What's Worse Than Nail Clipping on Muni? Using Your Speakerphone

The annoying ass perp in pink.

I've blogged in the past about people who have done some annoying stuff on Muni (see questions and thoughts while riding Muni).  Number one was nail clipping because the sound is so irritating, but I think I found my new number one annoyance while riding Muni.

If you've watched the season premiere of South Park, it showed an irritated Kyle who is frustrated at Eric Cartman for having conversations on his cell phone by using his speakerphone everywhere he goes.

But while that happened in the animated television world, it happened on Saturday early afternoon when I was taking the 44 bus going northbound.  When the bus was in Golden Gate Park to stop in front of the Academy of Sciences, I saw a woman pull out her smartphone and was making a phone call.  All seemed normal at that point until I started hearing the automated telephone greeting through her speakerphone.

The entire back half the bus can hear the automated message on her phone and she was able to connect to a telephone operator to ask questions and get responses.  To make matters even more amusing, it was a conversation with the operator that would be confidential or a private matter, such as calling your credit card company or your doctor.  She continued having the conversation back and forth between the operator, and I can hear the conversation while I was listening to music with my headphones.  I snapped a couple of pictures of her so I can humiliate her on my blog, Twitter, and Instagram accounts.

Get off the bus and chat.

The people around me was rolling their eyes at her while the conversation kept going on, and it finally stopped when she exited the bus at 6th Avenue and Geary.  Thank my patience for not outbursting and telling her to shut the hell up or stop using the speakerphone, because I was getting close to doing just that.

Are some people so oblivious these days they'd pull a stunt like that on public transit?  It's a private conversation you fool!  Even the automated message on the bus reminds passengers to refrain from using their cell phones to prevent crime; it should also be a crime to yack on your cell phone with the speaker on.

The Ten Annoyances Akit Experiences Almost Daily

I haven't blogged in weeks!  Things have been quite busy at my job and now I have a little relief to blog again.

Being a native San Franciscan has its perks, you always know the fastest way on Muni and alternate routes to get to where you need to go, you know the restaurants that are good and pure crap, and you have a bullshit alarm.  I'm quite an observant person and that bullshit alarm goes off a ton of times for people doing some stupid crap on the streets of my city; so I want to highlight them:

(1) Idiot Pedestrians - There's nothing worse than the entitled pricks who thinks it's absolutely okay to cross a street against a red signal or jaywalk; and then there are those super entitled pricks who cross in front of an approaching car, as shown in the video above.

(2) Nail Clipping - Nail clipping ain't cool in public.  Just yesterday while riding the 6-Parnassus, a lady sitting behind me was clipping her nails during for about 10 minutes.  After she finished clipping her nails, I could hear her feet shuffle and her hands sweeping from her clothing; SHE WAS LITTERING HER CLIPPINGS ON THE FLOOR!

(3) Hogging a Muni seat, WITH YOUR FEET - Come on people, don't put your feet on the seat, especially when the vehicle is standing room only.  You look like an asshole, and if it was legal, I'd slap you in the face.

(4) Parking #FAIL - It's something I always take with my cell phone when I'm walking the streets.  People think it's absolutely fine to park illegally where ever they want.  There might be that lucky chance the fine folks at the SFMTA will be around to give a nice fat ticket to the car, but likely car owners will get away with it; and even if they get a ticket, they'll say it's well worth that fine.  In the photo above, I caught this car on Saturday parked on 9th Avenue in front of Kiki's restaurant; having a disabled placard is not an excuse to park like an idiot.

(5) Bad bicycle riders - There are some good bicycle riders, then there are the ones who deserve to get hit by a car.  On Saturday, I was waiting my turn to cross the street directly across from the Exploratorium at Pier 15 and I see two bicyclists decide to go through the intersection while an incoming car was approaching and had the green light to proceed through the intersection.  If it wasn't for the actions of the driver to slam his brakes, swerve, and blow the horn, the two helmet-less bicyclists would have been likely dead.  Just yesterday, I can't believe how many people blow the stop signs on the bike route known as "the wiggle."

