Category Archives: Arizona

Marian Call. House concert in Chandler 23 Jun 2010.

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Posted by Haltse on June 21, 2010 – 12:31 pm
Filed under Arizona, Culture-internet, Marian Call

Here’s a hint.

I am so late doing this I’m practically ashamed.  E.G,   The house only holds about 40 people and , well you think hell 40 people that’s easy Probably so easy that telling everyone would lead to a lot of disappointed folks which I’m still aiming for:)

 

49to50-Announcement

Marian Call delivers whimsical Alaskan folk funk for the Coffee Counter-Culture. She sounds a little like Joni Mitchell & Regina Spektor raising the child of Jason Mraz & Erin McKeown. Call’s sound is always soulful, honest, and clever, loved by all types — computer geeks, church ladies, teenage thugs, NPR listeners, and urban hipsters worldwide. Marian is currently touring all 50 states and hopes to play for you soon — find more information at http://mariancall.com.

If you like what you hear  then how about hearing it live, like two days from now?

Reading Cyrano

When we originally requested a house concert it seemed plausible. laughably in hindsight, that we could accommodate this at our house.  Thankfully friend and  fellow fan Mandi stepped in to save the day and for this Phoenix and surrounding areas  all you have to do is leave your house on a Wednesday night and come out for live music. 

 

RSVP to

mandi  AT neuroticbynature.com

For details on where to go, what to bring and how much fun you are going to have.

Decade in the Desert: A new user’s guide to haltse

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Posted by Haltse on June 4, 2010 – 12:11 am
Filed under Anarchy from the UK, Arizona

 

Having just made contact again with the folks back home in the UK as they come on line with Facebook et all and find that I am still alive, still haven’t changed my name  to , well they don’t even know me as, haltse it’s been obvious that I needed an update post on the things that are interesting in the USA that haven’t made it over to the UK. There are people that are into Zombies that actually don’t know who Jonathan Coulton is,  I know, mind blown. :)   

So here’s a quick list of what I’ve been up to since leaving Scotland back in 1997.  

Moved to GA  70 mile NW of Atlanta   worked for 2 seasons at tax software co helping cheap people achieve things with hardware that was pushing obsolescence into itself , seriously I edited modem strings, printer files and more CLI work than ever should be attempted with members of the public.

After GA moved to CA  on the eve of the millennium. Took 4 days to move  people in the UK , sorry it’s not a long way down to the chip chop,, that’s peanuts to America:)

Yep everyone has been there and I don’t mean on vacation. Not to give it away but Californication was a nice couple of years working for a dot com that turned  b2c b2b  and b2b2c so quickly that it had to fail. Actually it didn’t fail  , people were paid, had jobs for a couple of years and had a lot of fun with nice people while doing it.

Became permanent resident,Marriage failed,  company above was bought by AOL  and I moved to Arizona where I managed to lose the friend I came here to be near ( I’m good at this it’s a motif for my life apparently )  

Started working for GoDaddy.com , haven’t stopped working for them.  Privately owned , which I like, ok I only like it if I like the owner which in this case is a good match.  There’s little chance I could have achieved as much in the UK than I have here because ,well to be blunt it’s not a  wait till Friday to get  drunk and take Monday off kinda culture.

Met my wifelette, Erin,    spawned a Dobhran,  he’ll be five in September.  we’ll be 7 or 8  cos I never get the anniversary right. :)

All the links to my photo sites, blogs and the like can be found through the sidebar but  just in case.

http://friendfeed.com/haltse

http://flickr.com/photos/haltse

Besides I’m  haltse everywhere that matters :)   

That’s the precis.   And  just about all of it is contained somewhere in the posts to this blog.

New likes.

Ice Hockey. I’ve finally found a team sport that I appreciate.   I still like  watching tennis ( mainly the women’s:) )  but to coordinate a pass  of a small rubber disk,while travelling backward on a slippery surface while others are trying to hit you  + doing that for 80 games a season:  Anyone visiting during the season will be attending a game. 

