Intellectual Poison

Bad Marketing at its Finest

Holy god! Now this is work related and scary bad marketing. I just got an email in my in-box (my work email) unsolicited from a conference promoter with three attached files totaling nearly 2 megabytes! If I'd been on a dial up I would have driven up to this guy's office in the time it would have taken to download and kicked him in the nuts.

People, you cannot (read this slowly CANNOT) send out bulk emails to anyone with attachments. It is the fastest and most sure way to make positive that whoever you are sending it to A. (best case scenario) deletes it immediately, noting the name of the person and the name of the event. B. opens it, reads it for a moment and then deletes and perhaps mentions it to a co-worker or C. (worst case scenario) an editor on a dial up waits for two hours to get the file, realizes its not what he was waiting for and then proceeds to write a scathing editorial about the show, the promoters and the sponsors.

This sort of oversight has killed companies in the past and will do so again in the future.
This particular incident shall remain without a name for now. I'm quite curious to see what he replies to my email telling him that he absolutely must ask before attaching such files. Stay tuned.

Man, 103, Told to Bring Parents for Eye Test.

I love stuff like this. Computers making up their minds about age and that sort of thing. He was born in 1899 but the computer could only read the 99 (thought this was the main issue with Y2K and it had all been fixed but I guess not).

Kenny Makes A Splash with the Giants

How do you make friends in a new clubhouse? Hit the second pitch you see over the fence to give your team a lead right off the bat (yep, pun intended).

Kenny Lofton is going to be a big impact player down the stretch for the Giants. And his presence now gives Dusty Baker more of a chance to let Barry Bonds heal almost all the way up before bringing him back. Today's the trade deadline though, we'll see what else Sabean can pull out of his hat. Or Billy Beane from the A's, for that matter.

More sports news? Okay
ESPN.com: OLY - Arrest made in alleged ice-dancing fix

Phew, now I can finally sleep well again now that the whole figure skating crap is taken care of.

And a cool link for UK blogs hosted by the Guardian Unlimited | Weblog | UK weblogs

Ah, you know what, fuck it. Why keep a comment system when its almost never used? And it just adds load times and hang times. So no more comments. Poof.

And I suppose maybe I should toss a quick note up to say I'm in a generally kind of not so good mood. I know why but I'm not sharing it. Actually there are several things that are contributing. But that's all I'm saying for now, don't want to further jinx the works, if you get my drift (not that you can or should).

Ananova - Robo-barman serves up beer

Now this is technology at work that will make every man in America and all over the world happier (except for those rednecks that like to open beer bottles with their teeth, sorry fellas, gonna have to figure out some other way to impress the ladies).

Thanks to my pal up north in Rocklin for the link. If he had a blog he'd have this on his site but he actually works when he's in the office. Unlike me.

And more depressing news.
Yahoo! News - US School Lunches Cause Many Illnesses: Report

This is just unsettling overall.

The Kenny Lofton Show comes to San Francisco and the Giants. Who knows what'll happen but at least he can run, hit and play. Can't say the same thing about Bonds, Benard, Shinjo and Sanders.

But they'll be back before too long and then the team'll be strong and ready for the playoff run at the end of the year.

In other news, came across this while blog surfing.

The Children of the Underground Watch is a group that watches for the Children of the Underground which helps mothers kidnap their children from their dads and smuggle them out of the country. No matter if the mothers are insane or not, its a gender issue with this lady, Faye Yager. Good for you, Faye, messing up families good since 1986 (or whenever you whacked your head hard enough to think this is a good idea).

Thanks to Shot In The Dark for the news and link.

Yahoo! News - Motorcycle Deaths Drop After Helmet Law Reinstated

Golly, next thing they're going to say is that Harley's with those stupidly overloud pipes do not avoid more collisions because of the pipes as most Harley guys claim. Which makes sense because you can't hear them coming, you can only hear them going and by that time the accidents already occurred if its going to occur. Ergo, the Harley loud pipe argument as I'd understood is bunkum. I think they just like to make noise, while put putting around on their slow poser sleds. I don't dislike all Harleys or Harley riders (but by the same token, I don't really like very many Harleys either), just the ones that ride around like they're on the fastest and best bikes on the planet when its just not the case. My little SV can smoke damn near any Harley out there (Buell's excepted because they're only Harley's by engine, nothing else) at half the cost and it handles better than any Harley out there, barring none. I've run 17 plenty enough to see that Harleys and corners are only mildly acquainted.

I've been in three accidents over the last 15 years of riding cycles. I had a helmet on in all three and walked away from all three of them with minor injuries. Without the helmet I would be a vegetable or dead. Simple as that and I've seen the scuff marks on the helmet to prove that I bashed into the ground with my head though I didn't feel it.

Yahoo! News - Ex-Congressman Traficant Gets 8 Years in Jail

And so the purges begin...........

Yahoo! Sports: MLB - Off to see the Wizard at Cooperstown

This will be the first of several postings (most likely) about Ozzie Smith and his acceptance speech into the Baseball Hall of Fame. He is/was and always shall be one of baseball's greatest ambassadors, heroes and sportsman.
If there were ever a role model to emulate, he would be an excellent choice. But I want to find a copy of the speech he gave, he made so many excellent points that it should be posted.

Just as Smith did on the field, Hall speech shows unique flair. Need I say more?

I do want to find that almost final line he said about Heart, Mind and Courage. It was most excellent and poignant.

Hey, its been brought to my attention that there are some issues with looking at the blog in IE 6. If this is caused by something I can change then please let me know. If its the comments that's the problem then use the Comments? Scorn? Praise? in that mish mash monument to my lame ass HTML skills to the left.

Heck, I need to do something different with the thing anyway so maybe I'll just add that to the list of things that've gotta get done. But then, today was a good day with a distinct nod to Ice Cube. All's right, sort of, in the work place.

I ended up getting the project taken care of, had a good meeting with my boss lady and found some more ink. I am basically a digital and physical ink pimp or ho, not sure which way to look at it. I pimp my company, flog (politely, properly and gently but flog) them with our news, our word. Our neverending supply of data, fed to a never ending eater of data with a healthy sales cycle built in to generate high quality, repeatable revenue.

Recognizing the situation is both fascinating and maddening though. Because I'm not sure if there's enough cohesion in the company to be able to expand as rapidly as it appears that we are about to do. But on the other hand, part of my job is to drive that expansion by putting our name in front of more and ever diverse numbers of people. In some ways, the blog here is the anti-thesis of this. I do publish it to Weblogs and link to others but beyond that, its up to others to find me.

Is that wrong? I don't know, I'm not trying to follow another set of rules, I'm sort of letting the blog run its own course and go where it will. Yep, my other writing might suffer because of it, this is time consuming in excess of the time actually spent typing and linking and checking and all that. I think about things I just want to toss up here for kicks.

Tomorrow's another day, still far too early in the week to think about the weekend but its already on my mind. How could it not be after the good, generally clean and harmless fun of the last weekend? I specifically halted a conversation with an drunk Christian virgin girl because she was questioning her belief in God. And whatever my beliefs are, I've no right to go mucking about with hers, no matter how right I think and know mine are. They're only right for me. So if there's a big old karma calculator in the sky I should be sliding ever closer to the black again and out of the red (I was a particularly bull headed and stupid kid in my teens, does that stuff get erased when you turn 18 too, like your juvenile police record?)

I could and might blather on but instead, I'm going to go and get some late dinner, call it a night, get up in the morning and hope for sun so I can have a nice workout and bike ride before work. My volleyball weary muscles should be just dandy in another 7 or 8 hours.

Something I'd originally thought was an anamoly seems to be happening more and more. Last week when I wrote about Adelphia and the corruption (hmm, Freudian slip? I wrote corruptoon first), someone from Adelphia.com logged onto the blog that afternoon (thanks Site Meter). And today, I blogged about Qwest being knockered around by investors for deciding to republish their books for the last, oh, three years, who should log on but someone from Qwest.
Not sure if its a good thing, a bad thing or just a thing. But its there, its interesting and makes me wonder if I start writing about Natalie Portman, if she'll log on to the blog.

