The Ottermanempire.com

I love the nimby crowd, the people that  want to save the world but..  are too busy to even save themselves from coming off as people  that had  an entirely reasonable objection to the construction but just couldn’t leave it at that.  Oh no we have to make this into something  bigger. Something stupid. 

We were planning a move to Prescott   or Payson , somewhere with a P at least,and it’s nice to see that  they have the same proportion of nut that Phoenix has.

Reasons not to have water in the desert.

• The metal tank might collapse in an earthquake or be blown up by terrorists. (  seismically unlikely , not impossible. I can’t see the houses being unharmed by any  quake that takes out the tank) Terrorists?  Oh get bent. The terrorists are too busy running speed cameras and checking lawns for improper  growth. 

• A youth camp below the tank could be inundated, with kids dying. (that’s one big tank to have water high enough to drown kids)

• Homeowner insurance in the area doesn’t cover flood damage.( then buy some, it can RAIN you know. )

• Cellphone transmitters emit dangerous radio waves. ( prove it )

• The antenna cluster might be hit by aircraft or require an unsightly beacon to warn pilots. (  yeah  another  20 ft or so makes the difference)

• Increased water pressure could burst pipes in local homes. ( maybe, a tiny amount, but  aren’t the homes  built to code?

• Use of explosives could crack residential walls. ( depends where they are)

• The whole thing will obscure "viewsheds," places with scenic or historic value. ( like? )

Prescott neighbors fighting water tank, cell tower

As you can  see mostly  BS reasons. The article is great and you can get gems such as this.

"It’s proven that our property values will decline 30 percent if that 85-foot cell tower goes up. . . . I got that on the Internet."

Yeah  well there’s lots of things you can  get online including unsolicited abuse. Bullshit 100%  craptastically  untrue.

I love that the people that pay the state are at war with them and have to pay the price in taxes to the city whose  attorneys fight against you..  It’s cool , fricking cool you have to admire how good this system is  .. for those that run it:D  

Ok I think I really dislike the new way to add images in Wordpress 2.5. Flow is crap and the tweaking still needed a jump to HTML which I should just have bloody done in the first place. Ok onto the news. I spent a lot of time

shopping for a ring for Creddy and have to say that SEO is being done so well by three companies that without some interesting search techniques I would have only been able to shop at three credible sites:)

I am glad I persevered since the winner came from www.furthers.com which suffers from possibly the worst check out system ever the still functions:) . I messed up the price since I thought I could count, oh I can, just a shitty 10 key operator and stiffed them $10 , paid them of course but the carts appearance made me go check out the cert / co etc just to be sure.

On a funny note one of the “hacker safe ” sites, the kind that’s meant to be so rigorously checked to ensure all their shit is above board. E.g they are meant to check the site daily and if it’s not in compliance the logo isn’t displayed. Well one of the sites on my travel had an expired cert on it, over 2 weeks old, and still had that stupid logo. Oh the logo works do a search on the goog for it and you can see real A:B comparisons of more sales because people believe what they see. Kudos for the people that market the variants of these it’s the best idea since bottled water from a city source:D

Anyway tried to buy the ring locally. Fat chance. In the end I got a price from a local store that was way over the net price and had a 4 week waiting period. I’ll pay premium in my hand today.. four weeks is taking the piss though.

Just Metal has a good selection, Edward Mirell I couldn’t get close to finding locally and had the long lead times and  sadly the true tension settings , a la Kretchmer ,  were out of price this time round but also it’s too big to get under a bike glove.  Take time to read about the man it’s a severe annoyance that he died so young.

This site , Titanium Era I really liked, and that seems to have the SEO part nailed, and I’ll be going there soon as I work out what size I am:) . Their timascus rings are awewome and I want a matching knife to go with that:D

Update post

This franchise decided that on a Mother’s day that having two front of house staff, one on his third day is acceptable staffing for a busy period. They had no milk, there was no coffee, we had to get our own silverware, petition for menu and then go get our sugar ( this is all small stuff but when you realize that’s what we pay for it becomes annoying,)

Finally get an order in and the order was not matching the description. Their garlic pizza has Alfredo sauce, this one came with tomato which doesn’t agree with Erin. So let’s ask them to change it. Oops they say we don’t have Alfredo sauce either. At this point I was just fed up and asked to see someone.

