Costco moves stuff around

I drove about 20 miles to another Costco beyond the one in my town to pick up something that was only available there. It was a gift certificate to a local spa. I looked all around the store but didn't find it. It wasn't in the area with the other gift cards. Finally I asked a manager and she said it was in the Christmas gifts section. I went back there and didn't find it. I looked around some more and asked another manager. He said they had moved it this morning but he didn't know where it was, so he would just get the product number for me and I could pay for it that way. Sounded good. He had to deal with a problem in the digital camera display so I had to wait there with him. As he did that, I noticed that the gift card I was looking for was stacked up behind the digital cameras! I'm not sure anyone would have looked there. It wasn't even on display. Maybe they really do want you to walk all over the store so you'll see everything else they have.

LA Times customer service - are they people or robots?

My copy of the LA Times wasn't delivered this morning, so I called their missing paper number and requested a replacement. That didn't show up, so I called back again and was routed to customer service. I'm not sure where the customer service people work, but "Mike" seemed like an automotan. He asked for my name, address and phone number, the same information I had already entered in the automated system. He also asked why I was calling, so I told him I didn't get today's paper. He was having trouble finding my account. I told him it might be under my wife's last name, which I gave to him. He found it. Then he said "please give me your address." I said, "it's the same one I just gave you," but I had to recite it again. Then he said "How can I help you today?" -- as if we had never spoken. I told him I had not received my paper and was calling to see if I could get a copy delivered. He said he would make sure I got my paper and that was the end of the conversation. The paper never arrived.

MacSanta stops at 104

The MacSanta site seems to have topped out at 104 companies, selling way more than 104 applications. 20% off is a nice deal and I've got my list and will be trying some of them out over the weekend. Last day to buy is Monday with the discount. I don't expect to see any new names on the list, but you never know. I guess GeeThree never heard my pleas because they didn't show up on the MacSanta list.

Baseball injury was really a video game injury

Remember in the baseball playoffs when the Tigers couldn't use their flamethrower, Joel Zumaya? He had wrist and elbow problems. Turns out that it didn't have anything to do with baseball:

The Tigers believe Joel Zumaya's right wrist and forearm inflammation came not from throwing his 103-mph fastball but from excessively playing Guitar Hero, a PlayStation 2 game where participants simulate popular songs with by tugging on a guitar-shaped apparatus. GM Dave Dombrowski told WXYT it was the video game that caused Zumaya to miss three ALCS games.

From Jon Heyman at si.com.

MacSanta hits 100

MacSanta has 100 companies now in the 20% off promotion. I have a long list of stuff I'm going to buy in the next few days and maybe some more items if I have time to try them out. I'm still looking for GeeThree to show up on the list...it's not too late! GollyGee is there already with their GollyGeeBlocks, so some of the GeeThree iMovie plugins would make a nice addition to the list.

Boinx joins MacSanta

I didn't think it would happen, but Boinx software, maker of iStopMotion as well as some other great software, is now on the MacSanta list. That means I can save a few dollars when I buy iStopMotion as a gift. Maybe it's just a coincidence that I mentioned this twice already on my blogs, but probably not. Boinx had a link to the MacSanta site on their blog, so it seemed like a good chance they would get on the list.

NC school district bans book about penguins

Another politician helps keep the world safe from gay penguins..."And Tango makes Three," a story about two male penguins who raise a baby penguin, was banned by the Charlotte Mecklenburg School District. According to the Winston-Salem Journal, there were no complaints about the book from any parents, and Superintendent Peter Gorman either screwed up or make a mistake. He received an email inquiring about the book from a local politician:

Mecklenburg County Commissioner Bill James, a Republican, had e-mailed Gorman to see if the district had the book.

"I am opposed to any book that promotes a homosexual lifestyle to elementary school students as normal," he said.

After that, Gorman wrote a memo which led to the book banning. Either he caved in or he didn't write a clear memo.

The ban came in a Nov. 30 memo from district administrators to school principals and library staff. Gorman said parents and a Republican county official had asked him about the book.

A miscommunication between Gorman and his chief of staff, Robert Avossa, led to the book being banned with neither a written complaint nor an advisory committee review at a school as required by district policy, Gorman said.

"I screwed this one up," Gorman told The Charlotte Observer.

BrooWaha

The LA Times has a story today about BrooWaha which is an amateur online newspaper. It looks like a newspaper online, although I'm not sure that's a requirement. The paper covers the LA area. There are more and more of these local news sites which rely on user generated content rather than paid professionals. I think it's a good idea. In my area, there isn't much newspaper coverage and almost no TV coverage, so it might be a good thing around here.

More MacSanta

That MacSanta site has quite a list of applications, although still no sign of anything from Boinx. I'm hoping for an iStopMotion discount but maybe that's not going to happen until right after I purchase it...Some of the software on the list includes Voodoo Pad, Yojimbo, Fission, RapidWeaver, Sandvox, Tinderbox, and even Nisus Writer Express, something I gave up on long ago in favor of Mellel. That transition to OS X didn't go well for Nisus from what I remember.

MacSanta fills the void

MacAppADay is shut down today while they move to a new server and the last couple of applications on MacZot haven't been too interesting to me, so it's been a slow couple of days on the Mac shareware front. However, MacSanta showed up yesterday with 20% off on a number of applications, so that looked pretty good. Today, the MacSanta list seems to have tripled and I think there are 3 or 4 items on there that I'd like to get. There are now 63 companies listed. ScreenCasts online just got added in the past few hours. That's one I'm going to jump on. It's a good list and a good deal.

Bonehead drivers

I live on a small street that has an even smaller (1 lot length) entry street perpendicular to it which has a stop sign. Anytime I'm outside I can watch as people blow right through the stop sign where you have to go left or right. So typically they don't look at all and hardly slow down. This evening we were driving over to the library when some clown came right through the stop sign and turned left right in front of me as I was turning left. He stopped when I blew the horn and waved as if he was thanking me.