"HP Photosmart C5500 Series" All-in-One inkjet printers ,,, DO NOT LET YOU CHOOSE THE SIZE AND TYPE OF PRINT !! What the HE-ll ??!!

Microsoft's Hotmail does not let you easily select the size and style of print before you "print" .


And now HP does not let you select the size of print with their printer software!!


What kind of a conspiracy is this?!

Dec.2010,,,President Obama and the Republicans!,and some Democrats have EXTENDED TAX CUTS FOR THE SUPER RICH instead of letting them expire after $700 BILLION IN LOST TAXES on 1jan2011 ,,,!!

What-the-hell! did we elect a Democrat to the White House in 2008 for !!,,, if he, as the first black President, is going down in history as the biggest compromising character and hypocritical national leader since Bill Clinton promised!! us on tv he was not having an affair with Monica ,,, and President Kennedy was cheating all the time we now know on us in prolonging the un-Win-able VietNam War and dragging his feet on Civil Rights and cheating on his beautiful wife, in the White House !?


If a Progressive Party, like the TR's bull moose from the 1910s and the Repubs, appears soon (Greens?) especially from the now definitely proven to be ineffectual (too easy virtue to make a deal so corp. american can make a fast buck) Democratic National Party, President Obama will have had only one term.  He has just so severely disappointed his base , that it would take another bro-Gov. Florida corruption election with the sick Supremes for him to get a second term.  We now know what we did not want to know; He talks with high purpose but does weak embarrassing back room deals instead of standing strong with his base and fighting for principles and worthy goals.


So he has agreed to weaken Social Security.  Huge disappointment.  HUGE.  And not bring back progressive taxation, on companies that are EXPORTING AMERICAN JOBS FOR A FAST BUCK and the super rich who can sooo afford it; It is such a weak excuse to say a recession is the wrong time to raise taxes on those who can easily afford it, when you won't raise taxes in the go-go bubble good times of the 1990s !!


No wonder old good Democrats have been 'retiring' and leaving Congress and Washington,D.C. like a fire alarm only they can hear!  Or maybe it is like a sinking rowboat ,,, with the Republicans throwing away the oars and all rushing to the front to get a better view as it sinks ,,, and the Democrats have legs straddling both gunwales, not sure if they are suppose to rock the boat or jump off the left side or the right side or stabilize the boat.


So we got a National Medical Plan, if it doesn't have even a public option, since the President campaign talked about Single Payer. And now the federal courts are weakening it with questions about everyone having to pay in, like all having to buy car insurance to drive in California.  Or buy flood insurance if you buy a house even tho Ross Creek probably will never flood unless mgmt wants it to.  Or be drafted in college for VietNam when then there was zero chance of winning and our leaders knew it.


The bankers are again so arrogant--have you seen them partying lately too?-- after their big tax dollar bail out when we should have let them be broken up and started a national public works program for more American jobs and to fix the Crumbling American Infrastructure (see documentary dvd) from highways to exploding gas lines to water lines and sewage plants to bridges falling in rivers and killing people.  We should have outlawed a.r.m.s mortgages and nationalized all housing mortgages at a super low rate like 1%fixed to keep Americans in their houses.


But none of that is going to happen , i guess.  Now that President Obama has shown his true nature of compromise, tho talk big, but don't fight for what you said you believed in.  We, the public, have just lost all hope.  Maybe the blacks will still vote for him;  They don't value education over a fast buck and understand compromised ethics.  And Mexicans expect so little from their govt(mordita anyone) that they as Mexican-Americans won't give a dam about the USA's future and vote for him too.


But his embarrassing back room recently revealed behavior, like Clinton's and astonishingly Kennedy's, has severely disappointed in my opinion the white vote and the majority vote made up of hard working, well educated, not rich Americans. 

My own "Not Yet Funny, never ever NOT going to your movie, Not even watching your tv show for 5 sec,,, LIST

1-Ben St-ill-er
2-Owen W-ill-son
3-Steve Carr-eeek-ll
4-David Sp-aaah-de
5-Martin short
6-Will F-aaah-rrell
7-Jack Bl-aaah-ck
8-s-eek-th rogan
9-jas-ohno alexander
10-co-noway-an obrien
11-jerry steinfeld
12-lady gaga
13-kim jong ill
14-vince vaughnono
15-putin
16-senator mcc
17-baba wawa
18-dukes of hazard
19-walker texas ranger
20-

Mom and Dad, Are you hugging and cheek-kissing your kids every day? You should let them know you love them every day,,, or they might grow up to be,,, Republicans !!