It went badly , seemingly we should know that their pizza when ordered by the slice is always tomato and that the waiter told us otherwise , and that we believed him, is something we should basically accept and eat. The story changed to say we do have the sauce but that it’s not available by the slice. No effort made to correct it and by the time she decided to argue with my wife it was a case of I’ll pay for the drinks, salad we had and leave. She said ok , then turned round and in front of the other customers basically said , no , why don’t you just go, or you can go now. Either way it was about as unprofessional as I’ve seen.

I understand two staff will get stressed trying to handle this but the management put them into that position . They know they don’t have staff, they know to order enough milk, ( not like Fry’s grocery isn’t next door) and they can’t make coffee? ) They should know never to berate the customer for requesting an item to match that on the menu. All in all until an under new management sign appears or their franchisee is kicked into shape I’d avoid dining in at this place

Streets of New York :: Pizza • Pasta • Subs

One of my more reckless discussions is that of questioning how effective DUI  and other drug laws are when enforced.  Is the cure worse than the disease?  While many of these questions are   not  designed to provoke or offend  ( I assure you the theological stuff is )  and   are  training wheels for my arguments which  usually I’m 90 percent sure I can justify  to myself.  I’m just trying to get to the other 9%. ( I have to leave 1% open  after all)

Statewide holiday task force reports 2,828 DUI arrests

“A total of 2,828 DUI arrests were made during a statewide holiday
drunken-driving task force …. 6 percent more than the 2,663 arrests
during a comparable period in 2006.”,”
In the latest effort, authorities stopped 36,901 drivers and issued
11,361 citations for traffic offenses other than driving under the
influence, Mulleneaux said.”

Here we go again. In Arizona about 7%  of those stopped are charged DUI  93%  are not.  Despite figures showing that  police looking for dui via traditional patrols is more effective than the roadblocks and assorted gimmicks it just doesn’t play as well to the cameras.   From Tennessee. Roving patrols took about 19 hours per drunk based on observed behavior.  Checkpoints based on the suspicion that you are driving a car on the road the checkpoint is on took 29 hours. 

Sadly roving patrols aren’t as photogenic as a checkpoint. They don’t tell the people that aren’t infringing just what they are doing about dui , but making them wait, stop and interact with the nice officer  certainly  gets that point across.

I am not saying these checkpoints are not stopping people from driving, study after study shows they have an effect … but  at the expense of more effective methods.  About 10%  of the people arrested for DUI are caught at checkpoints during the holiday crackdowns then why not stop the  PR crap and actually get down to the effective keeping of the peace?

This is not a local phenomena.  Check out the experiences in  Florida, Ohio and an aggregate of studies conducted.  Same message from state to state.It’s not about their effectiveness as primary enforcement it’s the appearance to be seen to act rather than acting effectively that’s annoying me.  While you shouldn’t be trading safety for security it would be nice at least if we were getting what we thought

So please don’t pretend you care about DUI yet insist we need to haul over anyone making a trip just to get 7% of those stopped. Oh and the 4th amendment you have to toss out too for your safety at the expense of the rest I’d rather keep. 7% arrested doesn’t equal convicted either. The real numbers could be a lot less

K? Thx Bai.

in a jiffy. Jiffy Lube screw up an oil change,
originally uploaded by haltse.

There’s more to come on this since Jiffy Lube are basically contending they are not culpable. A lot more but I’m sick of paying tradesmen and services money for substandard and in this case negligent work that has incurred me other charges. 1″ over fill on the oil, thanks.

Even more fun is the People at Midas that get their very own special level of hell for attempted fraud. Oh wait they actually carried out fraud too by charging for an oil-filter that was under 1 day old, claiming the wipers are cracked ( nice try new 3 weeks ago) and a few other things I’ll get to. For now It’s time to suggest that you don’t get an oil change from the Jiffy Lube at 27th 2745 W Peoria Ave Phoenix.

 Over the last couple of weeks my parents have been in town.  Since I have a massive amount of vacation time , and Erin’s recovering from her bike 2.0 mashup, I took all of it off +1 day to get Erin to an appointment tomorrow morning.   On the whole we had a sedate  type of vacation with much of the usual touristy stuff  bypassed in favour of the practical nature of finding another vehicle, making sure  kids trip to ER was the only one  ( he’s taken a real shine to climbing and falling) and working our way through casual diner attitudes.  I’ve  barely touched computers,  read only a few deserving blogs and kept my email to  under 5 pieces  and don’t feel the worse for it.

Purely anecdotal but since the last visit it seems like wait staff, retail clerks and most service industries we interacted with are staffed by  humorless, cookie cutter clones that seem to have totally bought into their commerce cog role.Anything that’s not in the line of being an expert at detecting false currency  or fake id’s is usually not going to interest them.  Why am I being asked if I could  find everything?

