And it’s not just that it’s looking kind of dirty. It’s that no matter what, it just doesn’t look clean. The last place we inhabited had regular carpet of about the same shade off-white. But while it would look dated between weekly vacuum jobs, it always, always cleaned up nice. The berber, it sucks. Not only that, but it snags when you vacuum it.

And then The Girl researches the matter. The snagging is our fault, it seems. Apparently, Berber carpeting requires suction-only vacuuming? And yearly (at least) steam cleaning? Holly hell? Are you kidding me?

Someone please explain how you’re supposed to get a fibrous carpet clean with suction alone. Because I don’t think it’s possible. Especially not with dogs. Or cats. Or hell, even people. What a freaking joke this carpet is. So not only does it wear like sh!t, snag, and not clean up well, but actually trying to clean it like you would think to clean carpet ruins it. Sweet.

And c’mon, who’s going to move the furniture around yearly so they can steam it? Sheesh. More & more, it’s quite apparent to me that solid flooring is the way to go. Polished concrete, I’m all yours, baby.

Tags: hate

It’s Finally here: The Abridged Script for The Dark Knight.
Read all about it. READ IT GODAMMIT! Yeah I liked the movie, yeah it’s pretty good, but c’mon, it’s got tons of folly to it. It’s riddled with plot holes & plot devices (that sounds sort of sexual, doesn’t it?) that are there because without them, the movie would just have to end at about the 45-minute mark, because it’s otherwise impossible to make the jump to the rest of the implausible story.

A friend and I yesterday were discussing our least-favorite things about it. He called shenanigans on the whole “Maggie falls from a building onto the top of a car and LIVES.” I still think that the Joker being OMNIPOTENT and knowing things no one could know in order to make a ridiculous set of plans work is the most shenanigan of all, however.

Favorite line from the Abridged Script?

HEATH LEDGER [to Maggie Gyllenhal @ party]
I can wait. Want to hear a story? Once upon a time, I had a wife. She was beautiful, like you. Er, no, I mean in complete contrast to you. You’re actually kind of a butterface. But at least you’re not Katie Holmes, I like that.
BAT-BALE
Then you’re gonna love me!

It’s so great because it digs so hard @ Katie Homely, then ties right back into the actual movie lines. It’s just brilliant.



Artists Avoiding iTunes because: Singles are cannibalizing Album Sales
Well duh. Look, I think it’s a sad statement to make that you’re keeping your music off iTunes (Kid Rock) because people don’t want to buy your entire album. You know what that essentially means? Your music is largely crap. You want me to buy an album instead of the two good songs on that album? How about this: don’t put two GOOD songs on an album and then fill it with absolute crap-as-filler. Try that. See if that works. Maybe album sales will go up if albums, you know, don’t suck.

If you’re of the mindset that I should own your entire CD to “understand” your music, then there’s something about your audience I think you should “understand”: We don’t care about your semi-rich people problems. We like one or two songs, we really only want those one or two songs. I don’t feel like paying you for sh!t I don’t like.

I know it’s weird, but how’s this for a trade: I’ll buy your crappy songs I don’t want, if you buy my crappy macaroni art that I glued onto some pieces of white paper that nobody wants. Deal?

F*cking Putzes.

Tags: hate

Now I can retire the 4Runner, get it detailed, & get it sold! Great!

Until, that is, a few hours later. We get a phone call, the guy tells us they won’t have it until the middle of next month. How fucked up is that? That’s an additional two weeks away. He offered an additional $75 off the price, but still. I mean, that’s an extra month I have to pay insurance on the 4Runner and worry about it, now. I got this truck to replace it, and I’ve spent the last two weeks already parking the Taco & digging out the Retired Vet to do the job.

Little pissed, here.

Delays w/ the Skid Plate, too
Remember how they forgot to order & install the Skid Plate? They said it would be here by this passed Monday. It’s now less than 3 hours from Friday. Methinks they forgot again.

Grrr. Tomorrow we call. See if we can’t at least get that straightened out.

Tags: hate, Vehicles

OK as much as I love the damn thing, I simultaneously hate the hell out of it. I just got it back from warranty service Friday. Yesterday when I went out to take pictures of my hella-cool new rearview mirror camera, I find that it’s making this horrible, juddering noise when I turn it on/off and the lens opens/retracts. Horrible noise, can’t be good.

Needless to say, this is getting old. TOO old.

I really hope that some sort of lemon law applies here. I’ll be calling Canon on Tuesday to let them know that their camera is GREAT! When it’s working. Not so much all the other times. Cuz I will keep sending it back until they get it right or get me a new one that is right.

Seriously. Don’t believe me? F*ck, I did it with a damn new truck, fools! A camera ain’t nothin’.

