Scam artists

Lots of things going through the cranium today, let's see if I can get it all on paper in a rather coherent fashion shall we?

Today was one of those productive in a non productive kind of way days. I started it with the intent of being productive, I was even going to go into work early, but all of that was quickly frittered away, partially of my own doing. I woke up rather early, before 7am in fact and I made some toast for breakfast and sat in front of the computer with my idea of breakfast (toast and iced tea) and read some blogs and just sort of wearily got into my day. I checked online for bus schedules, knowing that my bus to work runs less frequently on Sunday that during the week. I saw I could catch a bus at 7:10am, 8:50am or my normal 10:30am. Well 7:10 was out, I wasn't rushing out the door, but the 8:50 looked promising. The problem usually isn't getting into town, there are so many buses that run from Oakland to downtown that I never even think about getting down there, it is just getting from town to Greentree. So around 8 am I get dressed and do those things I need to do, gather up my bus tickets and what not and head out for the bus stop. I get to the gas station at the end of my street at 8:20, still plenty of time, the ride into town is only about 10 minutes, though a light snow has covered the grass, the roads are still barren, so all looks promising. I decide that I will do the Sunday morning ritual that is me buying gas station coffee for the bus ride. They have actually gotten a butter rum cappucino that is way good, it is like liquid butterscotch, but today I just wanted the usual, large coffee with 6 sugars, no cream. That and a pack of cigarettes and I was armed for whatever the day may bring. I finished the walk to the bus stop and I wait. And I wait. And in case you hadn't guessed, I wait. And the reward for my patience is.....I wait. A bus doesn't show up until I already had to be downtown. Mind you, since I was taking an earlier bus, I still wasn't going to be late for work, but it meant I had almost an hour and a half to kill till the next bus arrived in town to go to Greentree. I drank my coffee, read some more of my book (I am almost done, I will be picking a new book for the neverending blog shortly), walked to 7-11 and bought more coffee and an egg salad sandwich and potato chips so I could eat lunch at work, and went to my bus stop and waited. And waited. And as the theme goes when it comes to my ride to work, I waited.

Funny thing, as I am at the bus stop, they have opened a Gold's Gym in the building across the street. There were maybe two people in there (at least that I could see) riding the exercise bikes, and one on a treadmill. My mind quickly started thinking of rackets, as it what kind of racket is it to open a gym anyway? Can't these people run or bike outside, or run in place in their home? How much coin can you divest people of to get them to punish themselves in public anyway? Mind you, me being across the street is as close as I want to get to exercise anyway, but even if I were a fitness junkie, what are they doing that I can't do and save myself the membership fee? This brought to mind a couple of other rackets that I noticed at my part time job the other evening. We have a sign on the wall, it came from the company that built our dish washing machine. Basically it is the instructions on how to run the machine properly. It starts of with where the chemicals go and what not, then it gets into the actual dish cleaning part of the operation. The sign says to scrub the dishes, place them on the rack, spray them with water and then slide the rack into the machine. Am I the only one that sees the problem? The sign tells me to scrub and rinse the dishes, then what the hell do I need the machine for? If I were to have a career selling these machines, do I have to hide the instructions till after the sale, for fear that the secret will get out, the machine is pointless? Why else tell people to clean the dishes beforehand. What a scam they have going. The scams kept mounting at work however. We listen to the radio in the kicthen, usually the alternative station, though it does vary from time to time. Anyway, a public service announcement comes on talking about how radon is the second leading cause of lung cancer. But wait, there is more, your home may have radon in it because radon is an odorless, colorless, tasteless gas so to be safe, you need to have your home tested. Let me get this straight, I should have my home tested for something that is odorless, colorless and tasteless and hope the guy testing my house is being honest with me? Hell, if I am running that scam, everybody has radon, how would they know any different? And for a slight fee, I am sure I could rid your home of radon. Me and my imaginary friend will just walk around throwing pixie dust everywhere and magically it will be gone. By the way, my imaginary friend expects to get paid too.

Okay, so I make it to work, where I do my two commercial feeds that need recorded, record next week's Lutheran Hour (and the Lutheran's still can't tell time, the show is only 30 minutes long, I suppose the other 30 minutes you sit quietly and pray) recorded next weeks Sinatra Show, posted two podcasts and edited a third that will be posted tomorrow and got a fourth broken down to the point where I can edit it, so all in all it was a productive work day. Plus I got a quick blog entry in and continued my work on my launchcast radio station, where I now have over 6200 ratings recorded.

