there i said it. after stuggling for over 2 hours to get a webcam installed under ubuntu ( to no success ) i've come to the conclusion that the reason linux will never be mainstream is the piss-poor quality of documentation and overall dis-ease of use. sure there's pages and pages ( and pages ) of support documentation but most of it seems to be written by folks with limited grasp of english or a limited understanding of what one would consider a "beginner" as far as experience with the OS. my appreciation of MS has gone way up very quickly. it might not be perfect but stuff does tend to just work. no downloading and compiling 50,000 difffernt code packages, getting compiler version to match etc.. required. you plug something in and it tends to work. if it doesn't there's a pretty good chance with a google search you can get the proper drivers installed quickly without having to compile them yourself. /rant

it's official.. i'm an adult. long gone are the care-free days of a 20-something. the road ahead is nothing but responsibility and adulthood. :?

 

c'mon people.  we're trying to have a civilization here.   is it really worth getting up at 3 o'clock in the morning, standing outside walmart for hours, breaking down doors,  and trampling other people  to death  to save a nickle on a friggin' pair of tube socks?!?    what the hell is wrong with these people??!  

a little back-round.  i live in downstate ny.   for any of you familiar with the area there is a large outlet shopping center located just off the ny thruway; a major north / south highway that runs though the hudson valley.   basically if you're heading north from nj / nyc into ny state  you're using this road.   anyway.. the folks that run the joint decided it'd be a brilliant idea to open up at midnight on friday to start milking all the greedy sheeple-- err-  i mean consumers.  so my chick and i left my parent's home in northern nj on thanksgiving at about 10:30 in the evening to drive home.  luckily we had the distinct pleasure of sitting in traffic in the northbound lanes of the ny thruway for an hour and a half because of ---holes so desperate to save some green they're willing and happy to put up with this kind of lunacy.  

now lets examine the typical black friday idiot driver shall we? like 99.9% of the exits from highways in the united states the exit for the harriman outlets is located on the right side of the road.  does this mean that the thousands of greedy douches that descend on the outlets like a hoard of locust would arrange their automobiles in an orderly line of cars in the right hand lane?   of course not.  in their zeal to spend spend spend they must all proceed into the left lane, drive all the way up past the hundreds of cars already in line to use the exit ramp, and then proceed to attempt to jocky their 8 mpg h2 into the exit lane.   net result?  chaos for anyone wishing to simply pass by this fustercluck of humanity and proceed further north up the road.   hey s-for-brains, maybe if you didn't buy a car the size of an abrams tank which consumes fuel faster than a fat chick with a box a twinkies you could afford to buy crap like a normal person and would not need to be out at midnight to pick up your idiot son a pair of banana republic boxers at half price.

 

a walmart employee was crushed to death while trying to open the doors to the store friday morning at 5am by customers so eager to spend their money they started lining up outside the store at 9 pm the previous night.  let me repeat.  a man was litterly stepped on by hundreds of people trying to get into the store.  he sustained so many injurues from being walked over like a doormat that he died.   his killers sat outside for 8 hours and were compelled so much to part with their money in the relentless pursuit of stuff that they could not wait 5 more minutes for the doors to be opened properly.   some started to break down the doors themselves, push people to the ground and walk on top of other people like friggin animals fighting each other for a carcass.  this behaviour could maybe be justifiable in an emergency where there is panic and fear but this is f-in shopping people.   come the hell on.   and walmart will end up taking the blame for the man's death for not having adequate security.   despicable.

 

/rant 

...

      OK, this is probably going to sound a little backwards but lately it seems like there are just too many games coming out.  Being a working adult in a steady relationship and living with my gf severely limits my time I get to spend on gaming entertainment and I simply cannot keep up with the pace at which new games are coming out.  I  barely get to play a game before there's something new out either on another console or pc that I'd be interested in checking out.  Most of the time I end up just skipping it because it would have to sit on the shelf for 2 months before I finally get my fill of the game I just purchased!  I've had civ4 now for months and only had the pleasure of finishing 5 or 6 full games in that time frame.  Throw in owning multiple consoles on top of that and I'm lucky if I get around to getting a new game for any particular console once every 3-4 months. 

