Friday, September 25, 2009

Is the Wii Recession Proof?


Nope. Sales are down 30%. Still, the Wii is kicking tail over the 360 and the PS3.
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But, if you are one of the 50 or 60 people in the western world that does not have one yet, good news. The Wii dropped in price 50 clams. $199 is the new price. Bad news for Europe though. The prices are staying right where they are in the EC.

Diversity


Some of you closed minded people seem to have limited breadth of the definition of diversity. Please, lets all band together and celebrate all of the forgotten forms of diversity.
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Eco-Sustainable Green


Please don't get me wrong with this rant. The human world is a wasteful polluting bunch that will tear up this planet if steady improvements are not made. I applaud the people that are making technological and lifestyle improvements.
But, I am getting pretty tired of seeing 'Eco' or 'Sustainable' or 'Green' EVERYWHERE. It is losing its value. doing a search on Google on the word "ECO" popped up an ECO web domain, ECO Mall, ECO Gifts, ECO Warriors, ECO Chess, ECO Card, ECO Marathon, ECO Lips, .... The word Eco or green has become such a big thing that it really does not ring home that much anymore. Can anyone say Overloaded Phrase?
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History of Eco and Green word use:
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1) Intial Use
"Wonder what this is all about. Why do I care?"
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2) Actual Products
"Pretty cool stuff but not at that price and it looks difficult. Lets go to Walmart"
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3) Proliferation
"That is made from Bamboo? That's cool and it looks great. Lets get it"
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4) Mainstream
"Lets consider the Eco-options first. It is worth it"
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5) Today
"Eco? Who isn't Eco Friendly? Take a product and slap a Green Sticker on it. Let's go to Walmart"
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Sigh
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Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Word Acronyms

You know what I am talking about. You take a word and take each letter of that word to for start another word to form 'key' words or mission statements, or goals or whatever. For some reason, people think that this clever play on words inspire people. I have yet to find one of any use. But that is my opinion. Here are some examples:

Safety
Tenacity
Unsurpassed Quality
Perfection
Idealism
Dependable
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or
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Suck up
Tacky
Unicorn
Petty
Ignorance
Defiant
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Either way, It's Stupid.

Monday, September 21, 2009

Nerd Alert!


Perhaps my title is a little harsh. Sure, Lego robotics for adults are for nerds. And yes, you all should be alerted of this information. But the excalmation point in the title went too far.
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These people are not our future... They are our Now and should be treated with respect. I bet security for these types of events is really tight.

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Metric Rant


Ok, Now for my Metric vs "Standard" Rant....
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But, before we get started, check this picture out. I did a search on the web for a picture of 'metric' and this is what popped up. It is the band, Metric. Take a look at her arm swing. Nearly a meter long. And she is super skinny. Say 48kg?
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Either way, you can bet she is not swinging her arm the length of a yard and she certainly does not weigh 110 pounds.
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OK enough about this band called Metric that I have never heard of. My only tip is that she needs to motivate the rest of the band. They look lazy.
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Standard:
12 inches = 1 foot
3 feet = 1 Yard
5280 feet = 1 mile
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Metric:
10 mm = 1 cm
100 cm = 1 meter
1000 m = 1 km
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Which one makes sense to you? Not convinced Metric is the right way to go? How about this:
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Standard:
8 oz = cup
2 cups = pint
2 pints = quart
4 quarts= gallon or 128 oz
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Metric
1000 ml = Liter
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Why do we not Change?!? This is absolutely stupid that the US will not change. The only reason I can figure is that we are lazy. We tried sometime back with transitioning miles to km and everyone had a problem. WTF?

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Timmy's Theorem of Strip Mall Restaurant Success....


This Theorem is another simple one and states:
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A Strip Mall Restaurant that adds a Soda refill price to the Soda fountain will inevitably go out of business.
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Lets explore this a little, shall we? We live in a country where inexpensive fast food with large portions rule. Chains like McDonald's, Carl's, Burger King.... meet that criteria. Guess what.... how much do they charge for refills? Exactly. A strip mall restaurant is challenged to compete with these chains and stay profitable. So, they attempt to recover some costs by doing this refill thing. But, here is the problem which seems to doom these strip mall eateries:
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Restaurant owner: "Wow, we are losing money.... We need to charge for refills"
Time Passes...
Restaurant owner: "Wow, the refill charging is not working. We need to raise the prices"
Time Passes....
Restaurant owner: "Wow, the price raising is still not working AND less people are coming in. We need to decrease the portions"
Time Passes.....
Credit Corporation: "You have 30 days to leave the premises"
Quantity people... Not Quality.

50k


Well, the ol' Dodge truck just crossed over the 50,000 mile mark (80,000 km for the rest of the world. Don't get me started on my rant why the US is not metric!). Anyway, this 2004 Dodge Ram has been very good to me. It tows ATVs and Dirtbikes, our camper for the family outings and has hauled millions of things including baseball equipment, fridges, chicken coop Lumber and the million trips to Home Depot.
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So, what did I do to repay her? I just dropped a hair under 1700 bucks for new tires and brakes.
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Happy 50k old friend!

Monday, September 14, 2009

WTC


In this case, WTC = White Trash Camping. However, It officially was not WTC because not all of us are considered "White". I think I should call it DTC (Diverse Trash Camping). Anyway, I digress. Back to the "Trash" component.... Here is Brad camping with us in the woods of Scappoose and Vernonia (Location not to be revealed). Brad decides it is much more comfortable to sit by the campfire in his seat from the minivan. That is definately a trash first in my book. Well done, Brad!

Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Coke vs Pepsi


I have done some extensive research regarding the Coke vs Pepsi debate. That means I drank a Pepsi the other day. Lets face it, Regular or Diet.... Pepsi just plain sucks.

Tuesday, September 8, 2009

Aviation Sink


Had a great vacation with 3 other families at Sunriver during the labor day holiday. Nice, large home. Pool table. Bunk house for the kids, separate apartment for us people who do not always appreciate the 6am dance recitals (actually I love them but at 9am), Big flat screen to watch certain Oregon players go on a rampage and punch a Boise St player, etc. etc. A great time. Take note of the sink in the main house. I took a look at this thing and immediately went searching for a manual or any indication that one must be licensed to operate it. However, after a few hours of studying it, I found out that all it does is put water into the sink.

Surf's up


Lookie here. Shot of my oldest boy surfing at Sunriver, OR. He took a couple of hard head pops but he finally got it. Most people do the boogie board. The braver go with the surfboard. The coolest, like me sits back and watches the excitement.