It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad Whirl

I'd buy that for a dollar off...if only...

Sat, 05 Sep 2009 07:25:22 GMT

I love Powell's Books, but some of their processes are a little slow. I packed about 3-4 boxes of books in my car for selling to the bookstore. They have handcarts available to carry all the boxes, but only with proper photo ID--once you reach the counter to ask for one.

Due to the impending Labor Day weekend, my work let me out early at 3pm. I circled trying to find a parking spot, and found one about 3 blocks away. So I picked up my first box and carried it through. There was a pretty good size line, and three checkers. Two of them were helping out some customers who had 10 or more boxes of books, so it was taking quite a while to finish them up. I waited about an hour to get to the head of the line, and the line was twice as long when I got there. As a courtesy, I decided not to go for the handtruck, since that would just take too long.

Once they went through my books, they could only buy back one tiny book...for $1 cash or $2 store credit. I was anxious to go put my unwanted books back in the car, and come back and buy the Nikoli book I wanted. Normally with the cash option, they cut a check in the amount. I was tired enough that I just wanted the cash, and thought, well, they'd probably hand over a dollar bill and call it good. No, they cut what looks like a check for $1! I fold it up and put it in my wallet without reading it, since I'd be depositing some checks the next day. I come back, buy my book for full price, and call it good.

So I get home and find out the "check" was really an in-store voucher for $1 (redeemable at the main checkout counters)--only good for the date listed on the voucher (9/4)!! It's too late for me to come back, so I've been accidentally cheated out of $1 (or $2) off my book purchase. Der.

Dahhhhhhh....I heard that....

Wed, 22 Jul 2009 23:54:09 GMT

....that Les Lye of Nickelodeon's "You Can't Do That on Television" fame passed away yesterday. He pretty much played all the adult male characters on the show (teachers, dads, that firing squad leader, etc.), including Ross, the show's producer, and Barth, the cook. Nickelodeon watchers of my generation would probably instantly recognize his work on the show, and could probably recite a few favorite lines of their own.

Hey all, it's been a while

Thu, 16 Jul 2009 19:18:21 GMT

Just finding time to sit down and write has been tough enough...it helps that the ban on LJ as a "Social Networking" site has been lifted slightly at work. Things are going pretty good around here, and the kids are doing great.

My notice of the day: I heard this story on NPR, which also got distributed to the "weird news" files all around TV and the net. VISA makes an error with multiple cardholders with the same charge: $23,148,855,308,184,500. Big deals have been made about how this is a "23 quadrillion dollar charge", it's a 17-digit number, larger than the U.S. national debt, etc. etc. The banks have been extra nice in not charging overdraft charges, as they should be.

When I heard the story, I thought, well, what kind of number could accidentally be input instead of a dollar amount? Credit card numbers are 16 digits long. I also noticed the round number at the end of the charge--no cents. If the charged amount is divisible by 5, it creates a new 16-digit number starting with 4--which all VISA cards start with. If you look at the statement in the link above, the last 4 of the card on the bill does not match the new 16-digit number. But is it possible that someone else's legitimate card number got processed/mangled through the accidental input, and ended up as this new 17-digit number? Probably too much of a coincidence, but I wonder if I'm onto something.

Pod People

Tue, 27 Jan 2009 06:39:12 GMT

I am the guest on the latest podcast of "Fill Me In: Ryan and Brian do Crosswords." My interview starts right at the 20 minute mark. Go check it out!

2008 quiz results

Mon, 12 Jan 2009 00:44:10 GMT

The original quiz.

Answers: k, j, f, i, g, d, c, h, b, l, e, a

Explanations:
January: Corey Worthington was an Australian kid who threw a large party at his parents' house for hundreds of people--while his parents were away. He then made the YouTube circuit with his unapologetic TV interview.
February: Uno (aka Ch. K-Run's Park Me In First) was the first beagle to win Best In Show at Westminster.
March: Ashley Alexandra Dupre was the call girl at the center of the Eliot Spitzer scandal.
April: Mark Penn resigned as chief strategist for Hillary Clinton's 2008 presidential campaign amid a lobbying controversy.
May: Controversial pastor John Hagee had ties with John McCain, but McCain publicly broke those ties with him on 5/16/08.
June: Da' Tara beat Big Brown at the Belmont Stakes in an upset. Big Brown, favored to win the Triple Crown, came in last.
July: Ingrid Betancourt was the hostage freed from FARC after being in the Colombian jungle for 6 years.
August: 9-year-old Lin Miaoke drew controversy by lip-synching to another girl's performance at the Beijing Olympics opening ceremonies. The other girl, 7-year-old Yang Peiyi, was originally supposed to perform the song live, but was removed when Lin was chosen for her expression and image.
September: Taro Aso became the new prime minister of Japan.
October: Joe Wurzelbacher was referenced multiple times in the third Presidential Debate as "Joe the Plumber."
November: General Ann E. Dunwoody became the first female 4-star U.S. general.
December: Muntadhar al Zaidi was the journalist who threw his shoes at President Bush.

