Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Reddit makes you feel like a loser for about a week.



Earlier in the week an atheist group on reddit picked up one of my images. At first I thought - shit, how am I going to entertain these people? But none of them clicked through.

Okay - out of 8000 taps, 3 people clicked through. Which is fine. One, because I didn't have to entertain them, and two - I'm a small "a" atheist. Don't take that to mean agnostic. I'm just not willing to join a group. That kinda in a way makes it a religion. Doesn't it?

Monday, July 30, 2012

I bet you thought you weren't getting a post today.



I am behind on everything. But, I wanted to get these pictures of this weekends California Extreme convention. It was pretty fun to go to ~once~ and see all these games you've never seen before. The only thing that sucks is - all the good games are always taken. I do love to play me some pinball though. If you are cool with old school, you'd probably be fine. Anything with bumpers you will never get on.





This one I was totally fascinated with. It was about the size of a Volkswagen. But the hologrammyness (yes, that's a word) was funny.



This one you had to pump to activate the rail car in the game. Which sucked YO! I mean, I didn't try it - but people didn't stay long.



Who am I to judge?

Saturday, July 28, 2012

Gallardo in the wild.



I've been pretty bored of these, but I haddn't seen one on the road in a while. So - I kinda liked it. At least he doesn't stand out.



Friday, July 27, 2012

My obligatory Facebook post.

Sometimes when a company has problems and it's obvious they don't know how to fix it, I marvel a bit. Especially when it's so blaringly obvious.

Most of the time honestly I wonder if they even use their own products. And if they do, how easy do they find using their products to be?

I want to start out by saying I don't use Facebook. For the longest time people would act as if I was strange for not having an account. My standard reply was always - Facebook is so 2008. I'm skipping this fad so I can be first in line for the new one, I would reply.

This is Facebooks problem:

Facebook used to be free, and it felt like your little piece of space on the web. The more Facebook tries to monetise your space, the more obvious it becomes to you that you don't own that space. It feels more like you are a guest at a hotel and the maids come in and rearranging the furniture. Every day.

It's also blaring obvious Zuckerberg didn't realize how much he'd miscalculated the market. Because the moment the IPO failed he started rolling out new features every single day. Deleting some the very same day.

I can't say this clearly enough. People hate that shit! They don't want to go on a hunting trip every time they log into their accounts. Also making it feel like it's not their space. It's yours. And While technically it is - it might not be longer if you don't get your shit together and understand what people really want from products after the hype is over.

Tivo steals a hundred bucks from me. Says Yoink!

I was an early adopter of Tivo. I've been a customer for a solid 10 years. Those of us who have been loyal customers have been paying the yearly fee in advance rather than the monthly fee. You save maybe 20 bucks a year.

So, when my Tivo died a couple of weeks ago I got a brand new shiny one shipped from Amazon.

Then we called to cancel the dead Tivo service only to find out that we they just charged us for our yearly service. Did I mention I pay for service in advance?

And they won't transfer the money to the new box!

Now, I understand if you are just stopping your service. You know you agreed to pay for a full year, and they tell you that it isn't prorated. BUT MY BOX FUCKING DIED. There is no way you can plan for that. And they wont transfer the funds to the new box. But I guess there is some rule that if you buy straight from Tivo they let you have some special preference.

If Tivo only knew how close they came to not even getting my business this time. I mean, why the eff does it take a Tivo four or five minutes to boot? Even the brand new one! My desktop boots in a minute. My phone boots in under that. With Tivo, you have to leave the room and come back because it takes so long to boot. Really? What is the problem? Oh wait - is this still 1985 and I didn't know it?

So now, I'm paying for three Tivos. As an insurance policy. I shit you not. If I keep the dead Tivo service active (which I have no choice, I'm paying either way) and my other Tivo dies within a year I can take advantage of having the money I've already paid - IN ADVANCE - transferred to my new box.

This is what companies think qualifies for customer service these days. I've been with them since the beginning. I guess these are my loyalty points. A big - we're sorry you're effed. Thank you. I'm going to dinner now. On you.

Wednesday, July 25, 2012

New Home Sales Collapse 8.4% .

It seems like just yesterday every single news channel was trying to convince me that housing had bottomed. OH - that's right. It was just yesterday.

Creepy.



I honestly have the gment trawling through my site with regularity. Usually connected with my posts on the mortgage crisis. But some hits are creepier than others.
Facebook employees have to be beside themselves today. Less than 30 days till lockup expirey. Sucks for them. I always hate to see stuff like that. Even if they were gaming the system with the shortened period.

Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Don't spook the sheep.

Wall street today really made me laugh. This is why I can feel so good on the weekends and so terrified during the week - I said to myself.

The irresponsible part of me says - hey, the world looks great. Nothing out of place. People are happy. Come Monday, my responsible side says - what the hell was I thinking? I'm scared shitless.

Because, most people have mostly tuned out Wall Street and only watch for the occasional alarming fall. But if you just keep it in a range, the plebes never even look up to see the shit that is going to hit them.

The entire world is contracting. President Money Bags surely doesn't want to do another stimulus at this juncture. It would ignite a firestorm and show he's been a failure. But it seems to me that the world doesn't give a shit about that. Doing so at a faster pace.

