Earlier this year, Peter was floored to get a notice from Netflix essentially informing us that if we wanted to continue having the same service they’d been giving us, we’d have to pay nearly double each month. We’ve been Netflix subscribers since 2000, and until then, we’d loved what they offered. Before then, if we…
Author: cjbickford
I See Stupid People
I don’t typically think of other people as stupid. I realize they may have different information or a different background than my own, or that the information they’ve been given wasn’t as clear as it should be. But every so often, like last Friday, I do run across someone who is epically stupid, to the…
Bring Your Own Bag Law Freak Out
As a businessperson, my relationship to the City of San Jose in which we have our offices is best described as contentious. It started when my husband moved his office to San Jose and paid the business license tax. Rather than welcoming a business to the city, the revenue department immediately assumed we’d been here…
The Day of the Dead and Aztec tradition
Until recently, the Mexican Day of the Dead was something I’d only read about in old Ray Bradbury stories. More recently, it’s become an artsy event for urban Californians, and this year we went to the San Jose Art Museum for their Day of the Dead festival. One of the highlights for us was making…
Rousting a Fugitive
A few nights ago, as Peter and I were going to bed, I looked out the window and saw two guys with hoodies and flashlights dipping in and out of a car in the dark. It looked suspicious, particularly since the video we have of my car being burgled in May featured a guy in…
Our Family Boogeyman
Since he was discovered driving Peter’s stolen car last year, Andrew Clark Bergman been on a multi-state crime spree. On November 25, 2010, he was arrested and booked in Las Vegas for grand larceny and burglary. On January 12, 2011, he was arrested in Kimble, Texas for unauthorized use of a motor vehicle. The day after Cinco…
A Bad Librarian Pits Me Against the City Council
As I’ve posted before, the City of San Jose has had to make major cutbacks in a lot of its services. It’s painful all around, but the state and the Feds are already trying to bleed us dry, and when it comes to forking over more out of my pocket to fund another governmental organization,…
Cutco Knives, Vector Marketing and the Neighborhood Kid
A few days ago, my neighbor’s grandson, who recently graduated from high school, stopped by and asked to speak to my husband. He told us he had a new job, and wondered if we’d listen to his sales presentation, for which he would get paid whether or not we bought. I asked him “what’re you…
The State Religion
Not many people realize that communism–at least as it was practiced in the Soviet Union, and today in North Korea–is a religion. I had scoffed at this concept until I went to the Soviet Union as an exchange student myself many years ago. Over my bed, my Ukrainian komsomol roommate had put a picture of…
Did the SJPD Run The Bad Guy Out of Town?
Back in May, I was understandably chagrined when our security video revealed a sleazy guy riffling through my car. When Peter looked at the tape, he thought the burglar looked an awful lot like Andrew Clark Bergman, aka Mr. Skeezebag, who had stolen his PT Cruiser in September, and was caught in it by the…