haunted speakers

Posted on August 3, 2008 by britoman

Ok. This has been going on for the better part of a year, but this morning it is particularly loud. For some reason the speakers on my computer pick up either 1) a classical AM station or 2) trucker radio. This also only occurs in the morning hours. I wonder if it has anything to do with the very LARGE antennas behind my apartment complex…

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schuylkill punch

Posted on August 3, 2008 by britoman

Friday night I went to a party on Boathouse row. I ended up running into way to many random Delaware kids, but it was an overall good time.

Towards the end of the night a bunch of people get the bright idea to jump in the river. Having never swam in that cesspool  before I decided it was an excellent idea. The moment I jumped off the dock, I knew better. Expecting to just hit water, I was surprized when I landed only up to my waist and in 90% seaweed.

How do they hold triathlons in this mess!

Eventually I was able to swim out to the ropes, which is essentially a safety net for boats which miss the dock and are heading to the waterfall. We decided to play a game, ten people sit on the ropes to bring them down and then nine hop off launching the tenth person six or seven feet into the air.

While slightly gross, I highly recommed this experiance.

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jury duty – it’s your duty!

Posted on July 31, 2008 by britoman

Today I had the distinct pleasure of going down to City Hall and serving as a potential juror. Last night I called the selection commission’s number in the hopes that my instructions had changed and I did not have to appear. No such luck.

The time I had to appear was 8:15, which is actually an obnoxious time. If I take the 7:52 train, there was the chance I would be late, and in contempt of court. If I take the (next earlier) 7:24 train, I would be there at 7:40 and have to wander around a section of Philadelphia I do not particularly like to frequent just to “kill” time. I ended up taking the 7:40 train, getting a pretzel at 7-11, sitting under a tree and watching an individual get arrested for assaulting a woman. I had better not get selected as a witness in some other case…

At 8:15 I went into the Criminal Justice Center and handed in my summons. After swearing I was not a city employee, I went to a rather large room with flat panel television screens to wait. As I waited I had to ask myself how much of my city wage tax went to fitting that room with seven 42-inch flat panel tv sets. We were all given a questionnaire for both criminal and civil trials. The questionnaire contained such questions as “are you more likely to believe a police officer because of their job,” or “have you or anyone close to you ever been sued.” After answering a bunch of the questions I was convinced that no defence attorney would ever want me on their trial. THEN the selection commision shows a video about how to anwer the questionnaire, for those I presume could not read or did not know what YES and NO really meant.

Shorthly thereafter, two judges came into the room, one of which gave a brief history lesson on our branches of government and how the Judicial Branch, and namely the jury system was the only way we as American citizens can truely affect how we are governed. According to him everyone in the Executive branch was corrupt. (Should they really have had him say that?!?!) Then another judge came in and said basically the same thing.

Next we were all assigned to a case and given a juror number. I was number 39/40. That could have either been good (they already picked all 12 before they got to me) or bad (they didn’t have 12 yet and I was going to be on it no matter what.) My case was a civil trial and I was told that they were considering settling.

After what seemed like forever, they came in to tell us that our case had settled and we were “free to go.” Apparently I was being held against my will…

At least I have one year to NOT worry about getting called again.

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stupidity

Posted on July 29, 2008 by britoman

Last night I decided that I would go to my favorite store, the Supermarket. I capitalize Supermarket, because it is worth of such a designation.

Anyway, after a good 45 minutes of deciding what I wanted to eat over the course of the next week, I took my cart full of food-stuffs and headed to the self checkout line. Upon entering the line, I scanned my ClubFresh card (because only suckers pay full price), and proceeded to scan and weigh my items. After I scanned the last item I reached for my wallet and my heart stopped. Apparently my wallet was not in my right back pocket, left back pocket, front right pocket, left front pocket or right back pocket (I checked again just to be sure.) I then sheepishly went over to the 16 year old cashier supervisor and stated that “I am a stupid idiot and forgot my wallet in my car (a lie). If she didn’t mind, could I put my groceries by her and run out to my car and retrieve my wallet?” She replied with ever so slight a glance at me, “…Yeah.”

At this point I throw (literally) all of my groceries back in the cart, run out to my car, speed home, run into the apartment, announce my stupidity to the roommate, grab said wallet, run back out to the car, speed back and run back into the store. I then loaded all the groceries back onto the machine, swiped my Amex Blue card and went about my merry day.

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the dark knight

Posted on July 27, 2008 by britoman

After being sold out for days I was finally able to get tickets to the 5pm showing of The Dark Knight at the IMAX theater at the Franklin Institute.