(6) Illegal U-Turns - Ever since I moved into the Inner Sunset district, I'm not too far away from the 9th Avenue business district.  I see tons of drivers making u-turns in the middle of the block, and most of the time, do it unsuccessfully in the first attempt.  It turns up to be more like a nine point turn.  But as you see in the video, making a u-turn in a business district is a traffic violation, and especially since 9th Avenue has metro rail tracks, those who u-turn might as well be lucky a train hasn't slammed into their car, because in the battle of Muni metro versus a car, Muni metro wins with a flawless victory.

(7) Bad neighbors - I hate my next door neighbors because they don't shut the hell up.  They like to talk loud with their window open at 3AM.  One night, the idiots decided to crank the music so loud, I can feel my walls vibrate.  At least when I yelled at them that I would threaten to call the cops, that's when they stopped.

(8) Stopping at intersections - Driving my car is stressful, especially when approaching an intersection.  I always follow the rules, such as stopping completely before the limit line, and at an all-way stop, making sure to go when it's supposed to be my turn.  But you always see those who pull a "California stop" by only slowing down at the limit line, but then hits the gas and goes through.  There's also those who go out-of-turn at the all-way stop intersections, which frustrates me because they know the basic rule: First come, first served, and if two vehicles stops at the same time, the right vehicle goes first.

(9) Last minute lane changes - Another instance of why I hate driving.  People try to make a last second lane change because they don't want to be in the turn lane they are in.  Here's a bad one I was nearly a victim of: Three lanes, a Muni bus in the far left lane, and I'm in the middle lane.  At the green light, the Muni bus speeds forward to cut me off and cut from the #1 lane to the #3 lane to reach the curb for the bus stop.  Not cool.

(10) - I'm leaving this one blank for you, my blog fans.  What would you suggest for number ten?  Leave a comment.

500 Page SF Elections Paper Ballot Book - How to Get it E-Mailed & Get Spammed Too

Election Day comes back on November 5th to San Francisco, and while it usually means we vote for candidates and proposals for propositions, you'll be getting something huge in the mail: Your ballot book.

If you are familiar with ballot books, it's basically what every person registered to vote gets in the mail prior to every election.  The books contain the procedures and policies about voting, candidate statements, proposition statements, and plenty more.  In most cases, the booklets are no more than a quarter inch thick using very thin paper to cut down on weight and postage costs.

But for the November 5th elections, your booklet will be roughly 400-500 pages, with a huge chunk going towards a local proposition for a luxury condo property at 8 Washington.  By law, the city has to publish the text of the referendum and that contains hundreds of pages that likely a majority of citizens will simply throw into their recycling bin.

What does that mean to me?  If I receive that, I just look at the sample ballot and maybe the briefing of each ballot measure, than simply dump it in the recycling bin.

But... there is a choice for us voters, we can ask the city to skip on the paper ballot books and review it online.  When you opt-in for electronic ballot boks, you get an e-mail from the city that gives you the link to the ballot book online.

It's a great idea, help the city go green by cutting back on the paper printing, especially when your ballot book will be the size of a telephone book.

However, there's a dark side to giving the city your e-mail address:

"The email address provided on this form will be kept confidential pursuant to Section 6254.4 of the California Government Code and Section 2194 of the California Elections Code, and legally may be provided to a candidate for office, a ballot measure committee, or other person for election, scholarly, journalistic, political, or governmental purposes, as determined by the Secretary of State." (Source: SF Elections opt-out paper ballot book online sign-up)

What this basically tells me is that if I give the city government my e-mail address to cut down on paper waste, there is the possibility that political candidates and proposition pro/opponents will be harassing me via e-mail telling me to "vote for this" and "my opponent is a scumbag?"

Like I need more junk mail in my inbox.  I'm already sick of the phone calls at 8:45PM.  Thanks politicians for passing an elections law that allows you to spam the crap out of my e-mail box; you voted for it because you liked it so you can tell us who or what to vote for, but for us citizens, we hate it.

Here's an alternative the city could do, but it will cost some money: People can opt-out of a paper ballot, but they would instead get a post card telling citizens to visit the elections website to obtain the electronic ballot book; by doing it this way, we don't have to give out our e-mail address.

Dear Candidates for Mayor of San Francisco: Stop Calling Me!

