Driving

I am starting to really get pissed off about the way people drive here. Once you have driven in Boston you can drive anywhere (in America anyway). I was just driving today and some dumb bitch was driving a huge ass SUV and she was on the cell phone stopped in the middle of the parking lot driveway. I had to give her the horn. Then some twat pulled out onto the road that I was already going 35 on almost hitting me. The dumbass wasn't even looking at me.

Fuck this. I am going to be rude from now on. Fuck these dumbasses. I am going to now be more liberal with my use of the horn. Motherfuckers should learn to drive. That's what a car is for, to drive, not to eat in, have conversations in in the middle of the parking lot. Just shut the fuck up and drive! Motherfuckers!

Jeezus!

Podcasts

The first podcast I ever listened to was Benjamen Walker's Theory of Everything. I first thought it was a science show in reference to the Theory of Everything. But it is an excellent show. This show is really good. It reminds me of Boston. I can picture every single landmark and place he talks about.

Give it a listen if you have an hour.

Another great one is Cool Shite on the tube. It is an Australian production about media i.e DVDs movies, TV shows, etc. Unedited. Funny and good stuff.

Al Franken, iTunes new music Tuesday, CBC radio 3 new music. I can't seem to find JJJ yet.

The beauty of the podcast is that you can listen to it at anytime. While in the car, or at home whenever.

Podcasts I recommend.

The buffet

I have made the decision again to continue this blog. That probably hasn't gotten any traffic since June. I saw something the other day that absolutely made me sick.

Firstly I will say that I could place some belief in Karma, but my criticisms of others in this post is only to bring awareness of a growing problem. I currently am overweight. I weight 204 lbs. I have gained roughly 10 lbs. Since moving here. I am currently working out and am trying to move forward and get back to my goal weight of 180. Having said that I will continue on with the story:

Sunday I went to a Mexican restaurant for lunch. I ignored the five box-shaped individuals sitting in front of me. This restaurant had a special "Sunday Buffet" which no doubt spelt disaster to the restaurant's bottom line.

These people were eating when the host had seated us. I got my food and ate. It took me about fifteen minutes for me to feel full. I stopped eating and was forced to stare at the table of people. I call them people but they were no longer people. They stopped being people when they exceeded the weight of 300 lbs. These "people" were at least 400 lbs each. What struck me was that they were a family. An older couple (obvious by the hair color) were huge (400 lbs or more each) And then there was what looked a son with his wife (again 400 lbs or more each). And what looked like a younger brother. This younger brother was the lightest of the group. I assumed his age to be about 13-15 years. He looked like he already weighed 300 lbs.

The biggest of the group (the first son) went up to the buffet the most. Every time he made the effort to get up -that is lifting his body out of his chair -he would get a plate, fill it up, return it to the table. Then he would remain standing so he could make two more trips to the buffet and return with two more filled plates for an eating session. So by the time he sat back down he would have three filled plates in total for that eating session. In the space of fifteen minutes I waited for my great aunt in law and my grandfather in law to finish their food, this guy made four (4) such trips each having three plates. Having eaten a total of twelve (12) filled plates of Mexican food. These actions were mirrored by the other members of the family. These five people must have put away enough food to feed a village of Ethiopians. I sat there trying to focus elsewhere but I just couldn't. Their table was perpendicular to mine and so they were sitting lengthwise to me -so that I could see five pair of hands almost simultaneously shoving food into five still-hungry mouths.

More shocking is that when the older man -let's call him "the father" was shoveling cheese sauce onto his already stacked plate full of enchiladas another big woman from another table gave him a bad look as if to provoke him into fighting for the food. Then it dawned on me, as we were getting up to pay, I noticed the rest of the restaurant was completely filled with huge people. The combined total weight of the room must have been equal to a large sea vessel or perhaps maybe a 747 jumbo jet. Our family of five was still eating upon my exit. It made me wonder if they ate like that all the time or if it was a special "buffet eating adventure" in which they would chow down for 30-minute eating sessions like competitive eaters.

It is a sad state of affairs when in this country there are more people dying of having eaten too much than there are people dying of starvation. And will soon surpass smoking as the leading cause of preventable death in America. Some of these people had to use canes to aid them in walking. I bet if you followed them into Wal Mart you would note the use of one of those motorized scooters. They probably scammed the state into giving them a disabled permit so they can wrongfully park in the handicapped parking spot. Exactly what they need, less work to do so they can't ever work off their fat.

road trip

Going to be taking another road trip tomorrow morning (3am) will be gone until Saturday night.

Got around to putting some classical music on the iPod. Almost out of space!

