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Showing posts with the label ranting

Wanna Bet?

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I arrived home this evening to find the Franklin County Democratic Party sample ballot waiting for me. Imagine my dismay when I found that the Democratic Party is urging me to vote yes on Issue 3! For those outside of Ohio, Issue 3 is a proposed constitutional amendment to build casinos in Columbus, Cincinnati, Cleveland, and Toledo. I can barely even begin to describe in this space what's wrong with this picture. First of all, a constitutional amendment? Really? We need to have it encoded in the very fabric of our state government that there should be 4 casinos in Ohio? How is this possibly a good idea? Next, the way that this has been promoted just rubs me the wrong way. The overall message is, "everyone else is doing it, so why don't we?" I'm pretty sure my parents taught me that's no argument for doing something. As the tired old response goes, "if everyone else jumped off a cliff, would you too?" But what makes it even worse in this co...

Hammer Time

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This evening as I was riding home, I caught up with another cyclist just as I had taken a turn into the 15 mph west wind. I'm still riding my beast of an ancient mountain bike and was wearing my nylon shells, so I was basically a big sail. The cyclist I caught was wearing a nice kit and riding a nice bike, so I figured I'd tuck in behind him and let him pace me into the wind for a bit. Drafting another cyclist is remarkably effective. That's why you see pros do it in the races all the time. The thing is, in order to get the benefit of the draft, you have to follow fairly closely. There is some skill involved in doing this, but generally people won't try it unless they're pretty comfortable on the bike. There's also a lot of etiquette around what you should do if you catch another cyclist, but generally you should just acknowledge each others presence and then offer to take turn on the front after a while. So as I fell in behind the other cyclist, I saw him...

Disappointment

I always knew that by this time I'd be sick of the election. There was no way that the campaigning could go on for this long and still have me engaged and interested. What I wasn't counting on was how utterly disappointed-- and frankly upset and angry-- I'd be with the way things have fallen out. This election has gone far beyond normal negative campaigning. This election has gone so far beyond normal negative campaigning that as far as I'm concerned it's verged into outright libel and slander. Where the disappointment comes in is that it's come entirely from John McCain. There was a time when I thought he had a conscience. There was a time I thought he had the courage of his convictions. But what has become clear is that he is a petty, angry, vindictive, and at best Machiavellian bastard who clearly doesn't care if he drags the entire country down with him. My problems with the McCain campaign really fall into 4 groups: Muslim, Terrorist, Socialist, ...

Idiotic Politicians

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I know this is a little late, but I had to say something about the string of idiocy that came out of the mouths of our fearless leaders/ would-be-leaders a couple weeks ago. First, let's talk about gas tax holidays. I think by now we've all seen the commentaries that have been floating around about the idea. The thing that gets me is that a lot of the pundits seem to be suggesting that Obama is making a "complicated" argument against Clinton/McCain's "simple" argument. This I don't get. How much simpler can it be to say "You'd only save 18 cents on the gallon, and that will get eaten up by higher summer prices anyway"? Nevermind the 900 million it would cost the federal government in badly-needed infrastructure repairs. I just wish that the media and the politicians would stop assuming that we're idiots. Next, McCain's recently unveiled health care proposal. Once more we are being told that if everyone went out and bough...

Partially Clips

I've been really busy lately with all sorts of random family things, so I haven't had a chance to post anything substantial. So in lieu of substance, I give you clips. First, on the whole Bitter Barack Business. Y'know, I've lived in rural Pennsylvania, and frankly bitter people who cling to guns and God in response to miserable mess their lives have turned into as industry leaves and mass farms take over agriculture is a pretty good description. While the truth may hurt, at least Barack hasn't recanted. But as usual, Stewart has a great take on it: Favorite parts: How much more blatant can Hillary get in tailoring her message to be the polar opposite of Barack? And yes, if you don't think you're smarter than us, what the fuck are you doing running for president? Next, from the same show, yet another wonderful spotlight on the surreality of this administration's views of the war in Iraq: And finally, just for fun: I'll see you all with some more...

Top Ten

...things I am tired of hearing. 10. "I know I brought that book back." 9. "The streets aren't safe anymore." 8. "Are your children at risk? Details at eleven." 7. "Illegal immigrants are stealing our jobs." 6. "God hates gays." 5. "Waterboarding is an enhanced interrogation technique." 4. "Why should I pay to support a failing school system?" 3. "[X]'s campaign has raised more money than [Y]'s" 2. "Socialized medicine is bad." And the number one thing I am tired of hearing... 1. "Victory in Iraq."

And We're Back

Please forgive my 5 day hiatus, dear readers, but blogging every day for an entire month is a more difficult undertaking than I might have initially expected. Suddenly I was no longer obligated to blog on a Sunday afternoon between doing laundry and preparing my church's podcasts , so I didn't. I was no longer obligated to blog on a Monday evening after work, so I didn't. I wanted to play Runescape on Tuesday, so no blog. Of course, this could easily turn into exactly where I was before NaBloPoMo, so I'll try to get back in the swing of things. I'll at least try to return to my New Year's pledge of once a week. So not much new for tonight other than to note that we have received our first snow of the winter, gracing us with a lovely 4" that is throughly unexpected for Ohio at this time of year in my experience. I'm grateful though. Oddly the mere presence of snow has done wonders to lift my spirits and alleviate some of the persistent homesickness...

