Morons

First off let me make a disclaimer: I love California and San Francisco and the Bay Area in general. Hell I was raised there and lived there for 40 years before moving to Tennessee.

With that being said, what the Hell is wrong with people in the Golden State lately? In the past couple of months I've read some stupid shit that just needs to be addressed. First off, Vaccinations. Apparently more and more parents now a days are so self-involved and think "they know best" that they are opting not to vaccinate their children. This lead to a new story about some uppity rich couple who took their non-vaccinated kids to "summer" in Switzerland where the contracted measles. When these kids got to school amongst their uppity rich friends the measles spread like an epidemic.....to all their non-vaccinated friends. Why no vaccinations you say? Well because of a Jack Ass named Jenny McCarthy. Who? Exactly.....a bimbo who used to do MTV and posed for Playboy has become an advocate for the Nanny State, scared shitless generation. Her son is Autistic and she believes it's because of the vaccinations he recieved. Even though Medical Science says differently.

Before I continue, another disclaimer: Yes I bash the Pharmaco's on here alot, but as the Wayfarer and I discussed, it's their marketing tactics they use to get ungodly wealthy off of things that help us and should be readily available. It's the scare tactic marketing techniques that create said Jack Ass, moronic parents as illustrated above. Now back to your regularly scheduled Rant.

I trust science. I know many a person in that field. I was vaccinated, my parents before me, my kids, etc. I don't have Autism nor do any of the people I've mentioned. There seems to be a rise in Autism yes, but maybe it's because we know what to diagnose now where before mild cases may have slipped through with the label of Special Ed Student or what have you. I don't believe that Vaccinations cause autism, there is no medical link. What these self-absorbed assholes will end up doing is causing the reemergence of long dead viruses that have been kept at bay by generations of Vaccinations. But hey I guess they want their kids to get Polio, Small Pox, Tuberculosis, Measles, Mumps, Chicken Pox, etc than run the risk of their kids becoming autistic.

The next example of "fine" Bay Area parenting comes from a Blog on SFGate.com that I know better not to read. The Mommy Blog. This woman is a self-important, self-absorbed, has more money than sense Mother who thinks that her words of "wisdom" will help the average Middle Income Mother. Yeah, the average Middle Income Mother can afford to shop at Whole Foods Market, Draegers and Molly Stones.....suuuurrrreee she can. No said Mother can afford Safeway or Albertsons or Cala...even Trader Joes but as we all know Trader Joes is great for couples or singles but not for shopping for families. You'd have to buy a bit more of everything to feed a family. Anyway, this woman states that there is an article somewhere that links childrens shampoo to cancer. I know, wait it gets better..... She sees a friend, a fellow self-absorbed Uber wealthy Mom-type (probably driving a Hummer and carting her 1.5 kids around town in it) and she comments on how this woman's hair looks so silky and shiny. This woman says it's because her family has stopped using shampoo and that their natural oils help their hair look like it does. Okay so now being unhygenic is trendy. WTF people!!!! Her hair is shiny because of the freaking grease in it!!!! So this woman decides she wants to go shampoo free so takes her family off of it. Uhhhh...screw you lady! I hope she doesn't have kids....oh wait she does.....I bet her kids get the crap teased out of them at school...."hey grease head....don't you ever shower Pigpen???" Let's see, they have had a kids shampoo product out for about 100 years or so....I believe it's called Johnson's Baby Shampoo!!!!!! You know, the "no more tears" kind of shampoo........Hell I know adults that use it. Guess what, generations of kids have used that shampoo and haven't gotten cancer from it. Lord strike these idiots down please......

I've noticed it's a certain age group......it's the folks that were kids in the 80's....not a Teen in the 80's like I was...no little kids...say 7-8 in the 80's...that's who it is. Apparently this generation grew into the whiniest bunch of self-entitled dumbasses ever!!! Okay not every single one of them, but there seems to be an age group with these stories and they all fall into that generation....some anyway, I believe Jenny McCarthy is in her 40's or almost there....but I digress.

