DailyTech - Mitsubishi Kills the Evo, Will Focus on Electric Cars

DailyTech - Mitsubishi Kills the Evo, Will Focus on Electric Cars

Old Men Lightsaber Duel (Return Of The Geriatric)

What are Unions? Why are they evil?

Who are union members? They are:
police officers,
firefighters,
teachers,
nurses,
social workers,
telecommunications workers,
paramedics,
municipal government workers,
state government workers,
federal government workers,
plumbers,
electricians,
bus drivers,
machinists,
longshoremen,
postal workers,
and many other occupations.

From what I can see, none of these occupations will lead a person to being "rich" or "wealthy" by any stretch financially.

What are these union members in Wisconsin and other states trying to accomplish? Do you even know what "collective bargaining" is? From Wikipedia: "Collective bargaining is a process of voluntary negotiations between employers and trade unions aimed at reaching agreements which regulate working conditions. Collective agreements usually set out wage scales, working hours, training, health and safety, overtime, grievance mechanisms and rights to participate in workplace or company affairs".

I'm still trying to find the evil in all of this, after all, news sources(specifically, Fox News) describe unions and their members as "freeloaders looking for a handout", "lazy and incompetent", and "corrupt". To me, at least, it seems that all these union members are trying to do is earn a fair wage for the jobs they do, pay a fair amount for health care, get a decent amount of vacation, and have the opportunity to save a little money for their elder years when they will be unable to work anymore.

So the conundrum I have is this: I'm very much aware that we're in a recession and everybody needs to cut back on spending, but if we as a people are really serious about getting the country back on track, why do certain political parties along with their "news channel" lobby so hard for tax cuts for the wealthy & corporations all while demanding the poor & middle class citizens of this country pay more for their health care & other essential services, take massive cuts in pay & benefits, and insist we work until we drop by raising the retirement to 70+ years. That "news channel" always brings up the scenario of a "transfer of wealth" that is occurring in this nation, and they are absolutely right - it's just not in the direction they say it's going - fact is, the wealthy have been getting wealthier and the poor/middle class have been getting poorer since about 1982 (remember who was president when this started).

"Justice" simply doesn't apply to me, period.

I haven't been posting a lot as of lately but it's for a very good reason. Those of you who know me know that I've been going through a very trying time for about the last three years concerning a very bitter custody battle with my ex-spouse. Now that the situation has concluded I can freely speak of the matter. My opinion of the whole court-ordered custody evaluation process is that it's purpose is neither for the benefit of the children or the non-offending parent. It is actually a tool for the petitioning (read: offending) parent to "sell" his/her side of the story, no matter how untrue or, in my particular case, filled with outright lies. My ex-spouse and children, who have been manipulated and bribed by my ex-spouse repeatedly and constantly over the last three years, concocted a picture of constant abuse and mistreatment at the hands of myself and my current spouse. Some of the things we allegedly did to them didn't even make sense and are not even part of our character. Anyone who knows my wife and I know that we provided nothing but a safe, loving home for my children. There was absolutely Never any mistreatment of my children while they resided in my home. Many of you may ask why the children would say such things. The answer is simple: my ex-spouse played to their wanting of material items and a responsibility-free environment. They were constantly bribed with items such as plasma televisions in their individual rooms, laptop computers, ipods, and even the promise of a luxury-brand automobile upon getting driver's privileges. The children stated that me and my wife "starved" them and they never got to eat. Actually, they constantly wanted junk food (cookies, potato chips, candy, soda pop, etc.) and there was always a supply of healthy snack foods in the home (fruit, granola bars, bottled water, etc). I constantly had to throw fruit in the garbage due to the children not wanting to eat it and it getting spoiled. The children were also constantly told by their mother that they would not have household chores to do because she would just hire a housekeeper and that they would be allowed to stay up as long as they wanted to at night. Lastly, the children would communicate with their mother whenever they got into trouble and received a reprimand, and their mother would always (and I do mean 100% of the time!) undermine me and my wife's authority as parents in my household, assuring them that they shouldn't be punished for anything that they did-no matter how inappropriate. Those of you who know me and my current spouse know that our household is one of discipline, rules, respect, and accountability. My ex-spouse offered them "NeverLand" from the story Peter-Pan and they couldn't wait to get out of my home. Hopefully the children will someday realize that the type of household I offered them was for their own betterment and that the world isn't a place where people get to do what they want, when they want to do it, and how they want to do it. Most importantly, I hope this turn of events hasn't taught them that they can just lie their way out of a situation they may feel is unpleasant or unfair.

It's 3/8/2006-do you know where your PlayStation3 is?

I guess Sony's plan for world domination isn't quite panning out as they probably expected. An ultra-powerful console + expensive price tag + no games = lackluster sales. How bold of them to think that people would consider it a "honor" to purchase a $500-$600 games console, oh wait, I forgot, this indoor barbecue grill sized device is actually supposed to be "center of my digital universe" - the one stop shop for all of my music, my movies, and my games-as long as they're by Sony or someone who they allow to play on their digital playground. I'm personally all about an entertaining gaming experience-something that both my Xbox360 and my Wii provide me with flawlessly.

Wiiiiiiiiiii, oh, wait, OH NO!!!!

