They apparently did not know that Comic-con fans are rabid, they apparently did not know that jerk off little Emo fucks that follow twilight would be online as well to buy tickets. These guys apparently did not load balance their system for the massive amount of traffic that was about to go through their system. Apparently these idiots had no clue what they were about to get hit with. I sat there for 3 hours hitting refresh and seeing their ugly ass damn over capacity logo on the front page. It almost made me as sick as seeing the twitter whlae.

What made matters worse is that they had some fuck on twitter RTing people saying that they got their tickets, but apparently ignored the 10 bazillion tweets about how much they sucked.

I think the worst thing about this crap was when I could get on the ticket page, some days and types of tickets were already blocked out, but later on, they would show up.. then disappear, it was a cluster fuck. I ended up getting 2 adult passes for Thursday, Friday, and Sunday. At the time that I bought those days, Saturday was blocked out, but then I found out that Saturday did not sell out until 3 hours later which pissed me off even more. These guys are fucking jack asses and i am pissed beyond belief that the Comic-con organizers did not make sure that whomever they are contracting out to knows what the fuck they are doing.

Hottest Chick

Really? You Dressed Like.. that?

WTF

Most Creative

Best in Show

Hope you enjoy… I know that I had a really good time. If you want to see the 300+ pics from comicon that I took join me over at facebook.

Protesters took to the street Saturday before the health care bill is to be voted on today. I saw three large groups of them in various parts of Southern California, one group near my home in PQ, another in Temecula, and a third group in heavily Asian Arcadia.

PQ is a pretty ethnically diverse city, lots of Filipinos, Mexicans, Caucasians… the group protesting the health care bill was evidentially 20-25 strong and all of them physically looked Caucasian. They were on the side of the road with their signs and everything. Went up to Temecula, which is heavily Caucasian with some Asians and Hispanics mixed in. This group was probably 40-50 strong, again, all looked physically Caucasian.

In Arcadia, which is predominantly Asian, there was a third group, about 20-25 strong, holding up signs and opposing the health care bill. Again, they all looked Caucasian.

I am not sure if it is a cultural thing or what, but this was something that really drew my attention. I am by no means a fan of the healthcare bill, but it seems to me that this has broken down along political lines. Does this mean that more Caucasians are conservatives? Not really. I know a majority of Asians that are conservative. It just makes me wonder why it is that I just really saw Caucasians protesting and nobody else. Again, this is just from my visual scan of the crowd.

I know that the Republican party is basically the party that is predominantly Caucasian, but it just seemed strange to me that this was not even slightly more diverse.

The Healthcare bill should pass today and people will scream socialism and liberal control of the government for the next couple of weeks and then it will die down.

I will say this about my Republican friends. It was the Republicans that did not want Medicare, it was the Republicans that slowed down civil rights, it was the Republicans that slowed down Education reform…. now, they are the same group that are trying to slow down healthcare reform and are screaming about protecting Medicare. Seems to me that historically the Republicans have been on the wrong side of things when it comes to social services that they are all taking apart of and trying to defend now days.

I am still of the opinion that if the Republicans came up with the same idea that the Democrats are pushing through Congress right now in regards to Healthcare Reform and it was “their” idea, this would not be an issue. It is no longer about doing what is right, it is about getting your party the check mark for doing it and it is not helping anyone.

Personally, I hope every single incumbent that is up for election next year gets voted out. Then the talking heads cannot sit there and say oh look it is a referendum against the Democrats… it should be a referendum against the people in congress, left or right. Show them that it is not about your party, show them that it is about the people of this great country they should be listening to, not their own party and what will make their party better.

I have a lot of like for people that go against the grain of their own party, Lieberman, Olympia Snowe are prime examples. They are not sitting there worrying about their party, they are sitting there worry about what is best for the people in some regards.

Enough of me ranting, I am going to go back and tweet with my dog.

