Simpsons Crack on (M)Apple

I was only a matter of time...say, where can I get one of those myCubes?

McDonalds Files Patent for Sandwiches

Ok, the title may be a over-generalization, but today McDonalds did file a patent application for what they call the "METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR MAKING A SANDWICH". I kid you not. They're even covering "cocktail sandwiches", i.e. burger bites etc.

Who knows exactly who McDonalds plans to go after with this one, as my understanding of patents is that if even one thing is different, it isn't actionable. So if Burger King decides to "apply appropriate condiments to [the] appropriate compartment" before they "assemble sandwich fillings and hot garnishes in [the] tool", they'd be fine. Mickey D's lawyers can't be that stupid - there has to be some kind of terminology in there that they think is bulletproof; there's too much prior art to make this thing fly.

I just love looking at the flowchart.

Republicans Aren't Bitter...Nooooooo

I was going to write about the Patriots and their surprise success story at QB. Then, I got this email from the guy who sends me tons of joke/junk mail everyday (we all know at least one):

A possible new President

What a fantastic idea. You know what would really P**S OFF the Democrats...

Bush should resign now.

Then Dick Cheney becomes President (that would really P**S OFF the libs)!!!

Then he appoints Condoleeza Rice as VP.

Then Cheney resigns two weeks later and Condoleeza Rice, a Republican, becomes the first BLACK - WOMAN President!!!

What's scarier than the obvious partisan driven ignorance and spite is the fact that there are people out there laughing at this, many of whom are doing so not completely in jest...
 

Eats, Shoots & Leaves

Happy Birthday Dad. In honor of your acute understanding of the English language and your persistent adherence to its syntactical rules, I hope you enjoy your gift: the NYT bestseller, Eats, Shoots & Leaves. The back of the book sells it nicely (and a big hint from TLM helped too):

A panda walks into a café. He orders a sandwich, eats it, then draws a gun and fires teo shots into the air.

"Why?" asks the confused waiter, as the panda makes towards the exit. The panda produces a badly punctuated wildlife manual and tosses it over his shoulder.

"I'm a panda," he says at the door. "Look it up."

The waiter turns to the relevant entry and, sure enough, finds and explanation.

"Panda. Large black-and-white bear-like mammal, native to China. Eats, shoots and leaves."

So, punctuation really does matter, even if it only occasionally a matter of life and death.

The Watchman

Apparently I am the last one to even know about this, though in all fairness TLM's brother mentioned it in passing last summer when have about Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, etc. He said pretty specifically "The Watchmen is going to be better", and seemed pretty excited about it. From the few conversations I've had with him about comics I can see he's knowledgeable, so I perhaps should have pressed a bit more to find out why.

Well, a trailer came out this week for the upcoming "Watchmen" movie, and it got me excited enough to go out and buy the actual graphic novel (my first ever, if you can believe it). After having read maybe .1 of it and watching the trailer, I can now see why he said what he said.

Oh, and as if that weren't enough, there are more than 80 other movies in production that are based on either a comic or graphic novel. Nice.
 

Say It Ain't So, Chuck Turner

Bald, yes. Bold, definitely. Bright, maybe not so much.

FBI raided Boston City Councilman Chuck Turner's office this morning, arresting him and charging him with bribery, and the situation looks grim by the looks of the picture floating around (eerily reminiscent of the undercover footage that got fellow Boston politico and Massachusetts State Senator Dianne Wilkerson busted earlier this month for the same thing).

Oh, Chuck. This isn't like the time you refused to shovel your sidewalk - you're in a much bigger heap of trouble this time around. Now I think it becomes a contest to see who can sing louder, Turner or Wilkerson. Only the coming weeks will tell.
 

ANTM 11 Winner - McKey???

What?? Look, I understand that the show needed to branch out, and they have been as evidenced by the last few seasons' (er, cycles') winners. We got a second-chance underdog. We got a Latina. We got a plus-size model. One of this season's (er, cycle's) contestants was a trans-gender woman, who I thought was a shoe in.

No, this season they gave it to the clumsy "linebacker type" with a grin so wide and pointy it would make the Joker cringe.

She did improve the most, I suppose. And she didn't totally blow the commercial challenge. Why do I watch this so intently again?

New Star Trek Movie Trailer

[Geek alert] As if I weren't excited enough by the fact that the new Star Trek movie was being directed by J.J. Abrams, virtually guaranteeing a blockbuster success, the new trailer came out. Now I officially feel more excited about this Star Trek incarnation than I was about all the others combined.
 

