Pile of Near Misses

I hate Google right now

Google Reader is gone and I’m so mad I could spit. Some idiot at the advertising giant looked at the lovely Google Reader and said “people like this but they don’t like Google+. You know what would be a smart thing to do? If we forced the users of our popular service to move to our unpopular one.”

So that’s bad enough. Then they decided that removing the social part might not drive everyone away so they just put tons of useless white space between every single element on the god damned page. Now it looks like Playskool designed it. “HAY GUYS APPLE IS MINIMAL. US DO THAT TOO.”

OK fine, design is personal. Maybe some near-sighted people and fat-fingered children like it but here’s The Thing: I don’t want to use fucking Google+. That’s why I wasn’t using it before today. I loved sharing with Google Reader and reading what my friends shared. I don’t want to start a new social media profile that eventually fills up with people I just met once, parents’ friends, and just barely connected work people that I can’t swear around (not you, my work people friends — I don’t mean you). I’m also not going to be strong-armed into using their Facebook knockoff or the hideous new Reader design. You blew it, jerks. I’m going to share and read my stuff elsewhere and use Google less, not more. I’m not sure where, but watch this space. Meanwhile, speaking of space, here’s my message to Google, in the new design that they like so much:

SCREW YOU , CHANGE IT BACK

otherpress:

Love. Want.

Customized book side tables by San Francisco-based furniture maker Jane Dandy

(Via Tattered Cover)

Disappointment Juice

Today, I was saddened to learn that Minute Maid orange juice got its name from a marketing firm, thanks to a fast dehydration method first engineered for the Army. It is NOT named after a tiny cleaning lady who squeezes the oranges. For that reason, it’s pronounced “minit maid” and not “my-noot maid.”

I heard you have to have a student ID to get in. Is that true?

cosmopsis:

I have always been a little skeptical about the existence of the secret Chick-Fil-A at NYU. My coworker insisted that I was a liar and that absolutely no Chick-Fil-A exists anywhere in New York City (kind of like when Kelsey didn’t believe me when I told her that baby watermelons were real). Anyway, so I went there, and it was real.

Late early thirties

sarahb:

iPod on shuffle offered up the one-two punch of Innocence Mission’s “Into Brooklyn, Early in the Morning,” and then “Aaron and Maria,” by American Analog Set. I won’t get into my initial reaction since it’s all I ever fucking talk about, but my second thought was when did I get so pussy?

God damn, I love that Am Am Set song. Beware the ravages of age!

Hey good news, guys. The documentary about me is finally done!

kayfabe:

ronworkman:marco:

As Seen on TV - a tribute to doing it wrong:

Whenever a TV product commercial plays I bust a gut during the parts where they show us what we’re doing wrong and why we need the product.

This is my tribute to the hilarious work the actors in these infomercials do.

By kickintheheadcomic.

Played 16 times [Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]

The Only Hell My Momma Ever Raised - Catherine Irwin (Johnny Paycheck cover)

Wha?

Just now, on Rachel Maddow’s show, Tracy Weitz said “abortion is fundamentally a service that women need and one in three women in this country will need at some point before the end of their reproductive years.”
Uh, what? One of every three American women has an abortion? Is that true or was she just speaking ungracefully about women using reproductive planning services like Planned Parenthood? Can anyone clear this up?
My gut reaction is a) that I underestimated the abortion rate by a few dozen million or b) the credibility of Weitz (and Maddow who couldn’t agree with her assessment more!) is shot.