an open letter to gmail

dear gmail,

for the longest time, despite protestations from people within my circle coupled with having my hipness openly questioned by the hip proletariat, i held out from getting a gmail account. over and over and over again i was subject of scorn and ridicule for my decision to hold out. i can't tell you how many times i'd heard, "i can get you an invite for an account if you need one." my answer was always, "no thanks...i don't want one." i was perfectly happy and content with the yahoo mail accounts that i'd had since the clinton administration. finally, approximately 7 months ago, as a result of launching this blog on blogger and it's capabilities to interact with gmail, i began using your service regularly. i believe that the length of my trial is sufficient enough that i can now make this review of your service.

it sucks.

seriously, it does. can someone please explain to me why my inbox is filled with, at least a dozen per day if i had to venture a guess, solicitations from attorneys representing african philanthropists wishing to endow me with their fortunes along with the standard ads whose subject lines read "GET HARD 2NITE," "add three inches of girth" and "are you lonely tonight?" meanwhile, many of the emails that are coming from actual people, people that i know personally or people that are writing to me about something regarding this blog, are getting routed to my "trash" folder? what's ever more perplexing about this is that many of the emails that are being misrouted are emails that originate from other gmail accounts!!!

what the fuck is that?!?!

and why do i have to hit "send" 3 or 4 times in order to actually get something to send? am i doing something wrong? am i pressing down on my mouse too emphatically when i do hit "send?" am i hurting the system's feelings? all in know is that i am so fucking over hitting "send" and then staring for 5 minutes at the little red "sending" thingie on the upper right of my screen.

so gmail, i closing, can you please get your shit together? stop over-promising and under-delivering. god forbid i have to go back to yahoo. or aol even. excite perhaps? (does excite even exist anymore?)

yours in anger,
CB


some college football fans are crazier than others

ladies and gentlemen meet charley. he is superfan-douche at his finest, or worst, depending on your perspective i suppose, in the waning woments of florida's crushing upset defeat at the hands of auburn last saturday. charley joins the ranks of other notable douchequakes from the university of florida such as andrew "don't tase me bro" meyer. you'll wish that charley had been tasered after watching this video.

thanks to the anonymous commenter that posted this on my comment board yeaterday with the message, "i'm sure that you will post this in your blog tomorrow." guess what anon? you were right!




not sure which freaks me out more?

this two-headed turtle...



or rep. henry waxman's nostrils (please keep small children and animals away from him when he takes a deep breath)



i hate to be a dick, but every time i see a picture of henry waxman i think of that seinfeld episode where kramer is convinced that he has seen a pig-man in a hospital.


clarence thomas on 60 minutes

sunday night 60 minutes aired an interview with supreme court justice clarence thomas, which was kind of extraordinary because thomas rarely grants interviews to the press, much less the 7 days of blanket coverage that he allowed steve kroft and his production crew. the result was an extremely compelling piece. say what you want about thomas and his rulings from the bench, the man has led a fascinating life. here is the entire interview, broken up into three different segments of youtube videos...