ravan

Micro$ucks - their new "improved" Office 2007 saves documents in a format readable only by.. you guessed it... Office 2007. Oh, yeah, it's XML based - it a bloody zip file with lots of little pieces! Epic fail, IMO. Not readable by Office 2003, Office for Mac, or Open Office. I guess they really don't understand the concept of common document format - they've blown it again.

Talk Radio - I really get tired of hearing ads for 6 different kinds of mattresses, male hair replacement, get rich by using this "proven system", and erectile dysfunction. And don't get me started on the stupid Ovaltine commercials. The whole thing is a classic example of pandering to the stupidest segments of the adult population. If they didn't have decent traffic and weather, I wouldn't listen.

Parenting - When will the current generation of "parents" (and I use the term very loosely) learn to do their job, and set limits for their damn kids? Why is it the burden of other patrons in a restaurant to put up with craptastic behavior on the part of ill-parented children without complaint or resentment?? What gives these brat breeders the right to inflict their badly trained animals masquerading as children on other people? The neighbor kids get away with a ton of crap. They teach the little ones insults and obscene gestures, telling her that those are greetings, and the adults don't do jack about it. Then other people get offended. Also, they litter, and tease the neighbor's dog. Their parents aren't much better, throwing beer cans into our yard, and hanging shit to dry on our fence. I was pleasantly shocked one day, though - I saw one of the kids with an actual book!! I was beginning to think they were illiterate.

Holiday Season - OMFG! Giftmas shit up before Halloween, the whole "War on Christmas™" bullshit, and the usual "self-proclaimed" in from of witch or Wiccan when reporters write about Halloween for pagans. Seriously, assholes, I think I'll start referring to adherents of all other religions as "self-proclaimed" until this nonsense stops. After all, most self-proclaimed Christians don't follow the teaching of Jesus of Nazareth very well, if at all - and the fundies are too busy hating gays and woman to even remember to try. Oh, and if the people in stores insist on giving me the "Merry Christmas" bit, I'll give them a "Happy Holidays", "Blessed Yule" or "I'm not Christian, and I don't celebrate Christmas". It's about time these one true way idiots realized that theirs isn't the only religion on the block, and that not shoving it down everyone's throats every time they turn around does NOT constitute "persecution".

First, read this article by Mark Morford. Then think about the last time you went traveling to another state.

When I went down to Florida, it was erie that so many of the same sets of stores, in the same clusters, were along the highways, all housed in the same ugly, bland, yuppified architecture - square, pretentious, and stuccoed. Yes, it was nice knowing that you could find a certain class of goods in a big national chain, but the fact that the colors and decorations were the same 2000 miles apart was a bit, disquieting. Fortunately, the local restaurants were sufficiently unique, if you didn't try fast food.

The interesting thing about mom&pop operations is this: they're gone from the streets, they've moved to the internet. Between eBay and hosting providers that provide turnkey eCommerce, the small business truly can be national, or even global. So I guess the big box chains inherit the streets and malls, splattering a numbing homogenaity all over the (now identical) landscape. The real unique goods and services are on the net.