Interesting Blog

I'm following an interesting blog by Joe McClatchey. Pretty smart and clever young man. You can check it out here. Forty eight more days...

Who's Accountable?

Every year the company I work for enlists the services of a firm, who shall remain nameless, to prepare my taxes. The actual preparing occurs in Detroit but they need certain information that is prepared and consolidated by their firm here in my assignment country.

Like normal, our finance manager pulls and collates the data they need and prepares the documents and takes them to the firm. She gave them to the person who is responsible for our account and then left. This idiot woman then goes to file those documents at a government office but for some reason is unable to so she puts the documents into her laptop bag and heads to another client's office. When she gets there she leaves the laptop in her car since "it was only going to take a minute" to do whatever she needed to do there. Can you guess what happened in that minute she was gone? If you said someone stole her car you would be wrong. Apparently someone broke into the car and stole the laptop...bag and all. With my foreign tax documents which contained a lot of personal information inside such as salary and company name and address.

This idiot's woman's boss said that she broke protocol when she left the government agency and did not return the unfiled documents to the office before heading to another client. But added that just about everyone breaks this procedure because it's unrealistic for them to drive back to the office to secure documents and then head back to more or less the same area to visit another client. If this had happened a couple of years ago I probably wouldn't worry too much about it. It's just that things have really turned for the worst around here. The thief probably didn't even look at the documents but who knows? "Aye Carumba! My wife's, seester's, second cousin might like theese papers!"

This sucks big time.

He's Back

No, I'm not talking about Jack Bauer. He's been back for a few hours already. I haven't been reading anything related to the new season of 24 so I was pleasantly surprised to see Agent Pierce last night. That reminds me that I still haven't watched Redemption...which would probably explain some things. Please no Kim Bauer. Please. And I don't remember any torture in last night's episode. Drat.

Relaxation

Tonight while my wife takes the kiddos out looking for little treats, I'm going to turn the porch light off, grab a cold beer and a bag of Corn Nuts, and watch the World Series. Can it get any better?

Come Get Some!

I received an email yesterday inviting me to be part of the public beta testing for 8-player online co-op and up-to-60-player competitive multiplayer for Resistance 2 on the PS3. Awesome! It was a little over 2GB to download so no playing last night. Hopefully time will allow this weekend for me to give some thirteen year old the pleasure of using me for target practice. Toto, I've a feeling we're not in DOOM or Duke anymore. So when are you joining me??

Damn That Hurts!

I'm sitting at my desk opening some junk mail from yesterday and not really paying much attention to what I'm doing. As I pull the medium stock paper out of the envelope...slice! Paper cut in the webbing between my thumb and index finger. After applying some Kleenex to stop the bleeding the pain sets in. And the cut is in a location that I know from past experience will continue to bother me the rest of the day because every time I use my hand the cut will reopen. I shrug it off and start to open the next envelope and...slice! Paper cut within a paper cut. I think I will call it a day. I wonder if I could get workman's comp?

What The Hell Is That?

Last night we watched an episode of Destination Truth the DVR recorded on Wednesday night. After the debate of course. I've never watched the show before but this episode had a piece about Aokigahara, the haunted forest in Japan, which tweaked my interest.

So these "researchers" go to the forest and at nightfall take off in different directions to look for ghosts. Of course they all get lost but after the commercial break all is fine. One of them did find what appeared to be an abandoned camp site so the group returns there under the premise that whoever was there must have died or killed them self there. The scientific method is hard at work here, friends.

Strange things occur and their instruments detect anomalies. That's when one of them calls out for the ghost to appear before them...in English. Granted, a lot of Japanese speak a little English but I thought the chances were pretty slim that the ghost was fluent in English. Unless all things including language become known once you pass into the next world. Chuckle.

The group did record some video of something that looked like a ghost and they did think they encountered ghosts on the trail but the jury is still out. They then went to the Philippines in search of some shape-shifting, hairy, ghoul.

A Tangled Mess

It took me over an hour to untangle The Little One's Slinky® yesterday. I was almost tempted to take a pair of wire cutters to it. I can still hear the sound in my head.

Where Am I?

Since I was early for a doctors appointment I experimented with my location services on my phone yesterday. I had tried it at home before but since my subdivision is new and not on any of the internet maps yet, I really couldn't say if it was accurate. It looked pretty darned close but hard to tell when the dot on the map is in terrain. Anyway, it took about six seconds to zero in on my location and it was accurate. Very accurate. I was surprised to see that it was accurate up to which parking space I was in.

The Hateful Thing

I was flipping channels the other night and came across an episode of Night Gallery that included a short at the end titled "The Doll." This one has frightened me since I originally saw it in the 70s. I do not like dolls in real life and have had a couple of recurring nightmares involving dolls throughtout my life. I recorded the short on the DVR so my wife could enjoy the episode the next day. She didn't enjoy it all.

