Ever seen European Truck Racing? It’s more amazing than you can possibly imagine. Youtube has a bountiful collection of clips for your enjoyment.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38uuHgVD3f0
Start there, and simply enjoy the spoils that the internet can supply. Truck racing and British commentary. It simply does not get any better than that.
Remember you’re almost half way through your work day!
by
roninpowride
5 months ago
The Daily Sizzle is where us here at FM, rant, rave, hate, and date pretty much anything we want.
LA Times Article on new tobacco prevention act
Smoking is a terrible terrible problem and I’m glad its banned from most if not all public places in many parts of the United States. It gives you cancer, destroys your teeth, and makes you smell bad. They’re also just plain fucking gross. Fifty years ago, nobody knew any better, and so their kids didn’t really know any better either. Things have certainly changed since then. That being said, the latest government legislation on cigarette control has really gone too far.
I agree that “candy cigarettes” are a bad idea because they put this idea in a child’s head that their tasty and then when they turn 16 they start smoking and die at 45 from lung cancer. That’s a very reasonable and sound argument but when you make cloves illegal, you’re asking for trouble. I probably smoke 6 cloves a year. I think they’re tasty, I enjoy them when I’m inebriated, and they’re perfect for enjoying during a game of Tittywhistle (the world’s greatest game). So, why am I being punished while people who smoke a pack or more a day of regular cigarettes still can enjoy their death sticks? Most kids can’t even pronounce Djarum, let alone know to pick up a pack at your local bodega.
They can throw all these statistical “facts” at me about how most children start with flavored death sticks and then move on to regular ones when their older, but… I like cloves. Ok, so my argument sucks, but if I can’t complain on my own website I don’t know where I can! I think my biggest issue is I always felt like cloves were half way between cigarettes and cigars. I never thought of them as something I would smoke 10 times a day or whatever, mostly because the slight taste of fiberglass is my mouth is generally something I only allow a couple times a year.
I will now take a step off my soapbox and go down to the corner store that is STILL selling them because I live in a huge metropolitan area where this law is going to be impossible to enforce for the next couple weeks.
by
roninpowride
5 months ago
The future is now! Airships GO!
Will Ferrell and friends discuss the other side of the healthcare debate.
RP podcast favorite Jordan, Jesse Go! appear on the PCMag After Hours podcast to discuss the present and the future of media. Very good listen.
Have a great day!
by
roninpowride
5 months ago
Listen… yesterdays Morning Cup had a lot of sweet intellectual aroma and a nice thick body. Let’s kick hump day off with some high caff action. Anatomy of a Nascar Mega Crash. Thank you internet. I salute you.
FOOTBALL FOOTBALL FOOTBALL. Let’s keep the crazy train going! Bill Simmons BS Report combines great NFL talk and some pretty humorous anecdotes. I’m an avid fan of his writing and his podcasts.
And finally, I will offer something to the intellectuals out there…
President Obama was on Letterman last night. Politics and Comedy! Throw on your headphones and work and give it a viewing! Letterman can give the best interviews in the business… if he’s in the mood.
[ed: The link is to a guy’s youtube account who has nice high res versions of the entire interview. You can thank him personally.]
Enjoy your day. The FM way.
by
roninpowride
5 months ago
As I’d discussed in yesterday’s post, I’d joked with my main man RoninPowride that I was going to limit my friends to folks with smartphones. While not honestly a serious consideration, I did decide to explore the topic further: what was the appeal?
Obviously this whole smartphone era was born out of very specific business needs; business folks on the go needed a way to receive messages, eventually send/receive email, an as time went on, these devices merged with phones. Initial attempts were awkward and weird. The Handspring Visor, a popular, late 90’s PDA, had a handful of “modules that were able to plug into its backside. One of these later modules was the (cleverly named my marking wizards) Visor Phone. It was one of the first integrations of both. Advantages? You could look up your contacts from within your PDA. But sending email and using the “web” (and I say that loosely) still required you to actually dial up an ISP connection from the device, modem style. At a blazing 9.6kbps. At the same time, RIM was developing the first BlackBerry devices; early devices were amazing little email machines, but the first were not usable as phones—even the ones that eventually became phones were clunky and “usable” at best.
What am I getting at here? Well, in short, smartphones were originally intended for a more business-geared market, but since then have flourished into cross-platform media devices. Web browsing, IM, apps, music, etc have all taken priority on these devices. Some have done a good job “growing up,” and others have moved entirely away from a traditional platform.
Smartphone, by nature, is a pretty generic term. The iPhone and a Blackberry are miles apart in terms of intended functionality, however, thanks to celeb marketing, the Blackberry has become a recognized brand for the regular consumer—even though the phone has a billion features and security parameters that are meaningless to the average user. The iPhone, on the other hand, is a pure consumer and media driven device. I know that folks will debate me about this tooth and nail, but the iPhone is NOT an excellent business device. Factor number 1, in my mind, is the lack of a physical keyboard or even any sort of haptic feedback (though poorly implemented on the Blackberry Storm).
