Mindcryme: A collection of rants.

Why Mindcryme, Melen & rayne will NEVER be on FaceBook

Wikipedia lists over 100 different social networking sites, and each of them does exactly the same thing as at least a dozen others. Some people (especially bloggers) have a profile on each and every one. And they re-post what they said on each over, and over, and over again. “Johnny had peanut butter and jelly for lunch!” shows up a hundred times in your inbox if you follow the same people on each site.

Jailbreak and enable multitasking on iPod Touch 2g MC

I made the mistake of upgrading my iPod Touch 2g (MC Model) to iOS4 without having had any of the 3.1.2 or 3.1.3 SHSH blobs saved to Cydia. If you don’t have those blobs saved, you can’t downgrade from IO4. Until yesterday there wasn’t a jailbreak for the MC iPods. @comex on Twitter released an [...]

Changing the World

I recently joined a web site that deals mostly with conspiracy theories. As expected, there’s a lot of posts on this site that are just so far out of the realm of reality that I find it hard to believe people actually believe them. There was a post this morning where someone asked what each [...]

Brain Beats

What if you could decide exactly what mood you were going to be in and when? If you could fine tune your brainwaves so you could concentrate better at work or relax more on your day off? With brainwave synchronization, you can. But how does it work?

“Midnight Knitter” Brings a Little Color to West Cape May

When I saw the accompanying picture, I laughed out loud. Someone’s running around my home town putting up colorful knitted pieces everywhere. That is just the coolest thing. If I knew how to knit, I’d be doing it here.

Moral of the story? Don’t be a hero in NYC. Homeless, or otherwise.

April 24th, 2010 User

rayne

2 Comments

I’m filled with such outrage and disgust that I’m not entirely sure what to say.

One of my dreams, since I was a little girl, has been to see “the city that never sleeps”. I would imagine the bright lights and tall buildings and constant sirens and hustle and bustle…

But the one thing that never touched my dream world was the complete lack of humanity New Yorkers display on occasion.

I’m not sure I want to go to New York City anymore. I’ll certainly be calling 911 from a distance, rather than aiding someone in trouble if I do go, now.

Hugo Alfredo Tale-Yax, a homeless man in Queens, was victim to New York’s lack of humanity after saving a woman who was attacked with a knife. Hugo fell to the ground and lie dying on the sidewalk as more than twenty people walked around him, staring as they passed, and never lifting a finger to help him. Two people stood beside him chatting. A man came out of the store to take a picture with his cell phone. Another person bent and shook him, but continued walking when he didn’t wake.

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“Midnight Knitter” Brings a Little Color to West Cape May

March 14th, 2010 User

rayne

No Comments

So as I’m clicking away at my poor, abused Stumble button, I come across this headline:

Police hunt ‘The Midnight Knitter’ wool graffiti bandit

When I saw the accompanying picture, I laughed out loud. Someone’s running around my home town putting up colorful knitted pieces everywhere. That is just the coolest thing. If I knew how to knit, I’d be doing it here.

Unfortunately, the police are hunting for the people responsible. It’s a shame, really, because, while I realize it’s technically vandalism, many of the town’s citizens are excited about it. They think the brightly colored scarves bring a more lighthearted air to the town. And it’s not as if any permanent damage was done. A pair of scissors will take these “tags” down if the property owners are that upset by them.

I’m tempted to learn how to knit just so I can do this here.

They have this page, a facebook, and a myspace, so head over to see more of their artwork.

See? There’s still some goodness in this world yet.

Project SKIP – Revitalizing Jerry Burrell Park (Community Project)

March 10th, 2010 User

rayne

1 Comment

What are you doing Saturday, May 22nd?

Do you live in or around Schenectady, New York? Have you used one of our parks or bike trails or playgrounds? Then you’re darn right I’m talking to you. So I ask you again, what are you doing Saturday, May 22nd?

This morning we stopped down to the Muddy Cup to grab some coffee, and I noticed a flier taped to the wall for Project SKIP (Schenectady Kids Imagine and Play). They’re still looking for volunteers. So far, they’ve got around 150 people getting involved. Read more »

Time Warner: Lying by Omission

February 26th, 2010 User

rayne

No Comments

We’ve got National Grid straightened around… sort of. We at least got them to give us till the 1st, finally. Wanna talk about pulling teeth? Utility companies should be tried for terrorism.

So our only worry was Time Warner. We don’t owe them a lot. I think the bill was $163 and change; $107 of it actually past due. And just like with National Grid, we only needed a few days. Four, to be exact. And only two of them were business days. But we’d already had our one extension every six months, and Time Warner, like National Grid, refused to budge.

Okay. No big deal. M could have gone into the office if it got shut off. It’s not like not having internet for four days would kill us. Read more »

National Grid: Anally Raping NY Citizens w/ Their Government’s Help

February 22nd, 2010 User

rayne

1 Comment

Apparently I spoke entirely too soon. I’m not sure I have the energy to talk about it, right now. Basically they want blood from a stone in less than twenty-four hours.

And I bet you’ll never guess how late I am.

Three days. Yep. The bill was due on the 19th. It’s the 22nd. And I only wanted them to wait until the 1st, which is five business days. Hell, I’ve told everyone I’ve spoken with that I’ll cash Melen’s check and pay the bill at the same exact time! You can’t get much better than that short of someone standing over my shoulder every day until then to make sure I do just that.

And at this point, to be honest, I’d do it to keep my power on. He needs electricity for his occupation. I need electricity for mine.

I don’t dispute the fact that I owe them a lot of friggin money. I don’t dispute the fact that I’m usually late. This is mostly due, in part, to my billing cycle not matching Melen’s payment cycle. And this time it would have, but something else came up that had to be handled.

Isn’t that always the way?

But I figured I’d better check in with y’all and make sure you’re reading your agreements carefully. I read mine, today, to find out the NYS government has basically bent me over and held me down while National Grid anally raped me.

I especially like this little gem of a clause proclaiming their right to impale my asshole whether I like it or not:

By law, if we make a field visit to shut off service, this down payment may be up to 50 percent of your outstanding balance or four times your average monthly usage, whichever is greater. If you contact us prior to a scheduled field visit, the down payment need not exceed 30 percent of the outstanding balance or twice your average monthly usage, whichever is greater.

Whichever is greater? What the fuck, NY? Nothing like shafting the people who pay your bills. And you all fucking wonder why the vast majority of the state is in poverty.