One of the things I do when I get some free time is to delve into the Internet via Yahoo!'s Random Links page.
I know, I suck ;)
Most of the time, I run across 100% crap. But every once in a while, I get something valuable. For instance, last night, I ran across Another Universe's My So-Called Life DVD page. Holy shit! My So-Called Life is a TV show that aired during my teen angst years, and was one of them life-influencing things that you totally identify with (see, talk about teen years... I just said totally).
But the price for the whole thing (the first, and only, season, 19 episodes) was $115. Damn. I want it, but that's kind of steep. Plus I don't want to pay for shipping, nor waiting a week for it (they're in California). So today after work I was in the neighborhood of Best Buy/Media Play. So I called them.
First I called Best Buy. God I hate doing that. I hate them so much it's not funny. You can never get a straight answer. Even for the simplest things (What is the difference between a AAA and a AA battery? Um, I don't know, but I've got a sixth month warranty for only $24.95!!!).
It used to be that you get a machine, and it would say "dial 47 for computers, 48 for music/movies/video games", etc... But this time, I had to go through like 3 menus before I got to the sales rep list. What a joke. So then I talk to someone. I ask them if they've got the DVD. I don't expect them to, because the website I found them on said something about exclusivity. So I ask anyway.
OK sir. I'll look them up. But first, would you answer some basic questions for me?
Umm... not if they're demographic information.
Oh, no sir, I just need your name, address, and e-mail address..
I wanted to scream. I wanted to explode like a neutron bomb. Some people are so flunky that they just don't care anymore. I explained to her that information was of a demographic nature, and I didn't wish to add to her statistics, nor surrender my privacy (what little I have left). She didn't even seem to understand, let alone care.
So she tells me that they don't have it in-stock, but they can order it. I said "no thanks" and hung up.
I then called Media Play, and got bounced around a few times before finally speaking to someone. No dice. I called the Best Buy and Media Play across town, and they didn't have it either. No big deal, I guess. I knew they probably wouldn't have had it.
But God Damn, you know? How dumb are people? Sure I'll give you my name, address, and e-mail! In fact, why don't you go ahead and bombard me with junk mail, spam, and telemarketer calls? I don't care!. FUCK YOU. You're going to have to PAY ME BIG TIME (and I'm talking KICK-BACKS) before you get my info voluntarily.
Except, it doesn't really matter. I'm working on getting a house. I got a new phone number before it's done so that I can put my new address and phone number on documents I sign so I don't have to change them later. I had the phone number routed to my cell phone.
Then, mysteriously, I started getting telemarker phone calls. At first, I was like Are you fuckin' out of your mind bitch? This is a god-damned cell phone? Would you care to deposit 40 cents into the fucking phone?. At first, I thought it was somebody I gave my cell phone number to. Then I realized it was just people calling my new house number, and having it forwarded to my cell phone. Phew. I hate telemarketers at home, but at least it doesn't cost money. When they call a cell phone, that costs money! But when I get the land-line, I'll transfer the number to that, and (I HOPE) that'll be the end of the calls to my cell phone.
I think it sucks that less than a month after you get a phone number, people start mysteriously calling you selling things. What a joke. And you have to PAY THE PHONE COMPANY to keep the number unlisted. What a fucking joke. The phone company needs to PAY ME each time they give my number to a fucking telemarketer. All telemarketers can KISS MY FUCKING ASS. A big FUCK YOU TO ALL TELEMARKETERS. FUCK YOU RIGHT UP YOUR ANAL ORIFICE, FUCKERS!
Sorry, but that had to be done. You know that's what you're thinking.
People think that advertising is the big deal.
"If you advertise, they will come".
It makes me sick. First, you need to have to a PRODUCT. And it must be A PRODUCT THAT PEOPLE WANT!
I remember having a conversation with someone, and them asking me if there was a product that let them search by street for phone numbers. They wanted an easy way to call everyone on the block for marketing purposes. I was so stunned, I almost wanted to vomit. I told them no, but inside I was tore up. I just wanted to explain to them how messed up that was.
But you can't explain to business-minded people about ethics. They just don't understand. All they know is $$$. Money in, no money out. Just make 100% pure profit.
Invent a way to 100% block telemarketers. For real. I know that's an upstream task, but still.
Welp, I've got more Internet random searching to do. Gotta find the gold ;). By the way, if you know of a different random page generator that has returned very interesting results to you, please let me know. I'd be very interested in find that stuff! I want one where I can block all newspapers and such. I'm so tired of finding old on-line newspaper articles. And I'm tired of removed pages (404 errors). If they can block those two things, I'd be very happy.
Enjoy your weekend!
OK. As much as I WANT TO BELIEVE, I am a cynical skeptic. Where's the proof?
http://www.enterprisemission.com
Their site is VERY VERY VERY slow (I'm talking like 5 minutes to load). But it's worth the wait. Open up a new window (or just click on my link above), and go look at their stuff. It's absolutely crazy!!!
If this stuff is real, then it has VERY big implications for all life!
Look at the images and make your own conclusions. Also, make sure and read the press release!!!
Last night on the Science Channel (part of the Discovery Channel Networks), I was watching some shows about sci-fi. One of them revealed (well, revealed to ME, everyone probably already knows) that the whole Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI, also known as STAR WARS) was actually a scam! I cannot believe I never heard this before. I thought that stuff was for real. What a jerk off :).
In any case, it was a couple of sci-fi authors who scammed Ronald Reagan into this thing, and it was Ronald Reagan who once played in a sci-fi movie which had a plot of some small releavance to SDI. Crazy... you learn something new every day! Too bad I'm just so damned slow... :).