MVP(edroia)

Dustin Pedroia was voted the 2008 AL MVP today, becoming the first Red Sox player to do so since Mo Vaughn did it in 1995. Scrappy, clutch, and as many are quick to point out, short in comparison to his peers, Pedroia is also only the third player ever to win the award in the season after winning the Rookie of the Year, along with Cal Ripken and Ryan Howard (only way to beat that is to do it in the same season - oh, right, that's been done, twice. Ichiro and Fred Lynn in case you were wondering).

Some say those who vote these days have become slaves to numbers, but I think this year they got it right.

Why Developers Prefer Macs

Disclaimer: I know the following quote borders on sappy, but maybe that’s why it stuck out to me. Or maybe it’s all that kool-aid I drank.

"Working on the Mac really inspires me to do great work…When you work on something great, you're generally going to build something greater."

http://www.infoworld.com/article/08/11/17/47TC-developers-mac_1.html
 

Totota Wallpaper a Gray Area

From Slashdot:

"TorrentFreak reports that Toyota's lawyers have recently contacted computer wallpaper site Desktop Nexus in a blatant example of DMCA abuse. Toyota issued a blanket request to demand the immediate removal of all member-uploaded wallpapers featuring a Toyota, Lexus, or Scion vehicle (citing copyright violation), regardless of whether Toyota legally holds the copyright to the photos or not. When site owner Harry Maugans requested clarification on exactly which wallpapers were copyrighted by Toyota, he was told that for them to cite specifics (in order to file proper DMCA Takedown Notices), they would invoice Desktop Nexus for their labor."

Ridiculous. Oh, and by the way, doesn't it behoove companies like Toyota to not suppress but rather encourage fan art? It's free marketing, no?

Just for that I'm taking a picture of the Matrix and making a new wallpaper...

Motor Storm is (finally) Coming

TLM was nice enough to gift this yesterday - a PS3 original I've been secretly wanting since I played it at I Politico's so many months ago. It's just a racing game, nothing special, but with all the free time I have these days (sarcasm), it's just the thing I needed.

Doing the iPhone Dance

Found this Joy of Tech today and sadly it's something to which I and iPhone users everywhere can relate.

Nigerian Prince's Biggest Investor

We've all gotten the email - some prince in Nigeria needs your help to move millions of dollars around and if you send $100 here and $1000 there you get it back a thousand fold. This king of all internet scams is so unbelievable it's been poked fun at a thousand times - even Saturday Night Live has referenced it a couple of times (most recently Anne Hathaway joked: "I found this amazing new guy, we met on the internet. I usually don't read letters from strangers, but how often do you get an email from a Nigerian Prince? He's such a sweetheart, and - not that it matters - but he's incredibly wealthy.")

That's funny and all, but consider this: the scam is still out there for a reason, and that reason is that there are actually people still falling for it.

For example, Janella Spears from Sweet Home, Oregon recently "went public" with her experiences - a story that ultimately ends with the nursing administrator and reverend investing over $400,000 into the fictitious deal.

$400,000. That's almost half a million dollars she shipped away, and not all in one payment, mind you. This was a total achieved over two years of scammage, and all of it seems gone for good (which, by the way, begs the question - where did it go?).

Embarrassing, yes. Legal, no-ish. Morally derisive, definitely.

Mactracker

I was introduced to this little app way back in the early 2000's - i.e. before I was a Mac guy. At that point I thought it to be mildly interesting and completely useless. Why would I want and/or need to know how much a Macintosh IIx cost or what its startup chime was?

Well, I still don't really care about that particular information aside from its historic interest, but I find myself using Mactracker more and more for actual, practical reasons.

For example, when my old boss asked me to help find and install RAM into his eMac (not a typo), Mactracker had the answer. I use it to store information like serial numbers and warranty info about all of my machines, too. I've found it most useful, though, to identify a particular model of mac and specific information about it (not so much the startup chimes). Case in point: when going in with a friend to buy an external hard drive as a birthday present for another friend, we needed to consult Mactracker to find out what types of ports his machine had. As phenomenally awesome a present a brand spanking new HD is, it's value is diminished somewhat if you can't hook it up to your machine...

Oh, and there's one more thing. Mactracker is free. Yeah, free. So go get it if you haven't already.

