On Reality TV

The only reality TV idea that sounds appealing to me is the fake one on the GEICO commercial about the couple stuck in a miniature house.

Going Paperless

Here's something environmentalists and business efficiency experts can get together on: NO MORE PAPER BILLS.

Not having paper bills come in each month (or every three or six months) works wonders for me especially since I move twice a year. If you tell the post office to begin forwarding your mail, you'll be happy to get 10% to 15% of it at your new address. On top of that, they probably won't start forwarding it until three weeks after you ask them to start. And finally, they won't stop forwarding your email until three weeks after you ask them to stop.

No more paper statements from my: (1) bank, (2) credit card companies, (3) cell phone provider, (4) power company, (5) television provider, (6) auto insurance provider, (6) ISP, (7) local telephone company, and (8) stock broker. Combine this with a free online bill paying service from virtually any bank in the country, and you've got an efficient way to keep track of your expenses. Here are some benefits:

1. Portability: If I am out of town and a bill arrives, all I need is an Internet connection to stay up to date
2. Free rewards points up the yin-yang. The best part of paying your bills online is that you often get points just for signing up (because it is cheaper for your company to send out an email than a paper statement). And, if you pay your bills with a credit card (and then just pay the credit card at the end of the month), you are eligible for 1% to 3% of your money back in some type of rewards points.
3. Boost your credit score. If you put things on your credit card on purpose, and just pay them off each month on time, you're on your way to a solid credit history.
4. More time to pay. Let's say your TV bill is due on November 20. If you pay the bill online using your credit card on November 18, you probably won't see your credit card statement for another few weeks. Therefore, you've just bought yourself an extension without paying any interest whatsoever.
5. No more stamps or envelopes. I would venture to say that stamps alone cost an average family 4 dollars a month
6. Instant access to your history at every site. This means that your uncle can throw out his 7 year stockpile of useless receipts. If you need something, print it out. Also, you can set up daily alerts so that whenever your checking account or credit card is used, you will be the first to know.
7. No more checks. You don't have to waste paper checks anymore. If you pay online, your bank either sends a paper check by itself or will transfer your funds electronically. This means no more "check printing" charges.
8. Time. You know how much time it takes to pay a paper bill? Sit down, write everything down, write a check, fill in all the account information, stuff it, stamp it, then let it sit on the table for a few days when you get around to sending it.

I will say, however, that there are a few drawbacks. The first is security. There are plenty of stories of people getting scammed on the internet or getting their financial information intercepted through an insecure internet connection. But I feel like this is what fraud protection is for. Even if I don't pay for protection, if you complain to your credit card company or bank that there is a charge on there that you didn't make, they'll remove it. Plus, I don't really see checks being any safer a medium.

The other drawback is that many people think online bill paying and automatic bill paying are the same thing. They are not. You can have the company automatically deduct money from your account so you don't have to worry about paying bills at all, but I think this leaves people susceptible to being swindled. I know Verizon Wireless habitually used to charge people an extra few cents for no reason (35 million customers and stealing a penny from each of them equals big bucks). You really think someone with auto bill pay is going to notice the difference between $39.87 and $39.89? Not a chance. The fix? Just get your bill online, but don't sign up to have it paid automatically.

If you don't want to go all the way, try paperless bills with a few of your monthly bills. But I promise you'll see why all of us younger whipper-snappers have faith in electronic commerce.

The "Live" Debate Episode

So West Wing decided to try and steal away loyal Simpsons viewers with a "Live" episode where the two presidential candidates debate the issues. It seemed contrived. There was an "outburst" from the audience that sounded remarkably similar to the dude who heckled the Governator last week, but it was still a snooze-fest.

Both candidates decided to "forget the rules" and act is if they were going to have a real debate, unlike the traditional song-and-dance routine we get in real presidential debates. Fine, it was an interesting idea, but both candidates got off of their podiums and started talking to an audience that applauded everything. It looked like a motivational speaking convention.

Towards the end, the segues into different topics were nonexistent and the writing became rather tired. They were covering too much ground for it to even remain realistic. The best part of the entire night, however, came during the intermission when Ellen Degeneres stole the show. Her bit on Social Security cards not being laminated hit the spot.

The great irony is that I missed the "Live" episode and watched it on my PVR.

File Sharer in Hong Kong Sentenced

Chan Nai-Ming, a native of Hong Kong, was convicted and sentenced to three concurrent months of jailtime for file sharing. Using the popular BitTorrent service, he traded three films, one of which included Miss Congeniality. This conviction marks the world's first successful piracy conviction related to online movie trading.

My guess is that the court imposed punishment on Nai-Ming because the making (or facilitating others to make) unauthorized copies of Miss Congeniality is a borderline human rights violation.

Eid Mubarak, Maybe

The holy month of Ramadan is now officially over. During the past month, I've been fasting from sunrise to sunset. Now that it is over, Muslims all across the world are celebrating Eid--well--sort of.

