Saturday, February 28, 2009

More with Safari's 'Tabs on Top'

I’ve already gone back on my word and switched to the old tab style in Safari. I switched back mind you, like I said I would when I said I’d eventually do what I’m doing right now. Yes, I like the space savings and the new MO of the tabs on top feature.

It’s still badly implemented though. Take a look at this picture. Click on it for a larger version. Doesn’t it look like the tab for the safari window – that’s in the background – is actually on/for the Quicktime trailer that’s in front? It’s not. It just appears that way.

This constitutes a FAIL. For all the win of the new design, this is a FAIL.

Housing & the 'bob

About a little over a month ago, we put in an offer on a house we like in town, but we’ve been waiting & waiting for a response – it’s a short sale, and the Bank is the holdup, unfortunately. All the other interested parties have accepted, but since the bank is owed more than we’re offering (or even what it’s listed for, for that matter), they have final say. This decision – apparently – takes months.

At first when they “accepted” our offer, we thought to ourselves “yay we’re getting a house,” but those hopes were quickly doused with a cold bucket of reality I like to call “large corporations
suck.”

We didn’t want to be sitting around twiddling our thumbs just waiting on them to say ‘yea’ or ‘nay’ – even though we feel it’s probably a ‘yea’ – and have all our eggs in one basket. So we’ve continued to look about. Unfortunately, a lot of the homes around here are still overvalued, and the ones that
are respectably-priced are just missing that ‘something’ we’ve found in the house we’re waiting on.

We’ve made a few additional offers on other properties we liked
almost as much, but they were rejected. And so, we wait.

This totally sucks. We’re a two-income family, and we’re not shopping for a mansion. And we’re good with our money. And yet, we still can’t seem to find suitable housing arrangements. And this is why I’m all for letting the housing fiasco fall completely flat on its face: yeah some people will lose the house they can’t afford, but in the long run, it will ensure that more people are able to find a place they can afford comfortably. Even the ones who are “losing” now.

Thursday, February 26, 2009

Is the Tacoma Better Off-Road than the old 4Runner?

I’d noticed myself silently comparing the worthiness of the new Tacoma with the old 4Runner with regard to off-road ability. It goes something like this: “Man, I think the 4Runner would have made it over all of this sand easier than the New Guy,” or “Did the 4Runner handle this sort of thing better, or am I just imagining it?”

I think – after more careful consideration – I
was imagining it.

There’s a few things to consider when making comparisons on off-road ability. One is weight. Model-year to model-year comparisons, the newer models tend to weigh more. For instance, the old 4Runner was top-o’-the-line in its day, and came in at just under 3900 lbs. The top-trim 2008 4Runner comes in at a steep 500 lbs heavier.

This was one reason among many others that I decided to shop the Tacomas instead: they are lighter than the 4Runners. That being the case, I’m still gaining probably 100 lbs or so with the
addition of the camper shell to the Mighty Tacoma over what I weighed with the Mighty 4Runner. Point to the 4Runner.

Another consideration is tire & tread (and also the surfaces they’re used on. More on that in a minute). The 4Runner was shod with some reasonably mild All-Terrains. They were bought because at the time, the 4Runner was 90% on-road, 9% dirt road, and 1% off-road; it needed tires to fit this need, and the
Destination A/T’s were the right shoe for the job. However, now with our 4 puppies & living the life up north, we decided that when it came to on-road performance, any tire will do. So long as there’s rubber on the pavement, we’re not doing anything fast or fancy enough to be concerned.

But with all the exploring we do around here now, we knew that an on-road-oriented tire will not be enough to get us out of a bind should we wind up in one out in the wilderness, so our best bet was to shaw it with tires that were geared towards that sort of terrain. They’re rubber anyway, so they’ll do fine enough on the street anyhow, is what we figured. So yeah, our
Cooper Discoverer S/T’s are quite a bit more aggressive, and we’re better off and happier for it. Point for the Tacoma.

And the Tacoma’s
supposed to have all kinds of cool off-road gadgets that the 4Runner just didn’t have. Score another point for the Tacoma.

