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The Evengentials interview videoOK, this isn’t an editorial, per-se, but just letting you know I’ve got a new video interview up. This time it’s of The Evangenitals, led by Rev. Juli Crockett – pictured below, at right. Read the post for it in the Press blog HERE and see the whole hi-rez vid in Quicktime HERE or click the pic below.  ZOMBIELAND was a great movie.So excellent to just get into pure fantasy for a while with Woody Harrelson, Bill Murray and crew in ZOMBIELAND. And I can totally sympathize with the narrator of the movie. I mean, really. Who among us has not brought a girl home that we kind of felt sorry for only to have her later turn into a zombie? I want the soundtrack for this movie now. I dug the way “For Whom The Bell Tolls” cranked during the opening credits.  The Happy Proliferation Handheld Technology
I’m HookedThe world is getting more honest. Everywhere you go people are more polite and transparent about their motives. When people make a deal and shake hands, you know you can count on it. The reason is obvious. It’s the cell phone camera. Before, in the days prior to cell phone camera technology, one rarely had to worry if one was being surreptitiously recorded on video. Now a crooked politician or rouge cop never knows if their misdeeds will end up on a cnn.com iReport post. Another great side benefit is the abundance of high-quality cell phone user-produced nudes. First popularized by Hollywood socialites on reality TV these nudes are now commonplace. With their cell phone cameras, other less famous people can gain instant recognition as a subject of erotic art among their friends and extended peer groups. I heartily endorse this trend in social creative expression. The hidden physical beauty of the average girl and fast food counter worker should not be overlooked. The rare diamond in the rough, when discovered, can also be launched to stardom and celebrated on fan websites the internet world-over. With free E-blogs, everyone can be a Johnny-on-the-spot local news journalist. Merchant service companies should also make accounts for pay-per-view sites easier to set up for 18-year old college students to have their webcam subscribers and cell phone photo connoisseurs appreciate and express their love for them. This is the 21st century and a free country, not the repressed dark ages of pre-mass-free expression and multi media communication. The time is now for a personal handheld device/smart phone video and photo revolution. Rise up, small town video stars, and seize the day. Photo above, at right: an awesomely self-produced image of a tattoo-free model’s figure study, sent in by a reader. Click the pic for the larger version. ADVENTURES AT THE DMVA Public Service AgencyI got a letter from the efficiency experts at the California Department of Motor Vehicles the other day telling me that my vehicle registration would be suspended unless I provide them with proof that I do indeed have insurance for my vehicles. While out conducting business today I was in Clairemont where they’ve got a DMV. So I decide to walk in, wait in line, and show them my insurance card from Progressive. The nice lady at the counter smiles and tells me that they do not “handle” financial responsibility issues at the field office and that on the letter from the DMV there’s a website (dmv.ca.gov) and an 800 number to call. The letter was at home so tonight I try for about an hour and a half, to no avail, to get the automated system to accept my info through voice recognition and the keypad. When it finally says it understands what I am trying to tell it, the voice says the DMV is not able to recognize the policy I have inputted. According to the Progessive reps when I called in earlier today the policy is valid and my online banking shows that they have received my recent payment. Then I go to dmv.ca.gov and look for somewhere to input my auto insurance/financial responsibility. But I can’t find any place on that website’s crowded index page where there is a link, tab, or section that invites such an activity. Something’s odd here. First, why don’t they accept proof of insurance at the DMV field office like they used to only a short while ago? Did insurance industry lobbyists successfully bribe California lawmakers or someone to change DMV policy so that the insurance companies get a portion of the $14 fee you must pay if the time limit is exceeded and you don’t notify the DMV in time about your insurance coverage? Whose idea was this? They should be in jail, whoever they are, right along with former 50th district congressman in San Diego Randy “Duke” Cunningham, America’s official Most Corrupt Congressman, who was sentenced to 8 years federal custody for, among other things, writing out a bribe menu on his letterhead of what he offered in the way of legislative services for lobbyists and how much each service cost. Who is it to the advantage of here to not only not allow the in-person field office reps to input the insurance data on a computer when you present it to them, but then allow an automated voice to ineptly and incorrectly check it 24-hours a day over the phone? If the computer can do it automatically that then a person can do it on a computer keyboard too. And if the computer can do it over the phone with voice recognition then a phone rep can do it when you call in during the normal business hours that the say they keep when you call in at night and need to do business. They have a list of things that the phone reps are available to assist with, but financial responsibility issues are not one of them, for some reason. And only a few short years ago you were able to stand in line at a field office of the DMV and possibly get a sympathetic human person being that understood your problem and could help you with it. Not so anymore. My question is, why? To whose benefit is it to make it all so Kafkaesque? I’d like to know what’s the scam here, California. I heard on NPR, I think it was today as well, that California has the lowest credit rating out of all the 50 states. Thank you Arnold Schwarzenegger for a job well done and keeping taxes low for yourself and your rich buddies but for also leaving Kalifoanee-Yah in a much greater state of disrepair than when you found it. I wonder if my tax return will come back in a timely manner as well. 