Too Much Taxi

It's been mentioned before, and over the last week it's gotten a moderate redesign. So, in a shameless act of cross-promotion, today's highlighted blog is "Too Much Taxi" (backstory too complicated), where TLM contributes and whose focus is mainly on clothes, shoes, and other things from the world of fashion. They also have random posts on TV, celebs, etc - topics somehow complimentary to content found here (minus the obits and holiday shout outs, of course :)

Speaking of which, make sure you thank a veteran today...

Seth MacFarlane's Cavalcade

Apparently I'm the last person on the planet to know about these.

Seth MacFarlane, creator of favorites like Family Guy and American Dad, has a series of shorts on YouTube called "Seth MacFarlane's Cavalcade". I was only able to get through a few so far - with mixed results, unexpectedly. They have the SNL movie disease insofar as they can, at times, seem like skits that go on for to long. Still, they have their moments.

I present to you the Super Mario Brothers ending we never got to see as 13-year-olds - probably a good thing in retrospect. I recommend checking out "Jeff Goldblum Wafers" when you're done.

2008 BAmBUu Awards

TLM and I got back not that long ago from Our House in Allston where the 2008 BAmBUu Awards were being held (and a Patriots game was being watched). It was a nice place, and with any luck they may turn out to be a team, or even a league, sponsor next year. They gave us a cordoned off area and a buffet of wings, salad, pasta and tater-tots, so we certainly had nothing to complain about.

The BAmBUu Cup was there and presented to the 2008 Champion Hustlers, and those members of the team in attendance also got a medal commemorating the achievement. Gold gloves awards were also handed out, as well as an MVP award and the equivalent of a Cy Young award.

Dan W and I were also honored (and humbled, by the way) as the first two inductees into the BAmBUu Hall of Fame, currently represented by a plaque to be held on to by the commish. Had I enough forethought I would've had some words ready, but instead I fumbled through some acknowledgments, including some thanks to "Our Place" (note: name of establishment is "Our House"). At least we managed to get a picture for posterity:

Origanize Your Code - Code Collector

I'm a big fan of centralizing and having quick access to my stuff. It's why I love products like Quicksilver, iTunes, FinderPop, and Delicious Library. For pieces of code, however, I'd always had to come up with a system of my own.

Then I came across Code Collector by M Cubed software. It's simple, clean, and exactly what I needed to keep things on hand and organized (or organised if you're from across the pond like they are :). Now when I start a new script I can bring up a template in CC instead of relying on my memory (spotty) or drudging up some existing page that I'd have to shell out. If I'm working on a project and need to have some snippets on hand, viola. I've even used the smart folders a couple of times already - just like those in the finder, they are populated by following rules. The only feature I haven't taken advantage of is sharing of code through the company's site.

It's a great new tool in my arsenal - 4.5 stars on the utility scale.

Happy 25th Raymond

Happy 25th Raymond. Hope you had a good one.

So, um, I didn't have access to many pix, so I ganked one from one of your pages and can only hope you got down as much today as you did whenever this was taken:

Nanabelle - Artsy Cat

Pictures are Worth Almost 64,000,000 Words

Radio Blowhards Get in Trouble, Tell Listeners Election is Wednesday

Gerry Callahan and John Dennis, hosts of the sports radio show I listen to in the morning and ranted about 3 days ago for ignoring actual sports topics, apparently crossed a line this morning. At one point they told their listeners the election was postponed until Wednesday and at another they reported that only Republicans are voting today and Democrats should vote tomorrow. What they never considered (rather, one of the many things) is that some people may have actually believed them.

What seems to many of us like an obvious attempt at humor, albeit a poor one, did not register as such with all the listeners. For example, one listener "said his father-in-law believed the elections were postponed, and called him because he was so upset." Way to go guys.

Incidentally, this morning's buffoonery didn't go unnoticed by the State. Brian McNiff, a spokesman for the MA Secretary of State William Galvin, sent an email to both hosts and their station, WEEI, instructing them to "knock it off", stating that they were "doing a disservice to voters". He also made sure to mention the fact that there were laws specifically put into place to prevent any kind of tampering or interfering with elections.

As a result of that email, the broadcast on my ride home today was sprinkled periodically with not-so-subtle messages to listeners about how the election is today, not tomorrow.

It should be an interesting show in the morning, to say the least. It'll be all the more interesting considering how these results are coming in :)

Twas the Night Before 'Lection

I was originally going to try to write a parody poem, but quickly realized it was going to be much more time consuming than it'd be worth. So I found a funny picture of McCain instead:


According to all the polls, if John McCain gets what he's wishing for tomorrow, it seems as though most of the country will be as surprised as he'll be.
 