Yahoo! News - Qwest Stock Slammed on Accounting Woes

Is anyone surprised that more and more companies are coming out of the woodwork and admitting that they fudged books to create an aura of profits when there were really minimal improvements. Isn't there some saying that goes, Those that can, do, those that cannot, fake it?

Anybody want to take bets on how many more companies do this voluntarily? Does it make sense to blow the whistle on yourself, does it abuse your stock price any less? Does it allow a sliver of respectability to be retained? Does anyone trust big business? Did they ever?

Who do you trust less, Corporate America, Dubya and Dicky in the White House, Father Sodomite (or is that Pastor Sodomite?), that latest SPAM for prestigious non-accredited college degrees or a used car salesman?

Yep, too close to call. We'll call it a tie across the board with the used car salesman slightly less than the rest because you're not supposed to trust them. And SPAM's in its own category altogether. I've always wanted to talk to a spammer and get an idea of by what justification they are ruining the internet. They are the blockages, they are the aneurisims (sp?), they are the lamprey infestations in the waterways of the internet. And its only going to get worse.

I suppose I should get a program to take these huge pics my little camera takes and reduce them to a more loadable size so that those potential readers of limited bandwidth can read in. But for now, I'll just link and once you hit one, you should have a decent idea of the normal size for pics. I know I'm overloading my accounts right now so I'll have to figure out a better way to have pics up.

But I suppose I should demonstrate a valid purpose in making this post, a post on a Sunday evening when nothing ever happens. Does it? No, not in this neighborhood, not with these freaks and monkeys.

Today should probably be titled

SkewDay

And I must start off with an apology because some of the best pics from the day I'm not allowed (in fact my family jewels were specifically and explicitly threatened) to share. But there are plenty of other good ones to see. Like Paul taking a wipeout at Brady's a few minutes ago. Or hanging out with Johnny, Maya (and yes, they do make a lovely couple, even nicer with the proper pic linked to them), Paul and Ken after Johnny's show, Scriptease, which is, quite excellent and highly recommended to anyone cruising through the Cruz, to having an end of the day drink at the bar with some pool winning, a strange crazy woman flashing me out back (no, not the good kind of crazy, she was just nuts). And there's also the pics I shot on Saturday night between heading home from Brady's and catching another party at Brian's around the corner from my house. One of decent note (the pics of the skinny dippers didn't come out) is James' MR2 Spyder taken in a heavy morning fog. And before the Johnny show I got a surprise and quite welcome visit from an old pal.

I think I'll wrap it all up with a little Ice Cube and sleep the sleep of the burnt.

But tomorrow promises to be a difficult day. Not sure how much I'll be able to post but its been incredibly heartening to see the traffic increasing in the last week or two. It makes my desire to report on the world from my own tiny and warped perspective that much stronger.

Get Your Fresh Hot Under the Bridge Smack Here

There are some distinct advantages to living and working in the same town. I'm not quite so lucky as some of my pals who work at home, but then, they go weeks sometimes without really leaving their houses. That's unhealthy.

Anyway, my commute is short, gorgeous, filled with natural beauty, safe (we'll come to this later) and fast.
I head down 1st across Atlantic and out front which is the front face of Youngman's. It lets me have a moment or two to check out the beach and the waves. The expanse of our beach is just cool to take in, especially when the sun's out and its warm and inviting. It does make taking the turn away from the beach much harder than it would otherwise be. But away I go, down the short hill past Rhett's, down to the cove and then back up the other side past the cement whale (no really) and up to the corner above the point, where you can sit above the water and look back to the left and see the whole Boardwalk. beyond Main beach (an awful beach in my mind, way to crowded and well dirty), to the right is all of Seabright which was once called Castle.

But going out to the point, while its scenic, is not really the best way to get into work. So I head down the hill, not dropping down the short hill and crossing the trestle, instead taking the East Cliff route down to the beginning of the bike path along the river. Its a decently long hill and I've gotten up to more than 30 mph down it but more times than not there are some walkers or tourists who don't quite catch what "Passing on your left" means.

But normally I can make it down to the bike path proper without any serious incident. In fact, I think the worst that's happened on my morning or evening commute is a staredown from a watcher for a drug dealer. But we'll get there eventually.

There are two ways to enter the bike path, the first involves slowing down a whole lot and taking a sharpish turn in just across the last bridge down the hill. But I don't really get into the idea of bleeding off so much speed without a real cause to. And I've learned the second quick way to jump up and onto the asphalt highway. Continue down the hill, staying up tight against the railing and then the cement of the bridge, nobody on the sidewalk means a terminal velocity of about 28 mph. Not too bad for a mountain bike. Nowhere near max speed but still respectable, especially with on coming traffic.

So I bomb down the hill, swerving to avoid the heavy thick lightpost, picking a car out of the rolling traffic off to my left, a car to try and match speed with all the way down to the next bridge, the road that takes all those happy, soon to be sun burnt valley bastidges to the Boardwalk. I cross over that bridge so as to hit downtown from the other side, there's a road crossing at Soquel that's easier on the downtown side, no road at all. The other morning just a trio of smack dealers working it, making some money providing a valuable service to some messed up monkeys.

The other morning I rolled down through the underpass, one watched looked me over, no worries, just a roller on a bike. Pass by two strangers engaged in a business transaction in the dark shade, nighttime in the middle of the day. And out the other side, passing another watcher, a guy with a suspicious eye and itchy finger. Is it truly dangerous? Who knows? Could these nimrods be packing pistols? I don't know but so long as I pose no threat, and I don't really. I'm a passer by, usually at some speed that I'm beyond their reach by the time I've registered on their radar screen.

Smack dealers, you know, heroin, the other white folks drug. Its back in vogue out here at least. Not that I've had any real dealings with it, but I can tell a smackhead pretty easily, unlike cokers. But smackers are easy, they have a desperate look in their eyes. The ride home yesterday was one of those. A couple, emerging from the relative darkness under the shadow of the bridge, triumphant but still in need of a fix. Its the period between the score and the hit. All drug users are aware of it. Better places of procurement will have the facility to allow immediate imbibement but such is just not the case when the score is landed under a bridge just out of the center of town.

Some mornings, when its not sunny usually, I'll come across packs of sleeping folks, huddled behind certain buildings, places where they know the management's not harsh to those without homes. It doesn't make people bad to not have a home, there but for the grace go I. And no, I'm not getting into a theological bend, we don't need to go there. I keep meaning to chronicle them as well but am normally carrying a good head of steam from the flats.

There are never any people on the underside of the footbridge to San Lorenzo Park or try this VR styled one too Virtual San Lorenzo. Its just a short buzz down to Wells Fargo, jump the curb, jump down the steps, roll across River and I'm at the office. For another fun filled day under flourescent lights doing statistical analysis and PR. A very tough pair to emulsify somedays.

So there ya go. More pics to follow, of course.

Conspiracy Diagram

All I can say is Whoa, this guy's got a wee bit of free time and an extra helping of conspiracy. But its at least interesting to take a look at and making people think is just as important as making them stop.

DaveNet : Hollywood wants the right to hack your computer

Thanks to Dave at the Scripting News for the article (he wrote it) and the link.

The post about this on his page is pretty inciteful. Just how far do you think they'll try to go? I was amazed at the bull headed stupidity of the RIAA when Napster first came around. And it seems like they have learned nothing from all the bad PR they got from their stupid, we-don't-make-enough-money-off-of-this position. Greed is an ugly thing.

Intellectual Poison Archives

Don't click the link, its busted, I just checked it again and it seems that either I can't code (likely) or that Blogger's munging my code (also likely but less so than my meager coding skills).
Its Friday, I've got a few days to get it worked out. Though its looking like Sunday's a work day too. Yippee!

Adult Panties, with a Christian Message

What the? Shouldn't these be little boy's briefs instead of panties? Seriously though, who wants to find a Psalm as your stripping down some hot chick?

