Year: 2008

Optional Equipment Shown

I’ve been watching a lot more television than I used to lately and the down side of this is commercials. Theodore Sturgeon was probably a little optimistic about the percentages as they pertain to TV ads, it is more like 99% are crud.

The ads always show stuff in a positive light, except for prescription medicine which have to go on and on about the possible side effects. Car commercials have some rules too, but do their best to find their way around them. If you advertise the starting price of the car, you have to show the price of what it would cost to buy the car featured in the commercial. They show this much higher price in the fine print at the bottom of the screen and it only appears for milliseconds. This price is always considerably more than the base price of the car by thousands of dollars. The current big price jump champion is the new Nissan Murano with a base price of $26,330 with a price as shown of $38,930, nearly 50% more expensive.

A way to avoid showing this greatly inflated cost is to not mention the base price of the car at all. But to be fair if you are not featuring the base model of the car in the ad, you have to place this helpful little phrase in the fine print for a few milliseconds — Optional equipment shown.

Started up, went down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/08: 30

Question Time

Hillary Clinton goes to a primary school in New York to talk about the world. After her talk she offers a question time. One little boy puts up his hand. The Senator asks him what his name is.

‘Kenneth.’

‘And what is your question, Kenneth?’

‘I have three questions:
First – whatever happened to the medical health care plan you were paid to develop during your husband’s eight years in the office as President?
Second – why would you run for President after your husband shamed the office?
Third – whatever happened to all those things you took when you left the White House?’

Just then the bell rings for recess. Hillary Clinton informs the kids that they will continue after recess. When they resume, Hillary says, ‘Okay, where were we? Oh, that’s right, question time. Who has a question?’

A different little boy puts his hand up. Hillary points to him and asks him what his name is.

‘Larry.’

‘And what is your question, Larry?’

‘I have five questions:
First – whatever happened to the medical health care plan you were paid to develop during your husband’s eight years in the office as President?
Second – why would you run for President after your husband shamed the office?
Third – whatever happened to all those things you took when you left the White House?
Fourth – why did the recess bell go off 20 minutes early?
And Fifth – what happened to Kenneth?’

Lost Out On Lost

Tonight was the February meeting of the MMC. This month it was in Augusta and the big item on the agenda was trying to figure out what to do for our 15th Anniversary dinner later this month.

The one person committee had it narrowed down to 5 different restaurants in the three different cites on 3 different nights. The haggling lasted until nearly 9:00 PM with nearly twenty differing opinions on when, where, and how much. It was as difficult to reach an agreement as it was for the SALT talks. Believe me, in the middle of it, it felt as if it was taking as long too.

By the time we got home there were less than fifteen minutes to go in tonight’s episode. I sat in front of the PC, but Donna couldn’t resist the call of the siren and headed in to watch the last bits. I’m going to wait until tomorrow and watch it online at ABC.com.

Started up, went down, back up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/08: 29

New Bumper Sticker

Forgive me if I can’t remember which magazine it was in, the latest editions of both Automobile and Motor Trend landed on my desk this morning, but there were some photos of several near totally un-camouflaged Porsche Panameras. The four-seat, four-door sport coupe, that is supposed to be on sale next year as a 2010 model was out doing high speed testing. If they were parked along the side of the road in the pictures how did we know they were out high speed testing you ask? Because each car was sporting on both front and rear bumpers a bright yellow sticker:

Get yours here: Government Approved High Speed Testing Vehicle Bumper Sticker

Oh, yeah, IE users you should be able to change the theme back to Brian’s Red if you want to.

Started down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/08: 27

Netflix & The New Throttling

For the 4th time in 3 months a disc we have rented from Netflix has not been available at our local distribution center. The British detective show, I can understand not being real popular in SC, and having to come from Chicago, but House, season one disc three? Discs 1 & 2 came from Columbia, how come #3 wasn’t there? I bet #4, 5 & 6 will be there.

Even though Netflix has lost a 2004 class action lawsuit for throttling (with legal feet dragging it is still not settled), I have no real recourse because they changed their user agreement to allow high volume renters to be “smoothed.”

What is really galling is the fact that when a disc is “not available” at my local distribution center they have to wait a full day before it can be shipped from the next closest center. Isn’t this all done via computer? Netflix knows what I want next, how long should it take them to get the word out? I kinda figure email would be pretty much instantaneous…

Started down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/08: 26

I Checked The Mail

The Shirt isn’t here yet.

Neither is Season 3.

Started down, went up, went down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/08: 26

Free Willy

A man wakes up the hospital, bandaged from head to foot. The doctor comes in and says, ‘Ah, I see you’ve regained consciousness. Now, you probably won’t remember, but you were in a pile-up on the freeway. You’re going to be okay, you’ll walk again and everything, but… something unfortunate happened. I’m trying to break this gently, but the fact is, your willy was chopped off in the wreck, and we were unable to find it.’

The man groans, but the doctor goes on, ‘You’ve got $9,000 in insurance compensation coming to you, and we have the technology now to build you a new willy that will work as well as your old one did – better in fact! But the thing is, it doesn’t come cheap. It’s $1,000 an inch.’

The man perks up at this.

‘So,’ the doctor says, ‘it’s for you to decide how many inches you want. But it’s something you’d better discuss with your wife. I mean, if you had a five inch one before, and you decide to go for a nine incher, she might be a bit put out. But if you had a nine inch one before, and you decide only to invest in a five incher this time, she might be disappointed. So it’s important that she plays a role in helping you make the decision.’

The man agrees to talk with his wife. The doctor comes back the next day. ‘So,’ says the doctor, ‘have you spoken with your wife?’

‘I have,’ says the man.

‘And has she helped you in making the decision?’

‘She has,’ says the man.

‘And what is it?’ asks the doctor.

‘We’re getting a new kitchen.’