movie disclaimers

saw this article on wired.com today; it's funny, witty, and generally pretty accurate. i, for one, support giant warning labels in movies, provided they are like these. mpaa, take note.

an ebay story

sooo....money's a little tight around our house lately, and like many good americans, we turned to ebay in our time of need. i sold several computer parts a few weeks ago (hard drives, optical drives, keyboard/mouse combo, etc.), and then today i listed my old laptop on there. actually, i listed it at 5:56pm today...and someone used "buy it now" to buy it at 6:50pm! less than an hour and it's done.

...and the heavens rejoiced!

herd theory: the mane event?

i ran out of hair "product" this morning...well, i actually ran out of my preferred product about a month ago, and have been using something that gab had since then, but i scraped the bottom of that can today, so i am totally out now. (stop your chuckling, i know i don't have blond hair, but it works.)

anyway, with finances being a little tight 'til payday, i began to entertain ideas for how to cope with the situation, and voiced the option of shaving my head. while shooting that idea down, gabriele made an interesting point - that when men my age decide to shave their head, it seems to be a point-of-no-return decision; once its shaved, they rarely grow it back. she cited a friend and one of her brothers as examples, and it got me thinking...

my friend joe and i have discussed, at length, what i affectionately call "herd theory," and the many possible implications/examples of it in modern day society. aside from the broader sociological implications, we wondered how herd theory might translate into individual decisions. a good example of such decisions that would seem to have some root in evolutionary psychology is physical appearance - in particular, we're talking hair. (not hair.)

fur, manes, hair - they all essentially have the same purposes: temperature control and protection. joe suggested a parallel between a male lion's mane and his own efforts (earlier in life) to form his hair into some sort of protuberance (e.g., the faux-hawk). mane-like parallels could also be drawn with men sporting long locks and even afros. all of these hairstyles - and really, any hairstyle - has plentiful examples of certifiably attractive males (not pictured) to support the theory of pretty hair being the modern-day equivilant of a nice lion mane.

but what if you're bald? bruce willis, tiki barber, michael jordan, patrick stewart, even natalie portman - all are attractive bald people.

i have to go to a meeting now, but please, let me know your thoughts. my entire theory may be in danger here.

[update] just realized this is the 100th post on my blog! congrats, me!

deferring customer service

Just called my student loan lender to see about getting my loans deferred for another year, and once again realized how helpful they are with customer service. So helpful, in fact, that I not only emailed the following transcript to a friend, I also decided to post it here:


OSLA: Good morning, OSLA.
Me: Hi, how are you?
OSLA: Good, what can I do for you?
Me: I need to speak with someone about my account.
OSLA: Sure, what's your social security number?
Me:
OSLA: Okay, Andrew, how can I help?
Me: I need to see about getting it deferred for another year.
OSLA: Okay, are you still at [old address]?
Me: No, I recently moved. My new address is [new address]
OSLA: Okay, you will be getting a letter in the mail confirming the address change. Anything else I can do for you?
Me: Umm...is there anything else I need to do about getting it deferred?
OSLA: Nope, that's it.
Me: You guys are so awesome. Thanks!
OSLA: No problem. Have a great day Mr. Moore.


Seriously, you don't get that good of service at a gentlemen's club.

blogger resurgence

15 minutes til i start my weekend...guess i'll spend it blogging. :P

recently i have experienced a resurgence in my blogging, the strongest since i first began this blog several years ago. at that time, many of my friends had blogs (most of them on xanga), and it was not uncommon to have a post stimulate 30 to 50 comments and essentially becoming a bulletin board of sorts. but then our blogging began to wane...

myspace took over, and facebook to some extent. everyone was on there, always commenting, messaging, posting bulletin surveys, browsing profiles for hours, etc. and then we all withdrew into ourselves, just checking our profiles to see if someone else had messaged, but rarely sending a message ourselves. again a quietness ensued...

and then i moved to brenham, and gab and i decided to start a blog dedicated to track her/our experience with rheumatoid arthritis. in doing so, i realized i should update my profile on blogger to reflect our present location. little did i realize that that action would stimulate a flutter of activity and surprise meetings of other BOBs (born-out-of-brenham, as opposed to those who are born-in-brenham) and the entry into a new group of friends and even a church. tremendous!

along with the active blogging, i have again taken to facebook, increased my instant messaging, and even started twittering. it has been rewarding, and i feel that it has again enabled me to draw closer to many people, whether they live in brenham, okc, or even minnesota or wisconsin.
ah, the power of the interwebs. thank you, al gore.

sweet, only 2 minutes left. another useful aspect of blogging makes itself known.