Rob Sterling

Disappointing Amazon.com purchase

Sterling — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 22:36:23 +0000

OK, so I’m a little annoyed by a purchase I made from Amazon. I eat a lot of quinoa, so I made a bulk quinoa purchase last week from Amazon. I ordered the six-package bulk package from Arrowhead Mills – a brand I really like. However, it seems that during bundling at [...]

An Evening at Wal-Mart

Sterling — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 02:14:35 +0000

So I was shopping at the Wal-Mart in south Richmond tonight. I love Wal-Mart. I didn’t really have access to one when I lived in the New York area, and I appreciate the density of Wal-Marts in the south. I was there to pick up a bottle of wine, some blue corn [...]

Joe Biden

Sterling — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 05:14:22 +0000

So in 1988, a month or so after the presidential election, I attended a speech by Joe Biden at American University. About 15 people were in attendance – not a lot of folks. During the somewhat anemic question and answer session, I posed a smart-ass query. I asked – approximately – “In [...]

James Lileks likes his Hummels

Sterling — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 00:59:33 +0000

I’m a big fan of James Lileks, a writer for the Star Tribune of Minneapolis/St.Paul. I’d like to say I became familiar with Lileks during time I spent in Minneapolis in the mid-90s setting up online stock trading for American Express Financial Services, but I didn’t. I actually learned about him after the [...]

Picasa for Linux

Sterling — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 18:59:11 +0000

I installed Picasa for Linux on my parents’ PC last night and I’m very pleased with the results. Previously I had them running the Windows executable via WINE, but performance and reliability were poor. Now they’ve got a solid way to upload and share photos. My parents bought their current PC about five years [...]

Hummel Production to Cease

Sterling — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 22:28:37 +0000

My grandmother owned a ton of Hummels, and I’ve got a strange soft spot for them – enough so that I actually own a Hummel-related domain at Hummel Trader. Last week Goebel, the German manufacturer of the figurines, announced that it would cease production, after years of declining sales. I assume the decline has a [...]

Solar Power Affiliate Marketing Site

Sterling — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 03:00:27 +0000

For the last few years I’ve been working on a lot of small and mid-size affiliate marketing projects, and I’ve decided to begin spending some of the capital I have at this blog in the advancement of my affiliate empire. So to begin, I give you Decorative Solar, a new blog I set up to take [...]

Armageddon, Ghostbusters-style

Sterling — Thu, 16 Nov 2006 20:25:34 +0000

From Ghostbusters, a 1984 movie I assume most readers have seen: Dr. Peter Venkman: This city is headed for a disaster of biblical proportions. Mayor: What do you mean, “biblical”? Dr Ray Stantz: What he means is Old Testament, Mr. Mayor, real wrath-of-God type stuff. Dr. Peter Venkman: Exactly. Dr Ray Stantz: Fire and brimstone coming down from the skies. [...]

Richmond or Brick?

Sterling — Mon, 30 Oct 2006 15:12:52 +0000

I saw in this morning’s Times-Dispatch the celebratory headline that Richmond’s standing in annual crime ratings has improved: City ranks as safer in crime survey. According to the Morgan Quitno Press, we’ve gone from the fifth most dangerous city in America to the 15th. Progress is progress, I suppose. On the other [...]

Turn Old Books Into Money

Sterling — Mon, 30 Oct 2006 04:45:58 +0000

A friend of mine here in Richmond named Ron Klein has done something pretty novel. About two years ago, Ron set out to buy the rights to a book called Turn Your Imagination Into Money, which was first published in 1934. Once he’d acquired the rights, Ron set about preparing a new edition, [...]