Curiosity Killed the Cat

You know that effect in a Mac dock where an icon will bounce when it wants your attention? It can be really annoying. I was once watching a company presentation, and in the middle of the presentation, a little icon started bouncing on the bottom of the screen. It was amusing the first few times, but after a few minutes you just wanted to smash it into next week.
Well, apparently you can -- using a simple terminal command (and subsequent rebooting of the Dock).
Sweet.

I logged into my Hotmail account, as I am wont to do every few weeks or so to clear out the junk mail and on a whim, decided to find the oldest email I still had.
It appears to be a message from 2/20/99*, a really old (and very bad) fanfic I was co-writing with servalan.
I have also found old gems like a friend's "One Act Scottish Play" and "A Tale of a Math Class" (which was co-written by about half of the AP Calculus class) from high school.
I think these are the only reasons why I keep this account...




*Okay, technically the oldest email is from 2/5/99 but that's just an autoresponse I got when I was setting up an e-groups account. I don't think that counts.

The reason why I'm in NY.
Can you guess which ones I made? I think there are like 12 of them. They're pretty obvious...

I'm off to New York City this weekend for a few days (heading out Sunday morning, returning Friday afternoon). Going to be hanging out with the Spreadsheets team in prep for a launch. While I don't anticipate another sugar-induced tour of the city it should be fun nonetheless.
And I think only one person on my FL is in NY right now, but hey, if you're there, give me a shout!

I am posting this from the browser that I installed on my new DSi.


...and I thought typing on the iPod and Android was hard...

So this weekend I plan to finally get that Nintendo DS I've been thinking about for like, a year. As the DSi is now out, I've run out of excuses not to jump in. What games would ya'll recommend for me? I'm looking for both casual puzzle games or RPGs.
Also, where is a good place to get myself a shiny copy of Ouendan?

~/o Nano technology~~~
This did in fact win an award from ACS.

Quick, run a PCR DNA analysis on this sample!

Because seriously, how can you resist these cuties?

3D CAT IS THREEDEE!

I even have a pair of Hannah Montana 3D glasses to prove it.

Having lived in California all my life, my response to yesterday's quake went something like:
[11:40am] Me: ...there was an earthquake?

I first noticed this in the print version, but it's available in Wired online. There's a fairly detailed history and look into the present and possible future of Catan. Worth a read if you like trading 5 sheep for 3 sheep.
It also made me think of the discussion I had with Hank recently about custom Catan sets, and we ventured into the territory of a KKD-flavored Catan, where resources included volunteers and microphones and Polysics CDs, and you had to build up your convention rooms instead of cities.
It also made me think of what a Google-flavored set would feature. I think you'd end up with resources like engineers and server racks and have to link up your server rooms (upgraded into data centers) in order to conquer the internets.

Webmaster: Oh no! I forgot to wear green today! And I even posted the doodle!

PM: [coworker] just IM'd me, she's going to be half-late.
Engineer 1: I thought being late was a binary thing.
Engineer 2: Maybe if her foot is in the doorway...?

Actually, I'm a bit sad that it was Merck that bought Schering-Plough because I was really hoping for SP-BMS.
But now we get to play "Name that Merged Company" again!
Hmm...it looks like SA-BMS may still be in play... But some folks are saying a Lily-BMS deal is even more likely! And what will the likes of Novartis or AstraZeneca be doing? Too bad J&J always hides its companies under its umbrella name. In their case we tend to rib on "John Johnson from Johnson & Johnson" instead.

Got the CD yesterday. Is full of much love. And Go Action. I love that song to bits.

Another con come and gone. I really enjoyed being on Guest Relations staff this year - got to see a slightly different perspective of the con, and all the guests were awesome people. My favorite part of the con was on Sunday, when Johnny Yong Bosch was wrapping up the final autographing section - while waiting outside the room, he signed the poster on the wall that told people the events that were going on the room and remarked, "My work here is done." He also drew a happy face in the AOD logo.
Unfortunately, by the time Nat had returned to the hallway after we finished up events that night, hotel staff had removed the poster during their cleaning, so it was gone :(

Coworker: If you didn't Twitter it, did it really happen?

Seriously, the problem with Pepsi can be clearly demonstrated by its commercial during the Super Bowl, as compared to Coca Cola's.
Coca Cola: Heist
Coke has done what it normally does - a light-hearted, colorful, fun and cute ad, with nice animated effects and high production values. It plays off the current "nature/environment == good" trend, but the cooperation between all the insects to open (and share) the soda harkens back to some of Coke's strongest brand recognition: harmony and unity amongst different peoples (I'd like to buy the world a Coke).
Pepsi: PepSuber
Pepsi pulled off a parody of Macguyver called MacGruber, and this had the potential to be really great (the MasterCard MacGuyver a few years ago was well constructed and well played). Unfortunately, the camp went downhill fast as all MacGruber did was espouse on how wonderful Pepsi was, and did he mention he might be sponsored by Pepsi? and oh, by the way, he changed his name to PepSuber too, so let him take a swig of Pepsi while the bomb goes off. I was hoping MacGruber was going to macguyver a way out of the problem using either a) the soda in the can or b) parts of the can or the can itself. I mean, you could use the soda to drench the bomb and prevent the fuse from lighting, or use the metal of the can itself to short out the electrical timing switch, or somehow fashion a cutting edge from the can to snip the wires. Instead, it was terribly lame in a very "what the hell were the advertising execs thinking" sort of way, which is also what I think of Pepsi's new logo. (Seriously, the first time I saw their logo, I thought it was a logo for a Korean airline. Not the right direction, Pepsi...)

This is what happens when you have too much wheat.