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January 2006 Archives

January 1, 2006

Marchdecember Celebrates... The Uterus!!!

This week we're going to celebrate one of man's most mysterious enigmas... the uterus.

It turns out the uterus is really, really small. Now, I didn't know this. I thought the uterus was huge... I mean, like maybe the size of a hubcap. But it's not. Now, my sex ed teacher was a self-denying homosexual who had never gone up Brokeback Mountain. He'd never gone up ANY mountain for that matter. The man was a proud virgin, which is cool, but not when you're trying to teach kids about sex.

Anyway, it turns out that the uterus is tiny, and thank goodness I got married so Jennifer could set me straight... straight unlike my sex ed teacher. I don't know who her sex ed teacher was, but I'm guessing he or she has actually had sex, because she knew how big the uterus was.

By the way, you can click here if you want to see a real picture of a uterus, but don't do it if you're squeamish. Cause it turns out in real life the uterus is really, really gross. So click if you dare.

So in conclusion, HURRAY for the Uterus, for without it none of us would be here!!!

January 2, 2006

The Problem with Washington's Smoking Ban

So I've discovered the biggest problem with Washington State's new smoking ban. It's not that it's hurting business or anything like that. It's that thousands of intoxicated idiots are now spilling out onto the streets in order to smoke. Now we have to put up with them and their comments. Like last night's "Happy New Years, Honey!" And tonight's "Hey, you stupid f***!" Thanks. Thank you very much.

Mommas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Homos

We ran into this book the other day at the Christian bookstore.

It's A Parent's Guide to Preventing Homosexuality. Wow!

So if your kid is gay, it's your fault? I'd love to read this book, but I'm not about to spend my money on it, and I refuse to read library books due to their disgusting nature and the fact that someone else probably read it while on the toilet. I wonder if I could get the publisher to send me a free copy for review. Cause I'd love to read about how you shouldn't let your kid play with Barbies and stuff. Isn't this kind of book really offensive?!

January 8, 2006

Food for Thought

You know those restaurants with communal tips? You know, where your tip just goes into a pot and then everybody gets to share it at the end of the day. What's to prevent the really good waitresses from just taking the cash and pocketing it. And why shouldn't they?

Brokeback Mountain Big Deal

I'm getting tired of hearing about bias regarding Brokeback Mountain. Some theater in Utah has decided at the last moment not to show Brokeback Mountain.

Mike Thompson, executive director of the gay rights advocacy group Equality Utah, called it disappointing.
"It's just a shame that such a beautiful and award-winning film with so much buzz about it is not being made available to a broad Utah audience because of personal bias," he said.

Well, so what? Just because you make an award-winning doesn't mean you have some inalienable right to have it shown. The only reason this might be reasonably newsworthy is if your definition of news is "things that make conservatives look bad."

Whatever. I'm conservative, and I thought it was a moving, honest movie. The fact that so many people have misconceptions about it may have to do with the fact that so many left-leaning journalists gloss over it's nastier parts. It's far less obscene than most R-rated movies out there.

Typo of the Day

It really bothers me when typos make it out into the public. It's one thing if you have a pathetic webpage... like this one... but not if you have a major website like Yahoo! Here's from the front page of Yahoo around 9:55PM tonight (1-8-06)!

A&T? Sad.

Worst Shoreline Professor Ever*

*According to Ratemyprofessor.com

It's poor Steve Powell.

Here are some comments about him.

"I would NOT recommend him unless you want to be pulling your hair out all quarter or thinking of ways you can get him fired."

"So I made a big mistake when choosing Powell for Chem. What a nightmare. He has no experience, he's very hyper and has no connection with his students. I'll probably have to take it over again."

"Nice guy but sucks at teaching."

Ouch. I don't have a picture of Steve Powell but here is someone who kind of looks (and acts) the same.

But Professor Powell (don't call him doctor) can take solace in knowing that my favorite professor is rated pretty poorly too. Now, I never took the KLeffler for Econ 200... just 431, but he's awesome in my book. I just wish I was awesome like him. AWESOME KLEFFLER!!!

As for poor Steve Powell, he's a newbie... younger than me I think... and he'll fare okay once he puts some time in and goes to the Keith Leffler School of Teaching Awesomeness!

January 9, 2006

Asperger's and Unemployment

What happens if you have and want to get a job? An interview might not go so well for you. "Are you a team player?" Uh... no. "Do you work well with others?" By others, do you mean other people?!