Then his Mayorness, Gavin Newsome, wants to put a toll on street usage by cars during commute hours. Apparently Market is getting so packed with cars from people trying to get to the bridges that it's causing pollution issues of all kinds, air, noise, etc. That's great Gavy....just freaking smart. Drive more businesses out of San Francisco why don't you. Soon there will be 2 companies that call that place their home and the Peninsula will be the booming place to build an office park. I also can't believe some people and the whining they do. As you know, out here I still hear almost everyday about President Obama and his "New Socialist Agenda"......I swear this is going to go on for the next 8 years....Yeah I said it...8 Years bitches!!!. Well apparently in SF the rant is they don't have enough money, that no TV shows call it home etc. So on a Sunday past they took one of the freeway ramps and closed it off so they could film a SFX shot for a new TV show that may be based in SF. They blew up a tanker truck and it was apparently really cool. Here where the gist of most of the comments on the article : "Great...polluting the air...go back to Hollywood we don't want you. Oh, I was inconvienced by helicopters flying over my house....blah blah blah whine whine whine......" Lord folks, STFU!!!!! Please? Freaking self-important morons.

Then there's this new article......folks are feeding their pets unprocessed/raw food. Yeah, that's what Fluffy the Cat and Socks the Dog need...raw freaking meat. MMMM that lovely raw chicken sitting is his bowl.....you know with it's potential for freak Salmonella.....E Coli, etc. Why do you think every label for Chicken says to wash your hands after handling and make sure it's thourghly cooked......I admit, the animal food companies screwed up by buying tainted goods from China.....that's a whole nother topic for a whole nother day......but they have learned. Purina makes some of the most nutritious food out there and they have for years. Panther and Malinky do just fine on Friskees Select with beef and chicken thank you very much (it's a Purina brand BTW.....).

I guess since these folks back home can't afford to flip houses anymore and spend money like water and leverage themselves to the hilt they have to have some kind of entertainment. I don't condone finding another alternative, I really don't. But come on folks!!! Seriously, vaccines not only protect your child from dibilitating diseases, they protect other people's children as well. Stop thinking about just yourselves. There are plenty of natural shampoos out there, you just have to look, and like soap you just have to use it. Wash your damn hair, and if you don't want to wash yours, then wash your damn kids hair. My StepDaughter used to go visit some neighbor kids to play, and would always come back with Head lice.......every time to the point she wasn't basically allowed to play with those kids.....never had a recurrance of it..hmmm maybe those kids Mom was a "no-shampoo" Mom.....Hygene is important, and something to teach your damn kids. Hollywood makes TV shows and Movies and often times uses real locations to shoot footage. Said shooting is agreeed upon by local Officials and paid for; handsomely I might add. You know, money that goes into the coffers of the City....you know the money you were bitching that the City doesn't have. You live in San Francisco....a well known City, a beautiful City that Screenwriters like to use as a backdrop. Live with the minor incoviences. Hell Mythbusters did an explosion test in Yolo County (a little tiny area in way Northern California) that got out of hand and blew some windows out, etc. Discovery Channel paid for all the damages and had them all repaired within the week of the incident with gushing apologies from the Mythbusters and the Network. Newsom; stop trying to drive all business out of the City...idiot. The transit only works if you work in the Financial District. If you work any where else it will require you to get up at 3 am and transfer from Bart to Bus to Street Car to even Taxi just to get to work. It's easier to freaking Drive. Don't penalize folks because of your inept system. Fix the system. As for the pet food thing....meh I know folks that swear by Iams and the really expensive brands, then I know folks like my Parents, who used to feed our dogs dry food with fresh cooked chicken chunks thrown in as a treat. But they still fed them store bought food. Don't get the cheap crap and get a name brand.

And please, for the love of all that is Holy, STOP YOUR FREAKING WHINING AND WAKE THE HELL UP!!!!!!!!!!

Stop the insanity now!!!!

Movie reviews and recommendations..also game reviews

Recently we rented two of the new releases, one we loved, the other I rented for myself and was really disappointed in.

First up we have "Righteous Kill" with DeNiro and Pacino. Okay, right there makes it worth watching as far as I'm concerned. It was a great movie, and just when you thought you had it figured out, you didn't. Loved it.

