anti-imperialism taking a heavy-handed approach and imposing on other countries, whether through economic hit-man style financial impositions or bombing is wrong.

anti-corporatocracy yes, our government is in the pocket of large corporations. yes, this is bad for individuals.

atheist most right wingers are atheist right?

firearms for the masses is dangerous although I fully support our right to keep arms, I think packing a gat at the Costco is very dangerous – kinda like swimming pools and motorcycles.

civil liberties as it turns out, I think all people – yup all types (even Scientologists, racists, and gingers) – have the same right to life, liberty, and property.

anti-captial punishment Penn and Teller firmed me up on this one, but people do bad things for financial gain, compulsion, or stupidity – the death penalty is not much of a deterrent in any of these cases – it’s mostly just to make people feel better. Killing is bad.

pro-choice killing is bad, and killing babies is bad, but at the end of the day I support a woman’s right to choose

So you can see where people would call me a right winger right? Actually, if you can maybe you can explain it to me. I think it comes down to this – if you believe in rationality, free trade, and fundamentally reject the idea that wealth redistribution (whether through corporate favors or high taxes on the most productive members of our society) – then you are “right wing”. Am I right?

Television consumers want bigger, brighter, and higher resolution displays. We look down upon a measly 1080i – yet at the same time I see more tolerance of completely fuct aspect ratios. Sure, is fun to laugh at screwed up proportions when looking at a fun house mirror, but now we just cannot escape it. In sports bars, building lobbies, and in our own homes we are increasingly tolerant of 4×3 aspect ratio pictures being stretched to 16×9. It drives me batty and gives me a headache. Why is it okay for a square to be a rectangle? Why is that fat lady on the tv the same width and height?

Today I came across the perfect illustration of this sad sad stretched world in which we live. The main video page for CNN has EVERY VIDEO STRETCHED. It is a tiny box in my browser, not constrained by the physical dimensions of a real television or a wife that says “what are those black bars on the side… fix it”. Yet this huge media company thinks that this is okay. Until Joe public starts demanding non fun house video we have more whack stuff like this to look forward to. Shame on everyone. Stop stretching and squeezing.

I give you the ban comic sans web page. Enjoy.

As I rounded out my quarter-century on this earth (the year you can rent a car without an underage fee) I thought I had reached the last landmark year until I became a senior citizen. For better or worse, I was mistaken.

This product over here –> is household goop. I’ve been a user and promoter of this product for a long time. As far as I can tell, all varieties of “goop”, whether it be household or plumbing flavor are exactly the same. My familiarity however goes back to when it was called “Shoe Goo” and sold at your local Foot Locker or Athletes Foot right next to the shoe shine kit. As a skateboarder this product continues to provide an affordable alternative to bi-weekly shoe purchases.

This weekend Stacey and I were at our local Target and I picked up some goop. As the cashier scanned my sole (no pun intended) item she told me that she would need to see my ID. I opened my wallet and started to… hey, wait a minute. Why would she need to see my ID for a cash purchase of friggin Shoe Goo! She explained to me that she could not sell it to me unless she saw my ID and then pointed to the screen. Apparently I need to be 40 years old to purchase this item. She asked a fellow cashier who told her to push the function button to get past that screen – but she was having none of that – and I was having none of this ID showing. Problem solved of course when the manager came over and pressed the function key.

There are a couple interesting points to be made here. I suppose that this was flagged for its potential use as an inhalant – I get that. Here’s the thing though, I think this tube cost almost $4. I could buy two gallons of gas – three cans of whipped cream – probably a box-load of model glue for my $4. Why would an honest hard-working inhalant junkie such as myself choose to purchase Shoe Goo to support my habit. It makes no sense. I saw that movie Love Liza with Philip Seymour Hoffman. Some folks just dig on the sniffin’ – but I’m not quite sure targeting 18-40 year old Goop purchasers really is going to solve this serious epidemic.