So how do people with Asperger's handle getting a job? It turns out... they don't. In Britain, where a study on Asperger's was conducted, adults dealing with Asperger's had an 88% unemployment rate. EIGHTY-EIGHT PERCENT! Ouch.

There's good news though... people with Asperger's in the Seattle area have a lot of options to help them out. This Wednesday, in Ballard, there's a panel of adult "Aspies" who will be discussing Asperger's with parents and family of Asperger children and young adults. And there's a four-week "Living with Asperger's" course in Seattle, Redmond, and Bellevue, which helps adults who need help in social, romantic, and sexual situations.

Hooyah! for sexual situations!

Typo of the Day (1-9-06)

It's 3:47AM and the Yahoo! main page is still showing yesterday's typo. How annoying.

Here's another typo that is less obvious, and less annoying, but at least more entertaining. It's for a house in beautiful , California, home of my amazingly beautiful wife.

I found this on someone else's website, but see if you can find what is wrong with that one.

Is This Uncle Tony?

What is Uncle Tony doing in the back of this El Camino? Inquiring minds want to know.

Erin and Levi's Wedding Registry

Erin and Levi are less than a month away from being married, unless something horrible happens like Levi discovers Erin is his long lost half-sister. I mean, that's not likely to happen, but being unemployed I catch a lot of soap operas, and this thing turns out to be more common than you'd think!

Anyway, I found their ultra cool Crate & Barrel registry online... including a request for ten $0.75 corn picks. I called them first!

Update: Apparently the time between January 9th to February 19th is NOT less than a month. Thanks to Juan for pointing this out to me. HA HA HA HA! I'm just kidding. There's no Juan. There's nobody! Nobody reads this site!

An Exciting New MLM Opportunity!!!!!!!!!! Ugh.

I'm seeing new Work from Home signs lately, that include the logo of an exciting new MLM business called Xtreme Health. Xtreme Health is different from Herbalife, in that it is trying to look more like a legitimate business. I even saw an Xtreme Health kiosk at the mall. Unfortunately, no matter how good the product, it's still using a horrible inefficient method of distribution. You know how you want to eliminate the middle man to get a good deal? Well MLM is like the king of middle men (and women.) The average salesperson has to support all kinds of people who are above them on the pyramid (or triangle, or whatever.)

Xtreme Health is a new ephedra-free system for losing weight. Ephedra based products actually worked pretty well, but like most effective weight-loss wonder drugs, they had the nasty habit of killing people. As far as I can tell, there is no reason to believe a safe herbal weight loss product exists, and Xtreme Health is no exception. That said, if you want to buy their products, hey, it's your money, and they probably won't HARM you at least. You never know... maybe they work.

But if you are poor and need extra cash, or you're just gullible, or whatever, please don't spend one dime on these MLM systems. They don't work, and I hate to see people get ripped off just so some fat cat who came up with yet another scam company can buy a new yacht or whatever. Please stay far away from Xtreme Health, or Herbalife, or Ameriprise, or Quixtar/Amway. Please stay far, far away.

January 10, 2006

The Best of NAIAS 2006

The Detroit Auto Show opened up Monday, and they've got all sorts of new cars for you to see. Once upon a time the Detroit show was more a showcase for wild concepts that cars that might actually be built, but automakers for once are showering us with actual vehicles they might build. And here's a kicker... the cars might actually look like the concepts!

Here's some of the best from this year's show!

2007 Toyota Camry

Next year's Camry comes with a 268HP V6, reclining rear seats, push-button start, and a remote start system that automatically starts when you approach the car. It's almost enough to make you want to buy one! Nearly half a million already do every year.

2007 Jeep Wrangler

Look! It's the new Jeep Wrangler. Looks just like the old Jeep Wrangler, but it's not.

200x Dodge Challenger

Look for the inevitable aftermarket Cuda modification kit. Sign me up... for the car AND the kit!

Also worth seeing...

2007 Buick Enclave
200x Chevrolet Camaro

January 12, 2006

Lose Weight with Herbalife! UPDATE

Remember back in September when we found an Herbalife sign by our apartment?

That sign advertised an Herbalife distributor who we will call Ms. Read, based out of North Seattle. Ms. Read has been busy placing more signs apparently, this time much closer to her home base. The latest is one at the intersection of NE 145th and I-5, right next to the southbound on-ramp. Strangely the sign is so small that it's virtually useless.

