i've had a little time to cool off now...

$2200 still hurts, but the good news is it isn't the end of the world for me financially. but i've had M comment to me twice today about the merits of buying a car that isn't made by an american automaker. (we can discuss the merits of american made toyotas another day) but i've expressed my displeasure towards my "the fucking white sinkhole", and jennkitty and i both seem to agree that neither of us plans on buying another ford (except for the Ford GT in my case, but that ain't happening unless i hit the lottery, and a GT40 is more realistic. mmmm....gt40....)

i currently have a black 2007 (c'mon, i don't want to see the next model year until the fall at the earliest...) ford freestyle. nothing overly fancy about it, altho it does have the CVT transmission which should be interesting tomorrow to drive with. i was asked if i had a preference (which i didn't) but i was having to move some servers tomorrow, so i needed something i could put them in, so that's what they gave me.

anyways, i know i've talked with TK about this, and i was mentioning to jennkitty that it'd be nice to have something similar to what is in Minority Report where you get in your car and it drives you where you wanted to go. the only difference is that my idea is more of a taxi-like concept where you'd order a car (have pre-defined preferences for non-smoking, baby seats, etc) and then off you'd go. all auto-drive, and that headache of the Daily Display of Human Idiocy (tm) would go away because the traffic would all be computer controlled. you arrive at work, get out and off it goes to the next person. (really good for cities)

shopping gets a little more complicated because you'll want to have the same car if you goto multiple locations, but then you tell it to park and it parks itself and you have a little remote that you use to call it when you are ready to load your bags into it. program next stop and off you go. the auto-valet.

it would be good for kids too. your kid has a soccer game to get to and you are running late. order up a car, they get in and it takes them to the game, either directly (if so desired) or by way of teammates homes.

for longer trips, you order up a different type of car, but it works on a similar concept. you keep it for the duration of the trip. plus you can have some manual control over the driving so you aren't entirely emasculated (sorry, don't know the feminine synonym).

anyways, off to do more stuff...or attempt to at any rate.

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fucking car

thru my own stupidity, i managed to kill my rear brakes a little while ago. i've had problems with them ever since i owned a car, and had to get them fixed several times when i had the jeep, and once already with the explorer. so i got in the habit of leaving them off. and i was even in the habit for a while of checking the e-brake pedal before i started to roll in the off chance i actually used them.

well, that habit fell by the wayside and the one time i use them, i completely forgot. e-brakes only work on the rear wheels, and having an SUV w/rear wheel drive and a big motor, and driving up an incline, it didn't occur to me that i had the e-brakes on until i killed them.

so i took today off with the intention of getting them fixed and having them look at a few other things. i just got the estimate for the entire job.

$3300

fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck....

turns out there were MORE problems with my rear brakes in addition to my doings that have to be fixed as well. the good news (such that there is) is that those repairs are due to age (109k miles) rather than my fucking them up. that isn't to say that my fucking them up didn't help the process along, but i take minor relief in that.

not really, but i'll pretend i do. it will make me feel better.

the other major fix (again age related, and shitty road related) is on my front suspension, and a good portion of that needs to be fixed. it wasn't 100% critical to get it done today, but would need to be done sooner or later, and i know for fact would fail my car inspection. (i've had it 5 years, and it failed twice, once due to the ball joints)

things i'm not getting fixed: the 4x4 control motor, the rear wiper and the exhaust.

the 4x4 control motor is what handles the shifting of 2wd into 4wd. again, age related, not critical as i don't go off-roading in this, and i only really use the 4x4 in the winter. i'll fix that this fall.

rear wiper - i've lived w/o it for 3 1/2+ years. figured it would be an easy fix. costs too much in light of the brake situation.

exhaust - i'll take it to midas and get a better deal there. i won't sit on it too long, but i'm willing to bet it would cost 1/2 as much there.

shit fuck shit fuck shit fuck shit fuck....

looking at $2200 in repairs. so much for all that money i supposedly was saving by not having car payments....that pretty much covers EVERYTHING i had managed to save from that...

M decreed the other day that we needed (more I needed than she needed) to cut back on the frufru drinks i'm so fond of. i was thinking once in a while i might indulge. that is WAAAAAAY out the window and i'm glad i've started brewing my own coffee for ice coffees. there's a little more saved...that 5.84 i spent on the jumbo tub (w/flavor seal) of folgers made ice coffee a lot more affordable.

fuck fuck fuck...

and to think, i was figuring i'd just hold on to this thing until it ran into the ground. fucking thing did that and didn't bother to tell me.

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stoopit weather

a little while ago there was a nice line of thunderstorms winding their way eastward and what happens?

they fell apart so i was left with nothing.

no thunderstorm.

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this is something i could use.

the only thing that would make it cooler is if it has a little low res webcam to use for aiming it.

UPDATE! now with video goodness!

