Because I will spend money there again! I'm SERIOUS! I'LL DO IT! That's the problem...
For weeks now I've been spending several hours every Saturday working on the novel I wrote last November as part of the NaNoWriMo.org program. I spent those hours at a coffee house inHollwood called Groundworks. This place is pretty much perfect for my needs. My favorite internet cafe in LA will always be the Boba Loca inWestwood, but Groundworks on the corner of Sunset and Cahuenga in Hollywood is a fantastic change of pace.
The catch is that it is right across the street from Amoeba music. Amoeba, for the uninitiated is where fans of just about any type of media go to die--or at least to spend a LOT of their money before they die. This is because their selection of used and new vinyl, CDs, DVDs, and even VHS and LaserDisc is incredibly vast. Obviously, they specialize in music, so I went in this past Saturday looking for the soundtrack to this kid's anime show I grew up watching (It's called Battle of the Planets in case you're wondering...).
I haven't been in there in a while (I usually know better than to go in there with actual money in the bank) and it turns out that where their soundtrack section was is now where their used LaserDisc section. So naturally, I dug through it and found a few LDs to buy. Lucky for me, the prices were very reasonable--each was cheaper than $10. On top of the anime soundtrack I picked up for $19, I spent over $40 there that day.
That's not a whole lot of money but it is way too much for me to spend considering I'm supposed to be saving up for a motorcycle. :(
I'll post a picture of the discs I picked up later today so you can see what I got.
old thepete.com blog
moral compass online since 1998
Tuesday, February 13, 2007
ONCE AGAIN: DON'T BELIEVE THE HYPE (ON IRAN)
WOW, there's all this absurd talk of Iran and nukes and Iran and Iraq. Well, when the press starts talking about Iran helping the craziness in Iraq, consider this cutting from [http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/02/12/1540201|the February 12, 2007 podcast] of Democracy Now! (I've emboldened the important parts):
OH yeah, the stuff the US officials said in that "press conference" was PERFECTLY RELIABLE, I'M SURE.
As if.
Then comes [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;jsessionid=JPKY4R41A1KIBQFIQMGCFF4AVCBQUIV0?xml=/news/2007/02/13/wiran13.xml|this February 13, 2007 article] that reports:
Well, then obviously, the insurgents could ONLY have gotten the weapon from Iran! That is the ONLY POSSIBLE EXPLANATION!
The bad guys couldn't have stolen it.
The bad guys couldn't have bought it elsewhere.
US forces sure couldn't have planted it!
IT HAD TO BE IRAN!
Right, well, let's nuke the bastards and get this shit over with already!
Why pussy-foot around, Bush? Declare yourself emperor and bomb 'em! You handled Iraq so well, I don't see why we shouldn't trust you again!
ROCK ON, DOOD!
U.S. military officials are accusing the highest levels of the Iranian government of sending sophisticated roadside bombs to Iraq that have killed 170 coalition troops since 2004. On Sunday, reporters in Baghdad received an unusual briefing on the allegations. The news conference was led by three US military officials who refused to be quoted by name. No TV cameras or tapes were allowed in, and journalists" cell phones were taken away before they entered the briefing room. Iran is denying the charges. One Iranian official said "We ask those who are claiming such evidence: Show the documents in public." The bomb allegations first appeared on Saturday in a front-page article written by Michael Gordon titled "Deadliest Bomb in Iraq is Made by Iran, US Says." The article relied almost entirely on unnamed government sources. Several media critics compared the piece to Gordon's articles from 2002 alleging Iraq had weapons of mass destruction.
OH yeah, the stuff the US officials said in that "press conference" was PERFECTLY RELIABLE, I'M SURE.
As if.
Then comes [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;jsessionid=JPKY4R41A1KIBQFIQMGCFF4AVCBQUIV0?xml=/news/2007/02/13/wiran13.xml|this February 13, 2007 article] that reports:
Austrian sniper rifles that were exported to Iran have been discovered in the hands of Iraqi terrorists, The Daily Telegraph has learned.
More than 100 of the.50 calibre weapons, capable of penetrating body armour, have been discovered by American troops during raids.
The guns were part of a shipment of 800 rifles that the Austrian company, Steyr-Mannlicher, exported legally to Iran last year.
The sale was condemned in Washington and London because officials were worried that the weapons would be used by insurgents against British and American troops.
