“Kenneth L. Lay, the former chairman and chief executive of Enron who was convicted of fraud and conspiracy in the giant energy company’s collapse, died today in Aspen, Colo.”

The full story can be found here.

OK, the first person to submit a tastless “Ken Lay just died joke” wins.

-Dave

UPDATE: According to the festival website, Guillermo del Toro “CANCELLED DUE TO PAN’S LABYRINTH PROMOTION IN SPAIN”

This is a fantastic lineup. Now if only the Thickets would play a gig that weekend, I’d be shitting in tall cotton.

(That’s a good thing, according to Justine.)

-Dave

P.S. – Cthulhu loves you.

“Many IVR (interactive voice response) systems are programmed to recognize key words. Among those keywords are frequently a list of swear words, like the FCC’s dirty 7. When asked to respond, use on of those epithets and you will likely be transferred directly to a live human being.”

I, for one, plan to try this the next time I get one of those stupid voice menus.

The bonus here is, even if it doesn’t work, it’ll make you feel better for cussing at a computer.

-Dave

They have a great selection of beer and have a decent menu. It’s pretty neat to watch a movie in a theater while drinking Guinness and eating pizza.

The waiters have a system that works well to notifying them if you need something. You take a little piece of paper and write down what you want and then stick it in a small clip on the table so it sticks up in the air. The waiters walk dowen the aisle crouched and grab the paper, confirm what you want and scurry off to the bar and/or kitchen.

Minutes later your order arrives.

Unknowingly, this theater has taught you more about Texas (and Texans) than you could possibly imagine.

Justine and I went with our friend Ted. We ordered 2 pitchers of Guinness, several small pizzas and some Twizzlers. The waiter asked us if we were going to use the Twizzlers as straws to drink the Guinness. Doesn’t he know that’s a hanging offense in Ireland.

(Although the thought did cross my mind.)

-Dave

2. Live action Simpsons intro.

Origami contest found at Make Magazine Blog and the Simpsons intro was emailed to me.

-Dave

So, in essence, I won.

-Dave

Here’s the article.

Have a good weekend, everyone!

-Dave

Justine got it for my birthday a few weeks ago and I’ve been downloading podcasts ever since. Podcasts are digital radio shows that people create and post online. You can find thousands of different subjects like hiking, music, comedy, politics, science fiction, and technology just to name a few that I’ve searched.

(By the way, the word “podcast” is marketing in its purest form. Internet radio broadcasts have been around for years. I remember listening to internet radio broadcasts in graduate school in the late 90s, but since the iPod didn’t exist, nobody had a cute name for the broadcasts…other than internet radio broadcasts. And that’s not very catchy, right? Then the iPod came along and all of the sudden we have “podcasts.” Thus ends my marketing rant.)

Anyone can create podcasts. That’s the beauty of the internet. And if they’re good, people will begin to spread the word. Word of mouth just tends to spread a lot faster and farther on the internet than in your home town.

In a matter of a few years, the iPod (and digital music players in general) will replace the CD player. It’s already starting to happen. Today, CDs are to MP3s (and digital music in general) as cassettes were to CDs 10 years ago. They’re slowly waiting to die.

As soon as the music industry figures out how to handle digital distribution (as Apple has already figured out with iTunes) the last shovel of dirt will be thrown on the CD grave.

And MP3s won’t be around forever either. Eventually some new format will come along and replace it. But the new format will most definitely be digital. Probably just more efficient. Smaller. Better quality. Cheaper.

To paraphrase Neal Stephenson in Snow Crash. “Someday we’ll be able to ship North Dakota to New Zealand for a nickel.”

Although he was speaking more literally in that quote, in a sense, we’re already there. Today I can send billions of bytes of data from North Dakota to New Zealand for free. Completely and utterly free.

Welcome to the future.

-Dave

P.S. – Oh yeah, did I mention I love my iPod? She even got me a rugged case for it too.

The good folks at Ulta salon in Houston will cut your hair for free when you donate it to Locks of Love. So it’s a good deal for everyone.

Anyhow, I think she’s pretty cool for doing this. Here are some photos of Justine before and after her hair donation.

Before

After

I was talking with a co-worker of mine from India the other day and she mentioned that goat is quite commonly eaten in India (with beef being forbidden by the Hindu religion). I was intrigued by this, having never eaten goat before.

So yesterday she hands me a tupperware container of some goat curry she made.

Say it with me “Mmmm…goat curry.”

It tastes a lot like lamb and beef. It was very good.

For some reason I feel like eating a tin can now.

-Dave