Remember that Zune I acquired a few months back? Well, it’s dead. Froze up during booting, and nothing can shut it down or restart it. And yes, I’m placing the blame squarely on Microsoft’s shoulders for this one; no, it’s not some ridiculous conspiracy theory, or the fact that I’m apparently a “Sony fanboy” and “Apple fanboy.” It’s the fact that I’m not alone with my Zune crash; it’s been happening to thousands of users worldwide. It seems to be a date glitch of some kind, as the Zunes’ mass suicide began at the stroke of midnight on December 31st. As of this post, Microsoft has posted no fixes whatsoever; just a brief message on the official Zune support site that says:

Customers with 30gb Zune devices may experience issues when booting their Zune hardware. We’re aware of the problem and are working to correct it. Sorry for the inconvenience, and thanks for your patience!

Given Microsoft’s track record with hardware, I wouldn’t get your hopes up. Good thing my Zune was a freebie…

I was born and raised in New England, and I’ve lived here all of my life. As a result, I’m no stranger to nasty winter weather, and I have no problem bitching about it.

The weekend before Christmas, we got sledgehammered with two winter storms within the span of three days. I fucking hate the snow and ice. It might’ve been great when I was a little kid; it usually meant a day off from school, and I’d spend my time sledding down the local hills. Of course, in the real world, inclement weather is almost never an excuse to take a day off from work. Worse, it means you have to get up earlier to clean off your car, or in many cases, dig it out of a snowdrift. The snowplows do a good job clearing the parking lot at my apartment complex, but there’s still the overflow of snow that builds up behind your parked car to dig through.

Once your car’s out, you still have to drive through shitty conditions, and pray you don’t hit a patch of black ice like I did earlier this year. (Thankfully, I did not end up as a highway stain as a result; I just slid into the breakdown lane and cracked my front bumper on a Jersey barrier.) Last but not least, if it’s still snowing while you’re at work, guess how you get to spend lunch breaks? Yep, that’s right…cleaning the white bullshit off your car again.

I can’t stand the winter, but unfortunately, I’m stuck up here for the foreseeable future. That means plenty more complaints coming your way! Aren’t you lucky?

Disgusted? Too bad. I always posted this on my old blog, and I’m going to continue doing so here. Ho ho ho!

We all know Barack Obama won the 2008 presidential election and made history. As a prominent Democrat, it was only a matter of time before the Republican Party would go all-out in their attempts to paint him in a negative light. This time around, it’s a completely shameful set of attempts to link Obama to disgraced Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich.

As we’ve all seen in the news, Blagojevich looks to be a real douchebag. He apparently had his hand in all manner of questionable pies, including attempting to “sell” Obama’s now-vacate Senate seat. If proven guilty, he definitely deserves whatever punishments come his way. Meanwhile, prosecuting attorney Patrick Fitzgerald has made clear that Obama had nothing to do with Blagojevich’s activities, and even admonished people not to jump to conclusions on the case.

But does that stop the right wing? Oh, of course not. They’ve relentlessly attacked Obama since the story broke, on par with their attacks building up to the election. The man’s not even president yet, and they’re already trying to break him, and convince the American public that he’s “corrupt.” And, of course, a majority of media outlets are following them lockstep; it’s eerily reminiscent of the media’s dragging the Clintons through the mud during the 1990s. Remember Whitewater? The media and GOP brutally and viciously smeared the Clintons during that whole affair, and at the end…the Clintons were proven to have engaged in no wrongdoing whatsoever.

They’re trying the same thing all over again with Blagojevich’s problems, and desperately trying to find a way to blame Obama for it. I realize that GOP and their cronies are absolutely terrified of having a Democrat in the White House, let alone one who isn’t white, but this is disgusting. This is why American politics tend to make me seethe with rage at best, and become violently ill at worst.

I just performed a rather hefty upgrade to this blog’s core software, so if you run into any glitches or other problems, please bring them to my attention.