blowing smoke: a blog
 

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

3 Least Favorite Things about the Holiday Season:
1) Having a cold when a song like O Come All Ye Faithful is on the radio.  I was in a children's choir for a year (soprano!) and loved singing that song, so I try to sing strongly.  And hacking cough follows hacking cough.
2) That hideous Christmas Shoes song.  There is nothing redeeming about the over-saccharinized self-celebration of a shopper loaded up with gifts (capitalist crack?) helping someone buy a pair of shoes and feeling like a hero who's done his duty.  The music's bad, the lyrics/story possibly worse, and the message is confused at best.  And stations seem to want to get a year's worth of playing time into one month.
3) Having to work when most of the office is gone.  It's a good time to learn just how interrelated a company's work is, when 75%'s vacations cripple the remaining 25%'s productivity.

That said, Merry Christmas and/or whatever holidays you celebrate!  Hopefully everything beyond these 3 annoyances is just plain fun.

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Saturday, December 06, 2008

Sadly it takes a liar to get me to post again.  See my February 23 and 24 blogs for my first mention of corporate litterers who leave fliers on porches (theoretically on the door).  In the comments, the offender, who I'm happy to name now as Directly to the Door, promises not to deliver to me again.  Guess what was rolling around my porch today?  This flier distribution process has been held up in court only as a necessary evil to prevent the suppression of anonymous political speech, but this was technically illegal as it was not firmly enough attached to my door to keep it from falling to the ground where it becomes ... litter.  I'm not going to bother filing a legal complaint because I think the cops have much more important things to do, but here's some free speech of my own.  That doesn't litter.

As if their core business wasn't enough of an intrusion onto property and public nuisance, the owner apparently doesn't even mean what he says.  So I encourage all to boycott the business he owns The What's for Dinner Studio Kitchen in Round Rock, and the other businesses paying for his litter: PCS Carpet Cleaning, Pagel and Sons Jewelers, Round Rock Health and Wellness Center, Darling's Heating and Air Conditioning, and Rangoli Indian Grill.

I hate to just complain and not offer an alternative.  If you want to prepare great meals en masse, try Super Suppers Austin, or for A/C and heating needs, we've had great experiences with Patton's Appliances.  I don't have alternatives off the top of my head for the rest, but would be glad to entertain them in comments.

Also kudos to Austin's Pizza for no longer supporting litter (as well as responding quickly to my first complaint)!  In case you needed a reason besides their excellent pizza (I'm an especial fan of the BBQ Chicken although they've all been good), here's one!

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