youfailed.us – Page 13 – Today is the yesterday that we will regret tomorrow.

Monitors: I might be an addict.

I think I have a problem.

So, originally I had one 17” CRT monitor, but I found it frustrating to fit all the content I wanted on the screen. So I got a 19” LCD Monitor. A big improvement, but still found myself futzing around with windows, constantly minimizing, maximizing, and re-arranging windows to fit on the screen. So… two 19” monitors should fix that, right? So now here I am with two monitors. Code on the left, webapp on the right. The In-laws come by and they assume I am either a rocket scientist or a criminal mastermind. Feels good. For awhile.

Today I caught myself thinking “man, if only I had more room to fit another window in, this would be perfect”. And that’s when I started to consider that maybe the problem isn’t with monitors, but with me. Is there a sufficient number of pixels where I’m going to stop and say “Ah, this is plenty”, or is that moment going to be followed up a year later by me selling plasma to support my habit.

Am I going to wind up like this guy?

Photo Credit: Audin

Buca di Beppo buyout has ruined everything

My wife really likes Italian food (or whatever you want to call shaped pasta and some tomato or creme based sauce combined in a variety of ways that all taste about the same but have different names) and she wanted to go out for her birthday. There happens to be a Buca di Beppo right down the street from our house that we pass on the way home everyday.

I have never been a big fan of the place because it seems overpriced and the “Buca Large” dishes are almost always smaller than what I think they should be to feed 3-4 people. Plus, I noticed about a year ago (around the time of the buyout by Planet Hollywood I think) that the “stuffed chicken” (I don’t remember what they call it) is $18 and some change for “Buca Small” which is 2 pieces of chicken and $28 for “Buca Large” which is 3 pieces of chicken. That third piece of chicken costs more than the first two! I’ve pointed this out to people at Buca at least 3 times and they don’t even bother to lie and say that the “Buca Small” chicken pieces are smaller. Needless to say we always get the “Buca Small”.

Anyway . . . this time we go in and the food is good (well, the chicken was a little burnt but I didn’t bring that up as no one else complained at the table) but then it was time for dessert. We wanted to get a “Celebration Cake” for Sarah’s birthday as we had it about 5 months ago (the last time we were there) for our anniversary and it was good cake and it was enough for *at least* 4 big servings.

The waitress comes by to pick up some dinner plates and asks if we want any dessert beside the birthday cupcake. We ask about the “Celebration Cake” and she said that they don’t give out the celebration cake anymore for birthdays. We are disappointed but understand and asked for the celebration cake and that we don’t really want the cupcake because the regular cake will be enough. A few minutes later she shows up with the cupcake and the NEW Celebration Cake and it’s a cake that was half the size of the old cake and it’s not red velvet cake anymore and it’s colored white with three layers to match the colors of Italy’s flag. HALF the size, same price! I ask what happened to the real “Celebration Cake” and the waitress just says that it’s been a long time since they had that other cake and that this is the new cake. Okay, what can I do? So we split up the cake except that now it has coconut so my wife can’t eat it. Thank goodness for the cupcake.

And . . . the cake was dry . . . it wasn’t impressive at all and worse than what I could have made at home with a 99 cent box of Betty Crocker and some food coloring.

After that I make up my mind that we aren’t going back to Buca for a long time. But then the waitress comes back with these “prizes” where you bring the envelope back within a few months and open them later with a waitress or whatever and you can win all these fabulous prizes! I want to tell her to shove those award cards up her you know what but I decide to keep that to myself as I don’t want to embarrass my wife.

But then the “manager guy” had to come over and ask how everything was. Everyone at the table gave the “great” but I gave a muffled “okay”. He stuck around so he could tell us about the prizes we could win if we come back before October 5th. I can’t take it anymore and tell him about the cake and about the the wacky pricing. Here is about how the conversation went but it was much longer (because of repetition) and more embarrassing that you can imagine for everyone else at the table:

BM (Buca Manager): If you come back before . . .

Me: Yeah, we won’t be coming back but thanks.

BM: Why?

Me: We got the Celebration Cake and it’s half what it was and it’s not that good anymore.

BM: Well, we change things on the menu to try to better server our customers.

Me: By making it half the size and the same price and still calling it the “Celebration Cake”?

BM: Well it used to be two cakes stacked on top of each other and now it’s just one cake and it’s not red velvet anymore.

