Freedom Tower (blech)

Here's the description of the Freedom Tower that will be built next to the World Trade Center grounds:

"Glass prisms, landscaped plazas and a lighted spire meant to resemble the Statue of Liberty's torch are all included in the latest design of the skyscraper being built to replace the World Trade Center."

Where to start...
Well, number one the spire looks nothing like, much less resemble, the Statue of Liberty's torch. And calling if "Freedom Tower"? That's the name some jingoistic dictator from a third world country would call some crappy building where the bloody communist/fascist revolution took place. I'd rather they slap TRUMP on the thing than call it "Freedom Tower". I get the same feeling I got when Bush stated referring to the U.S. as "the homeland." Sounds too much like when the Nazi's referred to Germany and the Fatherland. Much too Orwell for me.

Lexicon

Talking to Bryan in Chicago last night about his trip to Canada (north of the U.S.), we started talking about Toronto and Montreal and how he thought the boys in Montreal were cute in that "cute looking like they need to take a shower Eurotrash way". I mentioned that the incredibly awful show, Queer As Folk was filmed in Toronto. That set Bryan off a bit. Bryan thinks the term "queer" is in the same league as n**ger and sp*ck. The conversation went something like this:

Me: Queer As Folk was filmed in Toronto, you know.

Bryan: Queer As Folk? Why haven't I seen anything called N*gger As Folk or Sp*ck As Folk. I hate the word "queer".

Me: Oh, gawd. I am going to have to blog this. But I'm going to have to make sure everyone knows you're Mexican. Well, kinda Mexican. Mexican lite. You really have created your own nationality.

Bryan: What nationality is that?

Me: the "get over yourself" nationality

Superman Returns

My friend Bryan out in Chicago got to go to a sneak preview of the new Superman Returns and had this to say via a voice mail he left me:

"Oh my Gawd! It was totally awesome!"

If you elongate the vowels as you read the above quote, you will hear the gay in Bryan's voice.

Now I just have to find out how Bryan started hanging out with the kind of people that get to see movies before the rest of us mortals.

update Ain't It Cool News has a Tantric orgasm over Superman Returns

SAAD

I experienced Sudden Adult Alzheimer's Disease (SAAD) today at work.

I was chatting with a co-worker about what we both did this past weekend. I told her about hanging out with a couple of friends at the Haight Ashbury Street Fair on Sunday, but I couldn't for the life of me remember what I did on Saturday, which was strange because I remember thinking myself on Friday how I have a full weekend planned.

A few hours passed at work, about five, and I suddenly remembered what I did on Saturday. I had my first class for Contract Management. I completely forgot that I spent 7 long hours in a stuffy classroom listening to a dryer than the Sahara lecturer drone on about the kinds of contracts one will encounter when hiring, well, a contractor.

I had completely blocked the entire day out of my mind, like Saturday never happened. Now I haven't experienced that kind of memory loss since I took that red pill, er, nevermind. Anyway... So I lost an entire day due to SAAD. Thinking back on it, I can understand why I loss all memory of the day. The lecturer! The lecturer is the type of person that feels the need to have a "joke of the day." Seriously, he actually told us to be ready for his "joke of the day." Now if any of you have had to endure a seminar or a lecture of any sort and the speaker feels the need to warn you about an impending joke, you know you are in for a long day. When you encounter the type of person that tells you he or she is going to tell you a joke is a VERY good indication that this person is boring.

What I want to know is why do these type of people think that telling their joke (usually a painfully unfunny one, at that) is going to make the lecture anymore exciting? I'm baffled. If anything, giving the "warning" that a "joke" is about to be unleashed, is the first indication that the speaker/lecturer has abdicated any pretence of actually having an interesting personality.

