This was clever [way before the movie made it awesome]:
This is troubling:
Nike Japan and Tomy have teamed up to make this sweet new Transformer, "Convoy," which transforms from a half-size sneaker into a robot [they also have a Megatron model as well]. If you like this product and think 220 bucks is not too much to spend on a half sized plastic Nike show which turns into a mini robot from outerspace, then you can pick up a set here.
Of course if you want to wear a pair of Nikes and show off your love of all things from Cybertron, you could go with these:
Nike, more than meets the eye...
Not to be out done, Reebok has announced a fall realase of Voltron shoes.
They obviously won't be as popular because they don't have a summer blockbuster to go with them but they will be regualr wearable shoes that come with a mini lion ships and if you buy all five models, the you will be able to from Voltron. Of course you could just go out and buy a Voltron toy for 160 bucks and skip the five pairs of shoes, but what do I know.
On January 13, 1969, Led Zeppelin's self-titled debut album was released setting the stage for one of rock's greatest groups ever to be formed. Over the next 12 years, they released 8 studio albums, reaching #1 in the UK and US 7 times. The group has sold over 300 million albums worldwide in the past 38 years and continue to release "new" records however their newest venture, is something very special for a new generation.
On November 13th, the album Motherload hits stores and this 2 disc set will include 24 hand picked tracks representing all 8 albums. The release will be available in 4 distinct physical forms:
Standard Package – 2 CD set
Deluxe Edition – 2 CD/ 1 DVD set
Collector’s Edition – 2 CD/1 ultra-deluxe DVD set
Vinyl Edition – 4 high-end LPs
The track listing for Motherload is as follows:
Disc One 1. Good Times Bad Times 2. Communication Breakdown 3. Dazed And Confused 4. Babe I'm Gonna Leave You 5. Whole Lotta Love 6. Ramble On 7. Heartbreaker 8. Immigrant Song 9. Since I've Been Loving You 10. Rock And Roll 11. Black Dog 12. When The Levee Breaks 13. Stairway To Heaven
Disc Two 1. Song Remains The Same 2. Over The Hills And Far Away 3. D'Yer Maker 4. No Quarter 5. Trampled Under Foot 6. Houses Of The Holy 7. Kashmir 8. Nobody's Fault But Mine 9. Achilles Last Stand 10. In The Evening 11. All My Love
This release also marks the first time that Zeppelin will be available for download online. They have been very reluctant to join the new millennium and get on board with all those MP3 player Gen X and Gen Yer's. But now, the new generation of music lovers can get the Motherload of Zeppelin and discover something their parents found back in the day.
Google maps is my favorite online mapping service mostly because of the simple interface, dragable map and simple wheel mouse zooming. Now the brainiacs over at Google have added two new features which make this even better: Dragable routes [with auto updating directions] and the ability to add multiple destinations to your existing driving directions. Want a demonstration? Check out this video from Google:
These new features make Google maps very flexible and allow users to map complex routes instead of just a single point-to-point map. Can't wait to see what new mapping mash-ups are created now that these new features are available.
The guys at BlendTec have been showing off their Total Blender off on their website, Will It Blend, for the past few months and they have blended some pretty interesting stuff. Marbles, hockey pucks, transformers, extra value meal, golf club, can of soup, iPhone, baseball, glow sticks and many other items. One of my favorites is the point of view prospective found in:
PGA: At this year's British Open, Gary Player told reporters that he knew of at least one professional golfer using steroids and thinks it maybe as many as 10. "Whether it's HGH, whether it's Creatine or whether it's steroids, I know for a fact that some golfers are doing it", said player. Why should golf be any different than other sports?
NHL: Besides fans repeatedly asking for commissioner Gary Bettman to resign for diluting the talent of the sport by forcing it's growth to far and too fast, Carolina Hurricanes star Eric Staal and his brother, Jordan Staal of the Pittsburgh Penguins, were arrested for misdemeanor disorderly conduct and obstructing the legal process at Eric Staal's bachelor party at a Minnesota resort, along with 12 other people in attendance. That's not so bad, boys will be boys.
