Google will find you!

So, IMVU does this sort of weird creepy evil thing where you can invite anyone you have an email address for to come chat with you on IMVU. The invitation email says "is this person your friend? Please respond or they may think you said No!" WTF? That's so manipulative.

But anyway, the part I find funny is that when you read that email in Gmail, Google will figure out that it is from IMVU and it just you know, KNOWS where IMVU is (of course, they know where everyone is, they're driving around in vans photographing everything!!!) and so they post IMVU's address right on the side of the page.

I just have this idea that maybe IMVU doesn't want their office address posted right beside every email they send out. I knew where they were located before anyway, since I visit the offices sometimes, but this kind of makes me want to send them a GIANT colorful postcard that says "WILL YOU BE MY FRIEND? Yes ____ No ______ Please respond or I will think you said no!" Ha.

Oh which reminds me...I got an email from Google the other day asking if I would be available to come to Mountain View for some sort of focus group thingy IF I met the demographics or qualifications or whatever. I didn't see the email until 40 minutes after it arrived, but of course I filled it out right away...getting to see the Google offices would be pretty exciting! They were looking for people for the next morning so I imagined it was maybe some last minute desperate scramble to find participants so maybe I had a good shot, but I never heard back. So sad. Or is it? I had a brief flash of that movie "The Island" with Scarlet Johansson where all these characters are desperately waiting to win the lottery so they can go to The Island, and what really happens when they "win the lottery" is that they have their body parts harvested. Maybe "don't be evil" is some kind of euphemism for "take people up to the mothership and replace them with bodysnatchers"?

Isn't Google supposed to be working on their own 3D chat thing? I heard this artist that used to do some contract work at IMVU was working on some project like that for Google a while back. Why don't they just buy IMVU? Wait...hmmm...if I own stock in IMVU and IMVU got sold to Google, would an IMVU share be worth as much as a Goog share? Wooooo....I just did a little calculation and...I'd be rolling in dough! No, I don't think it works that way, they probably decide based on the price the company is sold for somehow divided by the total number of shares??? Still...Google, be nice and buy IMVU. Please????

Oakland A's flipped

Yesterday was my first ever Oakland A's game. It was freezing and I didn't feel like moving around and holding my arm up in the air away from the warmth of my body, but I made myself take some video with my new Flip video camera anyway. I've never uploaded anything to YouTube either, but I thought I'd give that a try this morning. Here is my video of some Oakland A's dude getting a run. Right afterwards there was a homerun and the A's scored a couple MORE points, but of course I didn't get that on film. FYI the final score was 1 - 6.


I also got a nifty zip-up sweatshirt thingy with the A's logo on it. (Thank you Mr Besitos Man!) It's pretty nice even though it isn't very warm. At least now I have something to wear to a Giants game.

The Flip Video Camcorder is a neato device that makes shooting video and uploading it to the web extremely easy at a very reasonable price.

I decided to get a Flip because it got really good reviews, and it is pretty convenient. It runs on two AA batteries, and it's called the Flip because it has a USB connector that flips out from the side to plug into any USB computer port. That's when something cool happens...there is a simple video viewing/editing program built right into the camera that you will be asked if you want to use when you are plugging the device in. There is nothing to install on the computer you are using, and yet you can have something uploaded to YouTube from ANY computer with a USB port (hmmm...maybe the library???) without installing anything.

The Flip is so easy to use that you don't even need the short little instruction pamphlet that comes with it. If I could change a few things about it, I would put a tripod mount on the bottom, add a zoom lens, and take out the proprietary port on the top which allows you to take your camera in to an authorized store and have them burn your video straight to DVD and instead put in space for a memory card. The camera holds 60 minutes of video (there is also a 30 minute version), which is probably more than enough for uploading to the web (esp since YouTube limits videos to ten minutes) but it would be nice to have some extra storage just in case. Still, it's definitely worth the price if you just want to shoot and upload some video to the web quickly. It would be really fun to pass around at family gatherings.

Unrated Blockbuster

I've tried Netflix and I've also tried Blockbuster's movie delivery system, and I ended up with Netflix because they have far more movies including loads of documentaries. My biggest problem with Blockbuster was...they simply don't carry NC-17 movies. Or so I thought.

So I was confused the other day when I walked past my local blockbuster and I saw a big movie poster in their window bragging about the unrated version of some movie they were carrying. What???? Why would they have an unrated movie if they don't carry NC-17? I never noticed that they did that before, but it seems that although they DON'T carry NC-17, they DO carry unrated versions of movies. Walmart, too. WTF???? Such hypocrisy. Are they pretending that they have NO IDEA that these "unrated" versions are probably the same, if not twice as raunchy/sexy/gorey/violent as an NC-17 version?