Dear Candidates for Mayor of San Francisco:

You suck. That's right, you suck.

Why do you suck? You call my house to bother me to ask for their votes or do some touch tone phone survey to ask who I would vote for mayor.

Getting calls from your volunteer scumbags telling me who to vote for is just annoying, and I know that you are robocalling me because if I answer my phone and say "hello" and hear silence for about two or three seconds means I'm about to be bothered by another jackass.

To give you a good example, here's the last phone call I got at 8:45PM (yeah, 8:45PM) last night:

I'm quietly reading a book in bed and I get a phone call from some volunteer for David Chiu for Mayor. I quickly interrupt the jackass who disrupted my peaceful time by saying: "Now that you called, I just changed my mind, I won't vote for him." I hung up my phone without letting the guy get one word after that.

Here's a fact, it's NOT FUN to call me. Anyone who dares to ask me to vote for someone or something will get a rude reaction. Another time when someone called me, I said, "is that you Jesus?" then hung up. It's worse if you call me after 8PM because I'm busy enjoying watching a good TV show, writing my blog, or just reading a good book.

I've been also getting robocalls asking me to use my touch tone phone to pick who I would vote for mayor. They gave me nine options (press 1 through 9), instead, I picked option zero: "Get the fuck off my phone."

Here's other annoyances I hate about election time:

• You folks like mailing junk to my house on who I should vote for? Here's what I do: It goes straight into the recycling bin. Oh, Alioto wants to be mayor? Cram it; into the blue bin you go. Stop wasting trees.
• Mayoral candidate cronies (possibly paid ones) who abuse twitter by retweeting every single tweet from the candidate's account. The worst offender: Phil Ting's and his ResetSF (Reset San Francisco) account. Here's one of their "political consultants" and another one. Makes using Hootsuite and other third party programs to keep tabs on hashtags like #muni a nightmare.
  
• And while I'm on the topic of Reset San Francisco, how many of you actually knows that Reset San Francisco is actually a website for Phil Ting to be Mayor? It's not as obvious as other candidate's websites; ResetSF's website mentions it in very little print on the bottom of the site. If it wasn't a political candidate's website, it would win awards for being a pretty good blog, but because it's a candidate's website, it's just using his cronies to write twisted articles, like this one full of incorrect facts about Clipper. Even I put out a tweet asking people if they knew if that website is for a candidate and some of the reaction I got back was: "agreed," and "I don't think most know he's even running."
  

So to all you political candidates who wants to be Mayor of this city: Stop calling me, mailing me, and cramming Twitter. I've got better things to do.

Disrespectfully,
Akit

UPDATE: [Retracted due to error]

Bicyclists Suck in Golden Gate Park (Okay, Not Everyone Sucks)

On Tuesday during evening rush, I was going home from work in my car and it requires me to drive into Golden Gate Park to go from the Outer Sunset district to the Outer Richmond.

What irritated me during this commute is a huge wad of bicyclists who decided to blow right through two stop signs. No, it's not Critical Mass, that's not until this Friday in downtown. It was around 30 bicyclists that was like a huge swarm of pissed off bees down Martin Luther King drive, and I can see them in my rear mirror coming fast. These were bicyclists that looked like they were training to be in a bicyclist racing event because of their racing bikes and their tight fit clothing.

Here's where they were going:

View Larger Map

I was stopped at point "C" just behind a SUV waiting for its turn to make a right turn onto Chain of Lakes. I noticed the swarm come from behind me, blew through the stop sign at Middle Drive (point "B") and on approach to make a right turn onto northbound Chain of Lakes.

I noticed in my mirror that they almost caused an accident when a car with the right of way (no stop sign) had to slam their brakes, and the SUV in front of me at the intersection had to also slam their brakes because the bikes passes on the right of us between the curb and the car.

That was just creepy to see a wad of bikes just violate state traffic laws and nearly cause multiple accidents. State law clearly says that ALL bicyclists on the road must obey all traffic signs and signals; did they? HELL NO. I'm no vigilante to put a stick in their spokes, and I decided the only decent thing to do when there's safety concerns is to call the police. I don't know what happened after that, but I hope those bikers gets a ticket and enjoys their day in traffic court.

