One thing I noticed since moving to Pennsylvania is the number of stores that have hours that are convenient to them, and not to the customer. These businesses, as far as I can tell, are not interested in sales. Take, for instance, the businesses in downtown York. Most are opened 9-5, Monday to Friday. Guess, what, most people work during these hours. Some of these stores do open until 8 on Wednesdays. Many stores are not opened on weekends - the two main shopping days. Some stores are opened on Saturday, but only for a few hours, such as 10-2. Some stores even go so far as to close one day during the week to "make up" for staying open on Saturday. And many stores are not opened on Sunday. And these stores have the nerve to complain about stores lie Wal-Mart, who incidentally have extremely convenient hours.
When I worked at The Wall, about half of our entire day's sales occurred in the last 2 hours of the day. Most of these little businesses would actually do better being open 5-9, rather than 9-5. What it boils down to is that many store I can only visit on Wednesday night or Saturday, early afternoon. These hours are not convenient for me or most people. If you want to be in retail, you should expect to be open until 9, 6 days a week, and until 5 on Sunday. And you will not be closed any day. That is, if you want to have a successful business.
It really boggles my mind that people can't figure out how to use their lights on their cars. a Simple rundown:
Headlights: Are to be used from sundown to sunrise, when it's raining (state law in PA/MD), and if it's foggy
High Beams: Used in rural areas. They should not be used if there is oncoming traffic, or if you can see the taillights of the car in front of you.
Parking Lights: Designate that you car is parked. Hence the name, "Parking Lights." You are not supposed to drive with your parking lights on. Both the Maryland and Pennsylvania driving handbooks tell you not to drive with your parking lights on, but I don't believe it is a tickatable offense. The main problem with people who drive with their parking lights on is that they forget to put their headlights on when it's dark. I wish police would ticket people driving with parking lights, rather than speeders.
Hazard Lights: Designate that you are a hazard to oncoming traffic. If you are parked on the side of the road, but not a hazard, you are supposed to use parking lights.
Turn Signal: Used whenever you turn, merge, or switch lanes.
I don't think this information is that difficult. I think that if someone can't understand these simple rules, they should not be allowed to drive.
Lawyers have made a living limiting our freedoms. There are warning and disclaimers everywhere. I made this website for family, friends, and peers as a fun site that also provided information. However, I feel compelled to put disclaimers on certain pages.
I can't stand stupid lawsuits. I don't see how someone can sue because they spilled coffee in their lap or sue the store by the snowy sidewalk that you fell on. The defense for the first case should have been, "Have ever you ever had coffee before? Case closed." The second would be "Have you ever walked on snow before? Did you notice that it had snowed? Case closed." People are not as stupid as frogs. We should be responsible for making sure we don't spill coffee on ourselves and be extra cautious if we notice the sidewalk is snowy. The lawyers in these cases should be put in jail.
When I was a kid, if you wished someone a "Happy Easter" or a "Merry Christmas", it was something nice to say. No one was offended by this, even if they weren't Christian. But now, it's "politically incorrect" to say such things to a someone, as they might have a different religious background. A people are now offended by such statements. No one ever said these because they meant to offend someone.
It has been proven in many studies that there are differences between men and women, and between the different races. But making statements that relate on these difference makes you sexist or racist. Our country really needs to grow up about this topic.
The crime rate in the United States really bothers me. Crime is something that can be easily controlled. Many problems could be almost completely wiped out. Take a look at how some other countries deal with crime, and look at their resulting low crime rates. In Japan, for example, the prisons are so horrible that there in no such thing as a repeat offender. Other countries have the death penalty for possession of controlled substances.
The problem in our country is that we are not tough enough on crime. The criminals have more rights than the victims. And we don't punish the criminals, we try to rehabilitate them. To lower the rate of crime, we would have to give our police more authority and make the punishments for crimes more severe.
Note: I think one thing that has lead to the rise in the crime rate is that parents are no longer allowed to spank their children. Spanking is a way for a child to learn discipline. I don't think it's abuse. There's a huge difference between smacking a butt and giving a beating. I was spanked as a child, and I believe that I am a better person today because of it.
When I make a statement about a topic, either it is my opinion, or it's something that I heard about or read. If I talk about a statistic or a study I read about, I did actually read the static/study. I have never made things up. If something is my opinion, I'll make it known. It really upsets me when people don't believe that what I say could possibly be true because I am the one saying it.
It also really upsets me when people didn't believe that the "Jeff Buff" picture was an actual picture of me. Many people accused me of splicing my head on someone else's body. I don't even know how do something like that. And if I did, I think I would have made my self a lot bigger. The truth is that the picture is of me, although it was not recent. I guess the main reason that it upsets me, is because most people have no idea what it took for me to get into that kind of shape.
I remember seeing a news story a number of years ago, where a small company is England developed a new screen for television that has the same picture quality as HDTV. The amazing thing was that the production cost was only slightly higher than that of a regular TV! The major manufacturers of TV's were embarrassed because of the billions of dollars they spent on HDTV. Of course, this technology will never make it to the market. I'm sure a big TV manufacturer bought out the small company so that they could never release their product. And were stuck paying a higher price than what would could have paid for the same picture quality.
One interesting note about DVD's and HDTV. If you are using a DVD player, there is no difference in picture quality between an HDTV and a regular TV. A regular TV can handle the maximum resolution of a DVD.
Videocassettes have been around for quite some time, now. One thing that most people have noticed is that the majority of VHS movies are in full screen. If you want a letterbox format, you had to hunt down this format, if the movie was ever released in both. Almost all movies in any rental store were also full screen. Now, we have DVD's, and the exact opposite is happening. Most movies are release in letterbox, and the full screen versions are hard to find or don't exist. Granted, some DVD's let you switch between formats, but many don't.
I have known very few people who likes their VHS's in letterbox, and I don't see how this will suddenly change once they buy a DVD player. The problem is that letterbox looks so small on a regular TV. A 27" TV, which was great for most living rooms is now grossly undersized when playing letterbox TV's. To see letterbox, you need a big screen TV. You will actually have to get a pretty big TV to get the picture to be the same size as your old 27" (height wise). I wish all DVD's had the option of both formats. The lack of this option has prevented me from buying a DVD player.
Need I say more? I've had to reboot my computer on average about three times a week due to stuff screwing up or system crashes. Luckily, switching to Windows 2000 seems to have solved this problem.