So anyway... I was reading the news this morning, and I read this Yahoo article which said the Japanese major stock index, the Nikkei has hit an 18 year low. Holy shit!
Of course, the first thing that came to my mind, being I'm such a smartass and all, was Welcome back to Reaganomics!. Somebody slap me!
Phoenix InnoSense
I'm sellin' out baby!
Stupid people. Man I hate them. So I'm trying to get some work done yesterday, it took a few weeks to get conditions right where I'd have two straight days of good work on this project I'm doing at work, and some stupid person had to go and fuck it all up.
This guy comes up and claims that someone put a scratch on this truck. OK, If I get a scratch I'm gonna be pissed too. But this guy was just unforgiving. The guy he claimed did it (a guy I was working with) flat out rejected it. He's not an asshole or anything, he knows for a fact he didn't do it, hence he didn't even bother to look (not to mention he was busy at the time). So we're working, and the guy with the truck manages to catch up with my buddy as he's walking back into the building. I didn't catch the whole conversation up to that point, but after they got into the building, things just blew up. The guy with the truck is in my buddy's face threatening him. I'm talking high school "I'm gonna kick your ass" type shit. What a fucking moron. And then the guy is like "I do tons of business with this company, and I'll have them keep your pay!". Strike two. So my buddy just deflects this stupid person, but he's (my buddy) visibly pissed off (rightfully so, if that were I, who knows what would have happened when I got pissed). So he makes the decision to leave, due to the fact that this whole situation could escalate if this stupid person keeps up his antics.
I'm pissed 'cause now we're going to have to come back at a later date, at night, when the fucking dumbass isn't here. This means all the work I put in just to get conditions right is now forfeit. Wonderful (NOT).
So we're packing up. This bright little dimwit goes and bitches to the man. He's coming off like the calm smart one, and it's really pissing my buddy, and myself, off. Things just start going nuts.
To make a long story short, the scratch almost totally wiped off with some simple rubbing. The guy started to demand an apology, but my buddy takes off, because he doesn't want this to escalate any further. He came to work, not to get involved with someone who never mentally left high school.
So myself, the man, and Mr. Inept are sitting here trying to talk things out. This guy is demanding an apology. We're trying to explain to him that if you threaten physical harm onto someone, you can go to jail. He doesn't seem to understand this concept. Eventually, we start talking about something else, and he wriggles away like the little worm he is.
Now, I haven't even gone into the facts here. Both vehicles have marks. This guy is pointing at one mark specifically on my buddy's van, that he claims is paint that has rubbed off from his truck. But when you look at his truck, there is a mark, less than a foot long, made up of four or five distinct lines. Now, I'm not the brighest guy in the world myself, but how can one mark on a van mirror make up to five separate lines on a truck? I tried to explain to this guy, using terms any mental midget could understand:
Listen buddy. In order for this van's mirror to have made those marks on your truck, he would have had to run it very slowly along your truck, then backup, adjust the mirror at a higher position, run the van very slowly along your truck, back it up again, adjust the mirror again, run it very slowly along your truck, and do it again and again.
But he would have none of it.
So thanks to someone that unfortunately escaped the domain of Darwin's Laws, we got half a days work done, where two were scheduled. I got people screaming at me to get work done, and wondering why I can't be at two places at once (but they don't understand that if I'm in two places at once, then I should get PAID twice over), and I'm just not having a productive time.
Thank you, to all you mighty mental mice out there. Thank you for fucking my week up.
I just hope I don't wander into a mental midget trucker combo-type personality in the next few days!
The last song on most ICP albums are a true delight for those who crave hope in a time of none. I can't tell you how many times I spent the night just listening to those songs. As soon as I got a CD burner, I burned a custom CD of just those songs just so I didn't have to flip CDs so much!
I first started listening to ICP wayyyyyyy back when I did a lot of car stereo and speaker installations for friends in my parents garage (for those who don't know, I knew how to put Tape/CD players/Amps/Speakers in a car before I even had a fucking car). I was working on a friends car, and he put this shit in. I was just blasted, it was the coolest stuff I ever heard.
I went out and got both Carnival of Carnage and Beverly Kills. I wore those fuckers out. Some time after that, I went out and bought two copies of each... one to replace my current working CD, and one for safe keeping :). Those CDs were hard to get back then. I had to travel up to the Gibralter Trade Center up near Detroit to get the good stuff. Best Buy and Media Play didn't carry them!
When I got my 1985 Buick Park Avenue, I plastered a fat ass Carnival of Carnage image on the hood. I think I also had Riddlebox and Ringmaster stickers on the back window! I drove that car everywhere, and I can tell you that I was ALWAYS bumping ICP.
I remember going on vacation one time, and getting up early to head out to find a local store that had the new album... but for the life of me I can't remember the name of the album. All I remember is that no one had it. I drove down the main road to every store for like 20 miles.
I remember planning my day around picking up The Jeckel Brothers. After I got it, I didn't even want to go back to school (college) for the day! I remember it took forever for that album to come out. It kept getting delayed. Man that sucked... I needed my fix :).
I remember when I didn't have a CD Player in my '64 Imapala, but I had an amp and some 6x9s, with a Rio MP3 player loaded with ICP. A friend and I drove all around Toledo constantly playing Bitches. Like 100 times in a row...Bitches, Bitches, Bitches...
I only went to a couple of concerts though. They both were an experience of a lifetime. When I walked out of the first, I was soaked with orange Faygo and I couldn't see because it got stuck on my glasses. It was fucking hot, too.
You want to hear a funny story? I went to an ICP concert instead of my high school Senior Prom, and that's no joke. There was an entire group of us that went. We were all up in the mosh pit. I didn't last that long, but I got my shit in. I remember going absolutely fucking apeshit to "The Smog" when they played it. It was unreal.
