Category: Rant

But I sure as hell have more common sense than one.

I was at Home Depot the other day and I was going to get a key duplicated, (this was a mistake since they clearly don’t know how the hell to make a copy of a key) and I walked by a guy (we will call him Eric) who was asking the Employee questions about flashlights.

Now the Home Depot employee didn’t seem to know the answers to the Eric’s questions, since Eric was asking as to which flashlight would be able to retain power the best over 6 months. I myself as a “flashlight enthusiast” was more than happy to try to help this guy out, I mean I’ve been enthralled by flashlights since I was 10. I jumped in to give the guy some advice, I recommended the Maglight AA LED. I’ve used Maglights for years, and know just how reliable they are, so I felt safe in recommending it. Eric stated that he was a snowbird and needed an emergency flashlight in case of a power outage during a hurricane. He didn’t want to worry about power problems over 6 months of no usage. Now I’ve left batteries in Maglights for years and they still have power as needed, especially with the LED’s. I of course restated this giving more information.

Now this is where I was baffled. Eric then proclaimed that he was an “Electrical Engineer” and knew more about flashlights than anyone (then why the hell did you ask an employee of a store any questions?) and that I could provide no useful input to the conversation. To me the most amusing thing of the whole situation is that I walked off to get my key copied and I saw Eric pick out a plug in flashlight. One of the ones that is designed to stay plugged in until there is a power outage then when you unplug it, it will turn on.

To me, his choice of said flashlight is amusing, as an Electrical Engineer, he should have some understanding of the way a battery works (no I am not an expert, but I do know some basics of rechargeable batteries.) When you leave a rechargeable battery plugged in 24/7/365 you do severe damage to the battery. There have been advancements in battery technology to prevent memory problems which means you don’t really have to worry about the battery “forgetting” what full charge is, BUT you do have to worry about overcharging.

Newer battery technology typically has trickle charges. From empty the batteries will charge to around 80% in a “fast charge” then from 80-100% they trickle charge to increase battery life. But once they are at 100% they can’t stay at that because the battery will over time lose capacity. Instead they will (at least in laptops) drain down the percentage slightly and then trickle charge it back up to maintain proper health.

In computers I deal with customers who have laptops that have dreadful battery life, typically 30 minutes to 1 hour out of a computer that should give them at least 3 hours. They never can figure it out, but when asked if they ever use their laptop on their lap…they ask “Why would I do that?” Batteries are never meant to be kept at 100% all of the time, because batteries just like people, need exercise or they waste away much faster. Leave a battery at 100% most of the time and within 6 months you can see up to a 25% drop in charge cycles, when I worked at Apple I saw a 6 month old battery that was never unplugged and had 3 charge cycles (from the software’s attempt to maintain proper health) that had a 50% drop in capacity.

So basically an electrical engineer shouldn’t be that much of a moron to not know the basics of a damn rechargeable battery. Rather keep the batteries out of the flashlight for 6 months then pop them back in when you come to town.

I’m not an Electrical Engineer…..

So I just received an email from someone who I have never had contact with. I typically don’t have too many issue with this since I tend to ignore these emails altogether. This email showed up on my Blackberry with the subject “The Ant and the Grasshopper – old and new versions:” Now, I always liked Aesop’s fables as a child so I figured I would read it and check it out. Boy oh boy was that a mistake.

The email is as follows.

The Ant and the Grasshopper – old and new versions:
 

 

OLD VERSION

The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter. 

The grasshopper thinks the ant is a fool and laughs and dances and plays the summer away.. 

Come winter, the ant is warm and well fed. 

The grasshopper has no food or shelter, so he dies out in the cold.

 

MORAL OF THE STORY: Be responsible for yourself!

 
NEW   VERSION

The ant works hard in the withering heat and the rain all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter. 

The grasshopper thinks the ant is a fool and laughs and dances and plays the summer away. 

Come winter, the shivering grasshopper calls a press conference and demands to know why the ant should be allowed to be warm and well fed while he is cold and starving. 

CBS, NBC , PBS, CNN, and ABC show up to provide pictures of the shivering grasshopper next to a video of the ant in his comfortable home with a table filled with food. 

America is stunned by the sharp contrast. 

How can this be, that in a country of such wealth, this poor grasshopper is allowed to suffer so? 

Kermit the Frog appears on Oprah with the grasshopper and everybody cries when they sing, ‘It’s Not Easy Being Green.’ 

Acorn stages a demonstration in front of the ant’s house where the news stations film the group singing, ‘We shall overcome.’ Rev. Jeremiah Wright then has the group kneel down to pray to God for the grasshopper’s sake. 

