Random Thoughts That Don't Deserve Their Own Thread Go Here

[cougarfreak]

Getting a stomach bug sucks.

[DataKing]

Originally Posted by cougarfreak

Getting a stomach bug sucks.

Actually that strikes me as more of a 'blows' than a 'sucks' sort of thing...

[JediKooter]

Originally Posted by DataKing

Actually that strikes me as more of a 'blows' than a 'sucks' sort of thing...

Depends on how he got it.

[cougarfreak]

Originally Posted by JediKooter

Depends on how he got it.

Oh no, he's right. It blows. Several times today.

[JediKooter]

Originally Posted by cougarfreak

Oh no, he's right. It blows. Several times today.

As long as nothing attached to you tries to come out, you should be ok in a day or two.

[Sun Tzu]

This conversation is getting too homo-erotic for my tastes.

[Sun Tzu]

That being said.

[DanGarion]

Originally Posted by JediKooter

Just getting around to this...Was driving to work this morning and sneezed, which pulled a bunch of muscles by the bottom of my ribs on the left side. I did the exact same thing to my right side, but, further up, a little over a year and a half ago. WTF???? The pain on my right side still has not completely gone away and now I look forward to months and months of pain on the other side now. Awesome.

I did something like that last year and popped a rib or something in my upper back. The pain was so bad, I could barely breathe.

[tyketime]

If this happens, I will absolutely turn in my smartphone and buy just a regular phone with no apps. This is complete bullshit!

That slide above is no joke -- it comes from a marketing webinar put on by two companies that count Verizon, AT&T and Vodafone as clients, and it describes a system that identifies customer internet activity and charges a different rate for using Facebook than watching YouTube, while allowing access to Vodafone services for free. Yes, that's basically the nightmare scenario for net neutrality advocates. The two companies behind the slide are Allot Communications and Openet, which sell subscriber-management tools to carriers around the world -- tools that Allot's director of marketing says can scan even encrypted packets to determine what service customers are using and charge accordingly. We're not making this up -- here's the direct quote from the webinar:

[We use] a number of different methods to accurately identify the application -- methods like heuristic analysis, behavioral and historical analysis, deep packet inspection, and a number of other techniques. What's key is that we have the best application identification available on the market, which means that even applications that are encrypted or use other methods to evade detection will be correctly identified and classified... We essentially feed this real-time information about traffic and application usage into the policy and charging system. Each subscriber has a particular service plan that they sign up for, and they're as generic or as personalized as the operator wants.

Yeah, that's not how anyone actually wants the internet to work -- except carriers, who've been saying increasingly insane things about charging even smartphone manufacturers for customer data usage lately. What's more, it's rumored that the FCC will cave to Verizon and AT&T and exempt wireless internet service from major parts of net neutrality regulation it's expected to pass next week, so this nonsense could very well hit the US sooner rather than later.

[MJ4H]

Welp, that would end my interest in getting a smartphone immediately. Was thinking of getting a verizon iphone or a droid when my upgrade rolls around in July. Not going to happen if crap like that comes along. No chance.

[JediKooter]

Originally Posted by DanGarion

I did something like that last year and popped a rib or something in my upper back. The pain was so bad, I could barely breathe.

Damn. That is definitely the kind of pain that will take your breath away. How long before if felt like it was somewhat back to normal? The most difficult thing to do right now is get in and out of my car, putting my seat belt on and of course, if I cough or sneeze again, the pain just starts all over from square one.

[Scoobz0202]

Originally Posted by MJ4H

Welp, that would end my interest in getting a smartphone immediately. Was thinking of getting a verizon iphone or a droid when my upgrade rolls around in July. Not going to happen if crap like that comes along. No chance.

Yea, I have a Droid right now and I'll be able to upgrade around your time. Even though I swear by my phone, I'd drop it like a bad habit if this shit started.

What would happen if I got my phone in July and this stuff started in August? Would I be forced to pay their rates instantly or would it wait until my new contract two years down the road?

[molson]

Went to the Jack-in-the-box drive-through today and the stranger in front of me paid for my order! I didn't know that happened in real life.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Y'know, not having much work is one thing.

Having checks due to you for work already completed be two weeks late (and counting) because of client's accounting/mgmt people taking vacation days is a whole different sort of upsetting.

[I. J. Reilly]

Originally Posted by molson

Went to the Jack-in-the-box drive-through today and the stranger in front of me paid for my order! I didn't know that happened in real life.

