Category: Observations

From Acerbia the other day:

Later today we walked past another store, selling inflated hearts with red paper hearts inside and a small bear standing up on it’s hind legs, face pressed pathetically against the transparent plastic.
I wonder how they get the bear inside.
“He’s sealed inside at the factory” she said.
How does he breathe?
“He doesn’t, thats why he’s pressed up against the side like that, he spent his last few seconds screaming ‘help meeee!’ at the uncaring factory workers”

(There is more to this – you can see it on D’s site)

As I went to Wal-Mart on Valentine’s Day to pick up cat food, I started laughing this crazed, manic laugh as I saw people purchasing those poor teddy bears trapped inside balloons. Considering it was Wal-Mart, I’m not sure if anyone noticed. All I could think of was “the uncaring factory workers! They watched them die!” Yes, it was just too funny. Probably one of the best moments of my Valentine’s Day.

When I first saw the mLife commercials, I assumed it had something to do with MetLife. Obviously, wrong. But MetLife feels the same way and is suing AT&T Wireless. “MetLife said in a statement that it disapproved of AT&T Wireless’ use of the term, which it found “confusingly similar” and potentially “dilutive” to MetLife’s own trademarks, “thereby causing irreparable harm to the company.” The New York-based insurance company also said the mLife ads were similar to MetLife’s own “have you met life today?” campaign, which, it said, “also address issues such as enhancing life significance in an emotional way.” MetLife also objected to AT&T Wireless’ frequent use of “mLife” as spelled “mlife,” which it felt were similar to “have you met life today?”.”

AT&T of course thinks the suit is frivilous. As a consumer, MetLife was the first thing I thought of, and isn’t that the purpose of a trademark? To have the ability to brand it and make it your own identity for your company? Yes, it is. Now I just hope the courts back them up on that for the sake of business small & large everywhere.

Watching the figure skating – pairs, loving every minute of it – I heard them talking about how Ina & Zimmerman, the US pairs team, had really bonded this past year and how much their skating has improved. The announcer then went on to say that “they now go to lunch together once a week and share everything.” Hey, Kymberlie, and I are proof that that really does make working together a lot easier as you find a different level of communication. Too bad some people were so anti-social, huh Kymberlie? Oh well – we tried. Side note to explain: anti-social co-worker, Kymberlie’s “teammate”, wouldn’t even tell her when her birthday is! She was somewhat icy and was let go on Friday. Guess working 9-5 (when the hours are 9-6) and taking 2 hour lunches every day isn’t too wise either.

WTF is up with this medal ceremony at the Olympics? Hello? Did they hire Cirque de Soleil to give out the medals? This is just strange… it’s so long NBC is cutting away for commercials!

While baking cookies is yummy, baking your Palm VIIx does not have good consequences. [via Fark]

Did anyone watch last night’s opening ceremony for the Olympics? Wow. I don’t normally watch the opening ceremonies unless I catch them in passing – but I’m really glad I watched last night! That was absolutely beautiful. I guess I should confess now … I love the Winter Olympics. The summer games don’t do a whole lot for me – but the Winter Games ROCK!!! I watch all the skating events. I like to watch the skiing – it’s fun. The bobsleds and luge and all that stuff is just cool. Heck, I might even watch a hockey game or two! It’s the only time I watch most of the sports with the exception of the skating. I’ll watch skating any time!

My two Olympic tales:
– I went into Baskin Robbins the other night to get Gold Medal Ribbon ice cream. I told the kid working the counter that I wanted some “in honor of the Olympics”. Blank stare. He had no clue what I was talking about. Yes, the ice cream flavor was introduced for the 1980 Olympics. Problem was, he was probably about 18, so the 1980 Games were about 4 years before he was born. Oops.

– After the 1980 Winter Olympic Games, I was “speed skating” on the driveway one nice spring day on my roller skates. The old-fashioned style, not the fancy inline skates. We had a great huge flat driveway – it was the perfect skating rink. But I was speed skating, just like I had seen on the Games. Took a curve in that speed skater position and coming out of the turn I fell. And broke my wrist. Ouch. So if you see something fancy on the Games, don’t try to do it unless you have the right equipment and location.

On another topic:
I modified the new design so that it is more “fluid” so that the the 800×600 screen resolution shouldn’t have a side scroll any more. If there is anything that is broken that I’ve overlooked, let me know. I’ll have to fix it later though – because now the computer is going off and I’m going to clean the house and then maybe read a book or cross stitch. I need some time away from the computer for a little bit. Later on I need to do some stuff for Kymberlie on her site and then work on my next project. But first I need some down time for the afternoon.