Generation Y biggest user of libraries: survey - Yahoo! News

Generation Y biggest user of libraries: survey - Yahoo! News

Comments later, but I wanted to bookmark this.

Drivers who piss me off, special vacation edition

California Highway Patrol
Tag number 1204066
Passed us in the left lane while watching a white pickup speeding down US 101 southbound, from Morgan Hill to Gilroy, north of Leavesley Road
1700 hours, 12/29/07

How much "profile" do you need?

Ban in first year struggles to raise UN profile - Yahoo! News

Flying 215,000 miles and visiting 39 countries, Ban Ki-moon has put tireless energy into his first year as U.N. secretary-general but has struggled to raise the profile of the much-criticized body.

How much more could the UN's "profile" really be raised? Isn't it one of the most prominent groups in the world?

Don't use Econo-Lodge in San Luis Obispo, CA

The text of the complaint we sent to them:

Heat did not work in the room. When I first went to check with the night desk for help, the outside phone was busy for almost 15 minutes (from 2255-2310). In frustration, I left to try and find an open store to just buy blankets for us. When I couldn't find any and came back to the hotel, I tried the night desk again and actually got through, to a staff member whose response on the phone was "Yeah?" Once he agreed to come out to actually get some extra blankets for us, he seemed openly skeptical of the broken heater in the room, and peeved that a guest was asking for some assistance from the staff.
He was a bit more polite when checking out the next morning, but still seemed dismissive of the lack of heat in the room on a night when the temperature dropped into the low '40s

We should've been skeptical of them from the start when we tried to make a reservation with them, and the phone was answered with the same "yeah?" we got out of the night desk. We stayed there because it was half the cost of any other hotel we could find in the area. Turns out the Ramada around the corner (literally 50 yards away) was only about $15 more than Econo-Lodge, and has a damn good Cajun restaurant attached.

Immigration debate: What 'tolerance' can unravel

newsobserver.com | What "tolerance" can unravel

Does this mean that it's time for the United States to shut its borders and reassert its 'white, Christian' identity and what Huntington calls its Anglo-Saxon, Protestant 'core values'?
No. The anti-immigration camp makes at least two critical mistakes.
First, it neglects the indispensable role that immigrants have played in building American wealth and power. In the 19th century, the United States would never have become an industrial and agricultural powerhouse without the millions of poor Irish, Polish, Italian and other newcomers who mined coal, laid rail and milled steel. European immigrants led to the United States' winning the race for the atomic bomb.

Well... the author makes her own critical mistake, immediately undercutting her own argument. You can certainly make the case that for the US to "reassert its 'white, Christian' identity and what Huntington calls its Anglo-Saxon, Protestant 'core values' " is not necessarily desirable. But to try to bolster your argument by citing mass waves of positive immigration from nations that are overwhelmingly white and Christain and at more than a little Anglo-Saxon doesn't help your argument.

A law professor should be able to do better.

English, motherfucker! Do you speak it?

Pulp Fiction (1994) - Memorable quotes
Samuel L Jackson: English, motherfucker, do you speak it?

So I'm spending the holidays in Salinas, with Shelli's family. Salinas is in Monterey County, California, about 15-20 miles from the coast. It's the origin of about 80% of the bagged salad that you buy at your local grocery store.

It's also the US equivalent of a third-world country, that happens to take dollars.

Every store sign is in Spanish - it might be in English, but it's damn sure in Spanish. There's a Radio Shack around the corner that has nothing but Spanish-language sidewalk signs. Every job ad includes "must be bi-lingual" in the description. And I'll bet you that if I walked in the door and applied for a job, they'd tell me to take a hike, even though I am bi-lingual. Just not Spanish. Every grocery store has 2-3 aisles of nothing but Mexican imports, and not in the International food aisles, either. I went looking for round steak at the grocery today, and not only could I not find the right cut of meat, I couldn't find anyone that spoke enough English to help me, so I left. Set the basket down in the middle of the aisle and walked out. Found someone who spoke English at another grocery store.

It's annoying that I'm expected to have to learn another language to function in a country I spent 35 years of my life defending. I'm OK with mamacita speaking Spanish at home and dragging her daughter to the DMV with her to help translate. I'm not OK with mamacita having her ass kissed by store employees whose pursuit of the dollar has now trumped their reverence for the country that mints it.



It's at the 4:00min mark, below...

