Land of Oz

Terri

Let me pick on just one teeny part of this mess. The fight over who gets the last say between parents and spouse. I don't see why there's any debate in this part of it. You can choose your spouse, but you have no say in who your parents are. Why does everyone automatically decide that "Father Knows Best" or you have "to honor your father and mother."

You didn't have any choice about who brought you into this mess. You had no choice over whether you even wanted into this mess. They decided -- and way too often, they didn't really decide. You just happened from the result of a couple of idiots who decided to "make love" in the back seat of an AMC Gremlin groovin' to a Kenny G cassette. And nine months later, they automatically became knowing parents - as if they get some special super-parent power to really know what's best for their kids.

Bull Shit. Your spouse, for better or for worse, is the person you decided you wanted to spend the rest of your life with. Maybe the decision wasn't the best you've made, but you did make. If you hate the decision, get a divorce. Otherwise it's a decision you made. I think the people you want to be with are the ones who should make the decision about what happens to you if you can't make it for yourself. And if you make the wrong decision or have to make the decision, don't take it out on your kids when you have them.

News Comments

The Time Fits the Crime?
A man was sentenced in a Macomb County courtroom on Tuesday for running over his family with his car in Warren, killing his wife.

Nakawi Kue was sentenced to 16 months in prison for the incident that occurred at a house located at Peter Kaltz Road and Mackersie Avenue in Warren on Feb. 8, 2004. Kue admitted to arguing with his wife at a party, then drove over her and their children with his vehicle, the station reported.
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16 months??? This guy fights with his wife, then drives over her and his kids with his car and only gets 16 months? People get longer than that for shooting a dog.

Too Good to be True?
The attorneys general alleged that the program was misleading because Blockbuster did not adequately disclose that if customers kept rented videos or games for more than seven days after their due dates, they would be charged the sales price for the overdue items. That could result in a charge of $8 to $20 to a customer's credit card. The charge could be reversed if the item was returned within 30 days, but then a $1.25 restocking fee would be charged.
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Remember all those TV ads with the crowds staring at the store in wonderment? Wonder no longer.

Can't Afford Armored HUMVEEs
According to Orange, Tuohey said the Army might be willing to pay an average of about $1.4 million per season to become the primary sponsor for the three years the Nationals play at RFK.

"He said the Army was trying to raise their profile," Orange said yesterday.
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At least while our troops in Iraq are ducking shrapnel and bullets, they will know their favorite multi-million dollar ball player is being supported.

Yo God
Pope John Paul II is getting nutrition from a tube in his nose, the Vatican said Wednesday, shortly after the frail pontiff appeared at his window in St. Peter's Square and managed only a rasp when he tried to speak.
--- Isn't this guy God's right hand man? Give him a break will Ya?

// posted by Jim-of-oz @ 3/30/2005 12:50:00 PM

Saving Money?

"Lee said she drove her car on empty looking for an elusive deal Monday, bypassing stations at $2.15 or $2.19 until she found just about the best deal around: $2.13."

Here's why people need to take math classes in school. The above is a quote from some article in a Detroit newspaper about someone who was driving around looking for cheap gas. Taking some averages and making some assumptions, see what the person saved. Taking the average high price, Lee saved $0.04 per gallon. Wow! Say Lee bought 20 gallons of gas - which makes the savings $0.80. Ooh! In my head, that works out to a little over 1/3 gallon of gas (actually .38 gallons). Say Lee gets 20 mpg - that means if Lee drove farther than about 6 miles, Lee lost money. And just think if Lee gets worse mileage or bought less gas, it works out even worse.

Why do I feel that Lee is one of those folks who drives up and down the parking lot looking for a nearby parking space. How often do you think the tire pressure was checked? Do you figure Lee idles or shuts the engine off when waiting for a train or while waiting for a kid outside of school. Any of these would probably save more money than driving around looking for gas that is $0.03 cents a gallon cheaper.

2fers: Better Gas Mileage and Sunoco Oil

Rebate Scams

Don't you just love the latest scam for consumers. The rebate. Yes, you save some money, but how often are these things completely used? I try to be pretty conscientious with these things, but I miss more often that I care to say. Usually I get the papers filled out correctly but then don't use the check up in time. This has happened to me more than I care to say.

And getting the papers together is a royal pain in the ass as well. Some of those rebates have more conditions than a software license. You have to get cash register receipts and underline or circle or check the purchase. Then you have to get the bar code or serial number from the package. Then you have to use a certain size envelope and send it off to some place with a wait time of 4-6 weeks.

