This is my personal blog. Nothing here is on behalf of my employer.
Somebody does something creative with Airplane!, and Paramount takes it down.
Somebody does something creative with Inception, and Warner Brothers tweets it.
Check out which studio’s movie I get to promote below:
Sometimes when it’s cold, I wait a few minutes for my laptop to heat up before using it.
All quotes paraphrased.
Via IM:
Ted: are you coming home for thanksgiving?
Me: yes
Ted: call me when you get home.
Me: ok
After work, I call Ted:
Ted: What’s up?
Me: Nothing. You told me to call you.
Ted: What?
Me: You said that I should call you when I get home.
Ted: [laughing] I meant when you get home. I thought you don’t refer to [California] as home.
Me: I don’t. I thought you meant my apartment. I was too busy to correct you.
Julian: hey
are you guys still coming on sunday?
i think it’s going to be raining
me: if we’re still invited
oh
were we doing outdoor activities?
Julian: yeah for sure
i know some people dont like to drive in the rain
(See also)
I wondered this myself, and posed the question to the Internet last year. Just last week, Mike, who now works in the New York office at Google, sent me an IM asking if he should ask Rainn Wilson anything. I suggested that he ask my question, and Mike, being an all-around good guy, did.
I recently read that it’s good to dream, as that’s when you can have creative breakthroughs. Actually, that’s not quite right… I read that it’s good to take breaks and go for a walk or something for a creative breakthrough, but when I started writing this post I thought the tip was to dream.
I recently (like, 10 minutes ago) woke up from a glorious nap after an exhausting day. And what was I doing right before I woke up? Dreaming about work. Here’s what happened at the end of the dream:
Some sales person was visiting Google to show off some new devices that I suppose he wanted Google to buy. After he talked for a bit and I advised him to “get to the demo,” we got hands-on time with the products. One of the products that I noticed, which at first didn’t appear to be functioning, was an inkjet printer. What caught my eye about it was a button for “Panini mode.” This is certainly relevant to my interests. I opened up the top part of the printer, just like one would to change the ink cartridge (I was preparing to tell the salesman that I don’t typically purchase inkjet printers), and inside was a hot sandwich! What an awesome demo. I was about to eat the sandwich when I realized that it included slices of banana, which I dislike. Still, excellent product idea.
How about this for customer service? I was watching a movie, Amazon automatically detected that I had a less than ideal connection, and without any prompting from me, they refunded my money.
Hello,
We noticed that you experienced poor video playback while watching the following rental(s) on Amazon Video On Demand:
Twelve Angry Men
We’re sorry for the inconvenience and have issued you a refund for the following amount(s):
$2.99
While Amazon Video On Demand transactions are typically not refundable, we are happy to make an exception in this case. This refund should be processed within the next 2 to 3 business days and will appear on your next billing statement for the same credit card used to purchase this item.
Please visit our troubleshooting page for tips on ways you can potentially improve your viewing experience:http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=200256920
We hope to see you again soon.
Amazon Video On Demand Team
Earlier this month, I took a Chevy Volt for a test drive. Today, I drove a Nissan Leaf.
At the test drive event, they had a little sales pitch thing with equipment displays and videos that they led us through first. I think they stretched it out a little too much to keep people occupied while they were waiting to drive, and it was incredibly corny. The style was almost exactly like what you see in the old World’s Fair films, so I’m sure that in the future people will be laughing at the marketing pitches, because we’re laughing at them today.
But, marketing aside, the test drive was okay. I could only take the car on a pre-defined route through the streets of San Jose, so unfortunately I never got to go more than 35 MPH and spent a good portion of the drive waiting at traffic lights. The car handles just like any other car, and I didn’t notice the regenerative braking as much as I did on the Volt. I’d have to try it out on a highway to form a more informed opinion, but right now I think I prefer the Leaf over the Volt in terms of driving experience.
I wonder which car I’ll get to drive next.