So call this curious cat tapicoa colored or polka-dotted, but I had to call Toys'R Us Saturday night in Madison to see how the line was shuffling along. Turns out I was wrong; it was mostly an overnight chain gang. At 9:30pm CST, there was an openning for a Wii if I "got [there] within the next hour" chased close by "hurry."
Hurrying from Seattle? Nope, not gonna get back til about 2am on Monday, slugger. Count me out.
Sold out by 10:30pm CST with a overnight low of about 32 degrees. That's so cold my links almost fell off!
Links
-A Fraggle Rock movie is in the works – details after the jump.
-Wii article on Wired.com. I subscribe to this magazine - it rocks.
- New male contraceptive pill with no side effects.
-Joyriding isn’t a prank or a mischievous lark anymore, it’s a job now thanks to one fifteen year old boy who really wanted to play Bus Driver. He went so far as to follow the normal route at posted speeds, collect passengers and even require the mass transitinites to fork over the usual bus ride fare. One question: why? Why not go around town and pick up your friends and have a moveable [underage] party instead? This kid is way too resonpsible for his own good. I hope they lock him up forEVER! Sicko.
Tuesday, October 31, 2006
Monday, October 30, 2006
Seattle, As Told By My Wife
As promised, ProjectNCK's first guest blogger (my wife) tells of our weekend in the Pacific Northwest...
THURSDAY
After Sean picked us up at the SeaTac airport, our first stop was the Google offices in Kirkland. Sean gave us a tour of his office there. I signed a pretty lengthy non-disclosure agreement before we looked around the offices, so I’m probably not supposed to tell anyone this, but Neil and I beat Sean at foosball there. The Google offices just rock. Very awesome working environment. If Google offers you a job, take it.
Sean dropped us off at his apartment and returned to Google for the rest of the workday. Neil and I walked through downtown Kirkland and to Lake Washington and wandered around the waterfront for a few hours. We saw some really spiffy model homes (fireplaces built into the walls on the front porch!)… “How much do you think that one is? $700,000?” “Wow, no, that’s gotta be $1,000,000” (turned out to be $2,950,000).
We went out for pizza then returned to Sean’s.
FRIDAY
Sean took the day off work. Neil and I were really pumped to find that OPH is in Kirkland! So after a tasty breakfast, we took the bus down to the monorail station (amid plenty of quotes from the Simpsons episode where Springfield gets a monorail), where we discovered the monorail was not in service. So we walked through Belltown and went to the Sci Fi Museum. The original pencil art (1905) from War of the Worlds was awesome; the cultural analysis of the Jetsons was interesting. I’m glad that Sean pointed out the highlight of the museum to me. Frankly, I was surprised to find so much interesting stuff there, but I guess I’m geek enough for it. We then went to the Experience Music Project . We checked out the Jimi Hendrix exhibit (fascinating stuff, really thorough history) and the guitar gallery. I had a bit of a headache and was eager to leave the EMP, so we weren’t able to check out the Double Take exhibit, which looked interesting.
From there we headed over to the Space Needle, which gives you a great view of the city.
We found some above-average burritos for an early dinner, then returned to Sean’s for some Badger hockey (shape up, boys) and beer. After the sad game, we decided to go back to the Space Needle for the night-time view. It was definitely worth it to go back to get both views.
Went to Shorty’s for some beer and nachos, then back to Sean’s.
SATURDAY
Watched the Badger football game, had some Chinese for lunch, and headed down to Pike Place Market for the rest of the afternoon. The fish-tossing is just a small part of it – it’s a farmers’ market/street vendors/etc., and made for a nice afternoon. We followed it up with some more disappointing Badger hockey back at Sean’s.
Sean has a Roomba. He didn’t buy the more expensive version (the one that you can program to turn on at a specific time), but he did train Sturgis to turn it on, which Sturgis did twice on Saturday. Not to be outdone, Nox entertained us with some classic Nox in a box.
SUNDAY
We all slept in (ahh, glorious vacation! Sleeping in three days in a row!), then headed to a greasy spoon for a late breakfast before Sean took us back to the airport.
In all, a fantastic weekend. A great introduction to the Pacific Northwest – thanks again to Sean for showing us a great time.
THURSDAY
After Sean picked us up at the SeaTac airport, our first stop was the Google offices in Kirkland. Sean gave us a tour of his office there. I signed a pretty lengthy non-disclosure agreement before we looked around the offices, so I’m probably not supposed to tell anyone this, but Neil and I beat Sean at foosball there. The Google offices just rock. Very awesome working environment. If Google offers you a job, take it.
Sean dropped us off at his apartment and returned to Google for the rest of the workday. Neil and I walked through downtown Kirkland and to Lake Washington and wandered around the waterfront for a few hours. We saw some really spiffy model homes (fireplaces built into the walls on the front porch!)… “How much do you think that one is? $700,000?” “Wow, no, that’s gotta be $1,000,000” (turned out to be $2,950,000).
