O boy. At the urging of a number of friends and family members, I took a short break to go the “neighborhood” Costco in Brooklyn. I feel like I lost my innocence there and the only way to get it back is to buy a bunch of hand-made cookies at the local deli. Costco (at least here) is a massive warehouse filled with massive containers and quantities of name-brand products.
I was overwhelmed by the size of the place, by the 12-packs of paper towels, by the 2-gallon size containers of Tide, by the tubs of peanut butter, and mostly by the assortment pack of 50 ruggelach in the bakery area. I signed up for membership at the register before I entered, thinking this would be a great opportunity to purchase diapers, some bread, maybe a few batteries.
I went up and down the conveyer belts masquerading as escalators in the store, which hauled me and my 100 pounds of stuff to different floors.
By the time I was ready to check out, I stood in line for 1 minute and then promptly parked my cart near the entrance and walked out of the store. Tomorrow, I cancel my membership. The time and frustration involved with buying Goliath-sized goods and then finding a way to transport and store them far outweighs the savings. On top of that, Brooklyn is one of the few places around that actually still has a vast number of locally-owned businesses; I always try to support them and I want to continue to do so.

I’m scared that this emoticon actually looks a little like me.

I hate war. I hate the bellicose talk that Mr. Bush just delivered to the entire world. But, like many, I’m not against the now very, very, very likely probability of war with Iraq. I read a good editorial in Canada’s National Post, which is much like today’s piece by Daniel Pipes. The other piece from two weeks ago asked this simple question of its readers: In looking at world history, and looking at the terrors and heinous crimes of the past 100 years, would you prefer to be on the side of U.S. foreign policy or that of France, Germany, and Russia?
The answer to me is pretty clear. France, Germany, and perhaps Russia are looking at appeasement as a way of making sense of deception, horrendous human rights, and the accumulation of murderous weapons by Iraq. All three countries have a less than trustworthy history when it comes to the life and death of millions of innocents.

The ever-good Morning News did Monday Morning Quarterback on the most important part of yesterday’s Super Bowl, the Super Bowl Ads. Note to self and others: I did not watch either the Super Bowl or the ads yesterday. If you want to see the ads now, however, you can visit the ever-surprising USA Today.

Ah, the good old United Nations. It recently elected Libya (yes, LIBYA) to head up the U.N. Commission on Human Rights. It makes sense, since Libya, according to human rights groups, is one of the top 6 most repressive regimes in the world. I’m increasingly frustrated at the U.N.’s ability to do anything productive these days but this just makes U.N. supporters look simply ridiculous and asinine.
From the UN press release: “Upon her election, Ambassador Al-Hajjaji said the Commission must affirm the universality, indivisibility and complementarity of human rights, and that it must send a clear message that it will deal with human rights in all countries – not just some of them – taking into account the different religious, cultural and historical backgrounds in the world.”

As of January 25, 2003, the very unkind VeriSign company will thankfully relinquish its ownership of the .org registration process to an organization called Public Interest Registry. It’s a good thing and is very long (about 10 years) overdue. For some reason, anyone can have a .org Web site, though it was intended to be used for non-profits in order to distinguish them from commecial online vehicles. (Note: MANOVERBOARD does own a few .org domain names.) While proof of non-profit status will not change now that VeriSign (a company that has been sued multiple times for trying to swindle customers like me) is bye-bye, the switch does mean that a real non-profit will be in control of the .org registry.
PIR intends to use its new powers to ” institute mechanisms for promoting the registry’s operation in a manner that is responsive to the needs, concerns, and views of the non-commercial Internet user community, including web-based input mechanisms for interested parties.” This is very cool news for the non-profit online world and a welcome reprieve from the flawed governance of registries past.

Art.com has a running list of 100 top posters, all of which are absolutely horrendous. They feature either Eminem, giraffes, or cars. People, people. What is this, 1974?
More importantly, I really need some good suggestions for good artists, folks. The Site at MANOVERBOARD.net is in need of some fresh, fresh 2003 blood and I would like to kick off the year with some great work by a few rarely seen but visionary artists. Please do not nominate yourself.

I’m not sure how long ago it happened, but the Animal Legal Defense Fund has a new Web site. It’s quite nice — an unusual navigation 1/3 down the page and a lot of room for images at top — but I’m not sure it really speaks “legal defense fund.” Perhaps a more news-like site would have been in order. (I’m a supporter of ALDF, which works within the U.S. legal system to create better lives for animals.)

Dr. King gave this speech in Oslo on December 10, 1964. No further commentary necessary.

Self Promotion Friday: I just launched a new component of MANOVERBOARD.com, called Downloads. The first download available is a free 2003 calendar I originally created a year ago for my clients. The whole calendar fits on 1/2 sheet of paper and you can see the entire year in one fell swoop. This year’s calendar is updated with a new bird, and yes, new dates!
(I should note that my biggest concern was that some unfortunate client would plan their get-away based on this calendar and would, upon getting to the airport, find that they were supposed to have left *yesterday*. Because of this, I believe that all the dates are indeed correct.) Look for other downloads to come, including a number of MANOVERBOARD-designed fonts and icons.