01 Feb 2007, 14:41

Well, something’s outrageous alright

“It is outrageous, in a post-911 world, that a company would use this type of marketing scheme

Sigh.

Comments

Comment by Carrie on 2007-02-01 18:34:12 +0000

You’re kidding, right?

Its a genius marketing plan!

Comment by Will on 2007-02-01 19:43:33 +0000

That was a quote from the mayor of Boston in the NY Times article, which I thought was completely, eye-rollingly ridiculous. Invoking 911 over objects that are obviously not bombs, at least any more so than any other random electronic device that you might encounter during a typical day, seems pretty brain dead to me. I think I may have been too subtle with my mockery though :)

Comment by Ash on 2007-02-03 22:40:28 +0000

Geez, that’s ridiculous.

BTW, I like the new theme. very clean. very..patriotic! But, I still think you should switch to WordPress to get the NowReading plugin :)

23 Jan 2007, 03:42

That’s not what I had in mind

Here’s a fun fact: If you start to shut down Windows XP and then realize “Wait, no, I meant to Hibernate!” you may still have time to bring up the shut down menu again and select Hibernate. It will then appear that the system goes into hibernation instead of shutting down. However, when you restore from hibernation you will find that it didn’t go into hibernation instead of shutting down, it just went into hibernation while shutting down and will continue to complete the shut down process very shortly thereafter. I guess this technically makes sense as hibernation is supposed to restore your system to the exact state it was in at the time. It doesn’t necessarily seem to be the best way to handle this case though. I have a feeling that would fall into the “Well, we didn’t think any sane user would do that” class of design decisions/omissions, I’m choosing instead to attribute it as an act of malice directed specifically at me, as improbable as that may be. Do what I mean and not what I say, computer!

Comments

Comment by Dan Thill on 2007-01-22 21:21:55 +0000

Do what I mean and not what I say, computer!

For that, you need a Mac 😉

22 Jan 2007, 00:14

In the olden days

I wouldn’t be at all surprised to learn that mankind had a much greater fondness and appreciation for snow before the invention of driveways and sidewalks.

19 Jan 2007, 04:11

A lesson learned

Just because Bawls Mints claim to be lightly carbonated does not mean that you can add several of them to a cup of water and end up with a fizzy recreation of the excellent code-fueling beverage from which the mints derive their name (but none of the quality). What you can end up with is a cup of mildly sweet, odd tasting blue water with chalky chunks of bloated, half-dissolved candy pieces. And no carbonation at all. This is but one of the ways that Bawls Mints manage to completely and utterly disappoint.

Comments

Comment by Ash Bhoopathy on 2007-01-20 15:44:25 +0000

HAHAHAH. And where, pray tell, did you get the inspiration to ummh try this?

I feel like this could have been you tubed pretty nicely… :)You shoulda done it!

Ash

Comment by Will on 2007-01-21 17:22:07 +0000

I would probably credit the inspiration to simple lack of common sense.

09 Jan 2007, 05:47

That’ll be a mulligan, thanks

I recorded the OSU vs Florida national championship game tonight. What I intend to do is to loop Ted Ginn’s return of the opening kickoff for a touchdown over and over so that it fills the entire duration of the game, 30 glorious seconds at a time. In this game, we win by something like an unheard of 400 points. If nobody minds too much, I’d like for this to be considered the official version of the game, and for what the nation witnessed tonight to be dismissed as a humorous outtake, or perhaps a crazy alternate reality thought experiment. I do not feel this to be unreasonable.

Comments

Comment by Tobin on 2007-01-11 22:40:52 +0000

That game hurt me so much.

Comment by Ash on 2007-01-12 01:37:02 +0000

dude, its a big10 affliction man. don’t take it personally.

but, rotflmao about your PVR version of the game

15 Sep 2005, 04:50

Well, you know what I’ll be doing on November 9th now.

You pretty much know there’s no way I’m going to miss this. The Video Games Live concert has a bunch of new tour dates announced and it seems that they’re playing in Kansas City at the Midland Theatre on November 9th. At least I hope that’s right, because it’s not listed on Ticketmaster or on Midland’s site itself yet. While I’d probably rather see the orchestral performance of music from Final Fantasy I’m certainly not going to pass on the opportunity to enjoy a fine evening of geekery under the guise of a legitimate fine arts event. I mean, a symphony’s a symphony right?

Comments

Comment by Carrie on 2005-09-15 00:14:49 +0000

We’re so going to the Columbus show on November 13th.

w00t!

Comment by Neal on 2005-09-15 10:23:12 +0000

Carrie, did you get your tickets yet? Mind if I tag along?

Comment by Tobin on 2005-09-17 19:28:21 +0000

Oh man, I hadn’t heard about this yet. I probably wouldn’t know most of the music… but there’s some I’d love to hear. I may end up having to go to the Columbus show as well. Thanks a lot, Will.

