Arrogance.

As a lovely way to start off the week, my workday is filled with corporate meetings of varying banality. One of the meetings involved an IT guy who seems very knowledgable in his contribution to the common corporation we work for and I looked forward to speaking with him. Part of his presentation including a software demonstration.

The problem is, he is using a Mac. And as an rabid Apple fanboy, it pains me to start this paragraph with “the problem is”.

I made a comment stating that I noticed the MacBook Pro that he was using to accomplish his tasks and that I was an avid Apple products user as well. My supervisor, who is an avid Windows user, also made a comment stating his surprise that he was using a Mac for his company business, since we are very much a PC world inside the corporation.

“I’m using a Mac because they gave me a PC. They claimed it was top of the line but it’s still a PC.” His voice was dripping with that holier-than-thou attitude that one occasionally hears from a Mac user and quite frankly, makes me cringe. A lot. Because it’s that attitude that gives us Mac folks a bad name.

Here’s my deal. I love my Macs, I love my iPad and I love all the iDevices that I have in my home and life. I have tried to switch away from Mac but the old adage of “Once you go Mac…” (or something like that) is very much true and I find the cohesiveness of my computing experience with my various portable devices to be quite nice. I am excited about the rumors about Verizon Wireless getting the iPhone in the fairly near future. And quite frankly, using a more expensive Mac in Panera or wherever is a bit of an elitist ego boost for me, because I feel like I have spent our money on the best possible computing experience. The hardware feels better, the software is more intuitive and it really does “just work”.

But I’m certainly not going to poo-poo random PC users and make them feel any less special or important in their computing experience because overall, the Mac is just a tool. I choose to use my computer as a tool to get whatever I want to get done, done. Others choose PCs as their tool. We both get to the same websites, we both type documents and we both exchange e-mail, it’s just that they have their way on their PC and I have my way on my Mac.

I have been known to roll my eyes and groan on more than one occasion when asked to help someone with a computer issue. The groan and eye-roll usually indicates that said user is using Windows Vista, but I digress. I have also had to bail out many Mac users in my day.

Folks with the uppity attitude about their Macs give all us fanboys a bad name. I just want to get my work or play done on a system that doesn’t crank about it.

And I want to do it without an attitude.

– Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

15 November 2010 by Geek 2

Transportation.

I am witting in my usual parking space for my lunch hour. The difference today is that in the next spot over is a horse and buggy. The folks that drove it in went to McDonalds. I would share a photo of this horse and buggy but the camera app on my Droid has crashed twice and refuses to speak to Twitter today. I’ll post it once I get home and I can hack into the phone.

I find it ironic that I am complaining about technology whilst parked next to a horse and buggy driven by an Amish couple.

The horse just dumped. So did the Droid. Otherwise he is well behaved and just standing there, pooping occasionally.

The buggy has a sturdy build and has a couple of blankets in the passenger area. I like that, blankets in the car. I do the same thing. If my name was Linus I might have a safety blanket in my stash, but alas, I do not.

I am fascinated by the fact that I am parked next to this horse and buggy. I’m not surprised, after all the town I grew up in has hitching posts at all the major fast food establishments. But it is fascinating.

12 November 2010 by Fun and Games Dept 0

Waiting.

Dear Dunkin Donuts in the J-town,

Since March of this year you have been a part of my daily routine. In the early days of this J-town experience I would go to the World’s Best Subway(TM) for a predictable meal but that grew somewhat expensive so I decided to start packing a lunch for the days I worked in your fair city. I decided to visit your establishment on a daily basis to pick up a large unsweetened iced tea with lemon. On days when I was in a particularly madcap mood, I would also order a chocolate chip cookie. A few weeks ago there was a misstep that shook me to my very core, as you gave me a toasted bagel with some offensive pink goo instead of my madcap chocolate cookie, but aside from one nasty run in with some sweetened coffee concoction, you have been right there for me with my large, unsweetened iced tea with lemon.

Yesterday, in celebration of the unseasonably warm temperatures, I decided to park the car and walk inside your establishment to purchase my iced tea. The plan to walk would be the extent of my frivolity, but I was planning to tell you to keep the change as I completed my purchase. This would have been a 10% tip for you.

I waited at your counter, lamented to my next madcap mood when I gazed over the chocolate chip cookies and then discovered there was one important element missing from the service with a smile.

