Blog Master G

MTV: Educating (the youth of) America. Is it just me, or does it strike anyone else as absolutely hilarious that this MTV headline — Who is Ariel Sharon? — is currently the top “news story” on Google News? I think it’s a sad and telling truth when even the Google News algorithms know that so many Americans are so unaware of the world that they need to show a headline like this as the top story (although, don’t get me wrong, I think it’s good that MTV is trying to educate its viewers…err, readers). I sure hope that this is some kind of glitch on Google News, though.

(I’m happy to report that just in the time it’s taken me to write this entry, the top headline has been updated: Time to Follow Words With Actions, Israel Says.)

Today was a seriously stressful day, as I discovered that some punk-ass opened a Sprint PCS cell phone account in my name in May 2002 and has run up more than $500 in unpaid charges. It went to collection and now appears on my TransUnion credit report. I have reported it to fraud, filed a dispute with TransUnion, and even filed a report with the Concord Police Department, since the fake address used by the dumbshit was in Concord.

The suspects are the following:

1. Person who broke into my Saturn in March 2002 and stole backpack full of tax documents.
2. The kids who work(ed?) at the Sprint PCS store on Geary in San Francisco where Jen and I bought our phones. Immediately following the purchase, Jen discovered that she had been charged twice for her phone.

Damn it makes me mad. Here’s the address and phone number that Sprint had on file and gave to me:

1349 Sunshine St.
Concord, CA 94520
925.768.0461

I tried calling the number and a woman answered. I didn’t say anything since I don’t know for sure that this is the actual number of the fraudulent bastard.

I went to Macy’s at lunchtime today to look for new shoes for the wedding. I decided on some slick Bostonian shoes — the Akron model with Classic First/Flex design. They’re really comfortable, too, and I’m sure will go well with my tux. I pick them up tomorrow.

I just added the following message to a strange discussion string that began with my Vassar Blogs site:

As for rock-paper-scissors, back in the day my brother, a friend, and I played an improvisational version wherein you were allowed to bust out any item you wanted at the time of draw — for example, a rocket launcher — and then both participants would mutually agree who wins… Another example: a bomb vs. an M16…that’s a tough one, since the M16 can shoot at the bomb from a distance, forcing it to explode; yet the bomb could blow up the M16 (although in so doing, the bomb kills itself, so maybe it’s a draw in that case). It was a fun variation on the game.

Ahh, the memories. That was a fun game.

Yesterday Jen and I crossed a big and momentous item off our wedding to do list: We purchased our wedding rings. We returned to the same shop in the Castro where we had purchased her engagement ring last year — Brand X Antiques in the Castro.

Moments after walking into the store, we saw the ring that we immediately knew was perfect for Jen — likely the same wedding band we had seen a year ago when we bought the engagement ring. It’s a platinum eternity band that houses the same diamonds as those in Jen’s engagement ring. And, like the engagement ring, the band is from the 1920s. It’s beautiful.

At first, I thought that my ring would be simple platinum — there was a rounded ring I really liked. I was going back and forth between it and a couple other square-cut modern rings. The thought of having a modern, cookie-cutter ring to Jen’s unique, century-old ring didn’t feel quite right, though. Then our friend Fred (co-owner of Brand X) pulled out of the other display case the ring that will soon make its permanent home on my left ring finger — a 1920s platinum band with some serious character. Although time has eaten into the detail, the ring is carved all around with apple blossoms. And it’s stunning.

We both feel really good about our choices in rings, and are eager to wear them…which is exactly what we’ll get to do in 54 days, 5 hours, 20 minutes, and 52 seconds.

Gabe & Jen’s wedding bands

Jen’s engagement ring

Gabe Consulting, my Web services and hosting business, officially became a registered sole proprietorship with the San Francisco County Clerk on May 9, 2003, my date of filing. My document number is 2003-0266767-00. “The registrant commenced to transact business under the above-listed fictitious business name or names on 4/25/03.”

My FBN statement first appeared in the San Francisco Independent on Thursday, May 29, 2003. Subsequent printing dates were June 5, 12, and 19, 2003. Proof of publication statement was filed with the County Clerk June 23, 2003 by Maribel Jaldon, Deputy County Clerk.

Yesterday Jen and I received our first batch of RSVPs for the wedding. We also received a gift from our registry (salt and pepper shakers) from one of Jen’s coworkers. It was really exciting to come home to a handful of reply cards. It’s a great feeling to see some results, so to speak, of all the planning and hard work we’ve done so far. I just dropped off the invitations at the post office on Saturday, so some people are really on the ball. We got the invitation we sent to ourselves on Tuesday, and we’ve heard from many people on both coasts that they received their invitations then, too.

56 days, 13 hours, 12 minutes, 15 seconds to the Big Day, and counting…

I missed the last couple maintenance updates of MT, but decided it was time to upgrade from MT 2.6 to MT 2.64. As of this post, I’m running the latest and greatest version. This is the main reason I decided to install this maintenance release: “This release also plugs a number of cross-site-scripting (script injection) holes for search queries…”

Every once in a while, I noticed searches of this blog returning results from my test blog and/or from my forthcoming food review blog.

Another recent update to my blog that I haven’t yet noted is the addition of daily archives to my existing monthly, category, and individual archive types. Like this:

http://www.blogmasterg.com/life/2003/05/27/

NEWS.com.au: “Jesus was gay – the University of Queensland gave $51,000 of public money to a PhD student to reach that conclusion.”

Thank God. Now I can sleep better at night. I’m just disappointed that my tax dollars couldn’t contribute to this great cause.

At last, the U.S. government has found the much sought-after weapons of mass destruction…in Maryland.

The Guardian: “Even more embarrassing for the Pentagon, there was no documentation about the various biological agents disposed of at the US bio-defence centre at Fort Detrick. Iraq’s failure to come up with paperwork proving the destruction of its biological arsenal was portrayed by the US as evidence of deception in the run-up to the war.”