Within 45 days of the first HS50 Steyr Mannlicher rifles arriving in Iran, an American officer in an armoured vehicle was shot dead by an Iraqi insurgent using the weapon.
Well, then obviously, the insurgents could ONLY have gotten the weapon from Iran! That is the ONLY POSSIBLE EXPLANATION!
The bad guys couldn't have stolen it.
The bad guys couldn't have bought it elsewhere.
US forces sure couldn't have planted it!
IT HAD TO BE IRAN!
Right, well, let's nuke the bastards and get this shit over with already!
Why pussy-foot around, Bush? Declare yourself emperor and bomb 'em! You handled Iraq so well, I don't see why we shouldn't trust you again!
ROCK ON, DOOD!
Monday, February 12, 2007
Project365 day 043
Here's one for TheWife... and any other ladies out there ;) I'm SO modeling American Apparel right now. Can you tell? This is me in my homecube when the LIGHTS ARE OUT, BABY!! Seriously, I am wearing pants.
Big Brother Week: BIOMETRICS AND MODERN SLAVERY
Think slavery was abolished back in the 1800s? Well, it's still around--and not just the literal kind, either. Technology is sneaking in and filling the void left when slave masters were banned. Now, some say (myself included) that technology is watching us the way only Big Brother could. In this first in a series of Big Brother-related posts this week (one a day) I'm going to go into how technology, specifically biometrics is playing the roll of watchdog in ways that you'll hopefully find a bit unsettling. The reason I am hopeful for this is because we all need to be more concerned about the big brotherification that is happening all around us.
Today's edition will be about biometrics in the workplace. Now, most of us, so far haven't had to deal with this. I know for my temp dayjob I have to carry around this little card that I swipe to get into the building every morning and again to get into my department. This card seems fairly reasonable to me. The one thing I think is odd is that they ask us to swipe in at the front door even if someone is holding the door for us. This is clearly to know who is inside the building--or more specifically, who is in the lobby. Once we swipe again to get past the lobby they can track us only that far. Still, it seems odd that they want us to swipe no matter what.
Of course, the don't force us, so things at a cancer lab aren't too big brothery. In other words, I'm not complaining about that. However, Biometrics is apparently expanding into new corners of some people's lives. According to [http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=domesticNews&storyid=2007-01-26T195830Z_01_N25259138_RTRUKOC_0_US-WORK-SCANNERS.xml&src=rss&rpc=22|a January 26, 2007 article] at Reuters.com, hand-scanning is how workers at certain New York City government agencies are allowed to get to their desks every morning. Here's a bit from that article:
Yummy--that last part sounds GREAT. I want to be tracked EVERYwhere I go!
See, that's where we're headed. In most corporations the bottom line is put at the top of everyone's priorities. The company I temp at is so cheap they won't pay for facial tissue. They already give us more work than we can possibly do in a day, the next logical step would be to make sure we take a certain number of breaks and to make sure we don't dawdle on them (or dawdle while talking to people in other departments) they'll want to track us inside the building to make sure we stay in line. What better way to do this is there aside from fingerprint/iris/palm scanning?
There's no pesky card which we might lose (I've lost mine once) and there's nothing invasive like injecting a tracking chip.
So, I can see a corporate reality where bigger profits insist that something like this be done. That is, unless we all refuse to put up with it.
Of course, refusing to put up with it may not be an option. Engadget.Com posted [http://www.engadget.com/2007/02/08/sarnoff-wants-to-scan-your-iris-without-your-knowledge/|a February 8, 2007 entry] about a company called the Sarnoff Corporation who:
So, even if the USG fails to use it, there's no law on the books that says your employer can't set these bad boys up around the work place to spot and ID you without even asking your permission.
Isn't Big Brother fun? Tune in to ThePete.Com to learn how the USG is trying to make every American carry the same kind of driver's license and how that's a quiet chipping away at states' rights. Weeeee!
Today's edition will be about biometrics in the workplace. Now, most of us, so far haven't had to deal with this. I know for my temp dayjob I have to carry around this little card that I swipe to get into the building every morning and again to get into my department. This card seems fairly reasonable to me. The one thing I think is odd is that they ask us to swipe in at the front door even if someone is holding the door for us. This is clearly to know who is inside the building--or more specifically, who is in the lobby. Once we swipe again to get past the lobby they can track us only that far. Still, it seems odd that they want us to swipe no matter what.