UCI: Tour de France leader Michael Rasmussen was expelled for the race by his team for lying about his whereabouts during required non-race time drug testing. Cycling has been marred in the past year with Floyd Landis failing a drugs test while other top riders, including Germany's Jan Ullrich and Italy's Ivan Basso were implicated in a major Spanish doping investigation. With so many top riders being dropped because of drug use, can this sport be taken seriously? I seriously doubt it.
MLB: Barry Bonds is going to break Hammering Hank Arron's all-time home run record and while he has not been charged everyone suspects he has been juicing for years. It wasn't until the Giants latest home stand that commissioner Bud Selig decided he would attend and be present when the record falls. Now if George Mitchell and team could just get organized and finally figure out if Bonds, Giambi, Sheffield and others are cheating or not we can get back to enjoying the game.
NFL: Michael Vick has been accused of an unthinkable crime - participating in a competitive dogfighting conspiracy, buying and training pit bulls for fighting, and conducting the operation across state lines. For a sport that already has bar-fighting Adam "Pacman" Jones, big-drinker, Chris Henry and gun-toting Tank Johnson this is a real shock to the whole league and if not handled properly could undermine support for the entire sport.
NBA: Former referee Tim Donaghy is being investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation for allegations that he bet on games that he officiated over the prior two seasons and that he made calls affecting the point spread in those games. Over his career, Donaghy officiated over 772 regular-season and 20 playoff games. There has been no indication that his alleged point shaving has had any real effect on the out come of games [or championships] but is it possible? If so, this is the worst case scenario for any professional sport.
May 26th - arrested for DUI and possession of a "usable" quantity of cocaine May 28th - enters rehab for the second time this year and stays for just over 6 weeks July 2nd - celebrates 21st birthday July 22nd - suspicion of driving under the influence of alcohol and driving on a suspended license and two felony charges of possession of cocaine and transport of a narcotic
Will someone help this girl before she does some real damage, either to herself or an innocent by-standard? Please...
On a side note, do not carry other people's drugs around for them. That excuse rarely works with your local police department and could land one in federal prison.
Jon Lester took the mound last night for his first start of the season for the Boston Red Sox. He pitched six solid innings and the official stat sheet reads: 5 hits, 2 earned runs, 3 walks and 6 strike outs. One number that wasn't written into yesterday's stat book was 11 - as in 11 months since Lester was diagnosed with cancer, a treatable form of anaplastic large cell lymphoma.
Since last September, where Lester was enjoying a very good rookie year with a 7-2 record, he has gone through 6 chemotherapy sessions that eventually eradicated the disease but he still had a long recovery ahead of him. Eager to return to baseball, Jon reported two weeks early to training camp and has been working ever since to get back to the majors. With hard work, patience and determination he made it back to the show last night and really no matter the outcome of the game, Lester would be a winner.
Welcome home Jon and thanks for giving all of us, a story with so much heart that Red Sox Nation grew to include all baseball fans, at least for one night.
According to a Russian hacker team called “web-hack", the iPhone contains “a built-in function which sends all data from an iPhone to a specified web-server. Contacts from a phonebook, SMS, recent calls, history of Safari browser” can all be transmitted. The hacker team goes on to say in their white paper that this is a possible “debug feature or a built-in backdoor module for some governmental structures”.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation, formed in 1990 to defend free speech, privacy, innovation, and consumer rights for consumers and the general public, states that "under the NSA domestic spying program, major telecommunications companies—and AT&T specifically—gave the NSA direct access to their vast databases of communications records, including information about whom their customers have phoned or emailed with in the past". They also allege that AT&T, in addition to allowing the NSA direct access to the phone and Internet communications passing over its network, and gave the government unfettered access to its over 300 terabyte ‘Daytona’ database of caller information—one of the largest databases in the world.
