The Big Cray Experience

Next time, I'm paying with a chicken

2012-01-05T14:38:00.001-06:00

I take pride in the fact that I am very organized and have great control over all aspects of my life, especially my finances. So many people today have no clue what they're doing when it comes to money and no grasp on correct priorities when budgeting it. They waste their entire check each week and then realize they might have wanted to pay some of their bills. Some of these people just never

Norton Ghost... you're dead to me

2011-08-17T12:43:00.003-05:00

As a tech, I have used many software applications over the years, some bad, some good. One that I had always liked was Norton Ghost. I used to use it all the time to image drives as backups before OS reinstalls, old content onto new, larger media, and various other activities where I wanted a solid undo in case of catastrophe. The last version I'd used was 2003, and it worked pretty solidly for

I tried to give Facebook a chance

2010-12-28T13:15:00.002-06:00

It's no secret that I have a long running dislike for Facebook. I hate the interface, poor search functionality, and vanilla plain look. However, since MySpace is running off all their users with the hideous and non-functional, Facebook wannabe 3.0 make-over, I decided to re-evaluated Facebook and give it another chance. I updated my ancient Facebook profile with fresh information, began to

New name, content the same

2010-11-21T22:02:00.001-06:00

Long time readers may have noticed that today, the name has changed from the classic The Geudelbuoy Experience to The Big Cray Experience. I apologize to anyone who enjoyed the novelty of trying to say "Geudelbuoy," or just liked the uniqueness of it. The name change is just a necessary step in the addition of this site as the cornerstone of BigCray.com (which happened yesterday, by the way). You

Whoa, when did I install Silverlight?

2010-11-21T02:25:00.003-06:00

I like to consider myself a safe web surfer, as I am very knowledgeable about computers and use safe surfing habits, but I was just shocked by something that occurred a short while ago.During a normal run around the internet, nothing too out of the ordinary, I popped the start menu to grab the calculator for some quick mathematical assistance, when I noticed, at the bottom of my list was

People wonder why I have backup plans...

2010-10-30T05:23:00.003-05:00

Sure, it may make me seem a bit paranoid, but I generally have a backup plan for just about everything. I build in redundancy, sometimes to a ridiculous level, in order to avoid catastrophe. My background in software development and the automotive industry have simply strengthened this aspect of my personality. Therefore, it is hard to get anything past old Cray.This redundancy goes all the way

Why Haven't People Heard of Ski?

2010-10-17T12:23:00.001-05:00

It's become a common and disappointing occurrence for me. It seems that nearly every time I go to the local Wal-Mart and toss a few 12 packs of Ski up on the checkout conveyor, I get a confused look from the cashier."Ski? Never heard of that one," they say.This is not an isolated incident (or series of incidents) with a single cashier. None of them seem to have heard of this excellent soda,

A little change of pace...

2010-10-15T16:38:00.002-05:00

I thought it would be different if, instead of me just making fun of something, I withhold my thoughts and leave it purely to my loyal readers to viciously ridicule something. So, I give you this:...and be completely honest. Don't let me down. Ready... GO!-- Big Cray: Accept No Substitute

Dumber than a Hoosier: A Drunk Hoosier

2010-07-25T05:40:00.002-05:00

Occasionally, a topic hops up and beats me over the head. This is one of those occasions.I was fueling the old orange beast earlier and noticed a sticker on the pump complaining about Indiana's "outdated liquor laws." Apparently, there is a group of drunks that call themselves "Hoosiers for Beverage Choices." This could have all ended with me chuckling at the drunks, but, uh oh, they have a

Justifying Idiocy

2009-11-01T18:34:00.002-06:00

You ever meet someone who used to do hard drugs who uses that fact to justify their smoking? Sure, they used to be totally messed up, but since they are less messed up than they used to be, we are supposed to give them a cookie and be overjoyed that they are moderately messed up. As they are polluting your airspace, they always come at you with a line like:"I used to smoke meth, but now I just

Who writes this s***?

