A mid-twenties white collar dude’s take on everything
I don’t think I ever wrote about this, but about a month ago I was dumb enough to park in the yard overnight only to have it rain and get stuck the next morning when trying to get to work. My next door neighbor came over to try and help me, but it was no use. I ended up having to call roadside assistance and have a tow truck come out.
I don’t think I’m responsible enough for home ownership.
As an avid college football fan, I have to say that I sometimes get annoyed at the ridiculous ads that universities intersperse during a game. Mike DeBonis of slate.com writes an interesting article about them here.
Interestingly he mentions the Notre Dame ad featured prominatly in every NBC broadcast showing a girl lighting a candle for what seems like several years in a row and then gazing skyward as she receives her acceptance letter to an institution that will provide a “higher education”.
The first time I saw the ad I thought it was pretty cheesy. I myself was part of the non-Catholic minority at ND, and I didn’t light any candles or pay the Pope to get in. I did, however, manage to slip through the cracks by sending the admissions committee pictures of my abnormally large genitalia.
When I get inspired, I might read 8 pages of a book on the train. When this kid gets inspired, he travels to Baghdad to hone his journalism skills. What a nut.
Want to screw with your friends? Do what these guys did and TiVO a lottery drawing, go out the next day and buy a ticket for a friend with the winning numbers, and watch the recording as if it were live. I wish I were smart enough to think of stuff like this.
Introducing your 2006 Heisman Trophy winner!
You know when you’re on a plane and the flight attendants come out before takeoff to do the little safety spiel? Well, it turns out that that bit of information can be important. Check out this guy who was on an Alaska Airlines flight that tore a hole in its fuselodge and lost cabin pressure. He was quick witted enough to take some camera phone pictures on his Treo, and then go home and blog about it. Blogging is so cool!
This morning I blogged about the Google Silly Putty phenomenon. Since then I’ve had over 200 hits to that blog post in a little over 4 hours. Given that I normally only get about 25 hits a day, this is landmark news for everyone here at Butter’s Podcast.
When I read my site traffic report and figured out what was going on, I quickly reread that post and realized that I had misspelled the word “pounds”. There are now hundreds of people who will never return to Butter’s Podcast.
This site is pretty cool. I’m always looking for new ways to waste time, and this site may take the cake. It’s perpetual bubble wrap!
Do you remember Jeff Reardon? If you don’t, he was one of the top relief pitchers in major league history. I remember him because he played for the Boston Red Sox when I grew up in New Hampshire and would trek to Fenway Park as a kid. The guy had over 300 saves, and won a World Series with the Twins in 1987.
Well, as it turns out, he tried to rob a jewelry store yesterday in Florida and blamed a bad mix of depression medication for this inexplicable turn of events. At least he learned from Ugie Urbina’s mistakes and left his machete at home.
Here’s another upstanding Philadelphia citizen trying to get rid of his crap. He’s trying to pilfer “a older trailor” that he “bought from jersey”. Is “jersey” a person? Is the state selling “older trailors”?
But wait! There’s more!
It currently has a flat tire and full of trash! He’ll take $100 for it, but “you gotta take the trash with it”. Call 267.625.9608 if interested.
Google, the software development company well-known for attempting to take over the world, employs some interesting people. Not that I’ve never entertained the idea myself, but I find it curious that the company allows its employees to order 250 pounds of Silly Putty, and then write about how they copied the front page of the Wall Street Journal on a single piece of the stuff on the Official Google Blog. Do you think they need a somewhat inexperienced tax accountant with no CPA?
Check this out. I don’t know whether to laugh or feel sorry for this kid. Who posts an ad on Craigslist looking for some random person to teach you how to drive? Why not call a driving school? This is befuddling.
According to Autoblog GM’s share price has dipped to an 18 year low. Additionally, investors seem to think that Toyota will overtake GM as the world’s largest automaker sometime in late 2006. GM has held this position for 70 years!
Why do people hate GM so much? Well, I can tell you what it is for me. Throughout the 80’s and 90’s GM and the other American automakers generally made really crummy cars that were not as reliable as their Japanese counterparts. For people of my generation, many of us still have these sentiments regarding the quality vis-a-vis their Japanese competitors (most notably Toyota and Honda) even though the quality disparity has declined in recent years.
I’m going to be in the market for a new car this spring, I can tell you that there is not one GM automobile that I would consider buying. Maybe that’s foolish of me, but that’s how it is. 80% of the cars my family has owned growing up were Japanese, and given how few problems we’ve had with them, I say “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”.
Here’s a sitesite that has a couple of photos contrasting the Xbox360 launches in the U.S. and Japan. It’s been insane here in the States. I for one have not joined the insanity in trying to acquire one of Mr. Gates’ new wonder machine. Don’t get me wrong, I would love to have a 360, but my combined lack of funds and aversion to standing outside in freezing weather for hours on end (it was worth it for Dave and Tim tickets, though) have left me content with my original Xbox and PS2.
Who knows what the PS3 will be like too. Maybe it’s for the best that I can’t afford the new Xbox at this juncture.
According to the excellent HD blog, HD Beat, the U.S. House of Representatives has set the official shutdown of traditional analog TV broadcasts to be February 17, 2009. I happened to be in Circuit City last night while the Flyers were playing, and watching that game in HD was truly amazing. I can’t wait for this switch, and along with it, an excuse to go out and buy an HDTV.
Woohoo! 2,500 page views!
Check out this link on Craigslist. Some fine, upstanding gentleman is selling his beloved Sony 50″ plasma television for a mere $650. At first thought, one might think that I had been playing FIFA 2003 on it and had thrown a shoe through the screen. As it turns out, however, this guy just “needs an urgent money to take care of an issue.” As far as I can tell, his issue is one of two things:
1) He stole the television and is trying to unload it quickly, or
2) He is addicted to crack and needs a quick fix.
People don’t sell $4,000 televisions for $650 out of pure holiday spirit. Then again, maybe I’m just a pessimist.
I was never a huge Goonies fan, but I know for a fact that some of the readers of this site are. So for your enjoyment, see this:
This is some freaky stuff. Check out the site below. You type in a zip code, and it returns everyone who gave political contributions in the last presidential election. It gives their name, address, amount they gave, and to whom–all on a convenient Google Map. Apparently this must be public info, but it seems like some sort of invasion of privacy to me.
Read more at www.cs.indiana.edu/%7Em…
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