The Point of TippingMy friend Amy Korb tends bar at the Bowery Ballroom. On Saturday, she was working at the smallest of the venue’s three bars—the one against the back wall on the main floor, facing the stage. She wore a black half-length sweater, for comfort and warmth; there was a draft from a nearby exit. Over the noise, she mimed her reaction to the evening’s bands (a shrug, no smile).
A muscular woman and her older date bought several mixed drinks. A twenty-something bought several Heinekens. Each left exactly one dollar bill as a tip. Several others came and went, taking their drinks and leaving nothing. Korb sat on top of a freezer with her legs folded, ate part of a Clif Bar, and frowned.
“If you can’t afford to tip, don’t buy a drink,” she said to me, and to no one. She elaborated: “In a music venue, like-minded people get together. They like the same music, they like the same liquor. They also seem to have been socialized together, and they usually tip the same.”
The Heineken youngster came back for more drinks. And left without tipping.
“Whenever the night starts out with people asking for Long Island Iced Teas, you are in trouble. Vodka, gin, tequila, rum, Triple Sec, sour mix and Coca-Cola blended together in one drink? Fortunately, we don’t serve those at the Bowery. It’s house policy, and it helps weed the population.”
Another customer—this one a tipper—called her away. When she returned, I asked her if certain bands drew tipping (or non-tipping) crowds.
“When Chromeo played, their crowd drank house vodka and Budweiser. Didn’t tip. Some of them did what I’ll call the slide-backs. They put a dollar down on the bar, wait until you turn your back, then palm their buck and walk away. Classy. When your night starts out with “What’s your cheapest drink?” that’s also not good.”
I felt like my line of questioning was making things worse, so I asked who was most likely to tip.
“Hard rockers, the bourbon drinkers. Priestess and Bogmen fans are in a league of their own. The Priestess crowd are here to see the show, not to hook up. They go hard on bourbon and Irish whiskey, usually Jameson, Jack, and Maker’s Mark with beer. I won’t get stiffed and will often get two dollars a drink.
“There’s nothing like the Bogmen crowd. It’s nearly impossible to keep the Bud Light stocked in the cooler or the Ketel on the shelf. They draw investment bankers, guys who shout and get inappropriate, but, damn, they need that Bud Light, and they are not tight-fisted.
“The only times I really don’t make money with a full house are the kiddie shows—sixteen and over—a Latino music show, or anything kind of legendary that draws old Communists. They are, by far, the worst tippers.”
(Read about some of the other indignities that Korb has faced behind the bar.)
You know, few things piss me off more than wage-slaves who bitch about tips. I've worked as a tipped employee in the past, and there never failed to be dipshits who felt that they were entitled to tips, regardless of their service.
Working a tipped position in Oregon is better than many places, since employers must pay minimum wage, regardless of any tipped income - which just makes the bitching here worse.
Certainly, if you're working a less-than-minimum-wage job where you're not guaranteed a base wage, tips (or lack there of) become quite important, but, then again, you've chosen to work there. Don't like the lack of tips? Get a real job, fuckhole.
The linked article gets even better:
BAR BABES Mixing drinks, mixing it up with the guys BOTTLE BLONDS, BRUNETTES & REDHEADS CALL THE SHOTSBY REBECCA LOUIE WITH BREANNE HELDMAN
Thursday, July 24th 2003, 1:03AM
Shot glasses and bottles of liquor aren't all you juggle when you're a woman behind a bar in New York.
On any night, countless men tell a female bartender how good she looks, why they like her and exactly what they would like to do with her before they've even ordered a drink.
"You're be-yoo-ti-ful," Steve Matri, 28, tells a barmaid at Mod, a trendy lounge on the upper West Side. "You're a sweetheart an' I loooove your hair."
"Why thank you," coos Jill Reisner, 29, tucking a strand of her blue wig behind her ear and leaning her plunging neckline toward the bar. "And how many have you had tonight?"
Matri, a hedge-fund broker, laughs. "Why don'tcha pour me somethin' special?" he asks.
"How about a water?" she says, and turns away before he can compose an answer.
Friendly, good-looking women and free-flowing alcohol may fuel male fantasies, but female bartenders have learned that part of their job is turning those dreams into cash.
"We like to provide eye candy," says Charles Milite, the co-owner of Union Square's Coffee Shop. He estimates that 75% of his bartending staff is female.
The 2000 movie "Coyote Ugly," based on the bawdy East Village spot, introduced the world to a culture of spirit slingers who dance on their bar.
