Whirlwind!
.
Saturday was very, very busy:
- I had to spend time working on Saturday, to get the last samples of parts for my client. The factory had problems on Friday, but now it's fine.
- My sister's family was busy Saturday night, so I got a return flight Saturday night instead of Sunday morning.
- With two hours to burn, I found a theater with Harry Potter: Goblet and got a ticket. It reminded me of old Saturday matinees, with shrieking kids and swooning teenagers. The critics are wrong. This Potter doesn't try to do too much, but it does a lot. So much that many will want to see it again. Excuse me, is that such a bad marketing idea?! Oh, and as for the imaginative but limited JK Rowlings books (an atheistic approach to spiritual questions?) and her jingoistic "England First" tyranny over Warner Brothers - hey, the good ol' US of A is making money hand over fist on this franchise! Before you jump too fast, I concede that Rowlings, a hard working if less-than-brilliant author, has made millions and millions; but the U.S. film and book industry is making billions, worldwide.
- Speaking of bad marketing, Frontier Airlines charged me $125 to change my return flight. Because They Could. That's called bullying your customers. They will get an open letter from me, and no more business. What arrogance!
- So I am back in Arnold's CAL-EE-FOR-KNEE-YA, land of the illegal alien welfare check. Why should my taxes (yes, I pay income tax and sales taxes to California) go to pay for health care, driving accidents, education and the whole Left Coast Social Safety Net for Mexicans, Latin Americans, and South Americans who live here full time? All of the benefits, none of the burdens. And then THEY cop an attitude!
- On the airplanes TV's are now built into every seat. By foreign airplane companies (Frontier uses the European Airbus exclusively, so that Boeing will go out of business I suppose.) Swipe your card, and they get $5 and you get mediocre DirecTV. Pay $8 for a movie. Except that DirecTV is loaded with 2-1/2 to 3 minute commercials at 3 minute intervals. Excuse me: broadcast TV is 100% paid for by commercials, because that's the way we set it up in the 1950's. Since non-thinking citizens allowed the government to permit cable to charge money in the lackluster 1970's, the practise has spread to satellite by PAC donating operators. So, you now must pay $5 for about an hour's worth of commercial TV. You must pay money, and then you are entitled to watch their commercials! How wacko is that?! The dummy next to me last night swiped her card, watched 5 minutes of Animal Planet, and then went to sleep for 90 minutes while her paid programming and unwatched commercials ran out.
Saturday was very, very busy:
- I had to spend time working on Saturday, to get the last samples of parts for my client. The factory had problems on Friday, but now it's fine.
- My sister's family was busy Saturday night, so I got a return flight Saturday night instead of Sunday morning.
- With two hours to burn, I found a theater with Harry Potter: Goblet and got a ticket. It reminded me of old Saturday matinees, with shrieking kids and swooning teenagers. The critics are wrong. This Potter doesn't try to do too much, but it does a lot. So much that many will want to see it again. Excuse me, is that such a bad marketing idea?! Oh, and as for the imaginative but limited JK Rowlings books (an atheistic approach to spiritual questions?) and her jingoistic "England First" tyranny over Warner Brothers - hey, the good ol' US of A is making money hand over fist on this franchise! Before you jump too fast, I concede that Rowlings, a hard working if less-than-brilliant author, has made millions and millions; but the U.S. film and book industry is making billions, worldwide.
- Speaking of bad marketing, Frontier Airlines charged me $125 to change my return flight. Because They Could. That's called bullying your customers. They will get an open letter from me, and no more business. What arrogance!
- So I am back in Arnold's CAL-EE-FOR-KNEE-YA, land of the illegal alien welfare check. Why should my taxes (yes, I pay income tax and sales taxes to California) go to pay for health care, driving accidents, education and the whole Left Coast Social Safety Net for Mexicans, Latin Americans, and South Americans who live here full time? All of the benefits, none of the burdens. And then THEY cop an attitude!
- On the airplanes TV's are now built into every seat. By foreign airplane companies (Frontier uses the European Airbus exclusively, so that Boeing will go out of business I suppose.) Swipe your card, and they get $5 and you get mediocre DirecTV. Pay $8 for a movie. Except that DirecTV is loaded with 2-1/2 to 3 minute commercials at 3 minute intervals. Excuse me: broadcast TV is 100% paid for by commercials, because that's the way we set it up in the 1950's. Since non-thinking citizens allowed the government to permit cable to charge money in the lackluster 1970's, the practise has spread to satellite by PAC donating operators. So, you now must pay $5 for about an hour's worth of commercial TV. You must pay money, and then you are entitled to watch their commercials! How wacko is that?! The dummy next to me last night swiped her card, watched 5 minutes of Animal Planet, and then went to sleep for 90 minutes while her paid programming and unwatched commercials ran out.
posted by Greg Finnegan @ 11:18 AM
4 Comments:
At 5:03 PM,
Unknown said…
Having to pay to watch the Idiot Box??? with commercials? I'm speechless.
My word verification is "daiug"
As in "Lacy is a daiug"
At 9:40 PM,
Greg Finnegan said…
Only a true Nawth Caolinian can pronounce "dog" like that! Still LOL, Brenda! Thanks much for your comment; I thought for a while there that I had bad breath or something!
At 7:09 PM,
Amanda said…
I find it interesting that you say that JK Rowling's books are imaginative but limited due to an atheistic approach to spiritual questions.
As an atheist myself, I find it nice to have a different approach rather than the traditional religious one. It's just as valid an approach I believe.
At 2:31 AM,
Greg Finnegan said…
Amanda, I don't think it's a question of validity. The author has taken pains to present a large world, including education, socialization, authority, responsibility, sport, technology, love, hate, competition, commerce, etc. It is incomplete without addressing spirituality, in my opinion. What's needed is not necessarily religion, but perhaps the "good" spirits in opposition to Valdemort's "bad" ones. It would be okay for some characters to be atheists if some were Christian, Jewish, Hindu or Shintoist as well. To build an almost whole world and then to exclude what many or most regard as important means the author is, well, limited, to me.
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