Next was "Wanted". I wanted to like this movie about a secret order of assasins who can curve bullets by flick their wrists at the right time as they are shooting a gun.....okay that last bit always made me scream "I DON'T THINK SO!!!!". The actor that played the Faun in Narnia plays a kid who's Father is a member of this order and he's got all the right stuff to become one of them. Okay, that's great, but apparently part of the training is getting tied to a chair and having the shit beat out of you. Not sure exactly what that does to train you to be an elite assassin, but whatever. The "twist" was lame, and the motivation for the "ex assassin taking out his former mates" was really dumb too. The action was okay and yes the curving bullet trick was kind of cool. This film could have been better, but it wasn't.

Now for games. As you know we have a Wii. After getting burned by Activision (of all companies....but I digress) we have taken to renting games before we buy them. Thank God too. Store policy at a lot of retail stores when it comes to media (and they tell me it's not their policy it's the manufacturer) is if you open it, it can't be exchanged for your money back, only for the same product (in the case of it not working). Even if the game sucks and infuriates you, you can't get your money back. I understand why; too many people buying a game/CD/DVD, taking it home and making a copy, then taking it back and getting their money back essentially getting the item for free. Thanks you cheap, thieving bastards!!!! We bought a game called "Block Party" by Activision. On the cover of the box are examples of all kinds of sports; badmitton, frisbee, bocce, etc all the kinds of games you'd play in your neighborhood as a kid. Not a single one of the games on the front cover is in the game. NOT A SINGLE ONE!! I had to check the disc to make sure there wasn't a mistake. Nope, what you got was some bizarre game of kids playing games like "garbage bag hammer toss" or "wheel the Unicycle across the clothesline, or shoot the flies that are eating your cake!?!?!?!?!? No music, and the characters you use look like toddlers and sound like them too. Activision totally misrepresented the game. Could I get my money back? Nope. So after learning that lesson, we have opted to renting them at Hollywood before buying them. Here's a list of the ones we've rented and recommendations on them.

Deadly Creatures: Great graphics and gameplay. You switch between playing a Tarantula and a Scorpion making your way through the Sonoran Desert. The movements of the animals were recorded from motion capture sensors placed on an actual Scorpion and an actual Tarantula. Great game, but I beat it in 3 days. Unlike other games of this type, there's no replay value whatsoever. The collectibles that you find just open up more concept art....ooooooooo.... what would be cool is if they had a deathmatch mode or a battle mode where each player/player vs CPU picks either one of the main critters or one of the countless others that you run into during the game to fighi it out. Rating: Fun but no replay value. Not worth 40-50 bucks, more like 20.....you're better off renting it and playing it for 3 days. It will be worth your 8 bucks.

Sims 2 Castaways: Fun game, but it only lets you save one game at a time, so if multiple people in the household want to play, all their hard work is overwritten by the next person playing it. What possessed EA to not let you have multiple save slots is beyond me.
Rating: Fun if you're the only person playing it. Not worth it if there are multiple people in your household sharing your Wii.

Animal Crossing: City Folks: What a great game. We've actually not deleted our saved info for this game and plan to purchase it. This is one of those, slow paced, walk around talk to your neighbors/interact/fetch/collect type of games. You start by naming your City, then up to 4 members of your household can live in it (each with it's own save slot). The great part of it is if you have a friend that has the same game, you register each other's machine's "friend code" and via Wii Connect, you can "travel" between Cities and visit your friends City that he has created. It also uses the Wii speak module so you can chat with that friend as well.

Harvest Moon: Tree of Tranquility: One of those strange Japanese Final Fantasy looking type games, but plays like Animal Crossings or a Sims game. You farm/fetch, etc and make friends on this land you live in. The problem with it is it seems to have a function in it that keeps kids from playing on the Wii all day that you cannot disconnect. Your character loses energy so quickly that you tire easily and are only limited in the time you can actually get on and play the game. Stupid concept, and it's what's keeping us from buying it. Hell if I pay 40-50 bucks for a game I want to play it as long as humanly possible if I want to. You want to limit my playing time, then charge 20 for your game.
Rating: Fun game, but it has a built in limiter that is frustrating as all Hell so this is a no buy for us.

Carnival Mini-Golf: Lots of fun, but once you've unlocked everything it's pretty much done. Sure you can replay the courses, but they are the same three holes every time.
Rating: Fun, but no replay value after you've unlocked every thing. Not worth the high price.

