Proof that inflation is out of control, or I need to find a new job

The other day I'm driving home and there was a little girl on the side of the road standing behind a card table with a sign hanging off the front which read, "Lemonade Kool-Aid 25 cents." Smiling, I remembered back to summers when I was a kid and tried the same venture, so I pulled over, rolled down my window and said, "One cup please."

The cute little girl smiled at me showing off a full set of braces. As she poured my glass I fished around for a quarter. As I looked up, she was holding out what looked like an incredibly small cup. I was a bit taken aback. It was tiny. It was one of the little Dixie cups kids keep near the sink to use while brushing their teeth. It was this size (see below), but not this cool because it didn't even have a TIE fighter on it.

I handed her the quarter and thanked her. Then I looked in the cup. It was only half full. The little girl skipped happily back to her table waiting for her next customer/victim.

I took my 1/16 gulp of sugary water and pondered my transaction.

After doing a little research, I found that the cup size she used was 3 oz. Filling it only half full meant she sold me 1.5 oz of Kool-Aid for 25 cents. If I'm doing the math right, that means the retail/street value of a pitcher of Kool-Aid is a little over $11, or $5.50 per liter.

Since we Americans don't do the whole metric thing, let me put it in more general terms:

THIS LITTLE GIRL WAS SELLING KOOL-AID AT MORE THAN $20 PER GALLON.

Her overhead: nothing - she probably stole everything from her mom.

And she doesn't pay taxes.

I think I'm in the wrong business.




Stand image courtesy of here.
Cup image couresy of here.

Seriously, so blessed!

If you haven't seen it yet, Seriously, So Blessed! is a brilliant parody site, written by an unknown author, from the point of view of a young married woman living in Utah, Tiffany/Amber/Megan/Nicole (take your pick) who is married to JJWT (Jordan/Jason/Wes/Taylor) and life is, like, so good.

JJWT is going to law/dental/business/medical school and TAMN has her degree in hair dressing/teaching 2nd grade. The blog is about their perfect life being so busy doing all sorts of (self) righteous, Utah things.

Their marriage couldn't be happier. In fact, nothing goes wrong in her life. And if you want a perfect life, start with the perfect man. Here are her tips for you ladies out there who are looking to meet your own JJWT:

• Avoid wearing sweats, BUT, if you're gonna wear sweats, MAKE SURE there is something sassy written on your bottom. 

• TEXT IN CHURCH. This will make you look even cuter and way less boring...if you can do this with tonz of gum, EVEN CUTER!
  

• Do NOT get a short haircut and/or make your hair one color (BOAR-RING!). Long and multi-colored is your best bet (but, don't bet, it's practically porn).
• WHATEVER YOU DO, DO NOT GO TO MORE SCHOOL, unless you want people to start calling you Yawnette. Think about it! Serious! How often do guys whistle and yell "Nice degree!" or shake there heads and say "What adorable knowledge"? EXACTLY.

Some other choice quotes:

In reference to being grateful for the Pioneers on the 24th of July: "If it weren't for them, we wouldn't even HAVE a Gateway!"

And..."It’s so fun to just go up to my family’s cabin and look at the things that make up our beautiful world and feel so greatful. Love just looking at nature at night while I sit in the hot tub with a 44 ouncer of Diet Coke (bad I know, I’m off it now), and my cute pink ipod blaring, and just BEING with nature, soaking it up til I get pruney."

Brilliant. Anyway, great site. Check it out, and start from the beginning.

Do not disturb

On vacation (see above).

Image courtesy of here.

Apple on fire - literally

 Oh, snap! Apple's R&D department went up in flames late last night, triggering a three alarm fire. Heads are gonna roll. Rumor has it that Macworld, which is normally held in January, will be pushed off until July 2011. Also, reports are coming in that Steve Ballmer, or someone who greatly resembled him, was seen fleeing from the scene, laughing manically.

Either that, or Apple got a taste of its own medicine with regard to its laptops.

In other Google news...

I got this sign-in screen when I tried to login to my Google account. Unfortunately, after sign-in it was the same ol' iGoogle. I wonder if this has anything to do with the problems going on with Gmail right now.

The world is coming to an end: Gmail is down - UPDATED x3

Heaven help us. Russia is bombing Georgia, the ice caps are melting, France is still a sovereign nation, and Gmail is down. It's not an isolated incident as people on Twitter are reporting the same problem:

Whatever could be the problem? I've never really had any issues with Gmail. Interestingly enough, I can use Gmail over IMAP on my iPhone. Weird.

One clue may be (yes, I'm really reaching here) is this new "Create an account" button I saw this morning:

Most of the time it's just a text link, although occasionally I've seen it as a blue Aqua-esque button. New UI?

What do you think? Is Google rolling out a new UI? Is it a technical glitch? Are they going to give us Push functionality? Has your account been affected? Let me know in the comments.

UPDATE: I saw a  Cult of Mac article in my feed reader saying MobileMe's mail is also down.

Oddly, when I clicked the link in my feed reader to go to the actual article, Cult of Mac gave me an error page. Hmmm...strange stuff is afoot. Perhaps my initial hunch that Apple just transitioned all their .Mac stuff to Google's services, masked in a pretty Apple design, is true. ;)

UPDATE 2: TechCrunch is reporting the same thing: Gmail is down systemwide. As a side note, I'd like to point out that I had the "story" up before Arrington did. ;)

UPDATE 3: As of about 4:35, my account is back. Same ol' look and at first glance no new features. Also, no word on the Official Gmail Blog about the outage.

