Overheard at the Toyota dealership

'' I'm the most feared of social minorities... I'm an angry white male''

Putting in my time Tom style.

Getting mytruck serviced is always an adventure for me. Most of this stems from the fact that I am car idiot and I know it. I'm fine with this, the part that gives me heart burn is getting the service estimate.

Do I really need the super-dura tess synthetic tire oil?

Going to get my car serviced reminds me that computer geeks aren't the only people with their own freaking language.

On the bright side the dealership I go to has a REALLY NICE LOUNGE so the wait isn't as bad as it used to be. I mean it has a wifi connection for you to use if you have a laptop with you. And well since I do travel with a Treo these days a laptop isn't that far fetched of a concept. Now if only my laptop could play supreme commander

Holy movie geek Batman

In line for 'the 300'

Pegasus Rising......

So in the course of the last two weeks I have gone from seriously considering a MAC Book Pro back to building a new Desktop PC.

The reason... a fucking game

Yes the one reason I had against the MAC has reared it's ugly head and bitten me.

Though I've finally landed on a configuration that I'm pretty sure that will hit all of the right notes with "Vista" (I don't know why they call it "Vista" we've seen this before it was called MAC OS X in 2002 and we were in shock and awe then... I guess when you've seen one "Vista" you need to see them all)

So anyway I've landed on a configuration pending approval from the lending department.

Oh look at that the lending department just got back to me... WHAT DO YOU MEAN I'M DENIED!!!!

Inconsiderate bastards. Since I am the lending department!

OK I need to go sell my body to some lonely sorority girls at ASU..... This is going to take a while.

You Bastards.....

They Killed ______________;


YOU BASTARDS!

Are you there Beer? It's me Tom...

Inspiration level... still not there.... But I've had two things pop up in the last 24 hours that have spiked my built in inspiration level. So come with me if you will down that deep and dark path that is my head and I'm sure along the way we will find a couple pounds poo or so.

Nine Inch Nails has a new album coming out....

Yes I know I checked the calender too it's not 2010 it's 2007. I don't know what's up with Trent but he must have become inspired or something like that. Normally it's 5 years (give or take) between NIN albums...

1989 Pretty Little Hate Machine...

1994 Downward Spiral....

1999 The Fragile (Great Album can't tell you how many times I listened to it)

2005 With Teeth.

Now this is just the new material this is not including the live stuff or reissues anything like that. So with that list you can see why I'm a bit concerned.... This new album is coming much to soon. I have great hope and great fear for it.



The second thing that I came to my attention was actually posted by Brandi... and well since Brandi keeps her blog password protected, locked, DNA sampled, and Voiced ID'ed behind serveral layers of barbed wire and a helliacious mine field I will just give you a link and you can read it your self.

Recruiting the self centered

I saw a blurb on CNN earlier this week about the college students of today being more self centered then previous generations but I hadn't read it... I read this article. You know I got to say that I'm just about offended that I'm apart of this generation after reading this article.

Not because there is anything wrong with the article, but because it is so dead on and it pisses me off that people who have no reason think that they are the greatest thing since Moses or at the very least Joan of Arc (you know the first woman to get a job outside of the home). I really see it in people my own age and it pisses me off. Of the people in my age group I know some that are work workaholics... some that are students (still)..... some that skate by.... and still others that are so wrapped up in their own lives they can't see past themselves.

Where did this come from? I'm going to pick on the one cultural touchstone that everyone has been through... School... school taught you that you were a unique snowflake... just like everyone else. When schools started coddling children instead of teaching them that is where the trouble began. Yes I know there are things like no child left behind and insufficient funding for school and lord forbid we use corporal punishment to discipline children.. hell teenagers even. Because giving them a couple of good swift kicks to the ass might hurt their feelings and we can't do that now can we?

While we are at it... I need take down my parents generation a notch or two also... but I need to work on that one... those old people are wily.

So Wrong...

I will return you to your regularly scheduled shit later... for now enjoy the perversion that is this link.

http://www.gamevideos.com/video/id/8355

Thursday revelation.

Kids today have it so good....

Items in mirror...

May be larger then they appear.

You now need to be able to speak...

Japanese while shopping for Wii controllers at Fry's

¿Are you ready for some FÚTBOL?

I'm not a huge sports fan... I like the local teams in Phoenix (GO SUNS!) you know the usual suspects Suns, Cardinals, Diamondbacks, hell even those fighting Cannucks on the West Side get my attention from time to time. They are my local teams and when they are winning (like the Suns) they are my team and when the are losing (like the Cardinals and Diamondbacks) they are still my team.

Phoenix being such a young city really doesn't have any identity in when it comes to the sports world. Chicago has the Bears and the Cubs... people love them why I don't know but people do. Greenbay has the Packers and from what I understand not much else.

Phoenix... we have the Suns that started the current run and gun offense in the NBA and the longest tenured "pro" football team in the NFL The Cardinals.