Still though, I’d be out and about in the Tacoma, having these silent conversations with myself (a drastic difference from the out-loud conversations I have with myself from time to time), and I’d wonder,
is the Tacoma really better? Here’s the deal:

The 4Runner never really did all that much with me or
for me off-road. We went a few places here & there that had some bumps & valleys, but mostly it was on solid footing the whole time, and the really interesting obstacles we just avoided in reality, while I just imagined going up and down them in the 4Runner. The Tacoma however, has been put to the test more times in the 6 months that we’ve had it than the 4Runner had in all the years we owned it. So to some extent, it’s an apples/oranges comparison: the 4Runner succeeded handily at all the baby-class obstacles we put it up against, whilst the Tacoma has had to get by on the skin of its teeth on obstacles that would make your butt pucker. Does perfect 10’s on the easy course score higher than 5’s & 6’s on the ‘motherf*cker’ course?

Not really, no.

The only place that I really can say the argument holds any weight at all is on the beaches. In the sand, sometimes it feels like the Tacoma is just being held back while the 4Runner would sprint ahead at certain points. And when carefully considering it, I’m still not sure it’s true though. With the 4Runner, I made sure I hit the sand running, and remember a few paragraphs ago when I mentioned I’d talk more about tires & grip & the surfaces we ride on? Here’s that bit: The less-aggressive your tires on sand, typically the better. The 4Runner DID weigh a bit less than the Tacoma, and thus probably sunk into the sand let’s say ¼ an inch less than the Tacoma, which helps. But the real help is that the tires were a lot less aggressive, so rather than grabbing fistfuls of dirt from right in front (and digging holes right in front), it sort of ‘glides’ over the surface.

The Tacoma has those aggressive tires though, remember? So it grabs those fistfuls of dirt when you get started, and digs itself little holes. This can be averted to an extent, and I think the real problem that led to the mental discussion over what vehicle is better off-road is that I find I’m constantly
testing the Tacoma to see if it is better or not.

Here’s the meat of what I’m saying: Going to the beach in the 4Runner, we know it’s not the greatest beast on the sand, so we
hit the sand running, going with speed and carrying it over the surface to our destination. But in the Tacoma, we hit the sand slow, and give it a chance to sink in; sort of see if it can handle getting out of the mess we’ve put it in (By “we,” I mean “me” because The Girl would not be this stupid). So again it’s the apples/oranges comparison: we’re babying the 4Runner, and whipping the Tacoma like it’s Kunta Kinte. It’s just not been a fair comparison.

The Tacoma
is better. We just haven’t bothered to run it on the same course. And if the 4Runner couldn’t even play on the courses we’re traversing in the Tacoma? Clearly we’ve been giving our new guy a bum rap.

Go, Mighty Tacoma, Go!

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

More time with Safari's new Tab Bar

[Click for larger] More time with Safari 4’s new title/tab bar has more or less convinced me I do not like it. I was unsure whether I was just resisting change or not, so I was looking around online for opinions from well-reasoned individuals, when I found this blog post about it, which linked to this picture that showed what it looks like when you have multiple Safari windows open with multiple tabs.

Yow. That’s a cluttered mess.

It sort of hit me, that the guy was right: we use the title bar as a buffer for each window. When you start to encroach on that territory, then it becomes hard to tell where one window begins and the other ends. There’s also another side effect, that the title bar devoted to the site title is often (if you have more than a couple tabs) too short to effectively show you the title of said tab.

I like the concept, but it’s just not well-implemented at this point, methinks. I reckon I’ll give it another couple of days at most. If they haven’t blown my mind by that point, I think I’ll revert to the old tab bar design.

Of course once I do that, I’ll realize that I actually like the new design better. Perhaps I just like to complain.

Holy sh!t, I do.

