I Need to Rant

My printer, which is a few years old (HP...which stands for "Here you Putz) needed some ink cartridges. Being a frugal type of person, I ordered some from Amazon, and failed to read the 1 star reviews. Long story short, the discount non-HP cartridges are problematic. My printer warned me they were not genuine, and allowed me to print a few pages. I was satisfied. A few weeks later, I decided to print a document, and the printer stopped due to "damaged" print cartridges. This inspired me to look up some of the shenanigans of the printer industry. 

HP doesn't want you to save money on ink. They want to damn near just give you a printer, and then bend you over every time you need some ink. They do this by installing proprietary chips that tell the printer to stop, laugh at your discomfort, and point you to the line where they take your money at gunpoint. To make things worse, the other printer companies are following suit, and doing the same. Now, the big questions are whether HP downloaded software to defeat the cartridges, they're really not good, or maybe the printer has gone south. My options are either to buy a new printer, pay the exorbitant amount HP charges for cartridges, or pull out a Big Chief notepad and just scribble out documents like a demented old man in the 1800's.

*spit*

Reading Between the Lines

The shutdown of some Federal money laundering will lead to some nasty reactions. Mostly rioting, destruction of property, and outright stealing by those that feel taxpayers should pay for their survival. In my opinion, it was planned, Schumer (and his minions) are instrumental in the destruction, and should, at the least, be prosecuted for sedition. There is no good outcome from their actions, and organizing a violent event to change the government is sedition.  

Like a Bad Penny

I've had a collections on my credit report popping up again, even after notifying credit agencies it's fraud. Apparently, it won't go away until there is a police report included with the FTC case. That, and filling out all the paperwork needed by the creditor (ATT) with the FTC report, police report, and why the charge is being disputed. I filed with the local Sheriff's Department, waiting for a copy of the report, cussing the AI representatives of ATT (Did you know you cannot speak with a real person that works for ATT?) and thoroughly am irritated by the entire mess. What I don't know is where the account originated, how the information required was presented, and if whoever used the info will do it again. If so, may they develop a severely uncomfortable, itchy fungus on their genitals and have to sit in church for a long sermon.

This is Irritating

 I received a notice my credit rating dropped tremendously due to an account in collections. My first reaction was to see what account, and to determine if it was any account I knew existed. An examination revealed something I didn't want to see. 

Apparently, someone opened up a cell phone, or broadband, account in my name, failed to pay their bill, and the account was sent to a collection agency. The original account was an ATT Mobility account, which had unpaid fees of around $1,400. The collection agency is out of a city in New York, and that's all was able to find out. A little research gave me methods to handle this problem.

I notified the credit agencies of the fraud, filed a report with the government agency that handles identity theft, and wrote a letter to the collection agency to send me all information they had on the account. Also, I notified them it was part of an investigation, and requested they remove the credit report. Next, I probably will freeze all my credit, and see how this plays out. 

There is an acceptable punishment for such thieves. It requires a ship with a hull covered in barnacles, four long pieces of rope, and enough strong individuals willing to drag the offender along the bottom of the ship. Video the event, and place it on public television.

It's Not What It Seems

Anyone paying attention realizes there are tons of medication commercials on television. They show how "helpful" they can be, the importance of discussing your possible need for the medication with your doctor, and the professional commercials are obviously expensive. I've been suspicious for years; especially after the illegal, and immoral, actions of big pharmacy were allowed by government officials during the Covid debacle. This article gives insight into how the only best interests are the monetary gain, power, and continuation of both by those we are supposed to trust. 

School Bus Traffic Jam

I watched a school bus pull up to a day care center this evening. While this may be a common occurrence, the event was notable.

It took forever for the children to disembark. Not only were they oblivious of the time they were wasting, their handlers didn't seem to care. To add insult to injury, the children stepped from the bus, and appeared as though they were arriving somewhere they had never been before. Their slack-jawed wonder of something they've probably seen for months was an indication of an inability to process information; and expedite their way through life, without supervision to the age of twenty seven.

I know being a parent is tough, and teaching your children is a tough job, but teach them to haul ass, when they leave the school bus...and stop wasting my time.

