Archive for September 2007

Dude, I’m getting a Dell…

September 28, 2007 by Hawk.

For like the 100th time in the past couple months I went back to the Dell site to once again wibble and waffle over buying a new PC only to discover that the machine I’d configured and saved missing from my shopping cart where I’d saved it. I checked my wishlist on the site and the PC there (same as the one in the cart) no longer showed the $100 discount! I was all sorts of pissed, at Dell for their site lying and saying the offer was good until October 25th, at myself for waffling straight through another good deal from Dell. I said to myself “NOW how much is it going to cost me?” and once again configured a system and when I was done, it was the same price AND it listed the $100 discount! Not only that they’d upped the base HD size from 160 GIGs to 250 GIGs and changed the 13:1 card reader out for a 19:1 card reader (not that I care, I have one memory card to read). So added it to my shopping cart (again) to see what the shipping, handling and taxes would be and found they’re offering FREE shipping for the next few days. I wibbled for a couple more hours, checked HP, Gateway and a couple other sites all of which couldn’t even come close to Dell’s price and finally said “To hell with it. I’m tired of missing out on decent deals. I’m buying the stupid thing, I can afford it.” So I did…

Dell Inspiron 531 - AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual-Core 3800+
Genuine Windows Vista® Home Basic
1GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz- 2DIMMs
Dell USB Keyboard and Dell Optical USB Mouse
NVIDIA GeForce 6150 LE Integrated Graphics GPU
250GB Serial ATA Hard Drive (7200RPM) w/DataBurst Cache
Dell 19 in 1 Media Card Reader
Integrated 10/100 Ethernet
56K PCI Data Fax Modem
16x DVD+/-RW Drive
Integrated 7.1 Channel Audio
Warranty: 1Yr In-Home Service, Parts + Labor, 24×7 Phone Support
Free 3GB DataSafe Online Backup for 1 Year

Total, including S&H and Tax: $401.73

Hawk (Sitting out by the mailbox, waiting)

Posted in Rant and Rave | 3 Comments »

Holy Rock!

September 25, 2007 by Hawk.

Years and years and years ago we discovered a nice quite party place on the Housatonic River. It was up past Shelton, down all these twisty roads. I have no idea how we found it the first time or how we made it back those many times we went back… for that matter I don’t know how we survived all those trips into the void… It was a little place called Pete’s Cove and then later Jackson’s cove on an oxbow lake called Lake Zoar just south of Kettletown State Park. I’m pretty sure this IS the place Stephen King was writing about in his short story ‘The Raft’. I’d read it long before finding the place and it was frighteningly similar to the place described in the story. King did live in CT for a while so it’s possible. Even during the day the place was never crowded and the people who did show up were quite mellow and fun to hang out with.
So… one day I’m wandering around the shore, skipping rocks and enjoying mother nature (in several forms!) and I plucked this rock out of the river. The mother nature in me screamed “WORMS ATE THOSE HOLES, DUDE!” and honestly I still can’t come up with a better explanation. It’s a plain old river rock, they’re found by the billions in the glacier lakes and rivers of the north east. This particular rock however is shot through with little tunnels and holes as if some type of rock eating worm had burrowed through it.
Here, I’ll show you!


Click the above for larger images!
Now tell me, how’d that happen if it weren’t rock eating worms, hmm?

Hawk (Never did swim out to that raft)

Posted in Rant and Rave | 4 Comments »

Blue Hippo

September 23, 2007 by Hawk.

So I’m sitting around reading and listening to the TV. It’s sometime around three or four AM and this infocommercial comes on for Blue Hippo (I won’t link to them, they’re that scammy!) offering to get you a Brand Name Computer (Dell) without a credit check and without needing a credit card. All you need is an active checking account. Now, believe me, I know ALL rent-to-own places are complete and utter rip offs. You can save the money to get the same or better product in half or less of the time you’d be paying for it through some company. But needing something to bitch about here and having nothing else to do I popped online to see what there was to see.
First, the computer. This is the desktop rig they’re offering:

AMD Athlon 64 3200+ processor
512MB Memory
80GB Hard Drive
CD-ROM & Burner
17″ Flat Panel LCD Monitor
Free: Digital Camera
Free: Color Printer

Ok, the CPU’s not dual core, it’s only got 512 megs of ram and a fairly small (for today) hard drive. Bets are that the ‘free’ camera printer are bottom of the line garbage worth next to nothing. Then there’s their catch:

First they need you to “build a credit history with us by paying a $99.00 initial fee.” Then they hit you with the terms “…followed by 52 weeks of consecutive layaway payments of $39.99. After 6 weeks we can then offer to finance the balance of your purchase price, order your computer, and have it shipped directly to your home via UPS or FedEx.”

