And the Cars

I also have to mention as a pass the madness is that people are seeing today as a great time to show off their old cars by driving down Colorado.

Pasadena Rose Parade Prep Pictures

The festivities were in full swing as people officially and legally began their squatting in order to have a great view of the parade.  It almost made me wonder if there was such a thing as a professional street squatter, because some of these people are much too organized.

For example, at first I only saw portable chairs lining the streets, but soon there were sleeping bags, then air mattresses, and finally full fledged cots.  These people are ready to sleep in style!  If it got cold I saw at least half a dozen people with the portable heaters that restaurants use, propane, the height of a lamp post, like I said, professional.  There were extra propane tanks, logs for burning, coolers for food, tables, the whole nine yards.  I can't believe that these people still have 20 more hours to go.  And what could express the scenario better than pictures snapped with my Storm (pardon the low quality).

Zombie preparations:

Lining the streets:

These people are prepared:

More Parade Observations

The Rose Parade web site says that people are not allowed to stake out a spot on the street until noon on the 31st (that's waiting 20 hours for the parade) but on my 9AM walk to work I saw no less than 50 people already claiming their positions.  They'll probably be allowed to stay because what would really be the point of booting them for 3 hours but wow, all for a Rose Parade?

And maybe it's because I've been playing a game killing Zombies but the fenced up store fronts, which is now the rule rather than the exception, is exactly what I picture from the coming zombie apocalypse.  Cause you know zombies can eventually break down wood if you just board up your windows but putting chain link fence would probably be pretty effective.  Walking down Colorado makes me feel like I didn't get the memo and I really shouldn't be out by myself without a shotgun.  Paranoid, or perfectly reasonable?

Pasadena Prepares for the Parade

Having the unique opportunity to live and work on the very street which the world famous Rose Parade passes along has granted me a unique opportunity to see the many many preparations that the city and vendors go through, both to profit, and to protect their property.

The first sign that the rose parade was coming were the large (one might say huge) sets of bleachers that went up in an open grass field along Orange Grove Blvd.  After that I was surprised to see them popping up like mushroom at just about any available space along Colorado Blvd.  First it was in front of an AT&T corporate building, then a parking lot, then the mall.  If it was wide enough and the trees were short enough, a bleacher can be put in.

The next bit of Pasadena magic was the hauling away of covered bus stops.  One would have thought, looking at them that there were a more or less permanent fixture.  I guess that isn't entirely true because over the course of Monday, the 29th, every covered bus stop I see on my walk to work disappeared.

And the final bit of protection from the masses who will line the streets of Pasadena were the stores and homes that put up fences, I presume because there is no other reasonable means of protecting your yard/property.  The entire mall along Colorado (the Paseo Colorado) appears as if it will be fenced off.  Several stores with large windows have put fences along their store front.

Along Orange Grove Blvd. they put large wooden beams in the ground so they could rope off people from walking into the street and fences behind so that they wouldn't spill into people's yard.  And they just repeat this process every year, digging the holes for the beams and filling them right after like it never existed.  Quite a lot of effort overall, and I saw it all first hand happening around me.

Google keeps impressing me!

The short version of the article linked in the title is that a UPS driver, upon trying to deliver a package when the resident was not home decided to make his job easier and sign on behalf of the resident and just leave the package.  The UPS driver signed "Terrorist" as the name of the turban wearing Sikh whom the package was to be delivered to.  This was the ad attached to the article.

Yes, that's one ad for Turbans and one ad for a UPS Franchise.  That's using keywords right.  I especially like that the Turbans being offered are "for hair loss or fashion", not any religious preference.

Google's just trying to help

Type in "How much does" into google's search bar and wait just a second or two...  top two helpful suggestions: How much does the president make? and How much does an abortion cost?

And in case you were curious, $400,000 and $200 - $1000.

Christmas is for Kids

It may not be a popular thought but it's one I firmly believe in.  Adults don't need Christmas, so why do they cling to the ceremonies that could so easily be passed over?

Kids need Christmas.  They don't have steady income, they always want lots of things they can't have, and they generally have a lack of the fundamental concept that being lavished with presents on this certain holiday had to come out of someone else's pocket and at their expense.  Adults also seem to reap pleasure in seeing a child's face light up with excitement upon opening a gift, so there is a mutual exchange of joy.

Adults on the other hand do not need Christmas.  They are either capable of acquiring goods on their own or should realize that anything unattainable should not be acquired.  The fact that irresponsible people see it as a time to splurge now and make up for later is a vestige of childlike immaturity that should be excised as soon as possible so that the growing up can begin.  The exchange of presents between adults also does not seem to have the excitement element for various reasons:

a) The present was not exactly correct or not wanted/needed in the first place
b) There was not present parity (i.e. they spent more or less than you in this "exchange")
c) It would have been easier/cheaper for you to get it yourself

Just as there comes a time when a child passes to adulthood and no longer receives checks in their birthday card, so too should adults move on with the Christmas gift exchange.  Let it be about the kids.  Lavish kids, treat yourself if you can afford it, but drop the notion that you need to run out and get some present for everyone that might get you a present.  As an economist, there is a huge amount of inefficiency and waste in this process that deserves to be dropped.

Somebody Lock Paulson up QUICK

All quotes from MSNBC.com


December 16th - Paulson also said he has no current plans to ask Congress to make the second half of the $700 billion financial rescue fund available before the Bush administration leaves office on Jan. 20. But he added that the administration was prepared to move quickly, if necessary, to tap the extra resources.

For that reason, he said he did not see a need to request authorization from Congress to tap the second half of the rescue package, but he left the door open to making such a request if situations changed.

December 19th - Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said Friday that Congress will need to release the last half of the $700 billion rescue fund because the first $350 billion has been committed.

Probably a bad idea

From Joystiq: "There's more uses for your Rock Band mic than simply belting out off-tune renditions of Lump or clubbing your roommate as he reaches for a bite of your chili dog. ESPN reports that next year's MLB 09 The Show will allow players to record cat calls to be yelled out from the stands using a microphone or wireless headset.

Calling the feature Trash Talk 2.0, the article reveals that the game will mix your recorded chants or insults so they sound as if they are a part of the crowd and not just coming from a single overzealous fan with a booming voice. With this, virtual baseball competition will likely get a bit more personal when MLB 09 The Show arrives on March 3."


Why is it I expect to hear a little worse than "Hey batta batta swing batta" when this comes out...

Statistical Trickery

From CNN: "For example, a study by Harvard researchers found that each additional 12-ounce soft drink consumed per day increases the risk of a child becoming obese by 60 percent."