The Islamic calendar, like the Jewish calendar, is a lunar calendar (and not a solar calendar). We have been able to gauge the moon's different phases with pinpoint accuracy for probably more than 1000 years. In fact, there were a number of Muslim astronomers and scientists who have had access to the relatively simple technology. But somehow, we can't agree on what day it is . . .

People insist on being traditional and waiting for some yahoo to tell us that he "sighted" the moon before we're willing to say that the month of Ramadan is over. So if someone actually sees the moon (and this person has to have certain credentials), then we know whether the date has changed. The end result, different types of Muslims (sect, nationality, congregation) have different sources and Muslims end up celebrating Eid on different days. For example, most Sunni Muslims celebrated on Thursday and many Shia Muslims celebrated on Friday.

This is the dumbest controversy in the history of religion. Are you telling me that we can figure out how a calendar works and all celebrate on the same day? I can't tell you how uncomfortable it is going over my friend's house while they are celebrating Eid and I am still fasting (because I will be celebrating Eid the following day). This isn't necessarily a Sunni/Shia issue either, though I will mention that Sunnis generally appear to have their shit together.

Time is an essential unifying element and one of the most powerful forces that gives a group a sense of common living and common history. In fact the Muslim calendar began when the Prophet fled a town because of persecution. We have, over time, developed a calendar based on a single event and used the event to locate ourselves. So you can see why it is imporant to maintain that unity.

This is not to say that some disunity might be beneficial. Muslims all over the world also use the standard solar calendar. I celebrate my birthday every solar year, not every lunar year (which is shorter). We need the solar calendar to viably function in the world's political and economic spaces. Having multiple "times" allow me to exist on two separate trajectories, living multiple lives simultaenously, slipping in and out of one dimension seamlessly. But the philosophical impact of this kind of postmodern argument has its limits, especially when the Muslim calendar itself is fragmenting itself.

We've allowed something simple--sighting the moon--to remain a divisive issue for practically no reason at all except pride. Certain denominations will only listen to reporters of that denomination. Others will do whatever the people in a home country will do. It breeds distrust of the other group. There's only one moon, how can we manage to fuck this up?

The tricky part of this debate is that it has small elements of, but is not predicated upon a "Faith versus Science" theme. When we say that modern science can determine if the moon is actually visible, it is partially an attack on the clergy's unwillingness to believe that the moon is actually there if they can't see it themselves (due to cloud cover or other atmospheric conditions). The last I checked, wasn't believing something you can't necessarily see with your own eyes a basic prerequisite for all of the world's religions?

There are practical considerations too. If you have no idea whether tomorrow will be Eid, you can't give advance notice to your employer if you want to take off from work.

But then there's the simultaneous debate over tradition itself. We keep on perpetuating this ridiculous practice because, well, that's how it was done in the past. But our insistence on having some Muslims verify that the moon has been sighted is not only hyper-technical, but exclusionary. The greater good (unifying the Muslim calendar) far outweighs any benefits.

A ShapeShifter?

So there is this Herbal Essences commercial mystifies me. The person pictured below dances around for thirty seconds and supposedly sells the shampoo product. But what drives me insane is how different this woman looks in each segment of the commercial. Someone want to venture a guess as to her age?

Here she is looking like she's 24. One caveat, she is jumping, and is in mid-descent.

And here at Age 25; slightly sharper cheekbone structure and less baby fat.

Age 27?

And at Age 28, maybe?

Perhaps 30+?

My only other theory is that there is more than one model on the commercial; but the editing seems to be seamless. That the model sometimes wears yellow and at other times pink is not enough evidence of more than one model.

Quite a mystery.

The Battle and The War

I've been avoiding a pudding cup in my fridge for weeks. I even left for the east coast last week and when I returned, it was still there staring at me. Today I picked the cup off the fridge door and looked at the expiration date. It was two months from now, so I ate it. I enjoyed it.

Victory!

An Elusive Album

If anybody can find a retail store or online merchant that is selling Howie B's album "AnotherLateNight," please let me know. The first track on this album, "What it is? - The Undisputed Truth," is absolutely amazing. It's got a trance-funk beat that's mesmerizing. If anybody has a copy of the album, I'll gladly purchase it used.

Even the great Rasputin Music has it on backorder. Amoeba Music doesn't have a clue.

Capote (2005)

Philip Seymour Hoffman showed me in Bennett Miller's Capote why he is an underrated actor. I really only remember Hoffman distinctly in a handful of movie roles, almost all films by P.T. Anderson (Magnolia, Punch-Drunk Love, and Boogie Nights), but to me, this movie is pivotal for Hoffman. I liked him in Almost Famous and Twister, but I never once got to see Hoffman in the spotlight; he was always off to the side somewhere. But now, he has arrived.

I assume most people read Truman Capote's book In Cold Blood in high school, a book I really enjoyed reading. I can't believe how much of the book I remembered, especially since the movie--a true story about two gunmen who executed a family of four in Kansas in 1959--tracked the book very closely. From what has lasted in my memory, the power of In Cold Blood was it's non-fiction base; some say Capote invented a new genre of literature, something Capote would definitely say so himself. Capote ventured to Kansas as a writer for the New Yorker and found himself with a wealth of material, which over roughly six years accumulated into a book.

