January 2010
23 posts
5 tags
oh lord
In conclusion:
“Working with your customer support is like hiring an insincere baby with amnesia...”
– Eugene Mirman, talking about Delta Airlines
“A free Kindle? Maybe we can free-Kindle our relationship.”
– Stop Podcasting Yourself episode 95
Top 5 Favorite Newsradio Episodes
“Arcade”
“The Cane”
“Coda” (come on, Hulu!)
“Complaint Box”
“Security Door”
Runner-Up: “Kids”
No Quarter
I stopped in a bank on the way back from grabbing some lunch. It wasn’t my bank, but I needed some change to do laundry and I had a 10 dollar bill in my wallet. When I asked for the roll of quarters, the teller said “Are you a member with us?” I looked around the empty bank and said “uh, no.” She went on to explain to me that she wasn’t supposed to do this, but...
“In December 2007, Rich Donohue, a franchise owner with restaurants in Ironton,...”
– Wikipedia. I really hope he did it all just to make that joke. (via Anthony Clark)
7 tags
2-Steppin' It
I’ve been in management training this week, learning what it takes to be a manager to software engineers. We spent a lot of time talking about how to give feedback, and it was while examining a lot of (frankly TOTALLY INEFFECTIVE AND USELESS) methods for giving good feedback to your direct reports that I designed the Best Management Feedback Method Ever. It only requires two simple steps,...
5 tags
Sunday, 10 Jan 2009: The Day I Pissed Off A United...
I flew to Connecticut on Sunday to spend the week at my company’s headquarters taking care of business (like I do). When I arrived in Norwalk I checked into my hotel, where I was given a keycard for room 154 (the sum of the first six factorials). I swiped the key, opened the door, and walked into the entryway to the room before realizing that there was someone already in my room.
The...
Tetra Pak
mrgan:
You know the Tetra Pak brand, and you probably associate it with milk cartons - square boxes topped with funky, fold-out roofs (increasingly replaced by the safer and not-as-fun twist caps. Boo.) Now, what I think of when I hear “tetra pak” - and we all hear it so much, right - is these things that milk came in when I was a wee lad in Croatia:
See, the tetra in Tetra Pak is for...
3 tags
The Boredom-killing Business
The most telling thing to me about the past few years of late-night TV (and you’ll have to pardon me if this has always been true; I’m only 25 so while I remember Letterman moving to CBS I wasn’t aware of the surrounding climate) it’s that I’m pretty sure that most people my age aren’t watching it unless there’s some sort of meta-controversy. They’re...
“the next person who says that games are in a cultural ghetto gets pantsed....”
– Adam (no way to permalink to a single delicious entry, sorry)
Ghost equals ghost, but poison is false to steel →
Adam Parrish:
The former is a matrix of arbitrary values intended to produce convenience. The latter is a matrix of arbitrary values intended to produce fun. In my experience, neither achieves its goal.
Adam compares PHP’s type comparisons to Pokémon’s elemental weaknesses. Sounds about right.
“In C” remixed by Kleerup. You can...
3 tags
Basketball - Online Games →
I’ve had this bookmarked as a “to try later” sort of thing for a while, but only just now got to it. This is kind of addictive.
4 tags
The 2000s: decade in review
2000: Moved into a nice house. Dad got remarried. Went to Disney World for the first time. Kid A was released.
2001: First part-time job, working in an accountant’s office. Played Final Fantasy 9. Got my driver’s license. Got a Dreamcast. Released a ZZT game.
2002: Got a part-time job at Hollywood Video. Went to the state level for violin competitions, both solo and small ensemble.
...
Favorite Albums of 2009 →
I finally got around (only a day late?) to writing up a list of my favorite albums of the year.