In anticipation of Black Friday...

The 100% off Black Friday Sale! Badass Friday!!  ;-)

Honda. Broderick. Superbowl.

There's some back and forth on the ad, but I approve. I like the references, and it's clean and polished. Well done.

Less, Better Stuff

Remember The Story of Stuff? Well, it's a book now.

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January Links

We got a bit of snow here in Chattanooga, so just about everything shut down this weekend. Which gave me a chance to finally get caught up on some blog reading for the month. My trip to Florida (and the relatively limited internet access that I had there) had put me way behind. So, here's a quick rundown of interesting links I found while buzzing from one side of the internet to the other. It's been a while since I've done this, so bear with me -- there're going to be some old links...

• The iPad is out, but I think I'm still more excited about the GooglePhone.

• I really want one of these (does that make me a dork?)!

• Are you a New York State voter? Watch out for this guy.

• Howard Zinn: How I want to be remembered.

• Some Jon Stewart... On the Massachusetts Senate race -- it's old, so you might want to scroll through the beginning and get to where Jon channels Lewis Black and comes close to expressing how frustrating it is to watch the Democrats (and especially the Blue Dogs!) these days... The First 364 Days 23 Hours... Supreme Corp... Oh, South Carolina... changing the game in banking.

• I've been learning a lot about nutrition lately. Between last year's adventure when G-Dog and I decided to give up processed food, to this year's experiments cooking for someone who is supposed to avoiding sodium, potassium and vitamin k, mostly what I've learned is that I'm easily confused. But Marion Nestle often comes to my rescue, and this time, it's with instructions for navigating the USDA's nutrition info.

• If you're like me and will always miss being a student, you're going to love these free lectures!

• Cool features like this one are what make me love google's rss reader (and many other google apps)!

• Overheard in New York still cracks me up.

• A fascinating collection of photos! Also, check out Tom's Hawaii slideshow!

• From Joe. My. God.: "Remember folks, the Christianist right is not about hatred and bigotry. It's about the gentle redemptive love of Jesus, forced upon you at the barrel of a gun in prison as they beat the gay out of you."

• And finally, the Devil wrote a letter to Pat Robertson.

Are you going to give them your zip code?

And here I thought it was a harmless thing to share my zip code with the cashier. Whoops. Yeah, don't.

Much better to give them a decoy. I liked the suggestion that I use 20500 when asked for my zip code (that's the White House), but I'd rather use something closer to home. Zips around here start with 37---, so I decided to go with 37140, which is the zip code for Bucksnort, which has to be one of the coolest places in Tennessee.

While looking around for my new zip code, I ran across a few interesting links... US Zip Code Scribble Map... Fun With Zip Codes... Zip Skinny... Ben Fry's Zip Code Map... Zip Maps...

Happy Saturday!

Lots of links you might have missed!

It's been a while and these things do pile up...

• How The Average U.S. Consumer Spends Their Paycheck -- this is an interesting chart. We're by no means average (we've never carried a car loan, for one thing, and we probably spend more on food and alcohol, even though we don't eat out much), but the proportions seem to be generally true.

• Have you tried goofram yet? It's a combination of google and wolfram|alpha.

• Think you're a geek? Have you mastered the essential skills?

• The Young Republicans have elected an Aryan as their leader.

• Barney Frank visited the Daily Show last week.

• Just how rich is Fitzwilliam Darcy? (Here's an interesting bit of trivia: Pride and Prejudice is not only my favorite novel, it's also the first book I ever read aloud to Emmie -- starting when she was about a week old.) And speaking of Jane Austen, today is the anniversary of her death.

• How's your sense of pitch? (I scored a 26 out of 26 -- which, if you've ever heard me sing, you know must mean that I hear pitch perfectly -- I just can't produce it that way.)

• White Men Can't Judge.

• Local coverage of Zach Wamp's psooper psekret christian adultery cult (read about yet another C Street philanderer here -- and here!).

• You Suck at Craig's List is pretty funny (via Joe. My. God.).

• Badass of the Week, featuring Blenda, the Viking Heroine!

• Rick Perry is apparently rethinking that whole Texas-as-a-country thing (seriously -- who voted for this guy?).

• If you want to see the Great Barrier Reef, you better go soon.

• Can someone find Glenn Beck a nice small room with soft walls and a good therapist?

• ... and speaking of health care (that's what set Beck off)... Glenn doesn't have it quite right when it comes to France's system. The current American system is fine until you get sick, but will the next one be any better?

• This can't be said enough times: the only thing abstinence-only "education" produces is unbelievably stupid kids.

• I loves me some Usain Bolt footage. He makes all the other best runners in the world look like my grandma.

• Understanding our economy.

• Drunk people doing yoga.

• And finally, Pat Buchanan: he really stepped in it this week -- even more than usual!

Shopping as it should be...

