Not saying I’ll make a regular thing out of this, though I got some other products I find ridiculous, but I saw an ad for this one product last night (twice) on GSN, and it just baffles me people would waste money on this.  It’s that No-Touch Soap Dispenser by Lysol.  The ad tries to make a point in that a regular soap pump would harvest tons of icky bacteria.  Not a surprise, since you need to wash for hand of germs, so the first thing you touch is the top of that pump, so yeah, most likely germs are gonna have a party on it.  Okay, I get that.  But…here’s the thing.  You.  Are.  About.  To.  Wash.  Your.  Hands.  Anyway.  Sorry, for separating those out like that, but I was trying to make a valid point.  True, lots of germs, but unless you feel the need to touch the top of that pump after you washed your hands of all those germs, you don’t have a problem.

I had to go find video of this, so I hunted one on YouTube:

After watching it though, I though of something else.  They show the hand go to the No-Touch System, but not when they turn the faucet on.  Turning the faucet off, is the last thing you touch.  Think about that.

I think I’ll just stick with my regular old soap pump.  And after looking at the comments for the YouTube clip, I am not the only one who seems to acknowledge this.

I currently work at a small little (well, not small small, but just not a chain store of any kind) retail store. No, not saying what store and where (I’m not stupid), but it sells home decor stuff and bedding, but after 2008, along with actual merchandise, the owner acquired shit from like those liquidation people (stores have a bunch of shit people don’t buy for a reason, yet there are companies that buy off stuff from them and re-sell to dumbasses. These “seconds” aren’t always bad (such as the extra random fabric he got, or some decent mirrors, etc), but when it just random stuff thrown into boxes, you’re talking broken stuff, half-emptied bottles, or just completely leaked chemicals that got on everything, so nothing is even sell-able. The store has gone down the toilet. Now of course, it’s going out of business, since people with money decided to not buy stuff, causing people trying to work for a living, to either get laid off or have their hours cut (thanks, BTW).

Of course, we get these people who say, “oh, I’m so sorry you’re going out of business,” or even, “I like coming in here to look around,” which makes me want to say, “yeah, well, looking around doesn’t pay the bills.” It’s bad enough that I have been working in retail (and I know I’m not the only one who has to put up with the stupidity of customers, found a great little site nicely called Retail-Sucks.com). But what sucks, is that we’re going out of business, and it was decided months after he opened a similar, yet much smaller, and more beachier, store, only about a 15min drive from the “main” store. They did well in the summer, but, in the off-season, saw a few days where they did even make any money (had some sales, but more returns). They’re staying open. Now, it’s spring-time, and we’ve been going out of business for about 4 months now, and they have only just started to pick up decent numbers, yet he’s not hiring any extra help. I feel sorry for them, working 50-60 hours in a week, because there are only 2 full-timers there, and 2 part-timers. While at our store, there’s 4 of us full-timers, and 2 part-timers (one of which has really low hours, and the other who has to go pee a lot, seriously). We have a manager who doesn’t always show up on time, and another who talks on the phone A LOT (mostly on her own cell phone). The other one sometimes uses the store phone, and has to take a cig break at least every hour. Not saying I’ve always came into work on time (5-15 min late, not a morning person), but I take no breaks, and lately, with business seeing some busy days, I sometimes don’t even get a lunch break, and if I do, it’s 10-15 min, just enough to eat a sandwich.

But back to what is sucking, and that is trying to find a job. I’m trying to look for higher paying jobs, or at least those similar to what I make now (~20,000 a year), but come up empty. The problem, there are TOO MANY damn restaurants now in the area, not that many places to shop, so staying away from restaurant jobs (which I’m reluctant to go back to) and finding a possible retail store where I may do some of the same stuff I do now, is hard. So, as for higher paying jobs, I’ve been looking into government jobs, but experience is a factor (I have an Associates in Internet Technologies, so I was looking at some tech jobs, but typically, that doesn’t seem to be enough).