Without knowing the baseline this statement is worthless, yet it's no where in the article.  If the risk of a child becoming obese was 1% then 1 soda increases their risk to 1.6%, not a big deal.  If the risk of being obese is 30% then 1 soda raises them to 48%.  Now that's a big deal.  So obviously it's somewhere in between, but the media would prefer to give the impression that the first soda raises a child's risk of becoming obese TO 60% and by the second soda they're downright doomed.  That's strength in numbers. 

Caught up in the Spirit

Shopping at Whole Foods I saw a display that highlighted the phrase "Feed 100".  I inspected this burlap pouch that had the Feed 100 stamp on it and read the tag, which proclaimed that by purchasing this reusable grocery bag you would be helping the environment by cutting down the number of bags produced and wasted and provide meals to feed 100 children in schools in Africa.  I did have two reusable grocery bags but they were not made out of nearly as durable material as this cotton/burlap bag and were starting to develop holes so I decided to "purchase" this $25 bag which in my mind was really a donation to the cause of feeding children in Africa.

Then I got bored and went on the internet.  This is what I found that disappointed me on the www.feedprojects.org website which created the Feed 100 bag: "When a Whole Foods Market customer buys a FEED 100 bag, $10 will be donated by FEED Projects’ foundation, FEED Foundation, to the World Food Program’s Rwanda School Feeding operation; with the remainder going to cover the costs of the bag and oversight of the program by the FEED foundation. To further help the initiative, Whole Foods Market is not making a profit by offering the bags to its shoppers." 


Now, reading their formula leaves me a little disappointed in the organization.  It seems it only takes $10 to feed 100 children, we all know that "covering the costs of the bag" is really a nominal cost, which means that the largest chunk of the purchase is going to "oversight of the program by the FEED foundation".  I'm sure they're doing good things but it disillusions me with all charitable giving that most of the money being given ends up going to administration and advertising.  If you give a dollar and only thirty cents makes it to the worthy cause you wanted to support, doesn't it make you less inclined to give a dollar?  It does for me.  I'd like a foundation that existed which had all of the administration costs covered by an initial benefactor who donated to establish the cause, and all outside donations could be used for the direct purpose they were intended for.  Somebody show me this cause and I'll support it (or maybe make it my own cause).

Connect the dots, la la la la

"households reduced their debt levels by 0.8 percent at an annual rate in the July-September period, the first drop on records that go back more than 50 years."
.
.
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"banks...have tightened lending standards and made it harder for people to get loans."




"Mortgage debt fell at an annual rate of 2.4 percent in the third quarter, the largest decline on record."
.
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"Since the housing bubble began to deflate in 2006, roughly 3 million homes have been lost to foreclosure. Over the next two years, another 3.6 million are expected to lose their homes."

Blackberry Storm

Soon enough I will tell the masses (that's you Erik!) about my experiences with the Blackberry Storm.  First, I'm going to make fun of MSNBC.  I'm just going to say that I don't trust a tech column written by the lady in that picture.  Maybe I'm being judgmental to a fault but that picture just doesn't scream "Cutting Edge" to me. The fact that this article was written on 12/10 (Wednesday) even though the update was released for download the Friday before and available over the air on Monday, and the author only noticed the update icon show up Tuesday evening only adds to my concerns.  Now I'll question journalistic integrity.  The below quote claims to include an e-mail from a fellow storm user with typos.  l e a r n r n g...  that second r is nowhere near the i they were intending.  Blackberry's fault?  u... they're tying in shorthand so who knows what  texting language they may have been attempting and what autocorrect predictive text adjustments the blackberry software may have been trying to make? ko... k n o w...  how'd they mess that one up?  That's only two keystrokes on a screen designed to tell you exactly when you've actually pressed a button!  qhw? qhw.?  when?  Maybe the keystrokes on the left thumb are shifted over one?  And finally, ag = at (aiming too low for the t obviously) and kwyboafd (they pretty much manage to screw up every button they use their left hand on for this).

I don't want to go and call this downright fake, but I do think that the person who may have been sending the e-mail was trying to type as fast as possible to exaggerate the errors and make a good point for an article that was two days late and a dollar short of content.

License to Kill (part 1 of many)

I would like a license to kill the person that stands right next to the cross-walk button, intending to cross, but doesn't push that button.  I think that should be a god given right, but short of that I think that I should be able to apply for a license that allows me, with the full permission of our government, to kill that individual.

I would be happy to take tests that would prove I can make a clear and unbiased decision that it is both fair and appropriate to use my licensed power.  I am pretty sure any judge in this fair country upon analyzing the circumstances of the situation would agree that this person deserves to die and that my actions would have been appropriate.

So who's in charge of giving out these licenses?

See? I was right!

So days after my complaint about the NY governor getting to pick Hillary Clinton's replacement, here is the IL governor getting arrested for trying to sell Obama's vacated seat!  See how it would be better if democracy was running the show rather than governors getting to call the shots?  So yeah, I guess this guy pretty much proved my case, open and shut.

Mirror's Edge

I tried posting this on my 360 Blog but anything there will quickly get lost with the post/day format so I'm bringing video game reviews back over here!

Mirror's Edge is a new genre of game. The developer commentary that they make you feel like the action hero rather than feeling like you are controlling the action hero actually came through. The game was brilliant, but had its flaws.  

Despite other gamers' gripes, I found the controls to be perfectly suitable to normal game play. I never got in depth enough to see whether the controls would limit me perfecting a time trial, but that was never my focus in playing the game. The movements were all fluid and the variety of character animations depending on the situation make interacting with the environment exciting without being tedious. I might as well also say that the outside environment is gorgeous, and I wish I was able to spend more time outside rather than running around office building floors and through ventilation ducts.  

As we transition to the gripes, my biggest complaint is with lack of direction. At first I scoffed at the idea of seeing red objects that would guide me through a level. In outside environments there are so many objects that you naturally see several paths that you could take and don't need to have your hand held. What the developers missed is that indoors, when they laid out only one or two options for getting to a destination, a little hand-holding would have cut a ton of grief. To express how many times I died because I didn't know that at the bottom of a series of stair cases all I had to do was walk into the revolving doors and it would trigger the end cut-scene (I died many times and needlessly knocked out many opponents before discovering this) or the fact that every boss has one solution (hint: DISARM THEM!!!) but you don't really know that they're a boss until you've been punching and kicking them, tried to get around them, and then realize you're just going to have to try something else. This game needed a big heaping tablespoon of helpful guidance. From the ever present voice in your ear to maybe some marks on the wall to suggest where you might need to wall-climb, something would be appreciated.

Ultimately, this game was designed for the hard-core. You are meant to struggle through the first time with some direction. Later you are meant to push yourself now that you are familiar with the level, until you can do it in an extremely short amount of time. 8 minutes and 30 seconds sound like a pretty short time to pass Level 1? Well the qualifying time for the time trials is 6 minutes so you fail. That's definitely catering to the hard-core audience if you ask me.  