2008 quiz

Fri, 02 Jan 2009 07:07:57 GMT

The 12 figures below (listed alphabetically) were all in the news during 2008, and each was notable during a different month of the year, representing all 12 months. Can you sort the newsmakers in order from January to December?

a) Muntadhar al Zaidi
b) Taro Aso
c) Ingrid Betancourt
d) Da' Tara
e) Ann E. Dunwoody
f) Ashley Alexandra Dupre
g) John Hagee
h) Lin Miaoke
i) Mark Penn
j) Uno
k) Corey Worthington
l) Joe Wurzelbacher

Sno daze

Fri, 26 Dec 2008 06:48:37 GMT

This is the most snow I've seen in this area ever--about a foot and a half still lingers. We've had layers of snow and ice since last Thursday, and this was the first "White Christmas" we've had for a long time. We're getting a little stir crazy at home, since I haven't driven for a week, and Jenn hasn't left the house. I took MAX (the light rail) and the streetcar to work for the last few days. MAX was packed to the point I couldn't move on some days.

Hope you all had excellent and happy holidays!

Sno' nuff

Mon, 22 Dec 2008 09:59:15 GMT

It's been snowing off and on since Thursday. By Saturday, the snow finally stuck and piled up to about 4-5 inches. More snow dropped this morning, with warnings of half-inch thick ice sheets freezing on top. Also, there were multiple warnings that power may go out in certain areas. Luckily, our power has stayed on. However, there's ice frosting up all our windows, so we can't see out very well, unless I look out the back door to the back yard.

I'm taking the last 3 Mondays of December off from work, so I missed last Monday. At work, they let us out early Tue/Wed, then had us in a full day on Thu, then a delayed opening on Fri. I've taken a couple of trips on MAX (the light rail system) when the roads were not icy, and found that there's a switchover a block away to the streetcar line, which runs a block from my workplace. I'm wondering about Tuesday, if the ice will still stick around, otherwise I may have some problems walking to work, even if it's a block or two from the streetcar.

It's been pretty nice at home, although it reminds me of the big 2004 ice storm. Lots of local news watching, so it's not that bad this time of year when reruns would have aired in place of 24-hour local news alerts. The big difference between now and 2004? There used to be a restaurant 2 blocks away from our house, and it served as a nice change of pace for food. It was within a safe walking distance, even in icy conditions. This year, the restaurant closed about a month ago. The next nearest restaurant is a Taco Bell, much further away.

The Amazing Race--Home Edition

Sat, 13 Dec 2008 08:57:25 GMT

OK, great to see Portland finally featured as a final city on The Amazing Race. It was fun to recognize so many things in the episode, and really see how the editing makes everything look seamless. Overall, I'm afraid that Portland got so much of an edit that it came off as a boring town, and there were missed opportunities for Race activities (in particular, one featured location). Let's see...lots of things to comment on...where to begin...

Aerial shots of Portland included one shot of the Made in Oregon White Stag sign, and a few shots of the KOIN building (the big salmon-colored skyscraper which houses KOIN, the local CBS affiliate--coincidence??)

PDX Airport--featured for just a few seconds. This is probably where you'll see the most available cabs near downtown Portland. In the downtown area, most cabs are not freely available, and the best way to catch one is to call in advance and have them pick you up.

Tukwila in Newberg--I've never been to that location. I've been to Newberg, which is about an hour outside of Portland.

Bridge of the Gods--Now we're talking! That's another hour from Newberg. It spans the Columbia River, and Stevenson, WA (as seen in some road signs) is directly across the river from the bridge. My sister-in-law lived in Stevenson for about a year before moving back to Vancouver, WA, so my wife made frequent trips in that direction.

The Portland Building/Standard Building--This used to be a block or two from where the bus dropped me off downtown. Nobody I know has heard about the green dinosaur, making it a pretty good statue to find that few locals know about. I once applied for an insurance job at the Standard Building, but didn't get it. Those two buildings are pretty blah, nondescript buildings in the middle of town, so I'm not sure why they got chosen.