Tags: hate, Photography

Well in my mind, those were the deal-breakers. Turns out though, there were other features that until I played with them, I had no idea they were actually the deal-breakers. One in particular, though. Rear Backup Camera. Oh. My. God. I cussed when I played with it. We went to test drive the truck this time before we signed the paperwork (good idea!), and the first thing we did was pop it in reverse and try out the rear backup camera. I was curious where the hell the monitor was, as the dash radio was not one of those DVD-navigation thingies that I figured would be responsible. Any guesses? I am looking over the dash, trying to figure out where the monitor’s going to be, and I glance up (out of habit) and lo-and-behold, the monitor for the backup camera… is in the rearview mirror. It was too cool for me to restrain myself, and the next thing I know I’m laying down an explicative-laced hoorah that seemed to make everyone giddy with laughter.

But it was cool to me! It was that cool. Still is. It’s so amazing, because I’ve owned a pickup before and I know that it’s hard as hell to judge where your butt actually is. When you’re trying to back up as much as possible (parallel parking, anyone?), it’s awesome in that it gives you the confidence you otherwise couldn’t have without constantly getting out to check first-person.

How cool is it? Here, I took pictures. This first one, shows the rearview before I put it in reverse. Just your average rearview mirror (click for large):

But wait! Put that thing into “R,” and now we’re flying all cool-like and sh!t (click for large):

You’re jealous. And I don’t blame you. :-)



The Sought-After New Features of the NEW New Truck
So about those alphabet-soups above. They have meaning. Shall we? Let’s.

DAC, or Downhill Assist Control, is pretty much just awesome. What it does is to take control of your throttle & braking and do what you can’t do with your pedals. It assists your descent down steep slopes by activating the ABS on each wheel, independently to keep your rig facing the right direction. That direction being face-down, because if you’re sideways on a steep decline, you’re probably about 5 seconds from rolling. It’s a little thing I like to call physics. So. You activate it, you take your foot of the pedals, and just steer. It handles the braking & everything for you, at each wheel, independently. It’s freaking awesome.

HAC, or Hill-Start Assist Control, is a feature by which you don’t have to worry about rolling backwards when you start uphill from a dead-stop. You know how in your car, when you release the brake you start sliding backwards? Yeah, well. Not me. Not anymore. My truck will automagically keep the brake engaged until the gas is actually applied. Think of it as power braking, but without the effort.

A-TRAC, or Active Traction Control, is a system only available in 4x4 Lo mode that uses the braking system similar to the DAC function, but in order to give you power where you need it. See typically, your tires will spin when they hit no resistance, and the drivetrain sort of (quite against intuition) sends the power to those wheels. And the real problem is that the ones that are spinning free are the ones that you want spinning least. Well A-TRAC uses the braking system like DAC, applying the brakes to the wheels that are spinning free, diverting the power instead to the wheels that are still in contact with the ground, propelling you forward instead. It’s also – like DAC – freaking awesome.

Remember back at the beginning of the year? When the 4Runner (without any such assistance or even a rear diff lock –something else the Taco has that I wanted) got stuck in a rut by the side of the road? With one wheel spinning free, in 4WD? Had I had the Tacoma, probably would’ve been able to make it out without the tow.

VSC uses the same principles of A-TRAC & DAC, but during normal driving instead. It’s there to compensate for out-of-control maneuvers, such as during emergency swerves & such. It also uses the brakes and it’s “brain” to calculate what wheels need to be braked in order to point the car in the direction you’re really pointing it. It’s kind of cool after reading about it and how it works, as well as watching a video or two about it. I was on the fence originally, but now I’m sold.



Last Word
So. Yeah. That’s the truck in a nutshell. I look forward to taking it out for a spin in the rough, but that won’t be for a couple of weeks. We have a camper shell on order, and the dogs aren’t allowed in the bed until that’s on properly. I’m not going to have doggy splattered all over some road somewhere. Well, at least mine.

And since we don’t go out anywhere without them, well, the 4Runner will still be gainfully employed for at least that long.

Tags: Vehicles, Animals

That was Thursday last week. Saturday, I get “the call” that the truck is in. Yay! It’s late though, and I worked early Sunday as well, so we set up a time for Sunday afternoon to get all the paperwork done. Cool. Well keep in mind that this time is about 4pm, and they close @ 5pm. So everyone’s trying to get through all the paperwork quick and close up shop & go home to their families. Including us. Well they walk us through the paperwork, we see the truck pull up and it’s the right color, it’s the right Off-Road Package, right doors, etc etc. So we’re good to go and we drive home.

The problems started when we got home and got to reading. I was pouring over the manual, trying to figure out all the options and how to do things like turn off the VSC it supposedly had, because I couldn’t quite find the switch. And I see where they show all the lights on the dash for all the various options, and I know for a fact (I know) that when you turn the key to “on” on about every vehicle by any manufacturer, it by default lights up all the lights. And you know what? None of the lights for those features existed on the truck I drove home.

I’m not going to make this post overly long, but suffice to say that the truck was taken back to the dealer the next morning. Some of you are saying yeah but you signed the contract so you’re screwed and you’re actually wrong. We had to haggle and make the point that we had signed up to have a particular option package delivered for a particular price, and quite bluntly, the vehicle they called to say was delivered was not that vehicle they said they would deliver.

