You can get cable service for $30/month.  I know after the first year…. ($40 after that).  So you need to cut that bill to something more managable.  So let’s say you want the big networks (CBS, FOX, NBC, ABC, WB11), and let’s choose 8 cable channels (ESPN, TBS, TNT, Food Network, Bravo, CNN, and 2 more).  How much should that cost?  Well let’s figure on $3 a channel.  Just on those 8, that is $24, then we have to add for the piping in of the networks.  There is your $30.  At that point you might as well just pay for all 700 channels.  How much extra will HD cost?

The wholesale deal that the cable companies get is because they can guarantee millions of subscribers.  Now they won’t be able to.  So the bad networks like mtv4 will fail, but the good ones will start costing more.  Remember HBO is self sufficient at $20 dollars a month.

All this is simple math and economies of scale.  (I’m good at the math but not the economics).  The best way is to pressure @johnament to explain how his HTPC and external antennae works for watching TV.  For someone who has no cable he will see who will win the oscars tonight where I won’t.

Found at the wife’s office.  I just would like to say, thank you for clarifying what the mystery stuff on the carpet was.  I’m sure it took only a quarter of the time to fully attach the note onto the carpet than to clean it up (or call someone to clean it up).

Oh yeah, and I know chaimtime.com is all about the 1%, you know, the biker gang but I thought I’d start out with something helpful instead of just complaining right off the bat. Trust me, I think plenty of things are stupid and when I’m ready I’ll begin posting my 2¢. For now, lets stick to me helping you not be stupid, like I was.

Start Early
When planning out a vacation, start as early as you can. Plane tickets are usually cheaper when they’re bought far in advance so be sure to pick those up ASAP. Always look into getting a refundable ticket if they’re reasonably priced. If it gets close to your travel date and they have some kind of incredible sale then you can return the original tickets and get the lower price. Once I couldn’t get a refundable ticket but saw that buying ticket insurance wasn’t too badly priced. I didn’t buy it but as you’ll soon see, I’d heavily advise any purchaser to research everything they buy. Always know your options.

An early start gives a lot of time to find special deals. If a great price can’t be found, don’t feel forced to purchase something now that can wait until later. For instance, a hotel room’s price doesn’t generally sky rocket if it’s booked the night of arrival (but you might want to ensure you have a place to stay before you get on a plane). Same thing for car rentals, tours, shows, attractions, etc. I’m definitely not saying NEVER purchase these early, however, jump only on a great deal.

Shop Around
A good tool I use for planning vacations is Orbitz. However, I’ve purchased package deals only later to find out that I don’t necessarily have to use Orbitz to get those good deals. I can find the best airline prices of the day, then call those airlines to get a price just as good and sometimes even better. Just call the airline, give them the flight information and see if they have a better price. While I’m on airlines, be sure to ask about their baggage charges. Sometimes you’ll be able to avoid fees if you check in online before you get to the airport.

Military: For military reading this, some airlines don’t charge military for bags even when the member is not traveling on orders. Okay, at this time it’s only US Airways. Also, military airline pricing isn’t a discount, it’s a decently priced refundable ticket. If there is little to no risk of being called back, just get a non-refundable ticket.

Finding Shelter
Finding a good place to stay can be fun. Notice I didn’t say hotel. On my last vacation I rented a timeshare from someone who wasn’t using their time. I got a great deal because it was off season and I opted to have no housekeeping. At first I thought, “how could I survive without someone coming to make my bed every day?” but it was actually a great thing. Think about it, who really needs someone to come in every single day to pick up your towels and make your bed? Well, some people do, but not me. The other great thing about it was that I didn’t have to worry about someone forcing their way in at 9:00 AM, which to housekeeping is the time that all tourists are out and about.

I’ve never done this myself but some of my friends and family mostly rent houses for a week instead of getting a hotel. That’s something else worth looking into and I’m definitely going to give it a look next time.

Renting A Vehicle
I also want to cover car rentals. Do you really need a flashy car? Sure, sometimes. But do yourself a favor and pick one day for the outrageous price hike. I liked having my Camaro when driving to my friend’s wedding but I really didn’t need to leave it in the parking lot of Universal Studios all day. Plus rental companies usually rent the lower end version of sports cars. It’s not that great after a day or so anyway.

