The Stupid. Part Two!

So yesterday I get a Property Tax Bill from Union County. Looks like this:

The previous form and all of that was for the 1971 Mustang, not the 1966. This is a property tax bill for it. REALLY?!?! So I call the mentioned Sr. Property Tax whatever and guess what. Have to leave a message. They call back. The first voice mail says they got my paperwork and to disregard the bill. HELLO! We are talking about two different Autos here! Shortly after that she finds her error and leaves another message. I seem to have never returned the form for the 1966. I tell her I never got one and all of this is not legal under NC General Statutes. Could she please explain why I have to fill out the County form? *Crickets, crickets*. Finally she has decided she is done talking to me and says she will send a form out for the 1966. I ask where she got the value for it and she said she valued it as a condition 4 and that is what the computer said. As predicted! Lady, I assure you this car on the grading scale is at least a 2 pushing a 1.

Sigh...    

UPDATE! Dear Union County Tax Assessor,

You know that I have had Antique Auto License plates on the 1971 and 1966 Mustangs issued by NCDMV for years. NOW you want a copy of the titles, an application, and a CURRENT PICTURE of the Mustangs to maintain the reduced tax rate?!?!? How the hell will you know its a current picture? What difference does it make? I might just send a copy of a magazine ad for the '71 and see if anyone notices.

What the frack happened to all of this data integration between you and NCDMV? The 1971 has been CONTINUOUSLY registered since my Father bought it in January of 1972. Sheesh! There is corporate stupid then there is .gov stupid. An order of magnitude above it seems. Anyone know where I can find the gal in the Bikini? 

I have two "current pictures" below. Since the powers that be did not specify what picture they wanted, I'm thinking one of the two past the ad below. What say you?

This Dude is Back. I'm not Happy!

Sorry for the absence.  Remember this little project?  Well we had some "feature creep".  Go figure.  That invalidated the licenses I had for the operator workstations.  So I wander off to get upgraded.  I thought I could just plug in the new license code for the SAME FREAKING SOFTWARE just upgraded from 15 screens to 30. NOPE!

After attempting the oh, 4 GIG download three times at work, I figure everyone is hogging the TWC Business Class bandwidth to look at You Tube, streaming Pandora, downloading uh, stuff.  Whatever.  I'm not in charge of the Interwebz connection.  I tell my manager I'm going home to download the stuff and burn a DVD.

So here again is this dude. 

  s












I hate this guy!


I'll be back later as we actually ran the stuff using VNC to the development workstation and a batch of stuff was made this week.  That will not help the production schedule next week though! 

Oh, other activities are heating up too.  Just to make it interesting. Oh, joy.

Just About What I Expected. Sigh....

So I run off to the "MyFordSyncisAwesomeClass" or whatever tonight at the dealership.  "Free drinks, prizes and more"!  If some dude tells me for 5 minutes how he is a nerd but a cool one that owns a "Standard Poodle" (whatever the hell that means) what, the dog does not have air conditioning? WTF?  He met Bill Gates?  I don't care. I know this is not going to go well. 

He fires up a PowerPoint. Lists vocal commands for the system. He hits the part about using the system to stream IHeartRadio and Pandora apps from the phone and looks at the class and says that nobody probably knows what he is talking about.  Dude. I am sporting some grey hair and my other companions in the class are sporting more (or none). But still.  You just lost me there.  How condescending.  So I finally speak up.  I ask him if I must have the app running on the phone before I invoke the verbal command to the system. Now we get some crickets in the background. 

He does say that they are working on an app start feature.  NEVER underestimate your students based on appearance. I have "nerd" degrees older than him.

So one cool tidbit came out though.  I do not have a touch screen on the new ride but can send Google map directions to the ride for voice navigation. I have the Garmin but I thought this was cool.  Lets try it out. 

Well, it seems if you are driving a FORD, this app is useless. So much for that.  I will never be able to get to Pineville Gun Store again.  Sad.  They have a lot of parts and cool stuff and a hoot to deal with.  

