things that make me cranky

Middle-aged man who asks me (while volunteering at a registration desk for an event... not the first aid desk) to help him put a Band-Aid® on his finger which currently has a tissue rubber-banded on. Reluctantly, I agree to help. Then, he proceeds to ask me to throw away his bloodied tissue. Uh. No. I ask him to kindly come around and throw the tissue away in the trash can. This man, who is not a teen Michael Jordan-wannabe, proceeds to try to do a free shot for the trash can. And, surprise! surprise!, doesn't make it. Then, he expects me to pick up the tissue from the ground and throw it away. Uh. Double-N.O. Spells "NO." I didn't want to touch your tissue in the first place. I certainly don't want to walk across the room, bend over, and pick up your tissue because you are too childish to just throw the thing away in the first place.

Note to clueless people: Don't expect a stranger to want to deal with your bodily fluids (even if dried), and especially don't expect said stranger to want to pick up your dirty tissues because a) you don't want to be bothered or b) you're too adolescent to just throw it away and want to make it into a game. DO expect me to give you my best teacher glare.

watch at your own risk

I found this (via Realigned Rain) truly frightening. I mean, I knew this existed, but....

The thing is that she looks so ... ordinary, blah, whatever at the beginning. If I saw her on the bus, I wouldn't even look twice. She looks like someone who doesn't really care much about her appearance. And after she's "made up," she looks traditionally "pretty," OK. But they have to photoshop her to make her even "better."

I feel sick.

anatomy of a headache

I have a very strange headache that is kind of coming and going on one side of my head only. It started maybe forty-five minutes ago. Very strange. I was reading some books to my son, and poof, all of a sudden, I feel a pain in my temple. (Poof would actually be better to describe it disappearing, yes, but whatever, my head hurts!) Now I'm sitting up, in front of the computer (duh), and it's continuing. It's weird because I'm so aware of it, how it comes, and then it's gone. It's not a sharp, stabbing pain, but it's definitely there. And now, I feel it on the other side of my head, too, but in my forehead.

Anyway, I took some Advil a while ago, because I was having a pain in my leg (yes, I'm falling apart, evidently), so hopefully this thing will be gone lickety-split.

did you hear what I heard?

I heard a story on the radio the other day about an idea to change how we get taxed on gas usage. Here's the idea: instead of a specific percentage tax on gasoline, which is what happens now, s. ome folks want to install little thingamabobbies into cars. These thingies would measure the number of miles you drive, somehow send the info to a newly-created state agency, which would then bill you for the number of miles you actually drive. (Feel free to listen to the story, as I may have confused some of the info. You know, not enough sleep and such....) Basically, though, that's how it would work.

This story infuriates me.

Right now, we have a system that taxes the amount of gas you use. Maybe you use a gallon or two to run the lawnmower or snowblower, maybe you fill up the tank of your car to drive around town or across the country. This system is pretty efficient, in that it is already in place, it is straightforward, and it gets collected at the point of purchase. You buy your gas, you're done paying that tax.

But there are people who want every car to have a thingy installed (this is going to be expensive for someone, although I guess if you own a thingy-producing factory or if you're the person who invented and patented the thingy, you'll win big), and in fact, get all the new cars (what new cars?) to install them in the factory. And then they'll have to create a brand-new state agency in every state(where are all the folks who think we should have smaller government now?) in order to oversee all this and collect the taxes from individuals instead of from gas stations.

And on top of it, as I understand it, you'll be taxed the same per mile, regardless of whether you're driving a super-efficient car or a Hummer. As far as I'm concerned, this is a no-brainer. Who are the people who sit around and come up with such super-contrived utter nonsense? Do they actually get paid? Do they have any jobs available in their departments? Although, to be honest, I'm not sure I have such dumb ideas to share.

Ugh.

I'd like to sign on paper

Am I the only person left in the entire universe who doesn't trust those machines that every store (seemingly) asks you to put your signature into? Or, I suppose more to the point, doesn't trust the people who hack into those machines in order to steal your money, identity, and soul....

Every time I go into those stores that have a "please sign on the machine" policy, I politely say, "I'd like to sign on paper." Their eyes glazed over, they point to the machine and say, "You need to sign there." "No, no," I say politely again, "I'd like to sign on paper." They insist (usually) that I must sign on the machine. I insist that I want to sign on a piece of paper.

