The Ramblings of a Fosgnilbmareht

I know very little about politics. I don’t like following as it is usually boring and pointless. Yeah a lot of people will argue that I should follow it because my one little vote will make a difference, but really, it won’t. Especially in the vote for the presidency. How many of you out there know that when you vote on that first Tuesday after the first Monday in November in a year when the President is up for election, that you aren’t actually voting for the president you want? Instead, you are voting for someone to vote for the President you want. This person may or may not actually vote for that person. Crazy right?

Anyway, I am getting off the topic I wanted to write about. Recently, the government (House of representatives, senate and our great President Bush [:rolls my eyes here:]), signed an economic stimulus package type bill. They did this to try to prevent the recession that already seems to have hit us. Now that people are getting their checks, is it helping the economy at all? I don’t think it is. The people who I know who have gotten it said it went straight to paying bills and not spending it like the government thought they would. I’m not positive but this isn’t directly or immediately helping the economy.

I’m not complaining about the free money (technically it’s not free since it is probably coming out of the tax money we pay anway), since I’m all for free money. But I’ll tell you up front right now that my check is going to pay bills too.

If they really wanted to help the economy, they should do something about the crashing housing market, the insanely ridiculous gas prices or the climbing unemployment rate. Sit down and really figure out what to do, not throw money at the people and hope it covers up a bad 8 year presidency and policies.

As a kid, I rarely remember getting sunburned. Oh sure there are those times when I would get sun burned and boy did they hurt. But overall, growing up in San Bernardino (think Hell, but not as nice), my body adjusted to the constant heat and sun. Slightly helped that I am Mexican and being in the sun is in my genes. Sadly, now my body has not seen as much sun as it used to and I think I really got burned today. It’s actually not as bad as some burns I’ve had before, but still hurts some. It’s more annoying than anything, as my knees are really burned making walking uncomfortable but my back is only slightly burned, not too bad. Overall, I’d say it was worth it to see where my body is at and where I’d like it to be. That and the fact that I spend it with Amanda was worth it.

Went cosmic bowling last night. It was pretty cool. Went with my girlfriend, (Amanda - Yehah!), her friend and another couple. I suck at bowling. Everyone else was pretty decent. Her friend Julie was really good. I think I want to get better because I forgot how competitive I can get. Watching Julie get a really good score made me envious that I wasn’t that good and having Amanda just beat the living carp out of me, while nice having a girlfriend thats better then me, really brought out my competitive spirit. I realized how much I miss sports and things like that and how much I want to do that again. Someday soon hopefully.

Ok I’m not going to lie. I like the A’s because Amanda likes them. Scratch that. She LOVES them. Yeah my last blog post I was complaining about the price of ticket’s and ordering online, but at the end of the night, it was worth it. Amanda and I had a great time. We laughed, we cheered, we didn’t cry (no need, our team won! Woot, woot!), I had a barbecue pork sandwich (messy and delicious) and best of all, we got to be on the Jumbotron-thingie. Yup, just her and I. Her looking all fine like she always is and me dancing all goofy-ish like I always do. Overall, a good night.

Ah the joys of ordering things online. I like ordering stuff online because I usually get a pretty good price on things and I love the feeling I get when I receive something good in the mail. It sucks getting bills in the mail (which is why I have changed most of my bills to paperless statements) but love getting useful and fun stuff. I got my Zune, my digital camera (first one I got not counting the camera on my phones, which is amazing considering how into tech I am), lots of cell phones, and well lot’s of other stuff. It sucks paying shipping charges but these are usually balanced out by the lower prices so its ok.

However, the one notable exception to all this is buying tickets to event’s like plays and sporting events. These places do NOT give you a discount for ordering online. In fact, they make you pay MORE for the tickets. They also make it race to buy them. First you go to the site to find the event. Then after you have found it (if you can), you have only a few minutes to buy the tickets before you lose them or have to start over. If you can manage to buy them in the precious few minutes you are given, you are charged fees up the ying yang. First there is a convenience fee of a few dollars - convenience for ordering online? They are saving money because they don’t have to have a ticket sales person manning the box office 24/7 and they charge us for their savings? Talk about a double profit. Then there is a processing fee, and a printing fee (for printing on your own printer no less).

Just to give an example, I bought tickets to an A’s game today at mlb.com but it looks like it’s using the same system as Ticketmaster. Here’s a breakdown of what I payed:

• Tickets: 2 x $13 (bleacher seats because that’s where my date wanted to sit and we are going to be late so didn’t want to pay for the really good seats for half a game)
• Convenience fee: 2 x $4.50 (1/3 the price of the ticket for the convenience of ordering at home)
• Order Processing fee: $4 (It’s a computer taking and process the order. I wonder how much that computer makes an hour)
• Delivery fee: $2.50 (This is so I can print the ticket on my printer, using my ink and paper and then handing it to myself. I love how they charge me to give myself my ticket)

So the grand total for this order was: $41.50. $41.50 for tickets that cost by themselves $26. A nice 60% markup (I think that’s what it is). Unbelievable.