The problem was rooted in the fact that the salesman was basing his assumptions on what the vehicle came with based on the “Package” kits. He found a 2008 with the “OC” package, but when we looked to make sure what all came with it, the problem was he showed us a 2009 and told us about the 2009 OC package, and assumed the “OC” was the same between years. However, it is not.

Since there wasn’t a question of that – the sales guy readily admitted the foley – it was just a matter of getting us either a) what we wanted, or b) invalidating the contract and we walk away, never to come back. The thing is though, they wronged us in the process. Whether intentionally or not, they misled their customers into a deal that was not as advertised, and that’s bad press no matter what. I was willing to work with them, but I wanted them to meet me halfway at least. I mean, this was their fault basically, and it had inconvenienced us 3 days and some # of hours at the least, and also possibly leaves a bad taste in the customer’s mouth, right? You don’t want that getting around.

They tried to find us a 2008 with the options we wanted and succeeded, but the problem was that this thing MSRP’d above what a similarly-but-optimally-equipped 2009 retails for. It made more sense to me that they should come down on the 2008 price, close to what we originally intended seeing as how that’s basically what they initially offered. However for whatever reasons, they were going too far into the negative trying to please us on the 2008 model.

And here’s where things get weird. Good, but weird. You see, the manager eventually came out, and basically hit the nail on the head: We wanted a 2009 Tacoma. Yes, we did, we wanted the groupings of features that come on the “OC” package 2009 models, but didn’t want to pay the 2009 Price, we wanted to pay what we thought was fair seeing as how it was a year older now. Again, for whatever reason, they couldn’t. BUT, they COULD work the 2009 model down. And in fact, after going back & forth with the manager on what it meant to take care of the customer and what we wanted-or-we-walked, he went bottom-basement to take care of us.

It still doesn’t make sense, but now we’re going to get a fully-loaded 2009 OC model for just about $850 more than what the 2008 mid-tier 2008 model was that we originally drove off the lot with. I’m not going to get into prices too much, I don’t want to offend anyone’s decencies, nor do I want people to think they can waltz in and get the deal we got, but let’s just say that after the packages are put together and the accessory options we got figured in, the MSRP of the truck we’re going to get is around $33K. The 2008 after rebates and price finagling was a good figure under $30K.

They’ve made right be me, so I’m good with that. New Truck should be here today or tomorrow. Yay!

Tags: Vehicles

Sometimes the scheduling makes no sense
I closed work down last night. This morning I was there bright & early, and opened it back up. Sometimes, in scheduling situations like that, I wonder why I don’t just sleep there. Because it’s not as though I’m doing anything else in-between the hours of midnight & 6am anyways, you know?



Taking Delivery tomorrow
After I got home today, I quick-like took the dogs out to the local delta to get them some exercise. When I get home, I hear the not-quite-familiar beep of the answering machine: someone’s left a message! (?)

It was Tauge (pronounced “Tygue”), our car sales-guy, letting us know our new Tacoma was in. Hot damn! So tomorrow when I get off of work (I open tomorrow again), The Girl & I will be heading down to the dealership to fill out the paperwork and hope that they don’t try any last-minute deal-changing maneuvers. A**holes (I’m being presumptive; sue me).

It’s not quite ready, though. They haven’t installed all the accessories on it yet, and we need to make a date to have that done. Why aren’t all my specified accessories installed yet? Because those’re extra, and I haven’t given them any money yet. If they install a bunch of custom options on it, and then I were to back out? Well it’s not like they can undrill all those holes, now is it? So I don’t begrudge them that; they want to have signatures & money, I’m OK with that.

I’m actually surprised they got this far into it without having me actually sign anything yet, to be honest.

But they’ve kinda caught me off-guard, though. I haven’t even so much as shopped for the shell yet. Well, not including stopping by a couple of websites. But I haven’t seen anything and priced it out yet, so damn… Need to get up to speed on that. Going to have this nice new doggy transporter, and not be able to transport them in it for a little bit, it seems. Oh well. I didn’t expect of them to find the truck and have it delivered so fast. My bad.



4Runner’s not ready yet, either
We have to get the 4Runner cleaned up for sale. This also means buffing out the red paint on the passenger-side door.

Whaaa….??

Oh yeah! Forgot to mention it here, didn’t I? At the beginning of my vacation – first day in fact! – we were all loaded up and headed out to one of the local rivers to play around. I saw a note on the window, and upon opening it was met with this: “OOPS! Sorry. For a Good Time Please Call…” OK OK, I made up the good time part, but the rest is true.

Anyway, it turns out this lady ran into my 4Runner. With her red car. It’s actually not that bad, but it needs to be rubbed out, which sort of presents a problem. Because the lady understandably doesn’t want to get taken to the cleaners for what is really a small-time thing. But I need/want to have my 4Runner be all-WHITE, and match as well, preferably. So right now, I’m trying to get her to be OK with paying to have the exterior-only detailed. Seems fair to me. I mean, it wouldn’t be necessary if it weren’t for the red paint, and anything less (paying for the door only) leaves me with at least two shades of white… and we’re not going to the insurance, either, so I think it’s fair.

Still though, it needs to get done before we list it.