So as I packed up Mirror's Edge and sent it back to Gamefly, I'll try to remember how sweet it looked to wall-run, turn, jump, wall-climb, turn, jump to scale between two buildings. I'll ignore the fact that all the time trial stuff existed and just assume it wasn't made for me in the first place. Thanks EA/DICE for trying something different!

I didn't know companies could do this...

"[3M is] ordering some workers to take vacation or unpaid time off for the last two weeks of the year."


Even ordering employees to take vacation is ballsy...  ordering them to take unpaid time off for the last two weeks of the year?!?  I guess times are rough (and employees don't do very much from 12/15 to 1/1).  I wonder if that means 3M doesn't pay them for holidays either!

Democracy

When someone in office dies and their spouse steps up to fill the position, that makes sense to me.  People elected someone and the spouse can continue that person's legacy and then if they want, when the time comes they can run for election as their own person next go-around.

I don't really get (actually, I get it, I just don't like it) why random people can be appointed during this government turnover/transition phase.  Senator Hillary Clinton becoming Secretary of State?  New York Governor gets to pick someone/anyone he wants to fill her place.  Does that seem right in a democracy?  I would actually prefer that more people have to lay their neck on the lines during these elections.  Obama and McCain both want to be President?  OK, then since you can't be President and a Senator you should step down from your Senate role ahead of time and risk not being a politician if you really want a run.  None of this "backup plan" bull shit.

There are so many cases of political nepotism that nobody even bothers to point them out but it's frustrating that the barriers of entry to outsiders are so tall.

(Note, the person that may be appointed is Caroline Kennedy... yes, one of the Kennedy's.  Qualifications?  Attorney and Author, only surviving child of JFK... I rest my case.)

Great Headlines People, Keep 'em Coming

From the front page of MSNBC:

"Job market could get worse, forecasters say"

Brilliant!

DRM to the Xtreme!

If companies really want a handle on the used game market they just have to keep the reins on magical unlock codes.  Buy a game, there's a code in the box (this is for the people without teh internetz).  Buy a used game and you have to go online and request a code ($5 fee please).

So what if nobody ever went online?  How would it know the code had been used?  The douchiest way would be to make people call a number to activate, but that would take infrastructure.  I would say just let those people who don't go online reuse the code, but the first one that logs on at any point destroys the code from then on out for anyone else trying to use the code (i.e. I play with code A, someone else buys it from me and I give them code A, they go online and code A gets assigned to them then if I ever go online my system will say the code has been used and I have to get a new one.)  If I never sell my game then I'd never have to worry about it, online or off.  If I sell my game, there's the obvious incentive to hold on to the code so someone else doesn't activate it causing me to lose my game or pony up $5.  The only ones ever safe are those that NEVER connect to the internet on their consoles (a dying breed I'm sure).

I think that it's brilliantly evil.  Thoughts?  Holes in my armor?  Discuss!

Perfectly Normal

From MSNBC.com:


"The Argentine navy says a cruise ship carrying 122 people is adrift and taking on water in Antarctica but is in no danger of sinking."


Color me cynical but isn't there at least some danger of it sinking?  I mean, it is taking on water...  in Antarctica.  Sounds dangerous.

Stupid Comment re: Blackberry Storm

"[I]n its zeal to cash in on some of that iPhone touch-screen mania, R.I.M. has created a BlackBerry without a physical keyboard. Hello? Isn’t the thumb keyboard the defining feature of a BlackBerry? A BlackBerry without a keyboard is like an iPod without a scroll wheel. A Prius with terrible mileage. Cracker Jack without a prize inside."


I'm guessing this quote struck most tech-savvy people as odd but I added the emphasis just to point out how quickly the reviewer made themselves sound like an idiot.  Within a few short sentences of acknowledging the iPhone (I am assuming awareness of the iPhones non-phone iPod Touch sibling) they shudder at the thought of an iPod without a scroll wheel!  The author should bury their head in shame and review from ever writing gadget reviews again.  The author was David Pogue, btw.

Weather Maps

Checking the weather at weather.com is nothing new or groundbreaking, but recently the rain has been coming in downpours that seem hard to predict... until I saw this weather map!

It keeps updating with the next 5 minutes of data shortly after it has happened and shows you what might be moving your way on the horizon.  It does a hell of a lot better than their hourly projections which just give % chance of rain but no real indicator of what's imminent.  I now know that I can walk home in safety because there's no downpours on the horizon, unlike the major flood that happened just minutes ago.  Technology just keeps getting better.

Apple...lies?

Background for anyone not versed in Apple: Beginning with a patch that enabled 802.11n functionality on Macs and continuing with applications being made available for the ipod touch, Apple has claimed that their accounting practices forced them to charge for updates that added functionality to a product they had already sold.  The accounting practice allowed them to recognize income from a product sold immediately rather than over a useful life.  They similarly reason that because they receive a perpetual stream of income from iphones that they can provide updates to that hardware for free.

Now the lie.  They have just updated the ipod touch to allow me to download podcasts directly from my ipod, rather than through itunes on my computer.  They have added functionality and for once have not charged me.  It is obvious that they consider this an added functionality because they blocked another software company from making a similar application available in the itunes application store.  So how do they justify this position?  They don't, because they don't ever have to justify their positions.  Oh well, I guess I'll just be satisfied with the earlier lies and take my functionality for free this one time.

Stupid Passwords

Everyone knows that passwords are getting ridiculous, and there are 101 solutions from the basic web browser remember most of your passwords to the password protected word document to dedicated programs that store your passwords.  What I'd like is if every page that had some convoluted password requirement would just tell you what it was from the start.  8 characters? Needs a symbol #@!*$? Can't start or end with a number?!?  Just give me a clue and maybe I can provide the right password for the occasion without being bothered with the "Forgot my Password" link.

After trying twice at Verizon, I clicked the link, answered the questions, was prompted to change my password where I was finally told the rules for said password, and changed it to exactly the same password it was before.  Had I known the rule this process would have never happened.

Now if this was anything like my work computer that would then tell me I couldn't reuse a password I already used I'd promptly put my fist through my monitor, but luckily things didn't get that ugly.  Still, a little help would be nice.

Halloween Candy

Guess how many nerds are in the small Halloween box...  highlight the answer(s) below (i will be running tests until the office supply runs out):

241
211
275
155 (it seems orange is a ripoff!)

Credit Card Debt

"A quarter of consumers polled in a Standard & Poor's survey released Oct. 15 said they're at or near the limits on their primary credit card, and 20 percent said they're approaching the limit on their secondary cards."


Wow... just wow.

Make History Tomorrow

That's the headline of an e-mail I got today, with sincere appreciation from John McCain.

