My friend read my blog for the first time yesterday and she told me its very random. So, in honor of her, this post will be all about random opinions, questions, thoughts, observations, etc.
I just spent 61 bucks filling my tank. Before Bush was president, that would of cost me 15 bucks.
Why is it rude for a guy to leave the toilet seat up, but not rude for a girl to leave it down?
Ever wonder if the paper towel you use to wipe your hands in the bathroom is clean?
Strawberry. Best. Fruit. Ever.
If there were no poor people in the world, there would be no rich people either.
Why is gambling illegal, but smoking and drinking are not?
Its illegal to pay a girl to have sex with me. Is it illegal if I pay a girl to star in a porn film with me?
Jack Bauer is the biggest badass on TV. Damn the writer’s strike.
My dog is the cutest dog in the world. Bar none. Damn that dog of the day website.
Guys who do things for cute girls just because they are cute girls are dumb.
I’m dumb.
Angelina Jolie is a freaking Goddess incarnate.
Those are some random, stupid thoughts from yours truly. Any comments? I can pretty much expand anyone of these into a whole post.
Sex and violence in this country are interesting topics. Why is sex in this country treated as if it were the worst sin on earth, yet violence is treated as just another means of entertainment? Think about it. How many movies have you watched where dozens and dozens of people are shot to death, people have their heads cut off, and the movie is given a PG-13 rating. Yet you have another movie which has no violence, uses no swear words, but you show one little nipple and its rated R. How did our country’s beliefs and morals become like this? European countries are definitely less averse to sex than we are.
The Janet Jackson incident is a perfect example. The outcry that came about because of that was a freaking joke. Are you kidding me? What was the big deal? Many of you might disagree with me, but the media attention that drew was beyond insane. My old boss from the UK told me that he we were a laughing stock because of that (not that I really care what the freaking British think about us).
But still, why when a parent is watching a television show with their kids and a sex scene comes on or even if a woman removes her clothing, they immediately change the channel or tell their kids to leave the room? And why, when that same TV shows 2 guys killing or fighting each other to the death, they have no qualms about it? I don’t have a clear answer. We are, for the most part, a Christian country. That may explain some of it, but I highly doubt that is the whole reason. We are not the only predominantly Christian country in this world, but we definitely are among the most aversive to sex. Is it that the far Conservative Right is a lot more powerful and has much more influence than we thought? They are after all very much against any type of public displays of sex, and many would fight to the death to keep their right to own a gun.
However dumb I think it is though, I think that even I, if I had a kid and was in the same situation, would turn him/her away from sex scenes more so than violent ones. I think that just proves that no matter what we think about it, it is a part of who we are as a people and as a country. However it came about, it is ingrained in all of us. We can think that it is dumb all we want, we can make fun of how lame we think it is, but when push comes to shove and we are put in the same situation, we raise our kids the same way. And because of that, we too are ingraining the same beliefs and instincts in them. That’s just sex and violence in America today, and I’d guess it’d be how sex and violence in America will be for many years to come.
Just saw the movie 21. Its about a super smart kid in math who goes to MIT with a 4.0 gpa, 44 MCAT score, and already accepted to Harvard Medical School. However, it costs 300k to go there and he works at a place that pays 8 bucks/hour. His professor finds out how smart this kid is, recruits him for their “team” and they make lots of money in Vegas counting cards in blackjack.
The movie was only ok. I thought that it was somewhat predictable in that I guessed many of the scenes at the beginning of the movie, and they ended up happening..typical Hollywood cliche stuff, which I won’t reveal for those who want to watch it. I think the movie is worth renting, but don’t know if I’d tell people to go watch it in the theaters. Its entertaining, but nothing that just has to be seen. I don’t remember seeing the lead actor in any other movies, but the rest of the cast is filled with semi famous people, Kevin Spacey, Kate Bosworth (who was a crappy Lois Lane), and Lawrence Fishburne.
The movie did get me thinking about making lots of money fast. Its not that I care about being rich just to have money and stuff. Has more to do with the fact that if I had money, then I wouldn’t have to work anymore. I mean, I spend 9 hours/day every day at work. That’s most of my day, and it leaves me so little time to do the other stuff I always want to do in my life. I never have enough time to read my books, play my games, watch my shows, write posts here, go out with my friends, etc, etc. Work just consumes so much time, and then when I do get home from work, I’m just so tired and beat to do anything else the rest of that night, only to do it all again the next day. I wish I was smart enough to count cards. I’ve heard many times that money doesn’t buy happiness. I wish I was in a position to answer that question. I would definitely put that theory to the test.