Avoid Being Ripped Off
Okay, time for my biggest money saver: avoid being ripped off. Simple right? Maybe not. The biggest rip off comes from businesses try to sell additional things at the desk when checking in. They do this because they’re usually trying to sell things that really aren’t needed (e.g., insurance) and/or are a really bad deal (e.g., buying all meals in advance). This works for them because the customer is forced to make a quick decision. It would be very awkward to balance pluses and minuses in that situation. Don’t go spending money on any “great deals” they have only at the counter. Trust me, if a company had a really good deal it would be advertised somewhere else before then.

To tell my personal story at being ripped off at the counter. I was renting a car. A small Hyundai for about $20 a day. The cashier asked if I would like to rent a Camaro instead. I asked for the price difference and he said it would only be an extra $30. Next he said, “Of course you want full coverage for that car right?” I don’t remember the exact price but it was a very large number (per day, which he forgot to mention that). Finally he offered to sell me the gas that was already in the car. He would charge me the same price they sell out in town but since I bought it from him I wouldn’t have to worry about filling the tank up when I come back. “How could that be a bad deal?” I said to myself.

In the end I fell for two of his tricks. I spent an extra $150 on renting a Camaro. You should have seen the expression on my face when I found out he meant $150 not $30. The key point there is that he didn’t say $30 a day. Next, I bought the great deal on gas he had for me. By great I mean terrible. It’s a terrible deal because I don’t get refunded for the gas I don’t use. The only way that’s a good deal, is…well, never. I can only break even if I bring the car back and it stalls from a dry tank in the parking lot.

So here I am exhausted after a whole day of flying on planes just dying to get to my home away from home and then he sticks this receipt in my face. Stupid me thinks I got a great deal and I just sign it. The best part is that I didn’t find out how great of a deal I really got until I read the whole contract when I got home. If I just said no to everything I would have saved over $200. All I needed was a car to get me from point A to point B and I had that in my reservation. Just think, if I said yes to the insurance I would have spent about $500 on things I didn’t need.

Buying insurance for a rental car.
If a driver has car insurance it most likely covers them in any car they drive. Yes there is an issue with the deductible but later I did the math to see how much the insurance would cost me over the 5 days I rented. My deductible is $500 and the insurance would cost me about $300. Maybe that would be worth saving $200 but I don’t think so. You be the judge.

Key Points:

• Get plane tickets early;
• Look beyond hotels;
• There is nothing wrong with waiting until the last minute to get certain things;
• DON’T BUY ANYTHING ADDITIONAL AT THE REGISTER.

Twitter has recently exploded with 3rd parties applications that post just about everything from where you are to how much you weight to, how popular you are in the virtual world.  Well I hate it, and if I hate it, then the world hates it. We all know that I know what the world wants.  Well I propose a solution, after the jump.

When looking through my feed of about 160 twitter friends or the most vocal 100 friends on facebook, 75% of of the posts are link spam,* location awareness applications, or cross post spam on the two sites.  And the reason the facebook spam messages are much less, is because I have the option to block an application.

I make the corollary, to facebook applications. The reason these applications exist, is to do constant advertising by way of the only thing that matters, the facebook, or twitter newsfeed.  Think about Ad.ly’s business model.  They will pay you per tweet based on how popular you are.

“Well ChaimTime, I solve your problem; just unfollow those people.”

It isn’t that easy.  I can’t just tell people what is right, and for them to listen.  How do I tell my sister to stop using farmville, or someone who I generally have an interest in 90% of the time to stop using a program that they like.  I am not in the business of changing behavior.

For the record I like Brightkite, gowalla, and in limited capacity foursquare.  I see this as the next evolution of twitter and facebook.  These services can be integrated well with the right personal posting policy.  However, I don’t want to know where you are all the time.  Especially when the message says, I’m at this place without a personal message of why you are at this place.  I rather have the choice to know where you are, if I so choose.

My solution is this:

Create a second profile in twitter for your miscellaneous third party application posts.  I am formally introducing @whereschaimtime , where I will post all my location services, and any other third party apps that auto post to twitter.  What this does, is let people follow you, if they choose.  If they choose not to, they always have the option of manually going there later.  It also doesn’t fill up your stream with spam that that is unneeded.