AT&T posted this message on their website last month:
"The U.S. Department of Justice has stated that AT&T may neither confirm nor deny AT&T's participation in the alleged NSA program because doing so would cause "exceptionally grave harm to national security" and would violate both civil and criminal statutes. Under these circumstances, AT&T is not able to respond to such allegations.
What we can say is AT&T is fully committed to protecting our customers' privacy and would not provide customer information to any government agency except as specifically authorized under the law."
Interestingly enough, the EFF filed a class-action lawsuit against AT&T last year accusing the telecom giant of violating the law and the privacy of its customers by collaborating with the NSA in its massive, illegal program to wiretap and data-mine Americans' communications.
In a related story, a team of computer security consultants working for Independent Security Evaluators have reported that they found a security problem and that they could take control of iPhones through a WiFi connection or by tricking users into going to a Web site that contains malicious code. Once the code has been uploaded to a target iPhone via the web browser, full access is gained to address books, text messages and other other data stored on the phone. Also attack could be used to program the phone to make calls, running up large bills or even turning it into a portable bugging device.
Perhaps the new iPhone comes with one additional feature then consumers area aware of, called iSnoope or something clever like that, or maybe it is just a flaw. Either way, it looks like the iPhone has some iSsues.
Michiko Kakutani of the New York Times posted her review of the final J. K. Rowling Harry Potter novel - Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - online yesterday and two things about her review made me think of C+C Music Factory's 1991 hit song Things That Make You Go Hmmmm...
First she states that she obtained her copy of the book from "a New York City store yesterday". Well Potter fans are asking today, what store in NYC is selling this book 3 days ahead of schedule? She went on to ironically write that she was able to buy her copy even "though the book is embargoed for release until 12:01 a.m. on Saturday — is no exception." It has been widely reported that the release of one of the most [if not THE most] anticipated books ever has been heavily guarded, precisely scheduled and eagerly awaited. And now we are to believe that a book reviewer for the Times just happen into a store and pick this book off a shelf? I don't buy it and I don't think she did either.
On a side note, a photographed copy of this book hit the net a couple of days ago. This "version" has not yet been authenticated and it is perhaps and early draft of the book. It's hard to tell until the book actually hits the stores this weekend but the funny thing is that the person who photographed the pages, they forgot to remove the EXIF data from the photo, which included the camera's serial number. In an ironic circle-of life-twist, someone else posted a screencap of the photo's EXIF data online for the world to see. Ahhhh, Technology!
The other thing about Kakutani's review that I find odd is she bought the book on Wednesday and posted a full review on Thursday. I consider myself an above average reader [when it comes to speed] but I'm pretty sure I could cut through a 784-page book in a single afternoon or even a whole day [if I had the time], so how does a book reviewer do it? I'm guessing reviewers give books more of a skim then an actual read which begs the question, why would anyone listen to a book reviewer who hadn't actually read the entire book? Would you read a review for only 20 minutes of a movie? Or 2 tracks from a new album? Even though I don't always agree with Movie, TV and Music critics, at least I'm fairly sure they have actually spent the time taking in the media to form a proper review. I'm not sure I can say the same for this specific book reviewer.
Vermont has a live-and-let-live tradition which includes allowing skinny-dipping and nude sunbathing. Brattleboro, the first permanent English settlement in the state in 1724, is home to a community of writers, artists and musicians and they have been [in the past] supporters of the state mantra. However town officials voted this week for a temporary 30-day ordinance prohibiting people from going about in the nude.
Public nudity made headlines last summer when the weather grew hot and a couple of dozen teens took to holding hula hoop contests, riding bikes and parading past stores wearing only their birthday suits. The disrobing has resumed this summer but many locals say it has gone too far citing a particular incident in which a senior citizen from Arizona strolled through the center of town wearing only a waist pack and sandals. [I guess the nickname Ol' Saddlebags just didn't work for the locals].