Read that again, folks. You have to pay them a $100, then pay them $39.99 for SIX weeks and THEN if you can get approved for their financing they’ll send you the computer! You have to pay them $339.94 BEFORE you can even apply for financing. That’s probably close to the actual value of the computer before you even SEE the computer and the gods only know what kind of horrible interest rate they’re going to slam you with IF you can get approved.

If you just go with their 52 week plan you’ll end up spending $2179.48 for an out of date computer that might be worth $500. Looking around the ‘net it seems there’s several class action suits out against Blue Hippo and several investigative reports claiming they often delay shipment for weeks or months and in some cases don’t send the computer at all!

Hawk (Can you smell the scam boys and girls?)

Posted in Rant and Rave | No Comments »

Now THAT’S Fast!

September 22, 2007 by Hawk.

An unmanned Rocket Sled at Holloman Air Force Base on April 30th 2003 reached 6453 MPH!

Some details from the Wiki:
“It was the final stage of a four-stage sled train, which included the sled, a Super Roadrunner rocket motor, and a 192-pound payload on top. The sled train delivered payload into a target at a velocity of 9465 feet per second, or 6453 mph (2885 m/s), or Mach 8.5.”

Hawk (Feels the need for SPEEEEED!)

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Talk Like a Pirate Day?

September 19, 2007 by Hawk.

Ok, this has got to be the stupidest holiday ever.
So… in that vein I’d like to propose the following *NEW* holidays to be observed in 2008!

January 24th - Brutal Honesty Day

April 24th - Send Hawk Money Day

May 11th - Pee Outside Day

July 5th - Count Your Fingers Day

October 3rd - Smell Like an Onion Day

November 17th - Fart When You Want to Day

December 1st - Dress Like Elvis Day

Hawk (Really looking forward to April!)

Posted in Rant and Rave | 7 Comments »

R.I.P. Madeleine L’Engle

September 17, 2007 by Hawk.

Sad news book fans. The author Madeleine L’Engle died September 6, 2007 at the ripe old age of 88. Creator of such astounding works as ‘A Wrinkle in Time’ & ‘A Wind in the Door’, books that I grew up with loving and reading them as recently as a few months ago. If you haven’t read anything she’s written, do yourself a great favor and go buy or check out from your local library ‘A Wrinkle in Time’, you’ll be glad you did.

Hawk (sad)

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Dude, a Dell?

September 13, 2007 by Hawk.

So… I need a new PC. This one’s reaching the end of it’s usefulness. The CD burner only makes coasters even when slowed down to 4x (down from 52x). The floppy drive is dead. It’s only got 384 megs of RAM pushing a 1.6gHz Celeron. It’s old and fairly decrepit. I’ve spent a while looking around the sites, Dell, HP, Gateway and a few smaller companies I’ve seen mentioned here and there in the computer magazines. Dell so far has had the best configuration for the least money. My biggest problem is I’m poor and I’ve been poor for a long while. Other than bills if I spend $20 a month on non essential things it’s a big deal and I’m looking at putting somewhat over $400 on my credit card. This is scary for me. I need the moment to be ‘right’ and my mindset to be ‘right’ and even then it’s going to be a real bitch to click that last “Place Order” button. With that in mind Dell’s got a current, long term promotion running with a $100 discount on the PC I’m looking at (Athlon 3800+ Dual Core, a gig of RAM, 160 gig HD, DVD burner, 13:1 card reader, etc.). I missed out on their last promotion that would have gotten me a much better machine for only $35 more than the above system so I wanted to find out when this discount expires. I popped into the Dell Chat system to ask. Big freaking mistake:

Me: “I’d like to know when this current promotion ends.”
Dell: “Our specials change weekly, Sir.”
Me: “This isn’t a weekly special as it’s been running for several weeks now”
Dell: “Our specials change weekly, Sir.”
Me: “This isn’t one of your weekly specials. Like your free shipping offer it’s long term.”
Dell: “You’re correct, Sir.”
Me: “Then I’d like to know when this current promotion ends.”
Dell: “Our specials change weekly, Sir.”
Me: “You just agreed with me that this was NOT a weekly special.”
Dell: “That’s correct. Several of out offers have been running for quite a while.”
Me: “Then I’d really like to know when this current promotion ends.”
Dell: “Our specials change weekly, Sir.”

