September 2008
9 posts
MOVING...WHAT ELSE CAN GO WRONG?
Moving sucks. Not that I mind packing or unpacking…I have a freakish affinity for both of those activities. What I hate is paying someone to take my stuff, and trying to figure out whether they’re responsible, reputable movers who won’t destroy all of my possessions, or whether they’re scamming sketchwads who are out to screw me out of every penny I own.
My movers seem...
SEASONAL ALLERGIES, MY ASS
Apparently, there are some people who only have allergy symptoms during the spring and fall. Other people don’t even have allergies, at all.
To all those people I say: Fuck you.
My allergies are year-round, and they are relentless. I wheeze, sneeze, seep and grumble during every season, whenever the wind blows. I can usually only breathe out of one nostril, and it feels like my nose...
YOU, THIEF. ME, HUNGRY AND MAD.
OK, so I didn’t bring a Hot Pocket, but somebody did steal my lunch today.
Yep, some cocksucker looked into the fridge at my cold 6-inch sub, which I had to get on sale, and said “Fuck you, sandwich owner, you’re probably fat anyways.”
So I’m a little pissy today. This has happened to me before, and I am amazed that as the person on my floor who makes the LEAST...
NEW RULE!!
No dumping useless crap on my desk!!!
I don’t know when it was, but at some point people started feeling that it was reasonable to come to my desk with some piece of equipment, useless binder, or other hunk of detritus, but it’s getting out of hand.
“I don’t have room for this in my office, can you keep it for me?”
Yeah, of course! I’ve got tons of room in...
I'D DIE OF BOREDOM, BUT THAT'S TOO MUCH EFFORT
Is there anything worse than being bored?
I’m not talking about being generally listless, antsy, or discontent.
I’m talking about soul-crushing, mind-numbing, brain-melting boredom.
I’m talking about being so bored that when someone approaches you and asks you for a menial favor, you’re glad for the distraction.
“Hey, Allison! Someone barfed in the hallway! ...
OVERHEARD AT BRUNCH...
Please enjoy this snippet of conversation, overheard at 2:00 p.m. on Sunday, September 8th, at Spitzer’s Corner on the Lower East Side.
Asian girl #1: “Why is this called a Tuscon omelet?”
Asian girl #2: “What?”
AG#1: “Right here, a Tuscon omelet, like Tuscon, Arizona.”
AG#2: “Umm, that says Tuscan, like in Italy.”
AG#1: “Oh,...
ELECTION SPAM
It happens every autumn…
As the leaves change and the chill hits the air, as jackets and down comforters are aired out, the minor politicians assail us with unrelenting, useless spam.
I guess the proper term is “junk mail,” but whatever. Every candidate for borough president or vermin control supervisor mails out pounds of crap per week. They claim to be Green! ...
POOR PALIN, POOR POLITICS
So I watched Sarah Palin’s speech last night - and I really wish I could like her.
She’s an engaging and lively speaker, and in her address to the convention, she made some really salient points about the flaws in Obama’s energy plan and tax proposals.
I wish that I could get behind her; she’s a dishy gal who looks pretty fun, and I bet she’s the kind of person...
BACK FROM VACATION...AND NEEDING ANOTHER ONE
After a long weekend in Ohio, I am back in New York, albeit not relaxed, not rested, and just as pissy as I was when I left.
When I’m staying with my parents - sleeping in a cushy bed, watching as much cable as I want, and relishing in the absolute quiet - it’s easy to forget that eventually, I have to go back.
So now I’m back at work, and after taking all of 15 minutes to...
August 2008
4 posts
COCKBLOCKED BY THE FIREWALL
Considering that I have nothing else to do, you’d think that with my computer in front of me, I’d have all the entertainment possibilities I could need.
You’d be wrong.
Thanks to a near-Draconian firewall and a slow-as-shit network, it’s like pulling teeth to get any work done. Of course, by “work,” I don’t mean things C. would want me to do. I mean...
DOG CATCHERS, GARDEN VANDALS, AND OTHER...
There are fewer things more ridiculous than reading the “Letters” section of a mid-size city paper. These are the poorly reasoned, xenophobic and/or misinformed screeds of people that don’t know how to post on blogs, and probably still use AOL to send their e-mail forwards about how Barack Obama is a muslim.
I cannot deny it - I hail from Toledo, Ohio, a town most associated...
Gimme Swelter
On another miserable New York summer…
OK, to be fair, this year’s summer hasn’t been too bad. There’s been a lot less of the stench of garbage/urine/hopelessness that usually pervades the New York air from June to October.
There have been fewer days of sitting on the couch in my underwear, eating popsicles. Fewer nights of sweat dripping into my eyes and keeping me...
July 2008
9 posts
Craigslist Makes Newspapers Weep
Craigslist CEP Jim Newmark is reporting that housing ads are up 85% yearly across Craigslist local sites. While regular papers are seeing readership and ad sales dry up, Craigslist is booming, and quickly rendering print classifieds obsolete.
The Bay Area is one of CL’s oldest and most stable markets, and its housing pages have been popular for years. Now, with so many new markets served...
San Francisco Crime Stats
Maps seem to be the spirit of the month, but Team Ten was ahead of the curve with its San Francisco Crime Statistics map.
“A few interesting things:
The Bayview and Hunter’s Point areas, notorious for crime, aren’t really much worse than anywhere else.
For five years Jen lived in the plot immediately north of the two bright yellow blocks. Silver Terrace (at the intersection of the...
Pelosi Eliminates Park's Poison Pill
Speaker Nancy Pelosi is surrepticiously trying to eliminate the provision that Golden Gate Park become self-sufficient by 2012. By engaging in PR sleight-of-hand, pork-barrel spending, and political double-speak, she’s trying to keep the park federally funded. Hey, if it’s okay to build a bridge to nowhere, keeping the park untouched by developers should be no problem.
A Friday Dose of Google-Hate
Google’s gone and done it again, messing things up for the rest of us.
First, they were blamed for exploitation of the Mission, and now it’s their fault that home prices are rising in Noe Valley, the Valencia Corridor, and Dolores Heights.
The legendary perk shuttles SF-dwelling Googlers to Mountain View in comfort, style, and Wi-Fi. Since the Google bus only makes a few stops in...
Redmond's Panhandling "Plan"
SFBG’s Tim Redmond has got it all figured out.
SF’s panhandlers, many of whom live in city-paid housing, don’t panhandle because they’re addicts. They only panhandle because their food stamps don’t pay for beer!
Newsom’s “Care, Not Cash” program pays for housing, but only provides meager living expenses. The way Redmond sees it, panhandlers are...
"Take the Damn Bus"
As if gushing water and asbestos weren’t disturbing enough, BART officials are up in arms over the MTA’s plans to tunnel underneath the Powell station for the Central Subway line, set to start running in 2016 from AT&T Park to Washington & Stockton streets.
Since the Powell station sits beneath the groundwater table, BART officials question the safety of tunneling even...
Not Just a Bailout
The NYT’s “Your Money” column details how the new soon-to-be-passed housing bill isn’t just a bailout for troubled borrowers and lenders. If you’ve been thinking about buying your first home, now may be the time to start calling realtors.
Under the plan, first-time homeowners will get what’s basically an interest-free loan from the government, as well as tax...