I remember when they released (well, re-released... kinda) Fogotten Freshness Vols 1&2. I flew out to the store to get it. I was jamming that bitch all night long on the highway!
I can go on like this for HOURS... talking about things I remember, associated with ICP. That's the effect this music has had on my life.
You see, I identify with them. I, too, was the scrub. I was the fat geek. I spent my time inside. But even beyond that, their music means something. I think it was Alex Abiss who said on the Shockumentary that "Once you start listening to ICP, you don't listen to any other music". And that was the case with me, for sure. It wasn't just music... it was life.
Now, for the two of you who took the time to read through my rant, you're probablying thinking... "OK, he's a fucking cult bastard now...". ICP isn't a cult. You don't start worshipping the devil. In fact, it's quite the opposite. If you listen to ICP... I mean REALLY listen to it... listen to the words... listen to the beats... let yourself be absorbed in it, you have a greater understanding of how things work. How really evil greed is. How to stop judging others, and instead judge yourself. Are you really any better than the person you're judging? Who the fuck are you to judge?
There are so many songs where Violent J painstakingly describes the most ugly stinking bum on the planet, and he ends up realizing he just described himself.
The sixth jokers card is something born from legend. Waaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyy back in the first albums they started a legacy stating that there will be six jokers cards. This is one of those moments where something real is happening. Kind of like when you watch a movie, and you think to yourself, "Wow, those were exciting times". That's what is going on now. It's like climbing a mountain for your whole life, and then finally reaching the top. But not being totally worn out and dead. Instead you come away from it as a better person, and that much stronger. I don't know how to explain it.
I STRONGLY suggest you read Violent J's Gathering of the Juggalos 2002 Review. It goes into GREAT detail about things from J's point of view.
I just want to go on and on and on. I want to talk about how after listening to Ninja, I created a character for our high school weekly TV show, and I was "Ninja Joe". I want to talk about how funny Super Balls is. I want to talk about how awesome Dark Lotus is. I want to talk about how much feeling there is in Bizarre/Bizarre. Again, especially the last song. I want to talk about Terror Wheel and The Smog and Amy's in the Attic.
Welp... I think I've said enough. I leave you with these images:
My radar detector has paid for itself many times. Yesterday was one of them! I was cruising down the road and it started going off. Unfortunately I was speeding (mind was on getting to my destination... I know, it's no excuse). I threw it down a gear, and probably shaved a good 5MPH off my speed before he had a lock on me. The next thing I know is this girl in a white Neon flys past me in the right lane. Sure enough, a cop pulls out with his lights on. He flys past me, and picks her up. Whew! Gotta slow my ass down!
On another driving related note... there has been an influx of Canadian drivers on the Toledo highways for some reason. And man are they problematic. I'm not saying Americans are great drivers, I mean, look at me! But at least I know what the hell I'm doing. One jackass was behind me, and the road has a turning lane for the left, one lane going straight, then one turning right. This freaking guy just couldn't make up his mind. Before the light finally turned green, he was in each line at least TWICE. I mean it was like a comedy on wheels. After he FINALLY turned right, I saw his plate... Ontario. But that's not the end of it. I was on the expressway the other day, and these two assholes passed me doing far beyond 90. I mean they were flying. But I had time to notice their plates... Ontario. Again, don't get me wrong... you don't hear me complaining about American drivers (well... not that much...), but that's because I take it granted that Americans are bad drivers. But I swear everytime I hear an America vs. Canada argument, driving ALWAYS come up. The Canadian will ALWAYS say something to the effect that Canadians are safe and sane drivers. Ha!
I love Linux. And I love MySQL. I used to love PostgreSQL, but then when I heard MySQL went GPL AND had replication, I jumped on it. I designed my system here at work so that I have two servers. The database replicates data in real time... so if someone enters data into the system, it gets stored on two completely different computers (stored in different physical locations). Well... yesterday I was sitting at my desk working, and all of the sudden I hear this noise.... CLUNK CLUNK CLUNK CLUNK. What the fuck is that? I look back, and sure enough it's my damned server. No warning or anything, just total hard drive failure. After freaking out for a few minutes, trying to figure out what to do, I told everyone to use the backup server. That's it... no downtime. No one was unable to continue working! With a little more effort, I can make their machines detect a problem, and automatically move to the backup server in the event of a failure... I'm going to implement this pretty soon after this experience. So anyway, I rushed out and got a new drive, loaded a newer version of Linux on it, put Apache/OpenSSL/OpenSSH/PHP/MySQL, on it, copied the database from the backup server, and there I was! Back in operation. Last year on the day before Halloween I had another fatal hard drive crash. But that was on an SCO OpenServer machine. It took me 48 hours (damn near straight) to get that backup and running. And I lost data in that event. I had to revert to a backup from CD taken that morning. Yesterday it took me 6 hours (an hour to get the new hard drive, a few hours to get Linux and the new software up and running, and at least an hour on the damn printer drivers), but NO lost data, and NO downtime! I'm going to try and implement changes that could cut this scenario down to just 2 hours (keeping a pre-loaded hard drive handy where I just load the newest versions of some software and copy the database from the backup server). The dual machine system paid for itself yesterday, in my opinion! And so did Linux & MySQL... even though I did not pay anything for them!
There are different parts to this place, including a pedestrian-only zone, as well as an off-road vehicle zone (O.R.V.)!!! WOW! We spent TONS of money here, but I tell you what, it was worth every penny. LOTS to see and LOTS to do.
We did the following in the ORV section:
And, of course, we tried to build a sand castle! But the place we were at had CRAPPY sand, and it ended up being a GHOST SAND CASTLE :).
In any case, here are some pics! (These can also be viewed on my Picture Archive page...)