Casual dining

Today I ate lunch in a "casual dining" place, a nationally recognized chain restaurant. I always wonder why the host/hostess sometimes think its acceptable to make a 5 person seating arrangement out of a 4 person table. They like to do this a lot and it is highly unacceptable to me. I was eating there by myself but the adjacent table had 5 people seated and the table was only built for 4. Cause the stupid hostess had placed a chair on one end and thought it would be OK. The people thought it was ok, but you could sense that secretly, they loathed it.

Fuck the Black Eyed Peas

The Black Eyed Peas had originally tried to be the "Anti-pop" but have turned around and become pop. They even have a stupid ass commercial from Best Buy where some dumbass guy seems overjoyed that he can control the black eyed peas "At the touch of a button." As if the concept of listening to pre recorded music in an at home format was brand new. I really wasn't able to control Public Enemy back in 1988 at the touch of a button using my walkman. No It was all just a dream.

Fuck them. I don't see what all the hype is about.

pisses me off

Paul my old boss said he would finish my recommendation letter before yesterday. Still haven't gotten it done. I sure hope its a good one when they finally get it done. The job closes on Friday. Now I am going to have to email the stuff as well as mail hard copies with a letter asking sympathy and explanation. "I am terribly sorry but procuring the reference letters from my former supervisor proved difficult and I was unable to do so until 2 June. I could have sent in my resume with 2 letters but felt this would have been incomplete and unacceptable. Please accept my most sincere apologies."

Something to that effect.

Newest screenshot

I have given up RF Transmissions

I used to use an RF transmitter as my in car solution for the iPod. I first dropped $30 for an irock

Yet this thing, in Boston, sucked. It only had 4 frequencies to choose from (88.1, 88.3, 88.5, 88.7) and in Boston ALL of those frequencies are used by either college radio or NPR. So I bought the next best thing. A Belkin TuneCast II ($30) with selectable frequencies. But this thing didn't come with an car adapter so its only power came from batteries making the signal weak as hell. That weak ass shit wasn't even strong enough to break through weaker spots on the dial like 89.5 coming out of New Hampshire. I search the dial and EVERY frequency is used up in Boston. From 87.7 to 107.9 Every single one. I since move here to Nashville and try the stations down here. The same thing. Although some are very weak, the TuneCast II is not strong enough even using the recently bought Belkin F8V7067APL power cord ($20) for it. I am able to use this for power to the iPod (rock on!) But my audio sucks. So we fast forward to Saturday 28 May. I buy a Belkin tape adapter ($20) and it works beautifully. Now I have a means of power to the iPod and also a good sound for my car. Now I have 2 useless pieces of crap that served me well, but I think would only benefit people who live in Bumville, Arkansas or whatever. But when you think about it, I recently tried to use these products in a road trip from Texas back here. They would work beautifully through rural areas ... Until you get some guy on the radio (Usually at 88.5) screaming in my ear about how I am going to burn in hell and how he can better heal people for a small donation. (the bible belt cracks me up) So anyway I am trying to sell both the irock (which worked better but had less choices) AND trying to sell the Tunecast II Both have served me well, and am willing to offer a special deal.

Star Wars

Just came back from seeing it. Excellent film. It ties in all of the other Star Wars films -the final piece of the puzzle.

Tomorrow is memorial day as well. I hate what Memorial day has become. Just another day off from work. Another day for crappy rusted redneck Indianapolis 500 and shitty burgers on the grill. The "official start of summer" the official start to good times, fun times.
Fuck that. Fucking assholes make me sick.
The real purpose of memorial day. Some people need to fucking wake up.

Nothing but memories

I took a drive today over to Fort Campbell. In the past, when I was stationed there it was a simple process to get on if you were visiting. Just give the guy your Driving licence and presto he gives you a 1 day pass. Now they upped security bigtime. Anyway I was able to get on, and drive around a little. The place looked abandoned. Maybe because it was a saturday, or probably because they were deployed. I drove around everywhere except the airfield cause they of course had added security. Nothing or no one there but memories. It was about 5 years ago when I drove off Ft. Campbell for the last time. I was signing out of Terminal leave I was there to eat a lunch with some friends at a Chinese place that is no longer in business. They presented me with a coinbox to house my Air Assault Coin that I still have. I imagine they are deployed now.

I passed by the railhead that no doubt took many vehicles and equipment for their overseas trip to Iraq. The road (Mabry Rd) was the same road that Thomas Allison was caught speeding on the way to SOATC. This is the same guy I had to sit next to in training and administer an IV in Combat lifesaver course. He in turn had to give me an IV. He really got "smoked" as we used to say. SGT Mosquito laid into him for speeding.

"Who drives a blue and grey truck?!" he said.
"I do" said Allison.
"Drop!" said SGT Mosquito.

