DJHJD
Saturday, December 29, 2007
Christ! It's all kinds of information about ..
Christ?
Here is a great article that goes into the "Taking the Christ out of Christmas" thing. It quotes a few references, including this discussion of whether Jesus was a real person, this discussion on the same subject, and this article discussing the "discovery" of the first church in which Christmas was celebrated on December 25.
Here is a great article that goes into the "Taking the Christ out of Christmas" thing. It quotes a few references, including this discussion of whether Jesus was a real person, this discussion on the same subject, and this article discussing the "discovery" of the first church in which Christmas was celebrated on December 25.
Saturday somnabulance
Saturday link sausage -
The 50 most loathsome people in the United States - no one left out!
A sensible, indirect funded plan to make the US almost completely energy independent by 2050, with a huge reduction in pollution.
It's nearly 11:00 a.m., and although I've fed myself and read ALL of the internet so far, I haven't gone outside and pulled down the Christmas lights yet.
Went to dinner, car shopping and EJ's with David last night. Dinner was the usual, and then we high tailed it over to Allen Samuels to check out the 2008 Chevy Malibu, which was VERY impressive. Did I mention that it's VERY impressive? WOW. Then, we trotted down to Gillman Honda to look at the new 2008 Accord.
Don't worry, David's looking, I'm just attending.
The new Accord is quite unattractive in person, especially so in lighter colors where the knobs, posts and dimples of the Quasi-Tank design come out to be seen. Both of the Accords that were out in front of the showroom had over $2100 in window tint, paint stripes, floor mats, window etching (both VIN number and a big ACCORD logo) fabric protector and so on. The little salesman was talking a mile a minute, and when David asked me my opinion about the car, I remarked that it was interesting, but that the required 10% markup with crap no rational person would want made it unattractive, and that the uncertain future value of the Malibu was perhaps a better trade off than this.
The tap dancing then began with great earnestness.
Two friends earlier in the week went to visit a friend of theirs who sells at a Honda store (which shall remain nameless, but which can be visited here) to look at the new Honda Fit. They were quoted $18,400 on a car that maxes out price-wise at $16,070 on that dealer's own website. That's an 18% price increase for .. what? A can of Scotchguard, two tape stripes, and floor mats?
EIGHTEEN PERCENT? Now, the analyst inside my head says that the new Fit is going to start depreciating at the MSRP, not the inflated price, so you're paying for .. what, exactly? 803 gallons of gas? A trip to London for the weekend with hotel and theater tickets? To drive a tiny, but well made little car that you made a poor dealer decision about?
Here's the thing that staggers me - the salesman that quoted them this absurd figure was their GOOD FRIEND. I am reminded of when Jeffrey the weird lived with me up in Inwood Forest in 1988 and was working for David McDavid Honda and would come home at night pumped up from his day, talking about "we FUCKED them on that trade in."
Uh .. okay.
So, if you're thinking of shopping for a new Honda (or any car, for that matter,) you may want to call me and ask for a referral and some advice before you go out and your brain glazes over at the pretty, shiny iPod connector and all you hear is a monthly payment amount that's 25% more than you had in mind, but you can convince yourself you can afford.
I'll save you a bunch of money.
Now, we then traipsed up to EJ's Bar & Grill, to which I had not been in attendance since late August before the smoking ban went into effect.
Jarred was there, looking very Jarred-ey. The bar wasn't at all crowded, and it was very amusing to watch the goings-on. Two YOUNG and swishy boys from Colorado sat down adjacent us, one looking like so much unbaked biscuit dough. On the other side of them was a fabulous man with HUGE biceps who was fairly deep into his cups, clearly educated and VERY funny. He and I did some cutting up (he also called Jarred his best friend, not the first .. well, not the fifth homo I've heard say that, and I have to ask myself - uh, what is your standard for best friend aside from someone who mixes a great drink and looks fabulous behind the bar?) and we turned the wit stream on the two doughboys. The inevitable "Gay Republicans are about as dumb a concept as Jewish members of the Hitler Youth" comment came to the fore, and the unbaked biscuit dough (who had a dreadful smell about him - something rotting. I guess if you don't bake rising yeast dough, it starts to spoil) was most offended. I looked at him, and belted out "don't give me that fiscal conservatism bullshit - there's not a one of them that's a fiscal conservative." He says "well, not NOW" and I cut him off with "not since 1980!"