We went out for pizza then returned to Sean’s.
FRIDAY
Sean took the day off work. Neil and I were really pumped to find that OPH is in Kirkland! So after a tasty breakfast, we took the bus down to the monorail station (amid plenty of quotes from the Simpsons episode where Springfield gets a monorail), where we discovered the monorail was not in service. So we walked through Belltown and went to the Sci Fi Museum. The original pencil art (1905) from War of the Worlds was awesome; the cultural analysis of the Jetsons was interesting. I’m glad that Sean pointed out the highlight of the museum to me. Frankly, I was surprised to find so much interesting stuff there, but I guess I’m geek enough for it. We then went to the Experience Music Project . We checked out the Jimi Hendrix exhibit (fascinating stuff, really thorough history) and the guitar gallery. I had a bit of a headache and was eager to leave the EMP, so we weren’t able to check out the Double Take exhibit, which looked interesting.
From there we headed over to the Space Needle, which gives you a great view of the city.
We found some above-average burritos for an early dinner, then returned to Sean’s for some Badger hockey (shape up, boys) and beer. After the sad game, we decided to go back to the Space Needle for the night-time view. It was definitely worth it to go back to get both views.
Went to Shorty’s for some beer and nachos, then back to Sean’s.
SATURDAY
Watched the Badger football game, had some Chinese for lunch, and headed down to Pike Place Market for the rest of the afternoon. The fish-tossing is just a small part of it – it’s a farmers’ market/street vendors/etc., and made for a nice afternoon. We followed it up with some more disappointing Badger hockey back at Sean’s.
Sean has a Roomba. He didn’t buy the more expensive version (the one that you can program to turn on at a specific time), but he did train Sturgis to turn it on, which Sturgis did twice on Saturday. Not to be outdone, Nox entertained us with some classic Nox in a box.
SUNDAY
We all slept in (ahh, glorious vacation! Sleeping in three days in a row!), then headed to a greasy spoon for a late breakfast before Sean took us back to the airport.
In all, a fantastic weekend. A great introduction to the Pacific Northwest – thanks again to Sean for showing us a great time.
Back from Seattle
My wife and I just got back from visiting our friend Sean in Seattle. We had a great time walking around and checking everything out. My wife said she may do a guest blog here for our trip, so look forward to that! So I don't really want to say anything more or I ruin the beautiful soufflé that will be her storytelling.
*exit stage left*
Links
-Hate to register for websites like The New York Times when all you want to do is just read one linked article and be done with it? I know I do! Well, there’s a website that caters to anonymous travelers. If you wanted, you could even try it out for the next link…
-If you’re a politician, why would you appear on the Colbert Report? Well, this article gives some good reasons on why/why not to show up for the big satire dance. I’d show up just for the Green Room food - I hear they actually fly in Alaskan Salmon fresh from Alaska daily... from the future! I don’t really like salmon, but I do like the future; it probably tastes like blueberries.
-Rollercoaster of DEATH, Rollercoaster Tycoon run by a sadist... call it what you will, imaginative life cycle ending or vicious rending of flesh, but, as long as only virtual souls perish, let the devil have his share! Off with their heads!
Monday, October 23, 2006
Monday? Where?
Hemingway is my favorite writer, but I'm Sandberg'ing it all over the place. No, not quite that bad, but you get the general picture (which is quite long-winded). Let's try to White Elephants this out, eh?
Links
-Kotaku has given me a writerly (yes, it's a word now) push in the right direction. I didn't ask for it. Things like this are best when found without effort - a good fortune cookie fortune.
-One of my wife’s favorite bands, the Old 97s, has a connection to disgraced Congressman Mark Foley (R-FL). Maybe she knows something too?
-What's a person who makes hats called? A milliner. It's not called Toshiba.
cheers
Links
-Kotaku has given me a writerly (yes, it's a word now) push in the right direction. I didn't ask for it. Things like this are best when found without effort - a good fortune cookie fortune.
-One of my wife’s favorite bands, the Old 97s, has a connection to disgraced Congressman Mark Foley (R-FL). Maybe she knows something too?
-What's a person who makes hats called? A milliner. It's not called Toshiba.
cheers
Wednesday, October 18, 2006
Banana Republic Goes Down - My Fault?
So I decided to check up on an order that I placed with Bananarepublic.com because I knew it would be shipping soon and, frankly, I was looking forward to the threads. Nothing too special, but the fit is very nice for me.
Anyway, so I check the website and it keeps giving me these SERVER TEMPORARILY UNAVAILABLE messages or, alternately, a BR page with "page not found" bannered out in small print where normally clothes appear. I call the customer service hotline, fumbling with the number the first time - Damn you large fingers! The second time I have no such excuse; I misspelled the BRSTYLE and nearly got a physic stripper who wanted to read my tarot. I relented though and decided to call back Banana.
