Maximux Taxus Scammum

I hafta post about what I saw last night. It's about the cheapo printer company, Lexmark. Lexmark kindly donated a color printer to every teacher in the entire Douglas county school district. Wow, that's alot of printers. The free printer is the cheapest model Lexmark has. You know, the one they give you free with a computer purchase as 'incentive'. The whole business model behind these printers is to give them away, (it's a $30 printer) and then charge you a premium for the ink ($60 for both inks). Brilliant. Well, this printer is packaged with a folder inside for the 'Teacher program'. Inside this is a letter telling the teacher that Lexmark will 'donate' an ink cart for every three purchased from their website at normal retail prices. The average teacher would be like, wow, that's great and order plenty of ink to get the free one. This is a double bonus for Lexmark, they get pure profit from the sales of three inks, then get to take a tax deduction for the 'donated' ink. I'm sure Lexmark takes a FAT tax deduction for all the donated printers as well. It's what all the great corporations do in America, screw Uncle Sam. Even CokaCola scams us, they have MASSIVE tax dodges just by putting their 'international' offices in Antigua or Antilles so they don't hafta pay taxes and tarrifs to the U.S. for selling internationally. The whole machine pays for itself, the big corps then pay lobbyists to maintain the giant tax loopholes that make the corps richer. It makes me a disgusted American. Only when Washington D.C. is nuked and most of the crooked politicans are gone and then the 'centralized and corrupt' government is decentralized and politicians work from their home districts that voted them into office will any of the crappy american politcal system change signifigantly. Yeesh, at least my crap goes down the toilet somewhere else.....

Marked for life

I know it's geeky, but it's a fun and outdoorsy thing to do, and that's geocaching.
I've been poking away at the ground for a couple of years now. I recently decided to place a couple of caches around Castle Rock. I found a couple of places that are 'hidden' right in town that are pretty cool. One has a bunch of outdoor artwork and a hidden picnic bench, the other has a great view of the town. Take a look.
Old Glory Overlook
The Forgotten Picnic
Both caches are watertight plastic containers wrapped in camo tape, well hidden. It's pretty neat knowing these things will (hopefully) be there forever. It's also interesting the the detrius and flotsam that occupies these things, little trinkets and objects from everywhere.