his word-hoard unlocked

Cecil B. DeMille's Saturday Night, movie poster, 1922

2009-11-16T16:41:15Z

Cecil B. DeMille's Saturday Night, movie poster, 1922, originally uploaded by trialsanderrors.

this is ripe for a space lounge poster next year

"could you just use bacon fat and red wine?"

2009-09-18T19:34:58Z

Joel Robuchon appeared on Top Chef recently and I had a sudden heightened understanding of something that's nagged at me for a while. I put this in a comments thread on facebook, but I wanted to capture it here in one place.

Robuchon was tasting what a chef called "deconstructed bernaise" and was praising the dish. But he used the word "décomposée" for the sauce. It would seem that the French, who know a thing or two about Deconstruction (a Frenchman having invented the concept), use the phrase "décomposée" to refer to the action American chefs call "deconstruction," the breaking down and recomposing a dish from its elements in order to evoke both the original form and delight the diner with something different . Bryan and Mike I. did a wonderful job on the "deconstruction" (here is the recipe)

But what Everyone Else calls "deconstruction" the Chef of the Century calls "décomposée." This should Not be overlooked!

It is a significant reframing of a major culinary trend of the last several years: chefs are Not performing deconstruction, because Deconstruction is a literary and philosophical movement, not a culinary one! Deconstruction concerns itself with identifying the logocentric nature of texts (and granted they extend "text" to all corners so that a recipe Could be a text) and shearing the words off from each other as the dominant center becomes alienated from the peripheral Others.

Decomposée on the other hand does almost the Opposite of deconstruction because while it identifies a center—in last night's case Bernaise sauce—its intent is to actually reify that center through the constituent parts. Décomposée as performed by chefs reaffirms the primacy of a recipe and invokes its core emotional impact through the reframing of its ingredients. Deconstruction deliberately sets out to imbalance and overthrow the center, and is, as currently used by many cooks, inappropriate for culinary context.

I've never been able to put my finger on why "deconstructed" has felt like such an inadequate—inaccurate!—term in the mouths of chefs. Until Robuchon showed me the way by his fundamentally more accurate description using the term "décomposée."

I believe I lack the cooking skills to conceptualize how one might deconstruct a dish the way one might a literary text. I mean I barely understand basic concepts of literary deconstruction! But it would be an exercise worth considering. I'd like to eat some more foods done décomposée, but I'd also like to see someone take the dare of trying actual deconstruction.

Perhaps for starters it would be very difficult to do properly in a fine dining context because once you start the deconstruction process, you're going to rapidly run into the cultural price paid to enjoy the surroundings . . .

six is a preview of sixteen

2009-09-17T00:31:16Z

As of today I've been in the program for six months—I'll get a medallion for it tomorrow, actually. I'm working through step eight, and the spiritual part of my life is enlarging a fair amount. It happens I've also lost ninety-three (93) pounds in that time.

When you get a certain amount of abstinence, and you begin feeling physical recovery, and you get through "digesting some large chunks of yourself" (particularly the fourth and fifth steps), you kind of get to start over. You start over, in a manner of speaking, where you left off. More or less at the time when your addiction first manifested as a means of stuffing away facing problems or feeling real emotions. In my case this is somewhere between six and nine. I feel a certain accord with my child, believe me, and sometimes have a sense of... anguish, strong emotions, even the occasional tantrum. I'm also practicing some weird things I never did before—weird for me, I mean. These include not apologizing much anymore. And an awful lot of live and let live. I'm strangely unconcerned about some things (also, not-strangely-at-all, quite concerned about others) that used to really bother me. I am stronger in a lot of dimensions, and off kilter in others. I'm like a kitten (with a lot less noms) or maybe a calf or a juvenile robin. Yes? I've been singing more.

My life is completely different than it was a year ago. Almost entirely for the better.

makin nice = bullshit

2009-09-11T15:19:44Z

I was all set to embrace Joe Wilson's apology.

Joe, you are a complete asswipe if you think we are going to take you at face value when less than 24 hours after you apologize you go on Sean Hannity to get your ego stroked and post videos about how you're going to "keep fighting."