Tags: Vehicles, women

We went out to the Dealership to take a drive, get a feel, poke around and make sure that it would fit the bill eventually. Mostly wanted to take a seat in the back seats, and compare the feel of the 4-doors to the Access Cabs. 4-Doors for the win, baby, not even a question about it. The rear seating in the Access Cabs could make Stretch Armstrong feel cramped. The actual test drive was good, too. The engine has good pick-up, though it’s not a match for The Girl’s Tundra. No awkward blind spots, no General Dislikes, really. Has a port for my iPod – which is awesome – and push-button 4-Wheel Drive with locking Diffs, which makes it truly awesome in the sand (which we do frequent).

We ran the numbers with the guy, to get a feel for what they would be willing to do with us on the price, more than anything. Also see what promotions we could get into. He ran back & forth for us (a real nice guy, by the way), and we found a setup that almost worked for us, believe it or not. The monthly payments were close, but they wanted more down than we were willing to go with (see comments here for the details). So I thought I’d make quicker work of the day if I told them that we almost liked those numbers, but we needed them to come down on the price so that a down payment closer to our desired level could be achieved without upping the monthly payments, and add in some options that we needed as well (Additional Front Skid Plate, Roof Rack, & Running Boards).

The idea was that they’d say no we can’t do that, then I could “give them my card” and tell them that when/if they get those numbers to work, they’d have a sale, and to call me. At which point they’d sit on it for a week or so, and cave in so that they have the sale before the month’s up (and I’ve potentially gone elsewhere).

I didn’t actually think they’d just do it on the spot. What the hell? Now I’m the new, proud owner of a Silver Toyo Tacoma. Man, F*ck.

Sucks, huh? :-D

Tags: Vehicles

Tags: Vehicles

Test Drive Tomorrow
I have convinced The Little Woman that we should go and test drive the new Tacomas tomorrow. Not that we plan on coming home with one then, or even soon, but we do want to know what to expect and whether it will even fit the bill (like we think it will).

I should actually be more specific, though: I didn’t actually talk her into it. She was scheduled to work, and I planned on going out to the dealership whilst she was making me a down payment. However she saw my schedule get a new appointment, and managed to get her shift covered so she could go with me :-)

We’re making it make sense, though. Getting the Tacoma, that is. See the way we figure it is, the 4Runner is currently 11 years old. The difference in monthly expense for the New Tacoma will be around $250-300 a month. But what happens if we don’t buy it? What happens when the 4Runner suddenly needs $1500 in service & repair? Well that’s $1500 that has to be spent to get it up to running, that also makes it worth less, and also means we’ve kept it longer which also makes it worth less as well, compounding the issue. And then? Well we have to keep it, and hope nothing else goes bad, as well. Because at that point, it wouldn’t make sense to keep it.

Here’s what I mean. Sell it now, get $5k out of it. Keep it 3 more years, we incur the further loss of value in the 4Runner (say about $2500), and the potential repair costs that WOULD be lost funds (we’ll estimate a repair schedule of $1500 in that time). So in three years, we lose about $4K in value in the 4Runner. That’s cost that cannot, no matter what, be recouped.

However, if we sell it now and get that $5K out of it, yeah we’re paying more per month over that time, but honestly? When the 4Runner goes, it’s being replaced by one anyways, which means that over that 3 years we’re paying $300 more a month, it’s not wasted – it’s going to the same bottom line as it would anyways, it’s just that we move it forward and apply that $4K value in the 4Runner towards the purchase price. Fiscally, it makes sense. Really. It does.

So maybe White? Maybe we come home with a silver one tomorrow? Eh? Eh?

Oh I’m just kidding. It’ll be at least a week before the one I eventually order comes in ;-)

Tags: Vehicles

Not long ago I was talking about how I think the new 4Runners are a bit much in the money department for what they offer. They offer a lot mind you, but for $42K MSRP in top trim, hell that’s a substantial amount of a house in some parts, you know?

However, it occurred to me that a 4Runner is really in some respects a 4-door mid-sized truck with a built-in camper shell over an extremely short bed. In fact, the last generation of 4Runner was actually built on the Toyota Tacoma platform, so that really was an indisputable truth. The new ones are built on a larger frame than the Tacomas, but the idea is still the same, and it got me thinking: Couldn’t I trick out a new Tacoma and put a shell on it and be good? And in fact in some ways, better?

The answer is yes.

If we go Tacoma 4-door with shell, we gain better ground clearance, better weight (save over 400lbs), same door capacity, and actually the dogs would have more room in the back for themselves (even the short-bed is quite spacious compared to the 4Runner Cargo area capacity). Another thing that is great is that since the dog area is completely separate from the people place, cleanup is a breeze: simply hose it off. Since there’s no carpet to worry about, there’s no fear of doggy sheddings all in the fabrics, nor of any liquid seepage & subsequent funk, either.

