Your celebrity face

I hope everyone has a safe and happy New Year's Eve and New Year's Day. Here's an interesting site I found on another blog today: my Heritage's face recognition demo. You can upload a picture of your face and run face recognition software against pictures of celebrities to see who you most resemble. I did this, and here are the top ten. The amazing thing they all have in common is that they don't look like each other.
Brian apparently looks like:

• Carlos Castaneda 63% match (yeah, I hadn't heard of him either)
• Angelina Jolie 59%
• Steven Soderbergh 58%
• Jeff Goldblum 55%
• Margaret Atwood 51%
• Margaret Thatcher 50%
• Eddie Murphy 50%
• John Hume 47%
• Goran Persson 47%
• Tom Hanks 47%

Yes, you read that right - I am a 50% match on both Margaret Thatcher and Eddie Murphy. I've always thought they were separated at birth.

Intel logo, speakers, race car, things we know, Jeep spending, Bush quotes

• Intel launches new logo. New slogan as well, but Intel is still inside.
  
• Of course, please compliment your iPod with these $4000 speakers. That seems sensible.
• New Nissan concept that also functions as a video game machine. Having your actual car function as a racing game console. Now that is a safety minded idea.
• An interesting list: 100 Things We Didn't Know This Time Last Year.
• The Marines buy Jeeps at $100K a piece. If only I could get them to come to my garage sale...
• "Brownie, you're doing a heckuva job." is 2005's top Bush quote.
  

Jockey goof, cats and pods, Microsoft surprises, pac-movie, water clock

• Jockey celebrates early and ends up losing the lead. 80 meters left.
• Want to combine your love of cats with love of iPods? Try the iKitty.
• The ten biggest Microsoft surprises of 2005. Security issues? How is that a surprise?
• Pac-Man to be a movie. Yes, the yellow dot guy. Also, Tekken and Castlevania movies, because hey, videogame movies are always really good, right?
• A water powered clock. Shh, don't let Big Oil find out!
  

Net usage, toast portraits, role models, dash, tech talk

Hope everyone has been having Happy Holidays! I'm back from Christmas in Iowa and here are a few leftover Christmas goodies for you:

• 68% of United Statesians use the Internet (from this set of Internet stats), and you might be one of them! (I'm pretty confident in the "you're using the Internet" part, not so much the "you're a United States citizen".)
• Are you bummed that portraits don't mysteriously appear in your toast? Here's a way to laser engrave your own toast.
• British teen girls came up with this insightful list of the ten most inspiring celebrities. Let's let them decide the Nobel Prize winners.
• The new Mercedes S-Class has a digital dashboard. Included is picture-in-picture that constantly plays "Cannonball Run".
• 2005's tech exec foot-in-mouth awards. Who would have thought a tech executive would speak inelegantly?
  

Our new robot leader, that crazy Congress, wiretap rules?

• New robot that can recognize itself in a mirror. Huge market for robot makeup and hair products just around the corner.
  
• Senate blocks defense spending bill that includes Alaskan refuge oil drilling. Alaskan refuge oil drilling in a defense bill. Also in this defense bill: hurricane relief money and help for low income families to pay heating bills. Why can't Congress logically group things in their bills? Oh, and there should have been a Congressional pay raise tacked on.
• Oh, that's why! they're paid to pass laws in exchange for campaign donations.
  
• Quote from April 2004 Bush speech: "Now, by the way, any time you hear the United States government talking about wiretap, it requires -- a wiretap requires a court order. Nothing has changed, by the way. When we're talking about chasing down terrorists, we're talking about getting a court order before we do so. It's important for our fellow citizens to understand, when you think Patriot Act, constitutional guarantees are in place when it comes to doing what is necessary to protect our homeland, because we value the Constitution." Hmmm... and Bush began authorizing warrantless wiretaps in 2001?
  

Corrupt Congress, edible lawns, table defense, mac IE, super MIT bros

• Sen. Reid calls Congress "most corrupt in history" Not sure if he is complaining or bragging.
• How to eat your own lawn. I should clarify, this is for humans. If you are a sheep, you probably already had it figured out.
• Finally! A bedside table that will help defend against those invading Visigoths and Vandals.
• Mac users: Internet Explorer for Mac being phased out. This must be heartbreaking considering how much you love Microsoft products.
• Someone(s) with a lot of time turned a MIT hall into a Super Mario level. Yes, fine college education at work.
  

Blog this blog! Spying, soap, portable tv, chalk wear, toys

A friend of mine was commenting that he hardly knows what a blog is, since he felt people use (and mis-use) the word for all kinds of things. I guess I don't hear it incorrectly used that often, but he went to the interesting point of "'blog' is going to become the next 'smurf'." (as in "Holy smurf, here comes Gargamel!"). Well... yeah, I guess that could happen.

I don't usually get overtly political in my blog blogs, but was bothered by the story President Blog authorizes spying on citizens without warrants. It's one blog to protect America, but by violating (or potentially violating) liberties and freedoms to do so kind of defeats the purpose. There is that great quote by Benjamin Franklin that goes "They who would give up an essential liberty for temporary security, deserve neither liberty or security." Also, we have a government of checks and blogs, so for the Executive Blog to start spying on citizens without involvement of the other branches (typically the courts), is allowing too much power to the blog.