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Apple Releases Safari 4 Public Beta

The Good:

So I was told this morning by the internets. I went and downloaded it, yes I did, like a good little apple user. It’s apparently faster. I can’t say as I really notice much, actually. The old one was fast as it was. What, are we shaving a couple milliseconds or something? But hey, faster’s better, so I’m not complaining. Also, so far it seems as though it might actually have a slightly smaller RAM footprint, which is nice. They also introduced a “Top Sites” feature that shows you a collection of your favorite pages at once in thumbnail view. It’s nice in that you can quickly glance at a collection of pages and see what’s been updated and what hasn’t. This works really well with pages that are heavy on large graphics or headliners, such as lolcats or news pages like NY Times. They also moved the tab bar to the top of the window, which has the side benefit of requiring less space to house tabs in the first place, and thus more room to show content.



The Bad
They moved the tab bar to the top. It’s sort of a cool concept, except that the way it’s implemented, current tabs are HUGE and thus the rest of the tabs are teensy, making it hard to read titles. It also serves to push more tabs out of view if you have a whole bunch open at once (like I tend to do). There’s a small issue with tabs on the far left as well, as with the new “close tab” position on the left, it’s awful close to the “minimize window” button, but that’s probably more a minor annoyance.

The Picture that accompanies this blog is a screenshot of mine. Click it for a larger version. It shows both the Top Sites feature, a well as the extraordinarily large active tab issue I was talking about.

Thankfully I found
a link to a site that has some hidden prefs you can use to revert back the tabs to the old-style. Honestly though I’m just not sure if it’s worth it. I mean, I might just revert back to the regular ol’ Safari 3. Because – by the time all’s said & done – if I do all these cool little hacks to make Safari 4 more like Safari 3, all I’m left with is a 2-millisecond improvement in loading times, and the “Top Sites” feature. And while cool, it’s not a game-changer for me.

I’ll give it a week or so; we’ll see what happens. Maybe the tabs will grow on me.

Friday, February 20, 2009

I don't like Brad Pitt

I just… gaaah, I just don’t. I have just now returned from watching a new trailer over at apple’s Movie Trailers website, this time having viewed Inglorious Basterds. It’s a new film from Quentin Tarantino, who makes movies that aren’t really that coherent or valuable. Anyway, this isn’t about him; it’s about Brad Pitt.

Go and watch the damned trailer. Watch his performance. Cringe. Then return here!

He’s been in like 40 or something movies. Two of these are worth watching,
Se7en, and Snatch. Now I will give him credit where credit is due: he gave a wonderful performance in Snatch. Se7en on the other hand, sort of sucked a minor bit. Yes look, I know it’s highly-acclaimed and all, it stars Kevin Spacey & Morgan Freeman – two of my favorite actors – but here’s what I’m saying: that movie was everything it was despite Brad Pitt. He brought nothing to the film short of some bad script reading & ill-placed everything. Making a face? Bad time for it. Making a noise? Wrong noise. Being Brad Pitt? Wrong actor.

He never adds anything to a film. He’s always Brad Pitt, in a role in a movie (Snatch being the exception). It’s like he shows up from pretty-boy class, gets handed the script, reads the three lines for the scene, and then they shoot. That’s every Brad Pitt Moment in cellophane. He just sucks as an actor.

There, I said it. I feel better now. And he’s not really that pretty either. It’s true, ladies.

I really hope that he & Angelina Jolie sort of implode and never make another movie ever again. And I hope that Quentin Tarantino takes note, and stops while he still has a shot at life.

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Evangelizing the Mac

Yes; yes I do that. And you’ve had a problem with it since you switched, right? Got frustrated, because you were trying to export your Pages document as PDF because you read that it did that, and you couldn’t find it, right? (Under the “Share” command in the menu bar; makes sense, but didn’t look there, right?)

Hey, I’ve been frustrated too. Look: it’s still a computer. It’s still prone to failure. They’re complex machines that do very complex tasks, and – unfortunately, perhaps – they’re still made by humans, whom err. Guys, girls… c’mon.

Yes, I sometimes evangelize them. And you know what,
my Mac has crashed before on me, too once or twice (in like 5 years). And occasionally a program goes south. And I still will continue to sell them to friends and family. Because, let’s be honest: your old Windows box crashed multiple times a day. It crashed on a regular-enough basis that you knew when it was about to take down everything, on schedule. “Southbound crash with return-service to Blue-Screen-of-Death leaving @ 6:15; shuttle 2.”

