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List of Home Values Sites
I made a list on Squidoo to list all the various Home Values sites out there. Let me know if I've missed something.
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| Posted 9/23/2007 8:31:57 PM by Denton | Comments (0) |
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Get your Chinese Zodiac stuff here...
A friend of mine has a site where he sells Chinese Zodiac Products with his own designs. It's pretty cool stuff so head over there if you're in the market.
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| Posted 9/10/2007 12:50:38 AM by Denton | Comments (0) |
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For all you BBQ fans
Best of the West Mesquite Charcoal is pretty darn good. Check it out if you're into quality charcoal.
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| Posted 8/3/2005 4:55:15 PM by Denton | Comments (1) |
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Dear Maryanne95792,
Thanks for your note on, "La Ciudad."
But, I do not have an e-mail address to respond to you. If you happen to catch this, please send an e-mail to scottomalley@gmail.com, and I'll gladly write back.
Sorry everyone for the inside-post, thanks for obliging.
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| Posted 7/22/2005 10:30:45 PM by O'Malley | Comments (0) |
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When talking about healthcare...
Andrew Sullivan was one of my favorite bloggers. I read him everyday. He blogged when hardly anybody blogged, and most never heard the term.
After reading his blog for three solid years, I stopped when he endorsed John Kerry for President - not simply on the grounds of his choice, I respect it, but because I found the arguments weak. Weak writing makes for uninteresting reading.
Now it's rather pompous for me to call the arguments from the ex-editor of "The New Republic" weak (it's one of the premiere journals running). But that's my opinion.
Anyway I skipped back to his blog tonight looking for a hallow endorsement or smart dismissal of the Live 8 concert. Got neither- he didn't write about it. But I did find a snippet worth noting.
You see I keep forgetting that Andrew Sullivan is HIV+. And for one who grew up in the 90s - it's a death sentence. I haven't been keeping up with the advances in medical treatment.
Sullivan writes:Got new data this week about my virus. You may recall that I went back on meds because my viral load, after three years of stability at around 20,000 copies per mililiter of my blood, went to 60,000 and then 140,000. After ten days of medication, it came down to 1,500. By now, it should be zero. The drugs are amazing and I barely notice them at all any more the side effects are so minor. I guess I should add that these not atypical results show that although basic scientific research must be funded by government, the "evil" pharmaceutical companies are, in fact, among the most beneficent organizations in the history of mankind and their research in the last couple of decades will one day be recognized as the revolution it truly is. Yes, they're motivated by profits. Duh. That's the genius of capitalism - to harness human improvement to the always-reliable yoke of human greed. Long may those companies prosper. I owe them literally my life. I have friends and relatives working in the pharmaceutical industry. I guess I never looked at their work in quite this light.
For me personally, they provide jobs and benefits and a good living to those I care for, globally they help keep alive the Andrew Sullivans. God bless 'em all.
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| Posted 7/4/2005 12:52:20 AM by O'Malley | Comments (2) |
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What we've been up to...
I forwarded this and this story about expanding eminent domain to private development to Scott.
Here's Scott's response:
Now, here's a question - why would liberals on the Supreme Court approve of taking property from the poor for economic development?
I could see Pubbies making this argument in the 80s - saying the trickle down effect from the redev would spread and help grow the rundown areas.
But how are the Libs in favor? Here's my thought : The keyword is Urban Renewal. Billionaire Eli Broad spoke of it when he talked downtown couple months ago (Vardan you weren't there - basically he talked about some guy in Venice who has this idea of building town-sized apartment complexes - so people don't have to commute for things or even jobs I suppose - somehow this idea of living in huge man-built complex (lush with plants I'm sure) is so exciting that some lady popped up during the Q&A and said "I'm so glad you brought that up!" I don't quite remember it all and need to find a link but it would be worth investigating.)
Anyway, I think Liberals are getting excited about this idea of Urban Renewal, because a. they still hate the suburbs and those who live there (because they defy the Marxist Revolution), and b. they still fantasize about a Utopian urban culture. Now moving toward B would be nice - but the Liberals won't admit the failure of the Great Society - bascially what created - actually no, the ghettos were there, but sustained the ghetto culture with entitlements.
