You.
Can.
Only.
Type.
One.
Word.
Not as easy as you might think.
1. Where is your cell phone?
bed
2. Describe your boyfriend/girlfriend?
taraliscious
3. Your hair?
pain
4. Your mother?
unique
5. Your father?
who?
In One Word
The thing about hope… it fades.
That lovely design is via Diesel Sweeties and I think says what a lot of people are thinking right now. I have to say I’m pretty amazed at how many of the folks I knew who were rabid Obama supporters 2 weeks ago are completely disappointed with him this week thanks to the FISA thing. It’s been crazy really, I haven’t seen people as up in arms over a candidate as long as I can remember so to see so many of those die hard people change direction so quick has me dizzy. In the last week I’ve seen:
- A guy in a parking lot at a grocery store pealing off an Obama bumper sticker
- Another recently removed sticker in a different parking lot.
- A lady with an Obama pin on her bag ripping an Obama poster off an electric box
- A whole group of bike riders taking Obama spoke cards off their bikes and throwing them in a near by trashcan.
In an e-mail thread with a few friends, one of which who has been a strong supporter for a while and worked on his campaign since early on said this:
“His approval of the bill doesn’t endear him to most independents/regular folks (who don’t care as much about this issue) — but it is an enormous insult to those of us who backed him from the start (who tend to be really passionate about civil liberties stuff). So he lost on both counts.”
And I think that’s pretty much it. The dude tried to win friends with the wrong approach, and only pissed off his biggest supporters basically telling them all that everything he’s ever said is suspect and possibly a lie at this point. But then again, he’s a politician so I don’t know why this is too shocking for anyone.
languages in your pocket
I upgraded the software on my iPod Touch today and as a result have spent far too much time browsing the apps store. One thing I noticed was the huge assortment of language learning helpers for Spanish, Japanese, French, German, etc… Really there’s like 3-4 different brands who have an app for each. I know for a fact that I can’t learn languages from a book, I need to hear it spoken and I can pick things up bit by bit so I’m wondering if something like this would work for me. These all seem to be combinations of spoken and written examples, some focusing more on individual words and vocabulary, and others seemingly more about the more common phrases. Has anyone checked any of these out or have any recommendations? Spanish and Japanese are the two that I’m eyeballing right away, but with the apps ranging from $9.99 to $14.99 each I kinda want to hear from someone who has used one themselves before throwing down the loot.
Massive Fail of the Day: Capital One
Many months ago I paid off my Capital One credit card. They had been a pain in the ass the whole time I had an account with them so I called them to say “check out my zero balance, and please close the account.” The dude I talked to on the phone talked me out of closing the account with promises of super low interest rates and balance transfer options. I agreed, but told ’em I’d already chopped up and thrown out the card so I’d need them to send me a new one. No problem, they were throwing on in the mail.
I’ve never heard anything from them since, haven’t gotten a new card, haven’t gotten any statements. I got a message that they were calling an old number of mine and saying a statement had been returned so I called them to find out what the heck was going on. I talked to a guy who was having “system problems” so he passed me on to someone else at a different location who should be able to help. That guy told me the address they had on file for me, which was wrong, but couldn’t change it because I didn’t have the credit card there to give them the 3 digit security card. The credit card I didn’t have because they’d mailed it to the wrong address. He passed me on to his supervisor who I went through the whole story again with, basically realizing I was caught in some endless loop.
- The replacement card they sent me went to the wrong address and was returned to them.
- They can’t change the address without info that is on the replacement card.
- They can send me a new replacement card, but only to the same incorrect address they have on file.
The final guy I was talking to said the only solution was for them to pass me through to the Fraud department who could go through the whole thing again with me and then try to sort it out on their end. I really didn’t want to go through all that AGAIN so I told him to just close the damn account and that he could do. So, rather then them correcting my address and keeping me as a customer, they closed the account. Nice work fellas!
Advice: So, you want a bike eh?
Perhaps because I blog about it a lot, recently more and more people are asking me for my advice on buying a bike. What kind to get is really the most frequent thing I’m asked, it’s also the most difficult to answer. Because I found myself telling multiple people the same thing, I figured it was time to make a blog post about it that I could just point people to in the future.
The answer to this isn’t as simple as “here’s the bike you should get” because this is a very personal choice and has every bit as much to do with how you’ll end up using the bike as what you want it look like. It’s like asking what is the best color of car to get, or which is better a 2 or 4 door. Well, depending on your usage and goals that answer is totally different. I know people who ride mountain bikes as their main bike and all swear by them. Same goes for folks who ride road bikes, ride track bikes, and every weird hybrid in between. That said, I can provide my personal thought process, which may or may not apply to you.
I used to ride a bad ass mountain bike with 27 gears and all kinds of shocks and shit. Actually that was the main thing I rode since about college. Recently I realized that I almost never shifted gears even though I spent a lot of time worrying about what gear I should be in. So I went to the other end of the extreme with a single speed road bike and I couldn’t be happier. I can go faster, I can go further, I’m not carrying around lots of extra weight, and the only thing I think about is where I’m riding, not if I’m doing it right. I feel like I’m more efficient and there’s less that can break on the bike.