Turning Christmas upside down

Tell the FCC They're Wrong

The Federal Communications Commission approved new rules that will unleash a flood of media consolidation across America. The new rules will further consolidate local media markets -- taking away independent voices in cities already woefully short on local news and investigative journalism.

Congress has the power to throw out these rules -- and if 100,000 people demand it, they'll have to listen. Click on the link below to sign the open letter to Congress urging them to stop the FCC and stand with the public interest.

http://action.freepress.net/campaign/sbmopenletter/

"I ain't straight outta Compton, I'm straight out the trailer"

OK! Magazine - First for Celebrity News - World Exclusive: Jamie Lynn Spears—"I'm Pregnant"

Jamie Lynn Spears is ready to reveal that she is expecting a baby

Yes, that's Britney's 16-year-old little sister. Star of a Nickelodeon TV show (how much longer is that going to last?).

When I went to go grab the quote for the blog, I saw the comments below the article. The one pictured could not be made up. First of all, lay off the exclamation points!!!!!!!!!!! Second of all, well, read it for yourself:












Yep, holier-than-thou advice from someone who loves the Heirhead herself. You can't make this up.

Socks

Nothing fancy, just socks.
That's what I got tonight. A bunch of 'em.

To back up. I've got the new job with CCIS, and we had the annual Christmas party the other night. The owners bought everyone AmEx gift cards. I was kicking around a variety of things I could do with mine. I've had my eye on a nice carry-on travel bag at Territory Ahead. I've been kicking around doing some game-shopping. I thought about a bunch of stuff from Levenger I'd like, but I have no idea what's coming for Christmas, and a lot of what I wanted there is on the Christmas list that Shelli sent to the family. I even thought about some things I'd like to get for Shelli, but her Christmas present is done and I think it's pretty spiffy :)

In the end, I hopped on the REI website just to see if they took AmEx, and they had a deal for $20 off of a $100 purchase. And I'd been considering dropping about $100 on some god socks there (a good REI pair runs $8-10 anyway). Good socks are a fantastic wear, and hard to find. Even the Target house brand hiking socks are $6/pair, if you can find them (not every store carries 'em). So I'd thought about doing this even before the gift from work. And before the $20 off. But now that I can basically get $120 of stuff for $100 of someone else's money, it's tough to pass up.

So I went out tonight and bought about 6 new pairs of socks. I got a pair of T-shirts and a keychain, and something for Shelli, but it was mainly about socks. Good socks. Lots of socks. But nevertheless, I spent half my Christmas present from work at a premier outdoor outfitting company on... socks.

Peter King @ SI

Why Peter King is awesome.

Factoid of the Week That May Interest Only Me
On Dec. 16, 1972, at 1 p.m. in Miami, the Dolphins beat Baltimore to run their record to 14-0.
On Dec. 16, 2007, at 1 p.m. in Miami, the Dolphins beat Baltimore to run their record to 1-13.

Peter King is the man

Why Peter King is awesome.

Factoid of the Week That May Interest Only Me
On Dec. 16, 1972, at 1 p.m. in Miami, the Dolphins beat Baltimore to run their record to 14-0.
On Dec. 16, 2007, at 1 p.m. in Miami, the Dolphins beat Baltimore to run their record to 1-13.

Who else digs up this stuff, besides Jayson Stark?

Steroids, Lasik, and the Mitchell Report

There's something I've been wondering about. Steroids are not, by themselves, illegal. They are legal if prescribed and used under care of a doctor, aren't they? So if a doctor says they're medically necessary, then they can be prescribed, taken, used, with no legal consequences.
Why is chemical alteration of the body considered so different from surgical alterations? Tommy John surgery is intended to repair damage, but couldn't it be used pre-emptively to repair a weak, though undamaged, ligament? Weight-loss surgery might have the impact of prolonging an aging star's career by helping him maintain his speed as age takes its toll. And what about LASIK surgery - which is almost universally elective?
I think one reason we consider surgical options so differently than chemical ones is that the chemical ones can actually be performed "under the table" and without actual medical supervision. It's not like there's a black market in LASIK clinics.
But isn't the net result - medical enhancement above and beyond the basic capabilities of the body - the same?

