A Merry Hallowe'en to You All!

[halloween]

mousypumpkincoach
Originally uploaded by carbonated.

So it's the end of October – time to celebrate! (BTW: When did 'happy' replace 'merry' and when did we drop the apostrophe from Hallowe'en?)

Easy Creepy No-Bake Halloween Cakes

[ halloween , baking ]

Almost *too* easy, but for the time-challenged (read: lazy) over at 'Not Martha' (love that name) they have instructions on how to turn snack cakes (Ding Dongs, Sno Balls, Glo Balls, Twinkies and Little Debbie Star Crunch) and Pocky (Japanese 'chocolate covered biscuit sticks') to make crawly spider cakes for Halloween.

They bought pre-made sugar eyes that they attached with meringue but it seems to me that it would not be to difficult to make the whole eye as long as you were making 'spikes' on the back to attach them.

http://www.notmartha.org/tomake/crawlycakes.html

How Many Lawyers To Give Away a 77¢ Taco

[Taco Bell, World Series, misuse of Free Taco]

As part of a World Series promotion, Taco Bell would have given away a free taco to everyone in the United States if someone hit a home run over the left field wall in last night's World Series game 3 (they did not).

Now Taco Bell (AKA Yum! Brands) is a big company and has to cover all their legal 'bases' (no pun intended) with such a promotion but you have to ask, how little sense of humor does one have to have to write things like:

"Left field" will be defined as the territory from straightaway center field (directly from home plate) to the left field foul pole (including the foul poll), as determined by Taco Bell in its sole discretion.

{Everything you need to know you learned in kindergarten}

Participating Taco Bell restaurant manager reserves the right to deny Free Taco to any person he/she reasonably believes has already received a Free Taco or has engaged in any other fraudulent activity.

{Did you declare on your 1040 the money you received back for bottle deposits?}

As a condition of the offer, consumers agree: (a) to release, [...] the Office of the Commissioner of Baseball, and the Major League Baseball Clubs, and each of their respective shareholders, employees, parents, directors, officers, affiliates, representatives, agents, successors, and assigns [...] from any and all liability, loss or damage incurred with respect to participation in this contest and/or the awarding, receipt, possession, and/or use or misuse of any Free Taco.

{I *so* want to Google 'misuse of Free Taco' but I am afraid of what will I find!}

Flogging a Dead Horse

[film, Disney, halloween]

Usually I am not a big fan of Disney et al trying to extort, er, convince fans to pony up more money for something not all that different than the original and when I first saw the announcements for Nightmare Before Christmas coming back to theaters I filed it away with just that thought.

Last Sunday I noticed Best Buy had the 'new' soundtrack on sale, this time with bonus tunes, and still same thought.

Then I heard Panic! At the Disco (love that name) doing "This is Halloween," over at Neiles Life (http://neileslife.blogspot.com/

2006/10/steven-paul-smith-august-6-1969.html#comments) and thought I just may have to change my mind.

Grab some candy-corn and give it a spin.

No More A9.com Instant Rewards

[A9.com, Amazon]

I have used A9.com for search now and then, usually more when I knew I was going to make some large Amazon purchases in the coming weeks thanks to the 1.57% "Instant Discount", but also because I hate to fall into the 'just Google it" mind-set.

Not too long ago A9 partnered up with Microsoft's Windows Live which struck me as a huge step backward in terms of results (if Wikipedia is almost always the top hit don't you think I would just go there first?) as well as in look and feel (not to mention the whole Windows Live on a Mac using Firefox).

I was wondering how long it would take to regain my discount status and noticed a small blurb on the bottom of the main page, "Retrieve your Bookmarks and Diary entries."

Uh-oh.

"We have discontinued the A9 Instant Reward program, and the A9 Toolbar and personalized services such as history, bookmarks, and diary. To get help uninstalling your A9 Toolbar, visit toolbar.a9.com. We have also discontinued A9 Maps and the A9 Yellow Pages (including BlockView™)." Reading between the lines this means everything that made A9.com different and unique has been taken out.

Oddly I just read a Wired article about how even a small niche site on the internet can mean a fair number of page views.

Motley Fool over at MSNBC (another site about to be downsized?) has more info in their story, "Amazon Sinks A9 Amazon.com strips its search engine of local color and personality."

Coffee, Tea or C.A.Bee?

[Starbucks, ethics]

Lots of interesting comments and drink orders over at Starbucks Gossip. Must say even as a CAB I am undecided on this one....

http://starbucksgossip.typepad.com/_/2006/09/a_reader_asks_i.html

*$*$*$*$*$*$*$*$*$*$*$*$*$*$*$*$*$*$*$*$*$*$*$*$*$*$*$*$*$*$*$*$*$*$*$*$*$*$*$*$*$*$

The STARBUCKS GOSSIP reader writes:

Is it fair/right for a customer to order what we, at my store, call a "ghetto-latte"?

The "ghetto-latte" is ordering any size Iced Americano, with no water and half ice (This lady's drink is an Iced Venti, no water, half ice, Americano). She then takes the drink and goes to the condiments bar and adds her own half and half.

She and her boy toy came in the other day and both ordered a Venti and Grande ghetto-latte. We just happened to not have the half and half out at the condiment bar. When she ordered the drink, I then immediately said, "and ma'am what kind of dairy would you like?" She then said, "Oh I'll add it myself thank you." But I had to let her know we didn't have any out at the very moment. She asked for half and half of course.

