Pauls Rants and Revelations

OK, so it wasn’t really the blues, but it could have easily turned into it.

I went to the local Apple store Genius Bar to get some tech support. Apparently one of my two darling children got a little excited about a movie or something and a couple of the keys became stuck and offset.

Now, I have a “no touching dads computers” rule in the house, but I can start a show for them (iTunes has Looney Tunes you know) and take care of some things while they watch. While I was tending to my flu-stricken wife, there was some yelling and screaming and as a result I took the computer away. It wasn’t until later that I realized that some of the keys were messed up.

So, nearly in tears, I called Apple support. They said take it in and if its serious they would have to keep it for up to 14 days (wtf!?). So I took it in this afternoon and waited for my name to be called. When I got up to the bar I explained the problem and the Apple genius said “Well lets take a look”.

He then proceeded to pop the affected keys off in quick succession. This alone gave me a start but then he popped some more stuff off and then some more. Finally he caught site of my horror stricken face and said “Sorry. I should have probably warned you I was going to do that.”

No shit, Sherlock.

After the initial shock of seeing a $4 thousand machine recklessly taken apart, the rest of the session went OK. Turned out that the little white springs under the keys became unaligned and just had to be tweaked back into place. All told, took about 10 minutes total.

I thanked the guy and speedily headed out the door, Macbook Pro now intact, hoping never again to have to go in there.

I’m glad they are there to help with the consumers Apple problems big and small, even though I thought the guy could have given a warning before the fact, so I can’t really complain (which I’m not), so there you go.

And if any of the above doesn’t make sense, then tough. I have a splitting headache now thanks to watching too many shows on iTunes, which will be the subject of my next rant.

-Cheers

So I am finally moving this wonderful little distraction onto its own domain now. In the next few days paulsrants.com will be the new home for this blog.  You can update if you feel like it.

-Cheers

My sister-in-law received the entire Planet Earth series from the BBC for Christmas this year. She loaned them to us as she doesn’t have a DVD player and because she thought we might like them. She was right.

I have always been a fan of nature documentaries for as long as I can remember. The ones that were narrated by James Earl Jones and Avery Brooks were among my favorites both from an entertainment and educational point. The Planet Earth series was by far the best made documentary made to date by any standard.

Shot entirely in HD, it has been 3 years in the making. The workmanship put into it by the cameramen, editors, naturalists and even the narrator (David Attenbourough) shines in every scene and shot. The best segment from the series (and we have watched nearly all of them) is a tie between the Desert and the Ocean, with the Mountain one being a close second.

If you get a chance to watch them, do so. We have been watching them on my widescreen Mac, which is great quality, so I can only guess what it would look like in native HD or Blue Ray on a large plasma.

Oh, and a word of caution: if you are afraid of creepy crawlies, don’t watch the Cave episode. And if you are fine with them, don’t watch the cave episode. It was creepy enough to watch it so I can only imagine what it was like to actually film it for weeks on end.

- Cheers

To supply the world with energy, this idea is certainly one of the best I have seen. I would love to see this idea come into being and perhaps even have an ‘energy island’ or two off the coast here in Oregon; even though it wouldn’t take advantage of the amoinia turbine.

Solar, wind and wave energy potential is great in pretty much any coastal town within 1000 miles of the equator so I could see some version of this coming to more places than just the tropics.

Full article: Inhabitat » Artificial Energy Islands Could Power The World

And if the benefits weren’t enough for you, they just plain look cool too.

-Cheers

After viewing the caucuses results so far, I must say that I am not very happy with where my choice, Ron Paul, is standing.

Garnering less then 15% at any given race, it seems that either the campaign managers are lousy at their jobs, or that the voters of this great country are blind. Or possibly both if the last person I talked politics with is any indication.

The Republican nomination has dwindled from 9 to now 3 candidates, Paul among them, but he is still performing only marginally better then the start. Huckabee and McCain are duking it out for the lead but I wouldn’t trust them to run a bake sale, much less our country. And as far as the Democrats are concerned, I really hope that Obama wins if Paul is out of the running, but I am still going to be working to see Paul in office.

For those few who know me, you know I hate politics so you can understand the gravity of the above statement. I will seriously do what I can to help out. Who knows, perhaps another Republican candidate will drop and the other will come ill or something. Then it will only be Paul to take the nomination.

Until that hope comes about, I’ll just keep to good old fashion campaigning.

-Cheers

For a truly humorous review on the most popular video games, check out The Escapist mag reviewer Yahtzee below.

-Cheers

You know why I like Ron Paul?

Well, I’ll tell you why. Because he does not scare the shit out of me whenever he speaks. Because he is a likable guy (so likable that I just donated another $5, which isn’t a lot but its the only time I ever gave money to a candidate).

Because when I checked out his track record, which is freely available on his site as well as other sources, he actually seemed like a politician who takes his job seriously. Who actually works for the betterment of the USA, not just to make a buck from his office.

And because when compared to the other candidates that are bidding for the presidency, I see him telling America as a whole about the things that have to be done to fix this country, not about how he alone would fix them if he were president, but what any president has to do. To me he is saying “Here is what has to be done and if no one else is going to do it then I will”.

Now I am not to most politically minded person on the planet. I, in point of fact, hate politics with the fire of a thousand suns. So if you have a problem with what I say or what I believe (*cough* personallimburgbaby *cough*) then feel free to correct me on it.

-Cheers

My wife and I just filed our taxes today. Damn, was it ever a chore. I mean, we had like 3 W2 forms and a thing from the daycare. After logging into the H&R Block site we had to keep hitting next for like…3 minutes.

Sure, it importing all our info from last year saved some time, but we had to fill in the new amounts for stuff which took like 10 minutes. Then another 10 minutes finding a check so that the government could direct deposit out phat 5 figure return into our accounts in the Caymen Islands.

What a hassle.

Not to mention the fact that it took like over an hour after we were done with the HR Block site to tell us our returns were transmitted and accepted. On a Saturday no less.  I’m just upset that I missed almost half an episode of Stargate to do our taxes, so sorry if I sound a little annoyed.

And if you believed even a word of what I just said, I have a whole barn full of unicorns I’ll sell you for only 30 pieces of leprechaun’s gold. You could probably make it tax deductible if you try.

-Cheers

Thats about the only thing I feel at the moment. Since this big project I’m working on is almost done the lack of sleep is starting to take its toll.

However, there are some bright spots.

…

I can’t name any at the moment, but I’m sure they’re there.

If you can think of any let me know.

-Cheers

I just finished watching season 5 of Red vs Blue from Rooster Teeth. I’ll be brief in my synopsis.

Immensely. Fucking. Funny.

I was laughing so hard I woke up my son. To whom I gave a glass of water and tucked back in before resuming watching at a quieter level.  3 years this has been going on and the fans are always rabid for the next show. I myself have forked over the membership fee to get the high rez versions (and for those who know what a cheap bastard I am, this is monumental).

One of the great things is the music that was provided by Trocadero. The song “Blood Gulch Blues” is catchy and worthy of hitting the repeat button for. Check out the band to see all the other tunes they have available. The rest of their songs are equally enjoyable.

If you are a fan of Halo, hell even if you aren’t, you have to view this series. Random low rez versions are available but if you want you can also get the DVDs of the series, along with a shirt from the store (I got the “I Like Me” one; watch the show to get what it means)

In closing, I just want to say the following to get you interested:

Cockbite. Chupathingy. Team-killing-fucktard.

-Cheers