Monday, July 23, 2012

Protest fatigue.



Today I went up to Oakland because I heard I heard there was going to be a marijuana protest at the same time President Money Bags was going to be there. And I thought that would be funny. The feds are trying to seize the properties the clubs use. Which is a shame. Most of these places are good tenants. They take good care of the properties. You'd almost not even know they were there. They are safe and not skeeby.

Hell, I do know where some of them are, and I have a hard time spotting them.

At any rate, the pot protest pretty much kept away from the PMB event. Even though they were two blocks from each other. And it wouldn't have mattered anyway. Look how far they blocked this event off. That red sign in the distance is the Fox theater. I'm pretty sure they worked the math and said... yeah - people would need at least a 300mm lens to get this. And most people don't have that range. Set up the barricades here!



I love Oakland for it's quirkiness. Right at one of the barricades was this guy with an easel painting the Fox theater scape.







There were a few fuck the cops signs. But other than that - the place was a non event, event.







The arctic polar bear was there. But that stupid bear will go to anything.







Sunday, July 22, 2012

While I was completely off the grid.























It's been a long time since I've seen this much traffic on the roads.

Saturday, July 21, 2012



It's gotta be a mail truck.



I don't have much for you today. It's hot. I know things have been slow here lately, but in the next month it will pick up.

I don't know what this thing is, but it made me smile - and I'd never seen one before - so....





Thursday, July 19, 2012

My thoughts about the world and everything.

Woooow. Economic data is pretty gloomy today. Pretty much in line with my expectations. Still, when you see it in text it makes your stomach feel weird. It double makes me wonder why so much retail space is going up.

No one on earth that is paying attention should be surprised by this. I've been telling Mr S. that it feels like a haboob on it's way to engulf the US.

India is rapidly slowing. China, Australia, Brazil, whatever you want to call Europe. Even Singapore! My last bug out place.

There is a full quarter till the election. I don't see how President Money Bags gets out of printing some money. Remember a quarter ago? People thought we were off to the races. These days a lot of things change in one quarter.

Wednesday, July 18, 2012

There is a weird amount of retail space going up.



I am not much of a mall girl. I have better things to do with my time. But I am usually forced into one a few times a year. It doesn't bother me too much, because it gives me a chance to see how the malls are doing. I mean, we'd all gotten accustomed to those sales signs in front of every door, right? I thought it was just going to be that way forever.

Now lets step back to Christmas of last year. I'd gotten on a big dark chocolate See's candy thing. (I know, I eat a lot of crap.) So, I'd made three trips over to the mall during the Christmas holiday. But what struck me was.....not one store had a sale sign in front of it. For the whole three weeks.

It was the first time in years I'd seen the mall return to normal. Previously our snooty mall would have never put up sale signs. In the long, long ago.

Snap back to today, the signs are back, and the discounts seem steeper. They all say annual sale. So I'll have to go back in a month to see if the signs are still there. But with Best Buy and Fry's looking horrible - it seems to fit the theme. These are the largest types of retailers around. If they are struggling so hard, why is so much retail going up? I mean, a lot of it. Everywhere.

It's so bipolar that on the weekends you think the economy is improving. But when the retail numbers come in, you know it isn't.



Monday, July 16, 2012

Safety third.

I was going to talk about retail today, but I injured myself. So, I'm gonna talk about that instead.

I'm not feeling well today. I didn't sleep last night - but it's windy out and I noticed it was chunking one of my new trees. The wood stake that we put in when we planted it seemed fine, but now the tree canopy has grown to three times the size - and the wind is grabbing it and rubbing it against the stake. Deeply gouging it.

I figure I'll go out there and just hammer the stake in deeper. As I was doing so, I lost my grip and the claw hammer came back and hit me in the head.

Now I get to spend the next week walking around with a wife beater bruise right above my left eye.

Saturday, July 14, 2012

A little something for everyone, I guess.



When I went to download this set of pictures I laughed a little. I'd forgotten I was just in Los Gatos and had gotten an Audi R8 and a Lotus and never posted them. It seems shameful to say, but I'm bored of those cars. I'm even bored of Aston's.

I've also attempted three or four other shows this month, and didn't even make them. No old cars either. I thought I was becoming despondent, but maybe I was just bored. So, when I heard about this show yesterday, I was a little excited. I hadn't seen Asian underground in a while.

We get there and its a huge effin show. Huge. They Had a DJ belting out Rhianna songs. I thought it was a pretty fun show. Until I got home and downloaded my shots. Suddenly I was like... what the eff?! None of these cars are that interesting. Which really is what I do every time I take photos. But even after an hour I felt the same way.

So, I guess what you are getting is a lot of booth babes. I figured half my readers must be guys, so...



Chalkboard paint.















I was taking shots of these low rider scooters when a mass of booth babes showed up. I think they were hawking energy drinks. But I'd never seen the bikes before.







This girl.. wow. I don't normally talk about the way chicks look - but she was screaming daddy issues.

I liked that the gas lid looked like a bear can. Which sounds trashy in text. But I don't care.