Good News... Bad News...

Good News: I found the tube of chap stick I had lost...

Bad News: ... when I was taking the clothes out of the dryer.

Evolution of an Address

The "internets" have taken over the world! It's interesting to notice how advertising has adapted to and embraced the internet as their best marketing tool. No longer do they have a 30-second spot to tell you everything they do, all they need is to convince you they do something big and important, and throw their web address at you to find out more.

One of the interesting things is that I've been around to see the entire progression of this over time.

1) The .com address. First it was just the really techie companies that had these, then everyone realized how easy it was. You got your name, stuck a www. before it and a .com after it, and you're set.

2) The world got smarter. People started to realize, "Hey, if I don't know the address of a company, I can just put its name with a www. before and a .com after, and that's probably it!" Well, that worked once in a while, until the .com namespace became so polluted that new companies had no choice but to call themselves www.mycompanynamewasalreadytakensowepickedsomethingelse.com.

3) The .notcom addresses. People found that if their .com address was taken, they could just get the .org, .net, .us address, or whatever. Easy! Or not... they publicize their address as mycompany.org and everyone punches in mycompany.com instead going to their evil competitor (or more likely some completely unrelated company with a similar name).

4) The world got smarter. They realized the world isn't all .com, and they adapted. But what do companies do then? They make sure to register .com, .org, .net, .everything so that whatever ending we put on the name will take us to their website. Genius. Now all the common root domain namespaces are polluted.

5) Google. Forget about addresses, what we need is a phone book. Aha! Hello, Google. Now we can punch in the company's name, and it'll TELL US what the address is. Brilliant. Except that I really don't want all of these other web sites that come up. Or do I?

6) The AOL Keyword. Or the keyword. This was a short-lived bogosity. Force someone to go to some easy to remember website (ala aol.com) and then once that page comes up (and you stare at all their appropriate advertising), type in some keyword you could have just typed on Google in the first place, and get where you need to go. A vain attempt at a "user-friendly web" which failed miserably.

7) The world got smarter. Now not only can they advertise their .com address. They can advertise complex addresses that include all kinds of dots and slashes. helpfulname.mycompany.com/somethingelse. The techies love this. We can get to exactly what we want to get to without having to wade through pages of navigation.

Which brings me to a side rant. The slash (or is it a backslash?). You no doubt hear this on the radio all the time. Some announcer is reading off a web address, and says "Visit mywebsite dot com, backslash idiot, for more details." Certainly backslash sounds really big and important... I heard some IT guy at work using it last week... all the cool kids say it. Well folks, I hate to tell you, but THERE ARE NO BACKSLASHES IN A WEB ADDRESS! They are ALL, ALWAYS, WITHOUT-FAIL, simple old slashes. Something slash something. End rant.

The nice thing about the whole evolution of it is that it's entirely backwards compatible. You can always go the hard way and keep clicking until you find something you want, or just take shortcuts along the way.

The evolution will continue. Next comes direct advertising of IP addresses... no, not IPv4, but IPv6 addresses. Just like a 32-digit telephone number, with 16-digits on your phone dial. Piece of cake, right? Well, maybe we'll just continue to use Google instead.

Crazy Weekend

There will be a short and long part of this report. The short is my weekend report. I was down in San Jose, California for a summer curling bonspiel. Despite the fact that we won 1 and lost 3 games, we had a great time. One of the advantages to losing out early was that we had the whole day Sunday free to do what we wanted. We decided to drive down to Monterey, visited the aquarium (which for my avid blog readers, is on par with the excellence of the Tennessee Aquarium from my last trip), did some shopping down Cannery Row, and then drove down to Pebble Beach and checked out the golf courses and scenic drive.

Flash back to earlier in the day... I get a call from a family friend who has been looking after my parents' house while they were on vacation... their house was broken into. My parents were in Turkey, without any way to contact them until they got home today, and with me down in the Bay Area, I was fortunately able to get a hold of my sister eventually and she went down to help take care of things at the house.

After further assessment, these were decidedly amateur crooks. They broke a bedroom window to get in, after not being able to find an easy way in. They didn't really ransack the place like you'd typically expect... however, they stole some jewelry, silverware, two TVs and a laptop computer. Oh, and to top things off, they took my mom's minivan too (they probably needed something to haul away the stuff in). So after the police to wrote up the report, and CSI:FW processed the crime scene and got some nice fingerprints from the window, they cleaned up a bit of the mess around and the police put out a stolen vehicle alert on the car.

On to today... my parents got back and we told them about what happened. They made it home and took inventory of what was missing and worked on getting things back in order. The insurance folks will call tomorrow to take care of everything.

But wait, there's more! About 9:00pm, less than 30 hours after the incident was reported, they get a call from the FWPD: they've found the stolen van parked at the Denny's on 320th (all of about 3 minutes from my parents house) and asked them to come over to take a look. Apparently these crooks ARE as stupid as they seemed to be. After arriving, they found 3 or 4 police cars surrounding the parking lot and apparently they had two suspects in custody. Unfortunately, most of the loot was no longer in the van, but they suspect it's all close by. After some waiting around for CSI:FW to process the car and get any fingerprint evidence they could, they actually drove the car back home. The car seems to be in good shape, though apparently the police found a crack pipe among other things in the car, and recommended they get it professionally cleaned, which insurance should take care of. In the meantime, the police apparently have already recovered a few things (mainly jewelry-type stuff) off the suspects.

