and another thing

what ever happened to humorous mp3s? way back when Napster was still free and illegal, these tracks were downloaded and passed around like nobody's business. I'm typing, of course, of such memorable files as:

• Arnold's Pizza Shop - "Broccoli? What the hell is broccoli anyway? Shut up with the broccoli!"


• Louis Bagel's Matzah #5 - "One, Two, Three Four Five, Everybody likes to eat corn beef on rye"


• and the multi-medium Hamster Dance

did the evolution of the intertubes kill them? am I just an old codger longing for the good ol' days? is it YouTube's fault? who can I blame for this atrocity?

gone are the days of checking doodie.com in the library every day at lunch.

question mark,
DooG

blog post-al service

you may (or may not) have seen the most recent ad campaign from UPS. to summarize, some dude is writing stuff on a whiteboard. that's about all I remember, except that he is doing this while music from Ben Gibbard and Jimmy Tamborello (aka The Postal Service) is heard. irony meter going off? it should be. but the UPS jab at the USPS doesn't stop at the TV spots.



if you take the commercial's link bait, you'll find the UPS Whiteboard site. there, visitors are once again greeted by the Sandy Cohen-looking, brown dry erase marker-wielding artist, 'Such Great Heights' playing in the background. listen to his 'What can brown do for you?' spiel or click on the 'Create Your Own Whiteboard' link below him for more corporate excitement. type in a message and send an e-whiteboard to a friend. you can then preview the slightly-cheesy animation of this guy sliding back and forth on screen 'writing' your message. it was at this point that I decided to test it out with what I thought would be an innocuous text string: UPS ads are using music by The Postal Service. animated man's response? 'Yeah, I'm not gonna write that. Why don't you give it another shot?'. the word 'Postal' was highlighted in red, as seen below. [click for largeness]


apparently 'postal' is flagged as an obscenity over at UPS, tantamount to the s- and b-words. (I didn't test any others for fear of further angering Mr. Brown.)

I think this ad campaign is a bit strange, taking what will mostly be an undetected pot shot at our nation's letter carrying brigade. I will say it was clever enough to get me to head to their site, where I have now been convinced to use their services for all of my small-business needs (read: none).

as an aside, I have always enjoyed UPS'eses 'we wanna race the truck' ads shown during NASCAR events wherein UPS-sponsored driver Dale Jarrett is coerced by those at the company to switch from his #44 Toyota Camry (née #88 Ford Taurus/Fusion) race car to a UPS package car (that's really what the call them internally, ask Wikipedia). he agreed to race the big brown truck in an ad during the 2004 season, shifting the focus of the campaign slightly. the original ads were better, though I can't find any on YouTube so this will have to do.



speaking of automobile racing, the first race of the ought-seven Formula 1 season is tomorrow in Australila, which mathematically translates to tonight here in the non-penal colonies. I'll be watching and can't wait to attend the USGP in Indy this summer.

ROCK,
Davit

thought for food

a. Iron Chef: I used to love watching the original Japano version, mostly for the wonderful voice replacement and truly nauseating ingredients. I especially enjoyed seeing the giggly-female-star-of-the-week, never with a bad thing to say, and all the while covering her mouth for politeness. priceless.

I do watch the American version, though it just doesn't have the same charm being in English and all. and there's the outside chance Rachael Ray may appear (see note d). but today my nostalgia for the good ol' show was satiated. Iron Chef Morimoto (the only continuing 'cast member') was pitted against... I don't know, some shmuck with no chance, and when it came time for the big M to explain his dishes at judgment: his voice was dubbed over. even though he was speaking in English. I laughed aloud.

and bring back the shiny uniforms.

b. which leads me to another reality-based food program, Top Chef. specifically a contestant I loved to hate, and who was somehow able to make it to the final two. all other Marcel bashing aside, the man has some odd ideas on hair arrangement and placement. ironically, there's a hairstyle by the same name.


he calls himself a molecular gastronomist, which means he uses scientific-sounding shit to ruin his food. I'm sure if done well, and without pretense, this is an actual thing.

in the season finale, one of the judges was none other than Wiley Dufresne (I'd never heard of him either), apparently a well-respected and successful molecular gastronomist.


so... is the ugly facial hair a requirement in this culinary niche? (I really wish I could have found a picture of Marcel when he was sporting the triangu-burns, you'll just have to trust me.)

c. having trouble choosing where to dine? try the Wheel of Food. type in your zip and a keyword and watch it spin. a cute idea, if a bit unreliable. I chose 'indian' to narrow my search and Hooters appeared on the wheel. are they offering tandoori wings I don't yet know about?


d. Rachael Ray sucks. big time. and according to a classmate of mine, she's a total bitch in the real life. big surprise. I now fear the cracker aisle, knowing that her stupid toothface is plastered across every Nabisco product. I skipped my weekly Family Size Redued Fat Wheat Thin purchase in protest.

fin.
DeeEffGee

a new tradition

to continue the first-day-of-the-semester posting, it also seems a new tradition has emerged with my time here at CU. like last semester, I had a bus break down today. unlike last semester, the bus didn't restart and a tow truck had to be called.

that's what a two-piece articulated bus looks like being towed by a huge truck (which I got to ride in!).

it was three hours from the time the bus broke down until it got towed back to the bus lot, during which time my body (mostly my feet) became very cold. though well below freezing, Boulder's temps today do not even compare to what I experienced over this past weekend. more on that in an upcoming post as part of a series recapping my wintry break.

oh, and I had a class today too. it was dece and the professor seems cool and mentioned he has seen every episode of The Simpsons "like ten times." my kind of guy.

k bye,
DoG

it's that time again...

a new member may soon be added to the fam, in the form of an adorable German shepherd puppy. I say 'may' because the dual-dog scenario will first be on a trial basis. if parental units decide to keep her, she will require a name. like Kipper before her, I ask for any suggestions.

some background: her official AKC name is Ada vom haus Huro. she was born on September 15, so no good holiday tie-ins. she is 3/4 German and 1/4 Czech.

for some reason, hemi is still not considered an acceptable name by other family members.

and yes, I know I haven't been very good about posting lately. I'm hoping that will change soon. show your support by offering names for this cute doggy.

my toes are cold,
D*G

p.s. stay tuned for some highlights from my one-month hiatus from reality.

ohh, ehm... gee!

