Trump Has No Balls

 Yesterday was... not quite meh, but not terrible.  The temps climbed into the mid 80s (F) and the humidity dried up a bit.  There was supposedly a threat of thundershowers, but that amounted to nothing.  Clouds came and went, and I hung 2 loads of laundry outside to dry.  No worries.

There's already a load of my brightly colored T-shirts hanging on the drying rack.  I'm loving this summer.

So, I've been debating if I want to give up my Xbox Game Pass.  They just raised the price, and with tax (there's always tax) it's $20 a month.  There would be value in this if I were downloading and playing lots of games, but I'm not, there are very few studios that I follow.  Besides, most of the games being produced are geared for young adults, or Teens, and are uninteresting.  I also don't see many games coming out that I feel a desperate need to play.  

And, the Paris Olympics begin today, and rather than build brand new venues, Paris is going to be showcasing what's already there.  There will be rowing on the Seine!  How exciting is that!  Fencing at Versailles!  Of course, Parisians will be upset because of delays, and crowds, and the changes that are happening.  I've met Parisians and they are very difficult to satisfy.  In a week's time, this will all be in the past and Paris, and France, will be much better off financially.

And the coward Trump will not be debating Kamala Harris.  No surprise there.  I laughed at the bit where he says the Democrats are in chaos.  

The truth is that Donald Trump has always been a coward.  The instant he has to "put up, or shut up," he chickens out.  This old man is terrified.  I don't doubt that even the idea of standing on the stage next to a smart black woman has him cowering in his boots.  And, as always, he's trying to place the blame on someone else.  Honestly, if he truly wants to be president he should see this as a challenge.  Can you hear me laughing.  I'm surprised he didn't try a "well, I'm too busy with my campaign to debate" excuse.  The Republican party just took a major hit because many of their voters who are sitting on the fence will now just stay home.  He's a weak man who has always depended on the balls of his attorneys to survive.

And what is all this stuff about JD Vance having sex with a sofa?  He definitely is not out to impress the ladies, is he?

Cherry picking history

 I was the only specialist at the flooring desk yesterday.  Business was sporadic.  I set up 2 measures, but one woman never paid for hers, so that didn't count.  While I did sell some laminate flooring, mostly I sat and talked to other associates.  

A wall clock that I had in the kitchen died yesterday morning.  Even though my dad had received it as a retirement present, it had very little sentimental value.  I will need to buy a replacement.  Perhaps a cuckoo clock.  Something that makes noise.  Nothing battery operated.  I want a clock with a movement which needs to be wound.

A summer cold might be in my future.  So far this morning, I've coughed 3 times and my nose has begun to dribble... but just a little.  If it is a cold, it should be gone by tomorrow.  We shall have to wait and see.

My new controller arrived yesterday before I went to work.  Nice, eh?  I can't wait to pair this baby with my Xbox Series X.

I was talking last evening with a friend who's rather alarmed that Justice Alito seems to not only believe he's in charge of the Supreme Court, but that he's been chosen by God to make America Christian again.  What a dolt.  His comment about helping young Americans to find religion again outlines his focus completely.  I don't doubt for a second that he's a man who's thinking now is a really good time for another Inquisition.  For Alito, the path to success is by oppressing everything he sees as standing in the way of his dream.  He is also the type of fanatic who would have no problem sending those same young Americans to their deaths in order to garner the victory he craves.  He will not succeed.  He is flawed.  He doesn't understand that there will always be religious beliefs, however, they may not be the beliefs he cherishes so deeply.  History has proved this point over and over again, no matter where you live in the world.  Unfortunately, because Alito is a man who needs to cherry-pick his history, he will never see the truth.

Nuts

 Biggie didn't eat his dinner because he had a booboo belly, it made cranky noises all night.  He's fine today.  He's on a low dose NSAID for dogs because of his arthritis (it runs in the family).  He's supposed to get 2 when he needs them.  Usually, I give him 1.  Yesterday he was really stiff, so he got 2.  I don't think his belly was ready for 2.

Today I'm changing the media in my tank.  The filter is on the bottom shelf of the stand, that means not only bending over, but getting down on my knees.  Not fun stuff for me.  Still, it has to be done regularly.

For those interested, there will be a Dr. Who reference in The Body in Repose.

Oh, and I ordered the last of my Christmas Presents yesterday.  An Xbox Series X.  The top of the line.  Since I already have a Series S, I'm going to sell that one.  Usually I give things away, but it's only 4 months old, and it was $300, and it's paid for, so I'm going to try and offset the cost of the Series X.  The new console should be arriving on Wednesday.

I baked cinnamon rolls yesterday with nuts.  The recipe didn't call for walnuts, but I like them, so they were chopped up and mixed with the cinnamon filling.  Oh, and I didn't put cream cheese in the frosting, my attempt to keep them from being overwhelmingly rich.

