Rantaholics

In the interest of entertaining my twin 4 year old niece and nephew, I had to resort to the drastic means to keep their attention. I'm quite certain during the weekend, I have successfully imprinted some really bad habits as part of their personality.

Not having children myself (other than being married to one), I don't always know the boundaries between acceptable or unacceptable behavior (especially after a drink or two).

1. Encouraging bad behavior in public places: as my nephew yellow and proceeded to pull his shirt over his head (revealing his chest) I giggled, which just encouraged him to repeat this action, even to our wait person. (she did have a good sense of humor about it)
2. Stick crayons in your mouth or nose. First it was the vampire look with a pair of crayola, then proceeded downhill, will nostril insertion. Both of them picked up on this skill quite quickly.
3. Lemon wedge stuck in your teeth: Not the healthiest maneuver (since most of you probably know the garnishes they put in your drinks are not the cleanest). Both of them smiled at fellow patrons with their lemon wedges and then proceeded to spit them out.
4. Scaring people: teaching them to hide and strategic places and then jumping out at the appropriate moment to yell "Boo!" I heard some delightful language come from my family and not to mention strangers.
5. Last and not least: I am apologizing in advance to any of you who are Obama supporters. This was not a slam to him as to my brother in law. My delightful niece and nephew have very, very liberal parents (I cannot begin to elaborate how liberal they are, but let's just say they wear tie-dye t shirts and hippie beads underneath their clothes). My father in law asks my nephew who he should vote for and in his proud little voice states: Barack Obama! We changed that tune pretty quick (knowing this would cause his father to become completely hysterical). "Obama sucks" my nephew repeated during a gathering of 15 adults. Everyone laughed (except my brother in law who was not around). Of course, this just encouraged this feisty young man to yell it again and again and again.
Both of them didn't know any bad language, but creatively improvised on "Obama sucks!"
"Obama lives in the toilet and LIKES it" and "Obama eats poop". During the rest of the weekend, both of them piped up with these comments, all of them eliciting laughter. (again, this reinforces the bad behavior).
The pinnacle of their rant was heard at the John Wayne airport, just before the twins boarded the plane. My sister in law phone us to say good bye when my nephew picked up the phone and in his loudest voice possible, yelled "Barack Obama sucks, he lives in the toilet and likes it". In most places, this would be interpreted as bad behavior, but they were in Orange County and most people just ignored. Or better yet laughed.

Yup. I am a bad influence. Now,waiting for the irate phone call from their father, an Obama devotee. It is highly likely I won't get to see them soon, but that is ok, it will give me some new skills to teach them when they visit again.

Maybe because I work in the medical imaging industry that I am particularly sensitive to this matter, but since I last checked I was still human, so my frustration is part and parcel of every one's else. Quite simply the quality and care of our health care practitioners and the equally evil insurance companies has gone to hell in a hand basket.
I won't even begin to elaborate how I had to get all the pre-authorizations for surgery which I knew was approved already. After making endless phone calls, and writing down details of the conversation where the insurance company stated over the phone the surgery was covered, EXCEPT (and this is the real killer) they would not give me a reference number for the call, or an email address to confirm in writing. I managed to get a fax number and faxed my entire transcript of conversations of medical coverage and requested response-mail, fax, email and my response-nothing. Then after the surgery, they still wind up billing us for the entire amount. After numerous phone calls and letters we finally have it resolved. The whole process made me so sick-yes adding insult to injury.
My latest annoyance is with a doctor who insisted I would benefit from a in-office procedure to help with my rosacea outbreaks. The doctor explained it in such a manner that there is no down time and there might be some redness. Well, it was much worse than that. Best way I can describe it, think cabbage patch doll. Very attractive look. I knew I would be red (not quite this puffy). Days later my face still resembling a cabbage patch doll look, I had to go into the office.