Other bars, including Hogs and Heifers and Red Rock West, cultivate the rollicking strip-joint atmosphere, catering to eager lads willing to pay for the spectacle.
"I love it, and it's not a sex thing," says Tracy Helsing, 29, who quit her job at Merrill Lynch for a full-time gig at Red Rock West. "I command attention, so [dancing] is empowering."
"I don't show boobs," says Jennifer Magmottu, 26, while drinking shots with customers at the Village Idiot on 14th St., where she is a manager and dances for patrons.
But many women work at places where their job is to just serve drinks and make chatter - and no more.
They're concerned that the R-rated antics at some of the wilder places lead men to expect salacious theatrics from any woman mixing cocktails.
"I once worked in a bar where I heard 'Show me your t--!' five times a night," says Reisner, a Brooklynite who has been pouring for three years to pay for a degree in business management.
"Customers think they can abuse you and say anything they want," she says. "They think, 'Ooh, she's nice to me, she must like me and want to have my babies.' They expect you to take their number. Sometimes I just tell them I'm a lesbian to make them back off."
She pauses. "But then, of course, that turns them on, too."
Lori DeJesu is a 32-year-old aspiring songwriter who tends bar at Nectar in Murray Hill and at Local in midtown. That's how she paid for her graduate degree in forensic psychology.
But she worries about the fine line between being friendly with customers and letting things get out of hand.
"I would rather be hit on than not hit on, but there is a time and a place for everything," DeJesu says.
"It's not like I would go on to the floor when some guy is trading bonds and make him uncomfortable there by hitting on him. Men think that if a woman is behind the bar, she wants to meet guys and get drunk."
Amy Korb, who works at the downscale rocker spot 119 on 15th St., has been tending bar for 15 years.
During that time, she says, she's been sexually harassed by a dwarf, fired for
refusing to wear a skimpy top and wooed by a man determined to win her over with the Cliffs Notes to Dostoevsky's "The Brothers Karamazov," which she had been reading."As a bartender, you are supplying a fantasy," says Korb. "Men are attracted to something they can't have. They know they are going to get rejected. It's an excuse for them to not be intimate with someone but still play.
"However, when you indulge in their fantasy by getting drunk with them and swinging your bra around, you've crossed the line."
Instead, she says, she uses her influence in the bar to "educate" her customers.
"Honestly, I find men respond really well if you treat them like children," says Korb, who is studying political theory at Columbia University. "'How about saying please? How about you never touch me or another bartender ever again, because it is inappropriate to touch a stranger?'
"Anything you can possibly think of has been said to me," she says. "I do my best to forget it all. There are so many things that enrage me that I would go crazy thinking about it. It all just goes in my bin of stupid human tricks."
SIDEBAR: BARROOM ETIQUETTE
Want that bartender to give you a shot at more than a friendly tequila?
Here, straight from the pros, are the bar codes on wooing your server.
1> Never put anything in writing.
"If you want to pick up a bartender, do not leave a note," says 119's Amy Korb. "You've automatically ruled out any chance with her because she's lost respect for you. It's flattering but weird that you can't verbalize yourself."
2> Leave the terms of endearment at the door.
"I don't like when people say, 'Hey sweetheart, baby,'" says Lori DeJesu of Local and Nectar's. "You don't know me, you shouldn't be calling me that. If someone gets disrespectful, I have them thrown out."
3> Wait your turn.
"These guys get so belligerent, telling me they've been waiting 20 minutes for a drink," says Jill Reisner at Mod. "No, you haven't! I've been watching everyone at the bar. I have seven drinks in my head and I will get you."
4> Don't forget to tip.
"We work on tips in New York," says Korb. "If you can't afford to tip for a beer, then don't go out. Buy a sixpack and stay at home."
5> Remember "Yo" does not equal "Please."
"People forget they are interacting with a bartender and yell, 'Yo, two Buds!'" says Korb. "'Yo, two Buds!' is not the proper way to ask for anything. How about 'Please?'"
6> How about if you don't like the behavior of alcohol-consuming patrons, you get the fuck out of that particular "career" field?
It's funny - As of 2003, Amy Korb has been tending bar for 15 years. As of 2008, she's still doing it, despite "studying political theory at Columbia University".
We're supposed to take advice on "wooing" women from that winner? A 40-something loser with zero future?
That lunatic reminds me of the stripper we met at Stars a couple years back - bitching about how men treat her like a sex object. HELLO?
None of this means I condone people acting like assholes, or people being tightwads. If you get excellent service, tip well. Conversely, if you get shitty service, leave nothing.
