Muttroxia

The human-designed world is often not well designed. One of the canonical examples of using design well is the newspaper stand at an airport or train station. In many of them it is surprisingly difficult to actually process your transaction. If you have a briefcase or suitcase with you, the things you want to buy in another, a newspaper or umbrella being held under an arm, how can you actually pay? Put your things away, hand the cashier the goods, wait for them to ring it up, give them money, wait for change, try and put the change away while holding all the other things, take your items and put them somewhere, and finally move off. A smart person put a large counter at one of these stands with plenty of room to put all your items, room underneath to hold suitcase or briefcase, and long enough that you could move out of the away while gathering your belongings, thus freeing up the space and time for the next customer. This simple change sent sales through the roof.

Why do I bring this up? Years ago at work I suggested to management that we put shelves up in the bathrooms. (To the co-workers who read this, yep, that was me. If only we’d had the Innovation Garage then I’d be the 2003 grand prize winner.) If you came in with any papers or electronics there was nowhere to put them. You hoped that the area around the sink was dry or you had to hold your business stuff while doing your business. They put up shelves in all the bathrooms. I was a very pleased customer. Now you throw your items on the shelf, do the deed, and pick up your things on the way out.

The other day I came into the bathroom and found this:

Flowers are nice. The bathroom is understandably drab and putting in a bit of foliage made it that much nicer. But, it interfered with the whole point of the shelf! Now if my things are too big there isn’t enough room. Even if they are small enough I have to spend precious time maneuvering them around to make sure they are balanced and don’t knock over the flower. I know it doesn’t matter that much in the long run and that’s it’s only a few seconds but I still incredibly annoyed. A beautiful solution to a problem and then someone just goes and throws up another impediment. C’mon people!

Postscript: The people did indeed come on. I moved the flower to the sink area. A week or two later it was gone.

Postscript: I drafted this post a long time ago. There’s another one there this week.

I was having a bad day last week. It was turned around at Quizno’s. Not because of their subs, though they are good, but because I was handed as part of my change the state quarter for Hawaii.

That was the last one. Mrs. Muttrox and I have been collecting the state quarters since 2000. The map that they go in is her favorite present I’ve ever gotten her (bling earrings expected of course). Ah, life was good.

Until yesterday. Yesterday I got a state quarter for Washington DC. What? And Duke Ellington? I like Duke Ellington, but surely they could have come up with something better than that. It looks like The Duke is saying Justice for All. As accomplished as he was I don’t think he should get to use Superman’s tagline. Maybe it’s a shoutout to how his music led to Metallica.

Second, Washington DC is not a state. Third, the map people who gave us the map screwed up. This is just annoying. The point of the map is to have a complete set. I have the map, but it doesn’t hold the complete set. It turns out that after completing the states they decided to keep going with “territories”. I look forward to Puerto Rico, American Samoa, Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Northern Mariana Islands. No, I do not.

Those aren’t states. Should have put them on dimes or something.

Where’s my props for calling this one? (Although I admit with 11 seconds left I said, “I can’t believe we’re going to lose this game.”)

I hate watching games decided by referees. There were only a couple terrible calls, but there were lots of calls on things they normally let go. The game wouldn’t have even been close if it had been called like a normal game.

I thought that was metaphorical

You’re making as ass of yourself for all eternity.” How true. Play him off keyboard cat!

Human Statue of Liberty

Um.. what!?

A kangaroo prank

Mike Mulligan was somehow involved with this excavation.

Star Wars at Disney World posters, clever!

Donald Duck is a homicidal psychopath

Pick the perp, for guilty addictive fun

The NFL. Oy vey!

Not an Onion article, but reads like one

Motorcycle for sale

Ball-dropping addiction

A national map of the 7 deadly sins. Go fullscreen on the nationwide with hotspots picture.

Subway maps at true scale

I hate Amanda Peet’s acting. But she has just redeemed herself.

A Tale of Two Exurbs

I’m going out on a limb. I predict the Celtics take Game 4, tying the series and regaining home court advantage.

It’s sad how these injuries have made a mockery of this team. I like Brian Scalabrine but let’s be serious. He’s a fine 11th man. He’s not a fine 7th man.

The key to this series is Paul Pierce. He had two great games in the Chicago series and has done nothing else. He hasn’t even been particularly great at the defensive end. Will he explode for a couple big games? I’m predicting he will.

Today I had lunch at Burger King (it was a reward for the three-year old’s progress in nighttime potty training). They had signs up all over declaring they had over 100 kinds of drinks. No way I thought. I don’t think I could name more than 30 sodas and what else was there… it just didn’t seem right.

Oh, but it was! The dispenser has 18 different drinks. When you select your drink you go to another screen where you can add five or six different flavors. I had orange-flavored Coke. It was fantastic! After that heady experience I felt I had to calm down a little and soothed myself with a plain old Vanilla Coke. Burger King just won.