Other blog:

• Want to blog your own soap? TeachSoap is filled with info on the topic. Surprisingly interesting.
• Oh, the wonderful blog of the Japanese! HDTV on the go for when blogging HDTV in the home is not enough.
• The Blackboard T-Shirt with chalk. Finally a shirt that never goes out of blog. Know what you could blog on it? Blog.
• Popular toys of the last 100 years. Lots of classics, but I was surprised to see blog missing from the list.
  

No read good, terror release, e-ink clock, more

• 1 in 20 American adults is illiterate. If you're one of them... well, I guess you can't read this.
  
• Al-Zarqawi caught then released. I'm not a military strategist, but that doesn't seem like the surest road to victory.
• If you've been looking for a 52 inch wide, flexible wall clock, the Citizen e-ink clock is for you.
• Google might buy Opera? A web juggernaut buying a browser?
  
• Bush and McCain agree on torture ban. Why exactly did this take so long?
• Korean human cloning was faked. This is a sad day in my quest for the All Brian Army.
  

Dead law, dead wrong, dead presidents, long dead finds, and... um Google

• If you outlaw death, then only outlaws will die.
• Iran's president - not a fan of Schindler's List apparently.
  
• New dead presidents dollar coins to start debuting in 2007.
  
• The 10 most puzzling ancient artifacts. Odd, there's no mention of the eight-track cassette...
• Google lets you build a custom Google homepage. But that's it. They have to be about out of ideas.
  

Santax, wake n' bacon, pixel power, colorful past

• Argentina's taxmen dressing as Santas. What better way to encourage the kids to give money to the government.
  
• Now, this is ingenious: an alarm clock that wakes you by cooking bacon. And it has a clever name: The Wake N' Bacon!
• A 39-Megapixel camera?? What insane photographer could possibly need this?
• Check out Bound for Glory, America in Color 1939-1943. A great Library of Congress website exhibition. (And be sure to browse some of the other great exhibitions online.)
  

Bangalore, Xbox discounts, drumsheets, happy media

• Bangalore gone!.. the way of Madras, Calcutta, and Bombay. City name change in the plans.
  
• Xbox sales so bad in Japan, prices slashed to $150 with ISP contracts.
• Need a way to bring excitement to that boring old spreadsheet? How about an Excel drum machine plug-in?
• What wonderful times we live in... Happy Meal toys might be replaced with media players.
  

Integrity, poles, populations, pooh, and more

• I don't know if we should be pleased by 'integrity' being the most looked up word on web dictionaries. On the one hand, it means Americans are possibly interested in integrity, but on the other, it means most of them don't know what it means.
  
• Here's a very cool PC case mod adding a Japanese touch.
• Better sell all your stock in compass companies. Earth's magnetic poles are drifting.
• An interesting view of the world: a map of Earth with country size scaled to population.
• Winnie the Pooh gets a new friend. Disney replacing Christopher Robin with a girl. Next up: Piglet replaced by rapping wild boar and Hundred Acre Woods gets a paved skateboard park.
• Looking for a new hobby? By like this guy and create your own homemade nuclear fusor.
• Hope you didn't pay huge dollars for an Xbox 360 online. They can't even get rid of them in Japan (at a lower price than in the US, no less).
  

Narnia, PC phone calls, answers, bioprint, alarming news

• The new Narnia movie opens tomorrow, and I will probably see it, even after this review calling it a LOTR wannabe. Sheesh, criticizing it for relying on good versus evil? Did you read the book?
  
• Yahoo! to offer cheap PC to phone calls, in the one to two cents per minute range.
• Speaking of Yahoo!, have you tried Yahoo! Answers? (It's a yes or no question.)
  
• You know, I can print regular or glossy or on sticker paper, etc., but I would like to print organs on demand.
• A flying alarm clock. Now that is innovation! Personal jetpacks and flying cars must be right around the corner.
  

SNL iPod, awesome light show, super broccoli, dog phones

• SNL iPod skit - funny, in case you missed it.
• A Christmas lights display that I had in a previous post, has been taken down due to causing a car crash and traffic buildup. See, I told you it was an awesome Christmas light show.
• Cancer team makes "super broccoli". Now why wouldn't they have put the effort into pizza?
• Having trouble staying in touch with your dog? New dog cell phone is just the thing for you.
  

Google rules, NBC iTunes, Charlie Brown Christmas

• Google's Ten Golden Rules. Interesting points in their company philosophy.
  
• NBC to offer TV shows on iTunes. Good news for iTunes fans. I'll admit I've bought a couple episodes of 'Lost' off of iTunes, but haven't been impressed with their so-far meager offering of shows (just 5 ABC properties).
• Do you like "A Charlie Brown Christmas"? Of course you do. Here's a brief article with some facts about it, and here is a quiz about the holiday special. I scored a worthy 18/20 (though I admit to some guessing).
  

Star wars reference, 9/11 commission report, Xbox class action, iPods cheap!

Well, as I write this, I can't get into my own blog (and I noticed the same errors on some other blogspot blogs), but oddly I can still get into the Blogger edit tools (and thus, I can still post; hope this makes it to my actual blog OK).

• Need a Star Wars encyclopedia? Of course you do! Try the Wookieepedia, a clever take on the wonderful Wikipedia (a great resource if you take into account that anyone can change any page; so trust with caution).
• More F's than A's. Is it time to call Homeland Security's parents in for a chat?
• Man starts class action suit against Microsoft for releasing the Xbox 360 "defectively designed". Also, he thinks "Call of Duty 2" is too hard.
• Attention, if you are going to try and buy iPods using fake barcodes, you might want to try a more realistic price than $4.99.
  

