I just dropped off my four wheeler to be repaired at Carson's in Perth. Why? Because it needs repair. Why Carson's? Because they have a habit of really not sucking. That's right, the service at Carson's is exceptional. Let's explore:

I bought my four wheeler from Carson's over a decade ago, while I was there the sales guy didn't try to upsell me anything I didn't need. I got a Quadrunner which can take a shitkicking and I got it at a decent price. Years later I brought it back when Kevlar smashed it into a tree. The frame was pretty fucked up, it drove sort of sideways, and the handlebars were bent. I thought I would be told that a new frame would be more expensive than buying another used bike. Instead I was told that the guy in the back would see what he could do with the pole bender. Here I am ($370 later) still using the bike. Now it is in for repairs again and the guy at the service counter took the time to get me prices on every single part in the airbox. I said that I thought we could "get away with" just replacing most of the guts, but he also got me a price on the whole assembly (should that be required).

I am pretty comfortable in my belief that Carson's will do a good job on my bike and will earn the bill they give me. I guess we will see next week won't we?

It was good to see DO back in GW this week, he is even in [DEAD] now.

Booyeah

Am I the only one who sees a hidden message in this captcha image I got while trying to enable a new email account the other day?

Google captcha

Just a few short minutes ago LTJ maxed out the Kurz title giving him a dozen maxed titles (People Know Him). This weekend is Sunspear and Lightbringer weekend (double points) so I'll see if I can get him up to 14 titles this Sunday. LTJ, you rock. As soon as the dungeons are done I'll see about capping, guardian, and mapping. Come on Wack, git 'er done! ;-)

Over a decade ago I started working for a part of the municipal government here, it was the transportation part of the government and was completely absorbed by the amalgamation of the city at some point. When I first started working there I considered it part of "public service" to some degree. I remember that as I was going through the job competition process and salary negotiation process I was considering that I would be making LESS money than private industry but had to weigh that against the increased benefits. Am I fabricating this memory or what? Because public servants seem to me to be the most overpaid and least qualified and least motivated individuals in the work force. Seriously, when is the last time that you the reader, thought to yourself "Now there is a public servant who is really earning his or her salary!"?

More and more I see all levels of government making the stupidest decisions I could imagine, and they piss away OUR money on the biggest bullshit scams. The municipal government is forcing everyone in the city to pay $70 to buy a green bin to recycle compostable shit. They didn't ask anyone if they wanted a bin, they just charged us all for the bin and dropped on off. Then the facility they wanted to take this shit to is not ready, so they are trucking it 200km away… how fucking environmentally smart is it to drive our city's compost 200km each week? The Quebec provincial government has decided to shut down some of the dumps in the area slightly up river from me. They have also decided to stop garbage pickup for at least one of the cottage communities in the area. The population of the cottage communities is increasing steadily, and so is the amount of garbage. If people don't have any more pickup, and they don't have a dump to take it to, it'll end up in the fucking river you assholes. Guess what, that river feeds my fucking well you cunts. The federal government blabs on and on about the terrible job loss and recession of late and then decide to put the "Self Employment Benefits" program on hold. You'd think that a program specifically designed to get people working might be something you would want to keep during this terrible recession that never hit Ottawa. That's right, there is no recession here. All I keep hearing about is how government workers are making more money than ever, people are buying up new cars like fucking toilet paper, and house prices (MPAC assessments) are rising like a motherfucker.

I for one would be happier without any government of any kind. Dump 'em all. The incredible waste that our government spills on bullshit could be spread back among the people who actually earned it. I don't think it would be a perfect way to live but it sure would be better than letting those fucks continue to let us down.

I just finished watching the last one (Episode 3) and it was in fact "dark" as it had been described. However, the first half was still filled with the lovey crap that makes me sick. I stopped enjoying the movies early on in Episode 6 because the Ewoks just seemed so pussy. Seriously, they were obviously structured like that to expand the Star Wars viewing audience. Actually I spent much of the last three movies just trying to put my finger on exactly what bothered me about them. I believe it has something to do with how they seem to be so commercial. Yeah yeah I know, everything is commercial. It just seems like there must have been a parade of consultants that were making the decisions about how to lay it out for maximizing financial returns. Things like

Q: What should the race on Endor look like?

A: We have market surveys that tell us younger audiences were bored to tears by the first 2 movies. We should put in a race that appeals to the younger viewers. This will get young viewers to hassle the shit out of their parents forcing both the children and the parents to watch. This will add significant return on investment. Here we have (drops stack of paper on desk) someone else's research that shows "teddy bears" to be popular with the young folks.

Q: How should Vader be deformed?

A: In order to maintain sales of the first three movies we have devised a DVD release schedule that will coincide with Christmas (because Jesus loves space movies) and will include a DVD pack of all 6 movies. We feel that Anikan's transformation to Vader must be justified and dramatic enough to keep people interested in watching the original crap. Therefore we suggest that he kill children and be burned. It ties up many loose ends nicely and provides viewers with a reason to hate him.

Q: Should we really include the annoying love scenes between Anakin and Padmé?

A: Our studies have shown that the ladies do not like to sit and watch fight scenes and big spaceships for two hours at a time. It is suggested that these love scenes be not only left in but extended to as long as possible to keep the attention of our female viewers.