Food Carts--not too far of a walk from 5th Avenue. I've never eaten from there myself, but I think that's the largest block of food vendors downtown. The carts are all over the place. In fact, there's about 3 or 4 within walking distance from my workplace (in the opposite direction). If I'm ever around Alder, I'll have to stop there sometime and ask the woman at the Russian cart how it was to work with TAR.

Voodoo Doughnuts--not only do I love their donuts (Froot Loops or Tang powdered donut, anyone?), but they only featured the outside without going inside? Sacrilege! And this is even a place that features regular eating contests (the Tex-Ass donut, which is huge; or the one featured on a Travel Channel special where the donut had a piece of bubble gum in the middle, and the first to blow a bubble was the winner). Total missed opportunity to have an eating challenge. I do admit having teams ask bystanders where "the magic is in the hole" was pretty funny.

Hailing a cab on Burnside--nearly impossible. Loved the cabbie's comment that he had a customer.

Pittock Mansion--I thought I heard most of the teams say "Pattock Mansion", which was not captioned at the end, so maybe the producers messed this one up? I've been to the location a few times when I was younger. It's uptown around Burnside and 23rd, and a big historical site from the first half of the 20th century.

And then there's the missed opportunities, which I can totally understand if the producers wanted to attract as little attention as possible.

The 24-Hour Church of Elvis recently opened up again after a few years of being shut down. How great would it be to have the teams participate in a fake wedding (complete with certificate)?

Lovejoy Fountain--not exciting, but it's tough to find and about a block away from my workplace, which would've kicked ass.

Powell's Books--It's a challenge enough just to find what you're looking for there, which makes browsing awesome. But, at any given time, there are way too many people present.

Shanghai Tunnels--another tourist trap, but it would make for a good challenge.

Silver Falls--About an hour south near Silverton (and closer to the Salem area), it would be my pick for the ultimate finish line. It's secluded, about medium difficulty to find, and there's a giant waterfall you have to pass under to get to the river basin below.

R.I.P. Little B (1997-2008)

Sun, 09 Nov 2008 22:55:33 GMT

Yesterday, our oldest cat Little B passed away. It's been a difficult last few days for the whole family. I'll write more later (what happened on Friday and Saturday, good memories, etc.) since I'm not done collecting my thoughts. I can definitely say I'll miss him.

Today

Wed, 05 Nov 2008 06:09:34 GMT

Aw hell yeah.

Two fast food items I am now a fan of

Fri, 17 Oct 2008 06:40:58 GMT

1. Wendy's BBQ Flavor-Dipped chicken sandwich, w/o onions.
2. Burgerville's new seasonal Caramel Apple milkshake.

Good thing there's a Wendy's and a Burgerville next to each other, about a quarter of a mile away. :) I may have to get some sweet potato fries at Burgerville someday.

OMSI--seems like deja vu

Sun, 28 Sep 2008 06:19:39 GMT

The Oregon Museum of Science and Industry will soon be hosting "Mindbender Mansion," a puzzle exhibit. What looks familiar is that many of the group challenges remind me of exhibits at Entros, the now-defunct puzzle-themed restaurant in Seattle (whose parent company went on to sponsor corporate events). Especially "Spelling Fever," which looks like a rehash of the awesome game Typo, played on a giant plexiglass board where you physically hop from letter to letter to spell your word. "Move and Match" also sounds very similar to the four-person bumper cars game.

It looks like there will be some Scrabble featured on November 1. On November 8, a guy who runs a cable access crossword puzzle game show will be filming his show on location at OMSI.

USPC not for me

Sat, 21 Jun 2008 21:57:07 GMT

Since I wasn't going to do the USPC puzzles on the day of the competition, I tried the USPC puzzles out over the week, timing myself in 30 minute increments. After the 2 1/2 hour time limit, if all answers would have been entered correctly, I would've earned 175 points. But I'm sure there's somewhere where I'd miss a digit or two when transcribing the "answer" in the answer sheet, probably with counting numbers inside the loop and outside the loop. That always seems to get me.

Somehow it happened

Thu, 19 Jun 2008 09:03:36 GMT

A few years back I got into a Swedish jazz/acoustic electronic trio called E.S.T., the Esbjorn Svensson Trio. I really, really liked their album "Strange Place For Snow."

I was shocked to find out Monday that Svensson, the guy who formed the group, passed away Saturday in a scuba diving accident. He was only 44. It's really too bad, since this guy had so many cool ideas.

