Christmas 2009

Finally got the Christmas cards with annual newsletter into the mail for this year. If I am only one or two days late after Christmas, I am relieved. I'll be very surprised if I ever get the cards/newsletter out in time any year. The card production (e.g. photo taken, cards made, labels produced, etc.) is nothing compared to the newsletter creation process. It's not like creating The Godfather or anything like that but it does consume pretty much an entire day. And the only time I can get around to it is on/around Dec 25.



Whatever. I got the cards/newsletter into the mail. And to all, a good night.

Over-reliance on things to think for us

I read an article or op-ed piece somewhere within the past few months that many people have started to rely on electronic do-dads to the point that we're losing our sense of direction and ability to think through things. The example given in the piece that I read talked about the prevalence of GPS units in cars. I agree with this author (whoever s/he was) - if you've got a GPS in your car, it sometimes takes away from paying attention to the act of driving and more on listening to/looking at a 'disconnected' automaton for some sense of direction. I've always prided my sense of direction and can usually find someplace using this "sense." This is why I don't have a GPS unit - I am sure the fact that I'm a tightwad has nothing to do with not having a GPS unit. What I'm trying to say that, thanks to new gadgetry, it seems we've gotten to the point where we don't need to think as much about certain things as we used to have to in the past.

I came across a 911 call recently that reminded me of this article I read. I think it gets across the point I am making much better than I have and/or can:

Dumb Woman Locked in Her Car 911 Call sound bite 911 Calls sound bites

Tommy Boy and flight patterns

Watched Tommy Boy on Comedy Central recently. Funny movie that I've seen a few times before.

Most of the movie is set in the Midwest and much of it seems to have been actually filmed there. There is a scene, however, that makes no "geographic sense." One of the characters who is supposedly living and working in the Sandusky OH area goes to an airport in the Sandusky area and needs to get a flight to Cuyahoga Falls (OH). (Let's ignore the fact that you wouldn't say you'd need a flight to Cuyahoga Falls - it's a suburb of Cleveland. You know, the really big city near Cuyahoga Falls that actually has an airport.) The gate attendant tells the character that there are no direct flights to Cuyahoga Falls - all those flights go through Columbus.

Ok, this makes a lot of sense. First, it would be a HELLUVA lot faster to simply rent a car and drive from Sandusky to Cleveland, err, Cuyahoga Falls. But, no, the character instead bothers to drive to either Toledo's or Detroit's airport (the only airports of any size near Sandusky). To try to catch a flight to Cleveland that is routed through Columbus. From Toledo or Detroit. It's like flying from LA to San Francisco via San Diego.

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Aleve TV commercial

Seems to me that TV commercials are mostly unbelievable. Most are quite unbelievable - e.g. elves baking cookies, talking cars, that sort of thing. But many are subtly unbelievable.

Saw a TV commercial for Aleve. The set up is the aisle of a nameless pharmacy, drug store, etc. It looks unnaturally crowded with people. And by crowded, I mean three people standing close to one another. (I don't recall going to any store and huddling with random strangers in the aisles - instead, everyone gives each other a pretty wide berth.)

One of the persons starts talking to himself after picking up a non Aleve brand and reading the instructions, muttering something about having to take a lot of pills to help relieve arthritis pain. A woman standing no less than two feet away from him, picks up a different non Aleve brand, and says to no one in particular (even though there are two total random strangers standing close enough that she can stick her tongue in their ears at the same time without moving) something about having to take something like 80 pills over the next ten days.

I don't watch a lot of TV so I never got a DVR - I don't even know what one looks like. I like the idea of skipping commercials. But if I was able to skip commercials, this blog would be even more lame than it already is.

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Ingenuity and BBQing

I don't remember who sent this to me but it's definitely an ingenious use of a shopping cart.

People, If You're Selling MP3 Players, Wipe It Clean Before Giving Them Up

I recently purchased a Sansa MP3 player off Ebay to replace the one I left on a plane trip a couple of months ago. I tried to upload some songs to it - and I get "Device full" message. I think to myself - "It must be broken. How can this 8GB player be full already??"

I open up the files via Explorer and, lo and behold, the device is chock full of stuff. Some of it decent and a lot of crap. 8GB worth of this stuff. So now I have to spend my time to delete this crap off the MP3 player. Note that there are some OK songs on the device that I may leave on the device. One might say, "Hey, you got a lot of music for free." True, but music is pretty personal and very individual in terms of "taste." Example: I see a folder for Adam Ant. I recall a few catchy tunes from this cat way back when. I open the Adam Ant folder to see which song(s) is(are) on the device. Turns out it's some song I've never heard of. Crap - so it was deleted.

There are over 250 different musicians/bands on this MP3 player. And I need to review each folder to see whether it's anything I want to keep. This is a major waste of time. One might say, "Well, why don't you just delete everything?" I could - but then I might be deleting a song or two or more that I might actually like. And I'm not one to pass up on free stuff.

How Not to Get Swine Flu

Don't do this.

Maytag and Monster Trucks

I don't watch a lot of TV. This probably explain why I don't have a DVR. Maybe eventually.

I just saw an ad for Maytag that takes the cake for stupidity. There are two rows of washing machines, probably 15 to 20 machines in each row. Each row is parallel to the other with about four or five feet between each row. There is a pair of small ramps leading "up" one end of each row and another pair of small ramps leading "down" the other end of each row. Using the ramps, a monster truck drives on to the washing machines, ostensibly to show how well made the washing machines are.

Here's the kicker: when the monster truck drives up on to the washing machines, the following words appear on the screen for a few seconds:

DO NOT ATTEMPT

Ok. Let's assume $700 per washing machine. Let's assume $50,000 for the monster truck. (And that's probably too low but humor me here.) Let's assume I had the means (not to mention space) to put $14,000 worth of washing machines in two perfectly spaced rows. Then I happen to have a tricked out monster truck nearby, ready to drive up any ramps that might be in the area.

Yeah, that would be sweet. (The version posted here was the one created by the ad agency - obviously, legal counsel for Maytag Inc made them add the "DO NOT ATTEMPT" verbiage after filming was complete.)

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White Castle and Valentine's Day

V-Day at the Castle. Reservations required. Coat + tie optional. Not sure about pants.