Some Favorite iPhone Apps - Part 1

Five minutes after realizing that I was one of three people feverishly fiddling with an iPhone on our couch, I thought it was about time I got around to listing off some of my favorite apps (as I've been telling TLM I'd do for over a year now). So, part 1:

• Google Mobile App
  In addition to being super-helpful to those of us who make use of any of the Google services, this app is a must have if only for the fact that is was made by the folks behind Quicksilver - and if you are a QS person you can see the similarities almost immediately. Smart searching of metadata makes for lightning quick search results across contacts, the web, and more.
  
  
• Air Sharing
  Basically, this lets you connect your iPhone wirelessly to your Mac or PC, essentially turning it into a flash drive for all intents and purposes. This is particularly handy if you need to have certain documents on hand, like resumes, class schedules, or even ebook PDFs.
  
  
• Simplify Media
  Unfortunately for those who don't have it already, this one's not free anymore, and it's currently listed at $3.99. It's well worth it though as it allows you to connect to your entire iTunes library from anywhere. All you need is to be on a wi-fi connection and run an IM-like client on your computer at home. Oh - and you can connect to up to 30 libraries too, by the way, though that can bog down the app's performance.
  
  
• Solebon Solitaire
  Ok, we all have our weaknesses, and though there are many games out there (and on my iPhone), I find myself playing this the most. A few minutes here, a few more minutes there - and so many games I'd never heard of. Right now I'm in the "Spiderette", "Russian Revolution", and "Scorpion" rotation. Yay for productivity.
  
  
• Fake Calls
  Ah, the app you know you want (or have) but are almost embarrassed to have installed. We all have those moments where we need to get out of a conversation, and this app gives you that "out". Or, for a more harmless application of it, you could pretend to get a call from your favorite celebrity, politician, or Steve Jobs himself.
  
  

I Want Sports Radio Back

Sports Radio. It's probably my #1 preference as far as what I listen to when I'm driving (TLM can attest to that). However, Now that I have more time to listen thanks to a lengthier commute to work in the morning, it seems to have all but disappeared. In lieu of listening to discussion about whether Matt Cassel is getting better or if the Celtics look poised to win another Championship, I'm instead barraged with political rhetoric and moronic condemnation from and of both callers and politicos.

I want my Sports Radio back.

I know the election is right around the corner, and I know that lots of people like to talk politics. My complaint is simply that there are other stations for that. It's like buying a newspaper, turning to the sports section and getting nothing but op-eds about everything except that in which you are interested. Enough already.

To make matters worse, the stuff I'm listening to is typical of the times: aggressively close-minded hosts who think they know best arguing with equally know-it-all callers. Is this entertainment? No, it's fuel for the [ratings] fire, and the fact that people like me who tune in to get their sports fix and end up reluctantly listening to these buffoons is testament to why it's currently allowed (and probably encouraged) by those in charge.

I'll give it a few more days. I suppose there will be a lot of airtime spent after the election filled with either intense gloat or warning of impending doom, but I'm holding out hope that all will be right by Friday.

I just hope they can remember how to do it.

Time Waster: Magic Pen

This one is very fun, very innovative, and potentially a BIG time waster, so be warned. The game is called Magic Pen, and you draw and erase lines, triangles, circles and other shapes onto the screen to manipulate an object across some flags. You can play it at MiniClip.com.

Magic Pen Collect the flags with the red ball to complete each level.

Play this free game now!!

Missing George Carlin Already

I was sad to hear that George Carlin passed away Sunday. He was hands down my favorite comedian, and though he's done much in his career (first host of SNL, Rufus from Bill & Ted), it was his stand-up that made his great.

My introduction to Carlin came when I unearthed my father's record collection. Amidst all of the Beatles and Led Zeppelin albums I found something called "Toledo Window Box" (and I was about the age where I got a stoney kick out of the reference). It was a recording of a show he'd had in Oakland and had some bits that, for lack of a better phrase, made me howl with laughter. Who knew nursery rhymes were that dirty?

Though he might be remembered best for his "Seven Dirty Words", my favorite George Carlin bit of all-time is easily "Baseball and Football", a version of which you can hear below. The lack of success I've had trying to recite mere portions of the skit to people who'd never heard it before stands as testament to his comic genius (or my lack of timing).

We'll miss you and remember you, George. And of course, your unique views on politics, religion, and the English language...

Celtics 17th - Some Shots from the TDB Garden

Still can't put anything into words, but these can help:

Towel Day 2008

"I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be." -Douglas Adams

Happy Towel Day!