Snow, photos, photos of snow

And still more snow... it is slowly, but surely coming down, and everywhere you look is blindingly white. I put a few pictures from the beginning of the week up on my Flickr account. I mentioned long ago that I'm using Flickr, and I have now upgraded to the pro account (after running into the transfer and photo set limitations on the free account). Over in the right column of this page -> is a badge linking to my account as well. There are some public photos there, but if you know me and would like access to some of my other photo sets, just send me an email.

Paper watch, lampshade, jury duty, hit points, in his manger

• The first e-paper watch soon to be available. Just what you want (and can't afford).
• Want your own origami paper lampshade? Instructions here.
• President Bush gets out of jury duty. Wouldn't it be a little intimidating to have the President of the United States in your jury box?
• Final Fantasy Potion beverage. Further blurring the lines of video games and reality. It may restore Hit Points, but please remember: do NOT drink Ether to restore your Magic Points.
• Spears and Federline turn baby's room into Nativity scene. Yeah, this kid is not going to grow up with any ego issues.
  

Snow, book projects, demotivation

More snow today, but thankfully the wind was low, so no major drifting. I'm looking on a couple weather sites, but can't seem to find accurate info. One says we had 0 inches of precip. in the last 24 hours and 0 inches of snow on the ground, which is obviously inaccurate. Another won't show me what has happened, but predicts we'll get another 2 to 4 inches tonight. Why don't they show the actual weather events? Is it because they don't want us to see how bad their predictions were?

• Here is a neat project to create a book wall hanging from public domain books. It is kind of hard to see the results from their pictures. Here is a somewhat related project on the same site.
• As referenced in that book wall hanging link, Project Gutenberg is a great place to get public domain book texts.
• Just got a catalog from them recently, so I thought I'd post the link to Despair, the "demotivator" site. Some clever satire of "Successories" motivational style materials, and the site has a lot of subtle humor.
  

Safe doctrines, next gen media, Firefox, teenager repellant

• Oh good! The works of L. Ron Hubbard will survive a nuclear holocaust. Question, if "-ology" means "the science of", wouldn't that make Scientology "the science of science"?
• Who will win in the next generation DVD wars? Blu-ray or HD DVD? Wait, HVD could make them irrelevant?. It's nice when technologies start to be outdated before we even have them.
• Firefox 1.5 released, for those of you that want an Internet Explorer alternative.
• Teenager repellant. No, not unhip parents, but a sonic device.
  

Blizzard, hamburgler, flipbooks, games

Blizzard! We are buried (maybe "buried" is too strong a word) in ice and snow. Right now, the wind is the worst, and I'm hoping I don't get drifts in the driveway before work tomorrow.

• Ronald MacDonald robs Wendy's. The Burger King has been put on High Alert.
• I recently posted a link to a flip book making service. Here's one, Flipbook Printer, that is free, but you print it out yourself on business card stock.
• The Pong Wall Clock. Probably the best application of Pong ever (... besides the game).
• Nintendo Revolution to be unveiled on May 9. Good move; maybe gamers will start to tire of their Xbox 360s and PS3s by then.
  

Bad products, print services, alternate realities

Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving.

• Just in time for holiday shopping item avoidance, the list of the Ten Worst Tech Products of the Year.
• If you're at all interested in print-on-demand services, here are a few I ran across in Wired:
• FlipClips- turn home movies into flip books.
• Lulu - publish books, CDs, DVDs, or calendars.
• iUniverse - for publishing and selling books.
• Cafe Press - all kinds of personalized items.
• And of course, most of the major photo services have some neat products, like at Kodak Gallery (Ofoto), Snap Fish, and Qoop.
• I have to admit that I like the idea of "alternate reality gaming" (link to ARGN), but haven't invested much time into it. Back at the time, I followed the CloudMakers (marketing for Spielberg's "A.I."), but really just read the summary of what people were finding.
  

What, mate?, iPod tv, xbox is a smash, wizard at the box office

• Finally we can understand what those people in England are saying, with the British to American Translator.
• Here's a handy tip for playing iPod video on your TV without buying Apple's proprietary video cable.
• Uh, sure... I suppose that's a perfectly good response... smashing your Xbox 360 with a sledgehammer right after spending 55 hours in line to buy it.
• Harry Potter cleaning up at the box office. I saw it last weekend, and enjoyed it tremendously except for the part in the most pivotal scene in the movie (which I won't spoil for you) when the usher comes in flashing his flashlight around the theater and some guy with him repeatedly shouts out for some person he is trying to locate.

Hope you all have a Happy Thanksgiving!

Light show, small change, warnings, and just the facts

And speaking of holiday decoration (as I have in the last week), check out this absolutely fantastic holiday lighting display! (Link in post by Carson Williams; can open in Windows Media Player.) Now I feel ashamed of my boring old net lights and rope lights.

• Like carrying change, but wish it wasn't so darn big? This site is for you.
• And while you are shrinking your change, you may need a warning label conveniently created by the Warning Label Generator.
  
• If you need the facts on an urban legend or rumor, check out Snopes, a great site for facts about the stories.
• Along the same lines, FactCheck.org is a good non-partisan evaluation site regarding political statements. I visit it frequently during election season, and it basically shows that all politicians have some trouble with their facts.
  