Seeing as how I’ve had an Office Space job for many years now, I’ve learned to use different tools that make my job easier or more effective. I’ve sometimes observed different co-workers throughout the years use software like Microsoft Excel in ways that could be done so much faster. Not saying I’m an expert by any means, but I’ve learned a few things. For those who are interested, I’m going to show you how to use pivot tables in Excel.
Pivot tables are very easy to use, and can be very helpful when you have a spreadsheet with lots of raw data. If your data is already summarized, then pivot tables will not be very useful, since summarizing data is its primary purpose. I’ve included here an excel file I made up that I will use to show you how to use a pivot table. Download it now.
This is just a very simple spreadsheet for orders. As you can see, I’m not very creative in thinking of names and teams. This lists all orders, returns and revenue in February by name and team. Let’s assume you want to summarize all of the data, listing how much revenue each person brought in for the whole month of February. Bear in mind that there are multiple ways to do this, but this is just the way I do it.
Firstly, make sure that your pivot table toolbar is visible. Go to View>Toolbars>Pivot Table. You are going to want to highlight all of your data. Put your cursor on A3 so that the date field title is highlighted. Hold down the shift key, then hit the end key and then hit the right arrow key. While still holding the shift key, hit the end key, and then finally hit the down arrow key. (You can actually do all this with your mouse, but when you have 1000′s of rows, this is much faster than scrolling all the way down with your mouse).
Now that its all highlighted, click pivot table on the toolbar, then pivot table wizard. Click next with “Microsoft Office Excel list or database” already checked. Click next again. Now, on the last box, you can either hit layout or finish. I usually hit finish and then set my layout on the new worksheet. So, just click finish.
The pivot table field list is the list of fields you can drag into the table. Drag FName to where it says Drop Row Fields Here. Drag LName to the same area, but just to the right of Fname. Do not put it in the middle of the table, put it right next to Lname so that the right border of Fname is blue. Drag Date to where it says Drop Column Fields Here. Now, drag orders to where it says Drop Data Items Here. Because we do not need row totals here, right click where it says Sun Total (A6) then click on hide. You now have a summary of orders by day for each employee.
You can easily manipulate this so that it shows the revenue instead. Left click and drag the gray box Sum of Orders (A3) back to the pivot table field list. Now, drag Revenue to the middle of the pivot table. Right click anywhere in the middle of the table, then select Field Settings. Hit Number. Select currency, then hit ok, and then ok again.
You can also subset your data. Let’s say you only want to see the employee revenue summary for only those employees who are are part of the KK team. Drag Team to the very top blue box above the pivot table (A1). Click on the down arrow where it says (All) then select KK and hit ok. You are now subsetting your summary for only employees who are a part of the KK team.
That’s about it. It is a very simple tool to use, but can make things much easier when you need to summarize data. Try messing around with the different settings, try setting it up so that the blank fields contain 0′s instead. If you have any questions or comments on this or any other excel topic, feel free to leave a comment or shoot me an e-mail and I will get back to you.
About 10 of us went to watch this show last night at the Orange County Performing Arts Center. I’m sure many of you have either watched the show in the last 20 years or so, or have watched the movie. I thought it was good, but I do think that I liked Wicked better, when I watched it in Chicago. I watched Les Miserables many years ago, but do not remember if I liked that music better or this one. I did remember liking that show though.
I didn’t know if I was supposed to feel sympathy for the Phantom, who did in fact kill and kidnap people. Sure, he shows compassion, and taught Christine to sing, but I felt it hard to be on his side. I also thought the ending was pretty anti-climactic. I don’t know what I was really expecting, but it kind of just ended and I was like ok. I did see the Vegas version of this show a couple years back. That one is a shortened version of it, which my friend said only “contained the popular songs.” After watching it last night, I do understand the story a little bit more. I’ve found that often times when I watch musicals, I don’t always understand all the words that are being sung, especially when there is more than one person singing at once. I think it helped me a lot that I watched that Vegas version. Maybe, as my friend wants to do, I should watch Wicked again and see if I can pick up on things I didn’t get before, although I understood that story pretty fine, and I did like the ending of that one.