This Abbott and fucking Costello routine went on for TWENTY minutes when the idiot finally told me he had no idea when the promotion would end and gave me the number and extension (the wrong extension number at that) to some department that he assured me would have the answers I wanted. I called them. Big freaking mistake #2. After spending at least 10 minutes getting lost in their automated phone system:

“Press one if your have bought a Dell and are left handed.
Press 2 if you have bought a Dell and it’s currently on fire or speaking in tongues.
Press 3 if you’d like to press 3 again.
Press 4 if pressing 3 didn’t allow you to press 3 again.”

I finally get a human being on the phone, explain the situation and after a minute of silence I’m told she can’t help me and needs to transfer me to someone who can. Amazingly this transfer doesn’t hang up on me, summon Satan or connect me to the power company. I get a sales twit on the phone and once again explain my question. He doesn’t, of course, have any idea and puts me on hold for five minutes while he asks his manager. He gets back on the line and tells me his manager is as clueless as he is “This is a corporate decision, Sir, we have no idea when the promotion may end. It could be tomorrow. Would you like to order your system now to ensure you get the discount?” Nice try at getting a commission, shithead. I just hung up on him.
Dude, I wish Dell didn’t have the best deals. I really do. This seriously made me not want to do business with them.

Hawk (*sigh*)

Posted in Rant and Rave | 9 Comments »

Profound…

September 11, 2007 by Hawk.

Once upon a time two pool repair people went to Thermo-Spas to pick up a pump motor because they packaged the wrong one with one of their spas they’d just manhandled down a hill of mud and through a door that required (but weren’t told it required) disassembly of the spa. They were told, “Sure, we’ve got those on the shelf, have a seat.” The two guys then sat there, dirty, grubby, smelly in the showroom for an hour only to find out the guy who was bringing the pump motor out decided to go to lunch instead of moving the motor the last 25 feet. One of those two guys was then heard to say, quite loudly, loudly enough that the manager called his employer to report that the rude, smelly man had said, quite loudly “Always remember people, Spas spelled backwards, is SAPS..”

Hawk (once upon a time, dirty, smelly… profound)

Posted in Rant and Rave | No Comments »

To hell with the future!

September 9, 2007 by Hawk.

I mean seriously, what’s the future done for me lately? Nothing, that’s what! Everyone wants me to conserve, reuse, recycle “For the Future”. Well hell, I’m not going to be there to enjoy it! Why should I do without, do with less and care what happens when I’m dead and worm food? Damn it I don’t care! I’m going to buy disposable everything! I’m going to build a 1953 Cadillac and put an extra engine in the trunk that does nothing, NOTHING but run and use up resources! I’m turning on every light in my house and replacing every one of the bulbs with 150 watters! I’m setting the fridge to freezing! I’m going to air condition the screen house! I’m going to cook everything at 500 degrees and leave the oven on 24 hours a day so it’s always ready to cook! Screw you, future!

Hawk (only sorta kidding)

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I REALLY love drag racing…

September 4, 2007 by Hawk.

I dig shows like ‘Pinks‘ and ‘Pinks: All Out‘ amateur drivers bringing their home built and often low budget cars to the drag strip and blasting down the 1/4 mile.
But my true love is NHRA Top Fuel and Funny Car racing. I’ve been a car guy all my life. I’ve owned some powerful (if not 1/4 mile) cars, 1968 Toronado, an early 70’s Firebird and even a 1977 Ford LTD Police Interceptor (it was a real cop car!) but nothing I’ve owned or even driven comes close to the eight THOUSAND horsepower monsters these guys drag out to the track week after week.
Count to five, go on… 1, 2, 3, 4, 5… a Top Fuel dragster will have gone from a dead stop to 330+ miles per hour before you hit five. The fastest car ever? 4.497 seconds. Four and a half seconds. Man, that’s got to be one hell of a ride…

Hawk (Vr0000000m!)

Posted in Rant and Rave | No Comments »

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