Watches.   Watches that cost more than my first  few cars:)  They were cheap cars.  Aviator style watches do it for me oh yes:)

Hawaii (  only been once, not enough)

Really good food.  Thai Food, Mediterranean food, slow food and I’ve upped my  heat capacity to stupid levels. www.extremefoods.com is my best friend:)  How bad is it?  Well I collect hot sauces now. 

Really good cooking ( I do some things well, Erin does way more things well but )

Ghost in the Shell.  I want me some cyberisation:)

Lego games on the xbox..

Media, way too much. some highlights http://www.mariancall.com   a singer/songwriter that’s so good that I  donated monthly to  help pay for the recording of  the new album.

http://www.richardcheese.com seen him so many times live and it’s never gotten old  his band kicks ass too. , www.mynameischance.com  ,www.freezepop.com ,  http://www.amandapalmer.net/  white stripes and I started really liking the Proclaimers and  some weird www.slimcessnasautoclub.com 

Books.

R K Morgan : Sci-fi  Altered carbon especially.

Robert Rankin.

Grant Morrison ( Invisibles, The Filth and countless DC reinventions. )

Orson Scott Card’s  Ender series.

Heinlein,  yeah I was late to that party but am now in attendance:)

So much non-fiction that it hurts.   Omnivore’s dilemma was good and am currently reading  Life, Inc.

Still Likes.

motorbikes,firearms , tori, NIN, red headed women :) Fish, Dick Dale , black pudding , cider  and

Things that are meh:)

No more buffets,  fast food is the last choice , always.  TV  stopped watching networks and use that time to xbox.

 

More in a bit:)

Yet another CL scam and why I hate affiliate programs that don’t vet their agents.

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Posted by Haltse on December 21, 2009 – 12:56 pm
Filed under Arizona, Culture-internet, rants

There should be a show were people that fight computer crime use guns, baseball bats and other implements of destruction on the detritus that try to scam the populace.

I’m selling a car,trying to,presently on Craigslist which leads to the kind of interactions with people I’d rather not have. People that are possibly worse to deal with than car sales types.

Apart from the usual people that want to buy the car for $1000 less than posted without even looking it over, those that want to come tell you why it’s crap and that they don’t like the brand, those that want to buy it for a college student and expect a six year old car to carry the kind of guarantee that a new one would etc  and  the most interesting?  A ,can I politely say, less than  mentally capable person that doesn’t –even- have a driving license showing up at the door at 2130 ( 9 30  at night for those of you that can’t add twelve) unannounced that we didn’t give the address out to which is kind of spooky. Not a fan of this guy to say the least.

I still have the car and some information on a new scheme/scam.  Person mails me, asks some info and to arrange to see car.I send it. They then say oh prior to me coming out can I get some idea of the auto insurance via this site.  Auto insurance tips dot com,but the link went to tamiesunshine144 .blogspot . com and then redirected with the affiliate ID to the insurance site.  E.G., trolling for affiliate commissions.

CL is turning in Ebay and it’s usefulness is only possible when using a third party to search it when you are looking for something specific though as a means of exposing yourself to jerks it’s first class.

A close Call with some Dick Cheese.A two concert weekend.

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Posted by Haltse on May 4, 2009 – 12:12 am
Filed under Arizona, Culture-internet, reviews
Tagged as ,

We saw Marian Call on Saturday night perform a full set. The show was to benefit Wild horse Ranch Rescue in Gilbert. For once it’s a charity I can get behind as you can see the work they do, and the effects of it  in person, or horse if you want to be picky.

For the entrance charge of $20 we got a ceramic bowl, filled with our choice of chili or minestrone , a Marian Call CD and the concert itself. This is what’s known as a bargain.

I would like to be the first to say that objectivity is hard for me with regards to talented women with red hair. ( Don’t worry Tori you’re safe I just expanded the category to living in USA, not living in USA)

Hearing “100 easy ways to lose a man” live was an unexpected treat as it’s probably the best use of her voice when not singing her own work.

