Thoughts at f/16

The 9:25 to Kalispell

nobody@vox.com(kewlfocus) — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 20:56:11 -0400

It's been a long day. But that doesn't mean I'm tired. I'm on my way to Montana to hang out with John and help him move to Boise for grad school. I left Washington, DC from National* at about 2:45, even though it was supposed to leave at 2:25. I got to walk through the lovely Terminal A, which looked like it was getting a makeover, but, let me tell ya, it sucked. It has about 6 gates and probably about 3 stores, the other terminals are way better, but, this is to be expected when you fly Northwest. Northwest, as all the other carriers upgrade their planes, we like to raise the rates and let our planes chill in the cool '70s era motif. No video monitors, no seat plug-ins, and certainly not any behind-the-seat interactivity. But, it gets me there, however dreadfully boring the ride may be. Northwest is though, one of the few carriers that continue to have routes to the smaller airports in Montana.

I'm currently writing this post from Minneapolis airport, which is pretty big and nice. I just had dinner at the TGI Fridays and surprisingly, the menus were the same price as the regular standalone TGI Friday's. Aside from the small table for one, it was a pretty good meal for an airport and for the price. The main part of the airport has a lot of shops that I quickly walked through while wearing my ipod to tune out the other noisy travelers. Things that keep me sane on this long trip are my Powerbook, iPod, Blackberry, and my Nintendo DS.

The area that I'm sitting in now has a "massage therapist" giving massages for $1.25 a minute. I just witnessed the first person in a while take her up on it, male, of course. Somehow I think these guys just want to get touched by a female while they are out of town, but, $1.25/min? Come on.

Also, I caved in and paid for the Aiport WiFi. Which, the deal wasn't too bad, they had a day for $7.95 or a month for $9.95. So, figuring having a boingo account would be useful to John and I as we made our way to Idaho, I sprung for the $9.95 plan, and I plan to cancel it once I get home. I also learned that Boingo was started by Sky Dayton, the founder of Helio and also a really big scientologist. If had any other choice I wouldn't have given money to Boingo, just as I've decided not to give money to Helio, though the Helio Ocean is a pretty awesome device, (the fact that it runs on Sprint's network is a dealbreaker also.) I will keep updating as the trip goes by and I'm sure John will too.

*I'm not calling it Reagan, ever.

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Exorcists in Leesburg..

nobody@vox.com(kewlfocus) — Sat, 21 Apr 2007 16:55:29 -0400

So, I was watching Showtime last night and jumped out of my seat after seeing this bit from the "Bullshit" episode on exorcisms and exorcists. I totally know exactly where this place is! Enjoy.

Penn & Teller: Exorcism

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Atlanta, Basketball, and Nice Hotels..

nobody@vox.com(kewlfocus) — Fri, 30 Mar 2007 21:42:55 -0400

So, for the next few days I am in Atlanta, GA, editing the NCAA Men's Basketball Final Four Tournament. My job will be to take the photos from our photographer, ingest them into our editing program, and then weed through them to finally send them to the office in a reasonable amount of time. The first game is Saturday night around 6 P.M.,

Atlanta

Georgetown vs. Ohio State. The good part is that whoever wins or loses, I'm still stuck in Atlanta till my flight out on Tuesday afternoon. I don't think this is bad at all, after all, I'm in a pretty pimp hotel.

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Pooping on Tombstones

nobody@vox.com(kewlfocus) — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 19:42:56 -0400

Congressional Cemetery? Dog Park? We kept hearing about it, but never checked it out. Thought it was quite odd, but, this is DC, right? Well, yesterday we made the short 1 mile trip over to get the scoop. Lo and behold, there it was, a HUGE cemetery filled with dogs running around, although, as the sign implied, this is not a public dog park. This little rule didn't stop Kelly and I from giving it a try before we even considered a "membership." Luna had a blast, she met so many new dogs and we got to let her run around without worrying about her running into traffic. To be able to walk your dog at the cemetery, the group asks for a yearly donation (about $150) to help with the up keep the historic grounds, which is a pretty neat place. I figure the people who run the cemetery would rather prefer it is filled with dogs than drug dealers, which it was before it became a place for dogs. Although, it was a bit strange to watch Luna poop right to next to a tombstone from 1864.

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2007: HAL's Retarded Sister

nobody@vox.com(kewlfocus) — Mon, 05 Mar 2007 20:03:36 -0500

Apparently voice recognition has a long way to go, I'd recommend when you talk to a computer (yeah, that sounds weird right?), be concise, unlike Paul Seth whose "Umm's" and "I believes" whips American Airlines computer system into a binary short-bus riding frenzy.