To me, your behavior counts, and your behavior is that of a person who A) acted like a BABOON, then B) made an apology for acting like a BABOON, then C) imfuckingmediately went on a right wing talk show to talk about how you're going to keep on fightin. This is hipocrisy, and it renders your apology completely disingenuous. Fuck you Joe, I'm going to "keep attacking" like the rest of the so-called "Left." Fuck you.

At heart, I'm an immature teenage boy. Thank you Joe, your behavior permits me to let this part of my id continue to act like one in your direction you warthog-faced buffoon.

"There has also been a proposal for a tax credit that would help people buy coverage from the exchange who couldn't otherwise afford to do so. But the House bill specifically says illegal immigrants aren't eligible for that credit, and despite Republicans' claims, there are mechanisms in place to enforce that restriction." -Salon article, emphasis mine.

Joe's apology-cum-defiance is the moral equivalent of the following:

St. GermainIA!

2009-09-11T15:07:42Z

I love the elderflower liqueur St. Germain. We recently tried their own recipes for the
French Gimlet
2 oz. gin
1.25 oz. st germain
.5 oz fresh lime juice

and the
St. Rita
1.5 oz. tequila
1.5 oz. St Germain
.5 oz fresh lime juice

Both very fun twists on the original. I also use it lightly in several other cocktails. It's quite sweet, almost cloying. But right now the big news is that Liquor Barrel in Golden Valley has St. Germain for about NINE DOLLARS less than the cheapest places I've found in the Cities. Get thee there to try this gorgeous, unique spirit. The fin de siecle bottle alone is worth half the price!

The Lucy Ricardo

2009-09-10T05:04:50Z

1 oz. light whisky (I used Powers Irish)
1 oz. akvavit
3/4 oz. fresh orange juice (may go as low as 1/2 oz)
1/2 oz. dry vermouth (may also use lillet blanc)
1 dash peychaud's bitters

Shake with ice, strain over a few cubes of ice in an old fashioned glass.
Then I used a syringe to gently dress the drink with
5ml Macallan's Fine Oak scotch

Enjoy.

I feel like I finally got the balance right on this one. Other variants included 1.5oz akvavit (too much) and subbing rye for the irish (imbalanced), more bitters (2 large dashes was too much) and the original left out the scotch. However, stealing from the Bradstreet the use of a scotch to insert some interesting aroma and other elements.

we're like drunks

2009-09-04T12:20:12Z

Completely oblivious to our own simultaneously hilarious and horrifying stumbling and staggering around, unable to keep basic facts straight, ready to do anything—even, and especially, to lie—to get some mean little satisfaction. Madness. Every president talks to kids. Bush I made an address to the schools. Bush II liked to read them stories. Come on, America, sober up and calm down.

The Exposition

2009-08-25T02:59:57Z

A new drink I'm really proud of--I guess I'm doing my own mixology Monday. Wonder what the topic is.

I like the name Exposition, and I think it's apt.

The Exposition
1.5 oz akvavit
.75 oz dry vermouth
.5 oz Ginger infused gin
Half a Valencia orange
4 basil leaves-1 large, 3 small or to taste
Soda

Prep ahead of time: To make ginger gin, peel and shred about 3 inches of ginger root into 12 oz of gin. Rest for at least two weeks at room temperature, stirring every couple days. Strain and store.

In mixing glass put orange half (cut into four pieces) muddle with torn large basil leaf and one small one. Add ginger infused gin and muddle a little more to mix. Add ice, akvavit, and vermouth. Stir or shake until well chilled. Strain. If desired up, strain into cocktail glass, smack remaining basil leaves and garnish.

OR smack basil, drop into an old fashioned glass along with ice, strain cocktail into glass and top with soda. Extremely light and refreshing!

Variations to try: 1oz vermouth, less orange, more basil, ginger liqeuer, whisky instead of akvavit.

A little fussy, but very summery and fun.

Posted via LiveJournal.app.

ELCA votes, no one notices. Yet.

