My tabletpc has developed an idiosyncrasy where the screen’s pixels turn blue, SHIT! Well at least slapping it on the back of the lid fixes for a while. I guess I get to find out what’s in there soon.

            Tried to upgrade my wireless network to 801.11g , ran down to BestBuy  and got the Linksys Wireless-G Cable Gateway. Shortly after getting home and setting it up I realized what a stupid mistake it was, first the box is a cable modem and router combination, this explains the high price at $160. Second I come to find out that it does not support wma security. Finally, I already had a cable modem which I’m paying like 5 bucks a month for, so dumping that charge would not be a bad thing, but I have to get Comcast to register this cable modem on their network in order for it to work. I call Comcast, give them the Mac address, they say it will take up to 24 hours before it gets through the system. I give them a week and call back. Another week, still not online, I take the damn thing back to BestBuy.

            I start doing some shopping at Buy.com and find Belkin’s F5D7230-4. It had some great features, most of which I did not need. It was also 1/3 the price I paid for the Linksys (although that is an apple to orange comparison).  Nothing, and I do mean nothing I could do would allow me to hit my external hostnames to my internal site. WWW.CharlesBuchanan.com would resolve to the Belkin’s set up page. I played with this crap for 4 days. It worked fine on the other side of the router by the way. I found some discussion boards suggesting this may be due to the firewall protection and that this was not a problem in the previous release of the firmware. After installing this version the router’s configuration page would not come up at all; tried doing a full reset on the mode and still nothing, it’s fried. Back to buy.com it goes. So I still don’t have 801.11g.

            I remember why I don’t use those stupid little thermal coffee mugs.  I stopped by the ups place to ship the router back on my way to work. There a little sandwich shop next door called Grouchy’s New York Deli, great little sandwich shop, so I decide to try their breakfast. While I wait for my sausage and egg croissant (was very good by the way) I see thermol coffee mugs with the Grouchy dude on it, I think that’s more hip then my WorldCom coffee mug so I get one and pour my coffee into it. At the off ramp of 400 to 285 everyone decides to stop, well actually the guy in front of everyone decides to stop. Now these mugs have about a one and a half inch diameter on them, my cup holder has a 2 inch diameter.  Just after my life flashed before my eyes (I noted that I’ve been researching too much stupid shit on the internet that I do nothing with)  and my front bumper settled mere millimeters from the car in front of me and I noticed that the two consecutive cars that had been on my rear bumper where now oddly aligned to my left; just moments after I the aroma of freshly brewed coffee filled my car and my right foot became warm and mushy, just after that did I remember the flaw in these cups and why I had stopped using them. I had to drive another 15 minutes with no coffee but with the fresh brew smell all around. As bad as that seemed to me at the time I would have preferred that to the smell of that afternoon on the way home. I’m either getting use to it or its fading.  To think I almost cleaned my truck the week before. Lessons learned, slothliness pays off after all.

            Saw Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy a week ago. Not nearly as good as the book but far better then the TV series. While the movie took considerable liberties going so far as to change critical plots I found it to be true to Douglas Adams style albeit highly sanitized. I particularly enjoyed Sam Rockwell’s performance as Zaphod Beeblebrox. Good flick to take the kids to.

            Guido from the GOP called about two weeks ago, must have been one of Rudy Giuliani’s boys, they wanted more money for the cause. Seems you don’t just get the calendar of the president and the lovely Christmas card with out a little som’n som’n in return. Kind of scratching my head about this one. I’m thinking I may hold off donations until I see if my fearless leader gets our party’s shit together on this illegal immigration fiasco. Speaking of which did you happen to catch this article? Mexican President Vicente Fox has threatened to formally protest US immigration reforms where Fox said,

“There is no doubt that Mexicans, filled with dignity, willingness, and ability to work are doing jobs that not even blacks want to do there in the United States,” I just don’t know what to do with that.

