Since the beginning of time, I have always had a problem with stupid fads and unwarranted hype, and any other stupid reason why things that shouldn’t be popular make it into the mainstream. Actually, more often then not, I hate things just because they are mainstream. No, by no means am I claiming to be some rebelious young lad, or any of that anti globalization or anti establishment crap.

Its pretty much just the way I am. However, I think in the end, the pointless dislike I have towards certain things actually materialize into real reasons.

I have hated Apple, probably every product to come out under their name, since I was in the 5th grade. I hated how everyone had this massive misconception that if you are doing graphics design, or any form of publishing, if you wern’t using a Mac, you were doing something wrong.

What I hate even more than their fruity computers and stupid designs is the Ipod.

Why do I hate Ipods? many many reasons.

First. I hate how when people (or the media) refer to mp3 players, they have to refer to the Ipod. There are a multitude of other mp3 players that exist that are the same or better than the Ipod. Most of the time they are cheaper, have more disk space, and are often better designed, especially since other companies are coming out with new mp3 players every day, and Apple continues the same design of the Ipod month after month..for a couple years now.

I hate the stupid touch sensive knob. I think it is a horrible design.

I hate how Apple forces you to use ITunes to connect your IPod to the computer. ITunes is overrated (like the IPod) and has a shitty interface. Most other mp3 players just show up as a drive on your computer, and you can drag songs and files back and forth however you want. You can use whatever you want to listen to the songs on the player as well.

I hate how everything Apple makes now starts with an “I” Just like every statement in the entry

I hate the fact that everyone that gets an IPod that I see keeps the junky white earbud headphones that came with it. They know they arn’t any good, but if you actually got a good pair of headphones, you would lose the whole fashion statement of having a classy IPod strapped to you.

I just got bored with this, and since it’s past 5, I am leaving work. Its Friday, and I am happy.

Why are IPods basically considered the industry standard MP3 player now? So many other MP3 players exist that are cheaper, store more songs, are smaller, or all of the above, yet somehow Apple has the world believing that if you don’t have an IPod, your missing out on something big.

Worse yet, last time I checked, if you by an IPod, in order to get anything on to it, you have to use ITunes, which is in my opinion, a horrible media player/organizer. Many of the other MP3 players on the market right now just show up as a drive on your computer, you copy your music or whatever else onto it, and thats it. No funny business, no stupid programs to load, no trendy overpriced MP3 player from a product line that for some reason has to begin with the letter “I”.

I think Steve Jobbs watched the episode of Sesame St that was brought to us by the letter I, and got fixated on it.

If anyone has a good response on what makes the IPod so great, I would like to hear it. What makes it so much better than all the other products out there, and worse yet, why is the IPod so trendy and cool, that despite the fact that they are horrible headphones, both in quality and design, if you own an IPod, you can’t go out and buy a set of good headphones?

Sadly enough, they just came out with a “better” set of headphones, that are more towards the studio earmuff style, and oddly enough, they cleverly named them “iMuffs”

I think I am going to go out and buy an iMac, load iTunes on it, get and iPod, then take some video of how stupid it all looks, import all the video into iMovie, burn it onto a DVD, and then watch it in iDVD.

Collect them all!

That is what I think. I fucking failed the state portion of this waste of money real estate test yet again. I could go on for paragraphs on how the Century 21 run real estate course was a poorly run, disorganized, waste of time, and how the “instructor” Kenny, was yet another example of a “teacher” that hates his job and spends the whole class just waiting for the end of the day. They screwed me over, they didn’t prepare me at for the state portion of the test, and the text book they give you is so general that you spend hours studying information that although is partially interesting to know, is completely irrelevant to the test.

That is about all I can say about it though because in reality I am apparantly just an moron that can’t remember shit. Let’s see how much more money I can drop on trying to better myself before I realize what a waste of time it is.

I spent a couple hours last night…yet another night completly wasted, “brushing up” on the state knowledge for the test. I spent at least a hour trying to figure out this one math problem that apparantly involved “rounded the price to the nearest $1,000″ did it mention it anywhere in the study guide?

no

what about in the 2 “massachusetts supplements”? nope, not mentioned once.

This whole thing is a stupid fucking guessing game where you have to fill your head with as much useless knowledge as possible, just so you can pass some test run by a private company that the state requires you pay.

