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February 27, 2007

Wow. Most fliers want to boot kids off planes too. I'm not used to being in sync with popular opinion. It feels weird.

09:31 AM | Comment (3)

February 24, 2007

Ever gotten about halfway through a novel and realized that you despise the main characters? Do you toss the book aside in disgust or keep plowing through, hoping the author will come to his senses and give weenies spines?

I'm facing the choice right now. On one hand, The Zookeeper is well-written technically. Vivid imagery and a somewhat exotic setting in the world of professional animal caretakers. However the characters are allowed to wallow in self doubt and indecision to the point that I want to slam the book against a wall and never pick it up again.

Little wonder that I've been reading it for a month but have only managed to get about 150 pages in. Not sure it's worth the struggle.

04:04 PM | Comment (3)

I've been telling everyone, well Chris at least, that my PowerBook seemed sluggish for months now. Too many spinning beachballs. Too many just plain non-responsive moments. Safari especially turned recalcitrant. I knew that the hard drive was filling up. Only 6-7GB of the 80GB remained free. Still multiple GB seemed like a lot. Yeah, yeah, I know. Lots of people say OS X wants at least 10 percent of the space free. But I have been extra lazy lately.

For some reason though, I got it in my head to do something about it last night. So I ran a full backup of the drive, then moved about 10GB worth of files I rarely access to an external hard drive. Presto, I'm back in the 15GB range of free space and things feel snappy again. Simple maintenance, I know. Who would have guessed?

11:02 AM | Comment (3)

February 23, 2007

Got a voice message from Shari yesterday reporting the sighting of a vanity plate in LA that read:

LUV2FIS

Her interpretation amused me (and matched mine). But I'm curious, how do you read it?

07:28 PM | Comment (3)

February 21, 2007

Heard on the TV news this morning that the Benicia city council has taken up an ordinance aimed at limiting the number of Starbucks locations. Interestingly the TV report included a tidbit that the linked newspaper article omits. Seems the mayor owns one of the local coffee houses. Interesting.

I find this issue (and similar measures here in SF) highly silly. You don't like Starbucks or any other chain? Don't patronize them. If enough people quit buying, they'll get the message and stop expanding. Personally, I'd be really happy if there were fewer people in line when I'm trying to get my coffee.

06:51 AM | Comment (0)

February 20, 2007

This morning a friend mentioned that she has just "helped" fill out an Academy ballot. This tidbit jarred me two ways: 1) that ballots are still being completed this close to show time and 2) that my life truly is boring.

10:29 PM | Comment (0)

Yeah, yeah, I know. GM caved and is editing the robot ad. I saw the news bit the day after my post below but it made me so mad that I decided to ignore it for awhile. What little respect I had for them and their products has evaporated.

10:26 PM | Comment (0)

February 14, 2007

Call me cynical but I'm so over all the talk about how ads on mobile phones are about to take the world by storm. Anyone wanting to posture as a visionary has prattled on about it for years. And what's come of all the hype? Just more talk. I've yet to see a compelling campaign that's actually run. Or even a mediocre example on my own handset. It seems to me that the mobile networks can barely keep up with the demand for voice calls and text messages. How will tossing ads into the mix help anyone except the greedy operators? It can't. Unless something radically changes, I see ads on cell phones as a losing proposition for consumers and the sponsors alike.

07:30 AM | Comment (2)

February 09, 2007

So much silliness around commercials that debuted on the Super Bowl. First the PC-correct homos at GLADD and HRC denounced the Snickers spot as homophobic so Mars yanked it and its web property. Now maybe I'm just a silly queer ad guy but I don't see what's anti-homo about the spot. If anyone should get upset, it's the insecure straight guys who are so insecure they can't share a candy bar. Though really, who cares? Not like it was a great ad to begin with.

Then yesterday, I heard about another group that's concerned about the GM spot featuring the industrial robot with suicide-tinged nightmares. My first reaction was you've got to be kidding me. The news blurbs make it sound as if these hand-wringers didn't watch through to the end. Yes, the spot shows a despondent robot tossing itself off a bridge but then it wakes up. Safe and sound on the factory floor. It was just a nightmare because we're supposed to believe that everyone at GM, even robots, are now obsessed with quality.

GM has announced that it's standing behind the spot. It's not going to be put off just because a well-intentioned but ultimately-stupid advocacy group misinterprets a :30 commercial. I have to say that I'm impressed. Admittedly it's a little thing but if GM has the determination to stand behind its ad messages, maybe it will come through on the promises to start building desirable cars again.

11:30 AM | Comment (4)

February 05, 2007

Rich and I saw Pan's Labyrinth with friends yesterday. I feel like I'm going against the grain here but I didn't much care for it. In fact, the more I think about it, the more I dislike it. I found the plot extremely predictable. I basically knew what would happen within the first 20 minutes. I also found it heavy on the gratuitous violence and gross out elements. I wish I'd waited for the DVD. Or skipped it all together.

10:53 AM | Comment (1)

I'm glad that Sunday is over. Bumper-to-bumper on the Great Highway for 45 minutes? WTF.

12:04 AM | Comment (0)