I have been using Turbo Tax online now for probably the last three years and will do so again this year. So I was a little confused. I wandered up tot he library and logged in on my laptop to see the email message in full view and noticed that someone had used my email address for notifications. His name was similar to mine, first initial the same and last name being the same. I was one of the first folks on gmail and had set it up in that manner for myself, so I kind of lucked out. Well this guy in Kentucky may have fat fingered his notification email and it ended up on mine instead. So I was in fact getting his notifications. There was NO PERSONAL INFORMATION being emailed to me, just status updates.

This is where it got a little interesting. I decided, hey, if I was this guy and he was getting my emails about tax stuff, I would want him to reach out to me and tell me that it was messed up. I had his address, knew where he lived, knew his name, but had no phone number and had no clue what his email address actually was. So I did a search online and found nothing, facebook, myspace, and other locations with no luck.

I decided that I should contact TurboTax and see what can be done. Did the online chat with somebody that took almost twenty minutes to respond back to me, by then I had had enough and closed out of chat and decided to call up TurboTax directly. I believe that I ended up somewhere in India with the wonderful Indian guy named Peter. He was of absolutely no help, so I hung up on him after 5 minutes and made a post on twitter about how annoyed I was.

Lo and behold, I got a response from someone at @TeamTurboTax, a young lady by the name of Chelsea. She asked me to driect message her and I did, she followed up by sending me her email address and I forwarded on the correspondence to her. By morning I had gotten an email from her and Bob telling me that they have let the person know and that it has been taken care of. I have heard stories of how people have been helped on twitter and in general, I tend to use twitter to just rant and rave about stupid things and stupid people, but after 4600+ tweets, I finally found a good use for the service.

I did not need to talk to anyone, I did not need to do much, and all in all was very pleased with the quick response that i got. I felt comfortable that it was being dealt with by people that understood that I was not doing anything wrong, if anything I was just trying to help out someone that made a mistake. I also felt very good that the emails that i did get in regards to status notifications did not really allow me to log in as this person to get to any real pertinent data.

I will continue to use TurboTax in the future. The funny thing is, working with One Reverse Mortgage, a Quicken Loans Company, we are always associated with the good folks over at Intuit and much like how the folks over at Quicken Loans use twitter to help their customers, I felt very happy that our friends at Intuit were doing the same.

1. Finding that one roasted peanut inside the rice while eating Indian Food – swear to god, that stuff kills me. I bite into it and my mouth goes numb from the attack on my taste buds. I mean I like peanuts, but when I find it in the rice of an Indian joint, it ruins me for a couple of hours as everything I taste now has this peanut flavor to it. Almost makes me want to wash my mouth out with acid.
   
2. My HOA – I can understand getting a letter saying that I have something on my porch that should not be there. With a picture attached showing the offending object. BUT if in that same picture it shows that my door is open and I am sitting in the background. Why not knock on the front door and ask me why there is a mop drying out on my patio? You obviously had the time to set up the two shots you took, why not instead knock on the screen door and ask me to move it. That saves you from taking a picture and then writing up a letter to me. Retards.
   
3. Auto mechanics – No matter how close I am to an auto mechanic, or know the person. I still feel that whenever I get a quote on a job, they are bending me over and pounding my sphincter. I have to take the Camry into the shop next time I get paid for the radiator. My brother says it should cost no more than $250… but I know that I will hear something like $400 from the guy. I hate auto mechanics.
   
4. I can do that Guy – These are the types of people that take on a task that you know they cannot do properly, but still take charge of it. It is like a person with no legs saying that they can beat Usain Bolt in the 100m dash. When you fully understand that even if you gave them a 90m head start and tied a cinder block to both of Usain Bolts feet that they would still lose, by 9m’s.
   
5. Indy Music Guy – the douchebag that knows every independent music group and keeps using the term.. They are so “real” they have not been changed by the music producers and are playing music that they want to play. He douchebag, there is a reason they are still living in their mom’s basement, it is because they are playing crap nobody really wants to spend money to listen to.
   