Check out the copy "Teens! Imagine how all the other young girls in the locker room will react, emerging naked from hot showers, to see your Christian witness, modestly covering your most nubile private parts!" What the flipping hell are they talking about?

Yep, I want some undies that say "What would Jesus Do?" Or his ultra cool acronym, WWJD which sounds like a spin off of the WWF.

Woops, smack me, I forgot to credit uberchick for the link. Sorry! Don't hate me (yet).

Yahoo! News - Yale Tells FBI Princeton Hacked

Um, isn't that like calling the cops to tell them your neighbors were robbed a day or two after they crooks have left?

Oh no wait, this is quite a bit more serious, it seems the head of admissions at Princeton did the hacking and that's a wee bit more culpable than students hacking, isn't it?

But does it really count as a hack if he used information given to him by applying students? Isn't it more likely a misappropriation of resources of somesuch like that. But they are going to try and go after the admissions guy on federal charges. This might just turn into something interesting.

Stay tuned on this. Or not, I mean who really cares about hoity schools like Yale and Princeton anyway, they're so full of themselves that they have to charge extra for students to go there. The whole Ivy League oftentimes smacks of a freakish and incestuous family that tells jokes only they truly understand. Not I, I'm a slug, a banana slug from UCSC, Poser U.

tech journalist

Might be a holder, possibly a keeper

Paul's UBF: UnBridled Fury in all her splendid present glory. Out above the beach at Seabright and looking fabulous. I suppose I should explain why this is a cool bike because, on the surface it looks like most others. But UBF is a converted single speed, she used to be a Klein Rascal mountain bike with three rings up front and a cassette in the back, not to mention derailleurs. But not anymore, now she's a very fast and sometimes kind of scary single speed. Fun for bombing around the neighborhood but would be too tough to offroad with in present gearing configuration.



Seabright Porsche 928, this is just a pretty car down at the end of the block. It reminds me of Scarface, though Pacino's was silver. But its a big and comfortable V8 from Porsche, a strange bird for them. Loads of power and style but room for 4 pretty comfortably. The guy's also got one of those sweet little Lexus convertibles. They look better up close although they still have a big ass but they also haul ass.

For pure shopping pleasure, you just can't beat Trader Joe's. Its got all kinds of great fun kinds of food and big bottles of alcohol and everything a body could possibly want. Even crazy Indonesian rice.

And what the trickle down means is that having whiskey on hand means I'm that much more likely to pour a big old tumbler of it and write for a few hours some evenings. I've got to gather up some materials to write from but its often an exercise in just letting the writing go. Who the hell knows where I'll end up?

Oh yeah, I did want to conversate on the Adelphia fiasco.And wondering whether the dad and his boys are going to prison for a long time or not. Adelphia is disavowing them, casting them to the wind as it were and hopefully the stench of corruption along with it. Adelphia unaware of Rigas deals, they want nothing to do with them.

And its cool, I can understand. In this day and ago of investor panic at the slightest sign of trouble, no one wants to appear to be off center or below average. The ranks are being culled, the bizarre anamoly on the market the other day aside, the markets have been sliding and slipping down to crazy lows, scary lows.

But back to Adelphia, how in the hell did the Rigas family get more than $3 BILLION away from the company? How does that just happen? How can people be so blind and stupid to not notice three billion dollars missing? I just cannot, for the life of me, understand how it could happen. And what in the hell did they need three billion bucks for anyway? Oh yeah, a hockey team costs an awful lot of money. But these greedheaded monkey pokers should get jacked for it and I hope they are made an example of, creamed, smashed, dashed against the rocks of American justice.

Restore faith in our judicial system by decimating some of of those same rich and powerful bastards. Kill some of your own to prove you mean business. Bush is scrambling but at least he can get this right, he understands the idea of retribution. And kickback but let's let him slide on that for now, Cheney's another matter altogether.

Why is that? Because the world needs its Dan Quayles and George Bush's and Gerald Ford's. Maybe not as Presidents but we need them. Politics is a bizarre and far too convoluted for the lay person to understand much less access. Its beyond people's ability to attend and that means that most people don't know what's going on in the government, what these incredibly powerful freaks are doing. Waging wars, funding wars, paying off dictators and banging expensive Washington call girls and tipping them with yours and my damned money.

And the only thing to do is either ignore it all or try like hell to get into the little club.
Either way, nothing to be done about it tonight. Sleep well John Rigas, for soon they shall come for you and all your house of cards shall belong to us.

Hmm, lost a post or two on my way to Pro, but I think I can live with it.

Well now that I have it all set at home, everything seems to be in complete order. How cool is that.

Tech support told me that it was a misassigned IP address. How does that happen? Oh well, I'll leave it as done and move on. I'll be back later, its sunny and nice out which means good picture taking weather. Be back soon to try out the file upload.

Yahoo! News - AOL TW Stock Dives as AOL's Woes Deepen

How can a company with an estimated MONTHLY income of almost $700 million be experiencing any sorts of revenues?

Think about it. Thirty million users (last time I remember AOL bragging about how big they were) times $22/month equals more than $660 million. What in the heck are they doing with all that income?

Apparently not hiring good accountants because the Street beat them up today and will likely continue to beat them like the bad dogs they are.

A sign of bad things to come.

Egyptian Couple Jailed over Nude Internet Photos

Thank goodness I don't live in Egypt! Or Alabama for that matter.

Well, surprise surprise, the vitriol brings 'em out almost everytime. Get angry and people have to deal with you, or something like that.

Pyra contacted me today about the Pro upgrade problem and the Public Mind help pages issue (text box without a submit button, DOH!). We'll see what happens from here but at least they're reacting and that's one hell of a step up from where they were ten minutes ago.

First GIF. Then hyperlinking. Now JPEG. Bummer

Here's another example of misdirected greed. How could these idiots think they can reap royalties off of Jpgs? Forgent Networks, remember the name, forget the site. They will be going nowhere really fast if this is part of their revunue generating business plan. What is WRONG with people? Doesn't anyone want to make an honest living anymore?

And here's an interesting take on MS's good side. Top ten reasons why Microsoft is a good citizen. Skewed and warped tho his perspective may be, the author does make some valid points. Though a couple of his more important points would have been accomplished by any company in Microsoft's position, just because it happens to be Microsoft that makes it better?

Thanks Technovia


Yep, I like the pic but I don't quite understand the Think About Baseball part. Huh? Can someone explain this one to me?


Gotta love a Mac specific blog! Keep it up! And what a sweet link too!

Okay, I would imagine that this is tantamount to setting fire to the boat you're sailing on (with a nod to Dennis Conner and his sunken America's Cup racer). But I've got to write about this because its seriously starting to piss me off.

Why do dot.com's fold? Because they don't follow through on what they say they'll do. Once you join the Pay-for-play ranks, they couldn't give the least damn about you aside from the fact that you're now a paying customer. But these companies don't realize that said support can be removed at any time. They are, in effect, at will employees.

And once I've paid for a service like Onebox.com, I demand customer service because that's part of what I am paying for. To date, I've written more than five emails to Onebox.com asking for some help with an issue. They have no responded at all, in fact they've ignored every single attempt to get help. So I'm going to demand my money back and go elsewhere, there are dozens of online mail centers and I'm sure some of them give a shit about their customers beyond the sale.

McCovey Point Project

Dear Giants Fan,

You have a once-in-a-lifetime chance to take part in the
completion of the China Basin Park located across McCovey
Cove from Pacific Bell Park.

China Basin Park will be a magnificent public open space with dramatic vistas, picnic areas and even a small T-ball
field. The park will also celebrate the history of the Giants in San Francisco including a beautiful statue of Willie McCovey. Along the shoreline from the McCovey statue to the Lefty O'Doul Bridge, fans will be treated to the Giants History Walk. The walkway will include a 570-foot SeatWall incorporating the rosters of every Giants team from 1958 through 1999.