This year, 2010,  and this month of December for Christmas, the Republican National Party seems to want us to remember that they were the Big Bad Grinches of Christmas' past ,,, and now all the Nation's Christmas future !!  (Obviously, they were not shown enough affection as children !!)


So,,, are you hugging your kids and telling them you "love u", every day ??
Yes, you feed and clothe and send them off to school and make sure they do ALL their homework ,,, teach them good values and morals to develop good Democrat / Green character ,,, but doesn't everybody do that ??  Yes, you teach them to be civil and kind and polite ,,, and education is very important ,,, as is a honest hearty healthy democratic republic of the USA ,,, and be fair, like steep progressive taxes of old.  


But do you hug and squeeze their little lungs, cheek-kiss them and actually tell them "i love you" every day ,,, so they really really really KNOW IT ,,, (and hopefully don't turn out as unhappy, mean and nasty, unloved, selfish and dishonest,,, obviously neglected as children,,, anarchistic Republicans) ??
Senator McC,,,probably bottle fed. So sad.

The TODAY SHOW's website STILL does not work !! Dec. 2010: Where is the list of present day show topics/segments? Where is the top of page "email TODAY" or "email Matt" ??

What a mess, visually and practically.
NBC,,, UNIVERSAL,,, the TODAY SHOW ,,,


yikes

A little Christmas decorating for the snowless suburbs ,,, and practical Gardening too: Scatter some gypsum on the lawn and the flower beds, looks like snow, but will help break up the sticky clay soil and aid aeration come SPRING !!

Yeah, it's a rip at $12-14 for a 50lb bag , but it goes a long way.  

Save some money at the USPS: all insured packages are treated the same and the risk of losing one is minor, so pay the minumum of $1.75 and RELAX

Yes, if they lose the package they will only pay the minimum of $25, but do you really think/plan/expect YOUR PACKAGE  to be the one in a million to get lost ?

Comcast ,,, Dec. 2010 ,,, When you pay for 'digital cable' and 'HD cable' , why can't you get the best , HD, for most or all channels ,,, instead of both ??

 i recently bought my first big flat screen tv on one of those tv shopping channels and made the mistake of buying one with analog and digital.  I had so many channels, plus all the duplication in analog ,,,and in digital ,,, and in HD  ,,, that i went through Hell but did send the tv back.


Now with Comcast i am paying in Silicon Valley for 'digital HD tv' and yet here i am , again !! , with the inferior digital channels having the lowest number and be pushed on me and the higher quality HD channels are somewhere in the 700s !!  I don't know which channels are in my package because they are not marked and differentiated from the HUNDREDS OF OTHER CHANNELS.  And when i use the 'last' button on the Comcast remote , i often get in a situation where i am not going back and forth between two different  programs on the higher quality HD channels , as i wish, but between the digital and HD version of the SAME CHANNEL AND PROGRAM !!


Comcast is basically a monopoly if your apartment will not let you put up a dish and AT&T is so awful.  And it is so frustratingly mediocre from what it easily could and should be for the money, like $105/mo. !!

Comcast ,,,Dec.2010,,, You can not turn the tv cable volume high enough at "50" ,,,

This is a no-brainer basic in Silicon Valley.
  
So why is it so hard for Comcast to care to deliver by cable a signal you can turn to a 'loud' level !?