So when you get frustrated because you couldn’t find “print” under “File” where it is all the time in every program, or when you forgot how to get to the system preferences, or maybe – GASP! – it crashed that one time on you when you were trying to open
iTunes and copy that CD while you were importing pictures into iPhoto and looking up my cool-as-hell website, please stop to consider the alternative before you call/IM/email me and bitch, alright?

You could be on the
6:15 shuttle to Crash-ville.

Now get back to your illegal music files & porn, alright?

Thursday, February 12, 2009

Car Catches Dog; Dog lives to tell tale

This morning – in the heat of hot sex – we heard the unmistakable sound of a car hitting a dog. It was either that, or a really really happy dog drove by. Which, I guess means it was sort of a mistakable sound, but that’s neither here nor there.

It was
Chase.

I had a sense that something was amiss this morning, if for no other reason than the dogs were not whining about being fed around 7:30. But still, duty calls, so I figured
hey, maybe they’re just tired or outside pooping, for a really really long time, and then began having consensual intercourse.

We didn’t really figure it was one of our dogs at first, because they’re locked in the yard, which is surrounded by a 7’ security fence, and as athletic as I believe them to be, I do still think it’s beyond their abilities to leap it. But anyway, a scant few seconds later, and I heard a voice calling at about our back gate.
Dun-dun-duh……

Sure enough, the gate was open. 3 of 4 dogs were accounted for, with Miles of all dogs missing. Chase was limping, and actually had the sh!t scared out of him – literally. He seemed bruised but not broken, and we made plans for one of us to stop him by the vet immediately, and the other one would search out
Miles. The Girl got vet duties, I got Miles Duty, which turned out to actually be quite easy: go out back, start the truck, look across the alley; done.

I have to say this: I love veterinarians (sarcasm). They always manage to take a lot of money from me in a short amount of time, in order to tell me what I already know: my dog is in shock, the sh!t –literally – was scared out of him, he’s bruised but not broken, blah blah blah. But, when your dog gets hit by a car, I think it’s more or less mandatory that you make the effort at least to see the vet. And being the sticklers for tradition that we are, we made the call & the trip, and then fattened the guy’s wallet a little. (side note: I think The Girl ought to become a vet)

Anyway, Chase will live. He will live to tell the tale about the day that a car caught the dog. The names may change, and the car will I’m sure get bigger each time he tells the story, but hey, that’s life.

So long as the car’s not going too fast, I suppose. Otherwise… death :-( Lucky Dog. My bets are he stays f*ckin’ put in the backyard for awhile after that.

PS: The Girl was watching over my shoulder as this blog was typed up. Therefore, I had to properly irritate her, hence the “intercourse.” For the record, she prefers it’s referred to as “hot kinky sex,” “doing it,” “f*cking,” or the like. You may therefore substitute any of those terms for “intercourse” in the above blog. Have a nice day :-)

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Bob Seger Sucks. No, Really

Funny, in that researching yesterday’s post more, I discovered that most of the music I was critiquing as the “Limbo Era,” turns out that most of the music was actually Bob Seger music.

Who is this clown and his
Silver Bullet Band? What, is that a clue? Are they all talent vampires?

I mean, let’s look at “
Old Time Rock & Roll” for a minute. They guy… is critiquing the songs of his era! And it seems – unbeknownst to him – that this includes his crappy-ass music! How does he not get this? How does he not see that indeed, I would like to take those old records off the shelf, because indeed, today’s music - YOUR music – does not have the same soul. It’s soulless trash, Mr. Seger. Seriously, what was he thinking? He wrote a song, trashing his own music. Sort of like that stupid motherf*cker that spouts off before he thinks, saying “guys who where pink shirts are idiots,” before glancing down at the pink shirt they’re wearing and thinking oh sh!t did I just do that?

