Logopolis

C-minuses used to be reserved for my penmanship grade...

I missed 4 questions.. though I did get the one right that I stupidly missed when I took the driver's test when I was 16.   

I thought the the car on the incorrect side gets the right of way when two cars come to a four way intersection at the same time. I usually just let other people go first if I'm feeling generous or take my turn no matter what if I'm not.  (Yes, I realize this is not a good way to drive.) 

My other errors involved guessing percentages and other things that have absolutely nothing to do with actually driving (unless you choose to drive drunk and want to know how stupid an idea it is...with statistics!), so I'm not too bummed about it.

links for 2010-02-26

• Chuck Liddell naked work-out video: Squats never looked so, um, intimate... | EW.com
  I don't know what this is about but I'll be checking it out when I'm not at work. For research purposes only, of course. (It's actually a viral ad for Reebok, apparently)
  (tags: UFC ChuckLiddell naked ScandalThatsNotReally)

links for 2010-02-25

• 43 Folders | Time, Attention, and Creative Work
  "Anonymous asked: ‘How do you maintain focus (on work, dreams, goals, life)?’ You do one thing at a time. Before you sweat the logistics of focus: first, care. Care intensely." This is just a reminder for me, not so much an intended lesson for my readers.
• 43 Folders - Interview with "Linchpin" author, Seth Godin | 43 Folders
  I haven't listened to the full interview here, but the video below about the lizard brain is pretty great so far. Even though it's about marketing, all creative people can learn something if they listen to it. "You don't need to be more creative -- what you need is a quieter lizard brain."
  (tags: productivity interview video lifehacks sethgodin)
• Tony Kornheiser may be a rotten bastard, but his ESPN bosses are idiots for suspending him. - By Jack Shafer
  What he said. Except for the part about Kornheiser being a rotten bastard. He's awesome. And Hannah Storm looked horrible. And if it means I'm sexist and ageist for pointing it out, then, yes, I guess I'm sexist and ageist.
  (tags: TonyKornheiser ESPN PardonTheInsult)
• The Instant Art Critique Phrase Generator
  Mine: "I'm surprised that no one's mentioned yet that the sublime beauty of the facture seems very disturbing in light of the eloquence of these pieces." So true.
  (tags: art criticism generator humor funny)
• Yelp Hit With Class Action Lawsuit For Running An “Extortion Scheme”
  This doesn't surprise me at all,.given what I've heard from Chicago businesses... though I always took it as sour grapes from them. I bet a lot of folks might be jumping on this particular bandwagon. The problem with user generated content that you try to sell ads on is that the only control you have is censorship, and when your entire worth is measured in the impartiality of your results (it's not like I go to Yelp for the sparkling wit), even the hint of sketchiness taints the product. In other words, lately, I've been a lot more prone to read professional restaurant reviews. "The lawsuit essentially alleges that the heavily funded startup runs an “extortion scheme” and has “unscrupulous sales practices” in place to generate revenue, in which the company’s employees call businesses demanding monthly payments in the guise of advertising contracts, in exchange for removing or modifying negative reviews." Yelp's response so far has been a 2-starred and neither funny nor helpful.
  (tags: yelp technology AssholesSuingAssholes)

I'm Young at Heart -- And Ears, Apparently

I think this is the same reason why I can't leave the TV or monitor on without any input without driving myself crazy.

"Clicking the play button...will produce a tone that is generally only heard by people under the age of 25. It has been used as a deterrent device to keep teenagers from loitering in malls and shops, and sounds similar to a buzzing mosquito. The elderly and people with hearing damage often cannot hear the sound."