It was the person that was suppose to wait on me at the counter.

Now there were four suspects milling about the food preparation area. One was yelling into her headset. Presumably she was speaking to someone that couldn’t comprehend that you do not sell Whoppers at Dunkin’ Donuts because she kept yelling “That’s at BURGER KING!!!”. One was shuffling muffins around but two young ladies were chatting and texting, even though they were wearing their uniforms.

I waited for four minutes.

As the clock, which looks quite industrial and is made by the Chaney Instruments company, by the way, clicked to the fourth minute, I made an abrupt 180-degree turn and left your establishment. I made my way across the road to the Rock ‘n Roll themed McDonalds where apparently all the men are required to wear Elvis sideburns and ordered a large iced tea from there, which saved me $1.00 and was served to me faster than you can say “two all beef patties special sauce lettuce cheese pickles onions on a sesame seed bun”. There was smiling, there were sideburns and there were no cell phones. Customer nirvana.

I decided to give you one more chance today and feeling particularly adventurous, I was going to go for the gusto and order a brownie with the daily iced tea.

Again, disinterest of the customer that was standing at the counter waiting was a recurring theme. I waited five minutes, per the Chaney Instruments clock you have, and again, I made a 180-degree turn and left and went to the McDonalds, where today’s theme was apparently ZZ Top beards and indulged in my adventurous mood by adding a plain hamburger to my order of a large, unsweetened iced tea with lemon.

There were plenty of smiles, a hearty thank you and I deposited my change in the Ronald McDonald Home fund.

I am sorry, dear Dunkin Donuts of the J-town, but I am breaking up with you. Your disinterest reminds me of the feelings I had for my girlfriend in the latter half of my senior year of high school and quite frankly, I know that means no one is going to get any.

Fondly,
ME

10 November 2010 by Let's All Rant. Why. 0

Voting.

So yesterday was Election Day in the United States and like the good American that I am, I did my patriotic duty and joined Earl as we headed to the town hall to cast our votes. Last year our town hall was the beta tester for the new electronic voting machines that made their official debut last night and I have to say that I am still very, very uncomfortable with these new machines. I was very vocal to everyone that would listen about how I felt about the machines and many of the Important Voting People agreed with me.

Here are my issues with the new electronic voting machines:

1. They are suppose to be more accessible for those that had a hard time pulling the lever next to the name of the person they wanted to vote for. To remedy this situation, the new system involves taking a magic marker and colouring inside a little dot next to the name of the person that you’re voting for. If a voter does not have the dexterity to grab onto a lever and pull it down, I doubt they’re going to be able to wrap their fingers around a pen and colour neatly within the dot.

2. Any shrouds of privacy have been removed. In the old days, you went into this booth like device where a big, red handle awaited. The voter then swung the handle to the right, and hopefully it would close the curtain behind you, turn on the light so you could see what you were doing and reset the machine to ‘zero’, all with the swing of that red handle. Now you are given a scorecard with the aforementioned magic marker and herded over to a cubicle with flappy sides which is in very close proximity to other voters. There’s no privacy. Anyone can look over your shoulder. I saw that the person standing to my right was a staunch Republican because he had coloured in the Republican dot on his row. He had even marked one dot per column, where in some cases there were two columns requiring only one vote between them. So not only did I know his vote, I knew he was doing his vote wrong1;. By the way, the mechanical machines would not have allowed him to pull too many levers down.

3. This is one is the biggest concern for me: these electronic voting machines are electronic, do not print out a receipt and have been programmed by human beings using a closed source program. I firmly believe that any programming code (otherwise called source code) used on a publicly owned computing device for the purpose of voting in our elected officials should be programmed with open source code where anyone could see what makes the machine tick. I don’t trust our government so I’m sure as heck not going to trust a company working for the government using trade secrets. The fact that there is not that much stink made about this sort of thing makes me angry in unmeasurable ways, however, I’m not surprised because the majority of the population is too lazy to think and would rather be spoon fed their media and thought processes.

Prior to the introduction of these electronic voting machines I felt a sense of honour and duty whenever I cast my vote. I was making a difference and old people using older, proven technologies were making sure that my vote counted. When I walk away from casting my ballot now, not only do I feel dirty from having to basically choose from the lesser of two evils, I feel cheated as an American because I have no idea where my vote went and if whoever wrote the program in the first place approved my vote based on their parameters.