As of the last update, one suspect is in jail being interrogated, one suspect is at the hospital, probably handcuffed to the bedrail, after an untimely run in with one of Federal Way's four-legged finest in the FWPD K9 unit. It sounds as if justice may be served afterall.

TV Commercial Roundup

For the benefit of those of you with a Tivo, here's another roundup of great commercials that you may have skipped over. One advantage of being forced to watch live TV occasionally is that you get to see some of these really great commercials that themselves are worth watching. Today we have two more you need to see:



Who doesn't miss the days when Lou Piniella was the Mariners' manager? Even when the M's couldn't win a game, there was still a reason to watch!



Great commercial, especially with all of your favorite Discovery Channel stars. I could watch this over and over... which I do, because Discovery replays it constantly. I guess that's what you do when you get a winner.

Global Warming? I think not.

It's the middle of April...





... and it's snowing.

It's the latest Spring snow in history... beating the previous record of April 16th. It feels like January. I think this means we'll have an abnormally hot summer. 6 days ago it was 78 degrees and sunny. What's the world coming to?

Another update...

Curling season is finally over. After a weekend where I curled at 2pm and 2am on Saturday night/Sunday morning, it's a good time to take a 6-month break from throwing rocks at houses. Another fun, yet surprisingly long season. I think the added complications of buying a house and moving in the middle of the season made it feel much longer than it really was. But on the bright side, I now have a much more relaxing summer lined up. The season was a resounding success, with my defending-champion Friday night team coming in a resounding 2nd place, yet my Thursday and Monday teams firmly in the "also ran" category.

In two weeks I'll be heading down to the South to visit Andrew. It's been nearly 2 years since I went down there, whereas he's been up to visit all of us in Seattle about 3 or 4 times (or maybe more, I've lost count). I'll be celebrating Confederate Memorial Day in Alabama, which will probably be a non-event down there, but at least interesting. Of course, in my constant frugality, I saved money by building the most convoluded flight itinerary down and back. I'll be leaving Thursday morning and fly to San Francisco, then to Charlotte NC, then to Birmingham. On the following Tuesday I'll go from Birmingham, to Charlotte, to Chicago, and finally home to Seattle. About 6000 miles criss-crossing the country for the low, low price of just $235. I don't mind too much... at least that's what I say now. :)

Work is going well. My new commute averages about 25 minutes, which is probably about the top of my tolerance zone, but acceptable. I think I'll enjoy the commute a bit during the summer when I can enjoy the nice weather while I'm driving home. The only part I don't enjoy is that I'm filling up the gas tank much more frequently now... add in the occasional drive down to visit the parents and it's even worse. But at this point, given the state of the bus system here that would add another 30-45 minutes each way to my commute, the time and flexibility of driving is more valuable to me. They really need to expand the light rail, even if it'll be 10 years for them to finish it. That's what I say.

Now I just need to figure out what new and fun things to do during the summer. Perhaps another attempt to get motivated to improve my golfing skills is in order. I need to actually get myself over to the driving range more often, just to remind myself how dismal my skills are. Or maybe something else is in order. We'll see.

Infomercial Bingo

Infomercials. It's hard to avoid them, unless you're watching pre-recorded shows on your DVR. But if you can't avoid it, why not play along? Play Infomercial Bingo! I've compiled a list of some of the greatest catchphrases in TV infomercials today. Compete with your friends to find who can score a BINGO the fastest! How long will it take? Just one commercial? Maybe two? It's not as hard as you think! Enjoy!

B	I	N	G	O
Billy Mays	"Action"	"Cutting Edge"	"Powerful"	"A $___ Value"
"1-800-..."	"Absolutely Free... just pay separate shipping and handling"	"Cutting Edge"	"Instantly"	"Technologically Advanced"
"Amazing!"	"___ Easy Payments"	FREE	"Like New"	"Breakthrough"
"But Wait..."	Any miracle cleaning product	"Wow!"	Anthony Sullivan	"Free replacements for life... just pay separate shipping and handling"
Any obviously made-up technological-sounding word	"Developed by NASA"	"Double the Offer"	Any generic British voice	"Revolutionary"

Holiday Madness

I appear to have been in another of my predictable blog droughts. It's not that there hasn't been enough going on, in this case there's probably been too much going on. As a result, this blog is brought to you by Google Calendar: "The only way to know what all you did the past month!"

• Went to two musicals plus the Seattle Symphony's holiday pops concert. All of which deserve their own reviews, but may or may not get them. We'll see how much time I make for them today.
  
• Lots of curling, culminating with a break from actually curling, only to be the head official for the state junior curling championships this past weekend. Being both competent and willing to volunteer is a dangerous combination. Tiring but a lot of fun.
  
• Started the process of looking for a house. I'm sick of my apartment, and after waiting for a year or so until the market is finally right, it's time to buy a house. Now I just have to find the right place. Once the new year starts, it should be prime time for people to start selling decent places again... I hope.
  
