Thursday, June 26, 2003

Whoa....Blogger just went through a serious redesign, but that doesn't matter to you guys, so on to buisness...

I'd like to tie up a few loose ends before I leave on the next leg of my trip, since I am heading to florida, which, as far as I know, does not have internet access.

First, I now know that the trip will take us through Knoxville, a must-stop vacation spot for any Simsons fan. I don't know if there's a sunsphere or wig outlet there, but there is a world's fair park, and you better believe that I going to point and "haw-haw" at something there.

Second, the Best Buy Story II: it starts out approximately 1.5 years ago when I bought an XBox shortly after they were first released, back when they were $300 bucks a pop. I also bought an extended warranty for something like 40 dollars more, and gave me two years coverage. It was a good thing I bought the warranty, because my machine, like most of those sold in the early days, had mechanical flaws. Specifically, the box would sometimes hang as it booted; the hard drive periodically emitting clicks that could only be described as "not-good-sounding". This problem at first occured infrquently, but got worse and was compounded by the fact that the only way to get the machine working correctly was to unplug everything and let it sit for a day or so.

Now, Microsoft is deathly afraid of people trying to fix XBoxes (is that the right plural? XBoxi?) themselves - cracking the case instantly voids every warranty on earth - and I have only limited experience as a build-your-own-computer guy despite my status as master of science, so I decided not to risk fixing it myself, and let the warranty cover it. Luckily the warranty was not with Microsoft, which has a habit of taking months to replace anything, but Best Buy, who would theoretically just let me pick up a new one from the store without any hassle. So, I go to Best Buy return desk, and not only do they give me an new Xbox, but, because the XBox now costs $200, I get $100 of store credit. Take off the 40 dollars for the warranty and and another 20 for a memory card I bought to save my games on, and I'm still ahead fourty dollars. Plus, I get a machine with upgraded hardware and software.

So what is the lesson that we have learned? There is never any reason to wait for prices to go down at Best Buy if you buy a warranty, because you can always just break yours and get a new one at the new price. Pretty cool, eh? It almost offsets the incredible incompetence of their hardware installation department.

Saturday, June 21, 2003

Whoops, my bad...

In the big lump of craziness that has been the past week for me, I've forgot to mention that my posting is likely going to get very sporadic until early July, because I'm currently involved in a whirlwind tour of the Eastern U.S. with Lisa. Well, actually, most of that time is being spent in Madison, Milwaukee, and Jacksonville (FL), with only limited time devoted to the places in between. I'm in Milwaukee right now for a graduation party but in less than a week I'll be embarking on the next leg of the journey: the longest car trip of my life - all the way down to florida.

On another topic, I will soon post about how I recieved a free $60 from Best Buy for buying an XBox and then breaking it...stay tuned

Thursday, June 12, 2003

Two items on the menu today:

First, because this site features a large amount of material on monkeys and a lot of quotes, I have the...
Monkey-Related Quote of the Day:
"It turns out that it is easy to teach monkeys to fear snakes but very difficult to teach them to fear flowers."
- from an article on the old nature vs. nurture debate in TIME Magazine by Matt Ridley, although the context clearly is not important, at least not to me

And secondly my annual ...
NBA Finals Comments:
* Any team that features Tim Duncan & David Robinson is easy to root for
* Any team that features Kenyon Martin is not.
* Frenchman Tony Parker uses the phrase "you know" in his speech to fill in blank spots, instead of his native "euuuh.." (which is french for the american "ummm..."). It's hilarious.
* Thank god for Manu Gionobli, the rarest of all breeds, a European who uses slashing athleticism instead of a plodding jump shot.
* Once again, Bill Walton is an idiot.

Friday, June 06, 2003

I know this is revisiting ancient history, but I'd just like to note for posterity's sake that Mount Athos has settled comfortably in at the number one slot for "monkey fashion show" (both quoted and unquoted) on google. This site's primary purpose in life has now been satisfied - but don't worry - I'll continue posting anyway. Of course, I could never have reached this point without the help of all those other bloggers who were kind enough to link to my page under the now famous phrase. In fact, a search for the exact, quoted phrase now results in an exclusive WashU weblog community directory. Excellent work, everyone.

Monday, June 02, 2003

One of the wonderful things about digital age is that it allows all sorts of people to establish all sorts of small, pointless information repositories in their own little corner of the internet, and I'm not even talking about blogging. For example, if you follow baseball, you will know that there is no reason on earth for a Dimiti Young fan club to exist, yet one does, backed up by a rather substantial web site. If you have a URL, you have a worldwide organization - something only the ten richest kings in europe could afford just a few decades ago.

So, taking a cue from the site mentioned above, I'm considering giving some Brewers scrub his very own fan club, complete with unlicensed photos, generic HTML formatting, and various personal facts, many of which I will likely make up (we are talking about the internet, after all...) Right now the leading contenders are backup catcher Keith Osik, utility infielder Keith Ginter, and the "Slash" of the baseball world, pitcher/outfielder Brooks Kieschnick. If you have any other suitible candidates, let me know ASAP, because ideas this spectacular spread like wildfire.