Created by Oatmeal

links for 2010-02-24

• Snoop goes to Llanview
  "One Life to Live's unlikeliest superfan, Snoop Dogg, returns to the show he first cameoed on in 2008." Seriously, even if you don't watch the show, you have not lived until you have seen Snoop on a soap opera. You know when you watch crazy stuff from the 80s and you think "Geez, how much coke were they doing back then to think that's was a good idea?" Same thing happens watching this; if it's anything like the last time I saw this happen, you'll get a contact high without even lighting up.
  (tags: Snoop OneLifetoLive awesome awestruck soaps)
• Star Wars Farts
  From the makers of the fuckingbookdeal tumblr blog, this site is just what it says it is. It's ridiculous, but it tickled me the right way.
  (tags: StarWars Farts FuckingBookDeal funny)

links for 2010-02-23

• Bachelor women lied about seeing Rozlyn with producer + reality blurred
  I've never watched an episode of The Bachelor, but if it turned into a game that was openly more like Survivor -- where people were forming alliances, backstabbing, and forced to create more and more outrageous lies in attempts to get others booted -- I'd be tempted. (For those of you who think all reality TV is horrible because it targets its shows at the lowest common denominator, I've just admitted to being lower than that.)
  (tags: TheBachelor reality tv DownfallOfWesternCivilization)
• Justice League's New Animated Movie Is No Crisis - Justice League - io9
  "Biggest surprise of Justice League: Crisis On Two Earths? It's not the fast-moving, funny script, nor the best-looking animation from a DC Universe project yet. Nope, it's that Wonder Woman comes away as the most impressive character of the movie."
  (tags: io9 justiceleague DC comics cartoons)

The Perils of Internet marketing

Either the targeting of ads in the Pandora app for the iPhone is not targeted very well or I don't understand the breadth of Lady Gaga or her-who-will-not-be-named popularity.

Then again it's quite possible that the algorithm is based strictly on the title, and certainly we can agree that Sarah Palin is a fame monster of the worst variety.

(Yes, I went against my own rules and named her on the site. But I'll do anything I can do to increase the Palin as fame monster meme - since it's essentially why I stopped talking about her.)

(edited because you shouldn't try to post by email on the CTA because you might accidentally send it and also because "targetted" and "targetting" are both incorrect, which is a really big surprise to me...and because I want to add my ad code underneath this to see if anything funny happens)

Post ends here. Ad below. Please support my sponsors.

---

Chicago Based Company Buys New York Institution...for a change

"You take our department store; we'll capture your street corners!"

In a business move that will surely thrill those who are STILL protesting outside Marshall Fields Macy's, Deerfield-based Walgreens has purchased Duane Reade in order to get an immediately strong foothold in the Northeast prescription, condom, and 20 oz. Diet Coke markets.

When I heard this, though, I composed this letter in my head.

Dear Walgreens:

If I were you. I'd leave all your newly acquired stores named Duane Reade name rather than rebranding them. I realize it's a sad strange world when people are nostalgic for company brand's that don't actually sell them anything specific. I can understand being nostalgic for a tangible corporate object -- like Tab or BooBerry cereal, but not for a place that sells the same thing you can get elsewhere. 

But I digress. What I meant to say is this: I hope you learned a lesson from your brothers in Manhattan fat cattedness Macy's. You may think it's important to plant your flag by having a huge Walgreen's in Times Square. But that would be a stupid mistake. If there's any place that's even more insane about civic pride in completely illogical ways than Chicago, it's New York City.

Sincerely,
Concerned Chicagoan CVS Customer

links for 2010-02-11

• Facebook Wants to Be Your One True Login
  Website writes article about changes in Facebook which causes them to be listed highly in the search results for "Facebook login"; people who login to Facebook by searching for "Facebook login" end up on their site. Quite a few are confused and angry. Commenting chaos ensues.
  (tags: facebook humour comments search browsers)

Internet Irony

People using Twitter to talk about the uselessness of Google Buzz are really, really, really amusing me. 

"I'm using this service that people said still say was is horribly useless to talk about how useless this other service with fewer features is."

I'm not saying it's going to be the next big thing. But a combination of Twitter/Facebook/foursquare -- and automatically meshing it with Google Maps/searches (not to mention how your Buzz-tweets - or whatever you call them... will be filed by location, which makes them Yelp-like) make it potentially far less useless than a lot of things that a lot of people find pretty darn useful.

Post ends here. Ad below. Please support my sponsors.

---