When you’re a famous actor, you can get away with a lot of things. Vince Vaughn was involved in a fight, but charges were dropped; Hugh Grant received probation and a fine for a lewd conduct charge; Matthew McConaughey was arrested on drug charges, but those were dropped and he was fined $50 for disturbing the peace. But there’s one thing actors get away with that may or may not be a good thing: actors who sing. Jennifer Lopez and Jack Black are established as both singers and actors, but some of the actors who cross over into singing do it just because they can.
(more…)

If you buy a Coke product with a “My Coke Rewards” logo and you’re not planning to redeem it yourself, please pass the code along to me as I am trying to collect them. I don’t usually go for this kind of thing but for some reason I felt the urge to participate.

One of the great commercial flops of the early 1990’s was Crystal Pepsi. Only seven years after the failure of Coca-Cola’s “New Coke” formulation, PepsiCo got the idea to market a cola drink with no coloring. The product was original: existing clear sodas were usually lemon-lime, like Sprite and 7-Up, rather than cola-flavored. But despite an aggressive marketing campaign, Crystal Pepsi went flat as quickly as - well, soda.
(more…)

• Bathhouse Blues
  Journal of one man’s experiences and encounters in gay bathhouses/saunas/steambaths/tubs over the last ten years. NSFW.
  (tags: queer sex)
• Yahoo! bans Allah
  Ed Callahan’s attempt to obtain a Yahoo e-mail address with his last name resulted in a surprising discovery. [via sunnydale47]
  (tags: religion corporate internet)

• PolishJews.org
  More than 3 million Jews lived in Poland in 1939; site created to preserve the memory of those millions who suffered and perished. Genealogical research, Holocaust information, etc.
  (tags: history judaism)

I went geocaching with my dad today! We went to Savage Park, which is near where he lives. We started out by finding the Northbound Trading Post, which is located at the only rest area along I-95 between Dale City VA and Maryland House north of Baltimore - a distance of about 100 miles - and so there were a lot of people around. The GPS led us straight to the right area, and I didn’t even have to touch the foliage to spot the cache. I’d been meaning to pick this one up for a while, so I was glad to check it off my list.

We headed to the park next, where we found four caches - all of the ones up at the Wincopin end of the park. I’m not sure which one was my favorite - they were all pretty good. I think the nicest location was Hog’s Heaven and it was a nice cache too. I left a couple of stuffed Neopets toys from McDonald’s - even though people usually deride McDonald’s toys being left in caches, I am pretty sure that Neopets is popular enough to be more valuable than the other stuff.

I would estimate that we spent a little over two and a half hours walking around in the park. It was pretty good exercise, as there were some hills to go up and down, but as we approached the car I realized my knee was hurting (and it still aches). So we skipped Bunch of Savages in this Town, a micro at the far end of the park. We went out for lunch, and nobody harrassed me about bringing my own food, which is nice. I didn’t sleep well at all last night, so I went home after lunch. But I had a really good time! I’m looking forward to geocaching with my dad again soon. (You can read his post about today here.)

• iFiction
  Web-based interactive fiction through a zmachine interpreter. [via abc223_86]
  (tags: xyzzy)

Holy crap! My new phone is here! ALREADY!

My Sidekick has been slowly falling apart for a couple of months. It did great for a long time, no nicks or scratches or broken parts even though I dropped it a few times. Finally, a couple of months ago, the scroll wheel quit scrolling. Then a tiny scratch appeared on the screen. A couple of weeks ago, the scroll wheel stopped clicking, too. This was a pain, but I could still use all functions, so that was okay. Finally, two days ago, the Back button fell off; it had been loose from earlier drops, and I was fiddling with it (like a loose tooth) and it came off. I was able to scotch-tape it back on so the button still functioned, but I knew the end was coming.

I needed a replacement - there was no chance I would go back to my wimpy Nokia 3390. (I keep it as an emergency phone.) I asked around online and checked out eBay, and called T-Mobile to ask how much it would cost to upgrade. They said that with a two-year contract I could have it for $140, because I’ve been with them for three and a half years. I was leery at first because I’ve been out of contract for a long time, but then I realized: I’m not going anywhere anyway. I like my Sidekick, I’ve been happy with T-Mobile for a long time, and I have no desire to switch. I talked it over with A and she said $140 seemed reasonable for the upgrade.

So yesterday morning on my way to work I called Customer Care and said I wanted the offer they had given me yesterday, which had been noted in my account. I went through the contract agreement process, decided to hold off on insurance, and chose free seven-day shipping rather than paying $15 for three-day shipping.

It’s here. Already. I have heard people say how long it took them to get their Sidekick, how warranty exchanges took forever…not for me. It’s here! I have a Sidekick II! It has a built-in camera with twice the resolution of the Sidekick I’s plug-in camera! It will have a working scroll wheel! All I have to do is swap my SIM card and activate! Once I get the firmware update, I will have Javascript and I can choose my own wallpaper! The letters won’t rub off the keys! Eeeeeeee!

I think I’m going to get another tattoo. I got my current one (SFW, NSFW) in December 1999 and I screamed bloody murder the whole time, so I never got it touched up. I have been considering another tattoo for a while now, but I promised I would get the original touched up before getting anything additional. I just called Dragon Moon to see if my original artist could do the touch up, but they require $100 cash before they will even make an appointment. (Because I live more than an hour away, they’d accept a $100 money order in the mail.) Also, the black they use is different now, so she would probably have to go over the whole thing to make it look even.

So I think I’m going to get my other tattoo first, because that will be small and will help prepare me for the larger project of my original tattoo getting touched up. I had originally wanted a Hello Kitty tattoo, but I discarded that idea a little while ago. Now, I know what I’m getting: a memorial tattoo for Wu. I’ve been reading an “Over the Rainbow” [Bridge] group at Catster, and I’ve been thinking about a memorial for her. Someone suggested a scrapbook, but I realized…I could really go for a tattoo. It would be like keeping her with me always - and probably about the same price as any of the cremation jewelry I looked at.

I’m planning to get a paw print, but I want a realistic one rather than a stylized silhouette, probably not more than an inch square. I’m going to get it on the outside of my thigh, up close to my hip. As my other cats cross the Rainbow Bridge, I will want to get a new paw for each of them, until there is a trail of them down my thigh. A couple of people have suggested an initial in each, or a name with them, but I don’t think I’m going to do that - I want to memorialize in the abstract. I know it’s a memorial tattoo, but nobody else has to.

I have to decide where to go. Dragon Moon is too far away, so it should be somewhere in the DC area. There are apparently a couple of places in Fairfax, and of course there are several in the city itself. Jinx Proof is reportedly very clean and reasonably good, but everyone agrees they are expensive and some people say the artists have poor “bedside” manners. Fatty’s Custom Tattooz is also supposed to be good but pricey, but I don’t think I want to tell people “Fatty’s” when they ask where I got the ink. There’s also Tattoo Paradise, and I’m curious about AX Tattoo because she’s on the LiveJournal friends lists of both preppyperv and redwaterlilly, and I could swear I recognize her. So I have to figure out where to go, and I should probably visit a few places. But I’m pretty damn sure I want this tattoo.

• Google Page Creator
  Hosts webpages, with image uploading, editing of raw HTML, etc. [via cricket]
  (tags: gmail)
• THXMOO
  Temporally-based text game, not much like other MOOs or MUDs.
  (tags: fun.stuff)
• The Angry Left
  Clothes with various liberal slogans and designs.
  (tags: stuff.to.buy)