Tony Brewer

Teri and I have been thinking about buying a new Custom Computer. Her brother Sean bought a new Custom Laptop last month and he can’t stop raving about happy he has been since he bought it. He’s been talking about how he only has the features that he needs and wants, no unwanted “junk” taking up valuable memory and space.

When you think about it, Custom Computers and Custom Laptops do seem to make a lot of sense. Why should people pay for a lot of pre-installed software that they have no intention of ever using? And why not be able to decide how many drives and what kind of peripheral equipment you want? You would not believe how many “free printers” I have (never even unpacked!) collected in my basement that came bundled with a package deal! Every time I hear about a great “deal” that includes a “free printer” I just groan!  I’ve got enough free printers in my basement to last me at least a decade!

I can remember seeing poor Stains the dog being traumatized by the cupcakes “away” command on television. The poor guy’s face was soooo funny! I just had to laugh when I found this remix on youtube that included a show-down between Stains and the “Astonished kitten.” I sure would like to know what astonished that kitten! Here’s the video – too funny!

As I was driving to work today, I was noticing how many different payday loans office fronts that I was driving past. It really did seem that there was one every few blocks. I think that is a sad sign of the times, so many of these types of businesses are springing up! There are a lot of commercials on television lately about how easy it is to get a payday loan. These ads scare me!

One of the reasons that these ads scare me is that the commercials give the viewer the impression that getting a payday loan is a fantastic idea to buy something that frivoulous, such as taking a girlfriend out for a big fancy dinner, or buying some really expensive trinket. This kind of marketing to folks who have little or no impulse control just seems to be on the unscrupulous side.

Don’t get me wrong – payday loans have a real place and purpose to serve the consumer. I think these types of loans should be used as a “last resort” to cover some last-minute unexpected expense, such as needing a furnace repaired. And they should be approached with great caution – making absolutely sure that the loan can be paid off at the next payday. I’ve seen several news stories on television about how so many people have taken out these kinds of loans and been unable to repay them on time and ended up owing and paying back really exorbitant amounts of money!

When I was looking around on youtube for a particular video, I came across this funny and cute kitten. Seems like lots of people have remixed and copied this cute original! I think it is very odd to see all of the remixes! This original is just so cute!

My friend Frank’s mother is in a nursing home. One of the “better” nursing homes in the area. Today he was complaining to me about how he went to visit her yesterday and found her lying in bed in a pool of blood. She had a wound that had been bandaged, but the blood has soaked through and soaked her, and the sheets. When he asked the staff to change the bandage and the sheets, he met with so much resistance that he ended up changing it himself!

And then today he went to see her and saw that someone had delivered “Easter baskets” to all of the patients in the home, and in the Easter baskets were bottles of outdated diet Coke. He brought one of the bottles to me to see – the “used by date” was December 15, 2008! Although outdated soda is generally safe to drink, it tastes nasty – the carbonation is all but gone. I can’t even imagine someone giving out expired sodas to folks in a nursing home! What’s up with that?