Is That a Projector In Your Pants?

Surveillance footage of a guy who stuffs a video projector down his pants. They managed to walk out of the store without being stopped. They were later seen stealing drugs and syringes, but again, they got away. One wonders why they never stole a backpack, or didn't go after a smaller projector.

Hey, Steal My Identity!

I got a postcard today from Bruce Titus Chevrolet. It got my attention right away, because it showed a 747 in a darkened hangar. All the lights on the plane were on and my name appeared to be painted in 15-20 foot tall letters on the side of the plane. Very slick.

It also had my name in big orange letters as well as a customized website address that featured my name in the website address. And a six-digit password.

Out of curiousity, I went to the website and filled in a bunch of bogus information. I was really appalled because the very last question it asked me was my Social Security Number. Worse yet, the website wasn't secured. No https, no little yellow padlock. That's just identity theft waiting to happen.

By the end, it showed me my postal address and name and asked me to confirm (retrieved from its own records). Of course, I adjusted that as well.

But I'm just amazed at how poorly they seem to care about their potential customer's data. The company that put the postcard together, Variable Thinking (obviously a low-budget fly-by-night shuyster -- they don't show up in Google and their website doesn't line up right in Firefox) has no concern for providing a good experience to their customers or their customer's customers. They ought to be ashamed of themselves.

While I can't ever see myself in the market for a Chevy, Bruce Titus Chevrolet of Tacoma is one place I will certainly not consider.

It's not a mouse!

Is Disney really the ones they want to screw it? Ah, love the Chinese and their complete lack of comprehension of copyright and intellectual property. I guess that's what happens when your government doesn't let you own anything. When pressed, they did admit "It's not a mouse! It's a cat with large ears!" Welcome to Beijing Shijingshan Amusement Park.

The Future of History

Saw this on a brochure today for "National Day of Prayer" and had to go find the quote.

A democracy is always temporary in nature. It simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government, because, sooner or later, voters discover that they can vote themselves generous gifts from the Public Treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the Public Treasury, with the result that every democracy will always collapse due to loose fiscal policy.

From bondage to spiritual faith; from spiritual faith to great courage; from courage to liberty; from liberty to abundance; from abundance to selfishness; from selfishness to complacency; from complacency to apathy; from apathy to dependence; from dependence back again into bondage.

I thought it was interesting, even though it's probably not a single quote, but two ideas stuck together, origins unknown. Makes me curious about the surveillance state the UK is becoming.

Need Input

This guy went to a lot of trouble to very faithfully replicate Johnny 5 from the Short Circuit movie. (Singular. Anyone who says there was more than one is a liar!) Kinda cool, considering how complicated the designers were who developed the one for the movie. Bummer there's no YouTube clip to accompany it.

Hey Google: April was last month

iGag. What, were the Google Personalized Homepage (go to Google.com and click on "Personalized Home") people feeling left out after Google TPS and GMail Paper? Seriously, is "iGoogle" some sort of Maypril Fools or something?

This is a really, really awful name. The "i" thing has been done to death and we must once and for all cede it to Apple and walk away.

Seriously? I mean, for real? This isn't some kind of joke? It just looks stupid and sounds stupid. Like some cheap rip off copycat from a second-run has-been trying to take one last stab at glory by copying from someone else. Not the market leading innovator.

Ugh, ugh and ugh again.

Reset Button

Today feels like a good day for a reset. In the recent past, I abandoned more cake2, I dropped off my book list, I pretty much missed 40 Days of Community by not starting my reading on time and I've been consistently behind in my parenting class, always doing the reading the day before or day of. On the plus side, we made our budget for last month. So today, May 1, seems like a great time to press the reset button.

So, I'm ready to get on with things. With two mini-vacations and Mothers' Day in the next few weeks, I'm ready to face those and figure out what planning needs to happen.

I'm not back to my reading list, yet. I am working through the stack of magazines on my nightstand, so I'm still reading. I'm going to let Newsweek lapse. It was a free subscription and they wrote something recently that ticked me off to the point that I just decided it wasn't worth putting up with their stringent bias just for indepth on news. So that helped reduce the pile. I also got a little off-track with my daily Bible reading, so I started over today with Matthew chapters 1 and 2. I read two chapters in 40 Days and I will get caught up. Unfortunate is that I'll miss two of the next three services at church (will attend elsewhere) and will miss two of the next three small groups, meaning that I've pretty much missed the opportunity to be as relevant and contributive to this particular study. A shame, it's pretty good one.

And More Cake2 is back. I have 9-1/2 pounds to lose. This is doable. I'm gonna get it done, I'm going to be my own drill sergeant. New plan is that I have to do a certain minimum amount of exercise per day and failing that, I have to carry half of it forward. No more just missing a day.

I'm also planning to be in bed no later than 11:30 pm and out of bed by 6:00 am daily, save weekends.

I'm feeling good. I could write more, but I want to finish my breakfast, start a load of laundry and get out the door to work.

But yeah, I'm feeling good.