We have all had teachers that were as boring as Ralph Fienes in The English Patient, but they, if you are lucky, don't try to compensate for their lack of personality by telling jokes. With teachers, they have probably been teaching so long, that they are filled with nothing but contempt for the students, therefore, they don't care anymore, anyway. With a teacher, you know what you are getting. There is no "oh, god, he's trying to be funny" moments. People that are boring, and know it, don't try to tell jokes. Truth in advertising is always the best way. It's like those awful commercials that Microsoft had with the people that had dinosaur heads on. Big mistake. Microsoft products are boring. Everyone knows Microsoft products are boring, but Microsoft tried to make themselves "interesting." Maybe Microsoft was trying to be ironic? If so, it did not work. Now the new Apple computer adds with the cute kid and the nerdy business guy? Brilliant. Apple knows they are cool and interesting and that Microsoft is not. The ads work wonderfully. Know who you are and you will do fine.

If you are boring, own it.

Now if someone could just give me a call at, say, around 7:45 am this Saturday so I don't forget my class, I would be grateful.

But We Have A Deal!

Walking back from H&M today, I did something that can only, I thought, happen on TV.

I tripped over a pigeon.

As I was walking, I spied this pigeon in front of me but I kept walking thinking, "surely this pigeon will flutter out of my way as I get closer," because that's what's is supposed to happen; we have a deal with pigeons, afterall. Righ? But no, this particular bird must be a big old tard because as I approached, the closer I got the less the pigeon seemed to be moving out of my way. It moved so little, that is to say not at all, that it ended up between my feet where it then started to flap it's wings as if it finally realized this particular time was the moment to get out of my way. Well, as the pigeon was caught between my legs, maniacally flapping it's wings, I started hopping and spinning on one foot, raising the other leg trying give the pigeon open access to flee, the damn bird flew straight up into my crotch and got caught and couldn't (or wouldn't? Perv.) get out. I don't know, I guess my crotch is a big ole pigeon magnet ready to suck any flying rat within a yard! Finally after what seemed an eternity, the thing got out and flew across to the street to join his pigeon buddies.

After the laughter from the surrounding people stopped, I, with dignity, walked away cursing under my breath, "WE HAVE A DEAL."

Net Neutrality

The house in it's craven wet dream for all things big business has voted down the Net Neutrality bill that would have kept the internet a free system for everyone to use. This is a very bad thing to happen to the idea of open competition in the market place. I think you can draw parallels to the The Eisenhower Interstate System and it's impact on the economy of the U.S.

Eisenhower created this system for a few reasons.

These are highways in rural and urban areas which provide access between an arterial and a major port, airport, public transportation facility, or other intermodal transportation facility (good way to move goods which is good for the economy).
Strategic Highway Network(STRAHNET): This is a network of highways which are important to the United States' strategic defense policy and which provide defense access, continuity and emergency capabilities for defense purposes.
Major Strategic Highway Network Connectors: These are highways which provide access between major military installations and highways which are part of the Strategic Highway Network.

I will focus on the first reason, connecting of towns and cities. By building the Interstate System, Eisenhower created the means to move goods and services in a more efficient manner, thereby creating the means for the U.S. to build a stronger economy. About 98 percent of all roads in NHS have been built. The 256,000 kilometers (km) of NHS include only 4 percent of the nation's roads, but they carry more than 40 percent of all highway traffic, 75 percent of heavy truck traffic (the products we use everyday), and 90 percent of tourist traffic. With numbers like that, you can see the importance of the Interstate System. Now what does this have to do with Net Neutrality? Easy. The Interstate Highway System is currently free system, which makes the movement and shipping of products cheaper than if there were tolls. If there were tolls on the roads, you can be assured our economy would not be as strong and only the largest companies with the resources to pay the tolls would be able to thrive, thereby creating less choice for consumers. It is the same thing with Net Neutrality. By getting rid of Net Neutrality, Congress has essentially set the frame work for tolls on the net which makes it possible for only the largest corporations to do business (the ones that can afford the premium service of faster connections speed to their web site). Now smaller start-up companies that don't have the budget to afford the faster connection speed, will be left out in the cold when trying to sell their goods and services. Now Amazon, Google, Target, Best Buy, etc. will be able to assure their place on the net because the connection they pay for will be faster and more reliable. What consumer is going to want to wait for that discount electronic web site to load when Amazon loads much faster? Congress has put up a big roadblock for any of the small start-ups to do compete in our, supposedly, free market. A vote against Net Neutrality is a vote against competion. No competion means higher prices for everyone.

