Oh, those crazy German art students!

I guess I'm coming in to this a few days late, but have any of you seen this? That photo is pretty bad a... sort of Dirty Harry meets camera nerd. The device's potential for pissing people off or for advertising has caused several hissy fits already, but I'm not much of one to buy into the mob mentality of the internet. It certainly could be used to help wean people off of using their flash, which could be a very good thing.

Here's some more info if you want the lowdown on the tech side of things.

Two Scoops!

Of late, my good buddy Jared has had a link to this as a part of his gchat status message. The following is the log of a conversation we had regarding the aforementioned link. Hopefully, you'll laugh. I sure did.

Dave: Yeah, so how pissed do you think their boss was when they found out they turned the freaking boat around for a box of cereal? "Next time guys, take the box with you."

Jared: I've wondered about that. But if you pause the video at 23 seconds, you'll see just how much they were craving the Raisin Bran. I'm sure the boss would understand if he could see their faces.

Dave: Maybe seeing those faces will make him realize what a bunch of wusses he hired

Jared: They're probably his sons.

Dave: actually, the guys face at 23 seconds make me think that the bran is just finally kicking in.

Jared: Ha ha! That's a very good possibility.

Dave: I was crying I thought that was so funny. Also, I love this comment: "I remember this from my childhood, but I never listened to the lyrics thoroughly. "This tugboat crew has a plan...?" That is so random. Imagine the ad guys sitting around a table with the jingle-writer (like Charlie from Two and a Half Men) saying, "How can we get a story into 30 seconds? How about a tugboat crew?!" Perfect!" Seriously, what is the plan?

Jared: To eat Raisin Bran. Then work. But they abandoned their plan in favor of eating more Raisin Bran.

Dave: I don't see that as a very good business model

More NYTimes Related Root Beer News

Back when I posted about my trip to DC, there was one thing that I forgot to mention. I was introduced to a new Root Beer. After posting a bit about my favorite root beers, my faithful tour guide and friend, Jared, began telling me about Sprecher. It's from Wisconsin, but apparently you can get it at just one place in the DC area, and he was nice enough to stock the fridge with it (as well as buying me some Thomas Kemper - he's really a good guy). Anyway, I was surprised to find this morning that the NYTimes wine gurus had taste tested some root beers, and good 'ol Sprecher was at the top of their list.

So, what do I think of it? Well, I liked it enough to try and take a fancy picture of the bottle (and fail). It's smooth and full bodied, and comes in a larger-than-normal bottle, which is nice. I'll definitely ask again for this one next time I'm in DC. And how did my beloved TK rank? Well, it got 2 out of 4 stars, which insn't bad considering the wine tasters only gave Sprecher three. All in all, a good turn out for some very tasty concoctions.

For those of you who still listen to Coldplay

Here's my initial thought about their new album: it's OK.

The tracks that stand out to me the most are incidentally the ones that make up the album title: Viva la Vida (the one Apple chose for the new iPod ad) and Death and All His Friends (which gave me the same sort of 'a-ha!' moment that Fix You did). The silliest thing on the album? Probably the line in the booklet, "Sonic landscapes by Brian Eno." I'd like to see how you quantify a sonic landscape. I bet it looks a lot like sheet music. Runner up: hidden track in the middle of the album.

All in all I don't feel bad about having payed $11. It's Coldplay. Not nearly as revolutionary as the album cover suggests, but enjoyable.

Where you'd least expect it

I never click on ad banners, but today one of them was too hard to resist. It led me to this site, which is so many things all at once - inspirational, touching, poorly-acted, creepy. In a word, brilliant.

Check it out.

A Personal Note

I don't know that it really matters that I say anything about this, but I was shocked when I found out a few minutes ago that Tim Russert has passed away. Growing up in a politically divided home, the only political news show that my parents could agree to watch together was Meet the Press, and I still watch it to this day. To me, he appeared as one of the figures I could trust. He always seemed genuine and full of integrity. Anyway, I know that this seems silly since I don't really know the guy, but the news really saddened me.

Mystery House

This is simply amazing.

Thank you Ikea

As I was waiting for the bus to take me uptown for tacos, I noticed an ad for the new Red Hook Ikea. Most excellent. But, if that weren't enough, they're also offering free water taxi service from Pier 11, which can be used for this as well.

Note: I think every good map should end like those ones do.

Oh crap...

Folks, something terrible just happened. I think my iPod has just died, taking a little bit of my soul with it. Who knew that I could become so attached to such a little object? You see, as I was removing it from my pocket, well... it fell. But only about 1 foot and with the gentlest landing you've ever seen. Now all I've got is a lime green paperweight that will show you the sad iPod if you touch it.

I've been rocking my little green mini for the past 3.2 years, so this might fall under the heading of a mercy killing, except that I'm a graduate student and can't even afford that. Any suggestions folks? I've been getting a lot of sperm bank ads on facebook lately...

nah.

No lawns to mow. Perhaps I could perform amazing feats of computation on the subway. Or maybe I could work at a Subway. While we're at it, I'm not above handouts. Really, it will only take a few. And think of all the times I fixed your computer!

When did I become a crack addict?

So, how was it?

So, in case you're wondering after that last post, the trip to Washington DC was worth it. Not only did I get to relax with some old friends, I got a guided tour of the district from history graduate student Jared. I highly recommend his services.

After briefly seeing the Washington Monument (picture forthcoming, if I can salvage it) and being run away from the White House by security guards (don't worry, they were just closing down the sidewalk for the night), Jared suggested that we check out the World War II memorial. Good suggestion. This is where I began to be glad that I dragged my tripod all the way to DC. The memorial is really beautiful, and highly symbolic but I'm too lazy to explain it here. Feel free to email Jared.Here's another shot, with the Lincoln Memorial in the background.
And while we were there, I decided to snap this shot of the Lincoln Memorial itself.
I had never noticed that the names of all the states are carved into the Memorial, nor had I noticed all the intricate details on the building. Very cool.
And here's where the happy accidents began. Despite every goof in the book, Lincoln managed to turn out OK.
As did this photo.
This is the Korean War memorial. It isn't very big, but it's probably the most haunting. Each of these soldiers are standing in rows and with the lighting, the trees and their facial expressions, they seem both immovable and vulnerable. It's eerie but in a good way.

And that's about it folks. The trip back was comfortable and arrived within a normal amount of time. Maybe I'll work on getting photos from my trip to Boston up soon and get rid of this ugly backlog of things I feel I need to post about. We'll see.