Bob’s music; it is like listening to a thousand babies being bored – literally – to death. His music sounds like a bad commercial jingle, you know? That just keeps on going! As evidence of this, I submit to you as exhibit A, “
Like a Rock,” the f*cking most annoying song ever used in an f*cking advertisement (thanks, Chevy. Maybe that’s why you’re going under. Karma’s a bitch).

Don’t even get me stared on “Katmandu,” that place he really really wants to go to that I’d quite honestly like him to go to as well. And here’s to hoping they take away his guitar & mic when he gets there.

I also noticed that his solo music is conspicuously absent from the iTunes music store. Clearly, iTunes has higher standards.

Thinking about it, knowing what I know now, makes me want to ask the question, “Alright, who gave Bob the guitar for Christmas? Who was it?” And it also makes me want to consider renaming the “Limbo Era” of music the “Bob Seger Sucks Era of Music.”


Why, God? Why did you invent Bob Seger? Is he the devil?

Yes!?! Holy f*ck. That explains so much.

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Today's News: Yahoo Titles ftw, Sony commentary, & Music notes

Yahoo News for the Win!
I know it’s obvious, but the lead-in for an article about a tornado going through Oklahoma? “Oklahoma Tornado Leaves Path of Destruction.”

You know, in case someone thought that perhaps a tornado might leave a path of peach cobbler or something. “Oklahoma Tornado Leaves Path of Construction.” “Oklahoma Tornado Leaves Path of Yellow Bricks.”

What else do they think we might assume it would leave, exactly?



The “Limbo Era” of Music
Talking with an employee tonight at work, and discussing our apparently-similar tastes in music – or at least, our similar tastes in music we extremely dislike – we named this particular period of music. Late-70’s, you know it when you hear it. It’s not rock, it’s not pop, it’s not disco… it’s just pathetic. Think “Katmandu.” Hear this in your head: “Just take those old records off the shelf…”

Yeah. You get the idea. What the f*ck is this sh!t? It’s not rock (even though it talks about it in the song title!). It’s not pop. It’s not… well hell, it’s not
even good. What do we call it then?

The “Limbo Era.” They were coming down off the hard sh!t they were high on for so long, and they hadn’t quite perfected the bad hairdos & horrible fashion sense or electronic piano rhythms that would come to suckify the 80’s. So they just sang generic, not-worth-writing-and-singing crap-fests.

Ah, those were the days. No, wait. No they weren’t! wtf?!



Best. Onion Video. EVER.
Probably the most accurate commentary on Sony EVER.

Sony releases Stupid Piece of Sh!t that doesn’t f*cking work.

Sony: taking years off of the lives of the tech-illiterate for 30 years.

Recently Watched: Eagle vs Shark; Rock n' Rolla

A long, long time ago, in a county far, far away, I was linked to a trailer for Eagle vs. Shark. It looked interesting. Sort of oddball comedy, and hey, I like oddball, right? Hell I own the box-set of the Naked Gun series, yo. (who the f*ck says “yo”? I take that back. You never heard that).

Well in talking to this same person recently over video chat, it came up again. It was on my
Netflix queue, and I just sort of ‘bumped it’ to the top, along with some other movie fare.

It wasn’t quite what I expected. I expected a comedy and that’s what, I got, yes. But I expected more of a touching love story between two retards who discover that they’re perfect for each other, interspersed with comedic elements; they
are retarded, after all. But instead, you follow around this girl, who is just plain enamored with this ‘tard of a guy, and she’s sweet and innocent and you like her, but the guy she likes is not just a ‘tard, but a freakin’ a**hole too. And… well, it’s hard to root for him. You really just sort of want her to go back home and find another, nicer ‘tard to become infatuated with.

It’s not a terrible movie by any stretch, but it had twinkles of what could have been that really sort of spoiled the reality of what we got. I desperately wanted the no-good ‘tard-man to see the light, and realize that indeed, he’s being given something
well beyond what he deserves in life.

And really? Beating up the wheelchair guy? OK, funny maybe. But definitely didn’t endear that guy to my heart.



Rock n’ Rolla
This was actually the other movie that got pushed up to the top of my queue at a friend’s request. I was told, it’s a lot like snatch.

