Bob Marley went forth

Bob Marley went forth and multiplied.

My favorite thing? 3 kids born in one month:

Stephen, born April 20, 1972, to Rita
Robert "Robbie", born May 16, 1972, to Pat Williams
Rohan, born May 19, 1972, to Janet Hunt

Google Maps is still the best

New York, NY to Dublin, Ireland

That's right, no flying for you

At least they were honest (and spell well)

From: "Parr, Kelli"
To: Matt
Date: Wed, 28 Mar 2007 07:21:16 -0500
Subject: Fraudulent Spam.

Dear Homeowner,

You have been pre-approved for a $438 ,000 'refinance' Loan at a 3.23 % Fixed Rate.

This offer is being extended to you unconditionally and your credit is in no way a factor.

To take Advantage of this Limited Time opportunity all we ask is that you visit our Website and complete the 1 minute post Approval Form.

http://refinance_approval.saveloan005.com

Sincerely,

Sincerely yours,
Brett Abraham

NovaForm + Roomba?

When I crawled into bed last night, I felt a little congested. But I hadn't felt congested before. So I decided I should change my sheets and probably vacuum my bed.

Lo and behold, my Roomba does not like to work on my NovaForm mattress. The Roomba's cleaning rotors suck the mattress cover in, and the Roomba can't go anywhere. Maybe I'll have to do this the old fashioned way...

New favorite site!

Thanks to Fark, I've found my new favorite site. hockeyfights.com.

Goalie fights are beautiful! And this fight last night between Buffalo and Ottowa is fun.

Fat fingers forge fear

Every time I mistype my password at work I get:

Username or password not recognized.

and I worry I've been fired and that I haven't been told. :'(

Tragedy of the Commons

The Tragedy of the Commons. I think reading an essay on this should be in every high school English class.

Colbert + O'Relly

Colbert on The O'Reilly Factor


O'Reilly on the Colbert Report


Remarks:
O'Reilly likes to yell, and Colbert didn't rise to it, although O'Reilly was baiting him.
Colbert was so patronizing that O'Reilly couldn't find anything to yell and get angry about.
Seeing O'Reilly on the Colbert Report was kind of anticlimactic.

(Belated) New Year's Resolution

The Alpine Meadows National Ski Patrol is looking for more patrolmen. They have a "ski check" that you have to pass to be a patrolman. Well, I ski most of their terrain, but not their double blacks or some of their off piste terrain.

In 2007, I want to get in good enough shape so that in the 2007-2008 ski season I can train to be a patrolman. Basically this is a 2 year resolution: year 1, fitness to train. Year 2: train on the terrain and gain a bit more strength to be able to take a loaded toboggan down all of that terrain. Then, fall 2008, take that ski check and pass it.

"But daddy, I'm only 5"

University Ave, Palo Alto. A father has his five year old son in his arms.

Father: "You have to be, pretty much, first in your class every year for that"

Zombies!

On New Year's Eve, Helen and I went to one of her LA friend's parents' house for a small party. One of the other people there brought a student movie he acted in for us to watch.

Towards the end of the movie, there are zombies and there's a non zombie guy who is leading the zombies. This dialog still makes me smile:

Leader: What do we want?
Zombies: Brains
Leader: When do we want it?
Zombies: Brains

Edit: apparently this wasn't as original as I'd thought.

Loyalty: hard to earn, easy to lose

Usually, mileage from United Airlines flights posts on my US Airways account within a couple days. When I flew back from Pittsburgh in early December, I didn't get my miles normally debited. So I mailed in the ticket stub, as they say to do after a couple weeks. A couple weeks later, no miles posted.

So I email them:

... I haven't yet received the miles, and miles are always deposited within 2 days. I even mailed in the ticket to the
mailing address you specify...

They reply, 8 days later:

To credit missing flight activity ... in your Dividend Miles account, we require both a copy of the ticket receipt and the original boarding passes to be submitted ...

Ok, at least pretend to read my email, please.

So I call. I have status on US Airways, so I call my spiffy elite line. I figured I'd get some perky, happy customer service rep - I mean, shouldn't frequent flyers get better service? Nope, the CSR was completely unenthusiastic and bored.

I used to be happy with US Airways: usually on time, usually pretty good service, usually just kind of another mainline carrier. In 3 events (miles not normally posting, lousy and slow email support, unenthusiastic customer support reps), in the span of a month, I've completely lost any enthusiasm to fly with them.

Mission: make it to Boston

I got bumped on the way to Maine and on the way back, netting me two free round trips on United anywhere in the continental 48. I was hoping to get bumped tomorrow because Seat Counter says my flight is sold out.

Which leads me to tonight's story. One of my friends called me tonight to pick her up at SFO. Turns out her flight to Vegas was so delayed she'd miss her flight to Charlotte, so she decided to rebook. Well, the earliest she can get to Charlotte (out of San Jose, SF, or Oakland) is Monday morning. I would assume it's the same issue for me heading into Boston, Manchester, or Portland. So I'll keep my seat tomorrow, and make sure to arrive on time! (She was in line for 4+ hours between trying to check in and trying to rebook)

No means no, not "maybe next week"

I have opted out of receiving credit card offers based on the lender running my score and then offering me a card. However, that doesn't stop groups you work with from sending you offers.

Both United and US Airways have been sending me card offers to link with my frequent flier accounts. Not only that, but they send an offer every time they mail me something anyway and they send me offers about once a week in the mail. I've had to call both of them and tell them to go away.

Iran: score -1, troll

Iran Opens Conference on Holocaust

Way to bone that one

I use Yahoo TV to see tv listings. Until today, you could look at local listings without signing in. Now you can't. And it's uber ugly.

Ok, so what do I use for TV listings online? Suggestions, readers?

Isn't that strange...

Only two British air carriers and two American air carriers (and two grandfathered other carriers) can fly US-Heathrow routes due to some 1970s agreement.

Plan of the day

Current plan: summer of 2010, take a 3 month leave from work and travel, or bike from California to Maine.

Nerd Humor

Nerd humor for you about sudo from xkcd.

A statement I wish were true

I wish this statement were true:

"(I sleep well every night, but) I get my best sleep on planes!"

This year I will do 10 trips to the east coast, and 9 of those have red eyes. Anyone have secrets for bulletproof sleep on planes?