Mailboat

Posted on June 27 2003 by Mickey
    Are you an AOL user? Are you getting letters from LADI34T at shortfatguy.com with subject headers like “Live Debt FREE!” and “Today you can be free of debt”? I promise you these letters are not coming from me. Someone is spoofing my e-mail address. I apologize for any inconvenience (on behalf of the bastards responsible), and I deeply regret any involvement in these shitty little scams.
Posted in Buffett, Personal | Leave a comment

A Bolt Out of the Blue

Posted on June 26 2003 by Mickey
    Scientists have discovered a new form of lighting — it goes up, above the clouds. The bolts also don’t form jagged branches, but fan out into shapes resembling a tree. The UK Telegraph has a good diagram and National Geographic has some cool photos
Posted in Links, News | Leave a comment

In Space, No One Can Hear You Pop

Posted on June 25 2003 by Mickey
    When in doubt, steal stuff from Catch.com. Here’s a very cool site with QuickTime and MPEG movies of what it looks like when you burst a water balloon in zero gravity.
    Bonus link: the New York Times, still redfaced from the Jayson Blair incident, comes clean on other fabricated news stories.
Posted in Links, News, Space | Leave a comment

A Pleasure & A Hell of an Evening

Posted on June 25 2003 by Mickey
    Well it turns out I could’ve recorded the show after all. Security was very light — back to the good old days — but I did not chance it and did not bring my recorder in…and was thus able to sing along, whistle, cheer, and all the other things bootleggers must refrain from doing. A couple girls next to me were amazed that I knew the words to every song! I was amazed that this was a source of amazement, since Jimmy didn’t sing anything particularly rare. Anyway, it was a good show — nothing exceptional, but quite enjoyable. Just about enough to get me listening to the albums again, which I’d stopped doing after the Alpine Valley debacle two years ago.
    So, no audio files again this year. But at least I have photos I can offer…once I write up the 2003 page.
Posted in Buffett, Music | Leave a comment

Dash ’n’ Dine

Posted on June 24 2003 by Mickey
    Another fast food comparison, but not by me. I work an afternoon shift, so I don’t have the opportunity to compare fast food breakfast sandwiches, but the Detroit Free Press has done the work for me. There’s an article in today’s edition which compares five breakfast car foods by taste and crumbliness.
    (My own favorite, the Hardee’s Canadian Sunrise, is sadly no longer available. The reviewer also made the mistake of ordering an Egg McMuffin instead of the Sausage Egg McMuffin, which I find much tastier.)
Posted in Food, Links | 2 Comments

Pre Game Cocktail

Posted on June 23 2003 by Mickey
    It’s hard to believe the Buffett concert is nearly here. It’s been such a long time since we saw Jimmy Buffett at Pine Knob (no, I will not be calling it DTE Energy Music Theatre) that I’m quite rusty and my concert-going muscles have atrophied. We’ve only this morning started discussing our plans for tomorrow, for instance; and it seems like our plans will be pretty basic and laidback. The parking lot opens at 3 PM, according to the woman I spoke to at Palacenet; but we might not show up till five. Because of the increased security I expect to encouter, I will not be bothering to tape the show, but it should be readily available through Radio Margaritaville.
    So…fins up! I hope you enjoy the show — but, for the benefit of those around you: please keep the cries of “Uda man, Jimmy!” to a minimum (he can’t hear you, you know) and, secondly, for the love of God, please leave your damned tambourines at home!!!
Posted in Buffett, Music | Leave a comment

An Order of Order of the Phoenix, Pt II

Posted on June 21 2003 by Mickey
   

Can’t talk. Reading.
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An Order of Order of the Phoenix

Posted on June 20 2003 by Mickey
    I got confirmation from Amazon that Harry Potter & the Order of the Phoenix has been shipped. I’m curious if it will actually show up tomorrow, as promised. (I doubt it. But it looks like my weekend will keep me busily occupied till Monday anyway.)
    I’m also afraid to venture too far into the Internet today, since too many killjoys are maliciously posting spoilers. I went to the official site to check out some merchandise (for a while, I’ve wanted a sweatshirt with an embroidered Hogwarts crest, but all the clothing offered is rather ugly), and I discovered an unfortunate spelling error [reproduced below]. I wrote them a nice letter to request a correction, so let’s see how long that takes, too.
    Have fun at the bookstores tonight.   [3:48 PM]
    Update: Got a response from hpcustomerservice@wb.com, who told me they don’t deal with WBshop.com and I need to contact customerservice@wbshop.com. I passed my letter along at around ten tonight, but have only received an automated reply so far.


Hey kids, can you spot the spelling error?
Posted in Books, Personal | 1 Comment

Shrinkage

Posted on June 20 2003 by Mickey
    In the spirit of a British tabloid headline, less call this “Knick Knack Knockers Nicked!”
    I finally got a chance to see Finding Nemo, and the short subject which preceded it — Pixar’s 1989 offering Knick Knack — was certainly not how I remembered it. In the intervening years, two of its stars, a bathing beauty and a mermaid, have both evidently had breast reduction surgery.
    Here. Compare these screen grabs off the Internet with screen grabs I made from a Pixar laserdisc…
    (Left column: original. Right column: revised version.)

Original version                                 Revised version

Posted in Movies | 2 Comments

What the World Thinks of America

Posted on June 19 2003 by Mickey
    I finally got to see a tape of this show. It was broadcast on CBET, in Windsor Canada, on Tuesday at 9 PM; and it took a look at what eleven countries think of America nowadays. I was somewhat disappointed that the show was based simply on a poll — the results of which can be seen here — rather than on on-the-street interviews or expert opinon. But the show was still interesting. I was taken aback to find out South Korea views the US rather than North Korea as a bigger threat; and I was chagrined to hear that world opinion (at least the Australian analyst’s) mistakes the Springer show [gag] for American culture.
    By the way, a note to any international visitors: Coca Cola and McDonald’s are not coming to your country for political reasons. They just want your money.
Posted in TV | 2 Comments