Which brings up a good point about these signs in the first place. Do they really work? How many people actually get out a pen and paper and write down the phone number.

It should be noted that Ms. Read now has a toll-free vanity number, since the 206 number in the sign above goes to her cell phone, which has to be kinda crummy when someone needs their Herbalife fix at 3 in the morning. On the other hand, most Herbalife distributors would be happy to sell SOMETHING regardless of what time it is.

Rainy's Own Herbalife Sales Site

Well, it turns out any old schmuck can start his own Herbalife website. It's free and took like two minutes to do. Check out this website advertising Herbalife. "A.C." stands for Awful Cat. Check out his slightly modified Welcome Message as well.

Early Man Hunted by Birds

That's right, you heard me. Apparently early man was once hunted by vicious birds, according to soon-to-be-replaced research from some research institute or something.

Researchers have long suspected that early man may have been plagued by birds who would swoop down, flap their wings a lot, and then land on early man's shoulder. This vicious behavior was so scary that early man would then respond by dying. Thousands of cavemen were terrorized by vicious birds like this one.

The only protection against birds like these is cowboy hats. Vicious birds of prey are afraid of cowboy hats. Unfortunately, cavemen didn't have cowboy hats, so they would die, only to have their delicious brains eaten by birds like this one.

So let this be a lesson to you. Wear your cowboy hat!

January 13, 2006

Subliminal Mel Gibson in Apocalypto Trailer

I don't know how I missed this one, but if you freeze frame the Apocalypto trailer at 1:46, you might notice this.

Mel Gibson stuck himself in the trailer. You'll never catch it just watching it at full speed, so you've got to freeze frame and then move forward frame by frame (with your cursor keys).

Mel Gibson is pretty cool.

Seattle Under Siege: Day 26

A few days ago I decided I was really, really, really sick of the rain. I've enjoyed the nice temperatures, but the rain was really getting to me. That's when the friendly people on the news told me that we've had 26 days straight of rain! And anything the friendly people on the news tell me must be true. So here we are, 26 days of rain, and things are crazy. People's houses are falling down hills. Rivers are overflowing. Lakes are rising. Water is absolutely everywhere. It's crazy.

Check out these photos from KIRO showing the waters in Lake Sammamish.



And things aren't any better to the south.

I haven't seen it this bad in years. The poor soil can't handle any more rain, and there's LOTS of rain to come! How will things fare tomorrow when the Seahawks are playing at Qwest Field. I suppose a few might wish we hadn't blown up the Kingdome.

Black Cherry Vanilla Coca-Cola to Hit Stores

Coke is pulling Vanilla and Diet Vanilla Coke from the shelves, only to have it replaced by Black Cherry Vanilla Coke (as well as the Diet variant.) Coca-Cola claims they will see about bringing back Vanilla Coke someday, but that "right now Diet Black Cherry Vanilla Coke and Black Cherry Vanilla Coke are what consumers are telling us they want."

I'm sure consumers are just SCREAMING for these two soft drinks.

Three Cheers for Cane Sugar!!!

Found at the Shoreline CC cafeteria: a bottle of Moxie Cherry Cola. Bottled in Mukilteo, Moxie is Cherry Cola the way I remember it as a kid... with delicious CANE SUGAR! Colas today are made with high fructose corn syrup. Corn syrup is cheaper (thanks to government subsidization) but isn't as tasty as delicious sugar (or so some say.) Supposedly it may have harmful effects as well. I don't know. All I know is this Moxie stuff tastes REALLY REALLY good. It makes Coke and Pepsi taste like water.

January 15, 2006

Bike Riding and Helmets

My brother is bugged by people who don't wear helmets.

It is really idiotic. When ever I see some person riding their bike, motorcycle or rollarblades, I see them without a helmet. Well, not all the time, but that's what I occasionally see. And I ask myself "What, do you want to get brain damage? Do you want to hurt yourself?"
I don't understand. Don't they care about their safety?

But riding a bicycle isn't dangerous. Riding a bicycle like an idiot is what is dangerous. When I was a kid we wouldn't just ride our bikes around and have fun. We would speed down hills to see how fast we could go. We would build flimsy ramps and then jump them. We didn't wear helmets, but if you're riding down a hill at 50MPH on a bicycle, you don't need a helmet. You need some common sense.

But what is your take? Post your thoughts over at our message board. (Yes, this is a cheap ploy to get people to post something.)