I'm sick and tired of dining out somewhere, spending nearly $100 for drinks, appetizers and entrees, and the only time I see my waitress is once when she takes my order, once when she drops off the drinks, once when she drops the appetizers (sometimes waiting 15 minutes to bring us our drinks so she can make one trip with the appetizers), once to drop the entrees (which is a rarity these days - usually someone other than our server brings the entrees at most places), and finally to bring the check - unless they're too busy, and someone else drops it off.
Fuck you, and fuck your tip. If you're not going to provide prompt and attentive service, you can go piss up a rope. At a MINIMUM, I should have my drinks within 5 minutes of being seated and ordering them, and I should have at LEAST 2-3 visits to refresh drinks/order more.
Further, I expect some kind of interaction past asking me what I want to order - I want a pleasant attitude, and I want you to be attentive to our table, stopping by to make sure everything is acceptable, and seeing if you can further assist.
We're just talking basic customer service here, which most places seem to be lacking.
Paper: Skit featured student playing Obama in blackfaceFARGO, North Dakota (AP) -- North Dakota State University is investigating complaints about a campus skit in which a white student in blackface portrayed Barack Obama receiving a lap dance.
The same skit, part of a charity fundraiser held at a campus theater, also featured a depiction of cowboys having sex with each other, witnesses told The Forum newspaper, which first reported the backlash Friday.
"We're trying to find out the right approaches for accountability, but at the same time try to heal wounds that have occurred and allow the campus to move ahead," Janna Stoskopf, NDSU's dean of students, told The Associated Press on Friday.
The March 18 skit involving the NDSU Saddle and Sirloin Club was performed at the Mr. NDSU Pageant, which raises money for diabetes research. People who attended it said a pageant contestant from Saddle and Sirloin dressed as a woman from the Internet video "I Got a Crush on Obama" and performed a strip tease for another student who was wearing dark makeup and an afro wig.
In the background, two male students dressed as cowboys simulated anal sex while holding an Obama sign that one student ripped at the conclusion of the 30-second performance, the Forum reported.
"That seems to be consistent with what's been described to me," Stoskopf said.
The Obama campaign had no comment Friday. Obama is to speak at North Dakota Democrats' state convention in Grand Forks next week.
NDSU President Joseph Chapman was not immediately available for comment, and messages left by the AP for Russell Danielson, adviser of the Saddle and Sirloin Club, and Malika Carter, an NDSU assistant director of multicultural student services, were not immediately returned.
Stoskopf said she expected the investigation could take until May 9, the end of the school year.
"One of the issues here is how do we balance what our policies and expectations about behavior are with the issue of freedom of speech," Stoskopf said. "Where does all of that get us?"
NDSU has 10,403 undergraduates. The student body is 92 percent white, while 1.5 percent identify themselves as black or African-American.
Are we serious? There are wounds that need healing?
If someone was offended, perhaps they shouldn't join the club, or contribute to their fundraiser. I'm betting that nobody was forcing them to.
If people want to be idiots, let them.
Idiocy allows us to identify who we want to associate with, and who we don't. Funny how that works, huh?
You know what? The next time some cocksucking black activist talks about how the black man never gets a fair shake, I'm going to cram my fucking foot up their ass.
T.I. pleads guilty to weapons chargesBy ERRIN HAINES, Associated Press Writer
Thu Mar 27, 3:24 PM ETATLANTA - Rapper T.I. pleaded guilty Thursday to federal weapons possession charges, and will receive a sentence that includes prison time after he completes a period of community service.
In the year that he is awaiting sentencing, T.I., whose real name is Clifford Harris, must complete at least 1,000 hours of a total 1,500 hours of community service, talking to youth groups about the pitfalls of guns, gangs and drugs.
He will be sentenced to serve about 12 months in prison after completing the community service, officials said. His prison time could be increased or reduced, depending on his fulfillment of the terms of the deal and good behavior, they said.
Harris, 27, who was dressed in a gray business suit, told the judge he understands the terms of the agreement.
He pleaded guilty to possession of unregistered machine guns and silencers, unlawful possession of machine guns and possession of firearms by a convicted felon.
Harris is one of pop music's most successful artists. His sixth album, "T.I. vs. T.I.P.," was released July 3, debuting at No. 1. He appeared in the 2007 film "American Gangster," which starred Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe.
U.S. Attorney David Nahmias said Harris will remain "under strict bond conditions" during the next year.
He said Harris' sentencing was deferred "to allow him to perform a unique and extensive program — at least 1,000 hours — of community service. That service will focus on using his high public visibility and his talents to tell at-risk young people about the mistakes he has made and to educate them about the dangers of violence, guns, gangs and drugs."
