Xfinity, no one likes you
So, my honey and I were out at breakfast this past weekend when we tried to connect to the wifi. We have been going to this place for years and they have always had unsecured internet access for people to use. Recently they have made a few upgrades and locking down the wifi was one of them. Not a huge deal, but as I am looking at the list of available SSID's available to connect to, I noticed an unsecured "xfinitiywifi". I showed it to my husband and he informed me that this was a common thing now. Comcast is using your modem to broadcast a signal so subscribers can sign in and use wifi where ever they are at.
This doesn't seem safe, or legal. When I got home, I googled a bit of information on it and came across this year old article on Ars Technica. The article states the good it could be doing, but it doesn't talk about the possibility for hacking. Also, when people connect they are using a piece of equipment on your network. Which means they are using your electricity. Will this increase your electricity bill?! Is Comcast going to put some money on your electric bill? Since they don't want to credit your bill when they have outages for days (*cough polar vortex cough*) I am going to go with no.
http://sprudge.com/20-tip-jars.html
This whole debacle fortunately does not apply to me and mine. We do not rent Comcast's shitty equipment, we purchased our own. But it is still truly concerning.
Do you have Comcast? Do you take advantage of the wifi access points from them around your town? How do you feel about it?
The Consideration of Others
So, here is the deal. Rules. I am not a big follower of them. If I want to do something, and there is a rule in place to discourage me, I am going to try my damnest to find a way around it. There are a couple exceptions to this. The first one being that the rules are there to help with the safety of others. The second being the rules are there to make sure everyone has a good time.
The past few days I have seen some doozies.
Let us talk about flash photography. Want to know my major pet peeve? You own a super fancy DSLR camera, with all the crazy fancy lenses. Instead of taking a class, or reading a book to learn how to use it, you instead keep it on automatic and always keep the flash on. Let me let you in on a little secret. YOU DO NOT NEED FLASH ON EVERYTHING. At conventions, and things on a stage, most of the time, the people on the stage are lit up properly for you. No flash needed. They do this for a couple of reasons.
1. Flash blinds and disorients the people on stage.
2. Flash can be dangerous to people in the audience.
For those of you who hadn’t seen or heard, at the Supernatural convention in Las Vegas, a friend of mind and a severe medical emergency because the people throwing the convention did not see an issue with allowing people to use the flash. You can read about her story here.
At the live reading of Welcome to Night Vale the woman who speaks at the end of every podcast came out (she looked fabulous by the way). She explained that they loved having their picture taken, and while that was not a problem, could we please turn off the flash? It was blinding to the actors, and it disrupts the experience for your neighbors. They also asked that we did not film it, because they wanted each stop to have the same experience that we got. Besides, after the tour it would be up for download.
Not even two minutes after she left the stage, there was flash photography all over the place. I just turned around and glared. After the issue with my friend at the SPN con, I was hypersensitive to following that rule.
Two pews (I told you in the last entry this was a quirky place) in front of us was the most annoying girl I ever had the misfortune of sitting near. I don’t honestly even really know why she was there. She looked to have no interest in the show. Shortly after the show had begun, I was bathed in a bright white light. She was recording the show and her bright ass display was interrupting my viewing. I was so irritated. She kept stopping and starting recording and not even paying attention to what was going on. I truly believe her whole purpose in that theater that evening was to make me so angry I wanted to snatch her hair. Ugh. Eventually someone in my pew told her to stop and she did.
I guess the point of this is to say this: Why is it so difficult for people to be courteous to one another? Flash photography causes seizures to some people. Video recording AFTER THE PEOPLE ASKED YOU NOT TO is so tacky and unnecessary. Some rules aren’t made to be broken. They are there for the health and wellbeing of the people around you, and maybe even yourself. Think about it.
I am not here for CiCi’s Pizza.
Two days before Thanksgiving, my husband and I were exhausted. We both work full time jobs, and were hosting turkey day. The kitchen was relatively clean, and neither of us were in the mood to mess it up with dinner. Around dinner time, my husband uttered the words that I would soon regret agreeing to:
"Do you want to go to CiCi's Pizza?"