2009-08-22T04:13:35Z

The distance between fornication (of any kind) and sexuality is almost so vast as to be immeasurable. The ferocity of our doctrines are simply not reflected in the deep lacunae of our scriptures, despite efforts to make them so. The scriptures do repeatedly condemn all manner of actions. Time and again, and with an almost calculable glee, the bible in many iterations attacks and describes the wrack and wreckage of God's devastation and condemnations of abomination.

They are silent like the stilled storm, however, on the subject of the whole person who has a sexual identity. Identity in our texts is a much broader, deeper wellspring: people of God, chosen, called, redeemed, shibbolethed and circumcised, numberless like the stars. Old Adam and New Adam, killed by letter and made alive by spirit, dead and alive, sleeping and awake, first and last. Eschatologically entitled Son of Man. These are the threads of identity the scriptures spin, which we are summoned to weave.

We are graced with skilled hands to do so, and set to our painstaking work by a Spirit that demands—and creates a faith to receive—no less than total. faithful. action. to make incarnate the reality that there are no accidents, there is only a love that makes reality real which is itself determined to love the littlest and least, so determined that it would rather not exist than exist as anything but love for you. That work is so deliberate sometimes, and so many grow so impatient with our fumbling fingers.

Forgive our delays, brothers and sisters. We were staring into the void, and we forgot who we were.

lucky 13

2009-08-17T21:36:52Z

I'm in a much different place than I was six months ago. This is a big year, and our marriage is in a much better place than it was. This is not bragging, this is an acknowledgement of facts. (the bragging comes later) Anyway, it's kind of been the best year of our marriage. I hope we make it at least thirteen more, gawsh! (I'm hoping for at least four more 13s. With medical science, maybe six!) I'm really excited about all this.

chchchchanges

2009-08-06T23:51:09Z

This is not an official announcement... (that's already been made)
You might have heard there was a big change in CONvergence and MISFITS' relationship. You heard right—we voted unanimously (that is, 12-0) as a board of directors to spin off CONvergence from the Minnesota Society for Interest in Science Fiction and Fantasy (MISFITS) into its own 501c3 organization. The details of these changes will be worked out by January 1, 2010. A set of changes to the bylaws have been officially submitted to the organization (it requires 30 days minimum review before such changes are completed). After 1/1/10, management of each organization will no longer be overseen by the board of 12. Revenue donation will continue at current levels at least through the 2011 convention cycle .

Someone asked me (in private so I won't say who) what the "party line" was going to be on this decision. There is no party line, only a decision by each of twelve different directors, very likely each for their own reasons.

Instead of feeding you any party line, I'll tell you the truth: 1) I made the motion to divide into two and set the timeline; 2) I submitted the draft revision of the bylaws; 3) I not only voted for the motion (obviously since it was unanimous), I spoke passionately in its favor. I'm not trying to take undue credit, I just want it known where I stand.

This is going to be big, people.

movies

2009-07-31T04:14:36Z

I keep saying how I haven't watched many movies in the last several years, but this year is different. I have gotten to watch more thanks to Netflix.

I haven't kept studious track like my friends do (like with #s and everything? jesus, you guys!) but it's gone up. And I've gotten to be fast and loose with it too--some serious shit, some crazy shit.

Like today. Today I watched The House Bunny. It was exceedingly predictable and formulaic. You know what? I didn't care. You know why? Anna Faris. a) she's super talented. She did some really tremendous acting with her face, her commitment and her voice. and b) she's pretty smokin hot. But she's not alone. I'm really quite charmed by Tom Hanks' kid, and that Emma Stone gal who was also in Superbad. So on the balance, worth netflixing.

This is good. I feel like I'm sorta...human again...