I went skiing today at A-Basin. there was a huge crowd, we took only four five-minute runs in the four hours we were there, but it was totally kickass.


that's the lift 'line', though it was more of a mob until we approached the orderly portion that is being obscured by massive amounts of people in this shot.


one lift and two runs open. it was beautiful, the snow was falling, and it's only October.

I love Colorado.

l8r,
deeg

give and take

if you haven't heard/read yet, Bono and Bobby Shriver (Ahnold's bro-in-law, and yes I realize that's Oprah in the above photo) have devised a way to help raise money to purchase medicine for African AIDS victims. a worthy cause indeed, and there's no doubt celebrity can lend a hand when fundraising.

but I kind of have a problem with their method. and after reading this intriguing, if not too well-edited, piece by Michael Medved I think I know why.

an overview of how (RED) {yes it belongs in those parentheses for some reason} works:
you buy a special product from select participating companies and they then donate some of the profits to help buy the meds. it's basically that simple, but if you'd like to read the pretentious version, head on over to the (RED) site and read their manifesto.

okay, let me first just say that I am ALL for charitable contributions, and I do recognize that it often takes some enticement for people to think about and follow through on the donation. PBS tote bags, Jerry Lewis telethons, and those little American flag toothpicks are great examples.

but this is a bit different. it seems to me that these products are supposed to be status symbols, neon signs shouting 'hey, look, I'm talking on a red phone/wearing a silly shirt/paying with a red credit card. I'm helping people!'

also, not all of the companies are sending all of the markup on to the charity. Medved points out the price difference on several items from Gap in particular that mean the company is making more profit off of the (RED) items than a normal non-AIDS-fighting version. this is not true for all of the retailers mind you, as Apple is donating $10 from each red iPod nano purchase, while that product costs the same as its differently-colored 4 GB brethren. in many cases the consumer would be better off donating directly to the cause instead of employing and feeding the corporate middleman.

Medved also points out that some of the ad campaigns for the products are a bit risque. AIDS is a sexually transmitted disease, so I think suggestive advertising is not only sending the wrong message, but is irresponsible.

in my opinion, if you want to donate to charity you should be doing it for selfless reasons. you shouldn't require a badge to show other people how good of a person you really are, and the same should go for the companies making the products. all of the money spent on advertising and marketing this stuff could have gone directly to those in need, and don't get me started on the time and gas wasted on trips to the mall to buy it. this campaign is too sales-driven for me and its presentation is borderline obnoxious. the message they're sending is that shopping and excess save lives. it has already become more about stuff than what money is going to.

okay, I realize I was rambling but I feel pretty strongly about this. and who decided on red anyway? pink and yellow were taken?

I'm anxious to hear/read what any of you have to say. please comment below or contact me privately if you prefer and let me know.

dg

CO vs. MI

hola amigos,

in my short time here in 'the centennial state' I have made note of several (sev-eh-ral) differences between my new home and 'the wolverine state'.

for instance, in Colorado u-turns on divided highways are performed freehand at intersections, whereas in Michigan I'm used to the Michigan-U (not to be confused with the University of Michigan, though I did make an academic u-turn during the end of my tenure there which, coincidentally, landed me here). I'm still getting used to this concept and will be glad when I get a vehicle with a better turning radius.

another slight change has been the cuisine, or more accurately the food options local to me. gone are the days of picking up Backroom (mmm...Backroom) or Panch after an evening at the Jug. a few months back I thought all hope of decent burritos was lost when I tried Big City Burrito, an unimaginable disappointment. on Sunday, however, I was introduced to Illegal Pete's, a small local franchise that might give Panchero's a carrera for their pesos. also, I have been very, very lucky to find Sabra hummus at several (joss tryeeton!) local grocerariums.

highway driving can also be a markedly different experience out here. people actually drive under the speed limit, sometimes by 5 mph or so. also, horns are seldom utilized, save for occasionally waking someone from a slumber at a traffic light.

Hillel on campus is also quite a change from what I was used to in Ann Arbor (I'm of course referring to my final year during which I actually went inside of UMHillel). there's just not a lot of Jews out here. Hillel is in a small house and this evening's services were attended by about 75 people in auditorium on campus, and many of those present were community members (though by the end the rabbi hoped we'd all be a kehila kedosha).

feetball. Michigan's team wins in upset fashion whereas Colorado's just makes all of its fans upset. their current records also could not be more contrastative.

cars out here (as in many states) are required to have front and rear license plates. though I normally despise the look of a front plate, I won't mind too much when I get my next vehicle because CO has very cool mountain plate designs.

Colorado has mountains, Michigan hasn't.

feliz año nuevo a mis amigos sefardis y שנה טובה al resto!
el DG

p.s. for those of you who don't read hebrew or spanish, I was just wishing a happy new year to all as tonight is the beginning of Rosh Hashanah and the Jewish year 5767. now why didn't I just say it like that to begin with? because then I wouldn't get the opportunity to use a post-script to explain myself and make this already-too-long post even longer.