I thought of maybe adding an ad to this blog, but if anyone actually views this and clicked on it, it wouldn’t be enough (though still, I’ve considered LinkShare, since they do the affiliate links with iTunes). I hate ads, but I may need to start monetizing this blog (the main site has some affiliate links, as does this blog already, from Zazzle, but I am having a hard time thinking of something truly original for a design to go on shirts and mugs that people may actually want to buy). If I can finish writing my story ideas, I thought of seeing if I have a writing future, but, as evidence of this blog, I don’t think I’m much of a writer.

Come to think of it, I don’t know what it is I’m really good at, except for watching a bunch of different TV shows, but I feel there are enough TV bloggers out there, and I think I’ve been real good about lessening TV talk on this blog. Although, I’ve been using this blog less and less now.

Oh well, felt the need to vent a little, plus my arm is tired and I need to finish Legend of the Seeker from my beautiful DVR that makes it possible for me to watch the amount of shows I do.

Oh, did I mention that job sites like Monster and HotJobs are useless, since I live in a tech-challenged county that are least likely to post job openings online.

Health care reform has passed, and signed into law. But those pesky Republicans want to repeal it (or at least try to). But why? Sure, I wouldn’t mind that one provision requiring all citizens to have insurance (of course, if that public option were in there, maybe it would be easier to do, or if it was more like a tax credit to those that do, then it’ll be okay), but everything else is badly needed. Insurance companies have completely lost their purpose. Insurance is there so when a person gets sick, they can get treated, not DROPPED. It’s sad that Republicans don’t like for kids who had cancer, got treated and now as adults, can’t get their own insurance, b/c of the RISK factor involved.

It pains me, there are people who support Republicans who actually want old people to die, since they don’t want to help seniors pay for their medication (this whole Donut Hole thing). Simply put, senior citizens, once they fell into this hole, felt the need to cut their pills a make a refill last, since it was simply too costly to take their meds as prescribed and refill when needed.

Do Republicans want our children to die? Because, if they are against this, then they do, as this reform is there to help cover children and make it illegal for insurance companies to not cover treatment for a pre-existing condition. (That has been said a lot, pre-existing condition). Now, it’s not a perfect law (Gap in health care law’s protection for children), but that’s what amendments are made for.

I may not know much into this, I do watch Rachel Maddow almost everyday though, and I have got to say, Republicans look pretty dumb on this. Do they really want to be known as those opposing HEALTH CARE reform? You have those that say there are Americans that don’t deserve help because they are obese. Sure, people who eat at Burger King everyday are a heart attack waiting to happen, but that doesn’t mean they deserve to die from a lack of care. (Maybe there should be laws on food companies to lower use of ‘bad stuff’ and help make food that’s actually good for you a little more affordable (seriously, those little Healthy Choice frozen dinners are tiny and cost more than those Hungry Man dinners, which I eat).

Now, I don’t have insurance, so again, maybe my opinion doesn’t really matter. I simply can’t afford it, haven’t been to a doctor, in, well, about 18 years (yeah, before I went into Kindergarten, seriously). I have had some dental stuff done, which has always been out of pocket, because as I was in 12th grade I was under my dad’s plan, but it didn’t cover dental. But, December I stopped going in for teeth cleanings, and can no longer think of getting some partial crown. It doesn’t help that where I work now is going out of business, and there aren’t many job openings (believe me, I look). I blame the shitty high school I went to. There wasn’t one career counselor, and never a career day. They only thing they were concerned: getting kids into college, not necessarily what the fuck they were gonna do when they got out. That’s how people with four-year degrees are probably flippin’ burgers. I have another beef. I was an honor student (BTW) yet only went to a Community College, whereas a bitch (spoiled rotten) cheated off everyone and managed to get into a 4-yr University. And, BTW, she weren’t too bright, she just had a rich dad. Is it my fault the rich are favored over people with brains?

I know I’m not the only one who feels the same (or similar).

