I'm a bit irate that my pre-ordered copy of Halo3 has yet to arrive... but in the mean time, here are some items that have gotten my attention.

If I wanted to take on another hobby/collection, it would start with this. The ultimate in Star Wars Legos!

My friends who work at Intel thought this was hilarious (Ok, I thought it was funny, too) and was very accurate as to how dull the work environment is for their employees as Conan O'Brien takes a tour.

There is E85 ethanol in every gas station around here. It's a deceiving "green fuel" - not nearly as good to use as the propaganda would have us believe. I know Dad anticipates more future bio-diesel vehicles. Here's a nice article in The Economist covering future fuels, though there have been plenty of others out there to learn more (the cover of Wired is on switch grass).

While we're at Wired, my favorite movie, Blade Runner, is being "finalized" - yes, I've mentioned this before, and I'm still excited!!!

A lot of news this past week on the release of the transcript of Bush and then Spanish Prime Minister Aznar back in 2003. Here's a more insightful Slate article on it.

How to Accept Criticism with Grace and Appreciation

Finally attended my first ever Nebraska college football game on Saturday! They played Ball State. Not known to be a powerhouse, but 4 quarters later NU wins 41-40. Horribly exciting game. If they had lost, I never would have been allowed to attend another future game. It would have been arguably the biggest upset at home ever (though Ball State's 2 losses are now at 1 pt and their quarterback was the MVP by far). So many people in that stadium. It becomes the 3rd largest population center in the state (after Omaha and Lincoln) and holds the record for longest consecutive sold-out games at 200 & some since the 1960s.

Visited with the grandparents afterwards and then got stuck in 2+ hrs of traffic driving home as they blocked off the entrance to the interstate and made thousands of us drive 3mph on 2-line highway through small towns back. It was ridiculous! To add injury to insult, I got a horrible sun burn on the right side of my face (I was on the NW corner of the stadium) and so not only does it hurt like hell, I have an early Halloween costume as Two-Face.

In other news, Baxter is no longer with us. He joined his new home, a mile or so away, on Wed night. It's been rough and I miss him dearly, but I'm already breathing better and have had less attacks on the plants. Plus, not sure if it's fear of being sent away, but the remaining two girl kittens (TB & Qbert) are being extra affectionate since he left. Apparently he's a bit hit in his new home which makes me feel better. He definitely had a big impact during his 4 months with me. Irreplaceable...

Today, besides the Chiefs pulling out a win from behind, our block had a dedication of a tree/memorial to someone who used to live here. It was a touching small ceremony with so many neighbors in attendance and with food/drinks afterwards. Makes me feel fortunate to live on such a nice block.

For humor link this week - an alternative animation of Spiderman 3 (don't watch if you haven't seen the movie and still plan on it someday).

We'll start and end with comedy. First, something that if you watched the show during the day, you'd probably do a triple take on this very short clip after The People's Court.

Myths and falsehoods about global warming

Make your xbox into a great media center (I collect this as I still have yet to do it with mine, but from my friends who have done it, it's amazing!)

On xbox theme, I did purchase more than my fair share of Halo 3 Mountain Dew, pre-ordered the game (comes out next week or so), but this is still another leap in great licensing. The Halo3 Pontiac G6.

The last take on computer games in humor form - the ultimate MMORPG (Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game) - Outside! Which goes along nicely with the South Park episode, Make Love Not Warcraft, which won an Emmy last week for best animated short show.

Two times this past weekend I found myself getting mad at someone I didn't know. This is only a big deal because of its rarity. Last Friday while picking up a friend from CA at the Omaha airport, I was told that he'd be right outside the door in a few seconds. I slowly pull up to the curb, put it in park and immediately there is an obese security officer outside my door. I roll down the window and he says I need to drive around until my passenger is outside (up to now, all understandable). I tell him he's only a few seconds away as I just spoke with him, and the "cop" says, "Sure, that's what they all say." I then protest with "What? I just got off the phone with him." and he replies, "I'd like to believe you, really, but..." and then shoos me forward. I take off and immediately pull back over to the curb 2 cars down as Mike has come out of the airport. The whole thing of parking and reparking took less than 30 secs, but I was so mad at the insinuation of being called a liar by an authority figure.

The second time was less offensive, though the more I thought about it, the more negative it seemed. Usually after our weekly ultimate frisbee event we relax with burgers at a local dive (with buy 1, get 1 free deal). This week our new waitress wasn't very good especially in comparison with the past 7-8 weeks of going there. We had 3 bills for the 7 of us. For one bill she gave them $6 more back for change than she should have, but the two people who got this free money didn't tip her, nor did 2 others, any thing at all. This was done primarily at the urging of one guy who seemed to be upset with food, service and was tight for $ (jobless). I protested to the group on deaf ears and, in the end, came back and put some more $ on the table. I was hoping we would still get service for future evenings there as I recall from my days in the restaurant biz of 1) refusing future service to those who didn't tip (or someone doing bad things to the food to those who didn't tip), 2) wait staff getting taxed on each table regardless of how much they were actually tipped. Such that when I have bad service, I mention it to the manager and/or give 5-10% tip as a minimum. Guess it's not a set thing for all, but no tip plus the "stealing" of money that wasn't theirs got me going.

All in all, great and full weekend with Stacie & Mike from CA! Game night on Thurs, swing dancing on Fri, football party on Sat with neighbors and a few other friends (yeah, NE got smoked again) with lots of DDR & ping-pong, saw Holy Family Shrine on Sun, the zoo on Mon (OK, I dropped them off there after visiting with friend who is admin there and gave us a short mini-tour) and lots of good food and drinks throughout.

Was in DC last week for a couple days (it's official and final). Was sick with a horrible sinus headache/infection/allergies this past weekend. First time I've been incapacitated with this in NE. No fun! Got new tennis shoes on Monday which made a world of difference in ultimate (I could run!) - though still need much work in stamina department. Can't believe I haven't owned tennis shoes in almost a decade! And football is here (which was perfect for being out of commission at home on weekend ) though my Chefs lost badly and Nebraska won.

This week's links to share (more techy theme):

Funny video review of main 3 video game consoles

Keeping the theme, amazing video of completion of the most difficult tetris level on arcade (invisible!)

Appropriate commentary on the iPhone early adopters (referencing the Apple Lisa!) who complained enough to get Apple to give them credit (I'll get mine next year or so)

So another week gone by. Went to Chicago on Wed for an all day ACR meeting, got some press coverage (links 1 & 2) and last night Uncle Mark drove up in a stretched Hummer and we chilled and played cards (though I'm sure more than one neighbor was curious). Bombing the house today to get rid of the fleas and spiders in the basement (perfect weather to be outside with kittens, snacks and book) and working and watching football (yeah!).

Video of amazing homemade "machines" - though the Japanese jingle gets old quickly, the creativity doesn't.

All over the interwebs this week were jokes at Miss Teen South Carolina's expense (though FTLOG, I couldn't believe how horrible her response was!). Here's a web site collecting maps for Us (plus a clip of the teen's statement).

Funny pic (warning, old video game reference).

For those that finished the latest Harry Potter book, here's the best review I've seen written by Stephen King (yes, that Stephen King).