January 16, 2006

One Book "I" Don't Want You to Buy

I got a chance to thumb through Kevin Trudeau's new book: Natural Cures "They" Don't Want You to Know About. Who is "they?" The establishment. The pharmaceuticals. The boogeymen. Whoever you want them to be.

Trudeau's advice ranges from the mundane to the absolute nutty. The sun doesn't cause cancer, Kevin tells us. Don't wear sunscreen. It's sunscreen that causes cancer! How does Kevin know this? Well look at them thar Africans! They don't have cancer! It must be true! I wittle what I see!

At the end of it all, Trudeau tells you to check into Scientology. Seriously. I wish I was joking. But I'm not.

Anyway, save your money. Many of the cures aren't even in the book. Kevin wants you to buy a subscription to his website for those. And even if they were free, there's no reason you should try them. Trudeau is no more trustworthy than those evil drug companies, and given his criminal record, I'd say he's quite a bit LESS trustworthy.

January 17, 2006

Marchdecember for the Colorblind

Check it out.

Cleanse Your Colon: Testimonials

One of the companies who use the Google ads on the site is called Colonix. Colon cleansing is recommended by one of our favorite confidence artists, Kevin Trudeau. I actually wonder how much he gets paid to promote others scams. Nonetheless, here is a testimonial from someone who is using Colonix.

I started the program this past Friday, 12/17. Today, 12/19, I am only 2 days into the program. I just had a big bowel movement and being the scientist I am, I had to look to see what I had voided. WOW was I ever surprised!!! All kinds of unimaginable things were in my stool. Well, I am a biochemist and in my lab I have microscopes and dissecting microscopes so I took the plunge and recovered a lot of the unidentifiable objects. I am making a special trip to the lab today to investigate these items. This product really works. It is the GREATEST!

Wow. He writes again with the results back from his lab.

They were definitely parasites. Some of the material appeared to be undigested food as well. I don't want to gross you out but let me tell you what I observed. And these things came from me after using your WONDERFUL product for only 2 days. I measured this one red object. It was 1 cm long and bright red. When I looked at it under the microscope it had scales on it like a fish. It was only about 2 mm wide. It definitely had a head on it.
Another object had a head and a long body that went into a large mass. On top of this head was an antenna like protrusion that had a hook on the end. Not sure what it was but you could see the opening on this thing. I can't believe this stuff was living inside me. Also, one cream colored mass was filled with something that I feel were eggs. There were hundreds of these in that mass.
I tell you, you folks have made a believer out of me with Colonix. I had no idea we had parasites living inside of us. It is amazing and even more amazing to see these things eliminated from my body. Oh, I did see something that resembled a squid. It had a large body and a bunch of tentacles coming off it. It was associated with one of those large masses that I recovered. Too bad your clients don't have access to a microscope to look at this stuff that comes from their bodies. Certainly is scary.

Look at that sentence I highlighted. "I had no idea we had parasites living inside of us." What kind of idiot biochemist doesn't know we have parasites living inside of us?

Colonix has a picture gallery too, but you might just want to avoid that one.

You know, the worst part is, for all I know Colonix is a great product. I personally think colon cleansing is probably unnecessary. But because it is associated with Kevin Trudeau, my assumption is that it is a scam as well. And I'm sure Trudeau is right about a few things. I'm seriously considering writing a book.

If you're still interested in Colonix after all this, the links below should provide you with some interesting reading material.

January 19, 2006

Those Gross Anti-Smoking Commercials

Max really hates those anti-smoking commercials where people stick horribly gross things in their mouth. Jennifer hates them too. Max says:

I find that WAY more disgusting then most anything else on TV right now. What I really hate it when they put them on during dinner time. Hello, I’m trying to eat dinner with my family, I don’t need to see some dead rotting creature of cat vomit in someone’s mouth right now.

Your thoughts? Post them here.

January 20, 2006

Marchdecember Prayer Page

What do you guys think of my mockup for a prayer page. I kind of got the idea from those million pixel sites, and also from Catholic churches where they have all the candles. I made the candles myself. Anyway, it has some mockup prayers there, but people could enter their prayer request, and then it would show up. Newer entries would have a lighter background... as seen on the page.

Do you have any suggestions or ideas? Is it even a good idea? What do you think? Please tell me. Please please please please. Pretty please tell me. Please?

