April 2008
45 posts
This morning a J.Crew rep called me to “reconfirm” an order I placed yesterday. Apparently, I mistyped my credit card number and rather than the website running the card against a validator (you know, like you should), it just accepted the order and then J.Crew wasted time and money to call me and ask for a new number.
My favorite part of the call, though, was when the rep reiterated...
March 2008
45 posts
“Cases of pathological gambling, hypersexuality, and compulsive eating (including...”
– From the prescribing information for Mirapex, a drug for Restless Leg Syndrome
This is the first time I’ve heard pathological gambling and hypersexuality mentioned casually as side-effects in a television commercial.
WatchThe Auditioner (via Kate)
“Can you eat fire?” “Yep. Mm hmm.” “Are you sure?” “Mm hmm. I eat fire a lot.”
Last night I had a dream wherein I was skateboarding (!) down a really steep hill while trying to make a call on my iPhone. And the phone kept saying “call failure” every time I tried. I was getting really frustrated, but I didn’t seem to care at all about the fact that I was traveling about 120 MPH down a 75 degree hill on a flimsy skateboard. That’s how frustrating call...
Anyone who knows me is aware I am what one might describe as a “particular” person. I develop habits and behavioral patterns and I tend to stick to them. And so it was painful when the realization hit me as I was standing in a Duane-Reade drugstore yesterday that soon, very soon, I may have to smell different.
I’ve been using the same deodorant for as long as I can remember....
WatchC4[1] Sasser: Coda Confidential
Cabel’s a really smart and funny guy, and this presentation is chalk full of goodness. Definitely worth watching if you’re interested in app development, design, business and the history of Panic and their work.
Shawn Morrison: What are you gonna do for dinner?
Me: I was thinking about eating cat food.
Me: Do you have an alternate idea?
Me: Also, what kind of snack food should I get for the party?
Me: Also, why do I keep falling down?
Shawn Morrison: Cat food is the answer to all 3 questions.
Shawn Morrison: Chips and salsa are always a crowd pleaser.
Shawn Morrison: Various chips and dips.
Shawn Morrison: Or chopped veggies and hummus if you want to keep it healthy.
Me: All of your suggestions are not candy.
Me: Please fix.
Shawn Morrison: Of you could just put out a giant bowl full of Cadbury Creme Eggs.
Me: See, now you're talking.
Down for everyone or just me? →
Next time someone asks you to check if a site is down, you can tell them about this service. And you can use it yourself too. The internet is (complicating and) making lives easier every day, I tell you!
Neighbor: I thought you were lactose intolerant? How come you've got pizza?
Me: I am lactose intolerant, that's true. But Lactaid works pretty well for stuff like pizza.
Neighbor: Wait, they make pills for that?
Me: Yeah, they pretty much make pills for everything these days.
Neighbor: You know what they don't make pills for? Cancer.
Me: Touché.
I know they don’t matter AT ALL in the real world, but achievements on the Xbox 360 do add something to playing games. I accidentally added the PS3 version of Devil May Cry 4 to my Gamefly queue and while the game is very fun (aside from an absolutely ridiculous 22-minute install time!), the fact that I’m just playing the game alone in a room without any benefit is more noticeable.
I...
WatchSix Year Old
“I’m not eavesdropping, mind you, but the walls in your condo are thinner than Shelly Duvall. I’m joking! I don’t even know who that is—I’m six!”
Left-Handed Toons: Vista →
Seems apropos to a conversation I was having with Shawn today about how awful Windows is and how users just put up with it. Vista seems to be pushing that limit to the extreme. (Also, I hate that Drew is better at drawing with his left hand than I am, even though I’m left handed.)
1 tag
Tip: Get past CHUD error when installing iPhone SDK
If you receive an error regarding running a “preupgrade script for CHUD” when trying to install the iPhone SDK, you’ll need to uninstall your current development tools and reinstall them. The following will solve your problem:
cd /Developer/Library
sudo ./uninstall-devtools --mode=all
Make sure you reboot after...
Dreamhost is having a 10th birthday sale in which they give you 500GB of disk space and 5TB of bandwidth for $5.95/month if you prepay for 10 years. Now, granted, that’s actually only $714 USD total for all 10 years, but don’t you think it’s a little silly to ask your customers to sign a contract that, in technological terms, lasts basically a lifetime?
Also, since this deal...
“Do you think Mr. T has ever met a fool he didn’t pity? And when he...”
– Me (and I swear I wasn’t drunk)
Watch3 Days in Tokyo (via YouHadMeAtASL)
Oh god I want to go back to Tokyo. And soon.