I have some serious frustration issues with packages that are sent via UPS or FedEx with a signature requirement for residential deliveries. Today I got just such a post-it for a UPS overnight delivery. They were willing to pay the big bucks to ensure that it got there the next day… at 10:30 AM… at my house. Wait – a better way to say it is that they paid to guarantee that the package would get there the next day with a virtual guarantee (10:30AM M-F … don’t other people work at that time) that I would not be there to get the package, with a guarantee that I actually got it (signature), if I happened to get it. I suppose my frustration should be with the sender – but why is there customer demand for this service.

I called UPS at 7:30 to change the delivery address to my workplace. Because it was after the 7:00 closing time the address change would not go through until Friday (since Thursday is a holiday). Well nobody is going to be at my office on Friday to pick up the package because it’s the Friday after Thanksgiving. Since UPS doesn’t deliver on Saturday or Sunday my overnight package will have reached me in six short days.

I remember when I ordered my iBook a couple years ago Apple put this same requirement on the package. Shocker I was not there between the hours of 10:30AM and 2:00PM with a smile on my face and pen in hand. I called UPS and there were further instructions on the package that the destination could not be changed and it could not be picked up at the UPS office. So it needed to go through several delivery attempts, then three days back to Cupertino. After calling Apple they would not ship it to my work because that address was not the billing address of my credit card, so I had to call my credit card to get that address added, then call Apple back to schedule delivery.

Perhaps I sit up on a pedestal in my white-collar world, but don’t most people work 9-6 type hours like I do? You’d think Apple and UPS would be spinning their wheels constantly because of this issue – but I am made to feel like I am unreasonable by working 9-6 and by not taking a day off of work to accept a delivery. I mean, wouldn’t it serve residential customers of UPS, FedEx, and retailers better by choosing different hours?

UPDATE – UPS broke their rules and called me back at around 8:15 with someone who promised to get my delivery redirected to my work for tomorrow.

A typical PC keybard is not without its gems. The red-headed step-children of the keyboard are in exile in the upper right hand – SysRq, Scroll Lock, and Pause. Then you’ve got the Num Lock – couldn’t we have gotten rid of this once all keyboards had arrow keys built-in. Does anyone ever NOT want num lock on? I like how it’s so strange to have num-lock on, that it warrants a little LED light to tell you that its on – just like caps lock. My suggestion, get rid of the arrows on the number keys and subsequently number lock – then turn the step-children keys into ctrl-alt-delete to make life easier on Windows.

No RSVP Sent: 36.9%
RSVP Sent: 63.1%
Coerced Response: 14.3%
Unknown: 23.8%

Now, these were self-addressed stamped envelopes. All people needed to do is write a number and drop the thing in the mail. They were given a month to perform this onerous task. For those who are technologically savvy (or suffer from USPSphobia) we provided an email address people could use (special shout-out to the one person who used it – you know who you are).

With these percentages you may be asking yourself if we just invited random people out of the phone book. Believe it or not, we actually know these people. I am not sure what to make of all this.

While I was trying to coerce a response, one person declared that according to the etiquette books he read (you know who you are), you are to only send an RSVP if you will be attending. I did a quick search on Amazon for etiquette books and kids, there are some good ones out there. The first hit is a book by Emily Post, a well-known authority on the subject. I wonder what she has to say about the subject:

From the French, it means “Répondez, s’il vous plaît,” or, “Please reply.” This little code has been around for a long time and it’s definitely telling you that your hosts want to know if you are attending. Reply promptly, within a day or two of receiving an invitation.

How about the second hit, Etiquette for Dummies? Surely an etiquette book connoisseur like this wouldn’t miss that treasure trove of excitement. Well that book says (in a special TIP section):

RSVP means respond either way, yes or no. Regrets only means the guest should contact the host only if not attending.

Maybe he (along with 36.9% of you) read the slightly less popular Etiquette for Smarties.