One thing about blog reading that irks me is unreadable text on a template.  Yes, I realize that for the most part I read blogs through my RSS Feedreader, I realize that in theory content is king, and I realize that people choose their templates to express who they are.  All of these things however should not change the fact that your text should be readable… preferably a decent 11pt or greater size and dark text on a light background.

Got Blogger?  Don’t use one of their standard templates which are boring as all hell.  Check out Free Blogger Templates, Final Sense, or Gecko and Fly.

Got WordPress?  Besides the WordPress Theme Gallery you can also check out the list from Emily Robbins, and of course ThemeShaper.

Got TypePad?  Move to WordPress.  Really.

Got Expression Engine?  Go to WDS and shell out some of that economic stimuli check.

Service

I went to Red Lobster last weekend.  Because we were a relatively large group, we got sat at one of those high tables in what passes for a bar area nowadays.  Now normally, I have no problem with this… except for the fact that apparently our waiter did not realize he was our waiter.  When a manager finally told him… well it just went downhill from there.  We waited 15 minutes for sodas, another 15 minutes to place our order (since he wasn’t ready to take it with the drinks and he was not the one who brought the drinks), another 15 minutes to get some damn biscuits, and another 15 minutes until our food actually arrived… all messed up.  Seriously, if I come to Red Lobster, and I order the Ultimate Feast with the lobster tail, make sure its on the fucking plate.  Guess how long I had to wait for my tail to arrive?  Yep.  15 minutes.  Then, when I asked for the check, it got delivered to the other side of the table… where the 9-year old sat.

It had to be the absolute worst experience ever.  Now I’m normally a 20% tipper… because I know that waiters and waitresses live off tips.  It should have been about a $25.00 tip.  I left $10.  I felt bad after… until I was reminded of the extremely shitty and shoddy service.  I’m never going back there again.

Gold Delayed

I did not realize how the Olympics being delayed would totally annoy me as badly as it has.  It’s as if NBC has to show you every race, pretending it hasn’t happened 12 hours ago.  That annoys me.  If you want to show the race, then that’s fine… but be sure the viewers know that it took place “last night” meaning “early this morning in the US”.  Normally I’m a slight Olympic freak… but this year… eh… not so much.  It isn’t that I’m not patriotic… I just find it easier to check all the results in the morning.  So when night time comes… well… I already know what happened!

I do have to admit though that the medals this year are pretty cool.  Each medal is inlaid with a different color of jade.  Gold medals have white jade, silver medals have green jade, and bronze medals have a brown jade.  They’re pretty damn cool.

I wonder how many will wind up on E-Bay?

Complacency

The price of oil per barrel has steadily come down from its July 11 high of $147.27 to $116 yesterday.  I think the price is going to continue to go down, because Americans have in fact cut back on their excess use of it.  Trying to close an oil speculator loophole, the passing of HR 6377 by the House of Representatives happened in June.  I seriously hope the Senate passes this bill, that we continue moving towards freeing ourselves from foreign energy and that we don’t become complacent again on cheaper oil from the Middle East.

The Pickens Plan is actually a good first step.

Remember back in the day when Nintendo put out the Power Glove for the NES?  I distinctly felt the need to own one after seeing it shown prominently in The Wizard… even though in reality it sucked and everyone knew it.  Now, almost 10 years later, Nintendo refined the technology to the point where it has based an entire game system (the Wii for you hermits) and literally been pulled back from the jaws of death by it.

It makes me wonder about the iPhone, the newest digital SLR cameras, and Bluetooth.  What does the future hold for these peripherals?  Bluetooth, for the most part, has lived up to about 10% of its supposed potential.  The iPhone seems to be more of an accessory, similar to what the pink Razr phone was a few years ago.  The 11 mega-pixel DSLRs with dust shaking sensors all the rage, how long until a 20mp comes out with a laser cleaner for the sensor?  I’m not even going to touch the whole HD-DVD fiasco.

I think about these things because I prefer to make an investment that I won’t regret in a year.  The Power Glove was a huge investment waste (although it did look pretty cool) and I hate the idea of making that same mistake again for a peripheral I simply may not need.  In the end, it boils down to my severe lack of consumer confidence that I’m going to get my money’s worth… which means that I’ll probably never get an iPhone, invest in something Bluetoothy, or be totally satisfied with whichever DSLR I eventually choose.

So I am left to ask… which peripheral have you gotten that in the end, you were utterly disappointed with?  Would you do it again?

