Nick Switzer

So the new year has come and the past few weeks has allowed me to think about things that are happening in my life and those that are to come.  I was glad to see Mr. Harvey off from the Army Marines (haha I had to say it Scott) and will be even happier once he’s in driving distance.  I am sad to have my girlfriend going back to KC for a bit.  And I am glad that Justin and I are doing well in business together, and that Casey and I have figured some things out.

As for my job, I look forward to the possibilities that may be awaiting, but am trying to be both optimistic and realistic.  Just The Web is doing really well, and Zeruck is handling it’s own.  Very soon we should have both very stable and a great system in place.

Overall,  I am just trying to not be as anxious and anal about things and be more optimistic about people.  I hope this year goes well for everyone, including myself.  Happy New Year everyone!

Well tonight I was trying to watch a movie in which my selections were limited.  So blockbuster was the solution to the problem, or so I thought.  Here’s the problem I have:

STOP ASKING ME FOR A CREDIT CARD!

I have never lost or not returned a movie, and I do not rent video games from you all.  And seeing as how there are “no late fees” supposedly, I should not be asked for a credit card every time I come to check out a movie!  But this being the third time in 5 months or so, they are batting 100%.  When asked, “Do you have a credit card to put on file,” I answered no, and that I would like to be excluded from being asked every time I come.  The response was, “Well do you rent games?”  I informed them no, and asked if they can mark that down for me.  The cashier then gave me a very energetic and enthusiastic (sarcasm) “I can see what I can do” and then informed me when my movie needs to be returned.

Not only am I displeased with the fact that the movie rental prices have gone up, but the fact that I get questioned on why I do not have a credit card on file everytime is extremely annoying.  And please don’t tell me that’s to cover their loses.  They get the movies at a very cheap rate, and I would assume that 2 rentals covers that cost.  So if you work at Blockbuster, here’s a tip:  Ask the question if you must ask, and then remove that flag off of the person’s account so they aren’t asked next time.  We would appreciate it.

This is a serious question.  I am one of those people that likes to shave while they’re showering.  I have purchased fog-less mirrors from a variety of places, Wal-Mart, Target, and even Sharper Image.  What is the result?  NONE OF THEM WORK!  I can’t get any of them to not fog up, and I’ve even tried the shaving cream on the mirror thing, to no avail.

I am not sure what can be done, or if this is a hopeless search, but if anyone knows of a way that I can shave in the shower without having the clean the mirror off and shave a spot, and repeat until I am cleanly shaved, please let me know.

Also, please keep recommendations to only those items that you have first hand knowledge.

I quickly have to rant about these terrible ads that Olive Garden has been spamming all over my television programs.  First off, why do they need to try and be funny?  Why not just say, “All you can eat pasta is here/back” and then show some people ordering and eating the pasta?  Show some of the combinations, explain what someone can order, explain the promotion.

Why do they need to have some guy saying, “I did the math on this never ending pasta combination, and there’s 42 different possibilities!” And then the lame comeback by his friend, “While you’re doing the math, I’m doing the marinara.” Or whatever the hell they say.  What the hell Olive Garden?  How is that funny or needed?  Then you finish up the awesome commercial with, “Wow math has never tasted so good” <input canned laughter>.   I seriously would have told whoever that was at my table that their talking privileges have been revoked.

This is what you do, Olive Garden V.P. of Marketing: STOP THE CURRENT COMMERCIALS AND FIRE WHOEVER MADE THOSE DECISIONS.  Return to informing your customers about your food, with close-ups of pasta.  That is what is going to get people to come there.  Did you do any focus group testing on this advertising?  How much money did you waste by throwing these horrible commercials into TV land?

Better yet, let me give you the phone number of my girlfriend who is great at Marketing, and she’ll quickly inform you all how retarded your ads have been.  Finally, let’s just focus on what works for food/restuarant companies, showing what kind of food you have and the promotions on those items, and ignore the fact that everyone else does funny ads, because it doesn’t work for you.

I don’t know what to say except I finally realized that pennies on the dollars means nothing.  Now this revelation came after having some drinks and watching a little television at 3 a.m. in the morning, eating cereal before bed. I happened to arrive at this astounding conclusion about the aforementioned phrase.

Basically pennies on the dollar could mean $.99 on the $1.  After all, 99 pennies still fits the phrase and that’s 1% savings, which to anyone is shit. Put it this way, going to go to a department store because they have your favorite brand on sale for 1% would absolutely annoy anyone. Unless we are talking about a very large purchase (car, boat, house) 1% does not seem like a very good deal. Yet when watching infomercials early in the morning, the salesperson is trying to convince me that “pennies on the dollar” would mean huge savings.

Of course it would be, but that wouldn’t leave them a very good profit, so we can assume we are not getting the greatest deal of our lives like the advertisement suggestions. Anyhow, just wanted to share with you all my random thought process after a night of consuming adult beverages, chowing down on some cereal before bed.

So today I was informed of a little email Palin supports use to justify her VP choice.  Here’s a little breakdown:

From the Wall Street Journal:

Who Am I?

I am under 45 years old,
I love the outdoors,
I hunt,
I am a Republican reformer,
I have taken on the Republican party establishment,
I have many children,
I have a spot on the national ticket as vice president with less than two years in the governor’s office.

Did you guess?

I am Teddy Roosevelt in 1900.

So I searched on the net and found some information from Snopes.com regarding this email.

This is where the similarities stop.