Of course, the don't force us, so things at a cancer lab aren't too big brothery. In other words, I'm not complaining about that. However, Biometrics is apparently expanding into new corners of some people's lives. According to [http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=domesticNews&storyid=2007-01-26T195830Z_01_N25259138_RTRUKOC_0_US-WORK-SCANNERS.xml&src=rss&rpc=22|a January 26, 2007 article] at Reuters.com, hand-scanning is how workers at certain New York City government agencies are allowed to get to their desks every morning. Here's a bit from that article:
Every morning Dennis Colson, a surveyor at New York City's Department of Design and Construction, begins his work day by placing his hand on a scanner to log his time and attendance at the office.
The use of hand geometry and other biometric data, like facial and iris recognition, is not new -- the University of Georgia pioneered the use of hand geometry when it installed scanners in its student dining hall in 1974.
But the planned roll-out of hand geometry scanners in all New York City government agencies has sparked union cries of "geoslavery" and assertions that technology developed for security will be used to track, label and control workforces.
"It's frustrating, it's kind of an insult," Colson, 53, told Reuters. "They are talking about going to voice and retina scanners and that's an invasion of privacy in that they can track you wherever you go."
Jon Forster, of the Civil Service Technical Guild, which represents Department of Design and Construction workers, said the biometric systems gave the city a license to obtain personal, uniquely identifiable data to track workers.
"It's really a matter of this kind of technology having far outstripped any legislation or even case law in the United States in terms of what are the restrictions," Forster told Reuters.
"On the one hand I think people might all agree that if you put a GPS system in ambulances then that's a good thing. On the other hand you have an employer in Ohio who has demanded that two of his employees have chips implanted in their bodies."
Yummy--that last part sounds GREAT. I want to be tracked EVERYwhere I go!
See, that's where we're headed. In most corporations the bottom line is put at the top of everyone's priorities. The company I temp at is so cheap they won't pay for facial tissue. They already give us more work than we can possibly do in a day, the next logical step would be to make sure we take a certain number of breaks and to make sure we don't dawdle on them (or dawdle while talking to people in other departments) they'll want to track us inside the building to make sure we stay in line. What better way to do this is there aside from fingerprint/iris/palm scanning?
There's no pesky card which we might lose (I've lost mine once) and there's nothing invasive like injecting a tracking chip.
So, I can see a corporate reality where bigger profits insist that something like this be done. That is, unless we all refuse to put up with it.
Of course, refusing to put up with it may not be an option. Engadget.Com posted [http://www.engadget.com/2007/02/08/sarnoff-wants-to-scan-your-iris-without-your-knowledge/|a February 8, 2007 entry] about a company called the Sarnoff Corporation who:
has recently filed a patent application that spells out a snazzy method of quickly photographing a helpless individual's facial region multiple times in order to (hopefully) capture one solid look at the iris. This newfangled manner of jacking biometrics from clueless pedestrians is actually being requested by the American government, as it apparently hopes to use it to run constant background checks with the information on file in order to peg a threat as they're strolling through.
So, even if the USG fails to use it, there's no law on the books that says your employer can't set these bad boys up around the work place to spot and ID you without even asking your permission.
Isn't Big Brother fun? Tune in to ThePete.Com to learn how the USG is trying to make every American carry the same kind of driver's license and how that's a quiet chipping away at states' rights. Weeeee!
SICK OF MYSPACE? TRY HUMBLEVOICE.COM
Wow, I really wanted to blog more this weekend, but I got distracted by all sorts of stuff. Actually have an agent who wanted to see some of my latest novel, so I had to whip the first 35 pages of it into shape, do all sorts of chores around the apartment (laundry, dishes straighted up a bit of the living room, blew off Quicken--not good) and then tried to keep up with the news. Did manage to squeeze in some time with friends Jen and Britt, which was great since I never spend enough time just having fun these days. Oh yeah--I also managed to spend about an hour playing Lego Star Wars for Nintendo DS. That game is buggy as hell, but it's still a lot of fun. I've worked out where many of the bugs are, so I just avoid them. I still can't finish the first Endor level.
Another thing I managed to sneak in time on is discovering a nice little alternative to MySpace.Com. One of the thing I despise about MySpace.Com is just how sucky MySpace.Com is. It's almost as buggy as Lego Star Wars for the DS and it's REALLY poorly laid out. I mean, it looks like a website someone with no design sense put together with coding from 1998. Add one large picture to your layout and BOOM suddenly you're sidescrolling all around trying to figure out what the picture even is or what a commenter said because the text isn't wrapping. Well, enter HumbleVoice.Com.