Where does that $120 for the test go? or the $65 for each re-take of the test? Plus, everyone that works at the testing centers are a bunch of assholes.

Why the hell is it that everyone that has any form of authority automatical waves around their free pass to be a huge asshole? I hate a real large amount of people, but I would like to think that I am at least not huge dicks to their face.

Now I have to wait until tomorrow to reschedule my next re-take, and if I have to wait more than a week to take the test, I am going nuts. I took the fucking course at Century 21 on FEBRUARY 21st! its fucking May 4th now.

I got a fucking lower grade this time than I did the first time.

If you are ever in the market for a house, ask the sales agent to survey your land based on the US Geological Survey method, or ask him to tell you if, since your house borders a river, if you own from the opposite bank, the middle of the river, 5 feet into the water, or just the bank of the river near your house.

Its really nice to wake up at 6:00am to book it down to Woburn I can get a certified printout from the state that I am a fucking moron.

Here’s $65. Can you print me out another one so I can hang it on my refridgerator?

Just to make things as good as possible, I don’t think I even has enough gas or money to make it home today.

Also, I was so pissed off on the way into work today, that I was speeding along, and when I took the turn onto sleeper street to get to the parking garage in boston, this cop doing traffic duty…further wasting my money, steps into the street a little bit and motions with his hands for me to slow down. I was slow pissed off that without even thinking I just said “shut the fuck up” out loud (at least the windows were up) and kept going.

I think today is going to be a headphones on day. I don’t really feel like talking to anyone, and the first person to come to my desk with a wise crack or a stupid question might get scewered with a piece of metal.

Today will be me, and about 6 hours of Sepultura

I bet you thought this post was going to be about Wal-Mart.

Nope, sorry, you came to the wrong place. Instead its about values. (get the title now?)
Wal-Mart seems to have the whole values idea down pretty good. Me and that dumb smiley face are the best of friends.

Values start getting really shady when it comes to people though. Some will drop you with the first sign of trouble, some will pick on you, some will stick by you. People come in and out of your life on a daily basis. That dude that rung up my order at the 7-Eleven may never be seen again. That guy I cut off on the way to work may die later today. I’ll never know.

But I think above all other values and opinions, the one thing that should always come first is family. Right now mine is pretty messed up. In the scheme of things, like compared to many other families out there, it probably isn’t that bad, but in my opinion it’s hit an all time low.

I’ve done a lot of thinking over the last couple of days, and the amount of things that I regret doing or not doing between my friends and family is mind boggling. I don’t even feel like eating half the time now.

I remember a couple years back, when The John was talking about moving into an apartment in his brothers house, I said something along the lines of “watch out about making deals with the family…it can really fuck things up between you”.

I am not sure how true that held with him, but I know it sure as hell held true for me on numurous occasions, and this most recent one takes the all time cake.

Despite what it may look like sometimes, I don’t like fighting with people, not because I am afraid of getting my ass kicked or something, but I don’t like hurting peoples feelings. I think with my friends I am usually a relatively calm guy. I don’t think I ever really flip out on any of them, but whith my family its completely differant. They are the ones I am supposed to stick by and care about the most, and yet somehow they are also the ones that get to see the special “Family Edition” version of me. This version isn’t Triple C at all…..unless all the C’s were for differant words. I hate acting like that, and I hate the things I end up saying, but unfortunately I am a stubborn person, and on top of that, I expect certain things from people that “know” me.

1) My opinion should count for something
2) trust
3) respect
4) fairness

When I look, or talk to anyone in my family I don’t see any of those things. What I see instead is a group of strangers that all know each other.

In my high school (and most of yours) we had 2 lunches, basically half the school went to the first lunch, and half went to the 2nd. Every group of kids kind of had their own table, and thats where you always sat. But sometimes your 5th period teacher would be absent, and you would have to go to both lunches, and then things got weird because your friends might not be in that other lunch, so your stuck sitting at a table with a bunch of people that know each other, but don’t know you. They all talk and laugh and make plans and such….and you sit at the end waiting for the bell to ring.

Thats the way I view my family. for the last now 24 years I have been stuck in 2nd lunch when I should be in 1st lunch with all my friends. The people in 2nd lunch don’t know me. They have no reason to trust me, and they would obviously help out their friends before they would even want to look over at the weird kid sitting over at the end of their table.