One of the other things I hate about the Internet are abandoned blogs.  These are blogs who’s links haven’t gone dead and don’t redirect the viewer to a new site, but they just sit there in cyberspace with barely a glance or a hope for an update.  That’s one of the negatives that the increasing ease of blogging has created… blogosphere junk.  For some reason, whenever I think about this issue, the image of the starship bursting through the cluttered space around earth from the movie Wall-E comes to mind.  Sadly, I was one of these people over at Blogger. 

When I moved over to my own domain I left a post up providing a pretty graphic hint as to where I was.  Sadly, I tend to think people were not necessarily observant enough (or were too entranced by The Nick‘s breasts) to either click the picture or type in the new URL.  However, there is a really simple solution to the problem.  Add this code inbetween the head tags of your template:

<meta content='5;url=http://www.yournewblog.com/' http-equiv='refresh'/>

Just replace www.yournewblog.com with your actual new URL, and after 5 seconds, the visitor to your old blog will be redirected to your new one.

Cock Blocked

When looking for apartments I depend on the listing information to filter out apartments that will not necessarily accommodate my additional “occupancy” requirements.  Those “occupancy” requirements are the 3 putty-tats… Allie Cat, Cheezburger Georgie, and Princess Ripples.  Needless to say, when I look at an apartment listed as “pet friendly” and Cats Ok (meow), I expect that cats will be okay.  So when I’m all set to sign a lease, lay out 3 months rent, and breathe a sigh of relief… and I mention the three cats… and am then told that, “Oh no!  Cats no good!  I have Cocker Spaniel.  It eat cat,” well then I’m going to be a little pissed.  Besides the fact that if the Cocker Spaniel in question TRIED to eat one of the cats, the other two would smack the snot out of it… never mind the fact that I may go cannibal on its ass myself… this should have been stated upfront as ”No cats”.

Instead my time is wasted.  My hopes are once again dashed.  I once again have to drown my sorrows in an ESparks ice coffee because my pussies were Cocker Spaniel blocked.  Shit ain’t right.

Half & Half

So I was in one of the closing Starbucks the other day, and it was packed.  While I don’t think the increase of business will suddenly save the store from its planned demise, apathy has already set in with the staff.  My proof?  The half & half container at the “Fixin’s Bar” was empty.  Now this in and of itself may not seem so strange… but so was every other milk carafe.  So I gathered them up and was nice enough to pass them back to the staff.  Now, normally someone would either refill them and bring them back out or hand them over to me to put back, because believe it or not… I’m not a total prick in the house of corporate mongering.  No such thing happened.  The staff just went back to what they were doing.  After 5 minutes… yeah… I was done waiting.

Can I blame them?  Not really… but it did pretty much piss me off.

Chemically Fried Beans

Did you catch Clearly Your Retarded last night?  It was about the death penalty, which is a timely topic since Texas put Jose Ernesto Medellin to death Tuesday night.  Medellin was convicted of participating in the gang rape and murder of two girls age 14 and 16.  His case became the center of International attention because Medellin was in fact an illegal immigrant from Mexico, still making him a Mexican National who apparently was unable to speak to the Mexican Consulate prior to his conviction.  Of course, no one mentions that he never asked for the Mexican Consulate because he barely spoke Spanish since he had been in this country for most of his life.

So the Supreme Court denied a stay of execution while Congress considers passing a law that would in fact have the US adhere to the Vienna Conventions that was placed in force back in 1980, of which the US is a signatory of.  So what the hell has Congress been doing for the past 28 years?  Well they certainly haven’t been passing Immigration Reform, that’s for sure.  The Vienna Conventions provide for citizens of a country to speak to their Consulate when charged with a crime while in another country.  Now that we’ve broken the Convention, supposedly American citizens abroad may be in danger of being denied the same access.

I think it is an atrocity in and of itself that someone here illegally, who commits rape and murder, would have a right to counsel from a country THEY LEFT ON THEIR OWN.  What is Mexico really going to do?  Offer to take them back?  I bet they’d just drop them off at the fence again so they can be at the local Taco Bell for supper.  As for American citizens abroad… well besides the fact that with rising prices MOST Americans can’t afford to travel abroad, if they are in that country illegally, then I’m absolutely okay denying them consulate access.  I think the intentions of the Conventions was to provide protection for law abiding citizens… not law breaking parasites causing irreparable harm and pain to families of the country they have infiltrated.