Pedras e Nuvens

2009-07-30T02:54:20Z

Pedras e Nuvens
1 oz. cachaça
1 oz. gin
1/2 oz. St. Germaine
1/4 oz. maraschino
1/2 oz. fresh lemon juice
3 dashes orange bitters swirled in cocktail glass
stir with ice until chilled, pour into glass

Light, fruity, nice balance of rough & smooth, earthy and floral. might try with different citrus and/or more flavorful gin (might work loverly with one of those novelty lime gins or with Hendricks--which is not to be thought of as a "novelty gin" I realize)

I was thinking of The Sugarloaf since there's a granite & quartz mountain in Brazil, which appeared in Moonraker I believe. Or The Corcovado, which is the mountain where the Christ the Redeemer statue stands in Rio. The Corcovado would reflect the Brazilian character of the cachaça as well as the light airiness of the drink (and I suppose the clouds and pristine stone of the statue). The evening started as further exploration of The Aviation, remember...

#1 with a bullet!

2009-07-23T16:31:03Z

From Twitter 07-19-2009

2009-07-20T07:05:20Z

01:23:49: omg, I cannot wait to see @wilw on Leverageߞwhere've I been? I've always loved Timothy Hutton, but damn, that's a fine piece of television!
15:56:37: RT @thaco Just heard that THACO came in a (very) close second for an Origins fan favorite award. Congrats to The Gamers: Dorkness Rising

Tweets copied by twittinesis.com

In newer news

2009-07-09T17:17:56Z

Please consider joining our conversation about the next possibilities for our diverse community. This touches the participants in CONvergence, Anime Detour, MISFITS, Marscon, Minicon, Gaylaxicon, Mn-Stf, Omegacon, and more and more. . .

http://leagueofwonders.wordpress.com

We began talking about big inter-community projects this year. There have been conversations at MN Society for Interest in Science Fiction and Fantasy open meetings. There have been conversations at closed meetings too. There was a wonderfully interesting panel at CONvergence last week on the subject of a "geek community center." That panel will likely make an appearance at other conventions.

Well we also want to have a public conversation with the members of the communities in which we are active. About joint efforts, about structure, about autonomy and interdependence, and about where we go from here. About what we could do if we start dreaming out loud.

That conversation lives here for now: http://leagueofwonders.wordpress.com and I invite you to take part. Share this info with others and get in on the action. Today!

Let's get this started!

2009-07-09T05:20:39Z

Okay! So, I suppose if I find the time, I'll write more than one of these types of posts, expanding on my issues, over the next several days. The usual disclaimer applies: YES, I am a director of the CONvergence convention. NO, my statements below do not represent official CONvergence policy. YES, I recognize that this does not absolve me of making misstatements or troubling claims. But you must know that the following is not official. Not by a long shot. Yet.

CONVERGENCE IS DEAD. Long Live CONvergence!
So what killed CONvergence this year?

too many people
too many events
too few events
too many days
too many drunks
too much sex
too much money
too corporate
too young
too old
too many fatties
too many skinny bimbos
too many polys
too many Klingons
too many leather queens
too much Bowie
too many kids
too many adult things
too much rice
too many m&ms
too much Windy
too little Jon O
too few movies
too many guests
too little face time with Cinematic Titanic
too much Brian Keene
too much art
too few dealers
too many dealers
too many corsets
too many hotel charges
too far away
too little parking
too few panels
too many panels
too little humor guests
too many kissing girls
too few conversations
too little pool time
too much ASL
too little ASL
too many decibels
too many ravers
too much non science
too many skeptics

Now let me ask you a very simple and clear question: SAYS WHO?

You because you've been coming since the beginning? You because you're new? You because you know what real conventions should have and this isn't it? Opinions about "what's wrong with CONvergence" are as varied as the stars. They grow out of expectations people have. Expectations about what other people are making for them.

You know what an expectation is? It's a resentment waiting to happen. We all get them, resentments. What's our way out of them? Make choices. Make a choice. I can take it if you choose to take your dollars elsewhere. I'll probably even listen to you when you make that threat. I can take it if you choose to join the convention committee and work to add the events, programming, parties, and hospitality elements that you feel the convention needs...

AND if in so doing you a) change what I like about the convention or even b) find a way to remove me from my position where I help set policies and make decisions about what kind of convention this is going to be ...I can take it. Know why I can take it? Because I'm a grown up. I'm also someone who volunteered, who stood for election, who paid his registration, and who considers himself a part of the community and is passionate about seeing it go in particular directions. And the people that I made commitments to in the last election, and in my daily supervision of eight departments, have shown a certain willingness to come along with me. We're over here making our convention and we invite you to join us again next year.