I bet it was Abe

[DaddyTorgo]

Four in 10 Americans Believe in Strict Creationism

Belief in evolutionary origins of humans slowly rising, however

by Frank Newport
PRINCETON, NJ -- Four in 10 Americans, slightly fewer today than in years past, believe God created humans in their present form about 10,000 years ago. Thirty-eight percent believe God guided a process by which humans developed over millions of years from less advanced life forms, while 16%, up slightly from years past, believe humans developed over millions of years, without God's involvement

Really?? Really?? WTF.

[RomaGoth]

Originally Posted by molson

Went to the Jack-in-the-box drive-through today and the stranger in front of me paid for my order! I didn't know that happened in real life.

You're welcome.

[JediKooter]

Originally Posted by DaddyTorgo

Really?? Really?? WTF.

I'm reminded of a quote: "Who's the more foolish? The fool or the fool who follows?"

[RomaGoth]

Originally Posted by tyketime

If this happens, I will absolutely turn in my smartphone and buy just a regular phone with no apps. This is complete bullshit!

Originally Posted by MJ4H

Welp, that would end my interest in getting a smartphone immediately. Was thinking of getting a verizon iphone or a droid when my upgrade rolls around in July. Not going to happen if crap like that comes along. No chance.

Yeah, this is bs. I just got my droid last fall, but I have no problem with dumping it, and the wonderful data plan that goes with it, if these crooks start charging all this extra shit.

[molson]

Originally Posted by RomaGoth

You're welcome.

I knew it!!

[Poli]

I still don't understand how Eli was blind in that flipping movie. Good movie, BS blindness not withstanding.

[Poli]

Can't sleep, and it's not for the lack of sugar plums. I have to replace an old Dell desktop computer (Windows 98!) in about 6 hours. Before that, I have to drive an hour to our office. I then have to locate the computer and remove the hard drive and the video card. After that I have an hour drive to the site. Take out their hard drive and ARCNET card from their malfunctioning computer, place them in the computer I brought down. Make sure everything works. Back up the system.

If all goes well, I'm out of there by 9. Back to the office. Drop off the computer. Drive home.

I'm estimating 7 hours of double time pay on top of my 8 hours of holiday pay. I get paid my holiday pay regardless if I work or not. I get double time for the holiday call out from the time I leave the driveway until I return.

That's a bunch of dough.

[sabotai]

I made a video of me speaking Japanese and put it on YouTube, which is a huge step for someone as anti-social, shy, introverted and self-hating as I am (I've actually felt a large amount of anxiety over just telling people about it). Only 25 seconds because I couldn't think of anything to say.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zFgIE6h2RNw

"Good afternoon everyone. Hello ("hajimemashita" greeting for when you first meet someone). I am Jason. Nice to meet you (literally translates to "please be kind to me"). I am an American. I'm 33 years old. I live in New Jersey. See you later."

Exciting stuff.

Side note: I hate my voice.

[thesloppy]

Someone keyed the ever-loving shit out of my car, front-to-back, today while I was shopping. Merrrrrrrrrrrrrrry Christmas!

[terpkristin]

Dunno if it's been posted here, but this is pretty freaking hysterical: Absolutely Epic 1974 Letter From Cleveland Browns to a Fan | '64 and Counting: Scene's Sports Blog

/tk

[sterlingice]

Originally Posted by terpkristin

Dunno if it's been posted here, but this is pretty freaking hysterical: Absolutely Epic 1974 Letter From Cleveland Browns to a Fan | '64 and Counting: Scene's Sports Blog

/tk

Aw, you stole that from daed's Facebook page.

I was talking to him about it the other day and suggested I hope to use that in email form a couple of times in the new year

SI

[MJ4H]

Just found out Fez is Handy Manny. Had no idea.

[panerd]

This thread is also for random questions right? Who is the Sears jeans commercial guy and am I supposed to know who the hell he is? Why is he so smug? Is that a character he plays on some show or something? Am I just so out of touch with pop culture and don't realize that this guy is major celebrity?

EDIT: Googled and figured out he is from some show called Dirty Jobs and his name is Mike Rowe. (I know the commericial has his signature but I never could remember the name) Anyways I still don't get why all the women check him out and he acts like that is to be expected.

[thesloppy]

Originally Posted by panerd

This thread is also for random questions right? Who is the Sears jeans commercial guy and am I supposed to know who the hell he is? Why is he so smug? Is that a character he plays on some show or something? Am I just so out of touch with pop culture and don't realize that this guy is major celebrity?