Supercleaners, onion ring emergency, loud mouth, GOP and Goblet

• Finally, the quiz that matters: Superhero or Household Cleaner? I scored a mighty 17 out of 20.
• Woman calls 911 for cold food. I'm no expert, but she should have probably taken her complaint to the manager first.
• Build your own megaphone helmet. For, as the site humorously explains, "the maximal aural stupidity allowed by law".
• House GOP seeks quick veto of Iraq pullout. Or veto of quick Iraq pullout. Your choice.
• Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire is sure to clean up this weekend. I will try to see it this weekend, after I finish all of my Potions homework.
  

Pen computing, MacGyver, bar codes, fashion police, cost of a song

Wow, it's getting cold here in Whitmarshall! More snow today. With this dusting of white, I'm getting the urge to turn on those Christmas lights. No.. must... resist until .... reasonable holiday time frame...

• The amazing LeapFrog Fly pentop computer. I read an article about this device a couple months back. It sounds like a cool technology with a lot of potential.
• What Would MacGyver Do? book in the works. The author plans to finish it with a chewing gum wrapper, a paperclip, and a reel of fishing line.
• Would you like to impress nerds at parties? Guide on reading bar codes.
• IT workers dubbed "worst dressed" corporate professionals. Oh, but wait, this was in Australia... whew!
• iTunes to potentially drop the flat rate pricing. I like the idea of paying less than 99 cents for some songs, but I'm not thrilled with the paying more than 99 cents for others part of it.
  

Flix deal, paper pda, the blue marble, xbox guts, and America's sweethearts in danger

• Netflix class action - lawyers get $2.5 million and customers get a free month trial. Umm, yeah... I... guess that's a .... good deal.
• Too cheap for a PDA? The PocketMod might be an easy, low cost solution for you.
• Some awesome Earth images at NASA's Visible Earth.
• Are you waiting for an Xbox 360? These guys got one and already tore it apart.
  
• Aww, who would have ever thought there would be trouble in Spears/Federline paradise?

Blizzardy day, toy mash-up, lost rhapsody, Sony's cd blunder

Ooh, it's cold! Why do I never expect it to be this cold when we're first hit with wintry weather? We had a little snow weeks ago, but today it is actually staying on the ground. Roads were noticibly icy as I left work, and the wind is a killer. I just hope I don't get any drifts in the driveway overnight.

• Star Wars meets Transformers!?! Two of my beloved childhood toys are colliding. If this happened when I was a kid, I just might have fainted from the toy joy overload.
• Fans of "Lost" may enjoy this Lost - Bohemian Rhapsody combination. Lyrically and visually it goes together eerily well. (Might be some spoilers for you if you're behind on episodes.)
• Spotter's guide to CDs that have Sony's XCP protection. Why should you care? Running one of these CDs on your computer will install DRM software (without telling you) that can leave you open to vulnerabilities. (Brief summary here.)

Unfortunately, I ran one of the xcp CDs on my PC before hearing about this (list of known CDs listed in the Spotter's guide link above), so looks like I'll be spending the rest of this evening figuring out how to remove Sony's unwanted junk from my PC.

Not so quick serve, holiday time, IA tornado

A friend convinced me to take another go at KFC/A&W. We went a little earlier in the evening than normal, to dine in at the fine establishment. It was again ridiculous. It is so busy, that I think people are assuming it will close down in a week, so they're trying to get as much out of it now as possible. After we ordered, it was about a 25 minute wait in line to get our orders up. It felt like the experience of standing in line for Star Wars opening show tickets, only with the expectation of mediocre food as your reward.
As an aside, I don't understand why there are people that try to cut in front of you after ordering. They take and fill orders in sequential fashion, so it's not like you'll get your food faster if you can make your way to the pick-up counter faster.
The whole time in line, I never saw an employee come out into the "public" area of the store. Tables went uncleaned, the drink station was an absolute disaster area, and best of all: a couple of times people would go up to the pick-up counter to say "you're out of cup lids" or "you're out of napkins out here", and, get this, the employees would hand them a stack of the item and asked the customer to restock them!
As a final insult, we were watching TV later that night and a KFC commercial showed their chicken combos for a remarkable $4 ("why, that's half the price I'd pay at a 'sit-down' restaurant!"). My friend had one of those same combos and his ticket came to more than 6 bucks.
To sum-up:

• It is bad when I could have gotten my food faster at an Applebee's or Friday's or whatever than at a "fast" food restaurant.
• KFC/A&W brings you a unique experience by making you the customer work the restocking of supplies.
• KFC lies about their prices (or at least the franchisee in our area doesn't follow the commercials).
• Didn't mention it before, but this KFC doesn't even have a buffet. Most of the others I've been to around here
  

______
This weekend, I put up my outdoor Christmas lights. I want to stress that I will not turn them on for many weeks, because I don't want to condone early holiday decoration. (I put them up because it is supposed to get really cold this week, and I wanted to get the rope light stakes in the ground before it freezes.) It's bad enough that most of our downtown stores are already decked out for Christmas (same day they took down their Halloween decor), and the discount stores have had holiday stock out for a month or more.
Pretty soon, holidays will just flow from one right into the other. It happens earlier every year and is so hard to keep up that I think I'm going to jump right to the Valentine's Day decorations next week. Thanksgiving gets kind of lost in the shuffle, but thankfully one person on main street has a huge, ugly, inflatable, lighted turkey on their lawn. Thank you, sir or madam! Thank you for not succumbing to the accelerated pace of Christmas cheer!
______
Video footage of the Stratford, IA tornado (see links by article). Scary footage, and those videographers should consider themselves lucky. That tornado cut a path of destruction in a blink of an eye (or, not as fast as people put up Christmas decorations, but infinitely faster than our KFC/A&W service).