There are downsides, however. You lose the option for the V8 motor, for one. Another is that you no longer have fingertip control over the dog’s climate, either. With the 4Runner, I can roll up and down the back window from the driver seat, so if it’s getting cold or hot, I can control airflow accordingly. Also, the Tacoma does not have a moonroof option. This would be missed for sure. And there’s certain creature comforts that would be given up, though maybe not really “missed.” For instance, the 4Runner Limiteds have Auto on/off headlamps, so you never have to worry about turning them on or off. And did I mention the moonroof? If not, hey, that’s awesome all by itself.

So space-wise & cleanup-wise, the Tacoma is really better for the dogs, however as far as climate control goes, the 4Runner is the favorite. But the dogs, they are hearty anyway; do they care much if it’s a little windier or not? And one has to wonder, after everything is considered and rolled into the price comparo, is the $11K difference in MSPR really worth a moonroof and roll-up back window and leather seats?

I don’t think it is, honestly. Though I’d miss the moonroof & back window control, I can’t say that an extra $11K later, I’d be happy with a decision in the 4Runner’s favor, all things considered.

Some might say “but you could skimp on some of the features of the Top-Trim 4Runner and bring the cost down to close to the Tacoma,” and you’re right, I could. But then I’m essentially getting the Tacoma anyway, but losing out on all the benefits of one. Except for the moonroof & back window, yeah, but the cargo area is a complete loss, and I’d still be spending more (in the neighborhood of $4-5K).

So it would still stand to reason: the Tacoma may be the way to go, even if the 4-Doors are ugly as all giddy-up.

Tags: Animals, Vehicles

It’s been really awesome, I may have mentioned once or twice here already. I don’t plan on going anywhere. We’ve been pleased with the area, and though weather was a concern for most everyone (“it rains all the time!”), we didn’t find it particularly troublesome. Granted it was another drought year, but even so, we had actually wished for more rain – we could use it up here.

I just wish all these people would go away, so me & BigFoot could live in peace! :-D



Out to the Non-Lake today
We both have the day off, an I plan to get us ready & out of the house on a trek to Blue Lake again today. We were there not too long ago with all the pups, and we felt it was time to visit again.

Don’t let the name fool you; we’re going there to hang out at the river. Because there’s no actual lake. Just a river. A Mad, Mad River.

There’s a nice little hidden trail that we go 4x4-ing down, get to a nice spot removed from the roads, and hang out. It’s convenient, because then we can take all our stuff (say, a cooler, chairs, etc) and not have to lug it 4,000 miles just to get away from the frequented spots. Which is important when you have 4 dogs (we have 4 dogs! Holy crap!)

Don’t worry; the 4Runner’s rough, rugged, and ready for the trail. We’ve done it before, and dammit we’re going to shine again.



My Canon goes in for service
I emailed amazon about trying to return the products, and was met with chirping crickets. Yep, not so much as a word back to me on the matter.

Anyway, with having recently tried out other makers’ cameras, we can safely say that we’d rather put up with Canon’s occasional malfunction than the other manufacturer’s all-the-time sucking with their sucky suckiness.

It’s scheduled to arrive there in about 3 days (UPS ground is SLOWWWW…), and I’ll probably get it back about a week afterwards.

I’ll let you know how it turns out.

Tags: New Family Members, Vehicles

There are other cool upsides, as well. Noise pollution would almost disappear. No more “VROOOM!” right by your ears. Also, no more need to warm an engine. You go out, you put your key in (to turn it on: also, NO IGNITION!), and press the pedal. Since it doesn’t have an operating temperature to reach, there’s no fear of premature wear – press the pedal and go.

And did I mention no more ignition? Yes, yes I did. May not sound like much, but think about how cool that really is. Right now, you rely on a battery to start a gasoline/mechanical motor, that then needs time to properly warm up in order to get you somewhere. Now, however, you would just hop in & go. The battery is the motor, and it’s not an old rusty one, either: It’s the latest technology, Lithium-Ion. No more Coke & toothbrush, y’all.

Everyone keeps talking about the plugin hybrid. But seriously, if we could get the stations going, get the power sources mostly standardized*, then yeah, you could plug it in overnight and not worry, but you could also stop along the way and change it for a fresh one when yours is out of juice. Which is way more convenient, and even if they abandoned home charging (or relegated it to 220v or something so it was less prevalent), everyone could still be properly serviced.

And has anyone bothered to think what this would do to our ties to Oil? Seriously? Buh-bye, Saudi Arabia: hope you like your desert, cuz that’s all you gonna have no mo’, fools! America would finally be free (FREE!) of the tyranny of big oil and OPEC. A truly free nation. Finally.

Go electric, huh?


*Note that there would need to be different classes. A battery powering a commuter car isn’t going to power a pickup truck for long, I don’t think nor is either of those going to work well for a Big Rig. Also, things like ATV’s and motorcycles would need a small source for the couple hundred pounds they are. This could be gotten around to some extent by running sort of a parallel system with the smaller batteries, wherein the big rig uses the same ones, but just more of them. However, that would really limit the convenience of fast changeouts if you had to change 4 or 5 for a regular car, and 9 or 10 for a truck, etc.

Tags: earth conditions, Vehicles

How sweet.