HUNTING FOR OSAMA BIN LADEN, MULLA MOHAMMAD OMAR, AND SADDAM HUSSEIN!!!
Here are some sneak peek pics from my trip:
More to come later!!!
Oh well, I didn't want to give them $650/month for a 384K fractional T1 to the Internet anyway! (Trust me, it looked like we didn't have a CHOICE).
So I started looking at my choices. No cable. No DSL. Wireless?
The big problem is that this location is way out in the middle of a forest, and that's no shit. I'm talking 60'-80'+ trees. So I started calling these places. Sure enough, nobody really could help me. They said unless I had an unblocked line of site between my location and their tower, I was screwed.
But what got me was the complete inability for these companies to even try! Let's take DTNSpeedNet for example. They have a wireless antenna located atop a grain elevator about 5 or so miles away from my new location. Cool! But later I learned that they were based out of Oklahoma, and didn't even have service people in my area! They couldn't even find a re-seller with proper survey gear within 20 miles of me!!! Holy crap! Then I came to learn that all they were doing was taking a satellite Internet connection, and rebroadcasting that! Double holy crap!
I've had satellite Internet service before. It's great, if you have absolutely no other choice. Otherwise, there is quite a bit of lagtime between shooting up to the satellite, then down to earth. However, I had landline modem return... most new systems are using the satellite for BOTH the downlink AND uplink. Let's think about that... you'd be going from earth to a satellite, back to earth, to the Internet, from the Internet, to the satellite, and finally back to earth. That's quite a round trip!!! There is definately some latency there. Just look at "Live" satellite TV. Like from Afghanistan... there is almost always a 2 second delay.
In any case, I called a few other places, and no one could really help me, due to the tree issue. I was almost totally out of luck, when one of the places I called recommended yet another wireless company.
That company was Comwavz. They PROMPTLY went out to my new location with a boom truck and survey team. They said the trees were a problem. HOWEVER, we had an old TV antenna out there, and they said if we put one more section on that, we'd be home free. Holy crap! We did what they said and had another section added to the tower.
They came back and just as promptly hooked us up. Their service was superb! The technicians were quite knowledgable. I watched them as they got us hooked up. In my opinion they went above the call of duty. They had to run a wire from the tower, inside the location, across a hallway, and into or telecom room. However, the attic area above the hallway was SMALL. I thought for sure no one could get in there. But sure enough this guy jumped on a ladder, went through an access panel, and slithered his way around until he got the wire run. WOW!
They sent me the technical Internet info to me a couple days ahead of time. So before they showed up I went to the store and picked up a Linksys BEFW11S4 wireless broadband router. I plugged the info Comwavz gave to me into the router. As soon as they had the wire run and their equipment up and running with flashing green lights, I hooked it into my router, and BOOM! I was on the Internet. And it was FAST too. Speeds between 512K and 1M (closer to 1M).
Now, some of you out there are probably thinking... "512K? My cablemodem is faster than that!!!". Not 100% true... With a cablemodem you get really fast download speeds, but not necessarily fast upload speeds. This is AT LEAST 512K in BOTH directions... downloads AND uploads! And that's important, because this new location is my new emergency backup location. If for some reason my Internet service and/or physical office goes "bye-bye" (fire, tornado, earthquake, etc...), then I can take the most recent off-site backup and apply that to their server. Then I can re-route my remote locations via the Internet to this new site, and we'd be up and running again. We'd have lost a few days data, but not nearly as much as we'd loose if we lost EVERYTHING!!! And we wouldn't have to wait for new Internet service... we already have it!
So let's put this into perspective... Ameritech wanted to charge me over $600/month for 384K Internet service (via a fractional T1). Now we're paying less than $200/month for speeds close to 1M!!! You do the math!
In any case... Comwavz. Very nice service, along with very nice people!!! If you're located in or around the Toledo, OH area (they have a huge service area that stretches between Toledo to nearly Columbus!), then check out Comwavz!!! You can find their awesome coverage map here!
While creating this masterpiece, I got BAKED by the sun. Not so much my arms, but my BACK. Last night my back was BROWN. Not red or toasted, but BROWN. It still hurts :).
So I put it down and forgot about it for the weekend.
I picked it back up this morning and took it to work with me. Initially I just didn't want to deal with the situation. I love my pager. It's a big fat brick, but it does the job. It's a Motorola, but it doesn't have any model number on it. I've been to hell and back with it. It's taken a beating so many times, I couldn't even dare to venture the number of times it's been dropped, crushed, kicked, etc...
So it's with extreme caution that I got out this new one and took a look at it. It's also a Motorola. If it weren't, I was going to fucking scream. First off, I payed big $$$ for my pager. And if they sent me a cheap piece of shit as a replacement, I was going to be PISSED. It's got a nice little pocket clip, and it has a cover for the LCD screen, which should prevent all kinds of damage to it. My old one has quite a few deep scratches in it, but it still works great.
So I put the battery in it (the package came with a battery), and powered it up. I was extremely skeptical, but to make a long story short, I think I like it. When you turn the LCD to a certain angle, it turns bright green, and it's really nice to look at. It also has 4 lines of text, just like my old one, but on the new one, they're much smaller. However, it's OK to look at, so no major problem there. It's got all kinds of beeps and stuff, but the standard BEEP BEEP BEEP works just fine for me. Actually, 95% of the time, this baby will be on VIBRATE (insert perverted joke here... (Get it? Insert???)). The only time I take it off of vibrate is if it's sitting on my bedside table for the night. Other than that, hearing the sound of someone else's pager go off is just the most annoying thing. So take a fucking hint, put your shit on vibrate! :)
OK, anyway. I like the pager. But I was still concerned they were going to screw me royally, and that I was going to loose service for a week, etc etc etc... I read the documentation that came with the pager, and it listed both an 800 number, and a website. So I chose the website. No reason to go and talk to person that's just going to introduce problems into an already questionable situation (more on this later). So I went on to their website, and signed up for a login. Apparently, they've got a website so you can manage your entire account from adding new devices to payment options. Cool! However, navigating their replacement device page was a bit of a pain... it was very confusing. But once my stupid ass got through it, I was able to active it. So I did. Then I got a message on the screen 'Activation will take place within 1 business day'. WHAT? ONE FUCKING DAY? What a piece of shit!
