To The Metal

So much for having a car that never got into an accident.

Was driving to Middletown VW this morning to have its 10K mile service performed, hit a patch of black ice on route 284 and lost control of the car, hitting a phone pole. Front drivers side of the car is just about obliterated in front of the wheel.

Real kicker is I got a ticket for failure to keep right. I was on ICE. Hello?

So the estimate is $6500 and 10 days, there’s a packet of what’s being replaced and everything is going to be OEM.

There’s just some shit in life that one can’t expect, you can prepare for it, but eventually everyone brushes with fate. I’ll beat myself up over what happened for awhile, but eventually I’ll accept the fact that shit happens.

Eventually. Blah. My handiwork is in the extended entry. Couldn’t stare at it every time I loaded the page.
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Until arond 5am this morning I was playing World of Warcraft… Got into a group of 4 other players in the low-20’s and started hammering through Elite quests, had an absolute blast. Still, was my 2nd experience running into complete dickheads. A week or two back, I ran through a very difficult level with a group of players, when we ran into the end-boss, one player hadn’t gotten the prize they wanted so they triggered the boss and the rest of us got killed. It’s called a “Leroy.”

So last night was a twofer. A pair of players in the high-teens (I was level 22) were running through an area where there was an end-boss I also needed to kill. I asked if they needed a hand, one player said yes, the other said ‘maybe if you were a higher level or a different class.” Makes no sense to me. Still, later on when I saw them get slaughtered by the group of bad-guys while I hung back stealthed was an absolute riot.

2nd experience was when I’m on the border of an Orc camp, picking off Orc’s trying to get ‘Worn Battle-Axe’ drops for a quest. A couple of yahoos come running up and start getting hammered, so I aid and start taking out one of the bad guys…

“We’ve got it, thanks.”
“I’m thrilled for you.”
“Leave this area or be reported.”
“Go ahead and report me, I was here first, logs will prove it, so deal with it.”
“Well you can’t claim a camp anyhow.”
“Exactly, so get over it.”

That was that. Now i know you can report other players for various offenses, but I’m guessing these two nitwits wanted the camp area all to themselves, likely for the same quest I was on. When I didn’t immediately cower and run at their threat, they left me alone. When I saw them getting slaughtered like the first group, again I laughed heartily.

After that I just ended up plowing through quests with a group of other players, had a good time, and before I knew it the clock said 5am. Yikes.

As is usually the case, I had an epiphany at the local pub last night relating to my post on February 4th. Had a missed call on my cellphone from 2am, from my ex… She also called me again at 10am, accusing me of playing a childish and hurtful prank.

Course, the night before I was where I’ve been for oh… the past month. World of Warcraft! I digress.

While at the pub I learned that just about every friend in our little group got a similar call. Some accused, others were sternly interrogated. Same question… “Do you know his number? What were you doing at 2am? Etc…”

As Jack Slater would say… ‘Big Mistake.’

Here’s my theory, and it’s just that, a theory. I have absolutely nothing but intuition and a couple pints ‘o brew to base this on. Simply put, “Whoever smelt it, dealt it.” Ironically enough I came to this line of thinking because someone at the pub farted, and then shifted blame by over-reacting to it. Makes perfect sense to me.

I got it folks…

I understand it all now.

I finally realize why so many die-hard Liberal windbags identify themselves as Independents or Moderates.

Anyone catch the Coretta Scott King funeral today?

The reason so many Moonbats identify themselves as Independents or Moderates is because they’re honestly embarrassed to align themselves with the people the continually elect into office!

Maybe if the secret ballot didn’t exist… they’d vote Republican?

Hard to find a Republican or Conservative who isn’t proud to admit who they are and who they voted for, and proudly align themselves with their elected leadership.

For 40 years the Left was basking in the glory of positive media attention. For the past 13 years their consistent failures and absurdity have become the undeniable, unspinnable story. They’ll take any chance to jump on the soap-box…Even if there’s a dead body inside.

Wellstone?

Wellstone?

Anyone?

Best thing the Independents and Moderates can do for this nation is help to vote every single Liberal out of office. Maybe then after 40 years or so, the Republicans will become as mind-numbingly clueless as their counterparts across the aisle and a Liberal who isn’t simply a confused Socialist will come along and make sense.

Hahaha… right.

KING FUNERAL TURNS POLITICAL: BUSH BASHED BY FORMER PRESIDENT, REVEREND

… and they still have no clue WHY THEY KEEP LOSING.

A group of trial-lawyers in the mold of the losers who cashed in on the fact that McDonalds sold hot-coffee has apparently set their sights on Apple. The accusation? The 130db capability of the iPod can -and has- caused hearing loss.