Like electronic toilets and sinks2 in public wash rooms, we have taken a step backwards in one of the most important elements of our country.

1 I watched this man feed his scorecard into the machine, and it did not complain about the errors of his vote. The mechanical machine would have never let that happen in the first place. One is left to wonder, did his entire ballot get nullified or just that vote?

2 In the past three months, I have seen at least six boys or men become dumbfounded because the manual sink wouldn’t turn on when they thrust their hands under the spigot. I had to turn the sink on for one young lad who was old enough to grow peach fuzz because he kept going from sink to sink and said they were all broken.

 

 

3 November 2010 by Why. 1

Dreams.

I have been having very vivid dreams lately. I remember at least one dream every night, sometimes two. I faithfully write down the pertinent thoughts. Sometimes I act them out for anyone that happens to be in the house. I bet my little show would be less interesting if I was awake when I was acting them out. If the neighbors have ever looked out their window in the middle of the night they’ve probably seen my naked body standing in the window on more than one occasion. Earl guides me back to bed when I’m doing that, because I’m never awake when I’m revealing myself that way.

My dreams the past couple of nights have been very vivid. I have dreamed about flying, as in jumping onto an air current and soaring along the treetops. My hands are not out in front of me in a Superman pose, but at my sides. The wind is blowing against my face. The feeling of flying lingers on well after I have landed and the dream has come to an end.

The other night I dreamed about my Grandma Country. I hadn’t dreamed about her in quite a while and I must say it’s been too long since our last visit in the Dreamscape. Her presence helped me through the day yesterday when I was feeling a little blue. She always made me feel like I’m not so crazy after all.

Last night I dreamed about Grandma Country’s older sister, Aunt Rena. I think I know why Aunt Rena came around. We usually saw Aunt Rena around the holidays; as a widow she would come over for the holiday dinners and sit on the stool and visit with my grandmother during the dinner preparations. Aunt Rena always brought tossed salad, complete with radishes cut into rose petals, and “Mix”, which in contemporary times is called “Chex Mix”. Her Mix was always a little more homemade tasting than the Chex Mix you buy in a bag. The ladies on Grandma Country’s side of the family did that sort of thing pretty well.

Aunt Rena was a retired school teacher. She taught 3rd grade at the small school in town. I believe my Dad and his brother and sisters were all in her class. In fact, I think my grandmother was in her class, now that I think about it.

We rarely went to Aunt Rena’s house. The only occasion that we would really go over there is for trick or treating on Halloween. We’d get into the back of my aunt’s Datsun B210 and head over the Ridge Road to her house and get in as far as the front door. Her house was kept much like the way my grandmother kept house, very neat and orderly but still functional. We never made it passed the living room. We’d visit for a while, get a treat and then move on to the next relatives, usually Aunt Dutch’s, Aunt Dutch being another one of the sisters. Her house was neat and orderly too.

Aunt Clara on Bewitched reminds me of my Aunt Rena a little bit. Very smart, but a little bit bumbling. Aunt Rena wasn’t nearly as bumbly as Aunt Clara but her heart seemed to be as big. I kind of wish I had the opportunity to get to know her better.

At least I got to chat with her last night during my dream.

26 October 2010 by Ponderings and Musings Spiritual Stuff. 0

Duplication.

I apologise that the previous blog entry was posted in triplicate and that I was completely unaware of it. One of the new features of the latest version of the WordPress app on the iPad is that it automatically posts things, deletes things, calls you names and then posts some more before it spitefully crashes into oblivion in a last effort of frivolity.

I once loved the app. I now hate it.

26 October 2010 by Fun and Games Dept 1

Time.

I was just standing in line at The World’s Greatest Subway(tm) where I heard a woman remark to her friend that it was very dark out this morning when her alarm went off. I refrained from making a comment and a spectacle, however, had I decided to verbalize the thoughts that starting circling in my head, I would have said this:

“It’s because we screw with the clocks and our heads, you idiot.”