Nahmias said under the agreement, Harris will have to serve a year in prison and three years of supervised home detention, perform a total of 1,500 hours of community service and pay a $100,000 fine.
Failure to fulfill his obligations will net Harris a "much longer prison sentence," Nahmias said.
Harris spoke to the media briefly after the hearing.
"I'd like to thank God for blessing me with a second chance in life and success," he said, adding that he takes the charges against him very seriously.
"I'm looking forward to turning this negative time in my life into a positive," he said. "I know I have a long road of redemption to travel."
He was arrested Oct. 13, just blocks away and hours before he was to headline the BET Hip-Hop Awards in Atlanta.
Harris was charged with possession of unregistered machine guns and silencers, as well as possession of firearms by a convicted felon. He faced a maximum of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine for each count.
He was allegedly trying to buy unregistered machine guns and silencers. He initially pleaded not guilty, and has been under house arrest since he was released on $3 million bond on Oct. 26.
U.S. District Judge Charles Pannell Jr. must approve the deal.
Harris, who is co-CEO of Grand Hustle Records, grew up in Atlanta. His first taste of success came with his 2003 album, "Trap Muzik." In 2004, warrants were issued for his arrest on probation violations for a drug conviction, and he was sentenced to three years behind bars.
Excuse me, but, fuck you Nahmias, you corrupt piece of shit.
The ATF continues to railroad thousands of law-abiding citizens who have made an honest mistake (oh no, they didn't use a US-Made identical copy of a foriegn part in their rifle build!), or as is most commonly the case, no infraction committed at all, and they're imprisoned for the rest of their life, while this piece of filth gets off scot-free.
If he fulfills his community service (hours likely logged by himself or his manager), then he gets no jail sentence. What a fucking joke. MULTIPLE firearms, MULTIPLE silencers, all by a felon.
I am getting sick and fucking tired of this class of "celebrity", extolling violence, crime and indecency in their so-called "music", and continuing to get away with shit. These slimeballs shoot at each other in broad daylight, and they're out on their own recognizance, with "community service" to perform.
Words like "infuriated" don't even start to capture my emotional state at reading shit like this.
Am I the only one?
AA is like any other multiplayer FPS, with red-on-blue action.
Rather than just eliminating the other team to win (which, you can do, but isn't the goal), you've got set objectives.
The Assault Team is supposed to secure certain objectives, while the Defense Team is supposed to prevent that.
To anyone with a brain, this means that if you're on Assault, you need to go find the objective. If you're on Defense, you need to guard the objective, and not go running off around the map.
Sadly, most players online aren't "anyone with a brain".
We've grown tired of asshole admins booting us off of servers because we play Defense like it's supposed to be played (OMG WE'RE CAMPING THE OBJ!!!@#one111!), we've grown tired of abuses of the vote-kick system, and overall, we've grown tired of most fucktards online.
Thankfully, the AA devs have a couple of "co-op" maps in the game - the "enemy" is now a computer-driven AI, and human players are all on the same team.
Of course, online play degenerates into idiocy, because you've got dipshits jockeying for "the best gun" on one map, or running to drive the fucking HMMWV, all to the detriment of the mission.
Well, here at the house, we've alleviated that, by bringing back the AA server we used for the LAN party, and running the co-op maps here.
Unfortunately, the stupidity still isn't gone.
There's two co-op maps: Snake Plain, and Interdiction.
Snake Plain isn't too horrible, but the AI gets obnoxious, with it's unerring aim and seeming one-shot kills, while it takes you at least half, and usually all, of a magazine to knock down one of them.
Interdiction is by far the worst of the two, which is sad, because it's the one that I like the most.
The map starts out with you outside, and a virtually-impossible to kill tank vehicle thing circling, forcing you to sacrifice yourself in an attempt to destroy it. Supposedly there's a key to killing it, but whatever it is, we haven't found it.
To avoid the tank, it's necessary to start running towards the entry to the underground complex, which is another form of suicide, because even when the enemies don't magically spawn right in front of you as you're running, they can see through all of the brush and smoke, and their aim is dead-on.
I think we've won Interdiction maybe twice.
We really need to find a new game we can LAN play in co-op mode. I was really hoping that they'd fix HALO 2 PC to allow it, but they didn't, and even then we're not upgrading to Vista until we absolutely have to.
:(
So, we're one step closer to the house LAN being updated...
