Nothing's gonna stop us now

How to explain part of what it is really like here in Argentina and especially here at the customer care center with these amazing people?

I think I am in a moment right now that will help. Right now we are all sitting in the customer care center. It isn't the most exciting room. Frosted windows so you cant see out and get distracted. Mini cubes to work at, old computers, homemade Yahoo! decorations on the walls. The room itself is just a room. But everyone has fun working so it makes it really, fun!

Every shift change is a flurry of hugs and cheek kisses.

And smiles!

When they lean in and greet each other they are happy to see the other. It is really wonderful.

During the day there is music on small stereo computer speakers. It is all kinds of music and goes of temporarily if someone breaks a rule (like talking on their cell phone). Right now Nothing is going to stop us now by Starship (that's right, from the 80's classic Mannequin with Kim Cattrall post "Big Trouble in Little China and pre "Sex in the City") is playing and I hear a low hum of singing along from the room. After a minute i hear Michelle (my counterpart from Yahoo! US) singing under her breath as well.

They are infectious.

Sounds like This Beat is, This Beat is, This Beat is Technotronic is next.

Economics, not politics

I was trying to explain to a friend tonight that economics is fascinating, That there is a lot of humanity in economics. This is one of those things that is hard to understand or even fathom before the light goes off in your head. Most people when they think economics think of money and numbers. But there is so much more.

So, i came home and started watching Commanding Heights. While Im watching it Im trying to think of how to explain to my friend what I mean. I think a good place to start is that what you think of as politics is not politics, it is economics. Economics is jobs, manufacturing, the balance of one country/state/regions assets against another, prosperity, poverty. All these things create communities or break them up. Government policy based on economic ideas controls these things.

Politics is the political game of getting what you want accomplished. But seperating the game from the economic consequences and influences of jobs, trade, and production is an important distinction.

Look the 2 words up in a dictionary, I think you will see the distinction.

One night we'll go

Whiskey

Grover Drunk
Originally uploaded by (Alex)

Sunday - Zack gets frustrated with text editor and downloads a program that can transfer files between PC and Mac w/o problems.

Monday - Zack enjoys hours of work in new text editor

Monday afternoon - Zack looks for an AutoSave feaature on his new text editor. Doesn't find but leaves work to catch his bus.

Monday Night - Zack opens his laptop and finds that his supposedly easier and foolproof Mac has mysteriously shut down, losing all work from Sunday night and Monday.

Immediately following that - Zack buys a bottle of whiskey

Comptroller General worried that the US will get PWNed by history

David Walker, the US Comptroller General has recently made a statement warning the US of “chilling long-term simulations” and comparing the US to Rome.

Link to Financial Times article.

As if the article wasn't sobering enough. As I write this, there is a commercial on TV where five 40 something men of varying racial backgrounds who are obviously reclaiming their youth and virility are playing and singing a version of Viva Las Vegas that they call Viva Viagra.

It looks like a life of pills, Harleys, and bandannas that is defiantly worth putting on a credit card.

We are so fucked.

2 quick updates

Floating into the blue
Originally uploaded by magic fly paula

I saw a GAP billboard a couple days ago with John Mayer. On is upper arm there was a tattoo that said "SRV". I looked it up online and sure enough it stands for Stevie Ray Vaughn. I liked John Mayer before but that gives me even more respect for him.

In the course or researching this I also found out about Music color synesthesia (which John might have). It sounds like a disease I would love to have. I wonder how it would change your perception of the world. I think if I had it, music would be like a drug.

Into the WIld

I hope I see this and never come back.

Thriller re-make, better than the original

I still think that Michael Jackson's Thriller is the best music video that was ever made. I'm sure this remake is eeeeverywhere on the net right now. But I don't care. My mouth was hanging open in awe the whole time...



The ladyboy is no Ola Rey but sHe's good enough for what they want to do to her. DANCE!

The Lego one is good to, but it doesn't compare.

Furry Karma Sutra

Go here. You can go through the photos using the navigation at the bottom right of the photo. Hilarious stuff.

And for a little background on WTF is going on here. Check out the Wiki.

The term furvert (a portmanteau of "furry" and "pervert") specifically refers to the subgroup of the fandom that sexualizes anthropomorphic animal characters.[28] Similar to the word queer in homosexual culture, the term furvert may be used pejoratively, as a self-referential joke, or merely as a descriptor.

Tattoos + Maps = Awesome

A quick post before I go plow through some email. Here is an awesome idea for a tattoo from the excellent map blog Strange Maps.

I have always thought that I would never get a tattoo relating to Winnemucca because it just seemed to obvious. But I did just recently find this map from 1912. Unfortunately, that WInnemucca map doesnt look as interesting. Damn you urban planning!

Another example of the Net making things a little more awesome.

I love "Bicycle Race" by Queen. It's one of those for me that I don't really think about much but when I hear it I remember, "Hey, I LOVE this song!" Well I heard it today, so I came home and downloaded it and in doing that I also stumbled on the video on YouTube and a Wiki page just for Bicycle Race!

From the Wiki,

To release this song, Queen staged a bicycle race with 65 naked girls. A clip from this race was used as the single cover. The video was originally banned, and the video had to be re-edited with colour added to censor out any offensive imagery.



I love that in searching I actually found out about the video's edited contents before I found it.

Nandoman did also say I should check out I Want to Break Free. He was right.

Insighting street races, for over 16 years.