The ban covers nudity in the main part of town and near schools and churches and is part of a broader anti-nudity proposal that is likely to be decided next month. On a positive note, breast feeding in public will still be allowed, which I am sure is a big relief to mom's all over southern Vermont.
Burger King and The Simpson's Movie have whipped a fun little site where you can create a Simpson's character in your own likeness. The site is a little temperamental but once you have a "good" photo [to their specifications] it does locate the facial region and create a 2D character based on some simple inputs like sex, age, clothing style, ect. Once the character is created, you can go to further refine your character including eyes, hair color, accessories and body style. here is my before and after from Simpsonize Me.
Does it look like me? Not too sure it does but it's a fun toy to play with.
This skit has inspired me to create my top 10 songs that feature the cowbell. First here are the honorable mentions for kiss ass cowbell songs:
Aeromsith Walk This Way Breeders Cannonball B'52s Love Shack Bad Company Holy Water Def Leppard Foolin' Disturbed Shout Cake Short Skirt Long Jacket Duran Duran Union Of The Snake EMF Unbelievable Guns n Roses Nightrain J. Geils Band Give It To Me Joe Walsh Life's Been Good John Mellencamp Cherry Bomb LL Cool J Rock The Bells Led Zeppelin Good Times, Bad Times Lynyrd Skynyrd Gimme Three Steps Offspring Pretty Fly (For a White Guy) Prince U Got The Look Run DMC King of Rock Salt n Pepper Push It Santana Oye Como Va Sheila E. Glamorous Life Soundgarden Spoon Man Steely Dan My Old School Talking Heads And She Was Tone Loc Funky Cold Medina Wild Cherry Play That Funky Music
And my top "I got a fever, and the only prescription is more cowbell" are:
10. Guns n Roses Welcome to the Jungle 9. Blue Oyster Cult Don't Fear the Reaper 8. WAR Low Rider 7. Twisted Sister We're Not Going to Take It 6. Steve Miller Band Jungle Love 5. Rolling Stones Honky Tonk Woman 4. Creedence Clearwater Revival Down on the Corner 3. B.T.O. Ain't Seen Nothing Yet 2. Mountain Mississippi Queen 1. Def Leppard Rock of Ages
It was 12:10 am on Saturday night and I was standing in a very brightly lit parking lot on route 9 in Shrewsbury. My eyes follow his finger to the left, then to the right, back to the left and then to the right. I speak "ABCDEFGHJIKLMNOPQR ummm STUVWXYZ". My heart is racing, can feel my muscles tensing under the pressure. I take 9 steps forward, turn around military style and return to my starting position taking exactly 9 more steps. Lastly I stood on my left foot counting from 1-1000 to 30-1000 as my face becomes flush with fear.
As I return t my car, I can feel my hands shaking and my chest pounding but I quickly regain control and slowly drive away from the Massachusetts State Police Sobriety Check Point. I had a few glasses of wine with dinner however had been drinking water for a couple of hours after dinner so I knew I was fine to drive but your mind does race when faced with the very real notion you might be arrested. Of course a day removed [and without the stress of a dozen state troopers standing around] I was able to recite the alphabet perfectly and even get through it backwards pretty good.
Life is a very intricate web of connections, coincidences and timed events. If we had not run into a former co-worker and her boyfriend at the restaurant how long would we have actually stayed? What if we didn't sit at the bar and drink water for two hours and then go home, would the field test come out different? Would I have missed it completely or worse failed? There are no answers to these questions, only things to consider, being thankful for the ending we got to a great Saturday and food for thought going forward.
It's Friday, so why not kill some time in the office - or kill yourself at the virtual office. Can you finish yourself off in under 5 minutes? Don't kill yourself trying, it's friday after all.
The house of Kirk Radomski, a former New York Mets clubhouse worker, was raided in 2005 by federal investigators and this past April he plead guilty to two felony steroids distribution charges. This 2 year old story has not made many headlines, because of the ongoing steroid scandal that apparently continues to baffle Major League Baseball, but what is interesting is the search warrant that is now in the middle of a power struggle.
