Random Thoughts On A Rainy Saturday Before Setting Up A Christmas Tree

In living up to the random nature of the title, a collection of loosely-connected thoughts, connected by the fact that I thought them.

1) For a surprising kick to a cup of coffee, open the fridge, look at the creamer, grab it, pour some in to your coffee, then realize you grabbed a bottle of picante sauce instead. You don't even have to be drunk to do this, regardless of the quantity of egg nog and brandy consumed the previous night.

2) Russia and Qatar get the 2018 and 2022 World Cups instead of England and the US? Weird. Kind of cool that Qatar got it, I guess, but regardless of the sour grapes nature of the snide remarks by the British announcers during Chelsea-Everton's televised match, and leaving aside the cloud of corruption overshadowing FIFA's voting process, it seems odd that England only got two votes, and Russia, with all the corruption and scary elements, gets to host it. Oh well.

3) Facebook is an unusual world. Not to question the spirit behind it, but what is the point of the latest trend, changing your icon to a cartoon character to oppose child abuse? Did I miss a notice from Facebook that if enough users change their icon, Facebook police will go out and arrest all child abusers (not that it's implausible that Facebook might know who child abusers are). And is it really necessary for people to change their Facebook icon so that the world knows they are opposed to child abuse? Don't we assume that most people are opposed to child abuse?

Raising the issue of child abuse is all well and good, but I fail to see how changing your Facebook icon does that. Surely there is a better, more useful forum for that in the non-cyber world. I am familiar with the arguments for a new media, but I just don't buy it in this case. Having cartoon icons is fun, absolutely, but it seems more like entertainment with a veneer of saving the world, rather than an actual force for change.

I'm willing to be proven wrong if anyone can point out tangible evidence of a Facebook trend like this having a beneficial effect on the world.

4) Speaking of Facebook, they are trying to trademark the word "Face." This is absurd. I suppose it only applies to the word being used in the names of online services, but still. You can't help but picture thousands of lawsuits against individual users, ala the RIAA lawsuits but without the mitigating question of intellectual property rights--most faces can't be considered intellectual property, I wouldn't think. It certainly doesn't help diminish the Orwellian overtones to Facebook.

More stories like this and I might be tempted to quit Facebook and try to save the Post Office by reverting to letters and postcards.

I say "might", of course, because I would most likely act hypocritically and continue to use Facebook.

5) From the San Francisco Chronicle this morning: Sacramento-bound lame-duck mayor Gavin Newsom appointed a woman named Leona Bridges to fill a vacancy on the Municipal Transportation Agency board. Newsom's statement about the appointment brought out the crankiness in me: "She may not be a City Hall insider or professional activist, but she's a regular bus rider, churchgoer and longtime San Francisco resident." The perspective of a regular bus rider and longtime San Francisco resident are undeniably useful, but what does going to church have to do with it?

6) To alleviate the crankiness, now that I've had my coffee, let me just say there is very little more satisfying than a Saturday morning breakfast of scrambled eggs, a doughnut, orange juice, coffee, and another doughnut, eaten while reading the paper and watching Premier League soccer.