Marc's Stuff

When I got home from work the other day I had a realization that we can pretty much control most everything with from a remote. At my house I have remotes to control the TV, Cable box, DVD player, Air conditioner and I even have a remote for one of my dogs. (It’s used for a training collar, but that is for another post at a later time.) Most of us have a remote that unlocks and locks our car for us, or even start it. Heck some cars will unlock themselves automatically if you have the right device in your pocket. For those of you that have a garage, chances are you have a remote control that will open and close the garage door. While going home depot the other day, I saw a device that will unlock and lock the front door of your house remotely. (Ever try to unlock the front door with a car remote?) Relatively new is a remote control vacuum cleaner. Police bomb squads use a remotely control reboot to help disarm bombs, and the US military has “drone” or basically remote airplanes to help in fighting battles. You can get a remote control fan, or ceiling fan, or even a remote baby monitor. Some places have a remote control window blinds. You can get a remote that works on your computer, but I guess that would me more like a TV remote if you have a tuner card. With all the remote control devices, no wonder why other countries view us as lazy. Heck, we don’t have to get off the couch for anything, as long as we have the right remote. What’s next, a remote control microwave? How about a remote control washer and drier? Some one needs to create a remote control butt scratcher? Now THAT would be progress.

Posted by Marc at 04:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

First of all, I would like to thank the Toledo Free Press, and Lisa Renee Ward for a nice write up of Marc’s Stuff on their website. Lisa’s blog is Glasscity Jungle .

With Memorial Day coming up, we need to take time to remember and thank our troops. Without them we would not be able to enjoy the freedoms that we have, and the ability to get sunburn with our families this weekend

Also with Memorial Day, thoughts turn to parades, and other special events that celebrate the holiday. What typically is considered a main event for this weekend, is the auto racing double header of the Indy 500 and NASCAR’s Coke 600. On the day before Memorial Day many racing fans will sit in front of the TV all day watching both races, started around 11:00am, and ending around 10 or 11pm. Reminds one of New Years Day with all the Bowl Games. Since I’m a big racing fan, I look forward to this every year with great anticipation, but this year I’m suggesting something different. Crank up those Tivos, VCRs and DVRs and record those races. If you are a racing fan, instead of watching TV on Sunday, get off the couch and drag your butt to your local short track this weekend. . Bring your family, bring your friends. Go to the Flat Rock, Eldora, and Macon Speedway Speedways of America. Support the grassroots racing. Instead of Cheering for Tony Stewart, Buddy Rice, or one of the Andreditts. Cheer Troy Herman as he tries to defend his 100 lap Figure race win at Flat Rock, or just pick that neat looking Late Model and cheer them on in person. Heck you don’t need to cheer for anyone, just enjoy the action. Then when you get home from the short track, turn on the old TV, Grab yourself the beverage of your choice, and watch the action from Indy and Charlotte. You will never regret it.

Posted by Marc at 02:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

While surfing the net the other day I came across a story about a Pizza Delivery person who was also selling pot while delivering Pizza. For 6 years I have delivered Pizza for a local company, and I can tell you that I can see why the person was selling pot. A allot of my deliveries were to pot heads. One night a Guns-n-Roses concert was in town, we worked the closest hotel to the concert site (The Toledo Speedway). With about 50% of my orders going to the hotel, I made over 200 bucks in tips that night. In most cases, they would have a 7 or 8 dollar order, and give me a 20 and tell me to keep the change. Outside of that, I still had delivered to at least 1 or 2 people a night that had smoked some of the recreational herb, and occasionally had an order to a party with a quarry of stoners. Sometimes they were a little harder to deal with, but money is good (The tips, I never did sell the drug). Now, granted what this person did was very illegal, and he should serve time for it, but he was also practicing public safety. Think about it. If you had a pizza and a joint delivered to you, then 1) you will not go out to get the joint, which would me you are less likely to lite it up while driving and drive under the influence. Points for safety!! ..Then 2) after you have smoked the joint, if you already had the pizza delivery, you will be less likely to go out, get in a car, and drive to get something once you do get the munchies and then get into a wreck. More points for safety! Ok, maybe delivering pot is a bad idea. After all, it is illegal, and chances are you are going to be sleeping in a place with a cellmate named Bubba. How about this? A Beer Delivery Service. That at the very least should cut down on drunk driving (Assuming the delivery person doesn't sample his product).I might be on to something here. A Case Bud to your place 30 minutes or less. (The Beer, not the weed you potheads!!). Heck, maybe we can get some of the pizza delivery places in on it. After all nothing goes together better then Beer and Pizza.

Posted by Marc at 01:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Logic Free Zone is the term that WSPD's Brian Wilson uses to describe Washington DC. I believe that this can also be applied to the City of Toledo's City Council. Recently, a new proposal has been brought before City Council that calls for a charge to be started for the use of police services. In the measure, if someone causes a car accident, and a City of Toledo Police officer responds to the scene, the person who is found at fault is charged a service fee. Isn't one of the reasons that we pay taxes is to provide police services? This to me seems to be double taxation, and a chance at the City of Toledo to do a money grab. This is another example of why our elected leaders appear to be out of control. In general, it seems that if a government service has a budget problem, the first thing they want to do is to find ways to make money, by raising taxes or putting on "Service fees" or other cash flow enhancements in place. When we have personal budget problems, we can't do that..(Ever ask for a raise from your boss, if you don't get laughed at, chances are they will turn you down). For our household we need to cut expenses and do. We will not get the new car. or get a smaller more efficient car. We stop eating out. We will stop shopping at Dillards Giant Eagle, and start shopping at Wal-Mart, or Aldi's... Does the government follow this belief? No, they go ahead and raise taxes first, or start a "service fee.” A couple years ago, the city of Toledo tired to start a service fee of $5 a week( or a month, I can't remember) for garbage pick up. Our city “leaders” argued that residences of local villages and townships pay a lot more to have their trash picked up, so we should be grateful it was only 5 bucks. But the fee was stopped. Why? Because the citizens of Toledo spoke up and pointed out that we pay for the service in our city taxes. Those villages and townships don't have public garbage pick up, but their taxes are a lot lower so they are charged for garbage pick-up. Since the citizens of Toledo spoke up, the fee was stopped. It seems the only time politicians will cut expenses is when we bitch about the tax raises, and sometimes they still will raise them. Anyone remember the tax increases from the State of Ohio a few years back. Take a look at the tax levies that have been put up for vote recently...Alot of them have been turned down. We are tired of giving more money to the government. ..We are tired of having tax increases, service fees, etc, rammed down our throats when our income isn’t rising at the same rate. What we need to do is put people in place that are willing to make cuts, and not raise taxes but we keep voting the same clowns into office.

Posted by Marc at 12:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Well..I got hit with a nasty cold agian..(I really don't think I fully got rid of the last one) so, that explaines the long time between posts.. We are doing much better, and I hope to start posting once every couple days or so.. For a the toledo folks...A quick costco update. Dispite the fact that Carty (The Mayor) has fought bringing Costco into the Westgate area in Toledo, it's going forward...I live 2 blocks from the location,and they have placed fences to start with consructions. The last major sticking point was to do with Toledo's "Living wage" Law (Don't that scream union?) Carty Vetoed a provision that allow Costco to not have to pay the Living wage, which did get overturned by City council. In the case of Costco, what I have been reading about them, thier benifits, etc, all have been pretty good compaired to some other retailers out there, so in thier case one would think this would be taken into consideration, but since Carty's in the Union's back pockets, it doesn't matter.. OK..It's late, and I'm getting way to polictial for my likeing at the moment..:)

Posted by Marc at 11:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)