Hyper Gumbo » politics

Congratulations Kristy

Don — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 18:43:34 +0000

I’ve always had a non-sexual thing for Kristy McNichol (loved her in Empty Nest), and now I’m wondering if it wasn’t awareness of shared circumstances. Of course, of the two stars in The Pirate Movie, she’s not my first choice for coming out announcement hopes. Because when a star you have a crush on announces they are coming out, it’s obviously implied that they are looking to date a fan =p

Carrier IQ oopsie

Don — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 23:38:05 +0000

I’m not clear on how much truth there is to either sides’ claims, but I note that there is a privacy page on Carrier IQ’s website where they claim “When Carrier IQ’s products are deployed, data gathering is done in a way where the end user is informed or involved. ”

Obviously that’s not true, or there wouldn’t be all this brouhaha, QED.

That was strange

Don — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 19:55:46 +0000

Back in the days of President Clinton, when you wrote him an email, he’d send you back a physical form letter addressing your topic. When GWB took office, they stopped answering, or probably even reading them. When Obama took office, I hoped there’d be a return to the responsive, even if just in surface actions, government.

Just now, I got an email from Obama, thanking me writing. Either his response team is really slow, like months and months after the letter slow, or he’s sent out this email to every person whoever emailed something, out of some sort of OWS reaction? I dunno.

Or somebody hit the bulk-resend button on everyone who sent him emails about Egypt, back in April.

Wasted money

Don — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 22:48:13 +0000

I’m not a big fan of political strategist companies, who’ve commoditized our democracy so that whomever has the biggest warchest wins, but that’s the way of the world these days, so be it.
So it’s an annoyed amusement, when I get one of those massive postcard fliers for some nameless PAC that doesn’t have any positive agenda to put forward, they just want you to know how much they hate the current guy, and they have a link to website for information about their campaign…and the website is a wordpress site that’s still locked down to admin users only. Truly brilliant. Whomever paid WinPower Strategies for their anti port commissioner campaign seems to have wasted their money. oops.

Sad sad world

Don — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 20:05:58 +0000

It’s a sad sad world, when “Good news, Pogo is being prepared for deportation” really is good news.

Interesting Values

Don — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 20:53:05 +0000

The Snoqualmie Tribe has legalized marijuana for the duration of a Willie Nelson concert at their 24×7 vegas-style casino. The Hereditary Chief, Jerry Enick, says “This goes against all Native values and morals”.

Selling liquor, tobacco, fireworks, and gambling are OK, but pot is just too much?

Magic Flute @ Seattle Opera follow up

Don — Wed, 11 May 2011 22:10:41 +0000

I have been meaning to write up a review of Saturday night’s Opening Night performance, covering my delight and realizing two of my favorite songs from the Amadeus soundtrack are part of this opera, my annoyance at the people who snuck into the box seating area during intermission with a noisy kid who nearly dropped stuff over the edge (instead he dropped it on me), the amusement of seeing Razor scooters on stage, etc etc. Then I got a phone call last night, trying to sell me more tickets. I could have sworn that at the point in the check-out process where they asked for a phone number, they assured me it was not going to be used for marketing purposes, but looking at their printed Privacy Policy, I see that they saw “We will not trade or sell your phone number or e-mail address to any other business or organization”, leaving themselves open to misuse your information for their own benefit. But then I saw that in the section on how to opt-out of that usage of your information, they imply that the above statement is actually a hollow promise, that doesn’t include “your mailing information traded to other arts or non-profit organizations.”

Now I’m conflicted. Part of me feels strongly that any business that uses cold calling sales should be punished for their arrogance and anti-customer attitude, but I like the opera and want to go again. I think the best I can do is continue to buy single-show tickets to operas I want to see, while purchasing a subscription to some other arts group, and sending the receipt of said purchase to the marketing director of the Seattle Opera, along with an explanatory note of why I will not be making a direct contribution to them, nor letting them benefit from the 100% matching my employer would make.

No more Rush-Kill shirts

Don — Tue, 09 Nov 2010 21:23:01 +0000

I finally got around to dropping off the rest of my “Will Kill Rush Limbaugh For Food” t-shirt inventory, at the thrift store for the Lifelong Aids Alliance. Of course it wasn’t till I was there dropping the shirts off that it occurred to me I’d forgotten to grab the shirts in the hope chest. I think those are mostly Suicide shirts; still need to get them over there, but not half as hip. I hope they turn out to be popular. I would love to start seeing the shirts out in public, around town.

You will be credited with voting

Don — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 15:45:40 +0000

I had heard you can track the progress of your mail-in ballot, so went to the king county elections website (live view of the envelope opening station) to check it out. After giving my info, it comes back and says that my ballot has been received, and my signature verified, then closes with the semi-sinister “you will be credited with voting”. I’m sure it’s just wishy-wash-speak, but it still comes across a little odd to me. Nothing about my voted being recorded, only that I’m credited for the process of voting.

Credited with whom, and what can I turn these credits over for, candy? I like candy.

Yelp Helps Seattle

Don — Fri, 22 Oct 2010 18:44:54 +0000

Went to an event sponsored by Yelp last night. It was an interesting mix of non-profits looking for volunteers and donors, local beer and liquor companies selling their wares, the standard free Pop Chips (I really do need to actually buy a bag of those eventually, I like them, I just never know what aisle to find them in when actually shopping). There were musicians (I bought two CD’s) and painters (I bought one painting, to be picked up later…it’s possibly too big for my car, even with all the interior lain flat), and dancers. Cupcake Royale brought some mini chocolate and peanut-butter cupcakes. They brought so many, they were giving out little containers of three cakes to go at the end of the evening. very tasty.