January 21, 2006

New March Blog

I am going to start posting more political things over at my new blog, march.newsvine.com. However, Newsvine is still in a private beta, so I'm actually not sure if you can read any of it. Let me know. Important stuff will be cross-posted anyway, and if you are into news and politics, you might want to get an invite from me so you can post your own stuff.

Awesome: Asperger's Phone

Some genius just got a gigantic check for inventing a phone that changes colors depending on the mood of the caller, allowing Asperger's sufferers to pick up on social cues.

I imagine this could be useful for all of us though. Especially in those awkward interactions with women. "So you DID sleep with her?" What color is the phone? Better yet, maybe the phone should tell us how to respond. "Well, I never technically fell asleep!"

January 22, 2006

Dan Rather: Seattle is regarded as a sort of subcapital of the United States

In a recent interview with the Seattle Times, Dan Rather commented on the importance of Seattle in the 21st century.

Recent trips to China and to North Korea taught him, he says, that Seattle is regarded as a sort of subcapital of the United States, "which surprised me." He came away perceiving the historical center of gravity has shifted from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and specifically the Northern Pacific.
"Whether you are talking about the 21st-century economy or, God forbid, a new world war, it is in the Northern Pacific," he says. "A great deal of the pages of this century will be written on the axis of Seattle-Vancouver to Tokyo, Pyongyang and Beijing."

Seattle as the new New York? Very interesting.

We're Going to the Super Bowl!!!

WOOHOO! The Seahawks are goin' to the Super Bowl!

Did you know the Seattle Seahawks could have been the Seattle Slugs? So Seattle is going to go Seahawks crazy over the next few weeks. If you've got pictures of people with 'Hawks Fever, send them to marchdecember@gmail.com

January 24, 2006

The WB and UPN to Shut Down

At first I thought the above headline was a joke. It's not. The WB and UPN networks will both shutdown after this season.

Parent companies CBS Corp and Warner Bros. will then launch an entirely new network, dubbed the CW Network. The Hollywood Reporter is reporting that Tribune will be the primary broadcasting group for CW, as it is for the WB. Here in Seattle, that means CW will be broadcast on KTWB 22, currently known as Seattle's WB. UPDATE: Turns out the CW will be broadcast on KSTW 11 here in Seattle, due to the fact that CBS owns that station too. There were several markets where CBS and Tribune both owned potential CW stations, so they just went half and half. Since KTWB shares a lot of content with KCPQ 13, they may figure 22 can survive on it's own.

The new network will take shows from the best of each network, including America's Next Top Model, Veronica Mars, and the Gilmore Girls. Sadly, Smallville will also continue to air.

What Happened to Rainy?

My Rainier used to be so cute!


This was only like six months ago!

But then something changed. Rainy got grumpy. He got big boyos. He started attacking everything possible. We can't use toilet paper. We can't hang things on the wall. We can't even hang things up by the ceiling.

He goes where he shouldn't go. He does whatever he wants. And when you try to scold him, he either looks abused, or he talks back to you. He sits there and talks back to you, like he's saying "I'll just wait till you look away." He's an awful, awful kitty.

What a horrible child!

My Secret Confession of the Day: I Love Pearl Harbor

Pearl Harbor is a great movie. I mean, it's not a GREAT movie. It's a great movie. It is beautifully filmed. It has possibly the greatest setting and props possible for a movie. It is probably one of the most moving time periods in our history. This is a movie that had the potential to just be the biggest movie in the world. It's just beautiful.

Of course, there's all that Ben Affleck and a stupid love story and Alec Baldwin as Doolittle. I mean, it's really stupid. You know, I had the honor of chauffeuring one of the REAL heroes of Pearl Harbor around... one of the two men who made it up into the air to defend our country that day. He was a great guy. They all were, the men who lived and the men who died... the women who supported them at home and at war.

You know what would have made Pearl Harbor a GREAT movie? If they just got rid of the stupid actors altogether. Just put in nobodies and just film what happened. No bizarre love triangle. No awful leftist pansy actors pretending to be real Americans. Just film the planes and the heroes... the men who fought for our country, and yes, the men who fought for theirs. Now that would have been a GREAT movie... a truly GREAT movie!

January 25, 2006

Michael Seen Kissing a Redhead!

Who is this mystery woman?

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SHOCKING!!!

Michael Seen Kissing ANOTHER Redhead!





Reports are Rainy walked in on the two in bed.