Suck it, Frenchies

"'The Americans? We’re going to smash them. That’s what we came here for.'" Yeah, that's what the French said with regard to the 400 meter relay. Why the hate, Frenchies? You seem very determined to hate us while we're trying as hard as we can to forget you exist.

As it turns out, Frenchies lost. Or surrendered. It's so hard to tell. Anyhoo, check out the dramatic comeback video by clicking here. Note that you'll need Silverlight installed on your browser (stupid Microsoft, right Paul?) but it's well worth the watch.

How does Steve Jobs get his strength?

A hilarious description, courtesy of Engadget.

"Steve Jobs, presumably speaking from a hyperbaric chamber where he's being nourished with an infusion of liquified developers-souls before his next public appearance, had a few interesting tidbits about the AppStore for the Wall Street Journal this morning."

I noticed something weird about iGoogle

Most of us recognize this screen. Notice the pre-selected widgets faded in the background: YouTube, weather, clock, etc. Why anyone would add a clock widget on their homepage is beyond me as most computers nowadays are able to tell time. But I digress.

When I launched my browser this morning, instead of the standard widgets you see above it was populated with what looked like popular, locally relevant widgets. There was a KSL widget, an LDS.org widget among others. I didn't think much of it, figuring they were going to suggest widgets based on popular sites in my area and logged in.

I should have learned by now that when there's some kind of anomoly with anything Google I should get a screen shot because it's not there anymore. If anyone else notices the same thing, please grab a screen shot and e-mail it to me: theotherdrummer at gmail *dot* com.

I hate this thing

 

I know I'm probably going to offend some people when I say this, so I half-heartedly apologize in advance.

I think this widget could be about the tackiest thing I've ever seen.

Honestly, what makes you think anyone wants to see a baby floating around in your virtual uterus, squiggly umbilical cord and all? I'm happy that you're having a kid. Really. Congratulations. That's wonderful news. I don't want a sneak peek. Thanks though.

So I decided to prove the ridiculousness of the widget by cramming 10 little fetuses in my virtual uterus (I never thought I would write those words) and watching them grow. Like sea monkeys. In a few months we'll see how my digital offspring fare in their crammed space.

Also, I hate blogs that play music automatically when the page loads.

New Google Reader feature: auto-add feeds from your Blogger blogroll - UPDATED x3

I just had this little notification pop up in my Google Reader. Apparently the web app has taken it upon itself to add feeds from the sites I have listed in my blogroll here at The Other Drummer.

It has the potential to be a nice touch, although so far I've noticed a few flaws:

• It's stuck at 49 unread articles when there is clearly only one unread post. Refreshing doesn't fix the problem.
  
• Fundamentally, doesn't it stand to reason that if I have a feed in my blogroll I've already added it to my RSS reader?
  
• That being said, the three blogs Reader added to my feeds are sites I've already subscribed to. They should compare the blogroll sites against my existing RSS feeds to prevent duplication.

Does anybody else have this feature? Is it working for you? What are your thoughts? Or did I get selected (again) by Google's divine providence?

UPDATE: Clicking the "Learn more" link in Reader took me to a Blogger Help page with an Internal Error/We Can't Find What You're Looking For message. The plot thickens.

UPDATE 2: I just logged in (it's now about 11:40 pm) and the feature is gone. I've checked out the forums over at the Google Reader Blog and three other people have reported the same thing. So far it doesn't look like it's being received well.

UPDATE 3: I just checked my site stats and have had five visitors today from Mountain View, California. Google...are you out there?

Attention world: the touch screen isn't what makes the iPhone cool

LG Voyager, Samsung Glide, Samsung Instinct, LG Dare and all you other handsets and handset manufacturers out there trying to play catch-up to the iPhone, here's a tip for you:

Simply making a touch screen handset with movable icons isn't going to cut it. It makes you look like you're trying to rip-off the iPhone, which, let's be honest, you are. And at first glance that's an understandable thing to do: there's a radically different phone that is getting everyone excited so, naturally, you want to do the same thing.

By trying to mimick the iPhone, you aren't creating something different. You're creating something like the iPhone, which means you're always going to be in a second place, "me-too" position. Instead, focus on creating something innovative of your own.

You can react to trends or you can start them. The same thing goes for advertising and any number of other industries. So how do you start a trend?

"If I'd asked my customers what they wanted, they would have told me, 'A faster horse.'"- Henry Ford as quoted by Steve Jobs.

Know what people want before they do. Much easier said than done. However, with the resources of these huge, multi-billion dollar companies you'd think they'd step back and do something original and innovative. It worked wonderfully for Motorola with the RAZR (until they got lazy). So why don't more companies try to do it? Are they too focused on immediate, quarterly results to invest in something lasting? Or do they try and they just can't quite swing it? What are your thoughts?

Image courtesy of CrunchGear.

Moleskine mania

 

Oh, the drama. First, I freak out because I can't get the specific notebook I want. Then my friend/distant relative Erin brings one up from Provo for me. Then I get the one I ordered online (and was too impatient to wait for) so I have two. THEN the one Erin brought up began falling apart, the cover ever so sadly separating from the spine, so I wrote Moleskine and ask/beg for a new one.

Being in Italy (Milan, darling) our correspondence was a bit delayed and with the language barrier a little choppy. However, they very kindly said that, since they're handmade, sometimes these things happen and they'd be happy to send me a replacement if I'd provide my address, which I did.

