The Space Toast Pages

Matthew Rasmussen's journal of journals on various topics of interest, published here, there or somewhere since 1999.

Raq-o-lantern

I did some carving this evening. Raccoon, or monster? You decide. Click for bigger.

Happy Halloween, from Matt (and Raq).

Marvel Meets Peanuts

Yes, humanity has hope. Many more here: http://www.statueforum.com/showthread.php?t=10151

You Give Me Your Lunch Break, and I'll Explain the Global Financial Crisis

Four videos. This won't hurt much.

First up, American Public Media's Paddy Hirsch deploys the Antarctic Expedition metaphor:

Second and third, Max Keiser -- financial activist and former Wall Street wunderkund -- explains the bankrupting of Iceland. Presciently, this was made in August 2007, when the global markets were still flying high:

And finally, John Fortune and John Bird explain how it all goes off:

So Sick of T-Mobile

The T-Mobile call centers seem to have been fobbed a new policy requiring everyone to be more chatty, informal and energetic. Much, MUCH more chatty, informal, and energetic.

This is even more irritating than it sounds. We're not at a party. I'm not trying to hook up with you. I don't even know how cool the handset is, because I don't have it yet. That's why I'm calling.

Rewind. I ordered a new phone for $18 at the end of September and signed up for two more years of service. Note that the phone was "free," except for an $18 fee, which wouldn't have been incurred by simply using my current phone for two more years. We, as a society, are drowning in bullshit.

I checked UPS.com last week to find out why the phone hadn't arrived yet. They had no information about the order, so I called T-Mobile again. The ridiculously chatty, informal and energetic representative informed me that it hadn't shipped yet, but would the next day. I verified that it was coming to my new address in LA, not my old address in Boston, thanked the representative and hung up.

Fast-forward to last night. On a whim, I checked UPS.com again for the shipping status. The phone was in Chelmsford, MA, and scheduled to be delivered today. I called T-Mobile back.

Chatty, informal and energetic Esther told me that the phone was back-ordered. No, it's aready been shipped, I told her, and gave her the tracking number. She verified that as true, and finally gave me a number to call -- which I realize now she must have gotten by Googling the UPS Store in Cambridge, MA. I was told to call and cancel the delivery. Once the phone got back to T-Mobile (whenever the hell THAT might be), they would reprocess the order and send it out to me in LA. I called the number, got a machine, and left a message.

I checked UPS.com this morning. The phone has been delivered. To my old address, on the beautiful North Atlantic.

I'm about to call T-Mobile for round three.

The Man With the Pointy Hat

"In the current storyline, there's a lot that I don't agree with, and I made this very clear to everybody within shouting distance . . . As an executive producer as well as a writer, I've sometimes had to insist that my writers make changes that they did not want to make, often loudly so. They were sure I was wrong. Mostly I was right. Sometimes I was wrong. But whoever sits in the editor's chair, or the executive producer's chair, wears the pointy hat of authority, and as Dave Sim once noted, you can't argue with a pointy hat.

"So at the end of the day, all one can do is try to do the best one can with the notes one is given, and try to execute them in a professional way -- because who knows, the other guy may be right . . . ."

-- J. Michael Straczynski

We Heart Superman: Episode 105: The Krankorbatch Switcheroo!

A strange physics experiment leads to stranger chemistry!

-- Listen --

Click here to listen to episode 105:

"We Heart Superman: The Krankorbatch Switcheroo!" (MP3 format, 24MB)

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Subscribe with iTunes or Zune Marketplace:

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-- Friend --

Visit our MySpace page at MySpace.com/WeHeartSuperman.

Join our Facebook group, "We Heart Superman".

-- Credit, Swag, Love --

"We Heart Superman: The Krankorbatch Switcheroo!" Written and produced by Matt Rasmussen. Directed by Troy Minkowsky. Featuring Mike Devine, Christian Sterling, Gina Robbins, Lindsay LeClair, Dan Miller, Melissa McCue, Debbie Chiang, and Arturo Meneses. Sound and technical support by James Force and Adam Stugatch. Original Music by Subpar Costar. Superman created by Joel Schuster and Jerry Seigel and property of DC Comics.

Thank you for listening!

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