Category Archives: Rants and Raves

May Rants and Raves

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I was in a really…feisty mood for most of Friday, so I thought it might be appropriate to throw out some rants and raves. Especially now that I’ve calmed down a bit. I get worked up sometimes. =)

  • RAVE: My wife rocks. Seriously. Figuratively. Even literally (on Guitar Hero). We had a few free evenings this week, which is rare these days. Know how we spent them? Watching Conan the Barbarian, Conan the Destroyer, and playing video games. And she stays cool and calm despite raging hormones and a little boy in her belly that wakes her up all the time and makes it hard to see her toes. I am a very blessed man.
  • RANT: This one is on Jenny’s behalf. Although common sense would dictate otherwise, some people walk up to Jenny and tell her how big she’s getting, as if they see such a statement as complimentary. Trust her, she is very aware, and you’re not helping.
  • RAVE: If I drop $60 on a new video game, I want to be able to play it for at least 60-80 hours, preferably 100+. When you find games like that, your entertainment value per dollar is huge, especially compared to other activities such as concerts, sporting events, or going out to a movie. I found a PlayStation 3 game that’s absolutely huge, maybe 150-200 hours. It’s a role-playing game called Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, a typical RPG set in medieval times with fighting, quests, magic, weapons, armor, dungeons, and all that good stuff. I spent a significant part of my time off this week immersed in that game.
  • RANT: I had several more, but I’ve decided to let them go for now in an effort to be less judgmental and more tolerant. It’s easy for me to forget that while many people disagree with me on any given issue, their disagreement doesn’t automatically make them wrong. Today I’ve been irritated by the FAA office that oversees Southwest, my neighbors, family members, my dog, my cat, video game designers, and the ATC tower controllers in Detroit, among others. But five years from now, will any of those irritations matter? Will I even remember any of them? Probably not. Thank you, Jenny, for helping me stay grounded.

November Rants and Raves

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  • Rave: MovieQuotes.com. If you need a good way to kill some time and love movie quotes like I do, try the quote game. My sister and I interact exclusively through quotes from ten 1980s movies. OK, not quite, but close.
  • Rant: Fog in Islip. Why can’t they add a CAT III approach at KISP (Long Island-MacArthur near Islip, New York)? Southwest had to cancel several flights yesterday due to thick fog, while we could have landed safely at several other airports in the northeast under the same conditions. With a CAT III approach, we can land safely with as little as 700 feet of visibility. To be fair, there might be a technical reason preventing such an approach, such as an obstacle or lack of room for the required lighting system.
  • Rave: Smartphone Syncing. I like my new Blackjack. I loaded my Dec work schedule and events into it and synced it with my home PC. Then I reversed the process, loading my Jan and Feb work schedule into the PC, and then syncing it into my phone. That rocks.
  • Rant: Ethanol. The government has apparently decided that ethanol is one of the best answers to our dependence on foreign oil. Unfortunately, ethanol is inefficient and expensive to produce and difficult to distribute, and it is driving up the price of many items that use corn during production (milk, for example). Adding ethanol to gasoline actually reduces your fuel economy. For more info, check out this article. I’m no energy expert, and I realize there’s no easy answer to our energy problems, but I don’t think ethanol is going to save us. Think hydrogen, people!
  • Rave: My Family After getting to see most members of my extended family and in-laws over the Thanksgiving week, I must say how thankful I am for all of them. My family is no more perfect than any other, and we have plenty of interesting stories, but they’re overall good folks, and somehow we all manage to get along and have a good time together despite all of our little quirks and differences in personality. I actually look forward to seeing my family during the holidays.

September Rants and Raves

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Rave: Jenny, Lisa, Phillip, Mom, and I went to Grapefest in downtown Grapevine on Saturday. Although it was a little crowded and warm, we had a great time tasting several good wines and browsing interesting stores. If you’re willing to walk, you could even park for free. We tried wine samples at Su Vino, a winery that also lets customers make their own wine, and Lone Star Wine Cellars.

Rant: I am SICK of hearing about OJ Simpson. Yes, he probably did it and got away with it (except for that big civil judgment, which still won’t bring either victim back to life). The whole situation is tragic, but let’s be realistic here. How can anyone expect justice in a broken world run by broken people? Killers go free, innocent people get convicted, and people commit millions of crimes every year without even getting caught. But God is watching, and he will judge all as he sees fit.

Rave: If you get Spike TV, check out a show called MXC. It takes clips of a bizarre 1980s Japanese game show and dubs them with hilarious English commentary. The contestants go through crazy obstacle courses such as boulder runs, giant log rolls, and the Spinning Surfboard of Death. It’s hard to explain adequately, so just watch!

Rant: I want every U.S. soldier out of Iraq by next summer, but that’s not going to happen.

