Rant
A Few Not So Obvious Ways To Save Money
What kind of laundry basket do you use? Round, rectangular, well whatever type it is I’m sure it has hundreds of tiny windows for your clothes to peek out. It will be brittle and broken within a year. Instead, you should use storage totes for your laundry like I do. I’ve been using a couple Rubbermaid and Sterilite brand storage totes that have no holes in the sides (sans lids of course), and haven’t had to replace them for over a decade. Really, the holes only make sense if you’re going to put clothes in the laundry basket when they aren’t fully dry and then forget about them.
The clothes get folded, and anything not fully dry goes on top for hanging in the bathroom at home.
While we’re on the subject of laundry, I don’t use fabric softener. It’s a scam, full of scents I’m likely allergic to (I’m allergic to whatever smellification chemical they put in perfumes/air fresheners), and many chemicals we really don’t need touching our skin. Opt out of the b.s. I haven’t noticed my nipples chafing or any other ill effects from this either. So give it a try, go three weeks/three washes without the needless additives and see if you notice any difference. If your really MUST have softening action, I think I read somewhere that 1/3 cup or so of white vinegar added during rinse cycle can have much of the same effect.
Another thing I’ve noticed that makes no sense is dish towels. If these thin, crappy cloths were supposed to dry more than 3 or 4 dishes at a go, I sure as hell can’t figure out how to do it! Which is why I bought fluffy bathroom hand towels for kitchen use. If you’re wiping grime off the stove, or cleaning out the microwave, you’re using a sponge, scrubber, or good old dish rag, not the thin dish towels. Really, the only things dish towels come into contact with is wet hands and wet (clean) dishes, so they should last almost forever! Why fall into the trap of buying thin, cheap, annoying dish towels that just smear water around and you have to give up and let them air-dry.. Maybe they have roosters or apples or a sunflower pattern, but are they for show or for WORK?
Well, that’s it for now. I’ve got a few more things I could add to this, but maybe they deserve their own post at a later date. Thanks for reading.
Pro Ductivity
‘m a lazy bastard. I’d rather soak up entertainment and read most of what passes in front of me than actually making stuff. Content. Pictures, words, video. Well, I decided I’m going to update at least one thing every day. To keep myself honest I’m hoping you’ll hold me accountable for this. Give me loads of shite if I don’t actually make something, post something, or accomplish something each day.
I’ve been posting over at my design blog http://wwww.sexcpotatotesdesigns.com with a bunch of awesome t-shirt designs I’ve come up with on http://www.bluecotton.com . I wrote a bit on my novel the other day at work, on breaks, so I’m probably going to start posting parts of that on my writing blog which I’ll link later sometime or it’s down in some corner of this page.
I plan on increasing my workload each day if possible and seeing how much good stuff I can produce. I’m also sort of tired of seeing all this stuff that gets put out and knowing ‘it could be done better.’
The Coolest Thing Ever
The Coolest Thing Ever is what I’m here to share with you today. With super warm weather fast approaching, it’s important to stay cool and hydrated. What better way than with a Slush Puppie!? I’ve never been a fan of Icees, give me a Slush Puppie with squirt-in flavor any day of the summer.
Now, you need to go track down the nearest Slush Puppie machine. I’ll wait.
Mmm-hmm-mm-hmmm.
Got it? Great!
Now, go buy yourselves a nice, big box of Fruit Rollups. They look like this:
or this:
Any flavor will do.
Now, you have your Fruit Rollup (TM) and your favorite flavor Slush Puppie (TM), so go ahead and tear off a good size piece of the fruit rollup, and dip it in the Slush Puppie!
Hold it there for a count of 10 seconds.
I’ll wait.
….
Now, quick! Give it two shakes to remove the excess slush, and pop it in your mouth!
Chew!
If you’ve done this right, the Fruit Rollup will shatter in your mouth, then slowly melt and stick to your teeth and let you chew it until it dissolves and makes your tummy VERY happy.
It’s a perfect warm weather culinary delight! The changing texture, flavors, temperature, and behaviour of this method of consumption is a superb experience!
I discovered this while in Junior High, as they had both small Slush Puppies, as well as Fruit Rollups for sale in the a la carte lunch line. And now I’m releasing the secret of the coolest thing ever to you, dear readers, on the internet.
What spurred this magnanimity?
Why, this post on Lifehacker.com of course!
