More 12-year old logic

Tags

Cell phone, Children, home, home phones, Humor, Kids, landline, Mobile phone, Parenting, Text messaging

About 40 minutes ago, Baby B called me at work and wanted to know if it was okay if he went over to my house because he’s bored at his mom’s.  I moved a block away from my ex for this specific reason.

“Sure,” I told him.  “Just call me and let me know when  you get there.  I then reminded him of the rules for being home alone:  no playing outside, don’t ever answer the door for anybody, and if there’s an emergency to call 911.

Five minutes pass and my phone rings.  It’s Baby B telling me that they’re just now leaving their mom’s house.

“I told you to call me when you got there, not when you left,” I tell him.

“I didn’t want to get in trouble not leaving right away,” he explained.

“Yeah, ” I quipped, “because you get in trouble for that all the time.”

Twenty minutes pass and I have not received a call from either of them.  It only takes 5 minutes to walk from her house to mine so I call Baby B.

“Um, where are  you?” I ask him after he answered the phone.

“At home,” he answered, meaning my house.

“Why didn’t you call me?”

“I texted you.”

“Son, do you remember why I gave you my work number?”

“Yeah, you don’t get a signal at work.”

“That means I didn’t get your text, son.”

“I texted your work phone.”

What?!

“Son, my work phone is a landline.  Do we get texts on our home phone?”

“No.”

“Do you know of any home phones that can text?”  I asked this knowing that there is such a thing as home phones that text, but I know he doesn’t.

“No.”

“So then why would you text my work phone?”

“I don’t know.”

Ugh….  I love my children but sometimes….  Well, just sometimes.

 

Convicted of murder for texting and driving?

Tags

Cell phone, cell phones, distracted driving, Drunk Driving, editorial, Editorials, Homicide by Vehicle, News, Opinion

Wow.

38 states have made texting while driving illegal, but it looks like Massachusetts will be the first to imprison someone for breaking this law.

Aaron Deveau has been found guilty of motor vehicle homicide by texting and faces up to four years in prison after his vehicle swerved into oncoming traffic and hit a pick up truck and killing Donald Bowley on Feb 20 earlier this year.

I’m kind of torn on this.  I agree that Deveau needs to be held accountable for driving carelessly and ultimately causing the death of another human being.

On the other hand, this man is going to have a murder charge on his record for the rest of his life for merely checking his phone while driving.

I guess ultimately, I agree with the ruling.  Texting while driving is dangerous and unnecessary.  Is there really a text so important that you can’t wait until you get where you’re going to answer it?  Is a text message worth a life?

This conviction and the subsequent sentence may seem harsh, but if people aren’t held accountable the message is never going to be heard.  People need to know that there will be consequences for driving negligently and putting other lives at risk.  Just like driving drunk is dangerous, texting or being otherwise disturbed by a cell phone is even more dangerous.   According to this article, distracted driving (which includes cell phone usage) ranks higher than drunk driving.  I checked a couple of other sites and cell phone usage ranked higher on those sites as well.

The bottom line is this:  driving while texting (or using a cell phone in any other capacity) is dangerous and can be lethal.  Yes, this conviction and punishment are harsh, but the message needs to get out there.  Don’t text while driving.  You shouldn’t even text while walking.  We’ve all seen the videos of people falling into manholes while texting while walking.  Hell, Ryan Gosling became a “hero” a month or so ago when he stopped a woman who was texting while walking from meandering out in front of a bus.

What do you guys think?  Is the punishment too harsh, too lenient, or just right?

Related articles

• Distracted Driving Month: Putting Texting in a Safer Context (parkingsigns.net)
• Simulator Shows Texting While Driving Is As Dangerous As Drunk Driving (baltimore.cbslocal.com)
• Homicide Charges In Texting While Driving Death (krdo.com)

Random Thought of the Day: Copious random thoughts

Tags

Adrian Peterson, America's Got Talent, Cell phone, Chicago Bears, fantasy football, Howard Stern, Jerry Sandusky, Minnesota Vikings, NTSB, Penn State, Random Stuph, Random Thought of the Day, Sam Hurd, Tebowing, TV

I have more than one thought today!  The coffee is working…heh heh heh heh.

