Re-Nanoed
Posted on | September 6, 2008 at 1:50 pm | 2 Comments
Pet Peeve of the Day: Technology marching forward. Apple is set to announce its new lineup of iPods this Tuesday Sept 9th during it’s “Let’s Rock” event in San Francisco. Pictures of the new 4th generation iPod nano have leaked out (here’s one). It’s odd to me that they’re basically going back to the 1G/2G nano design, where the iPod is long and narrow. However, the screen does appear to be bigger and it looks like video viewing will be accomplished with the nano in a sidewise orientation.
I guess this means that Apple considers the 3rd generation nano I bought last year to be something of a bust. I like it’s short, squat almost-square design, but maybe it didn’t catch on as much as they’d hoped. And come to think of it, those new 4G ones look like they’d work better for jogging, which is what I use my nano for. And the 3G ones have such a low form factor that they’re easy to lose and almost feel too insubstantial. Bwahhhh! I want a new nano! I bet the new ones will have like 250GB of memory too. Curse you, Apple!
Latre.
Poignant Search Term Of The Day That Led To This Blog: “hairy chest good or bad”.
When Is Information Too Personal?
Posted on | September 5, 2008 at 8:03 am | 12 Comments
A blogging friend of mine recently wrote up a long blog entry detailing a chronic medical condition that he’s had for most of his life. His intention was to see if perhaps anyone else had something similar and what they did about it, or he was maybe hoping some doctor would run across it and give some advice he hadn’t heard yet. The condition isn’t embarrassing or life-threatening, but it is annoying and does impact his quality of life in a very real way.
But before he posted the entry, he began to have second thoughts. He thought about the future and wondered what would happen if at some point he applied for insurance and someone at the insurance company decided to google him and found that entry. Would the insurance company (or maybe even a future employer?) turn him down because of this preexisting condition, even though he hadn’t been treated for it, or even mentioned it to a doctor, in over 10 years? At one point, a lot of money was spent by one insurance company trying in vain to diagnose the issue. His current insurance company, which he’s had for over 10 years, doesn’t even know about it, except possibly as a preexisting condition. Would there be any other ramifications from posting about such personal issues in a public forum?
In the end, he decided not to post the entry. Best not to take the chance. But you know, if he was living in a country that had universal healthcare / socialized medicine, he probably would’ve posted about it (assuming the issue hadn’t been diagnosed and fixed by now by the socialized medicine). But since he’s an American… better safe than sorry.
Latre.
Poignant Search Term Of The Day That Led To This Blog: “phobia of peeling stickers”.
Unclear On The Concept
Posted on | September 4, 2008 at 9:27 pm | 9 Comments
Pet Peeve of the Day: Ummmm… dumb people? I went to my local recycle bins after arriving home today in order to drop off my papers, cans and bottles. I was greeted by this sign taped to one of the bins. The bins are in the parking lot of a church and I’m pretty sure the sign was put there by the church people. (Another sign on the bin next to it admonished people to keep the lids closed and told of alternate bin locations if these were full.) I love this. I love that people have to be told what not to put in the bins, even though there are signs on the bins saying what they will accept (unfortunately covered here by the new sign). Yet I know that people do have to be told over and over again this isn’t some sort of magic bin (or trash dumpster) that will accept anything they throw at it. Heck, on this very day, there was some weird sort of big homemade wooden birdhouse thing next to it. The person who left it didn’t even bother to tear it apart first. Many a time have I gone to these bins and found a piece of furniture or a TV (!) sitting next to them. And you just gotta think these people are slapping themselves on the back for being “green” and dropping off their TV for “recycling”. Or more likely, they just had to put the stuff somewhere and next to the recycle bin is as good a place as any. Sheesh, they might as well just dump their stuff in the street. At any rate, they’re going to ruin it for the rest of us if the bin ends up getting removed. And that produces a big Whine from me.
I’m not sure why I took a picture of the sign with my iPhone. Something about it just didn’t sit right with me. I like taking pictures of signs because I never know when I might need to make a blog entry out of one (which I think I mentioned somewhere before). At first, I thought the word “mattresses” isn’t spelled right. It is correct, though it’s one of those words that looks like it has way too many letters in it. It wasn’t until I started writing this blog entry and took a look at the picture again that I realized the word “sight” is used when it should be “site”. So there you have it – you can find a mistake on any sign with more than a few words if you look hard enough. And I do love the looking. And the mocking.
Latre.
Poignant Search Term Of The Day That Led To This Blog: “god is always watching cell phone karma”.