Ignorant Driving

We have a local shopping area, which is about a mile of strip malls, a Super Walmart, a Lowe's, Academy, Office Depot and numerous other businesses, including restaurants. There are around ten driveways into the long series of businesses. They all connect to a common drive running the entire length and connecting to a crossroad.

Entry from one direction on the adjacent highway requires exiting, looping around under an underpass, and merging with access road traffic. It's a fairly easy task, and if you can't immediately turn in the first drive, you can accelerate, stay in the left lane, wait for the almost insured break in traffic, and use one farther down...if you're not an ignorant/dumbass driver.

This afternoon, I watched a driver tie up the loop around, while waiting to cross two lanes of traffic to use the first drive. When I finally eased out into traffic, which blocked one lane, they continued to wait, until they could cut into the other lane and take the first entrance.

The driver was holding up their hands in exasperation, as they waited for their chance. My mind was reeling from their ignorance; and the choice words I used would have melted the brass on a retired sailor's medals.

Some people don't need to drive. They can, and will, kill people due to their ignorance. They're like the old man that backed up an exit ramp, which caused a truck driver to lose control, and drive off an overpass. He was crushed to death by his load; the old man drove away and witnesses didn't get a plate number.

Something I Noticed While Voting

I voted early. I had the time on Thursday evening, slipped away from work a little early, and went to cast my ballot.

What I really liked was being asked for identification. That's the law in Texas, and mail in ballots are limited to certain people. I even told the election workers I wished they had a bottle of ink, and everyone should be required to dip their finger after voting. They smiled, and didn't say a word. I have the feeling they walk on eggshells, due to rules.

One thing I noticed, and it pissed me off, was the "Spanish" option on the screen. That sucks. If you can't read English, you don't need to vote. That should be removed, and anyone asking for such a thing should be escorted from the voting site.

"Oh!. That's racist!"

"Nope. That's common sense."

Circadian Madness

They steal an hour from me every Spring. They call it "Daylight Savings Time"; I call it bullshit.

In my line of work, the light of the day determines the working hours, so the crap about saving energy means nothing. Tools are loaded, equipment is prepared in darkness, but the starting time doesn't change; it starts earlier, if they stole an hour from you.

So, tomorrow I get it back. I'll get an extra hour of sleep, and I'll continue to despise those that are willing to make others suffer, so they can watch their kids play soccer in the evening. Daylight Savings is crap, those that think it's a good idea are full of crap, and only the likes of Jimmy Carter can find anything useful about changing the clocks, instead of changing the time of awakening.

Analyze This

I wrote about my new cell phone the other day. Yesterday, an automatic survey called and asked me to take a survey. Being the nice guy I can be, I took it.

The first question was whether I thought the customer representatives did a good job. Using the options of entering a number between one and ten, with ten being most satisfied, I entered 10.

The next question was about my opinion of the cell company, with the same method of entering my opinion. I punched in a zero. I can't stand the company for what they did to my wife years ago. They screwed up a bill, wouldn't back down, so she told them to go suck eggs. She refused to pay thousands of dollars over what was usually a bill of a little over one hundred dollars.

After entering the zero, the computer generated babble creator wanted me to leave a message with my name and a reason I felt they deserved a zero. I hung up the phone. I don't give a crap about surveys and really didn't think they want to know my reason.

Today, I received a call from a strange area code. Due to past experiences with telemarketers, I let it ring; if it was important, they could leave a voice mail....they did.

A woman, with a name, was concerned about my reason for punching in a zero in their survey. I didn't even allow the voice mail to complete before I deleted it.

So what's the deal? My impression is they've finally realized they're losing revenue, and trying to find out why people think they're a huge cluster of puke shit ass wipes. It serves them right. If only a few percent of customers were screwed like my wife was, millions of dollars were at stake, and they didn't care to examine their crummy way of doing business and rectify the problems.

Frustration

So, I'm trying to format a short story. The guidelines for submitting are specific and the magazine pretty well tells you it goes in the round file if not in the correct format.

Meanwhile, Word is being Word. Want to change something? It can do that, but not like you want. Word is the final arbitrator, so my frustration level is high.

Bleh!

I'm Pissed at Mexico

I'll start this post with the warning I'll do everything I can control my vocabulary, but I'm not making any guarantee. Sometimes, shocking language expresses better than anything else.

