Yahoo! Health News: Testosterone Tumbling in American Males

Yahoo! Health News: Testosterone Tumbling in American Males NooooooOOooOoOooO No wonder I've been noticing drapes and things like that lately.

Line Rider - beta by *fsk on deviantART

Line Rider - beta by *fsk on deviantART
Holy crap! simple addictive flash thingy.

Supreme Beings of Leisure

Hi everybody, it’s me, Dan. Today something amazing happened. I got a call to fix a little old lady’s laptop computer. There was nothing wrong with it really, it just needed a slight attitude adjustment. But the amazing thing was, the computer guy she had before me set the laptop up exactly how I would have. It was amazing. Most computer guys always talk smack about the LAST computer guy, usually because there are a million ways to skin almost every technological cat.* But this guy had the machine set up just like I would.

I told the old lady this. She said the only reason she didn’t call the guy back was because he was a “smart-alec”. So let that be a lesson out there, don’t be a smart ass, especially if you want to keep people’s business. You can know your business, but even if you have the same product, if you’re an asshole, your customer won’t call you back.

Oh, and on the entertainment tip, check out the name of this band: Supreme Beings of Leisure. The name says it all. Cool-froody chill-out music. I got their self-titled CD, and it is coooool.


*yes, I know that analogy sucked

expound on all things ME

Haven’t updated in awhile. I’ve been working too much. But that’s a good thing. I’ve been busy at this tool and die place cleaning up after the last computer guy who had everything jacked up and then ran out on them. I got everything pretty much cleaned up.

Otherwise, I got nuthin. I’ve been watching the Tigers. They’re going to the World Series.

I did witness the most annoying people on the planet at Meijer today. They barked everything they said at the top of their lungs. Four husky girls in their twenties(?) with a toddler. Jesus, I wanted to run out of there screaming.

Well, I wish I had more time to expound on all things ME, but I have to do some stuff.

Peace out.

the game my cell phone company plays

Here is the game my cell phone company plays:

I upgraded my cell phone, hoping to find happiness. My new phone works great, it is shiny and new, but I am no more happy than I was before. But that’s not why I’m writing you, the Internet User, today.

There is a $50.00 rebate, so the whole upgrade costs me a whopping 20 bucks. Nice. But here is the game they play:

On the rebate receipt, they warn:

“Merchandise is not eligible to be returned if the Manufacturer UPC code is removed from the box.”

Okay. Fair enough.

But on the $50.00 Mail-In Rebate Offer sheet thingy, it says:

“Please note, if you remove the bar code label from the equipment box, the product cannot be returned. Do not remove the bar code label to submit for rebate until after the return period is over.”

And of course, they want you to cut the UPC bar code off and send it in to get the rebate.

So. Two warnings. How long is the “return period”?

15 days.

What are they trying to accomplish with this? In two weeks, how many people are going to forget to send in their rebate form, or lose the paperwork? Tricky. Oh my Corporate Masters! You are more powerful than me!

Otherwise, I've had two days of zenlike non-drama cool-froodiness.

I am a dumbass

I fixed a hp plotter. The plotter needs a DHCP server. I rerouted some wiring on the shop floor that went to the CNC machine.

Then the plotter stopped working. After a short puzzlement, I found that the wire to the plotter had come loose when I was moving the unrelated wiring on the same switch.

I wrote a batch file to run a backup. I hooked up the external hard-drive I had just purchased.

The power cord to the external hard drive that I just purchased kept falling out. I had bought a faulty part.

I took it back to the technology store that will remain nameless (Circuit City)

I showed them the power cord falling out of the external hard drive.

They wouldn’t let me return it, because I didn’t have the 1 cent install CD that came with it, even though I never used it.

I left in a huff.

I drove halfway across town when I realized I forgot the receipt at the return counter.

I drove back.

I went in in a huff. I lost my cool. I demanded to see the manager. He agreed that it was a “dumb” policy blab la RMA returns etc etc.

