For the first time in almost a year, I ate at the Golden Corral this morning. It'll probably be the last time I do so for... another year. One has to remind oneself that one doesn't particularly care for a restaurant by eating there from time to time, no?

Anyhow, one of my cheif complaints about the place is the whole "waiter" thing. If I am physically able to get my own food and undisturbed at the prospect of interrupting my eating by having to get up as I would have to be to eat at a place where I get my own food, I honestly don't need someone to get me refills on my drink and put more plates on the table. I can get my own, thanks. I really can.

But the method to this madness is so that they can limit our in-take for drinks (we drink slower when we don't know if we'll be able to immediately get a refill). Also, it allows them to have table-cleaners at sub-minimum wage because by serving drinks, they're eligable for tips.

Which brings me to the other thing that I really hate about this set-up: Not only to I resent their presence, but I am expected to tip the people whose presence I resent. Insult to injury!

It's not about the money. My tips start at 20% and go up and down from there. Rarely do I give less than 15%. But am I supposed to give these people a 15% tip even though I'm getting my own food? I suppose they're enabling it a bit by giving me the plate, but a buffet is a buffet for crap's sake.

But I don't want to be rude. And I certainly don't want them to get the short rift if they indeed are paid below minimum wage and the tips are part of their basic income (as it is with most waiters).

Dang you, Golden Corral, for putting me in this annual ethical dilemma.

Sometimes it's really fun to play the Devil's Advocate. Particularly when you genuinely aren't on anybody's side. In the FECA post below, I'm defending a nearly indefensible entity (RIAA). I've previously made many of the same arguments that I'm now attempting to rebut.

That's not to say that I'm doing this as an intellectual exercise or just cuz I wanna. Over the last couple of years I've honestly lost a great deal of sympathy for filesharers. Particularly as I've discovered a couple music services (eMusic and now Rhapsody). Whenever I try to "preach the word" the response I usually get is the same: "I don't want to pay $10 a month if I can't download it" (for Rhapsody) or "It doesn't have the [label] acts I like most" (for EMusic).

People want something for nothing. Not all, but many many many people want the record labels to do their filtering for them and then resent the hell out of the people providing the service. I believe these people outnumber the people who generally want to "test-drive" music, which was my main rationale back in the day.

And besides that, if people do want to test-drive music, they have more options than ever. For $10 a month there's Rhapsody, of course. More and more artist sites are including music clips. Sites such as Launch.com offer selections from artists for free. Not to mention all kinds of new radio-format options such as satellite and Internet radio. All of these services do contain some limitation or another, but they have to contain limitations in order to get people to actually buy stuff (either CDs or tracks from iTunes).

Yet with all these options, I see tons and tons of people still fighting the same battle as before these options existed. Yesterday the cry was that record companies are going to have to change the way they do business. With iTunes and Rhapsody and so on they're starting to (however reluctantly), but most people focus on the whole "need to make a profit" thing as though it makes the labels and RIAA evil.

Filesharing has been instrumental in getting the major labels off their duff and on to the Internet. It was necessary to win certain concessions from an industry that never would have adapted had it not been forced to. But its time has come and gone and increasingly the argument has boiled down to "I want something for nothing," an argument that I don't have much sympathy for.

And just to be clear, I don't like the RIAA. They want something for nothing, too. They would have burned down the entire Internet just to smoke out a few filetraders. I also, for the most part, don't care much for their product. They've been slow to embrace the music I like, still haven't embraces a lot of it, and have corrupted some of the ones that it did embrace. If the RIAA and record label system collapses tomorrow, I will shed not one tear.

But this is, quite simply, a tug of war. The marginal cost of music has fallen to darn near nothing. The consumers want this savings to be passed on to them, fixed costs bedamned. The record labels have a set-up right now where an oligarchy of six corporations control 95% of what people listen to and the Internet threatens that. Consumers take advantage of the record label filtering and act-pushing, but then object to the companies making a profit for its services. Record labels want consumers to ignore new technologies simply because they've got the market more figured out on the old.

But the biggest question is whether or not the technological advances ought to be passed on to the consumer or whether the owners of the copyrights have domain over their product. The consumers use law-breaking filesharing to try to force their way while the record labels use their market control and buying power to try to force theirs.

I see no good guys here. I see no David standing up to Goliath with stone in hand. I don't see record labels making honest profits save for those greedy thieves.

And as long as I see people trying to present it as being one way or the other, I'm likely to take the other side. Whichever side that might be.

I got the news around lunchtime yesterday that Ted Kord, more commonly unknown as Blue Beetle, was killed in action by (of all people) Maxwell Lord.

Blue Beetle was considered by many to be a cross between Spiderman and Batman, though honestly I considered him uniquely better than both. He was, in many ways, one of the most unique characters I ever saw in comic books.

In some ways he was a man of the fanboys. He fought weight issues like many of us do. He was smarter than average, though never quite able to commodify it between failed business ventures and only sporadic success with the ladies. He was the class clown that was puzzled when people wouldn't take him seriously whenever he was serious.

But mostly, he was human without being melodramatic. And more than any other character in comicdom, he was the kind of guy you'd love to share a beer with and talk to and joke around with until some ungodly hour of the morning.

Kord's death is tragic to me for more than any one reason. Part of it is that it marks what will probably be a somewhat permanent severence between myself and DC comics. Kord was my favorite character. My second favorite, Helena Bertinelli, still lives but has been changed into something that I don't appreciate nearly as much.

I always assumed that I would start collecting again. I still might somewhere along the line, but I'm not nearly so sure as I was a week ago. I'm not necessarily angry with DC as characters come and go and that's part of the arrangement. But the updated, "darker" universe they're building isn't the one that I collected before. It's like leaving a town and during a quick trip back realizing the town that you originally left doesn't exist anymore.

So anyway, adios Ted. Say hello to Adrian Chase, Peter Cannon, Tora Olafsdotter, Christopher Smith, and the rest.

President Bush is about to sign the The Family Entertainment and Copyright Act. I have mixed feelings about the bill. I think the part about letting people censor their own films (or have films they've purchased censored on their behalf by third parties) is great. I've got more mixed feelings about the anti-filesharing aspects of the bill (even though I haven't used a P2P application in quite some time).

