To keep up with what is happening technology wise, and not have to pay for it, I read some of the technology blogs and websites out there. For being 2008, we really aren’t advancing all that much. More cell phones, more laptops, more flat screen TV’s, more MP3 players, more gadgets that will end up in a landfill somewhere. I remember when computers used to be interesting, not appliances. In the 80’s computers/technology was changing all the time. I remember computers and game consoles going from 8, to 16, to 32, to 64 bit, all in one decade. I remember when CD’s first came out. I remember computers with color graphics came out. Now, all we get is refinements, nothing really new. Ohh, excitement, another point and shoot digital camera with more pixels. (Advice from Dave, if you only plan to print 4×6 or 5×7, THREE mega pixels is all you need.)
Instead of buying disposable technology, we bought a new refrigerator with some of our tax incentive. Everyone asks, did your old one break? Well, no, we wanted a new one. Why do you have to wait for it to break (and ruin probably $100 in food) to replace it? It costs half the price of a new laptop computer and no one asks why you bought a new laptop/mp3 player/TV when your old one works. Hey, we were just sick of a top freezer. We now have a bottom freezer AND this fridge uses probably half the energy of the old one. We even did the environment and out pocketbooks some good and sold the old one to some local farmers. Ironically, they came from Texas, didn’t like the weather there.
As another observation, it is really nice to get some customer service in this day and age. I don’t know why companies demonize commission (I am looking at you Circuit City) but it really makes the salespeople give a shit. No Sale=No Money. We bought the fridge at Sears. Very good customer service, no up-selling, and it was delivered on time. I think everyone is too complacent with inept sales people. Best Buy used to (they may now, its been years since I talked to salesperson there) announce they were commission free. They are also brain free as well. Thank you very much, I can READ the little card in front of the product you know nothing about. In Home Depot, do they still have people who work on the sales floor? In WalMart, if they are not at the Jewelery counter or Electronics, I really don’t think anyone is on the floor who is not stocking something. Target is just as bad, but at least they have the red bat phones to call up customer service to find something. Personally I would not mind paying a little more if someone could actually help me every now and then.
Well, that’s enough venting. Tiffany’s second mother’s day this weekend. The Glenn Monster is still growing. We will be taking him to the Zoo later today. Been almost a year since we have been to Lincoln Park. Glenn is learning more words, some not intentionally. He can almost say “Dave” now from Tiffany talking to me. He can also say “Dumb” which is kinda funny. Have to watch our language around him. Fuck.
Since when did Chicagotribune.com become a cheap porn site? Pop up adds, click though adds, flash adds everywhere. I know you need advertising dollars, but, come on. Do you really think those ads work? The redesign looks terrible and it is getting hard to navigate though all the ads to read something useful. Another thing, your videos suck as well. I come to a newspaper’s website to READ, not to watch videos.
Sorry, just had to vent.
You know, I am sick of hearing that we live in the greatest country on Earth.
You know, the one with the highest infant mortality rate of any developed country.
The only one with no national health care system.
The one with no free universities.
The one that ships all of its well paying jobs to overseas.
The one with 50 million citizens that they are one health problem away from bankruptcy or worse.
The one with the highest per capital health care costs.
The only one that does not have vacations mandated by law.
The one that spends more money on making war THAN EVERY OTHER COUNTRY ON EARTH COMBINED!
The one where the streets look like they are made out of rubble and potholes can swallow whole cars.
The one where bridges collapse due to neglect.
The one where 40 kids at a time learn to read in a trailer.
The one where there is any budget crisis, the arts and music are the first cut.
The one with the most people in prison (per capita and absolute.)
The one with the most hand gun deaths (per capita and absolute.)
The one where it takes longer to remove the rubble than to build skyscrapers.
The one after 7 years, we still haven’t found Bin Laden.
The one racking up trillions in debt each year.
The one where, adjusted for inflation, we are making less each year.
The one where we drive vehicles designed for $1.25 a gallon gas, but gas costs nearly $4.00
The one with no high speed rail service.
The one with an airline traffic system that can collapse at any moment.
The one more dependent on foreign oil now than ever before.
The one where foreclosures are up 80 to 300% more than last year.
I’m sorry, I just don’t believe the lie anymore when I look at the statistics and see streets crumbling around me. This is still a great country, but not the greatest, and we have deep, serious flaws that need to be fixed.
Over the last two weeks Glenn has really been changing. Mostly, he is picking up/speaking new words now. The latest are:
Ham, ball, and No. What is really impressive is his growing understanding of abstractions. If he sees a picture of a furry animal, he will hold it up to his face to feel the ‘fur’. If he sees a baby in a book, he will imitate what pose the baby is in. If he sees a truck or car in a book, he will make is vroom car sound. He is imitating everything we do now, especially house work. He even likes wearing a watch like Daddy! I let him wear my cheap Timex and he kept it on for over an hour! I can tell he wants to wear some of my more interesting looking watches but mechanical watches+21 month old=not good. They are tough, but not designed to be worn by toddlers who tend to throw things.
In other news, we are trying out Netflix. I don’t know why we didn’t years ago. It is nice to actually see movies we want to see, not the movies the video store just happen to have. The play it now feature is pretty cool too, only thing that sucks it that is only works in windows. I think they use that Microsoft silverlight (their clone of Flash) for playing movies.
from his cold, dead, hands. Charlton Heston died today. Without him, we would never of know how apes learned to talk and controlled the Earth or the book of exodus.