Capote (and the audience) develop a strong relationship with Perry Smith, who was one of the murderers on death row, who Capote visited intermittently. Of course, my view of the original book is skewed since I read it awhile ago, but I distinctly remember Perry Smith being a sadder, dumber, more pathetic character, pushed around by his co-conspirator. The Perry Smith of this film is much more composed. But I don't know if this detracts from the film at all, since the actor who plays Smith, Clifton Collins, Jr., does the best acting in the entire film (even better than Hoffman). I sort of remember Collins (who is sometimes called Clifton Gonzales Gonzales) in this great little war film called Tigerland, which was also a great film.

Two smaller things. First, I was a little unimpressed with the lack time given to the other murderer, Dick Hickock. It would have definitely helped for the audience to compare Hickock's demeanor (unapologetic, self-interested) with Smith's, which is much more fragile and introspective. Second, I really enjoyed seeing Catherine Keener in the film, who played Harper Lee, a famous author in her own right who was Capote's friend and research assistant for the book. I really like her, but I was afraid at first that she would not be able to overcome how I remembered her character in Lovely and Amazing, in which she played a lethargic, middle-class bitchy character. She was fantastic in both films.

Although the movie spans the years he wrote his wildly successful book, I am happy the movie was titled Capote, because it was about him as opposed to Smith or Hickock. For those of you interested, I would recommend the 1967 movie In Cold Blood, directed by Richard Brooks, in which Robert Blake plays Perry Smith. For some reason I found that movie to feel much darker since it was made earlier and was about such a brutal murder.

A Wonderful Past

A good friend of mine I went to middle and high school with gave me permission to post his story here. I have, however, made minor changes to protect the privacy of my friend, Mr. Mark Keurian of Fordham Law School.

So here's what happened. I was running for student council in elementary school. Me against another for V.P. I had run an amazing campaign (two campaign managers making my signs, I had support, I was dressed up for the speech). So I presented my speech, people were happy and clapping. The person who ran against me, he did his speech through Teddy Ruxpin (he recorded it and Teddy said it). The crowd (including the teachers) went nuts. He won by a good margin. It's affected me since.

I can't make this stuff up.

The Loveman Cometh

So some of you might be tuning into the World Series of Poker on ESPN every once in awhile. During the broadcasts is a public service announcement running non-stop. It features Gary Loveman, Chairman of Harrah's Entertainment, Inc., who offers a "serious" message about gambling addictions. "There are some times in life when you should not be gambling . . . like when you are underage . . . ."

Oh it gets better; take a look at what Loveman looks like on the commercial:

Loveman looks like Jim Breur from SNL doing a parody of the real Loveman. It's quite sad that someone thought this message would be taken seriously.

p.s. For those of you who enjoy random trivia, before Loveman took the job with Harrah's, he served on the board of directors for the popular (and outrageously overpriced) clothing company, COACH.

Berkeley's Rat Problem

I live in downtown Berkeley and a number of people have been complaining about rats and pests lately. I don't have a problem with them in my apartment, but in my parking space. The rats will crawl up into the front end and leave their food within the engine compartment or in the rear differential area. A number of people I know have complained that the rats chewed through the wiring in their engines. One neighbor of mine had a brand new BMW's wiring chewed through, costing her $4,000 in repairs. Another had his car alarm system rendered useless.

I've had to get my car detailed because of the smell of the things the rats leave inside the engine, which range from fruit to dead birds; I got the engine and rear differential degreased and steam cleaned, but the actual problem (rats being present) persists.

Yesterday afternoon I received a letter from my landlord, which was given to every tenant in my building. It said, in part:

Dear Tenant, Please be informed within the last few weeks the rodent and pest issue has become a larger downtown problem. We are continuing work with the city and neighboring buildings to control the
issue.

Weird thing is I can't find any mention of this problem anywhere. I may have to sell my car or move, or both if the problem persists.

Freshly-Cut: Albums of the Month

Special thanks to my new subscription to Napster (review to follow in a few weeks).

(October 2005)

1. The Wolf Parade / Apologies to the Queen Mary
2. Billy Corgan / TheFutureEmbrace
3. Beth Orton / Daybreaker
4. Spokane / Able Bodies
5. Spokane / The Proud Graduates

jetBlue Delivers . . . with Rocking Chairs

I was sitting at the jetBlue terminal at Boston’s Logan Airport and I came across at least twenty rocking-chairs along the windows. They were quite comfortable and everyone who either was on my flight or was at a nearby gate was staring at the chairs as if they were some kind of practical joke. It was as if the presence of something so simple, inefficient, unessential, and luxurious made us feel suspicious because we’re so used to getting the shaft from airlines.

Google Explodes

It's only10:25am and Google shares today are up more than $35.00 today (11%). This comes from Google once again beating analysts' expectations for quarterly earnings.

Unreal.