This has happened before...
About six months ago, I had the same incident happen at map point "B" where I was the car going west and had the right away, and about a dozen fast moving bicyclists decided to cut me off by blowing through the stop sign on Middle Drive.

ANGRY!
I know there's a lot of you that are angry at bicyclists, and much of the complaints happens in downtown. But let's remember that not all bicyclists breaks the law, just a handful who thinks they are superman or totally invincible to cops writing tickets. All it takes is one crash to end someone's life and haunt the car driver forever.

But nobody really targets the bad cyclists in Golden Gate Park. It is because it's easier to get away with it due to the winding roads and you don't exactly know what street they went on so you can call the cops and report it? Would you know where South Fork Drive is? Likely not for many drivers.

For the rest of you, have you experienced a bad incident with a bicyclist breaking the law? Leave a comment.

Update: Answer to Why Political Ads are Not on SF's Lampposts

Happy election day everyone. I hope you have already voted or will do so today.

In a recent blog entry, I mentioned it was really nice to not see those political ads on the city's lampposts. I never really knew why the practice has stopped and I assumed it was because it was just a waste of money with all that paper and labor needed to put it up on every single post in the city.

Just recently, a blog entry in SFGate's "City Insider" was talking about Proposition "B" and it mentioned about rules regarding the posting of bills or ads on city lampposts. They also provided a link to the Department of Public Works website about the city code regulating postings.

In summary of the city's policy, the city does not permit any signage larger than a letter size sheet of paper, and this includes political signage. Here's more info from the DPW's site:

To legally place a sign on a utility pole, it must:

• Be less than 11 inches in height
• No higher than 12 feet from the ground
• Conform to the shape of the pole
• Be attached with tape or other non-adhesive material such as twine, string or other non-metal banding material
• Include a legible posting date in the lower right hand corner
• Be removed after 10 days, if the sign is promoting a date specific event
• Be removed within 70 days of the posting date
• Not be installed on historic street light poles, traffic signal poles or traffic directional sign poles.

Good work SF, no more eyesores on our lampposts! Now, let's start getting after the other political annoyances like doorknob hangers, robo calls on my home phone, calling my cell phone (which is VERY ILLEGAL), and all that junk mail you keep mailing me weeks after I voted absentee.

Just mail me a voter information booklet; that's all I need to vote with. I don't read the paid arguments section.

Isn't it Nice There's No Political Ads on SF's Lampposts?

In one week will be election day for California, and specifically in San Francisco. There's a lot of items for people to vote for, including a new Governor, school boards, BART board, judges, and of course, those crazy propositions ranging from pension plans to the state budget.

Other than the political junk mail (that goes straight into my recycle bin without reading it) and the bothersome phone calls from idiots saying "vote for me!" and "my rival is a scumbag," there's one bright spot in this upcoming elections.

That bright spot, there's no political ads posted on San Francisco's lampposts. Yeah, you know those ones that are bright in colors, full of stupid slogans, and makes it a total eyesore when driving.

Not long ago, those political ads polluted our thoroughfares of our streets, and every single lamppost on Geary Boulevard was crammed with things saying vote for this, and don't vote for that. There were people who had to park their fancy cherry picker trucks and block our streets to post this crud, and there were some random people deciding to cut down ads off the poles of candidates or propositions they didn't support.

Maybe those folks are getting the message, stop wasting your money on printing and wasting all that paper, and get a bunch of volunteer slaves to hound your ass on the phone and mail you garbage.

I am a permanent absentee voter; I vote immediately when I get the ballot, so you jackasses can leave me the fuck alone.

9 Really Bad Habits People Do on Muni

After reading the popular posting on SFgate called: "Heinous crimes to commit in San Francisco" that has a list of basically annoying crap that people do on the streets of our city, I thought to myself, I can make it a step better by making a list of my own.

So on my way back home on the 18-46th Avenue, I wrote down a bunch of ideas down. Here's what I got...