There is one thing I don't understand, however:

The bill, which awaits the president's signature, also calls for up to 3 years' imprisonment for anyone who illegally distributes a copyrighted work for profit, distributes pirated material worth more than $1,000 or videotapes movies in theaters. Subsequent offenses carry up to 10 years in prison for copyright infringement of pre-release movies for financial gain.

That means someone who has a movie on his or her computer that can be shared via a file-sharing software could face up to 3 years in prison, said Fred von Lohmann, staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a San Francisco-based organization supporting civil rights online. "It seems to me that that's not likely to be the first priority, but it is theoretically possible," he said.

Either I don't understand the meaning of "for profit", the article made a mistake in the scope of the 3 year fine, or I missed the part where sharing a folder on your drive brings in profit.

Or the Electronic Frontier Foundation has drank from "interest group" fountain that states it's in the best interest of your cause to assume the worst about every defeat for rhetorical and fundraising purposes, even though your words can be used against you later if and when the other side actually does try to actuate the worst case scenario.

I also must say that I find the notion that distributing illegal copies of someone else's artwork is now a "civil right."

What a strange world we live in.

"Would some of you Prius-driving, tofu-eating, Rachmaninov-listening, Bush-criticizing, ACLU-supporting, gay pride triangle-sporting, weed-toking, Unitarian-worshiping, Democrat-voting, Birkenstock-wearing, urban-living, Michael Moore-defending, ballet-attending, FOX News-hating, New Yorker-reading, Noam Chomsky-praising, Howard Dean-following, big government-loving nitwits please send your donations to NPR so I don't have to listen to another week of incessant begging and annoying reminders of how fantastic NPR is?" -Centinel

As of the 2004-2005 college football season, every state except two have at least one public university's football team in Division I (A or AA). What two states are either not represented by a football team or are not represented by a football team in I-A or I-AA?

A week or so ago I noted an interesting inverse corrolation between an area's credit rating and growth rate:

Of the ten fastest growing states (9 red, 1 blue), seven are in the bottom third, credit-wise (two midling, one in the top third). Of the ten slowest-growing states (6 blue, 4 red), seven are in the top third, credit-wise (the remaining three midling).

Looking back at the city list that prompted the study, of the ten fastest growing cities on the list, seven were on the bottom ten of the credit list. All but two are found in the twelve fastest growing of the twenty. Three of the four cities that grew faster than 15% between 1990 and 2000 are #18, #19, and #20 (the other, Denver, is #12).

I commented that I had an idea of what might be behind it, but that it dovetailed a little too nicely with some pre-existing political beliefs.

I also asked for input and got some good theories, none of which I entirely disagreed with.

I think it's likely that there are two factors at work. The first (and a minor factor) has little bearing on ideology of politics: Moving is expensive. It's a time of your life where you're most likely to be strapped for cash. It's not unreasonable to be falling a bit behind on your bills during this period unless you have a bunch saved up. On top of that, people most likely to relocate to a "hot town" (Phoenix, Houston, etc.) are also most likely to be risktakers. People unlikely to have a bunch of money saved up. Newcomers are also more likely to be younger and less financially stable, taking a loss to get their first job and such.

But that's minor. Even if the fastest-growing top-20 city, less then 4% of the population are moving in a year. Not likely enough to account for the difference. Whatever could draw such a corrolation would probably have to be more systemic than that.

So what's the politically charged reason? Let me explain my thinking before I get in to it.

My first assumption is that there is a relatively equal distribution of fiscally smart and fiscally stupid people. There's no reason to believe that people who live in Phoenix are inherently dumber than those that live in Philadelphia. There's certainly no reason to believe that the smart people are hanging out in dead-end towns like Detroit rather than bustling metropolii like Denver and Dallas.

So then if people are budgeting in equally intelligent or unintelligent proportions, then what is happening to these budgets? It's either a decrease in income or an increase in expenses.

On the income side, layoffs would be the most likely possibility. Indeed, Houston may be in the list in part because of Enron fall-out. People had budgets set up for an Enron income and found themselves laid off, working for much less, and with hefty mortgages. But you'd have to expect San Francisco to be hit pretty hard after the dot-com bust and it hasn't been. There's also nothing particularly notable in Dallas, Phoenix, or Atlanta. Ublike Houston they didn't have Enron and unlike Frisco they didn't have a dot-com bubble.

And, generally speaking, layoffs are likely to be most frequent in places that have declining population.

So then you have to look at the expenses side. Since otherwise marginal people (that are staying afloat elsewhere) are going in to debt, you would have to assume it's an unavoidable expense. No particular reason to believe that Houston's and Atlanta's populations have a greater insatiable need for big-screen TVs and VCRs than Cleveland's.

Most of the budget variables are national. Gas prices are going up nation-wise, food prices are stable, and car prices go up or down on a more national level than local one. Medical care, maybe? Why would growing places need more of it than receding places?

So I was going over my own fiscal history to try to think of the last time that I was broadsided by something and a likely culprit came to me as clear as a single statistic:

• Between 2002 and 2003, my rent at a single apartment went up 43% over the course of 18 months.

Then something else popped in to my head:

• One of the hottest political issues in Texas right now are runaway property values and taxes.

One thing that is unmistakeably happening in "hot cities" like Austin or Phoenix is that property values are going through the roof.

For renters this means considerable rent jumps from lease to lease. While you can move around from apartment to apartment, the moving process alone can be very expensive. Apartment complexes know this and will often charge lease renewers more per month than people that new prospective new tenants. Beyond that, if all of the property values are going up together and they're not met with a wage increase, then you're in trouble no matter where you go.

For homeowners, this means considerable jumps in property taxes. Texas, of course, has no income taxes and would likely be even harder hit. Texas has the worst two cities of the twenty. While property-tax-inceases-via-appraisal-jumps may be smaller than rent jumps, the homeowner has less options because he's already bought the house.

Either way, you're feeling a pinch. You're incurring expenses that are impossible to take into account (you may budget in rent/property tax increases, but you have no way of knowing how much).

Except, as I mentioned, this theory is a bit too convenient. Of all the ways that citizens are taxed, property taxes are the only ones I harbor a moral objection to and this places a good deal of the blame on property taxes. But if anything else can explain the corrolation better than this, I don't know what it is.

There are times that it's convenient to have one dollar bills, so I generally try to keep one in my wallet. If I don't have any, I'll sometimes ask a cashier at a convenience store to give me five ones instead of one five. They generally do so. It's pretty convenient.

