Chelsea close up

Chelsea close up underlining how poor her make up choices are. And yes, I did stand up in front of the TV to snap this.

Wondering why Chelsea Clinton can't a stylist get that knows what he/she is doing

As I roll into hour # 6 of a layover in Miami that is being compounded by flight delays, I am struggling to find ways to amuse myself. Hence this stupid post. But I couldn't help to notice Chelsea's clownish appearance when she filled the screen on CNN. I'm far from an expert, but it seems like some of her make up choices are hurting rather than helping her (see also subsequent post w/ close up).

Spotted: another inconsiderate jackass

This one is in the D concourse Admirals Lounge at the Miami airport. Do you really need to put your sweaty socks on the common furniture everyone uses? You do if you're an inconsiderate jackass.

I'm a "lucky girl"

I'm a "lucky girl". Subscribed to Lucky for the wife. I think it was part of a renewal offer for Conde Nast Traveler where they included deals on a bunch of other CN magazines. I wonder if there is any kind of logic/screening in their system. My name isn't too often mistaken as feminine. Would they also address a "Larry" as a "lucky girl"? Do they just flat out assume no male would ever subscribe to Lucky?

De-icing now

De-icing now. Getting anxious to get off the ground before the window of opportunity closes.

They say we're leaving

They say we're leaving ... We'll see

Quick bite to eat before we fly

Quick bite to eat before we fly (fingers still crossed)

The journey begins w/ a cab to ORD.

The journey begins w/ a cab to ORD. Fingers crossed as American claims we're still on time.

The "After" Shot

Dog shaving nite!

Fun for everyone involved.

Cleaning up around the office

And that means some of the "From the Desk of ..." welcome flyers from dancecarbuzz are coming down (and it has nothing to do w/ our twitter fight). I think 7 months is sufficient to demonstrate my appreciation of his witty welcome gesture. But now it's time for some spring cleaning.

Protesters for Tibet are out on Wacker

Protesters for Tibet are out on Wacker today. Decent showing in the cold rain. The "Honk for _____" banner format is always a good choice.

Update: I also snagged a quick bit of low quality video w/ my Helio.

Gas Creeps Up on $4.00 per Gallon

Paying $3.96/gallon

St. Patrick's Day in Daley Plaza.

St. Patrick's Day in Daley Plaza. Off in the distance you can see the fountain is green. Just noted this on my way to the bank.

And check out that masterpiece ...

My turn to cook, which means it's breakfast night

Nice Summary of Geraldine Ferraro's Nonsense

Note: if the video above doesn't play, you can also try it on Talking Points Memo's site.

I just started getting the Veracif!er's podcasts this week and have been hooked in right off the bat with their "Send in the Clown" episode. Seeing her morning/evening news show jackass performances in short, quick repetition really underlines how much of a misguided fool she is.

Also, trying to place where I've seen her unusual facial features has been gnawing at me for the past couple of days. I think I have it now, though it is one of my more complex compositions.

Geraldine Ferraro is ....


Image Source: University of Arkansas

... a good measure of Florence Henderson ....


Image Source: BroadwayWorld.com

... plus some mix of Scott Baio ...


Image Source: TVgasm

... and Ricky Gervais ...


Image Source: A.V. Club

... plus, the secret ingredient, Mister Magoo (particularly the vexed Mister Magoo, not the jolly Mister Magoo. And I think that comparison works on another level as they both have a tendency to lash out at others while seemingly having no real clue what other people know to be the real situation at hand) ...


Image Source: DVDtalk


Separately, one odd and somewhat disturbing thing I discovered on my hunt for Mister Magoo images is that apparently there is a sub culture of people who collect, sell and buy little Mister Magoo figures which they dress up in oddball outfits. Check this site out to see what I'm talking about. You'll need to scroll through the Miss Piggy section, but if you reach Mr. Peabody you've gone too far.

Update: Joffrey's Java Test. I Got My Bag --- And It's Not Great (Sorry, Joffrey)

I got my test bag of coffee mid week and finally got around to trying it today. I didn't want to disrupt my normal pre-work ritual with an unproven source of caffeine. Part of my reluctance was the corny name - "Jamaican Me Crazy". Har har har. Ugh. Lame. Cutesy names like that don't win me over with their clever sense of whimsy, they repel me. Not because I'm any kind of coffee purist or anything. I just hate all things corny. I'm not sure how I missed the fact that the flavor in this test was going to be "Jamaican Me Crazy". It is right on their page, a couple of times in fact. Guess I was just so excited to be jumping into some nutty 2008 blogger outreach program that I overlooked that key detail.

But I gave the coffee a shot this afternoon in case the product was better than its name. And I suppose it might be, depending upon your tastes. The aroma of the grounds is nice. Would make for a pleasant candle, or perhaps one of those toilet paper roll air fresheners. But when I actually drank the coffee the aroma, to me, was a bit overwhelming. A little too sweet. And the coffee had an aftertaste that I didn't especially dig.