A science experiment has shown that a slushie before exercise on a hot day can boost your endurance. Taking this to its logical conclusion, you should make sure to consume a slushie before having sex on a really hot day. Boost your stamina!
Plus this will help you stay hydrated through this brutal summer, dear readers. Stay cool. ;P
I get the GOP & Tea Party now.
I finally get the GOP & Tea Party (your grassroots movement can’t have corporate sponsorship!).
I was puzzled at first.
Could people really be protesting even though taxes were being lowered for 90% or more of the population?
Tea Party members live in an echo chamber, hearing only the fabricated Faux News they want to hear over and over, and they actually are that ignorant about tax facts
Flat Tax is a TRAP!
What about a flat tax? That sounds fair. Well, a ‘flat tax’ would shift a huge tax burden of high earners onto low earners, those who can least afford it. People quote rates as high as 14% for a flat tax, but if you earn up to $75,000, you could be paying as little as 5% of your income in taxes (depending on your deductions, see the link above about Tea Party not knowing about tax facts).
There is NO reasoning with the GOP
This guy GETS it. Look, it’s a conservative (little c) that calls out the GOP for its sins. And there are MANY. You may not like having a party in power, that while, far from perfect, has shown itself to be MUCH MORE adept at looking out for YOUR interests and trying to protect them.
Thank You SIR! May I Have Another!?
Why do people insist on being so self-damaging? I mean, I guess if they want to cut their noses off, that’s fine, but you’re inflicting your personal opinions on other people, codifying them through rule of law. Ours was founded to be a free country, not the cowardly freedom to seek to make people live the way YOU say so. If others are doing something that harms you, that’s bad. If it annoys or offends you, you have every right to complain, but don’t advocate violence against them!
Everyone Wants to be Rich.
I guess people buy into this Tea Party rhetoric as simple wish-fulfillment or delusion. They somehow think they are rich, despite evidence to the contrary, or assume they will be rich some day, so they had better start fighting so ‘the poor’ don’t steal all their money! This is the only rationalization I can see for such behaviour, supporting representatives who never had your interests at heart in the first place. Maybe the representatives lie really well, but they eventually out themselves after they get into office, and most of them have some history you can look at.
The Crazies.
You rail against this oppressive government that’s obviously keeping you down. That’s crazy talk. Period.
Insurance. Health or otherwise.
The Insurance situation is soooo hairy. If you don’t want to buy health insurance fine, pay the fine, but do you have car insurance as required by law? OMG GUMMINT CONSPIRACY, HOW DARE THEY REQUIRE YOU TO CARRY INSURANCE ON SOMETHING THAT CAN EASILY KILL/Injure/damage property. Coverage that is designed to MAKE YOU WHOLE should a disaster occur (if you carry full coverage) or cover you and/or the other party should you get into an accident with some self-important anti-government nut who doesn’t carry insurance on his two-tonne, metal death-missile. Cancel your homeowner’s or renter’s insurance. Also, refuse all Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, etc, benefits forever, as those are a form of insurance too. Please, start whingeing about something important, like Obama continuing the Bush Era Policy of Allowing Warrantless Wiretapping.
The Moral:
If I’ve learned one thing from the Tea Party Movement, it’s that: Yes, people are that stupid.
The Super Bowl Disappointment 2010
I can’t bring myself to root for either Superbowl team this year, neither the Saints, nor Colts. The reason why I can’t is because the refs decide the games regardless of actual penalties or plays that have occurred.
My prediction is that the Saints will win the big game this year, only because it supposedly “makes a good story.” It’s a damn shame that we can’t see an untainted NFL game anymore. Maybe it’s just the nostalgia speaking, but I could have sworn that the penalties and decisions handed out in the past weren’t as horrific. There will always be bad calls, and people will always feel you screwed over their team, but it’s not just the bad calls, it’s the blatant IGNORING of illegal hits, and the like that seem to be heightened these days.
I remember reading two things somewhere in a certain diatribe against the NFL: 1. You can call a holding penalty against either side every play in any modern NFL game; and 2. The eye can’t track more than a certain number of moving objects (7 I think), at a time. So of course the Refs are going to miss some calls at times, because of the chaos on the field. All this aside, I still believe there is some sort of an unspoken order to call penalties against the leading team, just to supposedly make the games “better” and keep the scores closer together. Either that or penalties are disproportionately inflated on the leading team, or too soft on the underdogs.