Rave: After my initial distaste and months of warming up to the idea, I got my first pair of Crocs. Guess what? I love them! Naturally my pair are black and plain, at least as plain as Crocs can be. They are quite comfortable, and I plan to wear them some during our Disney trip in case we do any water rides. Hint: don’t try to save a couple of bucks by getting the knock-offs. Jenny tried it, and they just weren’t the same. Get the real deal. Oh, and if you happen to have a time machine, go back several months and buy stock in their manufacturer.

People, Interrupted

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I’ve been noticing something lately: people in general, including myself at times, are really bad about interrupting each other. Sometimes it’s coincidental and unintentional – people simply start talking at the same time and continue until one or both stop out of courtesy. Sometimes a person is telling a story when a listener (such as myself on many occasions) jumps in with a question or comment that interrupts the story. It’s less annoying when the interjection is on-topic, maybe a clarifying question or an “active listening” comment that assures the storyteller that the listener is indeed listening. But some people (listen up, b/c you DON’T know who you are) jump in with completely off-topic comments that derail the discussion and attempt to move it somewhere else entirely. Some people are so bad about this, you aren’t sure they were even listening to the conversation they derailed. Your homework for the next few days is to pay attention to the conversations you hear: both what others say and what you say. Is it an actual conversation or merely a cacophony? Do the speakers seem to respect each other and value each other’s opinions, or is each person simply itching to jump in and enlighten the group with his/her own comments?

In other news, if you want to see an outstanding performance by an actor in a leading role, rent The Last King of Scotland and watch Forest Whitaker at the top of his game. The movie is about Idi Amin, the charismatic but brutal dictator of Uganda in the 1970s.

I’m set to leave for Alaska next Friday for a couple days of salmon fishing and bear watching with Dad. I finally ordered a new digital camera with a good zoom, hoping it will arrive in time for me to take it on the trip. This trip will involve many firsts: first visit to Alaska, first attempt to fly standby on another airline (Alaska Airlines), first attempt at salmon fishing, and first ride in a floatplane. Should be fun!

May Rants and Raves

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Rant: It really hacks me off when the captain has the “Fasten Seat Belt” sign turned on and passengers get up anyway. It seems to happen on most flights I take. Sometimes the sign might be on to make the food/drink service easier for the flight attendants, but often it’s on because there’s a chance of turbulence. It’s uncommon, but people do get injured by turbulence. We’ve had flight attendants get legs broken. The pilots get info on turbulence from their dispatcher, air traffic control, forecasts, and other pilots. Sometimes they can change their route or altitude to avoid/decrease the turbulence (get a “better ride”), but other times the only good option is to seat everyone and go through it. Obey the sign and stay out of the hospital.

Rave: Target’s Archer Farms brand of decaf hazelnut creme coffee is OUTSTANDING. Normally I doctor up my coffee, but this stuff is so mild and smooth that I drink it black and love it. It also smells great.

Rant: I finally fired Blue Wireless yesterday! After two weeks of very little internet access, lots of promises, and little explanation, I got fed up and called the billing department. The billing rep was the first one to actually tell me what was wrong. A technician came out this morning and fixed the connection, but I’ve already given my 30 days’ notice. If they’d only told me sooner about the plan, I would have kept them longer. Oh well. I wrote them a nasty email explaining why I was leaving. It was fun.

Rave: Elvira still rocks! I got over 35 mpg on my second tank of gas!

Rave: Ebby offers a Find House by Map feature that, well, lets you search for houses on a map. You select the number of bedrooms, bathrooms, property type, and price, and it shows you all the matching homes at whatever zoom level you want. You can overlay schools, restaurants, day cares, and DART stations as well. Try it out!

Rave: Our house looks great! =) I just mowed the yard (FINALLY! It’s hard to mow when it rains everyday, but it’s great to have so much free water for the yard!), and we manage to keep it looking nice by spending lots of time away. We’re having an OPEN HOUSE on Sunday, June 3, from 2-5 PM if you’d like to stop by.

“Free” Credit Reports

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Jenny and I have been retooling our budget and financial priorities lately to spend less and save/give more. In late January I decided to pull up our credit reports, since I’d heard we each get one for free each year. I went to www.freecreditreport.com thinking that was the site. I signed up, and they asked for a credit card. It turns out that the site is run by Experian, one of the credit reporting agencies, and you get your “free” report by signing up for a free trial of their $12.95/month credit monitoring service. It wasn’t completely clear to me when I signed up, but I had a vague notion that I should cancel within 30 days just in case I would get charged. I got the credit reports and filed them away. I also looked around on the website trying to figure out what I’d actually signed up for, but it still wasn’t clear.

A few days ago I saw two $12.95 charges from them on my credit card. The first option on their phone tree was to cancel your membership, which is a bad sign. I talked to a girl with an interesting accent and a definite script aimed at getting me to stay. After arguing with her a bit, I got her to cancel us. I wrote Experian an email about their bait-and-switch campaign and told them I planned to avoid Experian products from now on.

In case you’re curious (and I do recommend checking your credit report), the truly free credit report is at www.annualcreditreport.com. I haven’t tried it yet, and it doesn’t provide your actual credit score, but at least you’re not signing up for something without knowing it.