Musings For A Darkened Room

I hate to rip off Foamy the Squirrel, but I think Starbucks officially hit schmuck status tonight when the news reported it’s 4 hour closure and the masses distressed in front of the cameras. If you didn’t hear, Starbucks Coffee shut down all 7,100 company-operated stores in the U.S. this evening to “Perfect the Art of Espresso”.

It was reported that the chain closed all of it’s doors this evening at 5:30 pm to conduct an in-store education and training event for more than 135,000 of it’s employees across the U.S. This coming quickly after the recent announcements about nearly 100 U.S. stores scheduled to close later this year and the cutbacks of over 200 corporate employees last week. However, in a written statement made by the company Chairman and Chief Executive, Howard Schultz, the focus seemed to be more about the customer experience, than making money. “Tonight is about making sure our baristas have what they need to deliver on the promise we’re making to every customer, and for every beverage.”

I think it’s a brave move for Starbucks, and I think for a company to be able to admit their faults and essentially cutoff all revenue for four hours or more is outstanding. It shows a commitment to improvement that many companies would scoff at.

Starbucks even went to the trouble to try and lighten the blow in their press release by giving it’s customers alternatives to Starbucks during the closure:

“12,600 Seconds in Time” – 5 GREAT THINGS TO DO IN JUST 3 ½ HOURS
1. Thinking of a change in hair color? A full color with highlights takes just about 3 hours.
2. Watch almost all of the nominated short films.
3. When was the last time you made a home cooked meal? You can roast an 8lb -12lb turkey in 3 ½ hours.
4. What better time to organize those closets, it’s a jump start on spring cleaning.
5. After patiently waiting 12,601 seconds, head to Starbucks to get that espresso!

Though Starbucks was able to make light of the matter, most of it’s L.A. customers could not. Instead we got to see a bunch of people piss and moan about it on the evening news. Aren’t we fighting a war in Iraq? Aren’t there political debates going on? Don’t we still need to think about immigration reform? If this were a business bit, I would get it, but this was headline news for some of the local stations (Watch the video associated with the story).

Sure, Starbucks is an icon, and in my opinion it’s not even that, it’s more a status symbol for people. But honestly, do you need to stand outside the doors and cry into your latte because they closed shop for a few hours? Break out of your routine and try something new, you might just surprise yourself. You might discover that The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf have a pretty kick ass coffee too. Hell they have some kick ass teas as well. Or perhaps you can hit your local coffee shop and try their fresh home brew, maybe it will blow your “Tall Skinny Mocha hold the whip cream” out of the water. Regardless, I think people should be getting fired up about more important things than time without their local trendy coffee shop…

If you’re a die hard fan of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel, you’ll be excited to know that next month The Museum of Television and Radio will be hosting a Buffy the Vampire Slayer reuinion with a large portion of the original cast.

On Thursday March 20, The Paley Center for Media in Los Angeles will host the first Buffy the Vampire Slayer reunion since the show went off the air. The following are scheduled to appear:

Amber Benson, “Tara Maclay”
Nicholas Brendon, “Xander Harris”
Charisma Carpenter, “Cordelia Chase”
Emma Caulfield, “Anya”
Eliza Dushku, “Faith”
Sarah Michelle Gellar, “Buffy Summers”
Seth Green, “Oz”
Alyson Hannigan, “Willow Rosenberg”
James Marsters, “Spike”
Michelle Trachtenberg, “Dawn Summers”
Joss Whedon, Creator

Tickets from what I can tell will be $45 a person. I really want to go, but I hear tickets are really hard to get, and I don’t really have the money. Not to mention I HATE driving to LA. But I thought I would spread the word for those who may be interested. For more information you can visit the Paleyfest page.

Unfortunately folks in Signapore aren’t. Various news outlets report that on Tuesday, a cosmetics line that sold itself under the name “Looking Good for Jesus, was pulled from stores in Signapore after a number of complaints from shoppers. Catholics complained the cosmetics’ marketing was disrespectful, full of sexual innuendo and trivialised Christianity.