Long story short, they ended up sending me two replacement notebooks, one with the cover written in Italian and one written in German, in addition to the original one I'd ordered online. While all this was happening, I found some good glue and was able to (mostly) reattach the cover of the original notebook which I'm still using.

I wrote Moleskine, told them they sent me an extra and offered to ship it back to them. They wrote back and told me not to worry about it. 

So now I have four total (three unused) softcover, ruled, pocket-sized Moleskine notebooks when just two months ago there was only one to be found in the entire state of Utah. Crazy how things turn out, huh?

Man babies

It's disturbing, yet I can't look away.

See more here.

New Yahoo interface? Quite Google-like, don't you think?

So yeah. A friend of mine came across this little gem last night and passed it along. Looks like Yahoo may be experimenting with a sleeker, more Google-like approach to search.

Thoughts?

Oh yeah, and speaking of homepages, if anyone can get me in on that new iGoogle action (short of saying I'm a developer) let me know.

An announcement and an apology

Yeah. Sorry. I'm alive. Just sorta been neglecting my digital duties of late. Despite the fact that my posts here have dwindled and I'm down to about one post per week on LivSimpl, for some inexplicable reason I've decided to launch a new project called Write In My Journal.

The idea of Write In My Journal is this: I approach people who look interesting - like they have a story to tell - and ask them if they, knowing they’ll most likely never see me again, will write in my journal.
They’re free to write whatever they want. I may give them a prompt to start but ultimately it’s up to them.

There are so many people out there with such diverse backgrounds and perspectives and it’s absolutely fascinating to me. Have you ever looked at a person and thought, “I wonder what their story is? How did they get to where they are? What are their dreams?” I do. All the time. (Is that weird?) This is my chance to get to know some of them, even if it’s just a glimpse, and share their stories that would otherwise go untold.

So I carry around my trusty Moleskine notebook (which is falling apart - more on that later) and ask people to write in it, right along side all my own scribbles, lists and thoughts.

Please take a moment to check it out, add it to your RSS feeds and leave a comment or two. Oh yeah, and please tell your friends.

McCain admits he doesn't know how to use a computer

When McCain was asked earlier in his campaign if he used a Mac or PC he responded that he's computer illiterate, an excellent quality for a potential leader of the free world.

He also seems completely unaware that Viva Zapata was made in 1952, not 2008. Or maybe he still thinks it's 1952 which would explain his inability to operate a computer.

 

While I'm confident Obama is much more tech-savvy (read: knows how to check his own e-mail) he did just flip-flop and vote to give the telcoms retroactive immunity for their illegal, Constitution-violating wiretaps. Not cool Obama.

Google non-news of the day: Gmail filter assistant

I don't remember seeing this little friend in my Gmail account before. The Filter Assistant option, at the moment, does... nothing. But my gut tells me this feature is going to assist you with your filters.

Also, it looks like the Gmail team has fixed the problem that displays your primary e-mail address when sending an e-mail from an additional, managed account. Boo-ya.

Rock-on Gmailers, rock on.

Utahans are less fat than most people in the U.S.

Way to go Utahans! There are 44 states that have fatter people in them than you! Your all-natural health drinks from tropical islands and your vitamin supplements are paying off!

Of course, having nearly a quarter of your adult population obese isn't exactly a good thing but it looks like the folks at calorielab.com are grading on a curve (pardon the pun). So grab a Jamba Juice, Iceberg milkshake or some fries with fry sauce and celebrate our less-fatness!

How do you view your cell phone carrier?

I posted a new poll in the upper right corner of the site. Please take a moment to vote. I'm interested in how you view the services provided by your wireless provider. Do you see them as a source for original content (perhaps Verizon offers video clips from the sporting events that you can have access to for an extra fee each month, in addition to your voice service)?

Or do you see them as more of just a pipe to give you voice and data services?

Or do you see them some other way entirely? I'm honestly curious so let me know on the poll and in the comments.

Bill Gates on Windows XP usability

Bill rants as he struggles to download Moviemaker. Here's the opening paragraph:

"I am quite disappointed at how Windows Usability has been going backwards and the program management groups don't drive usability issues."

It only gets better. Click here for the full, internal e-mail which was published by SeattlePI.com.

I must say that reading the e-mail makes me like Bill more. It's nice to know he actually understands (and experiences) things can are frustrating for end users and isn't living on some other planet.

Image courtesy of here.

The Ani DiFranco concert

A buddy of mine from work had a couple extra tickets to the Ani DiFranco concert on Saturday night.

"Who?"

Exactly. I'd never heard of her either. A quick trip to iTunes revealed some folksy, mellow acoustic music. Sure, it was a bit pro-woman, but the chance to hang out with my wife at a free outdoor concert was too good to pass up. So we decided to go.

We arrived on-time, picked up our tickets and made our way to the back of a very long line to receive wrist bands (why you need a wrist band when you have a ticket is beyond me). It's not often that I feel overdressed but the fact that I had on all standard articles of clothing (shirt, shorts, shoes) made me feel really out of place. That, and I'd bathed within 72 hours of the concert. Based on some snap judgments of other attendees, I would say the stereotypical Ani DiFranco fan is...how do I put this tactfully?... liberal, earthy, bra-less women who dig chicks.

Not that there's anything wrong with that.

While waiting in line we became friends with a guy named Christian who was selling homemade jewelry to raise money to fix his '72 VW van. Christian was a proper earthy, hippie-type complete with a beard, matted dreadlocks, and nothing on but overalls. He seemed like the perfect candidate for my new project and he agreed.