I want the comments…

*Link spam is defined as a shortened link with a title that is too vague for me to understand without going to the actual link.  A second determination is any link that I have already seen, which is most links.  On a mobile device, shortened links are a pain because it opens the inline browser which on the iphone is gimped because it has to proxy through mobile safari.

Side A: These are incredibly dangerous people who cannot be rehabilitated and can’t be a part of society.

Side B: These are people who have paid their debt to society, have civil rights, and within reason deserve to live normal lives.

I think you can guess where I stand. I am really angry about this case, and to explain why, I have to get kinda personal.

My favorite ex is a convicted sex offender.  He was locked up, but he served his time and now he’s out and a model citizen. Should the Supreme Court rule in favor of Side A, he could get thrown into a mental hospital for some indefinite time up to and including the rest of his life.  And that terrifies me.

You have some questions. This is natural.

How did we meet? At a coffee shop.

Before or after he went to jail? After.

Do you know what he did? Yes, and no matter what, you won’t find out.

The thing of it is, my ex, who I’ll call “Bobby,” is an incredible person. He’s remarkably intelligent, self-taught in a number of different and difficult subjects, erudite, witty, caring, and passionate about his favorite games and authors. Once I called him in a panic and told him I was on my way to his house. When I got there, he was wearing a t-shirt with the logo from my favorite band, just because he knew it would make me feel better. To this day I’m not sure why I had a panic attack that night, but I do know just being with Bobby made me calmer. He has that effect on people.

He also has a number of interrelated physical and emotional disorders, at least one of which led to the incident that put him in prison. Which is not to say Bobby isn’t guilty of a crime. He is, and he has admitted it many times over, and he served the sentence the judge put on him, and he is better for it. With the help of intensive therapy, he’s stronger and healthier than at any time since I’ve known him. His journey is impossibly difficult, but he’s mastering it, step by step.

And now, years later, Bobby could get punished for his crime again. All the progress he’s made could vanish. I’d lose one of the best friends I’ve ever had. Why? Because some people want to paint him with the same brush as serial rapists, pedophiles with hundreds of victims, and people who truly cannot be rehabilitated. That’s not Bobby. That will never be Bobby.

Look, I get that some convicted sex offenders are very, very ill and can never be made less ill. I get that some people are genuinely sociopathic and can never change. But lumping people like Bobby – who do respond to therapy, who are changing their lives for the better – in with that crowd doesn’t help anyone. Bobby doesn’t deserve to be imprisoned again. Especially with no clear timeline on when he’d get out (if at all). Especially with no oversight from the criminal justice system. (Think of it as getting grounded by your parents, then being turned over to the school custodial staff for care and wellbeing during the grounding.)

Bobby is one of the most important people in my life. He did something criminally stupid once. He paid for it. He deserves a chance to be a happy, healthy private citizen. So do a huge number of people like him. I sincerely hope the Supreme Court recognizes that people like Bobby exist and shouldn’t spend the rest of their lives locked in a forgotten ward somewhere if there’s a chance they can change.

Update 1: As the day progressed, more and more people were talking about it.  Turns out all the chain letters told girls not to tell the men what was going on.  Also, people were even starting groups saying I don’t want to know what color your bra is.  In conservative America where rights of a whole class of people are being discriminated upon, revealing something so personal is now “appropriate.” Remember I’m the one who got flack for saying “pics or it didn’t happen.”  Here is the article on The Washington Post, where a few lines struck me.

“I think the thing about posting your bra color was so incredibly dumb,” said Tanya Alteras. “I have a friend who is in her late 20s, just had a double mastectomy, chemo, and is now going through radiation, and she was furious about this. How this raises awareness about breast cancer is beyond me. It’s all about making a silly inside joke, and trying to make it meaningful. When you have people posting ‘Saran wrap’ it just becomes offensive.”