Have we met? You know me, right? Then you know
Snatch is in close running for my all-time favorite comedy, dark or no.

Well it is done by the same guy (Guy Ritchie). It is an english ‘mobster’ movie. There’s a fat black guy. There’s an old kingpin. And, the similarites end about there. Mostly where it derails is that the story is weak, and the dark comedy isn’t really there. In Snatch, all the character’s paths cross, no matter how disparate they are. In this one, everyone’s paths cross, but it’s totally expected. wtf?

There’s also the issue of them living inside their own reality. Yes I know it’s a movie, it’s fiction, blah blah blah. But look, in Snatch, everything was well-enough explained. You knew where the money was coming from. It all made sense. In this, people are rich and you don’t know why or how much, what their motivations are, or why they have a fear of cats. You’re just sort of handed that on the program or something.

“Tonight, Guy Ritchie will be performing ‘
Snatch’ only not as good. There will be refreshments in the lobby, after the show. Characters will enter the showing and you will assume they are badasses. This will not be shown. Oh, and there are two classes of Russians: those that are wealthy and no one knows why, and those that are tough homosexuals. Enjoy the show.”

I didn’t. At least, not as much as I wanted & hoped.

Saturday, February 7, 2009

Random Bob: The Demo-publican. Republi-crat? Eh

Fiscally conservative, that would be me. I vote democrat mostly because I think the money can work itself out, whereas civil liberties & personal freedoms cannot.


But I am cringing (and have been since October) over what the democrats are doing with these bailouts. Their hearts might be in the right place, but they are not thinking this through. They’re supposed to be the party for the majority of hard-working Americans, right? Well F*CK, man; I work hard, and housing is still too expensive! So what’re you gonna do to help?

Keep people who paid too much in their homes by
having lenders alter the contracts. Sounds nice and all for those poor folk who were stupid enough to buy too much house. But what about everyone else who’s trying to afford one? They’re keeping the root problem around: over-inflated housing costs. Now those homes will retain more value. And since I’m pretty sure they’re not going to track how much the loans actually value the properties at, we’re going to be left with stats that show only what it sold for. Which, was that over-inflated price. Which will keep neighborhoods artificially high.

This isn’t helping the most Americans. They’re doing this wrong.

I
really need to be President.

And hey, a free house comes with the deal.
Sweet!

Friday, February 6, 2009

Random Bob shoves roof back up... Somewhere

Damn that damned housing lender!
So, about that property we’ve been looking into. It’s not looking as up as we had felt it might be at the outset.

And really, it’s the bank’s fault. Not
our bank, though they’re becoming an irritation (not you, Lori).

It’s a short sale, so the guy owes the bank more than the property is worth. We made an offer even below that figure, and we’re in a holding pattern until –
apparently – they decide to let someone pay them some money, which is odd because I thought banks were all about money, right? Right?

We thought –
we thought! – that today was the deadline for them to accept our offer over any other offers. We signed a piece of paper called the “Short Sale Addendum” that stated that they had the right to entertain other offers until today, at which time our offer was the bee’s knees (I have no idea where that saying comes from. Oh, wait. Here you go). Turns out, that the date on that paper was more or less, just a date on a paper, and nothing more really. It came, it went, and no one knows any more about the inner workings of this bank’s process than we did three weeks ago.

Who would have thought you’d have to twist a bank’s arm so damned much to give them money. Here I am, trying to bail them out with dollars, and they’re dragging their feet.



Silver lining…
We’re in this mess because I re-sodded the back lawn. No, seriously. It’s the jinx of it. We had started looking into properties in December, and when they didn’t pan out? Well, during The Girl’s leave of absence early last month, I took the time to tear up the old, dead lawn that we inherited when we moved here, and got the ground in good order and then reseeded it. Day after, two homes come up on the market that are in our price range and decent. Clearly, God was playing with me: Had I left the lawn alone, the homes would not have come to market. But since I started work that would take months to fruit, clearly now’s the time to make 30-day plans to move out. Clearly.