DPReview.com: Negativity is frowned upon? Way to keep it honest, guys
After my recent tirade about our horrible experiences with Canon Elphs, I went to this site to write my reviews/experiences on both the SD870 model & the SD1000 model. I wrote the reviews, but they never showed up on the site.

Apparently, you’re not allowed to create a truthful review pointing out actual issues with real hardware. Which I think is horrible. How the hell do you have a site composed of user reviews, but censor/delete/not post reviews by those users? It’s doubly as bad, having read their ‘rules’ on reviews, first of which is “don’t write reviews about hardware you have not used,” and one of the first reviews I saw that day was a review by someone about a just-announced (and not released) camera that so much as said “I haven’t used this camera, but there others are good so I’m sure this one will be too.”

Anyway… The Girl got hers back yesterday, and all seems dandy. They replaced the whole optical unit and it seems to be working flawlessly anymore. Mine was sent away, and if Canon can fix the issues and make them not come back, then I’ll be satisfied.

We went and looked at other brands of cameras, just in case. Truthfully, none of the others are anywhere in the neighborhood of Canon’s equipment. So I’m still pulling for them.



Holy f*ck, Canada’s becoming America
Found this sad news on another blog I stop by occasionally. Holy cow, is it not totally horrible? I linked it to a friend of mine over IM, and his response was to “never send me anything like that in the future.”

So, having just read that, why don’t you go ahead and hop on over and read it? And then you, too, can wonder: “no one bothered to – I don’t know – help?”

The Bank Job
Yesterday Netflix saw fit to grace us with a couple of movies. One we decided to pop in for the night was solely The Girl’s decision to watch. It’s supposedly “based on a true story,” revolving around a 1971 bank heist in London that was never solved. How true the movie itself is however, is not quite clear. But I’ve heard it said that it’s true like the Titanic is true: yeppers, there was a big ship that sunk in the ocean. Well with that out of the way, how was the movie on its other merits?

Surprisingly, I think I liked it more than The Little Woman did (she normally picks out some big-time losers. “Let’s watch The Animal!” Dear god). It was a pretty watchable movie I must say, though not without its own folley. Some of the stuff you watch just seems so ridiculous, as in “there’s no way that happens” or “wow how convenient for them…”

The basic idea is that the crooks were sort of guided to the mission by MI5 agents, because there’s something in a certain safe deposit box that they want buried instead of held against the Royal Family. Namely, revealing photographs of Princess Margaret (Who, by the way, has an awesome rack).

But again, I stress that this movie is probably true like Titanic is true, so don’t get too carried away looking for truth in the details. Yes there’s rookie mistakes that make you cringe, but those rookie mistakes were actually real: their radio conversations were recorded (why didn’t they bother to cover themselves better? Duh!), and in the context of the movie – that these guys weren’t professional bank robbers – it makes sense. So you can give it a little leeway and not feel stupid in doing so.

It’s not surprisingly awesome though, just surprisingly watchable. You could definitely do better (Ocean’s 11, anyone?), but it’s also definitely possible to do worse. It’s worthwhile entertainment that doesn’t get added to the library, is what I’m saying. It’s a B-. Rotten tomatoes this time almost agrees with me to the letter.



Considering more Netflix goodness
We’re currently on the Two Movies At Once plan, which means that we have two in our possession at most at any given time. This seems to work out OK most of the time, except if we have 3 days of movie time and especially if there’s a Weekend in between.

Because, if we watch one on Monday, send it in on Tuesday, we don’t get that refilled until at least Thursday. Which means that we only have one movie to watch from Tuesday to Thursday. Now, this works so long as we watch a movie between Sunday and Tuesday; as soon as we pop one in on a Wednesday, things get a little tight. We watch one on Thursday night, it gets sent in on Friday, they receive it on Saturday… We’re not receiving it until Monday or Tuesday. Almost a week later.

Which, truth be told, is probably fine for the most part. I mean, on a typical workweek, that’s probably fine. It’s just that on a nonstandard workweek, it could really suck. Like, for instance, if I was on vacation. We get by during the slow times with a rental from the local video store, but at almost $5 a pop, how often do you do that before the additional cost of Three Movies At Once starts making fiscal sense?

The answer is once. The difference between 2 and 3 movies is a whopping $3.

Tags: women

Do yourself a big favor and just avoid the Canon SD1000 and the like. You know, as much as I enjoyed my old Canon Digital Rebel DSLR, I cannot say it’s been all fun & games with their Elph-Series Cameras. Let’s see, what’s the toll been?

First I got my Canon SD870. It had issues with it not selecting the right ISO & Shutter speeds when zoomed at or above about 70%. Sent it back.

Then I got a Canon SD1000 for myself, similar (except in color) to the one I had gotten for The Girl for her birthday. Peachy, right? I wish! No, not long after I had it, it developed a “Lens Error” that prevented it from opening. As I was contemplating sending it back a few days later, the problem seemed to self-alleviate. OK fine, I can deal with a strange anomaly, right?

Well, then The Girl’s camera did the same thing. It also self-rectified, but it did it too. So now we’re cautious about it...