All I am getting at, is that everything seems to be just way too perfect. Enemies attack one at a time, the guy with 4 light sabers can't figure out a way to use 2 to hold off his foe while using the other 2 to kill him, the crap between Anakin and Padmé discussing which of them loves the other more, people that only get injured because it gives them "character", the occasional brutal cliché to lighten the mood… bah!

I'll give it a couple of years and then I'll try again (starting at Episode 1 this time) and see what happens. frankly I would much rather watch Strange Brew, not because it is Canadian but because I think it is a monu"mental" task to parody Hamlet like that and have well over half the audience not even know that is what they are watching. Not to mention the better acting.

I booked our vacation through sandals directly because I wanted to use "Sandals points" to pay for part of the room cost. So of course I didn't get all the information I needed about our flight because Sandals probably doesn't have access to the "Westjet proprietary info". I called Westjet and asked for the special code that I need to get into the web check-in before we leave. Now that I have the code, and my little itinerary all printed out, all I have to do is get some shorts in a suitcase. Jebus, I can't wait to nap on the beach, it is so much nicer than napping here.

I can feel the sun from here...

OK, I finished watching Episode 2 last night and it was a big fat soap opera. The "dancing Yoda" thing was funny but short-lived, and the last 30 seconds was disgusting. It's almost like he was writing it for a grade 10 English class and checking off a list of things to cover. Foreshadowing? Check. Conflict? Check. Crisis? Check. Climax? Check. Resolution? Check. Throw in some parody (via C3PO) and some expensive computer graphics and voila! We have an epic movie (or rather half a dozen of them). The story is fine but not enough to warrant the 6 full length feature films it got. The graphics are nifty but fancy graphics are quickly outdone by new engines. It has enough substance for a good movie and a good sequel, that's it.

I was told by someone that the third one is "dark" and I am hopeful that the last episode will bring me some joy. We'll see…

In case anyone decided to take my advice and switch to Seamonkey, here's a little tip that'll help you control cookies a little better. Check out the Seamonkey addons and get CookieSafe or CS Lite. These will both give you a little "cookie icon" at the right hand side of your status bar which will give you an easy way to control which websites may set cookies.

I believe that the only time a website needs to set cookies is when it needs to record something about you. For example, my stupid website should not set cookies on your PC (or Mac) unless you start trying to register or login. So I think that a "default deny" rule should be in place, that will drop all cookies unless there is a specific rule stating that a cookie should be allowed. If you look in your Seamonkey preferences you'll see that you can set the default behaviour to block all cookies. Then you may use CookieSafe (or CS Lite) to add websites as you visit them. So the next time you go to your banking site, you click the little cookie and add your bank to the list of exceptions. The next time you come to my website you of course add me to your list of exceptions.

… or maybe it was everyone watching Star Wars? So somewhat recently I went and got all 6 Star Wars movies and started watching them. I started at Episode 4 because I wanted to follow the appropriate chronological order. I am now about half way through Episode 1 (the fourth one released for those who didn't know) and it isn't really that great. Sure there's a story but it isn't really that compelling, certainly not enough to warrant what some might call the most colossal movie series ever. I have seen worse acting before but wouldn't you expect that a series of such epic proportions would have stellar acting? I'll keep watching, hopeful for improvement, but it ain't lookin' good right now. :-(

OK, so as almost nobody is aware, I used to have some shit on here that I called Take Back The Fox which was about browsers. Most browsers are pretty sucky these days, I'm not saying I can make a better one, just that the ones that exist are poor.

1. Internet Explorer is big and fat. It is jammed up the ass of Windows that you can't get rid of it. If you run Windows, you have IE. It wouldn't be so bad if they tried to make it lean, but they don't. Microsoft keeps adding features that make it bigger and uglier. What amazes me is how long it took them to put in tabs for Christ sake. Either way, it is cumbersome.

2. Firefox followed in IE's footsteps. When FF3 was released they added something called the Awesome Bar which many people think should be renamed to Asstasic Bar. Seriously, it is the most resource intensive selection box I have ever seen. The addon system is great but the interface is like a fucking clown face with a huge URL bar. Sorry moz, you dropped the ball on this one for sure.

3. Opera is trying too hard to look cool and not hard enough to be cool. There's plenty you can customize but it is all about how the browser looks not how it acts.

4. Bah, there's really no reason to include any others cause they are just not able to compete or they are total trash.

Then there is Seamonkey. Don't get me wrong, it isn't perfect, but it is better than the alternatives. I wish more addon programmers would make their shit compatible with Seamonkey, it would at least give people the option to drop the Asstastic Bar.

So I have dropped the TBTF part of my stupid uberblog and I am just going to suggest to people that they use Seamonkey. If they know what is good for them they will also use Adblock Plus and Optimize Google.

Yeah, I dumped the Web Trash page. It basically came down to a listing of shitty ass servers that are strictly for serving up douchebag ads. There are more comprehensive lists available (search Google for Mike MVP) though I don't know how effective they are. Anyways, I'll probably make a post sometime about DNSMasq and then start posting the list of shit servers for that. :-)