You mean Mike Rowe? I dunno if he's a major celebrity.....he a major cable TV celebrity and voice over dude. Although his face might look unfamiliar, his voice has likely made sweet love to you hundreds of times over (via Ford Truck commercials, at the very least):

Mike Rowe - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[panerd]

Originally Posted by thesloppy

You mean Mike Rowe? I dunno if he's a major celebrity.....he a major cable TV celebrity and voice over dude. Although his face might look unfamiliar, his voice has likely made sweet love to you hundreds of times over (via Ford Truck commercials, at the very least):

Mike Rowe - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I guess I just thought it was weird advertising. The guy always seems like he thinks he is really cool but maybe if I knew his persona on tv I would understand this is a character or something.

[thesloppy]

He is pretty much exactly the same persona when you see him on TV, with the caveat being the only other time you see him on TV as himself, he's usually literally covered in crap, which probably takes the edge off.

[sabotai]

He'll kill you to death inside of 3 rounds!

[QuikSand]

Heh, it actually occurred to me to post something here about Mike Rowe taking over my television. I love it when someone else does the dirty work for me.

And no, I had no idea who he was until fairly recently, but I can see the appeal... he seems to rest well in that "guy's guy, ladies' man" zone fairly well.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Mike Rowe is kind of like a much more accessible/likable Anthony Bourdain to me.

The success of using him for Ford (and now others) was a real stroke of genius IMO, Quik put it pretty well I think, he's likable for both men & women and that's not always an easy thing to accomplish.

[stevew]

The Trojan VIBRATOR add that played during Star Wars was a bit much for regular tv. Seriously a WTF moment. Changeable tips, wtf.

[stevew]

trojan vibrations vibrating triphoria. It'll knock your hair back!

[stevew]

TV Advertising: Trojan 'Vibrating Massager' Ads Safe for TV - Advertising Age - MediaWorks

[Chief Rum]

Speaking of WTF moments, surely the following sorts of moments must occur to some of you here: those moments where you're standing there, in the middle of it, and you realize you're right in some sort of surreal WTF moment.

That happened to me tonight. I'm on my way home from seeing True Grit when I decided to stop in to get a quick bite from one of the fast foods spots that are actually open. I'm inside and ordering my food, when I hear some loud and slurred Spanish to my left. I turn and look and I see this guy who is clearly drunk and probably a bum. What struck me is he appeared to be begging in Spanish, which I had never seen. The target of his request was standing directly behind me, and this guy was a midget (and very plainly white, going with Spanish was probably not the best language choice on the part of the bum).

And that's the moment--seeing a drunk Mexican bum speaking only Spanish hit up a midget for some cash. Weird. And then as if that wasn't enough, when I turned back to the cashier, he gives me wadded up cash for change.

[SirFozzie]

#1 and the best. Calgary Hitmen have a yearly tradition pre-xmas... they tell all their fans to bring all the teddy bears they can to one of their final home games before Christmas. Then they wait for the first goal to be scored and then.. UNLEASH TEDDY BEAR HELL!

Game delayed 40 minutes as they cleared 23,000 teddy bears off the ice. (The teddy bears were donated to sick and needy children in Calgary)

[SirFozzie]

And here's another teddy bear toss highlight. 0-0 Overtime game.. would the fans be denied on Teddy Bear Night?

[Poli]

Driving for those couple of hours on Christmas Eve and passing truck drivers along the way reminded me of the sacrifice they give. It made me think (a random thought) that while I had to work that day a whole hour away from home that many of them may not make it home in time for Christmas.

My dad (well, stepdad, but dad to me) drove a truck for 30 years before starting up his own trucking company. He was home nearly every Christmas as I recall, but there were a few close calls. I never realized back then what being home for Christmas meant to him or to others in general.

Anyhow, my mind wandered (to another random thought). My dad started his trucking company after he was "born again" (not a topic I wish to delve in, please just indulge me). As such, we attended church every time the door was open. Mind you, I was about 12 at the time and not entirely interested in this process at all.

At one point, my dad decided to make it worse. He began driving out to a remote truck stop. This truck stop was apparently popular with the truckers but far enough out of Knoxville that there wasn't very much around that exit ramp other than the truck stop.

He would go in, every Sunday, to see if anyone would like to go to church. As I recall most trips were not very successful. To be honest, when they were I didn't realize the guys he brought back were strangers. I thought they probably worked for my dad.

