Sep 17, 2008  •  In Blogging, Personal
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Live-Blogging from The Martha Stewart Show

8:56am – I’m inside the building! Please check back frequently for updates! (Filming will start at 10:30am)

9:32am – We’re seated! I have a pretty good seat – look for the girl with a red sweater and a MacBook Pro!

9:38am – I forgot my camera cable! Doh! I knew I forgot something! Boo….I’m an r-tard.

9.55:am – T-minus 5 minutes. I love the warmup guy!

10:10am – Martha’s on!

10:03am – I *heart* Darcy Miller! When they mentioned Bee Kim in the
audience she came up to take a picture with her. (Will post later)

10:04am – Damn, I want a G9!

10:06am – The creator of cuteoverload.com is here! We’re all getting a Cute Overload 2009 Calendar!

10:12am – Welcome Perez Hilton!!!

10:13am – Perez looks great! Like his new hair and kudos on the weight loss!

10:18am – Perez’s tips for new bloggers: (1) Find a niche; (2) Work hard; (3)Don’t be afraid to network.

10:21am – Welcome Matt Armendanz of mattbites.com!

10:24am – They should have Bee Kim up there – weddingbee.com now gets over 3 million hits a month!

10:25am – Oooh cookies! Get in my belly!

10:30am – Up next: Eddie Ross of Top Design!

10:39am – Now: political blogging with Jonathan Martin and Ben Smith.

10:41am – OMG Martha called Sarah Palin “Sharon Palin”!

10:42am – Martha brings up the fact that McCain doesn’t even know
how to use a computer. She says she would feel weird having someone
like that as president.

10:47am – Welcome Margaret Roach!

10:52am – They seem to be promoting WordPress a lot. Martha’s blog even has a section on WordPress today.

10:54am – I’m sitting in the wrong section. I’m pretty near the
front, middle but I’ve only been on camera once for a very brief moment.

10:58am – OMG! We all get a wireless HP Printer!!!!!!!!

11;07am – Today’s show is done filming but they’re doing a future segment on hot dogs.

11:14am – J asked me why I don’t just take pictures with my phone
and upload them wirelessly. I can’t because we were instructed to turn
off our cell phones.

11:15am – This hot dog segment will air on Tuesday the 23rd.

11:19am – Mmmmm the hot dogs smell SOOOO good….

11:20am – Check out the live blog that Bee’s doing at Weddingbee.

11:22am – Martha’s scarfing down those dogs! Go Martha!

11:25am – There are so many times during this hot dog segment where
I want to yell, “THAT’S WHAT SHE SAID!” but I’m restraining myself.  😉

11:28am – This hot dog segment is HILARIOUS. I’m trying so hard not to double over from laughter.

11:35am – They look like they’re about to puke from trying all these famous hot dogs from the tri-state area.

11:39am – That’s a wrap! Thanks for reading!

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Sep 17, 2008  •  In Personal, Star Wars, Video Games
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The Force is Unleashed!

You know that a guy must be really into you if he takes off earlier than usual from work to surprise his boo with a copy of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed.


(image via Joystiq)

And you know he must love you if he lets you play it first!

The Force Unleashed was released today! Sure, the XBox demo had been out for a couple of weeks (breaking the XBLM download record) and we had tinkered around with it. However, I restrained myself for the real deal. The Wii version. The one where you can use the wiimote and nunchucks to wield your lightsaber and, obviously, unleash the force! It also didn’t hurt that the Wii version has extra scenes that were specifically created with the Wii gameply experience in mind.

You definitely sacrifice graphics quality with the Wii version, as evidenced in the following screenshots from the Force Unleashed website.

The first set is from the Wii console:


“You’ve got something jammed in here real good.”


“Sorry about the mess…”


“Control, control! You must learn control!”

Compare that to those from the XBox 360:


“Aren’t you a little short for a stormtrooper?”


“Hey, point that thing someplace else.”


“Size matters not. Judge me by my size, do you?”

As much as I would’ve loved for the Wii version to have graphics comparable to those of other consoles, who cares?!? I can Force-Push you with a flick of my wrist. I maneuver my lightsaber with the precision of a samurai. I can even Force-Lightning anyone who stands in my way with some lazy aiming and a push of a button.

In other words, I’ll go Jedi on yo’ ass!

Just in case you couldn’t tell, the game’s been awesome so far. And the Wii experience makes it that much better.

 

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Sep 16, 2008  •  In Blogging, Personal
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Martha’s Bloggers

I will be waking up tomorrow at the crack-ass of dawn to attend a filming of The Martha Stewart Show!


