Moo! The Musings of a Plaid Cow

At the grocery tonight, we were able to use the coupon that I got a while back. The original collection of items cost $6.03, and tonight $5.79 was saved, bringing the original net cost to $.24.

Perhaps I just don’t understand marketing.

One of the television shows that I still watch regularly is TLC’s In a Fix. In the recent “Desert Dreams” episode, they deviated from their standard “You’re going away for three days at [expensive hotel] for rest and relaxation…” in favor of “And the details of your getaway can be found in this Expedia envelope…”

It’s not that I mind product placement in television shows (it could be the wave of the future), but you have to make a it just a little less obvious. Perhaps they should just stick to one of the cast members going to the hardware store each episode so that they can get their Discover Card swiped. (And who is allowing these cast members to use J. A. Webb’s Discover Card anyway?)

Question: Do you drink diet or regular soda?

After graduating college, and starting in the workplace I switched to diet.

Thanks to Greg for pointing to an article talking about soda replacing white bread as the leading source of calories in the American diet.

Though people are wont to disparage the cost of gas, that doesn’t seem to stop people from taking the random Sunday drive. If the cost of gasoline is not high enough to make us change our habits, quit complaining. While out on a recent “Sunday Drive” we were followed by “BAJA GRL” in her bright yellow Subaru. The, roaring into the mall, we saw a guy with “EL1SE” on the plate of his Lotus Elise. (This is the first time that I can ever recall seeing one on the road.)

If you do not receive the This is True newsletter once a week, I would highly recommend that you check it out. (You can even search the early years, which archives all of the stories in Volume 1.) I have been receiving the newsletter for about 10 years now, and the always tend to be a bright spot in the day. Like this gem from around the year 2000:

Thanks in part to the phenomenal success of the TV game show “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?“, networks are scrambling to come up with new ideas—or reinvention’s of old ones—to grab a piece of the audience. CBS is trying the former with “Survivor“. The show will strand 16 Americans on an uninhabited island in the South China Sea. The last one to remain will win $1 million. “It’s a double edged sword,” a gleeful CBS spokesman explained. “They need each other to survive, but they know only one can win.” Cameras around the island will record their moves. The network expects a winner to emerge within 7 weeks. (AP) …Gilligan’s Island, The Next Generation

You should take a look and get a free subscription, because today’s weird news could become tomorrows reality.

The bug reporter for all of my AppleScripts is now online. You can view what is there without an account, but to post a new bug or comment on any of the ones there you will need to create an account.

…not Slim Shady. Just ‘Randy’ (or ‘Randall’ for those who consider ‘Randy’ to be slang).

I have used that handle DeltaTee for probably about eight years now, and have seldom not had that user id not available. (Though it is also the name of a corporation out of Calgary.) So most anyplace you find a user named DeltaTee, is it likely to be me. (Including sites like Apple, Yahoo, MacSlash and GMail.)

The only older handle that is still in use is Beeman, and that is only used on slashdot.org. The name comes from from the Animaniac’s character Randy Beaman, though I have just realized I misspelled the name. It was given to me by a friends then girlfriend (who then became his wife, ex-wife, and wife again).

The was probably a handle older than that, but I really don’t recall. It was around the time that Bianca’s was new and cool. Before it was really explainable what it was. Before it tried to go commercial. Before the Wayback Machine really started archiving. Way before it degenerated in what it is today.

Question: What is you opinion on stem cell research?

The same as with any other activity: If, as a general rule, every person can say that “This activity does not infringe on my rights as a person”, then that activity should not be curtailed. There are exceptions to this rule, but all of them that I can think of are based on the concept of morality. And it is exceedingly difficult to legislate a shared morality, since it is a personal issue.

So, as far as President Bush goes, I will be happy to interview any and all people that would have been harmed had they been used for stem cell research (instead of starting life as a discarded embryo). So, if you started life as a discarded embryo, please leave a comment so that I can get a hold of you.

As the owner of a whole domain, I have had the opportunity to give out unique email addresses to every website that I sign up with, which allows me to track exactly where the spam starts coming from. Much of the spam now comes from newsgroups, which I posted as

as @
applescript @

made up addresses which have never been given out

info @

or addresses in mail to links off of my home page

itunes-as @
wedding @
wedding-dj-requests @

The interesting part, however, comes when I get spam on other addresses, like

reunion_dot_com @

How any different places could this have come from? So I sent them an email:

I am getting spam at email used on your website. How was my information compromised?

And they denied everything in a reply:

According to our Privacy Policy, which is created based on user feedback and suggestion; we do not provide user addresses, telephone numbers or e-mail addresses. We have created the Alumni Mail system where you are able to send mail to any user. You may wish to include your personal address and contact information in this mail. Alumni Mail goes from your username to their username.

If I hear anything else from them, I’ll post an update. Until then, beware that the database from Reunion.com may not be secure.

Congratulations to Jennifer, who is now more cylinder-like.