Category: Misc

More fun from Craigslist

Folks trying to sell their PS3s on Craigslist better take note. Cbs13.com reports that a seller was beaten and robbed while trying to meet the buyer of his Playstation at a local gas station Tuesday.

And to think, I was worried about handing out my email address.

The news station recommends meeting buyers of goods sold on the popular online classifieds site at your local police station parking lot. That’s right. The next time you sell a good for a few thousand dollars online and need to meet the buyer to make the under the table, most likely unreported cash transaction, be sure to do it somewhere where your tax dollars will ensure your safety.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Turkeys teeing it upKnocked off early at the widget factory yesterday and took the family (or they took me) to Ancil Hoffman for some non-lethal turkey hunting (using our minds). The deers are so thick there that you start to wonder if they aren’t over populated. Also you start to wonder if maybe they aren’t supposed to be more standoffish toward us humans. We saw two young bucks banging heads and had to hightail it. Turkeys were out in force as well, as were giant salmon in the river. We saw a massive salmon head/skull on the riverbank that had teeth the size of a dog’s. As usual the only wildlife thankfully not present were rattlers and mountain lions.

Maybe it was the company, or the early widget dismissal, but if you’ll permit a timely hiatus from the snark, this was one of those days where I counted myself among the luckiest people on earth to be living in Northern California.

Video game lovers can’t wait

News10.net reports that the Sacramento Best Buy store has asked folks to leave who are camping out hoping to get their hands on the new Sony Playstation which goes on sale Friday (I know, today is only Wednesday, crazy, huh?).

The property owners forced the campers to move out. But all is not lost. Best Buy did take the names of everyone in line and gave them a number so when the PS3 goes on sale Friday they won’t lose their spot.

While this may sound like a great idea at first, I can’t help but wonder if this will only create a mad rush to “pre” camp out the next time some fancy electronic gizmo is released with the hope of grabbing a number so they can jump to the front of the line once the product is available. However, this apparently is one fancy gadget:

“It’s pretty much like the ultimate game machine — 60 gigabyte hard drive. And blue-ray players so it plays all your high definition movies. And then all your games are at the highest resolution…”

It’s pretty much like? Gee, why didn’t you say something earlier, let’s get out there then.

Spending RT’s money is a “Tall Order”

I’m not really sure why they called it that, but the Metropolitan Transportation Plan is holding “Tall Order: Moving the Region Forward,” a one-night, eight-venue simulcast town hall to hear from the public on how MTP might invest $36 billion over the next few decades. The event is being held tomorrow night in locations from Freeborn Hall to the El Dorado Office of Education and offers free food. It looks like you have to register to attend. Might I suggest that free food on the bus be priority #1?

Guess the city! (And it’s not Sacramento)

From a piece in the NY Times:

The owners […] had warned that the team would leave unless the city provided a new arena.

The vote delighted Citizens for More Important Things, a group that, with the help of a statewide health care union, spent $60,000 to sponsor the initiative. Other cities “may be so desperate to lure tourists there that they have to overpay for an N.B.A. team,” said Chris Van Dyk, a founder of the group. “[We don’t] have to lure anybody.”

Mr. Van Dyk’s priorities are schools, transportation projects and health care, and he openly disdains wealthy people who buy professional teams, pay huge salaries to players and then demand handouts. Owners who threaten to take their teams elsewhere, Mr. Van Dyk said, are no better than “the neighborhood crack cocaine dealer.”

Guesses? The answer is here. (Need a log-in?)

Transit Tales Redux

The Sacramento News and Review is running a cover story this week about “life that exists every day on Sacramento’s buses and trains”.  Sound familiar?  It should if you’re a frequent visitor to this here web log.  Sac Rag authors/commenters CoolDMZ and HeyMeg have been posting and commenting about their daily observations on the RT for quite some time.  While SNR did a fine job with their piece, it just doesn’t compare to HeyMeg’s recounting of the discussion between “Eye Patch” and “No Teeth”.