In The Last Hours of 2006

Lets see... a few final thoughts on things that still are and things that came to be for me in 2006.

1. Nazbatags are cute
2. so are puppies and kittens, and babies....
3. 30 is the new 20. (and I'm very happy about that)
4. Its still not cool to be a trekkie (no I'm not)
5. New york did not suck as much this year as I thought it did last year
6. I still love cheese
7. and beer
8. surveys say I spent more money shopping on line in 2006 than any other year
9. Podcasts have made my commute more enjoyable
10. Macs are better than PC's
11. iPods are now semi-affordable
12. Blogging and podcasts are on the rise (big suprise)
13. Google rules
14. Kevin Rose is hot (see posts "casts and other geeky goodness" & "its getting hot in here"
15. Kraft still is the cheesiest
16. Trader Joes wine shop is awesome
17. I still miss San Francisco
18. War still sucks
19. So does our President
and finally.....
20. I am still alive, and healthy. (Yay!)

Happy New Year!

xo,
< /KO >

Ass Seen on TV



I'm a sucker for infomercials. I'm serious I want and buy everything and I'm not rich, nor am I in any position to buy everything. No really I watched that damned infomercial for the "Magic Bullet" like 500 times. You know the one with Mick and Mimi entertaining their guest and making everything from salsa to fettucini Alfredo to frozen cocktails in 1-2-3 seconds. I wanted that damned thing for more than a year, finally I got it for Christmas. I tried to make things in it the way Mick and Mimi did. Like salsa, I make salsa from scratch all the time and its so time consuming to have to cut up the tomatoes and onions and garlic and peppers. So I thought this would be perfect for that. Unfortunately it just turned everything into puree, and I like chunky salsa. Everything you put in there turns to puree. I stopped using it, its now taking up space in my cupboard collecting dust.. ho hum..

But that didn't stop me THEN after a sleepless night in front of the TV somehow Lauren Hutton convinced me that I needed her face disk.. so I picked up the phone about 4am called the 800 number, by the way, I only had 7 minutes left to get the free gift with purchase. Needless to say when it arrived, I tried it and it failed to make me look "years younger" so I put it in a box under the sink with all the other beauty products gone wrong.

So THEN another sleepless night about a month later Susan Lucci, who by the way looks really good for being in her 50's.. 50's? hmm. Anyway, so yeah I saw her, she said her product would make me glow like she glows.. so I logged on and bought it.. and somehow I have been enrolled into some secret Susan Lucci club that charges me about $30 a month and continues to send me products I didn't ask for.. I have to admit I use this product.. I like it.. and it vibrates, and that's never a bad thing.

Lastly, I recently watched the Bare Minerals infomercial and immediately went out to sephora and bought the "starter kit".. I tried to use it once, but it totally dries out my already dry skin. So I threw it into the box with Lauren Huttons face disk.

So whats the lesson here? One fourth of items purchased on TV turn out to be useful.

xo
< /KO >

Numbers, Hurricanes, Wars.

Slate reports that... bloggers estimate that... "219,563 people left Louisiana after Hurricane Katrina, which is the largest annual decline in any state since World War II" Very interesting, and also very sad.

Its Getting Hot in Here....

See I'm not the only one... Violet Blue names Kevin Rose as #7 "GILF" (Guess what that means).. She also mentions lots of other sexy geeks.. check it out.

Casts and Other Geeky Goodness

Just finished listening to the entire archives of Matt's Today in History. Really, really interesting stuff.... well to me anyway. I don't know what I did before podcasts! NPR?

Began my morning wasting some time at work to watch the latest Diggnation vidcast. I had no idea that Kevin Rose was so freakin' hot!! Since I usually listen to podcasts on my non-video iPod I only get the mp3 version (which I'm happy they offer) . I have been enlightened to this little fact.

I had no idea how interesting, watching two geeks, drink beer and stare at their laptops could be. Except when you watch the vidcast you actually get to see what they are talking about its a totally different experience.. not to mention getting to see Mister hottalicious, who can make any girl wish she was that beer bottle.... ehem.. anywho, off the subject.. moving on...
One of the stories they dugg is that George Lucas built a set in Tunisia for Episode (4) and left it there and now people live there <- go Digg it. Pre tty cool... pretty cool..


Speaking of vidcasts, did you happen to know that Wil Wheaton from Star Trek the Next Generation and Stand By Me is a total geek. He used to work on Tech TV, and now hosts video casts and podcasts of his own.. oh wait.. Star Trek.....geek... I get it, its not really that off the wall after all. I wonder if he plays D&D?

alrighty peeps, I'm out..

