep receiving your Welfare checks and food stamps should not be possible.
7-9-2006
I have a few more flood pictures but I have to get them scanned. Maybe later today. Finished the cleaning at my mother's house, or at least in the basement.
There are still some corn stalks in the back yard where they caught in the trees. There is also some split wood in the basement but that should be fine for now. What a mess.
Deposit is still cleaning out. I saw a few people still pumping water yesterday and there was still a lot of trash in people's yards. Friday night the Red Cross shelter was pretty busy. They're still serving food as far as I know. I'm sure there are some people that can't live in their houses yet as well.
I've seen the future
The future of Microsoft Windows, anyway. Vista is coming early next year and right now Beta 2 is out. Just installed it on a computer to check it out and what a pig this thing is.
The interface learning curve is going to be HUGE for people that don't live in Windows. Even I'm having problems.
So far it doesn't like my Netgear network card or my older Sound Blaster sound card. Also had problems with a 3 year old USB drive but my other one worked okay.
Slow...my God is this thing slow. I installed it on an 850MHz AMD computer with 768MB of RAM. This is the same computer I'd been using till I built my new one a couple months back. The system ran XP like a champ but not Vista.
I have a bad feeling about this new operating system, especially from a tech support standpoint.
7-6-2006
More flooding updates.
I just received this week's edition of the Deposit Courier and they had a four page color insert showing pictures from last week's floods. I scanned in 16 of them but there were more in the paper. I posted a new page just for flooding information; Deposit, NY Flooding 2006.
It's also permanently linked in the new "Hot Topics" menu on the left.
Except for Stilesville and some of the lower portions of the maps I posted yesterday I think I came pretty close on some of the guesses I made.
Insult to Injury
So after I spent all weekend cleaning flood damage, washing in buckets and driving to my grandfather's house for a shower, I get home to Ithaca Tuesday, finally get a nice warm shower and I'm able to do some laundry.
That, however, came crashing down at 2:00am Wednesday morning when a water main in my apartment complex broke.
I go to brush my teeth after posting yesterday's update and there's no water. I checked the pipes in the apartment, dry. Run downstairs, no water running. Look out the door, there it is, bubbling out of the lawn and the pavement.
Fuck.
So I called it in and they shut off the water. That meant that there was no water at all when I got up to go to work yesterday. I ended up washing in the sink using two 12oz bottles of cold water (direct from the fridge) that I'd put up the night before.
Needless to say I wasn't a very happy person yesterday at work.
Totally Fucking Ridiculous
It's totally fucking ridiculous when, in 2006, a woman in the United States can get 8 months in jail for showing her tit in public.
This isn't Iraq or Afghanistan, this is the fucking US of A. We have some of the best looking women in the world and telling them they can't get naked should be the crime. Especially when they're hot as hell.
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7-5-2006
I'm fucking beat. It was a long weekend cleaning out wet, sloppy crap from the basement at my mother's house after the flood last weekend.
By my measure she had about 16" of water in the basement that soaked into the hot water heater, furnace, water tank, lawn mower and 30+ years of various items that had been stored there. It's now all on its way to a landfill somewhere with only a few exceptions.
Good news is that the hot water heater appears to be working and with a little cleaning to the cutoff switch on the water tank that's working fine. Still have to have someone in to look at the furnace and just double-check the hot water tank. Oh, and even though I took 80 gallons of water out of the one low spot in the basement, there's still more in there. The rest, and majority, is on its way to drying out as long as the humidity breaks for a couple days.
So, how bad was the flooding in Deposit, NY? The worst I've ever seen. The water was well down by the time I was able to get into town but the mess was easy to see. Half the town was hauling crap out of their houses and basements and stacking it on the curb.
Some houses on Main Street had somewhere around 7 feet of water in their basements. Houses up the road from my mother's had it go right through the first floor, probably 4+ feet deep. They were hauling drywall and insulation out of places, washing machines, hot water heaters...anything you can think of.
Houses in town that had just undergone thousands of dollars in renovations were all torn apart again. It's a small town and the only grocery store had over 2 feet of water in it. Quite a few businesses were flooded out and it'll be interesting to see if they come back. The library, which is across the street from the grocery store, had 2 feet in it and is closed. No motor vehicle offices because they flooded and most everything was destroyed. DCSI, a large employer in town, was flooded but I haven't heard if their computers were destroyed.
Video rental store, deli, churches, fire department, all flooded.
I took a few pictures for insurance and recovery purposes but when it came time to take photos of the town I couldn't do it. Posting photos or taking them when you don't know the people involved is one thing but this was my town and I couldn't do it.
To give you an idea of what the flooding looked like I photochopped a couple maps from Google.
- Deposit hybrid satellite view
- Deposit road map
- Deposit road map with estimated flooding overlay
- Deposit hybrid satellite view with estimated flooding overlay
- Satellite side-by-side comparison
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The large body of water you see on the right is the Cannonsville Reservoir, at least the beginning of it. The west branch of the Delaware river flows out of it and through town before turning south towards Hancock. The maps with the water overlay are estimated based on what I could see from the ground and the parts of town I could get into. Until I see more photos that's about as best a guess as I can give you but that's a conservative view.
The flood waters definitely extended further south along 17 and probably covered that entire valley between the river and the railroad tracks. It also extended further west along the railroad tracks and covered parts of Fireman's Park. Some of that flood water came down a creek from the west side of town.
In Other News
Countries that have gone insane this week:
- North Korea
- Mexico
- Israel
Too many issues to rant about and I'm beat. Read a paper, discuss amongst yourselves.
7-1-2006
I'm off to Deposit this morning to do some cleanup after the flood last week. Pictures and info when I get back.