• Christmas came and went, and New Year's is here. I don't think I really realized Christmas was coming until about the Friday before. Things have been a bit hectic.
  
• How can I forget how this all started? The day I got home from vacation in Hawaii (well, actually the day before I got back to work), my company decided to lay off 18 people, including half of my team. I was spared, but half of my friends and coworkers were told their last day was December 12th. It's made for quite the uninspiring holidays around the office. Fortunately a few of us insisted on making things a bit cheerier and helped decorate the office for the holidays. I strung my customarily tacky Christmas, er, Secular Festive Non-Denominational Culturally-Inclusive Wintertime Holiday Lights, throughout my aisle of cubes and from the ceiling and all. It was quite nice. Regardless, unless things drastically change around work, 2008 may become time to look for a new place to work.
  
• And yes, I know I'm behind on Amazing Race episode blogs. Legs 6, 7, and 8 are all on my DVR waiting to be watched, I've just had more important things to do. At least this way I can just sit down and watch them all at once one of these days.

Sky-High Dining

Every so often someone comes up with a new idea that makes you go... WHAT?!

[USA Today Article]

Presenting "Dinner in the Sky": dine at a table suspended from a crane 165 feet above the ground, harnessed into a chair like you're in a roller coaster.

This begs the immediate question... WHY? Are people really that fascinated with cheap thrills and gimicks that this actually would sound like an appealing proposition? In the spirit of cynicism, I present the Top 10 Things Heard During a Dinner in the Sky Event:

10) "As we prepare for our descent, please make sure your plates are securely fastened."

9) "Whew... I think I had a bit too much iced tea."

8) "It was like eating with the 12 apostles and Jesus Christ." [Quote from the co-inventor.]

7) "Anyone have a fire extinguisher?"

6) "Timmy? What happened to all your vegetables?"

5) "Check, please!"

4) "Ladies and gentlemen, we're expecting a bit of turbulence... please return to your seats."

3) "Welcome to Dinner in the Sky, the world's largest lightning rod!"

2) "Waiter, there's a bird in my soup!"

1) "Look at all the people below us... Oops! Can I please have another steak knife?"

In a related story, Dinner in Disguise? Sky-high dining reports drop in reservations after bout of violent food poisoning.

Will It Blend?!

I was introduced to a most outstanding website today... www.willitblend.com.

All I can say is... GENIUS! The site is produced by this company called BlendTec, who coincidentally enough, makes high-quality blenders. It appears that their marketing department decided to backup their claims that their products can "blend anything" by doing just that, blending everything!

They have a series of nearly 60 short episodes of a show they call "Will It Blend?" The episodes fall into two categories "Try this @ Home" and the far more entertaining "Don't Try This @ Home." It is hosted by a man who is purported to work in their labs, and I wouldn't doubt this to be true. But he is the epitome of a cheesy mad scientist. What tops it off is that the episodes are professionally produced and edited, complete with ultra cheesy (and oddly catchy) theme music.

Must see blends:

iPhone
EZ Cheese
Glow Sticks
Magnets (not so much for the result, but for the comedy)
McDonalds Extra Value Meal (again, not for the result, but this time for the yuck)

Until next time folks, keep it smoothie!

Headlines

Just a few random articles in today's news media:

Hypocricy Lives On - ["Bork v. Bork" (Editorial), New York Times, 6/14/2007]

No Nuts for You! - ["German squirrel on a rampage injures 3 people", MSNBC, 6/14/2007]

Satisfaction Guaranteed! - ["Man in pants lawsuit: Customer is always right", MSNBC, 6/14/2007]

Put it in your radiator, just don't put it in your mouth - ["Counterfeit Colgate toothpaste recalled", MSNBC, 6/14/2007]

Update, Vegas, and More

It's been a rather busy past two weeks, which requires a bit of an uber-update. This update is brought to you by Google Calendar... the only way to remember what I did the past two weeks.

West Side Story

Went and saw West Side Story at the 5th Avenue Theatre last Tuesday. As expected, an outstanding show which was worth of its own entire writeup, but I was a slacker. Few people don't know at least one song from the show, and hearing it all live was quite the exciting experience. I had very little to complain about, and much to praise. The original Jerome Robbins choreography was performed with oustanding athleticism and skill. What can I say?

Music - 5 stars, with an outstanding full orchestra to boot!
Cast - 4 stars, some great performances by some great actors.
Technical - 4 stars.
Overall - 4 stars. Nothing to complain about, but it wasn't quite as polished as you'd expect from a major Broadway production. That's not to say it's not worth seeing, even more than once.

Las Vegas

In what seems to have informally become an annual pilgrimage to Las Vegas with my Dad, this year my sister decided to come along too which was fun. In my many Vegas vacations, I've determined that 3 nights is too long, which is why I opted for 2 nights this time, which decidedly was an excellent plan. However, the adventure began somewhat slowly with the plane out of Seattle boarding about 40 minutes before the scheduled departure, only to depart 1 hour behind schedule. You do the math. It seemed everything was working against us. First the original pilot apparently became seriously ill, and the replacement was stuck on a ferry trying to get to the airport. He arrived shortly thereafter. Then during the pre-flight checks, they found--and don't miss the direct quote here--that "the plane came straight out of the hangar, but they forgot to change the blue water" that is used in the toilet system, and thus we had to wait while they serviced that. FINALLY we were ready to go, and the man on the push tug that backs the plane up had a broken headset so had to get a replacement before he could push the plane out. Something was working against us, but we finally got out and off to the desert.