6. Homeless Guy with boring sign – How many of these, I am broke, or I need help signs do I need to see. I am not going to give you any money. I do not trust you. I like the guy with the weird signs, like the guy in LA with the “Need to fix spaceship” sign, or the guy on Mira Mesa Blvd that walks around with his white Chihuahua needing to buy dog food. Get a little creative with your signs, then maybe I will help you out.
   
7. C Talent Pornstar on Twitter being Emo Chick – Yeah, I am talking about you Jayla Starr. You got no talent yet you go on twitter bitching about people hating on you. Hey guess what? Your claim to fame is having some guy goo all over you face and you are complaining about people hating on you? I think your life took a wrong turn way before you became a creamatorium.
   
8. Depressing Guy – The guy that sits in the dark in his office all day long lamenting about how difficult his life is. No matter what good news you bring him, he sits and discusses plagues and the latest disease he thinks he contracted. He doesn’t have the sack to kill himself, but his sole goal in life is to make everyone around him miserable.
   
9. Our political system – Our political system is so screwed up that we elect people based on the fact that we dislike the other guy even more. It is like asking someone, would you rather get kicked in groin, or have someone put his nutsack on your forehead. I have not ONCE elected someone since I have had the right to vote based on principles, or a hey, this guy is really good. I have had to vote for someone because he/she was not the other person and that is a sad fact about politics in this country.
   
10. Religious Nutjobs – I am not against religion, I am focusing in on people that do nothing but talk about God. I have actually had people on Facebook think Obama is the AntiChrist. I mean how disconnected from the real world are you? Religion is a good thing for some people, but please, lets live in reality here for a second. Nobody is the AntiChrist and nobody is going to go and bring the 4 horsemen out to destroy the world. Though it is a good thing for the economy if you hire people to build your underground bunker to protect yourself and your family. By all means, move out into the boonies of America along with the other nutjobs and worship and watch Fox news all you want. Just quit voting for douchebags that think we need to be a Christian based society and everything that is not Christian is evil. You are ruining the world.
    ]]> http://mcguffinonline.com/2010/01/10-things-i-hate/feed/ 0 http://mcguffinonline.com/2010/01/2010-this-is-my-year/ http://mcguffinonline.com/2010/01/2010-this-is-my-year/#comments Tue, 19 Jan 2010 07:00:11 +0000 Danny McGuffin http://mcguffinonline.com/?p=71 I say it every year, but this is my year. I have goals set out for this year and I have been laying the seeds for the future. This is going to be the year that I get my goals situated. One of which is to start utilizing new media a little more aggressively for myself and others. YouTube is going to be a fun site once I start to get the ball rolling on this plan.

    Interviews, plenty of interviews on camera, rolling out media to be consumed. I have a plan in the starting phase right now, it is just a matter of how to market it and make it big. I am not completely crazy enough to do it on my own, but I may have help from some friends of mine and we’ll have to see how this goes. May not generate a whole lot of revenue, but it will be something that I can look back on and go, I did that and I am proud of it.

    The year of the tiger starts next week, and much like the tiger, this rat is going to pounce on the world!

    ]]> http://mcguffinonline.com/2010/01/2010-this-is-my-year/feed/ 0 http://mcguffinonline.com/2009/12/2004-%e2%80%93-2006-years-in-review/ http://mcguffinonline.com/2009/12/2004-%e2%80%93-2006-years-in-review/#comments Thu, 17 Dec 2009 03:44:09 +0000 Danny McGuffin http://mcguffinonline.com/?p=62 So January 2, 2004 I landed in Burbank, Joe picked me up from the corner and we had to drive to Fontana to pick up the Paseo. Luckily they were running late and we got the car and I followed him back to Pasadena. I learned rather quickly the main difference between living on the East Coast for so long versus living on the West Coast when I woke up at 445am wide awake. It was good going back to all of the old stomping grounds. Seeing PCC, the old El Nido house, the santa anita mall. It was great.

