Monthly Archives: August 2005

Neighbors Tore Up My Backyard & Patio

If you recall last year in mid-September, I took a week off work and put in a new patio and walkway in my backyard, with a great deal of help from my friend Kathy and a lot of hard work myself. I dug out the pit for the walkway and laid the pavers for it by myself, and it was one of the most difficult (and rewarding) things I’ve ever done.

Turns out it didn’t even last a year.

I came home this evening and found this:

[edit needed: update photos from 2005-08-31]

The neighbor’s contractor is building a garage, and he decided to drive his backhoe through and across my backyard (which was made from one of the unique types of residential hardscaping) while digging the pit for the garage. The pavers are now uneven, and scraped up where he dragged his blade across them, and the grass I’ve been cultivating for 3 years is completely gone — he took out half of my lawn. I can’t imagine how he plans to explain that to me — there’s no way in the world that he could justify this, at all. He had no permission whatsoever to be on my property, and he drove halfway across it.

Needless to say, I’m furious and upset. I don’t know the name of the contractor yet, but as soon as I do, I’ll be posting it here, and on Angie’s List and the Better Business Bureau.

I think the thing that upsets me most about this is that I’m not strong enough to fix this. I can’t do what I was able to do last year; I can’t pick up these pavers anymore. Just having the garage sale was way over-doing it for me, especially moving and carrying the stuff in and out of the house. There’s no way I can fix up this problem. I can’t even keep the front yard weeded and in order, because I’m not strong enough to pull some of the weeds.

UPDATE: I believe the contractor’s name is:

This is the info from contractor’s permit site from Indianapolis:
Pro Built Inc.
Bob Abbott
11585 E. 241 St
Cicero, IN
317-984-8280

This is what Angie’s List says:
Pro Built Garage Co.
PO BOX 598
CICERO, IN 46034
Phone: (800) 878-2845

Contact’s Name:
BOB ABBOTT

According to Angies List: ALSO KNOWN AS “ABBOTT’S PRO BUILDING SERVICE INC.”

Continue ReadingNeighbors Tore Up My Backyard & Patio

Devastating Flickr Photos of Katrina

See recent photos tagged with keywords related to the hurricane:
Katrina, Hurricane, New Orleans, Louisiana, Biloxi
I’m not only donating money to the Red Cross, I’m also sorting out clothes and other items that we had left over from the garage sale to donate to charity, especially if I can find a group that is taking them to send south….

Continue ReadingDevastating Flickr Photos of Katrina

FCC is seeking to expand it’s reach into cable

According to Salon Magazine, Commissioner Kevin J. Martin of the FCC has been meeting quietly with religious leaders and industry leaders to try to organize a push for new stricter standards on what is broadcast over cable stations.
Pardon me, please, because I’m going to lose it right here.
USE YOUR FUCKING ‘V’ CHIP, PEOPLE. That’s what it’s FOR. I AM NOT YOUR GOD-DAMNED BABYSITTER.
I don’t want my cable television censored because you’re too damned lazy or stupid to monitor what your children are watching on television. You PAY FOR that cable and bring it into your own home. If you don’t want your kids to see something, SHUT IT OFF. You know how to do that, don’t you, you retarded fucking moron?
If this goes through, I’m going to calculate the cost of babysitting charges for every parent of every child in the entire country, and I’m going to start a lawsuit against someone, I don’t know who yet, to CHARGE PEOPLE FOR THE BABYSITTING SERVICES I’LL BE PROVIDING TO RETARDED PARENTS who are forcing me to have my television censored.
God damned, mother-fucking, retarded son-of-a-bitch morons. Shithead assholes. Losers. Uni-brow idiots. Stop fucking BREEDING if you can’t be smarter than this.

Continue ReadingFCC is seeking to expand it’s reach into cable

Find a Grave

Not sure whether I find this to be morbid or fascinating: Find a Grave: a website that lists gravesites and burial information for millions of people.
Of course I immediately searched for my families names. My grandfather on my mom’s side isn’t listed, but there are some others that are probably relatives from her site of the family, because they’re buried in Rock Island, Illinois.

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The Long Tail

[Navigated to by way of Steven Johnson’s Blog. Johnson is the author of Everything Bad Is Good for You: How Today’s Popular Culture Is Actually Making Us Smarter which I read recently.]
Quoting from Wikipedia:

The phrase The Long Tail, as a proper noun, was first coined by Chris Anderson. Beginning in a series of speeches in early 2004 and culminating with the publication of a Wired Magazine article in October 2004, Anderson described the effects of the long tail on current and future business models. Anderson observed that products that are in low demand or have low sales volume can collectively make up a market share that rivals or exceeds the relatively few current bestsellers and blockbusters, if the store or distribution channel is large enough. Examples of such mega-stores include Amazon.com, Netflix and even Wikipedia.

Meaning that if you’re into some obscure punk band that no one but you and two people in Idaho have heard of, some businesses with large distribution channels can provide them to you, and their business on small demand items can exceed business for large demand items. Which explains who so many obscure movies are now being released on DVD, where there’s now a market for them via Internet companies that don’t need to provide a physical store to house them.

Continue ReadingThe Long Tail