I can take your decisions because I grew the hell up! When you can say the same, then you can look me in the eye and tell me that you know definitively what the hell is wrong with my convention.

Until then, you are a part of the rest of the community, and your opinion is no more privileged than anyone else's. There's a lot of stuff we're going to fix this year in anticipation of next year. A LOT of it comes from the feedback we get from people, including many of the things on that list up there.

Because that list up there is not even a joke. There's probably three thousand more items that could go on it that someone felt was "too __________". Three thousand nine hundred and sixty six to be exact. Next year, I look forward to hearing about the forty three hundred straws that break the collective camel. The plain fact is, those things aren't even true. There wasn't too much or too little this or that, there was too much for some people and not enough for others. We work to improve constantly, and occasionally we're wrong and occasionally we're right. It's ambiguous victories, unpredictable successes.

If high unpredictability and ambiguities really truly will not work for you... honestly? This is probably not your convention.

But if you really think CONvergence is broken? If you so don't like something that it shatters for you any possibility of our con being a good con? Well giddyup and make a choice from at least these three options: Work to change it, examine your own expectations, or go somewhere else.

oops I missed my planned update by a couple...

2009-06-05T03:42:17Z

27 days until CONvergence

This is the one.

CONvergence.

Tell your friends.

budget saving ideas

2009-05-19T20:50:04Z

The MinnPost listed this address in an article recently where they said "He even said there's the public to advise him: People can send their thoughts on what should be cut to budgetideas@state.mn.us." So I did. Here's what I just sent to the address in question:

Governor Pawlenty,

Here's my ideas
1. Cut the governor's pay
2. Remove the governor's motor pool
3. Eliminate the governor's health insurance
4. Reduce any matching funds for the governor's 401K or other retirement accounts
5. Restrict the governor's travel allowance
6. Reduce the governor's paid vacation days
7. Reduce the governor's paid illness days
8. Reduce the governor's staff
9. Eliminate exterior lighting on the governor's mansion
10. Eliminate the governor's mansion entirely and request that he telecommute.
11. Ask Grover Norquist for a loan, he apparently is writing the rest of your policy decisions, so he must be very important and therefore wealthy.
12. Replace the governor with the current Secretary of State

Governor, I really loathe your policies and I hope this is the end of the line for your political career.

Jon Olsen
Minneapolis

An icon-relevant observation

2009-05-14T02:13:57Z

In Zardoz, the tiny projection screen from Arthur Frayn's ring showed a list of Vortex needs. The words had different spellings, phonetic, use of z for plurals. So the movie actually prefigures our present day alterations/distortions of the language! We got there hundreds of years ahead of schedule!

Posted via LiveJournal.app.

burnunit @ 2009-05-13T09:41:00

2009-05-13T14:53:41Z

I pictured the boys there, bodies heaped, sweat and dirt and flecks of bright young blood on their clothes. I could hear Blackbird and Robin gasping, crying. Above them Wren and the others breathing hard, the great silence of the north reaches, the unpopulated houses and the broken City streets.

The whole pathetic arc of it stirred me, I laid a hand on Blackbird's arm. He smiled. Kiki finished the drink, the sun finished its fall. The evening wrapped us up. Which one of us stood first I'm still not sure. We were all together before long, looking away from the sunset, now toward the darker places. Past those pools of orange, down the hill and across the low roofs and lawns here to stare at the ruined Broad Way.

"All right. Let's get in there."

north wall

2009-05-12T20:47:15Z

when the gems of midmorning would wound us and we'd swoon with the pure bitter bite of the drinks, the dazzle of the golden liquor.

What we were doing was toasting ourselves at the edge of the faultlines, toasting our sweet ironies and haute exclamations. But we didn't enter. We hovered at the periphery, again at the periphery, while the City smoldered slowly then burnt right through.

"I want to tell you—" Blackbird began.

Kiki interrupting bored, hostile: "This isn't going to be another Spider story, is it?"