I rather cheekily , I hope not dickishly, suggested about her new song “Karaoke” that “Jonathan Coulton called and would like the song back” but it’s really good  and had the kind of comedic build up that I love within some of his songs. A duet would rock because I think the voices would mix really well  without someone needing to  fit paul and storm with tighter underwear:)

The new road song was really good and I am totally spacing on the name of the guitarist that accompanies her but damn he’s good.  This was an awesome evening that even I’m not going to take the time to poke fun at the more surreal aspects of the evening at least tonight;)

The Cheeseman he cometh

Creddy and myself are big fans of the work of Mark Jonathan Davis  and his best known creation Richard Cheese  “Tomorrow’s standards today”  While I’m not a fan of the venue or the way the VIP tickets were handled it was like every other Cheese show we’ve been to. Musically awesome ( I could watch “Bobby Ricotta” goof around all night) with the real show being the audience participation between a set we’ve seen 2.5 times prior.

Guess what when he comes back later in the year we’ll be there too.

Given the star wars geekery from  his other works and the pseudonymous singer I’m still surprised that the audience has yet to be invited out for milk and wookies.

An idea : Would the correct term for an older cougar be sabre-toothed tiger?

April and Changing minds.

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Posted by Haltse on April 7, 2009 – 11:27 pm
Filed under Arizona, Culture-internet, Demon Haunted World, Freedom

It’s been rather quiet around here lately. I admit that my formal ahderence to grammar has been quixotic, at best, my attempts to rectifying this situation  results in posts that sound like material I want to read. Maybe that’s why so many people vlog?

The differences between UK and US grammar are apparently slight enough to not catch the same break that people learning English as a second language are allowed.I’m realistic enough to know that  it will have a nominal effect on the reason that I began which neatly segues into my next point.

Is anyone still naive enough to believe that the powers that be just need a well crafted note pointing out were they are deficient and how they are hurting people will change their way?  Hardly.  In short they are not your audience.

Unfortunately that leaves the public.

Oh wait Is anyone still naive enough to believe that the public  just need a well crafted sitcom showing  were they are deficient and how they are hurting people  by refusing to take ownership of their lives?   Hardly.

In short they are not your audience.

Much easier to remain quiet.

A new entry to my cynics dictionary. locavore

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Posted by Haltse on March 26, 2009 – 9:57 am
Filed under Arizona, Culture-internet, rants, reality

Locavore:  food so expensive that you can’t afford private transportation.

How stupid are the media? Let’s take a look at unquestioning coverage of the Brady center’s logic free assertions.

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Posted by Haltse on March 24, 2009 – 12:40 pm
Filed under Arizona, You have nothing to fear, rants, reality, state gone wild

I am puzzled. I’ve been tearing apart, on a local newspaper forum, the lie that you are more likely to be injured by your own gun in the house by an intruder than being able to successfully defend yourself with it. Not just a little likely but an insane ratio like 43 or more to 1. On the face of it you know their argument is 100% shit. How can it not be?

We know how many people are shot breaking into houses, we know how many of them failed to carry out the seemingly easy step of disarming the homeowner and then , and this is the part I don’t get, successfully using a gun against the hapless fool who bought the thing.

  • If it’s so hard to use why are the criminals preternaturally good at it? 
  • Where are all the dead bodies from this 43-1 ratio?
     
    Ok that’s a little scene setter and if you care to read up on the real stats, how the original bullshit number came into “popular culture” the info is here. It’s a lot of reading re the defensive use of firearms and the relative risk of them being used on you. I refer you to John Lott’s seminal work on the topic. 

    • And more here. http://en.wikipedia.org/ikw… which has faults pro and con re his work.

