You can read it.
All the posts about Starbucks lately reminded me of a pic I took there a while back.
Seems the cult of Starbucks extends to Dementors. This was taken just outside the window while I was standing in line for a Chai. I guess the allure of overpriced java extends far beyond our earthly plane. Creepy.
Starbucks Dementor
For comparison, here’s a Dementor pic from the world of Harry Potter…
If you’re going to be stranded somewhere when your car doesn’t work, you could do a lot worse than a Starbucks. Drink. Food. Music. Comfy chair. Internet access (well, okay, only if you pay for it - $5 for a drink and the cheap b*stards won’t give free access *grr*). Truthfully, aside from the lack of Internet (and I think I might have been able to pick up the next door McDonald’s access) I would have rather stayed there than go to work this morning! 
On the more serious side… perhaps setting up the work environment a little more “friendly” would make a big difference. It’d be cool to walk into my own offices and see everyone working in a laid back, comfortable, aesthetically pleasing environment. Ever notice how the president of the company’s office looks more like a home den? I’m guessing if the whole building looked more like that, though, then he wouldn’t feel special or like he was in power over the masses… Oh well, for the rest of us we still have broken cars in front of Starbucks.
I purchased a music CD today.
Felt weird.
Starbucks has the right idea, though. Compile a reasonably priced CD of songs by newer artists, older or lesser known artists, or that make a unique mix. If you counter the ability to find or easily download the artists or make it time intensive to find all the songs for the mix then the pendulum swings back toward time/cost-effectiveness for the consumer (me!) to actually buy the CD (I did!). Unless, of course, someone starts ripping the Starbucks compilations and proliferating them online…
I saw a news story tonight on a local school increasing ISTEP scores (Indiana Statewide Testing for Educational Progress-Plus). “Wow,” I thought, “That’s great!” Then they showed some children talking about how if they “just didn’t get it” they just kept going over their questions over and over again until they got it. The rest of the report showed kids drilling on problems. Rinse lather repeat - over and over on the same problems. Something clicked. We’re teaching kids ISTEP. Not *educating* them. Teaching them ISTEP. Watch out other countries - the next generation of Americans (somehow I’m betting it’s not just my glorious state of Indiana) will *STOMP* you in ISTEP. Forget about knowledge or life skills. Give us a memorized standardized test and we’ll kick your foreign free-thinking masses.
Here’s an ISTEP question for everybody.
ISTEP
Goosestep
Which one of these things is just like the other?
You know what’s smart? Eating part of a chocolate bar while laying on your back. In a yellow shirt. Even better, sitting up and seeing a few melting flecks of chocolate and thinking, hey, I’ll just lick them out before they get into the fabric! Then removing the shirt from my - I realized - chocolate coated mouth revealing a much larger brown smudge reminiscent of the big sucker monster from an old Star Trek episode.
Oh yes, *much* better than a small melting speck of chocolate no one would hardly notice on an old yellow t-shirt. But wait… I took off the shirt and hand washed it in the bathroom sink using a soft bristled brush and circular scrubbing pattern until I got the stain out. See! Guys can channel a little Martha Stewart.
Plus, tomorrow morning my tooth brush will taste like mint *and* chocolate! Score!
My girlfriend is reading “Pursuit of Happyness“.
Three quarters of the way through the book, her comment was, “Geez, I wish they’d get to the good part. He’s not even homeless yet.”
Ah, the things Hollywood makes entertaining for us.
To be fair, I know what she really meant. The movie took a lot of liberties with the story. Page through the book some time next time you are in the bookstore. The “meat” of the movie was about a father trying to make ends meet and survive as a single parent with his son - and he went through a traumatic time being homeless. So, that really was the “good”, or more apt “touching”, part of the story. Very different from the true events of the book.
Sometimes I wish spam were real.
No, not all the wallstreet tips and pharmacy ads; that kind of spam is all too real. Some of the fake subjects spammers use to entice you to open their mail or to get around spam filters, though, are intriguing. It’s bad enough I get spammed, but I get a feeling of loss when I’m deleting messages with subjects like “And until Machiavelli” or “bunny greater backlash”. I mean, until Machiavelli, what??? And is it a backlash against bunnies??? By them??? A greater backlash??? Greater than what???
I’ll never know. 
Scientific studies are showing a link between obese children and junk food advertising aimed at kids.
I guess it should have been obvious it has nothing to do with the parents.
Umm… LOST last night was like a page out of Forrest Gump. Characters Nikki & Paulo (Ken & Barbie - ick!) were unceremoniously dropped on viewers this season to - in my opinion - sex up the show. After a huge fan backlash and waning ratings, the powers-that-be (no, not the Others) killed them off. Ahh, but not before a bunch of Forrest Gump-esque flashbacks trying to integrate a weak storyline about stolen diamonds and deadly paralyzing spiders into the Losties timeline to try and make it look like the story actually belonged.
C’mon guys, just admit you screwed up. Oh, and admit you stole a major part of your plot line from Gitsie Girl. She killed Ken & Barbie off by burying them alive (among other grisly fates) well before you did! *AND* She had Vincent there too, just like you did in the show! Blatant plagiarism by ABC.
I get a call on the way home from work. “Honey, where’s the hammer?”
“Why?” I ask.
“I’m fixing dinner.”
My little Martha Stewart. Post prison.