Tag: complaint

A Nano complaint

I’d never realized it before, but one of the great advantages of writing online is the ability to hyperlink.  If I have a word or concept that some people might not be familiar with, instead of explaining at length what I mean, I can just throw in a link to Wikipedia or something that explains the topic for me, and continue to write.

I’m finding that not being able to do that while I’m writing for Nano is becoming increasingly annoying.  For example, I’m writing about a software company.  There’s a good chance that someone might make a joke about l33+ speak, and I’m going to have to explain it.  Good for the word count, bad for the story flow.

Anyway, it’s a small complaint.  Someday, all our books will be interactive, and you’ll be able to add hyperlinks to your novel.  Until then, I remain slightly annoyed.

So busy

With Novel Writing Month (a personal daily best of 5700 words on Friday), preparing to deliver version 3.0 at work, getting the condo ready to sell, and various other life responsibilities, I feel like I’m not complaining enough.  At least, not here.  I’m certain I’ve done enough complaining about painting, even though my wife does most of the work.

So, I’d like to apologize to my loyal fans.  This week is pretty busy, but next week is looking a little better, and the week after that even better.  I could be wrong, though.  But I’ll be back to my normal elevated level of complaining as soon as possible.

How appropriate

After two years, Britney has had enough – CNN.com

Spears’ marriage to Federline was her second after a 2004 spur-of-the-moment wedding in Las Vegas to a former high school sweetheart that was quickly annulled.

When people talk about how gay marriage is supposedly an attack on the sanctity of “real” marriage, many like to bring up Britney’s twenty-four hour (or whatever) marriage that was annulled, and say (Rightly, I think) that we heterosexuals are doing a pretty good job of screwing up marriage already.

So it seems like fate that I read about her impending divorce on the day after Virginia votes to “protect marriage”.  Here we have a woman in her, what, mid-twenties?, who makes a living with her abs and cleavage, seeking sole custody of two young children after her second marriage fails.

THIS is a perversion of marriage, not a committed gay couple seeking legal equality.  THIS is what cheapens my nearly three month old marriage (Going perfectly so far, thank you).

So, thanks, Britney, for illustrating this point so well.  You’ve done a service to your country.  Now, please go away and try not to screw up your kids too much.

Google is down?

The Google homepage and Google Reader aren’t coming up for me.  That’s a nuisance, since there’s usually lots to read on Monday morning because I don’t read much of my RSS feeds over the weekend.  I suppose I could actually go to the sites that I read, but that somehow seems like too much trouble.

In other news, the wife is in Massachusetts until Thursday, babysitting her nephew.  That’s partly good for me, because it will give me time to get caught up on Nanowrimo.  I’m about 1300 words behind, not including the 1667 I’m supposed to write today.  It’s not a big deal, though.  I can make up 1300 words.

The story is going well so far.  We’ve got intrigue and sexual harassment and passionate rants in opposition to elevators.  My main character really hates elevators, which means I’m pretty sure he’s going to get stuck in one later on in the story.  His behavior between now and then will likely determine whether he gets stuck in there with the cute girl from accounting, or with 19 total strangers who smell funny.

Ever honked at a school bus?

I took an alternate route to work today because I had to drop the wife off in Arlington so she could pass out Jim Webb (Democratic candidate for Senator in VA) literature.  So I was coming through a sort of bad intersection – nothing like Seven Corners, but not the nicest intersection, either.  As I went through the green light, a school bus pulled halfway into the intersection to turn right.  Into my lane.

First of all, you don’t pull halfway into the lane when a car with the right of way is already occupying that lane.  Second, I thought school buses never turned right on red.  Doesn’t it say that on the back of the bus?

I always drive more carefully around school buses.  I mean, they’re full of children without seatbelts.  And usually the bus drivers are extra cautious, too.  But not this one.  So I honked at him.  He then turned right just behind me.  On red.  Jerk.

Shouldnt that be automatic?

