Pauls Rants and Revelations

On the way to our snowy vacation, as my luck would have it, I got pulled over for speeding. This pisses me off.

Now, I was going above the speed limit. Well above it in fact. I was in the passing lane trying to get around two assholes in lowered trucks (who the hell drives those during a rain storm in Oregon anyway?) playing a game of car tag. This was dangerous so as soon as a passing lane opened I gunned it; and got immediately noticed by the cops. They saw the two dingle berries (in fact passed right by them) but pulled me over instead. Erg.

Try as I might I couldn’t talk my way out of it. I give him the facts but he ignored me out of hand and threw a ticket at me. $250 worth of ticket.

Frustrated, and not wanting to make a scene in from of my family, I just took it and went on my way.

After we got back, a few days later, I called the county office to see about sending in my penance as there was no way in hell I was going to waste 6 hours round trip driving and $100 in gas to show up in court. The woman was, to put it mildly, so far from helpful that the light from it wouldn’t reach her in 100 years. She informed me that the tickets from that office often take a week or more to get put through their system. She had no reference at all to the ticket number and couldn’t do a damn thing.

So whats got my dander up, you ask?

The fact that in this digital age, where a dashboard cam video of a cop tazering someone can end up on Youtube within a day, a cop can’t find the time to put some freaking numbers into a computer at the end of their shift astounds me. Perhaps I don’t know all there is to know about the other side of writing the ticket, but it seems that it would be required of them to put them in the system in an orderly manner.

I called them again today, a week later, and still it wasn’t in the system. Double erg.

Enough about this ordeal already eats at my thin veneer of patience, but is there something that could be making it take longer then normal? Does anyone have any light they could shed on the inner workings of the police ticketing system? Can someone spot me $250?

Perhaps tomorrow they will have it in their system. If not then I am going to seriously consider raising some mildly annoying hell about it. Or just wait until the next day. What ever I have energy for.

-Cheers

Hope this new year is great for you and come with all the niftiness you could hope for.

Me? Im starting this New Year off in the snow with the family on a vacation. So I will leave you now and get back to the snow frolicking.

-Cheers

So another Christmas has come and gone. The presents are delivered and, hopefully, accepted as satisfactory, and the after effects of some of the more jovial holiday spirits is wearing off with the aid of some aspirin.

This christmas was a pretty good time for my family. My side of the family didn’t do too much celebrating as its just not something that we do. My mom gave the grandchidren presents and it was a very good time. Past that though it was not so much in the way of celebration.

My wifes side of the family couldn’t be more opposite though. This year, we hosted the holiday shenanigans at our house which was a very carefully planned event as we have a small place. But much fun was had and presents abounded in a pleasant and fun time.

My favorite gifts received this year was from my wife who got me a great new coffee travel mug and my very own Dignation tshirt from Jinx. I know that some would be only mildly excited at such gifts, but for me it was totally great. The mug I cold use (which I am doing so at this moment) and the diggnation shirt was something that I wanted. Its cool because while my wife is not even close to the level of geek I am it is heart warming that she recognizes and accepts that part of me. And as if I couldn’t be happier about it, she is also going to get me the Orange Box from Valve so I will be killing off combine soldiers and portal-ing through walls soon. (Rock)

My kids also had a great time and really loved the stuff they got. I was pleased to see that they had more fun playing with their cousins instead of comparing toys as some children tend to do. Perhaps they will yet escape the consumerist bug that seems to stagnate the holiday season.

I hope that your holiday was as good as you had hoped. For now, though, its time for work.

-Cheers

Just wanted to say to those folk who celebrate the spirit of Christmas (or at least enough to pass around the presents) a happy time of it.

Drink lots of eggnog, eat every sugar cookie you can find, and pass out on the couch, camera at the ready, just in case the Fat One decides to stop by your place.

-Cheers

Busy, busy, busy. Work has been crazy buy this month and I do not know why.

It should be about the time when people are not wanting to start anything big, but here I am both rushing to get something rather huge done and just starting today on another very large deal. Its crazy.

At least christmas will provide a break. I got my son a bow and arrow set and I can’t wait for him to open it. He’s gonna be so excited.  Hopefully I got that terabyte UBS backup drive I asked for, but I’m not holding my breath. Its weird for me present wise because I already have everything I want really, and what I really need I can not afford to get. Weird, huh?

-Cheers and Merry Christmas in case I forget.

Sorry for the lack of updates but its been crazy busy at work.

