September 2005 Archives
From eHow: How To Survive A Freestyle Rap Battle
Thank goodness.
In March I started trying to cut down on the junk mail I receive. Since moving into this apartment I had been quite lazy about it. I hadn't even signed up on the Direct Marketing Association (DMA) no-mail list, which I used to do automatically when I moved into a new place. But this new effort is coming along nicely.
The ValPak coupons stopped showing up exactly when they said they would. The Austin-American Statesman and Cingular have kept their end of the bargain - I have not received any solicitations or junk mail from them since I called. The people answering the customer service email at Lacks.com and Linens N Things (I had to dig through the help menus and finally used the Online Store contact form) were very polite and friendly, knew exactly what I was talking about and I'm confident those mailers will stop in due time. Working Assets Long Distance seems to have respected my request to the DMA - finally I've stopped receiving offers under my old name to join their long distance plan.
The first call I made to Time Warner did not keep junk mail from arriving, but when I used the email form online it only took two exchanges to get that fixed and the woman was very polite.
I haven't been tracking the "pre-approved" credit card offers that should have been eliminated by calling the credit bureaus' opt-out number (or you can opt out online from those credit card offers), but I don't remember the last time I got one. That's a good sign.
The one annoying spot has been the ShopWise flyers, which have some grocery flyers and offers from other random stores. I opted out online, and I think my request went through like I asked. But now I get the flyers without the address card that's supposed to accompany it.
There are now days when I get absolutely no mail in my mailbox. I like that. The recycling bin doesn't fill up as fast, and my real mail doesn't get crushed and wadded up as the delivery folks try to fit everything into my tiny mailbox.
I've now gone to a zero tolerance policy. Whereas before I was focusing on the stuff addressed to "resident," now I'm working on businesses that I actually have a relationship with. St. Edward's University Alumni Association, stop marketing to me. Vistaprint, no more "special offers" in the mail. I'll get new business cards and address labels when I'm good and ready. I also need to work through my airline frequent flyer memberships and stop all mail and junk email. I got frequent flyer numbers with all the major airlines so I could get their alerts for cheap weekend fares, but boy do they love to send me mail. Gack.
I'm not bothering with the junk that comes from my domain name registrations, though. I don't imagine I could stop those if I tried.
The list of potential dog names I found while cleaning up my hard drive also had Maya. Since I now know someone's child with that name, I'm removing that one.
- Tasha
- Tage
- Dulcie
- Ruby
My ability to use these names will probably be limited, as I expect any new dogs will come from Blue Dog Rescue or similar groups. Those dogs already have names. But heck, I posted my list of what I would name cats - even though I hope to avoid ever owning a cat again!
From Hadashi World: two words
in Bellingham, Washington, if you want to legally snip the ties that bind, you are required to appear as a couple in the courthouse on a Friday, and speak aloud the declaration that your marriage is "irretrievably broken."
My friend the Marquis sent me this piece from Billmon:
It's also hard to picture the delegates in Philadelphia waiting around while the more devout among them ran proposed deals by their church elders to see if they passed religious muster, or fighting a knock-down, drag-out battle over whether the Bible should be cited as "a" primary legal source or "the" primary legal source -- not unless a time machine carried the leaders of the last Justice Sunday rally back 218 years and dropped them off at the corner of Third and Chesnut.
"Powers?" interjected committee Chairman Sen. Arlen Specter. "Batman doesn't even have any powers. So my colleague's implication that Batman is even in the same league as Wolverine is nothing short of wishful thinking, wouldn't you agree, Mr Roberts?"
DruBlood develops a new mantra as the result of a difficult situation:
He became angry at some point and started to yell and scream and tell me he hates me and, you know, the evil 4-year old dance.
And three from SourDuck, whom Grace (especially, but others feel free as well) should read if she isn't already:
CNN, about the Mercedes CLS: Sexy, but a little weird
If I had a nickel for every ex-boyfriend I could use that phrase to describe...I could probably buy that Mercedes.
I was in Buffalo Exchange this week using up a store credit before it expired, and the woman who rang up my shirt (47 cents out of pocket) was wearing a shirt that said DITCH HIM.
I said "If only you'd been around wearing that shirt when I was in my early 20's, it would have saved me a lot of grief."
She said, laughing, "You know, every woman who sees me wearing this shirt says something like that..."
There was additional desultory conversation, during which I felt the need to state that I am now over 30, probably because I feel so out of place in Buffalo Exchange that I'm compelled to broadcast that I am not trying and failing to fit in, I'm JUST SHOPPING.
However, it didn't occur to me until now how boring she must find that conversation after the first five times it happened. Shame on me for making that joke!
Has anyone ever started a website because they were already getting the traffic for it?
Between September 7th and 13th, 3 people got to the Kingdom by searching for "vin diesel workout." People also got here searching for:
- vin diesel's eating habits
- vin diesel's women
- photo vin diesel's mom
- vin diesel orientation
- vin diesel's orientation
And this is WAY DOWN from my usual Vin Diesel related traffic, people. Usually it's about 20 people per week. It's insane. Write one post dissing Chronicles of Riddick and this is what you get.
My first million is obviously not going to come from the broken glass magnet like I thought. It's going to be made with a Vin Diesel fan site.
My other favorites from the week in question:
- dating stoners
- bwahaha lizard
- my computer won't power up
- lizard sphere
- army for teenagers
- i hate you because
- gnats apartment
- nigerian internet romance profile blacklist
- searches that led to me
Posting for the next while is likely to be a parade of frivolity like this, I warn you.
Last year we learned that Ann Richards, Lily Tomlin, and Gloria Estefan were all born today, my birthday, September 1st. Every time I think about that, I do a little dance.
This year we will learn about holidays.
According to My Daily Plan-It, which is a terrible name for a website, September 1st is Emma M. Nutt Day, named for the first telephone operator. Coincidentally, Emma is the actual name of Janice, the telephone operator in my voice mail at work. Thanks for the tip, DragonHawk.
September is also:
- Biscuit Month (I can get behind that.)
- Children's Good Manners Month (I'd settle for good phone manners, if we can't do it all in one month.)
- Fall Hat Month (Fuck! I only have one hat, and I wear it year round. Also, in Texas, September is not fall.)
- International Gay Square Dance Month (No.)
- National Rice Month (I just bought a 20 lb. bag of brown rice, and that's all I'm prepared to do for rice until early 2006.)
- National Subliminal Marketing Month (Make up your own joke for this one, I can feel the opportunity but I got nothin'.)
- Pain Awareness Month (I'd prefer pain non-awareness month, as I think I might get more sleep, but maybe it's an equal time thing.)
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