2009-08-17T15:09:00.002-05:00

--WARNING--In what I consider a bit of an Andyish twist to the Experience, I'm going to spotlight something I saw on MySpace. Don't worry. It will have nothing to do with ads for gay guys having sex.So, I was logging onto MySpace, doing my best to move over to the logon boxes and avoid the propaganda splash, when, for some reason, something caught my eye. It was a poorly disguised public

Factory Slave

2009-06-20T20:07:00.002-05:00

Do you work in a factory?Do they pay you?Have you ever, thinking yourself quite witty, referred to your occupation as "Factory Slave" or "Slave to XYZ Corp?"If so, please punch yourself in the face 10 times.The number of times you actually ended up punching yourself in the face is how witty you are on a scale of 1 to 100. You get paid. You're not a slave. You're more of a whiny bitch than

Pretty Flowers, Rainbows, and Puppies!

2009-04-21T01:38:00.004-05:00

Ah, life... what a beautiful thing.What f***ing world are you living in?I think, with this article, I'm going to take a page out of the book of a friend (meant very loosely... the kind of friend that anally violates your life with no remorse, taking no responsibility, and then continues to attempt to leech off of your good nature) and entitle this with a completely unrelated, and deceptively

ORANGE!

2009-03-17T17:48:00.003-05:00

This is my truck...It is orange...Omaha orange to be exact... sometimes called safety orange because it is supposed to make things more visible. Can you see it?If you can, and very plainly, then please explain to me why I can't seem to drive anywhere anymore without some idiot pulling out in front of me in broad daylight! HELLO? BIG ORANGE TRUCK! What the hell is wrong with you people?Civilian

Putting Out a Fire With Gasoline

2009-01-15T17:32:00.003-06:00

Leave it to Hoosiers to solve small perceived problems by creating new ones. Leave it to Hoosiers to, in the same breath, mention the solution to a large problem, but then say that it isn't going to happen. The root of both problems: a certain stretch of Indiana 64. As was reported in today's Princeton Clarion:A blinking traffic signal at Ind. 64's junction with Ind. 65 will be upgraded to a full

Rain Gauge

2008-12-21T00:21:00.001-06:00

I got to thinking the other day about myself. I thought about how I used to be a nice guy. I really was. I even think other people considered me a nice guy. I didn't start fights, didn't push envelopes... I just let things go. At some point, I became an asshole... funny how that happens. I can't really pin it down to the one moment it happened, but I do know that it obviously happened. I used to

I must be bored...

2008-09-11T05:31:00.003-05:00

In my time off from the Yodermatic, I've found that I had a lot to catch up on since I started there last October, and have been really rolling to get a lot done... until recently when I pretty much got everything up to date. Now, I'm faced with something I haven't had for a long time: a slight time surplus. Now, naturally, I should be spending this surplus time to do things even more productive.

No Daddy!

2008-07-11T00:09:00.002-05:00

Holy crap! I am sufficiently disturbed. Has anyone seen the new GoDaddy girl?Now, to each his own, but personally, I think the new GoDaddy girl is 6 kinds of ass ugly.No, I'm not talking about Amanda... I'm talking about"Dale Jr."That is some serious ugly. I mean, look at that hairstyle! It looks like that bad blonde-dye-and-spike style that is popular with all the 50 and 60 year old women these

Burnt Sienna

2008-04-14T02:07:00.001-05:00

The other day, a colleague of mine at the Yodermatic suggested that they should raffle off one of the vans to an employee every year. I stopped and thought for a second, and then asked why anyone would bother to enter the raffle. He reasoned that these vans sell in the $40000+ range. I did not dignify this logic, pointing out that it is still pointless to enter a raffle for something you don't

Keep Jok Church away from your kids

2008-02-24T18:21:00.003-06:00

Note: stay with me on this one. The point of this entry comes after a lengthy start, but it is a point definitely worth noting. For those who are impatient, you may skip straight to the point.If you're not familiar with Jok Church, he is the chucklehead who writes the You Can with Beakman and Jax strip (under the guise of "Beakman," a nerdy yet unintelligent "scientist," and "Jax," essentially

