Stupidity in the extreme

Alright, so I am cruising the web today checking out some computer related sites for news or whatever. I run across an article over at PCWorld.com. Now, PCWorld.com has never really impressed me, but this one just really made me pull my hair out. The article in question was "Hardware Torture Tests". Hmm, ok.

Now, being in the business I can tell you - and it really is common sense - that if you drop cameras, they fucking BREAK! It's a funny thing. I think it is the combination of gravity, speed, impact, and sudden stop that cause it.

So, how do they test this nice Canon A510 digital camera for a "torture test"? Well, the simply DROPPED IT! On CONCRETE! So, in a nutshell, here are they keypoints from the review:

"Drop nine finally killed the camera" "Grade: FRAGILE"

You have just GOT to be FUCKING kidding me.

You drop a camera NINE times on concrete and are upset that it breaks and rate it FRAGILE? Jesus! This from a site that the general consumers out there go to to try to get information. No wonder the majority of the consumers out there are blockheads! With sites like this feeding them this garbage it's no wonder! I can just see it now. Some customer is going to walk in and say "Well, I'm looking for a digital camera, but I don't want that Canon one cuz it's not reliable.

So, the stupid award of the week goes out to the boneheads at PCWorld.com. Thanks guys, for making a totally dumbass article to further stupefy the consumers.

"Look Sir, Droids!"

Holy crap! Has it been a whole week already? Jeesh! This week went by in insane time.

Work has been pretty busy, especially with the Memorial Day weekend. Have to work tomorrow as well - I'd much rather be barbequeing or something. I also get to play slave laborer later this week as we open a new store. All the managers get to go and set up the new store. Remember now kids, whenever anyone says you will be on "salary", that's not a good thing...

This week did hold one surprise for me that added much joy to my week! Our shopping center had a little promotion going on. Now, since I was a kid, I loved Star Wars. In particular I loved the friggin Stormtroopers! Always thought they were the coolest. I still have a full Stormtrooper helmet sitting in my closet (though it has seen better days! Hey, its friggin 25 years old!) Anyways, the promotion was for this window blinds place that was selling - you guessed it - Star Wars blinds. So of course, you had to have some Star Wars characters on hand from the venerable 501st Legion. VERY COOL! What was even cooler was the fact that these guys had the voice mod & amp kits. So, when they talked, they sounded just like Stormtroopers.

Crisis averted

OK. Well, I am at one with the universe again. Apparently, for a change, the powers that be realized that the issue at hand was an honest mistake and not something with darker intentions. Plus they like me. So, crisis averted and things are well on the work front once again. (despite the usual pain of the ass things, which I can deal with with) Thanks for all the well wishes. I appreciate them greatly. It was indeed two days of major grief though, which from here on out will not be mentioned again!

Off today. Not sure what the plans are yet. Would like to see if I could run over to the folks and say hi today. Work keeps me so busy that I don't get to see them as much as I would like. I try to stop by at least once a week, but that has been tough to do lately with my schedule.

The new Star Wars flick is out, Revenge of the Sith. Not quite sure when I will go see it. Definately after the crowds die down a bit. Not sure if I will see it alone or with my woman, as she is not much the Star Wars fan. Although I'd hate the goofy thought of me sitting in a theater alone watching a flick.

The one movie coming out though that really has my attention is War of the Worlds. It is looking really good. All end of the world creepy stuff like the original. The latest trailer for those interested can be found HERE!

Well, the woman JUST got up. She a big SLEEPY HEAD! So, guess I will go see what the plans are for today...

Bad day

Well, today I have done nothing but worry about my job. Worry as in will I be keeping it or not. Not a good day. Not a good week. Not a good month. Seems some shit is going down at work this week that I may end up taking the heat for. Partialy my screw up, but the big boys may be looking at from those dire angles that they usually do. So, I may be on the job hunt soon, again. Yay me.

Honestly, at this point, with all the grief I have already received from this company over the past month, I am very much tempted just to walk in, make my call and quit outright and avoid all the future grief that may come. One side of me says to stick with it and see what happens. But I think I may just cut my losses early.

Ultra shitty proposition either way, honestly. My stress level today is through the roof and I dont stress easily. I swear, I just want a job with no bullshit or grief. Maybe I'll just go bag groceries for a while. I am just so tired of it all.