“VEHICLE REGISTRATION FINANCIAL RESPONSIBILITY SERVICES ARE NOT Well, of course. I knew that. ~RR OK, we’re trying…I realize the devastation on poverty stricken Haiti is astonishing. After all the people of that island nation have went through over the decades a 7-point earthquake so close to the surface, with the epicenter being almost a direct hit on the densely populated, poorly constructed rickety concrete maze of Port Au’ Prince, verges on the edge of appearing accursed. But really… From France24.com: Anger at US builds at Port-au-Prince airportAFP – Anger built Saturday at Haiti’s US-controlled main airport, where aid flights were still being turned away and poor coordination continued to hamper the relief effort four days on. “Let’s take over the runway,” shouted one voice. “We need to send a message to (US President Barack) Obama,” cried another. Try being angry at your politicians and local construction policies. Here in the Southern Californian earthquake territory we’ve been building with 7-point tremors in mind for years, and have heavily retrofitted all our major buildings and freeways. That isn’t a guarantee that they’re going to stay up when the Big One strikes, but at least we’ve tried to do something. I can guarantee that Haiti will probably go right back to unreinforced cinder-block and concrete multistory building construction the first chance they get when our tax dollars reach them to rebuild. Pricey Little Water BugsAnd Other New California LawsI got a glimpse the other day of an uncommon part of a beach lifegaurd’s job as law enforcement officer here in California and how they’ve recently strengthened state law regarding poaching as of January 1. [ From the list of new California state laws enacted January 1st: It was then, on new years day, that I went up Windansea in La Jolla, hoping to get some of the tail end of the swell that was happening throughout the Christmas holiday. It was flat, so instead I took a walk to the tidepools just north of the hut, at what is, on a surfable tide, Little Point and Simmons Reef. Passing the Windansea parking lot a saw a couple of older lifegaurds speaking to a pale little tourist guy in shorts who was wearing a t-shirt and wet sneakers and was holding a small knapsack in front of him. The first lifegaurd was saying something about how the tourist guy needed a fish and game license, and asked him if he had one on him. The tourist guy replied quietly, in what may have been either a Russian or a Baltic accent, and the lifegaurd told him that if he had a license he was required to have it on him and that he was required to have a measuring device on him as well. The tourist emptied the contents of his knapsack onto the ground and five wriggling baby lobsters came tumbling out, looking more like large black aquatic insects than the full-sized restaurant food items we’re so used to seeing. Among many of the surfers who are locals at Windansea fishing and lobster catching is like a type of religion and you could feel the energy of the scene change as the tourist dumped these crustaceans out. The two lifegaurds and some of the people standing nearby at the edge of the parking lot became noticably agitated when the small size of the lobsters became evident. Mister tourist guy, who had an eastern European accent, looked embarrased and tried to diffuse the situation by speaking quietly and standing close to the one lifegaurd who was addressing him. “This is a pretty serious offense,” the lifegaurd said to him. It wouldn’t be the only time he said it. He told him the Department Of Fish And Game is cracking down on this, and that if the man “… had a fish and game license you’re supposed to know how big they’re supposed to be. You’re also supposed to have a measuring device on you and your license at all times.” Then the other lifegaurd jumped in and, reaching down to the largest of the five crustaceans, said, “They’re supposed to be three and a quarter inches from here to here,” he said, touching the shell of the tail in two places. The first lifegaurd who was doing most of the talking appeared clearly senior in rank and told the tourist that his partner was going to issue a citation to him now and asked him for his California driver’s license. The tourist seemed to indicate he didn’t have one on him. Mister lifegaurd didn’t like that much and when he then told toursit guy there’d be a fine, tourist guy asked how much it would be. Mister lifegaurd said he didn’t know but