My doctor seemed indifferent when I mentioned I was mortified to show my face and work & had to cancel meetings and various events due to my facial condition. Hey, I know what I look like and while I am not much too look at I don't need it advertised in technicolor. After about 10 days, the swelling subsided and left with inflammed stripes on my face (think Indian war paint). Apparently this is due to bruising during the procedure and it can happen (wow I wish I know that ahead of time!) Again my doctor didn't want to see me since I arrived again at the office sporting the Indian paint look. I explained I wasn't going to pay for the balance of the treatment and had I known I would look as bad as I did, I would never agreed to it. I suggested they create a handout for patients, explaining all the possible side effects, not just the pre-printed corporate brochure stating how perfect this procedure it. That sentiment was ignored. And while this procedure was not covered by insurance, she did send me a bill for a co-pay! (which I again explained I would not pay it). So now I am left with the option to help fade the bruises (which I am paying for). Now its been 5 weeks and hoping the prescription I paid for will now fix the bruising.


There is no morale to this story, and not much of happy ending and you wanna bet I am going to get a bill from my insurance company for this? You bet I will. Ah the fun never ends. Time to play in traffic.

"Remote users cannot authenticate by using an account that has a blank password."

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/304040

I didn't know this because every where in the "real world" blank passwords are forbidden via group policy. I thought I was going to go crazy.

Not so much a rant but ... well just read;

Any one who's ever worked in retail knows about "shrinkage", If you accidentally cut the merchandise with your box cutter, or something gets broken on the truck, that's a loss, it "shrinks" the bottom line. The unfortunate reality of shrinkage is that it also includes Theft/vandalism/shoplifting.

Yesterday, some one stole some Glade scented candles at a local establishment. They stole 5 boxes (3 candles each). (I know this because I found them stuffed behind the fruit snacks, 3 isles away from their home while I was working an overnight shift.) Of the three varieties of candles stolen, two of the boxes contained candles with a sent called "Pure innocence".
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While I'm on the topic of annoying shrinkage, let me tell you about a game all the cool kids are playing these days. it's called "Hide the pudding!"
Here's how you play, you go to your local big grocery store, you wander over to the dairy section.. then find the yogurt... near there you may find single serving cups of pudding. Note how they're cold, and have "Keep Refrigerated" printed on the packaging. Grab a 3 pack at random and continue to wander about the store. Eventually you'll happen upon another section, possibly near the boxed gelatin. Here you will find "snack pack" single serving pudding containers. These are shelf stable and do not need refrigeration. Put down the pudding from earlier in the game. (for extra points, stash it behind a box or something so it's not visible from more than 10 feet away) That's it, you've won! Some time around midnight, a 3rd shift worker will find your pudding and take it to the "claims" dept because it's sat at room temperature for only-God-knows-how-long, and is no longer fit for sale.

Labels: pudding irony shrinkage

So its trite. Shoot me.
I didn't want to use another word. Figured DICK was safe enough.
I have to rant on this subject, since everytime I see a news story I get pissed off all over again.
I am pissed off at so many levels and wish to explain.
1. Dog fighting is illegal and nearly all the entire US population knows this.
2. Even if you didn't know it was illegal, a prudent person would know this is a terrible, unconscionable thing to do to any animal.
3. A prudent person would know this is a horrendous act to thrust upon what we all consider is "man's best friend".
4. A prudent person would not selectively torture and execute dogs b/c there were not aggressive enough.
5. A prudent person would not have 50+ dogs with the sole purpose of holding dog fights for his equally stupid friends and himself
6. APBT's already have a bad reputation in the dog world. This type of cruelty only add to this misconception about the breed. The 50 or so pitbulls were likely "put down" since abuse and aggressiveness is all they have known. Do we put people down if they don't act agressively enough?
7. And if this shithead was actually innocent (aside from having a dog-fighting facility on his property) he would have promptly announced his innocence. Yet this is not the case.
It would seem appropriate to wish him physicial harm. And I not talking about PETA folk--just your average person who has some regard for another life form. People are outraged. For example, it would be justice for Vick to have to fight to the death. If he didn't perform he should be electrocuted, tortured and yes, killed.
I still believe if he had to volunteer in an animal shelter and/or animal hospital he might begin to see the error of his cruel ways. Maybe, maybe not. And if he doesn't, then we can electrocute him. My pitbull would love to watch that.