I left in a huff. I came home in a huff. I almost bought beer, but instead I went jogging.

And now I typed this, and now I realize that I was wrong. I didn’t have to do anything “in a huff.” and I am a dumbass. Today anyway. Maybe tomorrow I’ll wise up.

I am a geek!

Hey everybody! Today I made backup batch files, reconfigured static IP addresses (weird) and puzzled over the HP plotters inability to talk to a network. All of this with a looming motherboard change and industrial area cabling issues. Stay tuned! I am a geek!

I saw many traffic accidents, traffic, road construction and other hoo-haw. My back is feeling slightly better.

That’s it. I have no time for you now.

Peace!

climb the rock wall

Today Savannah and I enjoyed “Star Trek II, The Wrath of Khan” At least, I enjoyed it. Savannah thought it was “too dramatic”. I cried when Spock was in that clear plastic chamber where he got radiation poisoning. When he put his hand up and made the “live long and prosper” sign, and Kirk put his hand on the other side of the glass, it broke my heart. Poor Spock.

We went to the mall, and Alex got a new winter coat. I made the embarrassing mistake of trying to climb the rock wall at the sports equipment place. I think I got ten feet before I fell. I should have tried the easier side. Now my back hurts, and I am sad. Boo Hoo.

We went to Henry Johnson Park on the way back. It was a beautiful day. I was able to redeem myself by climbing the little five-foot rock wall on the little play set there.

Now my back is killing me.

the last post i've done so far.

today I spent quality time with a juniper router. I made static ip addresses talk to ftp servers and i made virtual routes.

I told a man his computer was totalled because of lightning. I wrote his insurance company a little note to the same effect.

It's finally cooled off the way it is supposed to, and now there is a havest moon shining in the sky.

Nighty-night internet!

No time to blog.

Yesterday: Photo Kiosk, Coopersville.
Today: Router that is not broken must be fixed anyway.

enough with the October Thunderstorms

Okay, okay already, enough with the October Thunderstorms. I've had to unplug everything in the house about ten times already. I get enough calls for fried equipment to know better than to leave everything plugged in.

Remember kids, unplug your stuff during global-warming induced winter thunderstorms!

Monday Hoo-Haw

Today: Juno reinstallation; external HD installation, CAD file corrupt; DSL/Router Hoo-Haw; reformat.

Heavy lightning, unseasonably(?) warm. Wind gusts and rain.

At the library, they have this self-checkout system. You just scan your library card and put each book on this pad, and it can identify each book. Then it prints you a receipt. Finally, a library visit with no human interaction whatsoever. Oh Progress, I love how you allow us all to live in our insular, safe little worlds.

I wonder if the machine that allows me to check out my own library books forwards the information to the Department of Justice. I hope so. Free thought and privacy are dangerous. I must obey the collective for the greater good.

OH THE HUMANITY

Oh cruel fate, how come you gotta be so cruel? I got an email a few minutes ago from the editor of RELEVANT magazine, letting me know that my kick-ass story about eccentric celebs is posted in his online magazine.

I get there and I’m like “hey, my article is right there, in a real online magazine.” I get ready to post the announcement to my loyal web-page readers, when my Internet connection goes down.

OH THE HUMANITY.

Of course, I suppose you’ve figured out that the connection is back up; otherwise, you wouldn’t be reading this fresh post.

But right now, at eleven at night, my connection is still down. I’ll probably get more writing done tonight then ever before. The Internet is such a distraction. The cable modem is downstairs, and every five minutes, whether I want to or not, I go down there and see if the little green “online” light is still blinking.

I even walked next door to the neighbor’s. They said the Internet was up, which is even more frustrating, because now it’s just ME and not something going on at the other end of the line at Comcast. Dammit!

No time to blog

No time to blog . . . must . . . write . . . international best-selling novel . . . no time . . .