Really, Support the Club

Steve formed a club based how high school clubs are pointless, and I became very interested and helped him plan the details. First off we are against the following people, groups, and organizations:

Math League-where math nerds gather and take a test just to get out of class. Tell me when the last time you actively took a test just because? (I don’t know if this is irony, but I used to be the advisor of Math League)

Team Harmony-a club started to stop discrimination. There are no minorities in randolph so what discrimination? The president stated, “I only started it for college.” I have to say that I”m in it just for the girls. YES I’M A HYPOCRITE, but whatever.

NHS-National Honor Society for all you members that have no fucking clue what it actually stands for. Ironically only stupid people are in this club. Only people thinking of college would fill out their application and do all the bullshit they want just so they can say they are “smart,” but in reality they are the dumbest people alive.

NAHS-National Art Honor Society- These people were too stupid to get into NHS so they wanted their own art club that was “honorable.”

SADD-Students Against Drunk Driving- All the members are alcoholics or drink very sociably. What bullshit

Students for a Free Tibet- HIPPIES SUCK….I want a free tibet but i”m not going to protest for it…

French Honor Society-Once again French club wasn”t enough, we need an honor society to separate the smart ones from the stupid ones.

Spanish Honor Society- See above

Community Outreach-Some new club formed to make students do community service. Again another ploy to get into college…. Key club wasn”t enough.

Key Club-A bureaucratic club to try and get kids to do community service. Most Randolph kids could care less about feeding the homeless. I bet they don’t know what having only 1 dollar for a week means. It is a good club once you get past all the bureaucratic bullshit.

Adam Zyto-Stole Steve’’s spot on the board of Ed ballot. He is Steve’s Arch Enemy

Russell Weinstein-Russel Weinstein sent some dumb letter to the RHS principal that made the practical politics class do some dumb thing with the town council, out of the goodness of his heart.

Randolph Cares- Randolph doesn’t care. It is more like Randolph Cares Less. Another version of the Key Club, but once again nobody really cares

Investment Club-My club I started to look good for college. I”m being blatantly honest when i say i did this for college.

SAVE-Students Against Violating the Environment-Who gives a crap about the environment, that is why we have hippies. If i don’t want to save it, then I don’t need some fake hippy preaching. I rather a real hippy preach to me about saving the environment.

DARE-Drug Abuse Resistance Education- A national organization that failed

Eyes on the Prize- The African American club. Promotes African American culture, which is good if there were any African Americans in RHS.

Asian club-The following few clubs are just ways to look good and show that you have some cultural backing.

Irish club-
Italian club-
Anime Society- All the Asians and wannabe Asians sit around and watch pornography.

Spirit Week-I don’t have any money, so why should I give my money to people that also don’t have money. Charity begins in my pocket!

The Ivy League- The bunch of college that call themselves the best. But the Ivy League is only a football conference nothing else.

French People- French people are very anti-Semitic. The difference between the Holocaust and the year 2000 is about 50 years.

French Canadians-See Canadian Bacon

RAMpage-our school newspaper that doesn’t acknowledge the first amendment. Every article has to get approved, and double checked that it isn’t offensive. It breaks two different rights we have….freedom of speech and freedom of the press.  UPDATED:  Students have no rights in school because everything falls under the “substantial disruption” clause.

SGA-Student Government Association aka a popularity contest in where the people that has the most money, and looks the best wins. This group really has no power because anything they want to do has to be approved by administration so basically they are figureheads that stupid posers want to look up to. They get special privileges just because they have some stupid title that in reality gets them nothing. These people are considered the “beautiful people” but still think they need some more activities because their rich yuppie private school think that the SGA shows someone has leadership

Red Cross Club- This club is a way to show people how to save the lives of people that should die. All they do is promote lifesaving skill awareness when none of them have actually taken the course. All these kids do is tell people that they should be a “model citizen.” WHAT A USELESS CLUB. This club has no point. If you want to promote lifesaving at least have the ceritifications to do so. Don’t preach unless you can back it up.

The club we started is officially called: SASADD aka Students for an Enslaved Tibet aka Lock Club aka Team Dissonance aka the WASP club aka W.A.S.T.E. aka the National Shame Society aka the Japornimation Club aka the Enron Club. (we will constantly add names to this as soon as we find more clubs that we are against)

The official rules for the club are: Anyone can join unless they are a member of any of the clubs previously mentioned. The club never meets and there is only 1 position: dictator and that is permanently held by Steve and Steve only. The purpose of the club is to point out the bullshit nature of 95% of all high school clubs that people will only join to put on their college application.Once you join, you”re in for life (unless Steve decides to revoke your membership). That way you are still a part of the club even after you are finished with high school.\r\n

There isn’t an official members list, so when you join you ironically become a statistic.