So many games, so little time.  Such is life.

well, i'm back from an small vacation in sunny orlando. had to pay mickey a visit as its been ~ 15 years since i've last hung out in his hood.

it was a good time but holy crap the entire disney empire exists to suck cash out of your pocket as fast as possible. the cost of eating alone can easily hit $50 - $100 a day

but anyway, it was awesome because there were absolutley NO crowds. note to all you grown-ups out there: if you're planning a disney vacation, early sept is the time to go. no annoying kids around because they're all just starting school and no one wants to yank thier kids out of school the first few weeks.. so enjoy little to no wait on almost everything :)

also, i know its been a while since i've been there but holy s--- there are a lot of fatasses driving around on rascals down there. i litteraly saw hundreds of ppl driving around on those things and half to think they're not all disabled and some are just too lazy to walk their keisters around the park. news flash for you fatass.. you'll burn a ton of calories walking all over the place... might want to take advantage.

and whats a vacation without a little gaming? even had some time to get some VR sword fighting in :)

 ok i finally got everything straightened out with these jokers. turns out they were more reasonable than i expected and ended up refunded most of my security after the situation had been explained to the management.  :D

OK, as anyone who has read a few posts ago, I just went though the joy of moving from one apartment to the next. For those of you unfamiliar with the process of renting, you are usually required to put down a security deposit ( ~ 1 month's rent ) to cover potential damage to the apartment while you live there. Basically what happens is you move out, they inspect the place after you leave, and charge you 10x the amount of $$ to fix minor damage to the place.
So I moved out of my old apartment at the end of July and just received my security deposit "refund" in the mail yesterday. There was some damage left to doorway molding on one of my closets which I fully expected to be charged for. However, what I was not prepared for was being charged $595 to fix my kitchen counter-top. Evidently the c--- who inspected the apartment decided that the small divot on the counter-top, which HAD BEEN THERE SINCE THE DAY I MOVED IN was not only my fault, but merited a complete replacement of the counter-top at my expense. On top of that, they charged me $150 to fix molding around the door. So they are saying that is costs $150 to run to home depot, get a 6 foot piece of molding, pry the old piece off, put the new piece on and slap some white primer on it. riiiight.. :roll: In total these mf-ers stole $745 out of my $900 deposit from me and I doubt there is much I can do about it. BTW, here's a pic of the counter-top which MUST be replaced.
Notice that tiny little brown spot under the plastic? Thats $595 worth of damage right there. Thats maybe 1 square cm worth of "damage". Here's another pic taken nearly a year ago.


Anyway, I'm off to go plead my case with the renting office. It's all I can do at this point. Wish me luck!

for the love of god why must getting health care in this country be so freaking difficult??!? 

a little back round:

i currently receive health insurance through my employer like many people do in this country.  every year around january, i need to decide if i want to keep my current provider or switch to a new one.  the fun part of switching is if i switch to a new insurance provider  i then have to find a brand new "primary care physician" because for some reason, every doctor accepts different insurance and if you old doctor does not accept your new insurance, you're s.o.l.

about a year and a half ago i was diagnosed with an under active thyroid which required medication and follow up visits with my primary care physician.  all was well and i was able to see the doctor as needed and the insurance would cover the costs.  then january rolls around and i find out that my employer has decided that they do not feel like offering the insurance plan i was enrolled in for the upcoming year.  so that means that not only do i now have to find a new plan, i have to find a new doctor because my current one ( with whom i've built up a history with over the past year ) is no longer an acceptable choice ( unless i want to pay full price for the visits ). 

the condition also requires me to have blood work done a few times a year to ensure the medication is working well.  i discovered yesterday now that the hospital where i usually went to have the blood taken now also no longer accepts my new insurance, despite me having no problems just 4 weeks ago when i was there the last time.  so now after a lot of aggravation i now have a new doctor and a new lab until either of them decides to stop taking my insurance or my employer decides to no longer offer it.

my guess is they're trying to make the system so god-damm complicated that people will prefer to just get sick and die rather than trying to get health care attention.

well, the big day has came and went. i'm finally moved in to my new apt. with my girlfriend and for the most part unpacked and settled, that is to say my computer and tv are set up along with a comfy place to sit but holy s what a pain in the ass moving is. i feel like i've done nothing in the past 2 weeks but clean out a dusty old apartment full of 4 years worth of crap, pack box after box after box of said crap, and still manage to throw away another 300 pounds of other crap which i didn't want/need any longer.
if you live anywhere in the US you've likely noticed that it's been FREAKIN HOT the last 2 weeks or so. not only does the temperature reach into the mid 90's here in the northeast on a daily basis ( please dont comment like "oh thats nothing, its 105 here in dallas" ) but its as humid as a vietnamese jungle here as well which makes carrying box after box up and down flights of stairs a drenching process.. luckly i could afford to pay some other sucker to move the really heavy stuff :)
so after countless packing/unpacking of boxes, multiple trips to and from cars, pickups, u-hauls and dumpsters i can finally take an evening to just relax and enjoy the feel of new carpet on bare feet with central air