Saturday, May 31, 2008
Monday, May 26, 2008
Facebook is starting to creep me out
Don't get me wrong. I was all up on that space when it first happened, trying to get as many friends as I possibly could (today the count is 482 so-called "friends"). But now...I'm kind of over it.
Amy and I were talking about this on our way home from Santa Barbara, how our generation may be prolonging friendships that are wayyyyy past their expiration date because of the technological means of communicating we have. We get extra upset when someone doesn't text, or call, or facebook message us back right away, but is it someone we genuinely care about anyways?
Every so often, probably once or twice a month, my Mom sits down with the kitchen phone, her index-card system of contacts and calls her top 5 friends to see how they are doing and what's going on in their lives. I don't mean top 5 as in MySpace, I mean about 5 friends she's met as neighbors, through Boy Scouts, through Church, from her High School. Those friends she's had for ages and checks in on every so often.
We don't do that. It's not an active form of seeking out anyone in particular. We look at Facebook or MySpace's minifeed that tells us exactly what our friends are up to, so there's no need to actually communicate directly with them. They've already put it all out there in the world, so there's no need for pleasantries, no need for small talk.
Which is why I think I am so impatient with small talk. It does nothing for me. But I digress...that's a totally different subject completely.
So essentially anyone we want to know about or check up on, we just read their blog, or get their weekly e-mail, or read the last couple of posts they made on other people's walls on Facebook. There's no actual person-to-person interaction involved, and if there is, it's kept at a minimum and at arm's length. It's all one-way broadcasting instead of two-way communicating.
Let's have some two-way communicating.
Friends, those people out there...let's hang out. And ACTUALLY HANG OUT. I want to know what you've been thinking about, I want to know what you've been feeling (yes, sorry guys...feeling) strongly about recently.
Let's have a one-on-one conversation. Just you and me. We can go for a walk. We can get drinks, we can get Bubble Tea! Something...anything with conversation.
I'm in need of some REAL human interaction, none of this fake facebook shit.
It's all well and good but I count more the people that I hang out with or have conversations with my friends than anyone who I just "poke".
Amy and I were talking about this on our way home from Santa Barbara, how our generation may be prolonging friendships that are wayyyyy past their expiration date because of the technological means of communicating we have. We get extra upset when someone doesn't text, or call, or facebook message us back right away, but is it someone we genuinely care about anyways?
Every so often, probably once or twice a month, my Mom sits down with the kitchen phone, her index-card system of contacts and calls her top 5 friends to see how they are doing and what's going on in their lives. I don't mean top 5 as in MySpace, I mean about 5 friends she's met as neighbors, through Boy Scouts, through Church, from her High School. Those friends she's had for ages and checks in on every so often.
We don't do that. It's not an active form of seeking out anyone in particular. We look at Facebook or MySpace's minifeed that tells us exactly what our friends are up to, so there's no need to actually communicate directly with them. They've already put it all out there in the world, so there's no need for pleasantries, no need for small talk.
Which is why I think I am so impatient with small talk. It does nothing for me. But I digress...that's a totally different subject completely.
So essentially anyone we want to know about or check up on, we just read their blog, or get their weekly e-mail, or read the last couple of posts they made on other people's walls on Facebook. There's no actual person-to-person interaction involved, and if there is, it's kept at a minimum and at arm's length. It's all one-way broadcasting instead of two-way communicating.
Let's have some two-way communicating.
Friends, those people out there...let's hang out. And ACTUALLY HANG OUT. I want to know what you've been thinking about, I want to know what you've been feeling (yes, sorry guys...feeling) strongly about recently.
Let's have a one-on-one conversation. Just you and me. We can go for a walk. We can get drinks, we can get Bubble Tea! Something...anything with conversation.
I'm in need of some REAL human interaction, none of this fake facebook shit.
It's all well and good but I count more the people that I hang out with or have conversations with my friends than anyone who I just "poke".