< /KO >





Santacon and RTFM's




..... New post coming soon busy Santacon weekend and today, lots of fun user-error type issues. Oh me oh my...

Can you say RTFM.... come on people!! no power? is it plugged in? can't print? is the printer turned on? does it have paper? Yeah, see you understand.

Hello Fido? Its Me Mommy

Aren't chu a guuuud puppy... Aren't chu! Whose my wuvvy duvvy.. Mommy misses her fuffy fuffy Fido.. Be a good boy see my widdle muchy kin later.

A cell phone for Fido, what ELSE will they think of?




Gizmag.com

So Cute I Almost Peed Myself... I SAID ALMOST!

Neat Little Mac Apps!

One of the many, many podcasts I listen to is this really cool podcast called 'Neat Little Mac Apps'. Frank is the host and he reviews tons of well, I guess the name says it all. Anyway yesterdays episode was sponsored by this t shirt store called Insanelygreattees.com. They feature really cool Macintosh based T's like this one:




awe....

Oh No!


Someone pinch me cuz I MUST be dreaming

Ok now, come on. Why does Japan always get the cool stuff?

In my flat we have a make shift kitchen, meaning we have a refrigerator which is actually a keg-orator doesn't hold much food, a mini sink, a coffee maker and well, we used to have a microwave until it died last week so we had to throw it out. We do have access to a REAL kitchen but we share it with other tenants.

So for me this is just the cats meow...





...pppuuuurrrrrrrrrr.........

Dibble Dabble

Dabble in this....."Search, collect and organize" This San Francisco based InterWeb 2.0 website is like a TV guide for Internet Video. This site lets users tag and rate clips found throughout the Web. Users can even form communities based on intrests.

So while they seem to be fueled by a websites like YouTube and Google video, they are are really just struggling to even make it into the limelite.

Enjoy!

xo
< /KO >

Pure Genius!

......Weak





Went to ThinkGeek the other day and got a couple of gifts for a man in my life. Duct tape wallet and "Pluto's response" t-shirt.
Cute right? Its being delivered today, I'm selfishly excited because I can't wait to hear how much he likes them. :)

I'm Not a Geek, I Just Pretend to be One at Work

Most annoying experience EVER!!

So I bought this pair of crappy headphones from .... RadioShack SHHHH I know its not geek approved but, but its on every block and its so convenient and I really just needed some good, cheap headphones. So anyway I got these headphones that were only $15, they came with both normal headband headphones, which I prefer, and ear buds, which never stay in my ears. Anyway, so I bought these back in March AND I bought the 1 year replacement plan for $3.

So here's the annoyance.... One day I was walking in the house from work wearing the headband-phones when the dog jumped up on me and tore one side of the cord out of the headphone..... (no that's not the MOST annoying part of this story)

A few weeks ago, November, I finally got around to replacing the headphones. So I go into one of the 5 RadioShacks that are 2 blocks radius of where I work in lower Manhattan, and bring in the headphones, the receipt and my replacement plan paperwork.

I explain to the lady behind the counter, "I need a new pair of headphones I have this replacement plan. " The lady says "sure just go get another pair from over there". So I head over, and just before I get there she says, "oh wait a second, you need to call and they will send you a gift card, then you come back" and I'm like "what?" She's like "Well, you have this plan, you need to call the number on the front, they will send you a gift card in the amount of what you paid for the headphones plus tax and then you come back and get the headphones or a different kind of headphones if you want" again, I'm like, "what? Why did you just a second ago just say go pick out a new pair? Is it that if I didn't have this stupid plan I could just get a new pair?" She said "No its just that I just looked at your receipt." and I said, "Yeah....and" She said, "that's it, I didn't look at your receipt before" and by now I'm totally confused, thinking that if I hadn't purchased this stupid replacement plan it would be easier to replace my headphones but since I did now I have to go back to the office call the stupid number, and wait two weeks for the stupid replacement card..

Finally I was like, "Wait a second, so why did you say get a pair when I first walked in and then change when you saw that I bought the service plan?" She said, "oh no I just saw the date, you can only replace these with in the first thirty days, with the receipt, then after that you need to call the number provided on the service plan, that is, if you purchased one which you did." OK this made sense.... Sort of. I mean I'm OK with the thirty days explanation, I'm NOT OK with having to go call a stupid number be sent a waste of paper and plastic just to replace my stupid broken headphones..

Oh you think that's the end of the annoyance? WRONG!