I somehow managed to steer through the dovetailing process of choosing the right number in their automated (though the voice sounded like a lovely brunette). My number was four.
I get Customer Service Rep #1. He is nice, affable and doesn't throw in any references to the Peloponnesian War my may within the first 30 seconds of conversation. The witty exchange goes as follows:
Me: Why is your website down?
Him: I didn't even know it was down until just right now. Wow, lemme just...
Me: Are they just updating the store or something?
Him: What browser are you using?
Me: I've been hitting refresh... okay, wow, now it works. What the hell.
Him: Yeah, I think they were just doing some updates to the store.
Me: Well you, sir, are magic. Magic. You've just saved the site. Magic.
Him: *laughing insanely* Well, thank you very much.
Not a funny story so far? Well, guess what. After that little conversation I prowled the sale items quickly, but didn't find anything so I returned to the homepage to see what was different again (I'd looked earlier it was a picture of a woman lounging on a chaise. The theme was light, trendy green (peaish?) and soft brown. It was a nice site... until I hit refresh. Here is a text glimpse of what I saw:
Link to the URL
My advice? Grab some FREE SHIPPING! I do wonder what they've changed though...
Anyway, so I check the website and it keeps giving me these SERVER TEMPORARILY UNAVAILABLE messages or, alternately, a BR page with "page not found" bannered out in small print where normally clothes appear. I call the customer service hotline, fumbling with the number the first time - Damn you large fingers! The second time I have no such excuse; I misspelled the BRSTYLE and nearly got a physic stripper who wanted to read my tarot. I relented though and decided to call back Banana.
I somehow managed to steer through the dovetailing process of choosing the right number in their automated (though the voice sounded like a lovely brunette). My number was four.
I get Customer Service Rep #1. He is nice, affable and doesn't throw in any references to the Peloponnesian War my may within the first 30 seconds of conversation. The witty exchange goes as follows:
Me: Why is your website down?
Him: I didn't even know it was down until just right now. Wow, lemme just...
Me: Are they just updating the store or something?
Him: What browser are you using?
Me: I've been hitting refresh... okay, wow, now it works. What the hell.
Him: Yeah, I think they were just doing some updates to the store.
Me: Well you, sir, are magic. Magic. You've just saved the site. Magic.
Him: *laughing insanely* Well, thank you very much.
Not a funny story so far? Well, guess what. After that little conversation I prowled the sale items quickly, but didn't find anything so I returned to the homepage to see what was different again (I'd looked earlier it was a picture of a woman lounging on a chaise. The theme was light, trendy green (peaish?) and soft brown. It was a nice site... until I hit refresh. Here is a text glimpse of what I saw:
Sorry, our store is temporarily closed.
BananaRepublic.com is currently unavailable due to a scheduled maintenance.
We're updating our site to create a better shopping experience for you.
To compensate for any inconvenience this may have caused you, please return later to get free shipping on your next online purchase.* Simply enter promo code CLOSED at checkout. (Please note: this offer expires on October 23, 2006.)
*Offer valid through 11:59 PM (ET), October 23, 2006 at BananaRepublic.com. This offer is good for standard shipping within the United States and Puerto Rico to the first "ship to" address in your order. If you choose express shipping, additional charges may apply. Qualifying amount applies to merchandise only, not value of GiftCards or online gift certificates purchased, packaging, taxes, shipping & handling, or payment of a Banana Republic account. No adjustment on previous purchases. Offer is nontransferable without consent from Banana Republic. Not valid at Banana Republic stores or Banana Republic Factory stores. Cannot be combined with any other offers. Employees are not eligible. If you have any questions, please call 1-888-BR-STYLE or email us at custserv@bananarepublic.com.
Banana Republic
Link to the URL
My advice? Grab some FREE SHIPPING! I do wonder what they've changed though...
Monday, October 09, 2006
How Many Birthdays Was That?
Obviously, you think it would just be one. One birthday a year. My friend, messieurs and madams, you get as many birthdays as you can wring out. I'm not much of a wringer though, mostly I just am. Mostly I am just full of cake! Seriously, lots of cakes and pies and delicacies that only the heroes in Valhalla could hope to imagine. You and I, we could never even hope of such ambrosia but for this note I've left behind to tell us this tale.
Can I tell you this too? The cake? It was sometimes made of ice cream or apple crème or angel food. I had the Neapolitan of birthdays. It was glamorous. Rock stars and aging actors should only be treated so kindly. Enough about the cake already! The rest of the day was pretty decent too.
Having moved completely around that whole messy situation of the two previous paragraphs, which we shall now refer to as The People's Exhibit A & B, respectively, let's just plain on just move on, shall we?
