word!

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'Excellent' - C. Montgomery Burns

Thanks for the timely update jerks!

1. December 2008 | Category My Websites, Observations

Received the following information from my trusty, yet back-stabbing host 1and1 today. Kind makes you wonder why they even sent it. Thanks for your business, but oops, by the way, we raised rates for the past month, thanks for letting us steal more money from you without us being honest with you about it.

Way to piss on the customer. And it reinforces why I have since moved all my domain names away from this company. Hosting may well be next…

Dear Customer,

1and1 Internet appreciates your business, and we hope that you are
happy with our services.

In order to stay competitive and continue to offer you excellent services,
we have made changes to our pricing structure in accordance with the
changes in the industry. This change affects new domain registrations
and domain renewals.

Since November 3, 2008, the following domain rates apply:
.com, .net, .us, .org, .info, .name, and .biz domains have been increased
to
$8.99 per year

1and1 is committed to offering very competitive prices and professional
services in the domain environment and we hope to continue to meet and
surpass your service expectations.

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Indecisiveness 2008 Edition

6. November 2008 | Category Interests, Observations, Rant

Yuck. Every election cycle gets worse it seems. I was so fed up with every media type outlet in the last month/year, I actually stopped using a few of them. So we have a new President. I can actually say we had a decent choice this cycle for candidates, I didn’t feel like I was choosing between two douche bags the puppet masters danced out for us, like has been done for the last 8 years. A person could feel good about either candidate.

None the less, McCain didn’t win. I think he was screwed over since his initial presidential run in 2000 when his campaign stalled as a frat-boy from Texas noodled his way into the White House. McCain never really recovered from that. His form in the campaign was off, and the administration sure didn’t do him a single favor for torpedoing his run in 2000. Ah, time for a change.

As for the US Senate race in Mn, it was ridiculous. Why didn’t the two main idiots just say they were gonna bash the other in so many ways that it would look more like a sissy fight than a run for elected office. These two took pride,it looked like, in hating the other guy and finding new ‘campaign’ ways to do so. Yuck.

Al Franken got what he deserved. After losing outstate Mn in the primaries to his DFL competitor, he was blase enough to admit that his real opponent was Norm Coleman the whole time. I sure that statement and attitude were enough to convince some couple hundred voters to switch to GOP or even Independence Party, which fared better than may have been expected. It is of note that the Independence Party did play a spoiler of sorts in this election as well. Just goes to show that 3rd party politics may liven up the electoral scene.

As for the citizens of Minnesota, the majority of them took it upon themselves to raise their taxes via a sales tax increase. They bit this propaganda hook, line, and sinker (or art piece, I forget). Little did anyone mention that the arts and parks would greatly benefit from a good chunk of this amendments ‘great outdoors’ improvement plea. Little did the state government have to worry about, because with it’s passage, they passed the buck (no pun intended) and get to bask in squandering my generations taxes on whatever they have to money to.

Where did all that ‘state lottery’ money go we Minnesotans were promised a decade or so ago? All I have heard was embezzlement charges against the big shots running that gig. Yuck.

These taxes tend to stay on the books too. Mankato for one, is a city around the area that has had implemented an extra sales tax to pay for a ‘regional’ project in the Civic Center, but now after the initial taxing period has expired, they conveniently found numerous other ‘priorities’ that needed funding. Yuck.

Almost can’t wait for another even numbered year. Yuck.

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Neat Political Video

24. October 2008 | Category Observations

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Holy autocracy, Batman!

25. September 2008 | Category Internet, Observations

Having been a seasoned eBayer from my early excursions on the newly minted inter-net to present, it’s starting to sadden my auction browsing experience.

Since eBay ditched it’s latest CEO for a new, fresh CEO, the company has taken some fairly drastic steps to change it’s business model while cutting away the almost utter devotion most avid users had for the service/community it created.

It has been slowly evolving. First they raise prices for things, which justified or not almost always happens with any floundering and/or greedy business.

Next they decided to take away the voice of reason that many a trustful and honest eBayer relied on, the positive/negative feedback tool. Now a seller cannot complain about a deadbeat buyer, but the buyer can continue to blast you as a seller without real visible recourse.

The latest indiscretion is what really makes you wonder what will come next. Now eBay is insisting that you ship products out for a set price, no mind whether the time/energy to ship at that price is even relevant.

I’ve read that eBay is trying to cater to the larger sellers on eBay with it’s fees and Buy-it-now auctions, but with all the changes and the utter disregard for the small time buyer/seller, eBay is cutting it’s core audience to the bone.

They are slowly morphing into a online storefront. Gone will be the entertainment and candor of possibly the first internet e-tailer that really had a compelling reason for people to get on the internet and buy/sell almost whatever you could dream up on a site originally dealing with Pez dispensers.

It annoys me and I can see myself shying away from the site due to this continued behavior.

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Boy O’ Boy

3. September 2008 | Category Observations

The politico season is upon us. This year we may actually have a choice on a few candidates and not just at the local level. I just can’t wait for the mud to start flying! Bring it on.

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