The idea of Urban Renewal is the new generations' way of sweeping the Great Society under the carpet, acting like nothing went wrong, and saying - now let's re-organize society the "right" way.
I bet ya this is what Ginsberg and folks are paving the way for, because, if these new huge developments are so perfect, surely it will be for "economic benefit."
Meanwhile...
I've been preoccupied with the next episode of Blowout to watch the devolution of the contentious relationship between Jonathan Antin and the jerk from the so called "best in the biz" marketing firm as they work to complete the packaging for the global launch of Jonathan Product.
We're like two peas in a pod.
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| Posted 6/24/2005 10:45:10 AM by Denton | Comments (0) |
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One more thing
Just want to give a shout out to Meinhardt Raabe. I heard him this morning on a local radio show promoting his book, Memories Of A Munchkin: An Illustrated Walk Down The Yellow Brick Road.
I was surprised and glad to hear that Mr. Raabe, 89, is still alive and lives in Penney Farms (a JC Penney's retirement community one town over from where I grew up.) He came and spoke to my drama club in Jr. High School. It was a great thrill and inspiration to me as an actor.
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| Posted 5/9/2005 11:15:11 AM by Denton | Comments (1) |
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Um, hello?
Anyone here? Anyone at all?
Not sure what to tell you about the site. Somwhere in our lives this notion of Internet writing fell by the wayside. I don't think it's dead, however, it's clearly on a hiatus.
I'm sure I could give all kinds of reason why we don't have time to write here anymore but the fact is it's all about passion and lack thereof. I'm personally no more busy now than I was a year ago but I don't have the passion to "blog" and I lost the passion to "essay" some time ago.
This stuff ebbs and flows I think. Scott's got some stuff he's working on that's just plain super. Also there's a rumor going around that Barry Watson Smokes is being revived. So maybe, just maybe, we'll head back here and start up again.
In the meantime, I'm sure all of you are enjoying the most recent Woot-off. I also found a site that uses the same concept for outdoors gear called Steep and Cheap. Go check it out.
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| Posted 5/7/2005 11:59:48 AM by Denton | Comments (1) |
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Master & Programmer
So, while all you computer programmers need to read this one, I really just wanted to post that title.
hat tip Roderick.
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| Posted 4/19/2005 9:38:06 PM by O'Malley | Comments (2) |
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Resurrected FriRecho
Four for ya ranked on the Hilton-o-meter (as in Paris):- Not Hot: The Stolen Audi A3 campaign - I tried to seem interested but it just reeks of creating a Tipping Point. There's nothing organic about it and it comes off as just plain lame.
- Hot: BNET - I was pretty into CNET back in the early days and continue to reference their reviews before making tech purchases, however, I just stumbled onto their business site recently. I've found a lot of great articles and concepts as well as enjoy reading their Leadership.Now. and HR's brand new experience blogs.
- Hot: Scamming the scammer: P-P-P-PowerBook! - This was sent by Juxa Jr.'s pop. It will take a little while to read and may only appeal to the more techie among us, but it's pretty fun just the same.
- Uber-Hot: Dance 360 - This is what gets me excited about television again. Yes, I watch The Apprentice every Thursday. And yes, I tried watching Project Greenlight for a few weeks (I gave up because I realized last night we're supposed to enjoy it all because it's the whole world we don't see or understand but in reality, while they have experience in movie-making they're not that good at their jobs because they lack basic skills in management and human psychology.)
It's Good Burger meets Onyx meets You Got Served. Since Ashlee isn't on right now to make fun of and make me feel better about myself, this is my new new.
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| Posted 4/15/2005 1:36:10 PM by Denton | Comments (2) |
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I have to get this off my chest
Since no one is posting around here lately (someone attended a U2 show and has no thoughts to share?), I'll use this opportunity to get something off my chest.