Really Bad Habits People Do on San Francisco Muni

1. Boarding the back door. Just today, I took the 8X-Bayshore Express from the Hall of Justice (jury duty) to Market street, and I'm trying to exit the bus, but this old Chinese lady boards and continues shoving me while I'm trying to exit. She crushes me against the center handrail and nearly destroyed the proximity card I carry to work.
2. Take a shower asshole, because you smell like one. On my ride home on the 18, this guy carrying a couple of grocery bags smelled like pee, really nasty pee. The passengers were opening windows, and I was near the point of puking. If you smell bad, or you put on too much cologne/perfume, do me a favor, call a taxi.
3. Clipping your nails. If you read my blog, it's one of my popular entries. Clipping nails is one of the nastiest things to do while on the bus. Littering the ground with nails, and the loud noise it generates just pisses people off, but no passenger has the balls to stand up and say: "do your shit at home!"
4. Yak yak yak on that cell phone. Please do me a favor, either hang-up or talk so silently that the person next to you can't hear a thing. I don't need to hear that your prescription Viagra didn't work.
   
5. Carrying porno on the bus. I don't want to know that some star is doing their first (censored!). I remember several years back and I was riding the 38 Geary and this guy was hiding porno behind his jacket and it accidentally fell to the floor. How embarrassing!
6. Farting. Also known as passing gas and the dutch oven. If you are old and fart on the bus, it's time to use one of those bathroom stick ons near your butt to cover the smell.
7. Ringing the bell late. There is no excuse if you ring the bell with just feet to go before the next stop. Half a block please.
8. Stealing all the info pamphlets from the bus. If the pamphlet holder says "take one," it doesn't mean TAKE THEM ALL! There's this jackass on the 18-46th Avenue bus in the mornings who steals all of them, every single pamphlet (no matter how useless the info is). When Muni did serious re-routes on December 5th and published colorful pamphlets, that asshole took every single one of them from every single holder, and did it again the next day.
9. Paying the fare box with coins, other than quarters. I want to get to work, or get to a nice place for dinner, so please don't waste my time by feeding the farebox with nickels and dimes. And for those assholes to pay with pennies, it's time you went to a Coinstar machine.

Here's your opportunity for your annoying observations, post a comment!

(UPDATE) Muni Updates Announcement System... Not Exactly

I just noticed today that the automated announcements system on the Muni buses are stating a new message about possible service cuts and fare increases and is also announced in Chinese (Cantonese or Mandarin?) and Spanish.

OK... so what does this have to do with anything?

If Muni can afford to pay a Texas firm known as DRI and Donna Reed who is the "official voice of Muni" to make the new announcements about cuts and fare hikes, how in the hell did the agency not pay to revise the many mispronounced street names? Sansome is supposed to be announced as San-Some, but the system still says San-SOH-Me.

I remember Muni doing updates before these massive re-routes and revised announcements project. Some bus lines had terrible pronunciations and was revised with a male announcer who spoke the stops correctly. One example is the 47-Van Ness.

Even then, Muni only had to make announcements on major stops, such as major intersections and transfer points, and was never required to announce the other less frequently stopped locations. But with Muni spending dough to announce every single bus stop, every single mispronunciation makes the agency look like a bunch of idiots.

I can't still believe that major city attractions, colleges, universities, and public schools were removed from the announcements system; so how will tourists know when they reach a certain attraction? Ask the grumpy driver?

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I'm still frustrated at Muni for not fixing the announcements system for the 18-46th Avenue line. Now that the line is re-routed to serve Balboa from 33rd Avenue to La Playa, the announcement system is making announcements of stops that used to exist when it operated on Geary and Point Lobos. For example, the re-route stop at 43rd Avenue is pronounced as "Merrie" (a.k.a. Cliff House).

UPDATE 2/12/10: Muni did a half-assed job on modifying the 18-46th Avenue announcements. The verbal announcements are now correct, but the visual announcements are still mentioning the old route stops along Geary/Pt. Lobos. Example: 47th Avenue and Cabrillo verbally says "47th Avenue" but the visual sign says something completely different.

Clipping Nails on Muni - Very Annoying

The unofficial rules of the bus is to stay off the cell phone, don't take more than one seat, do not block the exit doorway, and keep conversations in a quiet voice.