Now imagine if that whole table is actually your family, and when you sat down, instead of saying hello, you would flip out on them if they made any form of a comment, like your always on edge, just waiting for a fight to start. If one person in my family was to make a joke, I would take it seriously and go into fight mode.

I dont know most of my family from a hole in the wall. If you were to ask me any of their birth dates, the only one I know completely, including year, is my brother. The other 4 people, I don’t even know the month in some cases.

And on the same side, they don’t know much about me either. How sad is it that up until about 2 months ago, I had no idea my father worked down the street from my work. You would think we would have lunch some time or something like that.

When you take into account that up until a few weeks ago, I lived in the same house with all but one of them, this whole thing is pretty sad. Then throw in a stupid fight about money, and now I don’t even want to go back there again. Both my parents are all stressed out about the entire thing, I havn’t really seen either one the way they are right now, the sister I live with, whom I am having the fight with I cant even say a word to, mostly because we are on differant skyscrapers, let alone levels on the way we think. I’ve said things that now that I think about are pretty horrible things to most of them, and I am just not happy with myself. Then to top if all off, every couple of months another member of my extended family gets crossed off the “talking to” list. 2 years ago my mothers whole side of the family, thats 14 people, all basically gave my mother the middle finger, and then to (in my opinion) spite her even more, they go and send my siblings and I birthday cards and such. Now it seems like I am taking on my only little downsizing plan with my fathers side. And everything is over the stupidest reasons.

Then there is my friends. John and Janelle have stuck by me, even though I hadn’t always to them. Ryan, Harold, and Eric all decided to “make amends” oddly enough, shortly after word got out that I had a girlfriend now. Am I supposed to forgive and forget? do I just do like it seems everyone else does and pretend nothing ever happened and try to be friends again? Then, here it is 3/1/2005, and I get an email from Toni saying “I know we don’t talk anymore but I just wanted to wish you a happy birthday”. What am I supposed to say to that? am I even supposed to respond?

I don’t get what these people are even thinking. Did they all just need a vacation from me? I don’t think any of it makes any sense at all. I just don’t get what I am supposed to do at this point. Do I take the boxing gloves off, walk out of the ring, and go have a beer and say “nice fight!” then we are all friends like Rocky and Apollo Creed ended up? Or do I go to Russia and train for the fight of a lifetime? or do I just say “fuck it” and never leave Nashua?

I havn’t had much to write about lately, but, just when I though the well had dried up, The Anonymous Boy Wonder steps into existence.

Who is he you ask? read his comment he left on a previous post of mine

I was thinking about it, and although I am not much better for writing a post on my blog at 12:30 or so in the morning, the mysterious boy wonder over here is worse. He is spending the wee hours of his lonely night pleasuring himself while going from random blog to random blog. He really enjoys that “next blog” button on the top of all the blogspot blogs. For example, before he went to mine, he made a stop at http://briansblogger6.blogspot.com/ I guess he didn’t have anything to say to brian, or maybe he just finds me more attractive, because brian was left used and without even as much as a thank you or goodbye. Just like a cheap chinese whore.

So now I am going to play a fun new game called “who is the mysterious boy wonder”

Today everyone gets to know he is coming to us from the scenic Richmond, Michigan area. He most likely has eye problems, because he enjoys complaining on peoples blogs at a shitty low resolution of 1024×768, that means his hand/eye coordination is most likely horrible because at that resolution the icons on his desktop are monsterous. He needs them that big so when he paws at the keyboard and mouse like a monkey, he can still move around.

Maybe tomorrow we will know a little more about the Boy Wonder from Richmond.

Yesterday the forces that be tried to ruin my insanely good mood this week, but they failed miserably.

Lately I have been trying to not get really pissed off or stressed out over stuff, and for the most part its been working.

In this case, I left work at around 5:30, and had plans of speeding home, going to the gym for a bit, then hanging out with Aimee later on. So, I hop into my car, and head towards the 93 tunnel. I reach the bridge off of sleeper street, and hear the horrid sound I have heard before of not just a flat tire, but a REAL flat tire that is about to fly off the rim. I ended up pulling over basically in front of the rose wharf hotel place. Now, there is where my typical awesome luck kicks into full gear.

1. I forgot my cell phone at home
2. I dont know anyones phone number off the top of my head except for my house number
3. I dont have AAA anymore
4. My nice full size spare tire was sitting in my garage laughing at me
5. I parked my car in between not 1, but 2 fire hydrants. What kind of parking ticket is that?

