posted by DL Byron on August 28, 2006
Attacking from a hiding place between two pallets of Krusteaz, this Mini Ninja refused my passage to the beverage aisle without first testing my strength and then acknowledging the Order of the Phoenix to which he had sworn allegiance.
I eventually acquiesced and the Mini Ninja let me pass, but kept an eye on me as I chose some snacks.
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posted by DL Byron on August 25, 2006
Having just attended a Veer Lofts information session, a new condo project in the revitalizing South Lake Union, it took me a while to process it all and I finally realized what I saw was a brand falling apart, veering off course.
Veer isn’t quite what they’re saying it is or marketing it as. The project is still very promising, but the sales staff seem to either be making it up as they go along, are confused themselves by the concept, or left hanging without enough details. While very nice and I think they just don’t have the details, they’re also pre-occupied with selling Countrywide mortgages and their nonanswers to specific questions implies the rushed lottery process is a sales tactic to build demand rather than an effort in social conscious. For example, the preferences they ask you to provide on the units will presumably be used to gauge demand and raise prices.
When you visit the Veer site, you get a whole “paint it they way you want thing.” Uhm … not so much. The creative professionals they’re marketing to can “Revel in what they create” from the 3 choices they give you. And, of course, up sell you to more. That’s a lot less sizzle to the building when you also consider the neighborhood of parking lots, soda factory, and the buildings that can go up around you.
Also very questionable is the affordable, first-time buyers pitch. A non-refundable 5% down isn’t for a first-time buyer, nor is the “special” lottery they’re offering to previous Vulcan properties owners or the potential for high home owner costs. I presume that a great idea for living in South Lake Union got mired in the politics and fiefdoms discussed in this blog post from the 360 Digest.
There is so much going on in South Lake Union, it’s hard to keep track. See these related sites and posts. If you haven’t noticed or heard, a whole ‘nother downtown is being built with it’s own choo-choo. Despite the concerns over Veer Lofts, we’re sold on the neighborhood and are going to a session on Rollin Street Flats (yeah! another ride on the inspirational theme ride).
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posted by DL Byron on August 24, 2006
Marcus sent a link to Seattle’s Bike In outdoor film and music festival this weekend and I realized how it’s like when you buy a product and notice how many other people have the same product. Even as a long-time cyclist, I wouldn’t have known so many events are going on without posting about them on Bike Hugger.
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posted by DL Byron on August 22, 2006
The details of the CSS changes in IE7 have been posted and that’s a “slew of” fixes. In other exciting browser news, see the 4th bullet on the recent webkit features lists that notes “much improved support for HTML editing.”
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posted by DL Byron on August 22, 2006
With Fall approaching and the rainy season about to dreep on us again, I started thinking about the best rides this year. I’ve been lucky enough to ride in Texas, California, Oregon, and all over Washington. The best ride was in Austin, where I was inspired and eventually launched Bike Hugger
We passed a road sign that said, “Population 211”, noticed a cactus growing out of a tree, and later I saw a lamb being born as we turned a corner onto another windswept road. The lamb was wobbling, covered with afterbirth, and the pace picked up, as the wind caught our backs. It was another fine day for riding.
There’ll be more fine riding days with my team, friends, fellow bike huggers, and Pam.
For more rides, see Bike Hugger’s ride tag.
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posted by DL Byron on August 21, 2006
Jeremy IM’d to ask if I had any tech-travel tips and I said, “main tip would be to get their early, give up your concept of personal space and rights, do whatever the TSA tells you to do, and go with the flow including slip-on shoes. Problems start with the idignacy of those travelers that feel inconvenienced and the psychology of the security line is that they own you for the minutes you’re in their line. From the airports I’ve been in, it’s as if they allowed the people in the back of a restaurant to come forward and run a velvet rope line. There’s lots of posturing, and testing you, and if you so decide that you’re not going to take it, you get the full body search.
So, my biggest tip is to be nearly invisible to them, a passing traveler. In other words, if you want trouble, you’ll get it. See this good article from Macworld UK for more on traveling with your computer.
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posted by DL Byron on August 20, 2006
Bike Hugger T-shirts are just the thing for a late summer evening, I’ve been wearing mine to races, about town, and once to the opera (ok, not really to the opera, but just the same).
Bike Hugger is our latest blog, about and for cyclists, and we printed up the shirts a few weeks ago. They turned out really well — all American Apparel, pre-washed, broken in, comfortable style. Here are more photos and you can purchase the shirts from Amazon or directly from Bike Hugger.
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posted by DL Byron on August 20, 2006
After watching and laughing at Uncle Buck, the kids requested a “giant pancake” and that’s as big as we could get it, with the biggest pan we have. We had to finish it under the broiler, as we didn’t have the “skills” to try and flip it.
Slathered with syrup, the kids were happy, and I was happy they laughed at a movie I enjoyed in the 80s.