There's a minor stink in the liberal blogosphere. PowerLine Blog apparently expressed an opinion that the Terri Schiavo memo was not put out by Karl Rove but was indeed a fake. With Mel Martinez's admission that it unknowingly came from a staffer in his office, PowerLine apologized for their "mistake."My suspicion that the memo itself was an inauthentic document has proved wrong; I made a mistake in concluding that it was. But the memo was not a "GOP talking points memo" prepared by party leaders or distributed only to Republican senators; it was not what Allen and others described it to be. The difference between what the memo is and what Allen (and others) reported it to be appears to be large and consequential. I don't read PowerLine so I don't know what they said or didn't say nor do I really care. However, it did get me thinking about the culpability of expressing thoughts.
This concept is illustrated frequently in my work. The notion of publishing generally includes pushing assets up the production chain but it rarely remembers to bring them down when their life cycle is complete. Ownership only seems to exist for half of the equation.
I recently ran across a rather egregious example in the Redondo Library recently. I was perusing the isles and came across a large Noam Chomsky book. Next to it was a book entitled Soveiticus -- an intriguing title for sure. Having recently rediscovered the library, I had to check it out with my stack of "reputable" books. In it, I found the following nuggets of wisdom:Page 26-27
Has the Soviet system really "failed" in those commitments? It has fulfilled, or overfulfilled, the promises of national security and law and order. Russian nationalist-patriotic themes have been integrated into official Marxism-Leninism for forty years, and never so firmly as now. Despite important inadequacies and official exaggerations, a comprehensive welfare system now provides free secondary education, health care, pensions and subsidized housing and food for virtually all citizens. And despite widespread privilege, corruption and shortages, and a decline in the growth of consumption in recent years, ordinary citizens live better than ever before. Between 1950 and 1980, for example, per capita real consumption tripled.
Page 28
Instead of dangerously deceiving ourselves about the Soviet Union's "crisis" and what it calls Communism, we should ask why a system with so many problems is so stable. The answer may lead us to wiser and more compassionate policies.
Page 57
The lesson is that whereas American hard-liners insist cold war pressure will force Soviet leaders to reform the system, history tells us otherwise. This book was written in 1983 and was part of the prevailing wisdom of the left at that time. They were the ones saying the Soviet Union would never fall and we need to learn to get along with them. How many millions would still be enslaved if they had their way. Now I could have just missed it, but I didn't see Stephen Cohen's apology for this disinformation after the "Evil Empire" fell.
NOTE: I have to come clean about my own misstatement. The other day on a walk to Malaga Cove, I made some disparagin
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| Posted 4/8/2005 6:41:37 PM by Denton | Comments (1) |
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The New Office
In a word : awful. I feel bad for Steve Carell, because he's talented and trying - everyone talks 'bout how he stole that scene in that Jim Carrey movie. But he can't carry this.
I saw one exterior location shot from Scranton (on Adams' Ave.) and it looked like it was dumped onto 1/2 inch VHS.
This is why the Brits think us Yanks are dumbshits, because they see our versions of their shows stripped of sophistication and wit - and take it as what Americans enjoy.
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| Posted 3/24/2005 10:21:53 PM by O'Malley | Comments (7) |
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I know I'm missing the point but...
Drudge had some story about rising oil prices and used this photo to help make the point.
I've always wondered what's going on when this happens at a refinery. I see this sometimes at Mobile West off 190th in Torrance.
I know Garrison would kill me for saying this (and something environmentally disasterous is probably happening) but, when you're standing on the hill at the dog park (corner of Flagler and 190th) at night, it lights up the sky will this awesome orange hue. It's really beautiful.
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| Posted 3/22/2005 10:36:44 AM by Denton | Comments (1) |
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I'm not buying it
'PLAYGIRL' EDITOR FIRED AFTER OUTING SELF AS REPUBLICAN
I saw Michele Zipp on a news show or two and seemed very engaging. However, no way these "leading officials" would be so crass. I think there's much more to this story.
I'll apologize if the truth comes out and I'm wrong, but I think there was something else going on and her "coming out" was a pre-emptive to alibi her firing.