Amy and I decided we wanted to go see The Beatles' LOVE, one of the newest Cirque du Soleil shows in Vegas, and bought a ticket for Dad for Father's Day. On Sunday night we went and saw the show, and it was ABSOLUTELY AMAZING. I've seen one other Cirque show over 10 years ago, Mystere, which was the first show in Vegas to feature that crazy Canadian acrobatic troupe. Much of the same bizarre antics were seen in LOVE, everything from bouncing off trampolines, dangling from ropes, and countless other amazing things that make you even more impressed once you realize that those spinning things dangling from the ceiling are actually people. LOVE is unique in that it feature zero live music. The entire soundtrack was developed from original Beatles master tapes and assembled specifically for the show. The advantage here is that you know most of the songs right off the bat, unless you've been living under the rock of pop culture for the past several decades. The creative visual interpretations of the music in the show would be exciting whether you're a Beatles fan or not, but even more so if you like the music. As most shows in Vegas go, it's worth every penny, though it'll cost you a whole lot of them to see it. I'd absolutely see it again.

As for the rest of the vacation, it was a good time. As usual, I redistributed money within Vegas by winning from the rich and losing to the richer. Not very Robin Hood-like, but tis better than losing to everyone. :) But on the other hand, I'll be heading back to work tomorrow... no life-changing jackpots for me... but having a nice relaxing vacation was more than sufficient.

Now back to the daily grind. And I've spent too long writing this, and it's time to sleep. :)

Random updates

It's been a while since I just posted a random collection of bits of things that have been happening lately... so here it is:

On the apartment front, I had a note on the door this morning that due to the construction on the street the power will be out today from 9-2. While this won't really affect me since I'm not there, it's nice short notice for those who perhaps, work from home? I'm not sure if it has to do with the impending repaving work on the street (they've been working on curbs and street corners nearby), or the house that they totally demolished across the street to make way for what appears to be yet another giant mixed-use commercial/residential building, probably exactly like the other one they're building two blocks down the street or the two they just built two blocks up the street.

Also included on this notice was that within the next 60 days they will be starting construction on my own building. (?!) They will be replacing all of the carpet in the internal hallways of the building, as well as completely remodelling the front entryway and lobby. This isn't a bad thing I suppose, though the carpet isn't exactly falling apart, and the entry is probably better looking than many other buildings I've visited, so I have to wonder. Are they just beefing this place up so they can sell it? Are they doing this just to have something to point to when they raise everyone's rent again? Or perhaps they just want to keep the building in good shape. This is, afterall, the same building management who replaced my water heater two years ago, not because it had stopped working, but because it was "old and should be replaced". So it could just as well be their routine maintenance on the building and I shouldn't really worry. Time will tell.

Today at work is a complete wash. We've got meetings most of the morning, then this afternoon we have a big off-site release party for our latest software release. Fortunately, I don't mind a day of complete unproductivity. :) In related news, this month I completed 4 years with the company, which normally wouldn't mean much, but in this company it means that I now get 4 weeks of vacation per year. To steal a phrase from my sister, "I love me my vacation." Now I just need to figure out what my next big vacation will be.

Back to not working...

Spring is here

[4 blogs in 3 days... enjoy it or hate it while it lasts... either way, it's sure to stop soon.]

Spring is here... the sun is out and the weather is warm. I did a bit of spring cleaning today, and in the process realized that I have way too much junk, and nowhere to put it. Until I realized my laundry room was full of no fewer than 15 cardboard boxes of all shapes and sizes. They are now in the recycle bin, and lo and behold, I have space! It's a miracle!

And the surest sign that spring is here... I took the extra winter blankets off the bed.

Murder, By the Numbers...

So I signed up for NetFlix and maybe will actually watch some movies this summer when I'm bored. Though I seriously doubt I will actually get into the habit of watching movies on any regular basis. But in addition to the movies, of course, I noticed the plethora of TV series now available on DVD, including one of my favorite old shows, Murder, She Wrote. I remember we would watch Jessica Fletcher solve murders every Sunday night, after Andy Rooney went on some bizarre ramblings at the end of 60 minutes... it was one of those shows the whole family liked to watch. Over the years you begin to learn that every episode is basically the same, but with different people and a different setting:

Scene 1 - We meet the characters, whether at home in Cabot Cove, Maine, or somewhere else in the world. Somehow Jessica Fletcher knows people in literally every city in the world, whether it's London or Little Rock. Plus, everyone has read "all of her books" and recognize her presumably because of her picture on the book jacket, even though they've never met her. Sure, why not. Pay no attention to the fact that people die wherever she goes.

Scene 2 - Two characters get into a big fight, with plenty of witnesses, where one of them shouts, "I'm going to kill you!" The person ends up murdered shortly thereafter.