    The myth that your own gun is more dangerous to you than not having one is on the face of it absurd but people have taken the time to refute the origin of this case. “protection or peril an analysis of firearm-related deaths in the home” where the original 43 times more likely figure the VPC uses. Its’ not an easy thing to sum up in a paragraph other than htt://guncite.com/gun-contp... has material from the original study author, Kellermann, that acknowledges errors in his initial work.
    Later work suggests that it’s a 65-2 ratio http://www.saf.org/LawRevie… in favour of the armed:. Seem believable? The daily info is out there, story after story of self defense use

    Let’s get back to today’s bullshit from the Brady bunch.

    “Mexican criminals, and traffickers who supply them, cannot get the guns they need in Mexico because of Mexico’s strong gun laws,” Brady Center President Paul Helmke said in a news conference. But in border states Texas and Arizona, he argued, weaker gun laws provide easy access to a significant supply of high-powered arms.

    Spot the logical error? Because it’s illegal to get guns in Mexico ,you know their strong gun laws that prevent them getting gun, they get them in the USA to bring back to Mexico where those amazingly strong rules appear to have headed out for a siesta. 

    (BTW it’s illegal for a non resident of the border states to buy them without transferring them to an FFL) Since when did a fucking drug cartel get all civic minded and sentimental about paperwork?

    Also what’s this bullshit re “high powered arms” relative to what? It’s emotive , unchecked, tripe and irrelevant without context much like the organization that spawned it. Yep all that research and I end up on an ad hominem attack.

    Honda Certified used cars. They don’t actually have to be certifiable at time of sale. Superstition Springs Honda and the paranormal.

    2
    Posted by Haltse on February 17, 2009 – 1:25 pm
    Filed under Arizona, Bad CS, Family

    I believe I have a candidate for James Randi’s  million dollar prize.  The prize   awarded

    “to anyone who can show, under proper observing conditions, evidence of any paranormal, supernatural, or occult power or event.”

    could be won in Arizona.The unlikely candidate is Honda of Superstition Springs , after all the name fits nicely, for claiming that a car  certified as having passed Honda’s 150 point test managed to be incapable of passing it at the time I purchased it. During the time the car sat on the lot it lost these abilities  with no human intervention.

    • rear high level brake light. Absent and wiring hanging lose (88. Brake lights)
    • rear speakers that didn’t work. (103. Audio system—radio/CD/cassette, speaker operation)
    • Fuel release cap that didn’t work. (127. Fuel door release)
    • and an interior bulb that was out. (123. Interior lights—switch/door operation)

    Which doesn’t reconcile well with.

    “We’ve taken the headache out of used car research by doing the homework for you. So when you choose a Honda Certified Used Vehicle, rest easy knowing it passes more than just a 150-point inspection. It passes our strict standards as well.”

    Honda’s strict standards  are letting the dealer certify it and in case of a dispute passing on what the dealer would be willing to do. They seem to have  little purpose other than to be a heat sink. Throughout the process the weasel apologies of “we’re sorry you feel that way”  began to grate. In short as long as the car is fixed afterwards they are happy. 

    Not sorry it happens, not sorry they can’t do anything about it but just sorry that someone actually fell for their line of BS.

    After certification the car sat on the lot over 100 days and during that time  the above items are meant to have changed condition.  This is why they should be going after that million dollar prize  because I’ve yet to see a tail light, wiring and fixture separate themselves from a housing and then hide. 

    The speakers are unlikely to have failed  but Chris ,general manager, said the didn’t at the time check those just the main function not per speaker. I had pointed out the poor wiring and asked them to check it prior to purchase, they said they had. So even if they missed it on the first occasion  there’s little excuse for the second.

    The light bulb certainly could have blown any time  and the fuel release? It’s doubtful as they filled the gas prior to the delivery and it had to be self evident that people were needed to open it up.

    Morris @ Honda USA is unconcerned with this state of affairs and doesn’t  see any incongruity between the quoted  paragraph above from the Honda site and my experience.  

    The remedy took 8 hours of waiting,as  they didn’t, actually wouldn’t, give me a loan car and it was claimed it would only take two hours  on the first occasion.  In the end two 60 mile round trips were needed.

