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What’s in a name? January 31, 2010

Posted by Fritz in Humor, Yachts and other things that float.
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Where the Dolphin play

Has any other football stadium been as schizophrenic as the one the Miami Dolphins play in? Since 1987, the stadium has sported seven different names—the most recent happening just last week. Sun Life Financial of Canada purchased the rights to rename the stadium—Sun Life Stadium, just in time for the big game.

Wayne ‘Blockbuster, Waste Management, AutoNation’ Huizenga purchased the team and stadium from the founding Robbie family outright in 1993. The stadium was called Joe Robbie Stadium back then. In 1996 Huizenga sold the naming rights to the apparel company Pro Player- thus becoming Pro Player Park. The next year they changed ‘Park’ to ‘Stadium’—Pro Player Stadium. It stayed that way for six years until Pro Player apparel went bankrupt. The stadium’s name was changed to Dolphins Stadium. That lasted a year until somebody realized that pluralizing dolphin was incorrect. Dolphin Stadium remained s-less for the next three years until another corporate sponsor could be found.

In the meantime Stephen M. Ross had purchased 50% of the team and stadium from Huizenga. In January of ’09, he plopped down another billion and secured 95% of the organization. With total control, he set about selling the naming rights once again. Ross brought in Gloria Estefan and Marc Anthony, along with Venus and Serena Willams, as minority owners of the team. He also signed a deal with Jimmy Buffett for the team’s stadium naming rights— Land Shark Stadium after Buffet’s newly launched beer.

Stale beer...

So tonight the NFL’s Pro Bowl will become the first professional football game played in the stadium that has had seven names in it’s 23-year history. The Super Bowl is next week. I bet they can squeeze in another name change by then.

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Cool Website for ‘kids’ January 30, 2010

Posted by Fritz in Yachts and other things that float.
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Here’s the link to the main page. Fun for kids of all ages.

Chris Matthews – Swm January 28, 2010

Posted by Fritz in Yachts and other things that float.
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So what do you see?

Chris Matthews is undoubtedly the poster child for everything I hate about the Left. His comment, “For an hour, I forgot he was black’ after Obama’s SOTU speech last night, reveals the true colors of the MSNBC host.

This seemingly offhanded comment, uttered by anyone on the Right, would be fodder for weeks of editorial screeds and howling commentary on the proof Conservatives are racists. Yet Mr. ‘Tingle up my leg’ Matthews will not even be challenged by anyone on the Left for uttering such a blatantly racist comment. This comment reveals the dirty little secret that all Libs hide…THEY are the racists in our society and have cleverly managed to flip that perception onto the Conservatives through the deft assistance of the Media.

When I told my wife about the comment, her head snapped around and her jaw dropped to the floor. Her reaction was notable for the fact she doesn’t subscribe to nearly the degree of Rightness I do. She leans slightly right of center.  We both agreed that neither of us see Obama as Black. She said she just sees a man while I said I saw the amalgamation of Stalin, Mao and Che morphed into one face sitting on those shoulders.

As hard as it will be for any Liberal to believe that we, one very moderate and one very hard core Conservative, do not see a black man or identify Obama first by his race when we look at him, it is true.

Maybe it’s because my mother pounded the maxim, ‘do not judge a book by its cover’ into my head for as long as I could remember. I truly do not see ‘Black Man’ when I see Obama. What I see is ‘Socialist Man’ who happens to be Black. The same way I see Allen West as ‘Conservative Savior’ who happens to be Black.

So it was a nice try Chris Matthews, your recent interviews with Howard Dean and Florida Rep., Alan Grayson (interview starts 3:50 into piece) almost made me believe you were in fact a professional journalist able to put aside personal political beliefs and do what a real journalist does, report the facts without bias or political slant. Now I realize those two interviews, coming right after Scott Brown’s stunning win in Massachusetts, were  smoke screens.

When I look at you Chris Matthews, I don’t see a White man, I see a ‘racist hack’ that happens to be White.