So I call the number, its confusing because the damn recording is asking for numbers like, 'transaction number', that apparently appears on my receipt. Except that it doesn't, or if it does its not called the 'Transaction Number'. Same with the 'Store Number' nowhere on my receipt does it say 'Transaction Number' or 'Store Number'. OK now I'm on the verge of cussing this lady on the recording out, so I hang up and I'm like, "well fuck this."

About a week later, I take another look at my 'Replacement Plan' and notice that they have a web option, so I log on to www.radioshack.fucked-up.replacementplan.com. Which asked for the same information as the stupid recording on the phone, I randomly type in different series of numbers from my receipt finally some combo worked, a week later I got my gift card for $16.45, the cost of the headphones plus tax..

OK, you think THAT'S the end of my annoyance? NOPE.

I want the exact same headphones, granted they came with ear buds that wouldn't fit in Godzilla's ears, in fact, they are not made to fit in any ones ears they're HUGE. But I really liked the headband headphones they were comfy, and loud. So I walk into RadioShack, walk over to the 'headphone dept' and I notice that the headphones I want are not $14.99 but they are now $19.99. OK not a HUGE deal but now I'm thinking I don't want to pay that extra $5 inflation for those worthless gigantic ear buds, so I start to look around, slim pick'ns I tell ya, slim pick'ns. Finally this 16 year old pimply faced employee walks up and I'm like, "I want comfy headphones that are pretty loud and not over $20". He seemed to be fine with my request until the "not over $20" part then he acted perplexed and confused. So I made it easy for him I picked out two pairs, stupidly on my part, ear buds that looked small enough to fit in my ears and hopefully stay in, under $20. Well he chose the ones that actually looked like earplugs that created a tunnel to the inner ear so that the music goes strait to your auditory nerve. I got them, they were 19.99. I paid my extra $5 put them in and made my way to the A train.

Guess what, that's not the end.

The bitches don't stay in! and they bother my ears, they are uncomfortable and they feel like they are falling out all the time. Oh he asked me if I wanted the replacement plan and I was like "hell no"! But the joke is on them. Dude, I'm totally going back on Monday saying oh my headphones are broken, and replacing them with those comfy ones that come with the ear buds that wouldn't fit Godzilla. I'll just chuck the ear buds into the Hudson. Its under 30 days and I have my receipt!


xo,
< /KO >

Take a Moment or Two

Unfortunately, my first blog-post will be a sad one. There are so many of us who feel it necessary to make today a day we honor the loss of a hero.

If you live under a rock you may not know that James Kim and his family went missing on 11/25/06. Being in New York its pretty much not news. Its sad, and it bothers me that we are this disconnected from humanity nationwide.

The Kim family was last known to be in the Southern Oregon area travelling by car back home from Portland, OR. Long story short, the weather was below freezing, and witness' put them in a desolate area of Southern OR. They were missing for 9 days when finally Searchers in a helicopter spotted a woman waving an umbrella. It ended up being Kati Kim and her two young daughters. It was later known that two days prior to the recover of Mrs. Kim and the girls James had set out on foot through rough snowy terrain to seek out help. There were people searching for James night and day. James was leaving a trail of clothes and torn pieces of the Oregon map he was carrying. He was found yesterday about noon PST, 5 days after he set out on foot. Sadly James was not found alive.

I do not know James or Kati, yet I feel so connected to them and this horrible, horrible situation. In July I began listening to various Podcast that CNET hosts, Gadgetts, Buzz out Loud and MP3 Insider. James was one of the hosts on MP3 Insider. I got to know James and the other hosts, you learn about their family, you know what kind of cars the drive, you know what their favorite foods are.. You know, the small things you learn about friends when you first meet. Another reason is that I'm originally from San Francisco and have always been in the technology industry. I have been to the CNET building, I have friends at CNET and I at one point walked past the building everyday on my way to work. Lastly, I lived in Grants Pass, OR and Talent, OR for about a year, and I have family who lives there now.

I realize this all doesn't exactly make me family, but so many lives end prematurely and every single time its a terrible thing to go through. We hear about death on the nightly news so often that if we are not directly connected to it we are numb to it. We know its sad, and we know someone or many someones are mourning the death of that person. We probably do too for a split second, then we change the channel and carry on with our lives. That is why I'm writing this.. Death is real this has made me see how fragile life can be. This brave man, healthy, normal, happy man died in the freezing cold in a heroic effort to save his family. I will never forget James Kim, nor will I ever turn the channel and carry on when I hear of an innocent life being taken again.

I apologize for the length of this blog, the others will not be this long, nor will they be about death, this was just necessary.
Take a minute out of your day to lend a thought to the loved ones of James Kim, and Sean Bell (who was shot dead by NYC PD just hours before his wedding).



< /KO >