netflix

recently, we have been the joyful recipient of that click on a movie and find in your mailbox online service. i have to say that we are most pleased with the benefits that netflix brings. including the ability to watch a vast selection of online offerings whilst you await your next film.

we have long been advocates of the local independent video store and all the glory that usually comes with them. alas, our new local video store is the most dysfunctinal and ill-conceived operational model that one could conceptualize for a rather simple service.

i long held it a given that when one enters a video store, they hunt through the isles and come up with a film box or two that will suffice for the evening. you take the box to the front to retrieve the film and pay. you get the movie and go home, right? not at this vid store.

they run chaotically. you don't pull the movie box from the shelf. therefore, there is no guarantee that the movie that you select will be available or not. this wouldn't be such a pain in the arse if it were not for the customers who have learned this model and who will walk in from the street and go straight in line. the lines here typically take a minimum of 20 minutes to weed through, btw. the reason for this wait is that each of these folks begins a dialog with the video clerk as to which movies they wish to see, then the clerk looks up the films--sometimes with only vague tips from the patron as to who plays in them or the general plot. this customer service nightmare can last several minutes per patron. ugh!

last weekend, a. and i went to said store for the last time. we waited in line behind a total of 4 other customers and i watched the clock as my blood pressure rose. it took a heafty 28 minutes to get two movies-- and get this, the one that we really wanted was out. again, if the g-damn box was off the shelf and we were able to make an educated decision based on deductive movie availability reasoning, we would have selected something else. eff this video store, i tell you. and thank you corporate online netflix.

number one-point-five?

yesterday, i peered into the mirror and fully processed the appearance that i have been sculpting with my razor.

ugh...

ethically perplexed

it was only a matter of time before we reached the point of cloning human embryos in a relatively convenient manner.

it troubles me to a great extent to consider a future where clones are a fact of life. frankly, what troubles me even more than the concept of drones walking amongst us, but rather who determines who gets cloned.

my mind, struggling to grasp this vision, turns to thoughts of star wars and the masses of storm troopers who were to be spawn from replicated clones for military forces. without strict oversight, who is to say that the offspring of cloning could not go this direction? or would we elect to create clones for our world labor force? perhaps we can genetically mutate a cadre of clones to be dependent upon breathing carbon and exhaling oxygen, drinking toxic fluids and expelling pure water, and their skin with neutralizing oils and the innate desire to bathe in a quagmire of chemicals, only to eradicate the toxicity level?

neti fever

one year ago, i was witness to a raging testimonial for this ayurvedic wonder. jmr's 70-year old father exclaimed across the dinner table full of pastas-o-plenty, "my neti pot changed my life!" the resounding image of his crooning full red cheeks echoed in my mind and finally prompted my recurring curiosity to action last weekend as i took the $13 plunge and procured a ceramic pot of my very own. thus far, i would have to say that it is only a mildly invasive journey to bring the inside out, and my sense of smell has definitely been heightened--for at least a good while after purging the sinuses. i'll keep you posted on the continual usage and outcome.

are you kidding me?

ahhh, the bung buddy...just what every bung hole needs.

bike boxes for safety

this concept is an innovative approach to address the need for bicycle awareness, safety, and, additionally, it creates a transportation "hierarchy" within our city streets.

i-ran

so the u.s. sent 3 naval warships into the persian gulf last weekend. geez, and for some reason, the iranians counteracted by sending out 5 speedboats (yes, speedboats) to head off the naval cruisers and tell them to get out of their neighborhood.





what i don't quite understand is how we have the audacity to say that this counteraction was a "provocative act" and aggressive on behalf of the iranians.





are you to tell me that if 3 armed naval vessels from a major army that comes barreling in off the coast of los angeles or the gulf of mexico or new york bay--we wouldn't send out exploratory boats to head them off and tell them to go away? and to pair apples with apples, this major army has also invaded and occupied a neighboring country for the past 5 years. logically, would we not act in the same way?





i believe that this "us and them" philosophy is archaic. to achieve our goals of world stability and peaceful living, we need to create more international dialog and step out of the ideology that in order to attain peace we must wage war.





nyt article and reuters.

"...we'll search for tomorrow..."