February 27, 2008
Star Wars cliff notes
Given that James has been on a Star Wars kick recently makes this YouTube video even funnier.
Posted by mark at 1:49 PM | Comments (1)
January 2, 2008
Houdini secrets exposed!
A while ago we purchased a fancy wine bottle corkscrew that they sell at Brookstone. The one where one hand holds a clamp around the top of the bottle and the other hand lowers a lever and raises it all in one smooth motion, and voila, the cork is removed with little effort. Well, the one from Brookstone broke, and since we don't have a Brookstone handy in the not-so-budding metropolis of Harrisonburg, VA, I decided to just replace it rather than go though the headache of trying to return it.
On the Monday before Christmas, it occurred to me that I should probably get some stocking stuffers for Courtney. So I took the kids to Target and and amidst the kitchen gadgets I saw what seemed to be a reasonable approximation of the Brookstone corkscrew so I bought it. I also bought her a really cool digital meat thermometer that is awesome, but I digress.
Anyway, on Christmas day, I went to use it -- isn't that great when you get to use someone else's present -- and proceeded to remove the Houdini from it's container. As soon as I picked it up, I was struck with how light it was. The one from Brookstone had obvious heft; this one felt like it was made of cheap plastic. I then picked up the box, and it was still rather heavy. Curious, I ripped off the cardboard backing on the box and found a rock screwed into the back of the plastic. What's up with that!?
It appears to me that this rock serves no purpose other than to exaggerate the weight of the corkscrew and thus inflate your perception of it's quality. It seems to me that this constitutes consumer fraud, and I'm tempted to do something about it, what do you think? Granted, the hefty Brookstone corkscrew without the sleight of hand did break, so in that case weight did not turn out to be an accurate gauge of quality. Regardless, I thought this was pretty curious.
Posted by mark at 4:41 PM | Comments (4)
November 5, 2007
Sudo laugh
For my non-technical friends, who don't work with unix/linux, this won't be very funny, but I've been laughing about this for days. I don't know where this image came from, but I ran across it in this article. If you're curious you can read about sudo on Wikipedia. I can imagine some funny alternatives around the topics of beer or sex.
Posted by mark at 11:09 AM | Comments (4)
October 29, 2007
Oh really?
I've been wanting to take a picture of this sign for about 5 years. It really makes me laugh.
Posted by mark at 10:38 AM | Comments (1)
October 17, 2007
Giant sand castle of suck
So I just opened up Parallels to test a website on IE6, and was annoyed by the stupid little task-bar icon bubbles that pop up every time I login to Windows. You know, one's like "Your computer might be at risk," and "Your computer is out of date. Check for updates." I should probably do what they are asking me to do, but that's beside the point. Upon seeing their arrival for like the 50th time, this is what came out of my mouth,
"That's just one of the many grains of sand that make Windows a giant sand castle of suck."
I know it's bad form to laugh at your own joke, and it's even worse to then blog about said joke, but I thought it was pretty funny. But then of course, maybe you had to be there.
Posted by mark at 3:44 PM | Comments (5)
April 23, 2006
Oh deer -- humorous aside
I completely forgot to mention something that I find kinda funny, perhaps my humor is a bit askew given my life these past few days. My brother in law Dan asked to borrow my car two nights ago when I was in Harrisonburg checking on the kids. His car was in the shop, and not needing the use of my car, I obviously said yes. I drive an old 1984 Volvo DL that I got for $1,200, so it's nothin' fancy. Anyway, about 10 minutes after leaving I got a call from Dan, it seems he had hit a deer going 60mph. Thankfully, he wasn't hurt at all, but the right headlight and fender were damaged, and the whole grille just fell off.
Sometimes, all you can do is laugh. Amidst all of the craziness, for whatever reason, this still makes me smile. Let's just hope these things don't come in threes. ;-)
Posted by mark at 12:25 PM | Comments (4)
March 21, 2006
Panera outlets
I've been having some regular meetings at Panera Bread lately. They offer free wifi, so it's a nice place to meet. The first time we went, we were looking for an outlet to charge our laptops, but there weren't any to be found. We didn't really think too much of it, until a few meetings later when I looked up and there, on the ceiling was an outlet. The ceilings are at least 10 feet high -- go go gadget arm. You've got to wonder if they intentionally left out easily accessible outlets to deter laptop-squatters. The next time I need to charge my laptop, I'm gonna figure out how to use that outlet just to see if they say anything.
Posted by mark at 7:54 PM | Comments (4)
October 6, 2005
Almost Famous revisited
A while back, I posted an entry about the fact that the catcher for the Boston Red Sox, Jason Varitek, and I attended the same high school. A friend of mine, who had read the previous entry, just informed me that a few months ago he was watching a NESN pregame show where they happened to be doing an expose on Varitek, and as I had predicted, they showed his yearbook photo! I'm almost overwhelmed with autograph requests?
Posted by mark at 12:21 PM | Comments (1)
April 6, 2005
Almost Famous
It just so happens that I went to high school with Jason Varitek, the catcher for Boston Red Sox. It also just so happens that I'm right next to him in my senior yearbook.
I didn't know Jason, although we did speak for a few minutes as they lined us up for graduation -- too bad I didn't ask for his autograph. I really enjoyed baseball, and I had played baseball my entire life up until transferring to Lake Brantley half-way through my junior year. I didn't even try out, although I often wonder if I could have made the team. Since we'll never know, I like to assume that I would have had a decent shot. ;-) It most likely was a false assumption since we had something like 3500 students, and I'm fairly certain that Lake Brantley High School in Altamonte Springs, FL was voted the #1 baseball team in the country by USA Today my senior year.
Back in 1997 I got a random call from a private investigator asking me questions about Jason and whether or not I knew him, and what I thought of him. I wasn't too helpful, and he wouldn't tell me why he cared, but I can only assume that this was the Boston Red Sox doing a thorough background check on him before signing. I pulled this from the 1997 career highlights.
"Acq. by Red Sox along w/RHP Derek Lowe from Sea. for RHP Heathcliff Slocumb July 31...Reported to AAA Pawt. Aug. 1"
Who knows? But the timing's about right.
I figure my greatest opportunity for national exposure is 20 years from now when some TV series does a "Where are they now?" or "Before the fame and fortune" expose on Jason Varitek. At some point, they're bound to zoom in on his high school yearbook picture, and for a fraction of a second I'll be able to say, "Hey, that's me!"
Posted by mark at 2:07 PM | Comments (2)
June 4, 2004
Kids these days ...
As a father, I'm constantly reminded of the values-war that's being fought in our country. The fiercest front is being waged in the midst of our children. I don't want to shelter them, but I do want to limit the negative influence of children with different, less-conservative values. I became acutely aware of this values-disparity when I observed the sinful nature of man shamelessly on display in the debauchery of my niece Virginia Ann. The apple didn't fall far from the tree now, did it! Jenny and Dan will have to show show me some serious improvement in their parenting before I let my kids hang with their kids. ;-)
Posted by mark at 2:24 PM