I urge you to contact your congressperson.

For the Senate, I suggest you contact your Senater and urge him or her to vote for competion and for Net Neutrality:

For the House here is a list of who voted for net
neutrality and against. Republicans go on and on about free markets and competion, take a look at which Republican actually beleives it.

World Cup

It really is quaint how ABC is all hype about the World Cup. Currently, Paraguay (does Paraguay even have enough people to form a soccer team?) and England are on the TV (keep in mind it is 7:00 am, so we know tons of people are watching). I tried to watch some of the game, but found it to be a bit boring ( I feel the same way about our own version of Football, but Americans seem to know how to hype a game to its merchandising breaking point). All the local news stations here in San Francisco have run stories on what's been going on in this, apparent, phenomenal game. Which is odd because I don't think there was a news report about "football" all this year until the World Cup came around (which is every four years, I hear).
It seems to me the World Cup is a perfect example in the bandwagon mentality. Honestly, did anyone in the U.S. even pay attention to soccer until the World Cup? I can't think of a time the news had anything about soccer unless David Beckham (a C-list ceebrity if there ever was one) accindently made it into the honorable pages of the Enquirer, and that because his wife is evidently an ex-Spice Girl. I understand Beckham is quite big celebrity-wise in England. But England? C'mon, England is abuot the size of...nothing, really. Okay, I take that back, we do hear about "football" every now and then, but that is only when there is a riot because some team lost which caused the collapse of the stands (the irony never really escaping anyone).
I understand how the rest of the world goes ape-shit over this little game, but if it's not big in the U.S., then it really doesn't matter. Am I right?

;-)

Large Breasted Mannequins Not Welcome At Macy's

It looks like the wingnuts are at it again. Macy's in Boston pulls a gay pride display from it's window.

MassResistance President Brian Camenker: "They were male mannequins with enlarged breasts, and one was wearing a skirt. It was really disgusting."

Maybe if the mannequins were married the display would have been okay?

Via: Andy

Drive By Review: Pasta Pomodoro

If Chef Boy-R-Dee opened an "Italian" Restaurant, it would be Pasta Pomodoro

A Room (and roof) With A View

The photos below were taken from the roof of my apartment building. Nice day in San Francisco

If you look closely, you can see the big ole gay flag. That's Surtro Tower on the left.

You can barely see the top of the Transamerica Pyramid in the center of this one. That's over where Chad lives.

Taken from my apartment window

But Will The Salesperson's Head Explode?

update Sadly no exploding heads, the transaction went smoothly, I was even lured into buying the extended warranty. They're crafty at Best Buy, very crafty. I am both surprised and dissapointed.

After much deliberation, I have decided what I will purchase with my 2 $100 gift cards (mentioned in a previous post). I will buy a nice digital camera. I had hoped to be able to buy the camera through Amazon, but found that Amazon will not take multiple gift cards, much less a standard gift card, so I am left with paying about $30 extra to buy my camera at Best Buy (not sure if they are being ironic by calling this store Best Buy, or not). Now this camera I want is more than a mere $200 (the amount of the gift cards for those not keeping up), so I will have to pay the balance in cash. Now I predict two things will happen during this transaction:

1. I will explain that I want to pay for the camera with my two gift cards which will cause the sales person's head to explode when he or she tries to figure out how to ring up one order that is being paid for with two forms of payment.

And then...

2. The poor soul ringing up my order will then spontaneously combust when I then say, "And I want to pay the remaining balance with CASH!" It is at this point his or her body will begin to shudder, his or her eyes will role back and she or he will then explode into some form of dust ala Buffy The Vampire Slayer.

I'm confident that aftar two Supervisors and one Manager is summoned to complete this mercantile miracle, that this one purchase will be completed in about 4 hours, which will thereby confirm my belief I am smarter than anyone that works at Best Buy. But this all conjecture, of course.

Who Killed The Electric Car?

The "DUH" Award Goes To: CNN

"Most college graduates in debt"

Really. I am shocked.

This story must have been a beast to research, what an amazing piece of journalism. The insight it must have taken to see this story.

Gee, it only took me ten years to pay of the debt I accumulated from college.

/sarcasm