A commercial about nothing

I wonder how many of my friends have seen the recent Bill Gates-Jerry Seinfeld Windows Vista commercials? I first saw them last week, but my mind is still reeling. They say any press is good press, but these are just bizarre. The product never makes an appearance, and the closest they get to talking about Windows is theorizing on whether future computers will be made of cake.

Then again, it's Jerry Seinfeld. What did I expect?

Maybe I should call upon the expertise of marketing extraordinaire, 2ndof5. So, 2nd, tell me, what do you think of those spots?

Unnatural selection

This man is either a genius or just plain crazy. Either way, I think he's my latest hero.

It's not likely that his work will change the world. But I can only hope that, when I retire, I can find something so fascinating to occupy my time.

Truthiness

I was watching (more accurately, listening as I did other tasks) to the morning news yesterday, and they mentioned that the report of tax burdens by state was just made available for this year. That didn't catch my ear. What did was their mentioning that Maryland has the fourth highest tax burden! Well, I don't know why I was surprised; I always knew somewhere in my gut that this is a tax-happy state. Maybe it had something to do with my dad telling me about county taxes from the time he lived in Maryland. ("The form asks you to enter your state tax on one line, then on the next multiply by 50% to get your county tax!") Anyway, it was something I was prepared to hear. But number four is pretty high on the list!

I found the data online here. (You have to scroll the embedded document to the bottom for 2008 numbers.) New Jersey, New York, and Connecticut top the list, with Maryland hot on their heels. Virginia is #18 -- too bad I'm not living there anymore! (DC would fall into the #8 position, but it's not a state. Sorry!) Alaska (tax incentives for living there), Nevada (gambling revenue), and Wyoming (...?) are the three least taxed states.

Nevada sounds like it could be a nice place to live.

Red hot

When you're hot, you're hot. But when you're hot on you're birthday, you're on fire.

My auto insurance expired with the turn of the month, and I had until July 11th to begin paying for the next six months. However, my insurance policy was still associated with Virginia. True, I have been in Maryland for a while, but I figured the policy would update itself when it renewed. I had given the company my new address and I had even gone through the "change vehicle location" steps on their website. However, upon checking my statement online, I discovered that my assumption, however reasonable, was not realized.

So I placed a call to the company and got through to a representative immediately. As if that wasn't surprising enough, I was told that, with the same coverage options, my Maryland policy would be $2 less per six months than my previous Virginia policy. I know that's a small amount, but when you're ready for a $50 increase -- because, let's face it, everything costs more in Maryland -- any decrease is pretty incredible.

Then there was lunch. I try to take it a little later than most people. I find that a delayed lunch helps make the afternoon move faster in addition to helping me avoid the crowd in the lunchroom. Well, imagine my joyful surprise when I made for the lunchroom at 1pm and entered just as a large meeting was getting out -- a large meeting with two leftover pizzas and homemade chocolate chip cookies! Our office has a "free table," where any extra or unwanted foods are placed. Given that anyone and everyone loves free food (it doesn't even have to be particularly good to get taken!), two pizzas have about a 5-minute life expectancy on that table. So, yeah, I lucked out pretty good, huh?

I know the day is far from over, and I really shouldn't tempt fate, but with the way the day has been going, plus a party (just for me!) after institute tonight, I'm prepared to call this a pretty awesome birthday!

[sic]

I was feeling pretty ill a couple weeks ago, but I'm better now. I wasn't going to mention it, but it kind of fit with the title here.

Anyway, there have been a few instances in the past couple of weeks when I realized that some quirky behavior I exhibit is really not that uncommon. So I wanted to toss this one out, too, and see if it's the same.

While reading this article (regarding animals blocking an airport runway) I came across a quote:

"The monitor lizards -- they look frightening but they are harmless animals," he said. "But they can grow about three to four feet long. And at the velocity a plane lands, the [lizards] can still cause damage."

Now, am I the only person who reads things like this and wonders what the man really said instead of "lizards?" I like to imagine all sorts of colorful epithets inserted in that sentence that CNN just couldn't print. Please tell me I'm not.