TEN JACK TEN

Life really is one damn thing after another. Try to have a good attitude about it.

The NBA is diminishing its fan appeal by tolerating increasingly thuggish behavior by its players.

The value a child places on a toy is usually inverse to the price of the toy. If it cost $80, it’s amusing for maybe an hour or so. If it came free with a hamburger, it’s a treasure. The exception to this rule is videogames.

Movies about unhappy things with no positive resolutions aren’t worth my time.

The best TV shows are currently more entertaining than the best movies. Especially in high definition.

I’m OK with being cheap, but it’s important not to be stingy.

There’s nothing sold in a mall that I can’t find somewhere else or live without.

Every year I seem to do more Christmas shopping on the internet.

Optical mice are great.  Scroll wheels on optical mice are great.  Tilting scroll wheels on optical mice . . . meh.

What a company goes out of its way to not tell me about their product is just as important as what they do tell me about it.

The Volkswagen “car crash out of nowhere” ads have overstayed their welcome.

When the six-year-old of the house sees the people talking in their car and says “they’re going to crash soon,” there is no shock value left.

Best wishes to everyone near and far.

MS brings their new console up to par with the competition’s warranties, and promises to send refunds to the gamers that paid for repairs. I only hope my persistent internet whining and testy phone calls to Xbox customer service contributed in some small way.

Looks like I’ll get my $105 back in 10 weeks. I should probably spend that on an extended warranty.

Effective today (December 22), the one year warranty is now the standard for all Xbox 360 consoles. Customers that experience hardware issues with their Xbox 360 within one year of purchase will have their consoles repaired at no cost. Moreover, the new warranty policy is retroactive, so consumers that may have already paid for out-of-warranty Xbox 360 repair within one year of the console’s purchase will be eligible for reimbursement of their console repair charges.

LINK

This poll on Quarter to Three asked members whether their 360’s had ever needed service, or whether they’d had a 360 for X amount of months without problems. The number of voters who had problems was always above the number of voters who’d had a problem-free system for over 10 months. Past a certain point, it looks like a question of “when” rather than “if” for 360 problems.

If you pretend to be a nice person long enough, you’ll become a slightly nicer person who’s really skilled at pretending to be nice.

I’m a reckless, and therefore bad, Texas Hold ‘em player.

The recent demise of Tower Records is yet another illustration of the principle that you cannot charge a premium price for a commodity item.  It also shows the decline of the music industry’s ability to deliver a wide range of quality music over the last decade or so, resulting in the commoditization of music.

Newspapers, at least in their current form, are doomed.

If you don’t ask, you don’t get.

Sony screwed up badly with the PS3, and they need to start getting out of the hole they’ve dug ASAP or they’ll be a distant third place in the console market.

Gift cards should be used as soon as possible. The businesses that sold them are counting on you to lose them or forget them.

You don’t have to finish everything on your plate, even if you paid good money for it.

The worst flaw of humanity is selfishness, followed closely by lust.

You don’t just marry the girl, you also marry her family.

Now reading: The Areas of My Expertise - John Hodgman

In the CD player:  100% Fun - Matthew Sweet

In the DS: Dragon Quest Rocket Slime

Just passed:  the 150,000 mile mark on my Xterra

From NBC 4 in Washington DC:

Marion Barry said that he is talking to his lawyers and thinking about suing the D.C. government and the U.S. Park Police after he was stopped, arrested and then released this past Saturday. Barry said that he was driving to a holiday party around 4:30 p.m. Saturday when U.S. Park Police officers, who said that he was driving too slowly, stopped him.

Barry said the officers asked him for his license and registration and then said that his license was suspended. Barry told NBC4 the suspension was a clerical mistake, and he accused the U.S. Park police of racial profiling. Park Police said Barry’s license was in fact suspended, and that’s why he was arrested.

LINK

But that’s not the great part.  Follow the link and you’ll get this list of Barry’s hijinks of the last year or so:

November 14, 2006: Barry Pleads Not Guilty To DUI
September 11, 2006: Marion Barry Detained By Police
August 7, 2006: Barry Facing More Legal Woes
May 12, 2006: Police: Former Mayor Fails Field Sobriety Test
March 9, 2006: Marion Barry Sentenced On Tax Charges
February 27, 2006: Barry Shows Off Gasifier Machine
February 8, 2006: Federal Judge Postpones Barry Sentencing
February 7, 2006: Marion Barry Heads Back To Court
January 11, 2006: Marion Barry Fails Drug Test
January 3, 2006: Marion Barry Robbed At Gunpoint
October 28, 2005: Marion Barry Pleads Guilty To Tax Charges
October 5, 2005: Mayor Offers Words Of Support For Barry
October 4, 2005: Barry To Plead Guilty For Failing To File Tax Returns

What the hell is a Gasifier Machine?

