Third and Final "F You!!" To HP

I should have known better, but I went ahead and did it anyway. Duh me. Notice how that sounds just like dummy? There's a reason for that. Despite my previous experience with an HP PC I went and bought an HP laptop, specifically a dv6000. They really do have good prices and I hoped my previous experience with their product was the exception rather than the rule. No such luck.

I hadn't had it long when it just shut down and wouldn't restart. So I call HP and they send a box in which I am to pack the brand new paperweight and send it back to them for repair. They had shipped a whole shitload of them out with a bad BIOS and rather then recall them all, fix them and put them back out they chose to let people buy them and use them until they crashed then force them to have to deal with the whole "wait for a box, wait for shipping, wait for repair, wait for shipping again" ordeal while being left with no computer. Assholes.

So after about a week with no computer I get it back, all "fixed" and ready to go. I'll give them credit for their warranty repair service. It's quick and painless. As it turns out it's also incompetent. When I got it back I found that I could no longer connect it to my television to view photos, videos, etc... They had managed to break it while fixing it, and we certainly can't expect them to actually test something before they send it out because that's just unreasonable! They wanted me to send it back again but I needed it for work and given how little I used the ability to connect it to a television or monitor I decided to just do without it.

Now here it is, about 16 months after I got the laptop and it's completely dead, again. So I take it to a computer tech to see what's going on with the paperweight now. This time it's the motherboard, and replacing it would cost almost as much as I paid for the laptop. The tech tells me that particular model is notorious for that problem, they used defective motherboards which couldn't handle the heat from the processor they used, one better suited to a PC than  a laptop because it runs so hot. He then pointed to a stack of them on the floor, all with the same issue, and recommends calling HP to see if they will repair it since it is a known defect with their product.

I go home and call them to no avail, they refuse to fix it because it's just out of warranty, regardless of the fact that it's a known defect. I am done with HP, from my personal experience they offer only inferior quality products, clueless customer service, incompetent repair service which breaks one thing when fixing another and they will not stand behind their product. The price point may be good but in this case you really do get what you pay for.

Now I've got a widescreen Sony VAIO with Blu-ray and I'm loving it.

It's Spring

It's now officially Spring. Not just because of the calendar date but because I've seen my own official harbingers of Spring. Robins are everywhere, there's a bunch of them hopping around in my yard right now eating whatever it is they're finding to eat.

The other sure sign is the red haze everywhere I look, it's the Red Maples (Acer rubrum) flowering. They're everywhere here, all along the sides of the road and a prominent species in woodlands. Did you just learn something new? Most people don't realize that maple trees flower, but they do. Professor Jeff is in the house!

So that's it, I've really nothing else to say. It's been a while since I put anything here so I felt obligated in some strange way to type something.

Finally, Some Snow!

For the first time this winter the weather reports were right and we got snow! We got ice on top of it of course but we got snow, enough to be too heavy to shovel so I finally got to break out the snow blower. I've had it for 3 winters now and it's barely snowed since I got it.

I was so happy to be able to use it that I didn't just clear the sidewalk in front of the house, I cleared the walk brick walkway from the street out front all the way to the alley behind my property. Then I kept going past the end of my sidewalk and cleared the walk in front of the house next to me and the house next to it, then the house on the other side of me too! I''m such a nice neighbor. Yeah yeah yeah.. I know... boys and their toys. I can almost hear the women now, just hush!   :P

Speaking of women, I received an e-mail containing a quote about them. I thought it was pretty funny myself, it was "No woman will ever be truly satisfied, because no man will ever have a chocolate penis which ejaculates money."

Nothing Exciting To Report

Our new President is now in office, all the hooplah is over so maybe now he/we can concentrate on getting some necessary work done. There's a lot to be accomplished, I sure hope he lives up to the hype. Enough said there.

Remember that whole "get off my lazy ass and get motivated" thing I mentioned last time? It hasn't happened yet, lol. Surprise!! I'm just not feeling it.

I haven't been a total useless lump though. I have managed to get down to the basement to clean off the weights and exercise equipment. I've even used them a few times. In fact, I'm going to do it again tonight as soon as I finish typing this, watching some tv, drinking a beer and eating some popcorn. Priorities dammit! We'll see how long I can keep it up (the exercise you pervs). I'm also trying to modify my diet so it's a little better for me, even stooping to eating rabbit food a couple times a week. Somewhere out there better be some very grateful cows and pigs.