Living in the Lap of Luxury

2007-12-31T07:57:00.001-06:00

I got up this morning (yes, kids, I actually slept at night... I'm shocked too) and went into the bathroom, as is the usual course of action upon my awakening, to be greeted with the oddest of surprises in my toilet bowl. My blurry morning vision made me look twice as I attempted to figure out what it was. At first, I thought someone had left a floater and it had threaded out overnight as they

Long one makes it go: An open letter to drivers on Indiana 64

2007-11-18T23:07:00.000-06:00

Dear drivers on Indiana 64 between the Wabash River and Princeton,I hate you. I really do. In driver's ed, they should have taught you that there is such a thing as a gas pedal. They should have also taught you that it has many positions, not just two: on and off.For those of you that prefer the off position, I hate to tell you, but the quarter mile long line of cars is not following you because

A Call to the Lia Show that Would Never Air

2007-11-17T18:47:00.001-06:00

Lia:Hello, what's your name?Cray:Howdy Larry. My name's Cray.Lia:Hi Cray. It's Lia, actually. Where are you right now?Cray:Sorry Lou. I'm at Dana in Hennerson Kittuckey (spelled as pronounced by locals)Lia:Have you ever called in before?Cray:No, but I listen to your show every night...Lia:That's great...Cray:...but not by my own choice. Some jackass keeps changing the radio to a station that

Are you ready for a career with Verizon Wireless?

2007-10-21T18:32:00.000-05:00

So, you're out of work and desperate for a job? Why not consider working for the evil telco monopoly in town... or better yet, their wireless division? As a public service, I've put together this convenient primer (based on pictures from the Verizon Wireless Careers site) that will help you decide if you have what it takes to work for Verizon Wireless.Opportunity!Fresh out of rehab? Decided not

And now to piss off the smokers...

2007-10-13T01:02:00.000-05:00

I really wanted to stay out of this debate, but I've heard so much complete idiocy on this subject that I just could not avoid it any longer. The idiocy I've heard from the smokers' camp has made something painfully clear:The vast majority of smokers are unreasonable, self-centered assholes.Was that harsh? Perhaps, but it seems to be the only real conclusion I can come to. Despite what smokers

101 Reasons to Ridicule EarthLink

2007-09-23T21:29:00.001-05:00

I always love to get that little bit of insight into the way a company views their customers. This view is usually well hidden, but occasionally it can be discovered by careful examination of advertising. Previously, I've caught onto Verizon and HP's views of their customers as losers and

Mighty Mouse

2007-08-25T15:41:00.000-05:00

My office smelled pretty bad yesterday. It had that oh so familiar dead animal in the vent smell. I was busy yesterday, so I just had to live with it. I sat in the office most of the day working, inhaling the gag inducing smell of death. At about 4:00 in the afternoon, I was happy to get out of the office to do some electrical work. While out, my brain automatically blocked out the horrible stink

Mendenhall, Benoit, and the Media

2007-07-15T20:01:00.000-05:00

Yes, this may be a venture into the more serious for this blog, but seeing as Mendenhall is a local of my area who I have actually met in the past and know the daughters of (the oldest daughter is actually one of the people that was with us when we saw the van full of Mexicans lose a wheel on 57), I figured I should take a look at how the media is handling this story. The way the mainstream media

Free Tip for Business Owners

2007-07-07T15:19:00.000-05:00

Here's a free tip: If you plan on running a successful business, you might want to not let the mentally challenged answer the phone.I just got off the phone with a local pawn shop where I was going to inquire about what they would give me for a certain item. The woman who answered was either a toothless "special" person, or the Great Khali's sister. Here's how the conversation went:Tard:

Close, but not quite...

2007-04-30T14:47:00.000-05:00

Today, MSN is featuring an article entitled "The Customer Service Hall of Shame" in which they reveal the results of some user polls as to who has the worst customer service. As would be expected, my old foe Verizon scored on their list. However, I was quite surprised as to how low it scored. The results were:Hall of ShameSprint ~ 40%Bank of America ~ 30%Comcast ~ 30%Time Warner Cable ~ 29%AT&T ~

So I hear...

