Category — Rant

OK, this election has finally reached a level of utter ridiculousness that simply must be brought to light.

I was cruising around Facebook, when a small add appeared on the side that said “Canadians Vote Obama”.  I thought - “Figures…”  Then I more fully digested what it actually said.  CANADIANS vote Obama???  WTF?

So, I cruised on over to Canada Votes Obama, to see what it was all about.  Yup, its exactly as it sounds.

They describe themselves as “passionate and lively Obama supporters,” and say “sadly, we live in Canada [SIC] but cannot vote”.   Thank goodness!

One of the people giving them feedback, says

I think that what you are doing is WICKED. I tip my hat off to you. I am presently studying in NYC and have been able to attend different political speaking engagements and watch everything unfold. It is very interesting to say the least. I think that people have to look at this on a grand scale. It is not just America voting for a president, but their decision will reverberate throughout the world

Hmmm…  This commentary speaks quite loudly about the rank and file that are voting or would vote for Obama.  WICKED.

And lastly, this group actually has a forum entitled Why is Obama the right candidate for Canada? Yes, really.  Fortunately, as of this writing, no one has even posted there.

I realize that even calling attention to this site is potentially falling into the “any press is good press” pit, but I think that this is potentially one of the clearest examples of how this election has gone off track.  Why, you ask?  People who aren’t qualified to make the decision still have a vote.  Canadians aren’t qualified, yet they are actually advertising - PAYING - to get their message out.  Fortunately, in the case of this group and their website, the “vote” they have is more symbolic than real (again, thank goodness…).

You have to understand - I love Canada.  I’m part French Canadian.  I work for a Canadian company.  I’ve been there literally dozens of times.  If I had to pick a place outside of the US to live, Toronto would be in the top 3.  I LOVE Canada.  But…  Canadians vote Obama?  Really?  Big surprise there.  HELLO, you live in what is largely a socialist country!

Canadians Vote Obama. Has there ever been a better articulation of why Americans should vote McCain?  We are not socialists.  Most Americans, if asked the question, “Are you Socialist?” would emphatically answer, “No!”  Yet, their voting habits simply don’t reflect that.

While Canadians can’t vote in our election, this perfectly symbolizes the degree to which our elections have left the realm of being a serious issue and have instead entered the miasma of being a vocalized media circus.  People who can’t vote or even worse, aren’t qualified to vote are still partaking in the dialogue.  A media circus is a popularity contest.  Where are the facts?  Where is the UNDERSTANDING of the issues?

If I hear one more person say “Well, I just feel that, blah blah blah…”   You FEEL?  Hmm..  That’s an excellent basis for a decision, isn’t it?  Your feelings?  I FEEL like punching you, but fortunately, I’m conservative and don’t ACT on stupid, unfounded and destructive feelings.  I research, I understand, I debate and I decide.  That is how an important decision should be made.  Each time, and every time.

Lets just call this as it is.  If our election was anything BUT a simple popularity contest, Obama would never even have been a known candidate.  I mean absolutely no disrespect to the man by saying that.  At this point, he just hasn’t accomplished enough to warrant making him the most powerful man on earth.  Give it another decade or so Barack.  Get more experience.  I’ll still disagree with you politically, but at least I’ll know that you are qualified.  I won’t like it if you are elected, but I’ll be OK with that.  I don’t care if you are black, white, Christian or even Muslim.  You just aren’t qualified right now.

In this election Obama is being supported by a number of people who are just too caught up in the popularity contest to understand the ramifications of their vote.  In my book, that is an unqualified voter.  That leaves us with an unqualified candidate being supported by unqualified voters.  Can it get worse than that?

Yes, it can. You can have the Republicans doing the same thing!!

While I applaud Palin as a vice-presidential candidate choice in the face of the opposition, I don’t think she has enough experience to be president.  Fortunately, she’s the VICE PRESIDENTIAL candidate.  Hello Libs, the VP has no power.  She doesn’t have enough experience to have the power.  She has more than Obama, but not enough.  Why the hell do the Dems seem to be making this election between Obama and Palin?  Yes, if McCain dies, she will be President.  But, the Dems bemoaning this point?  How stupid!  Last I checked, Palin has a LOT more experience actually running things than Obama.  Remember, the only thing that Obama can come up with to demonstrate his leadership potential is his own campaign!

The Dems’ argument seems to be: “To avoid the possibility of an unqualified person becoming President in the unlikely event that McCain dies, we are going to elect Obama, ignoring the fact that he is KNOWN to be untested, unproven and even MORE unqualified that Palin.  Not only that, we are going to make it a focal point of our campaign to spotlight how unqualified she is and how bad it would be for her to be President (even though our candidate has LESS experience).”

As is so often the case, I’m largely confused by the Democratic idea of logic.

There, I’ve said my piece.  Oh, wait…  Just one more thing.

<RANT>

One of their contributors said, “People have to look at this on a grand scale. . It is not just America voting for a president, but their decision will reverberate throughout the world.”