Finally I left work around 6:10 pm and went to the bus stop where, you guessed it, I waited. And waited. And for good measure, I waited. At least I got some more of my book read while I waited, so it wasn't a complete loss. The only plus was that my connecting bus was there to come back to Oakland almost as soon as I arrived at the bus stop, which brings us to where we are now, with me blogging. Well, not quite where we are now, I did stop by Rite Aid to see what was on sale and bought a ten pack of Reese Cups (88 cents) and some cheddar Chex Mix (also 88 cents) so I would have a choice in my snacks this evening.

Now we are at the point where I am blogging, thank you very much. This seems like a good time to answer the 50 questions that have been bandied about. I just need to remember to erase Tick's answers, lol.

 

1. Do you like blue cheese? Yes, crumbled bleu cheese on salad kicks ass, or on a good black and bleu burger.

2. Have you ever smoked heroin? No, if I am going to do a drug, it will not be a depressant. That being said, I did do cocaine twice and the only reason I didn't do it more was that I liked it too much. I am poor enough without adding an expensive habit like that to my collection.

3. Do you own a gun? My wit is more than deadly enough, lol. Well, there is that and my farts. Actually, I used to pull a prank on my ex girlfriends, where we would be all snuggly in bed and I would want to get in closer then at the last moment, I would pull the covers over her head in a improvised gas chamber type of attack. Needless to say, it is another reason I am single.

4. Your favorite song? Really depends on my mood, though The Ledge by The Replacements, September by Earth, Wind and Fire, and Strawberry Letter 23 by The Brothers Johnson all would make the short list.

5. Do you get nervous before doctor appointments? I don't make doctors apointments, so there is no need to get nervous..

6. What do you think of hot dogs? I like them, but my favorites would be hot dogs from The Original Hot Dog Shop with chili and pickles..

7. Favorite Christmas song? Santa Claus Is Coming Straight to the Ghetto by Snoop Dog, or Santa's Beard by They Might Be Giants

8. What do you prefer to drink in the morning? Coffee, 6 sugars, no cream, if it is a work day and I am at work by 5am, expect me to pound three or four of these.

9. Can you do push ups? This would qualify as exercise, so keep it across the street from me.

10. What's your favorite day of the week? I have been getting Saturdays off a lot recently from both jobs, so for the time being we will say Saturday.

11. What's your favorite piece of jewelry? All I have is my high school class ring, as I am not much of a jewelry person.

12. Favorite hobby? Fantasy sports, video games, reading.

13. What are you listening to right now? Me typing and the gentle hum of the refrigerator.

14. Do you have A.D.D.? Yes, my computer can also subtract, multiply and divide. Ah, the wonders of modern technology.

15. What one trait do you hate about yourself? That I am only on question 14, why couldn't these be multiple choice, I would go much faster.

16. Middle Name: Lynn

17. Name 3 thoughts at this exact moment: Can I call them Larry, Moe and Curly?

18. Name 3 things you bought today: Coffee, egg salad sandwich, potato chips.

19. Name 3 things you drink on a regular basis: Coffee, Pepsi, Iced tea

20. Current worry right now? How much time do I spend on this blog and how much time do I sleep before getting up at 4am.

21. Current hate right now? Stupid people.

22. Favorite place to be? In front of a big breakfast with coffee, eggs, sausage, toast, a newspaper and an ash tray.

23. How did you bring in the New Year? I was in bed asleep.

24. Where would you like to go? Vancouver, Sydney, Toronto,.

25. Name 3 people who will complete this: Hell, I will be lucky if three read this far.

26. Do you own slippers? No

27. What shirt are you wearing? None, though I could put one on if you like.

28. Do you like sleeping on satin sheets? They make those now?

29. Can you whistle? Poorly

30. Favorite color? Blue.

31. Would you be a pirate? A Pittsburgh Pirate? A baseball player that on a team that hasn't had a winning record since 1992? Surely you jest.

32. What songs do you sing in the shower? I usually listen to sports talk while I am in the shower, hard to sing along to.

33. Favorite girl's name? One that I remember.

34. Favorite boy's name? Xenophon Aristotle

35. What's in your pocket right now? Boxe briefs don't have pockets to my knowledge. If they did, I might never wear pants and that is a frightening thought.