My twin Hitachi 400GB drives are back from warranty replacement, which means I can finally rebuild my old SUMCO workstations as actual servers, instead of Windows XP fileshares, running dedicated server packages for the games we play.
I'm thinking that I'm going to throw up SharePoint server, and "publish" the large majority of gaming files and what not that way, so that when we actually host another LAN party, the server will be up, SharePoint will be publicly available for anyone to easily browse for patches or installers that they need, and I won't have to dink around with copying them, or giving people temporary permissions.
I am going to need to purchase a couple of cheap gigabit switches, as well as a handful of gig NICs. The soon-to-be server boxes, as well as my main workstation (and the roommate's) all have them, but there's at least 4-5 other workstations here that don't, and copying large amounts of files has gotten quite tiresome at 100mbps.
What kinda sucks is that nobody but D-Link currently makes a wireless router that has gig ports in it. D-Link isn't really BAD, but I've got a lot of loyalty to Linksys - They were good enough for Cisco to buy, which would be enough for me right there, but the fact that ever since I got off of DSL, and the Cisco routers that Qwest provided, I've been on a Linksys of one flavor or another, and they've all been phenomenal.
DD-WRT, while not currently being used, also is another good thing about the Linksys stuff. Yeah, yeah, I know that DD-WRT will work on a bunch of other brand routers as well, and that's all well and good, but it was designed initially for the Linksys WRT series, and, at least in my mind, that platform should receive the most support.
Hopefully Linksys will get on the ball soon with a gig router. Most new PCs and laptops today (and for the last few years) have been shipping with gig NICs, it only makes sense to bring that functionality to the most popular home router...
'NORMAL LIFE' ESCAPES PALESTINIAN MILITANTPosted: Friday, March 21, 2008 3:02 PM
By Lawahez Jabari, NBC News ProducerBETHLEHEM, West Bank – Ahmed Balboul hoped that renewed peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians might save his life. But as a senior figure in Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, a violent militia affiliated with Fatah, Balboul had a number on his head – he had been wanted by the Israelis since 2000 because they believe he was responsible for the deaths of Israeli citizens.
In one of his last interviews with NBC News, Balboul disavowed violence and expressed his support for the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. "I want to live a normal life. I am not hiding anymore. We will give a chance for peace," he said to NBC News this past December.
Despite his support for the peace process and his hopes for an amnesty agreement with the Israelis, Balboul’s number came up. On March 12, he and three other Palestinian militants were shot and killed while riding in a car in the West Bank city of Bethlehem.
According to Palestinian security officials, the others killed include the commander of Islamic Jihad in the Bethlehem area, Mohammed Shehadeh, and two others who were also members of Islamic Jihad.
According to the Israeli Army, the border police force identified a number of armed Palestinians inside a car and opened fire. Many human rights groups have called the killings "extra-judicial" because there were no arrests or trial. The Israeli Army said that three rifles were found in the car, and that all four had been involved in attacks against Israeli civilians.
The Israeli raid on the Palestinian militants came at an embarrassing time for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, the head of Fatah, who has been trying to tighten his grip on the security situation in the West Bank by getting a number of Palestinian militants off of Israel’s wanted list and enrolled in the local security forces.
According to Palestinian security officials, 418 gunmen from Fatah’s Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade have received amnesty from Israel and an additional 230 are going through the amnesty process in the West Bank. Palestinians say that the four militants who were killed had been hoping to be included in that amnesty agreement with Israel, but Israel had refused their requests.
Israel strongly defended the killings as a legitimate response to terrorist acts. "Yesterday, in Bethlehem, we again proved that the state of Israel will continue to hunt and to strike any murderer who has Jewish blood on his hands," said Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak. "It is unimportant how much time has elapsed. Israel’s long arm will reach him."
Israel’s defense was little comfort to the thousands of Palestinians who gathered to attend prayers and funerals for the four militants last week.
Sana, Balboul’s wife, said that he had expressed hope about the future and the potential for peace between the Israelis and Palestinians, even saying to her recently, "One day we will go to Jericho," referring to the West Bank city currently occupied by the Israelis.
Instead, he is yet another casualty in the ongoing conflict, leaving behind Sana, three children, but still no peace.
Wow.
And we give a shit that this slime murderer got what's coming to him? Fuck him, fuck the family that supported him.
Oh, tears of pity, he left behind his wife and three children! No, the tragedy!
What about the lives HE took, or directed others to take?
Regardless of the formation of Israel pissing off shitbags who weren't even around when it happened (like this scum), the fact of the matter is, it's done and over with - Israel isn't going anywhere, the Jews aren't going anywhere, and it's time to shut the fuck up and move on.