Now, if only the Republicans can do what they were elected to do, and work with the Democrats, on a jobs bill. No more shouting “Baby killer” during a session, or obviously pushing people who favor you to through bricks into Democrat offices, or to ‘RELOAD.’ All this hate (let’s not forget the racial and homophobic slurs protesters shouted during the whole health care session on Sunday (well, outside the building), and no Republican saying anything about how distasteful that is. (The ‘baby killer’ thing is like the ‘you lie’ thing, it’s childish, and can only hurt your chances for re-election if up for it, the ‘Reload’ thing: Palin hunts people, figuratively – MSNBC, is just Sarah Palin being, well, Sarah Palin.)

And what is wrong with a near Universal Health Care system? The US has the most costly health care system, yet it underperforms that of countries that do have such a system. Hmmm? Mirror, Mirror on the wall: International Comparative Performance of American Health Care

I remember growing up without any cable TV networks, including MTV. But, whenever I was at my grandparents, MTV was a network we’d watch (now this is the early 90s, they still showed videos then). The only non-music program we watched was Beavis and Butt-head (and that even had them, I guess you can say, do commentary to shortened music videos). Even earlier in the 90s, or really late 80s, for me, when we visited my mom’s family 400 miles away, we stayed at my great-grandmother’s apartment, and from time to time, watched MTV (yes, my great-grandmother would watch MTV too). I remembered they didn’t restrict themselves to the newest videos, as I remember “Don’t Come Around Here No More” by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, which at that time, was easily 3 years old. I remember 1990, with Aerosmith “Janie’s Got A Gun,” and Jon Bon Jovi’s “Blaze of Glory” (loved that video as a little 5 year old).

The point is, I loved music videos. We had the VHS tapes for Def Leppard Hysteria videos (which wasn’t just Hysteria, also had Pyromania ones as well) and Bon Jovi’s Slippery When Wet the videos, so those were the only way for us to watch videos. NBC used to have Friday Night Videos (YEAH, I remember that), which became our only source for music videos, being an antenna family.

But in 1995, we got Primestar, a satellite dish company, but MTV wasn’t part of our lineup (or, wasn’t available to Primestar, I was only 10), but I remember when we got it, in Oct. ’95, it was available to us, and right when I got home from school, I tuned to it, and Bush “Comedown” was on. That’s how much I loved having the station. They played videos in the afternoon, so everyday we’d tune to it after school, caught the likes of Tom Petty’s “You Don’t Know How It Feels,” Alanis Morisette’s “You Oughta Know,” and more from the likes of U2, REM, as well as the shit being played at that time (Rap, not a fan of it) which there’s a ‘Mute’ button for. And, of course, Beavis and Butt-Head, which eventually even my parents ended up liking.

But the late 90′s became a problem. Right after school, this stupid video countdown was on (TRL, Which I believe stood for ‘Total Request Live,’ but it wasn’t a pure ‘request show,’ just more of a voting of current videos into a countdown, so MTV failed to understand one concept). And that was an hour of videos, MTV increased how often Real World and Road Rules was shown, and even when videos came on, the new shit playing (the Britney Spears and Backstreet Boys) was enough to want your ears ripped off. And they were also more strict to new videos, rarely anything older than 6 months, it seemed. Tom Petty used to be the one artist MTV showed and honored, but they swept him under the rug for young assholes, there is no nice way to put it. Music Television was for all music, not just youthful. (Which is why we have VH-1 Classic, but, eh they have been showing some of those ’100 whatevers’ VH-1 loves, but the good thing is they are all MUSIC RELATED, so far).

As the years progressed, TRL wasn’t in the afternoon, and the only time blocks of videos were played were in the wee-hours of the morning, and for only a few hours at best. Now, with more shit like Jersey Shore airing, videos are compressed to near nothing (maybe once a week there is an hour block, maybe).

For over ten years, MTV has been increasing non-music programs, but continued to refer to themselves as ‘Music Television,’ while the masses, people like me, lean more towards ‘Moronic TV,’ or ‘Meaningless TV.’

Now that’s changing, MTV is officially re-branding their logo, removing the ‘Music Television’ tag-line. Unfortunately, the general manager, Stephen Friedman, is still blind and believes that “”Music is still at the center of so much of what we do, but we’ve really expanded what that means. We needed the logo to be flexible enough to have the artists within it but also the stars of our shows.” (AdAge.com).