2007-04-28T11:09:00.000-05:00

Last night on 20/20, Barbara Walters did a show about children living as the other sex. Now, I'm not going to come in here and cause a big fuss about how the parents letting their children live as the other sex after they say "I wanna be a [other sex]" is the same as letting them join the fire department when they say "I wanna be a fireman," even though it is pretty much the same thing.No, this

Celebrity Fit Club

2007-04-23T09:42:00.000-05:00

The downward trend continues for this show.For the first few seasons, they had people like Ralphie May who actually needed to lose some weight to be healthy. Back then, my biggest gripe with the show was that they were harassing and pushing Tocarra too much, seeing as she was obviously in pretty good shape and carried her just over 200lb frame very well.Over the last few seasons, I have only been

Frozen Foods Make You Skinny

2007-04-02T03:49:00.000-05:00

Years ago, Subway introduced a guy named Jared. They started the commercial with "Remember Jared?" to which most of America replied "No." Nonetheless, Subway ran with the concept that eating their sandwiches (minus anything that might give them flavor) could help you lose weight. They also suggested the laughable notion that Jared was getting women since he lost the weight, which we all know is

How Verizon Sees Their Customers

2007-04-02T03:18:00.000-05:00

You can tell a lot about how a company sees their customers by their advertising material, such as how HP thinks their users are retarded. Well, it turns out that Verizon also has a very odd view of their customers."Someday, loyal army of bobbleheads, we will show them all. Today, we watch TV!"The other day, I received a poorly constructed advertising mailing for Verizon's "Double Freedom" plan,

I Feel Old

2007-04-02T02:54:00.000-05:00

Lately, I have felt very old. It could be due to being worn down by my many years on this planet. It could be due to the way the lives of others around me are going. Whatever the cause, I feel old. Of course, it doesn't help when AARP wants me to join. Yes, you read that correctly, and yes this is the 25 year old Big Cray you've all come to know and love (or absolutely despise... no middle ground

Too retarded to use a PC?

2007-02-25T02:23:00.000-06:00

I hate Macs. I honestly do. Is it due to problems I've encountered using my own Mac? No, I don't own one. Is it due to problems encountered while repairing my customers' Macs? No, I have never had to service a Mac for one of my customers... of course, that's not much to say, considering nobody owns one of the damn things. Actually, short of a few units at the local college, I can't say I'm aware

F*** You

2007-02-08T23:09:00.000-06:00

If you've read my material for long, you'll know that occasionally I'll get in the mood for a good ol' fashion, off the wall, often somewhat exaggerated, crazy rant. It's due.F*** you, Colts. Enjoy having fans while you can, but just know that as soon as you go back to sucking like usual, you'll be back to only three people giving the slightest rats ass about you. Then, Manning can have a good

The Rating is Back

2007-01-30T14:54:00.001-06:00

After nearly a month of downtime, RatingBBW has resurfaced. While it isn't set to officially open until the 31st, I figured I'd give the current beta offering a look and give you my thoughts.Before I get started on my critiquing, I have to mention that my initial thought is that it was an odd decision on the RatingBBW webmaster's part to take the entire site down while he built the new version (

Just One Big Glitch: Further Elaboration

2007-01-29T14:43:00.000-06:00

In my previous entry, I wrote, among other things, about what you can use the female wrestlers for in the THQ Smackdown games. I thought it might be helpful if I provided a list of every match type available in exhibition mode that specified which matches the women could compete in. It will give you a better idea of what I was saying, as well as serve as a handy reference on what matches are in

Just One Big Glitch

2007-01-22T07:34:00.000-06:00

I've been loyal to the THQ Smackdown series since it began on the old Playstation. Every year, I hoped that the new version will fix all the things that aggravate me from the previous edition. This year, I am once again disappointed.Thinking back, the last version I truly enjoyed without much reservation was Here Comes the Pain. Its successor, Smackdown vs. Raw, was a huge letdown. It was a

Cray's Tech Journal: You have GOT to be kidding me!