When we finally found a spot at the very back of the venue we came upon a girl who had her back to us, laying on the ground puking. We spread out our blanket a few feet away and she slowly moved away, using a railing for support and continuing to vomit every few feet. We spent the rest of the evening screaming, "PUKE!" at people who wandered over to the barf-soaked open area looking for a place to enjoy the concert. Everyone was very grateful that we warned them and, hey, who doesn't like to be appreciated?

The acoustics weren't great so we couldn't hear too well. My wife and I passed the time enjoying the beautiful backdrop of the mountains and people watching. Then I suggested brainstorm Things You Won't See at an Ani DiFranco Concert. Here's what we came up with:

1. Confetti cannons
2. An opening prayer
3. A Saturday's Warrior montage
4. Tap dancing
5. Someone boasting about their Girl Scout Cookie sales record
6. Ventriloquism
7. The Pledge of Allegiance
8. Army recruitment officers
9. Sequins

Since we're old, boring, married people we ended up leaving around 9:30. Overall, despite all the "negatives" we had an enjoyable time.

Image courtesy of here.

Hmmm... I think I want to get a degree

I found this beaut' on KSL's homepage. If I understand correctly, it reads:

"Education! What separates us from a dead fly."

Now, I generally eschew taking advertising too literally but I'm not sure how else to interpret this one. And why is the fly hovering? Thoughts?

*cough* BS *cough*

Via CNN.

Help set a world record - today

Download Firefox today and help set a world record for the most software downloads in a 24 hour period.

For those of you who don't know, Firefox is a free browser and is a popular alternative to Internet Explorer and Safari. I've been using the Firefox 3 betas and release candidates for months now and I must say... DANG this is one speedy browser - you'll notice a difference.

Also, note that when you start typing in the address bar it searches both your history and your bookmarks. And the UI is tailored to the operating system your using which is a nice touch. Oh, and there are more add-ons and extensions than you can imagine (ah, the beauty of open source).

At the very least, you should download it and try it for a while. I think you'll like it.

For some reason this cracked me up.

Sad, but funny.

Giving credit where it's due

According to TUAW:

"As Mark Siegel from AT&T explained to me yesterday, "AT&T wants to be as fair as possible to customers who very recently purchased an iPhone." Thus, if you purchased an iPhone from an AT&T store AFTER May 27, 2008, you have the option of returning the phone to an AT&T store between July 11, 2008 and August 1, 2008 for the new iPhone 3G. Those customers will also be refunded the difference between the price paid for the 2G iPhone and the iPhone 3G."

I must say I'm impressed. Especially because they're refunding the difference in the two phones. Well played AT&T, well played.

Will the iPhone soon be on T-Mobile and Verizon?

Something fishy is afoot. One thing I neglected to mention in my overview of the 3G iPhone is that the notorious revenue-sharing deal between AT&T and Apple is no more. (Up to this point, it was speculated that AT&T was giving Apple a monthly payment for each iPhone subscriber.)

So...why is AT&T still the exclusive provider of the iPhone? What's Apple's incentive to stay with them? Seems like a raw deal for Apple because they're still severely limited as to their potential market.

Don Reisinger over at CNET speculates the relationship between the two companies may be over in the relatively near future. He has some good points, so check out the article.

My speculation is that the (rumored) five-year contract isn't quite that long. In fact, I wonder if maybe the contract wasn't based on length of time, but quantity of phones sold. A wacky idea, I know. But it may explain a couple of things:

1. AT&T would be reassured in the beginning that they'd have a guaranteed number of new subscribers from this unprecedented arrangement.

2. AT&T says it will only gives kick-backs for the first year. Apple doesn't hit the 10 million mark in that time frame, so they lower the price and make it more difficult to unlock the phone so they can hit the target number and get out.

For what it's worth, I think T-Mobile may get the iPhone before Verizon (despite the larger Verizon customer base) simply because the hardware is ready to go. CDMA phones suck a lot more juice than their GSM counterparts, something Apple will have to address, especially if a CDMA phone is going to be using 3G and GPS.

Absurd? Possible? Likely? "You're a freak and should write about something else"? Sound off in the comments.

Reflections on WWDC keynote and the iPhone 3G

The Reality Distortion Field is strong with this one. I'm just finishing watching the keynote and in the 12 hours since it took place a lot of the shine has disappeared from Mobile Me and the iPhone 3G.

Because I know you're all very interested in this, I will elaborate.

Watching Phil Schiller present Mobile Me (logo look familiar?) was kind of embarrassing. He kept explaining its "new" functionality as if it were some revolutionary concept.

"And when you get an e-mail on your desktop, it automatically shows up on your iPhone too! It uses the cloud!"

Oooo..."the cloud". Try to work that buzzword into your presentation a few more times.

"Now watch carefully...you can drag and drop e-mail from your inbox to folders! You wouldn't expect to see that in a web application."

Actually, Yahoo and Hotmail have been doing that for quite some time. And they're free.

"Let's say my softball practice got moved back to Monday night. Using this web version of iCal, I can simply drag and drop that appointment from Tuesday to Monday. You wouldn't expect to see that in a web application."

Google Calendar does that. And it, too, is free.

I don't know, maybe Phil Schiller and the folks at Apple use a special, handicapped version of the Internet (see photo right).