    All they had to do, take car, get me to work/ back and return it in the condition they advertised it as .  Annoying, yes  but livable.  Sadly that wasn’t the case.

    I believe the cars price was influenced by the certified program and that inherent in that offer was the reasonable expectation that  all of the items on the provided list were functioning at time of purchase. Seemingly that’s not the case and Honda appears to  value the delivery condition as being valueless but backed up by their valuable warranty.

    The dealer believes that no breach of the contract was evident which is a matter I disagree on.  Had the car worked as advertised I would not be out 10 hours of time. Apart from offering a paint warranty which I didn’t want  ( retail about$400 but practically free to them) and a future loan car they consider the matter closed.

    The take away from this is that you should not expect a car from a Honda  certified used program to be in the condition advertised  and why should you? Apparently  Honda and at least one dealership believes  as long as it’s fixed you should be grateful. 

    Auto annoyance.Camelback VW. Our attempt at buying a car. Honesty is most certainly an option.

    1
    Posted by Haltse on February 14, 2009 – 3:09 pm
    Filed under Arizona, Bad CS, General

    I posted this over at Yelp but after I’ve just had another surprise , e.g a loan application that I never requested, I think it’s time to expend some time on informing people what they are getting into  if dealing with Camelback VW

    EXEC Summary:

    +Wasted our time with childish obfuscation of the sales price
    +Disregarded our ceiling for buying a vehicle
    +Changed terms of finance and what it would take to qualify
    + Ran a  loan application for me instead of a credit check after telling them we’d not be using them then having it denied. In fact I am checking to see if this was retaliatory strike.

    Some of this is a review of the used car sales process and while the staff at Camelback VW  insist that we must have somehow misunderstood them I don’t think that. We went to look at a car, tested it,and left. We liked it enough to discuss terms  the day after and  that’s where the fun started. We had simple needs. Tell us the car price + tax, fees and registration.  That’s it we didn’t want a warranty or many of the other add ons that they try to foist on you.  They made an offer, we declined  as it was above our stated max of 10k  out the door max.

    Strike 1:  Failing to listen to your customer.

    Forward a day and a call from  James called wanted us to consider it again at what they called the auction price. (Claimed car was a week away from being auctioned)   This sounded better so we found sitter for the kid,  drove down and asked for a new price. It was $200 less than previously and still above $10k. They had taken up yet another night and this offer just plain sucked. They could have told us on the phone but no they think it’s clever to waste people’s money acting like a paranoid secret squirrel on a meth bender.

    Strike 2:  Treating us like children will not make us respect you or even be civil.  We should have walked at that juncture.

    The usual what could we do to guarantee you’d buy it discussion occurred?  Easy  8k out the door, that’s a pretty low offer,insulting? Maybe but hey once you take the piss with an offer that failed to meet our limit  and lose us a few hours of spare time then I get pissy.  They didn’t even counter, just said no way, can’t even get close and the poor dealer’s story of how much they were in for that car etc came out.  I really thought they would break out some violins.

    Next day  call about how the night guy mustn’t have been informed of the “auction price” offer and really they would let us get it for  9200 out the door Yay:)  Erin went down on her own to fill out the paperwork.

    ( Sidebar) I have really good credit ( there’s a reason Scrooge McDuck is Scottish after all) my partner less so, ok it’s poor. That’s ok we expected to pay dearly for this , her first car, but 20% is just plain awful. Hell when I was new to this country I got a lower rate on a new VW bug.)

    They came back over 20% and I suggested she not do this without talking first or seeing if my bank would be a better bet. After she spent  more hours at VW Camelback they wanted to run the numbers with me and her ( they still sucked being a  full 12% over the number my bank qualified me for today) but in the meantime they told her she no longer qualified at 20% , that it would have to be co signed BUT if we added an extended warranty onto it, they could call in a special favor and they could see about it. This scam is so well known I can link to it:)

    That’s when we walked for the last time. I could have bought the car, cash but that defeats the  rebuilding credit goal.  Simply didn’t trust them. I think the withholding of credit unless you get to the figure by adding warranties  is problematic and  coercive in a manner that I’d consider unethical given a prior indication, the reason we were even back in the dealers , that she’d been approved.   We received a call saying  “they are sorry we misunderstood”  some apology, we understand that you get so used to BS that you can’t stop doing it even if you want to.