Last week The Girl had to send hers in for warranty service. Because the camera had forgotten how to focus. It just wouldn’t do it unless it was zoomed in. Like, I wasn’t even a false focus, where the camera says “OK we’re good” but we’re not; no, the camera would look at the scene, then beep at us like “yeah, sorry, you know, I just can’t see it.”

Great.

Well now yesterday, mine developed another Lens Error. Except that this time, the thing’s not going IN. It’s stuck out, and it’s not even trying to budge.

Seriously, I think I’ll try to get Amazon to take it back and pick up a Panasonic or something else. Something. This has been utter bullsh!t.

So really, if you’re considering a Canon SD1000 or one of its siblings… don’t. Do yourself a huge favor, and stay away. I hear Casio makes some good pocket cameras. Didn’t they used to make watches or something? Yeah. Anyway, don’t. You’ll be sorely disappointed.

Tags: hate, Photography

Housing bill sent to the White House. I am not pleased, I am not pleased at all. Why the heck are we bailing out the very people who are responsible for the Housing Bubble? What bullsh!t. Thanks, politicians. Thanks, politicians who are not really trying to solve the problem but rather look like they’re “for the people.” This basically amounts to taxing me for their idiocy. F*ck that. I’m the people, be for me, dammit.

Look, I’ve said it before and I’ve said it again, but I’m going to say it once more at least: If you really want to help out the most people, let this bubble completely implode. Yes, some people will get hurt. But you’re hurting far more by letting the prices stay artificially high. You’re damning entire generations to be continual renters, or slaves to a mortgage they can’t afford. It’s freakin’ impossible anymore to simply buy a home that’s at or less than 30% of your income.

Unless you want to get mugged daily. Which, uh, hey? Count me out.

Tags: housing Crisis

Anyway, Quicken for the Mac has always been sort of the redheaded stepchild in Intuit’s collection, and by this time you can imagine that it hasn’t dated all that well. We do keep good financial tabs on ourselves, but anything that can make the process more seamless & easier can only help us to keep finer control over the budget, you know with trying to find a more up-to-date program, preferrably one that makes good use of the Mac’s built-in tools. And recently, I thought I had found it in iBank from igg Software.

“Thought” being the key operative, there. It’s definitely more of “the look” I wanted in a product, but there’s too many usability shortcomings as compared to even Quicken 2005 for me to ignore. The budgeting tool is pretty, but also pretty useless, giving me just a bar graph for each category. In Quicken, I don’t get a graph, just the totals, but I can click down on that to see the list of what makes up those totals; something iBank cannot do. Yes, the graphs are pretty in iBank, but the same usability flaws remain: I cannot click all the way to the transaction! In Quicken, I can click on a graph to get a list of the transactions (to its credit, iBank DOES show a listing of the transactions in its graphs, unlike its budget tool), and then I can go even futher and click on the transactions themselves to see the actual occurrence in the account where it took place. So say I see that my spending has shown that perhaps I mislabeled a transaction (“what the hell did I spend $100 on in ‘Tax Annuities?’”), I can click all the way down to the transaction and see the memo, and discover I meant to put the category as “Taxable income” and fix it on the spot, as well as have all the graphs & reports I was looking at to get there auto update immediately. In iBank, it looks good, and yeah, I can even show the transactions that make up that part of the graph, but I cannot click all the way to the actual transaction like I can in Quicken. Which means if I were to notice an anomaly, I’d have to find it, then leave the graph, then try and find that transaction, and then fix it. See how much easier it is in Quicken, even if it’s not as pretty? Click, click, click, done. iBank? Click, “what the f*ck?”, click, “how the hell?”, back up back up back up, click, “OK where are you you little bugger,” click, “ah, there you are,” click, click click click click (it takes more clicks for each transaction too) and we’re done.

I really really want to like iBank. Hell, I do like iBank, but I cannot seem to find it easy enough to drill down from report to transaction. I’m always backing up out of the damn graphs to get where I need to be. Not in Quicken, though.

Quicken’s like that homely girl your mom always tried to set you up with when you were a teenager; yeah she sure it ugly, but damn can she cook, you know?

Anyway, yeah, chew on that whilst I continue to play around some.

Some may ask why I would bother writing such a diatribe. I mean, it seems mean, no? Well yes and no. I really want to like iBank, but I’m not going to buy it because it looks pretty; it needs to outperform my current tool in pretty much every fashion. Any shortcomings, and I’m not going to pull the trigger. Period. Which means, they won’t get my money. So in essence, I’m actually being pretty nice. If someone who cared were to stumble upon this rant, they would have a window into the minds of potential customers who aren’t really interested in becoming actual customers; they learn what’s important and what could make us pull that trigger and deliver funds to their coffers. It may seem mean, but in actuality, “yes men” rarely do much to further any particular product.

I’m trying to help them fix the things that need fixing. Things they may not have even known needed fixing. I’m ultimately being helpful. Yes it’s in a rant pointing out the flaws. But it can be helpful nonetheless.

Sometimes, you need to see through your own Marketing, and just tackle what’s really at the core.