So trying to think of what to do, I try to find a payphone, finally find one, and call my house. Everyone in my house is useless for situations like this except for maybe my father, but of course he wasn’t home, so I told my mother to just call a tow truck for me. (that was in between the 50 questions she was asking me even though I was on a payphone).

So I hang up and head towards my car. Also, since when did it cost 50 cents to use a pay phone? assholes!

As I am walking back to my car, I think to myself, there is no way my mother actually called a tow truck, that would be too easy. So I find another payphone, call 411, and when they ask me who I need a number for, I say “A tow truck” they say, “do you know the name of the place?” and I tell them no, i just need a tow truck. They actually managed to give me a number, I call them, and this guy tells me he will show up in like 20 minutes or so. So I wait in my car….

As I am sitting there, this dude that was putting trash on the curb knocks on my window and says this “hey, you have a pretty bad flat!”.

Keep in mind I have my flashers on, and am parked illegally on the side of the road just sitting there. I wanted to say no way! I do! thanks! I thought the insanely loud sound of my tire coming off was just the radio!

Eventually my father pulls up. I guess “call a tow truck” to my mother translates into “call dad” He came from his work, not from my house, so there was no spare tire, or anything useful with him. He asks me why I dont have a spare tire, and if I have a can of “fix-a-flat” or if I wanted him to go buy a can and come back.

I say, Dad, get out of the car and come here. I bring him over to the flat tire, which is half off the rim and say, if you think a can of fix-a-flat is going to fix that, then go for it, but I have a feeling it isnt going to work. So he hangs around for a bit, then takes off, then comes back again and gives me his cell phone so I can use it if I need to. Of course I don’t know anyones numbers, so it doesn’t matter.

Then the tow truck comes. The guy asks me what is wrong, and I say, I have a real bad flat on my back right tire. He gets out and looks and says:

Guy: Do you have a spare?
Me: no, its at my house
Guy: are you sure?
Me: yes
Guy: You definately don’t have one in the car?
Me: no, its definately at my house
Guy: Did you check in the trunk?
Me: I definately do not have a spare in the car

He eventually comes to terms with that, and then tries selling me a used spare tire for $75. I eventually convince me to tow my car, like I originally asked. Then this conversation happens:

Guy: do you have front wheel, or rear wheel drive?
Me: rear wheel
Guy: Are you sure?
(its not like I hesitated, or implied I didn’t know. I know what my car has)
Me: yes, its definately rear wheel
(He then looks under the car for evidence)
Guy: Okay, your definately sure?
Me: yes

he then gets in my car, turns it around in the middle of a3 lane one way road (facing the wrong way) and lines it up with the tow truck. He hooks everything up, talking the whole time to me about people screw him over and claims he caused damaged and blah blah blah.

So then I get in the tow truck, and things get real “fun”. I am not sure if anyone else has experienced this, but I think by nature, Tow Truck drivers are weirdos. They are lonely, and they love to talk, and they are always crazy. This guy was no differant.

Guy: Yeah, everyone is an asshole these days. Everyone is trying to screw you
Me: Yeah, I know what you mean
Guy: like the other day, this lady calls me, she cant start her car. I get there, and it turns out she was parked too close to the curb and couldnt unlock the steering wheel so it would start, so I just jiggled it loose and it started up fine. But I still had to come out, so I told her it came to $40. She flipped out and said I didn’t actually do anything, and that she wasn’t going to pay. I had her keys, so she called the police
Me: that sucks, you still had to come out to make the service call, so you should have gotten paid
Guy: yeah, tell me about it, so this black cop comes over, and this girl is a tall hot blonde, and you know how black guys are with blondes…right? right?
Me: uhhh yeah (I had no idea)
Guy: yeah, those fucking niggers!…..But, I am not racist or anything…I just think whats fair is fair
Me: yeah, I know what you mean..

actually I don’t. I am pretty sure that what you just said makes you the definition of racist. Hey thats your deal and I dont care, but live up to what your saying. Anyway, I just want to get home.