Just at glance HumbleVoice.Com more pleasing to the eye than MySpace.Com. The next thing you notice is how the site is divided into interests--music, video, photograpy, art and word. It seems fairly easy for the user to make submissions into each category, unlike MySpace. This is where it's like DeviantArt.Com, a little, too. From what I can tell, your posts to each section end up in some central viewing area that I haven't found just yet (hey, I'm still exploring!). I managed to piss someone off by posting a musing about how using a "featured text section" was over a blog section (HV offer both) and got a slightly snobby anti-newbie post from a fellow HumbleVoicer. I guess newbs get no respect where ever they are on the 'net (she must be a Mac User).
So, if you hate MySpace as much as I do (or just want to find an alternative that plays home to a varying group of artist-types) check out HumbleVoice. So far so good, I say regarding my experience there. It's only been a couple of days, but I think I'll stick around and see how things go. It seems like a smaller group of people than MySpace which I think can have it's advantages.
OH yeah--I almost forgot. It looks like every time you post to HV (whether it be a picture, work of art, blog entry or anything else) you get points which you can eventually redeem for actual physical items like electronics or even a Vespa. Pretty cool huh? So, check out my HV page at:
http://HumbleVoice.Com/ThePete
HV's slogan: "It's not just your space."
Another thing I managed to sneak in time on is discovering a nice little alternative to MySpace.Com. One of the thing I despise about MySpace.Com is just how sucky MySpace.Com is. It's almost as buggy as Lego Star Wars for the DS and it's REALLY poorly laid out. I mean, it looks like a website someone with no design sense put together with coding from 1998. Add one large picture to your layout and BOOM suddenly you're sidescrolling all around trying to figure out what the picture even is or what a commenter said because the text isn't wrapping. Well, enter HumbleVoice.Com.
Just at glance HumbleVoice.Com more pleasing to the eye than MySpace.Com. The next thing you notice is how the site is divided into interests--music, video, photograpy, art and word. It seems fairly easy for the user to make submissions into each category, unlike MySpace. This is where it's like DeviantArt.Com, a little, too. From what I can tell, your posts to each section end up in some central viewing area that I haven't found just yet (hey, I'm still exploring!). I managed to piss someone off by posting a musing about how using a "featured text section" was over a blog section (HV offer both) and got a slightly snobby anti-newbie post from a fellow HumbleVoicer. I guess newbs get no respect where ever they are on the 'net (she must be a Mac User).
So, if you hate MySpace as much as I do (or just want to find an alternative that plays home to a varying group of artist-types) check out HumbleVoice. So far so good, I say regarding my experience there. It's only been a couple of days, but I think I'll stick around and see how things go. It seems like a smaller group of people than MySpace which I think can have it's advantages.
OH yeah--I almost forgot. It looks like every time you post to HV (whether it be a picture, work of art, blog entry or anything else) you get points which you can eventually redeem for actual physical items like electronics or even a Vespa. Pretty cool huh? So, check out my HV page at:
http://HumbleVoice.Com/ThePete
HV's slogan: "It's not just your space."
Sunday, February 11, 2007
Project365 day 042
Here's me in the homecube again. Check out Treebeard behind me there--he
looks really mad, doesn't he? I think he's going to pounce on me!
Saturday, February 10, 2007
Project365 day 041
Here's me facing south on Cahuenga Blvd in Hollywood. I'm facing Sunset Blvd and way behind me on that hill, if you squint, you might be able to make out the Hollywood sign. It's soooo tiny, though. If I were to turn around and walk up the street I'd reach Hollywood Blvd. WAHOO. Actually, I'd pass the Theatre of NOTE where TheWife performed in A Mulholland Christmas Carol (a great show written by the all too talented Bill Robens and directed by the equally too talented Kiff Scholl) and once I reached H'wood blvd I'd be just a few blocks from the Paul Gleason Theater, where my first play premiered back in August of 2005. I have too much history in this town. I GOTTA MOVE!!
Friday, February 9, 2007
Project365 day 040
Man, I keep forgetting how finicky my SLVR is. Damn thing blurs pics all
the time and this time I forgot to check the pic out. :( Well, this is me
in front of my favorite anime shop in LA. You can check Power Anime out at
the Westside Pavillion mall or if you don't live in LA, check out
PowerAnime.com! (Tell 'em ThePete.Com sent ya!)