When you get it back, if you're lucky it's a check for the rebate amount. It normally has a pretty short expiration date on it, so you'd better use it quick. If you're not lucky, it'll probably be some kind of limited use money back something or other. You'll either have to use it only at certain stores, or only for certain products. All in all, it's a pain.

But the company makes you think you're saving money, and for all those who don't follow all the little rules, the company doesn't have to lose that money.

Staples

It's something you hear about, but when it actually happens, it's such a surprise, it's almost a shock - which is a shame. I'm talking about good service in a store.

This Saturday I bought a paper shredder from Staples. It's not a real fancy one, only $40. I usually try to get this kind of stuff during sales, but after looking for a couple of months not seeing any sales, I bought this one. Naturally, Sunday's paper had the same one with a $5 instant rebate and $15 mail-in rebate. Talk about pissed.

So, today I went over to Staples with ad and receipt in hand and asked about the sale. Quicker than anything, with absolutely no hassles what-so-ever, they credited me $5.35 on my credit card and printed out the 4 foot long rebate receipt. Thank you Staples.

However, since you couldn't tell it was really me unless I was griping about something, let me add a couple of things - not Staples related I might also add. Come to think about it, let my rant on rebates be my next entry since it's probably going to be pretty long.

The shredder -- it's an Executive Machines 6-Sheet Crosscut Paper Shredder, with included wastebasket. First let me say, that for $40 I'm not expecting a lot. I've used gas powered shredders in the military that could chomp down whole hard bound books without hesitation. But I am expecting that at least the shredder could follow its own hype on the package. It says: "Tough Enough to Shred 6 sheets of 20lb paper; Credit Cards; Stapled Paper." Yeah - right. It will protestingly take 3 sheets of writing paper. And that's slow. Five or six and it's not happy at all. Basically it'll take a couple of sheets of paper without too much protest. I don't expect it has a very long duty-cycle either. It doesn't say, but I'd guess a couple dozen sheets, then break time for awhile. Within those parameters, it does its job though. And now that it's only $20, I'm even happier.

2fers: Staples and Shredder

Fiction

From Merriam-Webster Inc.Fiction: 1 a : something invented by the imagination or feigned; specifically : an invented story b : fictitious literature (as novels or short stories) c : a work of fiction; especially : NOVEL

From the Vatican: in the LA Times: "This now-famous premise shaping Brown's bestseller "The Da Vinci Code" has infuriated leaders of the Roman Catholic Church and led to demands from a senior Vatican official that the book be shunned."

Which part of the definition of fiction is confusing the Vatican. Are they so worried about their all-powerful god, that they have to keep you from reading a book of fiction? There's something like 20 million copies that have been sold so far - did the Vatican just realize that? Or were the first 20 million bought by satan's minions and those are already a lost cause? Will religion please leave my life the hell alone and stick to collecting tithes and molesting altar boys.

Boondocks

I really love this comic and I hope Mr. McGruder won't sue me for showing it.


They say the sign of how intelligent a person is, is how close their thoughts reflect yours. Here, we are soul brothers.

Boondocks and Boondocks Comics

Enlist Once - Stay Forever?

I just read something kind of spooky. Before I get into this, I'd just like to mention that I do have 22 years in the USAF, retiring in 1995. So the military isn't something I know nothing about - not a lot, of course, but more than nothing. It seems the army is trying to make enlistments longer - to 8 years.

For those of you who don't know, most people enlist for X number of years, with X-Y being active duty time. In other words, you enlist for a 4 year tour of active duty, but you actually enlisted for 6 years of total duty. You'd normally finish off the last 2 years on inactive reserve status. You're still in the army reserves, you just don't have to meet every month for any kind of training. However, over the last couple of years (heard of Iraq?) the army has been making use of something called "stop-loss." This is a state of affairs where the military can delay a persons exit from the military for an undetermined length of time.

This has gotten a lot of air time now that the unpleasantries are going on in Iraq, Afghanistan, North Korea, Syria, etc. but is in fact nothing new. It used to be (back in the olden days) that you would put in 20 years in the military and then retire. I enlisted in 1973. For the greater part of that time I figured I'd be a civilian again in 1973. However if you read my first line, you'll see I spent 22 years in the military. Not my plan.

I was informed that I was eligible for another stripe (to E-7) right around 1993. I told them I wasn't interested in the extra stripe since I would have to stay in for another two years. They then showed me a regulation that stated all I had to give them was another 6 months after my promotion and I could then request my retirement. (The operative word here is "request.") I did, and I did, and they didn't. It seems the USAF couldn't do it's mission without my presence as an E-7 for another two years. So, they turned down my retirement "request."