When was the last time you remember anything MTV has done with music at its center?

MTV drops ‘Music Television’ from official logo – LA Times

What’s the ‘M’ in MTV for? – BuddyTV

MTV Finally Gives Up on Music – TV.Com

Small opinion:

Now, VH1 (the ‘VH’ is supposed to be ‘Video Hits’) should follow, as they don’t showcase ‘videos’ much no more as well, neither does MTV2. Also, Cartoon Network needs to adjust their logo, as they have strayed from actual cartoons several times. Even TNT and TBS switch their roles, ’cause I remember a few occasions where TBS is showing something more on the drama side than comedy, despite TBS’s tagline is ‘Very Funny,’ and TNT’s is ‘We Know Drama.’ Seems like networks just can’t stick to one thing, since Sci-Fi Channel showed wrestling and they rebranded last year to Syfy, so they can justify showing wrestling, but other than that, all the programming is still consistent in the sci-fi/fantasy realm.

All the talks and build leading to Apple having a tablet released, and it finally came…Unfortunately, maybe they should have spent a little more time with the name. iPad, yep, that’s what Apple is calling it, and it seriously is a horrible name. In fact, on Twitter, iTampon was (and still is) a trending topic, and earlier I saw it and didn’t know what to make of it, until I got an email from Apple (as I subscribe to the newsletter for updates) introducing the “iPad,” then it all made sense.

They could’ve been better off with iTablet, or just iTab, maybe, but iPad?

It is most obvious that there are no women working at Apple, as this article from the New York Times suggests.

Now, looking past the name, here is a breakdown of what the iPad has in store for consumers:

POSITIVES:
Ability to utilize iPhone apps
With that, it’s essentially a larger iPod Touch or iPhone, so anyone with those can use this with ease
Price – $499, yep, Apple’s tablet is $499 (for a 16GB model, $599 for 32GB, it’s $699 for 64GB, and it starts at $629 instead for the 3G version, plus the AT&T plan requires $30/mo for the data plan to even use 3G)

CONS:
No a widescreen (16:9) aspect ratio
No USB ports?
And no video camera (some of your cheapest Notebooks (Hell, even Netbooks) come with web cameras at least)
And for having a browser, no flash support

5 Things the iPad is Missing – CNET

I have to agree with that CNET article (the 5 Things one I just linked above), that though I find Netbooks stupid (just go a couple hundred dollars more to have something with a little more power, a little more space and memory, and more importantly, an optical drive (which none of the Netbooks I’ve seen had, and I think that alone makes them not worth getting)), I don’t see them going away because Apple has a functioning computing unit that starts at less than $500, because it too isn’t very expandable, it’s ridiculously thin (what is with people wanting so much from so little, bulk it slightly, and have an optical drive or something), and, as mentioned, iPad is without a web cam, which dirt cheap Netbooks have (even if they are shitty quality, it’s better than nothing).

Honestly, the larger screen is the only plus which would be best for watching videos (such as the lovely ones you may (that I have) purchased through iTunes and stuck watching on my laptop since the DRM crap confines it to devices iTunes supports (and I have no iPods [nor the Apple TV], since I find the costs high), and it’ll be better as an ebook reader, that could compete with Amazon’s Kindle (though I’ll still want a Kindle, ’cause, based on the pictures of the iPad, the glossy-ish screen could be bad for reading, while Kindle’s screen is crisp and designed for text, making it an easy read, plus the Whispernet service is included with no data charges (you pay for the books, which are cheaper than the physical hardback versions, so it’s not only cheaper, it’s better for the environment).

Another article to learn about this new device –> Review: Apple’s iPad has potential – San Francisco Chronicle

So, no, I probably won’t get one, I’d rather just invest in an iPod Touch, ’cause I’ve seen one of those in action, and it is pretty fuckin’ sweet.

Oh, have I mentionted that #iTampon is still trending on Twitter, if the Trending list is in order, it’s more talked about than the actual name of iPad. I mean, seriously, no women work at Apple?