It's great to see movie studios come out from under the thumb of the Motion Picture Association of America...obviously people want to see the unrated versions since they always sell more than the rated versions. Too bad this is only on DVD and not in the theaters, forcing movie production crews to make two versions of each movie. Haha...that's as bad as the porn industry, where they have to shoot one version of a sceen for softcore and one for XXX.

Still, I can't get over the hypocrisy of Blockbuster and Walmart here. There is a really good movie about how the MPAA works called "This film is not yet rated" that you should check out if you haven't yet.

Meanwhile, my bf is getting his new tv on Friday and it's just about big enough to be used in a movie theater...so maybe I'll just have to watch (unrated) movies at his place from now on. I hope he makes good popcorn. If people say one day in the not-too-distant future that home theater systems and dvds killed movie theaters...they would do well to remember that "real" movie theaters were showing censored versions of movies and maybe it was really the MPAA and the big companies that own those theaters that put them out of business.

Picking China's nose

Yesterday was chemo day for China, once again. I thought her weight was about the same, but they called me while I was at lunch and said she had lost another 1/3 pound and they wanted to run a bunch of tests like abdominal ultrasound, blood tests, xrays and any other really expensive veterinary procedure you can think of. Now, I've spent $15,000 on her so far, so it's not like I'm unwilling to spend money on her because she's "just a cat", but 1.) it would be half the price to have these tests done at my local vet, 2.) when I suggested force-feeding her, they said I have to think about her quality of life if she needs to be force-fed (what about her quality of life if she has to spend all day getting prodded by needles and ultra-sounds and sedated for x-rays?) and 3.) they said I might try microwaving her food to make it "smellier".

I should mention that snot has been coming out of China's nose for months now. They tried to clear it up with several types of antibiotics, but nothing made the snot go away (and she especially loathed taking the liquid antibiotic). She will have these sneezing fits (and I can hear her sneezing right now) where long strands of snot come out of her nose and often go flying all over everything (the wall, windows, my clothes) and sometimes it just gets dried up and crusty. I mostly leave her nose alone, because she doesn't like having it touched.

So I get back to the vet (where she didn't have all the expensive tests, just her chemotherapy) and they tell me I should use saline nose drops on her nose and keep it clean and clear of snot, something they obviously did for her while she was there. Then, when I got her home, she started eating food like crazy! Maybe I don't have to force-feed her again...I just have to pick her nose for her.

You can pick your friends
You can pick your nose
but you can't pick your friend's nose
(but I pick my cat's nose)

I'm selling! http://jinx.tv/tbux

One of the most difficult things about buying ThereBucks is catching a seller that is in stock. Sometimes anyway. I'm sure most people have better things to do with their time than wonder when ThereBucks sellers are in stock. Sooo...I've given a lot of thought to this problem considering different ways to alert people who are most anxious to find out when I'm selling (sorry, I can't help you find out when other sites are selling). If you want to know if I'm selling, subscribe to the comments in this blog post. When I'm selling, I'll post a comment to let you know. Okay...here we go...

Google: driving around a neighborhood near you

Yesterday I was printing out a map from maps.google.com when I noticed a shiny new button: Street View. Erm, isn't that what Google Maps DOES, show you a street view?

Apparently Google has sent out vans or some type of vehicle all over major U.S. cities and taken actual street-level pictures of gazillions of streets. It's kind of freaky. Check out this list of "top 15 google street view sightings". I'm sure some even more entertaining pictures will be found sooner or later. Hopefully not of me.

I checked, and my street is not represented (yet) but pretty much all of Palo Alto is, so check out the IMVU offices street view!!!

I guess this is the technology Google is using to do this. Those who love Google Earth (hi mom and kel) are going to FLIP over this.

Naughty, but good exercise

Rodney is just soooo jealous of China and her rabbit hutch and hungry for all the delicious smells that emanate from behind its bars. Yesterday I caught him hanging off the edge of the table/hutch while trying to snag some food but I wasn't quick enough with the camera. Today...success! And for him, too...in the far right image he has actually snagged a bit of food. I thought of yelling at him or trying to otherwise discourage him, but it's got to be so much work/exercise to try and get an actual morsel that it's not likely to make him gain any more weight and may actually keep him occupied.

Of course, the idea of sitting just inside with a super-soaker and blasting him when he does that is pretty tempting, too....