Um, no we don’t.  Excuse me, but fuck the world - I don’t vote in their elections, so hands off mine.  I’ll vote for the candidate that, after careful consideration, research and debate, I’ve concluded is right for MY family and MY country.  Everyone else can piss off.  I don’t see Canadians picking their PM based upon who Americans LIKE.  Nor does anyone else…

So, please.  In this one thing, you crazy Canadians, SHUT YOUR DAMN PIE HOLES!

</RANT>

There, NOW I’ve said my piece.

Election 2008, McCain, Palin, Obama

My brother wrote a very poignant post about 9/11 and the many repercussions of that day.

I started a comment that ballooned into a novel - I know, big surprise with me, right?  :)

Anyway, I wanted to post my comment here as it gets to a lot of things that I’ve been thinking about lately, and what else is a blog for other than that?

One of things that has been bothering me lately is my deep political disagreement with people that I greatly respect on a day to day basis.  This post about 9/11 finally allowed me the mental and emotional process to begin to articulate my position and support it with something other than just political haranguing.

Anyway, here’s my thoughts.  They will probably make more sense if you’ve read my brother’s post first.

CLAP CLAP CLAP…

I remember that morning, and how three months earlier I had taken AA Flight 11 from Boston to Los Angeles as I had done MANY times before.

I remember having a meeting in the towers 8 months prior to that.

I remember thinking that what Israel has had to deal with on a daily basis has finally come here. The big question was - was it going to stay?

People can argue all they want about Iraq and what the Bush administration has done. His leadership, and the war that his Administration has waged seems to be a lot of what makes people NOT proud to be an American.

How unfair. The fact of the matter is that we haven’t been attacked here since. Why? Because they are focused on attacking us there, and have vowed to focus all resources on expelling us. Call me callous, but I’d rather have al qaeda focused on our military instead of our malls and restaurants. For that reason alone, I hope its a very long time before we are totally out of Iraq. People here are “sick of the war”. How the hell do they think the Iraqis feel? We are so damn pampered.

I’ll tell you - I’m proud to be an American, but I’m frustrated with how shallow we can be as a nation. The country is poised to choose a man who, if elected, will be the least qualified person to ever hold the office of President. I’m not talking race, religion or even politics - just strict proven capability. Why? Because he sounds good. To me, that’s shallow. I don’t care if a person is black, white, brown, yellow, male, female - I want a President that will strengthen our country and make sure that my family is protected. Why? Because I REMEMBER 9/11 and it still scares the crap out of me. Mr. Obama may one day have done enough to prove that he is up to the job, but I don’t think that day is here today.

Many in this country want CHANGE because they are unhappy with how things are today. Maybe they should look back to the year after 9/11 and realize how bad it COULD be. These are the same people who said we went to war in Iraq because of oil. I guess they somehow missed me when the free tank of gas was given out? Did you get yours?

How bad would our economy be with suicide bombers hitting our malls during the Christmas shopping season? How bad would our jobless rate be if companies were too afraid to innovate and bring new products to market because the population at large is scared out of its mind? Nobody buys anything at times like that… How bad would it be for Los Angeles if the entertainment industry was again paralyzed by rampant uncertainty? How bad would the dollar be world-wide if our country was in the throws of real economic chaos, not just a downturn in growth?

We whine for change, why? Because the foam on the latte of our American lives has somehow been deflated? We should be thankful a hole hasn’t been punched in the cup.

Change is good if its toward something better. Better is always different, but different isn’t always better.

How many attacks will it take to bring out in our people the backbone of iron that you can see in places like Tel Aviv? Honestly, I hope we never have to find out… America largely doesn’t “remember” 9/11. We recall it. We recall it as what is hopefully the worst attack we will ever witness - and that from afar, for most of us.

I can tell you one thing - I’m sure John McCain doesn’t recall it that way. No, it’s not the worst thing that he’s ever seen. Not by a mile. I’d much rather go with a man who has clearly proven the quality of HIS backbone, thank you very much. I’m not even fond of his politics much, but I’m confidant of who he is and what he can do.

I’m proud to be an American because of the heritage of people like that.

My brother was philosophizing about cheap clients on his blog.  He is spot on with his commentary.  I’m writing this as unfortunate proof that the sickness in not unique to the animation industry.

How is it that people can be this stupid?

Check out this advertisement for a web design job.

What the heck is his person thinking?  Hmm.  Let’s see.  I have to come to their office, train their sorry butt (because that’s really what they mean by “work with me on this”), and then I have to make 500 pages for their website.

OK.  Project understood.  Now, how much do they want to pay me for this?  UNDER $100!!!!!!!

UNDER $100.  Not even a hundred.  Under that.  Because, at $100, we’d be talking $0.20 a page, which is clearly too much to pay for my services.

Wow.

For anyone wondering, a half way decent website is going to cost you several thousand dollars.  Throw in e-commerce, and it is going to be more.  If you are flexible and willing to use open source stuff and are not a crazy design Nazi, you might be able to get it done for $5-7K.  If you want something that looks unique and professional, it will cost more.

If you want it based on a Content Management System so that you can update it yourself, it will cost even more.

If your site is worth having (financially), then its worth spending money on.  You don’t open a store and expect to do it with $500.  Why would anyone think that they can do it on the web?  ESPECIALLY if you are selling something!  At least with a store, people can come in and look at what you have, see who you are and make a decision to buy from you or not.  On the web, all they have to go by is your site.

