the *really* good things in life are *sometimes* free

New Yorkers: Best coffee in the world is free this week, 12/7 - 12/13, only.

Sweetleaf is giving away 12 oz. of Stumptown Coffee. It really is some of the best coffee I think I've had and they sell the beans too. Use the money you save to buy some goodies and take a bag of beans home.

Only one stop east from Grand Central on the 7 and a block east and north. Map.

The Reverend Billy Talen from the Church of Life After Shopping:

"You stop shopping, but start giving. That's what the holidays are for. The good way to do that is to find your gift locally. Walk to your gift this year and buy it there. Buy it from an independent shop on your main street, in your neighborhood, in your community. Local shopping is... a sustainable economy."

Turn Black Friday into Buy Nothing Day

Today, please join me, Adbusters, the Reverend Billy Talen and the Church of Life After Shopping, and others across the world in reclaiming our souls from the capitalist/consumerist/corporatist spectacle through the simple defiant non-action of not buying anything.

Fight the zombies of the Shopocalypse! It's either that or become one. Your choice.

Buy Nothing Day TV Spot Rejected by some networks

The Buy Nothing Day TV spot by Adbusters was rejected by MTV, ABC, and CTV. Listening to the rejection calls are telling.

"Suck it up! It's the real world!... We sell time for many different things but not issues of public importance."

TV doesn't like controversy. Its job is to keep you watching, docile and receptive, and to keep you, above all else, buying. Reflection, thought, and questioning are its enemies.

YARTHPOF

(V, or YET ANOTHER REASON TO HATE PARTY OF FIVE.)

Sorry, Morena.

Loved you in Firefly as Mal's love interest, but V just ain't doing it for me. Is it the haircut? Possibly. Could I be that shallow? Possibly. Or could it be the lackluster dialog, clichéd conflict, and bottom-of-the-barrel casting? People, if you're going to do a remake of a corny classic, do your frakking (hint, hint, nudge, nudge) homework and hire the right people for the job!!!

New life to the Blunnies

It's unfortunate that so few things are made to last these days. And when I find something that is well made, I am loathe to part with it.

Fortunately I found a shop in Salem, Oregon that can resole my Blundstone 500 boots with Vibram soles. Most places won't try this because the original soles are injection molded to the leather upper.

Since Blundstone has moved it's factories from Australia to Asia and I don't know how they compare in terms of quality, and since it's taken me 7 years to get these fellas broken in just the way I like them, I'd rather not part with these old friends that have taken me to so many places.

If anyone has tried these folks for Blundstone repairs and has feedback, or can recommend someone else who has done a good job, please drop me a post.

The next question is, "What do I wear while my Blundstones are in the shop?!"

Google App Engine Finally Working under MacPorts

Well, it took some fidgeting but I finally got Google App Engine 1.0.2 SDK working under MacPorts by first uninstalling my previous version of Python 2.5 and then re-installing with the socket-ssl package.

>> sudo port uninstall python25

>> sudo port install python25

---> Activating python25 2.5.1_1+darwin_8
---> Cleaning python25

>> sudo port install py25-socket-ssl
---> Fetching py25-socket-ssl
---> Verifying checksum(s) for py25-socket-ssl
---> Extracting py25-socket-ssl
---> Configuring py25-socket-ssl
---> Building py25-socket-ssl with target build
---> Staging py25-socket-ssl into destroot
---> Installing py25-socket-ssl 2.5.1_0
---> Activating py25-socket-ssl 2.5.1_0
---> Cleaning py25-socket-ssl

Before I installed py25-socket-ssl, I would get the error:

File "/usr/local/google_appengine/google/appengine/tools/appcfg.py", line 334, in _GetOpener
opener.add_handler(urllib2.HTTPSHandler())
AttributeError: 'module' object has no attribute 'HTTPSHandler'

Hope this helps someone else out there.

Now to actually see if this has been worth all the hassle. ;-)