Interestingly, the desire to have some smartphone functionality for low-end consumers has spawned dumbphones with QWERTY keyboards. They can text, they can do some web surfing, but they lack the capacity and horsepower of most traditional smartphones.
Ultimately, I do think that many users have smartphones for the sake of keeping a status symbol—it takes a certain level of geekiness to get every ounce of potential out of these devices. In introducing Ronin to the smartphone world, we did exactly that; and now he’s settled on a middle-of-the-road device. Is this a bad thing? Absolutely not. He didn’t spend too much money, and he’s using it to it’s fullest.
Tune in later in the week when I break this down further: which phones/mobile OS’s should be right for each consumer group.
by
mashthekeys
5 months ago
Netflix had a really interesting competition to improve its recommendation system. There was 1 million dollars on the line, and it involved people who are way smarter than I am. The New York Times did a really great column about it.
NPR’s This American Life takes a look back at a story they did in 2000 about the true story behind the book The Informant! which saw its film adaptation open this past weekend to great reviews.
“Community” had its pilot episode air on NBC last Thursday. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Here’s a clip!
by
roninpowride
5 months ago
In conversation the other day, I suggested to my colleague RoninPowride that I decided I was only going to be friends with people who had smartphones. Blackberry? You’re in. RAZR? See ya. Treo? Lets kick it. But seriously, update your phone. While I’m obviously not serious, it lead me to think about what got me to this thought in the first place.
I’d be hard pressed to quickly define what my logic was in making such a foolhardy suggestion. Was it that smartphones are a status symbol? Well, maybe, but I’ve never been much of a class-ist. Is it because I don’t trust people who can’t read the New York Times on the go? Unlikely. You’re more likely to find me checking Fark on my Pre (available exclusively on the Sprint Now Network) than any assortment of credible journalism. Was it the need to whip out your phone at any moment and play a YouTube video? Not likely; though I have been known to do this with cat-on-a-roomba, I really don’t see it as a quality factor in a friend.
I think my ultimate conclusion was that those who own smartphones are more likely to jive with my ideals: young, on the go liberal types with a desire to share information with the rest of the world (whether or not they want to read it). We zip photos back and forth, use our GPS enabled devices to find new things, and generally get constant information of some sort. Some of us tweet. Checking sports scores is a thing of the past, and live in-game updates are king.
Tune in late Tuesday for: Smart Phones = Smart Friends? Part 2: What does your smartphone say about you?
by
mashthekeys
5 months ago
The Daily Sizzle is where us here at FM, rant, rave, hate, and date pretty much anything we want.
Things I would watch instead of Two and Half Men:
The truth often hurts, even when in jest.
RainnWilson: I don’t know what stings worse, losing the Emmy to Jon Cryer or losing both fantasy football games. Emmy, probably. (Via Twitter)
Last night the prime-time Emmy’s aired on CBS. Jon Cryer won best supporting actor for Two and a Half Men. No, I haven’t made a joke yet, stop laughing. No, seriously, he actually won for that trash compactor of a television program. I know what your thinking and no, NBC was not disqualified from the category. In fact, their dynamite tag team of 30 Rock and The Office had 3 men nominated in that very category. Tracy Morgan and Jack McBrayer both receiving well deserved nominations. I love 30 Rock. I would watch it instead of watching Two and a Half Men, which is probably why 30 Rock won Best Comedy Series later in the evening. You know what else I would watch instead of Two and a Half Men? Yes, anything, but also The Office. My favorite show of last season. Call it fanboydom but Rainn Wilson got ROBBED in this category. I’m sorry, since when does playing a character consistently amazing from season to season using an amazingly written script NOT get you an award?
This past season for Wilson’s character Dwight was a pleasure to watch, as has EVERY SEASON BEFORE IT. He is probably one of my favorite television characters of my generation. Dwight is a popular part of american culture at this moment. How many Jon Cryer jokes have been made into t-shirts? What would a John Cryer shirt even say?
Look at me, I’m a 40 year old who has trouble with “the ladies”, Laugh as I fall over this coffee table and disapprove of my womanizing brother
The Dwight character has been amazingly written and acted since Season 1. Who is Jon Cryer? He has become easily one of the most popular characters in televised comedy right now. Who the fuck is Jon Cryer? Rainn Wilson has over 1,400,000 followers on Twitter. Jon Cryer probably thinks Twitter is what birds do when they drink from a fountain. He also would ask if that was something from “the internets”. Did I ask if anyone knew who Jon Cryer is? We wish Rainn Wilson was a friend of Fajita Monday. Jon Cryer almost surpassed Claire Suddath on the list of Daily Sizzle’s Most Hated People.
And Lastly, WHO THE FUCK IS JON CRYER?
In Tribute, an amazing office clip featuring Dwight classics.
[Editorial Note: I know that complaining about American award shows can seem trite and overplayed but the moment I saw the winner of this category I was so overwhelmed with rage I had to express it to our fair Fajitamonday readership.]
by
roninpowride
5 months ago
In our Business Friday feature we focus on coping as a 20-something in the business world. In today’s post, we discuss how to leave the best impression when you move on and quit your job.