Sunday, May 25, 2008
NYTimes.com: Exposed
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NYTimes.com: Telescope Takes a Long View, to London
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Cold night in los angeles
Friday, May 23, 2008
Detroit Free Press - AMC theaters pass pinch of corn prices onto moviegoers
AMC theaters pass pinch of corn prices onto moviegoers
KANSAS CITY, Mo. - The rocketing price for corn already is hurting Americans at the grocery store and the gas pump. Now it's going to hurt us at the multiplex, too.
Partly because of the rising price for popcorn, on Thursday Kansas City-based AMC Entertainment Inc. announced that beginning today it will increase its ticket prices from $9 to $10 for weekend show times after 4 p.m. at its five Kansas City theaters.
Also beginning today, AMC's popcorn price will jump 25 cents nationwide.
There are 10 AMC theaters in metro Detroit.
An economics professor at the University of California-Santa Cruz predicted this week that movie ticket prices might leap as much as 30% because of the cost of popcorn. In fact, Ricard Gil concluded, the success of a movie theater now rests largely on the price of popcorn.
In a study, Gil pointed out that concession sales allow theaters to keep down the cost of a movie ticket by nearly 25%. And popcorn accounts for a third of those sales.
In a Los Angeles Times interview, Regal Entertainment CEO Mike Campbell said that if theaters didn't charge what they do for concessions, "movies would cost $20."
Gil, interviewed before the AMC announcement, said that a big release - like this weekend's "Indiana Jones" movie - would be an ideal time to introduce higher-priced tickets.
"You'll show up at the theater and find you're paying 25 to 50 cents more for a ticket. This means that the most valued customers, the ones who come out to see a movie on opening weekend, will end up paying the most."
AMC based today's increase on dozens of economic factors, not just the price of popcorn, company spokesman Justin Scott said.
"We evaluate our concessions prices in the fall and in the spring. ... No one factor influences any of our pricing modifications."
Memorial Day traditionally is when movie theaters jack up prices.
But why not raise concession prices and leave ticket prices alone?
"It's not one or the other, concessions or tickets," Scott said. "A lot of factors are considered to find the right balance."
The once-humble corn is in huge demand as a food additive (corn syrup), livestock feed and as a biofuel source. In three years, corn prices have soared from $2 to $6 a bushel. A big factor is the Bush administration's support for corn-based ethanol, said Mary Haffenberg, spokeswoman for the Chicago Board of Trade.
"It used to be that only 5%of our corn crop went to ethanol. In the next few years it will be more like 30%," Haffenberg said. "That has an effect on food costs, since corn that used to be fed to livestock is now diverted to biofuels."
And while the United States is producing more corn, demand still outraces supply.
"We're seeing a sort of perfect storm of factors bringing up corn prices," Haffenberg said.
The USDA predicts that corn supplies will plunge to a 13-year low in 2009.
Website address: http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=200880523049
KANSAS CITY, Mo. - The rocketing price for corn already is hurting Americans at the grocery store and the gas pump. Now it's going to hurt us at the multiplex, too.
Partly because of the rising price for popcorn, on Thursday Kansas City-based AMC Entertainment Inc. announced that beginning today it will increase its ticket prices from $9 to $10 for weekend show times after 4 p.m. at its five Kansas City theaters.
Also beginning today, AMC's popcorn price will jump 25 cents nationwide.
There are 10 AMC theaters in metro Detroit.
An economics professor at the University of California-Santa Cruz predicted this week that movie ticket prices might leap as much as 30% because of the cost of popcorn. In fact, Ricard Gil concluded, the success of a movie theater now rests largely on the price of popcorn.
In a study, Gil pointed out that concession sales allow theaters to keep down the cost of a movie ticket by nearly 25%. And popcorn accounts for a third of those sales.
In a Los Angeles Times interview, Regal Entertainment CEO Mike Campbell said that if theaters didn't charge what they do for concessions, "movies would cost $20."
Gil, interviewed before the AMC announcement, said that a big release - like this weekend's "Indiana Jones" movie - would be an ideal time to introduce higher-priced tickets.