Thank God for my woman or I swear I'd be jumping off a roof somewhere today.

The Beast

Well, this is an interesting tidbit of news about the upcoming X-Men 3. Sci-Fi Wire reports that they have cast Kelsey Grammer in the role of Beast! Now, that is just going to be a riot! Beyond adding Beast to the X-Men ensemble, they will also be adding Juggernaut, Angel, and Shadowcat. Shadowcat has been seen in the previous X-Men - the girl that walks through walls - will be interesting to see more of her. Juggernaut though, he will be bad ass to see on screen.

Star Wars mania strikes again

I remember when I was a little kid and my dad taking me to see Star Wars. What a rush that was. I particularly remember right from the intro, with that small Correllian Cruiser flying overhead being chased by that huge Star Destroyer that you thought was just never going to end. Talk about stuff that was totally stunning and emersive. Especially for the time. I think I saw that movie like 27 times when it first came out.

It is one of the movies I traded off to see with my woman. I thought, hell, its Star Wars. Who does not like Star Wars!? Well, my woman doesn't, for one! Crazy thing she is, sometimes.

The last movie of the second trilogy "Revenge of the Sith" is due out this week. Now, honestly, the first two of this trilogy have really been "so-so" compared to the original trilogy. The Phantom Menace in particular was pretty craptacular overall. Especially the acting. That damn kid they got to play a young Anakin just absolutely sucked.

Anyways, this last one sounds like a winner. A killer flick to redeem the past two and actually make them look better in the light of itself. Hopefully that will be the case.

Lets see.. beyond that, I am back in the good graces at work again. Amazing how little it takes sometimes. Good numbers, happy bosses. Crappy numbers, tweaked off bosses. Sad, predictable, but true. Now they are trying to kiss my ass, as my numbers have rocketed (like it wasn't going to happen, anyways). But I'm like, piss off, you already gave me a rash of shit, so now that I have the numbers you want, just go away. Silly crap sometimes, to be sure.

Um, ok, duuurr!

Alright, so, I am tired. But I had to leave you all with this little beauty from one of my corporate related emailings from my work.

Remember kids, accuracy is everything and don't follow one fuck up with another. Cuz, well, it eliminates all doubt...

MisPrint

Corporate greed overtakes another seemingly good job

Well, it has certainly been a craptacular week.

This week was the first since I have been at my "new" job where I realized it is simply like all the other worthless, bullshit, joke ass jobs out there. Simply put. A good job made shitty by corporate greed.

Let me explain, of course. Starting this past week and for the next four weeks we are having a "Frequent Foto Card Challenge". What's a Frequent Foto Card (FFC) you ask? It is simply one of those memberships you join to get good deals and discounts on stuff in the store. Predominantly photo finishing, frames, albums and the like. It is actually a good deal for a mere $15.99 a year. No real problem there. Good service, good price, for the folks who need it.

Where the problem comes in, is with this "challenge" (read: whatever district sells the most, the bossmen get the biggest kickbacks). So, it is no longer about selling items to the customer to benefit them, it's about selling as many as you can to 1) make the boss money. 2) keep your own ass out of the fire.

So remember folks. Sometimes the shit being pushed on to you at your local retailers is all to line the bosses pockets. Don't blame the poor salesperson, they are surely just doing it to keep there job.

Now, normally, stores run an average of 8% on these things. Really kick ass would be like 15% tops. They are, of course, pushing for 15%. Some stores are running upwards of 47%!!! Please!! Fucking tell me there is no shady shit going on there all of the sudden. Of course, we are told to "do it with integrity". Integrity my ass. 47% !! "Do it with integrity = get the numbers no matter what, just don't get caught".

So, anyways... our store is running about 8% (for the first two days of this thing, mind you) and I get a call from the bossman bitching up a storm. Telling me that I can't have a day off until the store hits 15%. Yeah? Oh really? Well, I'll tell ya folks. I don't take kindly to this type of bullshit. I am the type of person that will tell you to stick a job up your ass for crap like this. To me, getting bitched at for stupid shit just ain't worth it in my book. No job is worth that.

The flipside of course is I have bills to pay like everyone else. So, I took a walk outside to calm myself before I did something rash. I will see how the rest of the week goes. Hopefully no more button pushing to set me off.