I have to give credit where credit is due. You Gary Vaynerchuk just might be the face of the wine revolution I’ve been looking for. You have the knowledge, you have the palate, you have the attitude and most importantly, you have the passion. A lot of shit in life you can teach, but passion just isn’t one of them. I’m beginning to like you already.

There’s a couple of things that have me invariably uneasy about enrolling in your cause however. Let’s start with this whole 100 point rating scale for wines you seem quite enamored by. Ok. So I’m cool with the scale. It’s familiar and the concept is easily understood by the masses. I happily suggest that anyone who doesn’t understand a 100 point rating system should probably not be drinking wines to begin with. But in a rating system with 100 points, how come the same ratings come up over and over and over again? There’s a 100 point spread between 0 and 100 yet so little of it is utilized. I don’t agree that on a 100 point scale an “extremely solid wine” should score a 90, while a “poor effort” and “I’ll have to give this wine a pass” still scores in the 80’s. With one hundred incremental units I’m not really sure why roughly 93% of your online ratings score within the same 13 percentile point band (80 - 93). Are you selectively picking the bottles to suite that band or is something else going on? Don’t want to let the other wine critics down (the same wine critics you bring up over and over and over again)? I don’t get it. Seriously. We don’t give a shit about the other critics. We’re looking to you to lead this revolution, not them.

So take a deep breath. Why the 100 point scale if only 13 scores get used roughly 93% of the time?

Out of 690 wines that you currently have rated, only 23 wines scored below an 80, or 3% of your total wines currently reviewed.
Out of the same 690 wines rated, only 30 wines scored higher than a 93, or 4% of your total wines currently reviewed.

That leaves us with a figure of 93% of the wine you review scoring within the same 13 point band.

Overall I like you. I like your fresh take on tastings, there’s no pretense, no pomp, none of that old snob shit. I like your level of involvement in the wine community, you’ve got some really solid knowledge and what appears to be an extremely well-rounded palate. You bring solid passion to the table obviously, and you have a much better wine show then I do, since I don’t even have one. But in the end I don’t know. You claim to bring the thunder but I suspect that’s only partly true. When you drop your sack on the table and give a truly shitty wine the 20 points that it deserves while every other wine critic is slagging 85 points, then maybe, just maybe, the real wine revolution has begun.

It scampers around the office, carrying the air of importance, when its just the smell of her cage.
(Maybe she just laid another egg). Collective group I work with has noticed she makes several distinct sounds duing a meeting. I decided to make better use of my meeting time and count these sounds coming from Chicken Little.
Granted these are not contributory remarks, only noises to remind us she is here. Noises are described as follows:
1. Oooh: denoting interest of sorts. Averages 5-10 times during hour long meeting.
2 Oh, wow: this indicates her high impression level. It is often uttered in response to such statements of: "we are going to blacktop the parking lot" or someones mentions their vacation plans.
3. Mhhmm: This is her attempt to understand the conversation going on. It has been followed up with "well, I am still new here" (its been over a year now, the comment is past its lifespan). Even if she doesn't not understand the conversation, this noise is made to indicate her level of comprehension.
4. The Horsey Laugh: this is my favorite, maybe since it occurs with great frequency. The best way to describe this is when you try to laugh, by exhaling, instead you are inhaling. Her horsey laugh is used to participate when she perceives there is something funny being said or other people are laughing.
There are occasional noises like "Yuck" or "Uh, yayah" that serve to amuse us, but are not made on a consistent basis.
I kept looking at the chicken, thinking there might be a string hanging out and I could pull it to make it talk again, but then I should count my blessings when there is silence. Silence is platinum.
It could always be worse, she could have a twin working here.