Fun With Automation

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Black Snake Moan and Vikings

nobody@vox.com(kewlfocus) — Sun, 04 Mar 2007 15:35:30 -0500

So, we're currently sitting in the theater at gallery place waiting for black snake moan to start. On our way here we were accosted by a viking handing out hand sannitizer on the corner near Chinatown. Don't be frightened for us, it was a marketing stunt for The History Channel's new Viking special which airs tonight at 9 pm. Pretty cool if you ask me.

Black Snake Moan and Vikings

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Twitter, and why I can't have a private life.

nobody@vox.com(kewlfocus) — Thu, 01 Mar 2007 00:03:38 -0500

So, I'm trying out Twitter, another Web 2.0 startup that is basically an away-message system for your life, or that is at least how I understand it. You can send updates from the web, IM, or via text messages on your cell phone. Its got great depth and you can follow updates on all your friends or just certain people and those updates can be sent to your mobile device or IM client. You can check out my updates below.

Edit: Ok, so Vox doesn't play nice with embedded stuff.

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Why Barack Obama won't be elected

nobody@vox.com(kewlfocus) — Sat, 24 Feb 2007 23:10:52 -0500

Search for Obama

As much as I'd like to see it happen, it won't. Maybe its my complete lack of faith in middle America, or the fact that he's actually good choice, people always focus on the negative before they make their decisions. The above image is from the AP Images site at work, this is reason numero uno why Barack Obama won't win, he's got a funny sounding name and one that reminds people of the world's most elusive terrorist. Yes, I know Osama is a very common name, but, to most of America it reminds them of one person. Now, if this search returned, "Did you mean Osama bin Laden?" I'd be worried.

[Click here for larger version.]

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The Number 23 doesn't add up

nobody@vox.com(kewlfocus) — Fri, 23 Feb 2007 01:20:58 -0500

A conversation I dream to have :

"Ok Joel, hand it over," I say glaring at his wallet, "Well, I can't, I've got more movies to destroy, more money to bilk from studios and audience members." "JOEL, hand over your director's license, and, while you're at it, hand over your camera, you certainly don't know how to use it." I don't think I'm alone here.

Schumacher's latest suck-fest The Number 23 is getting a stellar set of reviews over at Rotten Tomatoes.
I'm not

The Devil Himself

going to brag, but, I called it. Yep, though, when I first saw the trailer for this thriller/horror pic I was halfway interested only to be donkey punched in the groin with the words, "Directed by Joel Schumacher". Some people think I'm a movie snob, but, I really don't need 23 reasons not to see this movie, I only need a couple to have Schumacher forced to only direct traffic:

Batman and Robin - "Did someone say Freeezee?"

8MM - Really? The only time I WANTED to be the subject in a snuff film.

Phonebooth - Colin Farrell stuck in a phone booth for almost two hours, awesome.

Ok, that's enough, I don't want to bring back too many bad memories. I will also make a prediction this will be the highest grossing movie this week, hell, if a flaming skeleton on a motorcycle can do it, doesn't a psychotic Jim Carrey have a chance?

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Reason #5,447 why I don't rent from Blockbuster

nobody@vox.com(kewlfocus) — Fri, 23 Feb 2007 00:29:35 -0500

Though I usually don't base my decisions on the actions of a few, this is pretty typical of a ~~Cockbuster~~ Blockbuster store manager, at least any that I have met. A customer in Astoria was allegedly forced to pay $10 and sign-up for Blockbuster Total Access, ahem, Netflix clone, to be granted a Blockbuster membership. The customer then called Blockbuster corporate to get the facts:

"The woman I spoke to said that Blockbuster's corporate policy is that you should be able to sign up for just a membership, with no fee and no requirement to sign up for Blockbuster Online. She said that franchise stores have the choice to set their own policies, but that all corporate-owned stores should be following that rule. She also confirmed that my local store is corporate-owned, not a franchise, and should therefore be following the rules.

Blockbuster forces BBO sign-up

I then called my local store and spoke to the manager there. He confirmed that his store's policy is to require Blockbuster Online signup. I told him that Blockbuster corporate policy was not to require Blockbuster Online signup, and he didn't care. He said that "all the stores are doing it". I reiterated that his policy was in violation of Blockbuster's policy, and he refused to change his tune. Eventually I hung up in frustration."

If it wasn't for Blockbuster's shady dealings, and their known tactics of pushing out the little guys, I would probably give Blockbuster's Online rental service a try. But, for now, its going to take a lot to take this red envelope from my kung-fu grip.

Via: [ Consumerist ]

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