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| Posted 3/21/2005 10:47:35 AM by Denton | Comments (0) |
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I had a nightmare last night too
I can't say enough about Chris Anderson's Long Tail blog and the concepts discussed within (though I've said so little about it here.)
I read this post earlier today:Last night I had a nightmare that actually woke me up. I dreamed I was standing in line at a store with my parents, who are now in their 70s. They're telling a stranger that their son is writing a book, and he says "How interesting. What's it about?" My father goes blank for a second and then turns to me and says "I'm sorry, Chris, I've forgotten. What's the Long Tail about again?" So I get furious and chastise him for not caring enough to remember. But in truth I'm just stalling because I can't figure out how to explain it to this stranger either. I encourage you to be part of the discussion. Some concepts he's proposed along with some other "Internet-based Big Thinking" has got my motors running lately.
BTW - My nightmare involved my failure of an exam on the lyrics of They Might Be Giants. I know it's weird -- I thought I would have done better on the exam myself.
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| Posted 3/16/2005 2:13:17 PM by Denton | Comments (1) |
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This is why I got Internet in the first place
Just having back my connection after a month furlough, I'm off to the races in finding all that makes the Internet work for me. Thanks to Jonah, I've found it.
The only part that doesn't make sense to me is the saggy pants. The rest is exactly what I would sound like if I were playing guitar with some other guys playing large kitchen appliances while covering a Bonnie Tyler song -- and was Swedish.
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| Posted 3/13/2005 10:55:39 PM by Denton | Comments (0) |
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You know you're a junkie when...
You spend three months parsing candidates for a race you can't vote in.
Apparently to vote in the Los Angeles Mayoral race you need to -- ready -- live in the city of Los Angeles. What f'n early twentieth-century Progressive thought that one up?
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| Posted 3/7/2005 9:58:11 PM by O'Malley | Comments (0) |
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The epitome of misplaced anger...
First, I confess, I didn't see the following event live, but have heard and read enough about it to know how upset it made me. I'm not a fan of either team, but I am a fan of fair, honest play. It's a good thing I didn't see the game live; it would have sent my blood pressure through my roof. Here are the core facts:
The Where: Philadelphia, PA
The Who: Temple Owls and St. Joe's Hawks
The When: Tuesday, February 22
The What: Temple coach John Chaney sends in, according to him, the "goon".
After being slapped with a technical foul, John Chaney lost it late in the second half. Chaney went ballistic for what he claims was the lack of fouls being called on the St. Joe's players for setting alleged moving screens. So what does Chaney do? File a complaint with Atlantic10 league office? Some other formal means? No way, no how. He sent in Nehemiah Ingram, a 6'8", 250 pound senior forward, to exact some pain and suffering, not on the refs, but on the St. Joe's players. So, Ingram, who this season averages 3.9 minutes a game, 0.4 points, 0.9 rebounds, and 0.0 assists (yes, my decimal points are in the correct places), gets into the game to raise some Cain so to speak. Four minutes, yes, four minutes later mind you, he fouls out, but not before committing a couple of hard fouls, including one that broke the arm of St. Joe's senior John Bryant. Bryant is done playing basketball for the season, and for the rest of his college career. Thanks Coach Chaney.
This quote from Yahoo! News was too unbelievable not to put directly into this post:In a loss to Xavier last March, Chaney said if he had a baseball bat, he'd beat some of his big men.
"I'd kill them. That's how bad I am," Chaney said then. "That's how vile I am." Like all of us, Chaney is a mixed bag of rights and wrongs. His stands up to the social injustices afflicting the impoverished and has recruited many players from the inner city, helping them not only escape their poor surroundings through basketball, but also obtain a college education. Chaney has since backed off his surreal comments he made on Tuesday night, and has decided to take inventory of himself. One can only hope.