Did I enjoy the show? Yes. It is, after all a classic, and well deserved. My brother, as well as a couple of my friends, told me before I watched it that it was their favorite. I liked the main song of the show, but thought the other ones were only okay. The story somewhat reminded me of Beauty and the Beast, but I did actually feel more compassion for the Beast (at least I did for the Disney version, I never saw any other version, so for all I know the Beast could of been just as bad as the Phantom). Go watch it if you are in OC, for its still around for a week or so.
So we’ve all heard or said it before. Someone asks you if you want to do something or why you don’t do something, and you respond with a I don’t have time to. Hey Joe, why don’t you hit the gym more? Man, I got no time for that. May, wanna go to the movies with us? Sorry, I don’t have time. Angie, how come you never hang with us anymore? So sorry, I’ve just been so busy lately, don’t have the time.
I’m going to say this, and I’m sure that many, if not all of you, will disagree with me. NOBODY is so busy that they have no time. There may be an exception here or there where one person on a particularly bad day is literally so booked that he/she can’t do anything. But for the vast majority of you and for the vast majority of time, its not that you don’t have the time, its that you choose not to spend your time with that person.
Do you know how many times I’ve heard someone use the excuse that they have no time for such and such, yet they can recite every episode of Lost or can tell me what their favorite play in last night’s Laker game was? Yo Joe, how come I didn’t see you at the gym last night? Man, I was so busy, didn’t have time. Aww, that’s too bad. You catch Lost though? Heck yeah, that was an awesome episode. Can’t believe Sun had her baby without Jin. Ummm…..right.
And for those of you who are students and have no time because you have to study. I went to college, I got great grades. And I guarantee you I was not studying 24/7. I had time to hang out, watch tv, and do stuff. So spare me.
So, is saying that you have no time our polite way of saying, “No thanks” or “Sorry, I can’t make it” or “I’m just too lazy for that”? I mean, for the gym example, its just laziness. But when you ask a friend to hang and that’s the excuse you hear all the time, are they really saying, politely of course, “I only have 24 hours in a day, and I’ll be damned if I have to spend more than a few of those hanging with you!”? Is that really the case?
My friends recently had a baby, and I still see them quite often. Because of that, I know that they have less free time than they did before (don’t they?), so obviously they are willing to set aside some of that to see me still. Next time you ask someone to do something, and they consistently use the time excuse, ask yourself if they are trying to hint at something. Either that or mess with them and ask them when the next time they are free so that you can book that time with them!
So, I get my checkbook out and am about to write a check to pay my bill for my landline phone. I look at how much it is, and its a bit higher than it normally is. No one in my house uses the phone anymore, so I know it can’t be long distance stuff. I take a closer look, and I was charged 14.95 by ILD Teleservices for some something called netwatchisp.com. I go to this website, and its supposedly some ISP. Never mind the fact that I have broadband and have no need whatsoever for a dial up service. I did a quick google search for both of these, and low and behold, I discover the world of cramming.
Apparently, because of deregulation of the local phone markets, 3rd party companies can “bill unsuspecting consumers for things they never asked for — like voice mail — hoping they will not look that closely at their monthly phone bill and just pay it….The company placing the charge does not bill the consumer directly. Instead, the charge is billed by a ‘clearinghouse,’ like ILD, which in turn contracts with your local phone company to place the charge on your bill.”
I called ILD this morning, and was surprisingly only put on hold for a couple minutes. Guy answers, and I tell him I have an unauthorized charge on my account. He goes, what would you like me to do about it? Ummmm….take the freaking charge off!!?? I asked him to do so, and cancel whatever service I supposedly had with them. He said the credit would show up in 1 to 2 billing cycles. I then proceeded to call AT&T, where I was on hold for about 10 minutes. I told them about the charge, and they first asked me if I called ILD. I told them the story and they marked in my account that ILD would credit my account in 1 to 2 billing cycles. I asked them if they could prevent 3rd party companies from charging my account, and they said no, its against the law or some crap like that. I’ll find out in my next couple phone bills if this is resolved or not.
