Latest Blog Posts
Anything Goes in the War on Drugs
I’m not usually a Rodney Balko fan, but his latest article is a sober assessment of the erosion of civil liberties we tolerate in order to conduct the War on Drugs™.
Vien Dong, we hardly knew ye
Well I confirmed with my own eyes today that Vien Dong restaurant across from the UNL city campus has either closed or moved. This was my favorite restaurant in the UNL/near downtown area, and for a while there, especially during the summer, I was heading over there every weekend for some beef pho (and they did serve it with a slice of lime, lettuce and sprouts - - but often times no basil). I’m not sure what it DIDN"T have going for it. The pho was decent - and I have eaten pho in Vietnam before - the place was clean and actually quite nice with the full length mirrors, and they had a mix of familiar “Americanized” dishes as well as the more authentic ones. Not to mention right across the street from a campus brimming full of kids and faculty. Perhaps it was the small lunch buffet? High rent? In anycase, RIP Vien Dong…lets hope the empty space is filled with a worthy replacement.
Movie Deficit
I am waaaaay behind on my movie watching. The Academy Award nominations came out today and I haven’t seen a single one of the Best Picture nominees. One of these days I’ll catch them all on DVD. I hope.
Braeda Spams
I’m such a meany. Today I received an e-mail from Braeda advertising their Super Bowl catering services. I had also received an e-mail from them a few weeks ago. It annoyed me then and it annoyed me today, primarily because I know where they got my e-mail address: from my business card, which I gave them in an effort to win a free lunch. So I sent them this:
I did not agree to receive your marketing e-mails. I believe you are therefore in violation of the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003. Specifically, your e-mail lacks a clear and obvious way to opt out of receiving further e-mails as required by the Act. (Incidentally, responsible and reputable businesses would offer that feature even without a federal law in place to require it.)
Please immediately remove me from your mailing and contact lists, electronic or otherwise. Future unsolicited commercial e-mails in violation of the CAN-SPAM Act will be reported to the Federal Trade Commission. Please see http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/buspubs/canspam.htm for helpful information about the Act.
They will claim, of course, that I “opted-in” to their marketing efforts by supplying them with my business card. That’s crap, of course. Nowhere near their little fishbowl did they state that my contact information could or would be used for anything other than to contact me about winning a free meal.
I wonder if I’ll hear back from them?
Twenty Million
Firefox has now passed the 20,000,000 download mark since it was released in November 2004.
Are you one of them? You should be.
House Rules
I am familiar with this standard Monopoly rules variation, but the article also mentions this Scrabble twist:
Other interesting board-game rule variations include the blank-tile substitution rule in Scrabble. Under this rule, if somebody puts a blank on the board to signify “R,’ say, and later you wind up with an “R’ in your rack, you can substitute the real letter for the blank and re-use the latter. This keeps the blanks in constant circulation, which can be useful toward the end of the game when everybody is getting down to the nubs, letters-wise.
Has anybody ever used that one, or even heard of it? I can’t say that I have.
A Tale of Two Countries
From the United States: Repeal of ‘Woman Slander’ Law Sought.
From France: France Outlaws Sexist Insults
Does this mean we’ll soon see an influx of women-insulting Frenchmen here in the U.S.?
There can be only one: Taco Inn vs. Amigos
Which is better of these two local chains? My verdict: Taco Inn. Why? Read on fools!
It’s Frickin’ Freezing in Here, Mr. Bigglesworth!
The Missus and I woke up to a nice 54 degree house this morning. Not an intolerable temperature by any means, but when you’re expecting at least in the 65, it catches you a bit off guard. I want to send a big thank-you to the friendly folks at Service Guard. Seriously, they were very helpful when I called, and a little repair dude—actually a fairly large repair dude—showed up in under two hours. (It was probably around 90 minutes, but I didn’t actually pay attention to the time.)
Good news: The house is now approaching 64 degrees, and warming. The furnace is, for the moment, working. Sort of.
Bad news: The (large) repair dude couldn’t figure out what was wrong. He’s pretty sure the problem is in the electronics within the control module, so he’s going to replace it. He doesn’t know if he’ll be able to get a new part today, though. It is, after all, Sunday. We should have full-functioning heat either late this afternoon or sometime tomorrow.
Cool news: The repair dude gave me permission to kick the furnace to get it to work. Well, those weren’t his exact words. But it was something like that. I watched him work, and tapping on the control panel appeared to be the best way to get it to (occasionally) work correctly. Beating things is my usual solution to get them to work, so this won’t be unusual for me at all.
Jerry Falwell/Tinky Winky Redux
Kudos to FoxNews for the creative name of the link to this story: SpongeBob GayPants?
Mangled Pig Carcass
Daisy loves pig ears.*
There are now dozens of tiny little chunks of pig carcass scattered throughout the house. Yum.
*For those of you who don’t have pets, pig ears are exactly that: dried (and sometimes seasoned) pig’s ears sold at outrageous prices to dog owners who, for whatever irrational reason, love to spoil their dogs.
Skywave Radio
I stumbled across Skywave Radio today. It’s a quirky little station out of Brighton, UK. They seem to play a mix of pop and lite punk. If you have Winamp or another program capability of playing streaming internet radio, check it out.
Now THIS is a winter day
I hope you all are getting a chance to enjoy this beautiful day. Could there possibly be a more iconic winter day? It’s cold, there’s a fresh blanket of snow, and the skies are sunny and clear. Fantastic. The only thing I can possibly find wrong with today is that the snow is way too dry to build a snowman. But that fact made it a heckuva lot easier to shovel, so there’s no way you’re going to hear me complain.
Daisy is enjoying the day by laying in the sun that is pouring into the kitchen. The missus is out braving the Saturday crowds at Hy-Vee. And me? I’m sitting at the computer gazing out the window rather than getting any work done.
Fox-free TV!
Do you absolutely hate Fox News? Well now there’s a solution!
I am torn between (1) thinking this is yet another example of just how lame partisans can be; and (2) thinking this is yet another example of just how creative a really dedicated group of individuals can be. I’m actually leaning toward 2…
Still, I can’t help but wonder: Shouldn’t the anti-Fox types be out hugging trees, saving whales, or protesting the fact that some imprisoned terrorist had to suffer through regular Cheerios with 2% milk this morning, rather than the Honey Nut Cheerios and skim milk he requested?
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