President Obama condemns the ant and blames President Bush, President Reagan, Christopher Columbus, and the Pope for the grasshopper’s plight.

Nancy Pelosi & Harry Reid exclaim in an interview with Larry King that the ant has gotten rich off the back of the grasshopper, and both call for an immediate tax hike on the ant to make him pay his fair share. 

Finally, the EEOC drafts the Economic Equity & Anti-Grasshopper Act retroactive to the beginning of the summer. 

The ant is fined for failing to hire a proportionate number of green bugs and, having nothing left to pay his retroactive taxes, his home is confiscated by the Government Green Czar and given to the grasshopper. 

The story ends as we see the grasshopper and his free-loading friends finishing up the last bits of the ant’s food while the government house he is in, which, as you recall, just happens to be the ant’s old house, crumbles around them because the grasshopper doesn’t maintain it. 

The ant has disappeared in the snow, never to be seen again. 

The grasshopper is found dead in a drug related incident, and the house, now abandoned, is taken over by a gang of spiders who terrorize the ramshackle, once prosperous and once peaceful, neighborhood.

The entire Insect Nation collapses bringing the rest of the free  insect  world with it.  

MORAL OF THE STORY: Be careful how you vote in 2012.

Now, my issues with this email are numerous, just looking at it, I despise the fact that the font is huge, really? Am I blind? Second off, the vibe that I get from this email is that the Ant is the good guy, the Grasshopper is the bad guy. If that is the case, why make the good guy’s colour red? When I think of red, I think of anger, aggression, and overall bad. When I think of blue, I tend to think of relaxed and overall good.

Now when you look at this email it seems like anyone who doesn’t have an education and works for minimum wage is clearly the bad guy and is problematic. As someone who is currently unemployed and trying to start up a business I do take offense to this. I’m not formally educated, school was never a proper fit for me especially in the fields that I like. I’m a computer person tried and true. But I hate learning on the schedules that schools insist on, due to that I’d rather teach myself what I know. I do agree we have a society where there are lazy people who are desiring of leeching off others, but that is not “most” of society.

I could be reading into this but, when I look at this email, it seems to be that the “Ant” is “White People” whereas the “Grasshopper” and the “Green Insects” are “Black People.” I’m not sure what the “Spiders” are, but when I look at this it could be any of the “Undesirables” who are always brought up in any racist propaganda. I really like the fact that the “Grasshopper” dies in a drug related incident. Because anyone who “leeches” off the system and hides behind it is immediately a drug user.

I can keep going on and on about this, but in reality I am curious, what do you think?

Really? Propaganda Much?

So it’s Passover time, thus I am heading home to Baltimore for the 2 Seders. So I arrive at the airport about 2 and a half hours ahead of time and go to the park and save. Now I didn’t realize just how far away the park and save actually is….it is a good 20 minutes away from the airport, in the middle of nowhere…..and I even saw a gunrack on a volkswagon. I didn’t think I had traveled that deep into redneck country, but apparently…I DID!

Then I get to the airport, and boy oh boy, that’s where the fun starts. You see security really just SUCKS, I have travelled before with a knife in my carryons that I just forgot, and this is post 9-11. So today I go up to security, take my belt off, and anything that would set off the machine. I leave my watch and necklace on because well, they have never set off the machine, Silver and Titanium, the metal detector doesn’t actually catch that….GREAT! So I’m walking through the machine and well BAM! BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP…..”Sir did you forget any metal objects?” Cue me taking off the watch and necklace, Walk through again! BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP…”Sir I need you to step over here”….GREAT! So I go into the screening area, and the Guard has me sit down, checks the bottom of my feet, and begins to wand me. Goes over me 4 fucking times with the wand, trying to find out what the hell could be setting off the machine, the only possibility is my zipper, but the wand never goes off over my zipper. Then the patdowns begin….OH JOY! Nothing I love better than getting patted down. In the end, the security guard has no fucking clue what set off the machine, sends me on my way, and then I get questioned by all the other TSA guards on what actually set it off. I feel GREAT now!

God I hate travelling

Yea….my car got run over by some prick in a hit and run, so the past few days I’ve been driving a rental car. I gotta say, it kinda sucks not being able to drive my own car…but at the same time, it’s kinda cool to drive a new 2007 Honda Accord LX. But of course, I have to include picture proof of such damage. It’s worse than it looks, I needed a whole new hood and a complete repaint of my bumper according to the body shop. Nicely done asshole SUV driver!
Car Damage

So

Time for a new theme….
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Well

Something went wrong with my Server and the SQL database, thus….well losing the whole blog. Somehow it got deleted and they have no idea what the fuck happened….lovely. Post later today about rich white boy’s pretending to be thuggish.

Well….