Comment by Will on 2005-09-17 19:34:00 +0000

Well this is just great. Now everyone’s going to the Columbus show without me. Come on guys, why don’t you come to the KC show? Please?

04 Jul 2004, 23:47

Happy 4th of July

Ah, fireworks. The great cleanser of the American gene pool. Check out the hilarious fireworks related mishap in this video. (Windows media) Silly doggie! You’re going to need better aim if you want to wipe out your human overlords.

21 Apr 2004, 03:24

The Language of Corporations

Ok, so I was reading this article on MSNBC about the deaths of US contractors in Iraq and it got me thinking on a tangent. In the article there is a quote from Halliburton on the loss of its workers: “There is no road map for something like this and we are doing everything we can to assist the families as well as our employees to cope with this huge tragedy.” The use of the phrase “road map” was what really made me pause. “Road map” is one of those buzzwords that seems to have caught hold lately in corporate and government organizations. For example, the road map for the middle east peace process. Its even in common use at the company I work for. It’s no longer enough to have a plan, you have to have a “road map”. Words and phrases like these arise all the time in corporate cultures. The CEO says something in a big company meeting, and by the next day you can’t get through a single meeting or even break room conversation without hearing it 10 times. It just works its way into the company lexicon and everyone knows what it means. Often the language will make the jump from organization to organization and you end up with the widely recognized buzzwords, like “synergy” or the classic Dilbert example, “proactive”. What really bothers me though, is that the spokesperson for Halliburton couldn’t express a statement of sympathy without slipping into corp-speak. I don’t think they used it out of ill-intent or disrespect, in fact they probably weren’t even aware of that choice of language. But to me, the edge of inhumanity that it gives to the remark is unsettling. I may well be making a big deal out of nothing, but after being surrounded by the language of corporations I find myself being extra sensitive to it.

[Listening to: The Get Up Kids – Overdue]

Comments

Comment by Tobin on 2004-04-20 21:47:25 +0000

Hear hear. I’m tired of the corporate talk too. If I hear my boss talk about having some “database opportunities” or “network opportunities”, I’m going to scream. (ok, no I’m not)

But why can’t we just say we have problems? It’s ok to have problems, or issues, or hurdles. Why do they have to be opportunities? It’s so stupid.

Comment by Carrie on 2004-04-22 07:33:21 +0000

“Road map” sounds less scary compared to “quagmire” or “imbroglio” when you’re talking about Iraq.

Just like “insurgent” is a much nicer word to use than the phrase “legitimately pissed off Iraqis who just want their country back”

19 Mar 2004, 05:45

Now with 30% more butt!!!

My butt's pasty enough, thanks.It’s good to know that deep inside, I am still apparently a 12 year old. As soon as I saw this in the Target pharmacy I made Jolayne give me her camera phone so I could record it for posterity. What would people do in the age before camera phones? I don’t think that words alone could do justice to the quirky charm of this obviously miraculous paste. And if you’re curious, no I did not purchase any Butt Paste though I was sorely tempted. I assume it would be used for reaffixing buttocks that have become loose or fallen off, so it would obviously be a good idea to have some on hand. You know, just in case.

[Listening to: Arab Strap – Serenade]

Comments

Comment by Phil on 2004-03-19 11:59:18 +0000

I bet Opus from Bloom Country would love this stuff. His posterior is ALWAYS falling off at the most inopportune times.

Comment by Carrie on 2004-03-19 21:19:27 +0000

LMAO … got any butt paste I can borrow?

Comment by Carrie on 2004-03-21 21:52:41 +0000

Did you know you can buy Butt Paste on-line …. in a 1lb jug?

http://buttpaste.com/

Now thats a lotta butt paste.

06 Aug 2003, 03:55

FLCL (aka Furi Kuri aka

FLCL (aka Furi Kuri aka Fooly Cooly) is without a doubt the most insane, incomprehensible, and entirely enjoyable anime I’ve seen in a long time. I caught the first episode of it on Adult Swim last night and was blown away. The animation goes over the top to riff on every manga-style animation gimmick imaginable in hyperactive rapid fire succession, and then throws in a ton of new tricks to boot. The show itself is highly self-referential and it knows that it’s so cool that it doesn’t even have to bother with making sense right off the bat to get you hooked. As for the story, well, see… there’s this alien girl riding around on a vespa carrying a Rickenbacker with some kind of motor and a ripcord in it… and then there’s a boy who has giant fighting robots THAT JUMP OUT OF HIS HEAD!! So as you can see, very basic stuff here, nothing too strange… If you even remotely like anime and have no problem with shows with a severe case of ADD that go out of their way to confuse you, then you really ought to check this out.