With that in mind and not getting all political, when I clicked on the unsubscribe link at the bottom of the e-mail these were my following choices:

I am a McCain Supporter but don't wish to be contacted until closer to the election.
I am a McCain Supporter but I am receiving too many emails. Please only send me newsletters and urgent alerts.
I am a McCain Supporter but do not wish to receive email any longer.
I am no longer a McCain Supporter and want to be taken off the email list.

I'm having a tough time hitting the unsubscribe button because no matter what is says that I was at some point a McCain supporter and I'm terrified by that notion.  Damn they're tricky!

Government Screw-up - Election Edition

I feel compelled to rant about Los Angeles County and their pitiful job at handling the election/registration/voting by mail.  I will accept a modicum of guilt in that in theory I could have registered and applied to vote by mail as soon as I moved, rather than waiting until the deadline, but regardless, I met the deadline and so far they haven't.

What bothers me is that they set a deadline which in theory would suggest that they were capable of handling their responsibilities for all entries before this deadline.  For the option to vote by mail, the deadline was 7 days before the election.  So 8 days before the election I went online and registered to vote by mail so I was expecting my election materials to arrive sometime last week.  After getting nothing I checked the web for details and found out that they sent their last batch of vote by mail materials on Friday, 10/31 and "should be aware that there is likely not sufficient time to return them by mail."  Thanks LA, that was the whole point and now it's not possible.  Good job!

(and as a side note, the fact that voting by mail requires postage is total and complete BS.  If we have a right to vote then the one thing the post office as a government agency should be able to pick up for free is a damn ballot.  Imagine the homeless person who can write the street corner they live on to get a ballot delivered to them and they have to pay 42 cents to send that in.  Very stupid!)

Gamefly Suggestion

Good ideas always turn out to be elegant in their simplicity.  I just handed Gamefly an elegant suggestion via their web-site that I would love to see implemented.  It would be so easy for them to implement it.  Yet I have no faith that it will ever be read let alone acted upon.  

Here's the suggestion: Gamefly has a queue of games just like Netflix, with a number field next to each title.  My suggestion is that they put in a wild card, either 99 or 00 or something, which would keep a game in the queue but keep it from being considered an actual request.

My fake example was that if I had 2 football games I wouldn't want one coming right after the other, so instead of deleting it from my list and adding it again I could just put a 99 next to it and still be aware of it but not risk it being shipped next.

To me this seems like something a programmer could whip up in an afternoon, and if nobody used it ever then Gamefly would not be harmed by it.  But if people actually used it, unwanted games would never be shipped and Gamefly would not be paying for shipping on games that might be turned around and sent back in right away.  Win-win!  But the idea will probably only go as far as this blog, which is why I felt I had to post it somewhere.

SoulCalibur IV - The Experiment

Having a rental service like Gamefly allows one to experiment with games, much like Netflix allows you to experiment with movies.  SoulCalibur IV was purely an experiment on my part.  I haven't played a fighting game since the 2D fighters like Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter reigned supreme and I was curious what a current generation 3D fighting game would feel like.

I knew I'd never get so far in to the style that I'd be challenging people online and mastering my moves and timing.  Things have gotten a lot more complex than the days when most moves were accomplished by quarter-circle movements on the joystick and the press of a button.  One look at the move list for a character showed pages and pages of combinations of buttons and directions, all of which accomplish a similar but subtly different action.  The beauty of dabbling rather than studying these games is that mashing your buttons can get your character to do crazy and unexpected moves and the surprise may possibly be more enjoyable than doing something on purpose.  In any case, once you've seen a fair variety of back flip/slash/spin/throw moves my entertainment of the theater waned and I moved on to my focus on achievements.

SoulCalibur IV has done an evil job of stinging the achievements along a timeline so that I'm always an hour or so away from the next few achievements.  Without any context I thought that making 10,000 attacks, walking 10,000 meters, blocking 1,000 times, etc. would take a long time but they're all fluid within battles and my progress towards all of these achievements seems to be pretty constant based on my playing style.  So I'm 80% done with one, 70% with another, 55% with another, and so on, so that I'm always getting rewarded for playing just a little bit more.  As I said, this is cruel because if all achievements had been a good distance off then it would already be in the mail headed back to Gamefly to be replaced.  It's a struggle to weigh the benefits of spending more time vs. progress in another game.  Well played.

The Media

There are a million different reasons to rant about the media.  Today it will be about the way that they twist headlines.  Looking at MSNBC's front page there is a bar on the left with headlines under "Economy in turmoil." Below that are the following headlines:

Harder times mean softer paychecks
White House to banks: Stop hoarding money
Home prices fall by sharpest annual rate ever
Consumer confidence at lowest ever
Wall Street rallies despite bleak news

It's the last headline that bothers me, because on a daily basis the Dow is up or down 2% as many things in the world are being factored in.  To suggest that Wall Street is rallying because there happens to be a modest upswing today that coincides with this other negative news is silly.  Wall Street is down 20+% from where it was.  Slight ups and downs do not change the fact that we're no where near a rally, we're just wobbling on an uncertain base and will continue to wobble until all the current factors in our new reality settle.  The news is no less bleak because Wall Street is up 2%, and Wall Street isn't excited about the bad news, and it doesn't suggest that Wall Street expected the news to be worse.  It's more reasonable to report these as unrelated event but that's not like the media, so why have high expectations.

Gamerscore Guilt

I have to make a confession about my gamerscore that I feel guilty about.  No, it's not the fact that I rent games, rack up as much score as I can efficiently and then send them back.  What I feel guilty for is that I have formed a band with Loddie in Rock Band 2, and we had been earning gamerscore points together as our band progressed.  So yesterday when I was trying to make the microphone work properly I picked an old song that we had done before to test it out and a screen asked me if I wanted to make a music video to get more fans.  I of course said yes, not suspecting the consequences.  At the end of the song an achievement popped up for making a video.  Now I feel guilty, and my only hope is that these video opportunities come up multiple times because otherwise I'll feel really guilty if this was our band's one shot at making a video.  At least I've gotten that off my chest.

Anonymity

"A person familiar with the case provided the number of players involved Monday, saying estimates of a higher figure were untrue. The person spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the players are appealing the findings."


The rant today will be on anonymity.  While the above quote isn't as heinous as some examples, it does highlight the issue I have with the media and anonymous sources, because in the case above, the source could have given the names of the players, which the media would have quoted, regardless of the fact that appeals and due process are ongoing.  There is no personal protection from an inside source blabbing anonymously and the media will jump on that source any chance they get.  Since it is completely unethical for an inside source to utilize that information and disclose it to the media, why is it ethical for the media to print that information? (answer: it's not)

Which would you buy?