Of course, this loser is all for moving on, now the he's done murdering people, and decides he wants to live his live with his wife and children. Well, too little, too late.
Funny how he disavows violence, but is hanging out with other terrorists, with weapons in their car.
The Palestinians better hurry the fuck up and realize that if they don't clean up their act, it's just a matter of time before they're exterminated by the Israelis. Unlike the race-traitor Jews occupying the U.S. Senate and Congress, Israeli Jews are fed-up with this shit, and they're not going to sit around and take it.
The sooner, the better, if you ask me. The Middle East hasn't seen the full might of the Israeli war machine, and they're going to shit their pants when they do.
HOT DAMN, IT'S BACK!!!
MY CROWN VICTORIA IS BACK, AND IT'S SOOOOO AWESOME!
I was able to pick it up just before they closed at 5pm tonight, and it's looking GREAT!
No pictures at the moment - I'm going to try to find someplace this weekend and snap a few shots, but it's looking SMOOOOOOTH.
I've only driven it about 25 miles so far, but things seem pretty good, so far. The only major issue is that I snagged my faceplate and remote tonight, and I've apparently lost my remote.
Just fucking awesome.
At least I've got my car back!
I want a trailer.
There's one for sale locally.
Hopefully, my car will be done soon, the cash-out for the rental will be here soon, and I can snag it.
There's something wrong with me, though - I'm sitting here, already thinking about how I'm going to mod my trailer - lighting, ramp, etc.
I must be stopped! :)
Right, so...
Stopped by to check out the Vic today - it's virtually done, but there's no bumper cover.
Turns out, the "LKQ" bumper cover (Like Kind & Quality - essentially, wrecking yard parts) was all fuckered up, showing tons of cracks and stuff when they primered it, so they had to order a new bumper.
This means that they've ordered a new bumper cover, and that's supposed to arrive soon. As soon as they get that prepped and painted, we should be good to go - hopefully this week.
Something that cracks me up about all of this - the price for the used bumper cover was $50 cheaper than a new one - pocket lint, considering the overall price of the repair. The used headlamp lens that the other insurance company tried to pawn off (yellowed horribly) was less than $10 cheaper than the NEW headlamp lens the body shop installed.
I mean, I understand that if they save $50 on a lot of cars, they save a fair amount of money, but, dammit, I shouldn't have to be inconvenienced for someone else's stupidity, and that person's insurance company being a cheap-ass.
Lame.
Especially when it appears that they eat the cost of the shitty parts that they quoted - now they end up losing far more than they would have saved in the first place.
Karma's a bitch, I suppose.
The car is looking good, though - with any luck, I'll have it this weekend!
Am I the only one with enormous hands?
I can't be.
Ever since we moved into the house here, and ever since I had a shop that I could put my vehicles inside to work on, I've been searching high and low for a pair of Mechanix Gloves (or a knock-off clone brand) that would fit me.
The largest anyone ever had was an X-Large.
Somehow, the local Autozone here in BFE got a shipment of 2X-Large Mechanix Gloves, and I was able to snag a set tonight.
It's about damned time!!!
I'm going to have to go back when I get paid, and grab a couple more pairs, if they've still got them.
I've had a Motorola RAZR v3c from Verizon for about 2.5 years now.
I understand that making something all uber-light (ober-light?) and uber-slim means that there's trade-offs, in regards to durability and reliability.
Even with that in mind, this phone really pisses me off.
I'm actually on my second phone, as the first one decided to initiate a perpetual "reboot" loop a few weeks before the 1yr warranty expired.
The current one decides to either lock-up or power itself off when jarred slightly - likely due to me having dropped it a couple of times.
I seem to remember being able to hurl my Star-Tac against the wall, and having zero issues with it...
Battery life is another bit that drives me insane.
I had to replace the battery on mine a couple months back.
My regular charging regimen is to plug it in nightly - it's a lithium-ion battery, so, no memory, no issue, right? WRONG.
After being unplugged at 6am, it'd start squawking at 4pm about being low. NEVER an issue with the NiMH or LiIon batteries in my StarTac - NEVER.
And what about that low battery alert? Who's fucking brilliant idea was that shit? The battery is going to be dead soon, so we're going to make a stupid fucking warble beep every 30 fucking seconds. If you switch us to vibrate mode, that's even worse, because we're going to make a 3-second vibrate every 30 seconds, and run your battery down even faster!
Cell phones today just piss me off. The concept behind the RAZR was great - a small, ultra-compact flip phone. Sweet.