(images courtesy of the lovely Miriam at LimoncelloSTYLE)

As previously mentioned, tomorrow’s show will be a special on and for bloggers. I can’t wait to see my blogging friends again, some of them for the first time in real life!

The producers have asked the studio audience (which will be filled with bloggers) to bring our laptops so that we can live-blog the event. As you can tell, I’m super-duper excited!

Stay tuned tomorrow morning for the live blog of events!

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Sep 16, 2008  •  In Geek, Personal, Reviews
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My Short-Lived Stint as a ChaCha Guide

Have you heard of ChaCha? It is a mobile answering service. Want to make reservations at a restaurant but you don’t have their number? Need to find movie times? Have a curiously nagging yet random question you want answered right away? Just call 800-2ChaCha or text your question to 242242 and receive a text response (from a live person) in just a few minutes!


(image via HackCollege)

The best part is, ChaCha is free (aside from texting fees from your mobile carrier) – at the time, the company relies on ads for their income.

When I heard that ChaCha is hiring guides, aka the human counterparts, for their service, I immediately perked up. Guides are paid $0.10 per completed answer. It’s not a great source of income, but a source of supplemental cash nonetheless. In addition, I would be researching and learning new material every time I perform a search for a customer…sign me up!

After reading through training material and going through an initial test, I was pretty excited. The test questions were interesting, and a couple were actually pretty difficult to find on the web. My brain tickled with joy as more and more useless (but stimulating) trivia entered my pool of knowledge.

A couple of days later, I received notification that I had passed the test. I was now a ChaCha guide!

Now I’ll try to be as subjective as possible here. The training material warned about pranks and jokes as well as sexually explicit or offensive questions, and offered guidance on how to handle these queries. However, I was greatly discouraged to see that the majority of questions I received in my first week were, for a lack of better words, a waste of time. Here are some of the questions that stand out in my mind:

How can I get a guy to like me?

You guys rock!

whats ur favorite position?

Are you a democrat or republican?

Is the police aloud to spread your butt cheeks??

As you can see, some weren’t questions at all. Others were very open-ended questions, while some were very sexually explicit. One question made me wonder if the person was seeking help on a school assignment, as it asked for an analysis on a poem. Many were spelled incorrectly, which makes me want to not take the person seriously at all.

I did receive some legitimate questions, such as inqueries for phone numbers. But these requests were far and few between.

I know that ChaCha has no control over what its customers do, so I do not blame them at all. However, I do not think I will be returning as a guide…as there are way too many people with too much time on their hands using its services.

I do want to state that I think ChaCha is a good concept – as such, I will be using them as a customer.

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Sep 15, 2008  •  In Books, Reviews
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Book Review: Twilight

I’m not ashamed to admit that I’m a Harry Potter fan. I love fantasy books as well as thrillers and mysteries. And I still hold a soft place in my heart for the young adult genre, which kept me company during those lonely nights as an awkward and socially inept teenager.

So when Breaking Dawn, the fourth book in the Twilight Saga, was released last month to much acclaim and publicity, I knew that I had to check out the series. And so I picked up a copy of Twilight, the book that started it all.

As a bona fide bookworm, I consider myself well-read. And although preferences can definitely come into play when reviewing a book, I like to think that I can usually distinguish good books from the bad. My personal criteria for a good book is simple:

  1. Style of writing. Imaginative, original copy that paints vivid and memorable pictures in my mind.
  2. Plot. I know plenty of authors whom I wouldn’t consider to be good writers; however, they are great story tellers.

Not all of my favorite authors or books fall into both categories. However, it is only when both criteria are met that I stamp a book with Jenny’s gold star of approval.

With that being said, I’m sorry to report that Twilight embodies neither good writing nor good plot.

The characters are bland and one-dimensional. The narration left much to be desired. The dialogue was unrealistic and uninteresting.

How did this become a #1 seller?

Needless to say, I will not be picking up books 2-4.

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Sep 15, 2008  •  In Finance, NYC, Personal
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Another Gloomy Day in Manhattan

The beautiful weather today does little to quell the current situation in Wall Street.

My morning commute was a somber one. Thumbs flew across BlackBerries with more flurry than usual. Newspaper headlines flashed:

“Anxious Morning on Wall Street as Lehman Makes Chapter 11 Filing, Merrill Is Sold, AIG Seeks Cash” (Wall Street Journal)

“Stocks Slide as 2 Wall St. Banks Falter” (New York Times)

“Bank Shot: Wall Street Catastrophe for Lehman and Merrill” (New York Post)

“Wall of Fear: Markets brace for morning after massive bank shakeup” (New York Daily News)

The subways and streets were strangely devoid of financiers, as those who still have their jobs intact had already reported to work hours earlier.

