Merry Christmas to those of you that don't suck.

Current Mood: melancholy

Tuesday, Dec. 23, 2003

Man with Blades in Shoe Held at Airport

MIAMI (Reuters) - A man with a hacksaw blade and a razor blade in his shoe was arrested at Miami international airport as the United States went to heightened terror alert in the run-up to the Christmas holidays.

Police said David McIntyre, 38, traveling with his wife and children, set off metal detectors Monday as he tried to board a flight.

"He had a hacksaw blade and a razor blade in his shoe," a Miami-Dade police spokesman said. "He has been charged with carrying a concealed weapon."

It was unclear why the man, from Westchester in Pennsylvania, was carrying the blades in his shoe. The police spokesman said he was unaware of any explanation he had given.

The United States has stepped up security procedures after the terror alert status was raised to the second highest level on Sunday as threat indicators became greater than at any other time since the Sept. 11, 2001, hijacked airliner attacks.

U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge said the al Qaeda network of Osama bin Laden might try to use aircraft again in new attacks.

Current Mood: disappointed

I just shoveled snow for the first time in six years. Tomorrow morning I'm going to be sore in places that I didn't even know I had.

Current Mood: thawing

From katester's LiveJournal.

last cigarette: never
last kiss: January, 2003
last cry: last night
last library book checked out: Harry Potter and The Prisoner Of Azkaban
last movie seen in a theatre: Kill Bill
last book read: If Chins Could Kill: Confessions of a B Movie Actor
last cuss word uttered: Fuck!
last beverage drank: ice water
last food consumed: salami and cheese sandwich
last phone call: a wrong number :)
last tv show watched: Hurt Bert
last time showered: this morning
last shoes worn: Merrell black suede mocs
last cd played: Oingo Boingo : Best of Boingo
last item bought: groceries
last soda drank: Coke
last thing written: a check to Keyspan
last key used: apartment door key
last words spoken: see cuss word above
last sleep: last night (1:30-8:30am)
last im: birthday wishes to a friend
last sexual fantasy: waking up in a Michael Manning story
last ice cream eaten: vanilla milkshake
last time wanting to die: May, 2003
last lipstick: Loreal Endless
last time dancing: Halloween
last show attended: Boston Blues Challenge

Ever since moving into my new place and getting my landline installed I have been getting several calls a week (sometimes several a day) looking for someone named 'Chris'. After talking to some of the mistaken callers, I learned he was a remote sales weenie from Dell Computer.

There were a flurry of calls today (some from Yale University) asking for the missing Chris and I finally got his last name from one of the callers. Having some free time on my hands and having reached my fill of these annoying wrong numbers, I called Dell to try and track this fool down.

After spending some time digging through the Dell website, I found the phone number for educational sales. I called and fought with the voice jail system Dell uses, and I finally got through to a live employee who cheerfully provided me with Chris' current phone number.

In an attempt to make these calls stop, I called Chris and explained that his customers, for whatever reason, were calling my number expecting to reach him and it was getting out of hand. I asked him to inform all of his customers what his current number was.

Much to my surprise he said that he was sorry, but since he had hundreds of customers and most of them contacted him via email, he didn't have the time to call all of the people on his client list just to let them know his phone number changed.

When I recovered from the brief shock of this ludicrous statement, I told him the following. The first thing I was going to do was contact the VP of educational sales at Dell and let them know what their sales tard was, or actually wasn't, doing. Second, every time someone called for Chris in the future, I would inform the caller that I was sorry but Chris was currently serving 12 to 25 at MCI-Walpole after a conviction for aggravated rape and child molestation and he obviously no longer worked for Dell.

I suggested that Chris had better hope to reach his clients before they called me, should he hope to prevent any 'awkward' situations from developing in the near future. He started to stammer something but I interrupted him and said "I'm sure you'll do the right thing", then hung up.

I'll bet he's wearing out his dialing finger right about now.

LJBF is a 4 letter word.

Current Mood: disappointed

Angle-Grinder Man!

Current Mood: working

I've recently come to the realization that there is no reason why I should put up with with flakes and people who are only 'friends' when they seem to need something from me. Prepare to be kicked to the motherfucking curb.

Current Mood: disappointed
Current Music: Dashboard Confessional - Hands Down

The Bobs are just about the most fun musical group on the planet to sing along with, as loud as you possibly can. I particularly recommend the album Songs for Tomorrow Morning with their original lineup. Their later stuff (without Gunnar 'Bob' Madsen and Janie 'Bob' Scott ) seems a little less vibrant.

I hope the neighbors are enjoying the serenade.