I went over to Holiday in St. Elmo today and did the first of my holiday shopping. The weather was a little dreary (it drizzled on and off and was cold), but that's generally what Southern winters are about, so I suppose in a perverse sort of way, it put me in the holiday spirit. The shopping was wonderful. Lots of local artists were braving the chill to display their wares, and the shops were open and serving snacks and hot cider. If you didn't make it down today, be sure to stop by at some point this season -- the artisan tents will be gone, but you can still find great hand-made gifts in the stores (Umbra Essences has a fine selection of creations, large and small, from an impressive variety of very talented craftspeople!).

The crowd was lovely, too. I saw a lot of people I know -- apparently today, this was the place in Chattanooga to see and be seen! And as far as I know, not a single person was trampled or shot. I came home with a pretty good haul for my first day of shopping, and it was all hand-made by local people.

Black Friday Links

I didn't shop today (I raked the yard instead), but I do have a bit of holiday shopping to get done in the next few weeks. My goal this year, more than in any previous year, is to buy local -- from stores that are run by my neighbors, or at least stuff that was made here in the US. I've been trying to do some planning this evening and here are a few interesting tidbits I've found while researching the possibilities...

Give the gift of bees at Heifer, International (here's a nice story about how things sometimes work out well).
7 online wish lists to help you this holiday season

cybermonday.com

The XO: give one, get one

34 great gifts you can make yourself

Want to find the perfect t-shirt for someone? Try the teenormous search engine.

How to Bag a Bargain

Great sites for feel-good holiday gifts

Top shopping tips

Bacon Gift Guide

Esquire's Worst Gifts on Earth

Gifts We Don't Want

NYTimes notable books of 2008

Serious List of Holiday Online Coupons & Sales

And here are a few individual items I've run across that are either cool or creepy: plastic doodad, anti-theft lunch bag, spice jar measuring spoons, I love these t-shirts, freehands gadget gloves, dismember me plush zombie, death and taxes poster, The Best of Instructables, Volume 1, scabs bandages, fetus cookie cutter, Belkin RockStar, burning cross, wad of gum refrigerator magnets, ABC gingerbread cookie cutters, Free to Be...You and Me 35th Anniversary Edition, colour-in wallpaper

Friday Creature

Today's creature comes courtesy of a guest photographer -- I got out my camera yesterday, but then got so busy with meal preparations that I didn't take many pictures. Fortunately, Emmie picked up the slack, and she caught this image of the tortured dog (don't let all that comfort fool you -- at that point, the aromas from the kitchen were irresistible!), waiting for someone to throw her a bone. Never fear, though. While her plight required patience, she was eventually rewarded with some turkey and gravy, and then she even got to help us clean the plates and platters after the meal was over.

And now, on this Black Friday -- or Buy Nothing Day, if that's the way you swing -- while the rest of America is elbowing the competition away from that last $25 Blu Ray player, or digging around in the attic looking for the Christmas lights, or back at the office, enjoying a rare quiet day, or placing an order at amazon.com -- the creatures are all happily lining up over on the Modulator's Ark! Check them out, enjoy this nebulous day, tucked in between the holiday and the weekend, and remember to buy local -- our economy is hurting, so keep your money here instead of sending it to the Chinese!

Finish your Xmas shopping here!

A talented person I know just opened an etsy shop, so if you're looking for some cool bijoux for the holidays, look no further!

Mother's Day Reclamation

Here's a little food for thought on the Friday before Mother's Day:

Ahh, Mother's Day. A day to show our mothers how much we appreciate them by killing flowers, pulpifying trees, and gorging on sweets by way of the plantation. Now that's love...

Okay, we jest and it's not that we all aren't deserving of a little luxury now and then. But sometimes it seems that Mother's Day is about trying to shop our way out of responsibility, something we modern day capitalists have elevated to an artform. And as usual, we're cheered on by the multinationals who have taken what began as a day for women's activism and transformed it into a multi-billion dollar bonanza for industry. Few people know that the roots of Mother's Day lie in women working together for a better world. Today's commercialized parody has strayed far from the dream of its founding mothers.

Would you lick a magazine?

I wouldn't. Certainly not one in a public place (like a doctor's office? ew!), but not even a fresh issue that belongs just to me. Who knows what chemicals might be mixed into that lickable page? I'm also a bit put off by the idea of handling a magazine that has been licked. (via Joe. My. God.)

Is That Toy Toxic?

Just in time for those last minute stocking stuffers, a site that will tell you if they will kill you or your children.

Stuff

The Story of Stuff is a video that lasts for about 20 minutes. If you can find the time, it's an interesting presentation, and will definitely give you something to think about, especially at this hyper-consumption-oriented time of year.

Being Paid to Post?

This is a growing trend in the blogging world and before it gets totally out of hand, I'm going to take a poke at the concept. I'll start off by saying that I don't like these pay-per-post schemes and if you have a fun little conversational, non-commercial blog, I've got a warning for you: as much as you think your blog won't change if you sign up with one of the blog pimping services that are out there, you're just fooling yourself.