2007-01-17T06:02:00.000-06:00

This has to be a joke, right? Of all things PeoplePC could get an award for, they're getting an award for customer satisfaction? This is the company that has a 900 number for tech support! This is the company that requires its users to utilize a highly flawed dialer instead of DUN. This dialer will dial-up to long distance numbers without a second thought, leaving its customers with insane

Ironic or Apt?

2006-12-29T22:12:00.000-06:00

Take a minute. Look it over. Is this an ironic collision of breaking news and the DirecTV guide, or is it an unintentionally apt statement? Perhaps it is a little bit of both.Regardless of the coincidental screenshot, at least this story does one thing for the media. It gives them a story to bite into on a Friday night where the special report on 20/20 spotlighted a complete idiot who writes

You Don't See That Every Day

2006-12-16T10:27:00.000-06:00

Earlier this morning, I was with a group of people coming back downstate from Chicago (yes, I was in Chicago earlier today... don't ask) on 57 when, suddenly, out of nowhere, a full size Chevy van about 300 yards in front of us started throwing a large amount of sparks out from under the left rear as it swerved all over the road. The driver finally got it under control and pulled it over to the

Invent

2006-11-27T04:18:00.000-06:00

Computer manufacturers crack me up sometimes. They exist purely because the general public doesn't want to take the time to learn how to assemble the separate components into a working computer. However, they often sport an attitude as if they are responsible for each separate component, meticulously designing each piece, as opposed to buying the same wholesale parts everyone else does and then

Don't Adjust Your Set

2006-11-25T01:31:00.000-06:00

It seems that the USA network is achieving new heights of "brilliance" in gimmicky programming. They are promoting (or perhaps it is better said that they are threatening) that they will show an episode of their inexplicably popular show, Monk, in black and white, followed by the same episode in color. Then, the viewers get to decide which they liked better. If someone likes shows in black and

Duck and Cover

2006-11-20T15:25:00.000-06:00

The little spotlight news topic on the left side of Hotmail this afternoon reads:"Hot on HotmailGossip: Is Jessica Biel now a Yankees fan?"Seriously, when did this become news? I've made no secret in the past about my distaste for inane celebrity gossip, but I believe this reaches a new level of useless knowledge. This wasn't someone being dumped via text message. This wasn't a drunken driving

Next-Gen... again

2006-11-02T03:32:00.000-06:00

Earlier tonight, I saw two things that got me thinking about "Next-Gen" video game consoles due out shortly. It brought to mind years gone by, and the now-defunct systems that were, in their time, the "Next-Gen" beasts of the future.One thing I saw was tonight's South Park episode partially revolving around Cartman's desire for a Nintendo Wii. I guess with this, and the PSP episode a while back,

Where Knowledge Rules

2006-10-29T06:50:00.000-06:00

A few weeks ago, I came across a Yahoo Answers or About.com style Q&A site called Helium. The concept is that users write articles on a given topic (essentially answer the question), and then other users pick the best article through an A vs B rating system until the best article gets to the top via this bubble sort. The writer of the best article on each topic gets an undisclosed amount of

Analysanalyzeded

2006-10-26T04:27:00.000-05:00

Why is everyone so lazy today? Why can't anyone take the time to edit or even effectively proofread anything? The internet seems to be the breeding ground for the new wave of modern day illiteracy, with the oversimplification of even the simplest words (e.g. "your" into "ur," "are you" into "ru," etc), overcomplication of simple words into gibberish trash (e.g. 1337 5p33k), and the demise of any

Ghost Hunters

2006-10-12T13:30:00.000-05:00

Yesterday, I happened to catch a long block of the Sci-Fi show Ghost Hunters. I had never seen the show or particularly paid attention to the advertising, but I was flipping through channels and happened upon it, so I gave it a chance. I tend to enjoy watching shows about the paranormal, mainly to see how strong of a case they can make. I really don't fall on either side of the fence. I don't say

Fair and Balanced

2006-10-07T02:45:00.000-05:00

With the world seemingly falling apart at the seams this week, leave it to FOX News to really put things in perspective and show how completely out of the loop they are.There has been a resurgence of school shootings, including a crazy guy shooting Amish schoolgirls, and for a short while, the crazy Westboro Baptists were going to protest at the funerals. There's a toxic cloud coming from a

Anytime!