Album art, teen mayor, tin foil, chimps, more

• Are you an iTunes user and want to import album art? Try this free tool (iTunes Art Importer 0.9.2). It pulls album art from Amazon.com, and worked well for me.
• Wow, a teen write-in candidate wins mayor spot from the incumbent. A teen mayor, who would have thought it!?
• Oh, wait, here's another teen that wins mayor spot. Teen Mayor... sounds like a bad Disney movie.
• Tin foil hats actually increase capability of government mind control rays! Or, at least that's what they want you to believe.
• You too can build an impossible triangle.
• Get your stinking paws off me, you damn, dirty ape!
• Ah, the pitfalls of being interviewed by a Comedy Central news show. I am a fan of The Daily Show and The Colbert Report, but don't get to see them every day.
  

Lists, pong, TV-VOD, a bad career choice

• Hey, White House enemies list! Click the link to see if you're on it (if you are one of the few famous people mentioned in the article).
• Have you dusted off that old Pong machine and can't remember how to play? The manual is now online. Finally!
• Video On Demand for TV is becoming more popular. You can finally watch TV when you want it without having to deal with that darn "12:00" blinking clock on the VCR.
• Apparently one of the worst jobs this year? Hussein case lawyer.

Video iPod

I broke down and bought a video iPod today. It's about the size of my 3G iPod, but holds 4 times as much, has a bigger screen, and of course can hold video and photos. I have to say, the setup was a lot easier than I remember it being for my first iPod. Also, video looks pretty darn good on that screen.
Other stuff:

• "Lost" reinventing television? It is one of my favorite shows, and I do enjoy the online ramblings of crazy fans, too...
• Speaking of crazy online rambling, the 9/11 tragedy was predicted on the $20 bill!
• The marker clock, an interesting, yet unnecessary device.
  

Food service curse

I broke down and went to the new KFC/A&W (see previous post). The parking lot was full (and there were cars parked on side streets and in adjacent lots), so I decided to go through drive through. It was a pretty darn long wait (and this was at around 1:15pm, so I thought the lunch rush would die down slightly). When I got to the pay/pickup window, I asked the girl to read back what I got because I thought the price was quite a bit more than I mentally calculated (turns out one of the items was twice the cost I thought). She gave me a bag of food and said "thank you, come again", and it took her a little while to realize I was still waiting there because she didn't give me my drink. Comically, she said "wait! don't go yet, I've got to get your drink!", which she then did and I started to drive off (as is the custom). I looked in my bag as I was leaving and found that they left out one of the items in my order (in addition to the almost missed drink), so I had to go back again and wade through the gaggle of people in the restaurant. To top it all off, I thought the food pretty much sucked (I leaned A&W in the order); it was all pretty cold (cold, soggy fries), and the burger was at the bottom of the quick serve quality. Plus there was a dollup of mashed potatoes in the bottom of the bag; and I didn't even order mashed potatoes! (I suppose that was a bonus.)

Quick serve, online books, music advice

Our town just got a new KFC/A&W this week, and I haven't been there yet because it has been unbelievably busy. The couple times I've driven past, the line for the drive through has been at least 20 cars long (so maybe they're really slow instead of really busy). Town, do you think maybe you are overreacting? I mean, come on, it's a KFC and A&W! We had a five star restaurant open earlier in the year that didn't gather this much attention.
Some items:

• Google Print Beta is available and interesting. You might want to read the FAQ as it discusses tracking page views to your id.
• Want music recommendations? I haven't spent much time with these yet, but plan on giving them a closer look: Musicstrands and Soundflavor.
• I haven't heard much talk of the live action "Star Wars" show for a while, but works seems to be moving ahead for more animated shows.
• You know, like books can be, like big. And I, like, totally don't want to read all that. Luckily, soon you can buy books by the page from Amazon. So now you can find out the butler did it in a few short minutes.
  

Well, I'm going to call KFC/A&W for reservations. Oh, I hope I can get my tuxedo cleaned in time!

Flu shots, unledivered mial, silly "celebs", episode 3!, secret jails

Our company had its health expo yesterday and today, so I got my wonderful free flu shot. I wasn't able to get one last year due to the shortages, so it was a welcome benefit to get one this year. Also, I got a screening for cholesterol and glucose; my numbers were so good that I'm wondering if they somehow messed up the test. (I was expecting cholesterol to be much higher.)
Enough about my body chemistry:

• Attention: If you are dyslexic, do not apply for a job delivering mail. Her giudacne counlsre should be seud.
• Ah, the good life of the rich. And they're still such nice people!
• Star Wars Episode 3 now available on DVD. Go! This is your chance to watch all 13 hours of the series in one sitting!
• Umm, I don't think you can call them "secret CIA jails" if they're all over the news.
  

Happy Halloween! Hello?

