EverythingSteve.com

Am I a Member of a Dying Breed?

Don't worry...I'm not getting religious on you. Nope, I'm here today to share with you my feelings about Yahoo! I love Yahoo! My Web activities always start with my MyYahoo! page. I use Yahoo! Mail. Yahoo! is my main portal for news, financial news, sports news, odd news. Yes, I've been using Google a bit more for Search, and I do indeed use Google Docs, but Yahoo! still gets the lion's share of my queries. I use Delicious A LOT as well, and Flickr...but don't really count them since they were acquisitions.

So here's the deal: With the incredible bludgeoning that Yahoo! has taken in the press during the last few weeks, I've felt lonely. It seems that very few people who I know socially or come into contact with in business situations simply enjoy the Yahoo! experience. And yet a foul-mouthed Irish dude* who works down the hall and shows up in the office here about once per week told me that he, too, loves Yahoo! and that his brother works at Yahoo! on the Yahoo Finance pages. I lovingly pulled up http://finance.yahoo.com this morning and we both oohed and aahhed at the UI, how easy it is to navigate a plethora of information...and then compared it to the dark, amorphous blog that is msnbc.com.

In any event, I was thrilled to just fall upon this New York Times blog posting from Saul Hansell. It's by no means positive or hopeful. It's actually quite sad. But at least it provides a glimmer of hope that there are a number of people like me, people who simply love Yahoo! and who might miss it if Mr. Ballmer has is way, and quite possibly even if he doesn't.

Oh, I also love those freakin' breakfast sandwiches at Starbucks that they're getting rid of in the most insincere wave of "we're going back to our roots" that I've ever seen. But I'll save that rant for another day.

*His signature expression: "For feck's sake, I wish they'd stop microwaving that popcorn in the kitchen. It smells like feckin' shit!"

"Crush! Kill! Destroy!"

Only a dyed-in-the-wool "Lost in Space" fan would 'get' that headline. So simply click here for the rest of the story.

"I Know You Didn't Ask, But..."

Don’t you want to hear the largely cynical thoughts that went through my mind as I watched the Oscars? If not, then click here.

Regis on the red carpet before the actual Oscar show…Dude, you are cheesier than the goat fromage balls toasted with olive oil and bread crumbs I’m about to eat with my salad, and so much less appealing. “Hey, they ask me back every 30 years!” Yuck yuck yuck.

No Country For Old Men psycho killer dude (Javier Bardem)—you couldn’t have been more endearing in your Red Carpet pre-award interview (with Mr. Schlockster, to boot—see previous comment).

Daniel Day-Lewis in your red carpet interview—Dude, you are most definitely an odd bird…no doubt what imbues your acting with so much intensity. But you come across as nice and, dare I say, approachable in real life…what my wife would call “yin.”

Ellen Page, young 21 year old female star of Juno—loved the movie, loved you in the movie, but you need some ‘live’ interview training skills…or at least smile and…..act (duh!) when you’re on the red carpet.

Jennifer Garner—my wife loves you, but me? Meh…

Jon Stewart—Freakin’ funny, and the style of humor (sort of off center, a little bit irreverent) never gets old. The exchange with Dennis Hopper was a winner.

Javier Bardem winning Best Supporting Actor: Well deserved.

Cheesy symphonic bed and transition music intended to evoke emotion: no effect on me, homey. Ditto with the schmaltzy film collages, although the Jon Stewart satire on wake-ups from nightmares is much appreciated.

Oh gosh, Owen Wilson is on stage presenting an award. Oh gosh, Owen Wilson is on stage presenting an award. Oh gosh, Owen Wilson is on stage presenting an award.

Live Action Short Film Award Recipient from France: It’s awesome that your English skills aren’t too good because your speech was mercifully brief.

Wow…in looking at some clips of older awards shows, it’s clear there’s so much more focus today on appearance—thinner women, more physically fit women (and men), better outfits. What a contrast to the rest of us chunk assed B.M.I. violators.

I’m thinking the whole gig would be better if we drilled into the Scientific Technical Awards for three hours.

How the hell does one REALLY judge who should win “Best Adapted Screenplay,” anyway?

Wow…that song, “How Does She Know” from “Enchanted.” I just threw my laptop at the TV. [start hurling vomit sound effect right now]

Thank G-d I live on the West Coast so I can get nice and toasty watching this drivel and the pain is still over by 8:30 p.m. or so, allowing me to get more toasty while listening to some good music.

Best way to further sink my career? Easy. Wear a black suit and shirt to work with a bolo, wire glasses, and long graying hair in a pony tail. Actually, if I had straight hair I’d give it a shot. Actually, if I had straight hair, I’d give that “No Country For Old Men” haircut a shot…you know, go to work with a large narrow gas tank on my side….super!!! "Hey you, yeah you. Heads or tails. Call it."

OK, so I was just in the kitchen making salad dressing when “La Vie En Rose” woman won best actress, and I ran into the TV room screaming, “Is she having an orgasm? What’s with the heavy breathing?”

OMG! What’s happening to me??? The song “Falling Slowly”….I like it. No, I really do. I hear it on Slacker’s Adult Alternative station all the time and…I like it!. OMG! I just came back to this comment 25 minutes later because it won an Oscar.

My wife thinks Jack Nicholson looks good. Me, I get a bit melancholy when I hear his increasingly raspy voice. On the other hand, he’s not dead.

Renee Zellwegger—You are one wacko, and those squinty eyes. But man, you do that gown proud.

