Valentines Day

Seriously... what has this holiday come to? before you even have a chance to send flowers to your valentine, you're getting not so subtle hints about it. what makes people think that being told/required to be romantic on a certain day makes it romantic? It's really hard to show you care when you don't get the chance to make it your idea. if someone asks you about sending them something for valentines day before you get a chance to even carry out plans you already made to do so, then that at least partially discounts the whole "this was my own initiative and i love you" idea. it turns into "I know you want and expect this on this day so i guess i'll buy these flowers, and this pre-printed card". It kills the idea that you did it all on your own... or at least shots it in the foot.

There is nothing romantic about this "holiday" to me. Its very hard to make something genuine and special when 1. Its required of you, 2. its expected (as in not a surprise), and 3. everybody else is doing the exact same thing at the exact same time. On top of that, if you want to go out to dinner you have to deal with the mass of people that are all trying to get a nice dinner at the same time.

On a much more lighter note: a buddy i know from riding motorcycles got fantastic news this week about his battle with cancer. quote: "there are undetectable levels of the cancer byproducts/components appearing in my blood. It means we can assume there is very little cancer in my body."

I've been following the whole process over the past 9 months or so through his blog. I've learned a lot about what it takes to get through something like this. I can only hope that if I find myself in the same situation i can hold it together as well as he seems to be. Congrats Andre. well done.

Things I want for Christmas

Corporate Zombies



MyCuppa Tea Mug



some funky shoes. these are the Freddy Kreuger dunks. they'd be cooler without the blood. size 11



Works Connection Radiator Braces -- MSR Radiator Guards -- MSR Enduro Skid Plate
for 03' KDX220



Fly Folding Ramp



NetFlix


a rad plant that'll survive in my office (no real light). saw some plants growing in glass "pots" filled with gravel that were cool. its called "forcing" i think.


I'll add more as i think of it. dunno know why. no one ever buys anything off my yearly list anyways...

Pastrana is Crazy

Apparently jumping out of a plane with a parachute is just too easy these days, so Travis Pastrana decides to do without one.

Poker nights

I've been playing Hold'em once or twice a week for the last year or so. I like it. its a good challenge, and a fun way to kill an evening that might otherwise be spent watching TV. I'm actually getting decent at it too. I make the final table out of the 4 to 6 that start almost everytime i play, and frequently make it into the top 3-5 out of the 40 or so people that started the tournament. I rarely actually win though. So far only once.

I'm torn on whether or not its worth checking out a cash game or taking the hour drive to the casino in Oklahoma. All the games i play are for fun and they're free. I don't have a problem with that, and i don't have a problem with gambling in general, but i feel weird about the thought of driving to Oklahoma in hopes to make some money at the poker table. maybe its a product of growing up too close to las vegas in the 80's.

Don't click it

I like this idea. A lot.

you navigate the entire site without clicking. it was pretty natural for me not to click, but i can see it being a problem for others. either way, i think its an awesome idea and a fun experiment.

check it out: dontclick.it

Kwik-E-Mart

Tom and i went to the local Kwik-E-Mart today to check it out. it was Packed! People were taking pictures all over the place like it was disneyland. they had some of the simpsons products like buzz cola, donuts, squishees and krustyO's along with lots of characters, store decoration, signage and even kwik-e-mart uniforms for the cashiers.

The whole thing is a brilliant idea. the buzz and traffic created just for that one store will more than pay for all the decoration. people have been talking about it all week, and the store itself was a madhouse. i'm trying to think of anything else that could create that kind of attraction to a 7-eleven, or to any store, but i'm at a loss. The iPhone and wii release are the only things i can think of off the top of my head that even compare.

Other Kids

I stumbled upon this flickr stream today. There isn't anything special about it (except for the bondage), but i found it interesting that while looking at it i was thinking "these kids look alot like us". I'm not sure where they're from... Germany? Poland? Sweden? The point is that I / we forget that there are young people all over the world that probably look, act and experience all the same things as the young, naive, american public.

it just reminds me how much i missed out on when i didn't get my ass over to Europe for my backpacking trip. i can still do it, but i probably won't. there is just too many other things going on in life now... its sad, but these commitments and activities that have taken over my free time and money are positive things in my life, so i guess i can't complain. i bet my trip would be a lot different now than it would have been 6 years ago.... i bet i'd remember a lot more.

Apple.com

mmm... the new Apple site is nice. as my friend Steve put it "they just seem to do shit right"

damn straight.

Get some Rock'n'Roll

I started listening to the GaragePunk Podcast a few weeks ago after i heard about it from Farmer Tim. I thought it was alright at first, but now i love it. They put out an hour long show everyday packed full of great stuff that you've never heard of, but wish you were cool enough that you had.

• The GaragePunk Podcast is a network of home-made, low-budget “radio show”-style programs that focus on wild and obscure garage rock, proto punk, surf, R&B, broken blues, powerpop, punk rock, new wave/no wave, noise, and trashy, primitive rock’n'roll from the past, present, and future. Our show hosts are ordinary people — music fans just like yourself. Not professional disc jockeys. We just have an interest in music and culture that is anything BUT ordinary.

the future is coming

Wow... how awesome is this? A coffee table to match your new iphone. I'm picturing these kinds of computers in use everywhere before we know it... especially in the class room. how much different do you think it would be learning physics or chemistry from a teacher lecturing while using this technology as his chalk board? I'm curious to hear where other people see this technology going? of course there's the obvious - porn.

