Ramblings of a Crowe

A Revelation

To be in the upper echelon of the business world in the US, you have to be:

1.) A dumbass
and
2.) Have no morals

That, my friends, is what's so fucked up with this country.

Teen Boys "Traumatized" by Lesbian Book

Earl Adams's (the name says it all doesn't it?) two sons, ages 14 and 16, found a book titled, "The Whole Lesbian Sex Book" while browsing the military section of their local library. Adams is suing the library for 20,000 dollars, that's 10,000 per son, for emotional damage. He claims his sons were "greatly disturbed by their discovery and apparently underwent many sleepless nights."

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Photoshop CS3 Extended

Big thanks to my sis for ordering me the new Photoshop for Mac. I can't wait to try it out! It'll probably be here next week (I assume). I might require J or Jeff's assistance in the install--so be prepared for email or a phone call you two! LOL

Other than that, I am loving the Mac. I'm still enamoured by its beauty and how easily it runs. My only trouble with it so far (knock on wood), is it was booting up in Windows by default. That made me panic, as I don't want to use Windows at all. Thanks to Jeff who showed me what to do on that one. I haven't turned the computer off to see if I did it right yet, but the instructions on a Mac are pretty cut and dry...

I'm really itching to buy an external hard drive...I have been seriously thinking about doing that this weekend. I haven't put any of my music on the computer yet because of this. With Photoshop on the way, it's on my mind even more. That and I'd like to move these big ass movie files off the main hard drive.

I'd also like a printer...but that will have to wait. Especially with the whole job situation--which is so crazy confusing right now, I'm not exactly sure where I stand with my employment. * laughs * I've seriously considered taking up mediatation...really. My nerves are so frazzled...

Yo Yo

I'm a yo yo.

At least, that's how I feel right about now...

And don't you just hate people who have no sense of humor?

Unspun (What Do You Hate Most About Customers?)

So I decided to give this "Unspun" thing a try (after watching J's lists). I found a list called "What do you hate most about sales people", I figured it only fair to start one about customers. I'm still not sure exactly how this works, but what the hell... Apparently people can add their own stuff to it, as well as vote catagories up and down. Granted, if you don't work in customer service, this list won't mean much to you.

*** isn't if funny how "They're rude" has not wavered from the top spot ONCE? ***

Ain't Just the US

The US doesn't own the monopoly on mass shootings, despite what the rest of the world wants to think. Here's some of the finer crimes and tidbits to jog your memory (all crimes happened between 1990 and present day):

a.) Japan, Tuesday-- Itcho Ito was shot in the back by a Yakuza (gangster). Japan has the most strict gun control laws in the world. So how did this guy get a gun? Hmmm...

b.) 19 people were shot in Rio de Janeiro on Wednesday.

c.) Scotland bans guns, but violent crime rises. Weapon of choice: Knives. Pretty soon, the Scots will be back to eating with their hands around the hearth fire, I suppose...

d.) Last year, Germany, a teenager shot and wounded a dozen people before killing himself. In 2002, a gun man shot 17 people and himself; also happened in Germany, for those of you not following along.

e.) Port Arthur, Australia. 35 dead. Guns banned in the country. Violent crime rises, the murder rate climbs 3.2 percent. Assault crime rises over 8 percent. And get this, armed robberies rose 45 percent. The killer suffered from Aspergers Syndrome.

f.) Beslan School, anyone? 344 dead by militant rebels. This was in Russia.

g.) Aramoana Massacre, 13 people shot dead, shooter killed by police. New Zealand gets this one.

h.) And if you think knife crimes aren't 'that bad' compared to gun crimes, check out Mamoru Takuma, the man who went on a murderous rampage at an elementary school. He stabbed 8 1st and 2nd graders to death in minutes, then was wrestled to the ground by school staff. You know what the real kicker is here? This guy had a severe history of violent crime. He was also schizophrenic...

i.) And lets not leave out our biggest critics, France. How about that Nanterre shooting, eh? 8 dead right? Then the guy kills himself by jumping out the window of the police station, right?

j.) Here's another one for Australia. Sydney, 1991, Wade Frankum stabbed two girls in a coffee shop, killing one of them. He then pulled a gun out and began shooting. He fled into the mall, killing another person, before shooting himself. 8 people dead, more injured. It happened in 10 minutes.

k.) Dublane massacre, UK, 1996. Thomas Hamilton walked into an elementary school and opened fire on children and staff. 16 five and six year olds were killed, plus one teacher. The killer shot himself.

l.) In Yemen, Mohammad Ahman al-Naziri, opened fire in a school, killing six children and two adults. (1997)

m.) Switzerland, the country of peace. Not in 2001, however. Friedrich Leibacher shot dead 14 politicians before killing himself.

The list can go on. I chose only multiple shootings where more than five people died. I found school shootings in Ontario Canada, more in Germany, Bosnia, Argentina, Thialand, etc. Other shootings (not school related) included the Canadian massacre in Montreal, 14 women shot with a hunting rifle, and 14 others injured, more shootings in Australia (2000-current), several in Netherlands and China.