PRODUCT (RED): CORPORATIONS TRYING TO DO GOOD
So, anyone who reads my blog regularly knows that I tend to come down on the anti-corporate side of things. However, I'm actually not as anti-corporate as I let on. I actually thing corporations are just fine so long as they weren't extremist corporations. For instance, companies that don't give ANYthing back to humanity beyond the services that humans already pay for is lame. Coca-Cola using up all the drinking water in an Indian village--extremist corporatism. Wal-Mart refusing to unionize, that's extremist corporatism. I'm all for making money, but there's no reason anyone has to be a dick about it. Enter the Product (RED) program created by Bono of U2. The idea is that corporations who want to take help fight AIDS in Africa can offer a special version of a product or a special line of products with the Product (RED) motif. Each of these products that is sold will have a portion of the paid cost put into the fight against AIDS in Africa.Now, each product has a different amount given to the fight. For instance, TheWife's Product (RED) Motorola RAZR sent $17 to the fight which, according to the JoinRed.Com website, is the equivalent to providing an anti-retroviral (ARV) treatment for one month to a person with HIV. Since I hate Sprint (alas the only cell phone company in the use aligned with Product (RED)) I imported the Product (RED) Motorola SLVR via DrWireless.Com (though I think he's sold out). 10 British pounds (about 20 USD) of my purchase price goes to the fight against AIDS in Africa. We also both picked up the Motorola Bluetooth Product (RED) headsets ($5 from each purchase goes to the fight) as well as one GAP T-shirt a piece (strangely the website says nothing of how much cash is dedicated to the fight, though the shirts are made by Africans out of African cotton, so we're supporting the economy in Lesotho).
American Express has the Red Card, Converse has several shoes to choose from (you can even design your own on their website), Apple has Product (RED)ified an iPod Nano that comes in two different sizes (4 and 8 GB) and there are even more companies that are taking part. I think this is a great idea simply because corporations are supporting a good cause. Sure, they're probably upping the price we pay, but who cares? They're caring, that's who.
And I'd like to encourage it. If more corporations gave SOME kind of a crap about humanity (even the poor humans) I think the world would be a better place.
So, check out JoinRed.Com or swing by MySpace.Com/JoinRed and see what you can buy to encourage corporations to start caring about the thing they need to survive: PEOPLE. (OH yeah, and YOU'LL be helping people, too! COOL!)
Thanks for reading.
Thursday, February 8, 2007
RIP ANNA NICOLE SMITH
Ah, shit, this sucks. I don't have any pics of her handy, though if I wasn't blogging this from my Sidekick I would. She apparently collapsed earlier today and was pronounced dead at a Florida hospital. Of course she wasn't a huge talent and her "reality" show definitely contributed to the decline of American TV, but damn it, she was beautiful.
Yes, she was surgically augmented to be that beautiful, but ultimately I don't think that matters. She understood that she didn't have much to work with (she was pretty much an idiot) and she did what she felt she could do to become famous and wealthy. In my opinion, this is more than most of us bother to do.
Which is worse? The idiot with the huge tits on TV or the immensely brilliant genious who works at a McDonalds?
Sure she was no Molly Ivins, but I really hoped she'd turn out OK in the end. Speaking of the end, I think it's a shame that her train wreck life ended sooner and more depressingly than anyone's should.
I also hope we can move the hell on with our lives and not get mired in gossip, pettiness and an endless stream of news stories about the trials determining where her money and daughter go.
We've got much more important things to be concerned with, like nonbinding resolutions that disagree with troop surges...
I think I'll go add Skyscraper to my Netflix queue.
RIP ANS
Yes, she was surgically augmented to be that beautiful, but ultimately I don't think that matters. She understood that she didn't have much to work with (she was pretty much an idiot) and she did what she felt she could do to become famous and wealthy. In my opinion, this is more than most of us bother to do.
Which is worse? The idiot with the huge tits on TV or the immensely brilliant genious who works at a McDonalds?
Sure she was no Molly Ivins, but I really hoped she'd turn out OK in the end. Speaking of the end, I think it's a shame that her train wreck life ended sooner and more depressingly than anyone's should.
I also hope we can move the hell on with our lives and not get mired in gossip, pettiness and an endless stream of news stories about the trials determining where her money and daughter go.
We've got much more important things to be concerned with, like nonbinding resolutions that disagree with troop surges...
I think I'll go add Skyscraper to my Netflix queue.
RIP ANS
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