Walmart has this deal where you can get cash back. So that way I can get money without having to stop by an ATM. It's pretty convenient.

Though I didn't ask for any specific denominations, the other day I got cashback from Walmart in the form of forty ones.

Now my butt hurts.

That is not convenient at all.

I've talked at length about some of the weirdo ex-cons that live at Thrifthaven, I have neglected to mention the weirdo not-ex-con that has been living there for quite a while now. Now, I could be wrong: she could be an ex-con, too.

A heavy-set fourty-something year old woman used to live on the west side of the building in between Yale and Stoner before Yale moved downstairs and Stoner moved in with his girlfriend. She and Stoner butted heads often as instead of calling Stoner or the apartment management whenever she felt Stoner's music was too loud, she took to just calling the police. This all did not go over well with Stoner's Parole Officer.

Yale had his own problem: her odor. Yale was never able to explain exactly why it was her apartment smelled so bad or even what it smelled like, but he would quite literally made him throw up on more than one occasion because she left her window open as he walked by. The smell was that bad.

Since then she's moved downstairs across the way from me. Though I've never seen it, my former neighbor Rey claims that she walks around in the nude in the morning - with the window blinds open. I'd ask why he noticed but, unfortunately, I know that she rarely wears a bra. It's hard to miss.

She keeps a flood light in her apartment by the window, aimed outward. Her apartment is adorned with Christian everything, yet the only thing of God's creations she seems to care for are cats. She feeds the strays regularly, assuring that they will never stop hanging around our apartment.

But the weirdest thing is that she will periodically pretend that she's blind. though 90% of the time she operates the same way that we all do, every now and again she will wear the sunglasses and carry a blind person's walking stick.

At first I wondered if she might have bouts of temporary blindness, but I can see her looking at things as she swooshes the poking stick around.

"If a committee made up of Andrew Sullivan, Gary Wills, Andrew Greeley, Paul Begala, and Nancy Pelosi were given the power to select a pope from the current College of Cardinals, we would still have a pope opposed to abortion and gay marriage. [...] It takes the solipsism of American liberals to imagine that simply because America is divided over certain issues, the Vatican must be, too. And it takes the ignorance of the American media to think that a "liberal" in America is a liberal in Rome, Buenos Aires or Lagos." -Jonah Goldberg [via Chris]

While looking up an old post, I ran across this one that I wrote about weddings (written almost exactly a year before I popped the question):

I've never put much thought into what I want from a wedding. All things being equal, I'd prefer one in a church but from the looks of it that will probably not happen and I'm hardpressed to be too disappointed in that area. [...]

Going to Adam's Baptist wedding was an eye-opener for me in some respects. Prior to his, the only weddings I'd been to have been Catholic, Episcopalian, or non-sect. Catholic and Episcopalian weddings resemble a church service with a special event and non-sect are pretty much anything-goes. So to have the religious overtones without the service was interesting.

I think shorter is probably better (Adam's was quite short). I'd probably prefer to get married somewhere interesting than in a rent-a-chapel. Ultimately, though, I suspect that most of it will be left up to the bride and her mother.

To which the newly married Adam replied in the comments:

Alex, *all* of it is left up to the bride and her mother. When they ask your advice on whether you like something or not, your two options are to agree and get their smiles, or to not agree and at best get scowled at (unless you can come up with an instant, far better solution). Vague "I don't like this..." won't get you anywhere.

Eel and I haven't really done a whole lot of planning. A date has been scheduled, though I have not yet been informed what that date is. We have a wedding planner book, but I'm not hugely enthusiastic about pouring through it.

So in short, not only is Adam apparently right, but I'm glad he's right. Just tell me where to show up. And when.

Update: Forgot to mention, everyone with Adam a happy day-after-birthday!

MSN has a list of 20 cities and their average credit rating. Here's the list:

Minneapolis 705
Boston 704
Washington, D.C. 691
Cleveland 689
Seattle 688
New York 686
Philadelphia 686
San Francisco 685
Chicago 679
Sacramento 676
Detroit 675
Denver 674
Tampa 672
Miami 671
Orlando 671
Los Angeles 668
Atlanta 667
Phoenix 657
Houston 652
Dallas 650

Anyone notice anything peculiar about this list?

I suppose it's because I'm a political junkie, but I couldn't help but notice that 9 of the 10 upper cities are in blue states (Cleveland being the exception) and 8 of the ten lower cities are in red states (Los Angeles and Detroit being the exceptions).

Relevent? I thought it might be at first. A state-by-state map is less distinct by bears it out somewhat.

Bush won 31 states in 2004 while Kerry won 19. Using basic numbers and in parentheses adjusting for the fact that Bush won more states by making each of Bush's states count as 2/3 (it's inexact, but close enough), here's the breakdown:

• In the top third, Kerry has 11 states while Bush has 6 (4).


• In the middle third, 8 went to Kerry and 120 (6.7) to Bush.


• In the bottom third, 15 (10) went to Bush and only one (California) went to Kerry.

What's interesting is that looking at the map, some of the most booming states in the south (North Carolina) midwest (Missouri) and west (Arizona) are doing the worst while some of the more stagnant blue states (Pennsylvania) are doing better or at least average (Ohio). The only real predictable ones. The stagnant red states (Dakotas) are also doing well, while the faster growing blue states (Pacific states) are poor-to-midling.

So that got me thinking: maybe the cities and states that are growing are harboring the most debt.

Of the ten fastest growing states (9 red, 1 blue), seven are in the bottom third, credit-wise (two midling, one in the top third). Of the ten slowest-growing states (6 blue, 4 red), seven are in the top third, credit-wise (the remaining three midling).

Looking back at the city list that prompted the study, of the ten fastest growing cities on the list, seven were on the bottom ten of the credit list. All but two are found in the twelve fastest growing of the twenty. Three of the four cities that grew faster than 15% between 1990 and 2000 are #18, #19, and #20 (the other, Denver, is #12).

So why are the fastest growing cities having the most trouble paying their bills? Shouldn't they be the most likely to have jobs and whatnot? Shouldn't the people in cities that are actually losing population be having the most difficulty paying their bills (particularly Detroit, which is midling, and Washington DC, which scored well, credit-wise)?

Food for thought, anyway.

Update: On the drive home I came up with a couple of explanations. They fit a little too closely with some pre-existing political beliefs, which is a little too convenient. So I'm interested in hearing what you all can come up with, if anything.

