Rant: Business advice

I know, everyone hates their cable company. It's not a new rant. I won't bore you by describing what idiotic thing they did this time.

But I only just realized the depth of this. I realized that every time I try to decide whether I want to give them money for some new or additional service, the calculation doesn't just involve whether the service is worth X dollars to me. Every time, I also have to decide whether I want the particular service badly enough to overcome the fact that I just hate the idea of giving them any more money.

Really, I'm not asking for greatness. I just want them to run a business in a normal, average, mediocre manner, so that I can decide whether to purchase something solely based on whether it is worth the price.

Is that so much to ask? Just don't run your business so badly that people actually hate you. That is my advice.

happy thanksgiving!

Poised for takeoff
Originally uploaded by wombatarama

Here's Rose about to be blown away by the blustery weather at the Thanksgiving parade this past weekend.

Raised by Smush-faced Wolves

from Urbanpug.com:



The baby may think she's a pug, but pugs think they are human, so it all works out in the end.

A job well done... or not

I just read this review in the Onion of the apparently ridiculously long-awaited new album by Guns N'Roses.

I'm not sure why I started reading it, because I have never heard an old album by this group and have no interest in the new one. But I kept reading to the end, at which point, I wanted to run right out and buy - no, not the album, even though it was quite a good review. Instead, I couldn't believe that anyone could be such a good writer that he could get me to read 1700 words (I counted) about the new Guns N' Roses album, so I wanted to run out and buy one of this guy's books.

There is some kind of important lesson about writing here, but I can't figure out what it is, because I can't decide: Does this mean he is doing a good job as a reviewer or a terrible one?

Newfangled West Coast innovations

On the news lately they keep talking about 'fire season' in California. Listen up, California people: I know that you are inexperienced with the whole 'seasons' thing, so trust me: 'fire season' is a really bad idea for one.

Honeymoon period

I was out today doing research for a holiday gift guide for the newspaper (pay no attention to those bulging shopping bags) and found places that were selling Obama purses, totes, mousepads, and Christmas tree ornaments.

It was way too expensive, but I was sorely tempted to buy the ornament and hang it on the tree next to our only other celebrity-portrait ornament, the one with the Pope on it.

Pug powers

How do they do it? How can it be possible that when I am lying in bed in the morning with my eyes shut tight, and they are not making a sound or moving a muscle, I can still tell that they are staring at me?