Tag: Anti complaint

AbeBooks rules

I found AbeBooks a few months ago.  I don’t remember how, but I’m glad I did.  They’re a book search service for new and used books at small booksellers all over the country.  I just bought Charles Stross‘ latest, Halting State, for less than Amazon (Well, barely less, but still less), and I feel smug because I’m supporting some local bookstore in Georgia rather than a gigantic corporation like Amazon.

Used books are even better – I’ve bought a couple books for $1 + $3 shipping.  If it costs less than five dollars, it might as well be free.  Sort of.

Anyway, I’m looking forward to the book.

I’m currently reading Terrorist, by John Updike.  I read one of his early books, Rabbit, Run, written in 1960.  This one is from 2006.  So far I like it, although I’m only 80 pages in or so.  I wonder if I’m on some sort of watch list because I’m reading a book called “Terrorist” on the Metro right past the Pentagon.  I hope so.

I said I wasnt going to do this

But Nanowrimo sign-ups start tonight. For those who don’t know and are too lazy to click the link, Nano is National Novel Writing Month, which happens every November. It started in maybe 2001 with about 20 people in San Fransisco deciding to each write a 50,000 word novel (For reference, this is approximately the length of Brave New World, among others, but shorter than the average novel) in 30 days. Last year, something like 75,000 people all over the world did it.

If I do it this year, it will be my sixth attempt. I finished in 2002, 2003, 2005, and 2006. After last year, I had decided to quit because it wasn’t that much fun. But that may be because my 2006 story was stupid. This year I have a better idea, so I’m thinking it will be better. Also, I now have a portable laptop (As opposed to the giant brick I had before), so I can go to writing meetings at local coffee shops and whatnot, something I pledge to do every year and never do.

This also begins my yearly quixotic recruitment drive.  I’ve managed to get a few people over the years to commit to trying, but none have ever finished.  A friend did it last year, and she finished, but she was planning to do it before she knew I was a veteran, so I can only take credit for a few encouraging words here and there.

Anyway, you should do it.  It’s fun.  It’s a huge rush when you finish.

Bum bum bum bum BUM BUM DC U-ni-ted!

Short-handed United Holds Off Chivas’s Rush – washingtonpost.com

Despite playing a man down for the second half, United held off an unrelenting Chivas attack to emerge with a 2-1 advantage in front of a split crowd of 21,022.

Yeah, that last two in the crowd was the wife and me. One of her new coworkers has season tickets, and couldn’t make the game last night, and we were the lucky beneficiaries. Fantastic seats in the VIP section, just at midfield.

There’s a good atmosphere to DC United games. The fans are into it, they’re loud, and mostly pretty friendly. I did overhear a DC United fan make a rude comment to a Chivas fan while we were in line buying popcorn. The rude comment and the response were in Spanish, so I might have misunderstood, but one of the words that the Chivas supporter used in his response was definitely not friendly. It’s one of those words that doesn’t really have a direct translation into English, but I’ve always thought of it as the Spanish equivalent to a popular compound English curse word.

Anyway, the game was good – DC scored first, lost a man to a red card, then both sides scored second half goals. We should go to more games. It’s not expensive, compared to baseball or football.

Waiting for the blinds guy

No, not the blind guy. Someone from Next Day Blinds is coming out to measure the windows in the bedroom so we can replace the temporary blinds with real ones.

I have to say, while some may think that a DC resident going out to Virginia for window blinds is ridiculous, or even blasphemous, I have good reason.

First, I bought from Next Day Blinds in Bailey’s Crossroads when I was living in Falls Church and working less than a mile from the store. It was convenient then.

Second, and probably more importantly, Clinton, the manager at NDB Bailey’s Crossroads, is fantastic. He’s efficient and friendly. He sold us blinds without trying to talk us up to something more expensive or feed us a lot of marketing junk. When we were in on Saturday, they didn’t have an open slot to come measure this week, so he scheduled one for next week, but told us he’d call the install people Monday and see what he could do, and call us back.

Sure enough, on Monday he called and told us that he had a slot for us on Wednesday.

I’m not really hard to please when it comes to customer service. Don’t treat me like an idiot or an ATM, do what you say you’re going to do, and I should be fine.

Anyway, looking forward to getting our blinds installed next week. The temporary paper ones from Home Depot certainly do keep the construction workers next door from having a clear view into our bedroom, and even look pretty good for $10 folded paper. But they aren’t a permanent solution.

Edit:  Blinds guy came.  He was very pleasant, as well.  Took him all of five minutes.