But modern marketing bullshit has to take that one step further, and push the stupid "value-added services" on everyone. Whatever happened to the days of cheap data cables and free programming software, so I could just plug my phone in, configure the crap I want, dump a ringtone on, and go? Well, those days are gone, because someone discovered that they can make money on you moving pictures from your cellphone to your computer, and all of the other horseshit.
It'd be real nice if someone would just make a decent phone with a good camera in it, the basic applications (alarm clock, calendar, calculator), some less-than-shitty default ringtones, and that's it. No other extraneous bullshit. If we want the oh-so-fetch mobile Internet (stop trying to make it happen, assholes), we can buy a different phone that has those functions. Just give me the phone that I ask for, with a data cable to do my shit, and I'm set. I don't need games that are virtually impossible to play, I don't need the Internet, and I don't need fifteen-thousand stupid fucking apps to get ringtones from.
My "New Every Two" offer has been available for a few months now, and I haven't upgraded yet...
The Samsung SCH-a990 looked like a viable option - a buddy has one, and it's a pretty decent phone, with a 3.0 megapixel camera in it, which makes it more attractive. It's gone now, replaced with a slightly newer version, the Samsung "FlipShot" (Gods, please, smite whoever makes up stupid fucking product names - just stick with the fucking model numbers, already!), which might be an alternative...
Of course, the "new" PDA phone that Verizon is pushing, the VX6800, is looking better and better. It'll now tether with a laptop for net access (the old one, the VX6700, had to be "nudged" to be able to do so - out of the box, Verizon didn't support such access). It's only got a 2.0 megapixel camera, but it's still better the 1.3 megapixel crap. It'll take microSD cards, it's got WiFi goodness, and it's got the slide-out keyboard, so perhaps I can actually text something without getting pissed off.
It's also $300 or something, so, for a gimmicky toy that I really don't need, it's kinda pricy.
I really need to get a new phone.
So, I've been going to the doctor repeatedly for some back pain issues arising from the auto accident in February.
Got the results of an MRI:
Now I've got an awesome appointment with a neurologist/neurosurgeon to discuss "options", which likely means getting cut again.
Sweet. Super Sweet.
Goddamned fucking female drivers, anyhow.
So, the Vic is sporting some new threads!
A maroon hood, a white fender, and a black bumper.
It's so freaking white-trash cool!
Bumper isn't on in that particular picture, but you get the idea.
Someday, I'll have it back, and it'll be all nice and silver again.
The mailserver crashed.
If your mailbox got toasted, sucks to be you. I might have a partial restoration of yours as an Outlook PST, so hit me up and let me know.
ETA: I'm not going to create replacement mailboxes, as I'm going to be killing most of the KN services, quite possibly including the main website. Just a heads-up.
Get yourself some Gmail, baby! If you need an invite, let me know. Does Gmail still require invites?
Maybe I'm just crazy, but hear me out for a second.
It seems that every time we're up for a Presidential election, or that some major gun law is being proposed, there's a dramatic increase in school shootings, prominent violent crimes, etc.
I'm not much for conspiracy theories - I don't really give a lot of credence to the concept of someone pushing nutjobs over the edge so they go on a rampage.
It seems more likely that the liberal media suppresses stories that wouldn't normally rate national coverage, and then just blitzes the coverage in an election year.
It's getting awfully tiring seeing all of this bullshit plastered all over the headlines, when we all know what would fix the problem - full enforcement of our constitutional rights, allowing us to defend ourselves, with lethal force if necessary, in every single state, district and territory.
Fucking Democrats, anyways.
So, poking around on MSN often yields tidbits of idiocy, and today is no different.
The tripe on that website is emasculatory propaganda, pushed by a cadre of feminazi bestialists. There's no other explanation.
Under the heading of "Things a Man Shound Never Do in the Company of a Woman", we have:
Reveal the cost of your car
Apparently, this would insinuate that you're bragging about how much you make...
It goes on to list:
Tip less than 20 percent.
and:
Forget to carry cash.
Because, you know, you're expected to pay for everything...
Except for the article titled "When It's Okay Not to Pay", which details less than 10 circumstances that women have deemed as acceptable for the man not to pay - but, "Still, it doesn't hurt to offer!"
And god forbid you ever say "You're not one of those feminists, are you?" - because, guys, let's face it - women are only feminists when it will benefit them. They're content to play the whore if that's what it takes to get them what they want.