It's funny when you see a cut on your arm that you didn't realize was there. You think to yourself "Ouch, that must have hurt" but then you realize it must not have hurt because you didn't realize it when you got it.

I've narrowed my search down to three computers. The question is "What kind of printer do I want?" Scanner? Laser? Do I have to have parallel port?

Anyhow, here's what I got:

• Canon Pixma MP760 (Multifunction, ~$250) This is the high-end all-in-one package. It's more money than I want to spend, though it would kill two birds with one stone.


• Epson Stylus CX4600 (Multifunction, ~$100) This would also kill two birds with one stone, except for less than half the price. It's got a few more downsides than the Canon, but nothing that particularly bothers me.


• Samsung ML-1740 (BW Laser, ~$150) This one was recommended by a coworker who says it's worked like a dream. Since the printer won't get used a whole, whole lot, a laser jet may be the way to go since the toner won't dry up like inkjet ones do. I also really, really like the prospect of owning an laser jet. They're so much nicer to work with. Downside: Black and white only, which isn't that much an issue, and space, which is a bigger issue.


• HP Business Inkjet 1200d (InkJet, ~$200) This is the safest choice. It's at the upper end of my price range, and it is an HP, which I'm trying to boycott right now, but it does everything I could ask a printer to do, would allow Camille and I to hook up both our laptops at once, and has a parallel port (which may not be negotiable).

As most of you know, I'm not Catholic. So the new Pope isn't really "my" pope. As such, I didn't feel the need to throw in a whole lot of advice as far as what kind of person they should pick (though I did look on with interest).

So apparently they chose this Ratzinger guy. I don't know a whole lot about them except what the articles have said.

I do have to confess, though, after watching the (generally non-Catholic) talking heads talk about who the Catholics "need" to pick and what direction they "need" to go and selectively interviewing those that would take the church in the direction, I am excited that they were all told where they could stuff it.

That's about all I've got to say about that.

Linus has joked about the two seasons up here: Winter & Construction. Right now we're moving past the White Season and fast into the Orange Season.

The most amazing thing to me about the construction up here is how quickly they dismantle roads and put them back together. In Houston, they started construction on an intersection near an apartment a couple months after I moved in. Eighteen months later when I moved out they were still working on it.

Since they only get a few months of the year to work on the roads here, they tend to go all out. Whereas the aforementioned intersection remained open the whole time, here entire roads are closed for weeks at a time. Last year Main Street was closed for at least three months. The businesses languished and one or two it seems went under.

Right now the main drag (4th/5th/Yellowstone Ave., where my apartment is) is detoured at the main East-West street in town. It's an odd feeling to be getting in your car and not knowing how you're going to get where you're going, as the detours (and their locations) seem to change on a daily basis as they screech everything to a grinding halt to get it all done as quickly as possible and reopened so they can bring some other part of town to a grinding halt before White Season starts again.

I've come to the conclusion that it's time to bite the bullet and get a printer. I want a color printer that's reliable. I'd also consider printer/scanner combinations. I'm willing to get an HP, but anything non-HP will get extra consideration.

Anyone have any recommendations?

Update: Follow-up question, I notice that Dell makes a lot of printers these days. Anyone know how good they are?

Frustrated with working on my computers, I decided to go down to North Ross Park to unwind for a bit.

I noticed something odd when I drove into the parking lot. Earlier in the day I had seen two cars parked beside each other (the parking is parallel, he was in the driving area). Though the parking is parallel and he was in the driving area, I didn't think anything of it earlier because there were men in both cars and I figured they were just talking for a bit and the blocking car wasn't intending to be there long enough to actually park. The only reason I remembered the silver minivan as well as I did is because it had out-of-state plates that I hadn't seen before. I wanted to take a closer look, but figured that would be bad form.

But several hours later when I got there, both cars were in the same position. The red pick-up that was properly parked was without a passenger this time. The silver out-of-state van did have someone in there. As I walked on I saw him open the door of his car, step out, then immediately step back inside.

I've mentioned the two rock piles down there before. It offers a nice bit of seclusion from the world. It's not visible from the rest of the park nor the street. When I've seen a condom wrapper on the ground, I'm not surprised.

Today as I was walking to the little secluded spot I heard a phone ring. It was the same ring as my phone so I reached down. As I did, I heard a man answer his cell phone. Sounded nearby, but I couldn't fire out where exactly. Then I turned the corner where the rock piles are and saw two men. The first was a chubby man probably in his forties. He bald up top with a pony tail and a moustache. As he walked passed me, hee looked at me as though I had just pissed on his daughter's wedding dress. He went to his car, the red pick-up the out-of-state car was parked beside, and drove off.

The second man was the one on the phone. He was older and heavier than the first man. He was wearing a brown jacket with some paint stains on it. He didn't acknowledge me as he talked. He followed the first man until the first man drove off.

Not sure what I had just witnessed, I decided that I didn't want to be where the cars were parked nor in between the rock piles. So I just stood by the 20-foot cliff and looked out. When I saw the second man walking towards me, I felt uncomfortable being near a falling point. I dismissed it as paranoia until the man was close enough to me that I couldn't go anywhere anyhow without passing him. I wasn't real interested in doing that.

I ignored him as he stood there for about five minutes. Finally he said, "Beautiful day, isn't it?"

We talked about the weather for a few minutes. I mentioned being from Texas and we talked about Texas and Idaho. When a park ranger came by to lock the bathrooms, we talked about Pocatello's parks. The conversation lasted probably ten minutes until I just wanted to get out of there.

"Well, back to work for me. It was good talking to you," I lied.

"So you aren't interested in anything else?"

"Nope," I replied, walking to my car. At some point the silver minivan disappeared. Mine was the only car out there. I got in, drove home, and wrote this post.

In a conversation about German citizens' responsibility for the Holocaust, Adrianne mentioned something that I've been meaning to comment on:

There are so many people around us who have no idea about anything at all. Jay Leno makes fun of them, putting them on TV when they guess "Canada" when he asks them to name a country we're at war in, but there's a surprising (to me at least) number of such people.

The idiocy of the people on that Leno skit is unbelievable. Quite literally. I don't believe it.

As Adrianne correctly points out, there are some people out there that are mind-numbingly misinformed. But some of the answers on that show are so amazingly outlandish that it absolutely has to be a set-up. But then how would Leno's crew be able to do that without someone coming forward told that they had to lie? They don't, really. I think there is an informal understanding when someone gets the mic put up to their face: Say something stupid, be on TV. Demonstrate your knowledge, don't get on TV.