First Argument: Academics

Roosevelt graduated from Harvard cum laude with a degree in government and history. Then went to Columbia Law School. He was also an author of many papers regarding politics and history.

Palin has a bachelor of science in communications-journalism from the University of Idaho.

Point: Definitely goes to Roosevelt. Palin studied how to act like she knows something and can do a decent job of speaking. Roosevelt KNEW what he was talking about. It’s also sad when I have more degrees then the possible VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES!

Second argument: Military/Law Enforcement Experience

Roosevelt: Deputy Sherrif, capitain of the NY National Guard, colonel in the 1st US Volunteer Cavalry Regiment, and veteran of the Spanish-American War.

Palin: Nothing. Nada. Zilch. Oh but wait, McCain was a P.O.W. so I guess she doesn’t need to have any experience there.

Point: Uh not Palin.

Third Argument: Politics

Roosevelt: Member of the NY state assembly, U.S. civil service commissioner, NYC police commissioner, Assistant Secretary of the Navy, governor of NEW YORK.

Palin: City council member and mayor of Wasilla Alaska, governor of Alaska.

Point: Well seeing as how Wasilla has a population of around 9,780, and Alaska has a population of around 683,478 (47th in the U.S.) compared to the population of New York City being around 2,050,600 in 1898. I am going to award the point again to Roosevelt.

The point of me ranting about this article is this: Do not try and argue a point as minute as “loves to hunt, is younger than 45, is a Republican, etc.” if the rest of the data does not correlate. What people need to understand is that this is a Job and a very important one at that. We cannot “glance” over someone’s resume and see that they graduated from a college, was a governor, and a mayor and consider that golden. We need to examine what college they attended (if you didn’t know, not all colleges are created equal), what city they were mayor, and what state they were governor. Without looking at the specifics, we don’t get the full picture.

So the next time someone tries to inform you something like this, please review the facts and surrounding information before you make a rash decision that someone is qualified to be VP because they too had similarities with a good politician like Teddy Roosevelt.

Palin Interview on YouTube.

I had to write an article about this.  It’s basically like she doesn’t know what he’s talking about so she just makes up whatever she wants.  She could use this answer I once gave on an exam for which I knew nothing about the answer.

“Due to the fact that I haven’t been informed to the highest degree of accuracy, I hesitate to articulate in fear of deviating from the true course of rectitude.”

Instead she doesn’t want to seem like she may not know about something or say, “You know, I would have to think about that” or anything of the sort.  Instead she just rambles on and ignores her ignorance and spews out whatever.

I am scared that she could be VP because she doesn’t have any experience.  And even more scared because she has a legitimate chance of being Pres b/c of McCain’s age.  I am not saying I hate McCain or love Obama, I am saying that she has no clue what is going on and in no way should have been chosen as a running mate.  Whatever vote I was going to choose, I can’t ignore that she would be a huge liability if McCain was elected due to this lack of experience.

As I sit here, I think about all of the things that have happened to me recently.  I would say I am in a “different” state-of-mind where I am very pessimistic about the future.  I have a job where I am not challenged, not using any of my degrees, and am constantly bored with the current expectations and duties.  I am also trying to cope with being single, which is a lot harder than I expected.  I sit here alone, and when I mean alone, I mean that it’s me and dogs since Casey went on another vacation (I think he’s trying to set a world record on vacations).  Anyhow, I just got back from my little spring break trip in Austin and found myself thinking a lot about everything. I write this post trying to get my thoughts straight as well as my ideals.  What I mean by that is that I was recently thinking I should get a tattoo that says “Life” in Hebrew.  It may not mean much to anyone else, but it does to me.  But then I realize, will this be another thing I regret?  Lately I feel as though I have let others down, as well as myself (mainly just my thoughts).

On a brighter note, I will be working on learning Ruby on Rails to not only open up an opportunity for Justin and I to move on to bigger and better things, but to make some good cash so I can afford my loans that will be burdening me soon enough.  I also have a thought about changing my look, which I may link a photo to if I decide to do it.

Lastly, I just wanted everyone to download a song that has recently stuck with me (I heard it from a friend at work) ….. Artist: Shiny Toy Guns Song: Rainy Monday.  Anyhow, hopefully soon I will be in a more cheerful mood and that life will be on an upturn.  Hope all is going well for everyone else.  Will write soon!

Ok, well I don’t know if you all are familiar with this branch of clubs that have popped up in Tulsa, but they are becoming trash. I started working out there almost 2 summers ago, when it was nice and not very busy. Now, after several buyouts of other gyms, the place is over crowded, they do not seem to care about their current members (only new ones), and have started to charge for towels.

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Ok, so I wanted to write about my thoughts on the latest KIA commercials. Now I understand the point of it trying to say you’ll fill up less often than normal due to the higher MPG, but come on! I mean are all KIA drivers dumbasses? Why is it that they couldn’t explain that by using maybe one or two people. Like maybe have one KIA owner do it and another explain they’ve done it too. NOOOO! They all are idiots.

So for any person that drives a KIA, I will look at you and think “does this dumbass know which side his gas tank is on?” just because of the commercial. Sorry for all you KIA drivers, I am now blinded by the all mighty television and must therefore label you as dumb. Anyone drive a KIA care to defend the makers of you car who make you look so foolish, I’d be glad to hear from you.
Just wanted to rant and get my mind off of some things. Looking to make this blog a little more livelier than normal, and would glad to hear any opinions.