Chris Matthews – Stupid White Man

UPDATE: Fabulous 500 words on the subject from ACE

I now type with an Indian accent January 25, 2010

Posted by Fritz in Yachts and other things that float.
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My AT&T U-Verse was acting up so I went on-line to the live tech chat for help.

The following is my conversation with rr170g(Reinalaine).

System

Welcome Frederick Breland.

System

Connecting to server. Please wait…

System

Connection with server established.

You

Technical Support Topic: SF: Line Test Failed

System

rr170g(Reinalaine) has joined this session!

System

Connected with rr170g(Reinalaine)

rr170g(Reinalaine)

Thank you for choosing AT&T, My name is Reine (rr170g) with U-verse Support. To provide you with excellent service today, may I have the name and phone number with your Uverse account?

You

Frederick Breland XXX-XXX-XXXX

rr170g(Reinalaine)

Hello Mr. Breland, a good evening to you. Thank you for the information. May you please provide us with 2 can be reached numbers so we could use it for future account and service notifications?

You

XXX-XXX-XXXX

rr170g(Reinalaine)

All right, thank you. Mr. Breland, how are you doing this evening?

You    (I am now thinking with an Indian accent)

Splendid

rr170g(Reinalaine)

I’m glad to know that and I’m more than happy to assist you with a Very Satisfying service today.

rr170g(Reinalaine)

How can I assist you with your Uverse service and make you a very satisfied customer?

You

I am experiencing digital freezing in my picture. The problem has been going on for three days now. I ran the diagnostic test and received this message: The AT&T Self Support Tool has detected an issue with your network. In order to resolve this issue, please contact us. I trust you can help me.

rr170g(Reinalaine)

I see. I apologize for this most inconvenience Mr. Breland. Don’t worry, I will personally help you with this today, so you can expect results.

rr170g(Reinalaine)

May I please ask you a few questions to help me properly diagnose the problem and figure out appropriate troubleshooting steps to get this resolved today for total satisfaction.

rr170g(Reinalaine)

?

You

yes

rr170g(Reinalaine)

All right. May I knows how many TVs are affected and does picture freeze on all channels?

You

two tv’s,  yes they freeze on all channels but it is far worse on the HD channels

rr170g(Reinalaine)

I see. May I know the type of cable you’re using? Is it an HDMI cable?

You

no, RGB cables

You

the cable out of the wall into the box is coax

rr170g(Reinalaine)

I see. Have you tried any troubleshooting steps to try resolving the issue?

You

Yes, I re-booted both the cable box and the modem/router to no avail

rr170g(Reinalaine)

I see. What I will be doing is run line tests from my end to check for any line issue.

You

ok thank you

rr170g(Reinalaine)

No worries, you’re most welcome, Mr. Breland.

rr170g(Reinalaine)

Running line tests, it shows me that you’re actually getting quality levels of connectivity. Congratulations.

rr170g(Reinalaine)

However, I will check into the status of you DVR and receiver

rr170g(Reinalaine)

there’s a possibility that the boxes are misconfigured.

rr170g(Reinalaine)

Don’t worry, I will be fixing this for you.

rr170g(Reinalaine)

Mr. Breland, the two set top boxes are currently active. If I may ask, are there any recordings saved on the DVR?

You

yes I have 4 programs saved

rr170g(Reinalaine)

We need to do a forced disaster recovery to set the DVR back to it’s default settings and refresh the box to make it work optimally. However this step will delete the recordings. So what we’ll do instead is to power drain the box.

You

Saving the recordings is not important

rr170g(Reinalaine)

All right, let us proceed troubleshooting. I will be sending the steps

rr170g(Reinalaine)

before you perform it onto the DVR.

rr170g(Reinalaine)

Please give me a moment here to prepare the steps for you.

You

ok

rr170g(Reinalaine)

Here’s waht we need to do:

rr170g(Reinalaine)

Please press and hold the power button on the front of your DVR and while holding it down, press the OK button and the Down arrow button at the same time.