I can tell you though, that my latest addition to my favorite links is "Hotjobs.com". Time to start looking again.

Is there a good, fun, honest job still available in the world? Hopefully I will find out.

Poo cakes on Mothers Day?

So, I get home from work yesterday and the first thing my woman asks me is if I want some "Poo Cakes"! Well, thinking instantly, "not really"... Lets just say that should would not make it in a career in advertising. You see, she made cupcakes. She was calling them "Poo" cakes because the little wrapper thing they sit in had Winnie the Pooh on it. So, "Pooh Cakes". But since you don't pronounce the "h", she was basically advertising "Crap Cakes"!

What the hell is a "Pooh", anyways? I mean really, I am just thinking about this.

Anyways...

So, today is Mothers Day! We celebrated by going over to the womans folks house for a nice little dinner and desert. My folks were there as well. It was a very nice, relaxing time. (Happy Mothers Day, Mom!)

I also noticed today, as I was just perusing previous posts, that most of my links to images or stories within Yahoo have become broken since stupid Yahoo revised their web pages last week into a new design. So, for those of you checking out old posts, I know how to link! But Yahoo just mangled their web pages in favor of this new design, which I think sucks big time.

Tired as hell tonight, not sure why, had the whole day off and all. Probably crash a bit early tonight. But knowing me, I'll still stay up and watch Cartoon Network for a few hours!

Crystal vision

Ahh, a day off. I really needed this one, thats for sure. This week has been insanely crazy, unfortunately. I just relaxed and chilled out mostly today - as I had planned! So success has been achieved!

The only modicum of work I did today, was to install my new monitor! After the fiasco with the that 19" piece of garbage and the previous monitor showing it's age, I figured I would treat myself! So, via the joyous techie website Newegg.com, I ordered the Samsung 710N LCD monitor. In my research, I found that this was simply a killer monitor. Awesome reviews across the board. Plus, it is a gaming monitor. So for an LCD monitor it has a super fast response time of 12ms. So basically, no ghosting in games like some of the older or cheap ass LCDs. That has been the one reason I have held off on jumping from CRT to LCD. But, technology marches on.

Damn, this monitor sure is bright, contrasty, and friggin sharp! It's better than the real world! hehe. I am sure my woman will be most jealous!

Beyond that, well, Mothers Day is coming up! Ah yes, another holiday that causes my woman to go into a deep depression over how we will manage to make everyone in the family happy. I, personally, think it is simple! Friggin BBQ with everyone! Who doesn't like a BBQ for God's sake?! We will see how the weekend progresses, however.

WTF?

I just noticed my blog is fucked. I seem to have an extra fucking vertical bar over there ---> that has pushed the sidebar way off to the right.

WHAT THE FUCK!?

I hate shit like that. Have to see where shit went fubar

One hour later:

OK, so I FINALLY tracked down the problem. Apparently it was being caused by my earlier post "*BOOM*". For whatever friggin reason, don't use "*" in your title posting...

God, I am a genious, though. :-)

Feelin like Dr. Who

Wow! Where did this past week go? Jeesh. I feel like I simply jumped from one moment in time to another. Everything in between is a damn blur!

I was looking forward to a day off tomorrow. However, one of my guys is sick so it looks like I'll have to go in to cover for a few hours so they don't get swamped. Big mothers day ad tomorrow, ya know. Damnit! I was really looking forward to the time off. This whole week is jammed full of meetings and other run around keep busy type shit. Hopefully it will not be as busy as expected...

I am pissed at Yahoo.com this week as well. They did a revamp on their "most popular" new stories and photographs page and it just sucks major ass now. Before it was cool to see all that info laid out in order on a single page. Now it's all a jumble and you have to click all sorts of places to see the rest of it. It sucks and is majorly disappointing. I love when companies do what they consider an upgrade and it is actually a step backward.

On the bright side of things, at least, is that Family Guy has returned to TV! One of the great, funy shows, that was cut down in it's prime by FOX (Who suck. Not as bad as Nickelodeon sucks, but close). But after huge DVD sales, they brought the show back. Yay! Thanks to Bearshare, I got to watch the first new episode a week early.

I swear, I don't even watch TV anymore. I just download all the show episodes I want to see from the internet. Great thing about it is I get to see the shows at least a week in advance of their actual air dates and without commercials. I love technology!