Top 10 Tips for New Bloggers From Original Blogger Jorn Barger

Top 10 Tips for New Bloggers From Original Blogger Jorn Barger

Jorn Barger of Robot Wisdom coined the term "weblog" Dec. 17, 1997 -- 10 years ago Monday -- to describe the daily list of links that "logged" his travels across the web.
In the decade hence, Barger feels that he's gained some wisdom of his own about blogging. Here's Barger's top 10 tips for novice bloggers:
My intent for weblogs in 1997 was to make the web as a whole more transparent, via a sort of "mesh network," where each weblog amplifies just those signals (or links) its author likes best. 1998-1999 was for me the Golden Age of Weblogs, when the following principles were widely understood:
1. A true weblog is a log of all the URLs you want to save or share. (So del.icio.us is actually better for blogging than blogger.com.)
2. You can certainly include links to your original thoughts, posted elsewhere … but if you have more original posts than links, you probably need to learn some humility.
3. If you spend a little time searching before you post, you can probably find your idea well articulated elsewhere already.
4. Being truly yourself is always hipper than suppressing a link just because it's not trendy enough. Your readers need to get to know you.
5. You can always improve on the author's own page title, when describing a link. (At least make sure your description is full enough that readers will recognize any pages they've already visited, without having to visit them again.)
6. Always include some adjective describing your own reaction to the linked page (great, useful, imaginative, clever, etc.)
7. Credit the source that led you to it, so your readers have the option of "moving upstream."
8. Warn about "gotchas" -- weird formatting, multipage stories, extra-long files, etc. Don't camouflage the main link among unneeded (or poorly labeled) auxiliary links.
9. Pick some favorite authors or celebrities and create a Google News feed that tracks new mentions of them, so other fans can follow them via your weblog.
10. Re-post your favorite links from time to time, for people who missed them the first time.

A good of a presidential criteria as any

newsobserver.com

Combing the field for our next head honcho
JIM SHEA, The Hartford Courant

HARTFORD, CONN. - So far, we have been asking these questions: Is America ready for a woman president? Is America ready for a Mormon president? Is America ready for a black president?
But the question we have not been asking: Is America ready for a bald president?

Never mind his personal life, his revisionist record, his prickly personality. The biggest obstacle facing Republican front-runner Rudy Giuliani is not what's between his ears, it's what's above them.

This should be worrisome for Republicans, because this country has not elected a bald person president since Dwight Eisenhower in 1956.

The hairy record:

In 1960, John Kennedy's hair beat Richard Nixon's hair by a hair, and in 1964 Lyndon Johnson's slicked-back follicles beat the Brylcreem out of Barry Goldwater's.

In the 1968 and 1972 presidential elections, Nixon came back against two opponents -- Hubert Humphrey and George McGovern -- who both were obviously well on their way to chrome dome-ification.

In 1976, Jimmy Carter whipped wispy Gerald Ford, whose head, if you were to believe comedian Chevy Chase, was one large bump looking for its next accident.

Ronald Reagan may or may not have been a great president, but there is no denying he had the best right-wing hair of all time, which is why he opened a can of whup on Carter and Fritz Mondale in 1980 and 1984.

Michael Dukakis probably had superior hair to George H.W. Bush's in 1988, but then Dukakis did that ridiculous photo-op from the tank, and the helmet he was wearing and his hair became confused in voters' eyes.

In 1992 and 1996, Bill Clinton's "Don't Stop Thinking About Tomorrow" hair made Bush's and Bob Dole's "On the Road to Mandalay" hair look old-fashioned and out of step.

In 2000, Al Gore looked like he had better hair than George W. Bush, but from the right angle you could see he was soon going to be spray painting a burgeoning bald spot. This reality is probably why the Supreme Court awarded the election to Bush.

In 2004, John Kerry and John Edwards boasted the best all-time hair by a pair of running mates, a distinction that proved to be to their disadvantage because while you cannot be too rich or too thin, you can be too coiffured.

Which brings us to 2008, where the Republicans are in big trouble.

Right now, three of the top four GOP candidates -- Giuliani, John McCain and Fred Thompson -- haven't got enough hair among them to produce a halfway decent comb-over.

Mitt Romney, on the other hand, has a lot of hair, but it is Mr. Perfect hair, and not a style voters trust.

The Republican hair situation is so dire that, in desperation, Republicans are beginning to migrate toward Mike Huckabee hair.

On the Democratic side, Edwards has, in effect, shot himself in the hair with his $400 haircuts, while Barack Obama wears his hair so short as to take it out of play.

Hillary Clinton, who has never been comfortable in her own hair, is currently going with a style her hair people describe as an "inevitability bob."