36. Last thing that made you laugh? Like laugh out loud funny? That would be "The N-Word" episode of South Park.

37. Best bed sheets as a child? Clean

38. Worst injury you've ever had? Probably getting that needle jammed in my ass that I blogged about back in the 360 days, though technicallly it wasn't an injury. Piece of advice, if someone offers to jam a needle in your ass, politley decline said invitation.

39. Do you love where you live? It's tolerable, I am sure there are better places on the planet, but hey, I have a roof over my head and food in my tummy, that's more than a lot of people have.

40. How many TVs do you have in your house? Two, though only one is plugged in.

41. Who is your loudest friend? Probably Doug, but doing radio for nearly 30 years tends to do that to a person.

42. How many dogs do you have? Zero, I am of the attitude that if you can domesticate it, you can eat it. My freind once asked me to watch her rabbit while she was away. I quickly renamed him "Stew".

43. Does someone have a crush on you? Yes, chicks dig guys who are producers on low power AM talk radio stations. I would beat them off with a stick, but this isn't Singapore so caning isn't allowed here.

44. How many cats do you have? See #42.

45. What is your favorite book? A few of note, "April 1865" by Jay Winnick, "The Sign and the Seal" by Graham Hancock, The Mission Earth Series by L Ron Hubbard and The Dark Tower Series by Stephen King

46. What is your favorite candy? Reese Cups and Hershey Special Dark Bars.

47. Favorite sports team? Pitsburgh Penguins

48. What song do you want played at your funeral? Dead Man's Party by Oingo Boingo

49. What were you doing at 12 AM last night/this morning? Watching the Barely Legal ECW PPV on DVD

50. What was the first thing you thought of when you woke up? I have to work today.

 

Hopefully that about covers that. Of course that means I will have typos galore now, because I know my skill with a keyboard and to say it is non existent is to put it mildly. Oh well, time to fetch some more grub, be right back.

Okay, I am back. I threw something together yesterday and today is leftover day. My grandmother used to make, what she called ham pot pie. It wasn't pot pie in the tradional sense of the word, but rather she would make homemade noodles, then add cooked ham and potatoes and last night I pulled a variation of it, using egg noodles instead and some ham that was still in the freezer from Christmas and in place of the potatoes I added a can of mixed vegetables and then threw in some black pepper and one chicken bullion cube for good measure. I have no idea what this should be called but it is tasty nonetheless. Mind you, I am one of those people that will eat anything that I make, I would rather eat it than waste it, but this actually isn't half bad.

I should note that I did get the other two Pogo badges I wanted this week. I got all three challenges and for good measure got the level 10 badge in Bingo Luau and I finished off another badge in Word Search daily. After that I played a little Fortune Bingo, but the next badge in there is over 200 bingos away, and then I started practicing for next week's challenges, refreshing my memory on how to play Pinochle. Yes, I am a geek that will check out the next week's challenges just to see what I need to do. It gives me a better approach on how I want to play the games. For instance, this week there was a badge in Mahjong that was simply to remove 3500 tiles. Since there was no level difficuly on it, I played it on easy to make it go faster. Next week, the pinochle badge is to win 5000 tokens. Since every point scored in the game is worth three tokens, I will just play 500 point games, that way every win guarantees me at least 1500 tokens before a spin and barring a stupid bid by my computer partner, I can win most games.

I also managed to knock out part of my taxes this weekend. I started my TaxAct filing for this year, though I still am waiting on 2 W2 forms, I put two in, so it is at least halfway done.

I even found time this weekend to play some baseball on the PS2. My 4th season has been my most productive so far. I started in the minor leagues at AAA. After two games where I didn't get a hit, I asked to be called up to the major league team and amazingly they said yes. I stuck around for about 25 games, where I had a batting average over .400, but only a few homeruns and just 16 RBIs, so despite the fact I was second in the voting for Rookie of the Year, I was demoted again to AAA where I was just crushing the ball. I had the batting average over .570 and had hit 7 homeruns and drove in 25 in just 16 games, so I have once again been called back to the major leagues, partially due to my success and partially because my secondary position (I am primarily a first baseman), is utility infielder and the starting third baseman went on the 60 day disabled list, so not only am I in the majors, I start almost every game.

Okay, I have typed enough for one night and I am sure you would agree. Time for some proof reading, then maybe a game of pinochle, then off to bed.