What's the deal? Is there some law against Halloween? It is almost 10 PM here, and so far I've had 2 trick-or-treaters. This is the worst turnout I've ever had, which is strange since my neighborhood gets bigger every year. Maybe it's me. Is my house not inviting enough? Are you supposed to send out trick-or-treat invitations? Is it the blood I poured all over my front steps? I think I will choose to believe that all the kids are sitting in the pumpkin patch waiting for "The Great Pumpkin" to appear, even though that thought is a bit sad and pathetic. And we all know that "waiting for The Great Pumpkin" is probably just a euphemism for what those kids really do in the pumpkin patch these day. Whippersnappers!

• How does your state rank for work environment? Here in Minnesota, we're number 3 overall and number 1 in job quality.
• Spruce up your cubicle with a readymech! I guess.
• Sky in a Room looks like a neat project that I'd like to try sometime.

By the way, I got my Papa John's gift certificates (see a couple posts down). That was fast service. Thanks!

Bed Sheet Orientation

This week at work, for some reason the debate of which way the top sheet should be placed on the bed (pattern side up or pattern side down) was raised. I, as a Print Side Upper, was baffled because I never knew that some people put the sheet print side down (after all, motels and such don't do that to my knowledge).

The only argument the Print Side Downers gave that was at least somewhat compelling was that some sheets have the pattern upside-down on the big hem. This is because (apparently) you put the pattern side facing down, then when the blankets and comforter are on, you fold the whole thing over at the top; thus exposing the pattern side, right side up. OK, after finding several Internet sites that support this, I was ready to change sides (flip the sheets, as it were). But, now I see that my sheets do not have the pattern upside down on the big hem. So if I were to follow this, the pattern would appear upside down when I folded it over. Dilema.

I've decided that sheet orientation is divined by the sheets. Pattern upside down on the big hem makes you a Print Side Downer. Pattern right side up on the big hem makes you a Print Side Upper. Solid color or non-directional pattern means you are Bisheetual, and can go either way.

I still don't know if I buy the whole fold-over on the finished bed, because basically the sheets are your bed's underwear, and exposing them is like a teen wearing his baggy pants way too low.

As a interesting related aside, while researching this I ran across this BBC article stating that not making your bed may actually be healthier. Take that Martha Stewart!

Pizza! Pizza! (Pizza!)

A friend and I ordered pizza from Papa John's tonight. When it arrived, we discovered that the pizza we received was similar, but not correct for what we ordered. The "pizza code" on the box label was correct, but didn't match the pizza. We called back up and found that they accidentally swapped pizzas with another order (put them in the wrong boxes). They said 'keep the pizza, we're sending a correct one. Sorry for that.'

Later, we received the next pizza. I should have reviewed it with the delivery guy before he took off, because when we popped it open, it was close, but one topping was wrong (black olives instead of tomatoes). Now, I've had pizza mistakes before, but never has my "corrected" pizza also been wrong.

Called back up and said I got another wrong one. 'Hold on, let me get the guy that took your order.' A lot of heated yelling in the background for several minutes. A lot of 'no way!' 'unbelievable!' '' 'maybe I punched it in wrong' 'did he verify it?' etc. Finally, I speak to the guy again and he says they can send another pizza or he'll mail me a gift certificate. I say I've got enough pizza already so send me the certificate. 'We got a lot of new people here today. We're having a lot of problems, sorry you had to get caught up in it.'

Well, I will await my gift certificate (especially since he never asked my name or address on the last call). I really haven't had problems with Papa John's before, but this was pretty ridiculous. I guess the plus side is that I got a lot of pizza for my money; too bad it wasn't all what I ordered.

Dumb Google Name "Game"

I found this activity on a friend's blog, and am guessing that it is a virally circulating 'hey, neato' thing. Basically, you go to Google's search and enter in "yourFirstName needs" (in quotes, where yourFirstName is your first name) and search. You then find the first ten or howevermanyyouwant entries of what you need. Share with friends for a laugh.
When I tried this, I basically just got results from other Brians doing this same activity. So, I will list one of their result lists:

1. Brian needs food, badly.
2. Brian needs to communicate more effectively and stop being negative.
3. Brian needs the money.
4. Brian needs a fix.
5. Brian needs to combine two or more site links to create a preferred route for Active Directory replication.
6. Brian needs prayers to help him rid himself of anger issues that are messing up his life.
7. Brian needs to add it.
8. Brian needs to do a Gospel CD because of all the songs, this one stands out the most.
9. Brian needs both money and a job.
10. Brian needs to find out when this is.

I'm hoping by listing this here, I may reap benefits of other Brians doing this search to run across my blog. So, while this little activity may provide mild entertainment to you, it is largely self-serving on my part. :)

Oil Money, Food Writing, Passport Tracking, and More

• Record oil profits, you say? How could that be? Exxon has $100 billion in quarterly sales... sheesh!
• I admit that Gourmet Impressions food embossing looks like a really cool idea. Too bad the photos look totally faked. ("All food images are photographically enhanced for demonstration purposes only.")
• The New Orleans Saints may move to Los Angeles. Or, LA may just loot them away.
• Say what? Wasn't this once a Dairy Queen slogan?
• Ford limits bathroom breaks. Timing breaks seems a bit, ahem, anal... but 48 minutes a shift? Isn't that almost what most people get for lunch?
• Hey, fellow Dark Tower fans, looks like Stephen King may be teaming up with Marvel comics for a new Dark Tower comic/graphic novel!
• Big Brother is Watching! would say the conspiracy theorist reading about RFID chips in passports.
• Harriet Miers withdraws Supreme Court nomination. This is news to you if you get all your information from my blog. (If this is the case, I feel sorry for you.)
  