To top it off, I had an assignment to Iceland at the time (which I really was looking forward to) and it was cancelled since they had too many E-7s there. Since I was supposed to leave in a week, my apartment lease was cancelled and my furniture was in storage and my luggage was actually on its way to Iceland. I became very vocal as it became obvious they had no place to put me as an E-7!! On the one hand, they couldn't live without me and on the other hand they couldn't figure out where to put me.

I finally ended up in South Korea as a "special projects" NCO for an office with more senior NCOs than junior NCOs. So to those of you enlisted now - and worried about not being allowed to leave later - it's nothing new. The military has been treating its personnel with varying levels of disinterest and unfairness since Og the caveman found out Ig the caveman didn't mind saluting him as long he got an occasional brontosaurus bone to munch on.

U.S. Naval Air Station (NAS) Keflavík and Michigan Military Retirees

Damons

As you know I spend a lot of time complaining about bad service. Well, here goes another one. Last Saturday, we were going out to eat. Our first stop was Outback, which told us there'd be about a 2 hour wait. So we decided to go across the street to Damons - oops.

Damons told us there'd be about a thirty minute wait. Boy, talk about lying. It did take only about 30 minutes to get to a table, but then the wait really started. By the time the waitress got to our table, I was getting a little upset. I tried to remember that it wasn't the waitress's fault. That most things were beyond her control. That being said, we waited some more. After a drink - and more waiting - we got our appetizers - some kind of springroll cracker thingie. Which I must admit were pretty good. Then we waited - and waited some more. In the midst of this wait, I went up and complained to the hostest about the wait - she said they were really busy in the other room (an excuse that came up a lot). Finally they brought out our meals - mine was the wrong one by the way. I wasn't about to ask for it to be replaced.

While we were waiting for our meal, I did witness something I've never seen in a restaurant before. One of the other tables got up in mass and left before the meal ever got to their table. The server finally came out about 15 minutes after they left and looked around at a big empty table while he balanced a tray of food on his arms.

The manager finally came out and comped my meal and also treated us to dessert. Honestly, I would've rather had my correct meal on time and been charged for it. To top things off, they came in and started to vacuum the floor while we were sitting there eating dessert. Talk about ruining an evening.

2fers: Damons and Outback

Movies

I happen to enjoy watching Chinese movies, especially the period action films. I'm not all that crazy about those 70s Kung Fu movies that were pushed out, but do like many of the movies from the 80s on. Many of the the movies I enjoy tend to be very formula based. There's usually a love triangle (at least 3), a certain amount of gender confusion (spoken Chinese is often gender nonspecific), conflict between social and personal duty, and a great deal of death. A quick synopsis of many moves would be: A loves B who loves C who loves the country and then they all die. Because of all this, they can be confusing to follow at times.

A movies I've just started is Ashes of Time. So far, it follows the above synopsis pretty close. To make it more difficult to follow, A and C are played by the same female actress (Brigitte Lin) who get referred to as him and her; and both are both supposed to be the same person in the movie. B drank a mind wiping wine who no longer realizes he met A, C and D. In the meantime A and C are in love with B and have hired D with whom they spend a lot of time with to kill C and A. I'm guessing that D is also in love with A and C and is the best friend of B. And I'm only 25 minutes into the movie.

This movie (at least this particular DVD version - movie DVDs tend to come in very many versions) also displays many of the problems inherent in Chinese language movies. First, there is no choice of language or subtitles. The best DVD versions offer language choices in both audio and subtitles. I very much prefer to listen to the movie in Chinese and read English subtitles. In some DVDs subtitles are lost against the movie background - white letters against a snowy pass for example. In this movie, they seem to have a laid a dark piece of cardboard over the bottom almost 1/3 of the screen and stuck in English subtitles which may or may not appear with the particular character's voice. You can occasionally see bits of the original Chinese subtitles appearing under the dark foreground.

By the way, the reason many Chinese movies have Chinese subtitles is that while almost all literate Chinese can understand written Chinese, there are several dialects of spoken Chinese that are as different as French and Spanish to English speakers. With Chinese subtitles many more Chinese can enjoy the movie.

Anyway, the movie has quite nice scenes and is filmed well. I like the characters and plan on trying to wade through all the problems to finish this and see that probably in the end, A, B, C and D will probably all be dead. And having looked over some of the reviews of this movie, there seems to be as yet to be met, E, F and G among others.

2fers: Hong Kong Cinema and Yes Asia