Give a two week notice
RP: I’ve always found a flaming bag of crap to be a great way to let an employer know that they will no longer be utilizing your services. Ofcourse, you want to make sure not to staple your letter of resignation to the bag of crap because then it will just go up in flames and you’ll look like an asshole. Nobody likes someone who just quits without giving any notice.
MTK: Timing of your notice is important: ideally, when would leaving create the least work for you and the most for someone else? Additionally, it becomes important to find ways to job search during this time and disguise it as work. Already have a sales-type gig in the same industry? Spend week 1 badmouthing your current employer to your clients, and hyping up your new one (without disclosing that you’ll be working there). In week 2, tell your clients that a fortunate turn of events means you’ll be working for said company!
Preparing your workspace for the next occupant.
RP: You must strike a balance here. Your desk should look like it is completely prepared to be used by the next employee but your goal is to make it as difficult as possible for them to do as much work as you did. This can be achieved by renaming important computer files, switching red and blue inks in all the pens, loosening some chair screws, and using calendars that may be of the wrong calendar year.
MTK: You should also leave a series of notes or instructions for your replacement explaining how you did all your tasks, however, they should include misleading instructions and tasks that never occurred. Also, buying a cheap digital watch from Walmart, setting it to beep hourly (though make sure it’s set wrong so “on the hour” occurs, at say, :23), and taping it in a place where it won’t be found. Do NOT use the alarm, as when it goes off it’ll be long enough for them to find it. Instead, the quick beep-beep will drive them nuts and provide them difficulty in locating the source.
Taking mementos to remember your time at the business.
RP: It’s kind of like coming back from Disney with a pair of mickey ears, pretty much everyone does it. This can vary from anything as small as the nameplate off your boss’s door to a full multifunction copier. It really depends on the size of the U-Haul you rent.
MTK: For as tempting as it is, it’s important not to take office supplies, like staplers, as people will notice these and it could leave a bad taste when a future employer contacts your previous one. Instead, go for high-value items that will confuse people. Like an entire parking space.
Walk away with some contacts
RP:Whether this is the contact lenses of your boss or the phone number of that hot chick in marketing, never walk away from a job without a valuable contact to use in the future. You never know when that sort of information will come in handy, like when you lose your next job and have to beg for your old one again.
MtK:: Also, feel free to use your clients for leads. Or, steal your bosses’ Rolodex. Or Rolex. The latter won’t help you contact people, but it WILL make you look more important.
Know who to use as references
RP: As much as we all love to make enemies, it’s always good to try and leave a job with at least one valuable reference to use in the future. If you’re going to use someone as a reference, its best if you do not leaving a burning crap bag on their desk…. unless you’re applying for a job as a prankster. In which case, I want your job.
MtK: The important part here is, when you start a job, designate someone as your designated reference for when you leave. Be nice to them. Bring them candy, flowers. Assuming they aren’t allergic to your candy or flowers, when you leave they’ll be more than happy to say nice things about you.
by
roninpowride
6 months ago
The Daily Sizzle is where us here at FM, rant, rave, hate, and date pretty much anything we want.
http://www.wired.com/autopia/2009/08/mini-anniversary/
http://jalopnik.com/5345852/mini-coupe-concept-back-to-basics/gallery/?skyline=true&s=x
RP: Americans know ugly cars. We have the PT Cruiser, the FJ Cruiser (which is only available from Toyota IN AMERICA), Pontiac Aztek… the list goes on. What makes the Mini Coupe different is that it combines an ugly car with my absolute hatred for Mini Cooper culture…. People who drive Mini Coopers also love vanity plates… vanity plates that tell people they are driving a Mini Cooper. There are so many things wrong with that statement that the letters on my keyboard would wear if I attempted to explain them.
I by no means claim to be a car expert. I drive a ‘94 accord. It’s blue, it has a sunroof, I can get laid in the backseat. That’s about as much as I can tell you about it. I changed my own oil for the first time… a month ago. That was a BIG deal. You can look to Mtk for a much more technical and therefore reasonable explanation as to why this abomination should have been apart of the governments “Peace of Mind for Clunkers” campaign (little known).
The first thing I say when I look at this car is; “What the fuck?” I picture a Mini engineer sitting at a desk staring frantically at a clock. He’s got 5 minutes to come up with a design before he heads into meeting with all the big wigs at Mini/BMW. He’s also blind. He quickly sketches out a bunch of shit on the page… in blue crayon. He finishes in the nick of time, gets up, and runs into a closed door. (yup, just zinged blind people)
Anyway, lets get to the car. The roof sucks, plain and simple. It looks like a fat person sat on a VW bug and shat out a poorly designed spoiler on the back end. Follow that spoiler down the back of the vehicle and you get to the boxy awkward rear end which also appears to be creased from someone sitting on it. The front of the vehicle isn’t quite as distasteful since it just looks like a plain old mini cooper. (for better or worse) I would try to write a review of the interior but it would just read similarly to:
akfnasjko;c asnfcamk; kvlasmvaeiofwfmesfkaslf masfkasmfasfi’wamfva
for pages upon pages until it was just a few letters repeating after I fell dead with a brain aneurysm.
by
roninpowride
6 months ago