I has a flavor

Sat, 14 Jun 2008 06:04:04 GMT

Seen on an AM/PM print ad for burgers: "25% more meat, 100% more taste"
Good thing people aren't doing the math, or you could argue that the old burgers were completely lacking flavor, and the new ones improve on it by having flavor. But what can you expect from a gas station convenience store?

Oh, and this year, like last year, I won't be competing in real-time on the USPC, because there ain't no way I can get that long of a block of free time exactly during those hours. That and I didn't sign up in time. I might try to break it into chunks while solving at work, but I'm using my breaks at work to...work on other stuff. So much for finding free time during the evening. :)

A few random things

Thu, 12 Jun 2008 06:41:12 GMT

A week ago, we were watching a repeat of Family Guy on TBS. About halfway through the show, a promo thingy shows up at the bottom of the screen for The Bill Engvall Show. Usually these promo bars at the bottom are silent, or, at worst, given some sort of hopefully unintrusive sound effect. But this one takes the cake: Bill uses a fake DVR remote to pause Family Guy (in the middle of a punchline), and then he proceeds to talk at the bottom of the screen about his own show for 15 seconds. This is the most intrusive thing I've seen. Very unfunny, TBS.

I liked watching the final round of the only perfect game ever on the UK game show Fifteen to One. Even if I didn't know the answers to the UK-centric questions, it's still cool to see this guy sweep the round.

Integral

Thu, 22 May 2008 05:18:32 GMT

Weird factoid: re Wikipedia, two very common male Norwegian first names are Odd and Even.

In case you missed it...

Sun, 27 Apr 2008 00:30:05 GMT

I've posted an announcement (friendslocked) today about our new babies, so go check it out! I'm catching up on sleep and working on taking care of the babies, but things are getting back to normal. It's difficult to find free time, but it is there, somewhere. :) The first day back home was crazy, with the sleep deprivation and all that fun stuff. But it's all worth it. :)

That is the question

Sun, 13 Apr 2008 07:22:00 GMT

Most of you probably haven't seen this clip, but I thought it was really inspired. It's a comedy skit based on the long-running UK game show "Mastermind". Each show features a section of questions based on a "specialist subject" that the contestant picks ahead of time. A catchphrase from the show is "I've started so I'll finish," said by the presenter after the final bell rings so that he can finish any questions interrupted mid-bell and give the contestant a chance to answer it.

This skit, from the sketch show "The Two Ronnies," makes great use of this special subject: "Answering the question before last." So you get a chain of questions and answers that seem funny and nonsensical on the surface, but it makes sense when you dissect the order of the questions. Awesome. And it's pretty true to the original show, from what I understand.

Unusual weather

Sun, 13 Apr 2008 05:14:58 GMT

Two days ago, rainy and 55. Yesterday, sunny-ish and low 70s. Today, 80 degrees. Tomorrow, back down to high 50s for the rest of the week. So we get one summery day for the entire month, then business as usual.

Today's the first day we had to open the windows and break out the fan.

Dear Carl's Jr.:

Sun, 13 Apr 2008 05:05:15 GMT

If you know for sure that there are shakes on your menu (including chocolate), and a miniature chocolate cake, _and_ you know that people have a hard time picking up details over a drive-thru speaker, why do you insist on calling your items "Chocolate Shake" and "Chocolate Cake?" One of the drive-thru workers admitted to me that this is the toughest item to determine. The price difference is about $2 between the items, so if someone wasn't paying attention, you might accidentally overcharge for the wrong item. Why can't you just call it something like "Fudgy Cake" and get it over with?

Sincerely,
mlstrm

P.S. I caught the mistake, but you never know who might not...

Snow? For reals?

Sat, 29 Mar 2008 06:05:05 GMT

Today was freaky weather at work, at least for these parts, and for late March. Woke up to fat snowflakes (which did not stick), which kept going for another hour, then stopped. This afternoon was rain, then hail, then snow, then bright and sunny, all within about 10 minutes.

Hold onto your hats

Fri, 28 Mar 2008 05:05:39 GMT

Since qaqaq recently mentioned it, I'm happy to mention that I'm writing for Yahoo! Games' "Daily Puzzle With Hints."

Hi, Def, nice to see you again

Thu, 13 Mar 2008 03:27:31 GMT

In November, our HDTV died. Sometime between late December and early January, we shipped the broken TV back to the manufacturer for repair.

Today we _finally_ received the replacement TV. I hooked it up. No crackling when turning it on, or rattly hissing in the back. The HD channels stay where they are supposed to be--that is, they don't gradually fade to white. Let's just hope it stays that way. (And this time, we're not giving away our "old" heavy TV to friends. If this HDTV breaks, we'll at least have the old set.)