In the midst of the confusion, my family and I went out and got our christmas tree. It is by far the largest we have gotten yet at 7 feet. Not the largest on the planet, but in an apartment, this is not a small tree.

At this time we put it up and unbaled it but have yet to decorate it as its a bit hectic around here still. The house smells like evergreen though so its a nice change from the usual stench of hours-old breakfast and desperation (thats another story though).

The weird think is that I am not so much liking the tree at the moment. See, whenever I come downstairs, I see the tree out of the corner of my eye down the hall and my brain immediatley thinks there is someone in the house.  The tree is not human shaped at all, but its still a bit disturbing as it happens everytime I leave the office.

Perhaps I’ll just work in bed or something. I have a laptop so it doesnt matter really where I work. I just want to avoid having to explain to the kids why daddy repeatedly shot the Christmas tree with a 12 gauge (yes, it sometimes surprizes me that much).

-Cheers

So I have yet another dentist appointment today, but this time its for extractions. 3 of them. It seems that, despite my best efforts and the careful ministrations of my oral hygienist, there are some teeth that cannot be saved.

Bummer.

If I can I’ll save the teeth and post a pic. Perhaps it will convince some of you (and you know who you are) to take better care of your chompers.

At the very least it will serve me as a reminder to get in touch with the tooth fairy to renegotiate the whole quarter-per-tooth malarkey. I’m thinking a fiver per is a good starting point.

-Cheers

–UPDATE–

They didn’t let me keep the teeth. They said it was a biohazard. Yes, like if my teeth had ebola in them or something type of biohazard. At least a got a vicodin script, but those always make me loopy and paranoid. Well see what happens.

I know as much as the next guy that, eventually, there will be a zombie attack. Its really just a matter of time.

Of course, we all keep saying that but have you looked around recently? There have been more and more stories about zombies and zombie related happenings in the news latley.

Did you hear about the zombie figures they found on 3000 year old Egyptian hieroglyphs?

How about the guy who created the first (in my opinion) marketable zombie survival kit?

Have you seen Resident Evil 3?

The onslaught is coming. You, me, we’re all going to be fighting for our lives in a desperate struggle to get away from the undead masses and reach… where ever the characters reach at the end of the games and movies and comics.

Grab your shotguns, machetes, sticks of dynamite, and get ready. Cause they may be behind you right now.

-Cheers

November is National Alzheimer’s Awareness month. If you have not heard of it, then please, pay attention. If you have, then pay attention anyway.

Alzheimer’s is a disease that primarily affects a persons brain. Basically, blood stops flowing to certain areas of the brain that control memory. The effects of the disease are quite unpleasent mostly for the person’s loved ones who can only watch. The effects on the person is, well, no one really knows. The affliced appears dotty and out of it and will often mistake people for someone else.

My maternal grandmother had it when I was growing up. She was always quite happy to see me because I resembled my grandfather a bit so she always mistook me for him. But it was painful to visit her as she was constantly forgetting things and never really there.

At that time there really wasn’t much that could be done but in recent years more accurate testing and diagnosis has been developer. In addition, a few new drugs are available now that can lessen the effects of the disease. But what I want to talk about is what you, yes, you, should do right now.

Go and locate a testing facility around your area that does screening for Alzheimer’s. Any of the links on the page will take you there. Also, read up on the successful aging tips provided by the Alzheimers Foundation of America which will help you our probably more than you know.

Also remember that just becuase we are racing for a cure, that doesn’t mean we should brush aside those who have it right now. To make a difference, or to give an early holiday gift, consider donating to the AFA to help take care of those who are suffering with this disease now.

OK. I’m done. Now go and get a screening.

-Cheers

A couple of months ago I went into the dentist for some emergency work as one of my fillings decided to remove itself by wiggling out and then jumping down my throat. I guess after all those thankless years of food chewing it decided to just end it all. A pity for sure, but mine was short lived.

If anyone has ever choked on a bit of silver then they know that it is not the what is commonly referred to as ‘good times’. To add insult to injury, literally, the dentists didn’t use quite enough Novocaine so I got to enjoy the delightful ministrations of a gorilla with a drill.

What brought this up is actually a product I found called Dentemp OS. I read on the Majestic website that it is a temporary cement that sets in 30 minutes at which point you can eat with it in. A bonus was that fact that it kills some of the pain too which is also a common companion of loose fillings.

The temporary dental repair is approved by the FDA so no worries about weird effects or questionable ingredients. I am really wishing I had this stuff the last time my filling popped out. It would have save me (and coincedently my dentist) a lot of greif. Check out the site for more details.

-Cheers