With that arrangement, I'd even probably be willing to say that the US was at war with Canada.

Maybe.

One year ago yesterday, I left Houston.

One year ago today, I left Texas.

One year ago day-after-tomorrow, I arrived in Idaho.

I know a lot of you are familiar with the movie Napoleon Dynamite because a lot of you recommended the movie to me. As anyone that has seen the movie knows, it takes place in Idaho. What you may or may not know is that it takes place only a couple of hours from Pocatello. In fact, the city of Pocatello is listed in the "Special thanks to" section of the credits. The busses that appear are PRT, as in Pocatello Rapid Transit. It's quite possible that some of the cast and crew stayed in Poky during the filming. The idea of Hilary Duff's kid sister in Pocatello is an odd one.

I haven't been to Preston yet, though I'm mulling over taking a trip down there to take some pictures. One of these days, maybe.

But it's hardly surprising that the movie was something of a big deal up here. It was the source of much conversation between coworkers, many who liked it and some who hated it.

But the movie's success has apparently made it all the way to the state legislature in Boise, who passed House Concurrent Resolution 29, praising the film. The resolution is quite amusing. Here are a few tidbits:

1:10 WHEREAS, filmmaker Jared Hess is a native Idahoan who was educated in the
11 Idaho public school system; and

14 WHEREAS, tater tots figure prominently in this film thus promoting Idaho's
15 most famous export; and
16 WHEREAS, the friendship between Napoleon and Pedro has furthered
17 multiethnic relationships; and
18 WHEREAS, Uncle Rico's football skills are a testament to Idaho athletics;
19 and
20 WHEREAS, Napoleon's bicycle and Kip's skateboard promote better air qual-
21 ity and carpooling as alternatives to fuel-dependent methods of transporta-
22 tion; and

25 WHEREAS, Rico and Kip's Tupperware sales and Deb's keychains and glamour
26 shots promote entrepreneurism and self-sufficiency in Idaho's small towns; and
27 WHEREAS, Napoleon's artistic rendition of Trisha is an example of the
28 importance of the visual arts in K-12 education; and
29 WHEREAS, the schoolwide Preston High School student body elections foster
30 an awareness in Idaho's youth of public service and civic duty; and

34 WHEREAS, Pedro's efforts to bake a cake for Summer illustrate the positive
35 connection between culinary skills to lifelong relationships; and
36 WHEREAS, Kip's [online] relationship with LaFawnduh is a tribute to e-commerce and
37 Idaho's technology-driven industry; and
38 WHEREAS, Kip and LaFawnduh's wedding shows Idaho's commitment to healthy
39 marriages; and

42 WHEREAS, Napoleon's tetherball dexterity emphasizes the importance of
43 physical education in Idaho public schools; and
44 WHEREAS, Tina the llama, the chickens with large talons, the 4-H milk
2:1 cows, and the Honeymoon Stallion showcase Idaho's animal husbandry; and

6 NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED by the members of the First Regular Session
7 of the Fifty-eighth Idaho Legislature, the House of Representatives and the
8 Senate concurring therein, that we commend Jared and Jerusha Hess and the
9 City of Preston for showcasing the positive aspects of Idaho's youth, rural
10 culture, education system, athletics, economic prosperity and diversity.

The resolution passed unanimously, which is a good thing cause it carried a stern warning against those that would vote against it:

2:2 WHEREAS, any members of the House of Representatives or the Senate of the
3 Legislature of the State of Idaho who choose to vote "Nay" on this concurrent
4 resolution are "FREAKIN' IDIOTS!" and run the risk of having the "Worst Day of
5 Their Lives!"

Strang,

I know that the whole wearing-your-pants-around-your-butt is considered cool and hip in some circles. I'm more of a belt-wearer myself, but to each their own, y'know? But I do have a little advice. If you're going to wear your pants super low, please wear underwear. Boxers preferable, but anything will help.

Sincerely,
Author of the Blog You Do Not Read

TP passed the book meme on to me, and I shall sorta answer the call. Most of you know that I'm not a huge reader of books, so I'm going to have to keep this one general.

From Centinel:

1. You're stuck inside Fahrenheit 451, which book do you want to be saved?

Probably Fahrenheit 451, cause a good look at themselves might get them to stop!

2. Have you ever had a crush on a fictional character?

Tons and tons. I may have even had a crush on a fictional character that I wrote! Oddly enough (I say "oddly" so that I can remain in denial about how obvious that is and the implications of that) the characters I tend to have 'crush'es on tend to be very messed up in the head.

3. The last book you purchased?

I can't remember the title of it. It's about a Harvard literature grad who joins the NYPD. It's an autobiography. Haven't gotten very far in to it, though.

4. What are you currently reading?

Not reading any book at the moment. Reading the Book of Mormon off and on and the aforementioned cop book.

5. Five books you would take to a deserted island?

I'd need to spend a little time in the bookstore, but preferably five books that could get me off the deserted island.

Absent that, I'm not sure which books I would take, but they would have to be long and thought/imagination provoking. Anthologies would work even better. But I'd probably stretch it out and have one of each of the following: One philosophical book, one religious text (almost certainly the Bible), one fantasy novel, one science fiction novel, and a graphic novel (likely V for Vendetta).

I'll pass on passing this one along. Anyone interested please consider yourself passed on to.

I haven't written about Thrifthaven in a while. After a while the tales of ex-cons and their misadventures gets a little old. I do have a post coming up in the next couple of days about a weird non-con neighbor.

For those of you dying to know what has happened with my neighbors, here's a brief update:

• The girlfriend-beater Rey is back in jail for reasons unknown. He's been replaced by a post-hippie dude about my age. He's as sociable as a watermelon, but at least I don't have crying babies, beaten girlfriends, or meth labs... next door. Three doors over, however, is one Strang Washington. For reasons unknown, he's out of jail and the apartment that he ran a meth lab out of and whose furniture he sold to get some quick capital, has let him back in.


• Stoner, alas, has moved out. My original intention was to make him the quirky comedy relief on this blog, but instead he turned out to be one of the most normal people there and a decent friend. He did manage to steal Landis's girlfriend on his way out the door. He's living with her now. Lacking a job, he lives off her as well. He describes not having a job as "Totally cool, man." Landis moved out, too.


