Saturday, February 25, 2006

I'm fast

On January 10, I failed to pay a toll on the NJ Turnpike, so the NJ Transit Whatever tells me.

Only problem with that: I haven't been in New Jersey since August. I flew out to California on January 2 and haven't moved back. And my car was in the possession of the auto shippers from January 6-January 21.

This means one of two things: either someone from the car company was joyriding (unlikely), or my car being on the top of an auto trailer screwed up the sensor on the NJ Pike.

(When my parents called, I was trying to think "I didn't blow off any tolls recently, right? I mean, I have gone through some toll plazas before the light went green, but I paid...")

At first, I thought all hybrid drivers were assholes

I have seen a lot of people driving in hybrid cars, alone, in the carpool lane during rush hour. I thought they were jerks.

Now I know that California allows some hybrid vehicles to use the carpool lane with impunity.

Now I just think the people driving alone in the carpool lane in SUVs, BMWs, and non hybrid cars are jerks.

Tuesday, February 21, 2006

Times you can't be thug

Two different peple blasting music while not achieving the image they wanted:

Target Parking lot, Mountain View: big African-American guy in a Pontiac Grand Am, blasting "It's Your Birthday" by 50 Cent. It sounded like he started that song just to drive in front of the Target. I'm not sure anyone can be thug at Target.

University Ave, Palo Alto: someone with an excellent stereo system in a Jetta blasting "Hit Me Baby One More Time." It's really hard to be thug in Palo Alto (I'm looking at you, angsty skateboarder kids in Lytton Park). And it's impossible to be thug while blasting Britney Spears.

Sunday, February 19, 2006

The next thing I want to see out of the internet

I want an application (preferably web based) where I enter in which bands I'm interested, and how far I am willing to travel to see them, and it alerts me when the band announces when they're coming, and when the tickets go on sale. All of this through RSS when anything updates would be even better.

Ticketmaster's UI is just abysmal. It also doesn't register which bands I like very well and give me that custom UI. It thinks that I'd be willing to go to Reno for a concert, too. As it is, I'm relegated to going to band sites and checking them out one by one. It's hard to do.

This would require either fans to aggregate and submit the information, or for bands to supply an RSS feed of their shows - drawing people away from their site. Ticketmaster wouldn't give the data up either.

Though I could crawl it myself.

Tuesday, February 14, 2006

S-M-R-T

I bought tickets for Raceday 2006 based on Raceday 2005 (currently does say RD 2005, it might be updated soon) dates.

I've changed them, but it was an expensive mistake.

Monday, February 13, 2006

Yep, I'm smart

You think I would have realized I'd have a hard time parking around my place when there's valet parking right across the street from my front door.

Sunday, February 12, 2006

I'm going to go all Seinfeld on you for a post

Almost every counter service place I go to now has a jar on the counter for tips. And I don't understand why.

I feel awkward getting change back and not putting some in the jar, but at the same time, I feel more embarassed if I just put in a quarter. But when my bagel costs $1.90, I don't feel a $1 tip is appropriate.

How about this: no tip jar, and if your service rocks, I'll hand you money myself.

Thursday, February 09, 2006

Speed dating

CIA (the organization I used to run at Carnegie Mellon) is holding a speed dating event this weekend. Mark, the social chair who is organizing it, got an email about how speed dating excludes the GLBT community, basically inviting an argument. Mark and the chair declined the bait, but I'll bite.

The event is targetting about 20 males and 20 females, but will probably only get 15 of each - about 30 total people. On average, let's say that 10% of people at Carnegie Mellon are gay. That means if you hold an event with 40 people, 4 will be gay. How do 4 people speed date, when statistically, there will be 2 gay males and 2 lesbians if people randomly show up?

I'm serious: how do you include gay people in speed dating without making it a gay person speed dating event? The guy who emailed to complain didn't even suggest a way to create a GLBT friendly event - he just said "some day you guys will be able to include us." He's creating an "us and them" mentality himself, fighting against what the gay community really should want - unity among all people.

Questions and comments on how speed dating could be gay inclusive while not making it a gay event are very welcome.

[Edit: Friday afternoon, 4 pm PST]
Actual text from the guy complaining about speed dating:

"[Speed dating is] also pretty exclusive of the GLBT community."
"One of these days, you guys are going to come up with some way to include people who aren't just attracted to the opposite sex. It can't be that difficult."

I still maintain this is creating an us-and-them mentality, and I still maintain this is inviting an argument and not being very gay-progressive. But I might as well include the exact rebuttal to speed dating.

I take back half of what I said bad about Krispy Kreme

Throughout college, I had a few Krispy Kreme donuts due to various fundraisers and boxes that friends had. I'd never really liked them, much preferring Dunkin Donuts, or Frosty's. Everyone said "oh, but they're so good fresh and warm." But I'd never had them that way.

This morning I was walking from the automotive shop to work - about a mile and a half. (My Thunderbird needs a new headlight switch) I really needed coffee - at one point I ran a red light because I thought it was a 2 way stop. So I stopped at a Krispy Kreme along the way.

I ordered their version of a Boston Cream donut and a large coffee and handed the cashier my money. Then all of the sudden, another employee hands me a fresh donut, apparently free with my order. I bit in and said to myself "oh, this is good."

So if I'm jonesing for a donut and coffee, and the "fresh donuts" sign is on, I might find myself by Krispy Kreme again sometime. I still, however, wish there were Dunkin Donuts on every corner on the west coast too.

Wednesday, February 08, 2006

Standoff

In a movie, when two people have guns at each other's heads, why does the good guy always kick or punch the bad guy? Don't you think the bad guy would flinch and therefore shoot? Isn't it therefore easier to just pull the trigger? Much deadlier and less likely to aggravate an itchy trigger finger.