OK, so do you notice the look the audience gives a decrepitly old guy with a white scarf -- that sort of gaze with a smile and pity at the same time? I don’t think you ever really want to be the subject of such a gaze. “I… Also... Would... Like... To... Remember…” Even my wonderful and sweet wife, just said, “This is painful. Oh god, please, please, get off the stage.” And now she is covering her mouth and laughing and saying, “Oh Steve.” But hey, at least we’re up to ten minutes now and they haven’t brought on the “Get the ‘F’ off the stage music.”

 Ladies and Gentlemen, Penelope Cruz. (Ummm…that’s a compliment of the highest order).

I love documentaries. Long live documentaries…seriously. And particularly as long as Michael Moore doesn’t win anything for “Sicko.” BTW, Michael, I’ll be writing about who should be excluded from any notion of nationalized health care in an upcoming blog posting. Hint: If your B.M.I. is more than 30, my tax dollars shouldn’t pay for your extremely morbid corpulence.

OK, that's all, folks. We still have 20 minutes to go, but I have a lovely crockpot beef stew waiting for me, not to mention a salad with goat fromage balls toasted with olive oil and bread crumbs.

World's Dumbest TV Ad In Recent Memory

Go ahead. Give him your money. Or at the very least a bottle full of bub...Not!

World's Smartest Viral Campaign in Recent Memory

This is well worth 7 minutes, 50 seconds of your time. Stated differently, "I'd watch the ad, but I sure don't know if I'd eat the burger."

Do You Care If You Eat Antibiotics?

Even before the latest beef recall, I've become increasingly concerned about levels of antibiotics in our food supply. And yet, I'm a notorious cheapskate when it comes to buying meats and poultry. A favorite ritual is going through the weekly circulars and stocking up the freezer with good quality meats. But my previous definition of good quality encompassed USDA Choice or Angus. It didn't necessarily need to mean antibiotic free or organic. But in light of increasing numbers of articles discussing increased immunity to antibiotics combined with the lack of investment by pharmaceutical companies in developing new antibiotics (it makes less business sense to spend on R&D in this area than on the next super drug to fight heart disease, for example), I wonder if, similar to purchasing compact fluorescent light bulbs, we shouldn't do our part by purchasing and eating more "clean" meats.

The problem? Doing so can cost a lot of money. Hey, I like Whole Foods Market, and one can find some reasonably priced food there. Also, Whole Foods takes extreme measures to ensure its produce and meats are the very highest quality. One doesn't NEED to buy organic meats at Whole Foods...unless she or he wants to do so. Why? All meats sold at Whole Foods are antibiotic free -- period. At conventional supermarkets, such is not the case.  But the meats at Whole Foods can be astronomically priced. Case in point: pork tenderloin at $11/pound. Crazy! This is why I believe in good old fashioned competition. And yes, it's why I peruse the circulars like a crazed loony.

So when Mollie Stone's Market features Eel River grass fed organic ground beef for $4/pound, I'm there. When Nob HIll now features a new line of organic foods, called "Full Circle," and puts an organic Full Circle branded organic strip steak on sale at $10.99/pound. I'm there. Heck, in a moment of weakness I'll even pay $7/pound for organic ground bison at Mollie Stone's. But, the next time Foster Farms whole chickens go on sale for 69 cents/pound....well, I MAY not be there (for me, that price point is hard to resist). However, I did buy some Rocky Jr. (antibiotic free, but not organic) boneless/skinless breasts last night.

Want to get scared....err...I mean, read more on this topic? Click here.

The Way I See It

You know, I've been thinking lately....the way I see it, all children need a laptop. Now, I'm not talking about a computer, but a human laptop. Moms, dads, grannies and grandpas, aunts, uncles -- someone to hold them, read to them, teach them. Loved ones who will embrace them and pass on the experience, rituals and knowledge of a hundred previous generations. Loved ones who will pass to the next generation their expectations of them, their hopes and their dreams.

Yeah! That's what I care about. Well, not really. If truth be told, I just "riffed" the preceding paragraph from the side of a Starbuck's Venti-sized paper coffee cup (and one which sported a leak this morning, I might add). Yeparoo, those sentiments come not from me, but from General Colin Powell.

So what's my point? Of course out-and-out plagiarism is wrong. But do I really care that Barack Obama "riffed" a few lines in some speeches from a Massachusetts governor? Honestly, I'm not sure. I strongly believe in integrity, and in unambiguous honesty. But in relation to the current campaign, I really care more about one's stance on issues, and more importantly, one's proposed action plans. For example, as much as I admire his energy and positive approach, I care more about Obama's plans to increase spending by hundreds of billions of dollars in a single year, given that I have little faith in our government to effectively and efficiently leverage incremental tax revenues generated from my earnings. This is what I care about, not a bunch of hoo hah and tired old re-quotes from JFK. Now...that's all the time I have for today. Why? Because "I am fired up and ready to go." So in closing, just to make sure we are clear, this is the way I see it.

Want Some Fries With That?

Click here for video. Moo.

Seriously, Friends and Neighbors...

I might have to move to Canada. I hope not, but...

Stuff White People Like

You know I have to say, I'm not laughing out loud here, but "Stuff White People Like" is a blog worthy of sharing, because it's amusing, and many of the observations are painfully self-deprecating. Among the things white people like? Whole Foods, sushi, wine, NPR (count me out--but they don't like it either...that's the point)...Perhaps the post most worth reading is "Top 10 Rap Songs White People Like," as well as the hundreds of comments that follow. Again...painful. Dr. Dre in the house!