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ABOUT zwarg.blog CATEGORIES MAIN ARCHIVES 1999(14) [+] 2000(3) [+] 2001(4) [+] 2002(18) [+] 2003(159) [+] 2004(108) [+] 2005(126) [+]United States vs. Iraq
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Friday, January 28 2005
Rainbows! Wednesday afternoon I was walking toward the bus stop. It was raining at a good clip (almost heavily, but not quite), and the bright evening sun was out. I walked a little distance to the bus stop, realized that the conditions were ripe for a rainbow, and stopped to turn. There behind me was the brightest rainbow I have ever seen in California. The only place where I have seen a more luminous rainbow is probably Hawaii. It stretched from horizon to horizon, and was so rich in color. There were even multiple rainbows inside and outside, and even a secondary rainbow with a larger radius. Thank Mother Nature for optics. Wednesday, January 26 2005Coded Language I was reading an article today about Spongegate. It's on the alternet website: Cartoon Madness. It is very sad when a 'spokesman' for some morally superior (acting) organization says:
"Tolerance" and "diversity"
are part of a "coded language that is regularly used by the homosexual
community"
And what exactly are "tolerance" and "diversity" supposed to mean? I'd like a working example, because apparently I just don't get it. Tuesday, January 25 2005Global Imbalance A Message From Your Friendly UN:
The UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs has put out a publication called the "World Economic Situation and Prospects 2005." Looks pretty
Imbalances in the world
economy will not be corrected by a rapidly falling dollar since the
depreciation is weakening demand in the United States' creditor countries and
softening the benefits to US exporters of a cheaper trading currency, the
United Nations says in a new report.
The news flash goes on to say...
"The global imbalance is
between consumption and debt in the United States and ballooning surpluses in
many US trading partners. Currency changes by themselves, especially bilateral
currency manipulation, will not resolve the problem," it adds.
Wait...did somebody say that consumption, unchecked, is BAD? No WAY!
Outrage It seems as of late, I am becoming more and more socially aware. What do I mean by socially aware? I am becoming conscious of things that have been institutionalized and socialized in the society and culture that I live in, and I am more and more becoming outraged at the net result of those institutional practices. I believe it is called "critical consciousness" by Bell Hooks in "Killing Rage -- Ending Racism." It's not that I hadn't thought about these things before. I had used concepts like "socialization" in similar contexts, and they seemed to fit. They probably still do, but it's most likely a different take on how to think critically about everyone's situation, and recognizing factors that have been institutionalized, and mostly accepted by the non-critical thinking "we." I don't know where I'm going with this. Probably here: this will change with me. Monday, January 24 2005Go R.I.T.! Today is one of the few times I am actually glad I'm an alumni from one of the United States of America's finer institutions of higher learning.
Enjoy the snow, George. Sunday, January 23 2005Freedom Toast (WTF) So I saw a menu of the airport junk-food place ... er ... I mean restaurant, and on it was Freedom Toast. Is this the same idea as "Freedom Fries"? Like, you are trying to take back (as in rename) something with "French" in the name? I admit, I didn't stop and ask about it, and perhaps there IS such a thing as "Freedom Toast," and I have just not heard of it. This really gets me, though. I understand that whoever created the menu probably thought: "I'll call it 'Freedom' instead of 'French', then I won't have a reason to not eat it." Faulty logic. Because if you like eating it, it doesn't matter what it's called. Also, if you name it in the form of an ideal that you carry, does that mean that it's always had that quality, but you've just been too slow to identify it? For example, did the French recognize the fact that their toast symbolizes freedom first, and you just called them "French," when you really wanted to call them "Freedom," but you just figured it out, so you changed it. That must be the case, because all the French people I know are pretty cool. Also, they haven't started a preemptive war recently. At least, not that I know of. Burned At The Store So I bought these jeans. They were really expensive. Even though they were 50% off. Me, being in a typical captilist fodder mindset, thought that was a great idea. Even though they ended up costing me over $90 when it was all over. Hey, I hardly ever do this, so it's okay. At least I thought. The longer they sat in their bag from the store, the more I was disgusted with myself for spending that kind of money on fucking fabric. I'm such an ass. I'm returning them tomorrow. Or so I thought. They sat there for a week, and I still hadn't taken them back, so I DROVE (I never drive anywhere) to the store, and ended up parking as far away from the store as my own house. Fuck this, I thought. I take them back, and the manager looks at them, says, "we don't take returns on sale items." Then walks away before I can respond. Like she's hiding from something, or like I'm going to self-destruct. Well, now I've got a pair of fuck-off-$90-worthless pants. And yes, they are so bad that I couldn't keep them. So I walked down the street and sold them for $9 at the used clothing store. So if you are thinking about buying jeans, and you want your ass to look great, DO NOT BUY THEM AT VILLAIN'S VAULT in the Upper Haight in San Francisco. Or do so. I don't care anymore. Jerks. Friday, January 21 2005IMC Woes Looking on the http://sf.indymedia.org/ site, looks like they're under attack by some malicious hackers. Someone's taken down Texas, Oklahoma, Vermont, and New Hampshire IMC's. And they are quite cocky about it. Way to go free speech. Gotta love this country, where anyone can be as much of an asshole as they want to be. Also, "Fascist Right Wing Hackers"? Damn, have they got a clothing line? Indict Bush I would like to write an indictment for President Bush for being complicit in a system of organized oppression. Anyone know how to write such things? Insurance Woes I was informed by the insurance company that is handling my claim that they have denied everything. And talking to the adjuster, she read the 'log' back to me, and didn't mention anything about talking to a witness. However, the claim is closed, so my only recourse now is small claims court. I have to think about that one. DSL Blues Okay, I found one good use for a website today. I am trying to figure out why my service provider wants to charge me $45/mo for DSL service, when they offer it to new customers at $40/mo. And why I can't get service priced at a level similar to their competitor's, at $27/mo. So this is the transcript of my chat with the service representative:
Welcome to (DSL Provider) LiveChat. Your chat session will begin shortly.
.
'Ron P.' says: Thank you for contacting (DSL Provider) LiveChat, how may I help you today? It doesn't seem to me that they are all that interested in keeping my business. Is that just me? Or do they think they can just suck me dry all the time, and I would like it? In addition, I like how this works out: since I refuse to get shit email from them like "try out new this," I then do NOT recieve the email offering me a lower price to my service. Jerks. Nice out for them, the bastards. UPDATE: The way I knew that (DSL Provider) was offering services a full year before hand was with web.archive.org. Very handy for looking into these types of things. Although it looks like it has stopped archiving as of mid-2004. Bummer. Tuesday, January 04 2005Ambulance Bill Paid! Yay! Well, that's $7K that I don't have to fret about anymore. |