    2004 was the start of Discount National Mortgage. I drove down to San Diego early Monday morning and parked in front of the new office building.I stopped off at a VONS and had a small breakfast. Sean showed up and introduced me to the crew. David Lippe, Helena Steffen, and Gregg Smith were the most notable. Shaida Anzari, Scott Gorrie, Jason Struthers, and a few more that I cannot remember off of the top of my head. Most of 2004 was learning what I was capable of. I learned a lot about networking, setting up technology, graphics arts, I learned many many things. Our company name changed from Discount National Mortgage to One Mortgage Network, Inc.
    
    Jocelyn and Molly moved to San Diego April 24th of that year. My mother had a stroke in early November and I was back in Jacksonville for a week, then back in San Diego. The year ended with Jocelyn and Molly and I enjoying our time watching the fireworks from the hill in La Jolla.

    2005 was the year that I really blossomed, I learned how to do pay per click marketing and I also learned a software called salesforce.com, it was also the first year that we decided to put our toe into the reverse mortgage world, which was a great idea as it would work out really well for us. I finally found something that I was good at. The company was starting to take off. My folks moved to Los Angeles this year.

    2006 was a year that we started to ramp up the reverse mortgage company, people were hired left and right, the two that stand out are Kristen Sieffert and Kimberly Kerrigan. The goal was to go wholesale and the following year we did. Molly started kindergarten at Los Penasquitos. Jocelyn was getting her footing in the technology world, even though she hated it.

    ]]> http://mcguffinonline.com/2009/12/2004-%e2%80%93-2006-years-in-review/feed/ 0 http://mcguffinonline.com/2009/12/2000-2003-years-in-review/ http://mcguffinonline.com/2009/12/2000-2003-years-in-review/#comments Sun, 13 Dec 2009 03:40:39 +0000 Danny McGuffin http://mcguffinonline.com/?p=58 I can honestly say that the last ten years of my life have been the most difficult, most horrendous, most wonderful, most exciting, most stable, most erratic in my 37 years of life. The 70′s were fun, the 80′s were a blast, the 90′s just plain incredible. I guess I was due a decade of pain and hardship balanced out with a wonderful child and growing old.
    
    The year 2000 found me in Jacksonville, FL. At the change from 1999 to 2000 I was inside of the apartment in Windsor Park watching the ball drop. Jocelyn was falling asleep on the couch and I kissed her good night and we went to bed. On my birthday I was married and we had possibly the worst honeymoon ever in Tampa Bay. Lost my wedding ring the first night that we were there, Jocelyn had flushed it down the toilet on accident, then I lost $50 in the pool. Shortly after we got back to Jax and I was unemployed. 4 months later, the greatest gift ever was given to me. Jocelyn was pregnant. The rest of the year was a blur. I worked at Encore Development, then got laid off and moved on to Citibank. We rented a house on Canyon Trail West. I made many friends during that period of time, Thomas Chi, Homer Gaines, Tennille Herron, David Knighton, and Kimberly Terion Miller stand out the most.

    2001 was even more of a blur. Molly was 8 days late and ended up being born at 531am Feb 14th/ Around June of that year I found myself without a job again, then 9/11 happened. I remember sitting there watching with amazement. I called my folks in Korea and Joe and Judy in LA. Molly slept most of the time, but I carried her around while watching everything happen. She was totally oblivious obviously, but this was definitely a defining moment in the history of the United States. I finally got a job in October of 2001, with a company called Alliance Mortgage in Jacksonville.That was the first step into an industry that would become prevalent in my life for the remainder of the decade. I met Sean Marsh, who became one of my closest friends for the remainder of this decade. Molly dressed like a cow on her first Halloween.

    2002 started out horrendously. We had been married for about a year and a half and our marriage looked to be pretty much over. I sucked it up and managed to get through 2002 still together. My father retired and my mom and dad moved in with us that year. I hated Jacksonville, I hated the people, I hated everything about the place and the people. I spent a full year at Alliance Mortgage without losing my job, the longest I had held a job ever. We were living in the house with my mom, dad, and Molly. We had two dogs, Flash and Princess. Things were ok, but I definitely had to find a way out of that hell hole.