Sources:
http://men.msn.com/articlees.aspx?cp-documentid=6273622>1=32001
http://men.msn.com/articlees.aspx?cp-documentid=6273618
http://men.msn.com/article.aspx?cp-documentid=6014915
Fuck 'em.
Airline defends response after in-flight deathRelative claimed faulty gear; American said flight crew ‘acted admirably’
NEW YORK - American Airlines defended its staff as professional and its equipment as sound Monday after a swift review of a passenger's in-flight death, despite her family's claims that the crew ignored her pleas until it was too late.
Carine Desir, 44, was pronounced dead Friday on a nearly full Haiti-to-New York flight by a pediatrician who said he tried to use the plane's defibrillator on her as she faded, but her pulse was already too weak for it to work.
Doctors, nurses stepped in
The doctor, Joel Shulkin, was one of several medical professionals who stepped in after flight attendants asked if any were on board. Shulkin said through his attorney, Justin Nadeau, that two emergency medical technicians performed CPR on Desir, a diabetic.
Sitting in the 10th row, four rows back from first class, Desir had complained of not feeling well and being very thirsty after she ate a meal on the flight home from Port-au-Prince to John F. Kennedy International Airport, according to Antonio Oliver, a cousin who was traveling with her and her brother. A flight attendant brought water to her, he said.
A few minutes later, Desir, herself a nurse, said she was having trouble breathing and asked for oxygen, Oliver said. "Don't let me die," he recalled her saying.
But a flight attendant twice refused her request, Oliver said.
Airline spokesman Charley Wilson said Desir's cousin flagged down a flight attendant and said Desir had diabetes and needed oxygen. "The flight attendant responded, 'OK, but we usually don't need to treat diabetes with oxygen, but let me check anyway and get back to you,'" Wilson said.
The employee spoke with another flight attendant, and both went to Desir within three minutes, according to Wilson.
"By that time the situation was worsening, and they immediately began administering oxygen," he said.
Flight attendants are trained not to automatically give oxygen to every passenger who requests it but instead use airline criteria to judge when it's needed, said Leslie Mayo, a spokeswoman for the union representing American's attendants.
There were 12 oxygen tanks on the plane and the crew checked them before the flight took off to make sure they were working, Wilson said. He said at least two were used on Desir.
"Each tank worked properly. I cannot speculate as to why a second tank was used," he said.
The Federal Aviation Administration requires commercial flights to carry no fewer than two oxygen dispensers. The main goal of the rule is to have oxygen available in case there is a rapid cabin decompression, but it can also be used for other emergencies. It is up to the airlines to maintain the canisters.
Oliver said other passengers — the 267-seat Airbus A300 was carrying 263, the airline said — aboard Flight 896 became agitated over the situation, and the flight attendant tried to administer oxygen from a portable tank and mask, but the tank was empty. Shulkin could not confirm whether the oxygen was flowing, his attorney said.
"It was working, and the defibrillator was applied as well," Wilson said.
An automated external defibrillator delivers an electric shock to try to restore a normal heart rhythm if a particular type of irregular heart beat is detected. The machines cannot help in all cases.
Wilson and Shulkin said the defibrillator indicated Desir's heartbeat was too weak for the unit to work. Shulkin declined to provide additional detail, out of concern for Desir's family.
Oliver said he asked for the plane to "land right away so I can get her to a hospital," and the pilot agreed to divert to Miami, 45 minutes away. But during that time Desir collapsed and died, Oliver said.
"Her last words were, 'I cannot breathe,'" he said.
Flight crew ‘acted admirably’
Wilson said three flight attendants helped Desir, but "stepped back" after doctors and nurses on the flight began to help her.
"Our crew acted very admirably. They did what they were trained to do, and the equipment was working," he said.
Desir was pronounced dead by Shulkin, and the flight continued to New York without stopping. Desir's body was moved to the floor of the first-class section and covered with a blanket, Oliver said.
With Desir's body near the front bulkhead, all passengers left the plane through an exit behind the first-class section. Her body was then removed, Wilson said.
Desir died of complications from heart disease and diabetes, said Ellen Borakove, a spokeswoman for the medical examiner's office.
FAA spokeswoman Alison Duquette said the agency's Federal Air Surgeon's office plans to discuss Desir's death with officials at Fort Worth, Texas-based American Airlines, a unit of AMR Corp.
You know, I just can't help but be disgusted at what is the inevitable prelude to a lawsuit from the money-whore family against the airlines.
Heart disease and diabetes? What the fuck was this bitch doing in Haiti?
She should have been carrying her own oxygen, if this is how she normally treated her illness.
God DAMN, the comments from the family drive me nearly apoplectic.