Category: Misc

All eyes on me or if non looks could kill

For months now I’ve noticed that whenever I patronize a fast food restaurant, a grocery store, or even a medium brow eatery, I receive what I have come to term as the “look through”. Not sure if it is me or what, but for the entire length of my one on one time with the cashier I get little to no eye contact. And as if that weren’t bad enough, while said cashier is NOT looking at me (yet still maintaining the necessary verbal exchange) he or she makes it a point to “look through” me and eye everything else that is going on at that moment. It’s very frustrating.

At my local Raley’s, for example, I’ll walk up with my grocery items, set them down, say hello, and wait for them to be scanned. During this time the cashier will often times find it necessary to hold a personal conversation with the courtesy clerk about who came in late and who is going to be fired if they keep it up, or even chat with the customer behind me in line. Meanwhile, I’ll stand patiently waiting for my card to authorize feeling like an idiot who doesn’t warrant small talk. When it’s time to leave, and at that moment only, I’ll receive a last minute eye to eye contact wishing me a good day. Off I go.
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The Sac Rag: The First 365 Days

birthday.jpg

Today marks the first year of publication here at The Sac Rag, and we couldn’t have done it without You, our dedicated readers and commenters, and the occasional wack job who helped us cause a mild stir. What started with two writers has ballooned into a crack writing staff of a dozen covering everything from shopping and eating to news and sports. Some numbers: 615 posts, 1651 comments, zero awards, 2 mentions in the Bee, 399 visitors on our biggest day (11/4/2005).

We thought we would share some of our thoughts on this momentous occasion, and the thoughts of at least one local celebrity…
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Thank you, George Bush

As we got on Highway 80, at the West El Camino exit, we were startled to see all the cars at a dead stop. Especially so since they were neatly lined up just after our exit – with the open highway about 50 feet in front of them. Aha! we then spotted the culprit : a row of parked police cars — flashing lights and all — were blocking the road. We were stuck (or so I thought) since there was no room/movement for us to merge on to 80 (not like we wanted to get on 80 at that point) and the police didn’t appear to be in a negotiating mood.

We turned on the radio and learned that President Bush was in the vicinity, they were clearing the highway for him (so he wouldn’t be stuck in traffic? or for his safety? Call me logical, but wouldn’t his entourage be safer/unidentified without being the only ones on the road?).
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Rookie mistakes, and this principal ain’t my pal

Interesting story in today’s Bee about Sac City Unified’s problems with teacher turnover and inexperience. Paints an overall dismal picture of SCUSD’s future: rookie teachers in SCUSD deserve a big Sac Rag RIGHT AWN.

You know who doesn’t? Kathy Kingsbury, principal at Pacific Elementary School, who praises her inexperienced staff but complains “the biggest hassle is everybody having babies all the time.” I know, right? How dare they. You know what would help Kathy Kingsbury’s job a lot, is nobody actually having babies at any time. No whining mouths to feed and/or educate. I hope for her sake that any of her teachers currently out on maternity leave found something else to read this morning, though in that case they’d have missed what was otherwise a pretty eye-opening piece.

(Nutjob translation to this post: Right, because unless our womenfolk start popping out 30 apiece, we’ll have to start taking Mohammad’s piano piece Czechoslovakia bacon hat.)

Computer Talk

With your oversized bifocals and pocket protector firmly in place, please to point your Internet browser here to view the “Top 10 Windows XP Tips Of All Time.”

I come across lists like these all the time which tend to simply advertise for third party software or restate the obvious. However, this particular one really addresses some issues you may be facing with your XP machine. Whether it’s Tip 10 (Halt background services to improve performance), Tip 8 (Scrub your hard drive clean) or the CoolDMZ favorite Tip 7 (Run two displays on the same PC), there’s something for everyone…and by “everyone” I mean like 4 or 5 of you Sac Rag readers that understand what a Registry is.

And no, Runnergirl, it’s not THAT kind of registry.

You can finally unload that Apple IIe!

If you’re like me, you’ve got random outdated equipment that you’d rather not have in your house, so here’s your chance to dump it safely and free of charge. This ad was in the Bee recently; although this is not snarky or gossipy news, it’s valuable info.

When: Friday, April 21st noon-5pm / Saturday, April 22nd 9am-3pm / Sunday, April 23rd 9am-3pm
Where: Cal Expo, Lot A RAIN OR SHINE

Drop off is free. Eligible items: TVs, VCRs, DVD players, computers, monitors, mouses (mice?), keyboards, fax machines, printers, toner cartridges, cell phones, telephone equipment, video game systems and more. DO NOT BRING: copiers, appliances, microwaves, batteries, or smoke detectors.

For more info, call 1-866-335-3373 or go to http://www.noewaste.com

Coming Soon on ESPN2

Competitive cup stacking, cheerleading, and double-dutch jumproping will soon take a back seat to the next craze that’s sweeping the Midtown area: XTreme Blood Donations!

I give blood about every eight weeks, and I was overdue for this most recent appointment — with the wedding a couple weeks ago, I knew that if I gave blood that week, that would be the one time that they nicked something and my whole arm would be purple (for those who don’t give blood, that’s a rare occurence, so don’t let that scare you.)

Sitting in the snack area post-donation and noshing on my 2nd plate of nachos, my attention was diverted from the May ’97 issue of Better Homes & Gardens when an older gentleman asked me how often I donate.
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To blog or not to blog

I’ve been visiting the wikiHow site for some time. Aside from the silly posts, there are some valuable ones, too. However, none were really worth mentioning here until I stumbled upon this one today on How to Dissuade Yourself from Becoming a Blogger, which may be of some assistance if you are considering jumping on board the web log train.

Find five completely random blogs, and read them daily for a month. After thirty days, you will absolutely dread your self-imposed requirement to read all that dreck. Any blog you create will most likely be on par with what you’ve been reading. Don’t put anyone through that.

Hard to argue that one, huh?

Write on a regular basis in Wordpad instead. If that doesn’t satisfy your urge, and you feel that you must post your blog online, then you might just be craving attention and validation–which you’ll never truly find in a blog. If you give up on your Wordpad journal after about three days, you’ll do the same with a blog. That just takes up server space.

Man, bloggers are such losers.

Sorry, wrong number

One of the first things I learned when moving into my house in ’97 was that my phone number confused a lot of people — namely, people trying to call the auto parts store and drug treatment clinic/halfway house, both of which are one digit off of my number and yield no fewer than three wrong number calls per week. You’d think that with my answering “HELLO” and not “Hello, Cheezer’s Pizza!” or the name of some other business, that they’d clue in that they’d called a private residence.

With the house on the market, I answer all calls since it might be a realtor calling to show the house. Yesterday, the Caller ID showed a 415 area code calling, so I picked it up. A woman said she was moving to the Sacramento area from the Bay Area (“This is going well so far,” I’m thinking), and she needs to make an appointment. I said, “OK, when do you want to come over?” She told me she needed to get set up on her regular schedule. “Regular schedule?” I asked, especially confused since she woke me up from a nap that had me in deep REM mode.
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