When I was ten years old I could make a small jump out of snow and ride my bike over it. I was also pretty good at following Lego directions.
Yuto Miyazawa, on the other hand, plays guitar. Here’s Miyazawa-san tearing up Crazy Train on stage with Ozzy Osbourne.
Just so you know… the jump I made was really, really awesome.
When a release is finished at Microsoft people pull their heads out of their current product and frequently move around between teams (and that means packing up your office to head to a new location). Watching professional movers pack my house for the move to and from Ireland did teach me a little about moving. There are two biggie tips, however, that stood out.
Going from flat cardboard to a box can be awkward with one person. It’s not tremendously hard to assemble a box, but if you want it to be nice and square you can speed the process by running the first piece of tape perpendicular to the seam.
Align the bottom flaps and run a piece of tape across the bottom of the box and it will be held closed and aligned while you tape the seam.
The first tip will save you a little time, but this second tip will save your back. No matter how careful you are, moving is tiring and often hard on your back.
Once you have a box or two packed, put your next empty box on top of your packed boxes. Loading this top box will be much easier as you won’t be bending down to put items in the bottom of the box. You should, of course, protect your back from the beginning and start your first box on a chair.
I recommend combining the two tips and build your new boxes on top of the other boxes (see first picture). Constructing your fresh box on a raised pedestal will preserving your back even when you’re straining to lift your collection of dolls action figures.
Not really a packing tip per se, but the logo on the bottom of the packing boxes did make me worry that if I’m not careful I might die of dysentery.
This furniture is just way too cool. I just need an excuse to move into a 200 square foot New York loft.
I want this Bed/Desk combo for my office:
via: core77
The New York Times published an interesting article this weekend about money and happiness. Sure, it’s filled with the usual "money can’t buy happiness" stories and tales of self discovery. I think it’s stuff we all know deep down inside but are good at repressing (Gizmodo hasn’t made me happy yet… but it’s my Ike Turner).
But wait, what’s this? If you dig deep enough you’ll find this little gem:
Thomas DeLeire, an associate professor of public affairs, population, health and economics at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, recently published research examining nine major categories of consumption. He discovered that the only category to be positively related to happiness was leisure: vacations, entertainment, sports and equipment like golf clubs and fishing poles.
Now there’s some useful investment advice. It’s time to re-order my priorities.
Sure, a new computer sounds great… but schnitzel in Austria sounds wonderful right now.
While I miss my coworkers from Dublin, Irish breakfasts, and the Dropping Well… what I miss most from Ireland is getting the full breadth for BBC programming. Sure, as with US programming, there are plenty of duds, but I miss being able to watch Top Gear without a several month delay and the best quiz show ever: the ridiculously funny (and, of course, Interesting) QI.
The premise of QI is: create a quiz show filled with impossibly hard questions, stock the contestant chairs with comedians & celebrities and then don’t worry about having the answers be right or even on topic. By rewarding the guests for answers which are "interesting" and allowing the conversation to wander far from the original question you are bound to get amusing stories and random facts which are, of course, quite interesting.
Last week I was reminded of how much I miss Stephen Fry when Paula happened across re-runs of Stephen Fry in America running on PBS. Here’s the thing: Mr. Fry’s father was offered a job at Princeton University but, since he turned it down, Stephen feels he was almost an American. But all of this is beside the point because BBC America is an anemic substitute for the BBC and is holding back the best content: specifically QI.
All of this has, however, made me realize why it’s actually interesting for me to be able to watch YouTube on my TiVo: episodes of Qi. A generous YouTuber (YouTubista?) has kindly squirreled away episodes (all the way back to the pilot).
Thank goodness the BBC hasn’t figured out how to advertise to the US in their web videos (they block non-UK viewers) because otherwise I might feel guilty not giving revenue where it’s due.
Also I couldn’t watch the videos on my TV. And, as has already been widely recognized, it is all about me.
Though I’m not sure if I get the math here.
Isaiah Mustafa is back to make the ladies swoon and, without a doubt, make men want to smell like him (which I can only assume is a heady mixture of Old Spice and awesome).
This whole campaign does have me concerned, however, to much more of this and Old Spice will ruin my marriage. Either Paula will come to her senses and see I’m not as dreamy as Isaiah… or I’m going to leave her, move to wherever Isaiah Mustafa lives and build the First Universal Church of Isaiah the Dreamy in his front yard. It will be a non-profit, of course. Donations of cash, food and Old Spice are always welcome.
I’ll probably need a good lawyer too.
Paula and I met Dick for some drinks and snacks tonight and headed over to Lot no. 3 in downtown Bellevue. We had some Salumi cured meats, a PB & J (peanut butter, BACON and jelly) and, of course, a Plate O’ Bacon.
What the hell, this body’s just on loan anyway, right?
Sundays are a great time to visit John Howie Steak in Bellevue: happy hour in the bar lasts from 3pm to 10pm. For $40 Paula and I had two glasses of wine, a soda, mac & cheese, steak sliders, crab salad and, my new favorite food, tempura fried bacon with maple ponzu dip.
Mexico, dear, just like watermelons and Taco Bell.