Then there's the 3G iPhone. Or, as it is being called, the "iPhone 3G" (which is cumbersome to say). It's pretty much everything the rumors said it would be. Speaking of rumors, what's happened to Apple's penchant for secrecy? For the last year or every major announcement has been pegged beforehand. But I digress.

It's an iPhone. It's 3G. It's coming next month. The biggest news is that it's only $199. That's a big deal. There are much crappier phones out there being sold for a lot more. But there are a few things Uncle Steve forgot to mention during his keynote:

You HAVE to activate the iPhone at either an AT&T or Apple Store when you purchase it. There is no prepaid option. You can't activate it at home. You can't buy it online. Not only is this inconvenient and going to make its debut a nightmare for employees and customers alike, but from a logistical standpoint it makes it extremely difficult, if not impossible, to unlock. (Which, of course, is the whole point of doing it this way. But I just wish they'd come out and say it.)

Unlocking aside, AT&T customers (you have my sympathies), there are some additional costs you should be aware of.

1. You have to pay $10 more per month for that 3G speed.

2. Those text messages that were originally bundled with your iPhone plan are gone.

3. Your two-year contract will start over.

So, you're going to pay an extra $15 a month ($10 for 3G and $5 to replace your lost text messages) for 24 months which comes out to $360 plus the taxes and "fees" associated with those charges. So the REAL cost of your $199 iPhone works out to be more than $560 when all is said and done. (Note that that figure is just the extra costs associated with this particular phone and doesn't include the cost of the monthly plan.)

Oh, and while you're forking over that $560 over the course of your contract, there will be probably three or so upgrades to the iPhone. In fact, I'm willing to bet they have a capacity update (16 and 32 gig?) before Christmas.

Overall, Android is looking like a great alternative.

In other news, Snow Leopard, OS 10.6, is due out in about a year. Apple is pulling a Microsoft here and the new OS will just be stability, security and performance tweaks - no new features, just things that should have been included originally.

Basically, it's Service Pack 1.

While I want to believe Apple will make this a free/very inexpensive upgrade, I know better.


Images courtesy of here and here.

Apple announces SIM Card Ejector Tool

At long last! Rumors have flown and people have clamored for it for over a year. As one of the biggest gripes about the original iPhone, I know it kept me from purchasing one for a long time. Paying $600 for a cell phone (no subsidy) and having to sign your life away to AT&T for two years for slow data speeds, poor sound quality, dropped calls and crappy customer service were all tolerable and easily overlooked when compared to having to use a bent paperclip to get to the SIM card in the iPhone.



Really, what kind of monsters work at Apple to think people want to deal with the hassle of destroying a perfectly good paperclip just to get to a SIM card most people never need to access?



I, for one, think this addition to the iPhone is welcome and long overdue.

New poll: tired of my anti-Hillary rants?

Check it out in the upper right corner of the site. Slake my curiosity. Vote, and leave your print on this site.

Note that you can vote for more than one.

Hillary will quit by the end of the week

I can't wait for Saturday.

Ding-dong the witch is dead

CNN is projecting that Obama has the delegates to "clinch" the nomination. Now maybe Hillary will ride her broom off into the sunset with her flying monkeys, although I doubt she'll go that quietly.

Don't do it Obama

Hillary has apparently said she'd be open to a joint ticket with Obama. I'd sleep with one eye open if I were you Barack - she's already brought up the topic of assassinations once in her campaign.

The Presidential Motorcade

The other day El Presedente was in town. On day two of his visit I was dutifully riding the train to work. (I've been much better about riding the train lately - I haven't driven to work in a couple weeks.) As we approached the Courthouse stop Mr. Train Driver said we were going to have to wait a few minutes because of the presidential motorcade. Great. I Twittered that I'd be stuck waiting for the motorcade.



Sure enough, we waited a few minutes at Courthouse before Mr. Train Driver said we could proceed to Gallivan, but we'd have to wait there. When we got to Gallivan I considered jumping ship and walking the rest of the way, but decided against it reasoning that maybe the wait at Gallivan would be short too.



I opened up The Lappy and using Salt Lake's beautiful free Wifi jumped on the Internet. Looking at Twitter, I saw that someone had replied to my original tweet about being stuck, and said he needed to be downtown in 45 minutes and asked what parts to avoid. From that point on I Twittered where I saw traffic problems from my phone. Really, it's pretty cool that nowadays we can communicate this way. But I digress.



The train started moving again and we got as far as Temple Square and Mr. Train Driver said we weren't going any further, he was heading back to Sandy and everyone needed to get off.



As I walked toward work I came to 300 West, near KSL, and there was a cop in the street preventing anyone from passing. The motorcade was neigh.



Here are some pics I snapped with ye ol' iPhone. The camera on the iPhone is kinda crappy. Sorry.



About a dozen motorcycle cops came first. The whole motorcade was bookin' it - probably doing between 40-50 mph.







The President was in one of these limos. It was interesting to see that they weren't traveling in the same lane. Security measure I presume.





There go the limos. There were also probably about a half dozen Suburbans overall, some with crazy-looking comms equipment on their roofs.



Note the rolled-down rear windows in the Suburban in the above picture. The back tailgate window was also open and had what I believe was a sharpshooter (sniper) looking out the back. It was then and there that I was glad I had decided against mooning the motorcade.



After more cops there was an ambulance bringing up the rear with its lights on, just in case.



I admit it was pretty cool to see everything. I wonder if the President even thinks about all the measures and precautions that are taken for him, or if he's used to it now and it's just part of the job.

