3.21.2005
And here's why:
(1) They didn't lock any of the deadbolts during their first week in the house. In any other city in any other state, that might be OK. But not where I live. I mean, not that it's Paterson or anything, but it's still a place where you lock your goddamned deadbolt all the time. 100% of all the crimes reported in the city over the past 9 or so years that I've lived here have been neglect-related. Some dumbass leaves their car/apartment/house/dorm room, etc., unlocked and they get mugged/raped/robbed or otherwise violated. Sometimes this even happens in broad daylight. The lesson I take from this? ALWAYS LOCK YOUR FUCKING DOOR.
(2) They have rotten taste in music. They'd probably be inclined to agree that my taste is less than eclectic, but they have music that's like some people's assessment of Irish music - is this the slow song or the fast one? And they also play it too loudly. . . nice if you need a foot massage, but not so nice if you want to sleep.
(3) They play their music WAY too loudly. During the day, this is annoying, but I'm not going to say anything. However, last weekend was the absolute test of my patience.
I am not a patient person. Nor am I very understanding at 4am. I am inclined to storm down my front stairs at 4am, when I'm having trouble sleeping because the goddamned stereo is so fucking loud that it's VIBRATING MY FLOOR AND WALLS, my head is splitting and Matt's asleep, and BANG-BANG-BANG-BANG on the door and ask if the stereo could be turned down. I didn't ask for it to be turned off, just DOWN.
And they told me that the music was very low. Either I'm going slightly mad, or they need a hearing check, because the last time I checked if it's loud enough to vibrate the floor, it's VERY LOUD. THEN they tried to give me shit about hearing my TV "LAST FRIDAY".
Now, I lived in that downstairs apartment for 2 years and the biggest pet peeve my roommate and I had about it was that the upstairs apartment's TV was right over my roommate's bed. So, since I moved to the upstairs apartment, I've tried to be sensitive to the fact that my TV is directly above someone's bed. Which means, on a set that goes to a volume level of about 50, I rarely turn it up past 10. This is just loud enough for me to hear it, even with the heat on. So giving me shit about my TV being too loud is going to be the straw that breaks the camel's back.
I don't remember being profane or foul, but I did say that if my TV is bothering them they should knock on the door. If they don't tell me, I don't know there's a problem.
Matt said I should have called the landlord, but what am I going to tell him? That I can't stand the fucking jackasses who moved in downstairs? Because that's the truth. I tried to be open-minded. I tried to be patient. I tried to give them the benefit of the doubt. . . like with the unlocked deadbolt, for example.
After raging about it, I thought that maybe the landlord didn't have enough sets of keys to give to everyone who appears to be living there. So I gave the set I got from the last tenants to them.
The result: they still leave the deadbolts unlocked.
Now, if I were vindictive, I'd hire someone to break into their apartment to prove my point. But I'm only there through the end of May, so why bother? At any rate, it's been a good run with the landlords, so leaving at the end of the lease is tough, but I have to do it or I will go insane.
3.09.2005
Maybe I missed something here, but take a gander at the boldface for a sec:
"We've only recently had an American in the White House," she said. "Now we need a woman."
Taken out of context, and probably snippeted to provide a sound bite(or is that "byte"?), Ms. Bonnie Moore's meaning is skewed from what was probably intended as "we've only recently had an American chef in the White House".
Because if we, as a nation, have "only recently" had an American in the White House that pesky Article 2, Section 1 isn't stopping the Governator from stepping up to a Presidential run.
Don't know what I'm talking about? Check it out:
No person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President; neither shall any Person be eligible to that Office who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty-five Years, and been fourteen Years a Resident within the United States.
3.07.2005
ULTRA-UBER DISCLAIMER: The following are listed in no particular order and are rants and diatribes I've recited multiple times on multiple occasions, mostly after near-misses with the listed driver-types. While I wilfully admit that I'm more often an overly cautious driver (read "slow and paranoid"), and sometimes, yes, I do drive like a chick, I sincerely hope to God that I don't drive like this.
Drivers with out-of-state plates, especially when that state is Pennsylvania. I don't know for a fact if the licensing requirements are drastically different there, but I can tell you that my cousin Kate failed the NJ road test 4 years ago, but passed the road test 2 weeks later in PA. Like I said, I don't know for a fact if the licensing and testing boards are less stringent, but that seems like a pretty good indication to me that they are, which explains a lot of the stupid things drivers with PA plates will do on the road. Like drive a manual transmission in the left-hand ("fast") lane while FRENCH-BRAIDING their hair. Or talking on a cell phone while trying to merge into a VERY difficult spaghetti bowl of highway misconstruction. Or not looking before changing lanes, making a turn. . . etc.