On the Rittenhouse verdict:  His defense won the case when he broke down sobbing on the witness stand.  Listening to him, and watching his mother, I gather he is possibly a little below average intelligence.  Conservatives love people like him, and as such, he will now be their tool, quite probably for the rest of his life.  The message sent was that vigilantism is okay, which is not good.  Conservatives don't understand vigilantism is a 2 way street, and this trial set a very high precedent.  Outside the courthouse several people shouted out "2nd amendment!"  That made me laugh because these assholes believe they are the only ones to own guns.  Pardon my French, but these people are fucking nuts.

Blame

 Well, hello Mr. Weekend!

Today is the last of my 3 sequential workdays.  Beginning tomorrow, I have 3 sequential days off.  Now isn't that nice.  One of these days I'm will need to sit down with a calendar and decide just when I'm going to go part-time.  Let me be honest, I do like the extra money coming in, so part-time for me might actually be working 24 hours a week.  At the onset of Lockdown, I worked 5 hour days and that was simply fine.  I will have to set up a little spreadsheet to calculate income vs expenses.

And yesterday, things were a bit skewed.  I had ordered one of the Xbox gaming consoles, the Series S version.  With the Series S, you download your games rather then purchase a 'hard' copy.   While I like purchasing a disc you can insert into the console, I took a long look at all of the games I had purchased and realized many were never going to be played again.  Besides, the series S was $200 less then the Series X.  Initially, the console was supposed to be delivered yesterday, how I changed the deliver date to Monday since I was scheduled off, (that cost me almost $6).  Yesterday morning, around 0800, I get an email telling me my console is out for delivery.  So I ended up going into work late.  Last evening, I set it up.  The blame for this mini-fiasco goes to FedEx, and I will be getting a credit since they charged me for nothing.

And what about that sorry sack of shit governor Kay Ivey?  So like a Republican, right?  They sure do like to point their fingers.  What surprises me is that she didn't some how manage to blame Biden as well.  Maybe tie in The Big Lie, a variation on the theme 'these people aren't getting vaccinated because Democrats are phony socialists.'  In conservative states, where the conservative media and conservative politicians have been working in conjunction to spread rumors about the invalidity of vaccines, counts are going up among Republican voters.  Isn't this ripe?  Ivey's been one of those reinforcing the falsehoods about vaccinations... until she realizes it's too late.  The one person she needs to blame more then anyone else is herself, of course she won't.  That would mean she's nothing more then a loser.

Bill Gates Returns (almost)

Bill Gates is returning to Microsoft - albeit in an advisory mode, or... something like that.  When I heard that all I could do was wonder what took him so long.  Face it, 2013 was not a banner year for the corporation, in fact it seemed as though every month or so someone with Executive Status was shooting themselves in the foot.  I'm sure Mr. Gates was not at all pleased.  Take Windows.  That's his baby.  He was responsible for an operating system which was unbelievably popular because it worked well.  Windows 8 was loathed by many, including me.  It had been pre-installed on a newly purchased laptop.  I wrote about it back then.  Why someone would create an OS designed more for touch screens then anything else was something I just could not comprehend.  You can use a tablet to view reports, verify information, and send email... oh, and putz around on, but you can't use it for data entry.  Try writing a report on one and you'll realize how time expensive it is.  Windows 8 was so unpopular they tried to do an update and they cursed us with 8.1, which turns out to be just as crappy.  I'd heard it was turning so many Lenovo tablets into expensive paperweights they stopped installing it. I don't know who the pudding brains were who thought Windows 8 and 8.1 were good ideas, but I do suspect they are now working in the mail room.

Almost back in the saddle again

Then there was the Xbox One, which was going down like the Titanic until Microsoft started caving in.  This was really a WTF moment in history.  They forgot that the Xbox was designed for video games.  What Microsoft did, in fact, was drop a shit bomb on gamers and try to turn the Xbox into a "Media Center."  They did this because they made too many assumptions about the Kinect.  You see, they sold a shit load, and as a result some jelly brain at Microsoft thought just about every family room in America had a Kinect attached to an Xbox.  What this jelly brain didn't realize was that he was, in actuality, having a brain fart.  You see, a lot of those Kinects they sold were in kid's bedrooms.  I'm not a kid and I bought one, not so I could do the Zumba, but rather to yell commands while playing Skyrim and Mass Effect 3.  The issues kept rolling out and Microsoft started backpedaling because they had no other choice and that made them look dumb as bricks.

I think Bill Gates is coming back, even in a limited capacity, because in 2013 Microsoft failed in a big way.  They failed to understand the needs of their customer base, and not just their needs, often their basic requirements.  To be a successful corporation in today's world you need to fulfill your customer's expectations.  You need to keep your base happy, because they will turn on you in the blink of an eye and the whole world will know how much they disapprove.

