Things Pissing Me Off This Week #1

Thought I'd try another thing and combine two or three "short posts" into one and see what it looks like.

Item #1:  Wells Fargo has joined JP Morgan Chase in tacking on a $3/month fee to debit card users.  Why? Because the government did something smart and said that banks can only charge credit card companies a max of $0.21 per charge on a debit card.  And in retaliation the banks are going to start charging this fee so that they can get the money out of their clients.  What I'm getting out of this is I'll start carrying cash more or writing checks and cancel my debit card if my bank decides to go this way.

Item #2:  A woman in Houston was ejected from a restaurant because she tweeted that the bartender at the restaurant was a "twerp".  Apparently the manager was to busy checking out Twitter instead of managing his restaurant, saw the tweet, and then had the woman, a paying customer, thrown out.  I have no idea what her reason was for calling the bartender a twerp.  I've had good friends who are bartenders and it can be a really crappy job at times, but if the bartender was younger than me and acting like a twerp I'm sure I'd have done similar.  Maybe the GM should spend a little more time making sure his employees are up to par and not goofing off on the internet or on his cell phone.

Item #3:  All this "Flash Mob" crime stuff going on at convenience stores and similar.  Yes, kids are smart these days and are using Twitter and Facebook and whatever to get together and do Flash Mob crap, when I was younger the same thing was done with mass-texting people.  How does this get stopped?  Store owners hiding a "crowd pleasers" (shotguns) behind the counter and taking out one of the punks will put a stop to this crap REAL fast.

Stupid is Stupid...No Matter How Hot You Are

My best friend pointed this one out to me, as he also pointed out to me that my blog was seriously lacking in content lately, so thanks Stretch.

A fellow alum of my alma mater, who happens also to be a former Playboy Playmate and involved in a little scandal at our alma mater involving scantily clad photos in a locker room, was arrested on August 10th at Orlando International Airport for trying to board a plan with a LOADED revolver.

The article can be found at that pinnacle of unbiased news media, the Orlando Sentinel, here.

OK, she had a CCW, which allows her to carry a concealed handgun.  But last I checked you had to pass a class to get that permit.  I'm pretty sure part of that class went over WHERE it is legal and illegal to carry your weapon.  An airport, with a bunch of police officers and TSA agents is one of those places that most people with half a brain would stop and think "Hmm, this may be one of those places I'm not allowed to carry my gun.  Oh wait, it says so right THERE ON THAT SIGN!"


So once again, no matter how hot you are.  No matter if you've been in Playboy or not and had Hef rubbing you up and down with oil.  And no matter if you do have a license which allows you to carry your concealed handgun, loaded with hollow-point rounds in most places.  You are not allowed to take a handgun on an airplane or into an airport unless you have it in a case and it is going in the belly of the damned plane.

Oh wait, she's blonde?  She's forgiven, she didn't know any better.

So Long Space Shuttle

At just before 6:00AM this morning I was awoken by the last sonic boom of the last space shuttle, Atlantis, that would ever re-enter, or leave for that matter, the Earth's atmosphere.

It was very depressing to think that we, the United States of America, who have led space travel, space exploration, and just about anything else that has the word "space" in its name, for the last 50 years, are no longer the leaders.

I really don't have much to else to say on this.  I blame one person's administration for this.  And the THOUSANDS of jobs that are lost because of it.

God bless all the men and women of the NASA Astronaut Corps who have helped get us to the stars, land on the moon, and discover more about this amazing "space" around us.

Ad astra per aspera.

-UA

Cashing in on the Law

Living in Central Florida, I've had the "privilege" of putting up with the "she who shall not be named" (Casey Anthony for those of you outside of my fair state) murder trial over the last 3 years.  Thank God it is finally over...mostly.

Apparently, some of the jurors in the case who have stepped forward (Judge Fred Sanford...I mean Judge Belvin Perry has not released the jurors names as of yet) are going to be writing books, selling their stories to Hollywood (or Bollywood for that matter), etc.  I have no issue with this, but it seems State Rep. Scott Randolph, D-Orlando, does.

"The bill Randolph intends to introduce during the 2012 legislative session would prevent jurors from making money or receiving compensation in exchange for information about the trial in which they participated". (Orlando Sentinel)  If you want to read the full story go here.

