Blog Master G

The Real Genius behind gabeanderson.com:

(My entry for the TotalChoice Hosting contest to win a DVD burner.)

I really hate it when assholes — particularly those who live in the city and feel the need to own an SUV or a Jeep (’cause you never know when you might need those big tires, 4-wheel drive, and a winch to climb a hill) do this to my car:

There doesn’t appear to be any damage — only a few scratches on my bumper — but it just irks me. I know this kind of thing is part of city life, but it just drives me nuts. The last time this happened, there was a dent that luckily popped itself out, but before that happened, I left a note on the guy’s SUV and told him he would have to pay to fix it (to my surprise, he actually called to apologize — and turned out to live in the building next door to me).

I’m tempted to leave a note this time just to tell the guy not to be such an asshole next time he parks. But I’m trying to be the bigger person and not obsess so much over my car.

Greetings to VC alums who may stumble across my blog!

Issue 2.1 of the San Francisco Bay Area Vassar Club‘s V-Bay Bulletin went out this morning and includes the following section:

****
VASSARBLOGS BY Gabe
Contact:
– Gabe ’99 http://vassarblogs.gabeanderson.com/>
****

Gabe ’99 has started a clearinghouse site for Vassarites with
“blogs”, web-published logs of their daily lives. More than a thousand
web-heads have visited and more than 40 blog authors have registered
with the site.

Visit http://vassarblogs.gabeanderson.com/> for more information and
get in on all the fun.

Thanks again for including this, Dennis.

Since I stepped down as chair/president of the SFBAVC, I admittedly haven’t really been involved with the club, aside from the occasional prospective student interview. So I’m looking forward to the May 10 Go Game treasure hunt here in SF in which our club is participating as part of our new affiliation with the Ivy League Alliance.

As I mentioned on Sunday, for the first time in 5 years, I’ve created a new email address under my domain since I got fed up with spam. The transition is complete, as I just deleted the old account and activated blocking for all unrouted mail (including messages to my old address). My Web host even allows me to use custom text in the bounced message, so I even thought of a Email…” xhref=”http://www.totalchoicehosting.com/forums/index.php?s=4248e6266ccaa4d79ea4739cf584e661&act=ST&f=22&t=1330&st=0&#entry6905″ mce_href=”http://www.totalchoicehosting.com/forums/index.php?s=4248e6266ccaa4d79ea4739cf584e661&act=ST&f=22&t=1330&st=0&#entry6905″>cool way to include a notice for actual people (not spammers) who may write to my old address:

:fail: spambots be gone – people visit http://gabeanderson.com/contact to write to gabe

Sianara, spam.

While we’re on the topic, take a look at some of the discussion that followed my aforementioned last post on the topic, and feel free to chime in.

Watch out or Spider-man will make you gay.

[via Dave Barry]

Would they have been arrested if they weren’t brothers nailing one brother’s wife?

Threesome sex on train could bring jail time

Using this handy form on thetruth.com, I sent the following message to 26 executives of Big Tobacco companies in an attempt to get them to put people ahead of their bottom lines:

My aunt died yesterday from lung cancer caused by smoking. She was only 49. Her name was Patty Weber. Her 3 children are now without a mother. Her 4 siblings are now without a sister. And her 14 nieces and nephews are now without an aunt. You can see her picture here (she is on the left):
http://www.blogmasterg.com/life/archives/000473.php

My grandmother died a year ago from lung cancer caused by smoking. She was 77. Her name was Ruth Pritchard. Her 2 children are now without a mother. Her 4 grandchildren are now without their Nana. And her hundreds of friends are now without a wonderful woman who touched their lives and dedicated her life to fighting for the rights of women everywhere. You can see her picture and read about her life here:
http://www.gabeanderson.com/nana/

How many members of your family have you lost to diseases caused by smoking?

Next time you’re in a meeting figuring out how to market your products to young people, remember Patty. And remember Ruth. Their family misses them dearly.

If it weren’t for your industry, they would still be with us.

Sincerely,
Gabe
San Francisco, Calif.

Patty, Peter (my Dad) & Tracy at Val & Rik’s wedding, 2/2/02

My aunt Patty — one of my Dad’s two younger siblings and one of five — died early this morning. She had been battling lung cancer since it was discovered less than a year ago. My Dad and his other siblings were with Patty over the weekend. She made it longer than anyone expected.

This news hasn’t really sunk in yet. What can one really say about death but that without it, we would have no life? My take on death is in line with the Yin & Yang — death is more than the end of life. But that certainly doesn’t make the human emotions of coping with it any easier.

We lost Nana a year ago to lung cancer and have now lost the first member of the next generation. Patty was a warm-hearted, wonderful person with a great deal of energy. Her bright smile will be missed by this world.

My thoughts and heart go out to her three children — R.J., Justin, and Jenna — whom she leaves behind.

Three cheers for Michael Moore for standing in front of the Hollywood big shots (who hypocritically gave him a standing ovation then nearly booed him off stage) and proclaiming with conviction:

“We live in fictitious times. We live in the time where we have fictitious election results that elect a fictitious president. We live in a time where we have a man who’s sending us to war for fictitious reasons, whether it’s the fiction of duct tape or the fiction of orange alerts.”

Admittedly, this approach was not the most diplomatic or one that will likely convince anyone who thinks that war is a good idea to think otherwise, but I salute Mr. Moore for having the courage to speak his mind, united with fellow documentarians.

He’s an American, after all.

I’ve finally had enough with spam. I’ve spent the past couple hours updating all my contacts and Web services to my new primary email address — and it’s a hell of a lot of work. (If you’re in my address book, you should have received an email from me; if you didn’t, please let me know.)

After 5 years using the same email address, I decided that combatting spam just isn’t worth the effort any longer, especially after my Web server started having Perl-related Spamassassin problems. So I decided to re-route that energy to updating all the necessary parties and services with the new address. In a few days — after I make sure that I’ve updated everyone and everything — I’ll deactivate my old address and messages to it will bounce.

Hallelujah! Spam be gone.