Pauls Rants and Revelations

Its quite sad. 10 years ago we seemed to be quite a decent country. But nowadays more and more news articles come out describing events and happenings that I would not have believed possible in this country.

Heres a quick list just from today:

• 1000 people issue a citizens arrest on Pres. Bush
• A high school girl has her wrist broken by a security guard for dropping cake
• Bush caught lying about 9/11 (with video)
• Chicago cops are investigated for 5000 incidents of abuse
• High school student suspended for wearing John Edwards tshirt.
• Religious group get $100k to improve science with creationism views

The headlines were enough to make me gag, but actually reading the articles made me rather revolted. I am not even sure, from reading the articles among other sources, what the hell is even going on in this country. All I can see is a lot of our countries allies are pissed and our enemies are laughing. Our citizens are angered and our politicians are deaf.

About the only good thing to come out of the news today s a rather good article from the Consumerist about how to properly write to congress and say your piece.

I think I’ll do just that now. Here is the Consumerist article if you are interested.

-Cheers

OK. I’ll admit it. I have no solid idea about how the US great depression came about. I think I was sleeping in economics or history (or both) and missed that bit. Sad? Definitely. Which is probably what lead to the current problems this country now faces with its failing economy.

Not me specifically, mind you. But most of the country doesn’t seem to know what the problem is with the Canadian dollar surpassing the value of an American dollar. I certainly am not too aware of the implications. All I know is that everyone is saying that the next great depression is right around the corner, but no one is saying whats causing it. So I had to go and look up the cause myself.

The links below are just some info I have found related to the current economic shit storm we are now in the full swing of. If you find them helpful, or think one should be added to the list, let me know.

Cause of the Great Depression

Cause of Deflation - Here and Here

Current Economic Troubles - Here and Here

As usual, if anyone has any light to shed on this info, please let me know.

-Cheers

I never realized how difficult it is to actually move a server without anyone complaining.

Sure, some would complain about down time but that can’t really be helped. And still others would complain about their email not being their or having to change some setting. That one I think is the most annoying.

My favorite complaint is from a hosting client. She called me on the phone (which is a shock) and wondered why her website is down. I told her that I’m moving the server (standard response at that point) and she said that this outage is intolerable. At the word ‘intolerable’ a wheel click and I remember who it was. A former hosting client who, at the time of her call, has had her site turned off for the better part of a year. Sigh. People this stupid should not be allowed computers.

Oh well. At least everything is mostly moved over. Just waiting for a few tid bits and its done. At least I learned a few things; such as I never want to deal with another windows box again. Ever. Its a small bit of wisdom but a valuable one I think.

-Cheers

In the latest fun fun things my XP system has been doing, today it decided to disconnect all of my access to any form of network. That means no home network, no wireless, no direct cable connections. This, as you can imagine is not good (currently I’m ranting using my laptop and a neighbors wifi). There something wrong with a network bridge that I didnt setup in the first place but I am well past the point of caring about that.

So, I am now making it my mission to get a Macbook Pro that has every pimped out spec I can manage. I want it to replace my desktop so I am going for the 17″ widescreen job and as much power as I can squeeze into it (or at least as much as I can afford).

Why switch you ask? Well, if you are asking why then you are obviously a Windows user. But the reason is that I am just fed up with Windows and since XP is being pushed aside for Vista I feel that its just time to make the move. Besides, with Parallels I can still get XP so I would have the best of both worlds.

If you would like to help out in the “Get Paul a Macbook Pro” fund (and I’m talking to all of you Mac users out there) please drop me a line. Maybe Ill set up a donation thing through Paypal if enough people wish to help me get free of the MS beast.

-Cheers

The hosting on the new servers is up and working now. This is much better than the old server (at least I’m stoked about it).

The site will be transfered to paulsrants.com in a few days (probably next week) so be sure to update feeds and bookmarks.

Also, if you host a site with me, that fire was nothing to worry about. We were able to evacuate the women, children, barnyard animals, grandma’s cat-plate collection, and your data without trouble.

-Cheers

I just secured a Media Temple hosting solution and will be moving sites (including this one) to them over the next few days. If you currently have a site I host and it goes down for some reason, please dont fret (much).

I will of course try to make things as seemless as possible but there is always the possibility that Murphys law will kick in so please take a backup of your current site within the next few days.

Also, for those that follow this site, I also purchased the domain paulsrants.com, which I will be switching this over too in a fwe weeks. Please update your blogrolls and links accordingly should you wish to continue following the pratlings  you have comes to loathe.

-Cheers

At the time of this writing, Friday 9:15 pm, I am sitting in Barnes and Noble waiting for 11:15 to come around so I can purchase my copy of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows.

The crowd here is, to say the least, eclectic. There are many folks from all walks of life from young to old and from normal (like me) to the entirely too bizarre (such as the teenager dressed like Draco Malfoy sitting next to me; his name is Cory). There are also at least 100 young women dressed in Hogwarts colors whose pseudo-school uniforms would have been frowned upon at a strip club.