Fat White Men

I stated this little project on livejournal a few years ago because my daughter decided I needed a blog. I eventually moved over here to my own domain, but I still use the livejournal account to participate in a few communities, which is where I ran across the following article this morning. It's a good read and it makes me glad I've kept up with the blogging. The article was crossposted to DailyKos, so I'll link to it there: To The Fat White Men In Power: Vaffanculo:

Several diaries lately have featured pictures of "the powers that be." Rich, fat, pink, white men that make the laws. Fat white men that think they own my uterus. My favorite of these was Antonin Scalia doing his Vaffanculo gesture. What do these fat men know about my life? What do they care about my life? Hell, my parents don't even get me - and my parents are going to be at least sympathetic if something happened to me like I fell on financial hard times or got pregnant accidentally while on this med I'm taking that would harm the baby.

These fat white men don't care. They passed the bankruptcy bill. They are angling to overturn Roe. All for their own profit. For their own gain. To consolidate power in their own hands and their own party. In their elitist class. Their corporatocracy.

Antonin Scalia, vaffanculo! Vaffanculo vai! Testa di cazzo! Perzo di merda! Two can play at that game. My mouth is dirtier than Maryscott's (in Italian) when I am angry.

It's not just the fat white men in the government. It's the five or so fat white men that own the media and control the message to Americans. It's Rupert Murdoch buying Myspace. It's Colgate buying Tom's of Maine. It's the fat white  men named Ken Lay and Jeff Skilling. It's big business. It's the revolving door of fat white men moving from business to lobbying to government.

Yeah, yeah, yeah... same rant, different day, right? Well, in a way, maybe. It's a great rant, though, and very much worth going over to read the whole thing. And then think about this:

Last week, one Kossack busted Kaloogian for a fake picture and another Kossack found the proof. Within hours, it was off Kaloogian's website. Within a day it was on the NYT, WaPo, and the local San Diego media - not to mention Al Franken.

The same week, Jimmy Carter came to talk to us.

We are powerful. Think about it guys. When we talk, they pay attention. We can shape the message. We can make a difference. Let's use the power. I don't want to be the crazy one in society anymore. I want the insanity that's taken over our country to stop.

That last part is important. As a collective, we bloggers are making change, and everyone -- from the big name, high traffic sites all the way down to the smaller sites that work not for love or money, but purely because we want change -- is participating in that. There are a lot of us utility players out here -- guys in the middle of the bucket brigade -- who may not break the news (though sometimes we do pass it up to the bigger blogs), but we do keep the story moving, and lately we're getting some traction. I'm not sure how many readers I have (I get conflicting reports), but I know that among them are a few spiders and robots who report back to the search engines, and links do count. And the story keeps moving.

Don't Let Your Phone Out of Your Sight!

If you already have, someone could be stalking you, and you have no way of knowing.

For the past week I've been tracking my girlfriend through her mobile phone. I can see exactly where she is, at any time of day or night, within 150 yards, as long as her phone is on.
[...]
I can't find anything in her mobile that could possibly let her know that I'm checking her location. As devious systems go, it's foolproof. I set up the website to track her at regular intervals, take a snapshot of her whereabouts automatically, every half hour, and plot her path on the map, so that I can view it at my leisure.

Chrismahanakwanzaka Fun

For the young parent on your list: the Selubrion Chair (via boingboing)

Shopping for the kids? Go to Baby Bush Toys where you can get a Circle of Liberty Puzzle or the Terror Alert Xylophone! (via AmericaBlog)

If the holidays are here, it must be time to vote on the best blogs in all sorts of categories. Have you voted yet? (via Jesus' General)

Does this activity qualify as one of the Festivus Feats of Strength? (via smijer & buck)

Forget the Chronicles of Narnia movies -- Disnification is rarely a good thing -- Brokeback Mountain is the Movie To See this holiday season. Or is it Chattanooga's own Memoirs of a Geisha?

And yet another top ten list in the making! Get your votes in!

Fun Links

Oooh -- it was a cold, grey, rainy day here. Just perfect for wasting away the afteroon screwing around on the internet?

Happy Palace - an image blog (via BoingBoing)

ShopGoodwill.com - maybe even cooler than the stores!

Spike Jonze Gap commercial (via BoingBoing)

What is it about zombies and knitting?

Magazine Covers of the Future (via Memepool)

It's December, so it's time for End of Year Lists! Plus, the Forbes Fictional 15 (both via Throwing Things)

Black Friday Links

Faith / Works Gallery Exhibition & Sale The Defense of Christmas Begins Today Buy Blue! Church of Stop Shopping Rev. Billy Fair Trade Federation Buy Nothing Christmas The Green Pages Black Friday on Wiki Buy Nothing Day on Wiki Festivus loot: Festivus: The Holiday for the Rest of Us, by Allen Salkin and The Real Festivus, by Daniel O'Keefe Images from: Jesus's General Get your own: Patriot Boy Shop