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Archives for October 2004
October 27, 2004
It's white outside here in La Pine.
The last two days, it's been snowing. Yes, that's
right - SNOWING. I would have posted a picture,
if I wouldn't have dreaded leaving the house
so much.
Yesterday, it all melted away again by like
3 in the afternoon, but it was the same crap
all over again this morning.
I don't know - the first days of winter always
make me feel like dying. I get depressed. I
don't have my studs on the car yet, so driving
around on the slick roads with the summer tires
isn't my idea of fun. So I stay home whenever
I can, which of course makes me feel like I'm
trapped.
It doesn't help that when it snows real hard,
the cold white stuff sticks to my DirecWay dish,
in essence cutting off my internet connection.
All this has led me to devise a plan to build
a small shelter over the dish, so it can be
snow-free for the entire winter. I wish however,
that someone at DirecWay would have addressed
this issue at some point, somewhere ...
All this makes me wish I'd live in Bend. What a difference
a few hundred feet in elevation can make. While
it snows down there lightly or rains, we here
in La Pine get slammed with winter.
On the Bright Side: I just got my annual property
tax love letter from the county. They're saying
that my property has increased in value almost
15% over the last 2 years. That's nice. However,
in reality, the real market value (based on
homes that have recently sold in this area)
has increased more like 25%. I guess I should
be grateful that the county is so ignorant...
October 25, 2004
This has to be a first.
A company is actually *lowering* its prices.
And not down to original levels - no, even
*lower* than that.
Netflix
sent me this email today:
Since our price increase in June, some
of our members have expressed concerns
about the new pricing. We've listened to
this feedback and are pleased to inform
you that we're lowering the price of your
Netflix 3-at-a-time program from $21.99 per
month to $17.99 per month.
You don't need to do anything. Your
membership will automatically move to the
lower 17.99 price. The lower price will
appear on your next bill on or after
November 1, 2004. You will still get the
same great service and convenience, but now
you will pay less for it. So please sit
back, relax and enjoy your movies!
How about that?
Now I've been using Netflix since January 2002,
and I have to say - I have ZERO complaints about
them. The selection of movies is great, the no-late-fees
feature rules (especially since I hate having
to organize my evening around a movie rental just
so I can avoid a late fee), and
they always arrive fast and convenient in my mailbox.
The two times the post office lost a movie
on its way to me, the process to give notice
and receive a replacement was utterly painless.
I also love that Netflix doesn't automatically
assume you're trying to rip them off by keeping
the movie and charge you for their loss - but
understands that the mail sometimes screws up.
So the price increase last June didn't particularly
bother me, because for the amount of movie I
watch a month, it's utterly worth it for me.
But I never expected that they'd actually
lower their price. So it's real nice to know that
there are still unexpected and pleasant
surprises in this world when it comes to
subscription-based services (very much unlike
DirecTV, who just keeps raising and raising
those prices...).
Or - it wouldn't have anything to do with the
fact that Netflix's
stock price has plummeted from
$40 to $9 since June... now, would it?
October 22, 2004
Here's the best argument so far for not ever
getting your hair done again - cockroaches!
Yes, that's right. Another sighting of a
cockroach in downtown Bend has just been
reported.
The alert reader of course will
remember my
encounter with said creature about 6 weeks
ago in the "Super Burrito" restaurant on
Minnesota Ave.
This time however, a roach decided to surface
not amongst beans and tortillas, but rather
perm solution and hair dryers, or more precisely,
at the "Hip Clips Quick Cuts" hair salon.
And I quote: " ...rather, I heard it from
the guy that cuts my hair next door to them
[Super Burrito]. He said he was doing a
ladies color and a big fat one scurried
across the counter."
[Thanks to Barney
for providing the quote from a source who
shall remain nameless at this point.]
I think really this points to a larger problem
within the city and its government. After all,
I reported the roach at the Super Burrito to
John Mason at the County Eco Health Department
back on September 13, and he promised to go
down there and alert the three restaurants
housed in the building on the corner of
Wall and Minnesota.
Six weeks later, and there are still roaches
crawling around - and they have obviously spread
to adjacent businesses now - like the hair salon.
Something tells me they won't stop there either.
How hard can it really be to eradicate those critters?
According to this
FAQ from the U of Mass, a cockroach can
live without its head for about a month and
they're even possibly
resistant to radiation. So,
sure, they're pretty damn hardy creatures.
But there are plenty of professional pest
control companies out there, and the only
reason I see for a roach population to survive in a
downtown Bend building would be
through the utter cheapness of its tenants,
refusing to pay to control the problem.
Or of course because the Health Department is
too damn lazy to enforce their standards.
So that leaves us Central Oregonians really
only with two options: A) continue to file
complaints with the Health Department (but oh
look what good *that* has done) or B) stop
frequenting the businesses located in that
building.
Option B sounds more reasonable at this point,
but it's just damn bad for business.
October 21, 2004
Does anybody else out there guilt-trip themselves
about not doing the daily blogging-duty?
I know I am. But by the time I'm all revved up
and ready to write a scalding essay about
something, it's usually time to either a) work
on my
real job, b) cook dinner or c) watch
The Daily Show, my one source of news I
truly trust, because it's fake and yet true.
