Baby shit green

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Browsing through Wil’s site today, a section of this post caught my eye.

…and Nolan said, “Jeebus!” about something. Ryan said, “Nolan! Don’t steal my word! Mom! Wil! Nolan stole my word!”

“Ryan,” I said, “Nolan didn’t steal your word. ‘Jeebus’ belongs to everyone. It’s the word that’s sweeping the nation.”

“How come you don’t say it, then?” he asked, challenging.

“Because I would rather say ‘Fuck.'” I said.

Okay, I didn’t really say that. But wouldn’t it have been cool if I did? You ever unload an F-bomb on a teenager? It’s worth it just to see that look of shock and horror that passes their face, followed by the pause where they try to decide if they can get away with cussing because you just did.

And Ryan, if you’re reading this, no. You may not.

As a rule, my family doesn’t curse much — there are far too many effective words in the english language for all sorts of circumstances to limit yourself to the standard overused four-letter vocabulary. Sure, as a teenager, I could curse up a storm with the best of them, and even now I have my moments, but it’s not a necessary component to my vocabulary.

One day while I was a teen, Mom and I were driving around Anchorage. I have no idea where we were going, what we were doing, or even how old I was, but I’d guess around 13 or 14 or so. At some point during our travels, we saw a car painted the most hideous shade of 1970’s era not-quite-advocado green.

“Wow,” I said, and pointed it out. “That’s got to be the ugliest color car I’ve ever seen!”

“Yeah,” Mom agreed. “A beautiful shade of baby shit green.”

Dead silence.

“What?!?”

I’d never heard Mom curse before. Up until that point, I don’t think I really knew it was possible. Mothers don’t do that! They’re sweet, and nice, and kiss skinned knees after you fall down, and tell you not to ride your bike out of the boundaries of the neighborhood — but they don’t describe cars as “baby shit green!”

Okay, maybe they do. Not often. But they do. And I’ve never, ever forgotten that.

Ow…

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Woke up this morning with a headache. Still have the headache now. I think I’m likely heading to bed as soon as I get home. Bleah.

A worthy cause

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When Sally Baron’s family wrote her obituary, they described a northern Wisconsin woman who raised six children and took care of her husband after he was crushed in a mining accident.

She had moved to Stoughton seven years ago to be closer to her children and was 71 when she died Monday after struggling to recuperate from heart surgery. Her family had come to the question of what might be a fitting tribute to her.

“My uncle asked if there was a cause,” her youngest son, Pete Baron, said.

Almost in unison, what her children decided to include in the obituary was this: “Memorials in her honor can be made to any organization working for the removal of President Bush.”

(via Atrios)

Antici…

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Talk about a difficult decision.

I hadn’t mentioned this publicly on here yet, but last week I went down to The Mac Store in the University District and plunked down the money for a mid-range 1.8 Ghz single processor Power Mac. At the time I paid for it, the salesmen were fairly sure that they’d be receiving the machines within a few days.

As the week has gone by, though, it’s become apparent that even though Apple has started shipping the new machines, it’s something of a slow process. The current theory (which I read on a messageboard last night, though I can’t find the post now) is that Apple is shipping the low-end single-processor 1.6Ghz machines to educational institutions first, and retailers second, to be followed by midrange single-processor 1.8Ghz machines, then finally, the high-end dual-processor 2.0Ghz machines. When I called The Mac Store this morning to see if they’d had any further word on their shipment date, I was given a similar story — they’re expecting the 1.6Ghz machines “any time now”, but the 1.8Ghz machines have a much looser ship date, possibly “as late as Sept. 8th”.

So, I got to thinking. Part of the reason I ordered the midrange machine was simply impatience — word was out that Apple was on-track to ship on time (which, in all fairness, they’re doing — just not as fast as we’d all like), and I’m more than ready to move up from my current 350Mhz G3 tower. I had the money available for the midrange machine, expected it to arrive within a week, and decided to go for it. Now, however, I’ve been waiting for a week, and it’s possible (though not gauranteed) that I could be waiting for another two weeks. Given that, I turned it over in my head for a bit, and decided that as long as I’m (whimper, whine) resigning myself to waiting longer than I’d expected, I might as well wait for something really worth waiting for — and called The Mac Store and changed my payment from a full payment on the midrange machine to a (large) down payment on the top of the line machine.

So, I’m going to be waiting a bit longer — current estimations for shipping on the high end G5’s are mid to late September. But that gives me a few more weeks to scrape up the last \$600 I need, and when the time comes, I’ll have the absolute top of the line high-end dual 2Ghz G5 Power Mac sitting in my apartment. The waiting’s gonna kill me — but the final result will be more than worth it.

Since when?

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I’m sure it’s just clumsy writing, but you’ve got to get something of a (cynical) laugh out of the opening paragraph to this USA Today editorial:

The powerful truck bomb that ripped through the United Nations’ headquarters in Baghdad on Tuesday, killing the top U.N. official in Iraq and at least 19 others, was the most brazen act of terrorism in the country since the U.S. invasion in March.

