Consumerist Whore: So awhile back, I sold my GameCube, memory card, Metroid Prime (wanted to write "Metroit Prime", too much time spent in the Motor City, I guess), Super Mario Sunshine and Prince of Persia to GameStop for a whopping $101. When you sell used games and consoles, they give you store credit. This credit comes in the form of a receipt with a unique alphanumeric. When the cashier gives you said receipt, he/she is supposed to impart the words of wisdom "DO NOT LOSE THIS." Well, I lost it! Luckily, I was dorky enough to write down said alphanumeric and GameSpot was able to reissue the receipt. Let's see how long it takes before I lose it again.

Anyway, the point of this post was that I went to the mall to get the reissued receipt and ended up going shopping for myself. I ended up buying two pairs of stain, spill and wrinkle resistant pants at the Gap and three shirts over at Express. When I went to the get the receipt reissued, the manager said that he woudl probably call me on Tuesday with the reissue since he has to call corporate and they are closed on the weekend. Turns out, they were open today so he told me to come pick up the receipt. Another trip to the mall, and we all know what that means... more shopping. I hadn't run into J. Crew or Banana Republic since I was in a bit of a rush last night. Ended up buying my second pair of jeans, making that two pairs purchased in the past 8 months, my first pairs in at least 8 years! J. Crew jeans are just about the only ones that fit me even close to well. Jamie and I must have spent at least two hours looking for that first pair. Actually, I think that only J. Crew works for jeans, Gap works for casual pants and Kenneth Cole works for dress pants. Anyway, I ended up spending $50 for an undershirt and two pairs of boxers at Banana Republic. Even I realize that's a waste of money, but they were cute and everyone needs underwear, right? Mmmm, underwear...

So my radio crapped out awhile ago, probably at least a month ago, and I just today brought it in to be fixed. When I dropped it off, the technician sait it would be ready this afternoon. Around 2 PM, he called to tell me that he couldn't fix it, couldn't find a replacement and had to send it out to be fixed. He had no ETA as to when it would be back, so he said to come pick up the car. Well, I have the car, but no radio or CD player!

Sonics Dance Team: Click on Tricia; Last night, Mark Jen tried picking her up at Tap House in Bellevue. They talked for a little while, then Tricia and her friend left.

So, by now you have probably heard that Nintendo's next handheld will have two screens and be called the DS (D = Dual/Double S = Screen). Take a look at this mockup posted to Gizmodo. The angled design immediately screams to me "This is better because it is different!", but just think about the ergnomics. Hold your hands in front of you as if you were trying to hold something a bit smaller than a paperback book, lengthways. You don't curl your wrists outward and your fingers upward, as you would have to with this design. I can see a large number of young gamers developing carpal tunnel if this design got the green light. (I'm going to refrain from jokes about other causes of carpal tunnel in young male gamers.)

A common question about the Pocket PC Phone that I carry around is "Can it play games?" Well, the answer is yes, but why bother? The overall form factor is wrong, requiring you to interlace your fingers to hold the device with two hands. Additionally, there is a directional pad and four buttons, but the pad only supports the four cardinal directions (not diagonals) and two of the buttons are toward the top of the screen. Basically, I wouldn't even try playing pong on this thing. Hell, I have nethack install on it and even that is impossible to play.

"2 + 2 = 5 for large values of 2.", why do I find that so humorous?

Penny Arcade!: By far, the best description of those self-cleaning litter boxes. Quotes of Note: "the tiny pot roasts my cat leaves behind", "sometimes it is flung out, as through by catapult, toward imaginary foes", and "It is the sort of thing you would design if you had only a vague description of a cat and you didn't really give a fuck if it worked or not."

In response to my away message: "Why do all girls have the crazy?":

Lee (11:35:43 PM): i think girls impact male productivity more than disease
Jenn (8:34:51 AM): you sure know how to pick 'em
Meg (6:36:39 AM): I'll admit to having the crazy :-)
Krista's away message: I like Mike's away message "why do all girls have the crazy"

Woohoo, go Markko! He only one a single stage of the entire rally, but "slow and steady wins the race". Ok, in all actuality, having your strongest competitor get slapped with a 5 minute penalty wins the race. If you don't want to read the link, basically Petter Solberg had some electrical issues before the start of a stage. He and his codriver tried to push the car uphill to make it to the starting line in time. There were already 4 minutes late, giving them a 40 second penalty when the officials realized they received help from the spectators to reach the starting line. That tacked on an additional 5 minute penalty eventhough neither the driver nor codriver asked for the help. With a final time difference of 3 minutes and 14.7 seconds from Markko Martin, Solberg would have won. As Russ said, he probably wouldn't have pushed so hard if it wasn't for that 5 minute and 40 second penalty.