• Yale still lives downstairs. He's half-paid me back for the stuff stolen from his apartment, which is good enough for the time being. He's particularly excited now that he can afford furniture of his own and came up a couple weeks back to excitedly tell me about a carrot-peeler that he purchased from Albertson's.


• Gia, Dawson, Rocco, and almost everyone else I've mentioned before have all moved out. Phil Collins and the stripper still live downstairs, however. And Saul the Mumbler is still around and has actually become one of my better neighbor friends. He passed along my rent check a few weeks ago because the office inexplicably does not have a drop-box and they never seem to be there except when I'm at work.


• I bumped into the landlord a couple days back. He asked if I was still working in Idaho Falls. I told him I was and he said he wished me luck finding work in Pocatello. He must know that if I found work in Pocatello I'd almost certainly be moving out and he wished me good luck anyway. Despite his questionable taste in tenants, he's really a good guy.


• No sign of the unwelcome houseguest.


• I miss Meatloaf. I really miss his cats.

A third the way from Idaho Falls to Pocatello is a conveniently placed rest stop that I like to stop at on days where I want to get away from work but am in no particular hurry to get home. It's housed on a patch of lava formations. I've only been on the sightseeing trail once or twice, but it's pretty neat that it's there regardless of whether or not I actually take advantage of it.

One day I was on my way back from work when I stopped at the rest stop and was asked to give someone a jump. The man that asked me was Irvin and that was when I first met him. Irvin and I helped a courier get on his way from Montana down to Salt Lake City. Unfortunately his battery was too dead for my jump start to get him going. Irvin ended up driving him to Blackfoot so that he could buy a new battery.

Irvin is the caretaker of the Lava Formation Rest Stop. Every morning or afternoon I stop by I usually see him out and about doing something. Sometimes he says hello and we chat for a bit, other times he keeps his nose to the task ahead of him - whatever it might be.

I've seen a number of travellers come and go. A whole lot of them seem to go out of their way to litter up the place. Today I saw someone try to make a five foot shot with his McDonald's bag and declined to actually pick it up and throw it away when he missed. A lot of cigarette butts here and there. But day in and day out Irvin keeps the place presentable.

In elementary school we had Uncle Bud. Uncle Bud was the all-purpose janitor. He was extremely popular among the kids there (I'm guessing because he got to play in sludge and dirt we could only dream of). He was so popular with students and administrators - and he so loved the school that he worked for - that even when he retired he was kept around as the lunchroom monitor, switching the talk light that always seemed to be on yellow (whisper) and red (shut up) but never green (talk). He'd tell us to settle down and for the most part (to the best of our elementary school kid abilities) we listened.

The janitor of Seabrook Intermediate was a Hispanic man. Long after I left the school I still saw him at the Whataburger by the school on Saturday mornings. His English may not have been so great, but it probably was just fine and we never took the time to find out because playing in mess isn't quite as cool to junior high school kids as it is to gradeschoolers.

I never knew who the janitors were at Clear Lake High.

It's interesting how we sometimes lose site of those who clean up after our mess.

"I was on a bus and it was the middle of the night. I had a box of crackers and a can of Easy Cheeze. But it the middle of the night so I could not see. I could not see how much Easy Cheeze I was applying to each cracker. So each bite into the cracker was a surprise as to how much Easy Cheeze had been applied, which makes me believe they should have a glow-in-the-dark Easy Cheeze. It's not like the product has any integrity to begin with. If you buy a room-temperature cheese that you squeeze out of a can, you probably won't get mad because it glows in the dark, too."

[Other Hedberg quotes]

One thing that Eel and I are trying to do more often is eat at new and different restaurants rather than the same four or five we always seem to eat at. One of the places I've been somewhat interested was called Poppa Paul's, which is just off the freeway, and Uncle Jim's Family Diner, which looks to be a sorta breakfast/dinner kind of place. The other night Uncle Jim's literally turned off the "Open" sign when we pulled in. Since Poppa Paul's looked like an all-night diner (to the extent that such things exist in Pocatello), I figured it would be open. It was.

Idaho passed a law last year prohibiting smoking in restaurants, so it came as a bit of a surprise to see people smoking in Poppa Paul's. I knew that they'd made a few exemptions, but I couldn't figure out what exemption it might fall under: nobody was bowling (Bowling alleys exempt), no one asked for a password of membership card (private clubs exempt), and I couldn't imagine how under 51% of their revenue wasn't food.

I asked around at work why an establishment that is clearly a restaurant might be exempt. I assured them that there were no bowling balls, mini-golf pucks, or secret passwords. The only thing I can think of is that it's next door to a gas station. Theoretically, if they're all considered the same place it's possible that the gas station brings in enough to bring the food gross income below 50%.

The other thing I noticed, which I've noticed ever since Adam first pointed it out to me a few years back, is that the place is set up so that you have to walk through the smoking section to get to the non-smoking section, which makes absolutely no sense. The cigarette smoke smell was not insignificant with it being one of the only smoking-section restaurants in Pocatello and I'd imagine a mecca for people who absolutely must smoke when they eat.

The food was good, though we probably won't be heading back there without a gas-masks..

Note: Error noted in the comments has been corrected.

Via Owen, I discovered this odd little story about a man being cuffed to a pole for paying a $114 installation charge with $2 bills:

He remembers the cashier marking each bill with a pen. Then other store personnel began to gather, a few of them asking, "Are these real?"

"Of course they are," Bolesta said. "They're legal tender."

A Best Buy manager refused comment last week. But, according to a Baltimore County police arrest report, suspicions were roused when an employee noticed some smearing of ink. So the cops were called in. One officer noticed the bills ran in sequential order.

"I told them, 'I'm a tour operator. I've got thousands of these bills. I get them from my bank. You got a problem, call the bank,'" Bolesta says. "I'm sitting there in a chair. The store's full of people watching this. All of a sudden, he's standing me up and handcuffing me behind my back, telling me, 'We have to do this until we get it straightened out.'