For those of you that do not know, CiCi's is an all you can eat pizza buffet. The pizza isn't great, but it is cheap and there is plenty of it. Two grown adults can get full here for less than 20 dollars. You can feed an entire family of 5 for like 25 dollars. This is why I should have expected everything that happened.
We walk in the door, and I am treated to two little girls attempting to bargain with the cashier. Their parents aren't paying them a bit of attention. One girl was roughly 7 or 8, the other 5 or 6. between the both of them they had two dimes and a penny, and was trying to convince the cashier to trade them for two quarters O.o. The cashier was patiently explaining to them that the money they had equaled 21 cents and that she could not give them two quarters because that was 50 cents.
"Well, can we have a quarter?"
Parents, please do better with your children. I know math is difficult, but don't have your little kids up there asking for random amounts of change. It makes me want to grab a whiteboard and sit people down and teach math.
We should have walked out then. Eventually they got the hint and returned to their seats. We paid for our meals, got our drinks, and proceeded to grab some pizza. There are children running EVERYWHERE, parents not paying attention, and little kids playing at the soda fountain. I walked out the door, looked up, and came back in. My husband asked me what I was doing. "I wanted to make sure we aren't at Chuck E. Cheeses.
Go be a kid here. Where it says you can be one.
Eventually someone notices that their kid is up to no good. Instead of going to grab them we were treated to the following for roughly 10 minutes:
"David...David come here.. DAVID I SAID COME HERE!!! DAVID PUT THE SALAD TONGS DOWN AND COME HERE! DAAAAAVIDD WHAT ARE YOU DOING COME HERE I SAID!!" For. Ten. Minutes. Believe me, I counted.
My second trip to the pizza line, and I just gave up at life. I was attempting to recover from a long day. The day was nothing but a series of disasters, one right after another, and I was trying to just eat dinner in the midst of Lord of the Flies.
(Me, shortly before we took our leave Fox.com)
A little girl had been ripping and running up and down near the pizza the entire time we were there. I knew something was going to happen, and knowing my luck, I should have known this was going to happen to me. The little girl weaved through my legs as I was taking a step. I stumbled, but righted myself, but my pizza? Landed right on top of her. She began to shriek like she was on fire. No worries, I didn't burn her. Pizza was lukewarm.
At that point, I felt like I should probably leave this place. I set my plate down next to the little girl who was now alternately shrieking and eating the pizza from her head, grabbed my purse, and my husband and left.
Cici's pizza isn't the best thing on earth, but it is plentiful. The employees are super nice. They greet everyone that comes in the door, they visit the tables and ask if there is a specific kind of pizza you would like to see on the bar. They deal with this nonsense EVERY DAY. There is one particular guy, I am not sure if he is a manager or not, but you can tell he truly loves what he is doing and I appreciate that. However, I feel like CiCi's is the place where people are going to congregate after the apocalypse happens and they are left behind. Just a bunch of crazy people, honey badgering it.
www.clantoolz.com
I hope Mary Shelley comes back from the dead and punches someone.
I need to tell you a story.
Many years ago when I was a junior in high school, we were tasked with the reading of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. Our teacher (HEY MRS. STOKESBERRY!!!) being the awesome person that she was, showed us the movie as well.
Dear reader, I don't do well with horror flicks. I have an overactive imagination, and incredibly vivid dreams. These can sometimes turn into vivid nightmares. The three weeks we spent with this book and movie, I don't think I got a full night's sleep. The version of Frankenstein we watched was the 1996 version with Robert De Niro.
I feel like he captured the pure essence of Frankenstein's monster.
Imagine my shock (Not really, they are remaking everything) when I go to the movies a couple weeks ago and find out there is a new Frankenstein movie coming out called "I, Frankenstein." Imagine my utter dismay when I found out Frankenstein now looks like this:
(From the website http://teaser-trailer.com/movie/i-frankenstein/)
.....
I apologize right now for everything I am about to say, because I am going to go into a rant. When I saw this on the screen at the movies, I was whipped into such a frenzy that the woman next to me moved, terrified at what I was going to do next.
Look, I realize that this movie is based off a graphic novel. However, you kept the spirit of Mary Shelley. The monster was created.
