The Arizona Department of Transportation has done a great job developing and paving the freeways in and around Phoenix with rubberized asphalt. We definitely have some of the best freeways in the nation.
So why is it that I-10 just north of Tucson (both north and south directions) is so neglected? That stretch of freeway is absolute crap!
I had to travel to Tucson for business yesterday and thought I was going to lose a tire. There are big gaping stretches of concrete missing from the road. The speed limit at that particular point is 75 MPH, but it certainly doesn't feel safe to travel at that speed when you hit those spots--and I drive a Jeep! I'd hate to see what kind of damage that section of highway is causing people in small cars that have to drive on it daily.
This seems to be a fairly new situation, having only noticed it when I've had to travel south in the past 6-8 months. Perhaps all the red tape involved in scheduling such a project just takes time.
All I know is, if I had to drive on that stretch of road daily, I'd be pissed.
Is nothing sacred anymore? You can't even trust the circus clowns.
No wonder so many people hate clowns these days. When I was a kid, clowns were fun. Zany. Happy. The smell the flower in the lapel and squirt you in the face kinda funny.
Bozo would turn over in his grave if he knew about this.
Someone is brutally killing pets in the west valley.
I cannot fathom how somebody could derive pleasure from such a disgusting crime. Of course, its well documented that many serial killers got their start by killing animals. Who's to say this person won't move on to people next?
I hope Sheriff Joe personally gets a hold of whoever is responsible for this.
Tonight is the season finale of 24, and Kiefer Sutherland is promising that this one won't end in a cliffhanger. I guess we'll see.
Of course, I'll be in school tonight so I'll be catching this later in the week on the TiVo.
If you haven't watched it, you're missing a great show. Season 3 (in my opinion) has been the best yet, although there have been a couple of story lines that were started that just sort of went nowhere. The article mentions Jack's addition to heroin, but there were others. What happened to Anne, the woman who President Palmer was involved with? Was I the only one who thought she would be suspected of killing her ex-husband? They just sort of wrote her out of the picture.
And why did they bother to bring Kate back just to have her appear in one episode? Not that I care; I didn't want them to bring Kate back at all. She bugged me. But they could have implied the Kate-Jack relationship falling out without even having her in it. It just seemed a little odd.
Then there's the whole assasination attempt that ended last season... what the hell WAS that they infected the President with? I figured it was going to tie into the whole virus storyline somehow but none of that has come into play.
Okay, so maybe there were a lot of loose ends the writers didn't do a great job tying up. But from an action standpoint, I don't think there was a dull episode the entire season. And after many of the episodes were over, I found myself saying, "Oh my God!"
Gotta love it. Always leave 'em wanting more.
I can't wait to see the finale!
This is a great argument for kids to get their parents to buy them a video game system. It may actually help them lose weight!
I guess the addictive nature of the game is what makes it effective, but physically interactive video games are certainly nothing new. Gameworks is filled with realistic skateboarding, skiing and even mountain biking games (that one left me gasping for air). There's even a baseball simulator where you actually swing the bat.
Of course, its pretty sad that it takes a video game to get kids to want to exercise. When I was in school, I was always playing one sport or another, and rollerskating every weekend. Now the virtual sports are more popular than the real thing.
Admittedly, as an adult, finding time to exercise isn't something I'm very good at. But what's the excuse when you're in school?
I guess anything that increases their desire to exercise is a good thing, even if it might make more sense for them to just sign up for REAL dance lessons.
Hmm... maybe I should pick up Dance Dance Revolution and give it a try.
One of the players in the commercial wi-fi market has already closed their doors. Cometa was not able to get enough investment money to continue with their plan of installing 20,000 wi-fi hotspots around the country.
Having internet access at a coffee shop or restaurant is a great idea, but I sure am not willing to pay the astronomical prices these companies want to charge for a subscription. Most of them cost as much as my high-speed connection at home. The only way I might be willing to pay for service is if I'm on vacation, and then I would only be buying a few days of service.