SASADD- Students Against Students Against Drunk Driving- We understand that they changed their name, but our club doesn”t acknowledge the name change. We believe that the name change was to promote the club that as shown above was just bullshit. SASADD isn’t pro-drunk driving, just against the club SADD and any members of that organization. SASADD takes a neutral stance on the issue of drunk driving.

Students for an Enslaved Tibet- Again we want Tibet free but we don’t need non hippies who could care less telling us that. Telling some pimply 16 year old won’t accomplish anything, and so far all the chapters haven’t done anything. Tibet is still enslaved.

Lock Club- The Anti-Key Club. Basically for everyone who wants to do community service. There is no time commitment, nobody to talk to about doing things. You want to help, find your own service and do it.

Team Dissonance- This club is for all those Team Harmony losers, especially the president. We could care less about stopping discrimination. In Team Harmony there were cuts for board positions. That is discriminating. This club there won”t be any possessions, in fact it won”t exist because i”m sure it is discriminating against something.\r\n

W.A.S.P.- White Angle Saxon Protestant club- We are not racist we are just against all those Irish/Italian/Asian, etc… clubs. They do nothing. Most of the members are not even the nationality or that culture that the club is promoting. They just did it for college

W.A.S.T.E.- Women Against Saving The Environment- This is the Anti SAVE club. If you notice only women care about the environment unless you are a hippy. And since you are a fake environmentalist we hate you. So this club is for women that hate the SAVE people.

National Shame Society- We want to show how bad NHS is so we came up with the National Shame Society. If you want to be a shame to the world join this club

Japornimation Club- All Anime is, is porn. Why just call it what it really is. Japanese Porn.

Enron Club- The final outcome of the Investment Club. Since I started it we could care less. We money laundered, and lied about it. It also died when Steve and I left.

The Skull and Crossbones Club- This club is in the business of helping stupid people die. We pretend that we know what we are doing and if you are stupid enough to believe us then you should die. We won’t preach saving people that shouldn’t be saved.

****

My friend Raya is in the psych ward of a local hospital. Raya isn’t her real name (I’ve borrowed it from a college acquaintance, who I hope won’t mind), and if I explained how I met her, it would come too close to revealing who she is.

At any rate, Raya is in the psych ward, and we hope she’ll be allowed out within the next day or so, but no one can tell for sure. She’s been hurtling towards this moment since sometime last week, though in truth she’s been battling her demons for longer than I’ve been alive. In the six or so months I’ve known her she told me enough of her story to show that life has never been easy for her, and even in the best of times Raya isn’t always completely rational. This isn’t the first time she’s voluntarily committed herself. She’s the third of my friends who’s done so in the last 18 months. Or at least the third who’s admitted it.

Raya is in the psych ward, and I can’t help feeling like I could have done more for her. Yesterday Raya called me and frantically asked if I could watch her kids so she could attend a therapy session by phone. I was about to leave for lunch with former coworkers whom I dearly missed, and I told her I couldn’t make it. Later, I had a minor emergency myself and called her. In the midst of my own panic I didn’t notice the strain in her voice, or I ignored it, or I thought that I could provide her a useful distraction by asking her for help. It’s possible this was not one of the better decisions I’ve ever made.

Raya went in last night, and I want her to come home soon, but only when she’s ready, and who knows when that will be. I called her house this morning, vaguely worried that something might have happened to her, and when her husband picked up my heart stopped. He said she hadn’t been reacting well to a new combination of anti-depressants, and she would heal faster without the distractions of home life. He didn’t mention she’s suicidal, but she is. I’m just glad she’s safe.

Raya is on the seventh floor, behind a series of long, sharp-angled hallways, sturdy locked doors, and secret codes. Her neighbors suffer delusions of grandeur, or just delusions. She laughs gently at a man who calls himself the next Messiah and wants to built a crystal palace in Jerusalem. She says he can tell the future. I want to ask him about a phone interview tentatively scheduled for tomorrow.