New York City

I've never wanted to move to New York more than i do right now after going through this photostream. Having a young community thats tight enough to have crazy organized mayhem is amazing. seems like we had it at one time here in dallas, and you find pockets of this in many cities (take the chair races that i've heard about in Tulsa for example), but i've never seen as much as i found in this one photostream out of Brooklyn.

Quote

• I go around some street corners
  and have an idea in my head as clear as a picture.
  
  I like the cut-out
  I'm moving around in,
  slowly, toward change.
  
  Some things just wait for me
  to stop defending myself.
  
  -- Kark Krolow

Stolen from teheredto. its an awesome flickr photo stream from a couple of girls in houston. For some reason, i really like this. i really like most of what they do. its all very creative and alive... almost intimidating. There is a picture that goes with the excerpt, but it won't let me post it. follow the link above to see it and the rest of their stuff.

Baby Cakes

Baby Cakes is the best thing ever... well maybe Brad Neely is the best thing ever... genius.

Aqua Tenn Hunger Force Colon Movie Film For Theaters

I'll admit that there is a pretty good chance that this movie might be a waste of 8 bucks, or whatever it costs to go to the movies these days, but i can't wait to waste those 8 bucks.

Oh No!

I just realised that my 10 year highschool renuion will be next year! i'm getting old! 30 scares me. i've still got way too many sports, activities and things i want to do that are hard to do as you get older. especially for me since i have a bunch of fused vertebre (11 i think). i feel like degenerative arthritis is going to start setting in any day, thus ending my rough activities that i love so much.

Apple Stores dominate

Signal vs. Noise pointed me in the direction of Fortune's report titled Apple: America's Best Retailer. It talks about how sucesful the Apple Stores have been despite what the critics said about the chain when they first hit the scene.

• (Fortune Magazine) -- "Sorry Steve, Here's Why Apple Stores Won't Work," BusinessWeek wrote with great certainty in 2001. "It's desperation time in Cupertino, Calif.," opined TheStreet.com. "I give [Apple] two years before they're turning out the lights on a very painful and expensive mistake," predicted retail consultant David Goldstein.

The report goes on to say that Apple stores make more than 10 times per square foot than the flagship Saks store, and over 4 times what Best Buy makes. Pretty amazing. I think the part i found most interesting, and very smart, is that they actually built a store inside a wherehouse before actually putting them out for the public. this allowed them to see what kind of interaction they got from their designs and adjust it to fit the experience they wanted us, the consumer, to have.

Another neat little fact is that they ended up with a design that invited customers in to the store to play, talk or learn. You never feel like you have to buy something when you go to the Apple Store. They eventually cut out anything that wasn't necessary from their design (much like 37 Signals does) and made it as easy as possible for the consumer to come in and simply experience the key products in the store.

• The minis fit nicely into a real estate strategy that Jobs calls "Ambush the customer." He says he wanted to show Windows users "how much better a Mac is. But Windows users weren't going to drive to a destination." That's why Johnson waited so long for the San Francisco location - a corner off Market Street where people live, work, shop, tour, and play, as he puts it.
  
  "The real estate was a lot more expensive," says Jobs, but it was worth it because people "didn't have to gamble with 20 minutes of their time. They only had to gamble with 20 footsteps of their time."

genius.

Modern Marriage

I ran accross this blog by girlyunderwear about modern relationships. I think it hits on something that we all think about, especially those of us who arn't married, but we never really figure out. Its about the dynamic between couples today, and theories about why things work or don't work. most of the blog revolves around passion, sex and eroticism, and I think maybe those 3 things are the most important in a relationship. Like a lot of people, i've never really thought it though enough to come up with a clue of what that might mean, but i do believe that most of the rest of the relationship falls into place if you can keep those 3 alive. then again, how would i know? The article explains how it all doesn't always revolve around sex. It can be alive in many different ways.

this blog lays it all out. Its pretty interesting stuff.

Site Destruction!

I could spend all day on here!
-- NetDisaster.com --

Vanilla Ice's "Tax Rap"

This is the best thing i've seen in weeks! Vanilla Ice is doing a promotion with Turbo Tax called The Tax Rap. It looks like Vanilla taped the promo spot in his garage... kinda weird, BUT the videos themselves and the thing as a whole is hilarious.

Guess sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do. Gots ta pay dem bills, ya know!

Mac Chicks and Icons

Ray turned my on (no pun intended) to this site that features the "mac chick of the month". I have to say that i do enjoy Macenstein's mac chick of the month. and along the same lines is this youtube vid.

If you're like me, you're always looking for some web icons to use in your comps. we found a huge collection of free icons to use (edit: note the different licensing). i havent' looked through them all yet, but they seem pretty good. ––Max Power–– empowered by monkeys.