Man, my usually mild allergies are horrible this year. I usually take a Claritin as needed, but with the recent dry weather and ultra high pollen count, I am very stuff and blocked up. It is pretty bad, and I can't wait for a day or so of rain to knock down the pollen count. Until then I'll stock up on the antihistamine of choice and try to get through nights without stopping breathing.
I freakin hate Microsoft Windows. It really blows donkeys. One great example is how on Windows XP. If a critical system update has downloaded the computer desperately wants to reboot, desperate like a guy trying to lose his virginity on prom night.
Like a spoiled child it asks you every few minutes "Are we there yet?" Windows sometimes asks if you'd like to reboot. Your options are yes or ask me again. So in like 5 or 10 minutes it will ask you again.
Since I have a Windows laptop as a secondary computer, I shut if off all the time when I'm not using it, so having to be reminded that it needs to reboot is moot.
It is espcially annoying when I am doing a presentation in front of many people and have to pause in my deliberations to restart my computer.
But there is a workaround.
Start / Run / gpedit.msc / Local Computer Policy / Computer Configuration / Administrative Templates / Windows Components / Windows Update / Re-prompt for restart with scheduled installations
Do you know what I've been noticing? During commercials I see brief frames of odd things. These are usually between commercials and last for a frames or a half second or so.
I have a DVR so I pause, rewind and stop and that frame. One picture was a guy dressed as a pink rabbit standing at a podium, another it was some dude who looked like Napoleon Dynamite.
What is with these brief frames during commercials? Have you seen these images?
Here is some news on this. read here
Our Governor, Ed Rendell, wanted to shift taxes for schools away from property taxes and partially into an increased local income tax.
We resoundly rejected the proposal.
HARRISBURG (AP) -- Pennsylvania voters said "no deal" to lower property taxes in return for higher local income taxes.In 142 school districts reporting results of their tax-shift referendums early Wednesday, voters in only three appeared to accept the trade-off, according to returns posted early Wednesday on a Department of State Web site. The 142 represent more than 25 percent of the state's school districts.
The proposed tax shift was touted by the Rendell administration as a chance for homeowners to increase the size of the property-tax cuts they will receive once the state distributes slot-machine gambling revenue to school districts.
But voters weren't interested.
Chuck Ardo, spokesman for Gov. Ed Rendell, said opposition likely reflected voter confusion.
No we are not confused. We just know that if you rasie one tax to promise a lower tax later it just means that both taxes will go up.
A strange thing happens quite frequently in my life. My mother equates it to the law of attraction. It happens when we talk about my grandparents. My maternal grandparents are both dead. And this past Friday was their wedding anniversary.
Whenever we talk about my grandparents, whether it's me brinigng it up or my aunt or my mom discussing it the song Stardust comes on the radio. It was my grandparents song.
It's happened a few times to my mother and Aung, and it happened twice to me. First it happened a few years ago when my mother received her doctorate. We were eating at an Italian Restaurant and my aunt said she said to my mom that she wished their parents were there to see this. A few moments later that song came on the radio.
Yesterday coming back from church with my mother we were listening to XM and we were talking about the same topic. This time we were discussing the passing of my mother-in-law. My mother noted that it was also my Grandparent's birthday. The very next song on the radio was Stardust.
I told my aunt about it yesterday and she said it also happened recently to her. She said it is the subtle way that the dead communicate with us.
Either that, or it is one hell of a coincidence.
I love Pennsylvania. I think it's cool that in this state you can open carry legally, without a permit.
Anheuser-Busch is being accused of selling its new drink, Spykes, to kids.
"This caffeinated alcoholic beverage is one of an insidious new generation of starter drinks — luring underage drinkers with caffeine, fruit and chocolate flavors and cute, hip packaging," Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal said in a statement.
But I know that kids drink to get drunk, so this spykes won't be their first choice. Most kids I know drink liquor or beer.
Francine Katz, Anheuser-Busch’s vice president for communications, said Spykes’ critics misunderstand the behavior of underaged drinkers."They drink for instant impact," Katz said. "The fact that Spykes are sold in 2-ounce bottles and thus have a total alcohol content equivalent to one-third of a glass of wine makes it much less likely that illegal underage drinkers will choose Spykes as opposed to a 70- to 80-proof hard liquor product."