The Eighth Circle of Hell

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Normally I try not pay any attention to Ann Coulter. As near as I can tell, she's insane. Not insane as in "Oh my God, are you insane?" but rather "The nurse will be here any minute with your meds, Ms. Coulter" insane. Sadly, I work in a library. And as a dedicated public librarian I firmly believe that no matter how absurd I may find a particular title, my community has a right to see it. So it was that today I found myself face to face with Ms. Coulter among the new books. To understand the nature of my complaint, you first have to see the cover of her most recent book. Those of you with a delicate constitution may want to disable image viewing on this site before reading further. Putting aside the stereotypically provocative nature of the title, I want you to look carefully at Ms. Coulter's picture. Is it just me, or is she most definitely not selling this book on the basis of her brains? In fact, judging from the cover it would appear that the tit...

Bah Humbug

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I am most definitely NOT in the Christmas spirit. For some reason this season has been less and less fun over the past few years. I used to think this was because I wasn't a kid anymore, or that I wasn't living in a place with a real winter. But no, this year I have finally decided that we have killed Christmas. It's entirely our faults, and we should be ashamed of ourselves. I remember, and I swear I'm not imagining this, that at one point in time there were no Christmas decorations or products in stores until after Thanksgiving. This year I saw Christmas items for sale in September . I remember a time when Christmas carols weren't used as backing music for advertisements. I remember a time when the news wasn't full of stories about how well the stores were doing in the Christmas shopping season. I mean, all of that was still there, but it wasn't what it was about. Now the only thing that this season is about is shopping. You've got to give peop...

Aquadotty

We've all gotten fairly used to recalls this year. It seems like we'd had a long run of nothing more than a few scattered cases of small parts causing choking when suddenly lead-tainted toys appear from China. As if credit woes and a declining dollar weren't enough, now we can't even buy cheap Chinese toys. Well, the recalls reached a new "high," so-to-speak, with the announcement that a company out of Canada has recalled the latest rage in grade-school crafting, Aqua Dots. Apparently what you're supposed to do is put the beads into patterns, spray them with water, and presto they're permanently stuck. Yeah, small beads with a weird, water-reactive chemical on them, aimed at the 3 and up set. Couldn't see this one coming. I don't want to make light of the fact that several children became seriously ill after ingesting these (I mean, what did they think kids would do with them? They look like frickin' Jujubees!). But you can't make...

Getting Home

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On the drive back from work this evening rush hour was strangely reversed. At 6:00 on most days I'll run into traffic just north of downtown where 670 and 71 merge bringing six lanes of traffic down to three. But tonight it was clear sailing from downtown to Clintonville. But southbound 71 was solid, bumper- to- bumper traffic. The traffic wasn't moving southbound from when I got on the highway until I got off. The reason for this is pretty obvious. Everyone got off work early so they could head over the river and through the woods to Grandmother's house. So rush hour out of downtown was negligible, but everyone trying to get from north of the city to south, east, or west was getting hung up on the east-side splits. I saw this exact same thing last year. I don't remember if I saw it before that. But all I could think both times was, "why?" Why do we put ourselves through this? So that we can show up at the relatives stressed and grumpy, burn the turk...

Hello, My Name is Ste... Ste.. Stephanie

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No it's not. It's Anandita or Jagrati or Nishtha or some equally lovely Indian name. Why on earth do call centers make Indians use western names when answering the phone? I mean, I can hear the accent. I know I'm calling India! You're not fooling anyone and you're making this lovely girl stumble over a strange name for nothing! I think that part of why I'm mad is that when I called and heard the accent, the first thing that crossed my mind was "Oh no, I'm in India." I hated myself almost as soon as I thought it. I'm not that sort of a person. I don't hate people from other cultures just because they're from other cultures! I don't think people are dumb just because they have an accent! So what happened? Why did I have this reaction? I guess it's that I just wanted someone who could immediately understand everything I was saying, and whom I could understand in return. When you're trying to troubleshoot problems on...

Throwing it All Away

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I hate shaving. I don't think I've ever met anyone who doesn't, honestly. If it weren't for the fact that my face itches like hell when I don't shave I'd probably not shave. Well, that and the fact that my beard is a little thin in spots and since I'm in the public eye I should probably only grow a beard if it doesn't make me look like one of the transient "all-day customers" at the library. Aside from the discomfort inevitably involved in shaving though, the other aspect of shaving I hate is razor blades. First and most problematic to my mind, is that there's absolutely no guarantee when you get a new blade out that it's actually going to do the job without burning you. Sometimes you'll get a good one and everything will be fine, sometimes the new one you get is even worse than the one you just threw away. Given the unpredictability of the quality of the blades, you'd think that maybe the companies that make the blades wo...