You can participate in this project by purchasing one or several of the individualized tiles that will be randomly
embedded in the SeatWall. Use your tile to make your own statement about the Giants, the players and your memories.
Tiles are available in two sizes 4"x 8" for $95 and an 8" x 8" which includes a Giants 44 logo and a commemorative
baseball autographed by Willie McCovey for $225. Tiles are limited in number and will be sold on a first-come, first-
serve basis; so don't delay.

To download an order form or for more information visit our website at www.sfgiants.com/mccoveypoint here:
http://lists.mlb.com/u/12320/8800260

Here's part of the ever continuing backlash against the "free" internet. Tough news because tiny stations on the net are great to listen in on. But I suppose everyone wants to make a buck.

Date: Mon, 22 Jul 2002 08:41:48 -0700
From: "NewsScan"
Subject: Royalty fees may be the death of Internet radio

All kinds of radio stations -- both Web-based and traditional over-the-air broadcasting stations -- have to pay copyright royalties to songwriter associations, but only the Web stations are required to pay a new performer's fee that goes to record companies. At a rate of seven-hundredths of a cent per song per listener, the fee is expected to undo the economic viability of almost all of the 10,000 Web radio stations now in existence.

The 200 stations that have already ceased operations include nonprofit stations at UCLA, NYU, and other colleges and universities, and people seem to be punching different calculators to attack or defend what's going on: Congressman Rick Boucher (D, VA) is introducing a bill in support of small Webcasters and says its goal is "to make sure that Webcasters who measure their revenues in the tends of thousands are not put out of business by a copyright payment requirement in the hundreds of thousands."; using a different calculator, Hilary Rosen of the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) says that most college stations won't owe more than $500 a year, and adds, "Given our problems with digital piracy on university servers, it is almost comical that they have the nerve to complain about $500." [*USA Today*, 21 Jul 2002; NewsScan Daily, 20 July 2002] USA Today

Yahoo! News - Programs: Screensaver Aims to De-Motivate the Masses

This is simply capitalizing on an anti-trend. Sure its marginally funny but is indicative of a serious problem in American business. Maybe I'll get back to this later on and expound a little more but for now it'll have to do.

I'm de-motivated presently.

�berchick: ramblings of a nyc writer

Good stuff and another link to make.

Sean Gallagher's Rant Central

And another blog.


*drunkblog

Yet another blog to add to the ever growing list I link to. Funny stuff though.

From the Stud Archive:

I am willing to remain and play the man's game if there are not enough boats for more than the women and children. Tell my wife I played the game straight out and to the end. No woman shall be left aboard this ship because Ben Guggenheim is a coward.
- Final words of Benjamin Guggenheim, millionaire traveler aboard the ill-fated Titanic. As the boat began to sink Guggenheim changed into formal dress and calmly faced death.

I've Seen Better Days

But Not Many Nicer Ones

What a day, what a wonderful morning and a great way to start the middlest day of the week. Sun streaming in my sliding glass doors, Ted David's back on CNBC, almost all is right with the world, unless you're an exec at Adelphia, in which case you should probably get as much money into your wife's accounts as possible. Because Federal prosecutors are going to be coming after execs who got rich while screwing stockholders over. Yeeha! I love a good white collar witch hunt! Shame its a ruse to keep us from remembering that Dick Cheney's in the same crosshairs.

But the best part of the morning was running into my friend, Star, who was breathing his first sea air in several months after being a guest of the state for defending himself against a pyscho. He's alive, healthy and happy to be back out in the free world. And he's the same Star which is a good thing, he's a great guy. So yippee!

And, in other news, there has been a clear winner in Layne's Love Offensive. Trish and Brian are now officially engaged and that's pretty damned cool. Good deal!

And so on to the work I must go. Much justification to do today, and planning and recording hits and all that fun stuff that makes being a flack soooooo worthwhile.

A quick word of the day because its soooo appropriate to the Flacking World.
Word of the Day for Wednesday July 24, 2002:

equivocate \ih-KWIV-uh-kayt\, intransitive verb:
To be deliberately ambiguous or unclear in order to mislead or
to avoid committing oneself to anything definite.

The witness shuffled, equivocated, pretended to
misunderstand the questions.
--Thomas Babington Macaulay, History of England

By equivocating, hesitating, and giving ambiguous answers,
she effected her purpose.
--Harriet Martineau, Letters from Ireland

Dr. Lindzen does not equivocate. "We don't have any
evidence that this is a serious problem," he says flatly.
--William K. Stevens, "Skeptic Asks, Is It Really Warmer?"
[1]New York Times, June 17, 1996

And one last note, I need to start a bumper sticker company again. I've been coming up with excellent one lines that should be slapped on every guy's Toyota pick up from Aptos to Athens. Latest one: My Life is a Porn Soundtrack. Another recent one: Be Smooth, Gorgeous. Stickers rule, they rule, man!

Selah

If I owned Hell and Texas, I'd live in Hell and rent Texas. - Gen. Phil Sheridan

Truer words haven't been quoted.

Dictionary.com/selah

Since its not readily apparent what it means, might as well blog the definition.

Well isn't that bizarre? Rode My Blue in this morning, had a fun, fast ride (aside from the idiot tourist who doesn't understand what "passing on your left" means but that's another story) down the hill and along the riverbanks. The sun was out, it was gorgeous really and there are days when the bike seems to want to run. Today was definitely one of those days, I held a good high average speed and got into the office in excellent time (not stopping at Rebecca's helped but I miss my blueberry muffin).

But the strangest part is that as I was putting things away at my desk, slowly cooling off from the burn down, my back tire just started hissing and sinking. Something inside just gave up the ghost and that's that, its a done deal. I've examined the tire itself and I can't see any visible tears or anything sticking out of it. Might be time to just replace both tubes and tires all at once. How about some sweet green silica light racers? Oh yeah, I'll be a fashion magnet and magnate.

But on an excellent and positive note, I've got a fresh burn for the office called, A Long Cool Burn, with a mere 148 of my latest and favorite songs to dig on. I absolutely love technology, its making my life so much better.

And check out some of the latest pics! I'll need to get into the albums and clean them up as they're getting cluttered with random images all over the place. And will need to seriously consider the purchase of the space, the new .MAC conspiracy. But that was covered in another post, wasn't it? Maybe I'll just find the story on ZD and link to it, like this. Stay away from the Talkback's below, they are filled with trolls and traps, meant to merely tie you up online and get you into an OS holy war (more like a geek pissing match with emoticons!).

Here's my latest photo album, called Flowers and other Plants. Or something along those lines. A couple of other albums also added in the interim but I'll be culling them and adding those pics to already existing albums.
Plants are pretty easy to snap pics of. Just get them framed properly and fire.

Cell Phone Gun ?car:?cell phone?

Cell Phone Gun
A Gun You Can Use on the Highway
?
(-8, 7) ? [vote for,
against]
Basically, my idea is to create a hand held cell phone disruptor to turn off those a-holes on the highway who think that weaving is perfectly acceptable so long as you're having a good conversation.

This could be built into future cars (and into my motorcycle) to create a cone of disruption in front of me as I move through traffic.

While I do know its illegal to jam cell phones in a static location such as a church or movie theatre, I have no idea how illegal it is to do from a moving platform.

The other way to interpret the name of the idea is a gun shaped like a cell phone so that when the idiots try to dial their fat ugly wives, they blow their own heads off instead. Maybe that would be a more effective solution?
------------------------------------------------------------------------fenriq, Sep 10 2001


Wow, shades of rantings past. What a blast it was to come across this gem. Thanks Google!

Well lookee there, I guess it does have a fog function. How cool can that little bugger be? Might have to make another blog just to load up with silly crap like this.

The Weather Pixie: is just kind of stupid and cool at the same time. Should have a fog function on it though. Because we are thick in it right now.

How about those crazy kids over at Bayer AG?

Just saw their latest ad campaign for their big new aspirin product and concurrent marketing messages.