Sox, Feds, Tunes (Vids)

When's that "World Series" on? What? Almost over?!? Tonight (game 4) could be the last night with a White Sox win... Found this somewhat interesting article about why it is "Sox" instead of "Socks". Some interesting points on the history of American English in general.

What's this? Abuse of the Patriot Act perhaps?

I got into iTunes when MusicMatch stopped supporting my iPod, but I've really started to like some of the features. I don't have a video iPod (yet), but ran across this article about using iTunes to download videos from Yahoo! video search. There are actually nice rss/subscription features in the application, and I'm going to try this out tonight. I already subscribe to several podcasts, which I don't listen to on my iPod (and some of them I don't listed to very regularly at all).

Stamps, Muppets, Alien Interference, Indictments, and Wizards

• Check this out: you can make your own stamps from photos, a Yahoo! service. Neat idea!
• Who said nothing good came from American Idol? America's Next Muppet.
• Umm, should we be concerned that the Mars probe crash site disappeared?
• Might be some indictments tomorrow...
• I just saw a commercial for the next Harry Potter movie. I didn't realize it was coming up this soon, but it looks good.
  

Yardwork, Yoda (Gremlins), and Groogle, er Google

This weekend, I finished the annual task of trimming all the landscaping, ripping up the garden, and mowing the lawn for hopefully the last time. (We did have a bit of snow yesterday in case you were wondering.) Chilly work, and I'm glad I got it done, though the "inner savage guy" in me always wonders if there would have been some way to do it with fire.

What has MTV, Headline News, etc. done to our generation? I ask because I just noticed that I'm watching the World Series game, listening to a podcast, browsing the web, while working on this entry at the same time (all on my computer, no less).

• I found this next one by way of Make:; if you know me, you probably know that I am a Star Wars fan (uh, "Warsie"?), but I think crochetting Yoda ears for your baby is a bit much. Maybe I'm just bothered because they look more like something from Gremlins (not the car).

• Don't know if you're following, but here's an interesting article ("The Point of Google Print") about the Google Print project and lawsuit.

Mentioned today:

Your Wait Is, Like, 15 Minutes. I Swear!

Chance of snow here today! Already? Guess it's time to haul that old Christmas tree to the dump...

At a restaurant last night with a friend and was told it would be 15 - 20 minutes until we could be seated, and the hostess kept telling us that we were 'next' (it actually turned out to be 30 minutes). Four or five other parties all arrived, and they were also given seemingly arbitrary wait times (I was totally mystified when one couple was told 30 minutes, and the couple right after them was told 20). Why can't these restaurants be more honest?... "We'll have a table ready for you in x minutes, where x is a variable anywhere from 5 to 50 minutes."

• Incandescent Light Bulb, your reign of terror soon comes to an end!
• Boy, I've taken a wrong turn before, but never as bad as these women.
• Ancient Greek computer studied. Apparently, its email inbox is totally filled with spam.

Copy Code, Splog, Jackson Jury; and Al Shamshoon

• Big Brother is watching you make copies! Apparently, copier makers include a secret code requested by the government on copies.
• Splog? Apparently, blogspot (the Google Blogger host I use) is riddled with blog spam. I've already seen the effect of this in my short blog life here; I had to turn on the word verification service for comment posters because I started getting hit by the spam bots right away.
• Michael Jackson headed back to court! Well, requested for jury duty anyway. (Is there a single article out there about this that doesn't start out with something like "Michael Jackson back to court"?)
• Omar Shamshoon? The Simpsons is headed for Arab TV.
  

Vice President Rice?

Apparently, there are White House rumors that VP Dick Cheney may resign due to involvement in the Plame case. Condi Rice would become Vice President. Wow. If he resigned, I figured it would be due to health or to cash out his huge Haliburton options. More on this here and here.

Cheney, Karl Rove, I. Lewis Libby, Bill Frist's stock sale, Tom Delay's felony indictment... who's next?

• What am I listening to lately?

Trains, Boats, Pods, and Covers

• I thought this was interesting and good work: model trains set in urban decay environments.
• If you can't trust The Today Show, who can you trust?
• OK, iAttire is a bit much, even for the most die-hard iPod fan.
• The Magazine Producers of America have unveiled the Top 40 Magazine Covers for the Past 40 Years. Magazine? What's that? Like a paper form of the Internet?
  

Back From Des Moines

Well, I'm back from Des Moines (pronounced "dez mwoy nez" for those that don't know); had a good trip. The first night, had a huge meal at the Cheesecake Factory, and oddly enough, did not have any cheesecake (they had one of the biggest menus I've ever seen; in quantity of items, not actual size of the menu). While there, we saw Andrew Dan-Jumbo, the carpenter from TLC's While You Were Out, who was in town for some home improvement convention.

The next day we visited the previously mentioned World Food Fair, where I proceeded to eat too much. At the fair, I enjoyed some egg rolls from Pho Ha Dao (Vietnamese), pad thai and spring rolls from Thai Basil (Thai), and a gyro from Yanni's Grill (uh, Greek-ish, I guess). I also had part of a rangoon from my sister; not sure where she got it. While we were there, we also stayed to watch an interesting capoeira demonstration, and saw part of a Mexican guitar performance.

