Total Dismay

Go to the source for details. Basically, an artist was inspired to create a life-sized chocolate figure in a Jesus Christ pose. Leaders of both Catholic and Protestant Christian groups protested. The venue that was to host an exhibit readily complied with their requests to cancel the showing. The artistic director of the gallery has resigned, reportedly in protest.

In my opinion, this art is something that would have been allowed to be shown in a secular venue with only a murmur of disdain from clergy a few years ago. After the awful incidents resulting from the insensitive Danish cartoon publication, Christians with influence feel compelled to turn up the volume of their protests. I am posting a picture of the artwork. If anyone asks me to take it down, politely or otherwise. I will. I’m not trying to make a point. Well actually I’m trying to make the point that I am not trying to make a point.

My brother is one of the many new poker enthusiasts. He had always played various card games with school mates, but his main source of excitement was contact sports. Now he is a little too old and beat up to be going full tilt at hockey and football.

As far as I know poker games among his friends are still being played on regular dining room tables. I wouldn’t put it past them to all chip in on a Poker Table at some point. They built their own rink about ten years ago. Cardroomsupply.com is a great site for anyone who is shopping for poker supplies, big or small. You can get a professional looking table top for well under $200.

Trainspotting Simulator Warning: You computer must be able to run HTML. If you are not sure if HTML works on your computer, click here.

The Godfather I have already talked about this in a previous post.

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe I have only seen the console version first hand. It is so lame that it makes me want to find a better word for lame.

When you are selling something, you will most likely get to meet potential buyers who like to talk trash about whatever it is that you are selling. It drives me crazy. Yes, of course I understand that in their position it is important to be critical. Some people just seem to get a kick out of an interaction where they inform you just how much the thing that is yours sucks.

When it an old set of dishes at a yard sale it is annoying. When it is your home, you start to take it a little personally.

The second home that I owned was a bit of a money pit. It had formerly been half of a methodist church. The other half had been dragged down the road a 1/4 mile and made into a second house. This salvage operation had taken place back in the 20’s. The house had character but it was worn out. There were foundation problems. There were roof problems. There were plumbing problems.

I ended up getting a job a hundred miles away and I needed to get the place sold. I heard about a business that would buy ugly houses quickly. I contacted them with the details and a price that I was hoping for. I never heard bak from them. They had enough leads about people who are desperate. I wasn’t desperate, just eager.

Cashhomebuyers.com is a portal that connects you to people that are in the business of buying homes quickly. I was in a remote location with a somewhat depressed real estate market when I contacted a local WE BUY HOUSES number. I can only assume that I would have gotten more interest from the buyer if my house had been nearer a city.

My advice to homeowners that are eager to sell is try and get a realistic idea of what a realtor can do for you and then use that information to suggest a realistic price to a We Buy Homes representative. My experience is that they won’t even contact you unless they are interested. My assumption is that if they are interested, they move pretty fast.

In some ways, the participants in these themes are like cliques. When you consider the statistic that only 7% of internet users read blogs, you could almost call the entire blogosphere a clique.

What these weekly themes do is get a small group of people to look at each others pages more often. It’s all traffic. By the way, when I was reading up on best practices in blogging ine thing that stuck with me was the advice about leaving technical terms related to blogging out of your posts. I ignore this advice on a regular basis, because I have resigned myself to the fact that most people reading my blog are bloggers themselves. Yes, I am limiting my audience that way, but 7% of all internet users is still a pretty big piece of pie.

So, the Self Portrait Sunday thing is a pretty good idea. In some ways it is more exposure than with the HNT I talked about last week. My wife has a commercial website that she put her face on and she thinks that decision played a role in the success of the venture. I think it inspires trust in people. Plus she has a pretty face. I tend to look about 70% meaner than I actually am. My face would not sell memberships. My wife likes the fact that I look like a tough guy when we are out on the city streets.

Very often a huge scandal in the business or political arenas will result in a change in legislation. New laws often create complications for business that some companies are not equipped to deal with.

Enron was a big scandal. In its wake were major changes in the way that big business is asked to disclose what it is doing. I haven’t examined the requirements and I don’t know if my undergraduate business courses have prepared me to grasp all that they entail. This major change has resulted in an opportunity for third parties to provide disclosure compliance related software and expertise.

Q4websystems.com is one of these companies. Their software manages, records and automates online disclosure. You can contact them and ask for a live demonstration.

disclosure

As promised, here is another running theme. I am going to highlight many of the remarkably stupid things that I have done.

This one has given me nightmares. I was the not so proud owner of a vacant house. There was a small leak in the roof. In some climates this would have meant judicious use of spare pots and pans. In a Canadian winter it was more serious. Repeated freezing and thawing combined with a lot of precipitation was threatening to create a destructive situation in my attic space.

I should have hired somebody to fix it. I decided to go up there myself instead. It was very steep and high and I was alone. I fixed the hole and made it down in one piece. It was still stupid. I had a moment of absolute terror when I was up there.

At first glance, I really like IPEX TV. It’s purpose is clearly to be a bridge between the producers of professional quality video content and those people who want to buy content. The site is set to become both a video distributor and a resource for producers and consumers of videos.

What really stands out is the way categories are set up with an eye more to that marketplace than to recreational viewers. This isn’t a place for 13 year olds to try and get a big hit count.

Anyone who takes the time to look and the sad excuses for videos that I upload to YouTube knows that I am not a videographer. I do know a few though and I will be telling them about this new site.

Trying to maintain a variety of skill levels with this series of posts. I know this tune by heart, it does go something like this.

Below the jump is an animated gif that seems to be appropriate for this post.

…………………….Jump…………………….

I might have to re-edit this post sometime, because I just thought of a new feature for the blog…

‘Stupid Things That

I Have Done’

Looking at this site that is designed to connect local auto glass businesses, like this Seattle Auto Glass Repair, to customers reminded me of one of these precious stories.

I was out on a country road and I pulled over to look at something on the side of the road. There was a soft shoulder. While I was deciding whether or not to get out of my car to take a closer look, I forgot that my car was still in gear. It had sunk in the mud so far that the idle speed was not moving the car forward at all. I got out of the car with the motor still running and shut the door. The automatic door locks on a mid 90’s Pontiac are set up so they lock whenever you are in drive.

So there I was… with my car sitting on the side of the road…in gear…with the engine running. I stupid, but also decisive. I picked up the biggest rock around and broke a window. I totally agree with the folks at Expert-Auto-Glass.com that supporting local businesses ahead of large chains is good for your community. All the garages associated with the site are NGA certified.