I can understand a bit of skepticism and someone pays for something with sequential $2. But even so, this is plain odd to me. First of all, from what I understand the margin of counterfeiting lower bills is so low that the threat of a counterfeit $1 is tiny (one of the reasons that they aren't updated like the larger bills are). Now this was a $2 instead of a $1, but if someone was going to counterfeit money, they'd want it to be as discreit as possible and $2 are the opposite of discreit. Third, it's not as if he was some guy off the street. They had information on him and knew where he lived. No one is going to cut and run for $114 when they had a car to install a stereo system on. Like I said, I can understand a bit of "this is odd" skepticism, but all that is required is making a note of who the customer is so that if there is any problem, you can take care of it then without the bad publicity of a story in the Baltimore Sun.

I'm inclined to cut customer representatives a lot of slack, but someone should lose their job over this.

Some days I like to go to the park after work to unwind. One of my two little places of serenity is this little nook in North Ross Park. It's a small walkway between rock piles. Unlike my other place of serenity that has a great view, all you can see is rocks. But I like it there. Underneath one pile of rocks there are some groundhog/mole/badger creatures that poke their head out occasionally. That's the most company I usually get.

Today there was another guy walking around. He eventually found me and tried to start up a conversation. While I generally go to the park to be alone and collect my thoughts, if I do stumble on someone I generally try to be as friendly as possible. This is especially true since the only real area where I'm currently dissatisfied with my life is in the area of friendships that I haven't made. You can't make friends if you don't talk to people, I figure.

"Tried" is the operative word in the first sentence of the previous paragraph. He asked me where I was from and I answered. He asked if I was here for school and I answered. I asked him a few questions, but his answers comprised of less words than mine did. I brought up a couple of subjects, but he didn't bite. I eventually gave up and went on my way.

A few years ago during one of my family's annual treks to Florida, I started talking to a man by the beach. We talked until security told us that we had to leave and he invited me up to his room, where we talked for another several hours.

It's funny how easy some conversations are compared to others. I pride myself on my ability to find some sort of connection with just about anyone, given the time. Some of my neighbors at Thrifthaven are not people I share a great deal in common with, but I can generally at least carry a conversation with them. But every now and again I'll run across someone where I feel like I have to do the heavy lifting of the conversation.

While I'm not weak in the area of communication, I'm not the most extraverted person in the world. I can communicate what I need to, explain what I know about this, how I feel about that, or what I think about the other thing. I can also do so in a generally friendly and personal manner. But without that basis, I'm usually happy enough to be left to my own thoughts.

But I think of people that are even more introverted than myself, and people that aren't even as skilled as I am at meeting people, and sometimes wonder how they function. People that don't seem to have political opinions or philosophical beliefs. They don't seem to have a whole lot to say about... well... anything. Even when goaded. I used to think that these people had a rich inner world that I would find if I poked around enough, but I've come to find out that a lot of them really are just that boring.

When I was little, I really liked raisins and grapes. Then at some point I stopped liking raisins.

"But if you love grapes," my teacher told me, "you have to like raisins. Raisins are just dried up grapes."

And from that moment forward, I ceased liking grapes.

They started tasting like wet raisins.

Pocatello political blogger Tara Rowe has a very informative post on the 2006 Idaho governor's race chalk full of interesting information. It involves the current governor's illegitimate child, a congressman's alcoholism, a senator's chemotherapy, and Idaho's dissident county.

Back when Camille and I were long distance, she came to town during the fall time change. As it had been months since we'd last seen each other and we were in that goo-gah-lovey-dovey stage, that "fall back" was worth ten "spring forwards."

Maybe I'm just a bit grumpy from lack of sleep, but I'm considering a revision of my position on the matter.

I spent part of February battling the sunlight on my way to work. Too low to be blocked by the roof of my car, but high enough to be directly in my eyes. The sun finally starts getting high enough and then wham the time changes and the process starts all over.

I'm also wondering if we have it backwards. Some people are saying that they really enjoy the extra sunlight after work. But I don't think the focus should be how much sunlight we have after work but rather when the sun comes up in the morning.

The difference between waking up when there is sunlight outside and when there isn't makes all the difference in the world.

Now I know what you may be thinking, "Gee, R. Alex, the sun is up when I get up in the morning cause I don't get up at 6am like you do."

To which I say...

nothing nice at all.

Am I the only one that thinks that they keep moving the "Show annoying advertisements whenever AIM is started" option in preferences solely so that we won't know where to look each time a new version comes out?

Several months back, I mentioned seeing one of my professors at an Insane Clown Posse concert. Pete asked for more about the show and I said I would post on it later in the week. That was in October. But anyway, it took me a while to find the write-up I did after the show. Anyway, here it is:

In January of 2001 I had a very short romantic acquaintance with a girl named Poe. While it ranks as the second most pointless relationship of my life, if it wasn't for her I never would have seen Insane Clown Posse live, so it wasn't for naught.

When she and I first me, she was surfing the Internet on my computer and opened the web site of Fitzgerald's, the local bar where we usually went to see Phil Pritchett. Insane Clown Posse, a rap band known for outrageously graphic and irreverent lyrics that appeal to the thirteen year old boy in us all. Later that night, after Poe had left, I talked to Jay and Brian on ICQ and we all agreed we had to see these guys perform live.

Everyone I told that I was going to see Insane Clown Posse almost all said the same thing: "You don't strike me as the ICP type." Discussing this with Jay, we decided it would be worthwhile to play up our stuffiness if, instead of wearing face paint or multiple piercings like many of our fellow concert-goers would, we would dress in slacks, dress shirts, and ties.

With the exception of going to see They Might Be Giants, this was the first time that I had gone to see a national band. It did not occur to me until later that we ought to have ordered tickets ahead of time. When we saw some scalpers dealing on the way to Fitz, we knew we were in trouble.

The line was moving quickly, so we decided to go ahead and see if we could get in. When we got to the front, I asked if Insane Clown Posse was sold out. He said it was and I quickly jetted out of the way. Jay, however, thought he heard the bouncer say "But for $20 I can get you in anyway."

So I went back and asked him "Did you say $20 can get us in anyway?"

He gave me a dirty look and said "Yeah, if you're quiet about it!"

"Woah, sorry," I replied. I thought the $20 was the "door" price. It didn't occur to me that he was offering to sneak us in.

So we got back in the line and went through again. This time we got the money and out and I had to $10's underneath my wallet for the taking. He took the bills and told us to wait off to the side. The people behind us asked if it was sold out and he told them it was, without mentioning the alternative he made available to us. He snuck us in, pointed us out to the ticket collector, and sure enough, we were in.

