East Asheville Hardware

Ok, Imma 'bout had it with all the little quirky outside software add-on's to this blog flaking out. If it's not Haloscan's comments going all apeshit or blogrolling's links disappearing for days at a time it's last.fm or SiteMeter linking to some half-witted javascript that slobs up the page formatting on my site. I'm no genius programmer, but I do consider myself somewhat competent at navigating embed codes and user tags, which means if stuff ain't working, it's probably not because of anything I did, aiight?

I'm not asking the world here -- if you make a doodad that's supposed to do "x", then is
there any sort of possibility that you can ensure that it actually does "x" once in a while?

I've sorta resisted using blogger's comment system for ages because it's sort of a hassle for anonymous/non-blogger.com members to use, which to me is a deterrent for newcomers to jump into the discussions that we're having about a topic. I've also sorta straggled on jumping completely over to Blogger's beta templates because quirky as it is, I kinda like the way this site is. I know in the end it's not that big a big deal, and eventually there's gonna come a day when I'll have to replace my record player with an iPod (so to speak), but there's nothing worse in our technology-tethered world than putting your trust into something that's supposed to make your world easier only to have that thing crap out with no hope of being able to do anything about it from your end but just hit the refresh button over and over.

All of this hassle makes me want to just switch everything over to Blogger's latest interface, boxy and
un-user friendly as it is -- because regardless of the pod people mentality, shit works when you want it to.

You know what this reminds me of? The constant struggle I have feeling like huge conglomerate stores like Wal-Mart are poisoning consumers away from local small businesses and products, while at the same time having to deal with the dissapointment of going into your local corner store to pick up something you really need, only to find that they don't actually have it, or if they do -- it's some crazed out 15-year old looking off-brand/generic thing that you're sorta not comfortable buying in the first place.

"Excuse me, I cut my hand and really need a Band-Aid, where are they?"
"We don't carry those, but if you look in Aisle 3 you'll find a wide selection of Aid-bands, which are made by the same company that had all those toys recalled recently for having lead paint in them. Look, they come in assorted colors!"

Because when stuff like that happens, the first thing I really want to do is.. go to effing Wallyworld.

And I don't want to go there.

But dammit if they don't always bloody have what I'm looking for.

It's like that line from the should-be-funnier-but-really-isn't-half-the-time cartoon Frisky Dingo

"Why do you have an account with a bank owned by your arch-enemy?"
"Checking with interest, Phil. You can't just get that anywhere."

How about this:

Attention world. I want to support good things. I have a strong personal interest in promoting endless varieties of non-crap. I want independent cinema. I want music that's not been over-produced or filtered down by record companies. But I like Oreos, not Hydrox -- understand?. I want my MTV, not 15 straight hours of rich 16-year old white girls planning their birthday parties. I want every writer who isn't John Grisham or Patricia Cornwell to have the chance to sell an effing book once in a while. I want food that's not pumped up full of chemicals and radiation. I want to watch television that was written by writers, listen to music that wasn't programmed into a sequencer, and wipe my ass with toilet paper that didn't require the destruction of a rainforest to get made. But I gotta be honest here -- I'm not gonna sit forever hovering over the bowl while you stand around trying to figure it out.

In short: I understand it's tough out there for mom and pop businessman, but the fact that you're not owned by Rupert Murdoch doesn't mean you get a free license to suck.

I'm still in your corner. I really am. But ish gets old, knammsayin?

Anyways, all of this ranting probably won't do any good -- but it did sorta remind me of the lyrics one of my brother's favorite songs -- which kinda sums up in two minutes what I've been blathering on about this whole time (which when I think about it is normally how things work out when Josh and I are discussing similar topics, because he's cool like that).

Anyways, it's a neat little song, and you should all check it out:

So yeah, my blog the world is FUBAR (but my little brother is really cool).

Pretty much all you ever really needed to know.

[Listening to:  The Dead Milkmen – "Bitchin' Camaro" ]