Then, the bicep drunk man starts in with "I voted for W the first time," and I about threw in the towel. He says "well, he ran an oil company!" "Into the GROUND" says I. He retorts "I knew he wasn't good with the money" and I shout "and you voted for him ANYWAY!"
Lord.
Then, more drinks were arriving (for the doughboys and the daft bicep man) and I turned away from them to focus on talking to David.
It was somewhat amusing. It was good to see Jarred. He told me that Jason/Tristan had been unfortunately incarcerated for some time for credit card fraud. Now, I can't remember his last name to save my damned LIFE ('cause if I could, I'd look him up on Public Data.)
Jarred thought he was about to get out of the joint. Said that the last he (Jarred) had heard, Jason looked a twig from all the crack he's been doing. Very interesting.
The 50 most loathsome people in the United States - no one left out!
A sensible, indirect funded plan to make the US almost completely energy independent by 2050, with a huge reduction in pollution.
It's nearly 11:00 a.m., and although I've fed myself and read ALL of the internet so far, I haven't gone outside and pulled down the Christmas lights yet.
Went to dinner, car shopping and EJ's with David last night. Dinner was the usual, and then we high tailed it over to Allen Samuels to check out the 2008 Chevy Malibu, which was VERY impressive. Did I mention that it's VERY impressive? WOW. Then, we trotted down to Gillman Honda to look at the new 2008 Accord.
Don't worry, David's looking, I'm just attending.
The new Accord is quite unattractive in person, especially so in lighter colors where the knobs, posts and dimples of the Quasi-Tank design come out to be seen. Both of the Accords that were out in front of the showroom had over $2100 in window tint, paint stripes, floor mats, window etching (both VIN number and a big ACCORD logo) fabric protector and so on. The little salesman was talking a mile a minute, and when David asked me my opinion about the car, I remarked that it was interesting, but that the required 10% markup with crap no rational person would want made it unattractive, and that the uncertain future value of the Malibu was perhaps a better trade off than this.
The tap dancing then began with great earnestness.
Two friends earlier in the week went to visit a friend of theirs who sells at a Honda store (which shall remain nameless, but which can be visited here) to look at the new Honda Fit. They were quoted $18,400 on a car that maxes out price-wise at $16,070 on that dealer's own website. That's an 18% price increase for .. what? A can of Scotchguard, two tape stripes, and floor mats?
EIGHTEEN PERCENT? Now, the analyst inside my head says that the new Fit is going to start depreciating at the MSRP, not the inflated price, so you're paying for .. what, exactly? 803 gallons of gas? A trip to London for the weekend with hotel and theater tickets? To drive a tiny, but well made little car that you made a poor dealer decision about?
Here's the thing that staggers me - the salesman that quoted them this absurd figure was their GOOD FRIEND. I am reminded of when Jeffrey the weird lived with me up in Inwood Forest in 1988 and was working for David McDavid Honda and would come home at night pumped up from his day, talking about "we FUCKED them on that trade in."
Uh .. okay.
So, if you're thinking of shopping for a new Honda (or any car, for that matter,) you may want to call me and ask for a referral and some advice before you go out and your brain glazes over at the pretty, shiny iPod connector and all you hear is a monthly payment amount that's 25% more than you had in mind, but you can convince yourself you can afford.
I'll save you a bunch of money.
Now, we then traipsed up to EJ's Bar & Grill, to which I had not been in attendance since late August before the smoking ban went into effect.