He had taken my $20, but he assumed that I was paying for both of us so he didn't take any money from Jay. So by not being responsible and purchasing tickets ahead of time, we saved $15 ($17.50 x 2 tickets). It also struck us as odd that he would make the offer to the two of us, of all people, who were dressed like we had just gotten off of work. For all he knew, we were clueless undercover narcs (okay, or more likely, two stuffy guys who took a wrong turn to our John Tesh concert). Not that we were complaining, mind you.

We got our hand stamped, but did not get the bracelet for purchasing alcohol. It didn't matter since we didn't intend to drink anyway. We wanted to be in total control of our senses for the concert, which we figured would be filled with some rather rambunctious individuals.

The second story floor of Fitz, where ICP and most major acts perform, has no chairs or anywhere to sit, except in the front row of the balcony. We positioned ourselves right underneath the balcony. An attractive young blond interjected into a conversation we were having. Jay had managed to bum a cigarette off of her. She asked if, since he was 21, he would procure some alcohol for her. He agreed, but there was a problem. He didn't have the paper bracelet to buy alcohol.

As we pondered this, she went her merry way relatively quickly for a better view. She was seen later in the show on the shoulders of some brawny guy - one who actually could buy her a beer. Between our inability to buy beer and the cheap cover, we were making out like bandits.

If I hadn't gotten my shirt at a thrift shop, I would have lost my gains in laundry bills. There is apparently an ICP ritual that invovles shaking up soda and squirting it everywhere. We did manage to avoid the glitter, however.

The show was great. The lurid dancing Eminems were a particularly nice touch. So were the cutely provocative girls holding up the "BITCH!" sign in appropriate intervals.

But by the time the show was over, it took its toll. We were hot, tired, wet, and coke does something to your hair that you wouldn't even believe.

When we got to our car, there was someone dressed in ICP gear who was asking us if we were able to get in. We talked briefly about the show. Two young men with incredibly frizzy hair, dressed in slacks and coke-drenched shirts, and a chubby guy in a tank-top and dark clown make-up discussing songs called "Fat Sweaty Betty" and "I Didn't Mean To Kill'em." Luckily there wasn't much foot traffic unrelated to the show or we might have looked funny.

"While it is good that you are not a slave to fashion, you err in dressing overly plainly, for that also draws attention to yourself, gives you a false sense of piety, and stokes your pride. Instead, dress moderately, so you will be seen as having not high fashion, nor ostentatiously wrong fashion, but no fashion at all." -A French Abbot

It's about time:

[Best Buy] also said it will phase out using mail-in rebates over the next two years, bowing to customer complaints. Its shares fell more than 5 percent.

[...]

"Our customers are telling us they just hate the process," General Merchandise Manager Ron Boire said during a conference call to discuss the earnings report.

He described that process as "they send it in, they remain aggravated until they get their check."

The rebates have aggravated regulators, too. Wisconsin consumer protection officials last year looked into the rebates after 89 consumers complained, and Ohio Attorney General Jim Petro sued Best Buy in August in part over complaints about rebates.

I've long suggested that people not factor in mail-in rebates when they purchase an item. Chris reports a 50% recoup rate. Mine was closer to 10%, though that was due in large part to my own carelessness. But even though I rarely buy mail-in rebated goods, their mere existence bugs the living crap out of me.

Let's say that you have a computer on sale for $849.99 with a $50.00 mail-in rebate. The big sign, of course, is going to say $799.99. So you buy the computer with the intention of getting some of your money back. You then take all evidence of the purchase and put it in an envelope. The retailer has a processing center that recieves the envelope and then has a check sent out to your address. These people are essentially being paid to give you money that you just gave them. Except that they've added these steps to the process, paying people along the way.

The question is, why? Companies, theoretically, ought to be in the business of streamlining their operations, not implementing additional steps.

There may be some relatively benign reasons. Maybe they make significant money on the interest between the time they get the money and give it back to you. Maybe they want your address to send you junk mail. That's about as benign as the reasons get. More likely is that they are counting on people like me to fail to get everything together in the same place. They're counting on the mail or a processor to "lose" it. They're counting on people to forget to include one of the items so that the rebate can be denied. They're counting on people to say "Well crud, I just spent $800 on a computer, why should an extra $50 bother me?"

To make a long story short, the people buy the above computer thinking that they're going to pay $799.99 and the retailer is counting that some, probably more than half, will pay $50.00 more than they think they are paying. It's patently dishonest.

Now to a degree I have mixed feelings. People should know better than to trust a company that holds all the cards (evidence of the puchase) to give you money that they don't have to. People should also take the phrase "ain't nuthin' free" to heart. So in a way it's a self-selecting fee for those too lazy to send stuff in or too disorganized to get everything in to them as requested (assuming that the processing centers always get it right, which is a bit generous).

But at the end of the day, I just resent the living heck out of it. I resent the very notion that I have to jump through a succession of hoops just to get the money I just gave them back so that I can get the product for the price as it was advertised.

On Wednesday night, I got the strangest feeling. It felt like there was not enough water in the world for me to consume. Right before bed I downed 40 oz of water and still didn't feel satiated. I decided I didn't want to spend all nighting peeing (which I am inclined to do whenever I drink before going to bed) that I'd better stop.

But I didn't get up once in the night. That should have been sign #1. Usually I can count on needing to relieve myself at least once, two or three times if I've had something to drink. But not once.

Then around noon yesterday it started hitting me. The cough, the fever, and mostly the soreness. Less than two hours later, my boss was asking me if I was feeling alright. A couple hours after that he told me not to come in to tomorrow (today).

"Score! Three day weekend! Now excuse me while I go hobble into a corner and die."

Realizing that I had a three day weekend in front of me that would most likely be spent in bed (it was pretty much established that I got what a coworker had that set him out for a week), I decided to make lemonaid out of lemons and stopped by the video store and picked up the third season of 24. I'm actually pretty proud of thinking of it. I've been wanting to see it forever and the only thing holding me back has been time.

So I'm having the best feel-like-crap day ever.

Amazingly, Kim Bauer managed to irritate me by the second episode: "I realize that millions upon millions may die from what these bad guys are up to, but I must - absolutely must - tell my father that I've been seeing his partner behind is back and I'm in looooooooove, and it can't wait another day because I decided for it to be today and the lives of the millions of others that hang in the balance aren't nearly as important as my feelings right now!"

Anyhow, posting will be non-existent until I knock this series down.