OT: My Mom Got DSL Today...

...and I haven't had this much fun in a long time.

We hung out on YouTube for a while, and now we're setting up her gmail account.

This rocks.

San Francisco Bans Plastic Grocery Bags

So I found out yesterday that plastic bags have been banned from grocery stores in The City. Apparently, this move was approved by the City Council at the beginning of this year, but I wasn't aware of it until I went into the grocery store last night and they made a big deal out of joking around that they couldn't give me plastic. There was also a big fuss because apparently Safeway is giving away canvas bags with a minimum purchase, but ran out within the first few hours. Now they're providing rainchecks to everyone who comes through. Have to wonder if that move is just going to result in a huge glut of canvas bags floating somewhere in the ocean 1000 miles West of San Francisco. It can join the plastic islands forming there.

On my way home today, I ran into a few guys that are pushing to expand the ban already. They were dressed in clever and comprehensive plastic sack outfits, holding signs asking "Honk if I make you sick" and "Bags Banned from S.F. Migrating to Berkley".

I guess that's just one more point for The City. Not only is it one of the first cities in the world to ban plastic bags, but it also managed to set a trend as the first city in the US to pull the trigger. Now Oakland, Los Angeles, Santa Monica and - you guessed it - Berkeley want to join the movement, and Paris and London don't appear to be far behind.

I Feel Guilty That I Paid Nothing for the Radiohead Album

I'm not a huge Radiohead fan. I like a lot of their older stuff, but have definitely not kept up - 'cept for buying Kid A at some point, I think.

But this new album is really good, actually. I think In Rainbows one of their best albums, and it's passed the acid test of 'more than just a few cool tracks' for me.

But, when I downloaded it I paid nothing. I paid nothing because that was an option given to me, and because I don't like the idea of paying for anything in British Sterling unless I'm in the UK - it creeps me out. But I want to focus on the former reason right now. Am I such a skeeze that, given the chance, I would stiff an artist who allowed me to name my own price for their work? Apparently. But I'm also likely not alone. Even though the spokesfolks for Radiohead described as "wholly inaccurate" an earlier story from Internet research group ComScore that asserted that less than 4 in 10 people paid anything for In Rainbows, I would expect the figures from the original article to be fairly close. And I'm one of the skeezy cheap bastards contributing to those statistics and creating an impression that there is no legitimate market for digital music if consumers are given the chance to get it for free. Sorry bout that everyone. What can I say, I'm a creep.

BTW - a friend did remind me that I could simply revisit the Radiohead site and contribute whatever I think is fair now, but that's just stupid. I already have the album. I don't feel that guilty. Radiohead doesn't really need my money. And besides, I'd still have to pay in pounds. Eww.

I Can Haz Vizshun?

Though I'm still not completely convinced that it is actual medical science and not instead a craftily-disguised deal with the devil consummated somewhere within the myriad documents I was compelled to sign, I made the leap and had LASIK surgery yesterday.

Today, I went for my follow-up appointment in the morning, and the doctor was surprised to find that my vision is almost 20/20 already (even though I still think it's pretty blurry).

Insane. Yesterday, I was 20/80 in my right eye and 20/200 in my left, with a bad astigmatism and thick (albeit broken) glasses. Today I'm reading soup cans in the kitchen from across the room for fun.

I'm gonna vote black magic...no other valid explanation for it frankly.