Strange Rumblings From...okay, this is fucked up...

Very, very odd...

Oh, boy.

Strange Rumblings While Staggering Around The Information Superhighway

One balding, middle-aged man's mumblings and bumblings while checking out this new-fangled thing called "The Internet"...

Having issues calling a call center? Tired of "your call is important to us" bullshit (a little known secret about working in a call center - when we call another department, a department no-one from the outside can get to, an assist line or another tier with no connection to the public at large, guess what we hear while waiting... "your call is important to us". Really.)? Tired of "press # then * then blah-blah-blah? Check this out - some dude is putting together a list of IVR cheats (that's the quasi-tech term for the fucking robot voice).
Here is the tale...
And here is the cheat sheet...
I checked - the call center I call home is not on the list, but one I did work at is.
Check it out. Now.

Other bits of coolness...

While searching for wholesome goodness for the soul, I came across this bit of high-speed photography...skynet.be. Check out the Bullet Technique. It is good when some folks have too much time on their hands.

And then there are the other folks...

Tired of having two nostrils when one would do the job? Are you? Click here and check out Human Upgrades...

Do you or does a man you know suffer from Behavioral Effeminism and Male Homosexuality Disorder? Then worry no more. Hetracil is here to save the day...

Looking for that one special Christmas gift for the cat-lover in your life? Bonsai Kitten to the rescue.

And another link for Roy...For you, my friend...

Strange Rumblings...

When watching the circus that is the American political system I have become accustomed to seeing all kinds of bizzaro-world things happen. Lots of Orwellian war is peace thinking, lots of "hey, we're the home of freedom so let's erode our freedoms at home and in the workplace" kind of kink, lots of 2 + 2 = 5 logic.
But the last few weeks have really hurt my head.

Dick Cheney, the V-P of the corporation to the south of us (unless you live in Windsor, where it is to the north of you... weird, huh?) has hit his head or is swallowing Percs or munching on shrooms or something.Dick Cheney has taken it upon himself to debate the merits of torture with John McCain... Remember - Dick has never been in the military, stayed the hell away from Viet Nam and is working for a guy who avoided the military due to his family connections. McCain, on the other hand, spent five and a half years in a pow camp - this dude was tortured, beaten, starved and pissed on. For Christ's sakes, the guy can't reach above his own fucking head.

Weird.

How big does your ego have to be, how large are your balls, how stoned or insane or demented or just plain delusional does one have to be to argue the merits of torture with someone who has been fucking tortured?

For more on Dick and McCain and the sad, sad, sad debate read this and this.

Strange days, indeed.

Also, Dick and Dubya keep repeating the "we do not torture" mantra.
Maybe the Fifth Estateshould be force fed into the American mindscape... The folks at the CBC did a fine job exposing a fermenting pile of shit and vomit and put in on some fine china for all of us to wonder at.

We should thank the stars every day for what we have in the CBC, by the way. The same night they broadcast this incredibly disturbing doc, Nightline NBC was blowing the lid wide open on the John Lennon murder... using audio interviews with Mark David Chapman from about fifteen years ago. And never once questioning the official story. Nice.

Maybe that's a clue into the major difference between Us and Them... They get pablum, we get a five-course meal served up in a really nice restaurant.

Hmmm... Things to ponder.

No pictures of unclothed ladies flinging pooh, but here's a link for Roy...click here, Roy...

Strange Rumblings From Afar

I saw U2 the other night.

Bono spoke of Important Things and the band played like an unstoppable freight train. The crowd was fifty thousand strong and knew most of what they heard.

I saw U2 the other night.

A new band led by Gavin of Bush opened the night. We were polite, but they bored me. Gavin - skipper and bad dancer...

I saw U2 the other night.

Before experiencing them live, I had always assumed the band belonged to Bono and The Edge. Now... I assume the band follows Adam. He is a force of nature, a professor of the funk, a professor of the punk and a champion of the groove. Someone had to behind their rapid changes of style.

I saw U2 the other night.

They played Gloria. The Detroit crowd sang the chorus. It is an odd site watching fifty thousand people sing Latin, but, hey, it happened.

I saw U2 the other night.

Larry has a portrait of himself hidden in his attic at home that is aging. Cause he ain't.

I saw U2 the other night.

And it got me thinking... When this band sings of faith and God and religion and Jesus, we don't mock. We don't duck out for a quick smoke. We don't cuss them out for bringing down the party. When Social D plays When the Angels Sing or Angel Wings or Ball and Chain the pit doesn't stop, the room doesn't empty. When Johnny Cash would release an album of gospel music, we accepted it. And it go me thinking... Is this an example of a 3-dimensional faith? Are we (meaning, well, me...) more accepting of someone else's religious views and someone else's faith and relationship with their God and their beliefs if that person has walked thru fire and stood on the edge of the cliff and wakes up every day and has to decide if today they will be Good or if today they will Bad and their demons hound them every second of their life and it is a constant struggle to look in the mirror and be proud of what they see? I swear, when I listen to Hank Williams Sr, I can almost hear the battle going on in his head... Is that why I can listen to his suicide songs and his drinking songs and his goofy songs and his faith songs? Don't know, really... I can't stand listening to white choral music, but I get a groove on for black gospel. What's up with that? Things to ponder.

I saw U2 the other night.

And just as I was feeling real good, real comfortable with pop stars speaking their minds, with people in the music industry taking a pro-acitve role in world affairs and matters of the mind and things bigger than themselves... 50 Cent opened his mouth. The destruction of the Gulf Coast was supposed to happen? The displacement of hundreds of thousands of people, the deaths, the devestation of entire communities was what... God's practical joke? Once again to prove how important Chuck D is to world of hip-hop and rap... 50 Cent speaks his mind. Shut up 50. Please. Thank you.

I saw U2 the other night.

They made me feel good about the world.