Road Rage Linked to Bumper Stickers

Read a cool article in the Washington Post yesterday about a study that has linked drivers that have a problem with road rage to their use of bumper stickers on their cars.

A recent study by Colorado State University social psychologist William Szlemko concluded that:

Drivers of cars with bumper stickers, window decals, personalized license plates and other “territorial markers” not only get mad when someone cuts into their lane or is slow to respond to a traffic light, they also are far more likely than others to use their vehicles to express rage —by honking, tailgating and other aggressive behavior.

And you may be interested to know that I do not have any bumper stickers on any of my cars. I think they look trashy. But I have seen a few that made me laugh. Last week I saw this one on an old Humpty:

“If you are going to ride my ass . . .
. . . at least pull my hair.”

My Kind of Surfing

Although I love the beach as my as the rest of my family and my daughter is excited about going to surf camp this summer, when I talk about surfing I mean surfing the internet rather than surfing ocean waves. I’ve been surfing the web since the 1980’s and have welcomed the online experience every step of the way.

At work they have a policy of not using the internet connection at your desk for personal use. Let me tell you, absolutely no one obeys that policy. I know that every one of my co-workers does at least check their personal emails once or twice a day, and often spend the time at their desk to reply to or forward personal emails. Some co-workers go way beyond that, using the internet to read the news, shop for clothing or shoes, and I’m pretty sure that the night shift security guard used the internet to look at porn in the middle of the night. I suspect this because when I worked late one night and had to sign out at the lobby security desk, he had stepped away from the desk for a moment and I could see what was on the computer screen - it was not . . . let’s say, “wholesome.”

Well, I have mixed feelings about the whole subject. I think that employers should forgive employees who want to check on their emails and do a few simple internet searches, particularly if they do it at lunch or at break. I don’t see this as anything different than calling home to check on the kids or touching base with your spouse to confirm plans for dinner. They are little moments that everyone needs to ensure a quality of life in their modern world.

However, some people evidently will abuse these types of small privileges, so the company has put this policy into place. But we aren’t a school or a big government agency - we are just a mid sized firm that watches every penny and tightly regulates our employee’s time and activities. Can you imagine the humiliation of getting fired for using company resources for personal use? That sure wouldn’t look very good on the resume. So I found a way to hide my passive resistance to the policy from the company filters and firewall - it’s called using VPN, which means Virtual Private Network.

A geek friend had told me of a way to log on using proxy servers, but then I learned about VPN and this is even better. If you are interested in Anonymous Surfing then you should check out the web site for Black Logic’s VPN - their site is easy to understand and easy to sign up to start using. And for goodness sake, be smart about it - don’t do anything stupid on company time and end up getting fired for your internet surfing.

I Am Legend

Will Smith’s newest DVD, I Am Legend, just hit the stores last month and I picked it up at “Wally’s World of All Things Cheap” on my faith that it would be good since, after all, Will Smith is the star.

The DVD has bonus materials and the website has some goodies for the fans, too. wouldn’t be surprised to see a Playstation game coming out with the must kill all zombies theme.

My son loves the movie - he’s watched it 3 times already. Now he runs around the yard with his super pumper water gun killing pretend zombies.

Interesting concept - that everyone dies quickly from a genetically engineered virus. It was loosely based on fact - as the AIDS virus was manufactured by and released by our government. Only problem is that it takes a long time for someone to die of AIDS, otherwise they had quite a weapon, didn’t they?

Get Rid of Maury Davis!

Just because a guy is charming and persuasive, should we all go listen to and believe in whatever crap spews out of his mouth while prancing around a pulpit in front of TV cameras?

I think that someone who has committed murder and spent 8 and half years in jail is NOT someone that I want to listen to about God and morals.

Gonna Vote?

I can’t get excited about any of these candidates for president.

I think McCain is too old and too hot headed. And his election guarantees more war(s).

I think Obama is too inexperienced and naive. I hate the way he makes great speeches but says the stupidest things when he has to ad lib. If you think Bush was nothing but a puppet, if Obama gets in office he’ll be another one.

I think Clinton is the best of the three, but she isn’t going to make it - she and her skirt chasing hubby have too many enemies.

Is it even worth voting this time?