Bent Corner

I stopped in to the Hagerstown Best Buy yesterday and ended up buying a new hard drive. It’s a Western Digital 500GB External Hard Drive.

I took it up to the register and the the total came out to be over $170. I knew the Maryland sales tax went up recently, but not that high. I told her that the tag said it was on sales for $129. She told me that she could go grab a weekly sales ad and take a look. She looked though the entire ad, but the hard drive could not be found. She then called the computer area and asked them to look for the posted price.

Luckily there wasn’t anyone else waiting in line. I hate holding things up.

The person called her back and informed her that that price was indeed $129. This is getting to be a definite pattern on the part of Best Buy. Other then a spindle of blank DVD +R discs, the last few items I have purchased there have scanned in at the register at a price different then what was posted in either the weekly ad or the sign displayed where the item was sitting.

I don’t mean to be bitching about Best Buy. I’m old enough to remember ordering peripherals for my Commodore 64 over the telephone when I was stationed on Guam. I was calling a 1-800 number, but to call anywhere in the United States was .99 a minute from Guam. The dork I was talking to on the phone was taking his sweet old time taking my order. If I didn’t want that second 1541 floppy drive so badly, I would have hung up.

The point is, I remember what it was like living in a world without Best Buy.

I woke up this morning at oh-dark-thirty to find a Borders Rewards 40% off coupon in my email. They routinely email coupons, none are higher then 40%. When I get one, I try to get over to Borders to use it.

I also learned today that Will Leitch, editor of the sports blog Deadspin wrote a book, God Save the Fan.

It came out last week, but I didn’t learn of it until today.

Deadspin is for people that enjoy sports, but despise the ESPNization of sports. People like me. I first learned of Deadspin from reading a blog post written by fellow Hagerstown blogger Jennifer Benningfield at Trapper Jenn DC.

The book retails for $25, but thanks to my coupon I got it for $15 and some change.

While standing in line at Borders, I flipped it open and on the the first page I went to had a photo of ESPN blow hard Chris Berman sitting on a sofa with a bunch of strippers.

I just know I’m going to love this book.

The NY Daily News reported today that Bucky Barnes, the one time teenage Nazi killing sidekick of Captain America is taking on the persona of Captain America in this week’s issue of CAPTAIN AMERICA. From today’s NY Daily News:

Fans were devastated when Steve Rogers - a 1941 creation of artists Joe Simon and Jack Kirby - was gunned down on the steps of a courthouse last March. It was the industry’s biggest shocker since Superman temporarily went up, up and away to the great Fortress of Solitude in the sky in 1992.

Fans were devastated? That’s news to me. I remember people being pissed off that they had to read about it in the newspaper before they could get a chance to read it in the actual comic. For as long as Joe Quesada is the Editor-In-Chief of Marvel Comics, that’s just the way it will be. He is addicted to seeing his name in the newspaper. Joe Quesada just can’t keep a secret.

If Joe Quesada had his way, you would have found out that Darth Vader was Luke’s father a week before the The Empire Strikes Back came out in theaters.

The newspaper article not only tells us that Bucky will be the new Captain America, it says that Buck will be carrying a firearm. I almost wonder if this is paid product placement from the NRA. At least he won’t be all juiced up like the first Captain America. Steve Rogers was a scrawny kid before a took a shortcut to physical strength by turning to the needle.

One of these two people is basketball legend Kareem Abdul Jabar and the other one isn’t. Can you guess which one is which?

(photo: Deadspin)

I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. I was reading The Consumerist when I noticed a post about Wal-Mart still selling t-shirts in their Men’s department with a Nazi SS Totnekopf or “Death’s Head” image on it.

Whoops.

I’ve lost track how many different times Wal-Mart claimed it was taking prompt action to removed these shirts. The U.S. Congress even got involved.

I was the one to discover this little bit of Wal-Mart goodness. It was back in November 2006 that I noticed it at my local Wal-Mart store here in Hagerstown. I took a picture of it with my cell phone and then compared it to reference images online. It was an exact match. I decided to blog about it and it kind of took off from there. I was interviewed on the telephone by someone from the AP which resulted in the story appearing in just about every newspaper in the country. I was interviewed on my local NBC TV news about the story. That interview then was carried on CNN and MSNBC.