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posted by DL Byron on August 18, 2006
Reading a fellow traveler’s blog, I realized just how much I’ve been in airports, hotels, shuttles, and using tiny bottles of shampoo this year. The lyrics to Man in a Suitcase from the Police are apropos
Another key for my collection, For security I race for my connection
Luckily, as noted in yesterdays’ post, I’m not in security lines this month and not looking forward to it next month. Travel well fellow travelers. I’ll see you soon.
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posted by DL Byron on August 18, 2006
In my 1/2 awake dream at 4:30 am PDT, it was an alpine monkey/gorilla calling. Like that white, horned one with poison fangs from Star Trek (episode 45 to be exact) that bit Kirk. I’ve got monkey on the brain because we’ve just starting our sport utility bike project at Bike Hugger and that involves two components with monkey names: Stokemonkey and Karate Monkey.
About 10 minutes into the loud calling, I figured out it was an owl mating with another “hot, summer owl” in the nature reserve near our house. You wouldn’t believe how jarringly loud that is until it wakes you up.
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posted by DL Byron on August 17, 2006
When I heard that all liquids were banned from airplane carry-ons I thought, there are business meetings going on all over the country attended by business people with flat hair (much like the showerhead episode of Seinfeld). No gel means no spikes and no spray equals no “doo.” And now they’re banning gel bras. A bad hair day coupled with no cleavage is going to ruin business deals across America.
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posted by DL Byron on August 08, 2006
The kids are off to their first away-from-home summer camp (and we’re off on vacation!). While they were packing, I sang what lyrics I could remember to Hello Muddah, Hello Faddah. They looked at me like, “what?” So I found the song on Itunes, Googled the lyrics, and eventually played the song 7 times with the children reciting each line. Angela printed the lyrics out so she could sing them with her friends, over and over again.
They’re going to have a great time and I remembered my first camp, being away from home, and also how when I was a kid we listened to comedy albums on a record player.
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posted by DL Byron on August 07, 2006
Go to Experience Washington and after being impressed by the super-creative, whizzy-whiz-bang Flash site, try searching for “Mazama” … or any city or area. The basic functions of browsing, searching, and finding are non-functional because they’re overwhelmed by a brochure-like Flash interface coupled with .NET, Microsoft Maps, and an “everything we can throw at the browser approach.” I’m sure it looked great in the pitch, had them cheering in meetings, and demos, but very frustrating to actually use.
Dear Agency that made this site, please view this page in the Safari browser and notice how there’s nothing there. Then go here in Firefox. And try to “find a place.”
There are no places if the search doesn’t return them and it doesn’t. And I bet for the same budget, you could’ve hired travel bloggers to blog all over the State and built a valuable community of travelers and tourists instead of an online brochure.
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posted by DL Byron on August 06, 2006
Just when I was the most frustrated with email, an interesting art project arrives in my inbox. Erosion is a net-based performance project that generates a starch-based foam biodegradable sculpture from email subject lines. So, I sent it an email and here’s what it said
The Eroder is on a hiatus for the foreseeable future. Thank you for your interest!
Even art is overwhelmed by email.
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posted by DL Byron on August 04, 2006
If you haven’t seen it, first check the self-indulgent super creative creative agency that’s really good at differentiating themselves from other agencies and how ideas just flow out of their smarter-than-you heads
Favorite quote, “we need to learn about the customer perspective on a deeper level.” Textura Design’s suggested campaign: Being Jared — dress up various agency operatives in Jared fat suits and tour all 26228 restaurants In 85 countries filming the response of the workers as The Jareds arrive to replenish their Subway diets.
The video also reminded me that if I ever had a “downtown agency” with cubes without walls, there’d be no award wall (an award closet instead) and of the genius of Coudal. I want a title like, “worldwide executive creative director.”
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posted by DL Byron on August 03, 2006
In the last 24 hours, 3 of my client’s PCs just died. I watched the fatal-exception occur on one of them and heard about the horror of the other two. I joked about those I’m a PC. I’m a Mac. commercials with them and then today we have the supposed mack wifi hack. I didn’t believe when I saw it and wondered hmm, did they turn off the default airport setting to ask for confirmation before joining an unknown open Wi-Fi network? And oh, that’s a 3rd-party wifi card and who would use that?
I’ve never understood the glee with which reporters report about supposed exploits in OS X. I guess they want our OS to suck as bad as theirs. We’ll see if Brian Krebs responds to Gruber who’s calling him out for shoddy reporting. I think, as I commented, that Brian got hacked, caught up in the moment of breaking a story on a mac exploit that doesn’t exist.
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posted by DL Byron on August 03, 2006
While enjoying an amazing mushroom risotto at the 5th floor restaurant last night, a 4.4 earthquake rumbled by, and no one really seemed to notice or care. The earthquake merely paused a Samsung rep from his dinner pitch, wine tasting, and merriment.
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