Tag Heuer Rocks II

Ever buy something and then realize it was a mistake?

My Aquaracer was very nice, but when I got to thinking about it I realized that the reason I liked Tag Heuer was their flagship s/el models. It was the Sports Elegance that I fell in love with over a decade ago. The latest version of the s/el is the Link as worn by Tiger Woods, when he is not wearing his special golfers watch.

So less than 24 hours after purchasing my Aquaracer I returned it to the store. Surprisingly the store owner never even looked in the box to see if I had damaged the watch. She merely rang up my refund and put the money back on my credit card.

So now I have placed an order with a reputable dealer who appears to give a shit about earning my business (unlike the one who sold me the Aquaracer). So by this time tomorrow I will be the proud owner of the watch I wanted all along. I already know I made the right choice and I cannot wait to put it on my wrist.

Tag Heuer Rocks!

After eight years living with my lovely Tag Heuer Sports Elegance (s/el) Professional, I've finally made the switch to a new watch. Don't get me wrong I think the other is a classic and will still wear it with pride now and then. However, there is nothing like the feel of a new watch.

My new purchase is the brand new 2006 Aquaracer with diamonds. It's waterproof to 300 meters which will come in handy if I ever take up diving which is about as likely as me taking up professional football and base jumping.

Read more about it here. Buy one here.

More on Gary

As they might say in the East End of London, "Gary Glitter's life really is in the Gary Glitter."

Poor old pedo Gary has now been captured and among the charges against him is that he paid a twelve year old child just under $12 per sex act.

But it's not just the embarrassment factor. In Vietnam he could face death by firing squad if convicted. It's unlikely to happen, but I can't help but laugh.

Don't pee on my leg

I'm sitting at my desk on hold with Cingular Wireless right now. As I wait on hold they are explaining to me why I am so lucky to be a customer of theirs. Now I hate all cell phone companies (almost) equally but the one thing I really can't stand is being kept waiting on hold for over 20 minutes while being told that the customer service is wonderful. Personally I think great service would be a human answering the phone within 30 seconds and solving my problem. Suncom used to be even worse than this using some self-satisfied actor telling me that Suncom 'get it.' I don't think so; I've never had worse service from a cell phone company in my life.

What annoyed me specifically about Cingular today was the commercial they played me that begins, "There's a reason why gas stations have self service pumps, and grocery stores have self service checkouts...It's called convenience." They then went on to try and sell me on the idea of discussing my issues with a computer as opposed to telling a human what my problem is and having them fix it.

Let's be quite clear on this. The reason that they have self service at the pumps and now in grocery stores has nothing to do with convenience. It is all about money. Specifically their money and keeping as much of it as possible. How can it possibly be convenient to get out of my car and pump my own gas? How is it convenient for me to scan and bag my own groceries?

As Judge Judy Sheindlin once said, "Don't pee on my leg and tell me it's raining." I have spent about 30 minutes on the phone and I am currently on silent hold waiting for the representative to explain to me why they have not sent me the $352 they owe me. The only thing convenient about that is I am using my new Bluetooth wireless ear piece so I can still use my computer.

In retrospect perhaps there analogy wasn't so bad after all. Their service is about as convenient as getting out of my comfortable car on a cold day to pump gas into my car. Maybe next time I go to the car wash they'’ll hand me a sponge and a bucket so I can have the convenience of washing my own car.

How lucky I am that Cingular are providing me with such a convenient service.

Conclusion: It took 36 minutes for a representative to understand my problem and assure me that a manager would call me within 24 hours to explain where my money is and when I will get it.

Harry Potter

I was (forcibly) taken to see Harry Potter on Friday night. The cinematic experience was as pleasant as ever with rows of fat people wedged into seats stuffing their face with over priced over sized drinks and popcorn buckets. It took several minutes to adjust to the stench of spilled drinks and popcorn, left by previous visitors. The screen was ridiculously small and the brightness was not quite right spoiling some of the darker scenes.

I have not read any of the books but it was clear that in this movie they were forced to squeeze a lot of material into two hours. This rather took away from really identifying with the characters as much as the last movie. I also want to say that the last movie was more intense and directed better in many ways.

All that said I'll rate the movie six and a half out of ten wands.

Enough is enough

Do you wanna touch me? That was the question posed by the 1973 Gary Glitter song. Little did people know back then before his conviction for child porn that his message was intended for children.