Bad parents!

Who pays someone to take photos of their kid in front of the ugliest mural west of the Mississippi? These bozos, apparently. I threw up in my mouth a little when I realized what they were doing.

Just think about the traumatic childhood this kid will inevitably have with parents who are so misguided. These are the type of people who let their kid juggle kitchen knives because they're afraid telling him not to do something will damage him emotionally.

Nut jobs.

Young Hillary Clinton

What was Hillary like as a little girl? Now we know.

It could have been worse

I couldn't figure out why the balls weren't shooting out of the top of Jake's new toy. It took me a second to notice the watch my dad got me when I graduated college clogging the tube.

Then it dawned on me: that orange part at the top could just as easily have been a toilet bowl. You get my drift.

George Lucas screws up yet another franchise [SPOILERS]

Originally, George Lucas wanted to call the movie Indiana Jones and the Saucer Men From Mars. That alone should give you a feeling for the quality of this movie's screenplay. Still skeptical? Here are some of the more memorable scenes from the film:

• Shia Labeouf swinging through the jungle with a legion of monkeys
• Everyone surviving a trip over three consecutive, 100+ foot Amazonian waterfalls
• Aliens from another dimension
• A nuclear explosion

Even with the expectation that since this was Indiana Jones that things were going to be above and beyond (how many times can a 60 year-old guy get punched in the face?), the movie was gag-inducing at parts. Too many parts. Sure, there were some good scenes (granted, I can't think of any of them at the moment) and Harrison Ford does a pretty good job, but overall the movie didn't bring anything new to the table and was over-the-top hokey.

If you're an Indy fan, you'll probably see the movie anyway. If you're hesitant and don't care about seeing it on the big screen, wait for it to come to DVD.

Image courtesy of here.

I'm a frickin' hero

Some birds built a nest in a drain pipe over our patio and a baby bird fell out of it. I think it probably had a jerk older brother or something who pushed it, but that's pure speculation on my part.

It looked so helpless sitting there alone chirping on our patio that I couldn't just step on it - I had to return it to its home. So I donned some gloves (it had talons, you know), stood on a chair and nudged it back into the drainpipe from which it came.

The bird looked a lot like the one pictured above, except without the nest.

Panasonic Toughbook banner ad

Nothing says "tough", "rugged" and "original" like sheep.

I saw the new Indiana Jones movie

The Powers That Be at work were kind enough to take everyone to go see it today. I'll hold off publishing my full review until tomorrow when my wife and in-laws see it. But in the meantime, I'll just mention that I give it 2.5 stars out of 4, and the half a star extra is only because it's an Indiana Jones movie.

I spoke. And Twitter listened.

Yep. That's the kind of power I wield on these interwebs. Just earlier this week I said, "Twitter, you gotta at the very least stop leaving people in the dark." So what did they do? They opened a Twitter account.

Yes, you can now follow Twitter on Twitter.

www.Twitter.com/Twitter

This is brilliant because now they can let all their users know when something is wrong simply by using their own service!

Wait...

It arrived. Twice.

I now have TWO softcover, ruled, pocket-sized Moleskine notebooks! My friend Erin delivered one she brought up from the BYU Bookstore in Provo on Sunday (thanks again!), and the one I ordered of Amazon finally showed up at work.

Lesson learned: if I'm going to order a notebook online, make sure I have plenty of space left in my previous notebook and order it early.

The horribly ironic thing is that I haven't even done so much as an inaugural scribble yet. It's weird. Getting a new Molie is a little intimidating. I'm not sure why, but I feel like I need to be very careful not to screw it up. So I'm excited to get them (0bviously), but once I do I feel like I have to have something worthy to write in them before I can do so.

I'm pretty sure none of this is healthy.

I once heard of a farmer who bought a brand new, beautiful truck. The first thing he did after he signed the papers was walk out and key the side of it. The salesman was obviously shocked and then the farmer explained how now he wouldn't worry about it getting dinged up while working on the farm. He could go out and use it for what it was intended and wouldn't think twice about it getting bumped, scratched, dented or dinged.

I need to key my Molie.

Maybe I furiously scribble on the first page until the pen starts leaking. Maybe I write some profound quote. Maybe I tear the first page out all together, sort of an overly dramatic Dead Poets Society gesture.

What do you think? Let me know in the comments.

A letter from the IRS

My wife and I got this letter from the IRS informing us that our economic stimulus check should be arriving by the 16th. Odd thing is, the letter is dated the 19th and we still don't have our money.

What does one do in a situation like this? Fortunately, there's a helpful subhead in the letter which reads, What You Need To Do. Allow me to quote directly from the letter:

"You do not need to do anything."

Let me make sure I understand: The IRS mailed us a letter telling us we should have our money when they knew we didn't. I'm certain they're aware that we don't have our money as they're the ones who are sending the money to us.

In addition, we aren't supposed to do anything.

Huh.

So...what's the point of the letter? And why didn't they just mail us the check?

Non-news news of the day: Twitter is down

"Something is technically wrong" is the understatement of the year. It's ridiculous. As Michael Arrington said, if Twitter could keep the site live for 24 consecutive hours that would be news.

It's interesting. I'm reading Getting Real, the e-book from 37Signals (the guys who made Ruby on Rails on which Twitter is built). In it they're quite adamant about launching your product/site quickly and with minimal features - worry about scalability later. The whole time I've been reading it I've had the thought, "Oh yeah? What about Twitter?" rolling around in the back of my head.

