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!