our busy family could definitely use this:

i want to make part of the wall in the office into a chalkboard, considering how busy we all are. you can find out how to make it at the martha stewart website.

whoo.

muse was the other band to see, but i might skip them because i just heard that morrissey is coming to the warfield in sf. i haven’t seen anything in writing about this, i just heard it on the radio. it doesn’t sound too far-fetched, though, as he is playing three shows in early february down in pasadena (which sold out in 10 minutes, if the radio report was truthful). i’ve already alerted the other old britpop junkies out there and we’ll be scanning for the link to buy.

although i probably won’t get it for a year, i want to let it be publicly known that i do want the new apple iphone

i am aroused.

[thanks to engadget for the pictures…they have some of the best geek reporting]

a close up picture of some velcro. it’s scary-looking this close, almost like some alien landscape. hard to believe that it was discovered by a man walking his dog, after getting some of those burrs stuck to his pants.

the mercury news posted this article about hooter’s opening up in the old spoons building on mowry avenue. i hear their wings are good but i’m not into the pantyhose look myself.

i hate those moral right-wingers.

and it looks like they have birthday parties for kids too:

i think for the last 6 months of the year, i’ve packed on an extra 5 pounds of flubber. once the new year hits, i’ll be excited to head back to the gym and get some good basketball and weights in. i have to do this before i look like this:

Being an IT manager, I always try hard to balance the needs of the employees vs the requirements of the business. My sister sent me this email from her IT department trying to clamp down on excessive bandwidth consumption:

From: Message from the CIO
Sent: Thursday, November 30, 2006 3:52 PM
To: The Work Peepz
Subject: Desktop Performance

[…]

DO NOT Play Video Games – Games create excessive screen changes which negatively impact network bandwidth

DO NOT Play Non-Work Related Movies (and/or Video Streams) – Your workstations do not have sound cards installed but sound is still transmitted across the network. The combination of Video and Audio created by movies is just as bad (if not worse) than video games

DO NOT Install Flashing Lights on Desktop – The holidays are upon us and many websites offer festive screen savers and applets for download. The animation generated by these seemingly innocuous programs consumes inordinate amounts of network bandwidth

Limit visits to Internet Sites with Heavy Animation – Animation generates excessive screen changes which negatively impact network bandwidth

Avoid Online Shopping During Primetime Hours – Many Online stores generate excessive animation (such as pop-ups), which generates excessive screen changes and network bandwidth consumption (even if buried underneath another screen)

[…and my favorite one]

Refrain From Moving Your Mouse For No Apparent Reason – All changes on your screen generate network traffic. While this action is certainly not as severe, it does generate unnecessary traffic and underscores the fact that any screen change or mouse movement does translate directly into network bandwidth consumption.

I’d like to challenge that last statement, but I won’t waste my time arguing with a company that is so cheap that they are fooling people into not moving their mouse excessively. Are they that hard up for bandwidth, that they have to push out this email?

What about the pictures people put in their signature files, like this holiday one:

I think they should crack down on stuff like that first!

the wife replaced her treo 650 with the new samsung blackjack phone today. it’s a neat package with the phone/organizer/camera thing going on in that slim form factor. i didn’t like how the buttons were crammed pretty close together and the screen is not touch-sensitive so you have to navigate with a thumbwheel (nice) or the smallish nav button pad on the front (not as nice). i’ll post more about it after i’ve had a chance to use it in a couple days.

just saw this t-shirt. pretty quick turnaround.

if you don’t know what this is about, see this video.

Story from the Wichita Eagle.

Maybe it was karma.

Three men attempted to kidnap a teenager in a dispute over stereo speakers shortly before 4:45 p.m. on Monday, Wichita police reported. One of the three pulled out a gun and fired it at the teen in the 1000 block of South Wichita.

The shot missed the teen. But then the shooter jammed the gun back into the waistband of his pants — and it went off.

The bullet struck the 23-year-old man in his left testicle, causing him to cringe — which caused the gun to fire again.

The second shot struck him in the left calf.

Police did not release information about the size of the gun he was using at the time.

The wounded man walked into Via Christi Regional Medical Center-St. Francis Campus seeking treatment, police said, and was later booked into the Sedgwick County Jail on suspicion of aggravated assault and aggravated attempted kidnapping.

His companions, ages 18 and 20, were arrested for aggravated attempted kidnapping and conspiracy to obstruct justice.

here’s a picture of christina aguilera standing next to yao ming (7’6″) and Shaq (7’1″). I guess I should just forget about joining the NBA for now if I would have to play against these guys.

i could really use this for christmas (hint hint)

i have been down here in marina del rey the last couple days and i’m on my way way. i went and visited tri in the biggest hospital i think i have ever seen in my life. he seemed to be wearing his paper gown pretty well. he also said some of the nurses there are pretty hot and that he’s feeling gross in his gown getup.

i played basketball for a couple hours with chester last night and nearly blacked out from the activity. it was a good tuneup for abe’s turkey day basketball challenge coming up in a couple weeks.

and, i saved the biggest news for last, but i had a mcrib sandwich last night! finally! i felt like ordering 100 and taking them home and putting them in the fridge for later consumption, but perhaps i’ll just wait to see if they come back to the bay area in the next months.

but this time mcdonalds is saying it might be the last time they bring it back. wah!

there is, however, a website which you can visit to petition to bring the mcrib sandwich back again and again. i’ve already put in my 20 cents worth. please take a moment to visit the site and put your vote in. i would much appreciate it!

well, it’s “good” if you are super nerdy i suppose

More costumes here [makezine]

[hint: she’s related to halloween in a way]

UPDATE: It’s Elvira, Mistress of the Dark (without all that nasty black makeup)

since my treo 650 bit the dust, it’s time to search for that next, great smartphone. the nokia e61 is a good choice for many reasons.

1. quad-band gsm
2. stable symbian os (less apps, but more stable)
3. built in bluetooth & wifi (imagine skype calls for free)
4. mini-sd memory card slot
5. pop/smtp/imap and blackberry connectors

flew into lax on sunday night and had dinner and a beer with tri and chetty. i’m glad to be heading down there and hang out a little more, especially on the company’s dime. i think at first i’ll be down there a couple times a month, but we’ll see what happens. if i can squeeze them into a single day trip, then it’s manageable. i might have an overnighter every once in a while. there might be a trip to paris for me (and a trip to south carolina for les), so that will be interesting to handle that since neither of has traveled for work in probably a couple years. we’ll probably lean on the local family network for support during those trips.

it also was my first flight since we have the new traveling rules in place about liquids and gels. i had to toss my hair gel and a bottle of face lotion since they were over 3 oz in size. total replacement cost was probably about $30 or so. what a waste. other than that, it was rather uneventful.

kind of a boring trip, eh?