Friday, March 30, 2007

Thursday, March 29, 2007

Can I Get An ALL SYRUP Squishee?

So apparently, though the deal hasn't been finalized yet, they're working on a promotional deal which would turn some 7-11s into Kwik-E-Mart reproductions to help promote the Simpsons movie. Not only would it copy (at least some of) the look, but you'd also be able to get some classic Simpsons products, like Buzz Cola, KrustyO's cereal and Squishees!

Check it out.

All I can say is that. is. awesome.

No mention of Duff Beer, but I suppose that'd be a tough one since they're PROBABLY spinning the movie toward a younger audience.

Tuesday, March 20, 2007

POTC3 Trailer - W00T

May 25th is ENTIRELY too far away.

EDIT: Grrr... stupid "Pirate Player" flash nonsense doesn't embed properly, and tries to take over the whole page instead.

Go see the new trailer here , or in High Def at Yahoo.

And commence drooling.

Ron Lewis Made My Baby Cry

Well, I made Evie cry. but it was in reaction to Ron Lewis's 3 that tied the OSU-Xavier game on Saturday to send things into OT. After being down 11 with about 6 minutes left, and still being down a chunk with TWO minutes left, I'd pretty much written this one off. I definitely have to give that team credit - they rallied hard, and fought their way back. Even after I thought it was finally over (Butler misses the 3, and Xavier goes to the line with a chance to go up by FOUR)... the second free throw rolls off the rim, Harris grabs the rebound, and they drive down the court in time for Lewis to throw up the HUGE shot.

There's also video of it (official even!) over on YouTube. You have to click the link though - "embedding is disabled by request". I guess CBS and/or the NCAA doesn't want you watching their content without seeing their logos and such, despite them being littered through the video too.

But anyway, the game -- it was awesome. How could I NOT stand up and shout? Well, unfortunately Evie wasn't really ready for the standing and the loudness, and started crying... :( We got her all settled down fast enough, but I still feel bad.

Meanwhile, the Buckeyes went on a tear in overtime, and made it into the Sweet 16! Teed up for a rematch with Tennessee -- hopefully it's a good one!

Tuesday, March 13, 2007

Lets Go Eagles!

I don't do NCAA tournament pools (or any other kind of "fantasy" sports) for money. It's all for fun and bragging rights. Still, I do tend to pay attention and take them seriously. For the pools I'm in with friends and folks at work, I actually put in "real" picks this year.

But I couldn't resist the tradition, so I did go ahead and fill out a full bracket with my Coin-Flip Picks '07. This is purely based on the coin - no "weighting" for 1 seeds, no home-team favoritism - just flipping a coin and recording the predicted winner of each matchup.

So how'd it come out this year? Well, no #1 seeds upset in the first round this year (last year I had a 16 seed in the Final Four), but THREE #2 seeds dropped their opening games (Georgetown being the sole survivor)

The Final Four: Winthrop, Virginia Tech, Georgetown, Pennsylvania

The end result: Winthrop over Georgetown

Let's Go Eagles!

Sunday, March 11, 2007

No Coffee

So I've been at work since 8am this morning. "Just in case" there was any DST-change related chaos. You know - like planes crashing into buildings, servers spontaneously bursting into flames because their clocks are an hour off, that kind of thing.

Well, the other person who was supposed to be in @ 8 is MIA.

I made myself a half-pot of coffee around 10 to keep the energy up, had a cup. Went back to get another cup a bit later, and the pot was nigh-empty. The student who came in at 10:30 had hit it up.

And the sad thing is... I can't be mad at the guy - he's here working outside our normal hours to help us cover.

But I'm sad that I have no more coffee.

Wednesday, March 07, 2007

News Flash: Still Winter


This just in: Though it may be March, and we may have had some nice mild temperatures last week, it is in fact still Winter in Ohio. Nice heavy flurries coming down outside ATM - though only an inch is expected to accumulate last I heard.

Monday, March 05, 2007

Best Buy admits to keeping fake rip-off site

(From Boing Boing)
Best Buy admits to keeping fake rip-off site
Best Buy has admitted to maintaining a fake version of its website for internal use at its stores. This is part of a scam where Best Buy lists cheap prices online and invites customers to come to the store to take advantage of them. When the customer gets there, a dirtbag salesman loads up the fake website and shows them that the price has "gone up" while the customer was driving over to the store and offers to sell the item for the new price.
State Attorney General Richard Blumenthal ordered the investigation into Best Buy's practices on Feb. 9 after my column disclosed the website and showed how employees at two Connecticut stores used it to deny customers a $150 discount on a computer advertised on BestBuy.com.

Blumenthal said Wednesday that Best Buy has also confirmed to his office the existence of the intranet site, but has so far failed to give clear answers about its purpose and use.

Link to full article

The crazy thing is I've actually been hit by this crap. When we were getting our video camera we checked the prices online at a few different locations, and went to Best Buy b/c it was coming up as the cheapest - only to find out that the sticker in the store was a good deal higher. When we mentioned seeing the price on the web page THAT MORNING, before coming to the store, they pulled up the web site on one of the computers there, completely identical to the one we'd seen at home EXCEPT for a higher price (the same price shown in-store).

While I admit I would've fallen for their garbage, Amy & my mom stuck to their guns, and the dude finally gave in and said if we could show a print-out of the web page we'd seen, they'd "price match" - so we printed THEIR OWN WEBSITE and brought in the proof to get the better price. But how many people wouldn't have taken the extra step?

Cartoon Nostalgia Overload

Almost a half hour of old-school cartoon openings. The only two I didn't recognize and recall watching at least once or twice were Blackstar and Heathcliff & Marmaduke (though the regular Heathcliff one I remember quite well).

Of course, there are lots more great ones that didn't make it into this, but still - some quality memories here.