Sometimes they call for a manager. If it's a store that I shop in often enough, I usually learn the key combination they need to press. Occasionally, after I insist, they go ahead and print the receipt for me to sign as if they knew all along how to do it.

And sometimes, they will ask why I won't just sign on the machine. So I explain:
-you know how there are people that hack into stores' info in order to steal credit card info and stuff?
-well, imagine that they steal not only the credit card info, but also steal your signature
-now, they can put that signature on anything, and how on earth could you prove it wasn't your signature?


PS Thanks to Peevish for kicking my butt, even though she probably has no idea, because as I read her post, I knew I was off that blogroll of hers. Yes, indeed, I have been out of commission for longer than I thought possible.

new look

Just a quick update to say that I chose a new template because with the addition of my new Blogroll (ta-da!), it looked too crowded. I wanted something that I could use the larger window for. I didn't spend a lot of time choosing it, so I may choose something else soon. But I really like the new Blogroll feature (another plug). It allows for a snippet of each newest blog entry, plus you can choose to have them show up in order of the most recent update. I think it's a cool feature, although I had a hard time getting it to work at first. No idea why.

UPDATE: UGGHHH! it's not working again. Grr.

pissed off

Does blogger allow you to use language like that on here? I can't remember if I've seen anyone else doing it. But the constant recalls of items for children due to excessive lead paint really pisses me off. Not that the items are being recalled, mind you. But what the hell is anyone doing using lead paint in children's stuff?

I'm on the CPSC's email list for child & infant product recalls. CPSC=US Consumer Product Safety Commission. Every so often, they send me an email with several items on it that have been recalled. And the vast majority of them are for lead paint. And all but one item so far that I've noticed has been made in China.

Granted, the vast majority of products being sold in the US are manufactured in China now. And whatever my/your stance on that for economic reasons is beside the point. My point here is that if you are the CEO of a US company, and you are trying to cut corners so that you can give your stockholders big earnings, so you ship all your manufacturing overseas because they use slave cheap labor there, you had better be paying attention to the quality of the products. Sure, all the plastic crap is meant to break so that you'll have to buy your kid another one. I don't even care about that right now.

WHO is deciding to use lead paint? Where is it coming from? Are the US companies like Mattel and FisherPrice (and they are far from being the only ones) calling for lead paint in their specs for the toys? My guess is probably not. So are the Chinese factory managers/owners substituting lead paint because it's cheaper, easier to come by, or some other reason? And if so, where the hell are the US companies' CEOs, managers, bazillions of people who are paid the big bucks, when it comes to checking on what's actually going on in the factories?

And God forbid that the government in general, and the Consumer Product Safety Commission in particular, try to protect children from businesses that just want to do their thing as cheaply as possible with no regard for the effect on children. Nancy Nord, who is head of CPSC, said that "a Democratic bill that would expand her agency 'could have the unintended consequence of hampering, rather than furthering, consumer product safety.'" See the original article in Newsweek here. And UPI reports that Nancy Nord and her predecessor took nearly 30 trips financed by industry groups. All of this makes me so mad, I feel my blood pressure rising.

This post has been working its way through my brain for a while now; I finally had to vent. I may add more in this vein another day, but for now, I'm putting it out there. If this is an issue that you care about, I encourage you to contact your reps and senators.

dealing with people working in my house #2

Grr. Two things. First of all, they left the basement door, which leads outside, not only unlocked but OPEN. Hello? And I've had to say something to him before about leaving the door unlocked. At which point, he blamed it on the guys working for him. Who, by the way, look to be about 18 years old. And yes, 18 year olds need jobs, too, but don't pass the buck on them. If you're 50-some-odd years old and you are running a company, and you choose to hire really young people, you need to be responsible to see that they do things the right way. If they make a mistake and I end up with a leaky roof, is he going to say, "Well, you know, the guys, they just don't know...." Even 18-year-olds live in houses and theoretically know how to shut a door, right? (At least most of them.) In any case, can you say "pissed off"?

Secondly, I go outside this morning to check the mail and walk around a bit with the baby, only to find that they left a huge pile of trash behind. Hello? This is part of your job, too! I shouldn't have to haul your crap to the dump, especially since it's illegal to dump wood anyway, and they say they'll confiscate the dump sticker if they find someone dumping illegal stuff.

So now, I get to be the bad guy, and call him up and say "I'm not impressed." Because he didn't show up today to finish the work he still needs to do.