But I still applaud them for doing this whole beta test. I think they could do a little more to bring the posts of the various beta testers into their site experience beyond the simple linking that they are doing. But at least they are willing try something a little innovative in the first place. Next time out they can worry about improving the program.

Lookalikes: George W. Bush & Mahmoud Ahmadinejad?

This isn't one of my best lookalike calls, especially since I'm not finding online the images I believe I have seen where Bush and Ahmadinejad share some very similar mannerisms. e.g. The squinty eyes and somewhat furrowed brow. Or the smug and kind of confrontational smirk. Ahmadinejad's beard is a bit distracting, as is his much darker hair. But I think there is something there. Certainly they aren't twins, but I just find it ironic that they strike me as much more visually similar than different, yet they consider each other to be arch enemies.

Also, as I went looking for some of the more beady-eyed and aggro shots of Bush that do, in my mind, resemble Ahmadinejad, I found it interesting that the CBC was by far the number one source of non happy/smiley George Bush shots. Those cRaZy canncks.

Another unexpected find from my search was what appears to be (could it really be?) Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's blog. By linking to it (if it is in fact real), I've probably just flagged myself for some degree of governmental scrutiny.


Image Source: MSNBC.com


Image Source: CBC


Image Source: TIFI


Image Source: CBC


Image Source: MSNBC.com


Image Source: RAINews24


Image Source: Wired


Image Source: La Nuova Ecologica


Image Source: ChillNite


Image Source: CBC


Image Source: VideoSpider


Image Source: CBC

Cool Illustration: "Bugging the Cloud"

Image Source: Economist.com

I make no comment regarding the content of this story, because frankly I haven't read it. But while flipping through the magazine the illustration (by Adrian Johnson) struck me as clever. Just another instance where I wish I had some kind of graphical artistic talent that I could tap into to illustrate concepts or ideas that pop into my head.

Update: got that Obama "Progress" poster

Update: got that Obama "Progress" poster - not the $2,000+ original, but a nice facsimile thereof.

Coming Soon - My Expanding UGC Footprint (I Bought a New Camcorder)

I'm heading out on vacation in 8 days and I needed a new camcorder. Current one is 4+ years old, records on mini tapes and I've never managed to do anything useful with any of the footage (someday, someday). So while I'm kind of a photography freak (prolific, if not talented), my contributions to the world of user generated video consist only of a few embarrassingly weak clips from my Helio.

I considered a few different options, including the Sanyo Xacti HD1000, but after reading a few reviews discussing what you need to really edit and view HD video, I realized I'm flat out not yet up for that.

Liking the form factor of the Sanyo, I checked out a couple of standard reviews for the more entry level product, the Sanyo Xacti CG6, like this brief one from Engadget. But what closed the deal for me was this brilliantly simple and earnest review from adric22 on YouTube:



You have to tip your hat to people like adric22. This had to take some time to put together, and if you check out the comments on his video, it's clear that people have found it very helpful.

If you want to buy your own Sanyo Xacti CG6, and you don't mind me getting my cut from the Amazon Associates program, check it out via the links above or below.

New Feature: Office Wisdom Nuggets

I hear a good amount of miscellaneous conversation in the office simply as a function of where I sit, close to point where frequent, brief social exchanges are traded. It struck me today that I should capture and share some of these interesting nuggets, because some day it might amuse me to read them and recall all that random banter.

With that said, on to the inaugural Office Wisdom Nugget:

"Now pineapple ... when you put pineapple in meat, it tears it up."

An Email from the Obama Campaign That Nicely Sums Up Clinton's Persistent, Disingenuos Spin Tactics

I got this email earlier today. Says it better than I could. Simple and to the point.

@@@@@

Dear art,

When we won Iowa, the Clinton campaign said it's not the number of states you win, it's "a contest for delegates."

When we won a significant lead in delegates, they said it's really about which states you win.

When we won South Carolina, they discounted the votes of African-Americans.

When we won predominantly white, rural states like Idaho, Utah, and Nebraska, they said those didn't count because they won't be competitive in the general election.

When we won in Washington State, Wisconsin, and Missouri -- general election battlegrounds where polls show Barack is a stronger candidate against John McCain -- the Clinton campaign attacked those voters as "latte-sipping" elitists.

And now that we've won more than twice as many states, the Clinton spin is that only certain states really count.

But the facts are clear.

For all their attempts to discount, distract, and distort, we have won more delegates, more states, and more votes.

Meanwhile, more than half of the votes that Senator Clinton has won so far have come from just five states. And in four of these five states, polls show that Barack would be a stronger general election candidate against McCain than Clinton.

