iShirt

Ok, this is cool! A shirt with a magnetic hook for your iPod shuffle. I don't know that I would really wear one but I thought it was pretty cool nonetheless.
Get it HERE.

Death by iPod

Here is an interesting and maybe a little sick list. I'm only including number 7 here, it was my favorite. If you want to see the other 7 check it out HERE


EIGHT WAYS
TO KILL SOMEONE
BY USING AN IPOD NANO,
ACCORDING TO
EX-MARINE
BRAD COLLUM.
BY KEVIN FLEMING
- - - -

7. Download to the Nano "We've Only Just Begun" by the Carpenters. Tell someone you will give him or her your Nano if they listen to that song a hundred times in a row.

Do you belong here?

TAKE THIS TEST and see if you have what it takes to become a citizen of the United States of America. This is a simulation of what prospective citizens are asked when they take the test to become a U.S. Citizen.
I'll admit I made it but just barely. I made a couple of stupid mistakes, otherwise I would have had 95%. You have to get 85% to become a citizen.
Some of the questions are harder than you might think. I guarantee that you will have to pause and think about a few of these.
We should give this test to everyone and 'boot out' those who don't pass. I have a feeling people wouldn't be complaining about overcrowding anymore.

R.I.P. Harry Potter

Harry Potter is TOAST.
In a recent interview, J.K. Rowling all but admitted that she is going to kill off Harry in the 7th and final Harry Potter book.
She talks candidly about "understanding" the temptation by an author to kill off the main character so that no one else can write books to continue her series. She says, "... so it will end with me, and after I’m dead and gone they won’t be able to bring back the character’.”
Unless she is basically lying, I read that as a fairly strong statement that Harry is going to die.
I say GOOD RIDDENS.
I enjoyed the first 3 or 4 books but the last two have been painful to read and full of inconsistencies. Evenso, I will read the 7th book. Even if it is just to bid Harry farewell.

Click!

**Spoilers**

I saw Adam Sandler's latest flick this weekend. Click. It's about a guy with a magic remote control that can pause and fast forward through 'undesirable' parts of his life. I'm glad I didn't take the kids. Despite the marketing that made me feel that this was a 'family friendly' movie it most definitely was not. Yeah, Yeah, I know, I should have known better. It was an Adam Sandler movie after all. I guess I was just too hopeful. Don't get me wrong, I still liked the film. It actually had a good message which was refreshing for a Sandler flick. Just a little too much trashy sex jokes etc. I guess I can't blame Adam for that, he was costarring with Kate Beckinsale after all ;)
Henry Winkler was fun to see even though his part was acted a little strangely. Christopher Walken was nuts. I think he might actually be nuts in real life and the director just told him to act normal. The story wasn't super tight but again this was, everybody say it together, "an Adam Sandler film". Thank You.
There were some clever skits that actually didn't make it into any of the trailers so I enjoyed that. I hate movies that I feel like I've already seen because of the trailers. The story was just good enough to make me really wonder what I would have done in Adam's shoes.
All in all I enjoyed it. It entertained me for a couple of hours and I got to see Kate Beckinsale not dressed up like some kind of scary vampire lady. I think they should do a sequel and give the remote to Kate's character and see what she would do.

Go to Hell!

Place this one in the 'irony' bucket.
Beliefnet just conducted an online survey of 10,000 of it's members to find out their beliefs on hell. Turns out self professed Liberals believe they are going to hell more than any other group.
It's about time 'something' made sense in this day and age.

Targèt Couture

I used to think it was a funny joke when my sis and others would refer to the Target stores as "TAR-ZHAY". Well, now it's real. Target has teamed up with a hip boutique in LA to sell some high, no very very high end merchandise bearing the target logo. They are calling it, "Targèt Couture".
The diamond target purse above will run you $870.

Me too, me too!!!

First off I want to qualify what I'm going to say here. I could be wrong. Yah, I actually said that. Now, pick yourself up off the floor and continue reading.
I've been seeing info about this for weeks now and I've just brushed it off. But, I've seen enough that now I believe there is truth to it. Microsoft is developing their own MP3 player. Of course they will call it a "media and entertainment device". Whatev. All they are really doing here is playing the 'me too' game. I've spent enough time on M$ campus in my career to know that Apple's iPod/iTunes success is just eating at the Microsoft execs. It just galls them. They HATE it. They own iPods.
So, once again M$ is going to throw literally billions of dollars at something because their jealous. What a waste of time and talent. Stick with mediocre software guys it's what you're best at!
Now, again, I could be wrong, but, I think their headed towards disaster. I can't wait to see what they come up with. In typical M$ version 1 fashion their initial foray is going to be hideous, huge and it probably won't work well. They have their main XBox guy Robbie Bach working on it. That should tell you something right there. No matter how hard they tried M$ Xbox couldn't make their box smaller or even as small as their rivals. It looks like the next rev of PlayStation and Nintendo Wii are going to be much smaller than the current xbox. So, why do we think they're going to be able to pull off something that can compete with the iPod?
I have a feeling the folks in Cupertino aren't too worried. It will just give them more fodder for funny commercials.

Happy Father's Day Dad!