First off, the ad opens with two big Americans waking up. Waking up with a stiff back and a stiff body. Why? Who knows, and more to the point, who cares? You shouldn't, instead you should take some lovely little pills (though they are a big huge looking in the ad) and badabing, you're catching the daily newspaper on your way to your shitty, meaningless middle management job in some faceless urban office building. Fattish, well, maybe cherubic is the message they were going after.

Cherubic or are they just responding to the fattening masses of my fellow Americans. Its so easy, so easy to slide into more and more and more weight gain.

But anyway, back to the Bayer commercial. It fades out to these two chubby but quite lively people in bright colors with smiles on their faces. As the light fades, the box comes up, Bayer Back & Body Pain. And then the logo and Bayer's most fervent wish of all time, Take it for pain. Take it for life.

Well duh. Um, yeah, we just made this stuff, how's about getting hooked on it for the rest of your life so we can dip into your pockets forever? And here are some free samples FOR your friends to try.

This is legal? Its okay to market pain relievers like this? Are people in that much agony all the time to need to have their senses dulled by pills?

So, for all of you who wake up with Back AND Body Pain, they have listened to your prayers and deigned to answer them with a single, oversized pill that'll jazz your ass right up and make you spry enough to catch a newspaper on your way to Starbucks for a double mocha latte double whip and chocolate chip "muffin". Woohoo.

Or much better and to the point, with a nod to HST

Selah

Yappy, yappy, yappy. Its never enough. What you did yesterday matters not in the least, what you do today and tomorrow is all that counts. Well, so long as you didn't fuck things up yesterday, that is.

Always a never ending voracious appetite for coverage and more coverage. Like a junkie in need of another fix.

Such is the life of a flack.
Lovely.

But on the other hand, Jul 22, 1926, Babe Ruth caught a baseball at Mitchell Field in New York. The ball had been dropped from an airplane flying at 250 feet.

The things we take for granted are often the result of some serious distress in people's lives. Take hand washing. This is a pretty basic concept for us now that we know about microbes and bacteria and all those little invisible critters that can cause trouble. (Thanks to Rebacca's Pocket)

Dirty Vegas has a really cool website which makes sense because their music is super cool, thumpity beat smart music. Check out both, you won't be sorry. Or maybe you will be, either way you'll have some good tunes to keep you company while you deliberate.
I hadn't known that it was Dirty Vegas singing the song for one of the best music videos I've ever seen. Days Go By is one of the most compelling and complete stories I've come across in a video. Not sure how well the link will work but there it is. Have it at it.

Is it just me or do stories of unrequited love always work? But then, it wouldn't in this case without the music to back it all up.
I think its off to some Shaggy for the morning. I'll be back though.

On another note, I've gotten a few emails asking for more pics so I'll be taking and posting more pics over the next couple of weeks. Some cool art shots I took last night that are almost good to post immediately. And then some of myself from this last weekend.

A scene:

I hated it, hated that I had to take her to her dates, take her to those loathsome, hairy men with huge bank accounts who purchased her company as easily as a newspaper. Hated knowing that it was merely a question of how much they were willing to pay for how much they wanted to get.
Though I guess that it was only reduced to such a coarse transaction in my own mind. But looking at her out of the corner of my eye, while keeping the old lumbering Cadu rolling cleanly. Seeing her so perfectly made up, sharply contrasted against the blurring lights of the city behind her, sliding by.
It might have been easier to buy her time, own her for a few moments that way. But it would have forever damned me in her eyes.
So I drove her, drove her to another shining hotel entrance.

Plain Layne looks to be taking a break for a while. And I understand, much of Layne's posting lately has been very melancholy and filled with the acrid taste of despair.
I hope she returns sometime though because I have really come to consider her a friend and I enjoy sharing the small part of our lives that comes up on these blogs.

Since they are nothing more than snapshots really, instants or moments collected together and preserved in sepia tinted sadness.

Heal thyself, Layne. We'll be here when you return, if you decide you wish to.

Um, not really sure what to make of this site, some of its funny but quite a lot made me cringe. Again, lots of free time and perhaps not the most effective use of it. But a smile's not such a bad goal, is it?

Be forewarned. I just had a co-worker tell that this site is probably too rough for mass consumption. And he's probably right but I'm not mass and I'm not gonna eat it so, up it goes. Where it comes down, well, read the list.

I swear, the things people spend their free time working on, it boggles my mind. Check out the Bizarre Nose Site for a shining example of what I mean.

And a pre post announcement. I'll be working on a slightly different post over the weekend, something along the lines of Layne's 4th of July (who seems to have disappeared as the week has progressed, come back Layne! unless you found a decent guy to hang out with!) post with pics and story. But this is big, really big. Bigger than Rahman's head after Lennox Lewis clocked him (which I should post a link to because its soo damned freaky looking)

But I can't work on this stuff right now, today's the end of the week and things have got to get taken care of or I come in over the weekend and that AIN'T happening. I got womens to chase!

But you know what? I miss the comments. I'll have to do some digging to see if I can get those back somehow. I know HTMLGear's just done an upgrade. I'll see what they've got for me.

Bad news is that Apple's about to start charging to use iTools. For $100 a year you get 100MB online storage, a home page that you can't get to from a PC, web based email and some other goodies. But you can sign up now for only $50. I've got a couple of months to think about it before I upgrade. Not sure if its necessary.

Lust & Found

A very short story

He sat on the balcony above the pounding ocean surf in the bright sun of the morning. It had been another sleepless night for him and he yawned again, tired from the night of tossing and turning. Trying to escape the voices in his head that pronounced negativities too horrid to pass through the filter of his id. The screaming anger of his betrayal voice, the lonely whimpers of the pained lover left again, the moans of sadness as another day passes and the world passes him by again.

In the bed, lay another woman, another "conquest" that left him as empty as he had been when he�s approached her in the bar the night before. Her naked form silhouetted by the thin sheet and the sun beaming through giving him an impromptu peek at her stunning and lust-inducing curves. She was attractive, she was fun, she was nothing to him.

She wasn�t who he wanted to be with but a meager and insubstantial substitute for his woman who�d walked away from him fourteen weeks, three days and 8 hours ago. Not that he was counting or anything.

What breaks that bond that people create? Why did she leave? Would she ever come back and if she did, what would he do?, his mind raced as he sipped his tea and tried to focus on what was going right in his life. It made no sense to continue to torture himself over her, she was gone and revisiting those episodes of shouting, of breaking, of separation only made his emptiness expand until it blotted out his vision and all he could imagine was the vast abyss of hopelessness and despair.

She stirred, rolled over, moaned gently and settled back to sleep again as the sun continued its inescapable climb into the morning sky. He looked at her and tried to generate love or passion towards her but it wouldn�t work. Emotions might be superficially controlled but where the roots run deep, inside where it counts, they are their own masters. The pain swelled back up within him until he thought he would explode with its pressure and agony. He mustered his will and forced the pain down, used his intellect to distract himself from her, from remembering that look on her face as she came while they made love. The contented smile when he wrapped his arms around her while she slept. He ran through multiplication tables, he counted sea gulls as they floated by on the morning breeze, he drank his tea and waited for the pain to subside back to its low, dulling ache.

It would be back, he knew it but every day was supposed to move him closer to a clean bill of mental health. Each minute supposedly marking her passing like sands dropping through the bottleneck of the hourglass, excruciatingly slowly and deliberately he focused on each grain of sand. He examined it as it made its way down to the drop zone of the glass, he held it up into the sun to peer into its depths and see his own shocked and burning soul.
Too much had been said to repair, too much damage done and not enough effort to fix it. They�d been lovers, friends, partners and more. But it was all gone now and he had to face each day without her. It hurt to breath sometimes, hurt to taste food that she�d loved, hurt to hear their song when it came on the radio. The echoes of her laughter rung through his brain like a mad dervish whirling and smashing all it touched. His ache diminished until he felt alright enough to contemplate his day.

His conquest rustled herself to consciousness and stroked a long, painted fingernail against his back, causing him to shiver in spite of himself. "Good morning," she whispered quietly, sensing something in the air.