After that, visited the Science Center of Iowa, which I mentioned before as well. It was very good; I think it would be a great stop if you are in the area, and especially if you have kids. We watched the IMAX film Mysteries of the Nile, which was a great experience in that huge IMAX Dome theater.

And, by the way, if you're still reading, that was not the correct pronunciation of "Des Moines".

What's next? An iPod you can smell and taste?

I have a 3G iPod, but boy, am I tempted by the new Apple iPod Video. I have to admit it is probably just the gadget-coolness factor, and I see a lot less use for portable video than portable music (are people going to be watching movies when they jog?). I guess it would be nice on flights or to carry around home videos or photos, but I mainly use mine to listen to music while I work.

I have installed iPod Linux on my iPod, but really haven't played around with it much. It is actually kind of annoying the way it is, because I can't get music to play when I boot into the linux mode (you can bypass it into the normal iPod bootup).

Also, iTunes has really grown on me (though I really resisted it at first. I only switched over after MusicMatch stopped supporting iPod). I really like the podcast subscription feature, but don't really listen to the podcasts daily.

For Science! (And Food!)

This weekend, I'm going to visit my sister and grandparents and other relatives in Des Moines, IA. While there, my sister and I plan on visiting the World Food Festival, which has diverse culinary creations from around the world. I hope they have corndogs. Just kidding, I'm looking forward to the variety of foods and culture.

We also plan on seeing the Science Center of Iowa, time permitting. That should be fun, too, since it's been a while since I've been to a science museum. I think the last was the Science Museum of Minnesota, which was also good, but I had a short visit.

It's like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo

CNN reports that bones of a hobbit like species were uncovered. I guess that's all the proof I need that the One Ring was real. My preciousssss. You know, I enjoyed those books and the movies, and bought the movies on DVD, but I don't think I've really ever watched them again since buying them because they are, like, really, really long.

I actually don't watch too much TV much either, but have become engrossed in Lost. I kind of wanted to watch it last season, but never did because I missed a lot of shows and it is hard to get into an ongoing drama if you miss shows (same reason I stopped watching 24 after the first season). However, season 2 of Lost started with a "catch-up" show that I watched, and was hooked. I bought the season 1 DVD set and have been further catching myself up. I really like the flashback-intensive, non-linear way they reveal things, and the show leaves little bits and clues to keep you wanting the next episode.

Weaving the Web

A couple of old college friends have blogs that I read semi-regularly, so I'm going to put links to them here. Well, they are not old college friends in the sense that they are 70 or 80 years old, but rather that they are from "the good old days" at college. Check 'em out at Kahn's Korner, Seth-Tech, *YOU DO NOT EXIST*, and *YOU'RE DEAD TO ME*.
I've sent them a note to see if they'll link to me. If they do, great. If they don't, no big deal... I'll just go back and wipe out any reference to them from any site or record I have. Thanks Kahn, Seth, *YOU DO NOT EXIST*, and *YOU'RE DEAD TO ME*!

Take a look at this; I've always loved optical illusions, and just ran across these today. Please make sure you are safely seated before viewing.

Behold the Preserving Power of Rice!

I was eating out at a Mexican restaurant last night and there was a group of young girls and a guy eating there. I couldn't help but hearing a lot of their conversation, and was amazed at their breadth of knowledge. The fantastic wealth of knowledge that our schools provide them is heart-warming. Some of the wonderful new facts I learned:

• The British Umpire is a commonwealth.
• The British Umpire, commonwealth, and knights is, like, historic.
  
• One of the Beatles, not the dead one, but Peter, is a knight.
• Mick Jagger is French.
• You can take that leftover rice home, because you can put it in the shelf and it will last forever. This is because rice is one of nature's most powerful preservers.

Rice will help preserve anything. It might be that there is salt in there, and if that is the case then it is called indigenous. I think someone needs to update the Internet with these facts; I'm sure they're sitting in someone's in-box and they just haven't got around to fixing the Internet yet. One of the sad things, though, is that I'm not even sure if these were high school or college girls. I'm sure this is a dilema that Sir Peter faces, as well.

I just caught the end of Extreme Makeover Home Edition, which I kind of like, but had always wondered about some of the later effects as mentioned in
this article.

Slowly Getting Started

I'm off to a crawling start on this thing. I'm using the wonderful Blogger for my blog tool. Very easy to get going; a little trickier to customize the look of the site. I have to dust off some of my html and css skills for the task. Also, I took a look at the Hello (Picasa) application that Blogger recommends for pictures, and didn't have much luck with it. I guess I'm looking for a bit more of a traditional image hosting for site graphics, so I decided to just use a combination of my ISP web space and Flickr.

I recently signed up for Flickr, and think it is a really cool tool for photo storing and sharing. I have a lot of old photo albums, so I decided that in case of fire or disaster, I should scan them and keep them somewhere safe. So, I've begun that arduous process. However, I've already run into my monthly limit of Flickr transfer and I'm only up to "Brian Whitmarsh - 17 months old". (There is a pay version of the site that I haven't looked into yet.)

Whitmarshall, MN is Incorporated

It is a good day! Whitmarshall, MN is now in existence; population: me.