Raya looks 10 years older than the last time I saw her, and she looks deflated, like she’s lost too much weight too quickly. She can’t carry a conversation for more than a minute, and the few sentences she manages to string together indicate she’s been crashing for years, and that her marriage is in trouble. Raya has children whom I occasionally babysit; while she rambles about losing her keys in a nearby city over the weekend I find myself thinking about the kids growing up with the stigma of severe depression hanging over their heads. I’m pretty sure that Raya’s mother killed herself. Or her grandmother. Maybe both.

Raya is going to come home soon, but her husband is going out of town next week, and I wonder who will take care of the kids. Lately I’ve been having problems of my own and I wondered what it would be like to go into a hospital myself, if only to avoid the real world for a while. Looking at Raya I realize that a psych ward is no place to avoid anything. She is fully aware; she can’t not be. The blinders we adopt for ourselves to avoid melting down every day are gone for her, until she gets new drugs or more therapy or finds her source of personal strength. She is suicidal but she says she never had a plan. I don’t really believe her; everyone has a plan, deep down.

Raya is in the psych ward and I wonder what would happen if it was me, and I’m glad it’s not. I want her to come home, though, so I can stop worrying about her kids and maybe start hanging out at her house again. She invites me to go swimming with her and her kids when I’m not working, and she’s always pushing me to apply for jobs I’m not sure I’m qualified for, and as much as I hate my life sometimes, she’s always willing to listen to me—even in the psych ward, even when she’s jittery and can’t focus and her eyes leak tears almost constantly and I’m not sure she’s slept in a week or more.

Raya is in the psych ward, but still, when I tell her about my phone interview tomorrow, she smiles broadly and squeezes my hand and says a quick prayer to Anyone who’ll listen for me. I haven’t believed in God in a long time, but on the way home, I find myself praying for her, praying she doesn’t really have a plan, praying she puts her blinders back on, praying she can come home.

The 99% rule is a way of life. It says that 99% of everything is bad, and so far it is true. Compare everything to the 99% rule, and you too will see that we are right. The definition of right is relative, but again 1% of everything is “good.”

There are few cases where the 99% rule turns into the 98% rule, but the point still stands… The majority of stuff is garbage that appeals to dumb people. The one caveat for the 99% rule is that the 99% is different for everyone but unfortunately that makes it seem like stupid things like Britney Spears and NSYNC are “good.” The 99% rule can be adapted as either a broad idea like “1% of the good population” or “1% of your school.” Either way the 99% rule still works.

The idea get’’s a little hazy when you have a very small number to work with. For example, of these 5 items choose your favorite. Obviously, choosing one makes it the 80% rule, but for understanding purposes it still is the 99% rule.

I sit and watch spiderman and i want to puke. Who can like this trash. This goes for most of the other movies out there. In 2003 the only good movies was Finding Nemo, Kill Bill, and City of G-d. And if you want to say that Finding Nemo was Toy Story with a different background then there was only two good movies.

Look at your friends. Now look at those friends that will drop everything for you and help you out. You probalby have less then 10 of them. Now think of all the people you know. That turns out to even less then 1%. You marry the 1% of man/woman you meet. This doesn”t say that you are going to date 100 people, but you can tell if the person is date worthy within of few minutes of talking.

Let’’s analyze the TV programming. If you are a college student you probably end up spending more time watching reruns of “good” shows compared to the prime time garbage that is on. I can tell you what to watch from noon to 5am except for prime time because there isn”t anything. There hasn”t been enough reality TV to justify watching one so far. 99% of all shows are crap. That is why 1/2 of all shows are cancelled mid-season. The shows that aren”t cancelled are just watched by idiots. A show can be considered in the top 10% if it is airing in syndication at a decent hour, and stays there for a while. Ironcically for the 99%ers the best tv time is before and after prime time.

Another idea that can be argued is that the 1% of the good things you probably haven’t experienced yet. Take music or movies for example. Yes there are 350 movies released a year, and you probably see less then 100 of them. Now the other 250 might have 3 good movies, but you never saw them. Same thing with music. Most artists that put out “good” music you never know till they pay a radio station a hefty fee to get exposure.