Me: Okay, great, I understand that but you came here and asked how it was and I’m telling you it sucked. You telling me the opposite isn’t making it better.

BM: Well, we want you to come back in and we have a great promotion and . . .

Me: You don’t want me to come back!

BM: We want all of our customers to come back.

Me: Well, by the looks of this place it seems that people aren’t comming back . . . back in the day this place was always packed.

BM: It’s the first day of school and it’s the middle of the week.

Me: Well, okay great, this isn’t going to get any better but thanks, we’ve paid the bill, we’re good thanks.

BM: We have this great promotion . . . .

Finally he went away but only after my wife was giving me that “shut the hell up” look and saying “okay, that’s enough” as nicely as she could.

I had already paid the bill and was going to leave it at that but after talking to manager guy I decided I would tear up those stupid promotion cards and put them in with the bill. Maybe that was childish but I think they got the point after that and no one came back to bother us.

Really, this is all Olive Garden’s fault for not building a location closer to our house!

Sheldon

I didn’t just jump on the bandwagon at GTA 3

Check out my GTA box that I found in an old (bigger) box from over 10 years ago. Still has the sticker on it from Fry’s Electronics! Before Rockstar!

Front of my original GTA box from Fry's Electronics

Back of my original GTA box from Fry's Electronics

Is janky a word? My review of the new Wii MotionPlus.

Okay, Wii Sports Resort is about what you would expect and it’s fun and will provide a few hours entertainment to a hard core XBox 360 gamer and maybe 10-20 hours for a real Wii gamer (and maybe more fun for a Wii gamer with friends). Nuff said. But the new attachment to the Wiimote is just plain janky. It feels cheap and has that rubber condom that’s useless and there is a 3 minute video explaining how to get the Wiimote into the rubber condom. It’s embarrassing. And too big even for my manly hands. And don’t get me started about the little cap on the end where you would connect the Nunchuck . . . there wasn’t a cap on the Wiimote why would there be one on the attachment to the Wiimote?

The fact that you can’t go out and buy a new Wiimote with this built-in is a shame because it really does give you fine control over over movements and it sure is fun in Wii Sports Resort.

San Francisco scams

Okay, so I really like Frisco (I don’t care what it means that I say “Frisco” instead of “San Franshutthefup” . . . Frisco is shorter) and have visited a few times and it’s always been fun. But on this short trip (for Google I/O, more about that later) my time is the city sucked.

I don’t know if it’s the economy or what but for every block that you walk you’ll have *at least* two people ask you for money. That’s annoying in itself but usually I usually feel kind of bad for them in that they have to ask. But it’s no exaggeration that on the 5 block walk from my hotel to the conference center there must have been 10 people asking for money . . . each way! After a while it’s just plain annoying and I don’t feel bad for anyone and I just want them to go away and I start thinking about ways the city should try to fix this problem.

But it gets worse! I’m at the BART station trying to get a ticket to get on the train. I have my wallet out pulling out a $5 to put in the machine and a guy walks up and has a BART ticket and a few dollars in his hand all spread out perfectly and says something like “I only need 75 cents so I can get home” and I look up and say “okay” and hand him a dollar. Before I can even finish getting my $5 in the machine another person walks up to the people next to me and says the same thing. I look over and at that point I didn’t know what was going on and the people there didn’t give him anything. Then I finish my transaction and turn around and the same guy that asked me for 75 cents is consulting with the new guy and is looking at me as if to say “No, you get the money from that chump over there”. I just look at the guy blankly in disbelief and he says “Seriously, thank you”.

It gets worse.

The BART incident happened on my way home . . . the night before I’m walking up California street . . . a street that’s not at all crowded like Market Street but isn’t exactly deserted . . . and I’m stopped by a frazzled (but not homeless looking) woman who looked like she was lost:

Frazzled: Are you from the city?

Me: You mean from here? No, I’m just visiting.

Frazzled: Oh okay, well, can I ask you a question anyway?

Me: Sure, maybe I can look it up on my phone.

Frazzled: Oh, um well, I ran out of gas and my car is over there I can pay you back just give me your information . . .

Me: How much do you need?

Frazzled: Twenty dollars but I already have five.

Me: <pulls out wallet and hands her a $20>

Frazzled: Thank you so much!

In hindsight, I think that transaction was a scam. I’m not sure I like Frisco as much anymore.