The other problem is the vast number of providers that have popped up. It seems that few places use the same provider, so unless you frequent a particular spot every day, you'd have to subscribe to more than one service to have true mobility.
I'll buy a subscription for mobile wi-fi service when one carrier has so many hotspots all through town that I'm guaranteed of getting a connection almost anywhere. Until then, look for more of these companies to disappear until the only ones standing are those with a strong business model.
I suspect that the wireless phone providers are the ones best positioned to succeed in this market.
Phoenix unofficially passed Philadephia in population this week, making it the 5th largest city in the nation. This really pisses off the people in Philadelphia.
Oh sure, they can deny it all they want. But the truth is, this really gets under their skin.
I don't know why they're so butt-hurt about this. Phoenix is growing--so what? Because we've outgrown our 1970 city limits, they accuse us of "cheating" by expanding the size of the city.
Well, if its cheating to continue providing plenty of living space without stacking people right on top of each other, then I for one am glad we cheat. I love having a nice big backyard for my dogs to run in. I like having a garage to store my jet skis in and a driveway to park my car in. These things are rare in Philly. Most people in Philadelphia have a house that's squeezed in so tight with their neighbors that you could lean out your bedroom window and spit on theirs. They have no yards, and they fight for parking in the street. Who the hell wants to live like that?
They accuse us of being uncultured and say that we live in the middle of nowhere. They say that New York and Washington DC are just a train ride away. Fine--but if I really want to go to New York or Washington DC, there are airplanes to take me there. As for culture, well... clearly the people who say this have never visited here. They have this perception that we all have dirt yards with cactus all around, and that we all wear cowboy hats and drive pickup trucks.
Been to Scottsdale lately? I've never seen so many expensive, fancy cars in any one place in my life. And last time I checked, we had plenty of cultural arts events to take advantage of in the valley.
The bottom line is they're acting like sore losers. When the census bureau released their report last year, the Philadelphians were doing a lot of trash talking about Phoenicians. I'm not even sure what the fighting is all about. Is it really that big of a deal?
If the people in Philadelphia want to lure away a big chunk of the Phoenix population over to their neck of the woods, be my guest. The traffic is getting heavier here every year, and I for one would like to see the growth slow down a bit.
Quit your whining, Philly. We really don't care.
Now shut up and bring me a cheesesteak.
If you don't have a George Foreman Grill, I highly recommend checking out this deal on amazon.com.
These are a "must have". They make great chicken and fast!
My only complaint is that the grill plates should be removable for easier cleaning. Other than that, I love the thing.
How bored must someone be to cover everything in their hotel room with Vaseline?
I really don't want to know what goes on in this guy's mind.
Let me start out by saying I think extremely low-rise jeans with g-strings hanging out the back are extremely tacky and in poor taste. Ditto with gang-banger looking pants with boxers sticking out.
That said, I think this is one of the most ridiculous wastes of taxpayer money I've ever heard.
When I first heard about this being presented to the Louisiana legislature a couple of weeks ago, I figured this guy would be laughed at. Now it appears this is actually going to the next level, having been approved by the Louisiana Criminal Justice Committee.
Passing laws that restrict what clothing people can wear is a violation of civil rights. Its downright scary to me that something like this is even being considered.
While their taste in clothing may be questionable, it is not obscene. These kids don't need some lawmaker telling them they can't wear what they want. What they need is some good old fashioned family values.
That or a visit from the Fab 5.
With gas prices skyrocketing as they have, I've considered the possibility of trading in my Jeep Liberty for the hybrid version when (if?) it is actually released.
Perhaps I should consider another option. It seems the hybrid vehicles are getting only a fraction of the mileage they are claiming to get.
If I remember correctly, Chrysler was claiming that the hybrid Liberty would get about 35 MPG. I currently get about 18. If the 60% average that other hybrids are experiencing holds true, I'd be getting about 21 MPG with the hybrid Liberty.
An extra 3 MPG sure isn't enough for me to justify the additional cost, since the hybrid is supposed to be significantly higher priced than the normal Liberty.
I guess I'll hold out for hydrogen.