Who knew? I had no idea that continued exposure to loud music could induce hearing loss…

I simply assumed that all those years I listened to heavy metal included the perk of drowning out the inane ramblings of my peers. Turns out it’s called tinnitus and actually a bad thing.

You could have fooled me.

Lawsuit: iPods can lead to permanent hearing loss.

I don’t know what the deal is, but this seems to have been the weekend where people I care about relentlessly unload their insecurities on my shoulders and I”ve fucking had it. All of a sudden, I’m the fucking bad guy, I’m the liar, I’m the manipulator, I’m the obnoxious prick who does’t let up. All I did this weekend was sit at home, relax, play video games, and mind my business. For this crime I am now labelled all the above and more.

Well fuck it. I AM all those things, and much more. SO LEAVE ME THE FUCK ALONE or I’ll give you a few more fucking things to label me with…

So this morning at 10am my phone rings. It’s my ex-girlfriend and she’s audibly pissed off.

Seems someone is playing games, and I was on her list of people to accuse. I get interrogated and then that’s that.

Now I shouldn’t take it personally, I should let it go. I just knew it’d bug me the rest of the day if I didn’t nip it in the bud right now.

To make a long phone-call short, I call her back and unload on her. She’s accusing me of trying to hurt her ex? Fuck with her? After all this bullshit she put me through? I’m sure he’s going through the same sort of feelings I did, I couldn’t do that to someone.

That’s not how I am.

I let her know that if she ever calls me again I’ll charge her with harassment.

I used to care, after her phone-call this morning she’s just another face in my past.

On the up-side, my iO digital cable is working… Time to figure out this remote.

If anyone caught the People’s Court today, that brunette actually makes a pretty decent living selling her image on the ‘net. You can find her here. Warning, the site is NSFW.

When the Hell did the folks at Radio Shack become so clueless?

On my lunch break I ran over to the local RS to pick up some F connectors for the cable run at my apartment. I’m in the video aisle, find the splitter I need (to replace the old wet one) and a male-male connector. I also grab a coax cable stripper for good measure. Now I’m looking for some F connectors (the little metal bits that screw onto the back of the tv-set and cable box). After looking for about 5 minutes a rep comes over and asks me if I need assistance. I tell him what I’m looking for, he takes a quick look at either side of the aisle, flat out says they have none, and walks away.

So I figure i’ll try another Radio Shack for the rest of what I need. I walk around the corner and see one of those lovely shelving unit full of little adapters and plugs and whatnot. Top drawer is full of different types of F connectors in pouches of 10.

No more than 5 years ago if I walked right up to the counter and asked for a specific product, I could get pointed in the right direction. Now I suppose they assume we’re all psychic and can sense where the parts are.

Maybe we’re so devout that God comes down from Heaven and gives the product a Divine glow.

There’s a little something called product knowledge, now before Radio Shack specialized in cellphones and overpriced radio controlled behemoths, they used to employ people with a little something I like to call BRAINS.

If you do not know what is on the shelves, if you have no product knowledge, you shouldn’t be representing the company.

Lastly, when a customer comes in complaining about crap cellphone reception on a phone they just purchased the other day, YOU DO NOT BASH THEM WHEN THEY LEAVE WHILE CUSTOMERS ARE BROWSING THE STORE.

Morons.

At least I know where people go after Wal-Mart doesn’t work out.

So thus far I’m having some trouble seeing the point of this iO digital cable from Cablevision. Now I didn’t want it to begin with. I had planned on purchasing cable from my local telephone company, as their pricing is a bit more reasonable. Still, progress is what it is, so Monday night Cablevision disabled the remote control interfaces on their legacy boxes. Tuesday my landlord delivered my new box. It’s made by Sony and roughly the same size as my 5-disc DVD player.

The instructions were simple enough, plug it in, turn it on, and let it update. Should take 5 minutes.

I repeat, should take 5 minutes.

Now I’m not 100% sure as to whether its the cable run to my house, or the cable run at my house, but it literally took ALL NIGHT before I could even turn the box on. The UPDATING procedure took multiple runs from 0% to 100% before completing at some point between 2am and 7am. That left me with a “Please Wait” both on the display of the unit as well as my television set. No idea how long that would take, but as I’ve already missed American Idol and the State of The Union address, the evening was a total loss television-wise.

So I checked out the cable-run at my house, and it is the most ingenious wiring I’ve ever seen. The cable run starts at the left side of the house, runs across the roof to the right side of the house, then splits externally through the windows of both my and my landlord’s apartments. The splitter itself was submerged in a wet heap, and there’s an abundance of coaxial cable all over the place.

Not sure as to whether he plans on having Cablevision come out to set these boxes up, but I’ll be stocking up on coax ends and whatnot so I can rewire. If I miss Smallville this week…

Oh yes… There will be blood.