• current governor of the State of Massachusetts
• a Republican
• Rescued the Salt Lake Olympics from bankruptcy
• a Mormon

9/2/2006 4:38:34 AM UTC      Comments [0]Trackback

After leaving work yesterday afternoon, I drove the usual route down Capitol Blvd to Trosper, from where I took the turn to get on the freeway northbound.  An older Plymouth Fury was in front of me, and the first car in the lane for left-turning onto the freeway.  The light changed and I followed the Fury left and we drove towards the onramp.  On the sidewalk that goes down Trosper and crosses the start of the onramp there was a bicyclist, a middle-aged guy riding slowly towards the crossing.  He's got a cell phone pressed up against his left ear and he's yakking away, apparently oblivious to the world around him.  The Fury proceeds towards the onramp, beginning to accelerate, and just a bit before it gets there, without the slightest glance to his left (self-preservation is so overrated, you know) the cyclist turns into the pedestrian crossing, the cellphone still glued to his ear, still yakking away.  The Fury's driver reacts late to this bit of insanity, but finally slams on the brakes, just as the cyclist is moseying directly into her path.

So here I am, applying the brakes myself as I watch the Fury and the cyclist begin their rendezvous.  The thought rushes through my mind that I am about to witness a bicyclist get creamed by a car.  Front-row seating!  Wow.

Fortunately, with the screech of tires the Fury manages to stop before the bicyclist becomes a hood ornament.  The cyclist continues on with his ear glued to the phone, contentedly motormouthing along, either pretending nothing had just happened or truly oblivious.

The lessons here are obvious.  For cell phone users, WATCH THE HECK WHAT YOU'RE DOING!  For drivers, expect the unexpected when you see a person near your path who has a cell phone glued to his or her ear.

8/5/2006 12:16:32 AM UTC      Comments [0]Trackback

It has been something like ten years since I had an AOL account.  It was in my dialup days, and I found AOL marginally useful, that is, until they discontinued a couple of services I found interesting (the ONLY features I found useful) because not enough people used them.  I kept the account even after this because I thought the occasional surf might be of value.  It was then that one of my sons discovered AOL on my computer (I think he was around 13), and in one month managed to rack up over $175 in connection charges (my previous record had been $20 or so).  Of course, I went ballistic, and decided that AOL was no longer of any value to me, wahtsoever.  So, I attempted cancel it.  Oh, my word!

I kid you not, when I called up the "customer service" rep on the other end of the line told me that accounts could only be cancelled within a few days before their "monthiversaries".  This event in my case was not to take place for another couple of weeks, so I would have to call back in two weeks, I was told.  I was a little incredulous, but I let myself be persuaded to go along with this.  Naturally, I forgot all about it until the next time AOL charged my account.  When this happened, I did a Homer Simpson "doh!" and resolved to call them up at the proper time in a few more weeks.  Hah.  It took me about four months before I finally followed through, and during this time I did at least uninstall the AOL software and never used it again.  When I managed to call up at the "right" time to request cancellation I got a very big song and dance, but it only took about twenty or thirty minutes to exhaust the "customer service" rep's repertoire of delays and stick vs carrot routines before he finally agreed to cancel the account.  I thought everything would be OK after this, but of course the comedy didn't end there: the next month there was an AOL charge again.  I called them up and had to go through all kinds of gyrations to get them to recognize that my account was supposedly cancelled, and to make it take effect this time.  Of course, I was still charged the next month.  To make a long story short, the only way I managed to finally get them off my back was to have my credit card issuer issue me a new card with a new number, and then their attempts to charge me failed.  Long story still not short enough: they continued to accrue the charges for my account for about three months, sending me dunning letters threatening my credit rating before I finally wrote them a letter telling them that I had no intention of paying them a single cent ever, in my entire future life, and that if they sent me one more dunning notice or attempted in any way to affect my credit rating they would be hearing from my lawyer.  That finally silenced them.  But I swore in my wrath that I would never, ever, have anything at all to do with AOL.  And I haven't.  And no, I didn't then, and I still don't have a lawyer; but I bet I could find one, if I needed one.

This was over ten years ago, and if I thought AOL had changed its ways since then, that thought has gone out the door after hearing the audio on the following link.  Enjoy!

http://www.break.com/index/aolhell.html

7/3/2006 6:20:09 AM UTC      Comments [0]Trackback

I can't believe I'm writing this.

Yesterday was my last day of training in Seattle, and that was a magic week in some respects.  I should write all about it (and I will, perhaps backdating the entries to make them seem like I was writing them at the time).  But one of the first things I did this morning was to look at the various other blogs I follow (and sort of follow), and wouldn't you know it, Dooce had a semi-profound -- no, make that actually profound -- entry.  Dooce's blog contained a link to The Alpha Mom, something I had never heard of before, which is a motherhood (or maybe parenthood)-related website, and she is apparently some sort of columnist for that site.

I am not a fan of Britney Spears.  Although I actually think she sings beautifully, and I don't mind listening to her songs when they come on the radio, my primary attitude toward this young woman, seen apart from her music, was disdain and looking-down-the-line-of-my-nose disapproval of her lifestyle, or of what I knew of her lifestyle, which since I really didn't follow it, wasn't much.  I particularly did not like the way she dressed, inspiring young girls to go out and dress like tarts.

But Dooce has changed at least part of my attitude about Ms. Spears.  I won't pontificate any further on it.  Just go read it:

http://www.alphamom.com/site/dooce/2006/06/28/post_3.html

7/1/2006 5:11:52 PM UTC      Comments [0]Trackback

I have never ever been to Pike Place Market.  Amazing, isn't it?  I took my lunch break today walking around downtown.  One vague goal was to possibly locate the Market.  I walked down Union and at the bottom looked both ways on 1st Ave and decided to go left (to the southeast).  It was a coin toss, and of course I lost.  No Pike Place Market.  Lots of interesting places, however!  There was this Irish Pub and Grill called Fado'.  http://www.fadoirishpub.com/  I was theoretically on my lunch break, but walking around and looking at things was more interesting, so although I walked into Fado' I didn't get anything to eat there.  Nobody else in there seemed to be eating, either, actually, as the whole place was watching the World Cup Soccer match between France and Spain, on TV's strategically placed all over.

6/28/2006 2:05:12 AM UTC      Comments [0]Trackback