            I went to dinner tonight at the Golden Coral feeding troth. I was shoving greenage into my face and calculating the precise time to jump from my table to secure my cuts of steak, timing is the key to wining the all you can eat buffet; when I noticed that every conversation around me was in Spanish. This is no joke, in the middle of Alpharetta Georgia I was setting in a restaurant and I could not understand a single word of any of the conversations in my vicinity. It wasn’t just the staff either it was the patrons. So two things about this; first I’m not someone who is inclined to ease drop on others conversations, I could give a shit. I just wondered if I was loosing my hearing so listened closer. Second , I‘m not saying this is anything other then what it is and that is: I was in a setting in a public restaurant in the middle of Alpharetta Georgia and everyone around me was speaking Spanish. ¿Extranjero en mi casa o su casa?

            Maybe we should just annex the rest of Mexico. It would save us the money on the wall, the price of Coronas would go down, and the minute men (a good brief from William McGowan on the subject) could move the operation to the Canadian border and keep a close eye on those silly canucks. Besides, Texas has worked out pretty well.

            As it crosses my mind, Democrats continue to suck: I believe that I maybe the first person in my family to actually declare that I am a Republican; though my views in doing are probably universal to the values that I was raised; such as individual responsibility, self determination, and the ability to be in charge of your own destination. Form what I can recall in the Buchanan family political debates at grandma’s house; these values were never really in question. In fact the debates typically evolved around which party and policies would best deliver on these values. The old folks (grandma and grandpa)  growing up in the great depression and entering into adulthood of the great depression presumed to remember a time were they perceived that government had failed to serve and protect its people. When you look at outcome of true Laissez-faire capitalism movements in history the abuse by those that ‘have’, or so blind by ‘want’, are obvious. The government is a tool that should, and is, currently being used by the people to hold individuals responsible for their actions. This is all a good thing in my book.

            However the demonization and punishment of those of success has by far stunted the possibilities for people today. It shocks me the inability of people to think ideas through. My favorite case to point out is the notion of income tax as being an “equalizing tool”, that the “rich” should be the ones to pay their “fair share” in supporting the financing of this government. Now if you believe that income tax will do this then here is a news flash for you: The Rich Do Not Pay Income Tax on Their Wealth. If this fact escapes you then perhaps this will help you; the “rich” already have money and no amount of income tax will affect this fact. The only people affected by income taxes are those that are earning income; those that are trying to become rich.

            Just incase some reader (as if I had any) still doesn’t appreciate what this means allow me to illustrate a case. If Teresa Heinz Kerry (just a name off the top of my head) currently has a couple of billion in the bank, has the big house paid for, the humvee title squared away, and she made twenty thousand dollars this year she pays no income tax. She pays no income tax still, has a couple of billion in the bank, still has the humvee, still has the big house, and is still in the rich category.

            So if you are not in the ‘rich’ category you may wonder how one would get there nowadays. I’ve been pondering this one for a while. At one time a millionaire was considered rich; so if you wanted to get 1 million dollars in the bank from zero dollars it will take you at least two years with no spending, that is, the government will take half each year. So this gets you a million in the bank. But no place to live, no cool ride, and have you paid state income? Then there is sales tax on the cool ride and house along with property tax. After it’s all said and done I wonder if I could even afford to be rich. This is just for a million, for a billion it boggles my mind. Using Teresa Heinz (she is just Teresa Heinz now. I’m not sure why) you could find and marry rich republican and have them die off.

            Speaking of rich Republican, Ann Coulter gives me such a chub. Damn… blond, legs that go all the way up I imagine, funny, smart, titties that would just fit in the cup my hand, and a quick little sprite too. She was on The Tonight Show the other night. Funny footage about the pie throwing incident were these losers liberal “intellectuals” tried to hit her with cream pie. Two great lines from her, (paraphrasing) “From my experience touring colleges, throwing food and ‘tourettesing’ at the mic seems to constitute political argument for liberals”; and “Conservatives don’t throw pies at Michael Moore, he’d just eat them.”

            Ok, somehow I have gotten off point… What was my point? Ah yes, I was rambling. And I think I’m done now.