hummer

Hummer piece by Conversation Marketing.
Doesn't account for the H3, but good effort.

piezoelectricity...

Guy Kawasaki's Cool Stuff Monday post featured the eco-friendly night club in London that utilizes piezoelectricity, or the electricity created by a change in the linear dimensions of crystal due to mechanical stress - i.e. club-goers dancing / walking on the enabled surface. I'm not a self-identified tree hugger, but this is pretty stinkin' cool.

bk

Dear Chase Bank Customer Service Rep:

I am not stupid. When I discovered that a recurring $10 service fee charged to my account is the result of not utilizing direct deposit, you very kindly offered me another option. However, I don't consider an alternate type of checking account that requires you to use your Chase Debit card, as a debit card, a minimum of 4 times per payment cycle with a service fee of $2.50 for each transaction [total of $10 per cycle] to be a solution. Thank you for your absolutely absurd suggestion and I hope it wasn't someone too high above you that dumped this response into your bucket of solutions.

Thanks,
bk

things i want but will never need, #1

How amazing is this? Admittedly, I eat ice cream at home maybe twice each year, but it's enough to hate ice cream scoopers because a) I can never find it in the drawer and b) when you wash it (the good ones are not dish-washer safe due to the internal chemicals) you can't help but get water everywhere.
I know I'm ridiculous, but I still think this is wonderful:

Photo and blurb: outblush


Things that are fun: Eating ice cream. Things that are not: Wrestling with hard as a rock ice cream, stubbing your finger on the ice cream scoop, accidentally flinging ice cream across the kitchen. Get all the fun, cut out the rest, with this Ice Cream Scoop and Stack ($15) from Cuisipro. This ergonomic scooper effortlessly pushes through even the hardest ice cream with a quick twist and lift movement. Then, the ingenious gadget plunks out fun cylindrical blocks of ice cream, perfect for stacking, decorating and, of course, devouring.

coca cola ad...

Looks genuine [genuine Boop Humor at least] -- I wonder how long before Coca Cola shuts it down. Be certain your volume is up or you'll be out of the loop entirely.

Bike to work day

Today was Bike to Work Day. As of 6p yesterday, reporters claimed Denver had hit 18,000 registered bike riders.
I think it's interesting. Let's assume that a 10-mile trip to work is a good median distance, since there's likely a significant amount of people varying greatly on both ends. If you're like most people in Denver and drive a tank, you're getting somewhere between 15 and 17 miles per gallon of gas, with traffic. For the sake of both marrying numbers and for the couple or Prius dotting the road, let's say the average is 20mpg. In this extremely simplified estimate, here's an intriguing breakdown of what happened financially today:

Round Trip to Work: 20 miles
Average MPG: 20 miles
Average Cost / Gallon Gas: $4
Registered Bikers (min): 18k
Total Estimated Savings in Gas in Denver for One Day: $72,000

I love it.

HP Banner on American Copywriter

Good find by SethyG of American Copywriter.

I don't think 99% effective is never failing. It's probably more product-specific than I'm giving credit for, but isn't this the same 99:1 success rate for condoms? I know a lot of people in that 1% bucket and I think they'd argue that it's far from not failing.

iPods and such

Yesterday I was thinking about the proliferation of iPod use and I found out that a recent study* concluded 13 per cent of all U.S. households own an iPod. I don't necessarily think this is a bad thing since a significant amount of the use of the portable music player is time spent exercising, but as kids become more tech savvy I foresee the research study where iPod [and other electronics] use stunts social growth.
Personally, I'm not all that concerned at this point. However, it has more than once occurred to me that the player is being overused when I see mom at the grocery store buying the family's food while kid lags behind, iPod on and completely oblivious of both his surroundings as well as the choices in groceries his mother makes. Yes, the child will probably grow to be extremely normal in his grocery-buying habits, [or highly disturbing, whichever direction his iPod-free life would have gone] but when the situation extends beyond the grocery store and into every day interaction, the child is ultimately disrupting his means of social understanding -- he can't mimic his influence if the influence is blocked out by Green Day.

Am I getting way ahead of myself? Extremely likely. But it's foresight that prevents these issues and the new Dual iPod Dock system by JVC is a pretty good clue of where things are going -- 10k songs just isn't enough for some of us, so we now own two iPods, which is the only way to justify a dual dock audio player.

Photo: uncrate.com

It should be said that I have nothing against iPods; I own one and will likely replace it when the battery inevitably fails to hold a charge. I don't however, use it at the cost of foregoing social interaction.

*I do not, in any way, agree with the subjective matter or [ridiculous] conclusions drawn in this article; it's purpose is in citing factual information only.

bk

the horrific us economy...

I've only briefly studied the concept of agenda-setting, but it's enough to really make me curious.
I catch a minimal amount of daily news -- mostly by opting out, partially because the gym has satellite but not volume -- but it's enough to know that the American economy is essentially hanging by a thread and black Tuesday II may very well be next week.
There's a theory (a.k.a. actually proven, which is often mistaken as a hypothesis, which is just some people who think so) that the seasonally stylish length of women's skirts is directly proportionate to the state of the economy in that the shorter the skirt, the better the economy. That doesn't seem to be so true recently, but maybe I've been overlooking the stylish and noticing the trashy.
What I wonder is what would happen if tomorrow the news anchors began smiling much more, reporting that yes, fuel may be $4+ per gallon, but at least it's not $5, and that things are generally looking up. Would people spend their money more? Would the economy strengthen? It seems to me that things are bad because someone told us it was bad. People, on an individual basis, will always have money concerns; this is not necessarily indicative of the economic state overall yet it's attributed as such merely because a talking head claimed as much. Maybe, if someone told us things were good we'd stop panicking and come up with solutions rather than wallowing in our homes, avoiding any use of our credit cards. Maybe someone with a little pull should point out the obvious: that our entire country is reacting to an issue in a manner that directly compounds it. And maybe, since it's not working out so hot, there shouldn't be a single president, but a group of presidents that is representative of the people -- all of the people -- so that when you go to complain, again, without a solution, about the president that you elected because he / she doesn't make the decision that you would have made, you can stop pointing fingers at one person, citing racial / socioeconomic class / general ignorance for the demise of the once most prideful country in the world, since he can't personally account for your own inaction, which is the core problem.
Although none of the above will ever happen, I still wonder. And I wish there was a presidential candidate that had the guts to start a trend rather than walk in the rut that was long ago created.
Oh, and I despise politics.

being good at life.