I’m tired of seeing bad calls & questionable rulings endlessly tainting “the sport.” It’s not a “sport” unless the rules get followed, all of them. As of today, there is no way of telling who is the winner or loser in any NFL game, because of biased play-calling and penalties. The unspoken rule of every sport should be “make it as fair as possible.” Calling penalties & plays just to keep scores near parity is abominable!
What kind of credentials do these Referees have? Is it as simple as passing a written certification test? Do they even receive ANY continuing training? They can’t be making enough money each year to ensure they can’t be bribed.
So, I say we need enforceable penalties for the REFS! 3 bad calls in a season and you’re banned from refereeing for 5 years. Maybe more than that should be forgivable, but I’d really, really like to see a statistical analysis of the historic penalty rate per NFL game through the years. What kind of correlations could we draw between penalty frequency, contesting of penalties and calls, and score variance or game outcome? I understand that there are no completely impartial judges anywhere, but where is the accountability?
Do I just misremember? Or were the NFL games of the past more fair? Someone who is a complete sports geek, please get on this soonest. Thanks.
I questioned putting this on my New Media/Design Blog, but decided to post it here because what is more social than sports? Could it be more contentious, mythic, glorious, disappointing, hopeful, crazy, and fun? Maybe if we held those who hold the ultimate powers accountable.
You are not an interesting person
When you list your interests and passions on the internet, do not list ‘rock climbing’, ‘skydiving,’ ‘cattle rustling’, or any other ‘faux dangerous’ activity as a hobby/activity you do, UNLESS YOU DO IT MORE WEEKENDS THAN YOU DON’T.
Going skydiving once does not make you an interesting person, going skydiving a million times, doesn’t mean you’ve lived your life to the fullest. Not lying to yourself, and giving other people some respect, by not pretending you are something you aren’t is what it’s all about. I read too damned much, a lot of it comic books, pretty much weekly or monthly, and I get quite a bit out of it. Such as this paraphrased little gem out of ‘Ultimate Spider-man’ written by Brian Michael Bendis: “You see all these people running around just trying to SEEM like they are better than what they really are, not actually putting forth any EFFORT to learn anything or improve themselves or even acknowledge the existence of their fellow man.”
The moral of this rant is… put up or shut up, don’t lie to the world about who you are, don’t try to make yourself SEEM (fecking) better, be the person that calls out the bullshitters, regardless of who you might piss off. Surround yourself with people who add to the world, not those who constantly ridicule or detract from it.
Anyway, I’m off to work on my Spider Jerusalem Quotes Page.
This post is extrapolated from a comment I left on this news article over at TTAC.
Basically, Colorado officials want gamble with their future by trying to double Photo Enforcement revenues and authorizing even more surveillance across the entire state.
I can’t wait for the backlash that’s coming against these Redflex speeding and Red Light Camera Progrommes. It will be fun to watch what happens in Colorado, even from distance of Ohio. Red light camera ticketing schemes are guaranteed political suicide. But the elected (and appointed) officials think they are completely untouchable. So tax revenues go down a bit, you need to tighten up your belts and reduce spending, just like we plebeians private citizens when we lose part or all of our income. The closest analogy I can think of is a man getting his hours reduced at work. This seedy character approaches him on the way to his van as he’s sullenly headed home for the day and says, “psst– Hey buddy, need some cash?” He then follows this crook’s advice and goes out and rents a camera. He records someone breaking a traffic law from his van with his rented camera. He mails a copy of the photo to the person who owns the vehicle, as well as a picture drawing of a gun, but the icing on the cake is the stern letter he sends that implies ’something’s gonna happen to you if you don’t pay up.’
People merely want to feel safe in their homes and property. Extortion campaigns such as this milk owners of vehicles dry when we live in one of the safest times in recent history. Accidents are down, fatalities are down, murders are down (I think). Yet we are absorbed in a news cycle of fear, trained to fear and hate our fellow man. Some industrious fellows in Colorado will band together with political and community groups to stop these crooks just like they did in Cincinnati. It may take a few years if people are convinced they can’t do anything to change it, or if they don’t have direct ballot initiative access like we do in Ohio… but they will either directly change it, or elect those who will rescind the contracts. Just look at the current situation in Arizona, as they are in open revolt against these systems. I feel that the best argument against photo enforcement is actually having it. The greedy bastards have gone too far, just wait for the backlash you political gobshites, it’s coming…