Now my problem with that is... her 2 drinks cost $4.82 (entered as iced grande and venti americanos).

The EXACT drink she orders as we have it on our menu (with all the shots and milk she is actually getting) are called Iced Quad Venti Breve Latte and an Iced Triple Grande Breve Latte.

Venti (and Grande) Americanos come with 4 and 3 shots (respectively) of espresso and then water (and ice).

Lattes are 2 shots (and 2, respectively) espresso, milk and Ice.

Additional shots are $.55. Half and Half (breve) is also an additional charge.

The cost of those 2 drinks (as Lattes) is $10.24 or so!!!!

Is this just a case of the customer being savvy enough to play the system? Or should they be asked to stop? I personally feel they should be asked to stop.

Go ahead and weigh in on this. http://starbucksgossip.typepad.com/_/2006/09/a_reader_asks_i.html

Hallowe'en MP3 Bonanza!

[Halloween, mp3, music, free]



An amazing collection of Hallowe'en albums all in one spot over at Scar Stuff. Can't you just picture me listening to this sitting here?

This is like the house that gives out the full-size candy bars that lets you come back (and back and back)!

Aren't You A Little Pricey For a Flash Drive?

[Star Wars, Darth Vader, flash drive]

Darth Vader mimobot® Designer USB Flash Drive 2GB $119.95, available soon at the Star Wars Shop.

...except in Google land which is far far away...

[Google, illustration]

V.C. Vickers's The Google Book from 1913 has passed into the public domain:

"FAR! FAR away, the Google lives, in a land which only children can go to. It is a wonderful land of funny flowers, and birds, and hills of pure white heather.

The Google has a beautiful garden which is guarded night and day. All through the day he sleeps in a pool of water in the center of the garden; but when the night comes, he slowly crawls out of the pool and silently prowls around for food.

All the birds try to avoid the Google, because they don't like him and he frightens them; but some of them he can never catch, especially those with the red beaks. You can never see these birds anywhere except in Google land which is far far away, and only children can go there; and even they must be nearly – but not quite – asleep.

Now in this book you will find pictures of Google birds; some, though ugly, are very nice; others, though pretty, are very nasty. So, perhaps, really the pretty ones are ugly and the ugly ones pretty!"

http://blog.outer-court.com/googlebook/

via http://drawn.ca/2006/10/18/that-horrid-google/

Meet the New Meme

[AYBABTU]

Still some life in the old "All Your Base..." meme:

[fonts]

LMNOP presents the seven worst fonts--and the people who use them.

Best quote that deserves to be a catch-phrase: "Well, I hate to be the one to break it to the Linkin Park fan contingent, but calligraphy is to angst what scones are to rave parties."

[Dr Who, Torchwood, BBC3, Sci Fi]

Those in the UK will get this Dr Who spin-off later(?) this month, those of us in the US will have to keep our fingers crossed for SciFi to hook us up.

Meanwhile, everyone enjoy a teaser for Torchwood.

[Boing Boing, Cory Doctorow]

This rat 'project' is just a huge step across the line of good taste and respect for animals, and I am by no means a vegetarian.

Sorry guys, I am going to have to skip reading you for a while, I am sure your advertisers will understand. I bet PETA will be more than happy to take the money I was thinking of spending on a MAKE subscription.

[Barbie, Jeopardy, Leah Garchik]

Watching "Back to School'' week on "Jeopardy,'' Eileen Mitchell thought she overheard Alex Trebek pose the answer "The new line of Mattel hip-hop fashion dolls,'' to which a contestant asked, "What are hos?''

The right answer was "Flavas.''

Leah Garchik, SFGate

GooTube?

[Google, YouTube]



Would you pay 12 million dollars for this diamond? Would you think the guys at YouTube would take 14 of these for their company?

[Jotto, J Otto Seibold]

Looks like jotto.com has been taken over by a gambling site. Did the creator of Olive the Other Reindeer forget to write a check or has his page been hijacked?

Stay tuned!

[Star Trek]

>From the AP Newswire: Starship Enterprise model boldly sold for $576,000 [...] A model of the Starship Enterprise used in the pilot and title sequences of "Star Trek: The Next Generation" sold for $576,000 Saturday at an auction of costumes, sets and props from 40 years of the "Star Trek" sci-fi franchise.

The 78-inch-long miniature of the "Enterprise-D," built by Industrial Light and Magic, debuted in 1987 in the episode "Encounter at Farpoint," and then was used in many subsequent episodes, as well as the film "Star Trek Generations."

http://www.cnn.com/2006/SHOWBIZ/TV/10/07/trek.model.ap/index.html

In the future are people going to have to bid on the animation source-code now that for the most part real models aren't being built for films any more?

Late to the HALLOWEEN COUNTDOWN

[halloween, Halloween Countdown, Secret Fun Blog, skeleton]

Sure counting down to Christmas with an advent calendar is fun but that's like, months away from now (despite what you may see in the shops). Take your holidays one at a time and pass the time until Halloween with thirty-one consecutive 'countdown' posts throughout October over at Secretfunspot!


This fellow is number 31 in the countdown but go see them all!