You see, we are still in Daylight Saving Time here in the United States and will continue to be for the next three weeks or so. Isn’t that comforting? For the next three weeks we won’t see daylight on the east coast until after 0700. So while you’re trying to get your act together for the day, you get to stumble around in the dark and fumble for your keys and go out into a dark morning for your daily commute. You see, even though you’re turning on the lights and all that for a longer amount of time, the U.S. Government says that burning our lights longer is saving energy. That’s right, we are saving energy by illuminating darkness every morning. But don’t worry, at least everyone gets to still enjoy their outdoor activities after work. You know, before it gets dark at 1830 (6:30 p.m.). Enjoy your swim in Lake Ontario as you watch the beautiful sunset.

To say that I hate Daylight Saving Time gives it too much credit, because it would imply that I once loved it. I despise Daylight Saving Time with every fiber of my jet-lagged, lethargic being. Earl and I have been tossing around the idea of relocating a few miles to the west and I’m joyful because the clock will be .02 seconds closer to true time during DST.

Most humans are designed to awake with the dawn’s early light, not an hour before sunrise. So in the name of Old Glory, please stop trying to compete with nature and stop messing with the clocks.

I shall spend the next three weeks or so making like a zombie that has flown from Shanghai to Bangor with a 10 hour layover in Peoria. Twice. Please be kind.

25 October 2010 by Fun and Games Dept 1

Time.

I was just standing in line at The World’s Greatest Subway(tm) where I heard a woman remark to her friend that it was very dark out this morning when her alarm went off. I refrained from making a comment and a spectacle, however, had I decided to verbalize the thoughts that starting circling in my head, I would have said this:

“It’s because we screw with the clocks and our heads, you idiot.”

You see, we are still in Daylight Saving Time here in the United States and will continue to be for the next three weeks or so. Isn’t that comforting? For the next three weeks we won’t see daylight on the east coast until after 0700. So while you’re trying to get your act together for the day, you get to stumble around in the dark and fumble for your keys and go out into a dark morning for your daily commute. You see, even though you’re turning on the lights and all that for a longer amount of time, the U.S. Government says that burning our lights longer is saving energy. That’s right, we are saving energy by illuminating darkness every morning. But don’t worry, at least everyone gets to still enjoy their outdoor activities after work. You know, before it gets dark at 1830 (6:30 p.m.). Enjoy your swim in Lake Ontario as you watch the beautiful sunset. 

To say that I hate Daylight Saving Time gives it too much credit, because it would imply that I once loved it. I despise Daylight Saving Time with every fiber of my jet-lagged, lethargic being. Earl and I have been tossing around the idea of relocating a few miles to the west and I’m joyful because the clock will be .02 seconds closer to true time during DST. 

Most humans are designed to awake with the dawn’s early light, not an hour before sunrise. So in the name of Old Glory, please stop trying to compete with nature and stop messing with the clocks. 

I shall spend the next three weeks or so as a zombie who just flew from Shanghai to Bangor via a 10 hour layover in Peoria. Twice.  

25 October 2010 by Fun and Games Dept 1

Savings.

I’m really good at spending money. I’m like really good at it. I have my suspicions as to where I learned this fantastic trait of mine, but I enjoy a certain je ne sais quoi when it comes to spending money. There’s a certain amount of excitement when one finds that next goodie on the Christmas tree, decides to buy it and then feel a bit of excitement as the new found treasure is revealed.

Ironically, I don’t enjoy shopping. It makes me yawn.

While I am really good at spending money, there are times when I like to do the responsible thing and feel like I’m saving money. And I have started a plan that will save me $270 a year. $270! That’s like three tanks of gas and five gallons of milk! Just think of the things I can do with that kind of dough in this economy. Where has my new found savings come from?

I drive thru McDonalds instead of Dunkin’ Donuts now when purchasing my daily dose of unsweetened iced tea with lemon. Dunkin’ Donuts price? $2.70. McDonalds? $1.69 (and I think the cup is bigger).

I’m quite delighted with this little find. I think I’ll celebrate by buying something shiny.

 

21 October 2010 by Ponderings and Musings 1

Purple.

Show your support of LGBT teens that are struggling by wearing purple today, if you’re not already. Too many teens are committing suicide because of being bullied simply for being different. Suicide is not the answer.

Remember, it gets better. I promise.

20 October 2010 by Fun and Games Dept 0

About J.P.

Just a guy with a husband. We’ve been together 28 years and he still makes me see fireworks on a daily basis. Hiker. Storm Chaser. Private Pilot. Tech Guy. Hackerish.

Weird? Eccentric!

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