Be a part of local history might be a bit much

Columbia Heights News – Washington, DC – Columbia Heights Day – October 6

The First Annual Columbia Heights Day Festival is scheduled for Saturday, October 6th from 11 AM to 6 PM.

But hey, at least we’re having a Columbia Heights Day.  Not much detail at CH News, or at the CH Day website.  But there’s supposed to be a meeting of local business owners tonight, so maybe after that they’ll have a better idea of what’s happening.  They’re not giving themselves a whole lot of time.

And with them goes the stench of failure

AOL Moving Executives, Headquarters To New York – washingtonpost.com

The company said that while senior executives would depart for Manhattan, most of the 4,000 employees at the Dulles campus would remain. The shift is the latest step in the company’s transformation from a provider of dial-up Internet access to one focused on online advertising.

While I’m disappointed that the Dulles area may lose a bunch of jobs, I can’t say that I’m sorry to see AOL start to pull out of our area.  I say, “good riddance, you miserable failures”.  This is a company that for a while was synonymous with “the internet”.  Your average American didn’t “go online”, they “went on AOL”.  Never mind that the day AOL merged with Time Warner is generally considered the day the internet boom died.  These guys were so entrenched as number 1 that it’s amazing how clueless they turned out to be.

I would warn Google and the other companies that AOL’s entrance into the online advertising world probably means that the business is going to be changing significantly very soon, but I’m pretty sure they already know.  And don’t think I mean that AOL will drive the change.  I mean that AOL throwing their hat in the ring probably means it’s time to move to the bigger and better ring you’ve been building down the street.

Anyway, I don’t want to lose area jobs.  But I would like to see the Dulles area get a flagship company that doesn’t symbolize everything that’s wrong with the internet.

F*** you, recording industry

Q & A with Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails | Herald Sun Via Boing Boing

And I just said “That’s the most insulting thing I’ve heard. I’ve garnered a core audience that you feel it’s OK to rip off? F— you’. That’s also why you don’t see any label people here, ‘cos I said ‘F— you people. Stay out of my f—ing show. If you wanna come, pay the ticket like anyone else. F— you guys”. They’re thieves. I don’t blame people for stealing music if this is the kind of s— that they pull off.

Great interview with Trent Reznor, who has the fanbase and the morals to tell the record companies that he’d really just like to make his music available to his fans at a reasonable price. If I hadn’t already bought his latest cd, I’d go buy it right now.

Perhaps the coolest part is that he’s planning to ditch conventional recording as soon as his contract is up. The more people who follow him, the fewer people who are going to get turned into criminals for trying to use an iPod on a Linux box, or maybe copy a cd they’ve purchased for their own personal use.

I still remember the first time I saw the video for “Head Like a Hole” on MTV.  I’ve bought every full release he’s put out since then, and most of the remix albums and whatnot.  I’ll pre-order the next one whether or not I’ve heard anything off it.

Anyway, I’m really glad he’s trying to balance making money with trying to get his music to his fans.

As an aside, you may notice that I’ve linked to another post from Cory Doctorow at BoingBoing.  Despite my post the other day, he does write some interesting stuff, and he’s generally on the right side of things.

The Nikon D300 is coming

Nikon D300 Hands-On Preview: 1. Introduction: Digital Photography Review

51-point autofocus? Are they kidding me? My D100 has 5. This thing even has the live preview that digital point-and-shoots have had all along, but DSLRs haven’t because of that pesky mirror thing. And 8 frames per second when you use the battery pack or A/C adapter.

Now, I have absolutely no need for a new camera. But this thing is pretty hot.

We knew Nikon couldn’t wait too long before implementing some kind of automatic sensor cleaning system, and so the D300 becomes the first Nikon with such a feature. It works in the same manner as other implementations, piezoelectric elements vibrate a cover filter which should in theory remove any light dust particles attached to it.

That may be the best part about it. My one and only complaint about the D100 is the difficulty in getting dust off the chip. I think it’s a manufacturing problem they had with the D100s that allows dust on there in the first place, but I’ve had mine cleaned a few times, and I keep getting dust.

Anyway, I want one. The wife wants to steal the D100, so maybe we can come to some sort of agreement. . .

Dear Lightning Car Company – please export.

Welcome to Lightning Car Company – The UK’s Premier Electric Sports Car via Inhabitat

A fully electric right-hand drive convertible that does 0-60 in four seconds? I’m drooling right now.

So they’re asking for a deposit that comes out to over $100,000 based on the horrific weakness of the dollar against the pound. It looks like an old Jaguar, from back when they knew how to make a pretty car.

They do plan to send them over to the US.  Can someone loan me some cash?