Will someone go get me one? put it on back order and call me when it gets here?  ( I’m old enough to remember that being a possibility @36)  no I didn’t think so. I’d rather we dropped the pretense offer of a service that will never be rendered.

While we’re talking about crappy CS let’s  go a car shopping.

Special shout outs to the car dealers that failed to secure our business.

Bell Road Scion

Aziz you truly suck as a salesman for anybody that gives a rats ass about what their wife thinks.Your insulting manner, refusal to acknowledge what we wanted to buy over what you wanted to sell and general ineptitude with the truth has done your franchise proud.

Bell Road Ford

Josh,  It doesn’t matter that your bosses want you to call up and keep reminding us about their great offers. If you don’t have the car we want , an Escape Hybrid, we’re not going to buy it. Tell those assholes that you’re losing ANY future chance that  we’ll ever buy from their dealership. 

Bill Luke Dodge

Ah Heather  really so SO  very close. We’d agreed on a price after the usual bullshit of having our direct requests ignored in favour of their usual  dog and pony show where they try to sell you  $800 car alarms that costs me $140 online (OEM)it’s plug and play and really easy to install. How hard is it? Patriot, any color, minimal trim and an Auto Tranny? 

I said I would  arrange financing privately and get back with you. Get a call from her before  9am asking were I was at.   Thankfully this convinced me that I didn’t want to deal with ANY  new car dealer and redoubled our efforts to get a second hand one. There’s a second hand Isuzu Rodeo outside.   I own it, no payment , fuck them all.

Walmart:

Bought a fresh turkey, the bag broke on the treadmill covering some produce. Not only did I have to clean it up  but I had to buy the unusable produce.  Supervisor refused to engage Erin on this and wandered off.  Their fucking packaging broke , took out yet to be paid for items which she made us pay for. We’ll see what their reply is on this one.

Yet another plastic bag with crap thrown on my driveway by a company that thinks that breaking the law is good practice. The receptionist said it works, it’s their only form of advertising.

It’s gratifying that they offer clean up services for yards but a little ironic that the method chosen to advertise that fact by tossing plastic bags of gravel attached to paper onto my yard is the way they are going about it. At which point did they decide they had a right to place garbage on my property in a bid to further their material wealth?

Even if question wasn’t asked try this. Why have they ignored the no solicitation signs ? Why have they a fish on the bottom of their leaflet suggesting that somehow their ethical foundation is a selling point? Seemingly when I called them the most they can do is to remove me from their tossing shit on my yard list. Lovely.

Sec. 3-5. Prohibiting distribution of handbills at private premises where properly posted.(a) No person shall throw, deposit or distribute any commercial or noncommercial handbill upon any private premises if requested by anyone thereon not to do so, or if there is placed on said premises in a conspicuous position near the entrance thereof, a sign bearing the words “No Trespassing,” “No Advertisement,” “No Unsolicited Newspapers,” or any similar notice, indicating the manner in which the occupants of said premises do not desire to be molested or have their right of privacy disturbed, or to have any such handbills left upon such premises.(b) Subject to the conditions set forth above, the deposit or distribution of any commercial or noncommercial handbill on private premises shall be done in such a reasonable manner as to prevent their being carried or deposited by the elements upon any adjoining premises, street or sidewalk or other public place, or upon other private property.(c) The provisions of this section shall not apply to the distribution of mail by the United States.(Ord. No. G-717, § 1)

RENEW YOUR LANDSCAPING - Homepage -

Seemingly I wasn’t the only person having issues.  

Firstly I should state that I’m a biker and anything that makes those caged birds think I’d be in favor of…but the disease is not worse than this cure.  Think about how insane the DUI laws and their application are here to the point that people are willing to buy into the idea that  roadblocks are effective when annually they catch more people… oddly  police looking for people driving impaired have a much higher success rate in detection..e.g do you want effective enforcement or do you want PR about enforcement?  Seemingly  the latter is what keeps you all feeling nice and safe  because  being seen to be doing something is all that matters…

DARE
ONDCP
ETC

Scottsdale follows Phoenix’s lead on text-messaging

Another Valley city is following Phoenix’s lead and considering a ban on text-messaging while driving.

Scottsdale’s Transportation Commission will consider urging the Scottsdale City Council to ban text-messaging while driving.

Let’s take a look at the quality of thought possessed by our alleged servants in the Phoenix city council this gem about the recent ban on “texting while driving”, despite an existing law against distracted driving and yet another state one making its way through.