2006-09-19T00:24:00.000-05:00

I found out an amusing fact today. A certain evil corporate entity does not know the definition of the word "anytime." I'll give you a split second to guess who that could possibly be.Did you guess Verizon? If you didn't, you haven't been paying attention. It appeared as if there was a possibility that I was going to be late getting my phone bill paid if I mailed it, so I decided to take Verizon

Cray's Tech Journal: PeoplePC

2006-09-16T03:07:00.001-05:00

Today I thought I'd talk about my experience with PeoplePC's dial-up internet service. I happened to have had a customer back at the beginning of the year who bought PeoplePC service. He was a first time internet user. He had just paid around $1500 for a Dell XPS as his first computer, and asked a friend what internet service he should get. His friend led him wrong, and told him to go with

DVD, Verizon, and uhhh

2006-09-12T02:57:00.000-05:00

First off, I'd like to apologize for the lapse in new material here. I wrote a Lucha article for Andyville on the sixth, but even that was six days ago, so I've really been slacking on the internet publishing front.I've been incredibly busy wrapping up a Dimbee Multimedia DVD project. The last week has been spent building every component, and perfecting every aspect of the overly complex (yes,

Hoosiers and Stop Signs

2006-08-29T20:37:00.001-05:00

There is an odd phenomena in Knox County, Indiana that I have seen for years with no satisfactory explanation. Before I go into it, however, let me give you a little background on the area. Knox county is in Southwestern Indiana on the Wabash River. The largest city is Vincennes. It was laid out by the French, and for some reason was not laid out in the normal North-South-East-West fashion, but

Verizon: The End?

2006-08-27T00:00:00.000-05:00

Today was a fairly productive day for Verizon. Sometimes I think that they often do so poorly to lower the standards so that when they actually do something fairly adequately that it is notable.This morning, a Verizon van pulled up to take a look at our crosstalk issue. Wow, a whole five days early! This sounds great until you realize that the service call was placed nine days before. Anyway, it

Verizon... Seriously, More Verizon!

2006-08-26T00:21:00.000-05:00

I know that everyone is probably tired of my Verizon rants, but good god, they just keep giving me things to rant about!Yesterday, I talked about their little unlimited long distance plan they were pushing that cost the same in this area as everywhere else, despite not being able to fulfill all the features. What I neglected to mention is that switching to that particular plan and dropping AT&T

Verizon: The Never Ending Saga

2006-08-25T02:30:00.000-05:00

Yes, Verizon still sucks.As I mentioned in the previous entry, Verizon, continued, I mentioned an offer for an unlimited calling plan that came in the mail as I was typing it. I ridiculed their slogan and some of their presumptuous and just plain incorrect claims.Well, I looked into their little calling plan, just for fun.The key to it is the unlimited long distance, but there are also three

Cray's Tech Journal: Zone Alarm 6.5

2006-08-23T00:23:00.001-05:00

This is the first post [to Cray's Tech Journal], so it will work to give you an idea of what I'll be getting at. It's pretty simple. I tell you what the user reported as the issue, what my more professional diagnosis yielded, and the solution(s) employed. I'm sure many of the problems I'll be covering have been covered elsewhere, but I'm just posting as I come to them. Some posts will not be in

Get out of my head!

2006-08-22T21:20:00.000-05:00

I've been driving myself crazy today, and it is from the craziest thing. Never underestimate the effect that even the smallest, stupidest things can have on a person. Things can get deeply imprinted in one's memory, and then torture them endlessly.Today, I'm driving around, taking care of business, and for some reason, out of nowhere, with no provocation, as if I suffered from turretts, I said

Verizon, continued

2006-08-22T04:14:00.000-05:00

First off, I'd like to apologize for the layout here at the time of this writing. I just registered this blog, and simply haven't had time yet to get into modifying the template into something more presentable. I'll get to it... trust me.Secondly, for those of you who don't know who I am, you may need to read up on some of my former writing to get up to speed with some of the things I'll talk