Well, I didn’t go through with reseeding the whole of the back yard (there’s some barked areas I was contemplating ripping up, but stopped short. It
is just a rental). And thusly, we’re in limbo now. BUT, since we might be here awhile, now I might get to reap the rewards of the seeds I’ve sewn (cue applause for awesome placement of old sayings. A tear would be a nice touch, too).



…to a dark cloud
We’re in a rental now as you’re aware, because if nothing else, I just told you that. Well we had a major plumbing issue crop up last month that we haven’t really taken full care of yet – because we thought we were about to move anyway – and that means that we’ll probably have to have the landlord out to fix it.

Which means, he’ll get to see the place. This is bad.

Not because we’re dirty people. We’re clean! But we’re clean people with 4 dogs. Only two of which he actually knows about. Yes, yes. That’s the problem. Well, that and the carpet. Which isn’t all that bad! But keep in mind: 4 dogs. And the carpet, as you might have gathered if you read
this entry, is berber. Which snags, rips up, and generally looks like ass, especially if you have pets.


C’MON, LENDERS!
Um, yeah. That’s about all I have to say.

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

Obama Caps Executive Salaries for "Bailouters"

YES!

This is awesome. I am so damned happy about it, as are countless other Americans, which is sort of funny.

In that, it’s basically a layer of socialism being applied over our capitalistic system. “Socialism.” That buzzword that Americans hate, by-and-large. Which really harkens back to what I said in
earlier posts: We’re ‘trained’ to dislike the words “socialism” and “communism,” but when applied practically, most people support it. If you told people about this wonderful system you would like to apply, and they judged it on the merits, they’d actually like it! And then you’d tell them “it’s socialism!” and they’d report you to the authorities, for the plan that they just got through saying they rather liked.

Seriously: if you ran your company into the ground, then asked for $$BILLIONS$$ from the poorer people to keep you afloat… I think even $500,000 is too much.

Go Obama, Hell Yeah!

Monday, February 2, 2009

Marijuana & Pop Culture

I live in Humboldt County. It’s weed central. We have a reputation known around the world.

And I do not smoke pot. I am against it. I don’t like mind-altering, save for the hot kinky sex variety.

I still don’t hold it against the people around here that
do like to smoke/grow the cannabis. Whatever. It’s a freaking weed, folks; who cares, right? If you’re not trying to get me to buy it, or you’re not showing up late to a job I’m depending on your for, because of it, I really don’t care. Do what you want to do, it’s not hurting anyone, that’s how I feel about it.

And it is so, that I don’t understand all the hoopla surrounding the recent outing of
Michael Phelps as a bonger. Seriously, who cares? It’s Marijuana, not damned cocaine. How many people high on marijuana are out in public robbing people? None. Why? They’re too damned happy about life. They’re just concentrating (very intently) on their hunger. I imagine a group of no-gooders sitting around on pot, contemplating doing some nefarious sh!t going sort of like this:

“Hey man, we should go rob that guy’s house.”
“Yeah, man, he’s got tons of cool sh!t.”
“You in?”
“…”
“Man, I’m
HUNGRY…”
“dude,
me too!”
“You got any chips around here, man?”
“dude, I’m too stoned to get up and get them; you do it”
“nah, I’m cool”

Seriously, how come we’re not more concerned with alcohol-related crimes/misdeeds/incidents? They’re far higher in number. And what’s more, who the hell cares if he smokes pot? It obviously didn’t impair him enough to stop the 8-gold-medal run he had in China, now did it? Seems to me, everyone ought to just cool the f*ck out about it.

Just guessing, but I bet a lot of his most vocal critics are fat rich white guys who happen to be closet addicts to the much-harder, white powdery stuff. Just saying. That’s pretty typical.

Hey, I don’t like the guy. I think he’s a dork with a shower cap who swims fast because the bullies used to give him wedgies. I don’t want to meet him. I don’t think he’s cool. And even still, I just think that perhaps –
perhaps – everyone should lay off the dork, and calm down.

Maybe take a hit off the pipe themselves. And chill out.