Pay-per-Post: Echo Malibu
by V.E. on January 27th, 2007
filed under ppp
[If you hadn't guessed from the first part of the title, this is a paid post.]
When dealing with teen drug abuse, it’s important to look at the whole person, not just the surface value of quick fixes or boot camps… Or so Echo Malibu says. I’m not sure if it’s the facilities, the location, or whatever, but this program turns me off. “Echo” stands for “Empowerment, Choices, Hope, Opportunities”–ideals that are, in and of themselves, not a bad thing. However, the tone of the website, the photographs of some of the attendees and facilities, extensive list of staff members with superfluous duties all just point me towards one conclusion: the super-rich, white, spoiled brats stereotypical of Malibu and Beverly Hills. I humbly submit three examples for your consideration.
1. The facilities are beautiful, extensive, and spotless. Indeed, one of its selling points is the “…park-like grounds. The property includes meditation, recreation and picnic areas, complete with a creek that runs through the lawn to the ocean.”
2. The attendees are all white, or at least: none have any distinguishing features other than their nice clothing and chemically-treated hair.
3. The staff includes numerous psych doctors, plenty of assistants and interns, and professionals whose entire job is “therapeutic writing,” “therapeutic recreation,” or “life story facilitation.” Not to mention a Chef for Hollywood Celebrities who can literally cook up whatever the heart desires (aside from the drugs and alcohol you’re paying to get away from, of course).
I suppose Echo Malibu does bill itself as “The Premier Treatment Program for Adolescents.” Damn right, it does! There’s no mention of price, cost, or money anywhere on the site (that I could find). I guess if you have to ask, it’s too much. The website left a bitter taste in my mouth; the whole thing just seems more like a sweet weekend trip than a teen rehab program–it just reeks of “Daddy, buy me a(nother) car because I don’t like the color red anymore, I want a blue one instead” rich kids with nothing better to do than spend their parents money on drugs because their parents don’t show them the love because they’re always off making money. Ick, ick, and more ick.
Part of an email forwarded to me by my dad about the NASA rovers on Mars
by V.E. on January 27th, 2007
filed under entertainment, favorite, ladyamedeus
“Our rover drivers, however, are nothing if not creative. If Mars doesn’t give us features to look at, they figured, we’ll make our own features. So recently, we’ve done a drive where the rover did a strange little dance as it moved along, scuffing the soil and weaving from side to side, making some of the strangest-looking rover tracks you’ve ever seen. (One of the maneuvers they came up with they called the ‘drunken sailor walk’.) It looks weird, but it works. We did 40 visodom tests on that drive, and 39 of them worked. So next time you see some strange-looking wheel tracks, it’s just the rover scuffing up the terrain so it can figure out where it is.”
See? Nerds can have fun, too… They have some much fun, it’s out of this world! LOL.
Okay, that was bad.
Canna
by V.E. on January 27th, 2007
filed under ladyamedeus, quizzes/surveys
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“You stand up for what you believe in, even if it gets in the way of what other people think. You are proud of yourself and your accomplishments and you enjoy letting people know that.”
Interesting. I’ve never even heard of Canna. How do these people decide that Canna are “proud” and Snapdragons are “playful”? I don’t get it.
Day Two hundred twenty-nine
by V.E. on January 26th, 2007
filed under 5reasons
- Having enough money to cover the bills.
- Taking a really hot shower after shivering all day.
- Not having to worry about where (or when) my next meal will be.
- Mom’s homemade quilt–the warmest, awesome-est blanket I own.
- Dad, who picks up the phone when I call because he likes to hear from me.
Day Two hundred twenty-eight
by V.E. on January 25th, 2007
filed under 5reasons
- Went to both my classes today!
- And I was genuinely (relatively) well prepared for both!
- Central heat. I’m glad we live in an age that allows us to be warm in a place that wouldn’t naturally allow it for half the year.
- On a similar note, snow! It’s snowed a bit today. Pretty.
- Being able to let go of things which were once close.
Admitted cheater caught on audio
by V.E. on January 25th, 2007
filed under entertainment, favorite, ladyamedeus
OMG. This is aMAZing. I feel bad for that woman, but at least she can say, “Well, it’s not like I would’ve married you if I’d been given a choice.” listen
Pay-per-Post: ClearCube
by V.E. on January 25th, 2007
filed under ppp
[If you hadn't guessed from the first part of the title, this is a paid post.]
At first glance, it really does look like a “Small PC,” but actually, it’s a pretty good way of centralizing PC support and prevent software and hardware theft. If you don’t know what a “PC blade” is, check out this flash presentation. The presentation is obviously a sales pitch, but it also gives a pretty good idea of the changes made when using ClearCube over a traditional network of PC systems. The Cage (see the first link in this post) is what holds the up to eight PC blades and is a self-contained unit that can be combined with other cages in a 6′ rack. The whole system streamlines the PC user/administrator/support relationship and cuts down on overall operating costs by as much as 40% when compared with the “each user gets their own desktop tower” traditional way. In any case, if you’re dealing with more than 4 or 5 total computers, have a serious look at ClearCube and see what it can do for your business.
