Cigarette butts are litter.

Most people would say they don't really find littering to be acceptable. Would you just toss a wrapper on the ground instead of in a trash can? Probably not. Most people wouldn't. They find the idea of littering to be just wrong. It's unsightly, and somebody eventually has to take care of that trash, so most people recognize this and don't just toss things out their car windowns or on the ground. But most, or many, people who smoke, it seems to me, don't seem to think of cigarette butts as liter. They are. They don't just magically disappear. Somebody has to clean them up. If you've ever had a job where you occasionally had to clean up litter, you know that probably 90% of it is cigarette butts. Most people won't throw a candy wrapper out the window, but many have absolutely no problem throwing out cigarette butts. Most cars have ash trays. Perhaps smokers don't always dispose of their cigarettes in their car ash trays because they think that's gross. Well they're right. Cigarettes are disgusting. Litter is dusgusting. Don't make me suffer the disgustingness of your gross habbit just because you don't want to. Quit smoking or quit littering.

Filed in: Thoughts Smoking Smokers

Categories

Since this blog is still fairly new, I am still frequently making little changes until it is to my liking. One of these changes, which I made today was to my categories. Previously, I had decided to only have fairly broad categories, like "meta," "cinema," "news," and "humor" for my posts, but today I changed my mind. I decided that I would also include also fairly specific category tags when appropriate. I will tend to list the broader categories first, and then more specific ones. I have gone back and added some tags to a few of my posts as per this change. In order to not go too crazy with categories, though, I have decided to impose a strict four tag limit for each post.

If you're wondering exactly how I've gone about creating these tags for my posts, I use the method described here. Basically, you must first have firefox and the greasemonkey extension for it (I can't imagine why you wouldn't, unless you use safari for mac). Then you download this greasemonkey script, and edit it to point to your del.icio.us account. When you post, there is a new field for generating tags automatically that point to categories in your del.icio.us account. Then, once you post your entry to blogger, you make a post for it on your del.icio.us page (I have made a del.icio.us account devoted to this blog, so as not to mix things with my other del.icio.us account, which could get confusing for someone wanting to browse all my posts in category x). In addition to linking to the appropriate category in blogger, that script also creates tags which are viewable by technorati bots, so you kill two birds with one stone. Slightly more detailed instructions and explanations are at that first link I provided in this paragraph.

Filed in: Meta Tagging Technorati Del.icio.us

(Clicking on these links takes you to that category under my del.icio.us account. Also, if you search for them at technorati, you should be able to find this post, though possibly burried under many many posts from other, better blogs than this one).

and It's not even Christmas...

From Metafilter:

Apple iBook sale in Richmond, VA, turned violent today when people began to fight over the $50, four-year-old used machines on sale by Henrico County School System. One woman urinated on herself instead of losing her place in line. Others were shoved to the ground, and one man tried to drive his car into the crowd.

Craziness!

Filed in: News Tech Humor Ibook

I, Verismo

My friend, Michael, has been writing poems lately about industrial objects. My personal favorite is his first one, about a street light. Yesterday he asked me for more ideas for his poetry. Since I just started working at Starbucks about a month ago, many of the objects I thought of were ones that can be found in Starbucks. So I proposed that he write about a blender. Then I got to thinkin about how one could write a poem contrasting a blender from Starbucks to the Verismo Espresso machine, which basically does everything for you. So I asked him if I could guest write it for him, and he said yes. So here it is, and also here:

I, Verismo

starbucks industrial blender
you mix frappuccino drinks with ease
but you are simple, brutish
you do only two things
blend high and
blend low
both with the same outcome
left alone you wreak havoc
without a lid you explode
like a violent savage beast
unsophisticated
I control you

Unlike your faithf'ly working counterpart
Verismo espresso machine
Pulls shots in just the right ammount of time
Proportions just right ev'ry time
The crema, heart and body are just right
With so little input from us
It steams milk to a perfect temp'rature
To one-sixty-five on the dot
It knows exactly what it wants and needs
"The pour spout needs rinsing right now"
It protests silently, but won't give up
So gentle, so civ'lized indeed.
But still you need a certain human touch.
But for how long?