Why am I pissed? Tens of thousands of diseased, emaciated, unaccompanied children pass thousands of miles through a country and what's offered? Nothing, except con men, thieves, rapists, murderers and thugs.

As far as I'm concerned, Mexico is nothing but a shit-hole, run by criminals and we should not just close the border, we should send a battalion down there and let them go neanderthal on the government.  While there, they can single out the drug cartels and turn their mansions into burning piles of rubble.

We'll Just Cut Off The Aid and Send Them an Invoice

Mexico has received hundreds of millions in U.S. aid. It's time to cut them off and send them a bill for the mess they're making.

Another thing: If they want to stop the mass migration of scofflaws, the solution is simple: Make it illegal to rent, sell or board anyone without identification. We won't have to send anyone home, when that happens. They'll leave because they'll have no place to stay.

Before anyone chimes in on this as "inhumane", think about the lack of humanity, when a government refuses to protect its citizens, forces those that work to contribute to funding they object to and ignores the laws officials swore to enforce, only a fool would not think of such things as inhumane.

No Turn Signal Friday

Once a year, the worst of drivers observe "No Turn Signal Friday." Today was the day and the participation was more than last year.

Pinheads.

After XP

I'm still using Windows XP. I have no problem with it and it continues to serve its purpose.

Why haven't I upgraded? Because all the "advance" versions were steaming piles of crap and there's no way to upgrade to the current version, which has its detractors.

Microsoft will end all support on 4/8/14. After that, some new software will be totally incompatible with my operating system and strip the gears. I'll be pissed, as usual, stomp around and cuss like a drunken sailor.

Bleh!!

No, There Are No Ninjas

At least not where I'm staying. Everyone has a loud voice, walks like an overweight elephant, can't close a car door without slamming it and has a laugh like a constipated jackass eating briers.

So, their are no ninjas; quietly going to their room; only a whisper of sound even ignored by mice; never conspicuous, always hidden and nobody ever knowing they're there.

Daylight Can't Be Saved

It can't. So only a pinheaded government bureaucrat could come up with the idea of "Daylight SavingsTime".

I don't like it; never will; and think those that do are woefully lacking in reasoning abilities. Sorry if I insulted any of my readers, but that's how I feel. Nothing good comes from manipulating clocks and arbitrarily dicking with the sleep schedule of millions is not healthy.

So, one hour of my day was "borrowed" for some undetermined reason. My circadian clock had a screwdriver placed in the works and I won't feel like I've had a good night's sleep for awhile.

Screw you "Daylight Savings Time".

Agitated

I don't know why, but I've been agitated for the last two days. Things piss me off; people piss me off; just about everything pisses me off.

Bleh!

I'm Not Feeling Very Polite

There's a big stink in Arizona about refusing services due to religious beliefs. They're acting like it's some big thing. Personally, if I don't like the shoes you're wearing should be reason enough to refuse anything.

So, screw the politically correct ass-wipes that believe everyone should accept everyone else. That's not how the real world operates.

And as far as the NFL, keep your Superbowl, stick it up your ass and play it to the wimps that believe football is more important than liberty. May you go broke and have to pawn your trophies for crack.

A Typical Political Solution

New Jersey property tax rates are up 13%. This is during a supposed conservative governor's term, which really doesn't mean anything when you look at the problem, which is the tax burden is excessive.

Now, the governor's opponent offered the following:

"... His Democratic opponent, Barbara Buono, says families are stuck with higher bills. She says she would raise taxes on high-income earners to pump up the rebate program..."

This is the typical response of a politician. Ignore the big problem, which is lowering costs - even if it causes distress for those employed by the public sector. The political solution is to find some other way to confiscate private wealth and avoid taking responsibility for the damage wrought by politicians. 

I don't know about you, but the idea of raising taxes on the supposed rich always ends up costing me more money. Those with a lot of money can pass the costs on to those that have little relief from the effects of higher taxes. Those that don't pay any taxes, really don't care and think they're doing the right thing. Me? I'm stuck, if I want to keep on doing everything I can to avoid being another mouth on the government tit. I either grin and bear it, or complain to politicians that don't really care how hard it is to stay afloat these days.

That sucks, and it can only be called thievery.