"On priests and puppy dogs," or "Hilary Attacks!"

It's been a couple weeks. How've you been, one or two possible readers? Hope you're well. You know, it's always awkward trying to make a blog post when you have ten people standing in front of you printing, waiting for a class to get out or using the stapler.

One of those places I'm never 100% sure what to do is at the base of an escalator, right next to the entrance for the escalator down to the next floor. If I'm going down and walking right onto the next one, I always find it amusing to judge whether or not I should just barrel through or let a person who is walking up go in front of me. I usually just barrel through because I'm more important than all the other sheep walking about. After work yesterday I was the one walking up as somebody was coming down from the next level, this priest I've seen around campus during my PC Depot days. I'm a good deal away, but he stops, smiles warmly, and waits for me to step into the escalator first.

This isn't a commentary on religion or my rather atheistic views on life, but really, I don't think anybody other than a priest would have not only stopped to let me through when he could have easily gone ahead of me, but been happy to do so. I guess my only semi-point is that it bothers me when people bash priests, because they're almost exclusively damn nice people. It made me feel a little better about stuff after a horrible day of work.

There was this jerk at the grocery store later on, though. I'm standing in line at Dominicks, and having neglected to pick up a cart, I'm carrying a huge, heavy load of food in my arms. Usually this is when the people in front of you scoot their stuff forward on the little conveyor belt, put up the yellow divider and let you put down some stuff. But this well-dressed guy and his hollow-headed well-dressed girlfriend turn, make direct eye contact with me, look at the food in my arms, and look back at the cashier. I guess it's not the SOP or anything to scoot your food forward to make room, but these people had their food in the middle of the belt all spread out, and they lookedright at me, so it got on my nerves a bit.

The cashier rings them up, and the belt opens up, so I move in to put down the load of food that's buckling my knees. I'm thwarted, however, by the WDGF. She was previously leaning onto the counter, and she didn't move, even though their food was bagged and her WDBF was in the process of paying. I stand there for a few seconds, dumbstruck that she won't get her ass out of my way. Eventually I get ticked to the point where I lean over and say "excuse me, could you move up so I can put my stuff down?" She turns, looks me up and down, gives me that kind of "I'm better than you" frown that makes you want to throw a salami at her, and goes back to leaning. The WDBF gives me that "back off" look.

I admittedly wound up holding the line up for a bit when I uttered "You unbelievable bitch" and the WDBF tried to get all up in my face about it (coming hilariously close to knocking the WDGF down), but I didn't mind.

Man, this has been a long post about nothing, hasn't it? I also totally forgot what the "puppy dogs" thing was going to be about. So uh, how about the T-Hilary, huh? She's lashing out trying to attack anything Obama could have potentially messed up a bit on. It's amusing how he's not lashing out at her. He's, you know, confident in himself.

Oh, and Blu-Ray won the format war. Toshiba is officially ending HD-DVD production. Universal and Paramount have announced they're going Blu-Ray. Next up... digital distribution kills Blu-Ray.

On Sony, Stubble and Staplers

It would seem that Sony is finally turning a corner with the Playstation 3. This is due in no small part to the onboard Blu-Ray player, arguably the best (and factually the most future-proof) BD player on the market.

It's a shame the public has chosen Blu-Ray over HD-DVD. See, it's not as bad as VHS over Betamax, because the sound/video quality on HDDVDs and BDs is digital as opposed to analog and therefore identical, but Blu-Ray was still a poor choice. HD-DVD players shipped when they were ready to ship, and had the full functionality of HD-DVD right out of the gate. This caught Blu-Ray off guard, however, and forced Sony to rush BD players to the market, without all of the planned functionality.

The reason the PS3 is the best BD player on the market is because it is upgradable, seeing how it has all the hardware and software of the PS3 to back it up. However, standalone Blu-Ray players thus far have not been designed with all the internet functionality in mind and are not capable of major firmware updates. In October, Sony will release BD 2.0, adding all the intended functionality of BD movies... and everybody who owns a standalone player will be screwed. They'll have to purchase a new player to get the most out of their BDs (assuming film companies take advantage of the new features). So I propose a toast to all the uninformed consumers who chose Blu-Ray over HD-DVD. Congrats, you brought it upon yourselves. Enjoy the proprietary bullshit Sony will no doubt try to implement.

The fledgling Genius Squad desk has been relatively quiet lately. Not many people have come in with wireless issues, and those who have were just unfamiliar with computers and didn't have it set up correctly. John might be hiring a co-worker for me as early as Monday, the guy seems cool enough. However, my secret identity, the Staple Avenger, Defender of the Intelliprint, has been busy lately.

There are two staplers on the counter in front of me, intended for public use. Being a college computer lab, the twenty-somethings who pass through are naturally inclined to behave as ten-somethings and break shit all the time. The left stapler is currently out of commission, so I put a paper sign on top of it, reading "Stapler out of order; Working one to your left," and put a big 'ol red arrow pointing to the stapler at the opposite end of the counter. I kid you not, I have seen five people so far causally walk up, read the sign, remove the sign, try the stapler, and bitch at me that it doesn't work. People who clearly speak English as their primary language.

So instead I put the stapler on the desk, and slide it under the counter (which is raised above the desk by a few inches), and keep the sign up on the counter where the stapler used to be. Being a public area, the stapler is tethered down to the counter. Within two minutes of me moving the stapler, somebody walks up, reads the sign, looks at the wire coming from under the sign and going off the counter in front of my workstation, follows the wire with his hand, reaches over and under the counter - right in front of me - and pulls it out. He was quite angry at the lack of a staple in his paper and decided to take it out on me. I told him I was sorry it didn't work out between us.

On an unrelated note, this morning I used a safety razor and brush to shave. Not gonna lie... it makes you feel fucking badass.

Pete's Vocab of the Day
"Unfamiliar with computers."
un·fa·mil·iar with com·put·ers [uhn-fuh-mil-yer with kəm-pyōō'tər]
Adj.
1. The state of being inexperienced with the operation of a PC.
2. A sodding moron.