    2003 brought out many different emotions. It was a great year with Molly and Jocelyn, it was also a great year with the family as a whole. I still had a great dislike for the south and southern people. My best friend was leaving Alliance and starting up a company in Southern California with his friends. I was hating life, by the end of the year I had gotten fired from Alliance Mortgage, Sean Marsh helped me out and decided to hire me as their web developer in San Diego. The end of the year was fairly dramatic as it was going to be my last Christmas in Jacksonville. On January 2nd, 2004, I would board a plane to Los Angeles, on January 5th, I would report to San Diego and start work with a company called Discount National Mortgage, located off of Fay Avenue in the city of La Jolla.

    ]]> http://mcguffinonline.com/2009/12/2000-2003-years-in-review/feed/ 0 http://mcguffinonline.com/2009/11/computer-problems/ http://mcguffinonline.com/2009/11/computer-problems/#comments Mon, 30 Nov 2009 06:04:48 +0000 Danny McGuffin http://mcguffinonline.com/?p=52 I think I am going to have to blow out the OS completely on my primary machine, it has been having nothing but problems, and it MAY have to do with the video card. It may just be an easy issue of just reseating it, but right now I just want to rip the entire thing out and start from scratch again.

    Finally go the old D505 running and online, granted, it is running a Verizon Card as the internal wireless does not work, so it is not exactly a speed demon, but it works for what I need it to do.

    I have three CPU’s in the house and 3 laptops. The primary laptop is what I take to work, the secondary is a notebook that Molly bangs on, the final is the D505 which I am on now. I am probably going to make this one my primary and take this one to to the office. My primary will eventually go to Molly.

    I am thinking about putting down the $$$ and getting Windows 7 for the primary CPU, that way blowing out the system and reinstalling things will make things much easier.

    ]]> http://mcguffinonline.com/2009/11/computer-problems/feed/ 0 http://mcguffinonline.com/2009/11/so-social-media-goal/ http://mcguffinonline.com/2009/11/so-social-media-goal/#comments Wed, 25 Nov 2009 06:49:45 +0000 Danny McGuffin http://mcguffinonline.com/?p=34 Here are the specs. Person out of a job for almost ten months. Executive status. 40 something. Video Game/New Media guy. Economy is crappy. Let’s get him a job.
    
    I had to use my know how and everything that I know about social media to help him out, he is my brother after all. So hopefully we can work this into his favor.
    
    
    
    1. Buy a domain name that is classy, but not too serious, but also exudes some kind of relevance. I passed on GetMeAJobPlease.com and also LoserOlderBrotherNeedsJob.com and decided that it would be best to just get his name as the domain name. http://www.joemcguffin.com.
       
    2. Now the idea of what to put on his site had to be etched out. I did some research online and found this article.
       
    3. Got a decent theme installed and edited it. Had to choose something that was not too overbearing. Luckily my brother has a picture of him that does not make him look too odd, did some standard photoshop tricks and put it online. I am sure that he will edit it to make it more likable to him, but for now, it is what it is. Added the standard package of plug-ins.
       
    4. Introduce the older brother to twitter. Will give him a crash course on how to utilize it to market himself.
       
    5. Thanksgiving will be the day that I give him his crash course. I think with a combination of him doing some work “writing articles on his blog“, publishing to twitter, and also doing some work on facebook it should make things easier for him.
       
    
    Now, he must also go the traditional route and send out his resume and follow up and do all the good things that he needs to do, but in this age of social media, when a potential employer does a search for his name, he can sort of control what they see. I have always been of the mindset that being searchable is always better than not being searchable.

    Now hopefully if he markets himself properly he can start showing people that he is more than just an out of work 40something executive.

    ]]> http://mcguffinonline.com/2009/11/so-social-media-goal/feed/ 0