I ordered something from Amazon last night. Take a look at the dates on this order status:
They apparently managed to ship the item before I ordered it! How’d they know! Now, if we lived on the East Coast then, sure, time zones, etc…but we live in California.
Jess decided she wanted a body pillow. So we picked one up from Target. Jess tossed it on the bed and when she came back a few hours later she discovered that her new pillow had made itself at home and was so tired from the day’s excitement that it fell asleep while reading a book:
Okay, remember the sad kangaroo I mentioned in the San Diego Zoo post? Who we postulated was old or arthritic or somesuch? Well, according to my current National Geographic (June 2011), this is actually just how kangaroos walk! They put their weight on their arms and tail, then scooch their legs up behind them. See? Man, I love this magazine.
OK, I’ll be honest. I didn’t vote for positions like Secretary of State, Controller, Treasurer, or Livermore Area Recreation & Park District Directors. I’d already spent hours trying to make informed decisions about all the other items on the ballot and I just couldn’t bring myself to care about those positions.
Anyway. I went to my polling location to vote. Turns out my polling location for this election was some person’s garage. Yup, like attached to their house. I found it kind of strange to be filling out a ballot next to a washing machine, and below a shelf holding sleeping bags.
And now, I’ve voted, participated in the democratic process, and ready to be annoyed at all the screw-ups awaiting us in the next 2 years.
Jess and I both read a web comic entitled Dinosaur Comics. 5 years ago there was a segment where the main character discusses his idea for a book. The premise would be a world where a simple blood test would provide a very brief explanation (1-5 words) of how you would die. So everyone spends their life knowing-ish how they’re going to die.
Over the intervening years the writer, Ryan North, accepted short stories based around this idea. With a group of other cartoonists and authors they selected the best stories and created an anthology of tales from this universe. They entitled it Machine of Death and are selling it on Amazon independently (because no publisher would get on board).
The book was released on October 13, but everyone involved requested that people hold off buying until the 26th so they could spread the word. The goal was to push the book to #1 on Amazon during that day. Not for any real reason, just to see if they could do it. A fairly small group of people with no advertising and no publisher, using only word-of-mouth to promote the book, wanted to see if they could get a #1 bestseller on Amazon—even if only for 1 day.
Well, apparently Glenn Beck happened to be launching his new book on the 26th. His book ended up ranked #3 as sales were dominated by Machine of Death (#1) and a book by Keith Richards. According to Ryan North, “He told his listeners that he’d worked on his book for over a year, and that his books always debut at #1, and that we (along with Keith) were part of a left-wing ‘culture of death’ that ‘celebrates the things that have destroyed us’ and that everyone should support life by buying his book.”
My copy of the book is set to arrive today, so I haven’t read it yet. But based on my understanding I don’t really see how it represents a “culture of death” or “celebrates the things that have destroyed us.” I bought it because I like some of the authors who are involved, it sounded like an interesting premise for some science fiction writing, Amazon lowered the price to under $10, and I wanted to support Ryan North who has provided enjoyable entertainment with his web comic which has cost me nothing.
But apparently science fiction writing doesn’t sit well with Beck, or at least not when it condemns his own work to a 3rd place debut. Therefore purchasers of the book must be part of some left-wing degenerate culture. Of course, if you look up the actual transcript from that portion of Beck’s show it’s obvious he’s struggling to form any coherent thought on the matter. He’s apparently just so flabbergasted that some people feel that a science fiction anthology would be more worth their time than another one of his books. I dunno, maybe his entire show is just random babbling making this segment no different.