To add to my displeasure, while he is EXITING the PowerPoint to fire up a Browser (IE) to demonstrate the browser session (with Mapquest) I am thinking: Dude, did not Bill Gates tell you how to switch between applications with Alt-Tab? 

Sigh.  

I think I previously demonstrated my skill in operating the thing. 



Sigh again.  One plus though.  Back in the day tags were mailed to your house.  I had to pick mine up at the dealership.  Got that out of the way too.  

 

 
   



 

Shhh.. You are Soaking in it!

After everyone's great help on the old Enfield wood, I researched more and decided to go the oven cleaner route.  After generally making a mess out of the kitchen sink an old friend tonight brought the "Duh, facepalm moment".  She simply suggested I use the guest bathroom tub for this. 

Uh, yeah. That works much better! To add insult to injury on my increasingly failing mental facilities she commented on the Magnum 500 wheels I got out of a junk yard oh, 25+ years ago and said I used the ONLY bathtub then for those. 

And then proceeded to mask them out and spray bomb the flat black.  In the kitchen. 

I will let you know how this comes out! 

Tonight's Entertainment

So I have watched a lot of the parody's of the Hitler rant on You Tube. I actually ran into this one this week as a newly minted iPhone person. 





I decided to get this in context.  A truck of happiness just delivered this. Its a little after 8pm here.  I comment to the driver that he is working a little late.  He comments that "I work for idiots".  I beg to differ Sir, considering the USPS is defaulting on another oh, 5.6 BILLION! 


What did I get? This.

I think I will rattle the house now.  Review later!

If I ever find this guy....

I'm gonna smack that headset right off! If I am seeing this guy:

it means I am in for a long day. Who is he you may ask? This dude is on the main Web page for Rockwell Automation (Allen-Bradley) tech support. This image perfectly sums up ALL of the photos on ALL RA documentation. Here is another example of people far, far, shinier and happier than you will ever be; even the rapture of new love pales in comparison to these people:

AT WORK no less.

See what I mean? What they fail to comprehend is IF I am calling them, MY STUFF IS BROKE, really and truly broke. A reboot is NOT going to fix it. I am not as happy or as shiny as they are about the situation.

So why did I have to go there? Silly, I bought a new PLC (Programmable Logic Controller) or if you prefer, "a big box with a lot of blinking lights on it" (actual comment on an install). I swear! 

The programming software did not have this super new model. So a TWO GB download, 6 reboots and uh, ALL DAY, I can now perhaps program this thing.

I feel better! How was your Monday?

FedEx! Like I don't have anything else to do!

Here is the sad tale of a shipment of ammo from CMP to stately manor. Take a look at this:

I received a phone call on Sunday notifying me of the shipment and signature required. OK, I jumped online and requested a hold at FexEx location. Life is good right? Wrong! Cryptically I see the status above "unable to hold" and call them. Blah, blah, blah. They actually tell me that I can pick it up at a FedEx location about a 40 min. trip one way from here in another State! Uh, no! So I tell them to send to my wonderful neighbor. They say OK and tell me they will deliver in the afternoon today. I let my neighbor know and she says she is going to lunch today but will back by 12. Cool. NOT! 

Check the status of the package. 11 o'clock they tried to deliver today with predictable results.

I asked why they could not hold at a FedEx Office location for pickup. Here is the line... wait for it.... "Sir, this package is labeled hazardous materials and cannot be held there." OK, just because something has an ORM-D sticker on it, you will throw it on a truck and blast down the Interstate with it but won't let it sit in a locked cage in a franchise because it has a OMG  ORM-D sticker on it?  Really?!?!

Sigh... UPS routinely drops oh, 16 lbs. of powder and 10K of primers on my front porch. I know they do it because the shipper did not request a signature, but this should be simpler than this!  

On the upside maybe FedEx Delores will drop by!  

Reloading question and random stuff.....