Monster Truck 4x4 World Circuit: For 20 bucks you get a racing game that comes with a plastic steering wheel that you put your Wii Remote in. Even after unlocking all the vehicles, etc it's still one I play alot. My 5 year old Grandson loves it too. Great for kids.
Rating: Fun game, and worth the 20 bucks. You get a great game with a controller accessory for 20 dollars....very rare for the Wii

We Love Golf: What a great golf game this is. Regular Golf with several levels to unlock and several mini-games/tournaments as well. It also works via Wii WiFi so you can play against a friend via Wii Connect.
Rating: Great game, lots of fun. It has this great taunt feature that you can use to make a snide comment (pre-programmed based on the character you are playing) on your opponents Wii Remote (each one has their own speaker).

Rockstar Games Pro Table Tennis: This is a fun one, and it wears you out playing it.
Rating: Real fun, and worth buying if there were others willing to play against you. Playing the computer is fun, but against a friend is even better.

Star Wars Clone Wars Lightsaber Duels: This game is okay. It's basically a fighting game with characters from Lucas' latest Star Wars crap item he's packaging. The artwork is even the same as those used on the CG cartoon. Battling the other characters is pretty cool (you can even buy Wii remote light saber holders....) but in the single player mode it's repetitive and gets old quick.
Ratings: It's okay, but then again I tend to look down on all things Lucas since those pieces of crap he called "Prequels" came out..(yes I'm still bitter). If you have other humans to play against it's great fun.....

Nascar Kart: It's Mario Kart with Nascar Drivers. It's fun, but it's not Mario Kart.
Rating: Buy Mario Kart which is one of the best racing and battling games ever. This one is okay.

My Sims: We just bought this one and it's fun. Like Animal Crossing, but unlike the other sims games. The characters are a bit cartoony, but thats okay. The essence of this game is building stuff. You build houses for characters and move them into your town. This is an EA game like Sims Castaways, but it has 3 save slots so 3 people can actually play the same game.
Rating: fun and addicting. Nice casual game.

That's it for now. More to come later.

A Couple of Things

"This depiction is soo absurd it should be an offense to anyone's intelligence. If you can't cook pasta without being driven to suicidal panic you should be institutionalized." SuperGoober commenting on my Ad post...

See, SG gets it. He was referring to those ads for the microwave plastic pasta cooking devices. The ad shows some poor, harried Housewife desperately trying to cook spaghetti for her brood the old fashioned way; you know a pot of boiling water.... Apparently this woman is so uncoordinated that she just can't seem to carry a pot of water/with cooked spaghetti in it to her sink and poor it into a collander. She splashes, she struggles, her hair is all unkempt and it looks like she's about to take Hubby's shotgun and suck on the business end of it and end it all!!! Yeah, good point SG.....totally nuts. A lot of ads have stooped to that level; the scare tactic. Take the Netflix ads.....some poor soul forgot to take back the movie they rented to the video store, or some poor soul just HAS to get a movie NOW!!!! and they go rushing to the local store all unkempt (I've used that word twice now.....) and stressed out. The tagline is "Take the drama out of renting..." What drama? Nothing against Netflix, it's a great service from what I've been told, but give me a break. I know from friends experiences that sometimes you have to wait for those "hard to find" movies to arrive from Netflix just like when they are all rented out at the store. Yes there are not late fees, but whatever. Hollywood video gives you 5 days for movies and games, even new releases. If you can't get around to watching something or playing something in 5 days, you shouldn't have rented it to begin with. The one's that really get me are the Pharmaco ones. We have two new vaccines now that if you don't get them or someone you loved vaccinated it will rain fire and brimstone, dogs and cats will live together and there will be mass hysteria!!!! Enter Gardasil and Menatra (sp?). The first is for Human Papalova Virus....essentially the virus that causes Cervical Cancer.......not sure of the percentage chance of getting CC, but apparently because this company has now created a Vaccine for it, the percentage chance is much higher than it was.........same with Menatra(sp?) which is for Menigicacul Menigitis......basically Mono.......their ads bascially make it sound like all teenagers should be decontaminated on a daily basis because they are writhing crocks of Menigicacul Menigitis. How many people do you remember getting Mono in school? I remember one, and she recovered and didn't die or have any long term effects because of it. Apparently though because of this new vaccine, Mono is rampant in the current teenage population. Let's see, I have a 14 year old Step-Daughter, she has some teenage friends and a boyfriend her age. I've met all these kids and not a one of them are a writhing crock of menigitis; of any kind! The one billboard ad I saw that was this bad was in Cookeville, TN. There's a local pest control company who put up a billboard that has a sleeping, precious little snowflake of a blonde blue-eyed infant sleeping. Crawling near said precious little snowflake is a HUGE (in comparison to the baby) Black Widow Spider......the tagline says something to the affect "Sleep Safe?" or something like that. In other words....if you don't hire these folks, giant Black Widow Spiders (in comparison to the baby, about the size of a silver dollar....that's a damn huge Black Widow) will sneak into your home and kill your baby.