"You'll show up at the theater and find you're paying 25 to 50 cents more for a ticket. This means that the most valued customers, the ones who come out to see a movie on opening weekend, will end up paying the most."
AMC based today's increase on dozens of economic factors, not just the price of popcorn, company spokesman Justin Scott said.
"We evaluate our concessions prices in the fall and in the spring. ... No one factor influences any of our pricing modifications."
Memorial Day traditionally is when movie theaters jack up prices.
But why not raise concession prices and leave ticket prices alone?
"It's not one or the other, concessions or tickets," Scott said. "A lot of factors are considered to find the right balance."
The once-humble corn is in huge demand as a food additive (corn syrup), livestock feed and as a biofuel source. In three years, corn prices have soared from $2 to $6 a bushel. A big factor is the Bush administration's support for corn-based ethanol, said Mary Haffenberg, spokeswoman for the Chicago Board of Trade.
"It used to be that only 5%of our corn crop went to ethanol. In the next few years it will be more like 30%," Haffenberg said. "That has an effect on food costs, since corn that used to be fed to livestock is now diverted to biofuels."
And while the United States is producing more corn, demand still outraces supply.
"We're seeing a sort of perfect storm of factors bringing up corn prices," Haffenberg said.
The USDA predicts that corn supplies will plunge to a 13-year low in 2009.
Website address: http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=200880523049
Thursday, May 22, 2008
I can really mean it sometimes
I was digging through my Google Analytics on this page and noticed
that someone had searched for a name I didn't recognize and came up
with my page.
that someone had searched for a name I didn't recognize and came up
with my page.
Here's the actual Post I wrote: http://friedtvtater.blogspot.com/2007/02/so-firstrape-is-not-soooooo-funny.html
Funny how I actually managed something like intelligent thought on
this blog that rarely gets it (between Garfield Minus Garfield jokes
and YouTube Videos).
Sometimes I surprise myself.
Monday, May 19, 2008
Thursday, May 15, 2008
Dear Men,
Dear Men...(and this time I mean Grown-Up Men)...
If you ask out my roommate (she's cute, young, naive at times) for a drink, or a date in any shape or form be prepared to be embarrassed, but don't take it out on her (or the roommate she brings along with her).
Yes...the roommate.
That's me.
Ouch.
If you ask out my roommate (she's cute, young, naive at times) for a drink, or a date in any shape or form be prepared to be embarrassed, but don't take it out on her (or the roommate she brings along with her).
Yes...the roommate.
That's me.
Ouch.
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Oh, I am sick of this
Dear Boys (I say boys because these are people who are not yet Men),
If you want to go out with me...MAKE A FREAKIN' DATE! Don't make me pick it. It's really up to you. Here's how you do it, I'll even spell it out, step-by-step:
1. Find something to do. -- Doesn't have to be complicated. A drink - pick a bar, a movie - pick a theater/movie/time/day, a concert...whatever it is, have a plan.
2. Ask her if she can make it. - "Hey Veronica, I have this bar I've been meaning to go to, would you like to go with me on Thursday?" Make it sound as if you were going to be there anyways, whether or not she says yes.
3. YOU HAVE A DATE THEN!
If nothing else, pick a day and then I'll tell you if I'm available, and maybe suggest my own activity for us to partake in.
No muss, no fuss.
If you want to go out with me...MAKE A FREAKIN' DATE! Don't make me pick it. It's really up to you. Here's how you do it, I'll even spell it out, step-by-step:
1. Find something to do. -- Doesn't have to be complicated. A drink - pick a bar, a movie - pick a theater/movie/time/day, a concert...whatever it is, have a plan.
2. Ask her if she can make it. - "Hey Veronica, I have this bar I've been meaning to go to, would you like to go with me on Thursday?" Make it sound as if you were going to be there anyways, whether or not she says yes.
3. YOU HAVE A DATE THEN!
If nothing else, pick a day and then I'll tell you if I'm available, and maybe suggest my own activity for us to partake in.
No muss, no fuss.
