March 4, 2007
As promised! I found my article that I submitted in January for the Clerical Newsletter. This is what I wrote, not the f---ing crap that was printed. Click here.
February 20, 2007
I just had a jolly good time traveling the other day and my experience at a KFC was not fun. The food was fine, just that my fellow customers were a handful. I suppose that that in addition to my visit to Pollo Campero has given me the idea to solicit horror stories from readers on visits to the burger joint(s). E-mail your stories here.
February 18, 2007
You get what you pay for. $99.99. Actually, the HP6210 sells for $199.99 and for this week, everyone is selling it for $99.99! To good to pass up. The machine is an All-In-One Hewlett Packard Special: Scans, Copies, Prints, Faxes, Sings to you, Ignores you, does everything that your girlfriend does to you once they know that they have you. Bam, you will learn this one day. By the way, Bam, remember the Baseball game at Dodger Stadium? I do.
Anyway, this blasted machine does not install on my XP machine! Fatal Error is what it tells me. Fine. It deletes itself but while it was installing itself, it deleted all of my other HP drivers! No problem, I'll just put them back in. Nope. Not that easy - I forgot about what Mr. Arnold declares in that spy movie: "What sick bit-- takes out the ice cube thingies from the freezer?" This little HP6210 took 'em all and when I tried to install the original drivers, HP6210 left a distinct Latin flavor. Latin because when I try to install the HP1210xi - it will only do so in Spanish. I speak Spanish, read it and write it rather well but I don't want my computer to speak to me in said flavor.
I hate HP6210. No problem, you say? I would agree. Too bad my 9-year old found the Styrofoam packaging and played Titanic with it. Needless to say, I felt like the Captain of that ill-fated liner. The only thing that kept my sanity was the restore point in XP.
February 16, 2007
I live in a small town, one block off the main street and for the last two months or so, on the corner, a new business was making its way into the world. Turns out that a restaurant would be opening its doors very soon. Before long, we were pleasantly surprised that a Pollo Campero would be open in a few short walks - a mere five minutes walking distance. We missed the opening day, but on Feburary13 of this month, I decided to give it a shot. My daughter Giselle escorted me and we entered the store during a non-rush hour: 3 P.M. to be exact. We were greeted upon entering and walked up to the counter to place our order. We decided to order a family, roughly 16 pieces of chicken that comes packed with four sides (we chose french fries, two rice, and frijoles [beans]), corn tortillas and salsa. Drinks were not included. Our order taker was gentile, professional and processed our order and took our money with skill that Karl Marx would have left dumbfounded. We made our way to the salsa bar and chose to take one of each salsa, five total. I spied Jalapenos [Jalapenos] and I turned into a rabid customer. I immediately deduced that the little plastic salsa containers would just not due for the rather large sliced Jalapenos [Jalapenos - or as Neelix from Star Trek: Voyager would say: Jalapenos] and I asked the food server if I could have a larger container, plastic cup, whatever. He simply stated that the only containers were the ones that were at the salsa station.
You've got to be kidding me? Fine. Fine. Giselle finished filing up the other five containers and the order taker hovered close and I asked her for a container and she basically replied in the same fashion: "What you see is what you get." Now, frankly, I was just asking for a plastic container and not a lesson in the being told no, yet again. Actually, she was polite about it, but I was very unhappy about it. It seemed that since both employees answered in the exact same fashion, it must be store policy. All I know is that I just plunked down $34 dollars and you couldn't give me a lousy freaking plastic cup for some Jalapenos? This is baaaaaaaaaaaaad policy. I am not saying that just because I spent a good some of money, I should be given something extra. I am simply stating that the policy of not giving out larger containers for the condiments is stupid. This store just opened and you are supposed to be attracting customers, not nickel and diming each sale. This is where the saying: Penny wise, Pound Foolish is true.
We tasted the chicken, fried. Not greasy at all. You could taste the herb and spices. The beans were bland, the rice as well and in the time it took us to get home, 3 minutes, the french fries were not even warm! No lid on the cup to keep the fries in and some did spill out.
Usually, it comes down to service. Excellent food can and does make up for lousy service, but in this case: No, the food does not make up for the stingy service. I am sorry to say that my one and last trip to this place did not leave a favorable impression on me - so much so, you find my opinion here.
Any thoughts on this fast food chain? Comments? Let us know here.
I don't mean to sound chicken, but I wouldn't spend my money there again.
February 10, 2007
All is not good in Yankee-Land. Bernie Williams does not agree to minor league contract. ESPN has details here. The Mets sign Chan Ho Park. One word: Bozos. Yankee great Hank Bauer is dead at 84. I know the name, his credentials, but frankly, my biological-sperm-donor would probably be taking it worse than I am.
January 30, 2007
Wow. I read Bam's story. Needless to say, he is much better at telling the story, but hey, it really happened. Opps, I mean, it is alleged to have happened. Why split hairs? I can't, I just don't have any extra hair to waste time splitting 'em. Management lesson can be found here. There is a great deal of truth to this one!
January 29, 2007
I need an expert to tell me and you about the Yankees' farm system? I suppose so, click here and revel in the world of Yankee power. Said expert stated in the article that the Tampa Bays have the best farm team. Matters not because they have not, will not ever amount to anything. The Dodgers had a great farm team AND they would win - Tampa Bay? Like I said, what do experts know?
It appears that I have caught a cold and I am unhappy about it.
So, knowing that I am not doing well, I must say that when I listed KLOS instead of KROQ in yesterday's article, it is because I had a head cold. Thanks Claw, I did miss it!