Now to the next item on the agenda. Businessweek published a list the other day about the Unhappiest Cities in America. It used the criteria of crime rates, divorce rates, suicide rates, unemployment, etc. Portland was apparently number 1 on the list because of the weather....and Nashville was number 8. Now alot of people out here were annoyed by that; I look at them and say "what they Hell are you smoking?" Nashville, the City where a couple of years ago two spoiled, rich, youths were walking along the riverside one frosty winter night, high and drunk, and decided to roll some poor sleeping homeless woman into the river. They thought it was funny. She ended up drowning. They are now in jail screaming everytime Bubba anally rapes them. The same City where gang banging thugs abuse the privalige of After Hours clubs by always getting into fights that end in a shooting or a stabbing. Yes, out here there are clubs that re-open from 2am to 6am after clubs are supposed to be closed by law. The catch? They don't sell acohol during those hours. The problem? They allow you to bring your own alcohol in. Yeah, that's not going to be a problem.....noooooooo not at all. High divorce rate, oh yeah. Lot's of Teens who are repressed by parents who just tell them "it's a sin to have sex so don't do it" and don't actually talk to their Teens about the real consequences of having sex before you are ready. So far our talk with my Step-Daughter seems to have sunk in. These same Teens then rush to the altar to get married and end up divorced years later because the person they slept with and that got them pregnant/they got pregnant wasn't Mr/Ms Right but Mr/Ms Right Now. The same City where just last night someone shot a homeless man in the face. The Police say it was an apparent robbery. Now let me get this straight, you are trying to rob a HOMELESS MAN.....for what? His cardboard box???? The poor guy is on the streets...that means he has enough change to by booze and that's it. The same City where little punks don't even wait anymore for people to be away from their house before they rob the place. No, these punks bust in, tie everyone up, sometimes rape the women, then rob the place blind. Oh yeah, and they usually shoot someone even when they are being cooperative. The weather in Middle Tennessee is weird to begin with....I can see that being a factor. The freeways are in need of some serious fixing in places. Heck, for awhile there it seemed like there was nothing but construction delays and that certain projects would never get finished. The same City where Downtown is loaded with tons of vacant buildings that seem to have been empty for years. Don't get me wrong, at least Nashville isn't Memphis.....Thank God it's not Memphis. Let's just say that Memphis is a cross between Oakland, Harlem, Brooklyn and Detroit. The City just needs a change that's all...yeah if there was any money.....I'm glad I live in the Burbs.....I've always been glad I've lived in the Burbs actually.

Ads and Advertising.

Behold the picture of the Salesman of the Centure....it's true. Ron's my Hero. This guy started with the Ronco Pocket Fisherman and the Ronco Record Vacuum in the 70's...for all you little kiddies out there thats Record as in Vinyl album.....he had tons of crap coming out all the time. He was the originator of the term "now how much would you pay?" This guy has made a mint convincing us we need to pay, in 4 installments of 19.95, for his useless plastic gadgets. Okay...yes I'm guilty of once owning a Popeil Pasta Maker.....

In all seriousness though, you gotta love Ron.....you see that Showtime Rotisserie oven of his, and you can't help but say to yourself "Set it, and forget it...". You know you do.

Remember the Ginsu Knife....it slices, dices....you can cut through a nail and still slice a tomato paper thin......

Lately we've been having some fairly bizarre items appear on our TV....some that are truly funny.

Ah yes...One size fits all....that's right it's the Sunggie! Yes, you too can purchase a backwards bathrobe with big sleeves that makes you look like a reject from some Cult. Seriously you look like you stepped out of the Spanish Inquistion Skit. (Google Monty Python for the reference). Seriously for 20 bucks you can scare your neighbors as they think you are going to sacrifice small animals to Satan or something. Hell, just get a fleece blanket......we got some on sale at Penney's for 7 bucks a piece.....or better yet, put on a damn sweater......

