Catch-up Day
Time has flown by since my last post. I've been busy earning a living, working on the Hootis, buying a new TV and installing my DirecTV upgrade. The Hootis is coming along fine, but seems to get more complicated at each juncture. I spent most of Saturday just staring at a problem hoping to come up with a solution. After years of experience as an engineer, I know the mental gymnastics of "inventing" appear as laziness to the casual observer. As usual, the result will be far better than the original plan and, of course, require more work.
I purchased a new 65" High Definition Mitsubishi TV last week. Moving the old 45" Mitsubishi down from the "media" room (sounds uppity doesn't it?) was a hernia fest. I purchased a new HD DirecTV box at Best Buy for $99 and they neglected to tell me that I had actually just LEASED it from DirecTV. The lady at DirecTV informed me that it actually belongs to them and I would have to surrender it if I changed or canceled my service. Okay, but I can't imagine what they would do with an aluminum box bearing the deep imprint of a size 13 shoe square on top of it. Anyway, I'm one of those imbeciles that has to do everything themselves, so I also installed and aligned the dish. I got it all hooked up, called customer service and spoke to some woman that lied about her name. It was something like Betty or Betsy, but the thick east Indian accent belied that fact. Everything I said was "OUTSTANDING!" She ran into a glitch and passed me on to someone else who, in turn, passed me on to yet another. When it was done I was agreeing with everything just to get off the phone. I watched TV for a little while then discovered I couldn't get most of the HD channels and the DirecTV receiver wouldn't get off the phone. I don't know who it was calling, but I ended up having to disconnect the phone line. Today, after Googling "DirecTV error 721" I discovered my problem. I forgot to install the BBC module. I stuck it on tonight and all the channels work. Now I can irradiate myself with 1792 square inches of high-definition brilliance until all of my body hair falls out.
Changing subjects...
If you are looking for something to get P.O.'d about, here it is. OPEC (Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries) is going to ask the US to guarantee that we will continue to purchasing vast amounts of oil from them well into the future. This is a move to prevent alternative fuels from gaining a foothold and possibly displacing crude oil purchases. As an incentive, OPEC will agree to boost production and NOT significantly increase oil prices in the near future. Is this not the typical hostage situation we seem to find ourselves in more and more these days? Interestingly enough, our top two suppliers, Canada and Mexico, aren't members of OPEC, yet, without a doubt we will yield to this blackmail. Our third and fourth largest suppliers are a Kingdom, Saudi Arabia, and a Dictatorship, Venezuela. Both are forms of government the founding fathers of our country vehemently opposed and swore to defend against, yet we continue to subsidize their existence. The next time you see one of our politicians, grab them by the shoulders and just shake the shit out of them.
I purchased a new 65" High Definition Mitsubishi TV last week. Moving the old 45" Mitsubishi down from the "media" room (sounds uppity doesn't it?) was a hernia fest. I purchased a new HD DirecTV box at Best Buy for $99 and they neglected to tell me that I had actually just LEASED it from DirecTV. The lady at DirecTV informed me that it actually belongs to them and I would have to surrender it if I changed or canceled my service. Okay, but I can't imagine what they would do with an aluminum box bearing the deep imprint of a size 13 shoe square on top of it. Anyway, I'm one of those imbeciles that has to do everything themselves, so I also installed and aligned the dish. I got it all hooked up, called customer service and spoke to some woman that lied about her name. It was something like Betty or Betsy, but the thick east Indian accent belied that fact. Everything I said was "OUTSTANDING!" She ran into a glitch and passed me on to someone else who, in turn, passed me on to yet another. When it was done I was agreeing with everything just to get off the phone. I watched TV for a little while then discovered I couldn't get most of the HD channels and the DirecTV receiver wouldn't get off the phone. I don't know who it was calling, but I ended up having to disconnect the phone line. Today, after Googling "DirecTV error 721" I discovered my problem. I forgot to install the BBC module. I stuck it on tonight and all the channels work. Now I can irradiate myself with 1792 square inches of high-definition brilliance until all of my body hair falls out.
Changing subjects...
If you are looking for something to get P.O.'d about, here it is. OPEC (Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries) is going to ask the US to guarantee that we will continue to purchasing vast amounts of oil from them well into the future. This is a move to prevent alternative fuels from gaining a foothold and possibly displacing crude oil purchases. As an incentive, OPEC will agree to boost production and NOT significantly increase oil prices in the near future. Is this not the typical hostage situation we seem to find ourselves in more and more these days? Interestingly enough, our top two suppliers, Canada and Mexico, aren't members of OPEC, yet, without a doubt we will yield to this blackmail. Our third and fourth largest suppliers are a Kingdom, Saudi Arabia, and a Dictatorship, Venezuela. Both are forms of government the founding fathers of our country vehemently opposed and swore to defend against, yet we continue to subsidize their existence. The next time you see one of our politicians, grab them by the shoulders and just shake the shit out of them.
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