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CRandall's Fucktard of the Week

this is just plain disturbing. i'm all for making cover songs unique, but this is ranking up there in the pantheon of 'what the fuck were you thinking?'

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that was rude...

M & i went looking at suits yesterday for the wedding i'm in and it was a rather rude awakening when it came to my sizing. most notably, it's a higher number than i thought. the good news is that our shopping experience at Men's Warehouse was vastly superior to K&G. unfortunately, K&G has the better prices. regardless, it ain't that cheap, and i'm wondering about the cost of JennKitty's bits that are being made because that could be adding to the cost of the suit.

i've commented with M about how women's sizing is just completely screwed up. a size 6 in one store is a size 4 in another, and a size 8 in yet another. there seems to be no consistancy in the sizing, which could help explain why it is women love shopping. they have to try every size on to find the one that fits which has now mutated into the love of shopping. hmmm...that's always been a mystery to most men, but that may be it. at least in part.

men's clothes tend to be more consistant in the sizing. however, as we discovered yesterday, even those are off. i've never bothered to measure my waist with a tape measure, using what my pant size is when i buy pants for work, jeans, etc. well, those numbers are lower than what it actually is which suprised both of us. the reason we were given was those fabrics will stretch, while suit pants aren't meant to. go figure. at it turned out, the pants that were what my waist was measured at actually did fit pretty well, but with a little effort, the size down will be a better fit (and require a lot less pricey tailoring) so off to the gym i must go.

so, that's where things are for the moment. today is sposed to be hot as hell. well, not Hell, that's prolly mighty toasty and i'm sure that there are places that are a little hotter than it will be here, but that's neither here nor there. not sure what i want to do today. have to call dad later. prolly get some answers to questions i asked the other day. at least things are beginning to move. literally.

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we all feed on tragedy
just like night to a vampire
-mjk

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quick update

time for bed, but i figured i'd look to see.

1285 minutes since the 'cuda last scanned a message.

not good...not good...

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hooray for fusterclucks!

normally i don't like using people's names here, but today i'll bend my rule.

i got into work ~30 mins late, but once in, i overheard something about not being able to receive any mail from the outside world. so some testing confirmed these results. outgoing mail was fine, but anything inbound wasn't coming in. i checked our barracuda (spam firewall) and very quickly saw that there was NO mail coming in. (it sits in front of exchange, so all mail goes thru it first)

DH tried sending a message to an external acct and the reply addy wasn't our domain, so a quick whois and i discovered the problem.

apparently, the company that holds our domain expired our domain. fortunately, they renewed it for themselves as a don't sell, but it fucked up our mail. and how. so after DH called them to find out what was going on, it was revealed that they had sent the renewal notice to Mike T. who no longer works for us. who left before i got there, so that was more than 2 years ago. now the problem we ran into is only he knows the password so we can update our account information. see, the address he provided: no longer our addy. the same with the phone number, no longer in service. and the icing on the cake, they WON'T RESET THE PASSWORD SO WE CAN LOG ON TO UPDATE THE INFORMATION OURSELVES!!!!

fucking idiot. and apparently he left quite a legacy in his wake. the word i heard from many people in describing Mike T. was "asshole"

so let's call this the word of the day:

ASSHOLE!

A-S-S-H-O-L-E!
he's an asshole!

so now i'm left waiting for the DNS info to propegate properly so that we can start receiving mail. when i checked earlier (and captured the screenshot below), it was still down. that 1000+ minutes since last message scanned is a BAD thing. i wonder if things have propegated yet....we were told it may take up to 24 hours which is a long time for a business to be w/o email. even when i had to repair the exchange dbase (which sucked), we were only down for a few hours. but this is all day so far which is bad bad bad...



fucking jackass....i'm glad we fired you.

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WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS????

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that's a bright idea

i got a funny thing in the mail today - Phantom Fireworks sent out a flyer advertising...get this - FIREWORKS!

apparently they are opening a few new stores up north in the kentucky of the north (as a friend would say). so what better way to drum up business than to encourage those of us in massy2shits to break the law and purchase incendiary devices that are illegal to own or set of in the fine commonwealth of massy2shits.

at last check, the only people that were allowed to transport and/or display fireworks in the state are those with proper licenses. so here i sit in front of my laptop with the flyer to its left wondering just how many people are going to break the law, head north to northern kentucky, purchase fireworks and then transport them across state lines and set them off at some point in the future.

yay Phantom Fireworks. congrats on encouraging people to break the law.

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heeheeheehee...