Talking On The Typewriter

My Oldest One started school back on July 18 and is attending a new middle school. Obviously she's made some new friends by the amount of time she spends texting on her cell phone. Last night after dinner, she kept receiving messages and in turn sent replies back. I asked if the messages were coming from multiple persons and she said no, just one person. Since they had already sent about twenty messages in a span of fifteen minutes I asked wouldn't it be easier to just call them and talk on the phone? Her reply was no, they don't like talking. I don't get it.

The Visitor

I was putting the Little One in her car seat this morning when the Oldest One opened the door and said "Mom needs you right away! Hurry!" So I take the Little One out of the seat and we both go into the house while I'm wondering what is going on. Maybe there's a water leak? Or maybe a window was broken? I get to the entry way and my wife is standing by the front door which is in large part glass and pointing outside. She says "look." I don't see anything. She repeats her command. I still don't see anything. She remains pointing and I follow the direction of her index finger and I see it. A tarantula is crawling up the wall of our porch.

It was actually a juvenile...about the size of a saucer. My wife says "kill it." I immediately said "no way." Besides, it's outside and can't get in unless we let it in. I told her some stuff I think I saw on the Discovery Channel about how roaches and rodents can flatten their bodies to get into small crevices and that tarantulas can't do that. I don't know if that's correct but it sounded good at the time. I also said that tarantulas eat pests and are normally docile towards people and that it would go away on its own. She insisted that I go out and kill it and I told her that it would make a really big mess if I stepped on it and that it would probably only get mad if I sprayed it with bug spray or water. The Little One, who usually wants to keep every wild thing she sees (like roadrunners and toads) didn't want anything to do with the tarantula.

So after a few more minutes of discussion we left the tarantula to do its own thing outside and hopefully go away before we get home. And I just hope that it doesn't get into the house, because if it does and my wife finds it, I'm in big trouble. Now that the excitement is over I wish I had thought to at least take a picture or grab the video camera. Oh well, maybe next time.

To Russia With Goldfinger

Wow, a new post. I've been slacking in the blogging everyday thing. It's almost like a job and I don't want another one of those. But I've got to say that I'm glad Jen is finally gone from Hell's Kitchen. I predict that Corey will walk away with the spatula this year. I've become addicted to jalapeno stuffed olives. And I've been spending way too much time late at night playing RFoM death matches online thru my PS3. Oh, and it's way too hot around here. I could use a Bomb Pop right about now. Make it so.

Street View

I keep forgetting to mention this...I was driving on the interstate a couple of weeks ago when a strangely outfitted car passed me. There was equipment on the roof of the car highlighted by a long pole with something mounted on the end. I was curious so I sped up and noticed the Google logo on the door. I realized then that it must be one of their cameras that captures the images for Street View. I can't wait until that option goes live in my area so I can see myself in the view. Then I'll sue Google for oogles of dinero for violating my privacy (I may have been dislodging a popcorn kernel from my teeth when it passed me.)

Tragic Accident

I didn't find out until this morning that Steven Curtis Chapman lost his youngest daughter. For someone who inspired me years ago and taught me a few things about life, the least I can do is post my condolences. News like this just pulls at the heart strings and especially so when you are a parent also.

Where's The Creature?

I just came across Yahoo! Movies' 20 Great Movie Creatures and I'm not impressed. I'll give them the benefit because it wasn't titled the "Top 20" but come on. The Gill Man not mentioned but a baby Lochness monster is? Although, they are right about the flying monkees.

Jediism...All Hail George Lucas

Or should it be Obi Wan? No, Luke Skywalker? Now I've heard it all. I'm not knocking religion or the "accepted" belief systems and doctrines but I think this is kooky. I do have a question, though. If I join, when do I get my light sabre?

Thought

My fave on American Idol left last week. Yes, I liked Brooke. But my second fave, David Cook (who I think is going to win this competition), now has my complete attention. Oops, maybe I shouldn't have said that because I thought the same about Chris Daughtry. Well, I hope this is the last time we see Jason. I can't stand that guy. I really can't. Adios, Jason.

Something Wicked

So, what's the deal with all the recent earthquakes around the country? Lately the news has been centered around Reno but there have been temblors occurring all over. Has this been happening all the time but I just missed the news or is this something new that could portend something unpleasant? I can still remember while living in Japan what earthquakes felt like. Some were really scary. Especially the large ones that occurred during the middle of the night. Maybe something is about to awaken.

I Think I'm Going To Be Sick

We now have Dish Network since cable isn't available in our subdivision because there aren't enough houses built to warrant Time Warner to lay the network. "It's not cost effective at this time" was their answer to me. Jerks (because the guy was snippy on the phone when I said I needed to cancel my service.) Well that's alright because I have other options and at a lower price than cable.

So, we got to watch Verminators on Discovery Channel yesterday. It was a first for us and we were thoroughly grossed out. Me not so much with the rodent infestations but with the roaches. Ugh, my whole body just tingled with disgust. I can't understand how people can live like that.