America doesn't have a monopoly on violence. I'm baffled by the world outrage. Where is their outrage for the students in places like Africa or the Middle East, South America, or even in Northern Ireland, where killings are just a part of life? And where is the outrage that half of these killings (ones I listed above) could've been prevented, not from eliminating guns, but focusing on the warning signs many of these people gave off? I was stunned that quite a few of these shooters suffered from one mental illness or another--illnesses people knew about. Instead, the mental health issue is swept under the carpet like a bad stain. Ignored and hidden.

It's not guns killing our brothers, sisters, mothers, children, friends--it's our ignorance. And not just here in the US, but all over the world.

Objection!

And who said I wasn't easily entertained?

I want this game!

Blue Badger

Make it look like a party hat--and try not to throw your DS against the wall.

That's all I have to say about it.

What a Face!

Never Expected to see Ully so surprised! An excellent chapter. Bleach was starting to bore me, but it looks as if it'll get interesting again.

That's it?

First of all, a BIG thanks to J for hanging out until 2 in the morning, showing me the ropes. I can't thank you enough. If work hadn't held me over, I would've brought home pizza! Thank you so much for all your help.

So we finally got the Mac 'hooked up'. Not that there was much 'hooking up' to do. It immediately found the internet, without all the tears and hair pulling that went along with my past three computers. I was pretty amazed.

The Japanese 'installation' was so painless, I was sure we had missed something.　よかったねえ〜

We had to root around for a video player and codecs to support the .avi files. We found one and tested a couple movies, and got them working. Really, it didn't take us all that long. The bit torrent client went much smoother than I ever imagined. We tested a show and it was downloaded in about 15 minutes, which was a far cry from the hour or two on the old computer. The download speed made me sputter--I've never had speeds that fast before...

J showed me around, teaching me how to use the Mac. I'm still stumbling and getting lost, but in due time I'm sure I'll get better at it. There are so many features! It's fantastic! And so SHINY! So very, very shiny.

The DVR gave us a bit of trouble and I still need to get a splicer. But now I can record my TV shows that come on late at night. I'm getting too old to stay up so late! *laughs*

Installing Windows took the longest, and gave us the most problems. But even that was relatively painless. I doubt I'll use it much, and even regret spending the money on a copy of XP. Ha ha~

However, I still have the jitters. I keep thinking, "Things just don't work this well...something is going to go wrong!" Only time will tell, but for now, I'm impressed. I sort of wish I'd bought one of these a long time ago!

Did I mention how shiny it is?

Wow!

I expected to have to wait for my computer to ship, but yesterday afternoon I got an email telling me it is on the way! That means it'll be here Friday! I'm so excited!

Now I just have to clean up my computer space...and clean out my old computer. That could take a day or two.

I did it!

I took the plunge.

This morning I placed and order for my new iMac. It should be here in two days, since I asked for 2 day shipping. I figured what the hell, I just spent 1700 bucks, what's another 33, right? Thank god for credit. *laughs* I think I cringed more when I bought the Windows XP from Amazon, though.

So, hopefully J will be feeling up to coming over this weekend and helping me learn the ropes. I plan on hanging onto my old PC for awhile, just in case, but I've been assured the Mac will work great for me. My luck with computers has been pretty sucky, so I'm still on the fence. 1700 bucks is a lot to spend on a computer.

Still, I'm excited! Hopefully I can buy a copy of the new Photoshop in the future, but if all pans out, I can just use Windows to run my current copy.

Stupid Charter

Have I ever mentioned how much I hate Charter Communications? If they weren't the only high speed internet provider in my area, I'd lose their sucky, low rent, back ally, shithouse service in an instant.

WTF do we pay for? Half the time our internet service doesn't even work! Then they have the audacity to call us and ask if we want more service from them. As my mom put it, "You people can't even get our internet to work. Why don't you fix that first then call us to see if we want more stuff!"

I can't even begin to count the number of phone calls I've made to those assholes. Worse, you get to talk to some automated woman with a voice that makes you want to go murder puppies. Luckily, I've discovered that if you just answer "NO" repeatedly, she gets confused and sends you to the hold que so you can talk to a REAL person. Not that that is much better. I've had only one person who was worth their salt talk to me. The rest are either total morons, or they don't speak enough English to understand that I'm talking about my internet service and NOT my cable TV service.

If you think I'm just being a bitchy customer, I'm not the only one who hates their guts. Over half of the people I know that use their service despise them. And get this! They have the same complaints as me!

So, as a note to anyone searching for high speed internet:

Charter provides it, but beware. You'll have fast internet--on the days their modems aren't crashing or their service isn't blacked out, not to mention the strange forces that mysteriously interrupt service on a regular basis. My recommendation is use someone else if you can and avoid using their internet service at all.

That said, I've put off ordering my new computer until this latest black out has stabilized. The last thing I need to do is accidentally order two new computers because I'm not sure if my order went through. My next plan is to order this weekend--if Charter allows it.

Quoted!

In a conversation with J, I pointed out a certain review left somewhere about Vista vs OSX for the Mac. This is how it went:

Zoso says:
There are tons of features that would make any MAC user jealous about.

Zoso says:
so says one reviewer about Vista

J says:
LOL I'm not sure what they mean. Mac OSX has virtually everything Vista does already.

J says:
Except that Vista can't run OSX, but OSX can run Vista.

J says:
ShadowCopy is the only thing I can think of that I wish Macs had that Vista has.

J says:
But they are creating their own version of it in Mac OSX Leopard.

J says:
Perhaps he is referring to Viruses and Spyware LOL.