Then he realizes that his conversation sucks, and says to me, “what type of music do you like?” Now, I had already seen that the stereo was on kiss 108, so I figured that was a losing argument, so I just say anything is fine. Then he says “Do you like hard rock?” and I am thinking he is talking about like old people hard rock, like some crap stuff, but say, “sure, anything is fine with me” so he pushes the CD button, and metallica comes on, then he turns the volume up to almost where the speakers start getting distorted, and starts having a blast. He was loving it, kinda rocking out to the music, and would occasionally yell out a lyric or two, especially at the end of a song. Thank god there was no traffic, so the ride wasn’t too long, however, I did think it would be funny if I started rocking out too and started bashing stuff in his truck like it was a drumset. But instead I sat there.
We get back to saugus, I make him pull over at an ATM, and We get to my house. I Then give him $175, bastards! I know it would cost somewhere around there though.

He then said he would take my lug nuts off for me with his shitty battery operated impact gun, and I told him I had my own in the garage. he then started making fun of the tools I have.
He has a BATTERY OPERATED impact gun.

screw him.

I put my spare tire on in minutes, and managed to be done by 7:50. What luck is that?

And I didn’t get angry at all. good old “Triple C”.

Remember that movie License To Drive? according to imdb.com, it was put out in 1988, but the jist of it was that some kid just turned 16 or whatever, and was FINALLY able to try to get his license. The second he could take the test, he did, and he failed. But he wanted to be able to drive so bad, especially to impress this chick named Mercedes, that he faked passing just so he could take her out, and so he could drive and being a normal functioning piece of society.

Aside from asking out that Mercedes chick, thats pretty much how things went for me. I turned 16, got my ass down to the RMV the second I could and got my learners permit, I sat through the horror fest that is Drivers Ed, had one to many car rides with Eric “the Human Diet Coke”, than the second I was eligible, I took my test. I wanted it so bad, I wasn’t happy with how long the wait was to take the test near saugus (like in Lynn where they pass you if you figure out how to start the car) so I ended up taking it in Chelsea. The cop was an ass and he made me do everything imaginable. I parallel parked too far away from the curb and he yelled at me and failed me. But what did I do? I called the RMV that date and rescheduled another appointment for the first opening they had….which was back in Chelsea.

I got my license and it was the best thing on earth. I can’t imagine being 23 and having never gotten it. The concept is just so far from my ability to comprehend.

So what is with the growing number of people who just decide not to get one? Don’t you ever say to yourself…man, it sure would be fun if I could leave my house….I really don’t feel like sitting next to Urine Man on the T again.

When I lost my license for 60 days. I wanted to shoot myself. It was torture. From waiting for the bus in the rain, to sitting next to some smelly person on the T. I couldn’t stand it.

So basically, what I am trying to say, is that if you dont have a license once you hit 17, you should be deported to Mexico. Then you can go ride a bike and deliver bananas to people.

I havn’t listened to Ben Fold’s Five since maybe sophomore year of high school, but when I was thinking of a title for this post, it just popped into my head.

It looks like I am in one of my moods today (it must be the PMS) and I am just getting increasingly frustrated with how it always seems to me like its me versus the world.

Its a one on one death match, Ultimate Fighting style, but there is no tapping out.

I really started thinking about this after my award winning christmas day at my aunts house.
Most people already know the story, but my point is this. If you know your right about something, why are you supposed to back down and admit defeat? Christmas day just brought me back to the months before the election where every day was a new battle to justify why I had the viewpoint I did.

Mine wasnt the same as my old best friends, because I didn’t admit defeat, I gout ousted.
Mine wasnt the same as my familys, so I was called Ignorant. So I spent every day up until after the election surrounding myself with everything I could about Bush and Kerry, yet, for every thing I found, there was a blind eye and a deaf ear to see or hear what I had to say. But I was the ignorant one.

I could have just dropped it and left it as it was, but I didn’t like the fact that my family viewed me as being Ignorant because I didn’t agree with them. I didn’t like the fact I lost a friend because of a stupid election. His reasons wern’t even based on reality.

I know what it comes down it is that I am just very opinionated, but I like to think that the opinons I have that I feel are worth fighting for have solid reasons behind them.

So why am I supposed to back down? When am I supposed to just drop things? and I am not just talked about talking to my shithead uncle.

the topics are endless:

1) Macs suck
2) rear-wheel drive vs. front-wheel drive
3) american car reliability vs. foreign (asian) car reliability
4) ipods versus the 5,000,000 other mp3 players
5) whether worn down Bridgestone Blizzak Ws-50’s suck in the rain, or if I was driving “drunk”
6) 6,000,000 other things

I guess I am just venting today. but there, now it is official