Speaking of Spokesmen........

Don't you want to stick an ice pick in this guys head everytime you see him on TV? Seriously, I don't think Billy Mays has an inside voice. This guy yells more than Dora does! He talks in all Caps for Christsake!! I think that the only way any of the stuff he sells works is if you yell at it at his volume. Oxy Clean uses the power of oxygen; the oxygen coming out of Mays' lungs at full volume that is.....

Then there's this Douchebag....

Oh yeah...the Vinnie the ShamWow guy......hey the Shamwow is German and you know they make quality stuff.......this guy reminds me of all those guys you see at the County Fair in the Commercial buildings selling crap just like this......or doing cooking demonstrations with new, non-stick cookware......or even demoing a Ginsu knife.....they talk fast, they know all the tricks, and odds are if these guys didn't look normal they'd be working a Carny somewhere trying to get you to throw darts at a balloon.

I love the other ads that we are subjected to as well. I remember a Gillette ad that was like mind control or something. It was in Black and White with all these images of their razors, and sports cars, and hot chicks and it was narrated by some guy in an almost hypnotic voice talking about quality, and class, and being cool and the tag line was "I need to have that feeling again...." I stopped using Gillette razors (the Mach 3, etc) ones awhile ago when it got to the point that the replacement razors cost more than the damn handle itself!!!! Seriously the handle plus 2 razors costs 7.99 - 9.99. Four replacement blades cost in this range, depending on the color scheme.....15.99-22.99.....WTF??? If you have the vibrating one, those are green and orange, they cost more than the grey and blue ones for the non-vibrating handle. Guess what, the freaking blades are the same damn thing but with different colors!!!! I go to Sam's and buy the disposable ones (shut up you whiny Eco freaks......one way or another metal and plastic are going in the landfill....)......you get 32 blades for about 25-30 dollars.

The ads I truly love, are the one's that make me laugh. If you are going to advertise to me, entertain me. The Bud Light "Real Men of Genuis" radio ads are some of the funniest ads around. I actually turn them up so I can hear them. I don't drink Bud Light, nor would I if you paid me, but their ads are damn funny.

The ones I hate, are when they work ad placement into a TV show and they aren't real subtle about it. On CSI they drive Yukons. You see the company Badge on the car, and even see the name of the make of the vehicle on the side in the shot sometimes, but it's logical for it to be there because the actor is getting stuff out of the SUV speaking lines. Then you will see a few ads for the Yukon during the commercial break. That's subtle. In the second season of Heroes, Claire was driving a Nissan Rogue. This was pointed out to us blantantly by Noah, her Dad, saying "Claire I bought you a new Nissan Rogue". When it was stolen, she said "Sorry Dad, they Stole the Nissan Rogue". Way to make me almost not watch a show. Damages and Leverage did the same thing. Cadillac sponsors Damages, and they had Glen Close getting into her Escalade Hybrid (they pointed this out very blatantly) and their was a Mini Cooper parked next to it.....she basically said the commercial (there's a commercial where they compare the City MPG of the Hybrid Escalade to the City MPG of the Mini Cooper) word for word. Okay, so a scene in a good Drama that had nothing to do with the current episode, or any episode for that matter, was turned into a commercial....the same damn commercial they showed during the next commercial break. In Leverages they have been driving a Hyundai Genesis.....talked about a lot during that particular episode.....they even showed them playing around with the GPS screen and this little Hyundai Genesis screen came on........

I know these cable networks don't have the big budgets the Networks do, but give me a freaking break okay!!!

It's March.....And it's still freaking cold!!!!!

Seriously, I'm shooting Pickipsy Phil or whatever the name of that ridiculous Ground Hog is.  Cold weather sucks.  K...I'm tired of it.  I have a Pond to dig damn it!!!  I have bikes to ride with my Wife.....I have a fence to re-do.......we even found plans for a screened building that we like.......seriously this is getting annoying!!!  We have buildings to build at the Airsoft field....I went out there yesterday and we were bundled up working...damn arctic wind blowing through.....  Please Spring...get here soon...pretty please......