Before I get to the interesting stuff, I want to follow up on a post from yesterday. I taught the management company my HOA employs a valuable lesson. My final message to them was that if I didn’t hear back by 10am I was going to file a formal complaint with the State Department of Professional Regulation. I did so at 10:04 today via fax. At 10:37 the lady who handles our community called, I lit into her like there was no tomorrow. She’s coming to “reinspect” the property Tuesday. I may have one of the neighbour’s dogs come utilize the back yard, so she has something to step in. They can’t fine me: I don’t have a dog. Anyway, I told her I had sent the complaint in. Some ten minutes later her boss called and asked what transpired, I gave her a slightly friendlier version of the treatment. I also told her that I had sent in the complaint and told her to learn a lesson. I don’t make threats. I make promises. Actions (or lack thereof) have consequences and your broken cel phone doesn’t relieve you of those consequences. It’s not over yet.
Once in a blue moon Microsoft does something good. Yesterday they shut down a huge bot network responsible for 1,500,000,000 pieces of spam e-mail every day. I have not noticed any major change, sadly. While I applaud their efforts, I am still reminded that their operating system flaws are what made that network possible.
I rarely post jokes in my blog, but this one’s a riot: Mark McGwire said he’s saddened his estranged brother wrote a book that chronicles their use of performance-enhancing drugs and reiterated his claim that he only took them to heal from injuries. Oh, wait, that’s a serious news story. Mark McGwire so needs to get over himself. Nobody believes you. You are a stain on baseball. I don’t much care about baseball as I’d much rather watch the grass grow because it’s far more interesting, but all my baseball friends think you’re an embarrassment, though many of these same friends seem ready to forgive Pete Rose, so that makes them suspect.
From Sue, there’s this video which you should watch. If you own any four-wheel motor vehicle manufactured by Toyota in the past decade, these are instructions on how to stop your vehicle in the event your car’s accelerator gets stuck. The odds are low, but it’s your life. Spend the few minutes and watch it.
Daniel Radcliffe’s a decent person. I’m always surprised at such revelations as I harbour secret suspicions about celebrities that they’ll turn out to be raging assholes, like Mel Gibson. And the one’s that aren’t assholes, tend to be a mess like Amy Winehouse. He just did a PSA for the anti-suicide Trevor Project and it says this in the article: “I have described myself as being ‘gently eccentric’ and slightly different as a person just because I’ve had a very different set of influences growing up than anybody else in my peer group did,” the 20-year-old Radcliffe said. “I’ve always felt very lucky to have the life that I’ve had.”
Josh called me yesterday (yay) but I was asleep and less than coherent. He wrote a post on his blog about Tilikum the “Killer Whale”. They aren’t whales, you know. They’re called Orcas and they are big, mean dolphins. Seriously. They aren’t whales. They’re extremely ornery versions of Flipper. Look it up. Learn something.
Josh’s blog entry says, “there have been four deaths from killer whales in the last forty- eight years. How many has Tilikum been a part of? Three of them.” What do they expect? This is just like the occasional lion keeper who’s eaten by the lion. I don’t know why people are surprised. These are large predators, and you look like an appetizer to them. It’s no different than a house cat who looks at you and decides you’ve outlived your usefulness. (All cat owners have experienced this moment in time where you realize that the cat has designs on you, and they aren’t pleasant.)
I think the cross-project BOINC thing is working, and TEAM CMOT should now appear everywhere. I hope.