How things really do come full-circle: I just added a banner for my old employer at the bottom of this page. Yup, I was employed by them a long, long time ago. As a matter of fact, I opened their store in Commerce, California back in 1991. Wow, a long time that I was store manager - a manager for that matter. My retail career peaked when I was 22. I have to find my old business cards and post a scanned copy. I still have them! Actually, there is much that I still have, like the signed scripts of Star Trek: Voyager: Year of Hell Part I & II, signed by Joe Menosky and Brannon Braga and Star Trek: The Next Generation: Yesterday's Enterprise signed by John DeLancie who just happened to walk into my store the Monday after Memorial Day back in 1991. Look, I just happened to have the script with me that day. Memories.
January 28, 2007
I just received news from a good friend of mine: she found my VHS tape from my trip to Universal Studios in 1990. My friend Joe Estrada was able to win tickets to the Kevin & Bean show on 106.7, KROQ-FM. On that particular Friday in August, those two were doing their show from the Universal Studios tour - they were to be tour guides for the day and ten-pairs of tickets were given out by the show and my friend snagged a pair - we both went. After the show, we stayed in the park and enjoyed the entire day at the studio courtesy of Kevin & Bean. I was chosen to partake in the Star Trek: Adventure. I purchased the tape that I starred in and I will transfer it to DVD soon enough and maybe, just maybe, place it on the web site for viewing . . . and like Kirk, I actually had hair back then!
In another Indiana Jones type event, I discovered my musings of the day that Joe Menosky, producer on Star Trek: Voyager invited my wife and I to have a tour of the Voyager sets for our anniversary in 1998. I discovered that document and the Polaroid of the two of us sitting on the same bench where they filmed the close-ups of Tom Hanks for Forest Gump. That one will be posted along with the Polaroid on June 12 - our anniversary.
January 22, 2007
Replace Bud Selig? C'mon, are we done with used-car dealers? ESPN comments here. Speaking of Baseball, Portland? The next city deserving of a baseball team? Well, if Jacksonville has a team AND with a fan here in Los Angeles, I suppose that it could happen. By the way, I know that one fan and he finally got his samba board (if you don't know what a samba board is, don't waste your time). He is devoted, but hey, so is that Yankee fan that you always see dancing in-between innings on television playoff games - you know the one.
If are you unsure or didn't know, I am a Yankee fan.
Also, in other, less interesting issues, my local has changed its name - possibly because it has gone loco. Local 660 is now known as Local 721. Seems that the legal aspects have not been ironed out yet, but I have it from informed sources that 7 Unions joined to form 1 . . . Seven two One . . . get it? 7 to 1? I thought it was Seven in the 21st century, but I was corrected that it was the former and not the latter - turns out that after I made my proclamation, it is, in-fact Seven Unions in the Twenty-First Century.
Thank Goodness that I am no longer involved in Blue-collar issues.
Another pot-shot this morning: At least when I make a promise, it happens. Remember that kids, Uncle Roger is smart enough to know that making promises is not good when you can not control the outcome. Lesson here: either be a player or remain the pretender that you are. There is no in-between.
Enough for morality lessons or political lessons in how-to-screw-your-fellow-employees-and-still-live-with-yourself-while-smiling-in-their-face(s)-while-you-blame-everyone-else.
I know it is no longer Christmas, but being that I have been mistaken for the heart-less Grinch, I decided to remind everyone that I have not disappeared, but only that I have been convalescing for a while. All-together-now: Merry Christmas.
Speaking of Christmas coming later, we want to introduce you to our very-bohemian resident that thinks she knows it all AND wants to share her knowledge with everyone else with her new advice column. Yup, she wants to dispense her advice. Questions for Miss N? Send them here.
January 21, 2007
A woman died because she drank too much water because she wanted to win the Wii for her children. Now the family is suing the station. Did not the woman sign a release? Is she an adult that can make decisions on her own?
C'mon . . . where is the personal responsibility for our actions? Because she did something stupid, someone has to pay, right? In this case, the DJ's of KDND have paid by losing their jobs. The station will pay because they have money - to pay for the woman's lack-thereof.
Look, what the DJ's did was stupid, but did not Obi-Wan Kenobi ask: "Who is the more foolish? The one who is or the that follows him?
Please . . . make comment here.
January 16, 2007
Just in by a friend . . . The Supreme Court wants to remove crosses from all Government Property . . .
Where do we begin?
January 15, 2007
Background music has been removed.
January 5, 2007
David Gerrold, the writer of the Original Series episode Trouble with Tribbles has gone on record to state that the only way to save Star Trek is to re-boot it ala what Ron Moore and David Eick have done with Sci Fi Channel's Battlestar Galactica.
Why?
It worked with a program that went one year and later was re-worked for a few episodes for a total of what? 31 episodes? Not much history there. Not much to go on, well, at least when one compares Battlestar to Star Trek or Babylon 5, or Robotech. Frankly, the premise was sound, but there was so much that could still be told.
Mr. Gerrold states that in Star Trek, it has all been told so really, there is not much more you can do with it - except to re-imagine it. Re-imagine where by your own definition there is nothing more to be done? That argument lacks logic and frankly, it lacks imagination - typical of one-hit wonders at work here.
Why?
Leave it alone, it stands on its own and to re-do the original series implies that there is something wrong with it. How can there be something wrong with IT if IT had four spin-offs?
Enterprise failed because it was un-interesting. Battlestar Galactica is done well because it is interesting. Star Trek will live again on television or in the theater if it is interesting.
Re-imagining Star Trek is a blatant rip-off to the success of something else. There is still so much to be told and it can be told in a Star Trek series - provided that it tells good stories. We may never see a television series, but the movies will continue and will do well if the audience is catered too.
Original article may be found here.
