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The Usual Ranting, Plus My Future Non-Milestone Birthday Celebration

Normally, people make me insane with their stupidity. But now they've gone just a little too far over the edge. I was watching the Today show yesterday morning, and they were running this story about cars that are not equipped with safety devices that prohibit someone from shifting a car into gear without first putting their foot on the brake. The reason for this "important story" is that apparently there is an upsurge of people leaving their children unattended in the vehicle while they "run into the store for 5 minutes" only to come out and find that the car, and child, are down at the bottom of an embankment somewhere. Now as most of you know I don't have children, but I find that it's a little irresponsible to leave your child in the car if they are young enough not to understand the implications of playing with the gear shift. I mean it's not like leaving your dog in the car...you can't just crack the windows and expect them to be fine while you shop. Secondly, as the story stated, if the vehicle was parked on flat land and the gear shift was disengaged, the car would not move. So I have to ask myself what jackass parks their car and kid on a hill unattended? I mean even if say the E-brake was engaged it's possible that the brake may not work and the car may go flying down the hill anyway. Thirdly, and what was perhaps the most enraging part of the piece, they tell the story, chastise the manufacturers for "not including this safety feature standard on every vehicle (and of course go on to cite statistics of how many automobile manufacturers have them currently, who is getting them, and when they are expected to be installed), and then show a montage of the featured dead child's photographs (when he was alive, of course) complete with Sarah McLachlan music playing in the background. I wondered to myself why they aren't questioning the parents poor parenting skills for leaving the child there, or perhaps bring to light the fact that this is a very avoidable tragedy by just using FUCKING COMMON SENSE! Jesus, our news programs are going to hell!

In other news, my birthday is next Tuesday! And while I'm turning 29 which is not an important birthday by any means, I feel that I need to actually go out and do something nice for myself for a change. I've decided that I'm going to buy myself a new coat (yeah, I know that's pretty sad when that brings excitement to my life), a few new clothing items, perhaps a new pair of shoes, and yes, I am going to Horrorfest in Hartford the weekend of the 17th to see some movies that are "too disturbing for the general public (Horrorfest Online) which should be uber-exciting! Hopefully I'll see some of you there