I'm the first to admit I know zero about building web apps (I consider myself a consumer geek, not a back-end geek). But I do know that from a user standpoint, if your product crashes this frequently with no explanation as to why or when it will be back up, something's gotta change.

I don't know if the problem lies with Rails' inability to scale or Twitter's. But Twitter needs to figure it out and it certainly seems like they've had enough time to do so.

The Notebook (not the movie)

Here's a history of the ordering process for the notebook I ordered a week ago:

I'm in Utah and ordered the notebook from some podunk bookstore in South Carolina via Amazon.

It shipped from Oregon.

It sat in Union City, California for four days.

It then flew from California (over Utah) to Denver, Colorado where it has been "processed".

I charted the information/physical trail and it looks something like this:

It appears to me that they're trying to avoid directly sending me the product I ordered.

A nitpicky error in the season finale of The Office

When Michael reluctantly gives Toby his watch during the exit interview, Toby says he'll set the watch for Costa Rica time. From what I can tell, Costa Rica is in the same timezone as Scranton.

*sigh* I'm a nerd.

UPDATE: check the comments for the subsequent drama that has unfolded since I posted this.

"But the ads made it look so cool!"

I'm doing a little research for a commercial we're shooting on Thursday that involves a bunch of sci-fi nerds standing in a line waiting for the premier of their new movie. (Although the commercial has nothing to do with sci-fi nor movies.)

As I tweaked the script, I remembered the red guards from the original Star Wars Trilogy (I think they were first seen in Empire Strikes Back). Wanting to learn a little more about them, I jumped on Wikipedia. From the 'pedia:

[Imperial Royal Guardsman] are the best and most loyal of the Imperial stormtroopers, solely responsible to Palpatine.... A mere 4% of all trainees would survive the rigors that awaited them to become Royal Guards; during a year-long training program, recruits sparred against each other continuously perfecting their combat skills. ...In their final test, each fought his training partner to the death...

Seriously impressive, right? And then there's this guy who's in charge of guarding the Palpatine's 10-speed:

The Emporer can be such a jerk sometimes.

Image courtesy of here.

Does ANYONE in Utah have this Moleskine?? - UPDATED X3

It's driving me nuts! I've called every bookstore I can think of and NOBODY has these notebooks in. I ordered one from an Amazon retailer on Sunday and, from what I can tell from the tracking info, it's been sitting in California since Tuesday.

I'm looking for the pocket sized, ruled, soft cover Moleskine notebook.

Do you have one? Do you know where I can get my hands on one ASAP? Drop me a line and if I can in fact get one, I'll buy you a snow cone.

UPDATE: Barnes & Noble said they had one at their Gateway location:


Except when I called, they don't really have it in stock. *sigh* And I went and got my hopes up.

UPDATE 2: BYU Bookstore has copies in. My good friend Laura is going to mail me one on Monday...unless someone else is going down sooner.

UPDATE 3: My good friend, faithful reader and distant relative, Erin, is coming to Salt Lake tonight from Provo and will be bringing me the long awaited notebook.
Photo courtesy of here.

Android is gonna rock

Come the end of the year, Android (Google's mobile phone platform) could be a fine replacement for the ol' iPhone. Seriously. Check out some of the apps those smart folks over at MIT have already come up with:

Loco
Loco is a mobile social network built on top an Android phone’s contact manager, so anyone in your contacts is already your friend, so to speak. You’ll be able to view and track where your friends are located using Google Maps and real-time geolocation. So, in essence, you can check out the scene at a few places before you commit to going all the way across town.

Locale
Locale is a dynamic settings manager. You set up different settings for your phone based on time and location. So when you’re at home, you can automatically have all your calls forwarded to your home phone line. When you’re at work, you can have your phone set to silent mode and have your phone’s background screen set to a constantly updating work chart.

GeoLife
GeoLife is basically your to-do list on top of Google Maps. When you get within a certain range of something you need to pick up, it alerts you.

It also works as a traditional to-do list for things that aren’t location-based. The team that put this together is also working on a route-creation system wherein you could pick a few important items from your list and then have a route plotted out for you to follow that day.

And that's just three of the seven apps reviewed at TechCrunch. No, I don't think paying an extra $20 a month for data is worth it for the iPhone. (Yeah, that could change when the iPhone SDK comes out.) But I'd be willing to shell out the extra cash to get access to those kinds of programs.

Liveblogging my TRAX ride

This is my experience riding the train home last night. I wrote most of it as the events were happening, so it's a little choppy. Enjoy.

You gotta be kidding me. I don't leave work until almost 7:00 on a Friday. To make things worse, most people are walking to the Jazz game. Without knowing it, they're rubbing it in my face: "Ha! You're just getting off work? We've already been home, had dinner and come back and are now going to an NBA playoff game. Sucker."

I board the train. Some woman/girl/chick is yelling into her Bluetooth headset. I believe she's talking to her mother. "If I had, like, fifty bucks, I would have had Amber run down here." Something about frozen coffee. I'm not the only one who's annoyed. People keep glaring back at her. Of course, she could move to the back of the train where there aren't any other passengers. No. That would be considerate.

"When was the last time I was out late? Besides that night with Jodie, I haven't been out late since Charles was in my life."

I could list a few reasons why Charles may have left.

As I consider whether or not I should inform her (in an equally loud voice) that I'm blogging her conversation, the unbelievable happens: Two middle-aged women wearing "Hillary Clinton" stickers and carrying a Hillary Clinton yard sign get on the train. They begin talking to the man next to me:

"Are you a republican?"