The Cardinals came to Phoenix in 1988, so 18 almost 19 years. Basically any one under the age of 20 or 21 has never known Phoenix with out a "pro" football team. Two mediocre seasons in that time. Given how transitory so many people are in Phoenix I don't see there being a generational fan base of parents bringing their kids to Cardinals games... though my parents did. And I didn't apperciate it at the time. Now I do though.

Then I saw this..... FOLLOW THE LINK

The Chargers are not my favorite team in the AFC but they are now number 2 or 3 based soley on this single.

Then again when it comes to Football I will go against the majority in the room everytime except for when it's the Cardinals (oh look their they are grabbing defeat from the jaws of victory) or the Broncos (DIE PLUMMER DIE). I now will also go for the Chargers when I catch them on TV (Insert heavy bassline)

Yah know the Chargers cheerleaders aren't hurting the cause either....

The musings of a back porch....

You know I think I can really get used to this whole back porch thing... It's February and I'm sitting on my back porch with a beer, laptop, and iPod. Just taking in the whole serenity of the evening.

I find that having a bit of alone time is good every now and again. I'm talking serious alone time 24 to 36 hours of the stuff. It's good for finding a center of your being, it's almost zen like. Well as zen as one can be with out being either a Buddhist monk or a Novel Netware Admin.

I live in the East valley... now I'm not that far out in the East valley, but it's only 10 minutes in 2 diffrent directions to hit open deseret. (south and south east by freeway). I never noticed before but the clouds at night absorb the light of the city and glow reddish. It's kind of strange but at the same time cool.

The album of choice is "Mezzanine" by Massive Attack. Everyone should check it out.

So with the brief winter that Phoenix experinces now over we are into the part of year that I like to call "Why we live here weather". Let's face it folks no one in their right mind lives in a place where it gets 120 in the summer and has 100+ days of 100+ degree heat. No I don't count I moved here willingly and love it. I'm also a PACS administrator. If you ever meet another PACS administrator they will tell you anybody who does that job willingly is either stupid or crazy. I'm going to have to go with crazy people for $100 Alex.

I've come to the realization that everyone is beautiful on myspace. Which is why I use a comic for my picture (and here too). It's not what the author looks like it's what they have to say. Now I'm fine with the fact that this is page is a cesspool of incessant rambling and talking about things only I care about (for the record I haven't talked about Linux in like 3 months). Myspace just feels like the sewer system of internet. Everyone goes there, but no one I know freely admits to going there on a regular basis. Actually let me rephrase that... people I call my friends admit they go there, they however have mostly moved to becoming flickr and blogger whores (welcome my brothers and sisters). So why have the myspace? I don't know... part of me wants to be able to reconnect with my past... the other part of me doesn't want to look back. I keep the myspace to keep the part of me that wants to look back happy. I keep this to keep the part of me that wants to look forward happy.

The most cruel time of year....

Yes it's tax time.

I have spent the better part of the last 3 hours preparing my tax prep packet to take to my Tax Guy Who Walks On Water (TG-WOW). Every year I go through this sadistic ritual and every year I want to curl up into the fetal position and cry.

How do I know I'm not getting screwed? Easy. I also do my taxes using online versions of your favorite tax prep software (mine is TurboTax). I fill the online forms to best of my ability and it normally takes me 2.5 to 3.5 hours. Yes I'm that slow... Yes I think about it that hard... Yes I try to be that meticulous.

That has been my ritual for the last 3 or 4 years now. And every year on the first Wed in February I go to my tax appointment with TG-WOW and normally double what the TurboTax told me my refund would be, the last two years I've tripled the amount. And in one of the few areas other then computers I beat the pants off of anyone else in my family is in the size of my Tax Refund... yes some people gloat about their athletic ability... me computers and my tax refund.

OK now it's time for me to get on my "Soap Box of Doom" tm

I'm 27 years old, I can't tell you how many of my friends do not have a tax guy... much less a TG-WOW. If you don't have a tax guy and you have any thing more then house intrest and a W2 for taxes get a tax guy. Ask your friends, family, single friend who blogs about his TG-WOW. Ask everybody you know just just get a tax pro.

Now when I say Tax Pro I don't mean goto H&R Block... that is a great way to really screw up your day. I mean get a Tax Accountant or a CPA who also does income taxes. Check out your tax guy ask them if there is anything you need to do to prep. My TG-WOW sends out a packet that I fill out ahead of time with all of the info he needs.

Check your tax pro's policy on what happens when you get audited. Mine will go with me to court. I checked out others and they may not. Your tax guy could very well vary.

The first hit is sometimes free... My tax guy doesn't charge the filer who comes through his doors for the first time. Well at least he didn't used to I don't know about 2007. Follow my system if you don't do so hot with the tax guy then nothing lost if you got a fat refund from the tax guy then bonus!

In closing... get a tax pro may or may not cost you in the short term and may or may not get you great gains in the short term. You have nothing to lose... maybe.

Happiness

Happiness part duex

On the subject of...

Happiness...