Scene 3 - The law is called in. The one who shouted it all is the prime suspect and all evidence points to him. [Note: the accused NEVER actually did it.] If we're at home, Sheriff Amos (or Sheriff Mort, depending on what season we're in) call upon Jessica to help them solve the crime. If we're off elsewhere in the world, the local detectives just want Mrs. Fletcher to butt-out. [Apparently the detectives aren't big readers, because they seem to be the only ones who have never heard of her.]

Scene 4 - Jessica gets in trouble with the law, or in some other awkward predicament, as she zealously investigates on her own. Throughout the episode, just watch for the camera to zoom in one some seemingly unimportant object... those are the clues that she will tie together in the end.

Scene 5 - Finally after everyone's finally concluded that the prime suspect didn't really do it... Jessica has it all figured out with a "He didn't do it, but I think I know who did..."

Scene 6 - The real murderer is caught in an elaborate trap set up by Jessica. She connects all the dots, and the murderer confesses (this isn't Law & Order, no time for a trial here). "Thanks Jessica, you saved the day!"

Change the scene, change the characters, and you've got an entire new episode. So it went for 12 seasons. Which brings me back to the inspiration for today's blog: how long would it take to watch every episode of Murder, She Wrote? Let's go to the numbers...

Seasons of Murder, She Wrote = 12
Total Episodes = 263
Length of each episode (w/o commercials) = 44 minutes
Total running time = 11572 minutes = 192 hours 52 minutes

At this point, only the first 6 seasons are actually available on DVD, but ultimately, if you were a) insane and b) obsessed and c) unemployed, you could watch every episode of Murder, She Wrote end to end in 8 days and 52 minutes. Oh, we can't forget the 4 made-for-tv movies plus the 2-hour pilot episode, which makes it 8 days, 8 hours and 12 minutes. And really, once you've watched MSW for 8 days straight, what's another 8 hours?

So who's ready to get started?

April Update

Seeing it's the 25th of April and I have yet to make a post since March 31st, we'll call this the April update, and I will endeavor to give a whirlwind tour of the month so far.

I made it back safe and sound from the bonspiel in New Jersey. (Pictures are up in my photo album.) The trip was a lot of fun, but always nice to get home from far away. Being my first trip to the East Coast (besides Florida, which everyone agrees does not count), it was quite a bit of fun. I need to go back to NYC sometime soon.

Curling wrapped up another year of fun and excitement. I curled in three different leagues this year, and my respective teams did reasonably well in all three of them. My Sunday night team was runner-up in the B division, which was a victory considering how bad we did the first half of the season. My Thursday night team won the C division, and my Friday night team won the A division. [A note about the divisions: the general pattern for curling leagues are that at the beginning of the season, teams are randomly assigned into pools and play teams in their own pool. Half way through the season, for a two-division league anyway, the teams in the top half of each pool are put into the A division, and the bottom-half of each pool become the B division. That way in the second half, theoretically you're playing teams that more closely match your skill level. Still, winning the B division is vastly preferred to, say, coming in 5th in the A division. :)]

Now that curling is done, I'm finding myself with quite a bit of spare time on my hands... which is both nice and not. It gets a bit boring sitting at home all the time, so I have to find other things to do. My current goal is to go to the driving range at least once a week and get my golf skills a step-up from deplorable to respectable. :)

I've had such a terrible track record seeing movies I want to see. I think I'm going to get NetFlix for a few months and catch up on my movie watching. For the past, oh, 2 years or so I've consistently had movies that I've seen previews for and been "I want to see that", but never did. And considering I NEVER seem to go rent movies, I think having NetFlix will convince me to actually watch them occasionally and catch up seeing movies I've wanted to. The big challenge will be setting up my queue and trying to remember all the movies I've wanted to see. We'll try it for a month or so and see how it works out.

Last week I went and saw The Light in the Piazza at the Paramount. This will be an abbreviated review, which is probably what the show deserved. I think this show is hit-or-miss as far as the audience goes... and I think it had its fair share of misses. I've determined there are really three distinct audiences for the theatre... first, people who see theatre as an art form, meant to inspire, intrigue, and promote intellectual discussion on a social commentary of the world. Second, people who want to be entertained, whether in comedy, music, lavish scenery, fantasy reality, or any combination of those. And third, people who have such low standards they would give Rachael Ray microwaving a hot pocket a standing ovation.

I definitely fall firmly into the second category, but if the show crosses-over to cover both the first and second categories, I'm just as satisfied. I don't mind the occasional inspiration, but I definitely want to be entertained or awed by a show. I WANT to be humming a tune for a week after the show. The Light in the Piazza missed the mark with a lot of the audiences. While the show loosely may have inspired or intrigued someone, I don't think that's what it was trying to do, and if it was it failed miserably. I sat next to an older lady who came in by herself, and not to stereotype, but appeared definitely to be in the first category of audience I described. About halfway through the first act I looked over and she appeared to be in the most excrutiating agony and/or half asleep. She did not return for the second act. The music was very operatic in nature, which in turn made it difficult to understand a lot of the words during the songs, as well as just wasn't toe-tapping or hummable music. I think it missed the #1 or #2 audience hits, but there are plenty of #3 audience types who were on their feet at the end as usual.