Since I'm momentarily taking time out from
life to blog anyway, I might as well list a
few things I think are worth writing about:
- For those of you who have wondered what I'm
up to: been busy shooting an assignment for
Bend Living
Magazine. Since they have exclusive rights
to the pics though, I cannot display them
online. You just gonna have to go and buy the
December issue, I guess ...
- My sister sent me this link, which is
freaking hilarous:
a Boom Chicago video of the trials of voting
with Diebold (and for John Kerry).
-
Dane wrote this ultra-cool
Photoshop tutorial on distressed effects.
I've got to try that out! Thanks for the brain
dump, dude.
- And last, but not least - Microsoft sucks.
Of course I knew that way back when, but it's
getting more and more apparent as time goes
on. My Windows Update function won't leave me
alone, and although I've downloaded the stupid
security fixes more than once already, it's
getting to the point, where I'm tempted to
simply shut the thing off. Why oh why couldn't
they make an OS that actually works?
The mystique of that will forever stand
side by side with eternal questions like "Which
was first? The egg or the chicken?" or "Are
we truly alone in the universe?" or "If a mime
get hits by a tree in a forest - does anybody
care?".
This concludes today's broadcast. Unlike CNN,
it's uncertain when this station will air its
next broadcast.
October 18, 2004
Come hither - oh, Central Oregon photographers!
A friend and I are trying to organize an informal,
fun little get-together of local photographers.
Here's how it could work: a theme is chosen for the night,
and photographers are encouraged to bring
slides on this theme and present them with
a time limit of five minutes. You can have
live musical accompaniment, or narrate.
A portion of the night could also be set
aside to show non-themed work. Meanwhile,
everyone eats and drinks and is merry and
a real sense of an artistic community arises.
What's required are plenty of willing
participants (non-photographers with an interest
in the craft are invited to attend too),
a good space, a projector screen, slide
projector, and laptop, and possibly a
karaoke machine for the MC to run the show.
So if anybody out there reading this has a
desire to try it out or know of a local
photographer who might want to attend,
email me!!.
October 7, 2004
Last night's bloggers bash at the Cascade
Lakes Brewery was again a success - lured
by the promise of mouth-melting Swiss chocolate,
more members than usual decided to show up this
time ...
The outcome?
Dane ate half of his chocolate bar while
sipping beer, demanded that a flash game be
created where he could smash soda cans with a
big sledgehammer, and ended up being the only
one who actually went to see the weirder-than-thou
Captured By Robots band at The Grove (sorry,
Dane, I know I said I would, but next time
don't make me choose between pool and some
*robot* band ... heh)
In turn - thanks to
Jesse for letting me finally play a round
of 9-ball again with an actual human being.
Computer-simulated games are just so damn thankless ...
But dude - I still haven't recovered from the
John Tesh relevation... and where's the Exploding
Whale link you promised me??
Didn't get much chance to talk to
Jon, but I noticed that he chickened out...
and didn't blog about somebody calling another
somebody all drunk because the first somebody
thought that the second somebody was so damn cute... ;-)
Anyway, thanks for the laughs, guys. Let's do
it again sometimes.
October 5, 2004
6.57pm: Good gawd this vice-presidential
debate is boring.
I just wish either of those
guys would give a straight answer to a straight
question. Why is that so freaking hard?
While I stand 100% on the democratic
side, and I really don't comprehend how any
sane human being can even contemplate voting
for Bush, I just really wish the Democrats
would be a little bit more concrete with
articulating their plans and visions. I do
believe they have their hearts and minds in
the right place, but why can't they put that
into words even the simpler folks in this
world (meaning the Bush supporters) can
understand? Maybe *then* they could win some
votes...
Sigh. I'm so bored by politics. So I blog.
Here at least are a few entertaining links
that can keep y'all busy in the meantime:
Ok, so I've been salivating all day today
over
this. How could I not? 16+ MPs! The resolution
of a medium-format camera! Wireless LAN
connection to your computer *while* you shoot!
How freakin' cool is that??
But - anybody got US$ 8k to spare? I sure don't.
Better go and play the lottery again, I suppose ...
Two - I'm contemplating driving up to Mount
St. Helens this weekend. Yeah, yeah, I know.
"You too?" Yes, me and about 5000 other people,
I'm sure. But honestly - how often do you get
to see a volcano come alive? I've actually
climbed a live volcano down in Guatemala,
and I can assure anyone that it's one of the
most raw and inspiring experiences a human
being can have. Bummer of course that you
can't go climbing around St. Helens right now.
The Guatemalans were a whole lot less rigid
about letting people walk all over a volcano
*while* it oozes lava from its sides. We did
however have a security guard with us who
proudly showed off his gun to anybody who
asked. Robbers were more of a concern than
a rumbling volcano. I think those guys had
their priorities straight ...
Speaking of robbers - because I got this
emailed to me today (thanks, Laura!) and it's
actually half-way funny (at least if you
appreciate inarticulate people), I conclude today's
post with
a link to a shortened and mixed audio
version of Shrub's recent debate performance.
Like everything else in his presidency, this
can leave you speechless (just like he was).
October 1, 2004
Mount St. Helens just blew its top.
How cool is that? Makes me wanna grab my
camera, pop in the car and drive up there...
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