    Ended the day at Superstition Honda and bought a used Civic so HA  we were serious. you jack offs! Loan? 6%  . What’s sad is that I really like diesel cars and have bought a new VW prior. I’ve had service at this dealer prior and this is how they go about building a long term business. Morons lost a car sale, a potential car sale and  service for both.

    Time passed and I just got a letter from the bank saying they’d denied my loan. I never entered into a loan with these people just a credit check. I’m doing some research on the dates/ times this occurred because it seems a tad malicious to apply me for a loan I’d not filled out the paperwork.

    Honda of Superstition Springs, Mesa, is driving me to be “certified” : Playing phone tag with Honda.

    2
    Posted by Haltse on February 7, 2009 – 11:04 pm
    Filed under Arizona, Bad CS
    Tagged as , ,

    Buying a certified car from these people?  Maybe have someone else check it out first. Here’s my first review on Yelp prior to their attempts to fix the car.

    Following on from a day two weeks ago  Camelback VW  we drove to see a Honda Civic at this dealer.  Decent test drive , I like  (Suzanne) the sales person and once again I find it hard to divorce the idea that the initial tier doesn’t know what the sales manager and Fi guy are going to pull. 

    The car is a certified Honda meaning that it should have had 150 items checked and they all should work. To this dealer it means  ”if they notice fix it”  actually it meant  pretend to fix it.  So yes I bought the car ( sorry to spoil the ending) but am still trying to get it to match the condition  at which I negotiated the price for. 

    Manager tier pulls  the usual car dealer tricks.  Unable to answer an honest question. E.g What’s the price of the car +tax + doc + vlt with NO other add ons  for paint coverage, window etching or a myriad of other things you can acquire  for far far less if you add them after market.   I nearly walked out as the $200 etching fee made it into the paperwork. He claimed it’s an error, said it would hurt the salesperson  and the usual emotional BS they teach at weasel school. Having said that I liked the finance guy , Kiko, which is a total first for me. 


    If you paid $800 for a factory alarm it will do your sanity good to avoid checking the part number and installation procedure. 


    So why the two?  The fuel cap on these can only be released from the inside and it doesn’t work. Noticing this on your trip to San Diego after buying the car is not a lot of fun. Once it was opened it had so much grease, fresh, that it looked like an attempt to cover it up/ fix it.   The radio that I pointed out  had the speakers incorrectly installed was meant to be remedied on site. They did a little but still doesn’t work and  the central  cabin light isn’t working.  The latter 2 are livable the former is not.  Yes it’s picky but the inflated value of a cert car is mostly the happy fluffy knowledge that it’s been checked and has no major issues that would prevent your enjoyment  or necessitate a trip back to the dealers to resolve.

    Today I took a trip back to the dealer to remedy these items. Was meant to take a couple of hours. I left without the speakers being replaced as they had none in stock and waiting for them to be brought in , plus another two hours , would have resulted in me spending over six hours in a building without a working internet connection ( Oh they have an internet area it just wasn’t working on this , or the prior, visit.

    I had asked to bring it down during the week and get a loaner car to get to work and back which they wouldn’t do. I’m fed up with being reasonable. After discovering tonight that the third brake light didn’t just work but was absent from the enclosure entirely I can reasonably claim that the additional price they factored into this car based on it being “Honda certified” is a value that I didn’t receive.

    In short  Superstition  Honda represented this car as having passed as certified without legally required lighting present let alone not working.

    As for Honda they have been playing phone tag with me and I’ve yet to find out if they have anyway to resolve this.