As for my ratings:

Cast - 4 stars. My lackluster satisfaction with the show was, as usual, no discredit to the actors. Outstanding cast, and well performed.
Script - 3 stars. An interesting story, though nothing spectacular.
Music - 2 stars. The music wasn't bad, but did nothing for me. What would have been a good play without music was just muddled up with added music.
Technical - 3 stars. Not much more to say about that.
Overall - 3 stars. Probably more like 2.5 stars, but I'll round up in this case. I've seen it, it was worth seeing once, but I don't need to see it again in the future.

With that review out of the way, I'm caught up to this week. Not too much going on at all. I should get back to work, then figure out what to do with the rest of my day.

Write it on your hand!

Ever have one of those days where you just seem to forget everything? I'm having one of those weeks already, and when you're getting ready to go on vacation for the rest of the week, forgetting things isn't high on your list of things to do.

Yesterday I had 3 different things I was supposed to do, all of which I completely forgot about. None too critical, I guess, but still just stuff that makes me rework things later to make it all fit.

Then this morning I somehow came to work and left my cell phone at home. So this is probably the least of my worries, but it just feels like I'm missing something without it.

Oh... wait a second... there it is. I just had forgotten which pocket I put my cell phone in. Well, now I'm just an idiot. See how easily I could have just gone back and deleted that last paragraph and you wouldn't be the wiser? But no, because I'm here for you, my avid blog readers, and I wouldn't want to let you down. :)

There are several things I have to remember before I leave for New Jersey tomorrow. One of which is that I don't have an e-ticket, but rather a free paper ticket I'm using from a previous bump on Alaska. Must not forget that... maybe I should write it on my hand. But will that really do anything? I never look at my hand anyway, so how am I supposed to use that to remember? Anyone have a good way to remember things? I forgot all of mine.

Please do not discard.

Have you ever noticed how mass mail marketers try so hard to make their mail look like real important mail, that usually it's even easier to pick out? It's funny, for years I would never get any sort of useless mail, now I must get at least half a dozen pieces of junk mail a day. However, I've gotten really good at sorting it out just by looking at the envelope. To share in my wisdom, I've compiled a handy little junk-mail identification guide.

1) If the envelope says "Please do not discard" it's probably junk mail. Every time I've received something like new credit cards, tickets from TicketMaster or anything else that I really shouldn't discard, it always comes in a completely nondescript plain white envelope with nothing but a pre-printed return address. These are ones I don't discard.

2) If the envelope looks like something incredibly important, especially if it says "Important!" on it... it's probably junk mail. Get real... you're not that important to receive mail like that.

3) If the envelope is any color other than white, and it's not Christmas, your birthday, or your wedding... it's probably junk mail. Real mail comes in white envelopes.

4) If the envelope has what appears to be a handwritten note scribbled on the front... it's probably junk mail. High-class junk mail, but still junk mail.

I'm not complaining too much though, recycling junk mail is as easy as hitting the delete key on my e-mail. But unlike e-mail, there's nothing worse than going to the mailbox and finding absolutely nothing there. At least junk mail makes my trip to the mailbox worth it.

Sunday's over... I'm ready for a weekend...

Is it a good sign when it's Sunday night and you're thinking "when does the weekend start?"

OK, so it's not quite as bad as that, but still. I feel like it's been pretty much non-stop for the whole long weekend. Friday night I had my regular curling which wasn't so bad, but I just really wasn't much in the mood to curl. Then Saturday was another full day of curling with the mixed bonspiel. Unfortunately, that required playing 3 games on Saturday, of which my team lost all three games. It was fun, but by about 9:30 when I was done, I just came home and crashed. Sunday, well, it was a pretty normal day. Went to church in the morning, then came home and had a little time to relax before, yes, yet another night of my regular Sunday night curling league.

Last week one of my coworkers gave me a box full of old piano sheet music that she acquired when cleaning out her mother-in-law's house. Tons of sheet music with lots of classic songs from the 1920's-1960's mostly. So part of my Sunday afternoon was going through this box and finding all kinds of fun music to play on the piano. I was extra pleased to find a fair share of showtunes and movie themes, but upon further reflection, that's not too surprising. Most of the popular songs of that era were specifically from musicals and movies. What happened to that trend? Somehow I don't think 60 years from now someone will be going through a box of sheet music and stumbling onto last year's Oscar winner for best song and going "Hey, remember that classic song 'It's Hard Out Here for a Pimp'? Those were the days, they just don't make songs like they used to!" No thanks, I'll stick with "There's No Business Like Show Business" that I found in the box. :)

Ah well, time for another week of work I guess. So long weekend, it feels like I hardly knew you.

Happy New Year!

I decided a new year deserved a redesign of my blog, so as you probably noticed the colors have changed and layout slightly modified here. Nothing too different, but hey, it's the thought that counts.

Now 2006 is gone, it's January 1st of 2007, a completely new year and the day of a million bowl games. OK, not quite a million, but 6 of them anyway. This morning I could switch between ABC, CBS, FOX and ESPN and watch 4 different bowl games at the same time. And people claim there are too many bowl games? I don't see how they could possibly think that. :)

How about some New Year resolutions? I seem to recall last year's new year resolution not to make any new year resolutions. Seriously, what's up with resolutions anyway? I am going to make retroactive 2006 New Year resolutions to do whatever it is I got done last year. WAHOO! Time to celebrate 2006's accomplishments by not making any 2007 resolutions until December 31st of next year.