"Good morning," he replied, not turning yet to face her. Still feeling the sun on his face, matching the warmth of the tea in his mug. She draped an arm across his back and drew herself up to a sitting position next to him, her naked breasts touching his chest, their cool skin contrasting with the warmth from the sun. He looked at her, smiled and kissed her gently, bringing his lips to brush against hers. "Did you sleep well?"

"Like a baby, thanks," she said to him dreamily. Her tanned face smiled again, radiantly. "You were wonderful last night, you know?"

"Thank you, it was my pleasure and you returned as much as I gave, believe me," he told her with his most sincere look in his eyes and mouth. He had become a liar, a snake, a cheat. He felt nothing but gave her the impression that it had been wonderful. She was beautiful, sexy, tanned and smart but yet he could generate nothing but the awkward lust of the morning after. When you want to have sex again just because you know the encounter is just about over and soon, soon, soon you�ll be all alone again with your thoughts and inner voices.

No More Nuggets (or what the hell is in those things anyway?)

Dang it all! Why do I read these awful stories about super processed food and how awful it all is. Just makes me want to start eating rocks or something.
Nasty story though about how chicken nuggets can be made of pretty much any part of the chicken and you wouldn't know the difference. Sometimes its not even chicken.

I'll pass on those nuggets, thanks.

Kudos to Layne for coming across this slice of freak called Sooperhero.com. Sure, I'll take another look later on but man, they must have had some serious chronic to come up with this stuff.

And Layne, if you became a sooper hero, which one would you be? Beetle-girl because of your car, or Melancholy-Woman? Or Ticklish-in-funny-places-Chick? I kind of like the last one best.

This next link just goes to show you that TV DOES teach you good stuff. Check out The San Francisco Hang Gliding Center. Just saw a cool thing on aquagliding that looks like crazy fun. Not cheap at all at about $275 but what's money for if not to have fun with? So long as you have enough to stay on top of the rest of all yours (well, my) obligations.

One of the most consistently useful and entertaining sites I hit up on a regular basis is Craigslist and one of the most interesting sections is craigslist | barter/swap/free in san francisco bay area. In many ways its the most honest of wishlists there could be. Some of the postings are pure humor, like, um, do you have an airplane you're not using? and others are sideways personal ads, like will trade muscle/work ethic/truck for massage (fem only).

The fem only part makes me laugh just as hard as the rest of it. Because we are, after all, in the Bay Area and San Francisco does have a wee bit of a reputation for homosexual lifestyles.

I need to start working on my other writing, the REAL stuff. The book, the tome, the homage, the something or other to a past world that's gone but still exists in the dream like catatonia of my heart. Or maybe I should just write it because I have a tremendous body of knowledge and history to draw from to task it all out. I just need to be able to see the thread that must bind it all together.

Ah, the end of one era and maybe the start of the search for a new one. Enatation just clocked out on me for the last time. Scratch one medium sized line of code and let's start fresh again elsewhere, shall we?

And from the simply too cool to pass up department, check out Carver for an entirely new kind of vehicle that's a bastard child of a car and a motorcycle. I'd be very curious as to how it feels while carving turns on those three wheels.

And another night passes. This one with me actually sleeping, albeit with my trusty bucket next to the bed in case my meager dinner decided to go Alien-style on me. But no, my belly just ached and twisted around on itself some more, no more projectile regurgitation.

So, hopefully, we can leave this whole disgusting and extraordinarily painful episode in the past. And get back to the joys of blogging and passing along the fun and freaky tidbits that make the internet such a fabulous sandbox to play in.

First up on the fun parade, Jackass the Movie. Although I have no idea how they will generate a plot from random fits of violence, urban sledding and the other stupid stuff they do on the show. It'll probably be funny and that's really all I give a damn about.

More to come, though in the meantime, skate on over to Layne's place and read her latest, A Story of No Consequence. Sad and melancholy tale. But she writes extremely well and its worth some attention.

From my own end, I'll try to post another story up online later on tonight. I've got one that's been in need of a redux and maybe this is the way to get it done. We'll see.

For now, I just want my stomach to stop hurting so I can live normally again and not have to stress all day.

Okay, not that it means much to others until it happens to them but shit, food poisoning sucks worse than anything I can think of that doesn't kill you.
What had been a pretty fun weekend overall turned into a freakish nightmare of bathroom and hurt and exhaustion. Work? Are you fucking kidding?
Sure today was a big day but I did send a few emails from home. The worst of it was over by 7 this morning, which upon further reflection is nearly 12 solid hours of total suck.
But its passed now and I can only wait for the muscles in my stomach to soften up again.
And I know I'll survive. survive to chase the coverage, to spread our company as absolutely as far as possible.
But that's a whole different thing altogether.

Are Mac users smarter? - Tech News - CNET.com

Okay, so this time I was better prepared for it and understand and like it all that much more. Instant linking? Oh hell yeah!

Anyway, this is a story by an editor, Ian Fried, that I've known of for a while and its a funny piece really. He kowtows to the affluent aspect of the Mac User base and then lets a Gateway spokesman insert a pure marketing party line quote. I'm tempted to drop him a note with a laugh. But hey, the other cool thing is that I know a guy who just left NetRatings, I'm pissed its the weekend now because now it'll be harder to get in touch with him. No worries though.

Let's see, what else am I, as a long time loyal snobbish Mac user am I according to the survey by Nielsen/NetRatings. The main difficulty in this sort of a survey is the penetration, the overpowering wave of PC's dominates the market. But it is a stupid and clumsy machine most of the time. My Mac's elegant. Sure, it crashes every now and again, and it has its problems (my god, I can't believe I just put a comma before an and, oh the shame of it all). But now, having spent the last few months plodding through the use of a PC at work, I appreciate it all the more. Maybe it makes me a stupid commercial but its true.
I love my Mac.

Do PC users love their machines? Maybe. Who cares? People are welcome to use whatever they want, I just like what I like. You are more than welcome to like whatever you want, however stupid and inane it might be. Just kidding. I am a veteran of many a flame war on the old ZDNet talkbacks. Old habits die hard.

I am more likely to build a web page, or the dozens I've actually built. And more likely to buy things online, or the auctions I've won, sold or lost on.

Okay, time to get offline, the A's are just about to win and I need to eat before getting to the bar, otherwise I will have a most difficult evening. So much to do, so much to do. So much to write about.

Some seriously messed up stuff at Clergy sex abuse of females further complicates an intricate issue. Full story Kansas City Star.

Thanks to Mike at Enemy of the Church. Soon to be moving to http://enemyofthechurch.blogspot.com/, don't forget to update your bookmarks accordingly.

Want to feel better about yourself? Then go and rate some uglies at Ugly People.com

Who Says California Only Gets Earthquakes?

Crazy Quincy, CA Down Draft from ABC7News
The winds hit the town of Quincy, about 70 miles from Truckee at around dinnertime last night.
Trees twisted like straws and houses were smashed.
Trees fell on 12 homes, while another house had its roof blown off.
Two people suffered minor injuries. One man, whose home is not inhabitable, but still stands, is just thankful he's alive.
Wayne Behrens, Quincy resident: "I guess I was just lucky ... no story. I went to look out the door to see what all the wind and the noise and the dust was and that's about the time the tree came down."
Debra Decker, Quincy resident: "The wind was like being in a hurricane or tornado. You could just feel it. It was everywhere around you."
Meteorologists say the damage was caused by a microburst � a sudden, powerful blast of air.
More about Microbursts?

Instant blogging from my browser, now there's something you really do not see everyday. How much simpler and easier is this?

Anyway, since I'm an idiot, don't worry about that earlier part.

I got two good toys in the mail today and I'm a happy guy. The first was the flash card for the Elph, which now takes 200 hi-res pics before needing to empty them out. It can take over 1400! lo res, hi compression pics. And I haven't even tried any motion pics yet. Maybe I'll do that on the bike tomorrow, along the canal? (didn't happen this morning, running late and had to run back home to get my office keys! damn!)