You just gotta love the bookstore.

Anyways, I ran out of battery power so I moved over to “geeks corner” where the wall plugs are. Most of these chaps (and one lady) are IM-ing their mates on the east coast as they already have copies and are giving them a chapter summary every few minutes. Im trying to ignore them but its hard when every so often a “No way” or “I cant believe it” escapes my would-be HP comrades.

But enough about me (for now) and more about the book…. What the hell am I going to say about the book?! I haven’t even gotten a copy of it yet. I’m not telepathic you know.

So far its been, well, a long ass wait. Ill post more when I actually get the book (or someone dies from the excitement; which ever comes first).

-Cheers

*Update: It is now 11:15 pm and they are starting to line up the first purchasers (A - C). Seeing as I am have an “I” on my wristband, I think Ill just keep re-reading Starship Troopers until they call it.

**Update: It is now 1:30am. I have been standing in line for 2 hours and have, finally, obtained my copy of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. I am sitting in the Starbucks next door in a comforatable armchair waiting for my frappichino. I intend to read the entire book this weekend so no time like the present to begin.

On a side note; I can now understand all those wack-jobs who were dressing up and cursing each other in the isles. It is a pretty good book and, were I 15 years younger, would probably have put on a dementor outfit as well.

A few days after pain stakingly moving our belongings into our new apartment, I find these guys: Relocation.com

I mean, its just my luck that I find a company to help me move (or move my crap completely with no interference from me) AFTER the job is done. The services they offer, including auto shipping and international shipping seem to be pretty decent from what I read on their site. They offer all the usual professional mover services plus a few extras.

One thing I found was the self move service. Its the “you pack - we drive” type of service that can help if you really don’t feel like riding in a u-haul 2000 miles (honestly, who does?). I certainly would like that but could have used it a few years ago when we moved from California to Oregon.

Another tid-bit that caught my interest was the Find a Home service that will link you to homes and real estate agents in the location you choose. We haven’t found an agent yet for our home purchase so this will come in handy in the future.

All in all, I found the resources of the site to be good and plentiful and the site itself easy to use. I would recommend them if anyone were to ask my help in moving. Im good (or lazy) like that.

Now if only they could go back in time and help me move from Cali. Perhaps I wouldn’t have lost my favorite stool if they were around.

-Cheers

OK. After a fairly painful day of moving, we finally got everything inside. I dont know what was worse; hauling everything up 3 flights of stairs, or the fire brigade that held us up an hour.

Seems someone who lived in our building let their father use her apartment. While there, he started something cooking and then left to go back to work. With the stove still on mind. Well, after a few hours (we saw him at about noon) we saw smoke coming out of the apartment at about 5 in the afternoon. We called the fire department and 3 fire trucks (big ones too) came rolling up within 2 minutes. After they mercilessly beat down the door with an axe (very cool to watch by the way), they pulled out the charred remains of what appeared to be chicken and potatoes, along with the melted pot they were in.

All in all, we did the right thing calling them as it was about to go off and combusted the curtains next to the stove which would have been “bad for everyone”, said the firefighters.

Anyways, we finished about around 10:30 in the evening after about 12 hours of moving. I just now (2 days later) have enough energy back to make a post about it.

The new place is pretty awesome not that we are finally all in. The loft above the kitchen is the perfect office space for my wife and I and the kids have their own room to play in. My wife and I, by that same note, have our own room, which is very much preferable to the old situation.

Ill post pics of the place when I find my camera (its in a box somewhere).

-Cheers

I went with my brother in law and his son (my kid didn’t want to go) to see the Transformers movie today.

Ho. Ly. Shit.

I was really expecting that they would fuck up a lot of the story with visuals but I was pleasantly surprised with the story and the visuals were awesome.  I was also a little apprehensive about Bumblebee being a Camaro instead of the traditional VW bug, but even this was a nice change from the original story line (the final Camaro he mimics is a concept GM hasnt put into production yet, so says my brother in law). Frankly, I liked him as the old school Camaro, but thats just how I roll.

The rest of the Autobots were equally well done. Optimus Prime, who I was most afraid of would get the Hollywood flash makeover was well done and the voice was spot on. They were all true to the animated originals in looks and in character.

The only real let down, originallity wise, was Megatron. In the series he was a gun, but this time he was remade into an alien fighter jet which is I suppose better but still he could have at least been a howitzer or something. But this is really a minor thing.

All in all this was a really excellently made movie in itself and a real good remake of the original series characters and story. I suggest everyone go see it (at least everyone who had Transformers toys growning up).

I’m trying to get my son into it enough to take him along. He liked TMNT so he should like this one. Perhaps bribing him with candy or something will change his mind. We’ll see.

-Cheers