I learned a lot about the whole news business. The reporter from the AP was extremely professional. When the article first ran on the AP newswire, it incorrectly said that I was a veteran of the U.S. Navy. I am a veteran of the U.S. Air Force. To me it wasn’t a big deal. The reporter must have realized his mistake, contacted me, confirmed that I was in the Air Force, and resubmitted a corrected article. The incorrect article stayed online only for about an hour. I was impressed.

I wasn’t impressed with my local hack newspaper, The Herald-Mail. Even though I only live a few miles from the newspaper, they didn’t even bother to ask me any questions before writing an article about me finding the shirt. Sometimes I forget they don’t bother to research their articles. My guess is they are too busy writing fake Mail Call comments. I think they just took information from my blog post and then added details from the AP story.

Speaking of hacks, Christina Hoag from the Miami-Herald wrote that I was a “World War Two buff”. If she had bothered to speak to before writing her article, I could have told her that I was not a World War Two buff and that I had no interest in becoming one. I even sent her a tongue-in-cheek email telling her that I wasn’t a buff of any sort and that I wanted her paper to publish a retraction. I was afraid that the World War Two buff community would become angry that I claiming to be one of them. I didn’t want to get on their bad side. She actually replied as though I was serious. She even attempted to argue the point that I was a World War Two buff.

I think I would know if I was a buff.

The funniest part about these t-shirts still being sold at Wal-Mart is the specific Wal-Mart where they were found. They were found in a Wal-Mart in Palmdale, California. Though I now live in Maryland, I am originally from the Palmdale area. It is the Land of My People. It’s where I grew up and lived until I was 19. I find it to be so ironic that these shirts are still hanging on the rack in Palmdale, or as I like to call it, Palmtucky. In Palmdale, the mullet isn’t just a hairstyle, it’s a way of life.

The ABC one-time hit show Lost will be premiering it’s forth season this week and I for one won’t be watching it. I’ve given up on this show. The start-stop schedule this show has been plagued with has finally completely soured me to it. I just don’t know why it took me this long to give up.

Stories are supposed to have a beginning, a middle, and an end. The story told on Lost has a beginning, a middle, more middle, a two month break, more middle, a six month break, more middle, and then an even longer break. I am sick and tired of it.

This show was supposed to tell a story with a finite end. It wasn’t your typical network television series that told never ending, ongoing stories centers on a specific group of people. This show started out of the gate telling only one story about a small group of people. Something happened along the way that changed that. The show became a huge hit for ABC. That meant everything had to be stretched. The story had to be lengthened not because the story required it, but because the network wanted to make it last longer.

More characters were added. No small feat when the series takes place on a deserted island featuring characters that survived a plane crash. The problem is that none of these extra characters did anything to propel the original story. The only thing they did was to help water down the original story and make it all last a little bit longer.

It would be like taking a 12-issue comic book miniseries and stretching it into 75 issues.

Compounding the inherit problems with Lost is that they are starting the fourth season without enough episodes. Because of the never ending writer’s strike, they only have 8 episodes of an already pathetically short 16-episode season. Don’t start something unless you can finish it.

Because of this that I won’t be watching any of the forth season of Lost. I am not going to start something that I know I won’t be able to finish.

ESPN has suspended one of it’s anchors for saying something rude and crude at a roast. Dana Jacobson was at a roast for ESPN Radio personalities Mike Greenberg and Mike Golic. Why these two knuckle heads were getting a roast is beyond me. I like Mike Golic, but Mike Greenberg gets on my nerves and I wish he would just go away.

Jacobson was suspended for making fun of Notre Dame’s Touchdown Jesus. Mike Golic is a former Notre Dame football player. Jacobson went to Michigan where they have a heated rivalry with Notre Dame. She is also Jewish.

This caught the attention of the Catholic League. Overreacting to every little thing is what the Catholic League does best. Bill Donahue, the blow hard in charge of the Catholic League makes sport of getting people fired that say or do anything negative concerning the Catholic church. It’s what he does.

I’m not trying to defend Dana Jacobson. I think what she did was incredibly stupid. Saying You know what else I think is stupid? To allow a religious icon that is cherished by over a billion people to be associated with the word “touchdown”. It was only a matter of time before something stupid like this happened. I’m only surprised it didn’t happen sooner.