From the Washington Post: 

The wait before a notable person who has died can be honored on a U.S. postage stamp is being cut to five years, half what it has been.

Postmaster General John E. Potter recently announced the change at a meeting of the postal governing board. “For more than three decades we have had a rule requiring notable Americans be deceased 10 years before they could be recognized for commemoration on a postage stamp. We created this rule to make certain their legacy stood the test of time,” he said. 

* * *

The change will take effect Jan. 1. It does not affect the rules for presidents, who are commemorated on a stamp on their first birthday after their death.

LINK

One of the neat things about the Wii’s design is a cool blue LED glow around the slot in the disc drive.  It flashes when a disc is inserted or ejected, and when the unit is powered up.

This morning, it was off, but the blue light was continuously glowing on and off.  I fired it up, and this appears to be Nintendo’s way of letting you know something new is available.  This time it was the Forecast Channel, which lets you download weather info.  (Not looking too good for Christmas Eve according to the 5-day forecast.)  Not earth-shaking, but at least it’s clever.

Now I’ll be looking out for the glow.

Judith Regan pays the price for insensitivity and bad taste.

O.J. Simpson’s would-be publisher, Judith Regan, was fired Friday, her sensational, scandalous tenure at Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. ending with the tersest of announcements.

“Judith Regan’s employment with HarperCollins has been terminated effective immediately,” HarperCollins CEO Jane Friedman said in a statement. “The REGAN publishing program and staff will continue as part of the HarperCollins General Books Group.”

LINK

From Lawn Darts to those Battlestar Galactica missiles (hey, I had those!), the story of dangerous fun and its body count.

Removable parts? Suffocation risk? Lead paint? Pussy hazards compared to the granddaddy of them all. Lawn Darts, or “Jarts,” as they were marketed, would never fly in our current ultra-paranoid, safety-helmeted, Dr. Phil toy culture. Lawn darts were massive weighted spears. You threw them. They stuck where they landed. If they happened to land in your skull, well, then you should have moved. During their brief (and generally awesome) reign in 1980s suburbia, Jarts racked up 6,700 injuries and four deaths.

LINK

If you’ve been summoned for jury duty, bring a book.

Insurance companies are in the business of collecting premiums, not paying claims.

Light sour cream tastes fine once you get used to it.

There is no such thing as a low-carbohydrate Whiskey Sour.

Intelligence is not the same thing as common sense or wisdom.

People can get a lot of notoriety and/or make a pretty good living predicting disasters of all kinds, and nobody will ever hold it against them later when it’s clear they were wrong.  Since it seems to be a traditional position in human society, I propose we call this position “doompimp.”

The music industry’s business model is not working.  Which is good, because the music industry’s current business model puts the vast majority of the money in the hands of people who don’t make any music and won’t be missed by music fans.

If where I’m going is five hours away or less by car, it’s not worth it to take a plane.

As people get older, they become more of whatever they are.

Bribery is a perfectly legitimate parenting tool.

Orbicule’s Undercover is software that goes to work when an owner reports their Mac OSX laptop as stolen. The software identfies the ISP address where it’s being used, sends screenshots, and takes pictures with the camera. That’s damn cool.

Follow the link for the story of how Orbicule gets a brand new MacBook recovered, and the thief arrested, in about 3 days. 

LINK

In the CD player: Robert Schimmel - Resererection

Currently reading: WordPress 2 Visual Quickstart Guide

In the Wii: Rayman Raving Rabbids

Need to fix: the garage door

Representing yourself in a lawsuit is a terrible idea, even though you have a legal right to do it.

Car batteries don’t last more than 3 years.

Don’t loan something to anyone if you’d be upset if it was never returned.

Having HBO, Showtime, or some other movie channel means you’ll end up watching the second half of a lot of movies.

People should be acknowledged and treated with respect, at least at first.

I could never be a sportscaster because I can’t act like all sports are equally interesting.

It’s not particularly impressive to mock Christians by putting those “Darwin” fish on your car or other such nonsense.  There’s no risk involved.  Mock Muslims if you’ve got real balls.

It’s not particularly impressive to profess your Christian faith by putting those fish on your car.  It just looks like you bought your car from Jesus Christ Motors.

Seeing a movie in a theater isn’t really worth it anymore between the high expense and the morons in the other seats.

Anyone who’s smart and talented enough to do a good job as president is also too smart to want to run for president.