In April of 2008 Hasbro made 1,000 copies of Risk: Black Ops and sent them to various game outlets.  It was a reinvented Risk with easier rules that allowed games to take less than 2 hours, much shorter than the previous versions.  In addition to the revised rules, it looked like this:

It came in a slick black box and had a style that showed it was very different from the prior Risk.  Many were excited, until Hasbro mentioned that the new Risk wouldn't look like this.  It would look a lot like the old Risk.  And then the proceeded to follow through with Risk: Reinvented, which looks like this:

Bright, colorful, arrows?  Definitely not slick.  I honestly had the expectation that within the 8 months before Christmas they would see the error in their ways and release the Black Ops edition.  Today I sent an angry e-mail to them since they still have not seen the error in their ways.  I know that angry e-mails to customer service of big companies don't actually go anywhere, but it's therapeutic to fire one off sometimes.  I've sent many angry e-mails and this won't be the last, that's for sure!

Stimulus Package

This time I'm really going to spend it!  No, not really.

From MSNBC: "Democrats in Congress are also pushing efforts to assemble a second economic stimulus program that could total $150 billion or more. On Monday, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke said a “significant” stimulus package is appropriate. The White House has yet to endorse the idea, but has said President Bush was at least willing to consider a second stimulus measure."


Of course it goes without saying that I think this is stupid, and that the government is wasting its money.  In case you're not aware with the specifics, the last round of $600 checks cost around $150 billion total to send out, and congress is thinking about another one.  Of course this is an even bigger waste than the $700 billion bailout package, but really, people need to spend, right?


Where I'm really torn is that when everyone was living above their means at least my stock portfolio and 401k were doing well.  I was even profiting on high gas prices.  Now, in order for other people to start living within their means my portfolio has to take a hit, and I don't like that one bit.

Lamenting over what used to be is a lost cause so now I'll just continue stockpiling cash like the rest of America, cross my fingers that the US doesn't do something to make all that cash worthless, and wait until brighter days.  At least if we have a 2 year recession then I'll feel like I've got some safety net for the next 20-30 years.  If it turns around in a few months then I won't feel very comfortable putting cash back in to the market right away and will miss the opportunity.

Bad Company: Final Thoughts - 8

I wrapped up the single player campaign of Battlefield: Bad Company after giving it a long rest and focusing on the multiplayer battles.  The multiplayer is fast paced, has (limited) character progression, stat tracking, etc.  The fast pace is what really made it enjoyable, because there was always some new opponent with some different tactic coming to try and kill you before you killed them.  The single player campaign lacked this for the most part.

In my review of the game I would have to say that if the other chapters were anything like the pace of the final chapter then it would have earned a higher score.  The 8 was the averaging of a 7 single player campaign with a 9 for multiplayer fun, but the final chapter was also a solid 9.  It changed things up, going from tank battles to artillery to blowing up bridges to riding in a vehicle shooting at enemies... a lot of variety.  It proves that they held back on the creativity trying to stretch out the game earlier and only when they were ready to wrap it up did they put some effort in to the level design for the ending.  Coming after Call of Duty 4 one would say they should have known better than to make long repetitive levels over tight entertaining levels, but some game designers still have not learned their lesson, or simply come from a different school.

As for the multiplayer and the 9 that I would give it, were it stand-alone, the only flaw I see in it is the limited weapon selection available.  The main game had such variety that I was surprised at how few weapons were available and even fewer options to customize your character within whatever class you chose to fight in.  I also question a spawn-on-teammate option that sometimes left me dead shortly after the teammate I spawned on was killed or let me kill 2-3 people that just appeared in front of me as I was tracking down an opponent.  But regardless, the battles were always tough and entertaining.  It was always rewarding to sneak up and take someone out.

It's unfortunately not a must-play, because better experiences can be had in other games, but it's not a waste of time if you enjoy FPS war games and especially if you like Battlefield multiplayer games.

Little Big Planet update

I posted an auction for 2 more billboards that I found, but under the guise that I was only selling 1 and keeping the other.  Long story short I got market price on the sale and a local person was the winner of the auction.  I asked them if they'd like to see both and decide which one they liked and they asked if I'd sell both for the $100 winning auction price (actually it was $102.51 but paypal would have charged transaction fees so I said $100 cash was fine) and I said sure, since I don't think future ones will be going for quite this much (one recently ended at $62).  So here's my newest breakdown:

Sale      - $200.00

ebay fees - $6.40
Net       - $193.60

Not bad if I do say so myself.  I still have one left, so I might wait until all the other ones have disappeared off ebay to try to sell it.  

The Great Depression

This is a link from a finance blog I read.  It's a very entertaining look at some bullish headlines regarding the stock market, before, during, and after the impressive drop in the stock market.

Apple vs. Microsoft

The "I'm a Mac, and I'm a PC" advertising campaign has always been a little bothersome to me in its snide presentation but I think the November election is infusing the PR group with that little something extra that typically only comes out during dirty political campaigning.

The most recent ads show PC (it's actually Microsoft they're after but whatever) budgeting for Vista's flaws by piling a huge amount of money for advertising and very little to fix the flaws, and then after talking this strategy over with Mac, pushing all the money in to advertising.  This is exactly what I would expect from a dirty political campaign, which knows that you can say pretty much anything in a public advertisement and get away with it even though it's obviously not factual.  I don't have to know a Microsoft programmer to know that Microsoft is spending millions and millions on Vista updates, and I know after using Vista for a year that I haven't run across any of these supposed flaws, which Apple has never actually identified in their commercials, only spoken vaguely about.

I hope that this is the precipice of a backlash over this type of dirty campaigning.  People only have so much tolerance for mudslinging when it starts to ebb into the realm of unreliability and I think Apple is starting to cross that line.

Ultimately, it's the elitist nature of Apple, charging more for their systems than the equivalent PC (running an MS product or linux) that hurts them and keeps their supposedly perfect operating system out of the hands of the masses.  Sure, people have accepted paying $50 extra for a well designed MP3 player, but they're not paying $300 for a new computer, so ultimately Apple is failing.  Instead of trying to scare people into paying more maybe they should make themselves more accessible and see if they remain unblemished with a 20% market share rather than the 8% market share they've been hovering around for years.  

Starbucks packed at 9:30AM?

I don't know what this world is coming to when I think I'm strolling in late to work and the line at Starbucks is nearly out the door!  Much busier than it usually is around 8 when I normally walk by.  It begs the question I always pondered walking around San Francisco; What do all these people do for a living?

The crowd was younger and many had laptops, but we're not talking college students and downtown Pasadena is not a college town.  My best guess is that before the mall actually opens at 10, maybe all of the employees head over to Starbucks to get a pick-me-up before starting a day in retail.  I guess maybe the economy isn't that bad after all!