This post, and all other posts to Clearly. The Best Blog reflect my own personal views and not those of my employer or any other person or persons.

-Edited for some crazy html errors that should have been quotation marks 2005/08/13 13:04
-Edited 7/13/06 to add disclaimer

Filed in: Poetry Thoughts Humor AI

Heist

I heard about this yesterday on NPR, I think, but I read it again today in the paper. Thieves in Brazil have stolen 68.8 million dollars from the Central Bank of Brazil in Fortaleza, making it the second largest bank heist ever, after only Saddam Hussein when he took off with about 1 billion dollars while fleeing from the US occupation. The thieves tunneled under the building to break in, drawing comparisons to another robbery last year in the Sao Paulo, where thieves also tunneled into a bulding to steal 1 million dollars. The robberies are believed to have been masterminded by the same man, Teixera da Silva (freaking everybody in Brazil named da Silva, including the President), who escaped from prison three years ago-by tunneling out.

Incidentally, there's a pretty good movie about the kidnapping of the US ambassador to Brazil in the 60s or 70s by the group MR-8, which early on in the movie pulls off another famous bank heist. If I recall correctly, that may have been the largest bank robbery in Brazil up until this point, though I could be totally making that up. The ambassador is played by Alan Arkin. The movie also features Matheus Nachtergaele, who is in every Brazilian movie you will ever see.

Filed in: News Cinema Brazil

Murderball

I saw Murderball yesterday. It was one of the favorites at the Twin Cities Film Festival and I wanted to see it then, but didn't have then chance. So I finally got to see it yesterday. I just knew that it was supposed to be good and was about wheelchair rugby, aka murderball (that's really what they originally called quad rugby). And just like most people reading this, I was like, "what? wheelchair rugby?" I guess you have to see it. Anyhow, 'twas a good movie. It sort of followed the rivalry between the US and Canadian national quad rugby teams, and mainly one specific player from the US, Mark Zupan, and the Canadian coach, Joe Soares, who is a big ass. You should all go see it if you haven't already, if only to see how the fuck one plays wheelchair rugby.

Oh, almost forgot. One of the best parts of the movie:

Little 6 year old boy from campfire: Um, I just have one question... how do you eat your pizza with your elbows?

Man from US team who has had his forearms amputated: I just pick it up like this. (demonstrates how he picks up a piece of pizza using a notebook or something as a subsitute).

(This post was giving me trouble. Deleted it, now reposted it).

Filed in: Cinema Murderball

First Post: Farewell (Good Riddance), Xanga.

I've just switched from xanga to blogger (well actually I registered this account several months ago to see what blogger is like from the inside). You almost certainly were directed here from my xanga. I switched mainly because xanga just sucks, and blogger is just better, basically.

1) The stupid freakin adds are annoying.
2) Xanga is really inflexible unless you "support them by going premium". In which case,you've probably gone so batshit insane with premium features that your site is utterly illegible.
3) Blogger is more accessible to people who don't have accounts and doesn't try to blackmail you into getting one and make you feel trapped. You don't have to have an account to post comments, unless the author of that blog chooses. Its xml is more usable and publicized, although xanga does have xml feeds, in the form of http://www.xanga.com/rss.aspx?user=[user]. They don't want you to know this, though, cause then there's a convenient way for you to read all your xangas without joining.

So, despite the fact that I will no longer be posting on xanga, you can still easily and conveniently read my blog by downloading RSSOwl, or any other RSS aggregator and adding my feed, http://gauchodaspampas.blogspot.com/atom.xml. Additionally, as I mentioned, you can add all your xangas, too.

Filed in: Meta Xanga