Whitmarshall Celebration Day

Hey, it's my birthday!
I had a pretty good day. Co-workers took me out for lunch, team members gave me balloons and candy, a friend baked me a cake; all good birthday things. I went to a semi-nearby casino this evening to try out their birthday money booth (you stand in it for 20 seconds and try to catch bills and slip them through a small slot). I got $15, which I proceeded to lose on their lousy slot machines. I don't think I'll do this again. I was carefully examining the booth and it was probably 90% ones, a smattering of fives, and I saw only one ten. In the past, I went and caught a twenty and generally saw better bills. Plus, now they require that you have a casino membership card and you gamble there at least 6 times over the year, or they won't let you do the birthday booth again.

Here's my link of the day:

Baby Toupee - Just what it sounds like. What a wonderfully unusual idea!

Terror intelligence, sci-fi cliches, toast art, not time travel, hand shake, not your photos

Hello, here's a handful of links for you to browse:

• Global terror intelligence report declassified and released. Does not give a rosy picture of the Iraq war effects. But then, it was a war after all.
• Sci-fi themes that should be retired. Anonymous crewmen killed by monster not on the list. Maybe for part 2.
• Toast art. Underrated?
• Grandmother gives birth to own grandson. Be prepared for disappointment. Turns out she was a surrogate. When I saw the headline, I thought maybe time travel was involved.
• The Time Curtain. Again, big time travel let-down. But it is a cool clock thing.
• Exchange info with a shake of the hand. Know what would be neat? A little paper card with your business info on it to exchange with others.
• The Blind Camera is a neat idea for taking other people's photos. Especially if you take really boring photos.
  

Changing the design (again)

Sorry for the mess. I decided that I never really liked the previous look of my site, so I'm working on something new again.
Not quite there yet, and it is a bit frustrating when the preview looks different than the published site, and I can hit Refresh several times in a row and get several different alignments, font sizes, and layouts....

Contractor deaths, csi props?, ijeans, super fish

Cold today here. A bit rainy. What happened to summer?
Links:

• Contractors sue over deaths in Iraq. Think about that when you think your job is bad.
• Body washes up on set of CSI. Second dead body found near a CSI show set. Now I question how they do their research for the show.
• Levi's iPod Jeans. Now that just seems excessive.
• Fish used to detect terror attacks. And they're also delicious.
  

Gas prices, soda pop, wii, zune, outrage, nay ney, spinach

Links:

• Complaining about gas prices? You are actually paying lower in real terms than gas in 1980. So there.
• I call it "pop", but "soda" is fine with me. I don't understand why anyone would call it all "coke" when it is not Coke, but here is a generic names for soft drinks by county map so at least I know what to call it to fit in.
• Nintendo Wii available November 20 for $250. Still no word on availability of the Nintendo They.
• I am liking this new iTunes 7, but more news is breaking this week about the Microsoft Zune. I don't think I'll replace my iPod anytime soon, but here are a couple stories on the Zune for you:
• Microsoft releases new details on Zune.
• Zune details and thoughts wrap-up.
• Muslims furious with the Pope. Aw, and they had been getting along so well.
• Rep. Bob Ney pleads guilty in Abramoff probe. But he had been saying he was not guilty all this time? Does this mean he was lying?
• E coli outbreak in bagged spinach. Children cheer and say "told you so".
  

Blogger bugs, free furniture, swim teacher, speeches, apple news

I used the wrong font in last time's post, but can't correct it. I've been having trouble with Blogger recently where it doesn't let me edit past posts (just get a blank editor screen). Don't know if anyone else is having that issue.

Today's news:

• Furniture store offered deal of free furniture if the Bears shut out the Packers, and guess what? It happened. They are honoring the promotion. The article says that insurance will cover the $300,000 loss (not sure how that works).
• Want to learn to swim without getting wet? Try this old mechanical swimming teacher.
• Bush accused of using 9/11 speech for political reasons. He is a politician, so how is this different from any other speech?
• Apple unveiled several new products/services today including movie sales on iTunes, game sales on iTunes, new incremental iPod releases, and a smaller iPod Shuffle (careful to not lose it!). Also some mention of their new iTV product coming later. I got the new version of iTunes today and it has some cool new features. I'll have to play with it some more to see if it is more than eye candy (or iCandy, as it were) additions.
  

Fall, footboall, lost, ilium and olympos

Wow, it is chilly here. And rainy. And very un-summer-like. Fall has fallen. I actually spent part of the day watching pro football (didn't really plan it, but got kind of sucked into the season starting games). I'm sure there will very soon be a post over at Kahn's Korner about the Bears destruction of the Packers.
Otherwise, fellow Losties need to be sure to pick up Season 2 on DVD (available last week) if you haven't already.

I'm starting my rewatching of the season now.

As far as books go, I'm not quite done reading the second one yet, but I recommend "Ilium" and "Olympos" if you're in the mood for something very different. This set includes almost everything from the Trojan War and Greek gods, Shakespearean characters, cyborgs from Jupiter, little green men, human cloning, and quantum mechanics. It seems like a ton of stuff (that's not even related) to pack into a couple books, but it all comes together nicely and seems to make sense.

Labor day, cfl bulbs, star wars comparison

Happy Labor Day weekend, everyone!
In the last post, I linked to a story about Wal-Mart pushing compact fluorescent bulbs to their customers. Shortly after that, I ran across this story about ten reasons why CFLs will change the world. I've been using a few (older ones) for a couple years now, so I decided to start switching out my other incandescent bulbs for CFLs.
Sure enough, our Wal-Mart had bulb displays in other areas (like the grocery side of the store), but they had regular incandescents right along with the CFLs; how does that sway customers to the CFL?
As an aside, our Wal-Mart has 20 some checkout lanes, but I never see more than 5 manned, so I always have to wait in line. That is, unless I use the self-checkout. But the thing I don't understand is that usually half or more of the self-checkouts are also turned off. What's the deal? Did the self-checker call in sick? Is this the case at all Wal-Marts? (I've never seen the checkout lanes more than half staffed at our Shopko or K-Mart either.)

Anyway, here's a time waster for you this weekend: This month, the 2004 Special Edition of Star Wars: A New Hope (Episode IV) is being released on DVD with the original 1977 version as a bonus disc. Here is a scene by scene comparison showing the differences. Many are obvious, but there are a lot that are subtle.