Too Much D&D Coffee?

Ah, coffee - I love it, and I drink what is probably an unhealthy amount of it daily. But which brand is best? Some might say Starbucks, others Honey Dew. For me, I'll drink almost any kind, but my hands down favorite is, and has been for years, good ol' Dunkin' Donuts. I remember half-kiddingly going online to investigate how to get a franchise, just so I could feed my addiction a little easier (as if having a D&D on practically every corner wasn't enough).

My days of buying medium regulars are now over (ok, slight exaggeration) thanks to a member of my family landing a job at D&D corporate. Now I can bring home a FIVE POUND bag of coffee for a fourth of what it costs me for a fill up at the gas station. Too much? Maybe, though I can pretty much guarantee none will go wasted here. It's all about pacing myself...

Scarlet - the "new TV series"

This morning I see an ad for a new TV series called "Scarlet" that apparently premiered last night. The show looked interesting enough and I went over to the DVR and searched for it to record an episode...but it was nowhere to be found.

So I went to the site, scarletseries.tv, and saw the trailer, interviews, and even a behind the scenes vignette. Nowhere, however, was there a mention of a channel. I was quickly losing interest (and some patience) and after a quick search to see if anyone saw it and found it worth watching I discovered the horrible truth:

The "hit new TV series" referred to was not a show at all, but rather a new line of televisions by LG.

It's just an ad campaign, and I fell for it, hook, line, and sinker. The news section of the site gives the (very biased) story of the "premiere". My favorite line was "To Win the Game, We Have to Change the Rules"...their way of rationalizing this scam.

The fact that I saw the ad on a podcast for the Onion News Network should have been the first clue. That it was voiced-over by that guy with the deep, melodramatic voice should have been another. Hopefully, at least for my own ego, I wasn't the only one who got duped.

Oh, and by the way, even though this fraud may have gone according to plan, I think the overall idea may backfire. I'm not sure playing someone for a fool will generate sales. As of know, I know I'll certainly never buy one of these things.

Um, not that I was played for a fool or anything....

The Wyndee Martini

Happy Birthday Denise!!

We hope you like your present (particularly since you've been asking us to help you set one up since last year).

Behold: The Wyndee Martini!!!

Oh, and the Peanuts gang are making an appearance just because...

The Family Circus

If you were ever a fan of the comic strip "Family Circus" (and I dare say most of us were), you'll fondly remember that some of the most interesting cartoons were those that featured the dotted paths. Who knows why, but we found ourselves simply needing to go from start to finish every week. When you stop and think about it, the comic's creator, Bil Keane, basically innovated a new way of delivering a narrative, different than the tried and true, left-to-right cell-by-cell method.

The Joy of Tech paid some homage to that memorable style today, and in doing so they attempt to answer the question: Why does it take a pharmacist so long to fill a prescription?
 

Happy 32nd JazMarz

Enjoy the Monster seats tonight...and please, don't fall over the wall!

April Fool's Day 2008

Today is April Fool's Day (no really, it is), that wonderful day that comes once a year where people showcase their imagination and creativity through pranks and gags that test the gullibility of others. Ok, so some pranks aren't that imaginative, and most aren't as funny as the pranksters think they are, but there are definitely some out there that get you, and some even make you laugh.

This one is my winner for this year (yes, I know Google may have gotten you with Virgle or Google Weblogs). I don't know if it's real and I don't want to download anything that identifies itself as a virus to find out, old school or not.

The Amazing Mathemagician

I came across this in a feed from HowStuffWorks.com. It's a performance by Arthur Benjamin where he showcases his fairly ridiculous ability to quickly calculate 3, 4, and even 5-digit squares in his head.

Ok, so it might be a little geeky, but I still think it's impressive and entertaining. Click here or the image below to watch the vid.

OSX System Sound Song

I came across this on The Graphic Mac...and felt the need to post about it immediately. Apparently someone had entirely too much free time on their hands and created a song using only the system sounds from OSX. Ok, I'll give an "A" from creativity.

If you actually want to tweak this, you can download the actual Garageband file here.

Finally, Red Sox 2008

...bright and early at 6AM tomorrow morning. I can't think of a better way to start a day (other than a little later, maybe).

In case you missed it, Jayson Stark's column about the Red Sox was the lead on ESPN.com for a good part of the day today. An image similar to the one below was proudly displayed, followed by nothing less than the clear proclamation that "The incumbent Red Sox are favored to repeat in October. Any questions?"