So first off this. About 10 percent of my 9mm reloads will not case gauge. Looks like this:

They WILL however chamber and eject in the Smith and Wesson M&P. Anyone have any ideas on that? 

Secondly, I have a cleaning lady. Love her to death and she is thorough. I trust her implicitly. She came through today and did her thing. I then turned the Roomba loose on the bedroom. Dust bin on it looked like this:

 






























Hmm. I guess the fact it goes UNDER furniture is the point here.

I like this thing!



Yeah, someone with a cordless circular saw can take it, but it does work and does what it needs to do.  

Actual conversation at work today: Me- "Yeah I can do that but as soon as I make something idiot proof they will just come up with a better idiot". 

Still deciding if I will put up a Christmas Tree or not. Better Homes and Gardens will not be by for a photo shoot either way, your thoughts?

Any help here gang?

FTC thingy. I bought everything in this post. So there. Your mileage may vary, check local store for details. 

The Marriott Casa Monica Hotel In St. Augustine Is Run By Unpatriotic Jerks

 From Borepatch: I'm in!

School Daze... UPDATE!

So I left the Community College gig. The other shoe has dropped for better or worse. My former department head announced his retirement to his Adjunct Instructors last week via email. I hate it for him in one way as he really enjoyed teaching. Lets see how someone 30 miles away schedules all of the classes he was responsible for in the fall without knowing this list of Adjunct instructors. I wish him the best in retirement!  

Let them eat cake!

Over at Lagniappe's Lair, Murphy's Law has telling commentary on how it seems that some pigs are more equal than others. This is a sad commentary. 

From our Friends at the USPS

Some things you cannot make up. The United States Postal Service Union elections have been postponed because....wait for it, wait for it.. THE BALLOTS GOT LOST IN THE MAIL!

Don't worry friends I am sure the government will figure out how to run health care smoothly and efficiently in 1 year as opposed to 200 years of delivering mail, right? Right?


Link to news report on Fox.

h/t to Jennifer

What is Smith and Wesson Thinking Indeed!

The always enjoyable blog of Tam lamented the marketing department efforts of S&W lately. Although based on my blog posts one could assume I am a Colt kind of person (true there), there are the occasional S&W revolvers to be found here and there at stately manor. Oh and the Historian letters are cheaper and quicker if you can handle the lack of spell check and proofreading from Roy Jenkins.

But the last e-mail from S&W has me in total agreement with Tam on this one. And I venture that even the lunkheads at Colt marketing have not thought of this:
 Give the link a moment as S&W seems to not spend a lot of money on Web tech. If you do not want to wait, here is one offering for Fathers Day from the e-mail

Description: "This special collectors edition set comes with the igniting Smith & Wesson Men's Cologne in a 3.4 oz perfect fitting refill bottle, one large front and one large back metal frame with screws and a tooling kit. All this is beautifully set in a distinctive Smith & Wesson custom engraved Cherry Wood presentation case." All of this can be had for $124.95!

I'm sorry S&W, I think I will stay with my pedestrian cologne!  Perhaps yours smells like burnt gunpowder with a hint of Hoppes #9? I think that "igniting" is not an adjective I would want to use for a firearm enthusiast for a cologne!

Sheesh!

I thought this was illegal?

Hmm.  A handgun in D.C.? I don't believe it!

Actor Kal Penn recently quit his White House job to return to Hollywood. As a special goodbye, a local resident robbed him at gunpoint early this morning. Ahh, the ol' Capitol Kiss-Off. Suspect is unknown. Though it definitely wasn't lupus.

Link!

But on the other hand....

It seems that maybe landlines suffer from bad business practices more than loss of revenue. I have a Verizon landline and recently went online to "manage" my account. I had to request a PIN from Verizon to access my account. Hey email that on out to me right? NOOOO.... I had to get a snail mail copy of it. From FL. And another one two days later. From GA. And yet another one. From Charlotte. I hope there is not one in my mailbox today when I get home! Uh guys! you can tell time on the system to the thousands of a second but cant have your business offices integrated? Oh OK, fine I guess!