San Jose, Ca., Dec. 2010 ,,, and STILL ,,, such a MESS of a place to live ,,,

ok , we got rid of that Terrible morally-bankrupt Mayor, Ron Gonzales ,,,


But,,,


1-TRAFFIC:  Some , some call this the 'heart' of Silicon Valley , but we do not have one expressway or boulevard with TIMED LIGHTS BY COMPUTER !!  I  am not talking regular 2 lane streets, but divided 2x2 or 3x3 or 4x4 major thoroughfares !!  NOT ONE .  Our new much better Mayor says they have been on the 'to do' list for decades ,,, and we have the personnel , paid for in place for decades ,,, and the huge computer in place for decades ,,, 'but we need a new larger computer.'  Really !!  Traffic is horrible. The commute is horrible.  Even before and after the holiday shopping season.  Valley Fair is still the #1 grossing shopping center (with tons of free parking) and the $Bs spent to 'redevelop' and teardown and rebuild most of downtown San Jose , with the city govt. moving back downtown(WITH LOTS OF EXPENSIVE PARKING METERS AND EXPENSIVE LOTS ,,,will city govts ever ever ever learn?!) in a new super expensive building(with a falcon nest on top, ok, and a cool 24-7 falcon cam , to keep the 30-60 diseases transmitted to humans ,pigeon problem at bay) , the DOWNTOWN is still mostly a ghost town ,,, in spite of the new high rise luxury office buildings and many luxury high rise luxury condos ,,, and a monument that looks like a cowpie ,,, oh, and not enuf night walking police , natch.  So computer timing all the major divided boulevards and expressways would do so much to alleviate the terrible traffic and the skunky smog pollution, but we will die waiting for the politicians.  It is so easy a FIX.  (oh, SF has at least 3 timed streets.
They did have at least 5, including highways 101-van ness street and highway 1=19th avenue.)  Sooo embarrassing , for the much vaunted computer industry.


POLICE:   We live in a really, if that is possible , nice looking and expensive part of southern central SJ called Lincoln Glen with homes on Westgate and Cottle going for well over a $M, even tho the wiring and plumbing are too old 1950s behind the walls ,,, and when you phone the SJPD that there are carpenters remodeling a house on the street, again, and at the end of the day RACING DOWN THE 25MPH STREET AT OVER 50MPH WITH CHILDREN AND YOUNG FAMILIES MOVING INTO THESE OLDER RANCH STYLE HOUSE ,,,What do you get from the SJPD ?  Nothing.  They never show.  Day after day.  You call ,,, and the San Jose Police Department ,,, NEVER SHOWS.  No excuse.  And they are among the highest paid ,,, in the  Nation !!?


POLLUTION:  This valley, Santa Clara ,use to be famous for plums, cherries, walnuts and apricot tree orchards for miles and miles.  And before in the Spanish and Mexican rule days , the Almaden cinnabar MERCURY 'quick silver' mines !! Nowadays, we have all these computer industry 'Superfund' toxic cancerous underground chemical leaking tanks that have massively and broadly polluted our ground water.   And real estate agents are getting OVER $1M for a standard ranch 3br-2ba built in the 1950s for less than $20k with aged wiring and old fouled pipes !!?  (Talk about lack of full disclosure ...)


Smog is as bad as L.A. ,,, due to the rim around the Bay of these small hills, a natural smog trap, in Summer and some days threw out the year, like just the other day.  "Don't go outside cuz it is a 'spare the air day' !!" 


Diamond lanes are under used, and we only have 4x4 freeways unlike SoCal that has 8x8s and 10x10s, even 11x11s and can afford to lose a lane to such politican foolish failure of a plan.  So cars in the other 2 or 3 lanes just sit during the commute,,, making more SMOG !!


We are force to pay Federal Flood Insurance ,,, because of Ross Creek, which is a small concrete channel ,straight, about 12-15ft wide.  SUCH A RIP OFF !!


COST OF LIVING:  We kicked out the lying bum , Republican Governor Grey Davis , who got us to de-regulate home gas and electric rates by weakening the state PUC long time mostly effective cost controls.  But we did not RE-REGULATE home gas and electric rates! Big state govt failure on Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's and state legislatures part !!  i know a retired couple , both 92, living on one state public school teachers pension and their savings ,,, who are PAYING $400-500 PER MONTH FOR PG&E HOME GAS AND ELECTRIC , BEFORE THEY TURN THE NEW AIR CONDITIONER ON FOR HUSBAND'S HEALTH REASONS  ,,, AND $100 PER MONTH FOR WATER FOR A 3BR-2BA WITH A NICE FRONT AND BACK YARD LAWN AND MANY TREES.  This is highway robbery.