FRANKENSTEIN'S MONSTER WAS MADE FROM THE BODIES OF DEAD CHOLERA PATIENTS AND THE AFTERBIRTH OF WOMEN!!!
This Frankenstein looks like they hacked up the torso of Hugh Jackman, put some scars on it for effect, and said "Done!"
Look here Hollywood. Mary Shelley did not go through everything she did in life to get that book published for you to come along and sex it up. I WILL NOT STAND FOR THIS!
What the hell happened to the creature that tormented my dreams?
My husband does not understand my unusual rantings about this book/movie. Hollywood WILL NOT turn this into some Twilight franchise. NO.
Now, if you need me, I will be rocking in the corner. I swear on everything that's holy, if this Frankenstein sparkles, I will punch the nearest person in the face.
Please don’t mess with me in the morning.
It takes me a while to rally in the mornings, I’ll admit it. This morning was no exception. I should back up a bit though. Last night, and pretty much all day yesterday, I had pain in my left eyelid. I had a feeling a stye was coming through. I immediately canceled that thought, because I haven’t had a style since I was a freshmen in high school. Yeah…
I woke up this morning (at 7:50, about an hour earlier than I normally do) with more pain when I blinked. My husband was telling me goodbye when I asked him to look at my eye.
“Yeah, you got a stye coming it, and it is pretty swollen.”
Great.
Since I was up, I figured I would hop in the shower and get ready for my day, which I did. But I am still pretty groggy. I throw on a maxi dress and run to the drug store. I had a script I needed to pick up.
It’s early, I’m not quite all there. I know I look slightly crazy. I shuffle into the pharmacy when behind me I hear:
“Hey ‘lil mama, what it do?”
I am no one’s mother, little or otherwise, and I turn around to look at the guy. If it is possible to look crazier than I look right now he does it. Cut off shorts, dirty shirt, raggedy braids in his hair. I give him the evil (stye) eye, and move on. As I am walking I notice a mirror and noticed that my dress is sort of tucked under my strapless bra. So, I am looking crazy as hell, have a stye, and it is early as hell, and you are trying to holler at me!? DO YOU NOT HAVE ANY STANDARDS!?
Oh well, at least my hair looks decent.
Glasses are on because I don’t want you to see my stye. Plus, I do have on clothes, It is a strapless maxi dress from Old Navy last season.
Why I will not be going to Dairy Queen EVER AGAIN.
Okay, so today's entry is obviously not about hair. This is another lesson on how you do not treat a customer.
My hubs and I were watching a movie last night. Before we started the second one, I had a hankering for a Strawberry and Golden Oreo Blizzard from Dairy Queen last night.
We drive to DQ and get in the drive through line to place our order. My husband orders his chocolate concoction of a blizzard first. He is in the middle of ordering mine when he is cut off by a loud aggrivated voice from the drive through speaker box. "Chocolate xtreme blizzard large...that all?" Jeff and I giggle, because obviously he was in the middle of ordering something else. "Uh no...can I also get a large strawberry and golden oreo blizzard with extra golden oreos and a chicken basket?" she repeats our order to us LEAVING OUT MY PRECIOUS EXTRA GOLDEN OREOS. Jeff repeats extra Oreos one more time before we drive up to the window.
I hope no one is surprised at this point that my beloved blizzard does not have extra Oreos in it. She then tells us to pull around the side to a black door where our chicken basket will be delivered. We then drive around to a BLUE door and wait.
While we are waiting a random girl gets out of an SUV. She doesn't have on shoes, she has on socks. She knocks on the blue door and someone lets her in. A minute later she is yanking crates and thing out of the door. Helping the employee with the trash.
I look my husband dead in the eye and say "If that girl with no shoes on, in a tank top and booty shorts delivers my chicken basket to me, I am never coming back to DQ.
Do I even need to say what happened? I do? Okay.
The girl with no shoes on, in a tank top and booty shorts delivers my chicken basket to me. WHO IS THIS WOMAN!?
I am irritated, annoyed, and bothered by DQ. I will not be going back. Baskin Robbins may not have Golden Oreo Blizzards, but I have never seen anyone without a uniform behind the counter!
Espionage Cosmetics