Aside from the above I've not a damned thing except go to a birthday party for a 2 year old at Dave and Buster's and a 50th birthday surprise party. Two trips to Philly in the same month, yay me. That's it for the latest installment of My Uneventful Life.

Another Year Here And Gone

2008 is out of here and I don't think too many people are going to miss it. The general consensus among most of the people I know is "Good riddance".

My New Year's Eve was a quiet one. We had dinner with a couple friends at their house, played some Phase 10 (a very annoying card game), snacked on junk food and dessert then had a glass of champagne as we watched the ball drop. Things sure do get different as you get older. I used to never remember New Year's Eve because an entire night of various overindulgences made it impossible to remember, now they're forgotten for lack of anything worth remembering. I guess I can always blame it on old age.

So now it's another year, back to the same old same old. I'm skipping the whole resolution thing. I was never good for doing things on a schedule anyway, I have better luck doing them when I feel the time or circumstances are right for whatever it is I'm trying to accomplish. There are a few things I'd like to get done this year but we'll just have to see how things go. Some of them just need me to get off my lazy ass and get motivated, others are a bit more dependent on other factors. I didn't get much of anything accomplished last year, I suppose I should try to make up for that this year and do something constructive with my free time. I'll let you know how that goes

'Tis The Season....

I Can't Wait For This Election To Be Over

This has been the ugliest Presidential campaign I can remember seeing and frankly I'm disgusted. I am absolutely fed up with the twisted half-truths, veiled insults, ridiculous accusations, blatant lies, partisan bullshit and general douchebaggery now littering the nation's media. The ongoing rhetoric of hate and divisiveness serves no beneficial purpose and can only serve to cause considerable harm to this country. This toxic negativity needs to end and it needs to end now. It's an insult to any free thinking individual with a measurable IQ, an embarrassment to this country and a total abandonment of the principles and values for which this country supposedly stands.

Our whole political and electoral system has been corrupted and is in dire need of serious change. So, here's my suggestions for election reform. They'll never happen but I'll feel better by writing them down.

Eliminate The RNC And The DNC.

   In fact, eliminate the parties altogether. Let the candidates fend for themselves since they, not their respective party committees, are the ones up for election. I am not interested in what some committee has to say and I resent having to pay for their election year multimillion dollar extravaganzas with my wasted tax dollars. I'm also sick to death of the nonstop partisan fighting. If our elected officials took even a quarter of the effort they waste on sabotaging each other and redirected it to doing what's good for the country then we'd be in far better shape. This will absolutely never happen so I put it first, call it wishful thinking. The rest of my suggestions are made with the knowledge that there will always be distinctly different parties.

Fix Campaign Financing.

   Deduct one dollar from every federal tax return filed every year and put that money aside. When campaign season starts all the candidates split it evenly. They can then match the amount they receive with their own money. That's all they get. No more buying the Oval Office, no more special interest groups and fake non-profits contributing millions of dollars, everyone starts on equal terms. How they spend it is their choice. This would also have the effect of allowing for more than two parties to present viable candidates for us to choose from. Currently no candidates from alternative parties have a chance. Without several hundred million dollars to spend they are practically invisible and remain unknown with the end result being we voters ending up with fewer choices.

 Demand And Require Absolute Truth In Advertising.

   No more accusations, misquotes, comments taken out of context, twisted half-truths or any other political garbage. If it is not the 100% truth it can not be used. Period. ALL ads would be reviewed by an independent organization like factcheck.org and mandatory stiff penalties put in place to punish any untruthful ads. Unable to bash each other with bullshit the candidates will have no choice but to tell us about themselves, their priorities and their plans. Imagine that, voters heading to the polls with clear ideas of what the candidates want to do and how they want to do it. Wouldn't that be different?

Get Rid Of Electoral Votes.

   The candidate with the most votes wins. The one with the next highest amount becomes Vice President. Finally all votes would then count equally. There would also be the added benefit of the VP being the voters' pick, not the candidate's pick.

Fix The Debates.

   This is a personal peeve of mine. The "debates" are a joke, nothing but a waste of television air time. Why are only the two main parties' candidates invited? Why can't the Green Party send their candidate, or the Libertarian Party? If the debate is for Presidential candidates then all of the presidential candidates should be there.

   Next, what's the point of asking a question if the candidate won't answer it? The moderator should hound them until they answer each question thoroughly and with the same standards I outlined for their advertising. Then the debates would finally serve a purpose. If a candidate feels that they can't thoroughly, concisely and honestly state their positions, goals and plans on national tv then frankly they've got no business running for office.

   Come on November 4th! I can't wait to get this over.