Blackbird answering, all simmer and patience: "I want to tell you what I remember from the places I lived, the northern reaches of the City."

"Up...uphill?"

"Uphill of the Market, yes. Some nights I remember every rowhouse, every turn and every terrace. Because they were all the same, you see. Brown upon light brown. White. Red roofs. Or green? This is not one of those nights--"

--snorts of laughter from us.

"--this is more a night of remembering how we moved in the City, when the sun was up. And then how we moved in the moonlight. The further north, the more moon you could see. The houses were lighter and lighter, until nearest the wall of the City it was a great canyonmaze of bone heaps laid before the cobbles. Dotted with concrete scoria ejected into the earth from dead projects, forgotten pilings. Weren't these the newest constructions? I wondered. But it was the dirtiest, and worst kept.

"There we moved more boldly. Caution always marked the start of any of our walks, but we accelerated toward the wall, pulled to its shadows. It was me and the rest of the boys, and we liked to slink among the broken buildings, playing at secret struggles."

Kiki snickered. Thin smile. Sip. Deep breath.

Blackbird went on, "Robin was a climber and he reached the high tip of a pylon crested with rebar, thrust his chest, cried, 'We are kings!' I trembled always, watching him. And this time he fell. None of us breathed while he hung there for what felt like hours. In a moment we realized that he did hang there: his shirt had hooked one of the spikes of rebar, and he dangled by it, legs kicking!"

"Oh god."

"Right! We gathered around the base, a perverse kind of maypole dance, hollering up at him while he struggled. We realized too that he was starting to choke, strangled by the collar. My boy Wren (such pretty eyes he had) searched crazily among the trash for some kind of stick, something to lift him off there. We tried to leap up and grab Robin's legs, they hung just above our hands, kicking. Wren found a length of aluminum, and we held it above our heads, tried to jab into the shirt. To lift Robin I suppose? We didn't exactly know, but we scraped his back and he cried out. We jabbed it into the shirt and finally the strain began to tear the fabric. It gave way and Robin fell directly on me. We collapsed to the dirt, sobbing."

Soup recipe

2009-05-06T23:51:38Z

4 leeks, washed and trimmed, slice thin
1 large shallot sliced
3 cloves garlic, smashed
3 tbsp stock

Sweat aliums in the stock for five to seven minutes (stock is used to reduce fat, would be very delicious to use oil, butter or ghee)

3 medium tomatoes - about 3/4#, peeled, quartered
1 tbsp cumin
1 clove
1 allspice berry
1/8 tsp cardamom
2 bay leaves
1/2 tsp dried rosemary
1 sprig each fresh rosemary, thyme, sage
1/2 tsp white pepper
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tbsp oil

Add to aliums and stir. Pour enough stock to cover --approx 3 cups

Boil then simmer for 10mins. Remove herb sprigs and bay.
Add 1/2 can of great northern beans.
Blend until smooth (or cool and use food mill). Return to stove.

1 yellow pepper, diced
2 medium summer squash, halved and sliced about a half inch thick
Salt
1 tbsp oil
Sauté until slightly soft. Add to blended soup along with the rest of the beans. Put in a new bay leaf.

Heat through. Adjust seasoning. Garnish with sliced small tomatoes and if you choose, shredded cheese and a sprinkle of cayenne. Serve with bread.

Serves four as a meal, six with accompaniments.

Very easy to make vegan. Quite low fat, very balanced, rich and satisfying.

Posted via LiveJournal.app.

The complete saga

2009-05-05T17:26:39Z

Well, I finally despaired of squeezing any more humor out of Marv Ellis from US Data Corporation, the artist formerly known as [redacted sales guy] and called his boss. Boss gave me his email address and I just sent off the conversations. Maybe they'll make it right. We'll keep you posted.

Kelly,
Per our phone call, attached below are the email exchanges I had with Marv in late April. I hope you can see where my concerns are. If opportunities present themselves and if we are a good fit with my clients' needs, I can probably still hear your pitch.