Short Post

A homework assignment, put off to the last minute, prevented me from posting until now. Those of you who have children younger than teens: this is what you have to look forward to. So in the interests of getting my blog in for NaBloPoMo, I offer you these candidates for the Darwin awards : Road rage certainly takes on a new meaning with these two. What could possibly drive two people to this extreme hatred that they put both of their lives in jeopardy just so they can beat the shit out of each other? Honestly, sometimes I fear for the human race.

Monday, Monday

Monday is my night to work. Those of us in public service at the library who work at a location that's open until 9:00 typically work one night each week. At the smaller locations that are open until 8:00 people typically work two nights a week. Honestly, I'd take the two nights again to not have to work until 9:00. You wouldn't think that one hour would make a difference, but it does. That hour from 8-9 provides crucial wind-down time. If you get off at 9:00, you don't get unwound until 10 or later, and then you can't really get to bed until 11, which means you're not asleep until 12, and then you have to get up at 6:00 the next morning despite the fact that you've gotten one less hour of sleep than normal. It sucks. Another danger of the 9:00 night is that you start at noon. This means that you think you can get all sorts of stuff done before work. That may be true, but you pay the price later when you start crashing around 6 because, well, aren'...

Fire Fox

I really hate Fox News. No, REALLY hate. And I try not hate anyone or anything. There is very little in the world that I hate. Fox News is one of the few. I know, this seething, blinding rage that boils in my blood for Rupert Murdoch and all things Fox-y is extremely un-Christian. And I will pray for forgiveness on Sunday. But for now, I hate Fox News. There is something about blindly reporting whatever opinions support your world view as fact that makes me mad. But this? This is right up there with Jerry Falwell blaming 9/11 on "the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians" : totally invented and designed only to scare the bejeezus out of people. Ever since I saw Bowling for Columbine I've been hyper-aware of the tendency of news, especially local news, to focus on the horrific instead of the informative. And every May and November every report that begins "Your child may be in danger" sets my teeth on edge. By a...

Seventh Inning Stretch

I am tired of "God Bless America." It was always a pretty stupid song, better suited to being belted by a bunch of 7-year-olds at the school concert than professionals. But ever since 9/11, the song's prevalence has been especially annoying. I will admit, I got chills when Congress spontaneously sang the song on the steps of the Capitol the day after the attacks. But that was because here were the leaders of our country, brought to this place where the best thing they could think to do was to sing a song of their childhood about how America would survive. That was great. But why are we still hearing it now? Years have past, and we should have moved on. I mean, we still sing "The Star Spangled Banner" before sporting events, why belabor the issue? As far as I'm concerned, the worst part is that it's taken the place of "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" at the seventh inning stretch. First of all, way to kill the mood. We're supposed to b...

Are You Ready for Some...?

For those of you not in Columbus, this past Saturday marked the beginning of the Ohio State University's football season. I say those of you not in Columbus because if you had been in Columbus there is literally no way you could not be aware of this fact. You could have been living under the proverbial rock for the past four months, but if that rock was anywhere in Franklin County, you would know that the Buckeyes were playing Youngstown State in the home opener at 12:00 on Saturday September 1st. Please don't take this post as a rant against the unfortunately named sport of football (where the only time feet enter into the game are at the beginning of play, after an unsuccessful drive, and for a handful of virtually meaningless points). I enjoy American football from time to time. It can be a highly entertaining game. But the levels to which it has been elevated in this country border on the absurd. And for my money, the absurdity reaches its pinnacle here in lovely Colu...

Somebody stop the world, I want to get off!

Seriously, is it just me or is there something terribly wrong with people on this planet? First of all, why in the name of all that's holy (or not as the case may be) are we still hearing about Paris Hilton? Who the fuck cares how she's doing in jail? Who cares that she's in jail? She's a walking disaster area who needed to be locked up since apparently no one in a position to do so ever told her "no" to anything she wanted! I'm sorry, but I don't care how much money your daddy makes. You violate probation, you go to jail. Yes she should be in jail, no I don't want to hear about it any more. Please! Next, Paul McCartney's latest album is being released on the Starbucks label . A coffee shop has a record label? If this isn't a clear sign that the recording industry is dead, I don't know what is. I also think it's a pretty clear sign that Sir Paul is dead too. Of course, he's been dead for years. No, wait, I'm think...

Top Ten

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Before I get to the Top Ten, I feel that I have to apologize. I've really been falling down on the job lately, and haven't been meeting my resolution of posting once a week. I could get out on a technicality by pointing out that my total number of posts works out to more than once a week, but that would be rationalizing now, wouldn't it? I especially have to apologize to the one person who checks in (almost) daily. Lord knows right now she has better things to do than to keep checking in on a blog that's not being updated. I will try to do better. I promise. Really. No, I mean it this time. Anyway, here are my Top Ten... ...Pet peeves about people in cars while I'm on my bike. 10. People who honk at me and/or yell at me to get off the road. Since you obviously didn't read the vehicle laws when you got your license, let me enlighten you: as a vehicle, it is illegal for me to ride on the sidewalk. 9. People who ignore my signals. Again, if you had read y...