No one should ever have to hear the details of their family member's death from the press.
As difficult as it may be, the government needs to be more up front with the families of those who have been killed in the middle east. I realize that this man was not in the military, but the media never should have been able to go to his family with the details of his death before they had been told everything that had happened. The press only cares about beating their competition to the punch.
The situation in Iraq has become so volatile, I don't know how we're ever going to get ourselves out of it. We certainly can't walk away right now. The country would be left in total chaos. But I don't know how we can expect civialians to aid in the rebuilding process when even our military personnel isn't safe.
The company I work for has sent employees to Baghdad, including a couple from my office. I sure hope I don't have to read about them in the paper.
Once again, Rambus has filed suit against the other memory manufacturers, this time they're crying, "Collusion!"
I just wish this company would go away. In case you're not familiar with Rambus, they are the company who produced RDRAM, the memory technology that was supposed to be the new standard a few years back. Intel jumped on board and announced that RDRAM would be the only memory supported for the Pentium IV processor. The trouble was, there were major production problems with it, causing prices to be ridiculously high. While Rambus was busy sorting our their problems, the other memory manufacturers got together and developed another standard, which proved to be just as fast (or faster) and was significantly cheaper. In order to keep up with the competition, Intel was forced to add DDR SDRAM support to the P4 platform.
Rambus didn't like this one bit, and immediately filed lawsuits against the other major memory manufacturers. It seems that while standards were being developed, Rambus quietly filed patents on the technology being presented as an open standard by the other manufacturers. Once the new DDR SDRAM hit the market, Rambus tried to sue the other manufacturers for licensing fees on the technology they had patented. They lost, but have never stopped trying to be a thorn in the side of end users (who will ultimately suffer if Rambus prevails, as they will artificially drive the cost of memory through the roof).
Intel has since officially dropped support of RDRAM altogether. But Rambus refuses to go away. This latest lawsuit is an example of their inability to admit defeat.
If they spent as much effort developing new technology as they have filing lawsuits, perhaps Rambus would have gained a bigger market share by now. Instead, they refuse to play nice with the other manufacturers, insisting they can reinvent the wheel instead of participating in the development of future standards which would bring new technology to consumers at a reasonable price.
Let's hope that the FTC will put a stop to their litigious practices soon before the days of the sub-$1,000 computers cease to be reality.
The cost of milk could be going up to $4 a gallon. And to think, I've been complaining about the price of gas.
Then again, I don't buy 16 gallons of milk every week. However, it appears that Starbucks may be forced to implement its first price increase in over four years if the price of milk stays high. That means the price of those Venti White Mochas I love so much could be getting even more spendy. Its a good thing there isn't a Starbucks within walking distance of my office, or I'd have a $300 a month coffee habit for sure.
Our cost of living keeps getting higher and higher, but our salaries aren't going up proportionally.
I reeeeeeeeeallllly want that $170 million Powerball tonight...
I'm officially boycotting KTAR and 12 News for breaking away from the Pat Tillman memorial out of fear they would be fined for language. If the FCC is so narrow minded that they don't realize people say things out of emotion, they need to get a life.
I, for one, was very interested to hear the little stories from his close friends and family. Those were the people who really knew him, who had the funny stories that no doubt Pat would have preferred to be remembered by. If people are so uptight that they don't want to listen to his brother-in-law say, "This fucking sucks," then don't watch. 'Cuz ya know what? He was right. This fucking sucks.
Kudos for ESPN (TV and Radio) for having the balls to stick with the coverage.
I think I'm going to travel to Oregon and commit a felony.
Hey, if that's what it takes to get a flat screen TV, so be it.
Sheriff Joe would never go for this.
This is a term I wish I had never heard of...
Why is it that people feel the need to slow down and gawk at an accident, particularly when its on the opposite side of the freeway?!? What a crappy way to start out a Monday morning--stuck in traffic, taking twice as long as normal to get to work, all so stupid people can get a look at a fender bender. It just makes me furious...
This is why I don't carry a gun.