Category Archives: Rant


Strange Stuff Abound

Some life updates… I turned Comments on for all new posts starting last week, because I’ve noticed that I’ve been getting a lot of more email these days for any number of reasons – all of them good. I figured that if there was some new information – or commentary; always welcome! – on any of my topics, it would do us all some good to have it available out in the open. I also turned on the TrackBack feature of MovableType but I have no idea if it’s configured correctly – time will tell on that! Otherwise, what else is going on in Randy’s world?
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Bah! Now I’m Pissed Off!

I’ve lost my ability to lie convincingly! At least I think I have… if recent events prove anything, I’ve completely lost my god-given ability to lie, cheat, scam, and steal, and I’m pretty pissed off about it! How could such a tradgic event come to pass? Is there no love left for WOP’s anymore? I thought there was… I am doing so well in my NCAA bracket at work – during the first round anyway, because I historically end up last by the time the Big 8 are selected – that all of my co-worker have been accusing me of being mobbed up, just because I’m Italian. And now I realized that I might have lost my ability to lie! ARGH!
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Happy Anniversary to… well, Me!

Over a year ago, Steve mentioned to me that he was going to start a web log (blog) to track his progress of authoring while working on his book . While he was telling me about it, he told that he thought it would be funny if I started my own blog, since I always seem to have something to say about everything. I realized that he was right: I do have option on most things, but what I actually realized was that there also seems to be a never-ending stream of bizarre or unique events that happen to me, which causes me to have some strange story to tell. I decided to give the site a shot, and I started this web site in February 2002. After fighting with Network Solutions about my domain name for most of March, I wrote the initial posts and finally I went “live” with the site on April 1 – I find to be a rather fitting date of birth. Three providers and two website designs later, and the site is still running, offering two or three new posts per week. And the madness of my own life shows no signs of stopping, either, so it’s bound to keep the site going. Right now, I’m sitting at my desk at my day job – where I haven’t been paid for over a month now – in a Starbucks barista’s uniform, after having spent the last hour in a traffic jam just to get to here. Normal? Most people wouldn’t think so. I was planning on telling the story of why I’m dressed like this, but as is usually the case, when I drive to work there’s always something that happens that preempts my original writing.
Continue reading Happy Anniversary to… well, Me!

*text not included

So this morning I was early for my regular express train, but too late to get on the semi-express train that I sometimes take – the semi-express leaves ten minutes before the express and gets me to Stamford five minutes after the express usually so, so I almost always shoot for the express, even if it means I have to wait in the car longer – so I had about five minutes to kill. I turned on my backup Sony notebook so it would be booted when I got on the train – the PowerBook, with it’s awsome instant wake feature, is still in transit, on it’s way to Apple for another round of repairs – and I decided to take a look at a new book that Steve recommended: Proudly Serving My Corporate Masters, by Adam Barr, which is about a programmers ten-year experience while working at Microsoft – it might sound boring to you, but I could use the perspective of a company that actually makes software, instead of debt, as a business model. I had ordered it from Amazon a while back, but I had other books in the reading queue before it, so this was the first time I opened the book to read it. Seems there’s another book in there! The cover is right, but the inside holds Pilare the Vampire: The Untold Existance, by Angela S. Fenyvesi! It even has her dedication and copyright information – the cover simply doesn’t match the pages inside the cover. That’s when I noticed that iUniverse publishes the book and it suddenly made sense.
Continue reading *text not included

Swimming Upstream, in a Stream of Consciousness

Been a busy week, on international, national, local, and in my own little sphere of existence. While watching CNN’s Headline News I was treated to a number of headlines that caught my eye – some of which sparked a response in my mind – so I thought I’d ramble a bit here. First and foremost: a salute to the troops all over the world – you’ve decided to use your lives to defend our country and I thank you for it. No bullshit here; my support is yours. God knows the Army would have no use for me specifically – I’ve got an abnormally short wingspan (due to T-Rex type arms,) I’m literally blind without glasses (3500 over 20), and if laid horizontally I’m shaped like a speed bump. Unless the Intelligence wing of the armed forced pulled a Karl-from-Starship-Troopers type recruitment – and put an Atari 2600 joystick in my hands – I’m useless. So. What else is going on out there?
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Texas Wants to Succeed? Let’m!

I really need to stop watching the news in the morning. I guess I go for days at a time, before I see something obnoxious on TV news or hear something from the radio. Yet when I do find something toxic, it always makes me wonder why I bother watching at all, erasing all of the “good” days that I do catch the news. Today’s news reports were about average: war protestors, peace advocates, updates on Bridgeport’s former mayor – on trial for accepting gifts for city funded contracts (which is racketeering I believe,) and updates on Waterbury’s former mayor – on trial for soliciting sex from two pre-teen girls via a crackhead prostitute. Quite a bit to stomach with the morning coffee, I’ll admit, but a story on Good Day NY is what cause the rug burn on my chin, because I couldn’t believe what I heard. A mother from Texas was whining about the amount of homework her son has been getting and that there was so much of it, started to do it for him – she even mentioned that it took too long to help him with it, during school nights.
Continue reading Texas Wants to Succeed? Let’m!