January 26, 2006

Michael's Redheads Part III




(For comparison)

Woman Can't Get GM to Replace Her Unsafe 2005 Chevy

Some poor woman bought a 2005 Chevy Uplander with a ton of problems with it, including a problem with the headlights. GM has declared it to be a problem vehicle, yet she is still stuck with it. Shouldn't a large corporation like this replace problem vehicles immediately? Otherwise they make customers angry. Those customers go complain. Others read it. They post on their blog about it. You see where this is going.

Lemon vehicles happen, and I'm sure there are lemon Toyotas and Hyundais as well. Sometimes you aren't going to get a great vehicle. But consumers understand this. What they can't understand is being forced to drive the unsafe vehicle around while somebody at GM makes a decision. I'd be afraid to purchase a Chevrolet now, not because it might be a lemon, but because GM doesn't seem to know how to handle their customers... because I would be STUCK with the lemon.

Here's some advice for General Motors. Replace the van now! Just go, get another Uplander, and give it to her! Or, give her a refund, and allow her to buy a Honda or Toyota so she doesn't have to deal with this sort of thing again. Just because you make poor products doesn't mean you should make the customer suffer. Has GM forgotten that the customer is always right? Sure seems like it to me.

UPDATE: Good news! Plus, I make a cool picture!

Crossposted at Newsvine.

January 27, 2006

What Sports Car Am I?

I'm a Lamborghini Murcielago!

You're not subtle, but you don't want to be. Fast, loud, and dramatic, you want people to notice you, and then get out of the way. In a world full of sheep, you're a raging bull.

Take the Which Sports Car Are You? quiz.

Awesome!

UPDATE: Max and December have taken the quiz as well. See their results, and add your own, here.

Herbalife Panhandler

Check out this guy panhandling with a sign that says "I lost all money to Herbalife. Ask me how!" Hilarious.

January 28, 2006

Panhandling Epidemic

I'm seeing a lot of panhandlers around lately. There is always a guy at the southbound exit at I-5 and NE 145th, but that's been true for as long as I can remember. But now panhandlers are finding other places to stand around with their signs.

For example, at the corner of NE 145th and Aurora, there's a panhandler in a Blazers jacket. He often stands there in the mornings with a sign that says something to the effect that he needs money for himself and his family.

Also, now there is a guy who likes to panhandle by the movie theater in Woodinville. That shopping complex is almost always jam packed, so I bet he makes a lot of money from rich snobs, as well as poor snobs like me. Well, I'm not going to give him any money.

Several months ago some guy tried to get us to give him gas money, and I told him that he was barking up the wrong tree. I don't have a job either, but you don't see me on the street begging for money. I mean, it would probably be more effective, but seriously. (Actually I have two interviews and a potential third one in the next few weeks, so things are a lot better on that front.)

There is often a guy panhandling on NE 124th in Kirkland, over by the Wendy's or Azteca. He will sometimes walk up and down the street hoping for people to give him money.

Of all the people panhandling, I have to say I find the one in Woodinville the most obnoxious. That's because he's not just on the street... he's in the shopping complex, so he's kind of in a parking lot too. When I go to the movies, I don't want to be confronted with some gross man trying to get me to give him money.

Have you noticed more people panhandling lately? Your thoughts?

January 29, 2006

Gillette Fusion vs Mach 3: HEAD TO HEAD

The new Gillette Fusion is going head to head with the old skool Mach 3... on my face that is. Coming soon, the results of our scientific test of the new Fusion.

Meanwhile, more photos after the break.

Continue reading "Gillette Fusion vs Mach 3: HEAD TO HEAD" »

Comments! Leave Your Own!

In case you hadn't noticed, there's a slightly new look here at marchdecember. I finally got around to customizing the front page a bit. In BIG NUMBERS you can see how many comments there are on each post, which so far is ZERO on most of them. Anyway, please feel free to comment and make those numbers bigger. In fact, leave a comment right now... anything you want at all. You can click on the big number to do it. Make that number a 1. Or a 2. Or a 3. Or a 87. Talk about anything. I don't care. Have a nice discussion. Just give the comment system some use.

Also, I've got a picture of who is posting so it will be very easy for you to tell who posted what. But I realized that Jennifer almost never posts anything anyway, and that it says "by March" or "by December" next to the date anyway. So I was thinking I would make the image relate to the category. So like if it was about cats, a cat image would come up. Or whatever. What do you think?

Mega-Super-Huge Update on Me (or not)...