However, my fears went away about 3 seconds later when I got a test page. Kewl! I did some of my own tests (both numeric and via e-mail), and it seemed to work just fine (whew!).
Now, for the part that really fucking irks me. On the documentation it states that the paging service is changing frequencies, and my old pager wouldn't work anymore. As of JULY 9 they were going to AUTOMATICALLY SWITCH the device for me. What a crock of shit! I got this thing on June 28th. That's less than two weeks. What if I were on extended vacation? What if I were in fucking Afghanistan blowing the shit out of those turbin Taliban/Al Quaeda motherfuckers? All of the sudden my pager stops working? What's up with THAT? I know, I'm being far fetched. But still. My point is that they should have more than two weeks of prior notice!
All in all, I think I'll be happy with the new pager, as well as their account management web facilities. However, I was not happy with the way the situation was just brought up and forced upon users!!!
This was going to be a CHEAP trip, due to the fact that I didn't want to blow all my cash and go in debt just to take a weekend getaway. So I did a bunch of research for motels. All the ones located near KI were $75+ or so. I ended up choosing one in Sharonville, on the outskirts of Cincinnati/I-275, about 15 minutes from KI. When I was there before (quite a few years ago), this is where we stayed.
I chose the Extended Stay America hotel. First off, it was only $44 a night (for two people, $39 for one)! Second off, it had a mini-kitchen in the room, for the same price!!! I was quite amazed. We ended up staying two nights (Friday and Saturday nights, mind you) for a total of $99!!! And that includes all taxes and stuff! I was quite happy with it.
In any case, on Saturday, we got there early. The regular parking was $9! Holy shit! And I thought Cedar Point was bad at $6! However, they had preferred parking for $11. I said screw it, and went for the preferred. It was VERY close to the gate, and we didn't have to walk too far, thankfully.
The nice thing about KI is that they also have a waterpark, and there is no extra cost for it! We payed $100 total for two days for two people. My credit union had two-day passes for $50, so that is pretty cool... especially for both the rides and the waterpark.
In any case, the first day was alright. We road a few rides, and didn't have to wait very long for anything. I also noticed that the rides themselves were EXTREMELY well maintained. Except for Adventure Express. While this isn't exactly a screamin' ride, it does have a sort of a Indiana Jones theme to it. The last time I was there, I remember where they had the hill with the big dudes in the cave, and there was sound effects, and you were stopped, and the lights flashed, and all that stuff. But this time around there was little of that. You went through the cave up the hill, and the big dudes were there pounding their hands, but you weren't stopped, and there were very little sound effects. Oh well :).
In any case, we went on to ride Racer and The Beast. Both are quite old, as I recall. From experience, I know that old wooden roller coasters tend to suck. They rock you around and kill my back. At least, this is the way it is at Cedar Point. However, at KI I was very amazed at how well the Racer road. I would even venture to say that it nearly matched a steel coaster! And The Beast wasn't bad at all. It had a bit of shaking to it, but not nearly as bad as The Mean Streak at Cedar Point. But The Beast was also quite fast, and I was very happy with it!
Then we got in line for Tomb Raider, KI's newest ride. From the outside, it's just a large building. I thought it was just another 3D ride or something. When you finally get inside, they keep repeating "Please place ALL loose articles in a basket". One guy even told me he lost his freakin' car keys the last time he was there. I thought to myself that was pretty dumb, should have kept them in your pocket. And they kept repeating it "please secure all loose articles". I'm thinking to myself, how bad can this ride be??? It's indoors!!!
So then we get in there, and they have 3-4 rows of stadium-style seating, like at a newer movie theater. Ummm... OK. This is going to suck. We're going to watch a stupid 3D movie. Great. Woopee.
Nothing could have been farther from the truth.
When you sit down, they strap you down with shoulder restraints to the point where you cannot move. I'm thinking to myself at this point, What the fuck is going on there???? Are they going to engage warp drive or what???.
Then all of the sudden, the entire platform of seats gets FLIPPED UPSIDE DOWN. I was stunned. It was the coolest and most innovative thing I've seen in some time at amusement parks! At one point, they suspend you upside down for nearly 20 or so seconds. All the while, water is shooting up at your face... it comes within 12-24 inches of your face, no shit. You swear that you're going to be blasted. And it looks like fire, so it's even cooler. Then the water drops down, and so do you... you feel like you're going to be dunked!
After that, the ride just ends. Kind of abrupt, but you're so stunned you just don't care :).
After that, it started getting HOT, so we went to the water park.
We started doing some of the water things, then ended up wanting to go on this ride where up to four people get on a raft, and you go flopping around the tubes. Usually a cool ride, so we get in line. That was the absolute worst wait of my life, I swear. You see, they have these non-slip rubber coverings over the wood. So you don't fall.. duh. However, in the HOT 90+ degree direct sunlight, they become like razors. By the time I got up to the top, I was almost in tears. The bottom of my feet hurt so bad!
When I got off the ride, I could not walk. I had to go sit on the fence/railing just to get my feet off the ground. After waiting a few minutes, I started walking back to the wave pool. It took FOREVER for me to walk there... every time my foot hit the ground it was nothing but razor pain. OUCH.
