My friend sent me the following and is avoiding dealing with craiglist: “Location:Park Slope/Windsor Terrace Literally next to the Prospect Park F/G train, across the street from Prospect Park, next door to the movie theater, a short walk to 7th avenue bars and restaurants. Details:Room available [...]]]>

The top left picture is really the only one that applies

My friend sent me the following and is avoiding dealing with craiglist:
“Location:Park Slope/Windsor Terrace Literally next to the Prospect Park F/G train, across the street from Prospect Park, next door to the movie theater, a short walk to 7th avenue bars and restaurants.
Details:Room available for summer sublet 6/23-8/22 (sublet length is negotiable but will not be available before of after these dates):Rent is normally 950 plus utilities, but this sublet is for 760 a month (including utilities) because I will leave books behind, and you will not have access to the bedroom’s closet. If you decide to use the ac, you may be asked to chip in extra money.
The room:Fully furnished, master bedroom, air conditioner available You will share a three bedroom, ground floor apt with two other really nice, respectful young professionals who work m-f, 9-5 and think of this apt as their HOME.no pets please”

You can email me if you are interested in contacting her.

my coworker says that i should probably not blog, because she says that i don’t have enough to say.

i disagree.

today, i’d like to tell you all that i LOVE roe. i fucking can’t get enough of it. i could eat it all day, every day. i love the way that the little eggs pop in [...]]]>

my coworker says that i should probably not blog, because she says that i don’t have enough to say.

i disagree.

today, i’d like to tell you all that i LOVE roe. i fucking can’t get enough of it. i could eat it all day, every day. i love the way that the little eggs pop in your mouth, and their slightly sweet, but overall savory flavor (i love savory snacks), and the way that they make any kind of maki just THAT much tastier.

this picture puts my salivary glands into overdrive.

Walmart has recently reported record profits. Brian Lehrer makes over $200,000, twelve percent of which goes to taxes.

In Rochester, on WXXI, during a fund drive, the producers had the hosts encourage the public to make donations by trying to tie each donation to [...]]]>

How many cookies did it cost to get him on the show?

Walmart has recently reported record profits. Brian Lehrer makes over $200,000, twelve percent of which goes to taxes.

In Rochester, on WXXI, during a fund drive, the producers had the hosts encourage the public to make donations by trying to tie each donation to what programs got to stay on the air. The problem here might not seem obvious to everyone, but the idea of “public” radio is not served well by saying the only programs that will be saved are ones where the listeners can afford to donate. A dollar to vote, is not democratic. Over the past few years I have not heard this strategy get used, not at least in the Hudson Valley/Albany and New York City area. However, I do believe the appeals made by on-air personalities have been riddled with false pretense.

Annoying, is the frequency of the drives; it feels like its monthy, but WNYC has their’s quarterly. That’s 4 times a year, about 8 percent of WNYC’s air time, same as New York’s sales tax. Most of NPR’s listeners, like myself, do not know where that money goes, exactly. The fundraisers explain, vaguely, that their donation helps put said programing on air, and online, but never has to justify it’s budget, and funding methods. Noticeable are the many programs that have been underwritten by ExxonMobil, Merk, and for a time many by AIG.

I would like to propose that even if NPR had all the money it needed to operate effectively and efficiently, it would still guilt people into donating to increase its revenue. That anybody has any responsibility to donate is bologna. I suspect that NPR is another poorly managed greedy corporation, shutting down jobs unnecessarily (last year, they cut jobs by 7%, while reaching a record audience), and over paying executives; many of whom make $200,000-$400,000 annually; in some cases over $600,000. McDonald’s founder’s widow willed almost a quarter billion to NPR in 2003. NPR then increased their annual budget from 100 million to 150 million. Still, WNYC asks for money.

What would happen if people stopped donating? Before 1983 fund drives were not necessary. Member stations are NPR subscribers, and raise funds for their subscriptions and operation costs.
WFMU’s budget is 1.6 million annually.
WNYC has an operating budget of 56 Million.
[on the side: WNYC used to be a SUNY institution, where revenue provided support for the city, until 1997, when it was sold to "WNYC-Radio" for 20 million]
BBC is funded by British tax payers, and American subscribers like WNYC.
To answer the question, what would happen, is WNYC would have to look somewhere else for funding. Perhaps, lobby for state funding; maybe, reincorporate into the SUNY sytem and city budget. It would remain on the air, and they would have to seek progressive means of financing if they could not get enough from. Financing by fund drive has become a tax on those who are susceptible to guilt, the emotionally vulnerable.

You are doing anyone any favor donating, but you are giving money to an already well financed institution that pays some people very well; others, very poorly; and encourages their efforts, ensuring further efforts. If you don’t like the drives, don’t donate, you just get more drives.

My real frustration is with lack of transparency, bias in advertising or presenting (the fund drives), and how money is used within a non-democratic corporate institution that carries the auspicious word, Public, in its name. Without proper scrutiny, and with voluntary yet manipulative taxation of middle class liberals (plus a few conservatives, though they often feel entitled to liberal programs anyways), NPR and their local affiliates are destined for further regressive tactics, and whose presupposition on finance, warps content.

I’ll be sending my donations to another station like WFMU, or Democracy Now!

I’ll end my first real online rant, right there.

Disappointingly, the flash on the camera I purchased off Ebay does not work. I feel a little ripped off.

These photos, perhaps, [...]]]> I purchased this film from the impossible project, which seems to work only o.k. It was relatively cheap, for the rare film, $12; but then I realized Fuji makes film that fits Polaroid Land camera’s

Disappointingly, the flash on the camera I purchased off Ebay does not work. I feel a little ripped off.

These photos, perhaps, are the kind only the photographer can really love. Nostalgia is antithetical to my general world view, but I did at least have fun making theses, which comes from a genuinely unique relationship to the process Instant Film offers. Process has almost disappeared with contemporary photo sharing methods. Whether it is more or less magical is in the eye of the beholder.

My first shot was over exposed, and many of the following shots were under. After scanning my photos into the computer I tried to correct the color and levels a little, which seemed to favor the green side of the color wheel. Dust and scratches, remain.

Yesterday, my Polaroid 360 arrived. I cannot tell if it works yet, but I think it will be exciting if it does, as the 125i silk film, from Impossible, looks promising. This camera was sold in the 70’s for $200.  The batteries need replacing, which is not as simple as one would think, but the [...]]]>

Yesterday, my Polaroid 360 arrived. I cannot tell if it works yet, but I think it will be exciting if it does, as the 125i silk film, from Impossible, looks promising. This camera was sold in the 70’s for $200.  The batteries need replacing, which is not as simple as one would think, but the shutter sounds like it works. I think I got ripped off, but it just may take a pretty picture. The 100 type film, this camera uses, gets processed differently, which I expect will be noticeable compared with Polaroid or Impossible’s 1200, 600 and sx-70 films.