Two weeks ago, we were without Netflix-supplied entertainment and had to walk across to the video store on the corner. Not a big deal and there’s definitely something to be said for the immediacy of it, but after we got through watching movie (Invincible, which I’ve yet to critique), we let it sit for a damn week on our mantle. It just sat there. Didn’t do anything. The place isn’t that far away, but it’s not something we frequently remember to do. It’s not a trip we make often enough to think about.

So it just sits there. And a week later, we finally say “sh!t we just got hit with a late fee” and have to take the damn thing back.

Netflix? Nope. See, it’s a great idea. I pay a fee for a service, and I’m limited in that service’s utility by when I return them. Which is as easy as putting it in my mailbox. I don’t have to remember much else.

There’s not some large financial penalty for letting them sit a week like we currently have. It’s just there for us, on our terms. Which is really cool.

Well OK technically it’s their terms, but they’re pretty darn close to the terms we’d have made up so we’re still cool.

What movies do we have? Jumper & The Golden Compass. I added Jumper before I knew it sucked and forgot it was there, so please? C’mon, don’t rib me.

Peace.

Immigration Reform Proves Difficult
I refer you to this article in the Washington Post. I am totally against the whole “let the immigrants stay” sort of mentality, if you didn’t know already. I don’t think that they bring more to the economy than they take away; I think they’re simply a vehicle for the bourgeois to continue raping the middle-classes of jobs, status, and wealth. Yeah, really. A job hired out for $4/hour to an illegal immigrant is a job not given to a legal American worker, and also the difference in pay is then skimmed and stays with the bourgeois, never reaching middle America — it furthers the rich/poor divide, y’all. Anyway, the real solution comes from punishing the businesses that harbor & hire illegal workers, I have said this before. But the problems in doing this are many, apparently:

Companies tell me, 'We have an immigration system that allows us to hire illegal workers, legally,' Baker said. Asked to defend President Bush's track record, he said, "Why are employers not punished more often? Because the laws we have don't really authorize that.

Tags: Animals, New Family Members

If you’re a male and under the age of 40, you’re probably aware of this movie. It’s been building hype since at least last Summer. And even more so, if you’re in the target demographic, you’ve probably by now read all the early reviews on the damn thing. So? Is the Hype deserved?

I’d say that for the most part, yeah, it’s deserved, but maybe not all of it. I had read a lot about it being compared to “The Godfather” or “The Departed,” it’s that good apparently. But I do disagree with that. Look, it’s a good movie, and I’m going to add it to my collection, but let’s be serious: It’s a caped-crusader movie still. It’s a superhero flick. And while it is indeed more heady and contains a number of moral quandaries, it’s not quite without its faults. Which, I will share with you in a vague, don’t-give-up-the-movie sort of way. I hope.

For one, they don’t spend much time on the characters. Mainly because there’s a lot of them. Of course there’s Batman, and then The Joker, but what about… Two-Face? Yep, he’s there too. Commissioner Gordon? There. Mayor? The New DA? All there. All have parts that need time, and quite frankly, even at over 2½ hours long, there’s not enough time for all of them. So it all sort of gets compressed a little.

Hey, we all know who these peeps are, so I can forgive them that a little. I mean, it is a sequel, right? So it’s not like this is the first time we’ve met the characters. BUT, there’s another issue that I had more beef with: The intricate plans that The Joker makes is too perfect to have actually been.

What I mean is, when they made the movie, it’s like they started backwards, having an idea for what the last scene was, worked backwards from there. The problem was, that means that the course of events that leads up to that scene have to be a certain way. And I know what you’re thinking, “duh that’s how all movies are, it has to be that way to have that scene” and you’re right, but here’s the thing: The Joker has this master plan that once you step back from the movie, it took up nearly ⅔ of the entire film. And it’s like a 26-part plan, OK?

So what I’m saying is, Scene Z is not possible unless Scene Y happened exactly according to plan. And Scene Y wasn’t possible unless, Scene X happened exactly according to plan. And that in itself is all fine and good, but the problem is, too much foreknowledge is required to actually have made this plan a reality; there were too many variables that couldn’t be known to have masterminded this plan in the first place.

When you aren’t in control of every aspect leading up to a certain thing, it’s kind of hard to say that this is how it’s going to be. I’ll give up one scene from the movie to give you an example of what I mean --

At one point, the Joker & gang are trying to route a convoy. They set up a diversion to take them off-course. Fine and dandy, except that all the booby traps are along a particular direction, which is only 1 of 5 choices the convoy could have made to go. Which means that there was only a 20% chance that they’d have gone that direction. And then, all sh!t breaks loose, and things happen that are beyond The Joker’s control, but still, when they make a random turn here, it so happens that he’s got guys at that very exit that happen to shoot cables across buildings to take down a Helicopter that he knew would be there waiting, at the exact altitude that it happened to come by at.

And believe me, it gets worse than that. Those cobbled-together scenes I just described for you are scenes L-N of this 26-Scene master plan. And once you step out of the movie and really think about everything that had to happen in order to make this scene or that possible, you start to realize that it’s just not really feasible that any of it happened or could have even been remotely planned out;

The short way to word this complaint is to say that everything that happens is just too convenient