Buy Nothing Day 2011

And here we are, at the cusp of another holiday retail extravaganza, and I encourage everyone to celebrate this Friday (11/25/11) as another Buy Nothing Day.

Adbusters (who started BND) is calling it #OCCUPYXMAS this year

Cracked.com (which has scary good research for a humor site) has an article about people that call it Black Friday

And here's a nice little moving picture about the idea:

To be honest, I rather hate DST

Blargh

I was happy to post a thought-out response to something today, but due to the nature of the subject, I didn't want to attach my name to it. Wasn't trolling, but the new world order (*cough* I'm not a conspiracy theorist *cough*) wants to put a lot of blogs into the Disqus view of things. If I don't give a name, or verify my identity, then clearly I'm a ne'er-do-well.

So I add another to the list of places I won't add value to.

Whither Netflix?

(shamelessly reposted from a FB comment I made from a link I posted on FB...how many sins is that?)
I think I can sum up my feelings on recent Netflix doin's pretty quickly:
1) The price hike: Somebody in the studios remembered the old days of where they would sell new releases on VHS at near $100 at first as most copies were going to rental stores that would recoup that investment anyhow and/or somebody in the studios realized that the average Netflix customer (myself included) was paying the monthly fee to hang on to "rentals" they never watched and they weren't getting a cut of us idle customers....result: strongarm NF to get more money. (consumer result: Let's pass the savings...er...costs on!)
2) The breakdown in negotiations with Starz: My best guess is that somebody in NF thought "Wait, we're licensing all this content through a third party...we could probably get it cheaper going direct" and Starz figured "Nuts to them, without us, the studios aren't going to listen anyhow." (consumer result: The anemic (compared to the DVD selection) streaming library becomes even thinner come February.)
3)The split: Pandering to the stock market? Hiding number of subscribers lost? Who the hell knows? (I kind of like the theory that a baffled CEO out there got sold on the idea of "If you just change the name to this, then all your problems will be solved and you can go back to whatever CEOs are supposed to do." (consumer result: Well, you can kind of get what you used to, but at the higher price, and now it's more of a hassle...but if you close your eyes and wish real hard, it's almost like you remember it.)

The thing I don't get (and trust me, I bristle at a sense of entitlement) is "More money, more hassle, less value (*cough* content)", how does this sell your "product" at all?

Can I make a snarky joke about the Web 2.1 (aka Facebook model) of "Let's make things worse, any publicity is good publicity!"

Hey, leave those kids alone!

er...

and before I start on that whole detox mission...

yikes, am I getting younger?

Exhibit A (May 2009):


Exhibit B (September 2011):

Oh, this is going to leave a mark....

My girlfriend and I had a talk the other night that I keep myself (paraphrasing) somewhat toxic at all times, so as an experiment, starting Monday (that'd be Labor Day here in der 'murica), I'm going a week without anything. No caffeine, no cigarettes, no alcohol, nothin'. Well, food...and I've sworn to myself that I won't start free-basing pork products as a substitute. Should be interesting.

As an aside, I'd mentioned that the last time I'd sincerely not wanted a cigarette was the time I went through about half a pack in a few hours on a bet. She encouraged me to smoke a whole carton on Sunday, to which I responded "Do you want to see me in the hospital? That'd probably kill me."

Yup, going to be a fun week, but at least I'll have something to write about =)

-erik

I'm going home.

Ok, sure, there's a side that sounds like I just want to get out from the Orange Curtain, but there's so much more.

I'm going home. I'm going back to Colorado, where I grew up, to be with the woman I have loved for twenty years.

When we were young, I tried telling her, and she pushed me away...but we always stayed in touch. Last year, we found that we still had strong feelings for each other, and I'm going out there to be with her. I don't want another long-distance relationship (been there, done that), and I don't want to wait to see what happens if I always err on the side of caution.

I want this. I want to be with her, and damnit, I'm doing it.

-erik

Status

Been busy making some pretty major changes in my life. Spent the week packing and sorting and getting rid of crap that's accumulated over the years.

Will post more details once everything goes public, but for now, I'm happy, I'm in love, and I'm taking action to make some goals happen. Been a long time since I've had such specific direction, usually just go with the ebb and the flow.

Fuck that. I know what I want to do now, and nothing's going to hold me back.

Wrong.

Bittman is a great guy. I offer you this

Me, I like the cheapest oatmeal I can get. A little butter or some soy sauce and green onions or some sriracha (I have weird breakfast tastes)

I won't repeat the hyperbole that's spreading, but I think it's a good article. You should read it.

synonym or antonym?

Exhibit A
Exhibit B

gack

And they wonder why I lost my faith

Drawring