Entries from March 2010 ↓

Youtube’s new layout is awful.

Way to completely hide all the valuable information and remove any valuable feedback by going with a binary rating system guys.

Not the ones on TV, I mean. The ones on my website.

I’ve  become one of the many victims of Adsense, the branch of Google that’s pretty okay with being evil. Last month, after getting a serious traffic boost from advertising and hitting the $200 mark, I got the “Your account is canceled. We’re not telling you why” message. The appeal took two weeks to get a response, which was “We’ve gotten your appeal.” Four hours later “Nope. You’re canceled. We’re not teling you why, and we’re still not giving you the $200 you earned. Hope you didn’t need the $50 you spent advertising your site!”

As a result, I’ve gone ahead and started setting up Adsensevictims.com, where I’ll start collecting stories from others who’ve had this same thing happen. It is, apparently, very, very common. Systemic, even, amongst people who’ve gained some popularity, and it’s time to set up a real warning for that.

From now on, I’ll be using ads from Project Wonderful. I’ve been planning to make the switch anyway, I’d just been waiting to hit the payout threshold. Project Wonderful, on the other hand, makes a habit of treating publishers and advertisers humanely with its open, honest bid system. When I know more about the payout, I’ll post the information here.

“You don’t just want one. You want more than one!”

God damn it, Werther’s. Stop it. Don’t do this again.

Swerving hard to the left and nearly hitting to avoid slowing down for 3 seconds when someone makes a right turn, cutting someone off instead of passing in the direction without a car already in the lane, and driving through an intersection without even pretending to slow down won’t make your penis bigger. It just tells us you’re compensating for it being so small.

As you’ve likely noticed, I don’t plug too often, only if I really, really like something.

Today, I stopped by what is officially my favorite restaurant in San Tan Valley, Arizona. Greek Islands Grill.

It’s listed at 270 E. Hunt Highway, Queen Creek, AZ 85243 for most purposes still. It’s the best gyro I’ve ever had AND the best Philly cheese steak I’ve ever had. I wrote a review for San Tan Valley Today praising them highly, and I just wanted to do that again on my own space.

If you end up in the east/southeast Phoenix area (Queen Creek, Mesa, Tempe, etc.) or are in Florence or other mid-southern AZ places, you really need to stop by. It’s tucked away in a little corner of the shopping center it’s in, but man, it’s so, so good.

Plug ended! But seriously, go there, they’re Monday – Saturday 11AM – 8PM, and for $10 you’ll be stuffed with delicious souvlaki.

It’s about time we start legalizing pot, and throwing out the dishonest arguments. MSNBC just aired a segment on the possibility and, surprise surprise, the Heritage Foundation is against it. Then again, the Heritage Foundation probably worships at the alter of Hearst.

The same arguments are still in use against marijuana as ever, despite having been shown to be wrong over and over.

I’ve been hearing “gateway drug” since I was eight I’d venture, in DARE classes. But you know what? Pot hasn’t ever made me try cocaine, meth, or heroin. It hasn’t made me drop acid or take any drug I wouldn’t already have considered. I don’t even drink, both for not liking the feeling of drunkenness and for the knowledge I’m a genetic land mine of alcoholism.

You know what pot made me try? Unusual pizza toppings and exotic brownies.

Pot is safer than any other drugs on the market, and I mean the legal ones too. Adderall causes horrid withdrawal and suicidal tendencies. Alcohol poisoning is a very real thing, people die from drinking too much and nothing else. Nobody has ever overdosed on pot. THC isn’t a power toxic substance. It would take 1500 pounds of marijuana to kill someone, within 14 minutes. The LD50 is 1000 times the effective dose, whereas alcohol is 10. If you’re buzzed on a shot of tequila, ten can kill you. If you’re high as hell off one bowl of pot…well, good luck smoking enough to overdose.

I’ve seen someone try to overdose on pot. He couldn’t do it, not because of the lack of pot, but because he forgot how. It’s self-limiting, he had all his vapor bags set up, and he just forgot how to do it. He’d hold it up to his mouth, and nothing happened.

Beyond the fact it’s less addictive and less toxic by far compared to alcohol, it’s also a way to reduce the power of criminals. When it’s legal to grow, the cartels that have taken over Mexico lose the profit from the drug. Law enforcement benefits from that, AND not having wasted time and money in war on a drug that’s responsibly used by so many. We can even tax it and make money off it, plus regulate it to remove so many of the dangers that can be involved. We can stop spending money putting people in jail for vice crimes where nobody is actually hurt but the user, if even that person.

Prohibitions are historically known not to work, even when we take them all the way to a constitutional amendment. We’re wasting time and money on this, particularly when we admit to ourselves that marijuana is less harmful than the alcohol and tobacco we support now. The same laws that apply to alcohol or any other intoxication can apply now, there’s no reason they shouldn’t. Don’t be a nuisance, don’t get behind the wheel, and don’t smoke around kids.

It’s time to get beyond that. Most of our founding fathers, the men and women we look up to so much, were on drugs. Cocaine was commonly used in the past, opium was everywhere, and marijuana was far from frowned on. Historically, people have always found a way to get high. Peyote, cactus juices, dodgy berries and mushrooms. Now people do something that really can get dangerous, kids even. They choke themselves and huff paint, or raid the medicine cabinet. The Tussin is a powerful thing.

Now what’s more harmful? A regulated drug that most of the last three generations have tried if not used regularly, that plenty of good presidents and other great men have used (and still do, even), or depriving yourself of oxygen?

It’s time to move beyond the propaganda. There’s no doubt in this country one loud, well-funded voice can do years of harm. People still listen to Dr. Harvey Kellogg, afterall, a quack in every sense of the word. Now it’s time to stop listening to William Randolph Hearst and his anti-hemp interests.

And I want to get out of the habit, but I keep putting it off.

That’s not meant to be an ironic joke sadly, but this daily post project would be easier if I got it over with in the morning, instead of waiting until it’s too late and I’ve had a full dose of “God hates me” for the day leaving me exhausted.

Oops.

I always have. As far back as I can remember, I’ve lost pens and pencils. I can NEVER own something pen sized or an actual precious pen. I’ll lose it in a day.

Every time I go on assignment for the paper I work for, I lose a pen. I buy a two pack every two stories at least. I could fund Pilot personally.

Every wonder why it’s hard to find G2s? Me. I bought them all.

I’d offer to share, but I really like them and I don’t have enough to go around, but if you look around random Arizona tables, you’ll find a few I bet. Just try to send me a buck to cover the cost, okay?

Back things up.

Always.

Today I had a friend’s flash drive fry on her, and it was where all of her work was. Now she’s learning to do two things. One is to backup to another drive, always, the other is to keep an online backup whenever possible.

We should all do the same.

When you yell and yell about the extra spending in a bill, complain about the pork and are given the option to remove it, you shouldn’t decide not to then decry how much is there still.

That’s what the Republican party did, though. When given the option to help pass the reconciliation measures to remove excess spending from the Senate’s health reform bill, they chose to say “No! We will not approve anything!” despite having submitted those measures themselves. Now they’re going to run on complaints of pork and that they want to repeal the bill.

Good luck with that. It’ll take a 2/3 majority in both chambers to override the presidential veto, and convincing everyone that it’s a good thing that you’re voting to allow their health care to be taken away, and to make them forget you voted to waste money on the cornhusker kickback.

What’s the over under on Glenn Beck committing suicide on air at this point anyway, maybe in a pact with Michelle Bachmann? It’s starting to seem more and more likely.