Open Letter to Hillary Clinton

I am extremely disappointed to see that you have JUMPED on the "video games are violent" bandwagon.  I feel that there are more issues for you to concern yourself with such as abortion rights, healthcare, unemployment, education and the outsourcing of American jobs to third-world countries.  These are the types of issues that I am concerned with.

President Bush has raised the Family Contribution on financial aid.  How does this help the American people.  Many americans are not as fortunate as many wealthy people and politicians. We have to take federal loans to pay for college and yet when we come out, corporations want to give the lowest salaries.  Why don't you focus on these issues.  The "epidemic of media desensitisation" is the least of our problems.

Grow a backbone and stand for the issues that concern the american people.  I have had enough of these "fluffers" in the White House!!

Cap'n Juicy

That is Tiger's new nickname. With the cast, he reminds us of a pirate. Kenny came up with the name! lol I have to take some photos and upload them for your viewing pleasure.

Today he is doing much better than Monday night. His paw was so swollen that I had to cut the cast off! It was hell but in the end, he realized that I wasn't trying to hurt him and he stopped fighting me. I also gave him so breaks since he was so mad with me.

He went to the Vet and she re-casted him and he seems to be doing fine. He was walking like a champ this morning. He hustled into the kitchen for his diet food. lol For some reason, all the other cats want Cap'n Juicy's diet food. Brats!

Hopefully there will be no more cast problems so we can focus on him losing the 2-3 lbs in 3 weeks.

What a Saturday!

Today I was suppose to go to Atlantic City with some family. When they called me this morning, I was soooo tired that I decided to stay home. Around 7:30a.m. Tiger, my red tabby cat, was growling so I shooed Pudgie(another cat) away from him. About 30 minutes later, he has alot of trouble getting on the bed. As he is laying next to me, he was moving funny so I got up to check on him and he starts meowing funny. Mind you, this is a cat that very rarely meows. So when he jumps off the bed, he continues to growl and meow.

I follow him and he is limping. I thought he may have had a splinter or something but it wasn't the case. We called my sister, who works at the animal hospital and headed over. After 6 hours, the doctor sees him and it turns out that he torn his cruciate ligament in the knee. Since he is 15lbs, this may have added to the injury so now he is in a soft, yellow cast (SO CUTE) and he has to lose 2-3 pounds.

I was so glad that he didn't break anything! Phew. But he is not out of the woods yet! In 3 weeks, we have to see how he is recovering. If it's not good - he may need surgery! Poor Juicy!

Premium Cable?

As I am flipping through the channels this afternoon, I noticed "HouseGuest" playing on two different premier channels. And no it wasn't HBO and HBOz. Then on two other premier channels, they are playing "A League of Our Own". Give me a break!!

Ok, they were in the middle of play on each channel but it still seemed pointless to me. And to think that the cable services have us paying over $100.00 a month for this crap. In-fucking-credible.

Is AOL serious about this?

Ok. I am one of those users who is guilty of not reading the EULA or the terms of service but Boing Boing opened my eyes to some shit that AOL is pulling. And I quote:

"Although you or the owner of the Content retain ownership of all right, title and interest in Content that you post to any AIM Product, AOL owns all right, title and interest in any compilation, collective work or other derivative work created by AOL using or incorporating this Content. In addition, by posting Content on an AIM Product, you grant AOL, its parent, affiliates, subsidiaries, assigns, agents and licensees the irrevocable, perpetual, worldwide right to reproduce, display, perform, distribute, adapt and promote this Content in any medium. You waive any right to privacy. You waive any right to inspect or approve uses of the Content or to be compensated for any such uses."

What is this? These fucking corporations are delirious. I am going to have to find another messaging service.

Check it for yourself: http://www.aim.com/tos/tos.adp

UPDATE: As of yesterday, AOL changed their TOS. 3/16/05

Take responsiblity for your actions

This morning I read an article about a young guy who killed 3 people and his laywer is saying that a video game called "Grand Theft Auto" was the reason.

Here are some of the things his lawyer said:

• "He bought it as a minor." So sue the store (which they are doing.) They are suppose to ID for M rated games.
• "He played it hundreds of hours, which is primarily a cop-killing game." It's not a cop killing game. Play it, idiot. If you mess with a cop, your wanted stars go up and you will get jacked if you don't lay low and chill out. (I am speaking about GTA3. I have not played San Andreas.)
• "It's our theory, which we think we can prove to a jury in Alabama, that, but for the video-game training, he would not have done what he did." This kid was screwed up to begin with if the game influenced him to commit crime. If an Alabama jury finds that it was the video game then you know that the water is truly bad down there.

As someone who has played Grand Theft Auto 3 and Vice City, I can tell you that I have never had the urge to commit a crime because of these games. I will tell you that excessive game play with leave a residue. For example, I am now playing Resident Evil 4 for the Gamecube. If you find birdnest and shot them, you get a spinel. Yesterday, I found myself looking at the leafless trees on the highway (I wasn't driving) and when I saw the birdnest, I thought of the game. Did I think of shooting it? Nah.

It's a shame that 3 people were killed but to put it on the video game industry is a farce. People get influenced by many things but the only thing that causes a person to act on it is themselves.

Apple Tech Support SUCKS

Let me start from the beginning...

I brought a mini iPod for my sister as a Christmas gift. A few weeks after 12/25/04, she noticed that her battery life was less than 8 hours and when the battery died - the time resets back to January 1, 2000 - 12:00am.

First I call Apple and they tell me that they want to help me troubleshoot over the phone. I tell the tech that I have troubleshooted it and I have another mini that does not the problem. I aske him if he could just tell me if the iPod is suppose to do this. He tells me no. So I arrange a repair online and indicate the problem on Apple's little Q and A. They send me a box and off we send the Pink mini.

On the day they received the mini, they send it back out. Ok, first you could say, "Wow, that is a great turn around time!" or you can say, "How could that be? I know there was a problem." I call Apple tech support before I got it back to ask WTF? They tell me that the techs hook the iPod to the system, run some diagnostics and if they come back negative, the iPod is seen as problem free and they ship it back. I asked if they even read my additional "notes". She could see what I typed in but could not tell me if the techs referred to my notes.

As it turns out, the mini ipod is still having the problem. I called again and they gave me the same SONG AND DANCE that the other representative gave me. I can:

1. Send it back again.
2. Take it back to the Apple tore.

WOW! Those are my options from the award winning Apple Care technicians! What bullshit! Mind you, I got a really nice engraving but if I take it back to the store and they exchange it - I can't get it engraved by Apple.

Hmmm, let's see what they do to please this customer.

Spell it out!

Yesterday I had some Half.com stuff I had to send out and I just haven't been a good girl getting to the post office. The firewall guy recommended that I ask the mailroom guy and just give him the dough. So that is exactly what I did.

My 3 packages came out to $4.93 and I had a $10 so I came right back with a $5. The mailroom guy said to me, "Is that it? Just $5?" So I told him that it was just change and I didn't need it back. So this got me to thinking, a) was he expecting a tip or b) did he think it came out to more?

I just hope he sent my packages out.