The second cool toy was my new cordless drill. Its big and menacing looking with the rock bit I've got. This is the last thing I needed to get started on another project bonsai I've been thinking about and working on for a few months. The sad thing is that it will probably not survive a winter here and I'm still working on how to protect it enough. I'll go and snap a few pics so people have some idea of what I'm talking about. Woops, no connect right now, it'll have to wait a little bit. But I've got pics though I don't think the dark and flash do the lava rock justice. Maybe I'll snap some sepia tone prints in the morning and post those. And a little further away for more clarity. Well forget that, Geocities now won't let me link to pics I've got on their servers. Looks like I'm out shopping for a new online image server. I wish Apple would make it easier to link to pics in my albums. Maybe I'll drop them a quick note on that front.

And one last pic for the morning before I head in to the office. This last is my speedo after coming home the other day, the pertinent number is the 40.8 on the bottom row of the Cyclo-puter.

A bedding I shall go.

Sent over from a pal this morning. Good humor to lighten up an ever-greying day outside.
1. Good: Your wife is pregnant.
Bad: It's triplets
Ugly: You had a vasectomy five years ago.

2. Good: Your wife's not talking to you
Bad: She wants a divorce
Ugly: She's a lawyer

3. Good: Your son is finally maturing
Bad: He's involved with the woman next door
Ugly: So are you

4. Good: Your son studies a lot in his room
Bad: You find several porn movies hidden there
Ugly: You're in them

5. Good: Your hubby and you agree, no more kids
Bad: You can't find your birth control pills
Ugly: Your daughter borrowed them

6. Good: Your husband understands fashion
Bad: He's a cross-dresser
Ugly: He looks better than you

7. Good: You give the "birds and bees" talk to your daughter
Bad: She keeps interrupting
Ugly: With corrections

8. Good: The postman's early
Bad: He's wearing fatigues and carrying a shotgun
Ugly: You gave him nothing for Christmas

9. Good: Your son is dating someone new
Bad: It's another man
Ugly: He's your best friend

10. Good: Your daughter got a new job
Bad: As a hooker
Ugly: Your coworkers are her best clients
Way ugly: She makes more money than you do.

Cool Archive, a great place to create cool logos and more on the fly for websites.

For those in need of a more uplifting news site, check out Pud's (from FuckedCompany.com) Yahotties. Nothing like news about very good looking women to make the day seem a little better than it was yesterday.

Stupid photo links aren't working still, damnit. Scratch that, I used Cool Archive (link in other post) to create some nice new buttons that work better. Yeeha!
Now only a dozen more things to do before I can call this update close to done.

Okay, site update's close enough to being done. More pics, more pics, more links, more epiphanies and more whatever. Oh yeah, more writing.

Today I began a new project that I hope to continue for the next several months and possibly for a few years. During my rides into work along the canal, I see some pretty cool wildlife. Now, with the Elph, I can stop, snap a few pics and keep on heading into work. I've already got accesories on the way for the camera but so far its a champ.
Not quite sure about some of the features and how to get them to work on my Mac but overall I couldn't be happier really.

All Star Farce, or Why Does Bud Selig Suck So Badly?

At least on the digi-cam front. I'm one of many, many people that is shocked at how badly Bud Selig dealt with the extra innings All Star Game last night. How hard is it to come up with a Homer Off? Pick five guys from each team, they each get five swings. Whoever gets the most balls out of the park wins. Why is Bud Selig trying his damnedest to kill off baseball? He professes to love the game but has no sense of what a fan wants to see.

That and how about snubbing Ted Williams' legacy but not even having an MVP to win the Ted Williams Trophy or whatever its called now. How outrageously lame! No MVP because no one won the game? What? There was plenty of offense, what about Konerko? Bonds? Giambi? Soriano? Pick one, any of them but don't let the first year of honoring Ted Williams end up sitting on the shelf.

Yes, I understand the deal with not wanting to injure players by extending the game past 11 innings. But a homer off would have gotten around that handily and everyone would have been happy. I'm often quite astonished by the utter lack of creativity in the world.

But I've got more than enough to keep me rolling all day so I've got to get off the blog and back on the work.

Outrage at Plan to Freeze Baseball Great Williams

Now this has got to be one of the weirdest things going right now. Why in the hell would you want to have Ted Williams frozen? I mean from a humor point of view, yeah. You could have him frozen in a batting stance and strike him out to your heart's content but that's only weird, its a little sad too.
Why not just let the great man stay great by not stuffing him like a beloved pet cat?

What is WRONG with people? I'm sure the son-in-law is thinking that people will pay to look at Dead Ted but that's just not right. And he needs to get his head removed from his rectum before he finds himself on the outside of the Willams' family looking in. What a knob! I think it would be a good thing if people rose up as a single voice and smote him down with an email blitz telling him how truly reprehensible he is for trying to profit by pimping a dead hero's body.

Another place to check out Nasa20.

And pictures of the wildfires in Canada blanketing the east coast with a tasty haze of smoke. Wildfires

And another blog to check out, MonkeySpeak, that resonates with the Darwinian in me. Might have to link to him.

Note to self, work on a new word section to the blog to include some of the stuff that Erika and I have come up with over the last year or so. Latest addition: surprose, the action of only being able to rhyme when startled.

Good PR is Better Than Sex

Sure, sex is a great way to kick back and create a grin but there's nothing like the feeling of knowing that something I did stands a good chance of getting my company coverage in the Wall Street Journal. Yeah, its kind of like free solo-ing Everest or something. And damned if I'm not a pleased camper because of it. Made me almost forget my irritation at forgetting my Palm at home this morning (oh yes, I went back home and got it, can't live without my numbers).

And there was an excellent quote on My Excite too.
The sign of intelligent people is their ability to control emotions by the application of reason. - Marya Mannes

Which begs the inverse, the sign of stupid people is their inability to control their emotional state by the application of reason. Sure, its nicer to look at it from the positive perspective but sometimes the negative's just as illuminating.

Lots of good stuff to chat about this morning though I shouldn't because there really is a ton of work to get done. Got my new digi-cam, a Canon Elph S200 that rocks and then slips into a pocket easily. I've only just begun to play around with it but its a very nice little unit, works smoothly and cleanly. Makes my old Ricoh look and feel like the digital dinosaur that it is.

Also, added clip in pedals to my Ibis last night. Bought some decent cycling shoes and can now attach myself to my bike. Makes jumping over things easier but sometimes its kind of easy to forget about the clips until you come to a stop and then there's a moment of panic until a foot goes down, hopefully before the rest of the bike and me with it. But no problems as of yet. Couldn't ride the bike in this morning though, got errands to run at lunch so I'm riding Therapy today. Damn but I love that throttle!

Yet Another White Collar Corporate Conspiracy

WorldCom is now saying that if they are allowed to fold then the national internet infrastructure could be compromised so we should, instead, give them a huge pile of money. Um, I'm sorry but I took the blue (the not make me stupid) pill today.
You know, until these fat white bastards who run companies start getting sentenced to hard time in real prison, they will continue to belly up companies while paying themselves huge bonuses and leaving myriad employees high and dry without any security at all. And for what? So these idiot multi-jowled fat fools can add another lump to their bankroll? There's nothing more descipable to me than a thief who wears a suit and tie and hides behind expensive lawyers and the Fifth Amendment. Fuck the Fifth Amendment! These stinking theiving bastards are ruining American business just as thoroughly as the Catholic church is screwing itself by allowing its priests to sodomise altar boys. The only difference is that the businessmen are getting away with it alot more easily because the people assigned to prosecute them are part of the old boy network too. Its all an incestual cluster bump really.

