friday

Hawaiian Shirt Day
What to write about today?
Haiku would be nice.

In case somehow you missed it, it’s national haiku day. Perhaps the best holiday in December, and one we can all celebrate.

Personally, this is my favorite haiku (via threadless):

Please only leave comments in haiku form.

My brother is currently snickering at my nerdiness, but I really like watching CNBC on Black Friday. A few interesting points from the morning:

1. More men are shopping than before, which means more money is being spent. Supposedly, the men are coming out because of some women are scared after the recent violence surrounding PS3.
2. It’s going to be a big year for electronics, and large purchases rather than multiple small purchases are the trend of the day.
3. Columbus based Limited Brands seems to be leading the way in the apparel sector
4. On vacation, Europeans spend 8% of their time shopping, US citizens spend 21% shopping
5. Paypal / Ebay continue to get better press coverage than almost anyone online.
6. Fair Indigo was mentioned as a hot online retailer. I’d never heard of the site, it has a page rank of 0 and an alexa rank of 287,796 - strange choice but one to watch.
7. and, unrelated but interesting, the Cubs are probably not for sale.

While I’m on the subject of retailers, here are a few I think are worth your time. Some have Ohio connections and others are just cool:

• Threadless
• Shamplade
• Sports Art
• American Apparel
• Apple

Proving that I am listening, even at 3:30 in the morning after a night out, this week’s Hawaiian Shirt Day is a special request to take you back to the Oregon Trail. A classic educational game, that was all the rage of indoor recess, you can now relive a small part of your childhood by playing Oregon Trail online. For some unknown reason, the Virtual Apple II only works in Internet Explorer, sorry.

Virtual Apple 2: Oregon Trail

I think this may have been the worst week yet on the daily j.d.a. - I’m sorry and I’ll gladly refund your money. I’ve been sick this week but I really just didn’t care about blogging this week… but I still did it. Part of the reason I haven’t really cared is because I’m focused on a lot of other things right now, including the Buckeyes:

I’ve been thinking, and talking, about starting sports noise again. Maybe it’s because I’m a big NBA fan (yes they do exist) but I miss blogging about sports. Luckily it’s Hawaiian Shirt Day so for today I’m bringing back the noise.

Last night I went to the Cavs-Bulls game and came away with two conclusions. 1. The Cavs will reach the NBA finals this year and 2. Ben Wallace isn’t going to have a good first year in Chicago. I know, it was only one game, but remembering how Big Ben used to love to beat up on the Cavs when he was with Detroit, last nights unmotivated performance was enough for me to jump to a quick conclusion.

As for the Cavs, they played a deep Chicago team and, with little effort, blew them out. It wasn’t a very fun win to watch, but the Cavs just didn’t make many mistakes - and they’re nowhere near mid-season form.

It’s early, but here is my prediction for the NBA’s Eastern Conference:

1. Cleveland
2. Detroit
3. New Jersey
4. Miami
5. Washington
6. Toronto
7. Indiana
8. Chicago
9. Boston
10. Philadelphia
11. Orlando
12. Milwaukee
13. Atlanta
14. New York
15. Charlotte

The typical Sports Noise post was a little more exciting than that, but I guess I’m out of practice.

It’s Hawaiian shirt day, so today I attempt a little Musical critique. I recently acquired Beck’s newest album: The Information. In a way this collection of ‘didn’t make it to Guero or Sea Change’ songs reminds me of Beck’s Mutations - his leftovers from Odelay. But this is better than Mutations, it hits more often than it misses and has enough unique and diverse content that it could almost be thought of as a summary of Beck’s major label career (I don’t think we’ll ever hear another Satan Gave me a Taco out of Beck).

Like Guero’s Geurolito, I have to believe the information will be opened to the interpretation of others. The album ranges from the softly melodic “New Round” to the highly experimental “1000BPM” a song that already sounds like a remix. If the album misses anywhere I think it’s Beck’s tendency to over do it with the experiments - I’d have to believe he’ll let others try out their experiments as well.

If you like anything by Beck you’ll likely find something to enjoy about The Information - Movie Theme feels like it was plucked from Sea Change, while Think I’m in Love feels like it could have easily come off any album since Odelay, there even seem to be elements of Midnight Vultures in We Dance Alone.

I recommend the album, but then again I’m a huge Beck fan. I can’t say it’s his best work but if you’ve enjoyed any of his work you’ll find a song or two to like on The Information.

It’s Hawaiian shirt day, I know you’ve been waiting all week for this, but really you shouldn’t read on. This post may ruin your life.

There’s a site called vNES - it’s an NES emulator that is available online without anything to download. 275 (and growing) original nintendo games are available to play in seconds. If you’re like me this site will ruin your productivity for at least five hours the first time you visit. Afterwards you’ll decide this site is not ever to be seen again if you ever want to get anything done. But - it’s Hawaiian shirt day - so enjoy!

Today’s Friday, my new day off from posting about anything serious nerdy. Today, my Girlfriend’s dog, Lucy, turns 1. She is an adorable puggle (pug beagle mix) and a lot of fun but not exactly well behaved. We were going to have a party for her but then we’d be those people that throw parties for their dogs; I don’t know if I could deal with that.

Update: I’m not sure blogging about it is any less lame than having a party.