Current Mood: bouncy
Current Music: The Bobs - Santa Ana Woman

What movie Do you Belong in?
brought to you by Quizilla

Current Mood: bemused
Current Music: The Bobs - Mopping, Mopping, Mopping!

Last night I did something I have never done in my 36 years on this rock. I bought a television.

Having just moved into my new place, neither my roommate nor I owned a television and while neither of us are idiot box junkies, we do own (and watch) a fair number of movies. So unless we were happy huddling around the computer, it seemed that a television was needed.

I poked around online for a while and found a model I liked (JVC AV-27D104) and saw that Best Buy had a decent price on it. So off to the Land of the Malls I did go. I waited for about 10 minutes for a drone to come to the TV department to help me get one of the boxes off of the shelf but no one ever came. Twice, I had the friendly computer sales guy page someone to the TV department and no one ever answered the page.

After waiting even longer, I grew frustrated and noticed that the electric forklift was at the end of the aisle and I sauntered over to investigate. It was a very similar model to the Komatsu lift I had used many moons ago in my stint as a construction tools salesperson so I looked to see if the last person to use it had foolishly left the keys in it.

Oopsie! They did.

Dear reader, I was presented with a dilemma. My options, as I saw them at the time, were as such:

a. wait some more for the departmental lackey to present
b. leave and go give my money to a store that actually wanted it
c. throw a hissy until someone came running over
d. take matters into my own hands

The lift proved easy to operate and I was well into my self-appointed task when I was suddenly surrounded by drones in assorted yellow and blue polo shirts. Shortly after, their tie wearing leader approached and amidst much adrenaline fueled stuttering and stammering, asked me to step off the lift. I calmly explained that I was fairly certain this was the self-service section of the store since the now assembled lackeys saw fit to ignore me for the previous half hour while I tried in vain to get assistance. All I wanted was that box (I pointed at the box in question) so I could take it to the checkout line and pay for it (I waved a wad of cash in his direction). If he preferred that I take my money (I waved the cash again) to another retailer, I would be more than happy to. Then I stepped off the lift and headed for the door.

Tie Man again sputtered and stammered that he was sorry it took so long to get assistance but one of his drones would be more than happy to get the TV down for me. He directed a drone to do just that and had two other drones place the box on a cart I had waiting. He apologized again and asked that in the future if I needed assistance to locate a manager and not to try to operate the equipment myself due to the hazards involved.

I thanked him for intervening, paid for the TV and left. Sometimes, shopping can be fun.

And I doubt they'll ever leave the keys in that lift again...

Current Mood: amused
Current Music: NRBQ - That's Neat, That's Nice

I was really bored and still semi-recuperating from my 65 hour drive from San Jose to Boston, so I spent the day screwing around on the web. At dialup speeds, this is no small accomplishment.

The highlight of the day was re-stumbling across Fred 'Piro' Gallagher's online comic "MegaTokyo". If you've never seen it, it's a good read and his anime drawing style is pretty damn good. The only drawback is that after reading 3 years of backlog, I now have to wait for each new episode to be released.

Have I ever mentioned here just how much I hate waiting?

Current Mood: drained
Current Music: the drone of electric fan motors

It's time to close off this chapter in my life and move on. While visiting Boston I was presented with a fantastic opportunity to get my design/fabrication business off the ground and with a bit of a jump start to boot. I already have a couple of customers awaiting product the minute I can produce them.

So after a great deal of consideration, I'm packing up the SF homestead and heading off to Boston this Thursday. Tonight I'll be seeing folks off at Zetgeist on Valencia starting around 7:00. If you think I might want to smack you in the melon, feel free to not drop by. Everyone else is more than welcome to attend.

We now return you to our regularly scheduled programming.

Current Mood: busy

Boston has been fun and hot and has also been a good place to chill out and put some things into perspective. No earth shattering pronouncements in this entry, but who knows what the future holds...

Current Mood: calm

First thing in the morning I'll be hopping on the Futura and heading towards Boston. It'll be nice to spend the summer on the road and taking some time deciding which fork in the road my life will progress down.

See you west coasters later. Probably.

Current Mood: tired

Are You Lonesome Tonight?

I sat and stared at the television in disbelief while Shrub tried to convince us that we needed to go to war. I particularly liked his empassioned plea to the Iraqi people too not set "their" oil wells on fire.

$deity help us all.

Current Mood: drained

Things still suck. As you were.

Current Mood: depressed

My heart looks and feels the same as it did a week ago, and the week before that, and the week before that...

I miss you so much.

Current Mood: crushed

I feel like the protagonist in a Don Hertzfeldt animation.

Current Mood: depressed
Current Music: Neil Finn - Last One Standing