There are only victims (who stretch their 15 minutes out a little longer by posing naked for Playboy) and those less attractive employees who are tearfully interviewed upon finding out their life savings is gone, stolen by their former CEO and his cronies. Real jail with real criminals is where these scum bags need to go. Now that would be a real deterrent to high level white collar crime! "Uh, what happened to Bob? He was raped and stabbed in jail for embezzlement! Well shit, I'm not going to something as stupid as embezzle money." Though the cynical bastard in me thinks it would be more like, "Bob's a moron who got caught but I'm so much better than Bob that I'll never get caught. Besides, Bob's a bitch anyway." Maybe not but its certainly more likely than the former example. Who was it that said that people always tend to think they're slightly better than everyone else? I want to say it was Hume but it could have also been Kant. Regardless, the white collar criminal is a criminal and shouldn't be allowed to hide behind the 5th Amendment to save their own stinking carcasses.

Its just wrong for so many reasons. Like wearing socks with sandals. Or belly shirts that do nothing but show off the sad flab of inactivity.

Don't think that I'm not writing today because I don't have anything to talk about. Its definitely not that. Today's just a busier than normal day at the office so I can't spread the word as well as normal. But we get our project manager back next week and then I can return to being the happy little PR monkey.

Ah, the gentle caress of a sunny Monday morning in Seabright above the Monterey Bay. And eyes nearly glued shut by the need for more hours of sleep. But after playing snooze button tag a few times I dragged myself up to a truly beautiful morning. And Paul sacked out on the upstairs landing, well just inside the office space right outside H's room. Didn't hear him come home last night so I'm guessing he rolled in somewhat late. I'll catch up with him later on tonight, I'm sure.

Yesterday was a nice day though. Hot by about 9 in the morning which meant the sand would be blisteringly hot by 1 or 2 in the afternoon. Which is when I finally got down to the court to get a game or two. Its tough sometimes, too much to do, not enough motivation to get it done and then the aside trips that take you off course. Like going to Bike Trip and buying some cycling shoes though now I need to get the proper cleats so I can go to clip-ins for my riding. Maybe that'll keep my arches from cramping up during longer descents.

Mellow BBQ at the house for Duggan's upcoming birthday, met his dad who's a kick. That and I need a new drivetrain for My Blue. And a new saddle because the I've got now makes for a sore bum after an hour or two of riding.

And hold on for fresh pics. New camera arrives today so I'll have loads of new pics to toss online shortly. We'll have to create some debauchery to capture but that's never too hard to do with my friends.

Well shucks, had a nice tie up to the whole moto blog and it got lost when the system decided to take a crapper. Computers are supposed to work well all the time so it drives me nuts when mine dogs me.

Basically, we rode Star Wars which is so named because its like the speeder chase scene with good high speed tearing downhill sections. Chatter box washes, dropoffs and long straightaways that let you test just how big a set you're carrying. My Ibis floats fabulously over rough crap, its a wonderful bike. And very, very fast. But that's enough for now, its been a long day and I'm torn. I should write about Alison, but a good portion of the night's a wee bit blurry.

I do recall that she felt pretty astonishing. That and now Gillian definitely doesn't like me anymore for having run off with her big sister (though I think that part of that is her being upset that I never went after her). But that's a whole 'nother story altogether. But I do know that I'd like to see her again, she was not only beautiful but bright, sharp and funny too. All this amidst the disorganized and bizarre Fourth of July in Seabright. Its a tradition all to itself! I love this town!

Hardtop Speed

Well holy smokes, who'd have thought that my little bike could break 40 miles per hour?
I didn't think it could but it, and I, did. Coming down from our crazy little trek above UCSC. I've never seen it so populated with riders. During our break at the water tanks, next to the big sign explaining what to do if you see a mountain lion, at one point I counted almost twenty bikers within a hundred feet of me at once. But what a great day and a perfect time to be out in it. It was beautiful and the fresh oxygen coming from the trees was quite rejuvenating during our occasional breaks. It was my first longer ride in a long time so I suffered a bit but that's cool, I can deal with it.
Oh yes, Layne, I was fully protected with my helmet and gloves on. Though I did see one downhiller with full leg armor on.
Anyway, after riding up UCONN, or University Connector trail, from Highway 9, we broke for a bit at the water tanks. Its a great spot and in a short time lots of cool bikes will invariably pass by. I saw two Cannondale Lefties.

Oops. I should post this before I roll away. Its the 4th of July and anarchy is running rampant in the streets of Santa Cruz.

Well, I've added another morning click to my day. I always start the day by hitting the Hunger Site and clicking through on all the links but earlier this week they added a new one. Its the Animal Rescue Site and who in the world wouldn't want to help feed some animals by just clicking on the logo (and doing some occasional shopping from the site).

Lighter news, the Giants absolutely pummelled the Rockies last night and neither Bonds or Kent went deep! Nothing like a trip to the thin air in Denver to wake up those bats, humidified balls or not!

This may end up being a bit much for some folks but it certainly made me think a bit. Intense and moving stuff.

This will bear quite a bit more examination but its a helluva start. Random Kantian Generator.

Quite a cool visual thesaurus that I came across on Rex's Fimoculous blog which invariably has more content than I can get through in my minutes stolen at work. Always something of interest. And with that I shall add his link to the others below.

Fuck it all to hell. I'm so irritated with the world right now that I could give a damn who reads this and is offended. I just found out that my brother-in-law was diagnosed with bladder cancer. No idea where it is in the cycle but so far the prognosis looks good but so what, he shouldn't have gotten it in the first place. It feels like there's some kind of ominous presence looming above my universe these days, waiting to pounce if I let my guard down for a moment. But even with the guard up, my family is still suffering and hurting.
First Peter and India lose Graca, now Dave get's cancer, what's next? I'm going to grow a third arm out of my back?
Man, I'm fucking tired. Tired of it all and tired of being tired.

Someone stop the goddamned world. I'm getting off for a little while.

Another Techie Eats It

Well, I guess its semi-official and Webgain has tanked. Read about it on the cover of the newest issue of SD Times. Showed it to my boss because they are an outstanding account (not outstanding in that they were better than the others but that they still owed us money for our surveys). Which, I guess, will really mean almost nothing to most people. But its another nail in the high tech coffin, the bubble that burst and tossed so many of my friends and co-workers and partners and other various tangental companies and personel out into the void. The void of employment outside of the high tech sector. Like Layne, who's educated and smart and capable but is now waitressing and pondering the similarities between prostitution and waiting tables (there are many, I've done the same analysis).
Or the news of further layoffs at the pubs I work with. Editors with more seniority than I've got years in me, tossed like yesterday's coffee grounds. Tough time to be out on the street though I can't really say there's a very good time to be out on the street.
Which makes it that much more important to work hard and get the work done, prove value, prove worth, validate existence. And to that end, I'll put down the blog pen and pick up my red editting pen and jump back into the Chinese survey, that never ending bastard that always needs/wants/must have more time, effort, sweat, tears and cursing at SPSS (far too much to explain but its a PC based issue so that'll start you on the right track).
But the fog's holding strong for now, maybe it'll never clear up again and we'll live in the fog, enshrouded by chill sea air, purified against distraction by the deadened water hanging over everything.

That and I think I'm going to go and buy the new Eminem album at lunch today. Limewire wouldn't download a decent copy last night and then started to fold worse than a Chinese laundromat the day after Chinese New Year.

But how bad can any day be when I can ride my bicycle into work?

Anyway, last note before I get some work done. Here's a little peice I wrote a long time ago while living in CapeTown. ExPat in Seapoint. A nice little read though not according to T. Mike Walker at Cabrillo College but then he was a bit of a wanker anyway.

I've poached a cool little trick I saw on a pal's (Why I Hate Life) blog. Its an instant translator into Spanish and back into English again which is about the fastest way I know to make whatever you're reading, funny.
Check it out Translate Intellectual Poison.

And some news about Martha Stewart from our good friends over at the Onion.

Martha Stewart Stalker Can Barely Keep Up

EAST HAMPTON, NY�Richard Kowalcyk, 36, who for several years has been stalking author, magazine publisher, TV personality, and house-and-home guru Martha Stewart, told reporters Monday that he can barely keep up. For more click here Poor Guy.