Project Vote Smart – Virginia Election Ballot Measures

The proposed amendment would delete the provision found to be unconstitutional.

There are three measures on the Virginia ballot this year.  One of them is the ridiculously far-reaching gay marriage ban that I’ve mentioned.  I can’t imagine anyone who reads past the “ban gay marriage” part will vote for it.  If your knee-jerk reaction is “I must vote against gay marriage”, you might support it, but you’d be making a mistake.  I’m not going to argue why I support gay marriage, I will just say that this particular ban is similar to destroying a thirty story office building because you didn’t like the color of the eighth-floor bathroom. Measure two simply removes a section that has been found unconstitutional.  It changes no law – the law has already been changed.  Why we have to vote on this, I don’t know. Measure three would expand permissible tax relief for “new structures and improvements located in a conservation, redevelopment, or rehabilitation area”.  I’m not sure I like that.  On one hand, it seems to allow tax breaks for someone who might want to rehabilitate an old house, or perhaps put in a new retaining wall to protect a stream.  These things seem fine with me.  But wouldn’t this also open the door for tax breaks if someone wants to buy a little house in an old neighborhood and tear it down to put up a McMansion?  It seems like it, again, is too broad.  I might be missing the point, but my initial reaction is that the potential benefits are less than the potential abuse.  If someone wants to correct me, please do.

Halloween is going to kill me

A coworker brought in two giant bags of candy. Apparently he didn’t get as many trick-or-treaters as expected.

What makes it worse is that it’s good candy – Heath bars, Butterfingers, M&Ms;, Nerds . . . I’m going to need to jog home for the next week, I think.

So, both a complaint, and an anti-complaint.  Because candy is awesome, but thousands of extra calories from fat are not.

Ruby Tuesdays is cheap

We (Myself and four coworkers) went to Ruby Tuesdays for lunch today.  They actually had the same menu as last time, which is a shock.  But they’ve stopped providing a bottle of ketchup at the table.  Instead, they provide a little bowl.  I just sent them a complaint through their website.  Maybe they’ll give us something free.  I told them we go there two to three times a month, and we’ll go to Fridays or Chilis instead if they don’t bring back the bottles.  That’s probably an empty threat – Fridays has no parking, and Chilis has terrible service.  But they don’t know that.

Firefox 2.0 gripe

I admit that this is a minor and easily fixable gripe, but the built in spell-check dictionary for Firefox 2.0 does not include the word “okay” or “ok” by default.  Is there some fight about whether or not this is a word?  I thought it was universally accepted as part of the English language.  It’s pretty easy to add it, and then it’s not a problem again, but it seems strange that it’s not included.

Other than that, 2.0 is pretty cool.  Memory footprint is still too big, but I like the new features.  It does break the “Alt-a” add a link in the WordPress dashboard, which is annoying but not that big a deal.

Response from Delegate Scott

You can see the response I got to my letter about Seven Corners here.  The relevant quote is this:

The main reason we in No.Va. suffer from inadequate transportation solutions is that we have not increased revenues in 20 years. Again this year, many of us in NoVA tried to obtain support for new sources of funding, but we had little support from House members from other parts of the state.

This sounds to me like a plea from Democrat to support a tax hike.  Now, maybe that’s not being fair, but doesn’t that sound to you like a plea for a tax hike?

But I’m not buying it.  If you can’t increase revenue without raising taxes when the population explodes (I don’t know what the population was in 1986, but it sure wasn’t what it is now), then it’s not the fault of House members in the rest of the state (Republican, probably, since NOVA is the only Democratic part of the state commonwealth).  It’s the fault of those who write up the budget.  I understand that increased population means increased costs, but it also means increased revenue. And seriously, how much does it cost to put up a sign?  I honk at someone almost every day at that intersection because they cut me off from the wrong lane.  Do you think they’d put up a sign if I offered to pay for it?  That’s probably illegal.  Maybe I’ll ask Jim Scott.