And then, there are the two dumbasses that I nearly hit because they were going WAY below the 65-mph speed limit, both driving cars with CALIFORNIA plates on the NJ Turnpike. I can explain PA, NY and CT. . . but CALIFORNIA??? I am baffled. Completely baffled. That also accounts for the two Arizona plates I spotted.
And, as New England drivers will probably affirm, I am thoroughly convinced that there's a special place in Hell for Massachusetts drivers. I don't understand why they have to drive so fast, aggressively and just plain dumb. It might be linked to which MA roads they typically drive on or it might be linked to the reason Yankee fans hate Red Sox fans. . . they're just dicks. Required Disclaimer: TallJames, who is a frequent reader/commentator to this site, currently lives in MA, but he's a transplanted New Yorker, so this definitely does NOT apply to him. If it applies to any of his relatives, friends or coworkers, on the other hand, I am not responsible.
Older drivers. Giving up your car in NJ is giving up that piece of yourself that controls what you can do on a daily basis. Our public transportation system consists of buses to the malls or buses to the City; God help you if you want to public transit yourself to any other part of the state, because you'll either have to go out of your way while in-state and backtrack or go into the City and backtrack. Things are improving in less-densely populated areas of the state, like Burlington-Mercer-Camden counties with the RiverLine light-rail between Trenton and Camden, which connects a major transportation hub in Camden (Walter Rand Transportation Center - a bus depot) with the NorthEast Corridor NJ Transit Rail line in Trenton. . . and the Hudson-Bergen Light Rail, which is located in a more densely populated part of the state and connects Bayonne to Jersey City, but the areas have been hard-hit by economic changes over the past 60 years, so while it's great to have the possibilities, it's still just another way to get to the Mall.
When you hit a certain age, I really believe you should not drive anymore. When you have cataracts, I really believe you should not drive anymore. When you sit so scrunched up against the steering wheel and can no longer see over the dashboard without two copies of the Yellow Pages, I really believe you should not drive anymore.
We should feel an obligation to take care of our elderly citizens by making other options available to them. . . and keeping them off the road!
People who drive any of the following:
Maybe it's just me, but I've found that the higher the vehicle's safety rating, the more of an asshole its driver tends to become. Take Volvos, for example. Volvos, the ugly, boxy, yuppie-with-kids, status-symbols with the incredibly high safety ratings. . . that are inevitably driven by some asswipe whose attitude towards driving seems to be "oh, I have a safe car, so I don't have to worry about anyone else on the road. . . my car will save me."
Um, no, dumbass, your car will not "save" you. It'll help prevent your death when you plow into my (tinfoil and plastic) Neon, but it'll kill me. Drive responsibly and everyone will be OK; it has nothing to do with your goddamned car.
Anyone talking on a cell phone. And that means me, too. The other day, I drove from Newark to my exit on the NJ Turnpike while talking to my mom on the cell phone.
For the record, I was petrified I'd hit someone, or at least seriously maim myself because it's really hard to drive and talk on the phone at the same time. And I REFUSE to "practice" it. I felt my reaction time laggging and feared serious harm to my car until I got to the 'Pike. Since it's a straight-shot on the 'Pike, I relaxed a little. . . but not much.
I felt about as safe as if I'd forgotten to put on my seatbelt. I swear I will NEVER do that again.
Driving in precipitation. I don't care if it's rain or snow, but something about precipitation brings out the asshole in everyone.
Snow makes people panic, whereas rain makes them drive faster. Which causes accidents . . . which then turn into rubbernecking delays. I hate precipitation.
Rubbernecking. Really, I don't understand why people do it. They SLOW DOWN, with little or no warning, and STARE at the activity on the side of the road. It's like being back in grammar school. . . and the playground is witnessing a fight. The maturity level just plummets and you're stuck in traffic that clears up right past the stupid activity. GROW UP AND KEEP THE ROADWAY CLEAR. The State Troopers are (under)paid to deal with everything going on, so let them do their job. Yes, it's nice to not go 90 past them, but how is going 5 any help? I'm no expert, but I think that 25 will do nicely, won't it?
The times when I'm on the road are the times I'm most thankful that I'm a firm believer in gun control. Otherwise, the NJ Turnpike would be littered with the burned-out skeletons of all the cars I'd firebombed with my handy-dandy bazooka. . . maybe this means I should start playing Grand Theft Auto.
Too bad they don't make a version that doesn't make me seasick.