You

The TV is in a different room than this computer. I will need to write these instructions down and then perform them

rr170g(Reinalaine)

That’s all right sir, by all means take you time. Next to that, please release hold of the power button to have a free hand to unplug the power cable at the back. (The one in line with the power button infront).

rr170g(Reinalaine)

But keep the OK button and the Down held down.

You

ok

rr170g(Reinalaine)

Plug the power cord after around ten seconds. Please don’t release hold onto the OK button and the Down arrow button until something comes up on the Tv screen.

You

ok I will endeavor to do that now

rr170g(Reinalaine)

All right. I’m this is what we just need to do to resolve the issue.

You

i will do it now

rr170g(Reinalaine)

Okay, just take you time Mr. Breland. I have all the time for you today.

(about two minutes elapses)

You

The system has re-booted and so far no freezing….

rr170g(Reinalaine)

That’s great, it’s a good sign. Usually, how far along since the time the TV is powered on before picture freezes?

You

It had been happening quite soon after the tv is turned on. I will need to watch some to make sure it has been corrected…is that OK (1-2 minutes)?

rr170g(Reinalaine)

Yes, not a problem. I would aslo like to make sure I’ve taken care of this issue within this chat session so you are very satisfied.

You

ok I will watch for a minute or two

rr170g(Reinalaine)

Alrgiht, while you’re at that let me provide you information where to get help in case of minor service issues.

rr170g(Reinalaine)

You may visit http://www.Uverse.att.com/support for helpful pages to assist you or view channel 411 of your Uverse TV for more information about your Uverse services.

(another 3 minutes pass by)

You

Reinalaine, I do believe you have fixed the problem. Thank you very much.

rr170g(Reinalaine)

Perfect! You’re most welcome, Mr. Breland. I’m so glad we fixed this today.

rr170g(Reinalaine)

Would there be anything else I can help you with?

You

No I should not think so. You have performed wonderfully and I thank you.

rr170g(Reinalaine)

Oh, no need to thank me. I must thank you for providing me the opportunity to assist you today,sir. It has been my pleasure.

rr170g(Reinalaine)

By the way, is yout Internet working well?

rr170g(Reinalaine)

*your

You

Oh yes, very well thank you.

rr170g(Reinalaine)

That’s great! Are you satisfied with the browsing speed by far?

You

Yes I am, I upgraded to the 6MB speed and it is sufficient for my needs

rr170g(Reinalaine)

That’s wonderful! I would not hold you for long, Mr. Breland so you can rest now. Just one last thing before we go..

rr170g(Reinalaine)

I am glad that I was able to resolve your issue today. You may receive a survey in the next few days. The purpose of the survey is to ensure that you were “very satisfied” with the service that I have provided you today. If you receive that survey, would you indicate you were “very satisfied” with the service I have provided?

You

By all means! I was ‘very satisfied’ with your service.

rr170g(Reinalaine)

That is great, thank you so much. Mr. Breland, thank you for choosing AT&T, we do value your business.

rr170g(Reinalaine)

Have a great night!

You

Good Day to you, and thank you for making me ‘very satisfied’.

rr170g(Reinalaine)

Oh, you’re most welcome, anytime. You definitely made my working day great one, Mr. Breland!

What a Putz January 24, 2010

Posted by Fritz in Yachts and other things that float.
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Obama spoke to a class of 6th graders at Graham Road Elementary School in Falls Church, Virginia on Tuesday January 19, 2010.

This chump can’t even talk to a bunch of 6th graders without a tele-prompter.

Update: Apparently the teleprompter was set up for a presser held afterward. Still I’m inclined to show as much charity to Obama as the left gave to Bush i.e. none. And even if it was for a presser, needing a teleprompter is still kind of embarrassing. We’re talking about giving a prepared statement and answering a few questions here, not the Gettysburg Address. Via Ace.

Florida’s Next US Congressman January 21, 2010

Posted by Fritz in Yachts and other things that float.
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