repeated that his partner was going to issue a citation now and told his partner to get something out of his vehicle. Tourist guy and mister lifegaurd talked a moment more and lifegaurd told him again that, “This is a pretty serious offense,” and that, “There’ll be a fine.” Tourist guy asked the lifegaurd how much it would be. “I don’t know,” said the lifegaurd. Tourist guy asked something quietly about an alternative method of paying the fine, which I kind of expected was coming, and the lifegaurd answered tersely, “No. You have to go through the courts.” Lifegaurd number two came back with his ticket book and sat down with tourist guy and cheerfully began getting info for the citation while lifegaurd number one gathered up the wriggling baby waterbugs to go put them back in the tidepools. Another job completed. Now if they could creatively apply another new January 1 law and magically enforce the mortgage integrity laws retroactively, thusly erasing the last seven years or so of economic upheaval here due to shady home loaning practices, maybe affordable housing would be more of a reality than a goal here in the Golden state. Now, enjoy the sunset I photographed an hour later, as well as pictures of all the muscles and starfish I shot in a flash gallery HERE. Can’t cite me for that can you mister lifegaurd. RR Click the pic for a larger version: Has anyone here bought a home this year? If so how did your federal tax rebate work out? CNN says that first time home purchases made a 7 to 10 percent jump in the last two months due to people wanting their tax rebate. I wonder if these enthusiastic first-time home buyers who want to “take advantage” of the $8000 federal tax rebate realize that they hype associated with it is pushing up the price of their already overvalued home more then the amount of the rebate, and that with a loan the payments over time will amount to many times more than the $8000 tax rebate’s worth. This is another example of government and media hyping the mortgage/investment banking market to drive up prices to unrealistic levels and using American home-buying consumers as sheep to be sheared. It’s the consumer being taken advantage of here. If there is a tax rebate it should be, first of all, a certain PERCENTAGE of the overall purchase, not $8000 across the board for any home be it $150K or $500K. Secondly it should be fixed and not have a deadline to fan the flames of a buying panic, which would lead to another housing bubble. They’re really pushing the hype. One example of how bad it can be, given the market you’re in, is here in San Diego people who even bought as early as 2004 are still underwater. They’ve put up whatever down-payment they could afford and then made all those mortgage payments only to still have their house be worth less than they bought it for. They could have rented an apartment with equal square footage for the last 5 years for less money than their mortgage payments and all that excess cash could have been saved in the bank. Oh but the realtors told them that it’s a good investment and the money would be paid to them in equity. And they bought it… Email your thoughts to me: Editor@ReviewerMagazine.com money.cnn.com/2009/12/22/real_estate/november_existing_home_sales/index.htm Disappointing ChangeSo what’s going on in the Obama White House now anyways? When he entered office a little less than a year ago he did so by winning his election on a platform of change. Now, ten months after being sworn in, his presidency is starting to look like a Republican “go-with-the-flow” term than a Democratic “party of Change” administration. Where is the banking and healthcare reform, sir? All we hear about on the nightly news today is how important it is that we up the war ante in Afghanistan and how Tiger Woods’ marital problems has decimated pro golf. This isn’t exactly the Change we voted for, sir. :/ Barley wine is high-octane beer that has an alcohol content up there in the wine range, hence the name. I however enjoy it for its unique full-bodied flavour. There’s an article at Beer Advocate here: From Wikipedia: Its natural sweetness is usually balanced with a degree of hoppy bitterness, though traditional English barley wines often have far less bitterness than their American counterparts. URL too long?Trim using this one instead of this blog’s address, reviewermagazine.com/twoplustwo, when telling all your friends: tr.im/2plus2is |
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