Videogame(s) Played Yesterday: Heavenly Sword (PS3)
60th Rock From The Sun
Posted on | September 3, 2008 at 7:57 am | 1 Comment
Pet Peeve of the Day: I don’t understand what the big deal is about John McCain choosing Sarah Paulson as his Vice Presidential running mate. Why is this so controversial? True, she’s only 37 years old and inexperienced in holding office, but she did play bible-thumper Harriet Hayes on Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip, which should play well with the Republican religious base. And what’s all this about her being a “sexier Tina Fey”? Huh? For one thing, it’s impossible to have a sexier Tina Fey. And for another, just because both of their shows are about the behind-the-scenes antics on fictional Saturday Night Live-like late night variety programs does not mean that it’s valid to compare their hotness level. I do admit she’s hot – just look at that picture.
I say give her a chance. Any woman who can spout the convoluted dialog written by David Milch on Deadwood without getting tongue-tied is certainly capable of being one step away from the most powerful person on the planet. At least it means she should be able to read her speeches okay. And I bet she knows what a VP does, since she looks like the kind of person who had to take a civics class in high school.
Leave this woman alone!
Latre.
The Only Blog Post On The Internet Today Not About Sarah Palin
Posted on | September 2, 2008 at 11:29 pm | 2 Comments
I’m tired. And I’ve violated one of my primary 20 Tips For Daily Blogging: This post is being written during the last hour in which I can post it and still keep my record. I got off track this weekend and didn’t have time to compose my posts the night before. So now I’m off my pattern and it may be hard to get back on it for awhile. Plus, I really didn’t know what I was going to talk about. I kind of wanted to talk about what everyone else is talking about today, but those everyones are doing it so much better than I would. And I don’t have anything new to add.
So, there’s only one solution: Pictures of puppies. Cute, fuzzy little white furballs. Around two months ago, my sister’s dog Gracie gave birth to four male puppies. Don’t worry, animal lovers, they were all spoken for even before the pregnancy. In fact, my other sister and her family is getting one of them, so it stays in the family. The pix are from a couple of weeks ago when we went up to Greeley to visit them and celebrate some birthdays. Gracie is a hybrid of the Havanese and Coton de Tulear breeds, neither of which I’d heard of before my sister acquired Gracie. And I still can never remember either breed name when asked. I had to look up the names and spellings from an old e-mail for this post. I think the father of the puppies is of the same mixed heritage, but I’m not exactly sure. Gracie is hypoallergenic and the pups are supposed to be too. Which is good, because my nephew is allergic to dogs. Anyway, the whole Flickr set is here.
I think any one of them would make a barkin’ good Vice President. They’re even learning not to poop where they live.
Good night.
Latre.
Pet Peeve of the Day: Puppies are just too darn cute, aren’t they? You just want to eat ‘em up!
Poignant Search Term Of The Day That Led To This Blog: “phobia of sticky stuff”.
Videogame(s) Played Yesterday: None.
Hungry For Love With A Side Of Cake
Posted on | September 1, 2008 at 3:54 pm | Comments Off
Movie Review Sunday Monday.
Last night, the girlfriend and I saw another flick in the increasingly crowded “Narrated by Morgan Freeman” genre, Feast of Love. (BTW, my favorite Morgan Freeman-related joke is here.) The movie has some intertwined stories, centering around an unlucky-in-love coffee shop owner played by Greg Kinnear. Although I think Freeman actually gets more screen time. Kinnear’s character is genial but kinda stupid – he keeps marrying women that have other people on their mind. There’s also the story of a romance between two of the young coffee shop workers – their story is effecting but ends somewhat predictably. This is the kind of indie movie where you pretty much know how everything is going to turn out, but it’s still somewhat interesting watching it play out.
N didn’t like the fact that there was too much coincidence in the movie, especially in regards to how Kinnear’s character finds his objects of affection. At one point he does something stupid and mutilates himself, but of course that turns out okay in the end. I thought the movie was trying to say something about fate (it even features a psychic lady), but that message was somewhat buried. Overall, the movie was muddled and treacly, and definitely a tear-jerker, but I didn’t feel I wasted my time watching it. The performances were decent. There were some funny moments, especially when Kinnear’s character goes to retrieve his dog from his sister.
I was extremely disappointed that the song “The Bleeding Heart Show” from the New Pornographers was not featured in the film, even though it was used heavily in the marketing campaign (as I noted here). Instead, we got the predictable Jeff Buckley version of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” (which is in almost as many movies as Morgan Freeman), as well as the Oscar-winning song from Once, “Falling Slowly”. I was a little surprised by that second one, since the movies originally came out not that far apart.
Latre.
Pet Peeve of the Day: Didn’t get to go to A Taste of Colorado this weekend. Been suffering from some indigestion or food poisoning issue. Ah well, it was too hot anyway, and that thing is always too crowded.
Poignant Search Term Of The Day That Led To This Blog: “psychology reports emotionally stunted teens”.
Videogame(s) Played Yesterday: Heavenly Sword (PS3)