Bravo! Don’t let NBC walk over you. NBC can barely get regular primetime shows right (I don’t watch Southland, but I do think it was rash and stupid to cancel it before the new season premiere, now TNT has got it, and well, we’ll see how ratings go before making any more comments). Back in 2004, NBC made the deals between Jay Leno and Conan O’Brien, where Leno exits and Conan takes over The Tonight Show which starts at 11:35PM (and has been for a long time, about 45 years, but always after the news (*fun fact, the local news used to be only 15 minutes, so the early days of the Tonight Show started at 11:15*)). Of course, there was already previous controversy surrounding the early 90s when it went from Johnny Carson to Leno (Letterman, who was Late Night host at the time, was gunning for the job and even Carson was pulling for him, but it went to Leno and that caused emotions to stir and Letterman left NBC to have his own show (Late Show) on CBS).

Deja Vu all over again, as when the transition from Leno to Conan started becoming more of a reality, NBC was afraid to lose Leno since ABC became interested (guess they just don’t like talk show hosts jumping networks and potentially competing against them). Now with the whole Jay Leno Show debacle, NBC wants to move a shorter, half-hour version to late night after the news and move Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien and Late Night with Jimmy Fallon 30 minutes later (12:05 and 1:05 respectively). At the same time, FOX is showing interest in wanting Conan (though Conan has gone on record saying no offer has been made). So, will NBC wise up and keep Conan and ditch Leno to keep Conan from moving to FOX, or will they remain stupid and appease Leno and lose Conan.

Here’s what I think they should consider: Keep Conan at 11:35, ’cause The Tonight Show is an American Institution of late night goodness that always follows the news. If they positively have to keep Leno, how about this: ONE FUCKIN’ DAY IN THE WEEK. Is that so hard? Pick a night where The Jay Leno show did somewhat better, and make that the one night it’s on. Avoid filling the 10PM void with repeats (which could actually end up just hurting the local affiliates more anyway), and make all three parties happy (though, don’t know Jimmy Fallon’s view on everything, and no one seems to care about Last Call with Carson Daly (and yes, that show is still on)). I know I’m no TV exec. person, but it seems like a no-brainer.

But, like I said, I’m not a TV exec, nor a professional TV critic/blogger, I just watch the damn thing and I happen to prefer Conan over Leno. I find Conan to be much more enthused, and a hell of a lot funnier. Don’t get me wrong, there were moments when Leno hosted (such as my favorite ‘Headlines’ segment, which he brought over to the Jay Leno Show). At the same time, there was the ‘Battle of the Jaywalk All-Stars’ which no longer exists, because after moving to 10PM, it’s changed to some idiotic Battle of the *insert ridiculous reality shit-show here* Stars (such as the more recent ‘Jersey Shore’ dumbasses). He basically turned a funny segment into a bloated possible PR-bullshit parade.

What Conan brought from his stint at Late Night are still the same segments that WORK, and he added the new ‘Twitter Tracker’ segment (kind of weak, but the animations for it is what matters), but what’s great about Conan, his monologue. He jumps and hops onto the stage, jumps here and there, does his usual ‘puppeteer’ bit, and gets the show going with full energy.

In the end, I’m on Team Conan, and that’s that. If he leaves the Tonight Show because of NBC’s stupidty and finds a gig with FOX, then I’ll have one more show on FOX to look forward to, and one less NBC (even if Leno gets Tonight Show back, I just couldn’t bring myself to watch it, even though I’d miss Headlines). So wherever Conan goes, I’ll watch, but I thing he deserves to be a part of The Tonight Show, it is his time for it, and in these tough times with our economy and everything, we need someone to make us laugh our asses off.

Read Conan’s statement to NBC’s plan: Conan O’Brien Rejects NBC’s Offer

And here’s an article on ‘NBC’s Idea’ to keeping all Leno, Conan, and Fallon: NBC moving Jay Leno out of Primetime

BTW, Conan is hosting tonight’s show, and Zac Levi (Chuck) will be a guest, so YAY! Watch it!

*Update [1/13/10]: Jay Leno May Leave as well, because he too isn’t happy with how NBC themselves are handling everything.