Spykes also contains caffeine, ginseng and guarana, which are components of energy drinks popular among teens and young adults.
Katz said the company has worked with many states in education programs about the dangers of supplying alcohol to minors. But the company rejects arguments from the attorneys general that Spykes is marketed to teenagers.
"The simple fact remains that Spykes are intended for adults 21 and older who enjoy sweet, fruit and chocolate-flavored cocktails and alcohol beverages," Katz said. "To attack the one product in this category with the lowest alcohol content and a very limited distribution makes no sense."
So there nanny types!!
Actually, I'm not sure how to feel about this one. My wife liked the show, I watched it, but found it sort of annoying in the typical Aaron Sorkin sort of way.
I used to love to watch Heroes. But they kept going going on breaks for weeks at a time, showing repeats and generally being annoying. I wonder what the TV executives think when they decide to stop a show mid-season for a month?
Again, it appears that Philadelphia thinks they control the whole state. Instead of dealing with their own problem, they want to force their will down the will of the whole state. Of course fast Eddie is more than willing to cow tow to Philthydelphia.
Fed up with foot-dragging in Harrisburg over gun control, Philadelphia is now taking its case to court. City Councilman Darrell L. Clarke said last night that the city plans to file a lawsuit today in Philadelphia Common Pleas Court alleging that the General Assembly has failed in its duty to protect the residents of the city."It is becoming increasingly clear to me that the General Assembly is unwilling or unable to act," Clarke said in a telephone interview last night. "We have no choice but to go to court."
Straw purchases have proliferated dramatically because the state has failed to enact laws that rein them in, he said.
In a straw purchase, somebody legally acquires a firearm and then sells it to somebody else who is not eligible to own one, such as a convicted felon on parole or probation. Critics say that straw purchases are responsible for much of the firepower on the city's streets.
In addition to authorizing the suit today, Council intends to approve eight gun-control measures that have been languishing in Council for more than a year, Clarke said.
Among other things, the bills call for limiting handgun purchases to one a month, and for owners to report any guns that are lost or stolen, Clark said.
David Kairys, a professor at the Beasley School of Law at Temple University, said that the laws Council is expected to enact today should be valid because of the city's Home Rule Charter. But the charter's power is diminishing, he said.
"The legislature and the Supreme Court have so undercut it that it's hard to say we have home rule anymore," said Kairys, who in the 1990s led the city's legal team in an unsuccessful court challenge against handgun manufacturers.
He said he could not comment on the particulars of the lawsuit to be filed today because he hadn't seen it.
Clarke said that while several members of the city's Harrisburg delegation had worked tirelessly on the gun-control issue, they had not been able to sway their more-rural colleagues to their side.
"The fact that we are approaching 150 murders means that we can no longer wait for them to get their act together," he said. As of midnight Tuesday, 137 homicides had occurred in the city.
Legislation sponsored by Rep. Angel Cruz (D., Phila.) that called for gun registration and an annual fee of $10 a gun triggered a massive outcry from opponents who said they felt the legislation threatened their right to own guns. Several lawmakers who initially supported Cruz's measure have since backed off.,
The long time liberal establishment has led people to believe that their life is hopeless. Instead of creating jobs, they give handouts. Instead of supplying an education they have welfare programs. These big cities with big liberal policies are all destroying all of us.
I have a cold. A nasty siffling, sneezing, coughing, aching, stuff head, and fever kind. The kind where you can't sleep because you can't breathe.
I think I got it from shaking people's hands. People's hands are dirty. The average American does not wash their hands at all, and most of those who do don't wash their hands properly. The #1 cause for spreading of germs is through hand to hand contact. People do not wash their hands!
I like the Church we've been going to, but they do this extended passing of the peace which is nice, but I feel a little put off because I don't like touching people and don't like having people touching me. So I take my hand sanatizer and clean myself afterwards. Some people give me strange looks, but I say to them; "If you washed your hands, I wouldn't have to do this!"