The Spherical Chicken

So, some of us are planing Sweet Tomatoes tonight. It's a salad bar type place thing. That one on Southern and McClintock-ish. 6:30

Hi guys,

The small animal rescue shelter I voulenteer for, Piggie Poo, is currently trying to shut down a breeder who supplies for Petco and PetSmart. We need all the help we can get so I'm spreading the word. I have more info over at my LJ. If you or anyone you know can help out, please let me know! Thanks!!

So, there is the July 4th stuff this Friday. So, I was thinking of just skipping the dinner this week due to festivities the next day. But do we? Dinner Thursday or not. If so, where?

Six weeks of wipes. Hundreds of gold in consumables and repairs. Yelling my head off on some of the less productive nights.

This is why I put up with it.

PoE is now 3/5 Hyjal, 2/9 BT. Booya. :)

VoicePost 150K 0:44

“Notes from the floor of ALA. Number one, the place is huge and has cool stuff. Number two, we've picked up an amazing amount of swag. Thankfully, much of this swag has been in the form of totebags for carrying all of the other swag. Number three, ALA gets mad props for having a bag check area. My shoulders thank them. Number four, if I ever do this I'm bringing a pair of coconut halves with me for the period of time until I can get to bag check. Number five, I have found out that there exists a movie about curling called Men With Brooms. I must find a copy. That's it. Bye.” Transcribed by: jmtorres

So Teresa and I leave the hotel to go get some lunch. As we pass by the Doubletree, we see that there's one of those giant "Labor Dispute! Shame!" banners out front. As we're walking back from lunch, we see a similar banner being set up in front of our hotel. Bemused, we stop off at the lobby and ask if they can say anything about what's going on. The desk clerk hands us a flyer, which reads as follows:

---

In case you were wondering...
...why people are passing out flyers in front of the hotel.

The carpenter's union is protesting against one of the hotel's minority investors. The investor is building a hotel in San Diego, and they have chosen not to hire a contractor associated with the carpenter's union. The union is NOT protesting against our hotel, the management, or the employees.

We are excited to welcome all of our guests and look forward to providing you with warm and caring service during your stay.

---

Well, I guess I don't need to worry about whether the staff is going to walk out.


Taking a step back, I have an issue with the whole "labor dispute banner" thing. It's fine as far as it goes, but the complete lack of either additional information on the banner or a simple website link means that people driving by have no way of knowing whether such a banner means "our employer beats us with sticks and wants us to pay for the sticks" or, as in this case "a minority owner is using non-union labor somewhere completely else." And I'd like to know this, because while I'm not fond of some of the unions out there, I recognize that many of them have served and continue to serve useful purposes. Logically, this is something the NLRB should handle...but if not them, somebody. Just a searchable database of labor disputes, with 500 words from labor and 500 words from management trying to lay out their positions.

Out DMCA-ing the DMCA

Canada is looking at approving an international treaty that looks like it was written by the RIAA. (The best part is, treaties are apparently not subject to full parliamentary approval, so the government could actually do this all by itself.)

Not being offended trumps free speech

The article is somewhat biased, but there's enough actual quoting of the decision in question to make it clear that, no really, it is that messed up.

Parental authority? Wossat?

So...a twelve-year-old who was grounded took her dad to court...and won.

VoicePost 30K 0:09

“We are safely arrived in Anaheim and checked into the convention. Yay for a week on 80 degree temperatures.” Transcribed by: miwasatoshi

Ok, as of this posting, we have 19 confirmed people for dinner. To be honest, with this huge of a group don't be surprised if we're split into two groups. Logan's is a big place, but WOW. I'm going to say there will be 22 to give us some extra seats in case last minute people come by. I am also going to ask about seperate checks. If they cannot/will not do seperate checks, I'll ask about dividing the check into smaller groups.

Ok, I'm off to brave the Valley Metro bus system! *weee* See y'all at 6:30!!

If my internet appearance seems a bit erratic, its because my connections is being erratic. There's not much I can do (they have schedules putting in a new drop for me, just waiting on them to do it). I think the temperature outside is making the problems with my existing line worse (talking to my cable modem, my transmit will occasionally go up to 61dBmV if you know what that means). Hopefully they get this solved soon.

So, several of us were talking and have decided that it would be fun to meet during the afternoon for tea at a local tea house.

Here are the details for those interested in joining us:

When: Monday, June 30th, 3pm until... when people leave.
Where: Tea Infusion, at Tempe Marketplace.

If you need a ride, please let me know. I'm happy to give them and, since I'm not working that day, there's no pesky "You might be late" disclaimer.

Come on, you know you want to! Tea is awesome...

Just a reminder since it's that time again:

Thursday June 26
Logan's Roadhouse @ Mesa Riverview
202 and Dobson (right next to Chili's)
6:30pm

Their nightly special is 2 dinners for $13.99, which makes it affordable for po'brokes. It's a steakhouse so expect lots of meat and potatoes. Not very Vegan-friendly, but they do have huge buckets of peanuts on the tables for free snackage! (which is also affordable for po'brokes!)

Start raising hands on who is all going. I'll take a tally at 5pm tomorrow and call ahead to reserve a table, adding on 4 extra seats for if we have overage. **If you dont reply and plan to go, don't be so sure a seat will be waitin for ya tho!**

**EDIT 3.0: As of 2:45pm we have 15 on the list. Any more wanting to come speak up soon!!! The last time I'm gonna check is 4:50pm! After that, you'll just have to hope you can get a seat by us :P

***EDIT addendum: I will still be going and call ahead for the table, but I may be a couple of minutes late. I have to go to my brother's house first.

Gallery a Go Go

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I haven't been very writey lately, and I'd like to be. My writey-brain seems to be in neutral, and I'm hoping some outside prodding will get it in gear. So please give me a hook--some interesting first line, improbable situation, unlikely event, odd coincidence, or whatever, that I can hopefully turn into a story.

Preferably something medium-specific in the 1-3 sentence range. Preferably something that is, or at least does not exclude the possibility of, sci fi or fantasy. Preferably not porn. Preferably not explicitly fanfic, other peoples' people don't live in my head. Other than that, the more the merrier... (the more there are, the less chance any *given* one has of gnawing on my brain, but the greater chance that at least *one* will...)

(x-posted from my LJ)

For your culinary-themed house:

It's a room divider that's...not particularly safe around children and pets.

A little too much artistic freedom?

When you give somebody creative $1.2 million to renovate your apartment...you can get some really cool results.

A different sort of doughnut:

Check out the third picture down on the left. Yes, it's a maple bar with bacon strips.

There is an awesome show coming up at the Trunk Space on JULY 7TH that I highly recommend you folks check out. Various bands from the Pacific Northwest as part of the independent label collective Oh!Map Records are on tour and will be gracing ourhot city along with locals Andrew Jackson Jihad (Asian Man / Plan-it-X Records) and Uggamugga. Below is a poster by local artist David Bessent as well as links to all these super great bands.



artist: David Bessent
locals:
Andrew Jackson Jihad
Uggamugga

On tour:
Jordaan Mason
Shelby Sifers
Sarcastic Dharma Society
At Night
the Lonesome Arcitects