Best,

Jon Olsen
jon@raygunbeliever.com

Here's the whole email chain (which most of you have already seen)

Marv Ellis<mellis@usdatacorporation.com>
to jon@raygunbeliever.com
date Wed, Apr 22, 2009 at 3:15 PM
subject Us Data--Follow up

Jon are you serious about moving forward with a marketing list? Are you wasting our time or did you have a serious need that we can help with.

Marv Ellis

Regional Sales Manager
U.S. Data Corporation
Embassy Tower
9300 Underwood Avenue Suite 270
Omaha, NE 68114
Email: mellis@usdatacorporation.com

Toll-Free: (888) 578-DATA (3282)
Local: (402) 758-0290 ext. 219
Fax: (402) 502-5623

US Data Spring Promotion! – Give your spring marketing campaign a jumpstart with a US Data marketing list. Get 15% Off your first order with our company, and 10% Off every subsequent order during the month of April.
(Cannot be combined with any other offer, minimum orders are $1000, maximum promotional value is $1000).

Marv Ellis <mellis@usdatacorporation.com>
date Wed, Apr 22, 2009 at 4:03 PM
subject Re: Us Data--Follow up
mailed-by gmail.com

Woah Marv, hold on a second with the "wasting our time" bit. I thought when I filled out the get-a-quote form that I identified some of the things I was looking for. I appreciate the clarity of purpose and firm resolve you demonstrate on your follow through, but maybe this is a little stronger worded than you need it to be for a potential customer.

That said, I operate a small B2B business for other small businesses. I am scoping on behalf of my own clients who are a liquor store chain and small regional distributor. And I want to know the following four items:
What kind of list segmentation can US Data perform your lists? My clients' interest is going to run toward consumers, segmented by age groups (21+ obviously), zip codes, and income.
What is your method: do your clients acquire lists or do you do the sending and we have the option to deliver creative?
What are the cost and unit sizes for your lists according to some of the selection criteria identified above?
What does your reporting look like?
That'll do it. Now is that serious enough or should I give my clients the quotes I have from your competitors plus my margin?

Regards,

Jon Olsen

Jon Olsen <jon@raygunbeliever.com>

date Wed, Apr 22, 2009 at 4:13 PM
subject RE: Us Data--Follow up

Well apparently it worked………..you finally responded. Oh and go ahead give them the other quotes, safe to assume your quoting brokered data which we all know how well that works. As you know we are a compiler and we choose who we work with not the other way around. Again if you are serious about discussing a partnership then let me know a good time to get on the the phone to discuss.

We may not be a match, hard to say. Thank you for the response.

Marv Ellis
Regional Sales Manager
U.S. Data Corporation
Embassy Tower
9300 Underwood Avenue Suite 270
Omaha, NE 68114
Email: mellis@usdatacorporation.com

Toll-Free: (888) 578-DATA (3282)
Local: (402) 758-0290 ext. 219
Fax: (402) 502-5623

US Data Spring Promotion! – Give your spring marketing campaign a jumpstart with a US Data marketing list. Get 15% Off your first order with our company, and 10% Off every subsequent order during the month of April.
(Cannot be combined with any other offer, minimum orders are $1000, maximum promotional value is $1000).

Jon Olsen<jon@raygunbeliever.com>
to Marv Ellis <mellis@usdatacorporation.com>
date Wed, Apr 22, 2009 at 9:28 PM
subject Re: Us Data--Follow up
mailed-by gmail.com

Marv!

It did work; you must say that to all the businesses! You are correct, I AM looking for brokered data and I agree, we likely will not be a perfect match.

Your PPC guys must be going crazy. They have to hate it that leads who click their carefully made ads can't tell that it's US Data who does the choosing, and not the other way around. Maybe they could reduce their spend, since the customer's shopping process is evidently immaterial. Once they learn the inside sales reps have eliminated the need for attracting customers, it should make budget negotiations much easier.

As requested, I'll keep your number. I can foresee a time when someone I work with insists I put on a nice suit, buy flowers, and beg you to take me back.