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this weekend has been fairly quiet. yesterday was a nice day with M, but the weather sucked. we attempted to see Over The Hedge yesterday afternoon, but the 430, 500 and 530 showings were sold out, so we went elsewhere. (something about a kids movie and rain seems to bring the little brats out of the woodwork)

today was a little better in the weather department, managed to get my laundry done this morning. otherwise, not much to the day.

i was just watching Flip This House on A&E and they are working on a house in Myrtle Beach that they paid $849k for ($45k in fixing it), and sold it for $1.475M. i'm wondering what the buyer of the house is going to think when they see this on tv. but then again, if you are going to be paying that much for a house (granted, a block from the ocean), you really don't care.

oh to be able not to care.

prolly make it an early night tonight. had to get up early this morning (comparatively) so i could make sure i got the big washers, but then there was next to no one there today which was suprising. usually sunday is a busy day after 830, but not today.

at least i don't have to go on some relatively pointless trip to amsterdam for a 3 hour meeting. there's a real bright idea, you'll fly out monday night, arrive tuesday afternoon, have the meeting wednesday morning and then fly back that evening. stoopit people. oh well. little can be done, but it will semi-get me out of going to a wedding i don't want to goto in july. but even so, that's a pretty crapass thing to do.

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damn

Jun 3, 2006 5:25 pm US/Eastern
Fed's Investigating Robertson's Jet After Crash
Televangelist Was Not Aboard; Two Pilots Dead

(CBS/AP) GROTON, CT. Federal investigators are back on the scene today to examine a Learjet, owned by religious broadcast Pat Robertson, that crashed yesterday in Long Island Sound while trying to land in heavy fog, killing the two pilots and injuring three passengers. Robertson was not aboard.

Authorities have released the identities of the five people aboard jet. All five were from Virginia. Both pilots were killed. Police today have identified them as 59-year-old Robert Janule of Hampton, Virginia and 55-year-old Michael Kiser of Suffolk, Virginia.

Their passengers sustained minor injuries. They've been identified as 50-year-old Douglas Fuller, of Chesapeake, Virginia, 52-year-old W. Preston Fussell of Chesapeake, Virginia and 53-year-old Norman Fortner of Suffolk, Virginia.

The jet is owned by religious broadcaster Pat Robertson, who wasn't on board. Robertson's company rents the plane out and has a leasing agreement with International Jet Charter of Norfolk, Virginia, which chartered the plane yesterday.

The plane, which was heading from Virginia to the Groton-New London Airport, went down in the water in heavy fog. Investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board and other agencies were back at the site today in their ongoing investigation.

Federal investigators believe fog contributed to a similar plane crash in the same area that killed four people last year

The rescued passengers were able to get out of the plane on their own and were taken to the hospital for minor injuries, state police spokesman Sgt. J. Paul Vance said.

According to Phil Laferrera, an organizer of the Tony Siragusa Celebrity Golf Classic, the passengers were heading to Connecticut to attend a charity golf tournament this weekend at Foxwoods Resort Casino. It went down a half-mile short of the runway at the Groton-New London Airport.

A spokesman for the Connecticut Department of Transportation said the plane may have hit one of several approach lights mounted in a cove near the airport. Officials with the Federal Aviation Administration are on the scene and National Transportation Safety Board authorities are expected to arrive today.

The jet is registered to Virginia-based Robertson Asset Management. The company is owned by Robertson and is separate from the Christian Broadcasting Network, spokeswoman Angell Vasko said.

She said Robertson was not on the plane and rents it out because he uses it infrequently.

"We're still trying to figure out who was on the plane," she said. "It's not Dr. Robertson, or (anyone) related to CBN or related to Dr. Robertson's individual businesses."

Coast Guard officials said the chartered, twin-engine Learjet 35 took off from Norfolk, Va., about 12:30 p.m. Friday and stopped in Atlantic City, N.J., to drop off two passengers before heading to Connecticut.

Rachel Waszkelewicz said she heard the crash and ran out of her house and onto her dock, but it was too foggy to see, so she called out to a group of lobstermen.

"Everybody jumped in their boats," she said. "You could hear voices. I don't know if it was from the plane or if it was boaters yelling to them."

Dick Sawyer, who lives in the neighborhood, said, "You could barely see past your hand at the time." Five minutes later, he said, the fog lifted just enough to reveal the jet in the water.

Two of the passengers were checked and released at a local hospital, while the third was kept overnight for observation.

(© 2006 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)

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i'm watching VH1's Rock Honors which is kinda fun, altho when it came time for Def Leppard", i had to laugh at Rick Savage. if you click the link, you'll see what i'm talking about (he's 2nd from the right in the group shot on the home page). i hadn't realized that the band had a girl in the group. i'm presuming it's inspired by the whole glam rock look which much of their current cd Yeah! is composed of, but still, that's a bit much.

all in all, i thought it was pretty enjoyable. i liked that they had interview footage of Freddie which was cool. (i think paul rogers flubbed they lyrics to Show Must Go On.) kiss didn't overly impress me, but i think part of their magic is the spectacle that is kiss. it was certainly more entertaining than reruns and stupid reality shows.





eyeball spotting:
life is not a kettle of fish
-frank burns (M*A*S*H)

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