More pudding heads at Microsoft

In case you didn't know it, yesterday was the big reveal for the new Xbox.  I received emails reminding me to watch and I ignored them.  However, I'm sure there were quite a number of people out there who were glued to their tablets, and phones and monitors breathlessly waiting in anticipation.  What did the get?   Unlike the Playstation 4 reveal they got a chance to see the product.  Last evening I watched and read some of what Microsoft made public and I was not impressed.  A Kinect is necessary which is going to raise the price.  You will be able to tell it if you want to play a game or watch TV, sounds okay, however I immediately started wondering if this was a service you will have to pay for, like the Xbox Gold

There had been a lot of mish mashing chat going on about whether there were going to be DRM issues.  If they were going to build some sort of digital management into the new Xbox, how was it going to effect retail merchants like Gamestop.  Hell, there are quite a number of gamers out there who play through a game and go trade it in on something else.  How would the new Xbox deal with this issue.  In fact there was so much chitter chatter going on Microsoft finally came out unofficially ahead of time and said that was not going to be an issue.  Of course they were right, it isn't an issue, however those pudding heads at Microsoft weren't completely honest either.  Old games aren't going to play on the Xbox One, only new games.  They did say there will be 18 titles available when the system hits the retail market.  Ain't that enough to give you a little boner?

I think this is going to be very, expensive

This means that if you only are interested in playing one or two of those titles, well, that's it until something else you might find interesting gets released.  You're not going to be able to run out to Gamestop and buy another game, not of them will work.  The Halo you love to play so much on your 360 will not play on your One.  So, if perhaps you've never played Halo and decide to give it a try you will need to play it on your old system, not the new "One" which may have cost $700 to purchase.  This means that the games I already own, some of the near and dear to my heart (like Skyrim) will not play.  Do you think this is a really good selling point?  I don't.  Will I run out and buy one?  Hell no!  You have to remember, the same pudding heads who thought Windows 8 was a good idea, and who now have to come out with 8.1 because of all the hate, also thought about the new Xbox One.  Will people really give up their 360's for a One or will they wait until reason hits the pudding heads and they  come out wit some sort of update that gives a little common sense to their insanity. 

Xbox 720, will it be dicked up by the pudding heads at Microsoft?

Since I have an Xbox 360, I received a special email from Xbox to watch the reveal of the new Xbox 720 on May 21.  I'm off work that day so I put it on my calendar.  Should be interesting.  There has been so much hokey pokey info being leaked about the game system, no one is really sure what to expect.  Now and then I will just do a search to see what turds are being dropped on the unsuspecting public, each and every one being dubbed 'official,' or 'from a reliable source.'  The Internet is littered with photos of controllers and consoles which may look a bit on the nifty side but fail logically.  Here's one:

I'll admit the keyboard is neat, but why the screen?  If I buy one, it's going to be attached to my 60" flat screen.  You know?  The one with the amazing sound system?  And are those arm rests on either side? Hhmmm, I guess that's for when you chose to lie on the floor to play your game, or stream your movie, or watch your video.  Maybe Microsoft just wants you to be comfortable.

Actually, what will really be interesting, is how the Xbox 720 is going to tie into the re-release of Windows 8.1, because they are both linked together.  Face it, Windows 8 is an unmitigated disaster, and don't think Microsoft isn't learning a very expensive lesson.  You can change the OS anyway you like, just as long as you remember the customers.  Don't give them something geared towards a product they don't own, like a tablet or phone with Windows 8 installed.  Like I said in an earlier post, there are a lot of pudding heads at Microsoft.  Supposedly 8.1 will provide fixes for the complaints that have been shrieking around the Internet, one of them being the disappearance of the "START" button.  My big complaint is that every time I move my mouse from left to right the Charms pop up and the system pauses, waiting for me to select one.  Yo, pudding heads at Microsoft, it's a mouse, not a finger!  I can't take it off of the screen.  The pudding head who came up with that concept needs to be canned.  The problem was too many pudding heads were not thinking about what the consumer has right now on their desk, or in their hand.  No, they were thinking about what is supposedly coming down the line.  How stupid can you be?

Multi-player not for me

One of the draws for both Xbox and Playstation is the ability to go online and participate in multi-player games.  This format is not for me, I play for fun not to be competitive that's one of the reasons.  Rather then sitting back with a cocktail, I find playing games is a good way for me to release stress at the end of the day.  The main reason I don't participate in multi-player is I don't want to have to listen to some smart ass 12 year old telling me he's going to kicky my "motherfuckin ass."  What?  You don't think they talk like that?  Too many parents think (in a squeaky voice) "they're just playing with their friends."  Sometimes, yeah, but not all times.  If you are trying to actually play a game you don't want some idiot cursing you out in NC-17 language, because he can, because you are somewhere else in the world and not in his room.

ME3 is a great game, however it's rated for mature audience since it contains, blood, language, gory violence and adult sexual situations. This is not a game for 12 year-olds it's for adults, or at least those with the maturity level to realize it is just a game.  For too many parents video games are baby sitters.  At one time baby sitters were television sets, for some parents they still are, but now there's another baby sitter in town.  Monitor you kids, you don't want them taking attitudes learned playing video games out into the world, unless, of course you want them to get smacked back real hard.