"The megalomaniac differs from the narcissist by the fact that he wishes to be powerful rather than charming, and seeks to be feared rather than loved. To this type belong many lunatics and most of the great men of history." --Bertrand Russell
"No arts; no letters; no society; and which is worst of all, continual fear and danger of violent death; and the life of man, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short." --Thomas Hobbes
I think it's finally time to say, officially, that I am probably done with Blogsplotation. It's been quite a ride to do this for the past 4(!) years, but its just become...unmanageable. I no longer feel the need to update this site as often as I used to, and I think periodic updates are actually worse than no updates.
However...I've made the transition to Tumblr and my new site:
It's quick, agile, lightweight...basically, it makes the whole blogging thing fun again. Coupled with the fact that I can post words/pics/etc from wherever I get a cell signal, and it just makes it that much better.
So thank you for your views, comments, hate mail, suggestions, etc. i really do appreciate it. The site will remain so you can dig through the archives to relive your favorite posts (total number of favorite posts: zero.) As long as Blogger doesn't fuck me and axe my archives, here it'll stay, my own little spot on the web.
-joe
Send hate mail and your anguished please for my return here
I must say that I am quite enthralled with Tumblr and my own staked out spot Ease The Seat Back. I can't quite put the fascination into words, but maybe it's the...immediacy of it. This marks my fourth web outpost now, what with Blogsplotation, Flickr & MySpace. Why, then? Its not up to me (and I have no interest, frankly) in comparing and contrasting the various merits & demerits of each place. All I know about Tumblr is it's new, fast, interesting. We'll see if that leads to continued interest or not. Thus far though...yeah, I dig it.
But I started a tumblr thingy anyway. Why? Much like that buddhist koan involving a boy, an owl & a lollipop, the world may never know. But introducing Ease the Seat Back anyway. Have fun with it, as I know that I will grow bored of it inside a week. BUT DONT STOP CHECKING IN FOR UPDATES ANYWAY.
Should I go to Funde Razor tonight or not? I mean, do I really want to do the manhattan -> queens -> brooklyn -> queens deal tonight? I got totally pissed at the company holiday deal last night thus am feeling like shit anyway. But then i see pictures of amazing swag and I am tempted...
I think it's summed up pretty well by one poster who asks, "What the hell is an illegal cartoon?"
The U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday overwhelmingly approved a bill saying that anyone offering an open Wi-Fi connection to the public must report illegal images including "obscene" cartoons and drawings--or face fines of up to $300,000.
That broad definition would cover individuals, coffee shops, libraries, hotels, and even some government agencies that provide Wi-Fi. It also sweeps in social-networking sites, domain name registrars, Internet service providers, and e-mail service providers such as Hotmail and Gmail, and it may require that the complete contents of the user's account be retained for subsequent police inspection.
That's...troubling. No, I'm no lawyer (though I know people who are) but isn't obscenity defined by community standards? And if the idea of community has been done away with, at least in cyberspace...who defines what is obscene?
Calvin & Hobbes Snow Art! Man, I tried so hard to make something even remotely as cool as this as a kid. Alas, I am no artist and I possess very little in the way of patience.
How'd it get burned?
Oh, cookie season is upon us. Fatten up for the winter! Fuck the gym...eat some cookies. That's my fitness plan for Q4. Strict cookie/PS3 regiment. And the ladies...ooh, all I can say is this: like bees. Bees to a hive.
And now...off to PA!! Check back in a week after I've gotten enough iron to battle this anemia I've picked up.
Except the girl didn't have her fall cushioned with glass & wood. Nope, just cold, hard, unforgiving concrete. In the wake of the accident, the company had either OSHA or a representative from the ladder company come in to certify that the ladders were safe. It was found that they were. These findings were bullshit.
First of all...if the person inspecting the ladders was from the company that manufactured them, would he really be eager to find fault with his own product? No.
Secondly, here are some ladder safety tips, followed (in italics)by my own experiences with how these were disregarded.
# Face the ladder while climbing and stay in the center of the rails. Grip both rails securely while climbing. (Stock was stored approx. 18-20 ft in the air, if not more. You were expected to carry stock up the ladder. You do the math.) # Do not lean over the side of the ladder. Your belt buckle should not be further than the side rail. (As a company that stored the majority of its merch above the floor, you needed to reach places that weren't the most easily accessible. That meant leaning off to the side of the ladder to grab things. Again, merchandise that could weigh upwards 0f 30lbs.) # On single or extension ladders, never stand above the third rung from the top and never climb above the point where the ladder touches the wall or vertical support. (LOL...yeah right. You weren't an accepted "member of the team" if you weren't willing to do dumb shit like this on a ladder. At one early point in my time spent with these assholes, I was told by a manager that the store wouldn't fully close and people would not be allowed to go home until I climbed to the top of the ladder to retrieve some merch. Keep in mind I'd already made it painfully clear that I have a severe aversion to heights.) # Never stand on the top rung of any ladder. (Sorry, this was done on a daily, if not hourly, basis. Again, not doing it meant castigation from employees AND management, which I was a part of. Another neat thing: management actively conspired to fire people. There was also a strong undercurrent of racial discrimination & profiling. I was told to get the store manager if a person who "looked like they couldn't afford one" attempted to buy an expensive stroller. This lead to some VERY embarrasing situations. Especially when you have two couples in neighboring lanes, one a white couple who bring the stroller up to checkout, pays for it and leaves, whereas the other, non-white couple, has to wait as the store manager is called via walkie-talkie to talk to the customers while, get this, I'm supposed to "discreetly" photocopy a driver's liscense and credit card of the person paying. All this, while trying to explain that it's "store procedure" which is clearly as not, as the white couple just waltzed out with their $750 piece of shit.) # Do not overreach. It is safer to move the ladder to a new location when needed. Do not try to "jog" or "walk" the ladder to a new location while standing on it. Climb down and reposition the ladder. (again, done constantly.) # Do not overload a ladder. It is meant to be used by only one person at a time. (what? there's two sides to a ladder, that means there should be two people on it. Or at least that seemed to be the mantra.)
I think of all the evils perpetrated in that place, this ladder thing is right up there with the most grievous.
Send hate mail and for those bastards to go out of business here
Are you reading Cracked? No? Well, start. I've learned more about the Bible in 10 minutes on that site than in the previous 20 some odd years. Like f'r instance, did you know that <Metal Gear is in the Bible? It's true.
Send hate mail and the ability to summon bears to discipline unruly youths here
Remember when manly-man long-shot Dem candidate Joe Biden called Rudy Giuliani "the most under-qualified man since George W. Bush to seek the presidency"? The Delaware senator cattily continued: "There's only three things he mentions in a sentence: a noun, and a verb and 9/11." (emphasis mine)
LOLLOLZLAWLZLOLLERSKATESOMGWTFBBQ
Send hate mail and CoD4 stat/ranking corrections here
Saw this at 1am this morning; in case you were curious, this is painted on the garage door of the police precinct across the street from my apartment. Someone's got a pair of balls.