    Guitar Center does not welcome your business if you have a CCW that’s ok others do:)

    2
    Posted by Haltse on August 27, 2008 – 7:02 pm
    Filed under Arizona, Bad CS, firearms

    Ah well that’s another store I can’t shop in. Guitar center got back to me confirming the  comically cheap  no weapons sign wasn’t just a store policy but a company one. On the bright side I did spend the money at Sam Ash and look forward to buying the kids birthday present there. There’s one a couple of miles away  from the Guitar Center  on Cactus road :) For five years I have managed to shop in that store and  no one  noticed ( that’s the point of concealed after all)     Frankly this isn’t a great sacrifice they don’t get more than $2k from me most years, indirectly I’ve sold a lot more  from recommendations but hey  what’s important is their liability.  Just remember to  sue them should you be injured when their piece of paper doesn’t  mean a damn thing to criminals.   Added them to CCwhere which is a site that  users can submit  PRO  and anti carry stores.   

     
    Dear John P#####,
    Due to liability issues Guitar Center has a no weapon policy that includes all store staff and customers. The only people that are aloud to carry are people that are occupationally required to by their profession.
    I would like to apologize for any inconvenience, and appreciate you giving us the opportunity to remedy this for you.
    Please feel free to contact us if you have any more questions or concerns. We appreciate you choosing GuitarCenter.com.
    http://www.GuitarCenter.com/
    Sincerely,
    Chase L******
    Night Team Leader
    1-866-498-7882

    Guitars, Musical Instruments, and Musical Equipment from Guitar Center

    This in a  neighborhood were the local   Red Lobster has off duty cops there to walk you to your car.  Yep the kind of place you would be happy to take  $2k of equipment out, not :)  

    I’m not saying that the Joker’s right but.. I understand. Cell phones in Harkins Theatres

    2
    Posted by Haltse on July 25, 2008 – 9:50 pm
    Filed under Arizona, Bad CS, phoenix

    Batman was wonderful. I’ll get to him later. What was piss poor, as nearly all of our visits to the theaters are nowadays is the constant distraction of people texting and talking on the phone.

    It’s so bad I have to ask them to stop. I don’t like to. Don’t get me wrong it’s not a embarrassment thing it’s a real worry that someone’s asshole boyfriend, husband or even worse parents will cause a scene which turns ugly and I can’t afford ugly.

    I can usually live with it, Batman is 2 hours 30 and tonight I just couldn’t. So these rude asses are bad enough. The theaters are worse. I’ve been pretty loyal to Harkins since they don’t have no firearms signs and their popcorn adornments are great. They don’t seem to be a stingy on the light and soundproofing as the AMC ones out on the periphery ( THX my ass) On the occasions I’ve complained it’s been more annoying than just walking out.

    They claim policy is walk 5 mins in , then 15 mins at the start to intervene with people on their phones. Er no, I had 3 “fireflies” in my sight nearly the entire time, then the calls. These people take money to provide an experience that we’re getting close to , in all but time, doing in the home. To our mind no one checked, or if they did it was cursory. I think I’m tired of paying a premium for a shitty service. Why has no theater chain created a tier of guaranteed interuption free cell phone removed clients? It should pay for itself all the people I’ve talked to go to less movies than they want to based on the climate at most theaters. I’ll let you know if we get any response out of Harkins. As you can see from their contact page email is not an option :(

    Harkins Theatres – Contact Harkins

    Prescott neighbors fighting water tank, cell tower and reality. Pulls out For the children, Terrorists and other BS reasons

    1
    Posted by Haltse on July 3, 2008 – 11:47 am
    Filed under Arizona, Media mayhem, state gone wild

    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 nuts 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 “real”  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

    Never buy a house with an old pool, trust a home inspection and more things that annoy me tonight.

    0
    Posted by Haltse on July 1, 2008 – 7:48 pm
    Filed under Arizona, phoenix, rants

    Ring ring a round up post.

    2
    Posted by Haltse on May 19, 2008 – 10:18 pm
    Filed under Arizona, Erin

    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:)

    Titanium Ring with black diamond

    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

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