On Wednesday this past week, I hit the Hudson River Road Crossing Trifeca, travelling across the GWB, the Lincoln Tunnel and the Holland Tunnel all within 6 hours. I’m not sure if this is cool or not but I thought I’d share in case. While this is not exactly like the guy who is living in IKEA right now it is sort of like it, a useless but interesting tidbit.
When I worked in retail clothing during high school in Roosevelt Field, the brightest star in the LI mall constellation, I had to listen to the store’s musical soundtrack four times during a shift. The tapes were exactly two hours long, were controlled and sent by Corporate and changed on a monthly basis.
Music became an obsession of mine while I was there. I actually did not mind getting in an hour or two before the store opened so I could blast Black Sabbath while folding clothes. When the store opened though, we went with the Corp tape and man did it suck.
One summer, each and every minute of one month, I cannot remember if it was July or August, was spent listening to utter shite, the dreck of drecks and I was completely and utterly miserable almost all day long. Only one song was good and it was my saving grace: “Walk of Life” by Dire Straits.
When I think of the song I immediately think of the video, unlike almost any other song. First off, it is one of the first videos I can remember (like Thriller) but even more importantly, I just loved it. I mean loved it. I think the infatuation was completely because of its sports bloopers. The song and video was a stepping stone – I went from simply liking sports to enjoying, caring about, following, etc both sports and music. Years later, when music started to overtake sports in my life in terms of what made my motor run, here was this magical song, pregnant with memory, bringing me four minutes and 13 seconds of happiness every two hours.
When I heard the tune at that time I remembered my childhood and drifted away from everything else for that short time. Now, when I hear that song, I have a compound of memories. I remember my high school years, the days when I worked only in the summer, the transition from being dependent to independent on top of those suburban childhood thoughts.
So, happy Friday – enjoy it with good tunes as you do the walk, the walk of life…
I wish this was a joke but it is not: this Pakistan Airlines ad appeared in the March 19th, 1979 issue of Le Point (and surely countless other publications).
As 2spare.com points out, the shadow is in pretty much in the same place as where the planes hit on September 11th, and there’s no way the shadow should be that big unless it’s seconds away from hitting the towers.
Cue the conspiracy theories.
Via Phyl.
The new year always brings new resolutions. Mine this year is twofold: to try and post more frequently and to change my eating habits. For the first one, in the words of Michael Pollan, the author of In Defense of Food, I plan to “eat food, not too much, mostly plants.”
For the second, as my first post of the year, I thought I would share some spiffy new designs, devices and user experiences that are in store for us in 2008 and beyond. These are really, really cool. I’m not easily “wowed” these days but over and over again I found myself scratching my head and thinking “how do they come up with this stuff?”
Check out the Innovative Designs and Devices and User Experiences of the Future courtesy of Smashing Magazine.
I love the Bluetooth Laser Virtual Keyboard, the Hi-Tech Office: Eclipse Partitioning System and the Reactable. Most of these are spec only and not for sale which is good for me – it limits the temptation to run out and buy them today.
Who wouldn’t want their very own decorative Flux Capacitor? Maybe someone wants an actual working one, that’s who. How much does 1.21 gigawatt’s worth of power equal anyway?
Via Neu
Maybe you, like me, have been getting a lot of “you would be perfect for this job” spam emails lately. These emails try to dupe you into thinking that you are filling out a real job application in order for the spammer to collect reams of personal information about you.
Usually, these fake applications for companies like PowerJobs are well worded and give off the air of having come from someone junior in HR. I received one today whose liberal use of poor grammar really made me smile. Here is just some of the text:
For first you say: Is it spam? Why are you write me? NO. It’s not spam. Our company does serious selection among candidates. And only one person will receive this post. We have sent out many letters so as to have many candidates for more detailed selection among candidates. The more candidates the more good employee we can find.
Your question: Where have you taken my e-mail? We have take your e-mail from the TransUnion. This company practises a credit history analysis of the USA citizens. Also we meet with approval this organization for contact to you.
I’m debating as to whether I apply with fake information just to keep the dialog going…
Stairway to Here, a Led Zeppelin returns review in the NYer, by Sasha Frere-Jones is a quality review of the show. The genius of the piece is that she pens a turn of phrase that quite effectively sums up how I feel about the band: “My affection for Led Zeppelin is limitless and somewhat irrational.”
I wish I had thought to say it that way. She also has a blog post about the Led Zep show as well.
The Golden Age of Geekdom continues into this coming summer as even more comic book adaptations are hitting the big screen. What better way to celebrate entry #600 on WGTCTIP2 than to talk comics?
First off, I confess that I have yet to see “FF: Rise of the Silver Surfer” which came out last summer and that is something about which I am not happy but overall, I’m pretty caught up with comic / movie adaptations. Some were great, others were okay and some were simply awful. I am putting “Spiderman 3” in the awful category simply because of how badly the story messed with both the comic’s history and my mind.
Leading into 2008 summer season, there are two movies that I am really looking forward to and both now have cool trailers on the web. Feel free to check out these sneak peaks at The Dark Knight and Iron Man. I think they speak for themselves.
If you are a frequent reader, you may note that I first got excited about The Dark Knight over a year ago and then a month or so later Iron Man also has piqued my interest.
So, is it summertime yet?
They said it could not be done, that Peter Jackson and New Line Cinema hated each other so much due to post LOTR legal & fiscal squabbling that Jackson would never, never, ever have a chance to direct a “Hobbit” movie.
Well, they were only half wrong, because reports today are surfacing that not one but two “Hobbit” movies are in the works and that Peter, his wife Fran and their rag-tag Middle Earthy crew will be producing them. Potential creenwriters and directors will be examined starting in January, 2008 and the plan is for the films to be shot simultaneously (like the LOTR movies).
I’m sort of speechless right now. I’m not jumping for joy yet because may they get a really shitty director, like how Transformers was produced by Spielberg but directed by Michael Bay. That being said, I am cautiously optimistic and will be frequently checking the The Official Hobbit Movie Blog, which has news and information about the upcoming flicks, to see how this all plays out.
It was only a matter of time: Digital wanted signs have arrived and are already proving to be quite effective. One guy in Alabama was on the run for 10 days – the police had no leads except for his photo. So, the police posted his photo to a digital billboard which acted as a giant digi “Wanted!” poster and low and behold, the fugitive turned himself in a day later. It seems he felt that with so many people driving by his face all day long, someone was bound to recognize him and better he turn himself in than have the police break down his door.
This is just the first step – the next is when we all have RFID chips under our skin. I say convicts will start to get “chipped” in the next 5 – 10 years, ACLU be damned.