We're ready to take on John McCain. But we also need to build operations in places like Pennsylvania, Indiana, North Carolina, and Oregon that will hold their primaries in April and May.

Barack Obama needs your support to fight this two-front battle. Please make a donation of $25 right now:

With our overwhelming victory in the Mississippi primary yesterday, our lead in earned delegates is now wider than it was on March 3rd, before the contests in Ohio and Texas.

And thanks to your help, we have dramatically increased our support among so-called "superdelegates" -- Governors, Members of Congress, and party officials who have a vote at the Democratic National Convention in August.

As the number of remaining delegates dwindles, Hillary Clinton's path to the nomination seems less and less plausible.

Now that Mississippi is behind us, we move on to the next ten contests. The Clinton campaign would like to focus your attention only on Pennsylvania -- a state in which they have already declared that they are "unbeatable."

But Pennsylvania is only one of those 10 remaining contests, each important in terms of allocating delegates and ultimately deciding who our nominee will be.

We have activated our volunteer networks in each of these upcoming battlegrounds. We're putting staff on the ground and building our organization everywhere.

The key to victory is not who wins the states that the Clinton campaign thinks are important. The key to victory is realizing that every vote and every voter matters.

Throughout this entire process, the Clinton campaign has cherry-picked states, diminished caucuses, and moved the goal posts to create a shifting, twisted rationale for why they should win the nomination despite winning fewer primaries, fewer states, fewer delegates, and fewer votes.

We must stand up to the same-old Washington politics. Barack has won twice as many states, large and small, in every region of the country -- many by landslide margins. And this movement is expanding the base of the Democratic Party by attracting new voters in record numbers and bringing those who had lost hope back into the political process.

Push back against the spin and help build the operation to win more delegates in these upcoming contests:

https://donate.barackobama.com/math

Thank you for your support and for everything you've done to build a movement that is engaging voters and winning contests in every part of this country.

David

David Plouffe
Campaign Manager
Obama for America

Like Morons to a Flame - Idiots Outside ABC7's State Street Studio

I will never understand the desperate need some people feel to get on tv, no matter how briefly they are in the shot, no matter how incredibly unimportant and obscure the program they get on.

Unless you are
(A) 5 years old,
(B) responsible for entertaining a 5 year old or
(C) perhaps have only achieved the intellectual or emotional development of a 5 year old,

you really have no business jumping around spastically outside the window of ANY tv show, never mind some crappy local news broadcast.

Revisiting ABC's Wide World of Sports, Brunch @ LaGuardia and Jerks on Airplanes

Today started with a meeting in a conference room that celebrated ABC's Wide World of Sports.



There were some brilliant, classic photos of sports figures from 'yesteryear', as noted in an earlier post.

Our meeting ended right at lunch time, but we resisted the urge to stop at Miracle Two Fish Plaza, opting to get food at the airport.



At LGA we had brunch from Brooklyn National. Though this "Big Boy Breakfast" was tempting, I went with an omelet/burrito, which hit the spot.



Still had about an hour or so before boarding, so we holed up in the Admirals Lounge for a while.



Then I sat next to the kind of jackass who leaves his newspapers all over the floor of the plane. Seriously - who raised you? Most distracted five year olds have better manners than this.



Good news: we got on a relatively early flight back home. Bad news: traffic was brutal from O'Hare to downtown. So I snapped a couple shots of the many inbound planes that went directly over me as I sat in bumper-to-bumper gridlock.





Roughly an hour after leaving O'Hare I had covered the 13.1 miles to my house and saw the familiar, welcoming beauty of the Broadway and Ridge intersection, featuring the gaudy purple and yellow condo complex and the wall-sized OOH ad for Park Plaza Retirement Center, which advertises itself with a suave, nattily dressed elderly gentlemen and the tag line, "Chicago's Premier Kosher Retirement Community".

Brooklyn National - Best Place by Far for Food in LGA

Friendly service and breakfast burritos made to order all day long. Good stuff.

Yesterday in NYC - ESPN Meetings, Porkslap Farmhouse Ale and a Bar Full of Magicians

Grabbed a Jamba Juice in Times Square. Snapped this shot on way back to hotel (W Times Square).



Checking in for out meeting @ ESPN. Never noticed before that the place in the lobby is actually named the ABC Cafe.



Had a couple of beers before dinner @ Landmarc in the Time Warner center. This round: Porkslap Farmhouse Ale. (Note - I didn't partake in the Porkslap; feeling now like I missed out.)




Snapped this from the front seat of our cab back to the W.



We decided a nite cap was in order, so we stopped into the Joshua Tree ... where we found ourselves in the middle of some spring break reunion from the University of Miami and a gathering of off-duty magicians and their fans. One guy literally had a rabbit in a cage at the bar.



Road House was on the TV, though, which was a nice diversion. The bar had multiple big flat screens - not sure why I took the picture of the 13" TV behind the bar.