Well, just picked up my Nintendo Wii and a couple of games at about 0008 Hours Pacific time at my local EBGames store. There was actually a small crowd there, but I can't imagine it was anything like the mess which was the PS3's release a couple of days ago. Got the system home and meticulously removed all components and documentation. The packaging is very well thought out and very organized. I throughly read all english instructions included with the system which include the obligatory quick start guide, hardware instruction booket, and interface and setup guide. French and Spanish versions of all instrucions are included. One very slight problem-i'm a owner of a very high end home theater setup. Why would this be a problem, you may ask? The lowest quality video connection that I have running to my Sanyo PLV-Z3 is what is called "svideo" which is a moderate step above composite, which is that yellow RCA plug that is normally accompanied by a red and white plug of the same type which is used to supply the sound. The cable included with the Wii is of the composite type, and it's not an easy task to "jerry-rig" a temporary connection to my projector as the existing cables going to the ceiling mounted device (power, svideo, component, and HDMI) are run thru the ceiling to a equipment rack in the front of the room. So, no Wii for me tonight. I must admit, after reading that the Gamecube's component cable is incompatible with the Wii's AV output jack, I ordered the Wii-specific one online a few days ago. It probably won't be here for a while though as apparently it's more popular than Nintendo thought it would be and their version of the cable is only available online directly from them. My hope is that I can walk into Best Buy tomorrow morning and purchase a third-party manufactured one as I not too sure how long I can survive by just reading the instruction manuals of my just-purchased games: The Legend of Zelda-Twilight Princess and Excite Truck(can't wait to see how Metal Slug Anthology turned out as soon as I can find it!).

Nothing New

Just watching the GOP implode & awaiting launch of Wii. Been extremely busy with work and some home renovations.

All you Wii are belong to us!

If there was a clear winner @ E3 this year, it would have to be the Wii-as everything else at the show was basically more of the same thing with prettier graphics. I predict when the next generation comes around the Wii's unique interface will become the de-facto standard for game control.

"Played"station3

I just watched the PS3 pre-E3 presentation-color me unimpressed. Seems like they said "lets copy the best things about Xbox360 and Xbox Live, and lets combine them with what we already copied from Nintendo, slap the ps3 name on it, and call it a day." the fanboys and non-gamers will still buy it because it has the name "Playstation" on it.

Nintendo "Whaaaaaa"?

So the upcoming console codenamed "Revolution" now has an official name - "Wii", pronounced "we". It's definitely not my first choice of names, but it's definitely getting the job done, as many a video game message board are on fire discussing the new name. Most people's knee-jerk reaction thus far is that the name is stupid, but if I remember correctly, PlayStation and Xbox seemed kinda lame at their respective pre-launches also. Anyway, I still intend on having one on launch day no matter what they decide to call it. The controller's potential to revolutionize(pun intended) the FPS genre has me very excited

Brett's Office Space

Still here, just been kinda busy lately. Dealing with various things right now, like going to court, trying to get my business off the ground, and a couple of remodeling projects for family. Please feel free to post anything, as I still check in every couple of days or so.

Brett's Office Space

Still just using my XBox360 as a DVD player. Naruto-Clash of Ninja for Gamecube is my current addiction, though. It has an interface just slightly more complex than Super Smash Bros Melee and a pretty decent combo system. Definitely the most enjoyable fighting game i've played in a while, and yes, i've played Dead or Alive 4.

Brett's Office Space

It's now March-have you gotten your Xbox 360 yet? Do you want one. As much as I like most of the concepts and features of Microsoft's new system, this has to be one of the worst console launches i've seen, and i've been around since before the Atari 2600. I believe that anyone wanting one should have been able to obtain one at least a week after system launch. I was my local "Big Box"(read: the two B's) yesterday which had about ten of the "core" package X360(another very stupid idea). People were still treating it like the second coming. This tells me that they weren't quite ready for launch quite yet. And who's idea was the $60.00 price per game? I know it's only ten bucks, but thats the difference between $100.00 and $120.00 for a couple of games. The downloadable stuff is cool, though.

Brett's Office Space

Brett's Office SpaceTwo simple rules I have for myself: Never date the same girl twice(no longer a problem, i'm now married), and never have the same job twice, as there is a reason why you don't have said job anymore. Being a long time Oakland Raiders fan, it perplexes me as to why Art Shell would agree to take that coaching job, again. Yes, I know Al Davis was kinda getting desperate due to the fact that he couldn't give that job away, but at the end of the day what it boils down to is Al letting Art coach the team instead of the other way around. Oh, and by the way, a change in the QB position isn't a bad idea either.

Brett's Office Space

Here's another good idea: Let's go on conservative "F" news channel and show a little remorse to save face. It would have been like B.Clinton going on Air America radio to confess about getting a "friendly" from that intern.

Brett's Office Space

What a great country we live in. Who would have thought that you can shoot someone in the face and not only not get detained for questioning, but have the authorities state that it was completely an accident less than 24 hours after the news story was "released" to the press. In reality, if it were any one of us, we'd still be in custody, hog-tied w/an apple stuffed in our mouth, and being yelled at by those same authorities saying "confess or die!" How much more of a free pass are the American people going to give this administration? I guess shooting someone in the face isn't as serious as having a (not so) cute intern give you a "friendly"

Test post, just to see how it looks and if it works correctly.