The Drive-Thru Circle of Hell

Christmas is upon us in the form of Filet-O-Fish Fridays. Did you know that Filet-O-Fish Fridays coincided with Lent? I had no idea. I used to drive around thinking that only certain McDonald's locations had this deal. Stupid me. Pattern recognition isn't one of my strong suits. Anyway, here's the backstory on how the Filet-O-Fish got its start as a regular menu item at McDonald's. Important stuff.The beauty of Filet-O-Fish Fridays is not...

Role Bounce

A few months ago, I was touting the potential of two new MTV reality shows that were about to air. "Dancelife" turned out to be a bust. You would think that a show about dancing would be somewhat exciting -- especially to a semi ex-dancer. But without drama, story, or any particularly captivating characters, the show was a waste of time, even on DVR.The other show, "I'm From Rolling Stone," I just watched the finale for today. Guess what? It...

All Aboard!

This is one of the cooler services I've seen in awhile. Grandcentral.com allows you to have "one number...for life." Grandcentral gives you a designated number that other people will call to ring all your numbers -- home, mobile, business, etc. That's the most basic part, call forwarding.But here's where it gets fun. Grandcentral will store your voicemails indefinitely in an online voicemail box. Looks like email, works like email. You can...

Zodiac (2007)

David Fincher continues to churn out his unique style of movie. This one isn't quite as good as his other efforts (Se7en, Fight Club, The Game) but the reality of the situation is gripping. The movie seems like its over two-thirds of the way through but then there's another hour or so of Jake Gyllenhaal running around being scared by would-be serial killers. It's strange that "The Zodiac" actually ends up messing up most of his kills, as many...

Pleat Me (or) Flat Frontal

I normally just wear my suit pants for interviews and it's been awhile since I've had a job where I had to dress up -- summer 1999 I believe. What that means is that all of my dress pants aren't exactly in style anymore. It's actually pretty questionable if my dress pants were ever in style (I'd say half of them I stole from my dad and had re-tailored), but let's ignore that. I have a whole rack of balloony dress pants hanging in my closet at home from ten years ago. It's very New Jack Swing; in style and color selection. Anyway, if forced...

Navel Gazing

As an author with a book on Amazon -- indulge me while I say that a few times -- you suddenly start to check your book's page as often as a child checks MySpace. The number you're addicted to? The "Amazon.com Sales Rank." As an avid Amazon shopper, this number used to never concern me; I just looked at a book's price to see of it would help me qualify for free shipping. But now the only number I look at is the Sales Ranking. I study it like...

300 (2007)

I was psyched for this movie. Ridiculously psyched. If you like Spartans and violence, this highly stylized movie will set your neck hairs on tilt with its numerous "cool scenes." Not much plot or exposition to speak of (in comparison to say, Gladiator) and I would have wanted some trimming of the unnecssary "girl in wheatfields, I love you" scenes but hey, what can you do? Some great moments, a few laugh out loud moments (not in a good way), but...

The Popcorn Economy

"On the way to Las Vegas, Stephenson, an energetic, peppery-haired man in his early forties, gave me a quick course in the economics of his business. Of the fifty million dollars customers paid for tickets last year, he said, Hollywood Theater kept only twenty-three million; most of the rest went to the distributors.But, he continued, since it cost $31.2 million to pay the operating costs of the theater, his company would have lost $8.2 million if...

Do You Yelp?

Do you remember the first time you used Google? Me neither. I used to be a Netscape devotee but somewhere along the way, I just started using Google constantly. Soon, everyone was using Google. A bit after soon, Google became an empire.The same sort of thing happens with Amazon, Craigslist, Friendster, YouTube, Digg, whatever. I'm sure M.Gladwell would say something here about the tipping point but really, I'm sure there's a very well orchestrated...

Book Swap: March

Something NewFlowers for Algernon - Daniel KeyesCatch Me If You Can - Frank AbagnaleMy Antonia - Willa CatherDumbing Down Our Kids - Charles SykesThe Last Templar - Raymond KhouryThat's what I acquired from this month's book swap. It's hard to gauge people's interests in particular genres so I try to bring a selection. I'm happiest when a book of mine ends up in every swapper's take-home pile. I was delighted with my swaps this time around as I've been wanting to read Flowers for Algernon for quite awhile and now I will.Between the five books...