Tag: general grumbling

Before, we had the long skinny paper, as pictured on the right.  After, we will have the short, stubby tabloid-style on the left.  But right now?  We have both.

A two-sized paper is annoying for the following reason.  Here is the normal mode of transport for the paper.  It tucks nicely in my bag.

Right now, we have two different sizes, resulting in a hangover flap thing that doesn’t tuck away very easily.

This will last until April, when it all becomes tabloid.

No?  Funny, it must have slipped our minds.  But no matter, this is the last time you will see one.

To summarize the above article: Hey!  Now that you only get a newspaper four days per week, we’re also going to turn that newspaper into a crappy tabloid format.  It will be great?  Why?  Because we say so!

Judging from the amount of shelf space devoted to thank you notes, one can extrapolate that the only thing people hand write and mail anymore are thank you notes.  This is a shelf at Target, where I had a gift card.  Maybe I will get some stationary, I thought to myself.  I was excited to see the huge selection they hand and then, as usual deflated to realize that 90% of the offerings are thank you notes.  Grrr.

I really would like one, compact thing, with witch to access all of my music.  Instead I have a menagerie.

Here’s the stereo, which plays the radio, CDs, cassette tapes and also records, if I hooked up the record player.
 

Because the stereo doesn’t really get good radio reception, I also bought this radio which I love! It’s small (notice it tucked away next to the stereo in the above picture) and the knob gives a satisfying “click” when I turn it on.  The reception is superior, which is great because I listen to the radio a lot.
 

Unless you factor in podcasts.  With the new phone, I found an app that gives me podcasts I love.  Because I don’t like to walk around the house with ear buds in my ears, I bought this Bluetooth speaker.  It stores nicely in a drawer.
 

And then, if I want to listen to any non-CD, non-cassette music, I have the iPod, which is old.  It doesn’t even have all of my music because it doesn’t all fit (the rest is stored on my computer.)  I could listen to the podcasts via iTunes on the iPod, but I find iTunes incredibly unfriendly (and I know I’m in the minority here, but iTunes just doesn’t work the way my mind works) so I don’t get the podcasts through iTunes.

Someday I would like to have a compact stereo system with speakers that can play in different areas of the house, and my music/podcasts on one device.  But right now?  I straddle many worlds.

Where does Ebenezer Scrooge live?  Nope.  Not New York City.  He lives in London.

Seriously, how much did FexEx pay for this ad?

The separate Opinion section in the Sunday Oregonian disappeared some time ago.  It morphed into part of the Metro page.  With the brave new world of lesser service masquerading as still the same level of newspaper, one of the things the Oregonian is counting in the “improvement!” column is the return of a separate Opinion section.  I was pretty happy too.  Although now that I read it, I have this problem.

There are more editorials, but nearly all of them continue on a different page.  This is massively annoying.  I expect it in the normal paper, it was always par for the course.  However, it used to be that the Opinion page had each Opinion piece on one page.  I read the paper one page at a time.  It’s the reality of where I read the paper (on the train and while eating my lunch at work) and even more than the regular news, I resent having to retain in my head where the argument was going until I get to the back page of the paper.

Surely you can work your magic and get all the words on the same page.

At least give them halfway decent names.

I was all-in (theoretically) to adopt these kids.  But really, why put the word “sin” in your child’s name, when the proper spelling, Jackson, is just fine.  And Mackenzie isn’t too terribly horrible, but I’m not the biggest fan.  As for Daycian, sorry buddy, that you get to go through life with a name no one can pronounce.

Other than the name thing, they sound like a fun bundle.  Perhaps someone with more tolerance than me would like them?

Pretty darn annoyed.  I get that they need to put ads on the already-tiny surface.  But I don’t do flashing ads.  That’s why I left Yahoo Mail.

The New Digital Era of the Oregonian. A new frustration every day.

And the hits just keep on coming.

Thanks, Oregonian, for getting rid of three days of home delivery, the movie critic, the music critic, the theater critic, so many other things I’m too mad about to remember right now.  Thanks also for getting rid of the Desk, the column that watches out for consumers.  What, were you afraid that we might report our formerly quality newspaper to its own consumer complaint column?

This would all go so much better if you would just admit you are giving us a lesser product.