A little early but here's what my old man's getting for Dad's day ;)
iPoop
You'll have to come up with your own iPod however...

thanks to Brian for the link (still no blog to link to)

Soap Box

Yep, it's about time I get on my 'video games suck' soap box again. I'm sure you've all been just waiting for me to spout off again.
I recently received a link to an article by a well known parenting expert, John Rosemond. I'm not very well read on his stuff or familiar with all he says, but I agree with him at least on this article.
I've seen the behavior he writes about in my own children. Heck, I've even seen this behavior in the 'grown' men that I used to work with and manage at Microsoft Game Studios.
I know many if not most of you disagree with me on this. I'm really sorry we disagree and the next time your playing "KILL KILL KILL" or whatever the flavor of the month is I hope your not pretending the bad guys your blowing up are me. Cuz that would just be mean ;)

It's a Wonderful Life

Here's a shout out to the wife. Her favorite movie of all time, It's a Wonderful Life, was just selected by the AFI as the most inspirational American Film of all time.
Check out the rest of the list .

Doh!

Another installment in the series, "The Best laid plans..." blah blah blah.

Have you heard about the mosquito ring tone? It is a high pitched ring tone that teenagers are downloading to their cell phones. Why? you might ask. Because only kids can hear it. That's right, as we age, our ability to hear high frequencies diminishes. So, teenagers set this ring tone on their phones, they get notified of an incoming text message 'in class' and old Mrs. Snodbody the English teacher can't hear it.
It's true. I found THIS and played it for my kids. I could barely hear anything and my two young children were writhing on the ground in pain. It was wild!
The funny thing is that this wasn't developed for cell phone ring tones at all. It was developed to 'scare' away teenagers from convenience stores and parking lots. Store and property owners will set up speakers, play this tone and watch the kids run for their lives. Adults can't hear it so they would walk in and out of the store without even twitching.
Isn't it ironic?

smarty pants

End of the school year was a couple of weeks ago. I thought I would brag a bit.
My excellent son was invited to "Evening of Excellence" at Mountain Ridge Junior High.
He got an honor role award for achieving a 3.9+gpa through all three year years of Junior High. I was actually relieved he didn't get straight 4.0's. I think that's a little weird to be that perfect. I mean, do you have a life if you're getting straight A's?
KJ also got to share the night with some of his best friends who are also smarty pants.
Oh, and KJ also got a special award for his exellence in music. He has been part of the Symphonic and Jazz bands for 2 years running.
We're gonna have to build an extra room in the basement just to hold all his awards, oh, and his Dad's pride.
Great job kid, keep it up!

Yeah, right

The best laid plans of mice and men.
About a week ago a radar trailer showed up right in front of our house. Cool! Or so I thought. You would think that this is just what you would want right smack dab in front of your home all the time. WRONG! I was shocked at the unintended side effects of such a proposition. Yes, it does tend to slow down the 'regular' traffic during the day. But, everyone, including adults, in an 8 block area has now come to my street to see 'how fast' they can get their bike, gas scooter, electric scooter, motorcycle, crotchrocket or lawn mower to go. It's a miracle no one has been killed yet.
Now, I'm not one to call the cops on my neighbors. It has to be pretty bad before I would pick up the phone. This fiasco almost pushed me over the edge. I even sent my kids with a piece of paper and duct tape to cover up the radar emitter. I thought this might foil all the fun without calling out the cops. Unfortunately that didn't work, I must need something thicker than a piece of paper.
Sheesh.

iWoz

HERE is an interesting book coming out this fall. It is called iWoz, and is the autobiography of Steve Wozniak one of the founders of Apple Computer and inventor of the Mac.

Here are few interesting notes from the book:
1. Woz is now, and always has been, an Apple employee.
2. In the sixth grade Woz scammed gubernatorial candidate Richard Nixon with a certificate from the school’s ham radio club. The certificate was made with crayons just before the ceremony, and Woz was the only “member” of the club.
3. The Apple IPO made the most millionaires in one single day in history up to that point in time.
4. Woz and Jobs worked as Alice in Wonderland characters at shopping mall in San Jose.
5. Woz didn’t return to the University of Colorado after his first year because he ran up too much computer timesharing costs.
6. Woz tried to call the Pope by impersonating Dr. Henry Kissinger. He almost got through except that the Vatican called the real Dr. Kissinger to verify the call.
7. Woz and Jobs got robbed of a blue box at gunpoint in Sunnyvale. (what is a blue box?)
8. The statement that convinced Woz to leave HP to start Apple (uttered by Allen Baum) was, “You can be an engineer and become a manager and get rich, or you can be an engineer and stay an engineer and get rich.”
9. Woz lost approximately $12 million in each of the two US Festivals that he put on.
10. Woz taught computer technology to elementary school students for ten years.

Inventions

What is the least talked about but probably one of the most important inventions of modern man?
Wire.
Think about it.
Wire is pervasive. It's in, on and around everything we do. When was the last time you thought about wire? Maybe the last time you were hooking up your VCR?
To show just how important it is, consider this: The most popular most sought after high tech gadgets of the moment? Wireless (fill in the blank). 'Wireless' is so cool now because we are so entangled by wires and the thought of losing them sounds like welcome relief. So, take one of those 'wireless' gadgets and crack it open. What do you think you will find inside? Wires.

Time for some change

Finally some motivation to take all those coins sitting in your dresser drawer and do something with them. You know the Coinstar machines you see at the grocery store? The big green machines you've never used. Well now you can turn your change into iTunes gift cards! Cool huh? Oh, and an added bonus is that if you do this instead of getting straight cash, you don't pay the 9% fee that Coinstar usually charges.
I'm on my way to count my pennies...