It’s strange to think that New York, once a seemingly-indestructible giant in finance, now only boasts two securities firms (Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs).

J and I do not work in finance so the recent turn of events does not affect us directly. However, we have many friends and family who do – we’re sitting on pins and needles as we wait for our phone calls, emails, and messages to be returned.

Meanwhile, I can’t help but worry myself sick as stories like these flood my Google Reader:

Panic on Trading Floor: Lehman Files for Bankruptcy, Gothamist.

The Day Wall Street Died, Curbed.

Wall Street Debacle Will Have Ramifications for Manhattan Housing, True Gotham.

Lehman Files For Chapter 11, BoA Buys Merril Lynch, Consumerist.

“America’s financial system was shaken to its core on Sunday,” Boing Boing.

I even happened upon this eBay listing, from an ex-Lehmans employee who is selling his Lehmans swag after being laid off over the weekend:

Lehman Brothers Employee swag-Operating Principles Cube

Own a piece of Lehman Brothers history as its being made.

As of now an ex Lehman Employee (just a programmer… I didnt make the mess!), I don’t have much to show for my years there. One memorable item I did grab is a neat bit of office swag that we all found on our desks one morning in 2007 to help us all keep in mind the Operating Principles. It’s a cool cube made of smaller cubes that opens up in different ways and you can read all the different principles like… “Demonstrating smart risk management” (photo 2)

I had mine at my desk in good shape but a colleague broke it… so he gave me his UNOPENED and still shrink wrapped. I kept it that way. It comes with an enclosed note from managment talking about the success of the firm (See photo 3). And the box it came in. If only they could have seen ahead to now…

I am taking this opportunity to at least get something back from my years there. This is a real one-of-a-kind piece of corporate memorabilia in MINT condition. Its employee swag not even client swag so you won’t find these around. I wish management listened to the same things on this cube! Then my good friends…talented people wouldn’t be out of a job. Anyway how you like it and enjoy it…

I still can’t decide whether to laugh or cry over this listing…

Let’s all pray for the best.

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Sep 12, 2008  •  In Funny
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McCain & Nighy

Is it just me or does Cindy McCain look like Viktor (Bill Nighy’s character) from the movie Underworld?

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Sep 11, 2008  •  In Thursday Geek-isms
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Thursday Geek-isms

Last night, while walking in SoHo, I noticed twin, parallel spotlights glowing just south of us. Being the idiot that I am, I asked, “Ooh, what’s going on over there? Is it a party? A premiere? Let’s go check it out!”

You may now commence throwing your stones at me.

The city of New York is eerily solemn today. I can’t believe it’s been seven years, because it feels like it was just last year that I watched the smoke rising from the Twin Towers.

9/11…a day to remember and reflect.

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Sep 11, 2008  •  In Personal
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A Spike in Traffic

Yesterday, the great and mighty Neatorama linked to my Top 5 Star Wars Designs and What Inspired Them post in their 6 Things Inspired by Einstein.

I almost let out a scream when I saw the one-sentence reference to my lil’ ol’ blog on one of my favorite sites on the web. Needless to say, I was ecstatic and beyond delighted. My feet even moved to perform a little jig under my desk while I was seated at my desk at work.

My traffic continued to grow as other sites – even TheForce.Net (!!!) –  picked up on the story. Usually my Google Analytics graph resembles this:


(image via Flickr)

This morning, my traffic graph looked like this:


(image via Flickr)

A big thank you to Neatorama and all the other sites that linked to me yesterday! And welcome to all my new visitors!

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Sep 10, 2008  •  In Funny, Geek
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We’re Still Alive!

As a follow-up to yesterday’s post, we’re still alive! The LHC has successfully completed its first round of testing!

Here is a picture from the control room:


(image via Slashdot)

Yeah, I have no idea what it means either.

However, just because the first beam test worked doesn’t mean we can rest easily. This was only a test, people! Who knows what will happen in the coming months as they start really colliding particles in this thing?

The first first collision won’t happen until October 21, 2008. Mark your calendars!

Just in case you’re wondering, here’s a simple website to see if the large hadron collider has destroyed the world yet:

http://hasthelargehadroncolliderdestroyedtheworldyet.com/

Enjoy!

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