Monday's Blog Post-O-Complaints!

Today I installed 3 printers, 5 UPS, and a touch-screen. Thanks Don for the business. I organized the cabling in my techno-mobile. I mowed the lawn. Savannah’s school photos came in and she looks marvelous.

Writing a book is hard. There are so many words, and they have to be in the right order. There are characters, and they have to do and say interesting things. Things have to happen in a plausible way, but it can’t be just like real life, because real life is dull. It has to be entertaining and witty but not too witty.

Maybe I should just plagiarize something. But even that involves a lot of typing, and my fingers will get tired.

I might have to do research in order to make the book interesting enough for someone else to actually want to read it. All my science fiction is starting to sound like re-hashed Star Trek episodes.

My left elbow is all scraped up from me leaning on it, staring into my screen, trying to, by sheer force of will, to make shit happen in my story.

I don’t know my own mother’s address to send the school photos of Savannah to her. She moved.

defragmentation achieved.

Let all peoples of Earth know that my laptop files are now contiguous. Long live laptop.

why does this video exist??

It's official: this video is the weirdest thing I've seen on the Internets in a long time. Prepare to be amused and terrified.

Fun fact about the Internets!

If you Google the term "breathtaking breasts", my laptop story page comes up first.

Remember, the more you know, the more you grow.

Have a great weekend Internet junkies!

WAR IS A RACKET!

The following is an excerpt from a speech Gen. Smedley Butler delivered in 1933(…) It is one of over 1,200 speeches he delivered in over 700 US cities. In the first half of the 20th century, Gen. Butler was as well known as Colin Powell is today. He served 33 years in the US Marines and is one of only 19 people ever to receive TWO Congressional Medals of Honor - the highest decoration the US Military awards.

"War is just a racket. A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of people. Only a small inside group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few at the expense of the masses.

I believe in adequate defense at the coastline and nothing else. If a nation comes over here to fight, then we'll fight. The trouble with America is that when the dollar only earns 6 percent over here, then it gets restless and goes overseas to get 100 percent. Then the flag follows the dollar and the soldiers follow the flag.

I wouldn't go to war again as I have done to protect some lousy investment of the bankers. There are only two things we should fight for. One is the defense of our homes and the other is the Bill of Rights. War for any other reason is simply a racket.

There isn't a trick in the racketeering bag that the military gang is blind to. It has its "finger men" to point out enemies, its "muscle men" to destroy enemies, its "brain men" to plan war preparations, and a "Big Boss" Super-Nationalistic-Capitalism.

It may seem odd for me, a military man to adopt such a comparison. Truthfulness compels me to. I spent thirty- three years and four months in active military service as a member of this country's most agile military force, the Marine Corps. I served in all commissioned ranks from Second Lieutenant to Major-General. And during that period, I spent most of my time being a high class muscle- man for Big Business, for Wall Street and for the Bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism.

I suspected I was just part of a racket at the time. Now I am sure of it. Like all the members of the military profession, I never had a thought of my own until I left the service. My mental faculties remained in suspended animation while I obeyed the orders of higher-ups. This is typical with everyone in the military service.

I helped make Mexico, especially Tampico, safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefits of Wall Street. The record of racketeering is long. I helped purify Nicaragua for the international banking house of Brown Brothers in 1909-1912. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for American sugar interests in 1916. In China I helped to see to it that Standard Oil went its way unmolested.

During those years, I had, as the boys in the back room would say, a swell racket. Looking back on it, I feel that I could have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was to operate his racket in three districts. I operated on three continents."

I got another story published.

I just got my copy of Tales of the Talisman 2.2 in the mail today. My short story "Fuel" is on pg. 28, and I reread it after a long time, and the ending is great! Plus, there's a kick-ass illustration that goes with it by Liz Clarke. AND . . . there's a bio of me on page 81. I want each and every one of you to click the cover right now and order your copy today.