For some reason my particular driving style has often caused other drivers to want to also speed and try to beat me. This morning I was driving to work pretty fast because I wanted to get here as soon as possible. Apparently some guy in a Nissan Z decided that there was no way he was going to let some guy in full size construction truck beat him so he kept trying to get in frint of me after I dared to pass him. It was one of those races where you aren't really racing, you just happen to be driving at 95 mph. So he would pass me and slow down. Then I would pass him just because my average rate of speed was faster. Then he would do 110 for a while to pass me.

Then some guy in a BMW decided he wanted to get involved. And then I decided, well, what else am I going to do for the next hour on the road. So I wasted that beemer and continued to make better lane change decisions than the Z. But he knew his exit (which was before mine). And gave it one last push right before it and beat me by 2 lengths.

I waved, but he didn't wave back.

Nevada To Phase Out Laws Altogether

The Onion has finally posted to the web one of my all time favorite stories of theirs:
Nevada To Phase Out Laws Altogether

(Also, check out my all time favorite story of theirs.)

I don't mind crying at stupid movies.

Sidewalk Stencil: Crying is OK here, originally uploaded by Franco Folini.

When my friend Aaron died a few months ago I didn't cry much. Ever since then I cry really easily at movies. I think it gets me because I so dont expect it. I almost cried at the preview for The Queen. When I actually went to see it, most of it really didnt get to me. But the scene with the deer. Something about that almost got me. Today I had Hary Potter and the Goblet of Fire on in the background and at the end when Cedric dies I felt my face getting red and a lump in my throat. Last night i shed a few tears when I was watching Click, CLICK!!!! Any moments when Adam Sandler was realizing how important the father son connections are in his life I got a lump in my throat. And at the end when we was yelling out for his son I cried.

The worst though was on my way back from Miami. I went to Miami with some friends of Aaron's. We went just to be together. We didnt really talk about him, and we are friends anyway, but we got together because we love him. He was there in the room the whole time if you know what I mean. On the way back they played "The Bridge to Terabithia." Right in the middle of the movie someone dies unexpectedly. Completely out of nowhere. And it was extra sad because it was someone with a lot of future ahead of them who's time was cut too short.

Well I sat there in seat 24F crying and crying for the last 40 minutes of the movie (ok, I dont actually know if it was 40 minutes but it sure felt like it). I didn't make any noise. I just cried silently and turned my head to look out the window and not watch all the dropped shoulders and frowns.

I'm glad it comes out sometimes. I know it's in there.

Oh yea, and I saw Shrek 3 tonight. Nobody died.

Flickr San Francisco training

Flickr San Francisco training, originally uploaded by Zack Sheppard.

Hi!

Comic Life

Zack is back, it's a bit weirder now

Zacks is back, it's a bit weirder now, originally uploaded by meshelle_my_belle.

I started at Flickr this week. They are owned by Yahoo! (who I used to work for). Although technically Yahoo! owns Flickr, they are pretty insulated from headquarters and it is easy to forget that Yahoo! owns them. But, I am back in California, and as you can see, Flickr is a good place to work.

Late Easter Round-up

For the last 9 years in Unionville on Easter a woman named Mohea has put on an Easter Egg Hunt with a raffle, cake walk, prizes and food. All completely free for anyone that wants to come it is supported by Mohea, her family, and local businesses.

A few years ago Pershing county (where Lovelock and Unionville are located) made a rule that put an age limit on the county Easter Egg Hunt. Well that made Mohea mad because she thought that anyone should be able to participate if they want to so she got donations from local businesses and put on an Easter Egg Hunt at Mark Twain Park in Unionville.

Sadly, Mohea took her 4-wheeler up a hill during the egg hunt, rolled her 4-wheeler and didn't survive. The event went on anyway with almost no sign that something happened except for an ambulance that silently passed the park.

For real insight on the day check out Pink Pepper Photo's pics and prose.

She says it better than I could but here also are my pics of Unionville and the hunt. (Check out the anatomically correct open range sign, classic Nevada)

President Johnson's Bung Hole

American Radio Networks has a great podcast on secret Presidential tapes. The whole show is interesting but if you just want to FF to the good stuff or if you ever wanted to hear a president burp right before saying "bung hole" than Fast forward to 20:10 and listen to that master of Elequence, LBJ.

Direct audio link.


Episode web page.

Saturated

Movies and TV:

I rarely rent movies anymore but I rented The Good Shepherd tonight. After I put it in the DVD player it took me to the intro screen. Fancy, moving background showing quick emotional scenes and reactions from the movie on the disc. Menu choices with themed typefaces. Lots of work just to say, Play, Scene Selection, Special Features...

I bet this is a good movie. But as soon as I saw that intro and thought about everything that goes into the 100s of movies each year and the thousands of hours of tv and movies that I have watched,

Do I want to give 2 hours to let people I have never met tell me a story or do I want to go out and see and smell a night that will never come again?

I think I have saturated myself on movies and TV. I used to order Premier magazine, when I was young I knew what was on every one of our cable channels at almost anytime of day. I was one of those people that its hard to rent a movie I havent seen. I have books and documentaries on how movies are made and it is something that I have given a lot of time to in my life.

But anymore I can barely finish a movie unless it is as background to something else I am doing. In fact watching a movie is just about the last thing I want to do in most cases. If its nice out I'd rather be outside. If its cold Id rather be out feeling it. If its Friday or Saturday night I'd rather be out. And if I have some free time I'd rather take in some information or do something productive.

So now I've sat through 49 minutes of The Good Shepherd and basically know what is going on. I did notice that one of the supporting characters was also the bad guy in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (you know, the one that choose poorly).

So I think I'll go for a walk armed with 2o years of pop culture which will be handy to relate to and laugh with all those people out there who have seen those same movies and television shows.

Im not sure exactly what Im trying to say but sometimes I miss enjoying movies, but I love my life.