The warrant, which is a public document and is freely available for inspection, apparently contains the names of 23 professional baseball players but those names have been redacted from the public. The Albany Times Union and San Francisco Chronicle, both owned by the Hearst Corporation, made a motion in a Long Island federal court requested that the names be released since they appear on a public document and pose no threat to things like National Security or other federal intelligence. Tuesday A federal judge in Long Island, ruled that the MLB Players Association can formally join with the U.S. Department of Justice in opposing two newspapers' demands that the players' names be made public.
Federal prosecutors argued Monday that disclosing the names would jeopardize the ongoing probe into performance enhancing drug use among elite athletes, but the players' union is refuting the claim but is obviously concerned over the release of these names. Sure the players union is there to protect the players but from whom? Themselves? Radomski was obviously dealing steroids and it would seem the federal government has some indication it was to ball players so should they be protected because they play a game?
And who is the federal government protecting? They claim this information is being held back so that not to jeopardize the ongoing investigation into performance enhancement drugs in sports but after 2 plus years, MLB has still pretty much coming up empty so what's left? How about making the names known of all 23 players and let the public decide for themselves who they believe and who they don't.
At least this way Major League Baseball, the players union and the game will have a chance to come clean once and for all.
Avril Lavigne is being sued by the The Rubinoos' front man Tommy Dunbar claiming that there are more than coincidental similarities between his I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend [released in 1979] and her current smash hit Girlfriend. While the titles seem eerily similar, is Lavigne's new song a lift of The Rubinoos or just coincidence? Judge for your self:
The latest allegations are another song lift and this time it is Peaches 2003 I'm The Kinda that is being compared to Lavigne's I Don't Have To Try, also from her latest album The Best Damn Thing. While the lyrics aren't similar in any way, the beat seems to be a nice copy and the attitude of the song seems like a fit [although I'm sure you can't get sued for coping an artist "attitude"]. Take a listen and hear what you hear:
In the case of the The Rubinoos, Lavigne claims to have never heard the song [or artist] before so her team is saying this is just a big coincidence but she has not said the same about Peaches. Peaches is a fellow Canadian musician and one of her songs was listed as Lavigne's "top 5" in her playlist in July 2007 issue of Instyle Magazine.
In one final note about this would "mess", Canadian singer-songwriter Chantal Kreviazuk, with whom Lavigne wrote the majority of her second album, Under My Skin, spoke to Performing Songwriter magazine about Lavigne's songwriting, saying, "I sent her a song two years ago called 'Contagious', and I just saw the tracklisting to this album and there's a song called 'Contagious' on it — and my name's not on it." Kreviazuk went on to say she crossed "the ethical line and on one says anything. That's why I'll never work with her again".
Days later Kreviazuk issued a statement that the reason she was not going to write with Lavigne again was because they "had no hits together". I'm sure the fact that both Lavigne and Kreviazukare are managed by Network Management in Vancouver had something to do with this retraction but none the less, The Best Damn Thing might just be relabeled as The Best Damn Thing I Stole From Other Artists And Didn't Give Them Any Credit.
In typical J.J. Abrams style, the trailer for his upcoming new movie project was shown this past weekend prior to the Transformers movie and it has caused quite a stir. No title to the movie was shown nor was anything very specific about what the plot of the film except it is in New York, it's late at night and the movie is being shot as a point-of-view [like the Blair Witch Project] film. The working title for the film is Cloverfield [or it's shooting title of >Slusho] and only after this past weekend would Paramount even admit to knowing the film exists. Since then the mysterious websites 1-18-08, EthanHaasWasRight, EthanHaasWasWrong Blog, and finally the movie trailer is now available on Apple's website. [Note it has been reported that >the Ethan sites are not related to the film but it has also been reported that there will be more websites to promote the film either to be launched or to be found by the public at large, surf at your own risk!]
