New Ride

I decided to try the world of reliable, spacious, Japanese transportation. Check it out:
1999 Subaru (Legacy) Outback, 5sp Manual, 2.5L Boxer 5cyl, "Big Backseat"

NEW Jawbone Bluetooth headset | Register Hardware

The Register's hardware site has a review of the NEW Jawbone.
It's pretty, but no longer available in Nerd red. :(
Improvements include smaller size, lighter weight, and better noise canceling.


Amazon links to buy Jawbones (old and new, respectively):

Happy Birthday Indeed (2nd Edition)

(Warning: stop reading if you are offended by gratuitous, though sparse, profanity.)

I arrive at Logan airport around 5:15 am, and am reminded by many signs that American Airlines is charging $25 for each (>1) checked bag now. Stupidest business move in accessible memory (this early, I'll admit that's limited). So I thinks, "self, let's carry on blue duffel and avoid $25 fee." Impressed with cleverness, and having located the poorly labeled but shorter line for self checkin, I checked big bag and proceeded to security with blue duffel and bright red nerdbag.

Guess where I put Buck knife and Swiss Army pen knife, plus an apparently prohibited socket wrench.

Back in shorter poorly signed self line. Wait. Tell "Severely Stupid Device" (so pet named by SEA AA agents - corporate probably prefers Self Service Device) that I'd like to check a bag. Q. Guess how many minutes before flighttime it has become. (A. 20) I'm checking in too late, it cheerfully and judgmentally announces. It prints "information" to take to agent. Walk to agent, stand behind lady he's "helping." She leaves, and, impressively rapidly, so does he. Chase up and down counter a bit. Winded, he stops and I pounce, ignoring his attempts to dissuade me by sticking bag tags to his shirt and studying a computer. "Go talk to manager". "Ok. Will I have to pay $25 for this? When was that policy announced?" (I growled, politeness no longer being necessary with this particular individual, who does not know my name.) "Uhh, only applies if you bought your ticket after May 12." Very interesting. Wish I remembered when ticket purchased.

Find manager, now completely ignoring lines, signs, etc. She suggests I have two options: throw bag away (said straightfaced...most impressive), or...actually, I forget the other, similarly ridiculous choice. She tires of my staring at her silently, and suggests I could take a later flight for $35 change fee + $25 2nd bag fee. I ask when ticket was booked, to which she replies, "May 3...oh...there's no bag fee." I smile. "So just the change fee?" She nods, looking nervous that I might actually go for this and become a satisfied customer. "Let's do it," I say, fetching my checkbook. Yes, I was going to write a personal check to AA for $35. I'm sure it would have cost the airline, paragon of efficiency, at least $100 to process that. "Say, is there a discount since it's my birthday?" Fee disappears in a "donworryboutit" grumble. For this I consider nominating her for sainthood. (If I had any idea which Vatican official to contact.) Apparently she senses this, because she becomes very friendly, gives me an exit row seat (oooh!) and points out that my now-nonstop flight gets in earlier. If only that were true...the nonstop actually gets in 2h later than STL-connected arrangement.

Typing to you having leisurely eaten croissant and sipped coffee. Flight now leaves at a civilized...oh...SHIT!

Gotcha. Ha! Boards in 2 hours, 6 minutes, which is sufficient for me to feel comfortable sipping coffee in the baggage area, listening to piped in ...huh...I'll be damned...learned a new artist...the familiar ditty is "Harden my Heart" by Quarterflash. A band formed in...wait for it...nine motherfuckin' teen eighty, bitches. (My birth year, yes, now the internet can deduce my DOB. I've considered that for awhile, but can't summon sufficient paranoia to change it.)

Happy Birthday to me, happy birthday to me...

B of A

Bank of America sent me a Home Depot gift card recently. "Thanks for using your Check Card." Not a huge dollar amount, but as they say, it's the thought that counts. This move was totally unsolicited and unprovoked, except by the occasional use of my B of A check card (definitely not my primary card.)

Classy move. It's not often I'm impressed as a customer. Thank you B of A.

Epilepsy Foundation Hack

This sucks.

This would be a REAL change

Just sent this to my friend Laura, who wrote encouraging me to support Obama.

I'm still undecided, but leaning toward Obama. But really, I'm pissed that Democrats are spending energy on choosing between Obama and Hillary.

What I REALLY want to happen is this: Obama pulls out of the running right away, because he has joined Hillary as her running-mate, bringing most of his cash with him. The two then begin campaigning cooperatively, as an unstoppable force against the Republican party, which is still divided, and will be for the foreseeable future.

Now we've got experience AND youth.

Why would Obama do this? Because, in my fantasy scheme, Hillary has:
-guaranteed him an unprecendented amount of influence (for a VP) in her administration (she'll have to be more detailed than this, of course...it'll have to be real.)

-AND agreed to support him as the Democratic nominee in 2012.


Why should they do it:

Because this isn't talking about the change that will happen in January 2009, this is change right now, this is cooperation right now, this is action and not rhetoric, this is two candidates thinking beyond themselves, and for their shared belief in what's right. No more promising and pandering, this is Hillary and Barack realizing that they can just DO it...they can start right now; they can tell voters to choose them by making it the only sensible option. To tell you the truth, leadership this strong is a little bit scary; it's leadership that actually needs checks and balances. But we HAVE checks and balances, so I'm for powerful. I don't think it'd be a good permanent change - the primary process is critical for a party to define what it wants. But for 2008, I think it's the way to go.

Is that insane? I'm a pretty good critic of my own ideas, and I still like it. That doesn't mean it's not a bad idea; I'll just need all of you to tell me why.

Later,
JP

Netflix and Blockbuster

I've been a Blockbuster Online subscriber for over 3 years now (egad!) and have always found it to be a better deal than Netflix. Both plans send movies through the mail, 3 at a time by default. You may keep them as long as you want; when you mail one back, they send out the next movie on your list. Blockbuster has always offered some free in-store rentals as part of the deal - so if you want something spontaneously, you can get it without waiting. They used to send 2 coupons a month for in-store rentals, now they simply allow you to exchange your mailed movies for movies in the store. This is a good deal - they still mail you a new movie, but you get one from the store right away as well. They save a little postage, and get you into the store, where you might just spend some additional $ (though I don't...shhh.) Limited to 5 exchanges per month.

Lately, however, Netflix has become more attractive. The current 3 at a time plan from Netflix is $3/month cheaper than Blockbuster's ($16.99 v. $19.99.) Netflix has also started including unlimited streaming movies over the internet (Windows only.) No local store movies, but streaming seems more convenient. Rumor has it their turnaround is quicker as well. I can believe that; I exchanged 3 movies in a store on Saturday, and as of mid-day Monday, the website shows nothing new shipped out.

I'm giving this more thought than it's worth, as usual, but I may make a switch soon. Stay tuned...

P.S. Apple has started renting movies on iTunes. Their system is, as one would expect, more attractive than that of their competitors. They're also unique in offering high definition (HD) content. They're also more expensive (no subscription and $3.99 per movie, or a little more for HD.)

Retrevo: matching people and electronics

This is a really cool site. It was mentioned in a recent HDTV ad section in the Wall Street Journal. Cool AJAX/Web 2.0 interface and really useful cost/benefit info on electronics.