Richard Murillo

While I'm on this rage rant, these are the other things that really piss me off.

1. Oprah
   I really don't like how Oprah's audience takes everything she says at face value without question. What's more, I really hate how she stands by her premise of engaging readers who didn't go to school or don't know where to begin in a bookstore but didn't bother to read the OJ book If I Did It, but made a whole show out of it with guest interviews. I think it's bullshit. More info here
2. Money spent on stupid signs on the freeways of our nation
   Click it or ticket, drive 55 arrive alive, litter and it will hurt, Report carpool violators: 555-HERO, etc. I would rather see our tax payer money go to education of drivers who have long since forgotten their DMV rules of the road pamphlet knowledge required to pass their written drivers exam. Recently I was in Canada and noticed what a lovely system they have for stop lights--if you can go the light is green, and if you must yield it is flashing yellow. The beauty of this is when you need to make a protected left turn and there is NO ONCOMING TRAFFIC, you can go and keep traffic moving rather than wait two minutes for the signal light to cycle and change.
3. People using their feet to open bathroom doors, flush the toilet, or lift up seats
   Several problems with this--the first just being hygiene. When I go to flush the toilet I use my hand to pull the lever, but now I have to worry about the jerk that used his disgusting urine soaked shoe to pull it instead. These extends to the stall doors and in some instances the main entrance to the bathroom entirely. To counter this madness people are using paper towels to as a cushion to open the door and discarding in a strategically located wastebasket or, if none exists, on the floor.
4. Cyclists that ride in the motorized traffic lane instead of their bike lane
   Living in Seattle you will find that there are more cyclists in the area than in other areas--which is fine; I am all about keeping slim and trim. What I don't like is when spandex-clad cyclists ride three wide in your lane making it impossible to go more than 15 miles per hour. When I commuted from Capitol Hill to Redmond I would take Lake Washington Blvd and sure enough I would be stuck behind some cyclist for a few miles. Sure, the road is marked so I can pass them, but the corners are tight and you really can't see far enough ahead to make a safe pass.

Hope you had a great vacation. Visiting the family is fun, but it's not really a vacation. One of these years I would really like a pre-holiday vacation to unwind.

On the way home this year I got a cold, which for me always turns into a raging sinus infection. I'd like to think i'm like most people and can be grumpy when your sinuses won't drain and you have to fly. What's worse on my 3 and a half hour plane ride home there was a family of 5 (3 kids and two adults) with the kids all under the age of 3.

I like kids, and usually they're pretty good on a flight. They're really only a problem if the parents are pushovers and don't discipline the children or they're bored and kick the seat back in front of them--fortunately for me I was in the row behind them.

Before the cabin doors were even closed this one little girl belonging to that family started screaming--she was upset because her mother wanted her to sit with her dad. After about 10 minutes the dad gave up and switched with the mom. Great news there is the family only bought 4 seats so the girl had to sit in her mom's lap--which is fine so long as she's not about two years old.

What's even worse is during the flight when the girl would cry the mom would just lift her shirt and offer her breast to the child. I, for one, don't particularly like public breast feeding, but I am strongly opposed to using your breast as a pacifier. After a dozen incidents with several passengers shocked and horrified (including the two nice men who sat on either side of the family and observed the breast-pacifier on many occasion) and three and half hours later we landed and could get the hell off the plane.

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Political Blooper and Practical Joke Hall of Fame

Feb. 10: During a speech yesterday, the president identified a Los Angeles Office building as the "Liberty Tower."  Only problem is that it used to be called the "Library Tower" and now goes by the name of the "U.S. Bank Tower." Whoops!  It's not all [that] bad Mr. President. You're the newest inductee into Countdown's Political Blooper and Practical Joke Hall of Fame!