I'm not sure what this film is all about but you can be sure that the Losties out there are already forming their own theories and filling internet discussion boards with hours of Godzilla, Voltron, Lost and Other sci-fi fodder. Let the games begin.
Liliana, a 29-year-old factory worker from Mexico who crossed the border illegally in 1998, was asked by federal immigration agents to return to Mexico back in May but she was given a 5 day stay because she has children, specifically a child who is still nursing. Since then, she has been hiding at the home of a Catholic deacon and his wife and last month she emerged from their home and took up residence at St. Luke's Episcopal Church [Long Beach California], which has pledged to protect her from deportation.
Is separation of church and state where the Government stays out of the churches business or the other way around? I always get that one confused. Anyway... The New Sanctuary Movement is a small but growing coalition of churches, synagogues and other houses of worship that is challenging the immigration system, despite legal risk, as the nation debates how to deal with the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants in the USA.
It seems that the immigration problem is only getting worse here and the New Sanctuary Movement is not making it better. It is bad enough that illegal immigration puts a strain on our economic, educational, legal, health care and other public systems now it appears to be beginning to strain our religious ones as well.
I acknowledge we have a big immigration problem here in the US but I'm not sure that giving religious asylum is a conduit for change but rather it might be seen as a road map for beating the system, until the system can be "fixed". Hopefully the New Sanctuary Movement does not get overwhelmed with illegal immigrants who recently had a baby and not want to return to their native lands.
Here are my picks for the top 15 cars in modern film:
15. Grease's Grease Lightning with custom paint job, overhead lifters, some four barrel quads, fuel injection cutoff and chrome plated rods - oh yeah!
14. Smokey and the Bandit's 1977 Pontiac Trans Am which featured a T-top, CB radio, and a runaway bride in the passenger seat.
13. The Matrix's 1965 Lincoln Continental with suicide doors, more weapons than one could ever imagine and a new wave bug zapper you just might need in the future.
12. Gone In Sixty Seconds' 1967 Ford Mustang Shelby GT500 which currently requires a new paint job, a driver side review mirror and some fiberglass for body work but it can jump a 30 foot long accident scene on a northern California bridge.
11. The Transporters 1995 BMW 735i complete with rotating license plate, full spare tire, and room for at least 1 small Asian woman in the trunk.
10. Christine's 1958 Plymouth Fury with a rewinding odometer, self healing bending sheet metal but will run you down if your not careful.
9. Wayne's World's 1976 AMC Pacer appointed with subtle flame decal, licorice dispenser, and 1 jammed tape with Bohemian Rhapsody on continuous playback.
8a [tie]. The Italian Job's 2003 Mini Cooper S minus 200 pounds from the stock version, small enough to navigate congested streets, parks and subway tunnels while large enough to hold a butt load of gold bullion.
8b [tie]. The Bourne Identity's 1989 Austin Mini featuring black right front fender, splashy tires, pulls a little to the right however can slide down a flight of stairs or be used on the side walk or driven the wrong way on a highway with ease.
7. xXx's 1967 Pontiac GTO which included a blow-off roof, air-intake flamethrower, grappling hook and a dude with way too many tattoos and a very bad attitude.
6. Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery's 1967 Jaguar E-Type with customer UK flag paint job, in-dash picture phone, SWINGER license plate and one hell of shaggedelic good ride.
5. Batman's Batmobile, made from unknown car parts, includes a pair of forward-facing Browning machine guns, side-mounted grappling hook launchers and an armor plated body, which can envelop itself in a heavy armor cocoon.
4. Goldfinger's 1964 Aston Martin DB5 which not only was used by the best James in the best Bond film, it also comes with bulletproof glass, machine guns and a handy power passenger seat.
3. Ghostbusters' 1959 Cadillac Ambulance complete with red painted tail fins, flashing lights with annoying sirens and 4 unlicensed particle accelerators.
2. Ferris Bueller's Day Off's 1961 Ferrari 250 GT California noted for it's four-speed 3.0-liter V-12 and "backseat" luggage space one high school student cutting class.