Which site would you trust with your personal information? This one:

or this one:

Design matters.  Professionalism matters.  A look of legitimacy matters.  And, all of these are going to cost money.

Oh, and please don’t take this rant as evidence that I think I’m the best web specialist in the world.  Clearly I’m not.  I can’t design worth crap.  Yet, even I’m $250 an hour at my rack rate.  Do I do a lot of web work?  Yup, going on 15 years now.  Why would anyone expect to spend less on their online “entity” than they did on legally setting up their business?  Many lawyers are way more expensive than $250 an hour.  Find a web specialist than can command the same rate, and you won’t be sorry.  If you don’t, your site may look like this:

Anyway, I’m off my soapbox.  Sorry for all the suds.

Web Design, Web Site Costs, Cheap Clients

I don’t understand Sony.  How can a company that is so big, be so stupid and be so successful even though they are so stupid?

I like to play video games.  I specifically like Pirate games, because Sid Meier hooked me on his game Pirates! years ago when I was playing games on an Apple IIgs.  Now, even after a re-release and update of that awesome game, and many other ones in between, I’m still quite a sucker for launching a broadside of grape shot and grappling my way into some fancy swashbuckling.  I just can’t help it.  Some people have Gin or Poker, I have Pirate video games…  But, enough about me.

Have you heard of Pirates of the Burning Sea ?  It is an MORPG centered around privateering, piracy and naval battles during the height of caribbean mayhem.  I’d tell you to check it out, but hear out my story first.

It is a very cool game.  I spent some Christmas money ($50) on buying the game, and was ready to pony up my $15 a month after that to play this bad boy (I know, I’m nuts, but see paragraph 2 of this post) but there has been one major glitch.  Flying Studio makes Pirates of the Burning Sea (PotBS), and they are a pretty neat game studio.  Unfortunately, they have partnered up with Sony Station and Sony Online Entertainment (of Everquest infamy) to “distribute” the game and to do all the monthly billing.

Lets just say, that’s not going well.  The game went live, and I can’t log in.  I click on the Support link in PotBS and I’m taken to Flying Lab.  I submit a question and within an hour or so they tell me that they can’t help me, that it is a Sony issue.  Well, being the forward thinking person that I am , I had already submitted a question to Sony Station asking them the same question.  I’ve given them my CC, I’ve tried to subscribe, etc.  It tells me I have until February 25 to play, but yet says my subscription is closed.  Who knows, its a screw up, but they’ll fix it right?  Well, wrong so far…

I wait and wait and they never contact me.  2,4,6,8, 10 hours go by and still no contact.  Thinking that maybe because I classified it as a billing question that it wouldn’t get handled until Monday, I tried to log a different technical support question just to see if I could nudge some action.  Well, their system told me “Your question has NOT been submitted” and then continued to tell me that I’m not allowed to log a second issue until my first one is fixed.  Excuse me?  WTF is that?  Nothing like making me feel taken care of…

So, that pissed me off.  I then looked further into how to contact technical support and I found a page telling me that technical support is only available Monday through Friday from 10am to 7pm so I was basically S.O.L until Monday.

Now, OK - maybe you are thinking “What’s the big deal?  Its a weekend and their support is closed, what’s so crazy about that?”  Well - think about it - these people host ONLINE GAMES!  When the hell do people play online games?!  At night and on weekends, yet these idiots are only open during the day on weekdays.  Typical Sony bullshit - totally focused on themselves, and not on their customers.  For a company that is supposedly focused on entertainment, they sure know how to ruin a good time. 

They’ve screwed up their PC hardware (just ask my brother about his laptop), they screwed up by abandoning the Clie, they still stubbornly insist on putting Memory Stick on everything they make, and they have pissed people off for years with their Station online gaming.  And yet they survive.

There was a “Rate our Answer” button on the page telling me that Technical Support wasn’t available on weekends, and I couldn’t resist, so I sent them the letter below.  Maybe I’m screwed in the head, but this crap pisses me off.   I only get so many free hours in a week, and lately whenever I try to spend a few of them blowing off some steam with a game, I end up in a tech support nightmare.  Anyway, drop me a line and let me know what you think… Am I over reacting, or is Sony as clueless as they appear?

This feedback is about:
http://help.station.sony.com/cgi-bin/soe.cfg/php/enduser/popup_adp.php?p_faqid=10404.

What can we do to make the answer to this question better?

It could say that technical support is available on the weekend.

Let me spell it out.

When do people play games? In their free time. When do people have the most free time? During the weekend. So, when do people play the most? On the weekend. And, when is technical support needed the most? When people are playing the most, which as we already know, is on the weekend.

Yet, Sony Station technical support isn’t available on the weekend. That’s completely stupid. And, typical Sony. How your company prospers in spite of itself is an enigma for the ages.

Now, the real question is, am I actually enough of a pirate whore that I’ll still pay these people to play the game?

Well, and now you know how Sony is still afloat - idiots like me.

Sony Station, Pirates of the Burning Sea, Sony Sucks