Jarred was there, looking very Jarred-ey. The bar wasn't at all crowded, and it was very amusing to watch the goings-on. Two YOUNG and swishy boys from Colorado sat down adjacent us, one looking like so much unbaked biscuit dough. On the other side of them was a fabulous man with HUGE biceps who was fairly deep into his cups, clearly educated and VERY funny. He and I did some cutting up (he also called Jarred his best friend, not the first .. well, not the fifth homo I've heard say that, and I have to ask myself - uh, what is your standard for best friend aside from someone who mixes a great drink and looks fabulous behind the bar?) and we turned the wit stream on the two doughboys. The inevitable "Gay Republicans are about as dumb a concept as Jewish members of the Hitler Youth" comment came to the fore, and the unbaked biscuit dough (who had a dreadful smell about him - something rotting. I guess if you don't bake rising yeast dough, it starts to spoil) was most offended. I looked at him, and belted out "don't give me that fiscal conservatism bullshit - there's not a one of them that's a fiscal conservative." He says "well, not NOW" and I cut him off with "not since 1980!"
Then, the bicep drunk man starts in with "I voted for W the first time," and I about threw in the towel. He says "well, he ran an oil company!" "Into the GROUND" says I. He retorts "I knew he wasn't good with the money" and I shout "and you voted for him ANYWAY!"
Lord.
Then, more drinks were arriving (for the doughboys and the daft bicep man) and I turned away from them to focus on talking to David.
It was somewhat amusing. It was good to see Jarred. He told me that Jason/Tristan had been unfortunately incarcerated for some time for credit card fraud. Now, I can't remember his last name to save my damned LIFE ('cause if I could, I'd look him up on Public Data.)
Jarred thought he was about to get out of the joint. Said that the last he (Jarred) had heard, Jason looked a twig from all the crack he's been doing. Very interesting.
Wednesday, December 26, 2007
Tuesday, December 25, 2007
Christmas, wrapped
Well, what Christmas highlights do I have?
I ironed the table cloth for more than an hour, and the wrinkles still didn't come fully out of it
Jeremy made sugar free ice cream from a Splenda recipe that I found, and it was terrific
We got pretty much everything cleaned up before today - there is still .. well, every room of the house needs to be scrubbed and polished before my dad comes for a visit, but it was clean enough for company today
We watched Christmas movies most of the day; my VHS player got worked out today for the first time in eons. VHS movies are annoying in their lack of quality. I thought I had Die Hard 2 and "It's a Wonderful Life," and they're gone. I wonder if I sold them years back in the great Amazon sell-off?
I'm playing my CD changer for the first time in .. well, since October of '06. I need to pull most of that out and re-organize it.
I went to 2nd, Unity and St. Martin's yesterday with Guy. It was very illuminating.
I found chargers at Bed, Bath & Beyond for ten bucks.
Everyone's gone now, and I'm alone with the kitchen cleaned, the dishes put away, and the dog sleeping on the front rug. It's 11, and I should be hitting the sack pretty quick here so that I can have a productive day at work.
I ironed the table cloth for more than an hour, and the wrinkles still didn't come fully out of it
Jeremy made sugar free ice cream from a Splenda recipe that I found, and it was terrific
We got pretty much everything cleaned up before today - there is still .. well, every room of the house needs to be scrubbed and polished before my dad comes for a visit, but it was clean enough for company today
We watched Christmas movies most of the day; my VHS player got worked out today for the first time in eons. VHS movies are annoying in their lack of quality. I thought I had Die Hard 2 and "It's a Wonderful Life," and they're gone. I wonder if I sold them years back in the great Amazon sell-off?
I'm playing my CD changer for the first time in .. well, since October of '06. I need to pull most of that out and re-organize it.
I went to 2nd, Unity and St. Martin's yesterday with Guy. It was very illuminating.
I found chargers at Bed, Bath & Beyond for ten bucks.
Everyone's gone now, and I'm alone with the kitchen cleaned, the dishes put away, and the dog sleeping on the front rug. It's 11, and I should be hitting the sack pretty quick here so that I can have a productive day at work.
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