After his jail time in England he fled the country and ended up in Cambodia, where he was expelled for unspecified reasons. He is now on the run in Vietnam after a 15 year old girl was found in his home. Authorities are also investigating claims he had sex with two children under 18.

It is clear by now that this sicko is incapable of normal adult relationships and is at this point undeniably a pedophile. When they catch him he needs to be placed in a small prison cell with R Kelly and Michael Jackson for the rest of their lives.

Update: Pedo Arrested!

Let there be music

Just in case I ever decide to promote this blog and get a readership I've added a new feature for my readers. Now you can listen to the music I like while reading what I've posted. What could be more exciting than listening not to what you like, but what I like instead?

There are two versions, US and UK. The music is the same, but you get English commercials on the Brit version and American on the US version. Also if you want to upgrade to the no commercial version you'll have to do it in the country you live in. The UK version demands that people sign up for some broadband with a specific provider, meaning you'd have to live there. The US version will take your money wherever you live!

The links are My Radio Station, over on the right of the page in the Useful Links section.

Annie Duke

I've just started reading Annie Duke's new book which was a birthday gift. Since I only tend to read books in the bathroom I am several shits away from finishing it. However, so far it is proving to be a very interesting book chronicling some of Annie's achievements and what it is like to be a female professional poker player. I think her co-writer sucks a bit as there appears to be an over abundance of similes and metaphors used. "The morning sun began to caress the Vegas casinos like an unwanted advance from a Catholic priest. I stormed into the poker room at the Bellagio like a one hundred ton juggernaut with bad brakes, finally alighting on a seat at the second of the two high stakes tables. The stakes were as high as a transcontinental flight making its way to London..."

Okay so it is not quite as bad as that. It’s certainly a worthy read, as is her great web site.

Still tinkering

I started web design in 1996. Back then I was using a modified text editor that provided some basic help with the HTML. I now use Dreamweaver and have gotten involved in PHP programming.

As is the nature of computers I am now teaching myself something new(ish) namely how all this blogging stuff works including the code behind the pages and template manipulation. I've been steadily modifying this template to suit my needs and the latest edition of my blog site now includes an Amazon link to my most recently read book, and the book I am currently reading.

In the ever optimistic desire to make some money I've Amazon linked them so you can buy them and I can make some commission. In fact I would consider it a personal favor if you would not only follow the links and buy the books, but if you could then proceed to purchase all your Christmas gifts too, that would be even better. If I could just get about a hundred thousand readers to spend about $200 each, I'd be rich! Tell all your friends about me...

Well that didn't take too long

I decided on a name that manages to encapsulate some of my abundant arrogance: ZCT 168. The first part is the handle I used to use in my programming days when I used to code demos in 68000 assembly language on the Atari ST. It is also the name of my company ZCT Internet that publishes various web projects including PokerXL.com. The number was my IQ score when I joined Mensa UK at the age of 18.

Since this blog is not yet actually about anything I figured it was a good a name as any. In doing some research I saw that most blogs contain one of the following words: blog, life, weblog, world, from, journal, news, thoughts, with, daily. So I decided that I'd avoid those common names and phrases. Chris Healey's Daily Blog World just sounded shit.

Oh for a name

I guess for my next trick I should think of a name for this thing. Nothing yet springs to mind, which is I guess only to be expected since there is not much in the way of content or theme. Clearly calling it 'not another blog' is far from original. So for the next couple of days I will ponder a meaningful and intelligent name for this superfluous piece of the internet.

Yet more to learn

I have continued to struggle with my new blog to make it behave as I want it to. I have taken the Rounders 2 theme and modified it to be closer to my requirements. As a former professional web designer it is sometimes hard to use a standard template without messing with it. There will doubtless me numerous more changes before I take this thing public. I guess we'll just have to see what happens.

Interesting

I've had a chance now to play with some of the features of Blogger. I like what I see. The site seems very powerful and easy to mess with. I've set up some links I like and got an overall feel for the site. I've a feeling I could get interested in this whole blogging concept...

Another Try

I'm still curious about this whole blogging thing. Largely because like so many bloggers I have things to say and egotistically assume that people will want to listen. Maybe I just like to add to the white noise of the internet. Either way this is my second attempt at a blog, the first being a single post on Yahoo 360. I didn't really like it that much so on what is the first day after my 32nd birthday I thought I would try again.

Welcome to my new blog home.