Hummingbird

Walking to work this morning I had one of those amazing human/animal experiences that really make you appreciate life.

A hummingbird who was going about its business drinking nectar from flowers stopped, flew over to me and hovered two feet from my face and right at eye level.  I paused for maybe 15 seconds and it just continued to hover there.  Then it dropped a little hummingbird poop and flew back up into the tree.  A very nice way to start a Sunday.

I don't have much sympathy

The linked article is about Fannie Mae trying to foreclose on a house that was behind payments (deputies had delivered over 30 notices of foreclosure) and a woman shot herself when they were trying to evict her.  She lived, and is in the hospital and Fannie Mae has decided to sign over the house to her.  This all just tells me that the world is a big joke and irresponsibility rules and will be rewarded.  I hope that there are 10 million copycats also in foreclosure who all think this will get them their house for free...  That would pretty much be the best possible outcome.

Just think for a second about the actual implications here.  A government body has just decided that they will individually take pity on individual people and hand over government assets on the taxpayers behalf to those pitiful individuals. It is one more example that makes me wonder why I live within my means when seemingly the majority of people do not.

I do not approve.

Toilet Seat Protectors

I know that the part has to hang down otherwise it would never get sucked into the toilet automatically, but damn it's annoying when the toilet seat cover falls in when you first put it down.

Stupid design award goes to the automatic toilet which one time sensed me placing the toilet seat cover and thought I had sat down so when I stood up it sucked the toilet seat cover into the abyss.  Someone should really have tested the logic on that thing if you're only tripping the sensor for a few seconds.  Not that many people can get their business done that fast.

Battlefield: Bad Company First Impressions

First, an anectote: One time I rented Fuzion Frenzy 2 for the 360, long after the initial release.  One achievement was for playing an online match so I picked "Join a quick match" to which the game responded "There are no matches available."  That's what happens to a bad multiplayer game.  It dies online very soon after release.  On the other hand I played Battlefield 2 on the PC, which came out in 2005 and there are still scores of people playing in online battles.  Battlefield has multiplayer down.

So with that in mind I will review my early impressions of Battlefield: Bad Company, the newest Battlefield game, released on the 360 to a fair amount of praise (Metascore 83).  DICE has tried before to include a single player campaign into their games, and they've done so poorly.  Most excuse it because they want the multiplayer fun.  Battlefield: Bad Company is yet another attempt at a single player campaign, and clearly they put more thought into the story, but ultimately they still failed because they incorporate so many elements of their multiplayer success into their single player campaign.

It might seem strange that successful elements in multiplayer can be failures in single player but I'll explain.  In multiplayer, you die, you have to wait through a punishment pause, and then you respawn at some base.  There is no attempt to suspend belief that you are actually one soldier fighting a battle.  If multiplayer had people die and not come back till the end of the round do you realize how slow and careful everyone would be for fear of waiting the next 5-10 minutes without playing?  So all multiplayer games have respawning.  Now what if a single player campaign tried to introduce this?  In Bad Company if you die, you wake up at a respawn point (usually the last marker where you accomplished some task) but all the damage that you did has still been done.  You're now good as new, even freshly full of ammo, and the 3 people on your virtual squad are back by your side, even if they were 2 miles away before you died.  This just doesn't make sense for a single player campaign and it doesn't make you believe in the characters or story.

Next, in multiplayer Battlefield one of the key elements is segregation of duties of characters.  If you choose to be a sniper you will be equipped as a sniper.  You can't have a sniper rifle and a rocket launcher (just in case) and so there is a segregation of responsibilities that encourages everybody to play their part in the battle.  In the single player campaign you are similarly teamed up with 3 characters that would each seem to have their own responsibilities (especially the big guy who always carries a rocket launcher.)  So I'm left wondering why in every situation where a tank is coming at me I have to be the one throwing grenades to kill it when there's a guy with a rocket launcher on my team.  Apparently the only reason to have a team is for funny comments during the cut scenes because they sure don't seem to do much good during the actual missions.

Massive Levels!  They make sense when fighting 12 on 12 because they leave you room to maneuver.  In single player it just means more walking/driving and since they hid gold in far corners of the map it means you should probably explore it all if you want to get an achievement.

My other small complaints are with the controls, which use the bumpers and have an accelerated and twitchy mechanic with the aiming controls (you have to try it to understand how it's not like COD4).  I also think the enemy AI is a little too good at targeting you after your first shot is fired, even if I'm in excellent cover in a patch of trees with a sniper rifle from far away.  Not too realistic.  And enemies in the brush seem unusually hard to target.  Somehow they stood out a little more in COD4 and just blend in with Bad Company.  That's all for the single player.

Multiplayer is fun.  There's no two ways about it, if you like big battles and a good skill progression (very similar to COD4) then you will probably like Bad Company.  They didn't mess with the formula, and it creates more of a teamwork atmosphere than COD4.  In COD4 I felt like every confrontation was a who-saw-who first match because health was similar, damage was similar, so the person shooting first won.  As long as you don't come across someone else really soon you'll heal and be ready for the next confrontation.  In Bad Company you don't heal.  Some characters can take med kits that heal themselves but others like the sniper will just be hurting until they die.  It means even if you survive the first confrontation you can't just hide and recuperate, you may have to fight it out or be more cunning.  I like the overall feel of multiplayer and that's mostly because they didn't mess with the Battlefield formula too much.  My only issue with the Battlefield formula is that vehicles seem too powerful and take some of the fun out of not being in a tank/helicopter.  Maybe I should just suck it up and jump in a tank but I want to be a sniper sometimes!  

Video Game Reviews

Playing a fair share of video games in my free time it seems appropriate that I should post reviews of what I am playing in case others like me are hopelessly behind on the current offerings and just want to play the good stuff.  Unfortunately I even find that some of the good stuff has its bad points that are worth mentioning.

I've decided that my format will be to post a first-impressions post regarding the first few hours spent with the game and later a conclusions post.  This would have been interesting in hindsight for Ninja Gaiden 2, which I was initially frustrated with but by the end couldn't get enough of.

The one unfortunate aspect of being a cost conscious consumer is that I have signed up for Gamefly, the Netflix-for-video-games alternative to buying.  It has afforded me the ability to play many more games than I normally would, their shipping times are pretty good, but not netflix good since they only have 4 shipping locations, but one of them is in LA so it gets to me fast.  The other negative is that unlike Netflix's almost instant availability to all games, new releases are difficult to get, which has me playing a lot of stuff that's a few months old.  But from what I can tell most grown-ups who still play video games are in the same boat of catching up so my late reviews might come in handy.  But if anyone wants to send me review copies of games I'll be sure to make that my #1 priority (like that's ever gonna happen!).