Yowsa...there was actually a time I'd feel nervous about such bold predictions. Such is not the case anymore, and it feels good.

image from ESPN.com

Bloviate: A Great and (unfortunately) Useful Word

Boston.com ran a piece today called "The Meanies of Life: TV and film bullies we love to hate". It included some all-time names like Biff Tannen from Back to the Future ("McFlyyyy") and Gunnery Sergeant Hartman from Full Metal Jacket (um, too many good quotes to list). There were other, actually nefarious characters on the list to be sure, but I found one that actually made me cringe: Ann Coulter.

Yes, she has "blonde hair, intemperate venom" and her "Weapon of Choice" is well encapsulated in the phrase "[the] Politics of outrage", but it's the description of why she was put on the list that put it in perspective for me:

Who to choose among the conservative blovation spectrum? No contest: Limbaugh may be louder, O'Reilly more self-righteous, but no one delivers a verbal rope-burn with more thuggish glee than Coulter. The meanest Mean Girl of them all, she'd doubtless take that as a compliment.

And there it was. "Bloviation". I had to look it up to get a better idea of what it was. One definition was the following:

To bloviate means "to speak pompously and excessively." A colloquial verb coined in the United States, it is commonly used with contempt to describe the behavior of politicians, academics, pundits, or media "experts," sometimes called bloviators, who hold forth on subjects in an arrogant, tiresome way.

I realized I had finally found the word to encapsulate all that I loathe about politics today. People bloviate too much. How can one have a conversation with this type of person? You can't. You don't even get to agree or disagree. You're choices are to either listen or leave; talking means nothing to these people. It's their way or...well, their way.

The irony is that they feel they have to educate, to get out the truth (or what they think it is, anyway), when in reality the means through which they try to do so has the exact opposite effect - no one wants to listen to imperious babble from an overbearing, self-important blowhard.

...er, bloviator.
 

Need to Clean Your Screen?

In one of the rare cases where I find one of those emails making the rounds to be funny...


...and for those who think cats are better cleaners...


For full screen versions, click here for the pug or here for the cat.
 

Pi Day 2008

I can't believe I forgot about Pi Day.

As if the general lack of posts wasn't enough of an indicator of how busy I really am, I completely forgot what today was until TLM reminded 10 minutes ago. The sad thing is I spent a good portion of the day today backing up data from our servers, and must've typed in today's date at least 3 or 14 times. Doh.

Yes, I am a math enthusiast and I am excited by the idea of irrational numbers and the fact that pi has been calculated to over a trillion places after the decimal. I like the official Pi Day site, too, and I think the graphic on the top is a nice touch (expand your window and it just keeps giving you decimals...).

Happy Pi Day!
 

Some People Born on "Leap Day"

Ok, enough is enough. Time to get back to some posting.

Today is of course February 29th, referred to by many these days (especially those at LeapZine.com) as "Leap Day". When this changed from "Leap Year's Day" I'm not sure, but the new version seems more fun to say for some reason.

Just a few days ago TLM and I were talking about the family with something like 4 children born on a leap day. Well, it turns out it was only 3 siblings from Norway, Heidi, Olav, and Lief-Martin Henriksen (only 3...come on!) born in 1960, 1964, and 1968 respectively. Is this a freak example of probabilities gone haywire (I mean, the day only comes by every four years or so, depending on the century), or is it instead a masterful example of premeditated and well-timed reproduction? You tell me.


Whatever the case, there are lots of other interesting and/or famous people whose birthday falls or fell on February 29th. For example, as if being a leap year baby wasn't enough, one set of parents in Germany decided to take baby naming to another level in 1904 by naming their son:

Adolph Blaine Charles David Earl Frederick Gerald Hubert Irvin John Kenneth Lloyd Martin Nero Oliver Paul Quincy Randolph Sherman Thomas Uncas Victor William Xerxes Yancy Zeus Wolfeschlegelsteinhausenberdorft Sr.

See the pattern? He had a name that began with every letter of the alphabet, in order, up to his last name (which wasn't exactly that short either, btw.). He could have used a different name almost every day of each month, or maybe based on how he was feeling that day. He apparently did have a shorthand version: Mr. Wolfe Plus 585 Sr., though I haven't figured out where the 585 comes in.

Oh...and is that a Sr. I see at the end? Does that mean there was a Jr. running around at some point with the same name? Had he been born somewhere like 60-68 years later, he may have opted to go with the classic Big Bird word that wasn't (see below in case you have no idea what that means).