Temple's course of disciplinary action was to suspend Chaney for the remainder of the season -- a paltry two games. I guess what really bothers me to the core is the continued machismo that pervades the male sporting landscape. Chaney's actions underscore a growing problem, whether it's seen by a deliberate beaning in baseball, a helmet to helmet tackle in football, or flagrant fouls in basketball - sports are becoming more violent, more aggressive, and because of it, are not truly reflecting their pure essence. Sports should be competitive, but when a player's intention is to hurt another player, it's no longer sport -- it's a brawl, a fight.
What's frightening is that John Chaney knows the difference, and did it anyway. That's not coaching, not by a long shot.
Additional related articles:
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| Posted 2/26/2005 9:22:30 AM by The Savvy | Comments (2) |
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"...The art of the possible"
A friend once said that you should never strive toward an ideal because it's inherently unattainable.
Ideals are not goals. Goals are either achieved or not. Ideals are never achieved. We strive for, fight for, and defend them, but we do not achieve them.
For instance, liberty is an ideal. We defend and fight for liberty, but how do we know when liberty is accomplished?
We don't. The trick is we're better off for trying. There are certain paths with no end, but we're better off for traveling them. There is a word for this expression, it's called (surprise) ideal.
If you don't believe me then take dictionary.com's definition, number four:ideal: Existing only in the mind; imaginary.
Lacking practicality or the possibility of realization. I mention this after reading the LA Weekly's endorsement for Mayor (via LA Observed), where they say:We’re disappointed and even annoyed that with five Democrats in the mayor’s race, we do not see an ideal candidate running for mayor of Los Angeles. We want someone who can represent all of Los Angeles, someone who will bring the city together. We want a candidate overflowing with ideas — and detailed plans for carrying them out. We don’t just want good intentions, we want someone who knows how to make the city’s departments work together. They're looking for the "ideal candidate" that inherently doesn't exist, so it isn't surprising when they can't find one... out of five Democrats no less.
I wonder: Do they think if ten Democrats were in the race they would find one? How about 100?
Or maybe they have someone in mind who is the ideal candidate... ok then, why not say so? Why not begin your endorsement with, "We don't like the five candidates because they're not like this Senator from Neverland..."
So then they plead for someone "who can represent all of Los Angeles, someone who will bring the city together." These are good intentions, and we assume they are possessed by the ideal candidate that's not currently in the race.
This person is also "overflowing with ideas [and has] detailed plans for carrying them out."
Hold up. Now the ideal candidate needs detailed plans to manifest their ideals, which is, of course, impossible. As something becomes more detailed it becomes less ideal.
If I say I wanna travel more and see the world, my friends would say, "Hey that's great man!" (World traveling is one of our more popular ideals, it somehow imbues the traveler with worldiness and culture, even when he doesn't pick up a history book about the land admired so. 'Nother essay, 'nother time, as we say.)
So my friends are stoked for me. But when I unveil my detailed plans, i.e. selling them overpriced cutlery to raise cash for my fantastic voyage - the attitude might change a bit.
Why? Plans are in reality, ideals are in the abstract. As soon as plans are created, enemies of those plans arise. The elected official is allocated authority to settle the dispute, and therefore becomes a creature of compromise - ceasing to be an ideal.
It seems obvious then that someone seeking this office would flex their strength of compromise in the campaign. And maybe this is a characteristic we should praise and not ridicule.
Now, I don't read the LA Weekly nor do I plan to. I just get fired up when literate folks show an utter lack of respect for words.
Now you may say, "well O'Malley I can pick apart this post and all your meandering (yet oddly intriguing) essays." And I'd say, "go ahead dude, I bust ass forty hours-a-week at a job and the title ain't Editor."
My point: If you wanna half-ass endors
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| Posted 2/24/2005 9:15:19 PM by O'Malley | Comments (0) |
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The Long Tail
If you're into computers / internet(s), or just curious what comes after the new new thing, you need to read this article.
Dub referred me to it saying something-like, "It's mind-blowing." I ignored him and thought, "just some more net econo-crap." Don't be like me, it's mind-blowing.
Let's discuss...
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| Posted 2/21/2005 10:02:41 PM by O'Malley | Comments (2) |
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