JOBS:  One company locally , HP , laid off over 30,000 workers ,,, and sent the jobs to India, China , whatever.   And there is this crazy attitude here that 'everyone must be one of those Silicon Valley Multimillionaires, so stop complaining about the inflated high too high prices on most every thing' !!  Most companies don't pay anywhere near THE COST OF LIVING IN THE SOUTH S.F. BAY AREA !!  It isn't that 'd.i.n.k.' /double income no kids is not nearly enough to buy a condo or a small cheap house in a safe neighborhood, it is that compared to the 1950s and 60s , it will take you at least 4 INCOMES  to get that then STANDARD OF LIVING, a stay at home mom, 4 kids, all college and university educated, long 3 month summer vacations of the western national parks with the parents, 2 cars in the garage/driveway, and an $18,ooo 3br-2ba house built in 1953 that would sell nowadays for OVER $700,000.oo !!  This place and the economy are SO OUT-OF-WACK !!


SCHOOLS: There are way too many school districts in 'Silly Con Valley'.  Too many Superintendents getting too many golden handshakes and golden parachutes and bloated salaries ,,, with little or NO ACCOUNTABILITY for the PUBLIC SCHOOLS to do better than worse !!  This again is more of the same sick area mentality of 'get rich quick , be as irresponsible as you can as no one will notice , and to hell with everyone else'.  There should be one large and well organized school district with accountability at every level.  Parents that suck at parenting and don't have their kids do their homework  get   'bonehead' classes in parenting.  Teachers that still don't know how to teach get a semester with a great model teacher.  Principals who hide in their offices and do little get replaced by eager recent college graduates.  And fat-cat Superintendents and Assistant Superintendents of Silicon Valley who ,i swear i personally witnesses, do nothing but sit at their desk and for 6 months receive full pay for only planning their weddings, get immediately Fired, and replaced by eager recent college graduates.  We , as a State and a society, can not afford the waste ,as rich as we in the USA are, of professional educators at public schools who do not do their very best every day.  If the unions and educators and administrators can not get behind that , then maybe it is time to get rid of all public instruction as failed Meg Whitman proposed and just do paid charter schools for those that can afford it.


WEATHER:   Yes it is mostly pleasant.  But why is the only federal or govt weather station at the San Jose Airport , where no one lives, instead of at downtown San Jose ,,, or Valley Fair where many shop ,,, or at multiple locations like Willow Glen and Eastridge and the Rose Garden neighborhoods ?


SECRET CORPORATE TAX AND FEE BREAKS, TOO TOO MANY:  Why do we have to allow all these politicians this massive secrecy ,,, if all these massive deals are so good for us !?  And these same companies shit on this land and the Bay.  It makes no sense.

AAA has gone Way Downhill in Roadside Service !! And does not apologize or give credit for BAD SERVICE ,,, beware

In 2010, i had 3 bad service calls for roadside assistance with CSAA , and complained loudly about all three, but got not one credit and not one apology.


The first time i locked myself out of my car at work in SF. The female tow truck/service truck driver arrived soon enough, but the tried to put wedges all around my Acura window and then fish for the door release ,,, instead of using a slim jim .  I asked her to not loosen my window in its channel and use the slim jim instead ,,, and she said if i didn't like it she left!!  CSAA sent out a guy who quickly used a slim jim with much less risk of breaking my car window glass.


The second one was a work vehicle in monterey with a rattling hubcap, i told the CSAA dispatcher.  A young guy shows up with a small pair of RUSTED needle nose pliers and small RUSTED screwdriver and " i didn't bring my tools , cuz i usually don't need them."  So i sent him away, and the next guy had a full tool kit and wrench tightened the one loose hubcap.


The last time was a friend and his little son in a new  Lincoln SUV with a flat tire at Pebble Beach CC.  The CSAA/AAA dispatcher sent a guy in less than 45 minutes ,but he did not bring the right size lug wrench for that make of car and size of lug nuts ... 
so my friend had his new Lincoln towed to Costco by a retail tow truck and had it fixed there so he could get home quickly.


THAT IS 3 BIG FAT FAILURES IN ONE YEAR BY AAA ,,, WITH NO APOLOGY ,,, AND NO CREDIT ,,,


Beware of AAA's lousy low standards recently !!