I still don’t know how they supposedly authorized this charge on my account. Maybe someone in my house answered a “free” survey or whatnot. I looked online and there are thousands of complaints about ILD with consumer affairs, so it makes me wonder why this is even allowed. I was lucky in that I only had to make a couple calls that went smoothly. I’ve read online about people that did not have it so easy. Here are my recommendations to all of you. First, be careful what you actually agree to when talking to telemarketers or answering surveys and such. Read the fine print. Also, check your bills carefully. Somebody else in my house paid my bill last month, and they did not notice that our bill was 15 bucks higher than it normally was. So, freaking netwatchisp stole 15 bucks from us already. For those who automatically debit their accounts to pay your bills, be extra vigilant in looking over your bills because I suspect that most of you do not do so. I was lucky in that my charge was only 15 bucks. I’ve read online that some people are charged much more than that.
Anyway, below are some links that I found about cramming if you are interested.
http://www.consumeraffairs.com/cell_phones/ild.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phone_fraud
http://www.fraud.org/tips/telemarketing/cramming.htm
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3078500/
Can you imagine if, rather than having the punishment fit the crime, we had the punishment be 10x the crime? Setting aside all arguments about being wrongfully accused or crime being caused by societal issues rather than bad people, but I’d imagine we might live in a safer world. Remember reading way back when people had their hands cut off when they were caught stealing? How many less thieves do you think we’d have if that was the case today? What if we castrated all rapists? How many guys do you think would still rape a woman if those were the consequences? If I punch the guy down the street just for the hell of it, maybe my punishment should be having 10 guys beat the crap out of me.
Remember that American kid way back when in Singapore who was punished with a cane beating just for vandalism? I just looked online and the crime rates for Singapore are pretty low. Do you know too many kids who would risk a caning just so that they could spray paint some crap on a wall? I’d imagine people in Singapore feel pretty safe walking down the street at night. Not that I live in a crime infested area or feel unsafe walking around alone late, but I think that I’d walk around feeling even safer knowing that potential criminals realize that if they do anything to me, their punishment will be that much harsher.
I’m not saying that we should waterboard every single one of our prison inmates until they repent, but I do think sometimes that punishments are so insignificant that they do not really discourage the person from doing the crime again. Its like freaking NBA athletes who get fined $1000 dollars for doing something wrong. Are you kidding me??? Kobe Bryant makes that much every time he blinks his eye. Do you really think that fine is going to deter him? Now, if you fine him 1 year’s salary, well, maybe then he’ll start to think that he did something wrong.
Our jails are overcrowded, which is proof enough that punishments are not stiff enough for crimes since people keep committing more of them even after released. Why would someone be scared of going back to jail, where they get fed and get a bed to sleep on, all on the taxpayer’s dollar. Yes, that’s really incentive for me not to steal from Bob. Not saying this is the solution, and I guarantee that it would never be accepted in our society since we consider ourselves morally above that. But, if you were a criminal, wouldn’t this at least make you think twice before committing a crime?
So, I got asked a question today that I’ve never been asked before. I was at work and this co-worker of mine asks me, “After you are done shopping and you are pushing your cart back to your car and put your stuff away, do you walk the cart back to the front of the store and put them where all the carts are?” I thought I was hearing the question incorrectly because the question just seemed odd to me. I mean, the thought has never, ever even once crossed my mind in my entire life. I mean, seriously? But, she just looked at me and waited for me to answer. I didn’t want to give some snarky response because I figured if she is asking me this, then she probably does so. I just said that I didn’t. At best I will put the cart in those little sections in the parking lot where you put your carts after you’re done. But, if there is none nearby, I just leave it by my car.
I had other co-workers with me at the time and they made funny jokes about leaving the cart leaning against the most expensive car they could find. I went on to ask the first co-worker if she really did that and she said yes. What if you park way in the back of the parking lot? She just said she still does so. I tried asking why, and used an argument like you are taking the job away from the high school kids, whose sole purpose is to gather stray carts. She proceeds to say that there are two types of people in this world, trying to differentiate those who do and those who don’t.
Now, I like this co-worker a lot. She is very nice. Always smiles and says hi to me when we pass each other. When she asks me for help, I’m always willing to do so happily. But when she made that comment, inside I was thinking, actually, there is one type of person in this world and you are just odd in this. Am I being mean here? Are there really 2 types of people? How many of you out there do this? I might buy it if she would of said that she does it for the exercise or something like that. But really, 2 different types of people? What do you guys all think???
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