At first walking into the IMAX room, I was thrown off balance, the room is essentially a huge dome with very steep stadium seating. If you don’t look at where you are going, you will be immediately thrown off balance and will likely fall. Unfortunately we got there kind of in the middle of the pack, so we had to sit about mid way up but on one of the sides.

I honestly did not expect the movie to be as BIG as it was. It seriously took over the entire wall and you had to move your head to see all of the elements on the screen. It was nuts. The city fly-bys and pan shots looked great. The fight scenes were confusing and made me dizzy. Due to our position a lot of the video on the right side of the screen was heavily curved and above us. That meant that you had to strain your neck to see a good amount of the movie.

My overall assessment for IMAX movies, is you have to be at the top in the dead center to have the best experiance.

P.S. The Joker was my favorite charater.

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i call it

Posted on July 24, 2008 by britoman

only maginally creepy when your cable company reads what you write:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/25/technology/25comcast.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

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almost scammed

Posted on July 7, 2008 by britoman

Perusing craigslist for apartments the other day I came across an unbelievable deal:

The Metropolitan, 117 North 15th Street Philadelphia, PA 19102 with 2 bedrooms, 1 living room and 2 bathrooms, square ft.

The rent for 1 month is $1,200.00 including all utilities for the duration of the contract (water, electricity, Internet, cable, 2 parking spots, air conditioning, washer/dryer in unit, dishwasher, garbage disposal, microwave, refrigerator). You can move in the apt in the same day you receive the keys with the contract.  The only problem is that I am the only person who has the keys, but I hope that we will come to a compromise.

2 bedroom / 2 bath in center city for $1200 WITH PARKING! Well, I just had to contact this poster (Michelle Rothstein.) I then received this reply:

The apartment is ready for you, you only need to receive the keys and the contract so you could check it out, and see if you like it.  Obviously we need a way to complete this deal that will allow us to make sure we receive what we are asking for. I have found a way for us to complete the deal safely and fast, and in this way you will receive the Keys in less than 2 days. The solution is provided by a company called TNT which is similar to FedEx, DHL or UPS, which will handle the payment and delivery of the Keys. I have found a procedure that will allow you to pay for the rent of the apt only after you will receive the keys, and through this way you will see it and decide if you like it or not, before sending the payment.

Now, at this point I should have sensed something, however I was blind with glee and I forgave the fact that I have never heard of TNT because it is a European company. Asking ‘Michelle’ for more information about TNT and expressing the fact that I should just be able to go to her landlord/doorman if she was unable to show me the apartment, I received this reply:

Hello,

Thank you again for your reply. If you are ready to proceed with this transaction I will need to inform you with the steps on how this service works and how we can make it happen. You will only have to deposit to TNT Service the first month of rent $1,200.00 so they can proceed with the shipping, and you can receive the keys and the contract. Like I said, I will pay for a 2 days delivery so you will receive the Keys and the contract signed by me right away. I will explain you step by step how this will work .
1 – To start this transaction I will need to know your full shipping information, full name, full shipping address to proceed with this deal.
2 – I will go to the TNT Office and leave the Keys and the contract in your name as the intended receiver.
3 – TNT will check the envelope to see if everything is OK with it and also the legal papers that will come along with the Keys.
4 – TNT will send you a delivery notification to let you know they have the Keys and the papers in their custody, in which you will be told that they have the Keys and that they checked it.
5 – At this point you will have to go to a Money Gram office Location and make a money deposit on the TNT payment agent name for the amount we agreed, the total amount you shall deposit is for the first month of rent .
6 – After you make the deposit you will have to send the info about the money deposit to TNT  (Reference Number, sender’s name and address)
7 – TNT will verify the payment information’s and if everything is in order they will deliver the Keys and the contract to you .
8 – After you receive the package, You will go and check the apt and in 6 days you must contact them and tell them if you keep the apt or not, if all is in order you will instruct TNT to send me the information about the money deposit and I will be able to receive the funds. If you don`t like the apt they will send your money back to you, and you will send them the keys and the contract.
I will pay the TNT Service for the shipping and you will pay Money Gram for the Money Transfer fee.
Let me know if we can do this, and email me all your full shipping information so we can proceed with this deal.

Uhh… Money Gram!? Red Flag.

A quick Google search for ‘TNT scam‘ resulted in 1.1 million hits. Reading through the first few results I realized that I was not going to be getting an amazing apartment for $1,200. Apparently this has been happening in several cities and unfortunately a few poor individuals fell for it and lost a good amount of money.

I am still in contact with this person and am trying to think of a good way to cause them financial loss, however I am having trouble thinking of ways to do this.

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