I think it's hard to find people that are good at life. To say that someone is "good at life" would, in my opinion, be the ultimate compliment.
I've met people that are perfect at life; it seems logical that this would trump the former, but if you think about it for a minute it's clearly untrue. Nobody is perfect all the time. People that are perfect at life simply haven't been around long enough to fail. Perfect people are fragile and doomed, and therefore less impressive than those that are good.
I know someone that is good at life. This person has had their share of harsh circumstances and is certainly not a stranger to failure; the thing that makes this person good at life is that you'd only know that if they told you. You'd guess that every day is another check mark in the success category and that there isn't a single question this person can't answer. Wrong. It's a phenomenal portrait this person paints, and it works. It's not a lifestyle that just anyone can achieve -- it's lonely once you get to the top and jealousy does not breed friendships, but if you're willing to dig deep enough to find the truth the effort is entirely justified.
While being good at life is not glamorous -- it appears that you'll be overwhelmingly misunderstood -- it remains something that I'd love to be. It's impressive in my eyes and has the built-in perk of removing from your friend circle those who aren't willing to put forth effort to be there. It's a filter for plastic people and it's highly effective.
I welcome the company of anyone that is good at life, any time, any place. For those that are still perfect at it, make sure you're prepared for the opportunity to become only good.

i miss the music...

Maybe it wasn't just the music, but it was the notes in the melody that brought it all together.
I used to dread soundcheck; I loathed the repetitive, awkward sounds that followed me around as I scrambled with the last minute details - like a non-stop 15-minute reminder that I better have my shit together, and in that world it's never together. In hindsight, though, perhaps it was a relative hate - perhaps I loved the excitement and [organized] chaos so much that even the semi-irritating, little details seemed awful by comparison. It was the kind of 'perfect' that you can't see until it's missing a piece, or gone altogether.
There was this place that I'll never forget because I made it a point to go there at least once each show. It was the only place I ever found where I could feel so many things at once: the adrenaline of the artist passing through my veins, the excitement of the fans as they lived the moments they'd been anticipating for so long, the emotion in the song that bridged the gap between the two, and most important, my own sense of gratification for the exhausting effort I put in simply because I sincerely loved each and every "remember when we saw..." story as it was told time and time again. I would stand there, temporarily deaf from the 6' speakers stacked immediately to my left, and let the music suck me in the way it always did. It was both refreshingly inspiring yet emotionally devastating, all at the same time. It was like attempting to walk for the first time only to end up running a marathon - a first try turned best-case scenario and I knew it. I knew it couldn't last and that there was so much mediocrity in my future and it scared me to death. This place was my way of ensuring that I stayed grounded -- that I never let myself take it for granted because it would inevitably end.
It did. And I'm growing. I love the new challenges and life is amazing, but I still miss the music.

bk

Spalding Gray

Photo: New York Times

Spalding Gray wrote of some of his work:

"I was using myself to play myself. [It was] a kind of creative narcissism."

What an incredibly introverted understanding. Gray was an actor [mostly monologues] so it was fitting; I think many of us practice the same art, only subconsciously, because we know what we want to be but not what we are. Ironically, that's often one and the same. Not everyone can understand themselves the way Gray did.

bk

just a thought...

If you ever find yourself becoming the type of person that needs his / her hand held, be humble enough to realize it quickly and correct it immediately.

what i think of rules.

I think there's a fundamental problem with the concept of rules and it's that there will always be exceptions. You can train, train some more, and then train again, but you'll never be able to effectively teach someone to recognize and correctly handle any exception, simply because they're too broad in scope and there will never be a textbook right or wrong.
You can, however, lead by example and teach the practice of being not wrong. Wrong is punishable, not wrong isn't right, but it's a step in the right direction and likely causes less damage.
You can also ensure that you're as clear as possible on where you stand on many issues; by doing this, you create a static (A) - the issue, and (C) - the desired end result. If you've embedded a collaborative (A) and (C) into your team, you give them a much better chance at finding an acceptable (B) - action by which to complete the equation (A)+(B)=(C).
I hate rules.

corporate blood?

At my office [on an average day] you will find not a single dress tie or pair of heels. You will, however, find cargo shorts, tee-shirts, and sandals...oh, and smiles.
Some people thrive in a corporate environment; if you're like me and most of the people I enjoy, you'd run from it the same way you run from cops [don't pretend you haven't]. For the latter group, and maybe even some of the former who have yet to realize, Guy Kawasaki's post regarding Escape from Corporate America by Pamela Skillings is a little refreshing. It even includes this quiz on Electric Pulp to help you decide whether or not to run for anti-corporateness.

introductions and such.

This blog, titled 'common sense' simply because it's a quality I strongly appreciate and encourage, is taking the place of my previous blog, 'unfortunately fortunate', because blogger was under the impression it was spam and I'm tired of appealing it.

Welcome to my blog. I'll write about a lot of things I notice, wonder, and just plain disagree with because that's what usually fills my brain on a day-to-day basis. Enjoy. Or don't.