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What’s up with NetFlix these days? I never used to receive any unplayable discs but the last three I’ve received have had to be returned. I suppose that more customers means more people putting their grubby little fingers over the surface. But whats the point of paying them money if every movie has to be watched in two sessions, several days apart.

I guess I’m just not geeky enough but why would anyone want to watch movies on their cellphone?? Half the time the sun here makes it impossible to view the screen in daylight and I can’t believe that you can really see Batman very well on the tiny screen. And if you’re indoors, why not watch it on the TV instead?

So its high school graduation time and every parent is ‘oh so proud’. When did it become a major event to get a kid through school? They even have pre-school graduation ceremonies – is it so unlikely that a kid will not die of drugs, HIV or who knows what that they need a ceremony ? And of course no ceremony is complete without the parents having to shell out for a major gift (I bet the number of new car owners increased dramatically this week). Its little wonder that kids here have such an entitlement attitude, when you grow up thinking that you’re a hero just for getting out of bed and doing some homework each day its no wonder that you think you’re too good to get a job and actually earn a living for yourself. If I see one more picture of 6 year olds in cap and gown receiving ‘diplomas’ I swear I’ll drink another vodka.

So, as you may have seen from the news, there was a big earthquake in northern CA last night that triggered an automatic tsunami warning. Props to NBC news for issuing a special news bulletin telling us that the chances of a big wave hitting San Diego were close to nil and to not worry about it, but a boo hiss to CBS news which was treating the warning like a disaster creeping up on us. If all you had listened to was them you would have been packing up your bags and heading to the hills. Irresponsible and sensationalist broadcasting at his best.

Coming back from the store last night, the turn into my street was blocked by a Brawley PD car facing towards me chatting to a guy in an SUV facing same way as me. Behind the SUV was another car and then me. Waited awhile for them to have their chat but it was several minutes before they cleared the road. As the PD car went by I raised my hands in an ‘at last’ type gesture, turned at the intersection and saw the cop car do a u-turn.

Got to my driveway, he pulls up and asks what my ‘smart-ass gesture’ was about. I pointed out that having a conversation and blocking the street was not a good thing and he said that the other driver was making a complaint. Right, people regularly smile and laugh when they are making complaints, and if true, why not pull over to one side and take the details or, here’s an idea, go to the police station and make it.

Anyway, he told me I had other options than just sit there (illegally reverse down the street, or mount the curb to get by) and left. I wanted to point out that not only did he stop traffic in the street to chat, he parked on the wrong side of the street to chew me out, and his cop car had no plates on it. But of course the laws only apply to the citizens of Brawley town, not law enforcement, so I backed down and away he went. I’m sure he was disappointed my Jeep was totally legal-looking.

I’m going to write a complaint, I’ll probably be harrassed for the next year 🙂

Its not because their products stink cos really they aren’t much worse than anything else, they get the job done with no frills etc. But I am tired of their attitude. They don’t innovate and so when something comes along that takes over the market they get all sulky and make grand statements proclaiming their competitors can’t last like these two this week:
The ipod is on the way out
Google to perish in five years
I think Gates and Ballmer see themselves as God-like, issuing sermons that the great public will just lap up and obey without reason. I’m dupming my iPod for a crappy cell phone, Bill Gates told me to! Rather than spin PR, I think the MS $ would be better spent making a better product that can compete with the incompetent companies like Apple and Google.

Ok, people, didn’t any of you read my Idol blog last week?? wtf, how is it that Scott was in the top 3, his talentless ass should be gone. And Constantine – not my favourite but no way was he #6 in this show. This show gets more of a joke every week of every season, and yet still I watch it. Argh!!!

Oh, and I lost a bet of a 6 pack of diet coke over Scott’s non-elimination, you all owe me.

Dear pimply teenage girl, please stop voting for Scott and Anthony. Each week that I see them survive the vote, the voices in my head urging me to kill get louder and louder and I don’t know that I can refuse to obey them for much longer. So please, start voting for the people who can (a) sing a note and (b) have some, any, personality. In case you need help identifying those people, they are Vonsall, Carrie, Bo and Constantine.

In other reality-related news, CNN is reporting that Trump is rumoured to have paid $1M to the cruise ship that was recently struck by the 7ft wave to have it return to NY early so it could appear on The Apprentice. Without this financial incentive the ship would probably not have ended the cruise early, or sailed through a raging storm. If true, I think the vacationers should sue his ass and tell the Trumpster: you’re fired.

I tried installing my employer’s VPN client off my new thumb drive yesterday, the machine had to reboot and it never came back up. Tried booting ‘last known good configuration’ but that doesn’t work, can’t even get into safe mode, gets so far and reboots. I tried the XP recovery console but it lists no services and says it can’t read the directory. I thought I’d put another install on my C drive, boot from it and see what I could do but the install CD says the CD drive needs to be formatted. Well, first, no, and second if it is unformatted how come just a few minutes ago you read the boot sequence from it?? I hate computers.

Last week at work I upgraded JDeveloper and Oracle’s Application Server and now my main project no longer executes properly. I know its a configuration issue but I really don’t have the interest in switching out files and parameters to fix what was never broken.

Did I tell you I hate computers?

It annoys me immensely when people insist on using chopsticks at a fast-food Chinese restaurant (like Panda Express). The American custom of not using rice bowls to eat from makes chopstick use highly inconvenient so I am sure this requirement stems solely from a wish to look cooler than everyone else. Yeah, if you’re in a nice restaurant, break out the stix to make it more of an occasion but when you’re stuffing $5 orange chicken in your mouth at a lunchtime, just use a fork and get it eaten.