Best,
JonO

from Marv Ellis<mellis@usdatacorporation.com>
to Jon Olsen <jon@raygunbeliever.com>
date Thu, Apr 23, 2009 at 8:21 AM
subject RE: Us Data--Follow up

We attract customers that are truly interested in purchasing quality data, not bargain basement shoppers like yourself. Save the suit, your probably much more comfortable working from moms basement in your pajamas.

Good day and I hope all works out for you.

Best,

Marv

Marv Ellis

Regional Sales Manager
U.S. Data Corporation
Embassy Tower
9300 Underwood Avenue Suite 270
Omaha, NE 68114
Email: mellis@usdatacorporation.com

Toll-Free: (888) 578-DATA (3282)
Local: (402) 758-0290 ext. 219
Fax: (402) 502-5623

US Data Spring Promotion! – Give your spring marketing campaign a jumpstart with a US Data marketing list. Get 15% Off your first order with our company, and 10% Off every subsequent order during the month of April.
(Cannot be combined with any other offer, minimum orders are $1000, maximum promotional value is $1000).

from Jon Olsen<jon@raygunbeliever.com>
to Marv Ellis <mellis@usdatacorporation.com>
date Thu, Apr 23, 2009 at 10:30 AM
subject Re: Us Data--Follow up
mailed-by gmail.com

Dearest Marvin,

Oh, no no surely I have given you the wrong idea! Our office is on the ground floor, and when you are next in the Twin Cities, do come by for the tour. We shall have butternut squash and bacon canapes (my own recipe). And I make a lovely Aviation cocktail which I'm told inspires many to feats of the most grandiose entrepreneurship and unparalleled client service. I'll introduce you to the wife and kids and you can even examine our data center.

And my dear mother, bless her soul, is hundreds of miles away pining for her grandchildren. It was certainly a difficult time in our lives, living under her roof those many years ago. She loathed our noisy dog and stifled her anxieties for my pride's sake while we sought to get back on our feet. What a strong and vigorous woman. Do you know that she is already 71? Seventy-one! I will tell her you asked after her, she'll be so pleased.

The dog, of course, had to be put down.

Warm regards,

Jon

LOST

2009-05-04T15:34:51Z

Dead people on LOST don't tend to stay dead. Faraday may be dead, but he could still show up in every remaining episode and the writers could make it work.

Why are people so confused about the time travel stuff? "Is Faraday dead? How can he be dead in the past and still have existed in 2004 ?" "Why don't people remember they were in the past?"
how many times do they have to say "this is our present" before you people get it?? I mean DAMN. The adult Faraday is the person who was shot in 1977. Up until 2004-5 he was living through OUR present, so the child Faraday and the young man Faraday, who were raised off the island, were not exposed to any of the events of his shooting in 1977. Then when he reached adulthood in 2004-5, he went back to 1974, as an adult. He had left the time stream in 2005 and moved to a new present (sure, it's our past, but it's still his new present). Then he was shot. Why is this confusing?

70s-80s 90s 2000s 70s
--------->-------->------->||-------->\\
childhood oxford Kahana ann arbor shot on island

That line? That's his consciousness of the present. To him, it's a straight line, even though there are discontinuities within the line, his living present still maintains. This is all very clear to me and annoying when other people are confused. Same with Sayid, same with everyone. They don't remember the events of the past because they weren't adults in the past, they were children. They came to the past after becoming adults. Their consciousness retains its forward perception, even if their location in time has changed.

Jeeez. This could not be any easier.

That dispensed with, I am also just fine if the writers choose to "undo" everything by dropping Jughead into the Swan site energy and resetting the timeline. Yes, it might be unsatisfactory, but I believe they could still write it convincingly and affectingly. I don't think that I want the series to end that way next year, but I have faith that the story is going to unfold the way it should, regardless.

It felt a little tiny bit rushed and out of character that Daniel all of a sudden wanted to change the past and was so determined to do so after saying "whatever happened happened" so consistently for so long. As a parallel episode to "The Constant", "The Variable" doesn't of course carry the punch of that one (name an episode that does?). However, I still retain the faith that the writers are determined to see this through and that we'll get some more things we need to reach satisfying ends for the story.