Wow, that was alot of words and not a lot of information. I'll try to work on that in 2007...

And the rain rain rain came down down down...

Well the rain seems to have stopped, after several days of somewhat constant rain. The "Pineapple Express" as the weatherpeople call it dropped a ton of rain on Seattle. Didn't bother me much, I wasn't outside much except driving around in it, but still.

On my way to work yesterday morning I felt bad for several people:

1) The city worker standing in about 8" of water on the street corner trying to clear a clogged storm drain, while it was pouring down rain.

2) The construction workers doing their normal work on the Fremont Bridge, out there in the pouring down rain trying to get things done.

3) The garbage man who was out in the rain, but that's not too extraordinary, because it rains 3/4 of the year probably. But...

some idiots in my apartment building thought (or rather didn't think) that if they just set 4 mattresses down next to the garbage dumpsters the garbage man will take them away. Well, the garbage man cometh, he empties the dumpsters, and lo and behold, the mattresses are still there. Of course, the mattresses have gone from 4 mattresses down by the dumpster to 4 very wet and nasty mattresses down by the dumpsters. The sad thing is, considering how relatively ineffective the latest building managers around here have been, I wouldn't be surprised if it takes weeks before someone does something with those mattresses. It wouldn't bother me quite as much if not for the fact that the dumpsters are right next to the garage door, and I drive by them constantly, nearly running into them. Stupid people.


In other news... I want the holidays to be here. November is such an uneventful month. Once Halloween is over there's nothing festive until Thanksgiving, then it's officially the holiday season. What I'm really looking forward to though is Christmas music. I could complain now... and people just say "well, why don't you just listen to Christmas music now?". That's crazy. You can't listen to Christmas music too early, otherwise you get sick of it before the holidays are over and that would be a tragedy. This begs the question, when is too early? This is a complicated question. Previously I strongly claimed that you must wait until the day after Thanksgiving, the "official" start of the holidays. However, the Holidays Amendment of 2004 officially changed that rule to allow Christmas music anytime starting the week of Thanksgiving.

It's too early to change the rules again anyway... what do I look like, a flip-flopper?

Consumer profiling

As anyone who has purchased anything on Amazon.com in the past knows, once you start buying (or even just browsing their site), they start "consumer profiling" you. They want to know what you look for when you're shopping online, so that they can point you towards other items you might be interested in but didn't think to look for yourself.

This is good in principle, I suppose, if not a little creepy. Of course they do this by trying to match your shopping patterns up with similar people shopping on Amazon. Say Jimmy-Bob in Texas buys Season One of the West Wing on DVD, as well as a Black & Decker toaster. And say several other people do the same thing. Suddenly Amazon sees that I've bought The West Wing on DVD, and what do they start recommending for me? You guessed it, toasters. What does the West Wing have to do with toasters? About as much as Joan Rivers has to do with "natural beauty". But Amazon's magic consumer profiling algorithms will make the link and suddenly think it's all related.

The example I just gave was fabricated, yet typical of the types of things that happen. But to give a real example, Amazon also looks at what you buy, and recommends similar things that you might be interested in. About a year ago, I bought a new video cable on Amazon to connect to my TV. I just needed one cable and decided to buy it online since it was cheaper. Now, however, Amazon thinks I'm a connoisseur of fine video cables or something. Not a month has gone by where I didn't get an e-mail advertisement from Amazon for some cable (even the same as the one I already have, perhaps I need another?). When does the madness stop?

The big question is: does it work? Have I bought something on Amazon that I didn't realize I needed until Amazon pointed it out to me? Yes. I'm sad to say it's true. Probably for every recommendation that completely misses the mark, there are 3 or 4 that are dead-on accurate. I guess nothing's perfect, you just notice the few inaccuracies far more than the majority of the correct ones. And maybe -- just maybe -- it's time for me to buy a new toaster.

You're only as old as you feel

It's been quite a while since my last blogging adventure... no real reason, it's not like I've been doing much of anything exciting lately, just haven't been blogging much. We'll see if I can get back into a regular routine.

I receive a lot of interesting (read: junk) mail, but I usually don't mind too much. There's nothing more unsatisfying than going to check your mailbox only to find there's absolutely nothing there. I thrive on getting bills, advertisements, and the occasional actually interesting letter or postcard from a friend.

A few days ago I received a piece of junk mail unlike any I have ever received before. I'll include a few excerpts:

Dear Mr. Roberts,

Our records show that you haven't yet registered for the benefits of AARP
membership, even though you are fully eligible.

You need only return the form above. Please remove and keep the card
below as a record of enrollment. [card included with letter]

As a member, you'll have the resources and information you need to get the
most out of life over 50.

I look forward to you joining us. I think you'll agree withour other
members: AARP is one of America's very best values.