I drove up "Bitch hill" (California Rd) the hill that will "make a bitch out of you". I struggled many times on this road. Up this hill. Many blisters. After a badly sprained ankle -walking up the hill as the finish of the 8 mile road march with 70lbs of gear. I had sprained my ankle the previous day.

I got out and looked for the log that we set in concrete with all of our names on it from class 07-99. The log was gone as was "Talladega" a muddy little circle with low points perfect for adding water via a hose and perfect for SOAR wannabees like myself to crawl in. But the chin up bar was there. The obstacle course was there, as well.

I drove back on Mabry Rd. Saw the small paved path that was used in Air Assault School for the 12 mile road march.
That part was about mile 10 if I remember. I drove past the air assault school still the same as I remember it. It was newly built when I had to go through it.

Ft. Campbell though abandoned, had many newly built buildings. Buildings, that as a single soldier, they constantly promised us would be barracks. Nice barracks - similar to apartments. I got out and left barracks that were made before the Vietnam war. I drove past these barracks that still had some poor garrison soldiers walking around. They were not of my old unit. So the old promise of new barracks for my old unit must have come true at some point.

A bit of a sad day seeing buildings named after people. Like the CPT Mark so and so finance building. Or the SFC Gary so and so dental facility. These men must have lost their lives probably recently.

For a minute the year was 1999 and I was back there getting my ass kicked in the 4 mile timed run. Memories that I hadn't thought of in years had come back. Passing by the many places on Route 41A. Po' boys tires. I was once strapped for cash (like a majority of soldiers) and my supervisor suggested me to go to "Po' boys" and get some tires to pass the monthly vehicle inspection. (an army thing) I never went though. I rather spent the $20 more and bought Wal Mart Tires instead of Po' boys maypops.

Pistol Pete's Pawn shop was closed down. I remember this was the place I bought some replacement Gore Tex gloves for CIF turn in upon ETS'ing. Since I had lost them. The asshole who worked there tried to get me to buy a cheap ass knife for $5 and I told him it wasn't worth $5. So he ended up giving it to me for $2. I still have this knife in my glovebox. (since transferred from my old car). I ended up finding my gore tex gloves later and now use them in cold weather.

The "Williams" gas station, truck stop and restaurant had since changed into a "Pilot" gas station with wendy's. It seems everything has changed. When walking back to my car I saw the USA Today and its front page headline about Iraq, the insurgency, and a number of troops needed etc. One picture had some troops in an ambulance Hummer. Another picture had a smirking George Bush on the side. I didn't pay attention to what it said about Bush. The evening sun was warm on my face and there was a nice breeze going. I went back to the car. Got in and drove home. Nothing here but memories. No friends. No good times like it used to be. Nothing.

Who said they had the worst drivers again?

I have heard from so many people on message boards and face to face that their state had the worst drivers. Well GMAC insurance came out with a test recently and I think you will find the results interesting (props to Emphasize).

NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - When faced with a written test, similar to ones given to beginning drivers applying for licenses, one in ten drivers couldn't get a passing score, according to a study commissioned by GMAC Insurance.

The GMAC Insurance National Driver's Test found that nearly 20 million Americans, or about 1 in 10 drivers, would fail a state driver's test if they had to take one today. GMAC Insurance is part of General Motors' finance subsidiary, GMAC.

More than 5,000 licensed drivers between the ages of 16 and 65 were administered a 20-question written test designed to measure basic knowledge about traffic laws and safety. They were also surveyed about their general driving habits.

Drivers in the Northeast and mid-Atlantic states did worst. Twenty percent of test-takers failed there.

source


Also of interest the list:

Top 5:

1. Oregon -- 89.4

2. Washington -- 88.4

3. Iowa -- 87.7

4. Idaho -- 87.5

5. Wyoming -- 87.4

Worst 5:

44. Washington, D.C, -- 79.8

44. New York -- 79.8

47. New Jersey -- 78.3

48. Massachusetts -- 77.2

49. Rhode Island -- 77.0

The whole list found here

So I am not doubting that Colorado or Ohio or Illinois or Atlanta had bad drivers, but the test couldn't be more telling.

'ello 'ello :)

on the agenda today

on the agenda yesterday:

clean house
get food at store
go to post office
workout

On the agenda today:
Be sore (from working out)
go to bank
get oil changed (synthetic -of course)
get car washed
get haircut
get lunch at subway
call bellsouth (fuckers) and sort out bill...

...And here I sit maybe I will watch TV. Only waiting for reference letters so I can submit them along with CV for a new job (keeps fingers crossed) Paul says he won't be able to get it until Tuesday. So until then, its TV. And I might go out for a walk later since the sun is out.

:)

Starting her young :)

:)

Daniellas first time on a swing