So we finally make it to the wave pool, and I shove my feet into the nice cool water. The only problem was, the damn thing was PACKED with people. It was hard to move around. After a while, we decided to just go back to the hotel. It was a good day, we did quite a few rides. And we had another day left, so what the hell. Go back and drink some Captain Morgan's Gold baby! After I got into shoes, my feet where much better.
So that was pretty much Day 1.
Day 2 was just horrible. We didn't leave the hotel until nearly 10:30AM or so. We checked out, and got on the Interstate towards KI. We were three miles away when we saw the line. Holy shit! THREE MILES. I got in line. After about 20 or so minutes (and one mile) later, I saw a sign that said the exit to KI was two lanes, so I jumped to the lane to the left of me. I sped up, and drove for nearly two miles before I had to stop (traffic). I instantly just saved myself probably 40 minutes to an hour!!! Holy shit! It took another 20 minutes to get into the park. The place was PACKED. Cars EVERYWHERE. It was insane. We decided to park near the waterpark, because we knew we'd be leaving from that entrace. It was already 85 degrees out, and it wasn't even noon yet. We had quite a walk to the entrance. We tried to get into the waterpark entrance, but that was only for season pass holders. Shit!
After getting into the park, we noticed that it was literally jam packed. Shit, I thought. We should have gotten on more rides yesterday! We headed for Son of Beast, because it looked VERY cool (not to mention it's the only wooden roller coaster in the world that goes upside down!!!). But the sign said the wait was nearly 2 hours. Screw that. We ended up going next door to the Top Gun ride. We waited nearly 45 minues in the HOT blazing sun. It was so HOT. I was a ball of sweat, and it was just NASTY. The ride was OK, but it was not worth the wait. After that, we headed for the arcade. We found a virtual reality place that had four connected pods. It was cool. We played a Quake-style game (Unreal or something?). Very neat. Then I found this game called Beachead 2000. It was this VR-type helmet you had to stick your head in. The helmet moved around 360 degrees, and when you moved, your perspective changed in the game. Ships were going ashore all over the place, and you had to take out all the people coming at you. Planes were flying over head... it was fucking nuts. I loved it. It cost $1 to play, and I probably played four times!
After that, the place got even more packed. We figured that there was no way we were going to ride anything else, so we decided to head towards the waterpark.
When we got there, it was a SOLID MASS of bodies. There was nowhere to walk. It was fucking insane. Nicki tried to get into the bathroom to change into her suit, but it just wasn't going to happen. The line was just like that for a roller coaster! We were so upset. We looked at the wave pool, and it looked like millions of ants trying to invade a river so they could cross it. We were hot. We were pissed. We just left. It was around 3PM. But it didn't stop there. It took us nearly 20 minutes to leave. There was even a line to exit the park!!!
But the thing that totally amazed me was that the line on the expressway to get into the park was at the same length (nearly 3 or so miles) as it was when I first got there. Even though KI was a swarming mass of bodies with little chance of anyone actually doing anything, PEOPLE WERE STILL SWARMING IN BY THE THOUSANDS!!! The parking lot was so absolutely full that people were parking on the grass nearly A MILE AWAY, and that's no shit.
Kings Island is a lovely park, but I fear that it's VERY mismanaged. On Saturday, we were quite happy. The lines weren't bad at all, and we road several large coasters. But Sunday was just another matter. It was horrible, and certainly not worth even the discounted price we paid!
What I wish they had is the system we saw at Six Flags in Atlanta. The Lo-Q system. You have this little electronic pager-like thing that vibrates. You walk up to a line for a ride, swipe your Lo-Q thing, and it gives you a time when you can walk right up (through the rides exit), and get onto a ride. Now, it's kind of like Eric Carman said "You mean I have to wait in line... to wait in line???", but it was very effective. The only downside is... it costs more money. But we were able to ride nearly every large coaster in the park in just a few short hours. I feel that if they had this type of thing at KI, I would have been able to ride every ride 3 times over in two days!
So anyway... if I make it out again this summer, it'll be for Six Flags... as long as the have the Lo-Q thing!!!
So anyway, it is a shame that such a nice park with VERY nice, and well maintained, rides suffers from it's own popularity!!! They are going to desparately need some type of line management system, for with the current setup, there just isn't any way to really enjoy all that KI has to offer!!!
Check this out: FBI Raids Homes and Seizes Bandwidth Pirate's PC Here is the Toledo Blade article: Searches by police, FBI target bandits of bandwidth
It's totally unbelievable. It's like Buckeye couldn't just turn their service off and sue them. They could of just called the police. But no, they had the FBI do a freakin' RAID on 23 people's houses in my area (where I work)!!! According to the article, this is the first time something like this has happened, and it had to happen here, in Toledo! Holy fuck! I'm going to bet that Toledo (and Buckeye in particular) is going to be the asshole of the Internet for sometime to come.
OK, yes it was a violation of of the Terms of Service agreement. But like I said... did it need to involve the FBI and taking peoples computers??? Sure, take the cablemodem. Turn off the service. But take their fucking computer? Fuck you!
You see, this scares me, because (at work) I'm a Buckeye customer. Are they going to send the FBI after my company and RAID our shit if we're late on the bill??? They don't have enough sens to cap the bandwidth at their central office (or even cable plant), and instead rely on a piece of equipment that sits at the users location? Good call there morons!
I can see it now: Welcome to Toledo! Got Buckeye cable? Meet the FBI!