Arguably, the most presidential hair in either party belongs to Chris Dodd, but, unfortunately, his silvery locks have yet to catch fire.

Honor and Dignity?

newsobserver.com
Tom Teepen, Cox Newspapers

Do you remember when Bush was first running for the presidency and said he would bring dignity and honor back to a White House befouled by a sexual affair? Well, sure enough, he has not had a single sexual affair. We must thank him for that.

8 obviously wasn't enough

newsobserver.com | Nine-time flasher avoids prison with plea

RALEIGH - A Raleigh man avoided prison time Tuesday by admitting he exposed himself while watching a group of preteen cheerleaders in a Cary parking lot this fall. The conviction for indecent exposure was his ninth.
Many of Joseph Michael Hilliard's victims have been children, and incidents have occurred in places such as bookstores and the children's section of a public library, according to court records and news accounts. A Wake County prosecutor said Tuesday she agreed to a plea deal so Hilliard, 33, could get therapy.
{snip}
In September, Hilliard was already on probation for an indecent exposure conviction when he parked in his car in front of the group of cheerleaders, ages 5 to 10, as they practiced in a parking lot, Shekita said.

When the local NBC station covered the story, they said his latest arrest was "For exposing himself to a group of teenage girls, age 5 to 10..."

Demented Christmas Carols

Sent to me by Tom:


Christmas Carols for the Mentally Disturbed:

1. Schizophrenia --- Do You Hear What I Hear?

2. Multiple Personality Disorder --- We Three Kings Disoriented Are

3. Dementia --- I Think I'll be Home for Christmas

4. Narcissistic --- Hark the Herald Angels Sing About Me

5. Manic --- Deck the Halls and Walls and House and Lawn and Streets and Stores and Office and Town and Cars and Buses and Trucks and Trees and.....

6. Paranoid --- Santa Claus is Coming to Town to Get Me

7. Borderline Personality Disorder --- Thoughts of Roasting on an Open Fire

8. Personality Disorder --- You Better Watch Out, I'm Gonna Cry, I'm Gonna Pout, Maybe I'll Tell You Why

9. Attention Deficit Disorder --- Silent night, Holy oooh look at the froggy - can I have a chocolate, why is France so far away?

10. Obsessive Compulsive Disorder --Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Ji ngle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells ....

Native tongue

Estimado(a) Brant,
Dése gusto después de las Fiestas cuando reserve ahora y ahorre 25% después en los locales de Enterprise de su vecindario. O ahorre ahora con un Especial de Fin de Semana de 50% de descuento o un cambio gratis a una mejor clase de carro.

So I'm sure you're wondering why there's a Spanish ad for Enterprise Rent-a-Car on my blog. If it makes you feel any better, I was wondering why there was a Spanish ad for Enterprise in my email inbox. Yeah.

I sent the following reply to Enterprise, and as you can tell, I was pissed. And I didn't bother trying to be polite. I don't anticpate a response from Enterprise, nor do I anticipate them missing my business. But I haven't been back to Best Buy since 2002 when I didn't get an apology for our treatment there (and I did get a response from corporate from them) and right now, unless there's some serious groveling on the part of Enterprise.

---

There is no fucking way I will ever respond to a solicitation from an American company to a US citizen to do business within the United States when that solicitation arrives to me in Spanish. I don't care if there's an "English" button on the damn email. You want my business, you speak my language. Which, by the freakin' way, happens to be the language of the god-damn country in which you're trying to do business.

I am now reconsidering my rental plans over Christmas. You better make a damn strong case for me to not drop you like a rock for pandering to political correctness and undermining the fundamental strengths of our country.

A Funny Political Observation

The article is about religion as it applies to Romney and Huckabee, but the nugget below is pretty good.
newsobserver.com

The God of the Founders, the God on the coinage, the God for whom Lincoln proclaimed Thanksgiving Day is the ineffable, ecumenical, nonsectarian Providence of the American civil religion whose relation to this blessed land is without appeal to any particular testament or ritual. Every mention of God in every inaugural address in American history refers to the deity in this kind of all-embracing, universal, nondenominational way.
(The one exception: William Henry Harrison. He caught cold delivering that inaugural address. Thirty-one days later, he was dead. Draw your own conclusion.)