• So some 52-year old douchecanoe started beating the crap out of his 8th grade son after his son’s team lost game during a basketball tournament.  WTF?  You know, it’s pathetic enough when grown men attempt to live vicariously through their children’s accomplishments, but then to viciously assault them after they lose?   That’s a new low.  I honestly can’t think of a word appropriate enough to describe how despicable this.  After searching thesaurus.com I still could not find a suitable word.  How fucking lame is this guy?
• Four kids at a New York high school were suspended for a day for “Tebowing” in between classes.  This is more stupidity displayed by our nation’s school system.  Allegedly, 40 kids participated in the between-class spectacle, yet only the 4 were suspended because “Tebowing was blocking the halls and could potentially cause a riot, because they were growing in number and if the wrong kid gets pushed a brawl could ensue.”  Really?  Does this principle truly believe that?  If so, this person is unfit for his/her job and needs to be relieved of his/her duties.  I’m definitely no fan of these idiotic photo fads, but let’s be real here.  These kids should have received a warning and nothing else.  This country has become so prudish it’s embarrassing.
• Jerry Sandusky, the ex-Penn State football coach who’s been charged with over 50 counts of sexually abusing children, has defending taking showers with young boys by stating that the children needed to be taught how to take a shower.  Just how stupid does Sandusky and his lawyer think the rest of humanity is?  This traif is obviously guilty and I hope they chop his dick off.
• This kick-ass water-jet propulsion device lets you traverse through water like a dolphin.  For $6500, you can shoot up to 30 feet high out of the water.  One day, when I win the lottery (hahahahahahahahahaha, right) I’ll get one of these.
• Chicago Bears wide receiver Sam Hurd was arrested for (allegedly) attempting to buy enough cocaine and marijuana to start his own distribution network in Chicago.  He solicited the sale from, ironically enough, an undercover officer.  Doesn’t being an NFL receiver pay well enough?  Does he really need the extra revenue?  Hell, the NFL minimum salary for one year is more than a majority of Americans earn in a lifetime.  What’s wrong with this tool?
• Controversial, and idiotic, radio personality Howard Stern has signed on to become a judge on NBC’s “hit” show America’s Got Talent.  Query:  Shouldn’t the judge’s panel have talent if they’re going to judge whether other’s have talent?
• Proof of how moronic fantasy football makes certain people, Vikings running back Adrian Peterson was offered a visit from a fantasy owner’s wife.  Seriously, guy?  It’s a fucking game.  A game based on the results of another game.  Dumbass. I hope Peterson plays this week so we can see if this dude actually sends his wife to see Peterson.
• Here’s a nice story about an 11-year old boy who sneaked out of his house to attend the wake of a firefighter who had died in the line of duty.   It’s too bad this boy is the exception, and not the rule, of how our youth behave nowadays.
• The NTSB has recommended a full, national ban on cell phones while driving.  I concur.  Cell phone usage while driving is now causing more auto accidents than drunk-driving.  This law will be almost impossible to enforce, though, so I suggest making it mandatory for auto makers to place devices in cars from now on that disrupt cell phone signals.  There’s no call or text important enough to risk death, people.
• I don’t know how this guy expected to get away with this.  What a moron.
• Finding a 500lb bear in my basement would probably cause me to piss my pants.
• In an extremely overdue move, the US officially lowered the flag, and ended the War in Iraq yesterday.  I’m not sure this war accomplished anything.
• Some dude in PA beat his wife’s 2-year old multiple times because he thought she was spoiled and needed to toughen up.  Well, let’s kick his ass a few times because he’s a dick.  These multiple assaults occurred between March and May, and the mother never reported them.  This child needs to be removed from her care.  Yes, Virginia, there are deadbeat mothers out there.

Ugh, that’s enough thinking for now.  Any random thoughts I should have, uh, thought?

Sprint SUCKS

Tags

AT&T, Cell phone, Smartphone, Sprint, Suck, Terrible Customer Service

A few months ago I ended my long-term relationship with AT&T and switched to Sprint Mobile for my cell phone service. I had no problems with the AT&T service, it was their billing practices that pissed me off. The final straw came when I gave my wife my old Samsung Jack. She wanted to be able to check her email and Facebook at work and she couldn’t do it on her computer due to their usage policy. She said that they had a WiFi hotspot there for customers so I showed her how to use the phone and connect to the WiFi.

Not even 24 hours later I received a text on my phone telling my that a data plan has been added for my wife’s phone. I called, yelled, pissed, and moaned, but AT&T will apparently not let you use any sort of smartphone without having a data plan. I pointed out to the stupid bitch kind lady that I spoke to that the phone had WiFi and data wasn’t needed, but she didn’t care. So I told them that they could take their plan and put it where there’s always an eclipse.

I shopped around for cell phone plan prices online and found that Sprint (allegedly) would either be slightly cheaper or about the same as I was paying with AT&T.  I went to the local Sprint store where my wife and I both pick out Android phones, and then we picked out some flip phones for my mom and her mom, who are both on our plan.  The sales lady told us that we would be paying roughly $10 less than we were at AT&T.

Issue number one with Sprint is the lack of a customizable plan.  With AT&T I could pick what services I wanted for each phone on my plan.  With Sprint if you get data on one phone you have to get it on all the phones.  This strikes me as completely dumb, but whatever, the sales chick told me I’d be spending less money.

I later on found out about a whole bunch of shit that the stupid bitch lovely sales lady didn’t tell me.  The first (biggest) was that the first bill includes the first and last month of the contract.  This is one of the dumbest things I’ve ever heard of.  Why would they need two months of payments up front?  I never had to do that with AT&T or Cincinnati Bell.

Another thing the stupid bitch kind sales lady told me is that since none of our phones were 4G phones that we wouldn’t have to pay the $10 surcharge for data.  Well, she was either wrong or lying to me.  I later found out that practice ended as of January 1 of this year.  Why wouldn’t she know that?  So that added another $20 a month to my bill since my wife and I both have smartphones.

The last thing that ruined my Sprint experience was the insurance.  Sprint charges $6.99 a month while AT&T charges only $4.99 a month.  I wanted insurance on the phones, but that added another $24 a month to my bill that she didn’t tell me about.  She didn’t tell me the price of insurance, didn’t ask me if I wanted it, and didn’t ask me before adding it to my plan.

So I’m now paying roughly $50 more a month than I was originally quoted by the stupid bitch knowledgeable sales lady.  It was a dumbfuck trifecta.

I went back up to the store later after I had found all of this out from a customer service representative on a follow-up phone call.  I went and talked to the manager and advised him of the stupid bitch’s sales lady’s incompetence and asked him what he would do about it.  Nothing.  I got raped by Sprint and this douche didn’t give a shit.

The Sprint service and the phones are great, but Sprint’s billing practices (and suspect sales methods) are far worse, and much more shady, than AT&T’s.  So, needless to say, after my contract is up I will not be renewing it and will probably go back to AT&T.  It may suck, but at least its a familiar, more tolerable, suck.