what goes around comes around

Me, a long time ago:

Finley, today:

going to georgia

I've been to Newport Beach, CA. Nice town. Never been to Decatur, GA. But if I had to base where I would want to live on police recruitment videos, Decatur wins hands down.

Decatur:


Newport Beach:

the dahmer treatment

Lifers in prison, you know what to do.

mad hits like rod carew

smash smash sa-maaaash

When I first posted about Kai, I wondered when the autotune would come out. well, almost immediately, but I totally missed it. So here it is. Excellent.


All this attention on Fresno's KMPH. gives me the chance to bring up one John Soderman. Soderman was an anchor on KMPH when I lived in Lemoore and Fresno in the 90's. Dude was straight up premature balding (he also like to editorialize - like if two teenagers committed a crime, he would say "two young punks," with the word punks emphasized in the most disgusted cadence). Anyways, fast forward a couple of years, I move back to San Diego in 1999, and this is who I see on San Diego's KUSI:

Dude. You think moving to San Diego means you can just plop on a horrible rug and pretend no one is going to notice? C'mon.

when 'them' becomes 'us'

Good for Rob Portman.

Senator Rob Portman, an Ohio Republican and a top contender for the party's vice-presidential candidacy last year, has come out in support of gay marriage—after his son, Will, came out as gay. "As a congressman, and more recently as a senator, I opposed marriage for same-sex couples," Portman writes in an editorial published today in the Columbus Dispatch. "Then something happened that led me to think through my position in a much deeper way." In 2011 Will, then in his first year at Yale, told his parents that he is gay. That knowledge, Portman writes, "prompted me to consider the issue from another perspective."

Considering things from another perspective is something we should all be doing all the time, not just when it involves someone you know. Everyone knows that it's hard to hate gays if you know gay people, it's hard to be bigoted towards minorities when you actually know some. So while I do salute Rob Portman coming around, it does sort of irk me that this is what it took for him to consider the thoughts and feelings of someone else. It's noble, but at the same time a little self-serving. It sort of reminds me when a celebrity suddenly starts a foundation to cure an illness or disease once they are diagnosed.

No go convince your Republican brethren, Mr. Portman.

EDIT: Here's a deeper dive into the negative connotations of all this. 

google reader, r.i.p.

So Google Reader dies in July. This really blows. It's been a fixture in my life and a near obsession for nearly seven years. I have starred items I haven't read yet from years ago. Maybe this is a good thing. Maybe I'll use my GR time more productively. But I'll probably just move on to another RSS reader. I'm open to suggestions, as long as there is an Android app.

Makes me wonder what the future holds for blogspot. Because of the lack of features in Blogger for Android, I don't post nearly as much as I'd like. It's easier to just share to facebook, which sucks in its own way. If the writing is on the wall for blogger, I may as well start planning on moving this here blog. I guess the two mist robust platforms are Wordpress and tmblr. If worse comes to worse, any preferences?

Two of my favorite companies really let me down today. The way this weeks going, Trader Joe's will get rid of the five country blend espresso and Costco will stop carrying those blueberry / fig bars I'm addicted to.

death by a thousand fees #amazon

So I sent a bunch of books to Amazon to sell under the Fulfilled by Amazon program. Seemed like a quick and easy way to make some money. If, of course, by "make some money" you mean "lose some money", since I just paid 41 cents to sell a book. Here's the statement for a copy of Lolita:

Buyer pays:                                       $3.99

Amazon fees

Commission:                                      -$0.60

FBA per unit fulfillment fee:                -$1.00

FBA weight based fee:                        -$0.46

Fixed closing fee:                                -$0.99

Variable closing fee:                            -$1.35

Change to your seller account balance:  -$0.41

5 separate fees on a single transaction? This makes eBay look straightforward.

My bad, I should have done my research, but until now I've had all positive vibes from Amazon.

The takeaway is: if you're going to use FBA, which right now, I obviously do NOT recommend, you better jack your prices up.

demon to lean on

things we never asked for

New Found Glory to release Ramones cover record.

And 3/4 of the Ramones turn over in their graves.

poor peggy noonan

You know who needs their taxes raised?

People who can publicly publish things like this with no sense of shame:

I'm in Pittsburgh, making my way to the airport hotel. The people movers are broken and we pull our bags along the dingy carpet. There's an increasing sense in America now that the facades are intact but the machinery inside is broken...

The hotel has entrances on two floors. I search for the lobby, find it. Travelers are milling about, but there's no information desk, no doorman, no bellman or concierge, just two harried-looking workers at a front desk on the second level. The man who checked me in put his phones on hold when I asked for someone to accompany me upstairs. As we walked to the room I felt I should explain. I told him a trial attorney had told me a while back that there are more lawsuits involving hotels than is generally known, and more crime, so always try to have someone with you when you first go to your room. I thought the hotel clerk would pooh-pooh this. Instead he said, "That's why we just put up mirrors at each end of the hall, so you can see if someone's coming." He made it sound like an amenity.

"What should we do then, scream?" I asked. He laughed and shrugged: "Yeah."

A broken people mover? No personal escort to your room? THE HORROR.

yeeeeeeaaaaah boyyeeeeeeee #ProperGate

Rakim, watch out. This homophobic MC is gunnin' for that G.O.A.T. status. So, she doesn't understand that "ake" words don't really rhyme with "ate" words. So she says "proper gate" instead of "propagate". No big deal when you flow like that. Word to your heterosexual mother.

Hmm. Comments disabled. That's a shame. I'm sure whoever this woman is is about to have a great week nonetheless.

try getting this song out of your head #rvivr

wrong way one way #rvivr

I'm telling Tim (Armstrong)

youth wasted #thebronx #fortheladies

start walking #offwiththeirheads

Poor Ryan.

drudge telephone

The OMG-everyone-freak-out Drudge headline:

 
The headline of the actual story:

 

The actual story:

“They’re coming after the standard shotgun,” [Republican State Senator Greg] Brophy told CBS4 Political Specialist Shaun Boyd.

Brophy says if Democrats succeed in passing a bill limiting large capacity magazines in Colorado, they’ll outlaw the most popular selling firearm for hunting...

Brophy points to a section of the bill that defines a high-capacity magazine as one capable of accepting or — that can be readily converted — to accept more than 15 rounds or eight shotgun shells.

See how that works? Banning magazines that accept over eight shotgun shells becomes "banning shotguns".

I'm sure there are decent arguments against banning such magazines. I just wish that the gun fetishists would make them instead of throwing up red herrings.