I Wear This On My Sleeve

Rules are made to be broken - this is something that most would say I've lived my life trying to uphold. I'm a troublemaker. But there are some holy and sacred rules that absolutely can't be broken. Two good examples of this are the "Shotgun Rules" and one of my favorites, the "48 Hour Rule".

The Shotgun Rules are simple enough. In fact, some rather bored people have put up a very professional looking guide over at shotgunrules.com, and other than a few omissions, they've done a good job. They completely forgot "Blitzing" and "Bastard Rules".

Blitzing is the act of running to a car that one wants to ride shotgun in and touching the handle, thus making them the proper recipient of shotgun. If an owner calls "Blitz", then all calls of "shotgun" are negated and whomever puts their hand on the front-seat passenger's door handle first is the awarded shotgun for the ride. Though some try to prevent this by calling "shotgun no blitz", it's purely up to the disgression of the driver. Though most of the time if somebody remembers well enough to call "no blitz", it is considered courteous for the driver not to enforce blitz rules - unless they're bored and want to see people run.

If a driver calls out "Bastard Rules" after somebody calls "shotgun", then the first one to get their ass physically in the seat is the one to get shotgun. Simple as that. Usually this ensures some sort of physical struggle, which is both comical and amusing to the driver. Bastard Rules cannot be voided by any preemptive call during shotgun like Blitzing can.

Another cardinal rule that is always in place where I've lived is the 48 Hour Rule. Simply put, when somebody in a house/apartment puts an item in the refrigerator they have exactly 48 hours to consume the contents of the item, or it's fair game for everybody in the place to do whatever they want with it (eat it, throw it out, etc). Now this obviously doesn't apply to all items in the fridge. Noteable execeptions include condiments (includes cheese), beverages, bread, fruits and vegetables, lunch meat, or any other sealed package. The purpose of the 48 hour rule is to prevent people from leaving leftovers in the fridge for too long and dirtying the thing up. The freezer has no such time limitation - just keep it clean will you?

I've pretty much got my heart set on a G4 iBook, I just need to get up off my ass and buy it. In the meantime, I'm trying to ease the transition to Mac OS X [10.4] with some XP customizations:


My new desktop configuration [I'm preparing myself for the eventual move to Mac OSX - Click to zoom]

Neat looking, eh? And yes, that's Windows XP with Rainlender [the desktop calendar], Trillian [the best IM client, skinable], Object Dock [the Mac-style replacement for the Windows Toolbar], and The GIMP [image manipulation, for the screenshot] running.

Also, I've just started up on Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap for the GBA. I like it so far.

And I vehemently defend my choice for 2004 Album of the Year. The more I listen to that album, the more it rocks me. What a freaking disc, even if the band that made it is a bunch of freaks. I forgot Flogging Molly and Rilo Kiley in that list, so I'll need to redo it soon.

Oh, and Georgia Tech's basketball team is driving me absolutely crazy. Three bad losses in a row [blown out at UNC, beaten at NCSU, and beaten at home by VT] and I have no idea what's gotten into the team. This is the same team that thrashed Michigan and Georgia and was pounding Kansas in Lawerence til Elder got hurt. Get well soon, B.J. - we need you.