Some other Leap Day babies include rapper Ja Rule, Pedro Zamora from Real World San Francisco, motivational speaker Tony Robbins, and Lyndon Byers, the infamous Bruins enforcer who can still be seen now and then in and around Boston bars and nightclubs. Below is an example of LB's handiwork, and one of the few times you'll see a hockey fight broken up before someone hits the ice.



Happy Leap Day!
 

Pats are 18-1, and done

I'm trying to remind myself it's only a game, but this one hurts. It would be different if the Patriots hadn't gone undefeated all year, I imagine. I'm still trying to put together thoughts about this, so here:

Joe Kittinger - Skydiving from Space

Taking a brief reprieve from all the Super Bowl hype (my last chance to do so), I came across this History Channel vid that describes an interesting, and I think little known, even that occurred on August 16, 1960. As part of the US's evolving space program, Joseph Kittinger strapped into a helium balloon craft named the Excelsior III with a very unusual mission. Following orders, Kittinger waited until he was 102,800 feet above the Earth (that's pretty much in space, folks), then jumped out.

Yup, he jumped. And he made it back ok.

Now though the act was really part of an experiment trying to determine the effects of high altitudes on human beings, Kittinger managed to also set a few world records. Firstly, it's safe to say that he has the distance record for skydiving (spacediving?). Secondly, because of the constant acceleration of gravity increasing his velocity all the way down, he ended up traveling over 700 mph at one point, setting the record for fastest human not in a vehicle of some sort, not that many vehicles can get to that speed. The man actually broke mach 1 about 3/4 of his way down.

I deem this worth watching at least once. At least.

Happy Birthday SirKenLord

A "third of my life" he says to me...well, better than half I say.

Have a good one Ken. See you next weekend for Super Bowl XLII...
 

Burns Night

"Auld Lang Syne"...in this country it's one of the most commonly known songs, of which most people know all of five words. It can be heard at New Year's parties and on the streets when the clock strikes midnight on December 31st each year, but where does it come from? Who wrote it?

The answer is Robert Burns, a Scottish poet who lived in the late 1700's and is generally regarded as the man in that country. Besides "Auld Lang Syne", he wrote many other highly regarded poems and even collected folk stories and songs from around Scotland for preservation, and in some cases like "Scots Wha Hae" (the unofficial Scottish national anthem for a long time), inspiration.

Burns is so highly regarded that Scottish emigrants (and fans of his poetry too, I suppose) all over the world come together on or around the anniversary of his birth, January 25th, to celebrate in what's become known as "Burns Night". The celebration is fairly elaborate, and sometimes very formal, a testament to how highly Burns is still regarded.

There is always a meal shared by all attendants called the "Burns Supper", unsurprisingly. A loose outline of the supper's order of events is outlined at Wikipedia (hopefully by people who actually go to these things). I found the Selkirk Grace, commonly said before the meal, particularly fun to read for whatever reason:

"Some hae meat and canna eat,
And some wad eat that want it;
But we hae meat, and we can eat,
Sae let the Lord be thankit."

-the Selkirk Grace

So eat some haggis, have a shot or 3 of some good Scotch Whiskey, and end the night with a good rendition of "Auld Lang Syne".

But please, make sure to learn the words first...

Heath Ledger Dead at 28

Heath Ledger, who almost won an Oscar for his performance in "Brokeback Mountain", was found dead in his apartment today. So far all that's being said is that it's possibly a drug related death.

For many, Ledger's introduction came in the teen flick "10 Things I Hate About You", though personally I saw him in the movies "The Patriot" and "The Four Feathers" first. He plays the Joker in the new Batman movie coming out this summer, "The Dark Knight", one of the most highly anticipated movies of 2008.
 

Pats are 18-0: Arizona (and History), Here We Come

So it'll be the Pats versus the Giants for Super Bowl XLII, and we all know that there'll be an overly excessive amount of hype between now and the big game in two weeks, so I'll keep this short.

So what happened yesterday? Well, the Patriots proved they can win even when their All-Pro quarterback is having a bad day and their number one receiver is limited to one catch. The Chargers proved they can still hang with the big boys even with LT limited to just two carries and their QB had surgery just before the game. The Giants proved they can overcome not one but two shanks late in the game to win a ticket to the Super Bowl in overtime (luckily for the other LT, Lawrence Tynes, it was with a field goal). Lastly, Brett Favre proved even a man in the twilight of a glorious career can still give away big football games.