But someone always has to break that silence... the nail clippers. The sound of the clipper making that loud clipping sound disturbs the peace of public transit. Regardless of where you sit on the bus or train, someone in that vehicle is doing something really nasty.

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I've had one experience when I was riding the bus back home and the passenger behind my seat was clipping her nails in public. It lasted for nearly 15 blocks until I finally snapped, turned around, and told her to stop doing it. Her excuse: "don't speak English."

In my pissed-off rage, I told her very slowly, "DO NOT CLIP YOUR NAILS ON THE BUS" and even did a mime impression to show that it's not right.

Sure enough, she didn't get the damn message and just kept clipping. The bus driver never got involved and I was the only passenger with the balls to confront her.

I'm proud of what I did, you don't do that annoying crap EVER in public. Get your butt home and you can spend your precious time clipping your nails.

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There has to be a health code violation or something... especially when the person litters them all over the ground.

What do you feel is the most annoying thing people do on public transportation?

(Photo from Flickr user "Mr. T in DC" using a Creative Commons License)

Can't Wait for Election Day to be Over - No More Advertising!

It is always great that we as Americans can use our constitutional right to vote, especially for the Presidency of our country and for big issues, especially Proposition 8 in California.

But the best part after all the hype... no more advertising of "vote for this" and "vote for that" on the phone, television and radio commercials, and by mail.

It makes me sick that when I turn-on the radio to my favorite station, all I hear during every commercial break is to say yes to this and say no to that. Then it's also on your TV too! I want to watch the Simpsons in peace dammit! And if I collected all the political ads I got in the mail, it would be a couple of inches thick. I got ten in one day, and I don't read any of them.

So celebrate my fellow Americans... no more sick to your stomach, vomit political ads to bother you any more.

Now... how long until the news stations cut-off their elections coverage and replace it with normal TV broadcasting?

Most Annoying Pet Peeve - Car Taillights

I think that one of the most annoying things I can think of is when I drive and the person in front of me has one of their taillights burned out.

OK... more annoying is when two of them are burned out and there's only this little one that's about half the length of your hand. Sometimes, it's so hard to see that light, you have to give yourself extra room or just move to the next lane.

I operate an old 1991 car, but when the lights burn out, at least I get a little signal on my dashboard that alerts me to a burned out light. I wonder why not all cars have this little nifty feature? When it tells you to do it, just run down to your local car parts dealer and replace it yourself.

Or simply pay five times the amount and let the folks at Jiffy Lube do it.

Too Edited - National Bingo Night on ABC

I was interested in the program "National Bingo Night" when people at home had the chance to win some prizes for printing their cards at home, but there were some things that really annoyed me.

--If anyone watched the program, it is too heavily edited. You can easily tell that the host is doing voiceovers on certain segments. Another editing problem is that you know that the audience is applauding and they turn the camera to the host to say some reminder of the prize or to mark-off your card, you can see in the background that the audience is NOT applauding, but you can hear the sound of the audience applauding in the background sound.

--Can you stop reminding us to mark our cards off and registering our cards on the website? I already knew that the first time you said it Captain Jackass! I "won" a bingo prize of being in the raffle for the $50,000, but since the ABC website crashed, I was able to input my claim code, but it did not take-in my name and contact info. Then I tried again and the claim code and it said that it was already claimed. Yeah... whoopie, I guess I won't win anything.

--The "Bingo 500" is a blah! The guy says that the number is low, and the ball comes down the chute and it's a red ball (and this asshole thinks he aint gonna get it right). Well damn, I already know it's a low number because the red ball color signifies the "B" column!

--Too few numbers were called-out in this game and the game process went too slow. If you were in a bingo hall playing against people, the game would last a longer and more numbers would be called out if you played in certain patterns.

--Ya know, four corners is a legitimate bingo.

--Do we really need a host that looks like Howie Mandel? But just without the germ-a-phobe attitude?

--The referee is a real worthless figure in this game. Especially the accent. Sure, I support having South-Asians on television, but putting an accent really turns the fun around to make it seem like its some stereotype that people from India speak with a heavy accent in America. Think of it this way, do you know that Martin Yan of Yan Can Cook on PBS actually speaks normal English and speaks that pidgin English only on TV to play the stereotype of the perpetual foreigner?

