Why I’m Rooting for $6 Gas
I was hoping $4 would be enough. I was sure five dollars a gallon would wake people up. Now I’m not so sure. So I’ve had to notch it up another buck in hopes that at last, this country (and I mean all of us – the government, your neighbors, everyone who sits in idling cars, probably you, certainly me) will come to grips with the wastefulness of American Life. And maybe this time, at last, we’ll do something about it
In case you didn’t get the memo – Stop Wasting Gas.
The biggest underlying cause of fuel prices (any prices, for that matter) is supply and demand. As ordinary people, there’s not much we can do about supply. But we have a lot of control over demand – namely our own, as individuals. And a lot of that control is based on behavior, something we can change immediately, as in, today. I hear angry complaints and lame excuses. I see people driving alone, wandering around parking lots in search of a front row space, engines idling while drivers are parked…
At some point, the pain will reach enough of us. And enough of us will find how easy it is to change. Even small changes help when multiplied by millions. I hope it’ll be before $8, $9, $10…
Memo to Japan: STOP KILLING WHALES
It seems the ridiculous “scientific research” that Japan sanctions as an end-run around the worldwide ban on whaling (read, “killing Earth’s majestic and largest warm-blooded, air-breathing creatures for food) doesn’t even make commercial sense anymore. Read this story on the growing stockpiles of unsold whale meat:
To all the Japanese people who are refusing to eat the byproducts of this horrific slaughter, “Thank You!”
Tivoli Audio ~ please accept one kudo…
This is a quick note of thanks to Tivoli Audio. I bought a Model One radio by Tivoli Audio several years ago and have always been really happy with it. I’ve preferred analog tuning since my boyhood shortwave wanderings on a Hallicrafters S-120; no matter how fine the slices, digital tuners always jump from step to step. With an analog tuner you can feather your way into the sweet spot in between. Ahhhh… The sound quality is great, too; even the fact that the Model One is monaural makes me feel at home with the heritage of radio.
Anyway, out of nowhere, I went to flip on the radio one morning and the power knob fell off, a big crack in the plastic making it too loose to stay on the shaft. So I called Tivoli Audio on their toll-free number. Casey answered the phone on the second ring, asked how she could help, and said she’d ship out the part right away. No questions about when I bought it, or how it happened; no nonsense whatsoever. I would have happily paid for the part, and/or postage, but there wasn’t one. – just a friendly, straight-forward, responsible approach to customer pleasure.
That’s the way the world is supposed to work!
So thanks a lot for a great product and exceptional service. Tivoli Audio and Casey – you’re the coolest! Please accept one kudo… from Steve.
“all your base are belong to us”
I spend a lot of time working in film vaults. Some of them are where old film goes to live; clean, cold, dry climates that arrest the decay of emulsions, binders, and plastics that hold the images we’re trying to preserve. And some of them are where old film goes to die; toxic concrete corridors of trapped moisture, mold and rust that steadily eviscerate the memories left behind. Memories that simply leave the vanished future. This quote, scrawled in the elevator in one of the old vaults on Seward Street in Hollywood, has always mystified me; a vacant, disconnected, wide-eyed fragment like those rotting in the cubicles around the corner…
omnisteve at last
I just think it’s about time to get a few things off my mind and into a blog. I’ve got a few projects in the works, and a few loose ends, and I’ll use this place as a sort of crossroads to keep my thoughts and progress reports organized.