In a sidenote of a link to a New Yorker story about how the US penny is worth less than it costs to produce, John writes that he has “been throwing pennies away for years.” I think this is a strange thing to do.
How about just tossing them into a change jar at the end of the night? Then, a few months later, when those pennies (and quarters and the rest) add up, you can go to a bank...
IconGrabber: Got files? Get icons. →
I’ve needed this many, many times in the past. Now I’ll probably never need it again, but at least I know it exists.
George Clooney On Career, Sex, and Politics →
I have to admit George Clooney is one of my favorite people. He’s likable to a point of near-nausea.
1 tag
Tip: Double-knot your shoes
I see people stopping on the street to re-tie their shoes all the time. Not once in the last 15 years have I had to re-tie my shoes. The secret is a simple double-knot. It takes only a moment more and saves you time in the long run.
“He was suing for the cost of a bedroom suite, and Judge Hatchett kept...”
– My mother
International Association of Time Travelers:... →
I love good smart comedy like this.
1 tag
Tip: Make Cancellation Easy
If you run an online service that charges monthly, you should always allow customers to immediately cancel their account through a simple web interface. There’s nothing more frustrating to potential customers than knowing they might be stuck in some sort of customer service hell trying to cancel a service they no longer want.
“I asked him to suggest a French game instead that we could play. ‘OK, OK,...”
– Rosecrans Baldwin in Paris, I Love You But You’re Bringing Me Down
Me: It's good to finally be alive again.
Me: Did you get sick?
Brian Warren: Nope.
Brian Warren: Dodged the scurvy bullet.
Me: Nice. I thought I might die.
Brian Warren: Glad to hear you didn't.
Me: I wrote a will.
Me: "Upon my death, burn my shit."
Me: I just couldn't handle the thought of anyone else enjoying my stuff.
Well, for a while there I thought the plague of SXSW 2008 was going to kill me. I was holed up in my apartment, lying on the couch, surrounded by dirty tissues moaning and whining and trying to sleep while my fever slowly climbed. At one point it was 103.8. I haven’t been sick in a few years, and boy was this a nasty one to get me back into it.
At one point, a day or two in, I thought it...
Puddleblog →
What’s particularly fascinating to me about the fact that this entire tumblelog is about a puddle is that it’s about a puddle on a street where we shot the Jesus sketch from Episode 3 of Maniacal Rage TV.
Me: I was trying to think of solutions for the mic issue.
Me: There has to be a way to record audio using Pro Tools and cue them together if we wanted to.
Shawn Morrison: OH god let's never try that.
Me: Haha
Shawn Morrison: If we have to have a laptop set up and record synchronized audio we might as well be shooting on one of those cameras with a hand crank.
Me: I bought one of those too.
Me: Where do I get film from the 20s? That's all it takes.
Shawn Morrison: Oh, just time travel.
Shawn Morrison: (Also easier than synching audio.)
An empty chair for Garrett →
This was taken almost a year ago when I first joined Blue Flavor, about a week after SXSW. It was my first real week working for BF and they went out to lunch and shot a photo of the extra chair they left for me.
Thanks for everything, guys—you all rock! Now you can stop wasting restaurants’ chairs and getting yelled at by waiters.
I’m in Austin for SXSW, where I’ll remain until I fly back to NYC on Wednesday, March 12. If I don’t respond to your emails, you’ll know why and hopefully accept my sincere apologies while I wander around 6th Street at all hours of the night.
Police Officer: Hey, you, can I talk to you for a moment?
Me: Sure—what's up?
Police Officer: Do you live around here?
Me: Yeah, I live on that block there.
Police Officer: Okay. Where are you going? To do your laundry?
Me: Yeah, to drop it off.
Police Officer: Uh huh.
Me: Why?
Police Officer: You don't know why I'm asking you?
Me: Not really...
Police Officer: You live in this neighborhood but you don't know about all the recent burglaries?
Me: Oh! Oh, now I get it. Yeah, I know about them. OH! Because I'm carrying this large black bag full of clothes walking around mid-day in the neighborhood with this stocking cap on.
Police Officer: Yeah. Although I have to admit, you don't look like you've just burglarized anyone. Are those pajamas?
Me: Yeah. I work from home, so, I didn't put on—
Police Officer: Okay, sorry to have bothered you. Have a nice day.
Me: Normally I do wear real pants!
“Just spent two hours at the park with my Chap Stick Application Level...”
– Scott Simpson
My doorbell just rang. I stuck my head out the window (we don’t have an intercom in my building) and yelled down but no one was there. I walked down to the front door to investigate and found my landlord sweeping the walk, pointing me toward my Design By Hümans order sitting on the step, which he saw sitting near the garbage cans when he went out.
It had been cut open and then duct taped...
