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Can’t make this kind of stuff up.

A Comcast technician came to replace a faulty modem. After spending an hour on hold with Comcast’s central office, he fell asleep on my couch. I’ve been in my apartment for three weeks and my internet connection is still non-functional. This is my tribute to Comcast, their low quality technology and their poor customer service.

Link to YouTube video (as WordPress is giving me fits trying to embed the video)

“When a stupid man is doing something he is ashamed of, he always declares that it is his duty.”
– George Bernard Shaw

So, we went to Ikea. It is, as they say, quite the place. I’m not saying that I want to redo my entire house in Ikea-provided furniture or anything. But, I did find myself saying far too many times, “that would look good in $ROOM”. In fact, I was so taken with some of their furniture, I bought a desk. This one, in fact, with the T-legs. I haven’t been so happy with a desk in years, and that’s saying something. My taste in desks is so picky, I’ve burned through no less than 5 desks in the last 6 years.

I will say this about the store: it is designed with impulse buying of medium to high-range items in mind. The physical building is configured in such as way that you can’t easily move backward. The influence of movement is forward only, forcing you to work very hard to a) not pick something up (because you know you have to work hard to go back) and b) once you have picked something up, it very difficult to put it back (and there’s no where to just ‘drop it’, as J– is so fond of doing.

On the flip side, the store is actually very pleasant to walk through, sans the million and a half people. We spent, I’m embarrassed to say, almost 4 hours in the store, which I’m pretty sure is a land-based record for me. If they sold beer, we would be bankrupt.

So, it’s worth checking out, but give it a couple more weeks for the bum rush of people to die down. Oh, and check the status of Ford Rd. if you go; if it’s closed (as it was today), you’ll have a hellofa time getting there. Once you’re there, however, prepare to kiss your better judgment goodbye as you plunge into the depravity of oddly named Swedish-esque home decor. And the $0.99 breakfast is actually very good. Add coffee and an orange juice (for two) and it’s still less than $5.

Worth the trip? Yes. Worth the money? Surprisingly, yes. Worth the crowds. Not so much. Verdict; go early and during the week if you have to go now. Otherwise, wait three weeks. Bring lots of money; even if you don’t think you’ll need it, you will.

Edit: Fixed late-night typos

Name says it all

Link

In a bold move that will save the company hundreds of thousands of dollars, placate whiney customers, and provide a huge amount of free advertising, Whole Foods has announced that it will continue to pander to the lowest common denominator and ban the sales of live lobsters in its stores. In a statement released by the company, Whole Foods Vice President for Politically Correct Marketing said, “We feel its inhumane to point out to our customers the far-worse processes and conditions that result in many of our other products. By no longer offering live lobsters for sale in our stores, we can eliminate expensive storage systems and shipping process, as well as free up considerable space for our meat department.”

Whole Foods did not announce today that it would ban the sale of any product containing or substantively made of any of the following animals: chickens, cows, sheep or lambs, salmon, scallops, shrimp, mussels, or tuna. Widely regarded as a politically correct place to shop, Whole Foods has carved a large market for itself by offering organic and up-scale groceries in above-average-income communities. A favorite place to be seen in many areas, Whole Foods will continue to market itself to the pseudo-environmentalists and jogging-suit mafia. Calls from scientists pointing out that lobsters may not, in fact, experience pain were summarily ignored as bunk. Those ignoring these statements about lobsters then proceeded to quote scientific statistics about other causes that were more convenient for them.

A representative for the lobster community had no comment.
Inspired by this MSNBC article

Tesco, the largest retailer in Great Britain and Wal-Mart front, has seen a 47% increase in the sales of mangoes this past week in the run-up to the England vs Trinidad & Tobago match tomorrow. Apparently the Scots, who aren’t the biggest fans of their Southern Lords, are throwing rum-soaked calypso parties to cheer on Trinidad & Tobago. Ah, the World Cup; uniting nations once again.
Link

Short and sweet article on the new football used in this year’s games. Basically, the ball was designed to frustrate goalies and produce higher-scoring games. It’s essentially designed to behave like a baseball; slow the rotation and the stability goes to hell. It’s interesting to note that, so far, the games have been scoring in the normal range. Of course, the first game that goes 6-0 will raise some eyebrows.

[via Digg] 

ESPN’s site for the World Cup doesn’t work in Firefox. The entire site is driven by a DHTML drop-down menus which disappear whenever you move your mouse to choose something. So most of their content is locked away behind a menuing system that (I’m guessing) was designed with only Internet Explorer in mind. I don’t have time to debug their site, but I’m assuming it’s broken in other browsers as well.
Nice work ESPN, guess I’ll head back over to Fox Sports. Their coverage isn’t as good, but at they don’t lock me out of their content because my browser doesn’t work.

ESPNsoccernet – World Cup Index

Robin van Persie took Arjen Robben to task for the one-man show Robben decided to put on Sunday. Robben, who did have the games only goal, was virtually unaware that other teams members were actually on the field at points, choosing instead to take low-percentage, high-risk shots on goal. The Dutch, long known for solid team and precision play, played Robben’s game this past week. Serbia and Montenegro made it a nail biter in the second hald as they took advantage of Robben’s new-found solo career but didn’t manage to get the equalizer.

Hopefully the coach means it when he says that he means to balance the play. They have Ivory Coast to polish up their play before the Oranje play Argentina on the 21st. Hopefully this isn’t the beginning of another bickering Dutch team.
Dutch dissent as Van Persie criticises Robben