The cosmetics line which sold everything from mirror compacts, to shopping totes, to lip balm features various depictions of Christ on the packaging and offers “spiritual” benefits as a reward from using the “Looking Good for Jesus” products. Though the products have been removed from Signapire shelves, you can still Look Good For Jesus by purchasing the products directly from the distributor, BlueQ.

So for Valentine’s Day I made some photoshop magic for one of my coleagues. On Tuesday my whole department went out for Sushi at lunch to say our farewells to the departments longest lasting member. During lunch my old manager and one of my co-workers were discussing one of the new admins in the department, and I was telling them the story about her first day when she asked me what kind of cookie I would be.

Of course, that prompted a response from the both of them, and Zak Nicola made the mistake of choosing ginger snap as his cookie choice. Of all the cookies in the world, why ginger snap I asked. He wasn’t able to give me a good reason, however I came to a conclusion of my own…Ginger Snap is his alter ego, his tranny whore weekend persona.

Following the lunch I IM’d my former manager and asked her to send me a picture of Zak so that I could turn him into Ginger Snap. The following night I spent a few hours perfecting the image and created his tranny whore alter ego, Ginger Snap.

The image was a hit at work, both Zak and the whole company LOVED the image. Zak was so amused he posted one in the hallway to celebrate V-day, and even gave a copy to our director, who was disturbed at the least. Needless to say, Ginger Snap is probably one of my best Photoshop mockery’s to date…

No this has nothing to do with baseball, so all you guys can put your baseball cards away. I’m talking about American’s other favorite pass time…Sex!

No, I’m not talking about prostituation, so don’t be afraid I am going to tell you to whore yourself out. I recently came across an article that ABC ran on their website about amatuer porn stars making money for their videos. The thing is, these aren’t your amateur up and coming girls and guys, these are every day people like you and me trying to supplement their income while exploring their voyueristic fantasies.

According to the article, a new service from XTube.com pays couples for their home sex videos. XTube makes money through visitors paying anywhere from $0.50 to $2.50 to view the amateur footage and then gives the stars of the films a percentage of the earnings.

Last month the site offered it’s users a 60% cut from the earnings, however starting next month amateur filmmakers will only get 50% of the revenues. Antoinette, a 25 year old woman they interviewed for the article is an interior designer, and says for her “20 minutes of work” she makes anywhere from $500 - $600 a month.

I took a peak at XTube’s amatuer section just to see what it was about, and it is in fact your run of the mill everyday guy and girl on their. Sure, they have their kinks, but we all do…we just don’t broadcast it online. And those of you who have always wanted to, may now have a profitable outlet.

So that leads me to my next question…Would you participate in such a service? In the story of Antoinette, she doesn’t even show her face, so the sex acts are completely anonymous. Would you show the eyes of the internet your hardcore sex acts knowing you wouldn’t be identified and had the potential to make hundreds of dollars a month for doing something you already enjoy doing?

I’d love to hear your thoughts!

So my wife stumbled upon an article from last halloween that featured some fun Halloween novelties for adults. I checked out the sites and it looks like almost all of them are still available for purchase, so if you’re like me and everyday is Halloween in your world, why not bring Halloween to the bedroom!

Comdomania Online sells a Halloween Condom Assortment that features fun Halloween images on the packaging.

The company also offers condoms featuring the artwork of Los Angeles artist Coop, featuring some of his trademark devil charactures.

CondomDepot.com offers the Trustex orange and black condom which will clearly put your unit in the Halloween spirit.

The UK website FeelConfident brings out the little devil in you with the Fun Devil Condom, which features a devil head tip on it. This is sure to bring a sinful good time to the bedroom.

Finally, there is the Vampire condom. This condom is all black and it’s website even comes with a top ten reasons on why to use it. Nothing says Halloween or even Gothic for that matter like a Vampire. Their site also offers the “Vampires Only” thong panties for that lady who loves her creatures of the night…

So if you’re looking for your taste of Halloween in the bedroom, look no further than some of the sites above. Show your lover a few tricks…or even a treat all year long!