Year: 2005

Drowning San Diego

 

I’m not sure why every time I visit Southern California there seems to be some sort of Armageddon-like event going on, which means that (a) it’s very tedious to watch the local news, and (b) I’m a little reluctant to call my mom and let her know where I am…

Anyway, now that I’m home I can reveal that Mark and I were in San Diego and Long Beach over the past long weekend, that we ate well and met up with Shane and Chuck, that we spent an extra day on the road getting the car fixed so we could come home, and that it was very moist all over Southern California all weekend long, which was rather refreshing…

I’ll probably have more to say on the subject later…

Another Journal

Since I’m doing such a stellar job of keeping my personal web journal up to date, I’ve also added one over there, for those of you who may care. It is, after all, my most popular website now, so some fresh content couldn’t hurt…

And yes, I’m refusing to use the ridiculous term “blog” on that one too. I’ve been doing this a lot longer than 90% of all “bloggers” so I can call it what I damned well please…

1 March 2005

Do you have SBC DSL but use a different provider for email? Were you having trouble sending email today? Yup, it happened to me too. I’d already dumped one ISP for committing this same atrocity, among others. It is to SBC’s credit, though, that they at least allow customers to opt out of this particular “service”…

Unrelated: is the following paragraph one the single worst-written one you’ve read this month or what?

While the United Kingdom is the most popular destination for U.S. companies to expand beyond domestic markets and into rapidly growing European markets, Wales is increasingly a primary destination of choice for Bay Area, West Coast and North American businesses pursuing new opportunities in booming European markets.

The whole article, ummm, lacks a certain clarity, but that first paragraph is a lulu. If I recall correctly, the Chronicle used keep a copy editor or two standing by in the newsroom for just such an emergency…

Decency

Decency Rules Should Apply to Pay TV:

“Cable is a much greater violator in the indecency area,” the Alaska Republican told the National Association of Broadcasters, which represents most local television and radio affiliates. “I think we have the same power to deal with cable as over-the-air” broadcasters.

I, ahem, respectfully disagree…

In Color

The coolest thing about the new Brady Bunch season box sets is that the episodes have cool artifacts like the “in color” intros and the original Paramount logo and music…

Alas, they still seem to be missing the “back after these messages” bumpers which featured a different cast member’s voice each week and ran at the end of act two…

Am I a really big ol’ geek for remembering this stuff from my childhood?

Randomly Thursday

This morning as I was making my way from the bus stop to work, I heard the Ferry Building clock chime twenty-three o’clock, and I realized that either (a) something was very wrong with said chime, or (b) I was extremely late — say, fifteen hours late — for work. I’m glad it was the former…

The above is presented just in case you ever wondered what you might do if you found yourself owning a big white elephant of an abandoned department store in downtown Bakersfield and couldn’t quite afford a whole new sign for it…

Who Gives a Shit?

Why are there Congressional hearings on the subject of steroid use by major league baseball players? Could there be a bigger waste of legislative time. money, and attention?

Even assuming there was illegal activity — which is a pretty obvious assumption — Congressional action is no more appropriate here than it would be on the subject of, say, musicians smoking pot or film directors being godless commies. There’s just no reason and no justification for legislators to get involved. It’s not as if anyone important, like soldiers or airline pilots or truckers, is involved here; baseball players are ENTERTAINERS. Who the fuck CARES?

With the repeated strikes and the extortion demands of stadium-craving team owners who want taxpayers to foot the bills for all their expenses, it’s not as if professional sports has much in the way of integrity or ethics associated with it anyway…

Oh, but gee golly gosh, we simply MUST set a good example for the children, mustn’t we? That’s all that matters, after all…