I don’t think Bill Donahue would have had a problem if Dana Jacobson said something retarded or insulting about the Syracuse Orangeman mascot or the Maryland Turtle. That’s not to say that Jesus is the mascot for Notre Dame. I think they have a red headed boy dressed like a leprechaun. The thing is, they haven’t done anything to discourage people from referring to the mural as “Touchdown Jesus”.

Maybe they should.

The Notre Dame website even refers to the mural as Touchdown Jesus. It states that artist Millard Sheets was commissioned to create a work large enough to cover the southern face of the tower, visible from the football stadium. The artwork never made much sense to me. If Jesus isn’t signaling a touchdown, what is he doing?

I think it’s meant to look as though Jesus is signaling a touchdown, but it’s meant to be oh so subtle. Why else would they have required it to be seen from the stadium?

To help stimulate the economy, Congress and the White House have struck a deal to begin “rushing” tax rebates of $600 to $1,200 to tax payers hoping we will quickly spend this free money on something stupid and in the process shock this ailing economy to life. If I remember correctly, Bush did this shortly after he took office. It seems so long ago that I can’t really remember.

I’m glad that the federal government has so much extra money that they can just dispense it in such a haphazard way.

Even if the Senate quickly approves this free money scheme, the checks will not start going out till May. It could then take months before everyone gets their free money.

The fear is that people will not take this money and spend it. They might just do something responsible with it and put it away for a rainy day. That wont stimulate the economy. If they really want to make sure people use the money for it’s intended purpose, they ought to issue Visa or Mastercard debit cards. Make them so they can’t be used for anything other then something that would stimulate the economy. That means you couldn’t squirrel it away for the proverbial rainy day. You would have to use it.

I wont believe we are getting this money until we actually get the check and the check clears. Until that happens, I’m not counting on getting it.

There’s a write up in the Boston Herald’s blog section about things San Diego Chargers center Nick Hardwick supposedly said about England Patriots defensive lineman Richard Seymour. It’s written by Patriots beat writer John Tomase. It includes “quotes” attributed to Harwick. Things he supposedly said after the game about Seymour.

Even though it was written for the Boston Herald’s blog and not the actually newspaper, it’s content was heavily edited. It was so heavily edited, it’s hard to understand exactly what Hardwick said.

From Tomase’s post:

“There are 10 (bleeping) good players on that team,” Hardwick said. “But Richard Seymour is a dirty, cheap, little pompous (expletive).”

Hardwick was only getting started.

He’s cheap and dirty and the head man just let him get away with it the whole time,” Hardwick said. “They’ve got 10 great players on that team and when Jarvis Green comes on the field, they’ve got 11 great players who compete how you’re supposed to play. But Richard Seymour is the biggest (expletive) I’ve ever played.”

Hardwick said Seymour usually plays this way, but that he, “took it it to another level today.”

“Head slapping, foot stomping in the pile, running by and throwing punches in your back,” Hardwick said. “He’s a (expletive). … There were a lot of things he did. There’s a field goal where he was stomping feet. Who stomps feet? And the officials weren’t doing anything about it. He plays like a punk.”

OK. I’m fairly certain Hardwick didn’t say “bleeping” or “expletive”. Either quote the man or don’t. By editing the quote with words such as “bleeping” or “expletive“, it forces the reader to use their imagination to come up with the missing words.

It’s quite possible for the reader to actually come up with worse words then were used. For example, Tomase writes that Hardwick said that Seymour is a “dirty, cheap, little pompous (expletive).” The possibilities here are endless. For all I know he called him anything from a gnome to a racial slur. Without any context, there isn’t any way to actually tell.

I have this blog registered with the Comic Book Weblog Update Page. It’s run by Chris Mosby. People that have comic book related blogs sign their blog’s RSS feed up with Chris and when they write a new post on their blog, it shows up on Chris’ site. The only problem is that I post about more then just comic books. People going to Chris’ Comic Book Weblog Update Page probably don’t want to read about my posts where I complain about my psoriasis. I wanted an RSS feed that would only syndicate posts that were posted to a specific category.

That specific category being ‘Comic Books‘.

I looked at the WordPress documentation and found a fairly easy way to do it. All I had to do was put the word “feed” and the end of the url for archive page containing all of my posts filed under ‘Comic Books’.

http://www.bentcorner.com/category/comic-books/feed
That’s it. That’s all I had to do. I’m posting this now for two reasons - so I remember how to do it and I figure if I wanted to know how to do it, somebody else might too.