Why this is bothering Rep. Randolph I really have no idea.  We took about 2 months out of the lives of these people so that they could do their "civic" duties.  They were sequestered, which in this day and age of technology and news being everywhere is tantamount to being a prisoner themselves.  I personally will not buy anything having to do with this trial as I'm ready for the area to get back to normal (not saying that Central Florida is ever TRULY normal), but see no issue in these people coming out and making some cash on doing what we ask them as citizens.  Lawmakers, politicians, and many others do it every day.  Why not the "regular" people?

-UA

Short Post #9 - Netflix Redux

So, for those of you who didn't know, Netflix has split their plans into "Streaming" and "DVD" divisions with no benefit of having packages of both any longer.  Essentially, my plan went from about $16/month to $23/month.  They gave some BS reason for this as basically along the lines of:

"Damn, we didn't realize so many people would continue to want to rent DVD/Blu-Ray discs so we have to charge them more for not wanting our sub-par streaming library AND we also make them wait at least 28 days until they can rent the 'latest' movie releases from us because of poor business deals on our part so we need to get more money out of our current client base."

Yes, I paraphrased a lot, but that is essentially what they said.

So, what am I going to do?  Well, if Netflix hadn't finally just added pretty much all of the Star Trek television show library I'd be cancelling today.  But, since they did that, I'll most likely cancel my "by-mail" movies from them come the end of August and switch to those boxes outside of pharmacies, gas stations, and Walmarts.  You may have seen them?  They are big RED BOXES.

-UA

Best Music Ever

Yeah, yeah, I know it's been a month since I an article on here, sorry, you'll forgive me.

This one, as if you couldn't tell by the title, is about the best music genre ever.  I'm sure some of you are saying "Polka", or "Death Metal", but you would of course be totally wrong.  The best music to ever come out of any time period is that genre known as "Southern Rock".

How can I say this?  Well without Southern Rock you'd have had just about nothing in the Rock genre ever since.  Just like without Country, Soul, and Jazz, we wouldn't have had Southern Rock, without Southern Rock we wouldn't have had good old fashioned Rock'n'Roll, Alternative, Grunge, and a host of other genres.  It's just a fact, you can try and dispute it all you want, but it's just true.  Elvis Presley wasn't Rock'n'Roll first, he was Southern Rock which became Rock'n'Roll, all you have to do is listen to his early stuff and you can see this.  Before he was "The King" he helped create the genre that is now known as Southern Rock.

The greatest thing about Southern Rock is that it spans so many different great musicians who fall under the genre.  From the more country side of the genre with the Charlie Daniel's Band, to the more traditional rock sound of Creedence Clearwater Revival, and from the vocal stylings of the Atlanta Rhythm Section to the more "bluesy" sounds of the Allman Brothers Band.  Yes, they are ALL Southern Rock, and I haven't even scratched the surface.

Being a Southerner, and a natural born Floridian, my personal favorite is of course Lynyrd Skynyrd.  Skynyrd was part of a group of southern rock bands that brought in hard rock with their traditional country sound.  Songs like "Freebird", "Tuesday's Gone" and "Simple Man" showcase the typical southern man's loves, aspirations, and excesses, both back in the time that they were written and today.  The guitar rifts in most of their songs, along with the drum solos, just make you think that everything is going to be alright.  Even their "sad" songs, aren't sad, they make you smirk and nod your head and want to hold a lighter in the air.

Unlike music of today, like pop-shock crap by Lady GaGa, or just pop in general, the music said something without being a prick about it.  Like it says in "Sweet Home Alabama", "Well, I hope Neil Young will remember a southern man don't need him around anyhow" gets to the point, doesn't require some stupid outfit, and it's just right (and a little known fact it seems:  Ronnie Van Zant wasn't putting down Neil Young, he was actually backing his attack on racism and segregation up and saying "Thanks Neil, we get what you say and we agree, but we can take care of it ourselves.").  I know a lot of people out there are just sheep and listen to whatever is "hot" currently and don't care about history of music, or the ability to actually sit down and write music instead of having someone else write the words for them and let a computer put out the actual sounds.

I'll say this in conclusion; I may be biased a wee bit.  Skynrd's "Freebird" was my high school class song back in '99.  Even all those years after it was originally written it still meant something to that class of Booker T. Washington High School.  It meant freedom, it meant growing up, it meant leaving those we loved behind so that we could take on the world.

Short Post #8 - Bin Laden

This one is the shortest one ever:

Osama "I'm a total fucking asshat" bin Laden is DEAD!  Way to go Navy Seals or Delta Force or whoever got him! And yes, way to go Obama for giving the order!