It is because of large businesses that we can buy many of the material items we have today. They are the reason most families have more than one car (and I know some people who have more than one car personally, and they are far from rich.. in fact, at a few times, I had two cars also...). They are the reason we have many TVs in one house. They are the reason nearly everyone has a telephone. They are the reason more and more households have more than one computer. I won't go into movies and music, because that's a different matter, and I'm sure you know my stance on that (if you don't, let me put it like this for you: FUCK THE RIAA AND MPAA!!!).
In addition, I am looking at getting a house. At first, I wanted to build one. But between the time and effort factors, I just couldn't do that, and do everything else I'm doing at the same time. That's burnout. So now I'm looking at a modular home. I went the a factory in Indiana where they make the home I'm looking at. It was amazing... they have the technology to effectively mass produces HOUSES now! HOUSES. Wow. And I'm not referring to those cheap ass plastic walled things, either. I'm talking fully drywalled, 2x6 outer walled, 2x10 floor joyces, real insulation, windows, etc... In any case, to me, it was amazing, and stood as a symbol to how far we have come.
But if you look at the current set of crises, people are starting to once again realize that Corporate America isn't really our friend. Microsoft, Enron, Rite Aid, and now WorldCom. It's to the point where even the infallible Martha Stewart is under fire! Imagine that!!!
During the tech bubble that was the 90s, nobody complained because times were good. The CEO was funneling funds to pay for a condo? Who cares? The shareholders were getting paid!!! My how things have now turned. People are once again getting that whole 80s anti-corporatism.
Me? I've been sitting here this whole time just waiting for things to go bad. You know the corruption is there. It's everywhere at those upper echelons. Corporations with enough money are truly above the law. You can pass all the laws you want to, Congress, but if you don't enforce them, or put money behind the enforcement, then nothing is really going to change. The lobbyists reign in D.C., and that's no shit.
But what I don't understand is that people are shocked when they learn that the CEO or CFO is stealing money from the company. They are absolutely horrified when they learn that a company is going under due to mismanagement. Capitialism is the only religion that is really powerful in this country. And the Almightly Ledger is it's Bible. And when something bad happens, it's just like the Priests raping little boys. People can't understand what's happening. They can't believe that it has actually come to pass. They think that this type of thing doesn't happen.
Are you people FUCKING STUPID? Are you so doped up that you don't have any damned idea??? People are motivated by money, and even the mere whiff of it can set any sane person into a raving lunatic. Give that same person a bankroll and the power to use it, and those people have just become deified.
We're taught in our very own schools this same concept. You must go to school to learn more so you can go make tons of money. What happened to teaching values? And please don't get religious here. Brainwashing won't help kids. With both mommy and daddy at work, the kids must learn from school, or from TV. And we know that TV won't cut it. TV is a release from life, not a teacher. It can be, but think about this. If a kid is at school all fucking day, is he going to want to come home and watch TLC? Fuck no!
I'm sorry if I'm rambling. But it's my opinion that the entire American problem (it is a problem, it is not a dream!) is that due to two-face American politics, the entire system is collapsing. Let's pass laws, but not provide more money for enforcement! Let's use the current system, and add another 100lb weight to it. They can handle it! And while they're too busy tring to sort it out, let's raise taxes so we can line our pockets!
I'm so god damned sick of the whole fucking thing.
I'm just so tired of BOTH of them. First off, I can't figure out why we're (USA) playing bitch to Isreal in the first place. They have a military. Can't they support themsevles??? How much money do we give them on a yearly basis? Fuck that!
Secondly, they were so close to being able to actually talk to each other. Then the Palenstine freaks started blowing up buses. You fucking idiots! That shows exactly how much you want to have peace! And then Isreal started started talking about their infamous FENCE. I'm sorry, but they're both fucking stupid, and WE need to build a fence around BOTH of them!
I thought I was getting tired of Pakistan and India, but this takes the cake! Through my pager, I get e-mail alerts from CNN. And it's like every day I get one or two regarding Isreal & friends. And then on the front page of Yahoo, there is ALWAYS a 'Top Story' about them. Fuck them! Like there are not other important things going on that deserve front page space.
These are my opinions, and I stick to them. If you don't like them, FUCK OFF!
Have a nice day ;)
As for the addition, the foreign e-mail that I complain about has nearly dropped to zero in my inbox, thanks to Mozilla filters!!! Now, I wasn't able to actually create a filter for foreign characters, but I discovered after looking at them that they were being sent to an e-mail alias, which was then forwarded to one of my e-mail accounts. So I set up a filter to detect any e-mail coming from that alias, and send it to a different folder (I can have it deleted automatically, but I'm a freak about automatically deleting e-mail, I just don't want that to happen :) ). In any case, since I've instated the filter, I've not received any foreign language e-mails!!! I still want to look into detecting foreign language characters in a filter, but for now, I'm quite happy! In addition, I'm setting up filters for various advertisements and such, sending them to a different folder so they never bother my inbox. I love Mozilla!!!
I am so happy I did!!! Mozilla has some really GREAT features. First off, you can set up multiple e-mail accounts and check them both at the same time. This is great for me, I've got both a personal e-mail address, and a work one. And I like to check them both from both home and work. Also, the SMTP server settings in Mozilla is GREAT. I set up both my home and work SMTP settings in Mozilla, and Mozilla is smart enough to figure out which one works!!! In Netscape, I had to constantly switch between them. I love it!
It's also got message filters. In my e-mail, I get lots of different types of e-mail. Especially from mailing lists. Now, with Mozilla, I can create a folder, create a filter to search the e-mail subject for a phrase, and move that e-mail to the folder upon receipt. It's great!!! I'm trying to have it delete all the foreign language e-mails I get before I see them, but I'm having a hard time due to character translations... :(. I will get it working though!!!
In short, anyone using Netscape or Mozilla for web browsing, and something else for e-mail, check out Mozilla!!!