(via Atrios)

Texas pledge

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“Honor the Texas flag, I pledge allegiance to thee, Texas, one and indivisible.”

That’s the brand-spankin’ new Pledge of Allegiance to Texas, required to be said just after the Pledge of Allegiance to the United States. Classrooms are required to display the flag, which for one school district, becomes a \$50,000 expenditure.

\$50,000 for flags, for an entirely spurious pledge. It’s a good thing we’ve got such ridiculously overpaid teachers and overfunded schools, so that this school district and all the others wouldn’t have any better ways to spend that money.

(via Atrios, via Tom)

Compassion

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It looks suspiciously like Bush’s definition of ‘compassion’ is hanging out with minorities, as it’s something conspicuously absent in the rest of his photo album. As Lis pointed out first in Daily Kos’ comment thread, and then on her journal:

Looking at further photo albums on the site makes it more clear how anomalous the Compassion section is.

But the only non-whites in 15 Homeland Security images and 16 National Security are Powell and Rice, and I think there’s one African American park ranger off to the side in one photo of the 16 on the Environment.

In contrast, of 20 photos illustrating Compassion, 17 prominently show non-Caucasians; the other three are solo photos of Bush, but two of those are before the National Urban League and in front a map of Africa.

(via Kos, Len, and Atrios)

ActiVision sues Viacom…over bad Star Trek

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Activision, Inc., a leading developer, publisher and distributor of interactive entertainment software products, today announced that it has filed a breach of contract suit against Viacom. …through its actions and inactions, Viacom has let the once proud Star Trek franchise stagnate and decay. Viacom has released only one “Star Trek” movie since entering into agreement with Activision and has recently informed Activision it has no current plans for further “Star Trek” films. Viacom also has allowed two “Star Trek” television series to go off the air and the remaining series suffers from weak ratings. Viacom also frustrated Activision’s efforts to coordinate the development and marketing of its games with Viacom’s development and marketing of its new movies and television series.

(via Lane)

My first response? It’s about damn time! Trek has been going steadily downhill for quite a while now — I’m less than impressed with Enterprise, I’m being told to forego purchasing Voyager, and there hasn’t been a truly good Trek movie since Star Trek VI (First Contact came the closest, but I’ve got some definite issues with it, too). Whether it’s the fault of Viacom, Paramount, or the people writing and controlling the franchise, the fact is that it’s nowhere near where it was — nor where it likely could be.

However, that said — this seems pretty frivolous. Is it really Viacom’s purported mismanagement of the Trek franchise that is causing problems for ActiVision and their Trek-themed games? Or is it that the games themselves aren’t all that good to begin with? I’m not a gamer myself, and have neither seen nor played a Star Trek themed computer game since NetTrek, so I’m not at all in a position to judge the games. I just question whether the downward slide of the Trek franchise is enough of a contributor to ActiVision’s lack of sales to support a breach of contract suit. I’m sure it was one factor, but that much of a deciding factor? I’m not sure.

Counter-Googling

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Here’s an interesting little marketing technique: Counter-Googling, where companies ‘google’ their customers to offer them personalized services.

With consumers disclosing their most intimate secrets online (voluntarily!), Google has essentially created a ‘domestic database’, i.e. a world-wide database loaded with your customers’ details and profiles, with a depth of information your company’s database can only dream of.

So instead of consumers Googling you before they buy your services, you should Google THEM, and instantly get more personal information than you’d ever be able to capture with traditional 1:1 in an entire life-time. TRENDWATCHING.COM has dubbed this emerging trend COUNTER-GOOGLING, and the opportunities are tasty!

A real-life COUNTER-GOOGLING example? The Bel Air Hotel in LA already Googles first-time guests upon arrival, based on their reservation details (name and address), leading to personalized services like assigning guests a room with morning sun if Googling shows the guest enjoys jogging early in the day (source: http://blog.outer-court.com).

While some might see this as just another form of spam, I have to admit that I could see it being at least slightly more tolerable than what I’m getting now. Rather than filling my e-mail inbox with ads for generic viagra, penis enlargment pills, or dietary concerns, I’d be getting offers tailored more toward my particular interests and needs.

Now, I still hate spam, and unsolicited offers — even if they are tailored to me — are very likely to end up being dumped straight into my trash folder. However, if there were some form of ‘opt-in’ possibility, then I can see possible applications of this technique that might be workable.

…bloggers, savvy consumers by nature, will no doubt introduce a ‘no unsollicited sales’ seal, the moment they grow tired of COUNTER-GOOGLING, making it clear what’s off limits and what’s fair game. Smart bloggers could even, in a dedicated section of their page or site, list the goods and services they don’t mind getting personalized offers for!

At minimum, it’s an interesting idea, and I won’t be at all surprised to see it in practice before very long at all.

(via Evan)