Ebay Success

Well it seems like much longer than 10 days but the auction finally ended on Saturday, and I'm pleasantly surprised with the outcome.  Sure, I would have been happier if it had gone for more but I can't complain since it's all 100% profit and only a little anxiety/work.  Here's the final breakdown:

Winning Bid:          $ 119.75

Shipping:               $10.00

Insurance:           $    4.60 

Total Received:      $134.35

Paypal Fee:            (4.20)

Shipping Cost:         (12.15)

Insurance Cost:        (2.60)

Ebay Fees:                (9.90)

Net Gain:              $105.50

Try this...

Sniff a newly sharpened pencil...

Ethos Water - Bullshit

For a long time I have gone to Starbucks and seen the Ethos water on display.  Never before moving to Pasadena have I seen this be such a big seller.  People here tend to buy their morning coffee and grab a water for later it seems.

I've always had a pretty big problem with this water and their advertising.  They call it Ethos water, they say every bottle helps people who need water, but there's a limit.  They charge $1.80 for a bottle of water that anywhere else would be much cheaper.  If they said that 100% of the profits went to this global initiative to provide water to poor countries then I would say fine, call yourself Ethos, but only $0.05 goes to helping these organizations.  There is a huge amount of profit being kept by a company that is selling under a charitable pretense.

Going to the Ethos water web-site I discovered that they were purchased and now fully owned by Starbucks, and basically have a commitment to provide $10 million to this water initiative and the $0.05 is going into that fund.  Essentially Starbucks has committed to a $10M donation and will get a deduction for it whenever they contribute it to a foundation (they may already have contributed it to take the deduction) and many other companies do similar things with much less back-patting.  I think that it's pretty dishonest and sad.

There was a show on TV of kids selling lemonade, and one team decided to charge $2/cup but said that "profits were going to charity" while the other team just sold under a normal strategy around $1/cup.  The irony here was that everything was going to charity because the show had provided them with all the supplies and the kids only motivation was to make the most, which is why one went with a lower price.  Turns out the kids who advertised for charity made the most profit and sold the most cups.  People were handing them $20 and saying they didn't want any lemonade.  It said a lot about people's intentions, but companies have been abusing this for a long time as well. 

The pink lid Yoplait yogurts that are supposed to help breast cancer are a shining example of this.  Yoplait advertises that $0.10 will be contributed for each lid sent in.  The fine print says that they're already committed to giving $500k (5M lids) and the max is $1.5M donation.  I'm sure they know exactly how many yogurts they sell so this really isn't an effort on their part to do anything but push their product for a slight social benefit (of which they benefit the most).  I wish that companies wouldn't be so self-congratulatory when it is so clear that what they do is designed only for their own benefit.

So let's get real Starbucks... Ethos = Profits.

Nebraska Safe-Haven Law

To save you from reading the article the short version is that Nebraska wrote a safe-haven law for dropping off your child at a hospital without fear of prosecution.  This is one of those things to protect unwanted pregnancy infants from being left in a dumpster.  But the people worded it so poorly that they didn't define an age and said "child" rather than "infant" so a guy left his 9 kids, ranging from 1 to 17 at an emergency room and he has now given up guardianship...

The law is very simply worded "No person shall be prosecuted for any crime based solely upon the act of leaving a child in the custody of an employee on duty at a hospital licensed by the State of Nebraska. The hospital shall promptly contact appropriate authorities to take custody of the child."

I guess that does away with my idea of kidnapping children and dropping them off at the hospital to get off scott-free... Of course since this was an anti-abuse law it also doesn't protect abusive parents who drop off their kids, because they can still be charged with abuse.  And what exactly does happen when your baby sitter or a teacher decides to take a kid to the hospital and drop them off?  Even the fact that you are "leaving a child in the custody of an employee on duty..." leaves it pretty open.  Your infant is at the hospital, you go home for the evening, it's in their custody if they'd like to call the authorities and have it taken away, but I guess that's not too likely, is it?  Nice try Nebraska.  Keep up the good work!

New Co-Op Experience

Team Fortress 2 is a multiplayer online battle royale which features 9 very distinct character types that are all well balanced and have a specific function, from sniper to spy to big heavy gunner.  My twist on the genre is to take these character types and put them in a co-op multiplayer story driven game, so that you aren't picking up weapons allowing yourself to change the type of character you play along the way.  You pick your class and play through with those characteristics and the game play would be different each time because you have different strengths and weaknesses.  Couple that with multiplayer and trying to figure out what the best team would be for certain situations and you really have a winner.

As always, no charge.  Someone make it happen.

Mint.com

After reading about it as the best free money app around, I followed the link to www.mint.com.  

I have to say that they have put together an impressive package that packs style, simplicity, and several useful tools to a free site.  And I have hopes that it will stay free because it's painfully clear where they plan on getting their revenues.  They link at almost every turn to money saving offers that range from savings accounts giving a higher APR to credit cards giving a lower APR or higher rewards.  

The biggest problem is that on several of my accounts it is clear that they are unaware of the details and have overstated my potential savings.  My credit card apparently has no rewards, even though it's one of the best out there, and the same is true of one of my savings accounts.  But despite this, it is an impressive page and worth checking out if you're not afraid to give up your protected online log in info.

Rule #1 of Online Team Multiplayer

This may be tweaked in the future, but the following is a rule I have observed from playing Team Fortress 2 on the 360:

When joining a match in progress, you will inevitably join the losing team.  This is because some people who play online are poor sports and will leave their team as soon as the going gets tough.  I believe that this encompasses the jackass rule of online anonymity, and the fact that most online gamers are in fact little brat kids.

So time and again I would join a match in progress only to see the score either completely one sided, or even the teams pathetically skewed.  In one instance of a 6 on 6 match, there were 6 red team members and just 2 blue team members (myself included) when I joined.  It was pathetic and of course 6 on 2 will be one sided, and what was even worse at the start was that the red team was not actually bothering to capture a section, they were happy with fortifying their position to kill the blue team.  So me and the other person through a silent bond of understanding our situation both became snipers and settled for remaining relatively safe and picking off the red as they wandered around trying to kill blue.  After a minute or two other players started to join and blue actually had a team, so we fought back against the red and actually captured a post.  It was gratifying considering the poor sports that left blue in the first place.

The Bus and the Ford Focus

So feel free to stop me if you've heard this one: 

A bus was driving along down Colorado today and this Ford Focus wanted to get it's attention. So the Focus opens its door as the bus is passing and what do you know, that got the buses attention! Sure, the door on the Focus no longer closes because the bus bent it all the way around, but I'm sure the driver of the Focus expected that, right?

So people, check your mirrors before opening your doors. It could be a bicycle, another car, or a bus. No matter what you'd be better off just taking the time to check. The more you know!