1. Back to the Future's 1981 DeLorean DMC-12 featuring gull-wing doors, 16-port twin exhaust boxes, the world famous flux capacitor and some fancy fiery tire tracks at 88 miles per hour.
So there you have and remember, if you going to travel through time, you might as well do it in style.
On a cool summer night [Tuesday], we took in a science fiction double feature at the Mendon Drive In - Transformers and Fantastic Four: The Rise of the Silver Surfer. For 20 bucks, you can take a car load of people to the movies and enjoy two full length features in one sitting [the other screen had Ratatouille and Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End]. The really nice thing about this drive in is they are very family friendly and the snack bar is quite reasonably priced.
Now about the films, Transformers was visually stunning and provides the groundwork for the sure to be released Transformers 2 and 3. This film did a nice job with the human element and of course the bot-on-bot battle royale was awesome. The film overall felt a bit too long but it is what the summer blockbuster has become and should make a gazzillion dollars [$27 million on the first day is not too shabby]. As for Fantastic Four 2, it picked up where the first one left off and was pretty good. The silver surfer was a cool character, considering it was all cgi and "he" had very few lines. Not a bad no-brainer when it comes out on DVD this fall.
All-in-all a good night. Now if they could find a way to get us home before 2 am from the movies, it would be perfect.
If your like me, working on the day before the 4th of July which happens to be a mid-week holiday this year, then you are probably one of the few who are at their desk. Most of the company is off today [and for the rest of the week as a matter of fact] which is good and bad at the same time. Clearly no high-level decisions are made this week but luckily the end of the quarter was last week so their is not need for the big sales push. Some other signs of a slow week - cafeteria is closed, parking lot is pretty empty and the commute was a breeze.
So what should the cubicle worker do on a slow day before the holiday? Rearrange and clean the office I say. Do a "spring cleaning" and, if you can, rearrange the furniture, computer, posters, or plants in your office. This morning I took my standard L shaped desk and made a new wave U shaped work surface so now I can greet people as they enter my office. It's not ideal but at least I can sit face to face with my guests and you do what you can do from spare parts laying around the office.
As most companies close early for the holiday, please drive slow, have a cookout and watch some fireworks because once the 9th of July rolls around, it's business as usual - for the summer time that is.
Back in Febuary, JetBlue came under fire for leaving their customers on the tarmac for 6 hours with deicing issues. After much public backlash, they went as far as to draft a customers bills of rights for flying. Not sure if that resolved their issue but at least it tells consumers that they are trying. Well, now it's Delta's turn to take some heat.
On June 25, 2007, Delta Airlines flight 6499 from JFK to Dallas waited for seven long hours between the time they closed the doors at the gate and they took off for the approximately 3 and half hour flight. The plane circled JFK airport for 2 hours, they were told that there was a maintenance problem, then the flight crew had to be swapped out and after 7 hours on siting at the airport they finally took off. Oh and if you were wondering, no food was served at anytime during the 10 hours it took to get from NYC to Dallas.
As horrible as all that sounds, what is more maddening to watch it online. A passenger video taped the entire ordeal, posted it on YouTube and the nightmare documented in the 7 minute video posted below.
I hope this is a wake up call to the airline industry that you can not treat your passengers this way and if you do, the world is going to see how you mistreat, lie and completely botch what should be a routine flights from New York to Texas. I can't wait for the first baggage cam video to show up online that gives us some insight into how are bags are handled and why they loose so many of them each day.
Jon Lester took the mound last night for his first start of the season for the Boston Red Sox. He pitched six solid innings and the official stat sheet reads: 5 hits, 2 earned runs, 3 walks and 6 strike outs. One number that wasn't written into yesterday's stat book was 11 - as in 11 months since Lester was diagnosed with cancer, a treatable form of anaplastic large cell lymphoma.
In typical J.J. Abrams style, the trailer for his 
