Archive for the 'Miscellaneous' category
CrapMonkey Finally Makes the Cover of Wired
June 30, 2007 9:07 am
Okay, so maybe it’s just my copy. Wired Magazine and Xerox ran a promotion that offered subscribers the chance to get their pictures on a personalized cover of the July issue. Only the first 5000 subscribers to submit a photo were able to participate. Check out other July Wired covers here (or add your own to the group).
Women’s Arm Wrestling at The Tin Hat
June 26, 2007 11:44 pmOn Monday night, the Tin Hat Bar and Grill in Ballard held a women’s arm wrestling tournament. The proceeds went to benefit Home Alive, a Seattle based non-profit that offers affordable self-defense classes. It was a great evening of beers and cheers in the name of a good cause. Enjoy the video of the festivities below. There are also some great photos of the event in Matt Harjo’s Flickr set.
Home Alive Arm Wrestling Tournament at the Tin Hat in Seattle [12:19m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | DownloadThe “Hold Music” Song
June 24, 2007 2:56 pmHow much time each week do you spend sitting on the phone waiting for a conference call to begin? I spend more time that way than I care to admit. In fact, after a while it starts to feel as if the hold music is taunting you. Hence, the song below (available in mp3 or wma).
The "Hold Music" Song - WMA [2:32m]: Download
The "Hold Music" Song - MP3 [2:32m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | DownloadFriday Night Out in Seattle: Streaming Video
May 12, 2007 4:16 pmRogue Bathroom Tour
May 6, 2007 7:42 pmBeware of What Your Zune is Telling People
February 3, 2007 11:10 amZune owners know that there is a terrific community aspect enabled by the device’s wireless features. However, be cautious of how you configure your Zune in the Settings menu. There is an option to set the level of detail your Zune broadcasts to other Zunes to either “basic” (which essentially just announces your presence) or “detailed.” The level of detail in the latter mode really made me a bit uncomfortable, so I wanted to make sure that Zune owners were warned about the risk to privacy. See below for an example of what I’m talking about:
Zune screen set to “basic” Zune Screen set to “detailed” 
Don’t say you haven’t been been warned!
NoMa Puts Its Gangrene Where Its Mouth Is
November 24, 2006 6:08 pm
The NoMa condos in Ballard aren’t selling quite like the hotcakes I had orignally imagined. Perhaps it has something to do with the name they chose. According to the Encarta Dictionary, noma is defined as “severe inflammation with gangrene: a severe gangrenous inflammation of the mouth or genitals, usually occurring in children who are malnourished or otherwise debilitated.” Makes you want to move right in, doesn’t it? While we’re on the topic, the National Organization of Minority Architects may also want to consider a name change. I’ll admit, perhaps I’m just bitter that the Ballard Eagles Club (in whom’s banquet room we held our wedding reception), was knocked down to build the condos… but then again, it is a pretty horrible name.
Dentyne Brushes On the Sleaze
11:16 am
While using a restroom in a local pub, I came across Dentyne’s new advertising campaign. Apparently, the old “brush your breath with Dentyne” slogan needed to be tailored to the drunk and ready to score demographic. These pamphlets first caught my eye because the red book below was being distributed in the men’s room. Likewise, as I stood over the urinal reading the pamphlet title I constructed it in my mind as “Dentyne’s Quickie Guide to Hunting for Men.” Needless to say, I found its placement in a men’s room to be an interesting marketing choice. In flipping through the book, I put together that, indeed, the book was meant to be read as “Dentyne’s Quickie Guide to Hunting. For Men.” Incidently, Dentyne’s marketing team must have received this feedback already, because the campaign on the website reads “Dentyne’s Hunting Tools for Men.”
Having the mystery of the title solved, I flipped through the book to see what tips Dentyne had to offer. That’s when the advertising campaign took a turn for the worse. The guide outlined the types of women I’d find in the female ’species’ (see top banner for images). Likewise, Wendy confirmed that there was a pamphlet for women in the ladies room that followed the same format (see bottom banner). Apparently, the species we are hunting in the dating scene are predominantly white (possibly entirely white - there might be an asian, and possibly a hispanic person if you are being generous in your interpretation of the artistry). One thing is certain, there are no black members of Dentyne’s eligable dating scene.
At the end of the day though, it is packed with useful tips. For example, ladies should “always bring a less attractive friend… so you won’t be upstaged.” Men, “if you get shot down, move on to one of her friends” (be warned, if following the guide, she will likely be less attractive). Likewise, the website supplements the guides nicely with information such as: how to speak like a guy (PDFs about sports, action movies, finance and do it yourself projects), fake business cards, fake back stories of your life, photos to put in your wallet that the opposite sex will think cool (women: motorcycles, dogs and cars / men: puppies, poor african tribes, old people), and much, much more!
To be fair to Dentyne, I am not in their target demographic. Being happily married, I am fortunate to be out of the dating scene and not in need of a handy guide such as this. However, there was a time when Dentyne’s primary purpose was to “brush your breath,” now they just make you feel like washing your hands.
Seattle Podcasting Network Visits Fisher
November 8, 2006 10:52 pm
The Seattle Podcasting Network and Meetup had the opportunity to visit Fisher Communications this week. The event was on November 7th (election night), so the news room was buzzing with activity. Our tour, lead by Don LaCombe and Stuart Hitchner, was very interesting given that we were able to see a lot of the election night coverage from behind the scenes. We spent about twenty minutes in the production control room during the evening news watching the talented KOMO team put together a show packed with election and flood coverage. Then we rolled into the Northwest Afternoon Studio, followed by the insert studios at Fisher Pathways. After that, it was on to the Heleport. The group was able to check out the helicopter and walk around it on the catwalk suspended six stories above the Plaza. On a side note, located in the shadow of the Space Needle, the Fisher Plaza Heleport offers a tremendous view of the city! When we came in off of the roof, we went down and visited the news room; which was buzzing with activity as the election results were coming in. Finally, we ended the tour with a brief stop in the news Studio, where we tried out the anchor desk and took advantage of a photo opportunity with Dan Lewis and Kathy Goertzen. Thanks to the great folks at Fisher for the experience!
Seen On The Web: Wanka’s Willy
October 26, 2006 5:13 pmLooks like there is a secret history to Willie Wonka’s Willie now available on DVD at Amazon.com (Dang, Had this posted for only a day and they’ve already corrected it). What will National Geographic think of next?