“We’re legislating common sense,” Councilman Doug Lingner said.”

Then why does it need a law?

Cynical point 1:

This law is “needed” since the money goes to Phoenix while enforcing a general law on distracted driving wouldn’t be as advantageous financially, I mean the people just.. oh wait I mean 3.9% of the eligible voters of Phoenix just inflicted another tax rise to pay for 500 additional police which one hopes will catch most of those “do gooders” with a nice fine Secondly I don’t for a second believe that those additional officers will ever see the street and the money will go to something shiny that no one uses.

Cynical point 2:

As usual those super humans that have state jobs , like those that enforce the new law ,are… EXEMPT… in the state version. The same reason most of us have to prove we’re not on drugs while state legislators do not , what a lovely country you lost.

Texting-while-driving ban passed

Cynical point 3:

There is no way an officer can tell if you are engaging in legal ( dialing the phone) versus illegal activity and this law is merely a pretext to  allow the police to pull over anyone to start their “fishing expedition” 

Note that the newspaper of record doesn’t tell you the bill’s name or contents in either case.

This isn’t car purchase theater but it involves wheels and salespeople so it’s about the same thing.  Erin’s convinced that the way to save money on her commute is to acquire a motorcycle and reap the lovely lovely  rewards of 50mpg returns for the gas dollar.  It’s also massively hot outside and for some reason she wants to be a speedy baked potato.   So that being said let’s look at the bikes that fit her and he short inside seam.

Suzuki Sv650, Katana, GS500  and Kawasaki’s 650 ninja ( just ask it) and everything else  would need  a drop kit or surgery for her to work.  So  we kinda have a limited range of choice and these are mostly good sensible choices.  The Gs500 is a little too sedate and  it’s   the kind of woman you’d sleep with if none of your friends found out.   In the end the SV has the best features/ price mix and we found one at  Town & Country Motorsports on Arizona Ave in Chandler. Last years model discounted $1700 and  all in all it was worth having a discussion on whether we buy it or not. ( I want to ride it too and my last bike was in the same class and a boat load  of fun)   We went to lunch, called the dealer and this is where it started to go downhill.  Wouldn’t give a price over the phone which to me is just odd.  “Hey I want to bring a cashiers check / cash to buy a bike  how much?” Sorry   can’t tell us..  unless we go back..

We went back.  The out the door price on the bike priced at $4499 on the floor was $6150  which included the usual doc fee poop  delivery and then setup fee.  Too high, so buying theater starts.  They want to see that I have a credit card so they can show it to their boss to show we’re into buying the bike.. HA fucking HA  Sorry I called them on mind games, referenced a book on the subject and suggested that we forgo the bullshit and  give an answer to our offer.  Well the offer we made was +$100 for home delivery  ( we’re both sitting our licenses in July , in the heat because  you can add Scots and wherever the fuck Erin’s from  to the list of things out in the midday sun.)  Offer came back as accepted as the price that had delivery included   to one, that didn’t and I think we had to clarify that that point with them. At this time   the game was over,  and the salesguy told that for the sake of $100 they’d lost the sale and that we’re leaving.  Erin rather enjoyed the look on his face because I’ve  just fucking had it with people that can’t deal honestly with me.  By all means tell us that it’s not reasonable offer and  either sell us something else or part on good terms , we may be back to buy something larger, faster more expensive:D  Idiots. 

But no , somehow the idea that  I can’t find out what the price is , nor the finance options or sample figures for  payments/time of loan is piss poor customer service and I can only surmise that bike shops are not hurting for sales. 

The next time anyone comes up with a statement re how connected they are to the land I hope someone does the honour of knocking them to the ground to get really well acquainted with it. This is the ultimate fuck you to the HOA;) forget brown grass, a car up on blocks, actually many cars up on blocks without a single title between them but what’s next? Anyway they are a sovereign people, seemingly more so than those that inherited the land , oops usurped would be a better term and although it’s not to my personal taste I’m commenting on this for the hilarity of their having a chat with the dead to make sure that it’s ok to drag this distended colon of an attraction over the canyon. When tied to the symbolic first crossing by a man that was one of the crowning achievements of western science Buzz Aldrin it just seems that at some stage rational people should point out the fact that it’s 2007..

Skywalk at Grand Canyon making its debut
Aldrin was not the first person to walk across the Skywalk. Tribe members held a private ceremony Monday to ask their ancestors for permission to use the land in this way. Tribe members and workers then trod onto the cantilevered bridge a day before the media descended on their community.