Al's Blog-o-Sphere

Well, that’s what it really is. It isn’t the Christmas season. They only call it that to justify it. But it really is the season where retail and consumer spending is whipped like a racehorse into a frenzy by the media.

I came across this site (Adam Curry played some of it on his Daily Source Code podcast) and it gave me pause. It’s really something to think about before you go out and blow a wad on Christmas shopping just because they tell you to. It’s called The Story Of Stuff. I hate to send you away from this site, but go and check it out, it’s worth it. It’s an interesting presentation, complete with Flash video. Really good. Thought-provoking as well.

I’m reading that the government is thinking about a freeze on interest rates for those who are facing a big increase of their variable-rate mortgages. The plan is to force banking institutions into moving these people to other mortgages.

Millions of low-rate mortgages were issued and are about to kick in with the higher rates spurring fears of a drove of defaults. So the Feds and bankers are looking for a program to help these people out.

How about a literacy program? Continue Reading…

Among the glut of disgusting, terrible, greed-inspired, cash-in-on-Christmas commercials that have reached an all time low, there is the occasional highlight. This one tickled my funnybone.

[dewplayer:http://gritzmacher.net/wp/wp-content/uploads/2007/12/Robert-Lund-Elves-Gone-Wild-08-Pinecones-Halle-Berry.mp3]

Why do local TV stations treat their viewers like morons?

It’s the middle of November. The first snows came and melted a couple weeks ago. (Not here in the Miami of the North – Lockport, but down south of Buffalo, where it belongs)

Every 10 minutes, the TV starts beeping and a crawler comes on telling me what anyone with half a brain or a Farmer’s Almanac already knows: it’s going to snow. Continue Reading…