Oh no. #$&% no. They're going to start a political conversation about Hillary. I check under my seat for a revolver, lead pipe, candlestick - something from Clue that I can use to end my misery. Maybe I can use the rope and hang myself on the bar with the little hand lassos. Nothing. The brilliant Hillary supporters don't sit down before the train starts moving and get thrown back a couple of steps. I take some smug satisfaction in this.

One of them sits down across from me. I wonder if I should engage her in conversation. I'm extremely curious as to whether or not she really thinks Hillary still has a shot, which is to say I'm wondering if she's delusional.

Charles' Ex is now off the phone.

Wait. She's back on the phone. She's going to get off at 4500 South. Great. That's after my stop.

Now MY phone rings. It's my sister in-law. I answer, and in a voice louder than I should have used, "I'M ON THE TRAIN. SEND ME A TEXT MESSAGE." I hang up.

The Talker gets up and walks past me! I think she may be getting off! No such luck. She stays standing directly behind my seat. "Let's stay on the phone until we find each other." Yeah, that's a brilliant idea. I exchange a knowing look with the Hillary Clinton supporter. Unspoken words were exchanged: this girl is a moron.

Yes, I had a bit of a moment with Ms. Hillary Clinton supporter.

I continue writing this. "Oh yeah! I absolutely love riding TRAX." Ms. Clinton supporter and I look at each other again and this time we start laughing. Out loud. I look around the train. Some people are looking back at me. Are they amused? Are they wondering what I'm laughing at? I think they're in on the joke as one guy has actually taken OFF his headphones to pay attention to the situation.

My stop snuck up on me. Unprepared, I quickly close the laptop and gather my things. As I stand to leave with my armful of stuff, under her breath Ms. Clinton Supporter says, "Lucky you." I grin at her. It turns out Charles' Ex was exiting the train as well, so there was nothing left to say. As I exited the train I thought perhaps I should have told Ms. Clinton Supporter to check TheOtherDrummer.com for a full recap of tonight's events, but considering how die-hard a (soon to be disappointed) supporter she was, I don't think she would have appreciated my aforementioned comments.

What started out as a potentially depressing train ride turned out to be quite entertaining and humorous...and the entertainment and humor came from the most unlikely places.

Yesterday I said "bastard" in a client presentation

I did. Seriously. We were presenting collateral ideas to a client that happens to be an educational institution. I was trying to say "bachelor's and master's degrees" and instead I stumbled over the first two words and said "bastard degree".

My brain went kind of cloudy. I don't think I've ever said "bastard" before in my life and now I'd just said it in front of a client. What to do?? I could clearly hear the voice of my father in-law in my head: take it a step further. But how? Bastard isn't a normal part of my vocabulary. It didn't even "slip out." I just mumbled the perfect combination of words to result in me cussing. I honestly don't remember exactly what I said, but it was something to the effect of, "Did I just say 'bastard'?" Everyone agreed that I did and I went on reading the copy.

Later in the meeting there was another opportunity for me to slip "bastard" into the conversation while poking a bit of fun at myself, which I did.

I've now said used "bastard" seven times in this post. I think that oughtta do it for the next 28 years or so.

Photo courtesy of here.

30 Rock sucked last night

I want to apologize to everyone I've ever told to watch 30 Rock. If you watched last night's episode because of my urgings, I'm sincerely sorry.

It blew.

It wasn't nearly as funny as usual (except the part where the new CEO had the Hot Wheels car in her mouth), a lot of the jokes used sex as a crutch instead of being genuinely funny and the ending was atrocious: it felt like they ran out of time and what they squeezed in didn't make any sense.

I didn't even save it on our TiVo.

Please don't think less of me world. I swear the show isn't normally like that! It's usually funny and subtly hilarious and witty. I know I've passionately extolled the show in the past (numerous times on Twitter) but...but...I'm sorry.

Does this seem harsh? Perhaps. But when you tell people you love something and then they check it out and it turns out to be a steaming bag of poo, people may think you like steaming bags of poo. So let me be perfectly clear: I don't like poo, steaming or not. Bags are fine, poo is not.

UPDATE: I didn't realize it was the season finale! *groan* When does Chuck come back...?

See? I told you I was alive.

OK. So here's the story: work. Actually, I'm not sure why the *&%# I haven't been writing as much lately. Work has definitely been more insane than usual. And by "usual" I mean "than it was last October." Yes, work has been taking its toll and my brain has been mush. And Brain Mush is not conducive to writing.

Honestly, Call of Duty 4 has been my "decompression" activity lately. Yes, sniping terrorists not only is good for world peace but it's much more mindless than writing. Also, writing isn't a spectator sport - to really dig into something I need to shut out everything else and focus. However, my wife will watch me play COD4 and be a second set of eyes which has me promoted to rank of First Lieutenant II. I now have a sweet new assault rife with a red dot scope. Thank you honey!

I'm also getting old and fat, which means getting to the gym is much more important which means getting up early which means getting to bed early which means less blogging. Curse my love handles!! Curse them!

OK. Lunch break is over. Back to the grindstone.

Iron Man v. Batman

I know, I know... but it's funny.

I love the world

For some reason this commercial for Discovery Channel made me smile. Something about the line, "I love the giant squids" is funny to me. And, yes, one of these days I'm going to post something other than a video with a short commentary. I've been busy, OK?