Actor Loses Visa Endorsement For Mouth Issues?

This is about as close to a news “article” that I’ve every come to, but I heard this on the radio this morning and I wanted to share it anyway. As I’ve posted before, there’s been an growing number of actors and actresses that have been coming out for causes lately. Susan Sarandon is by far the most vocal and supports just about anything that goes against the current government, and is supported by her whipping boy Tim Robbins, who still looks like he doesn’t have an independent thought in his head – I’ve often wondered, while watching “Bull Durham,” if he was or wasn’t acting in his rule of Nuke. Of course their latest “cause” is protesting the possible war against Iraq.
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Apple a la Service?

Why isn’t this a GeekStuff entry? Because it’s a Rant, even if it is of a Geek nature. I’ve had one of the new Apple PowerBook 12’s for a little bit over a month and a half now, and I’m about to send it in for service. For a second time. The first pBook that I got was a defective model that lasted a total of three days, due to a mostly dead ComboDrive. Since it was a new purchase – made at a local CompUSA no less! – I was able to return it and pick up a new and working model. This, being the second pBook and now a month old, is going back to AppleCare for servicing, for up to four different problems: wobbling, battery door problems, case concerns, and heat.
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Warning: Evil Midget Crossing

Want to know what’s been irking me lately? Of course you do – why would you be clicking here if you didn’t? As I’ve mentioned before, I’ve been writing a book – for no reason what so ever – and I’ve been making headway on it, one chapter at a time. Actually, since it’s more of an anthology than a novel, each chapter is its own short story, so I’m really working on one story at a time. I usually write at home and proofread on the train some mornings – I find that I can’t do the reverse because lately I find that I fall asleep while reading anything at home. Also, on the train rides, if I decide to write anything, it’s usually blog entries, because something that morning sets me off. Today is no exception to that rule, since I was planning on proofreading Chapter 16, but I realized something new was irking me this morning.
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War Protesters for LSD?

After watching this morning’s Grammy Awards recaps on the news, I’ve come down to the conclusion that the people that have been protesting military action in Iraq are the most ignorant lot of our nation. It’s not that they’re stupid – it’s more like they’ve been sold a bill of goods and they’re content to never investigate the truth beyond “what they were told” nor do they have the facts to back up what they’re protesting much less why – I’ve seem similar things from people for the war, but it doesn’t usually seem as visible as the protesters seem to be. It’s their right to protest, obviously, but I find it some what humorous that their biggest argument is that they don’t like Bush’s “blind and emotional” efforts to disarm Iraq, when they are trying to fight war with a “blind and emotional” protest. The biggest proof of this came in the “minor” comments from the musical artists last night, during the Grammy’s and is further backed up by an on the street interview that someone sent me online.
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T-Shirts For Sale

I seem to get all over the Internet throughout the course of a day. Not as far reaching as some people I know, but I figure I get to some places that the average Internet user would never get to – by design or by chance, I don’t know. What I do know is that I occasionally stumble into stuff that piques my interest, either by humor content or some other reason. Some of this stuff will end up on this site, depending on whether or not I think it is helpful to other people. This is probably the first time that I’ve found that only an image can do the product justice, so I’ve included it here. If you can read Japanese, or if this hits you as amusing as it did me, feel free to click through to the web site and place an order!

T-Shirt

Snow Days

Oi. I’ve had enough of snow. Not the falling of snow. Not the inconvenience of snow. Not the 15 inches of snow that accumulated itself outside my front door over the last 36 hours of blizzard conditions. No, I’m tired of the bitching I keep hearing about the snow. It’s all I’ve heard about, from radio, TV news, and people on the phone, instant messengers and chat rooms. All of these people live near me in Connecticut; how are they surprised that we got snow in February?
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No Soup for You!

So, I find it kind of interesting, the latest news from our partners in NATO, with regards to the problem in Iraq. No, honestly I do! I’m referring to the combination of France and Germany both refusing to allow military planning of an attack on Iraq, which stems from a request of Turkey, which is the only NATO member country to share a border with Iraq. I find it to be very interesting that Germany would side with France, given the first and second World War. You’d think the French would learn from history, right?
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Dozen Roses: $20 – Pick Up Line at a Bar: Priceless

Don’t jump on me for this one, ladies; it came directly off the air, just this morning. According to Omelette, from i-95 Rock‘s morning show, he usually has a great plan for most Valentine’s Days; since he has to go to some work endorsed party, he can’t use it this year. He was saying that he usually goes to the store and picks up a dozen roses. He then goes to a local bar where he grabs a drink and leaves the flowers on the bar. While he sits there, he hangs his head down low, looking put-out and forlorn. Throughout the course of the night, women notice the flowers at the bar – can you see where this is going already?
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