We also learned that LT isn't the only player to hate on the Pats; Chargers center Nick Hardwick went off about patriots DE Richard Seymour, ranting:

"There are 10 (bleeping) good players on that team. But Richard Seymour is a dirty, cheap, little pompous (expletive)."

"He’s cheap and dirty and the head man just let him get away with it the whole time. They’ve got 10 great players on that team and when Jarvis Green comes on the field, they’ve got 11 great players who compete how you’re supposed to play. But Richard Seymour is the biggest (expletive) I’ve ever played."

"Head slapping, foot stomping in the pile, running by and throwing punches in your back. He’s a (expletive)...There were a lot of things he did. There’s a field goal where he was stomping feet. Who stomps feet? And the officials weren’t doing anything about it. He plays like a punk."

-Nick Hardwick, San Diego Chargers starting Center

Sorry Nick. Your (bleeping)(expletive) excuses aren't going to change the outcome of the game yesterday. Maybe next year.

On a small tangent, what is this business of Paul Pierce congratulating Plaxico Burress and other Giants players at Madison Square Garden this afternoon? I suppose New York sports fans need something to cheer about, but seriously, Paul, seriously...
 

Sweet Lemons Thai Restaurant

Every Friday night TLM and I make it a point to go out together..."date night" if you will. This week we ate at a restaurant she had heard of but neither of us had been to called Sweet Lemons Thai Restaurant. It's a Thai food place (duh) in Weymouth which apparently has received good reviews and just become a chain (um, the other location is in Weymouth too).

I and my stomach were a little tentative at first, as I'd had a buffet lunch at an Indian food place earlier, but I was immediately put at ease by the establishment's decor and arrangement. The service was very polite and attentive, and merely the fact that the paper on the ends of the straws of our drinks were folded into little flowers serve as testament to their careful consideration of diner experience.

Though I should have probably started with some kind of Pad Thai dish as it was the first time we were eating there, I opted for the Drunken Noodle with chicken instead, and was not disappointed. It wasn't overly spicy nor overly veggie, and there was no shortage of well seasoned chicken to be had. All in all, it did not disappoint.

TLM had the Rad Na with chicken. I'd never actually seen Rad Na before, and it looked good, albeit very green, in the gravy-type broth in which it's served. She said it was tasty, though there was one small incident where she hit something that can only be described as a concentrated hot spice something, prompting her to polish off her drink, her water, and some of mine before her throat started opening up again. Yikes...sounds like my kind of spicy.

The meals were of average cost - $9-10 dollars a meal, though the restaurant did employ one of my biggest pet peeves when eating out: no free refills on sodas. Unless you ask, you find this out only after getting the bill. This was, however, the only negative critique I have of what is sure to become one of our favorite Weymouth spots: the Sweet Lemons Thai Restaurant. After one visit: 3 stars.

Blockbuster Total Suckness

I've been a member of the Blockbuster Total Access movies-by-mail program ever since its inception. The deal seemed too good to be true - at prices comparable to those of Netflix you get movies by mail and then get to return them to a store and swap for other movies while you're waiting for the next ones to come in. They even gave you a bonus movie or game rental each month.

It turns out the deal was too good to be true, I found out after a short time. Blockbuster has upped its prices for the program for the second time (what used to be $18.89 is now $34.99, minus some perks), and it's a service no longer worth paying for at all, particularly in light of Netflix and the new iTunes movie rental service. Maybe Blockbuster was taking too much of a hit with the old prices, maybe they're trying to capitalize on the lack of TV shows thanks to the writers' strike...I don't know.

What I do know is that Blockbuster is a model of extremely poor customer service, and I'm not the only one who thinks so. I received an email informing me that their packages were changing and was brought to a page where I could select which plan I wanted to upgrade to, if any. I went through the process 4 times with 2 different browsers, and yet my plan info still reflected no change. Giving them the benefit of the doubt, I sent a nice email "making sure" my plans to continue purchasing their product registered somewhere. I got back no response. I tried a second email, this time mentioning how I hadn't received any DVDs for over half a month. I got a response that told me to make sure my queue had at least 50 selections in it (which it did), and no semblance of a response to the subscription inquiry.

For my third attempt I tried the hardline approach, and pointed out how I felt cheated that I hadn't gotten any movies for almost 3 weeks and that I expected some kind of compensation. I got a coupon for a free rental.

What they're getting is a cancellation of service starting tomorrow and this gleaming review of their service sent out to everyone I know.

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UPDATE 1.18.08:
This short article at Paris Lemon basically says that Blockbuster's stock is plummeting...and I couldn't be happier.