Ubiquity

Signs of the times. When I'm out running errands, I often see the same homeless guy. I assume he's homeless because he fits the description. Usually he's pulling one of those suitcases with a handle and wheels, but more recently he's acquired an old bicycle, which he rides around with his belongings secured in bundles tied to the frame and handlebars.

Today I dropped by my favorite bookstore. As I parked, I saw the homeless guy squatting near the entrance to the store, with the bike parked next to him. He seemed to be intently studying something he held in his hands. As I reached the doorway, I looked down to see what had captured his attention, and realized he was fooling around with a cell phone.

United States of America, 21st century. Even the homeless guys have cell phones.

Greens

This editorial from the Chronicle deals with Republican efforts to get Green Party candidates on the statewide ballot, and brings back memories from an earlier decade. I sometimes wonder what America and the world would be like today if Ralph Nader hadn't been on the ballot in the 2000 presidential election. We'll never know for sure.

Provincial

The salvage job on the Big Whatever is discussed here and summarized well. This has been a triumph for provincialism and self-delusion, and a loss for people like me who enjoy interesting college football. The elitists in Austin got their way again, held together a conference in which they have no serious competition other than OU now and then, and made more money off the deal to boot. The doormats like Iowa State, Kansas, TAMU and Baylor went along and deserve whatever they get as a result. The Southwest Conference outlived its usefulness and died fifteen years ago, only to be resurrected in slightly modified form yesterday, and now Texas and Oklahoma sit atop a conference that is roughly the equivalent of the Big East in terms of status. If there is any justice whatsoever, an 11-1 Texas team will soon find itself ranked well below other 11-1 teams from prestige conferences and will be ignored for national championship consideration as a result. Anyone who thinks it can't happen has no sense of college football history and never heard of Penn State.

Added 12:06 pm: Just saw a suggestion that the Big Whatever change its name to the Mack-Ten. I like it.

Another dumbass with a dream

Big XII will most likely not add any other Texas schools (already have Texas, A&M, TTU, Baylor) but probably will pursue other markets. I like to see XII add Florida State LSU, Arkansas, Alabama, Michigan, Ole Miss.

This piss-ignorant observation was posted as a comment on the Dallas Morning News story reporting that Texas U. was staying put. My question is this: Why would any of those six schools leave their Blue Chip conferences to join the Big 12 minus 2, also known as Texas and the Nine Pipsqueaks ? This has been a dark, dark day around my house after I got all jazzed up for something shiny and new. Fuck it.

Schedules

Now that I've decided to concentrate on college football rather than Tea Parties, I'm trying to keep up with what's happening in the Big 12 these days. One question I've been pondering this week is what the season schedule would look like if TAMU followed its Big 12 brethren to the Pac-10 (soon to be Pac-16) conference. This feature in the Dallas News is not necessarily official, but gives me a clearer idea of what the Aggies would be facing as Pac-men. The round-robin against the other eastern teams (which would include the Arizona schools and Colorado) would essentially replace the current three games against Big 12 North teams. Three non-conference games, and two games against the west coast teams. Maybe pick up Baylor as one of the three non-conference games ? All in all, I'm beginning to get a clearer picture of what this may involve, but this looks like an easier row to hoe for TAMU than moving to the SEC and getting hammered regularly.

Change in the air

The Big 12 conference is coming apart at the seams, and blogspot.com has changed their template designs. Band of Butters gets a new look as a result, just as TAMU football is likely to get a new look, depending on how the current round of musical chairs plays out. Change is good, or so they tell me.

Telecheckmate. Again.

A few years ago, I had my first head-to-head encounter with a company called Telecheck. During a 20 percent discount sale at Half Price Books, I went on a shopping binge and tried to write three checks in a 48-hour period. The third check was rejected, and it really pissed me off. I called Telecheck and ended up hearing an automated message explaining that personal checks may be disapproved based on the frequency and amount of checks written at a merchant participating in their system. It was my first experience with a profiling process. The check wasn't refused because of insufficient funds, but because I fit the profile of a hot-check artist ?

Somehow, I've become ensnared in the Telecheck matrix again -- Half Price Books is refusing to accept my checks because Telecheck won't approve them. Today I called Telecheck again, and jumped through all the hoops required to speak to a human representative. It was a hassle, but I was too fucking mad to be shuttled off to some machine. The young man who handled my complaint had an accent and fit the profile of someone filling an outsourced job, but he was courteous and confirmed what I already suspected.

People who think racial profiling is a good thing have not been profiled themselves and don't expect to be. I've been profiled as a hot-check writer --- it's humiliating and inconvenient and it influences my attitude toward the whole issue of profiling people.