Bad Web Names

1. A site called ‘Who Represents‘ where you can find the name of the agent that represents a celebrity.
www.whorepresents.com
2. Experts Exchange, a knowledge base where programmers can exchange advice and views at
www.expertsexchange.com
3. Looking for a pen?
www.penisland.net
4. Need a therapist?
www.therapistfinder.com
5. Italian Power Generator company
www.powergenitalia.com
6. Mole Station Native Nursery, based in New South Wales:
www.molestationnursery.com
7. Computer software, etc
www.ipanywhere.com
8. The First Cumming Methodist Church. www.cummingfirst.com
9. Art designers:
www.speedofart.com
10. Want to vacation at Lake Tahoe?
www.gotahoe.com

Dazed and Confused

Not exactly patriotic, but still amusing.

Dazed and Confused (1993) - Memorable quotes

Okay guys, one more thing, this summer when you're being inundated with all this American bicentennial Fourth Of July brouhaha, don't forget what you're celebrating, and that's the fact that a bunch of slave-owning, aristocratic, white males didn't want to pay their taxes

The PATRIOT Act is officially an overwhelming success! (not)

I have a new job in North Carolina.
I'm living in an RV because we didn't want to move the family until the summer.
I use my Ohio cell phone as my 'home' phone.
My power and water bills are part of my RV registration.
I got a local PO Box so I can get my mail here, without having it go to the RV dealer where I'm parked.
I apply for the health insurance program here, which includes and HSA.
I use my PO Box as the mailing address for the HSA, because, hey, that's where I get my mail.

Well... apparently the HSA folks, acting in accordance with the godforsaken Patriot Act, need a utility bill for me at my mailing address to open a damned bank account. Now, keep in mind, I have no utilities! It's the beauty of living on the RV instead of trying to get a month-to-month apartment.

Be afraid, be very afraid, of a government that wants to restrict how you manage your own money.

Picking on white guys again

Why is it that every one of the Visa commercials has a white guy holding up the line. Seriously. You've seen the ads - everyone twirling around a deli, or a record store, or something, to a catchy tune, zipping their Visa cards through a card reader (backwards, no less...) until someone holds up the line with cash or a check or something. Every one of those guys is a white middle-aged man.

What, no women ever hold up a line by not having any of the check filled out before they get up to the register?
Black guys never pay cash?
Asians never fumble through their cards looking for the right one?

Or are we picking on white guy because they know there's no Jesse Sharpton protest march about to rain down on them?

BCS Title Game

I'm an LSU fan, so I'm happy with LSU being selected for the BCS title game. Of the options to play against OSU (who I think earned their way in, even though I can't stand them), I think LSU and Oklahoma were the only real choices. And I think that if you ask Sooner fans, they'll tell you they're disappointed, but not pissed off. And I'd bet that if LSU finished 2d to OU in the race for the game, the Tiger Nation would've been disappointed, but not mad.
Of all the other potential contenders:
Georgia: You're not the best team in your conference, how can you be the best team in the country. Richt's right, though. That needs to be written into the rules.
Southern Cal: You lost to Stanford.
Virginia Tech: You don't get in ahead of the team that beat you by 41. That doesn't need to be written; it's pretty much there.

Everyone talks about how OU lost to "X" team under what circumstances, and comparing the teams that beat the contenders and who they played and what their records were. That's all well & good, but really, there's not a world of difference between Colorado & Texas Tech and Arkansas & Kentucky. Let's talk instead about the big wins each team had. Oklahoma can point to a 2-0 record over Mizzou, including the title game when Mizzou was #1. LSU has wins over Auburn and Georgia, but most importantly, they have a 48-7 ass-whipping over VT. No one, anywhere in college football this year, has a win that good against a team that good. No one. To me, that's LSU's trump card.

More Airport Morons

This might be the first time I've ever heard anyone compare Columbus Public Schools favorably to anyone but the yutz in the terminal here thinks that CPS is a better school system than Wake County Public Schools in Raleigh/Cary.
And the yutz sitting next to him just made a comment about Ohio State being a better school than UNC*.
(sigh)

*Now, I'm a huge UNC-basher on all things sports, but I respect the academic reputation of place. And I actually am a student at Ohio State, so I can attest to what a crapshoot that school is.

Providing a clue

BCS buster Hawaii earns Sugar Bowl bid and date with Georgia - NCAA Football - Yahoo! Sports

'We feel like we got shafted a little bit,' Georgia safety Kelin Johnson said. 'The numbers don't add up. The numbers do not add up. The numbers do not lie. That's what is confusing. I don't know what's going on.'

Let me help you out here: win your conference.