Crosswalk Button

I wonder sometimes what is wrong with the people who go crazy pushing the crosswalk button.  

There are some that you can clearly see are in a rush, but I want to stop them sometimes and ask them if they really think pressing the button 50 times rapidly is going to get them across the street sooner.  Maybe they actually have some belief that built in to the system is a counter and if it thinks that a lot of people want to cross then it should hurry up and let them cross.  Is it actually possible that people have this belief?

Let's say they're not that delusional, and pressing the button is just a sign of their own anxiety and the circumstances that they are dealt.  In that case I would like to tell them that waiting at the signal is exactly the time to chill the eff out and just wait the 20 seconds for the signal to turn.  They could take that time to observe numerous other things, like people acting foolishly, to make them feel better about themselves.

It's exactly these times that make me glad I'm part alien.

Economics: Part 1

I may have an economics degree but I don't put it to any good use and so it has withered away.  

Now that I've gotten that out of the way, I've been thinking about economics recently and formulating some observations, which I will build upon over time here on this blog.  My first question was why economics did not have a similar "conservation of mass" philosophy that benefits so many theorems in science.

Starting with a very simple system of 2 people on an island, if we each give them one useful and divisible commodity, they will quickly assign a value to each item and determine a solution to share their resources.

So person A has 10 seeds and $100 and person B has 10 seeds and $100, they could each decide to trade 5 seeds and both diversify their seeds.  That would be one logical solution that would seem to be fair given the circumstances.  Instead, let's say that they decide to plant their seeds without trading, and A's seeds sprout and bear fruit but B's seeds don't do anything.  There's new information in the economic system that B's seeds are worthless, so B will have to provide money or services if they expect to trade with A.  Regardless of the outcome and even as information changes, there is always a set value in an ecosystem, although the value may vary depending on the audience.  (to be continued)

Ebay Virgin

So this is some insight into the thoughts of an ebay virgin, selling their goods on the internet for the first time (how sordid!).

I had an item of questionable collectible value that I was going to give away until I found out that an identical item sold on ebay for $260.  The capitalist in me saw that there was an opportunity here, given that there were no other current listings, that there could still be a reasonable amount of hype for this item, so I got started creating my posting, copying several elements from the prior simple posting as my template.  

I read the ebay rules, pondered my wording, pondered the parameters for the sale (7 days or 10?, starting price, shipping, insurance, etc.) and after about 2 hours I had submitted it.  There was really no doubt at the time that what I had done was logical and I could hope for the best but had very little to lose... 

At this point I even got ambitious.  I found the original postings for the first person who sold it on PS3forums.com and I started making comments, asking questions, and posting that another one had popped up on ebay, all to generate interest, and it worked.  In just a few hours I had 20 visitors and 2 watchers (people who click a button to keep an eye on an auction).  

Then there was a post: "lol..That guy is selling it for $0.99!!  Get it people...."

Now I know that people bid things up on ebay, but I also know that people snatch things sometimes at the last second after watching an item, and I figured only the savviest of computer people would probably be interested in this item, so my 2 watchers and 0 bidders were worrying me that the bids could fly in at the last minutes and I would sell this for $10, which would not be worth my time.  I got so anxious about this result that I edited my listing and set a reserve (details withheld to protect the auction), which is a minimum price I'm willing to sell for.  This made me feel better even if it cuts into my profits a bit.

So I was pretty much was satisfied with my actions until this morning.  The doubts started running through my head.  What if this promotion was the part of something bigger, and what if the person possessing one of these billboards was entitled to something more than just a simple collectors item.  They've numbered them to limit their liability and would probably expect some/many to be thrown out given they were just planted on public property.  It made me wonder all over again if I had done the right thing, but I feel like after 10/21 the wind will all be out of the sails of this promo item.  

Maybe I'm right and maybe I'm wrong.  We will see and I'll post the outcome of this whole ordeal as it unfolds.

Here is the ebay auction of mine.

Design a Table

I was inspired by this, admittedly awesome and creative table for my own design.  

I would like to design a table where the entire surface, save the border, is covered by ball bearings.  I agree that it would be tough to clean if something spilled and someone will inevitably try to pull out a ball, which will cause a myriad of problems, but there's something about the industrial design that I would enjoy whenever I ran my hand across the surface of the table as the tightly packed balls spun yet remained motionless and gave off the faintest whir.

Some things just sound wrong...

"There should be a significant amount of hand railing on that job, right?" 

- guy talking on his blackberry

UPS

I want the local news investigating this.

I was in the UPS in Baldwin Park picking up a package that really should have been delivered (that's worthy of a rant but I'll let it slide for now) and while I was waiting for the guy to get my package 3 other customers came in after me.  

Nothing too strange so far, except that customer 1 went straight through the employee only door and walked out with a package shortly thereafter.  

Customer 2 was noticed while walking in, which prompted the UPS employee to go back and grab a package for them.  After that, customer 2 handed the UPS guy a check and the UPS guy cut the bar code off the package... Getting stranger.

Customer 3 had a binder, making me think he might actually be an employee when the same UPS guy who helped 1 and 2 motioned for him to go through the employee only door.  He was gone for a while and my package finally came, so I went to my car.  While pulling away I saw Customer 3 walking out with maybe 5 boxes stacked up.

None of this seems like normal behavior, and it was one after another at 8:30 on a Tuesday, so Chris Hansen, get on it!

Phonebook

Here's an idea, free to good owner:

I would like my phone/organizer to have a yellowpages and a whitepages in my phonebook.  I want to store business numbers but I don't want to see them cluttering up my personal phone numbers.  Is that so hard?  Unreasonable?  I don't want EB Games hanging out next to Erik, that's just asking for trouble!

It seems perfectly logical to me so I'm hoping someone will get on it, STAT!  And since I haven't seen it yet, just remember that you heard it here first.

Hurricane Preparation

There’s never really an appropriate time to point out when people don’t seem that smart so I’m just going ahead with it.

I was watching the news before Hurricane Ike and they were showing people loading up on water and supplies so they could wait out the storm. My problem is not with people trying to weather the storm (I can understand why that’s a tough decision). My problem is with people stocking up like they don’t know that hurricanes come around between Florida and Texas for a few months in the year, specifically denoted at “Hurricane Season.”

If I knew that something was coming once a year, and thought that having a few cases of water on hand would make it better, I’d have purchased that water a month before “Hurricane Season” and not rushed to the near empty store a few days before the storm to stock up on water and canned goods! It just doesn’t seem that difficult to plan for a recurring weather event. If you don’t need the water by the end of the season, have fun drinking it… it’ll keep.

Hopefully sales of plywood and water will be just a little higher in July next year as a few more people catch on.