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
When NASA first started sending up astronauts, they quickly discovered that ball-point pens would not work in zero gravity. To combat this problem, NASA scientists spent a decade and $12 billion developing a pen that writes in zero gravity, upside down, underwater, on almost any surface including glass and at temperatures ranging from below freezing to over 300 C.
The Russians used a pencil.
Enjoy paying your taxes.
In case you haven't read any of my rants, I'm a HUGE supporter of the space program. But reading something like this does make me want to vomit... regardless of whether it's true or not.
You've got to hand it to the Russians. They're working on sending their third person into space! All within a year. Previous to this, it's been RARE to have a person in space. And now we're sending them up for pleasure cruises. Sure they're rich (the people going up in orbit)... but that's how it works. They pay for it up front, and eventually, the price comes down.
I want to see the human race voyage beyond the earth so bad it's not funny. It's like I want it so bad I can taste it...!
We now have a complete office suite and a web browser ready for PRODUCTION use!!! Both have a large community of developers behind them, as well as very large companies paying for it. I'm not always for large companies, as you well know, but in these cases, they've done something VERY wonderful!!!
The office suite is OpenOffice (actually, it's really called OpenOffice.org or OOo). You can find more about it from the OpenOffice.org website. OpenOffice is available for Linux, Windows, and Sun Solaris!
OpenOffice is basically the source code behind the StarOffice Suite. Except Sun is going to charge for StarOffice, but OpenOffice is completely free!!!
ALSO, Mozilla has reached V1.0 too!!! This is also a very wonderul cause for celebration!!! Kind of like OpenOffice/StarOfffice, Mozilla is the source code behind Netscape 6 & 7. Mozilla runs on Linux, MacOS X, Windows, BSD, OS/2, and some others (Unix). You can find Mozilla at the Mozilla website.
For quite a few people, Linux, Mozilla, and OpenOffice can completely replace the Windows/Internet Explorer/Office monopoly!!! Of course, most aren't going to change... but I'm telling you that it is possible!!! So if you're tired of paying $$$ for Windows and Office, please try Linux/Mozilla/OpenOffice!!!
There is this great little device out, called the Personal Video Recorder (PVR). It's basically a digital VCR, but it's got lots of cool little features. You might recognize these items from TiVO and ReplayTV (Microsoft also had one, UltimateTV, but I think it went under???). These little toys had the ability to record TV shows while you weren't there, and they could do complex scheduling, like record a certain TV show whenever it came on (not just daily or weekly, but if it were scheduled for different dates/times).
In any case, another nifty feature of these little boxes is the ability to cut out commercials so when you go to watch the recorded program, you get one nicely flowing show. No more fucking commercials from Verizon ("Can you hear me now??? Good!!!"). Can I shoot you now? Good!!! BLAM!
Well, the broadcasting industry is up in arms against these devices. They can't stand them! They want to make them illegal!!! According to their argument, when they send you a TV channel, it's expected that you not only watch the show, but the commercials. And if they had it their way, you would be strapped down for the entire time a TV show is on. Fuckers!
It's like they OWN you for that time the show is on. A license on your time, if you will. And if you violate the license, you're EVIL. You know what? When I watch TV or listen to music, I watch the parts that I want. Fuck the rest. Fuck Verizon. Can I hear you? FUCK NO! FUCK OFF!
Another issue pertaining to movies & music... the illusion of ownership in this country is FUCKING WACK. When you buy a CD or DVD, according to the Fair Use laws of this country, you're allowed to make a backup copy of it. So if your original gets messed up, you can make a copy of your backup, and listen to that. You don't have to pay again for the same thing you've already paid for.
But again the recording industry is trying to make it so that these rights are taken away. AND they want more money!!! These are the same stupid motherfuckers who want to charge you to download a song from the Internet, then turn around and charge you everytime you listen to that song.
These are the same fuckers that said Napster was killing their business. Now Napster has filed for bankruptcy, and do you see the price of CDs going down anytime soon? Hell no! They're finding other excuses!
These are the same fuckers who want to put a tax on CD-Rs (recordable CDs) just like they did with the audio tape. Even if you want to use CD-Rs for computer data, not music, you'd still have to pay a tax to feed the poor millionaires of the recording industry. And I'm not talking about the people who make the music. I'm talking about the "Industry Executives". The fuckers in suits and long black stretch limos. You see them fuckers ever contributing anything to society? No! It's TAKE TAKE TAKE. GIMME GIMME GIMME. Yours is mine and mine is mine, and if you don't like it, I'm going to lobby congress until I get it! So FUCK YOU!
I just can't stand it anymore! So many people have said that if they made it so that you could download an MP3 from the Internet for $1, and have no restrictions on it, then they'd be making money hand over fist. But will they do that? Hell no! They want more money! Because then you wouldn't buy the 15 other shitty songs on a 16-song album! In other words, you pay for their shit anymore! And do they like that? FUCK NO!
I'm sorry, but if I have something in my hands that I purchased, then I OWN IT, and I'll do what the fuck ever that I wish to with it. Can you image buying a car and having the manufacturer dictate to you how the car can be used? What speeds you could go? Where you could go with it? What you used it for? "Excuse me sir, but that 2003 Pick-Up truck isn't allowed to haul heavy shit. You will now pay a fine and go to jail. Straight to jail! You will not pass go, and you will not collect your $200!!!". Can you imagine?
But it's everywhere... the book publishing industry wants to put a stop to used book sales. Wow! These people are money hungry fucking motherfuckers. A big FUCK YOU to EVERYONE out there who thinks they can sell me something, and tell me what I can do with it after I've purchased it and it's MINE.
- www.JoeThielen.com