--All the printed-out bingo cards say: "This Sweepstakes is a seeded instant win game; it is not a state-sanctioned bingo game..." This simply means that this "Bingo" (and I really put this in quotes) game has been pre-recorded and that the print-at-home bingo cards are simply pre-determined scratch-off tickets.

Think of it this way: This "National Bingo Night" was pre-taped and before they put it on TV and let people win prizes, people who print the tickets at home are actually already instant winners or instant losers. If someone like K-Mart is giving away $5 gift cards for their stores, K-Mart wants to only give out five million dollars for the promotion. So the "bingo cards" are already rigged to only distribute "winning" cards so that once 1,000,000 (5 million divided by $5 = 1 million) pre-determined bingo cards are distributed with the winning prize.

Let's summarize my rants:
National Bingo Night is full of shit
Print out as many cards you want, there's no limit. Maybe instead of winning nothing, I'll get back $50 worth of K-mart gift cards and I've already fried $100 in paper and ink to "play" this game.
Too much editing
Howie Mandel look-alike host
Stereotyped referee
Just another TV program on my hate list. Now on list: KRON, NBC11, and National Bingo Night!

Response from SF Giants - The Sippy Cups poor performance

Here's the reply from Giants Guest Services about my comments on The Sippy Cups' REALLY BAD performance at a recent San Francisco Giants baseball game I attended:

RE: sf - Other - AT&T Park Questions -Poor Reaction towards "Sippy Cups" on 4/7 game

Thank you for writing and sharing your thoughts with us. I don't believe that the Sippy Cups will be making another appearance.

Best Regards,
Giants Guest Services

-----Original Message-----
From: NOSPAM@NOSPAM.org
Sent: Sat 4/7/2007 11:04 PM
To: Customer Service
Subject: sf - Other - AT&T Park Questions -Poor Reaction towards "Sippy Cups" on 4/7 game

Hello, I wanted to comment that the Sippy Cups has to be one of the poorest and worst performances I've ever seen at this ballpark. I am also embarrassed of their very poor rendition of our National Anthem. I do not want to sound too negative, but I was also one of the thousands of booing attendees that gave them a boo when they were introduced for the 7th inning stretch. I hope that this park's management consider that the negative fan reaction should be a consideration to blacklisting them from ever performing here ever again. On a lighter note, kudos to the field club concession area for NOT playing their music during the pre-game over the PA system.

CSU Strike?

If you haven't heard the word, the California State University faculty association has voted and the tally is that a strike has been authorized.

Read it here.

Other than the cooling off period before the universities go on a rotating strike, just how much will this affect students?

I know that some students will celebrate by sleeping-in late and enjoying their nice day without the pressure of turning in their homework.

Others would say that it would impact them, especially that there are only about six weeks left in the academic year and that some also needs to complete their semester projects.

For undergrads... they are screwed. Grad students are a little more lucky, depending on their program. Grads only working on their thesis work will not be affected because it is just independent work. Grads taking seminar classes won't be in too much trouble either because some classes are a little more laid back and flexible in their assignments.

I don't really like strikes, especially if it will deeply affect my daily activities, but I really think that professors and lecturers deserve a higher salary for the amount of education they receive. This may sound interesting, but if you work as a bus driver, you'd earn more or equal the salary of a professor. When comparing education, a bus driver may only need a H.S. education, when a professor needs a PhD.


If they do strike... please stop using those generic ass chants that everyone else uses! They are so annoying!

Here's some examples:
"What do we want? (Bla bla bla) When do we want it? Now!"
"Hey hey, ho ho, (bla bla bla)'s got to go!"

Think of something creative, like imitating Gov. Arnold's voice: "Hey Ka-Lee-Forn-Ya, I'm gonna turm-inate your education! I'll pay you to wash my Humm-ahh (hummer)."

Or how about playing fart sounds over a bullhorn, and commenting: "Does it smell like Chancellor Reed in here? I guess passing gas is better for him than giving us a new contract."

Or how about an improvised rap jam? or a song parody?

Let's summarize my rants:
They don't want to strike, but the faculty may be forced to do so.
I'm gonna be a bus driver!
Stop using annoying strike chants!