Wording?
Is it a bad thing that this work-related e-mail's wording made me laugh and giggle a little? For really, no reason...I just thought it was funny in my head.
*names have been changed to protect the innocent.Hi all,I just wanted to say thank you for everyone's work in updating these International Scripts. I know it's a pain, but doing it could make a huge difference for (literally) people all over the world, so I really appreciate it!Thanks!
Justin*
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
I want this house
Or maybe just one of the condos in this place. How beautiful is it though? Across the street from paramount pictures lot. Oh boy
Thursday, May 8, 2008
Fine then, I'll take my time
I just started a new job, in which I have a lot of data-type entry into excel worksheets. One of the worksheets I have to work on is a music cue sheet, where we look at the editing machine, mark down the CD name and track number of the music in the timeline. I also have to mark down the start timecode and end timecode for the music too, and write down the duration of that particular clip.
One of the coordinators (not mine) doubted my ability to get it all right, simply because I found a more efficient way of doing it. It takes me an hour to go through a 44 minute show (I don't watch it) and it used to take him 2 to 3 hours!
Here's what I did:
All the CDs have ANW in front of a 4 digit number. I formatted those cells in Excel so that when I type in a 4 digit number "ANW" appears before it. I used this formula in the custom cell format: "ANW"####
For timecode they wanted it all formatted as 01;01;01 meaning hh;mm;ss. The hour number doesn't change at all and neither do the semi-colons. So I used another custom sell format to make the 01; ; automatic: "01;"##";"##
Easy Cheesy.
For the Duration of the clip I used the opposite of the CD name and added this custom format ## "secs" to my excel sheet.
How many keystrokes am I eliminating for each entry...hmmm...anw01;;01;;secs
That makes up 15 keys I don't have to hit for each line (out of between 70 and a 100 lines).
Duh.
Yeah...that'll cut time down a bit.
Not to mention the shortcuts I use in AVID to see the duration without having to do any math in my head.
I'm writing this entry because apparently now I have to check over my work and take my time because I work too efficiently and too fast.
One of the coordinators (not mine) doubted my ability to get it all right, simply because I found a more efficient way of doing it. It takes me an hour to go through a 44 minute show (I don't watch it) and it used to take him 2 to 3 hours!
Here's what I did:
All the CDs have ANW in front of a 4 digit number. I formatted those cells in Excel so that when I type in a 4 digit number "ANW" appears before it. I used this formula in the custom cell format: "ANW"####
For timecode they wanted it all formatted as 01;01;01 meaning hh;mm;ss. The hour number doesn't change at all and neither do the semi-colons. So I used another custom sell format to make the 01; ; automatic: "01;"##";"##
Easy Cheesy.
For the Duration of the clip I used the opposite of the CD name and added this custom format ## "secs" to my excel sheet.
How many keystrokes am I eliminating for each entry...hmmm...anw01;;01;;secs
That makes up 15 keys I don't have to hit for each line (out of between 70 and a 100 lines).
Duh.
Yeah...that'll cut time down a bit.
Not to mention the shortcuts I use in AVID to see the duration without having to do any math in my head.
I'm writing this entry because apparently now I have to check over my work and take my time because I work too efficiently and too fast.
Thursday, May 1, 2008
Whatta day!
It was full speed ahead today!
Today I...
Had a Margarita during work hours (technically).
Completed too much work in too little time...crap. ;)
Had a dead cell phone by 3pm and then sat in traffic from Hollywood & Highland to Barham Blvd and the 101 for an hour and a half. Oh geez whiz.
Though I hope no one was seriously injured in that crash on the 101, or so it seemed.
Drive safely folks!
Today I...
Had a Margarita during work hours (technically).
Completed too much work in too little time...crap. ;)
Had a dead cell phone by 3pm and then sat in traffic from Hollywood & Highland to Barham Blvd and the 101 for an hour and a half. Oh geez whiz.
Though I hope no one was seriously injured in that crash on the 101, or so it seemed.
Drive safely folks!
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