I love capitalism!

How is it I haven’t commented on this incredible series at all? 6 games, 7 overtime periods, only 1 game decided by more than one point – this might be the best basketball series of all time!

Only it isn’t. Because when you get down to it, who cares. Either of these teams will probably lose in Round 2 and will definitely get mauled by the Cavaliers. Without Garnett or Powe the 2009 Celtics aren’t the 2009 Celtics. They are more like the Pierce and Antoine Walker Celtics of 2002. Two great players and some supporting casts.

And Pierce has not been himself. Sports Guy thinks he’s just played too many games and that could certainly be it. The fatigue in a series like this is an enormous factor. Pierce’s last horrible play in Game 6 was obviously the play of someone with no legs left. To pass up that open shot was a mental error. Chasing down Noah would have been the right play if he had been going his normal speed. I think his brain didn’t realize how slow his body was.

Prediction for tonight (which I have to miss for a social engagement and watch tomorrow morning, aarrggghh!): Celtics. The Bulls are younger and recover easier, but with the home court and a lot of Game 7 experience, Boston will pull it out.

You’ve doomed us all!

Winnie the Pooh: 2009 update

Obama: I am surrounded by idiots

The hilarious true origin of Superman

Epic animated gif

Neat running video

LOLWiggers

How to Play Guitar. Enough to get you Laid.

Satanism fail

I don’t know how to answer this

The water bridge trick

Everything you knew about Columbine is wrong

An oddly casual instruction sheet

Really!? This is what you’re doing!?

The American Stonehenge

This packaging blurb ended on an unexpected note.

The worst logo of all time.

Don’t expand your window after clicking on this link.

Very impressive visuals in this ad. I don’t know what it’s an ad for, and don’t care.

Sign fight between two churches. (probably photo-shopped)

The Todd Marinovich story (and here also). Fascinating.

How to visualize the money Obama wants to cut out of the budget

Classy daughter lets her mother get eaten alive by maggots (you read that right) to save $800.

Another ordinary politician in of my home state Georgia. But you f*ck one mule…

Just happened across this 9/11 hero

She didn’t want to go to her 10-yr reunion. So she hired a stripper to impersonate her.

Phoenix look out. Real telekinesis is here

Dave Matthews Band sounds better every time I see them. (I’ve been seven? eight? times… not sure.) Last night was one of the best lineups I’ve seen. They now have two horn players to replace the deceased one, both of them are fantastic. Tim Reynolds was there. If you don’t know Tim, he and Dave were partners for a long time before DMB started up. If you listen to nearly any DMB song that has both acoustic and electric guitar, odds are good he’s the electric guitar part.

I was very impressed by the new material. Although they still do very long jams, the new material is much more focused. They are more songs than jams, and this is a very good thing.

The only negative I have is one certain kind of song Dave writes. I swear his picks out five random notes in an odd rhythm and decides to make a riff out of it that he repeats over and over for 15 minutes. It doesn’t matter if the five notes actually fit together. He can make it work because he’s Dave Matthews damnit! Well, sometimes it does, sometimes it don’t. Combine that with his relentless experiments with stop start rhythms and you get a whole group of songs that kinda sound alike. And once you deduct all the other parts on top of the riff, that kinda stink.

I must close with the best quote about DMB:

Man, you know what I hate? Dave Matthews.,, It’s the whitest band ever, which is saying something considering 3 of the members are black, and Dave Matthews is literally an African American (born in South Africa). His music can be heard in Whole Foods stores, Live Earth concerts, or blasting from the speakers of open-topped Jeeps parked on curbs everywhere.

With Specter’s defection, and Franken likely to be seated any day, the Democrats now have 60 Senators, a fillibuster-proof majority. Here are some reactions from around the web.

It is a sing of the GOP that a centrist candidate switches parties. It is a sign of their ideological idiocy that they allowed Pat Toomey to run against Specter, driving him from the party. Very bad strategy.

This ought to keep Joe Biden critics quiet for a while also, he just delivered them a Senate seat.

Tomorrow we’re heading to Boston to celebrate the 100th birthday of my grandmother. One hundred years old. Amazing. When she was bringing up her kids, the ice man would bring a two-hundred pound block up four floors on his back. She’s seen so much.

She’s an incredible woman. Her body is failing her, but her mind is still sharp as a tack. It’s going to be a fun trip.

I’ve read this piece several times now. It hits home. Read it now. Go ahead.

Our oldest is six years old. He has never been left on his own in the house for more than thirty seconds. He is allowed to go to the house next door if he tells us about it ahead of time. How do you balance a kid’s need to assert their own identity, to grow and feel secure on their own, with parental fears about safety? I think the author is right, we’ve gone too far on the safety side. It takes a big leap of faith in your child (and yourself!) to start giving them the space that they need. Gaining independece also means they are growing up and that presents mixed feelings to a parent.

Thoughts?