It made me think of how far he went out of his comfort zone to reach out to a brotherhood that he spent 30 years of his life with. Here was a guy that up until a year before I had never seen in a church. A few years later he was out of church again but that sacrifice he gave obviously burned into my memory. Over 20 years ago and I can recall those trips to the truck stop.

I called him and thanked him. That was kind of a big deal for me since I rarely call or see him nowadays. The conversation back and forth nearly did me in. I'm not sure I can or have adequately covered this random thought. I just thought I'd share. That phone call meant a lot to me.

[Chubby]

Originally Posted by SirFozzie

#1 and the best. Calgary Hitmen have a yearly tradition pre-xmas... they tell all their fans to bring all the teddy bears they can to one of their final home games before Christmas. Then they wait for the first goal to be scored and then.. UNLEASH TEDDY BEAR HELL!

Game delayed 40 minutes as they cleared 23,000 teddy bears off the ice. (The teddy bears were donated to sick and needy children in Calgary)

I don't think we've ever done that with the Crunch but I just fired off an email to the Marketing person

[terpkristin]

Originally Posted by QuikSand

Heh, it actually occurred to me to post something here about Mike Rowe taking over my television. I love it when someone else does the dirty work for me.

And no, I had no idea who he was until fairly recently, but I can see the appeal... he seems to rest well in that "guy's guy, ladies' man" zone fairly well.

Actually, if you watched "Your New Home" on WJZ back in the day, you saw him there, too. He's a Baltimoron.

/tk

[sterlingice]

The Teddy Bear thing is awesome

SI

[Chief Rum]

Watching LOTR: Twin Towers on TNT, and something occurred to me again that has occurred to me before.

In Helms Deep, after the orcs breach the outer wall with explosives, Aragorn leads a charge of elves into the breach to hold them off. In this charge, the orcs set up with their spears out in front of them, and one of the elves is shown getting skewered charging onto one of these spears.

Despite myself, this always makes me chuckle abit. I mean, here's this elf warrior, probably milleniae old, has no doubt been through hundreds of battles and thousands of individual moments of immense peril. This is a fighter who not only has all of that experience, but could not be more skilled with a sword or bow or in battle tactics, and has speed and agility that is matched by few. Despite all of that, this elf ends up skewered on an orc spear held simply at length.

Think about that. This immortal being has been through so much, and this is how he dies. I would think he would be lying there, run through and knowing he was dying, and thinking to himself, "By Valar, really? Really? This is how I'm going to die? How embarrassing! I hope everyone else dies then, too, so no one will tell my kin in Rivendell and Lothlorien."

Yeah, I know I'm odd.

[DaddyTorgo]

Originally Posted by Chief Rum

Watching LOTR: Twin Towers on TNT, and something occurred to me again that has occurred to me before.

In Helms Deep, after the orcs breach the outer wall with explosives, Aragorn leads a charge of elves into the breach to hold them off. In this charge, the orcs set up with their spears out in front of them, and one of the elves is shown getting skewered charging onto one of these spears.

Despite myself, this always makes me chuckle abit. I mean, here's this elf warrior, probably milleniae old, has no doubt been through hundreds of battles and thousands of individual moments of immense peril. This is a fighter who not only has all of that experience, but could not be more skilled with a sword or bow or in battle tactics, and has speed and agility that is matched by few. Despite all of that, this elf ends up skewered on an orc spear held simply at length.

Think about that. This immortal being has been through so much, and this is how he dies. I would think he would be lying there, run through and knowing he was dying, and thinking to himself, "By Valar, really? Really? This is how I'm going to die? How embarrassing! I hope everyone else dies then, too, so no one will tell my kin in Rivendell and Lothlorien."

Yeah, I know I'm odd.

hehehe

[sterlingice]

SI

[Mustang]

As I got older, I find myself hating workaholics more and more. Emailing updates on some programming research issue on Christmas morning is not dedication, it is pathetic. Maybe I shouldn't hate them, maybe feel sorry for them would be better.

(no offense to people that absolutely HAD to work Christmas)

[Scoobz0202]

That easily could have been me. Christmas Eve is my big day. On Christmas I slept till noon and then laid around the entire day.

[Radii]

I worked on Christmas Day, not a workaholic thing though. mom was burned out from some stuff earlier in the week and slept all day, my sister had to leave early to beat the winter weather that was starting, and there are some tasks I like to set aside for weekends when I can do them with no risk of anyone bothering/distracting me with other work. I know what you mean with the workaholic personality type, but there are lots of different family situations, so a christmas day e-mail doesn't necessarily mean loves work/hates family/pathetic asshole!