The following are links. They are tasty for the eyes, but should not be output and further eaten. The eyes and the brain are the only receptors getting something out of this one. Maybe the skin too, in case you get something galvanic going on, but, other than the eyes, the brain (which I suppose includes most of the central nervous system too), the skin and the heart (yeah, I threw the heart in there too, wanna make something out of it?), you will not get anything out of these funny little links.
Links
- Scientists teleport matter about 18 inches to the left; pundits plead for the ambi-transporter that could also move atoms 18 inches to the right.
- If you’re a sweaty, stanky Japanese salaryman and you’re in a rush to get to your salary, stop by this place and enjoy your twirling way through a human car wash. Please go. This is a subtle hint. Okay, not subtle, but I didn’t have any extra bars of soap lying around that I could put in your mailbox. I'll do it later just for laughs, but, for right now, no soap. Sam's was closed; I'll bring you a pallet tomorrow via mailbox. Yes, all at once. If they have a sale on mailboxes at Sam's, I'll bring you a flyer. Maybe.
- French clothier Jean Paul Gaultier replaced one of his size 0 runway models with a size 20 woman. Some more info about Jean Paul Gaultier for those of you who care.
Can I tell you this too? The cake? It was sometimes made of ice cream or apple crème or angel food. I had the Neapolitan of birthdays. It was glamorous. Rock stars and aging actors should only be treated so kindly. Enough about the cake already! The rest of the day was pretty decent too.
Having moved completely around that whole messy situation of the two previous paragraphs, which we shall now refer to as The People's Exhibit A & B, respectively, let's just plain on just move on, shall we?
The following are links. They are tasty for the eyes, but should not be output and further eaten. The eyes and the brain are the only receptors getting something out of this one. Maybe the skin too, in case you get something galvanic going on, but, other than the eyes, the brain (which I suppose includes most of the central nervous system too), the skin and the heart (yeah, I threw the heart in there too, wanna make something out of it?), you will not get anything out of these funny little links.
Links
- Scientists teleport matter about 18 inches to the left; pundits plead for the ambi-transporter that could also move atoms 18 inches to the right.
- If you’re a sweaty, stanky Japanese salaryman and you’re in a rush to get to your salary, stop by this place and enjoy your twirling way through a human car wash. Please go. This is a subtle hint. Okay, not subtle, but I didn’t have any extra bars of soap lying around that I could put in your mailbox. I'll do it later just for laughs, but, for right now, no soap. Sam's was closed; I'll bring you a pallet tomorrow via mailbox. Yes, all at once. If they have a sale on mailboxes at Sam's, I'll bring you a flyer. Maybe.
- French clothier Jean Paul Gaultier replaced one of his size 0 runway models with a size 20 woman. Some more info about Jean Paul Gaultier for those of you who care.
Tuesday, October 03, 2006
Birthday!
It’s my birthday today! WOOT! I’d really like to more articulate about this immaculate event and ruminate on our meta-physical existence or solar wind... Something *BIG* like that. Rest assured, the conversation would have been intellectually curious and satisfying. You would come back for more sweet, sweet nectar. Or maybe you’d just come back for some interesting links? Yes? Maybe?
Well, bad news, hombre. I don’t care about *your* links, I care about *my* links and my links are all about stuff for me. I’m not saying you have to buy anything for me, that is ludicrous. If you think I am trying to lay the guilt on even thicker, I assure you that I am not. I just want to share some funny links like usual.
Let the festivities commence!
-USB Hamster Wheel
-Make your own Mii character (Mine is in the upper-right of my website ATM; looks kinda like me too)
-Bartending robot
-Awesome LED lightbulbs (honestly, very nifty but pricey)
-Laserpods (Is it a plant or is it a laser? It’s both! Ruuuuunnnnnn)
-Screech in a porno? Seriously? That’s… that’s not right. Why would Zack put him up to something like that?
-Before & After Magazine It’s pretty amazing design stuff with How To's. Check it out. Free PDF downloads (some are pay).
Well, bad news, hombre. I don’t care about *your* links, I care about *my* links and my links are all about stuff for me. I’m not saying you have to buy anything for me, that is ludicrous. If you think I am trying to lay the guilt on even thicker, I assure you that I am not. I just want to share some funny links like usual.
Let the festivities commence!
-USB Hamster Wheel
-Make your own Mii character (Mine is in the upper-right of my website ATM; looks kinda like me too)
-Bartending robot
-Awesome LED lightbulbs (honestly, very nifty but pricey)
-Laserpods (Is it a plant or is it a laser? It’s both! Ruuuuunnnnnn)
-Screech in a porno? Seriously? That’s… that’s not right. Why would Zack put him up to something like that?
-Before & After Magazine It’s pretty amazing design stuff with How To's. Check it out. Free PDF downloads (some are pay).
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