Sincerely,

William D. Novelli
Executive Director

I've always wondered how these people get their data on who turns 50 and is eligible to be a member of AARP. Now I know the answer... dumb luck. While I'm honored to be invited, I think I'll do the world a favor and wait another 24 years until I'm eligible. I'm always a fan of discounts though, and they were kind enough to include a membership card with the letter clearly embossed with my name on it. Perhaps I can get some cheap eats at the IHOP, since I know very well from my parents that it's THE PLACE for the retired people to eat. :)

Or maybe not. And I thought it was only me who felt old sometimes...

Where's the blog?

I will not neglect my blog. I will not neglect my blog. I will not neglect my blog. I will not neglect my blog. I will not neglect my blog.

There, now that I've scolded myself for not blogging more recently, it's time for a real update. We'll go ahead and pretend that nothing interesting has happened in the past 3 weeks, and start fresh. Today at about 3:00pm I officially left work and started my vacation. I'd like to thank my company for taking this week to remind me why I was going on vacation. Things were nothing but crazy all week long. But that is the last time I will think of work until the 16th, because I am now on vacation.

Tomorrow morning I will head to SeaTac and hop on a plane to scenic Indianapolis, Indiana after a brief layover in Chicago. From Indianapolis I shall begin what I will call "Joe's Great MidWestSouthern Adventure"! I'll spend the weekend in with my friend Krista who is at Purdue in West Lafayette, IN before I begin my driving adventure. The short version of my plan is to drive down to Lexington, Kentucky where my sister will be at the time, on a stop during her 6-month promotional tour for Coca-Cola. After a few days I'll continue on down to Nashville, Tennessee where my buddy Andrew will meet me and we'll spend a couple of nights at his sister's place. Following that I'll head with Andrew down to Birmingham, Alabama for the last weekend before I fly home on Monday the 15th.

What happens in the time between each of those checkpoints is still a mystery. Only the trusty AAA Tourbook knows for sure... and it's not telling. I'll endeavor to take a goodly number of pictures along the way and post them when I have the chance. Hopefully I'll have some interesting things to blog about!

Let the adventure begin.

Long time no update...

Well it's been close to a month since I actually updated my blog. Several reasons for that I suppose...

1) I was on vacation for the 3rd week of February. Didn't go anywhere, but Andrew came to visit, so there was much fun to be had, along with the Olympics being on TV for what seemed like 24-hours a day. All in all, some much needed time off.

2) Curling has been keeping things busy. This past weekend was the annual "5 and under bonspiel" which is a curling tournament open to all curlers in their 5th year of curling or less. It was quite a fun, yet extremely exhausting weekend. Out of 15 teams, my team was 8th, which by my calculations is about as middle-of-the-pack as you can be. Still, the fun is what matters. Only a little over a month of curling season left before the 6-month hiatus.

Not much else of any significance that I can think of. Some observant blog readers may note that the Amazing Race 9 started last Tuesday, and more importantly that I made no blog of it. There's good reason for that, blogging it is too much work and I'm less than inspired at the moment. However, AR10 might see a resurrection of the blog... we'll have to see.

Now I'll have to keep up more with my blogging. I'll try to have more interesting things to say sooner than later.

Who wants to be evicted?

Arrived home today, checked my mail, and had a letter from my apartment management. The letter states that I am in violation of my lease due to smoking in my apartment, and that the violations must be corrected within 10 days or I will be subject to eviction.

Last time I checked, I've never smoked, nor has anyone who has been in my apartment smoked. Therefore, it's rather surprising I got this letter. After having dinner with my parents at the new pizza place up the street (which was very good, by the way), I got home and went upstairs to visit the apartment managers. The conversation went a bit like this...

"Hi, I live downstairs in apartment 111... I got this letter today in the mail stating that I'm violating my lease by smoking in my apartment."

"Oh, that wasn't you... that's supposed to go to 211. Nevermind, we'll take care of it."

"No problem."

So after that brief 2 minute exchange, it turns out that it's the crazy lady upstairs, who, if you recall from previous blogs [Apartment Living a.k.a. How to be an amateur CSI] both smokes and has cats in an apartment building with a no pets / no smoking policy. I've since learned that the lady in 211 is having a feud with the apartment managers, which no doubt is part of the reason for the drama and the letters. All I know is I'll stay the hell out of it.

Hopefully that concludes the drama for now.

Iron Age Technology

At my desk are countless writing implements at my disposal. Several types of pens, in varying colors and styles; a variety of highlighters; permanent markers, in both fine nad broad tip; even mechanical pencils. But despite all the variety, I'm consistently drawn back to the simplicity of the solid #2 pencil. By all accounts, the other options are far superior, no need to sharpen, constant flow of ink, less smearage, bright colors, everything. Yet I still keep pencils around, and actually go through phases where I love writing with them. I don't know what it is. Perhaps it's the simplicity of it... the fine point of a freshly sharpened pencil... the convenience of the eraser when things go awry... or just the distinct feel and sound of the pencil graphite scribbling on the paper. Nothing else is quite like it.

Why does it matter? It doesn't. I just find it interesting that technology can't improve upon it. No doubt the rocket scientists at NASA still keep countless pencils around for the astronauts to use in space, because it's one thing that isn't affected by changes in gravity in the slightest. The only improvement that could be made would be a pencil that never needs sharpening... but still works and feels exactly like a normal graphite pencil. Perhaps someday our space age technology will figure that out... until then, I'll stay back in the iron age.