So I don't post as much as I should, but I don't seem to have much time for anything this quarter. I'm super busy. I'm taking Inorganic Chemistry and lab and Botany (the second sequence of biology) and lab, and math. I'm in lab for ten hours a week! It's crazy!

Speaking of crazy, I dyed my hair red, for no real reason. My blonde was looking dreary lately, probably because I haven't seen sun in weeks, and I just went for it. This isn't the first time I've been a redhead, however.

I haven't been doing much of anything but school lately, and Michael can certainly attest for that. Even the weekends I'm booked with finishing up lab reports, and this weekend I've been attempting to study for my first set of exams on top of finishing my three lab reports from Biology and my one from Inorganic Chemistry. I also had to quickly slap together my math homework for tomorrow. I don't know how this quarter will turn out...

I just noticed I have yet to take down my Christmas houses from Christmas time. Ooops. Last year the stockings were up for almost half the year before I finally took them down. I might as well just left them up there for this year, since I never did get around to hanging them.

Well, that's all I have for now. I'm not very interesting right now in life. My head is filled only with plant morphology and functions and polyatomic ions.

January 30, 2006

Brian vs. the Insurance Company

This guy gets his Jag S-Type rear-ended by a Hummer H2 on the freeway, but the H2 driver is insured by 21st Century Insurance. The H2 driver is clearly at fault, and 21st Century agrees to this, but then come the buts and ands. I hate companies like this... they start treating people like numbers, and they lose their way.

Ironically... I mean, they are called 21st Century Insurance yet they don't seem to understand that in the 21st Century these sorts of business practices will get you bad publicity.

There were only 20 diggs on this item when I found it on digg, but I bet there's going to be a LOT more.

read more | digg story

Sleepless in Seattle

What if Sleepless in Seattle was a horror film? I don't where these guys came up with idea, but it's pretty funny.

(Mirror here.)

I was never all that big a fan of Sleepless in Seattle. Maybe I should give it another try.

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Michael's Fantastic Job Update

Well, I still don't have a job, but I do have a lot more opportunities coming my way. Today I interviewed for a job at Boeing, which I think I did pretty well on. And I got a call from King County telling me that I did very well on my "skills" test, and that they'd like to see me on February 9th. So I have an interview then too.

Then I have another potential interview at Boeing in Everett, but that's not confirmed or anything... there's the possibility that nothing could come of it.

So I'm doing a lot of interviews. I'm just not getting a lot (or any) job offers yet. But I think the future is bright. At least I'm getting interviews. That's more than I was before.

January 31, 2006

Truth in Dating Advertising

Lately, I'm seeing a lot of "skyscraper" ads for online dating services. These ads always having a beautiful woman on them, often scantily clad. Here's an example of what I'm talking about.

This is a real ad, though I've removed the name of the company offering it's services. That seems like a pretty good looking woman. I'm sure there are women on these dating services that look like this... a few at least. But this isn't the product the dating service is selling. It's helping you find your perfect match... your soulmate. Isn't this really just selling sex? A hot girl in a bikini... if you're a single guy, wouldn't you click?

I'm not saying they're doing anything wrong. I just wonder how successful the ad campaign would be with a slightly different twist. What if the ad looked like this?

With apologies to this webpage (NSFW), I've changed the ad slightly. It still has a fun-loving girl, wearing some revealing swimwear, with a big smile on her face and some Mardi Gras beads to top it all off! But of course you never see ads like these.

Granted, my example is extreme. I'd like to at least see these ads use real customers, not professional models who sometimes are doing stock photo shoots years before the ad even runs.

What do you think? As always, comments are open and pretty much unmoderated.

Virtual Kitty Cat

It's like Melvin, except it's cute and it purrs. Really! Try rubbing it's tummy!

More here and here.

Michael is a Busy Man

I have yet another interview on Tuesday! This time with the Art Institute of Seattle. I sent in my resume a while ago, so I wasn't sure why they were even calling me.

Thursday, I go to see this guy. He has been instrumental in diagnosing Jennifer and getting her on the right medicine so she can succeed in school and in life. I can only be thankful for that. It turns out that without treatment, we faced a 90% chance of divorce.

Jennifer hasn't really talked about what she has been diagnosed with here, but then again, she doesn't really talk about anything here does she?!

So I have two interviews next week, plus I'm waiting for the results from the interview from yesterday.

We shall see!

About January 2006

This page contains all entries posted to marchdecember in January 2006. They are listed from oldest to newest.

December 2005 is the previous archive.

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