How My Parking Ticket Went Down

It was just like this, I swear:

I want that final scream as a ringtone.

Zach Galifianakis Interviews Jon Hamm

And he made me laugh, even though I’m still seething over my $45 parking ticket.

I was so close to not getting it, too. I walked out of the coffee shop and the meter jerk was slinking away. I’m not exaggerating, the man was slinking, sneaking, skulking away from the scene to his metermobile. [...]

Internetless

When the world is running down, you make the best of what’s still around. – The Police

My connection has been out most of the day. It’s a strange feeling to be without it. iPhone is here, yes. But it’s slow and limited.

But many of the best things in life do not even [...]

Jon Stewart Grills Mike Huckabee on Gay Marriage

This was another long-form interview (for the Daily Show, anyway) where Stewart gets a chance to dig deeper into an issue with his guest. This time, Mike Huckabee’s feet were held to the fire as Stewart doggedly tried to get him to explain his reasoning against gay marriage.

There are a couple of points, [...]

Gas Gets Cheaperer

Oil is still in free-fall, closing at just over $42 today. It was $145+ just a few months ago. Our demand for casual travel, and thus fuel, is way down, and likely to stay that way as we all continue to panic about the state of the global economy. The weird part is that since [...]

Xmas: The Road to Consumption, pt. 1

We hit the local supermall, The Americana, because we’ve got nothin’. No ideas, no theme yet, nothing bought. The only real decision I made tonight is not to wear a thin t-shirt out at night to an outdoor mall. Wind knifed through my unbuttoned flannel shirt, causing me to spend the evening clutching it closed, [...]

Awesome Engrish on eBay Statue Listing

I guess Babelfish isn’t all that great, after all. From the listing:

This is an antique Silverware Statues. the statues carve sport of physical jerks ,it symbol the spirit of Olympic Games-that is participate, mutual understanding, friendship and struggle.The technology is exquisite, the image is lifelike, noble and refined, It is careful to carve, sculptures [...]

So, I Went to WeHo Yesterday

It was mostly boring (except for a brief period just after lunchtime, when I was helping Dennis edit, from opposite coasts). WeHo, of course, is short for West Hollywood, and I almost always enjoy a chance to go, having lived there for a few years. Not that I’m so very far away now, 8 miles [...]

OJ = Karma?

I don’t belive in karma, let’s be clear. Horrible people go to their graves having perpetrated awful crimes, and they are never held to account for it, nor suffer proportionate retribution. Wonderful, magnanimous people spend their lives digging themselves out of holes that they have not dug (story of Job, you Judeo-Christians out there?). I [...]

Getting My Head Around the Financiapocalypse

There were three things in succession that helped me understand most of what I now know about the economic meltdown that’s squeezing the bejeezus out of the markets and of us. Knowledge is usually a good thing, but it can be tricky when so few people know the root causes and effects of a given [...]