This past Sunday I met up with my friend Michael at the Dallas Convention Center for the annual Dallas Auto Show. Not really in the market for a vehicle (at least this year), I concentrated mainly on the new stuff and concept vehicles when snapping photos. I've posted everything in this online photo album. Enjoy!

I've received enough copies of the Bush/Saddam Verizon Wireless spoof graphic. You can stop now. Thanks.

The Lords of the Sith are ripping off Apple with their own commercials. (Note: Ricky's warned me that the rest of newgrounds.com isn't work/family-friendly, so be advised. Flash required.)

Belated birthday wishes to friend and fellow ATPM staffer, Eric Blair. So what, you're old enough to buy beer now, right? ;^) Hope you had a great one, amigo!

Mars bar, meet Snickers Almond. Snickers Almond, the Mars bar. Why would a company create a product that not only competes directly with one of its other products, but is nearly indistinguishable from its established product? Or is the Mars bar going to get the boot?

% unzip % strip % touch % grep % finger % mount % fsck % more % yes % umount % sleep I IM'ed my wife this with the qualifier that it came from Jim and that, yes, we're total nerds. She heartily agreed.

"Training In Progress" cries the banner outside the new Grapevine location of P.F. Chang's. Two minutes from the office, about 15 minutes from the house. No more half-hour-minimum drives for our favorite Chinese bistro! Chicken lettuce wraps! Chang's Spicy Chicken! Mongolian Beef! Yum!

Thanks to Gary and Chuq, I blew water out my nose when reading this. Highly entertaining.

The March 3 issue of Business Week features a blurb regarding controlling your credit card usage. In the past, the solution to credit card overusage has been to cut up the card--which leaves you stuck in the event of an emergency. A tip from the book Good Advice for a Bad Economy suggests that you put your credit cards in a sandwich bag full of water, then stick the bag in the freezer. This way, you have access to the cards in the even of an emergency, but "impulses must wait for the ice to thaw."

Gibson offers a "readymade" novel to anyone willing, founded upon this news item from Tokyo.

Tech gear lust can begin at an early age. For me, in 1985, I wanted a Banana Junior 6000. (Thanks to Gruber for the link.) My personal favorites are "Fritos," "Toaster Ovens," and "I Think."

Lee was not familiar with the term, so I pointed him to Webster's, which defines it as a noun, Yiddish in entymology etymology, and means "trinket" or "knickknack." As I told Lee, the word saw a jump into the mainstream during the dot-com glory days, when those companies would give out all kinds of logo-emblazoned crap at trade shows, conventions, expos, and to anyone the marketing people ever came into contact with. Maybe too many tchotchkes is yet another reason why so many of them dot-bombed. That said, I do appreciate a quality tchotchke, like the metal Apple luggage tag I received from them last year at MWNY.

Brian informed me that Rush's stand-in nailed the French today:

Q: What did the leader of France say when Germany invaded? A: Table for 100,000? Q: Why are the streets of Paris lined with trees? A: The Germans prefer to march in the shade.

Michael has me gear-lusting after this. I've always felt more like a rice rocket kind of guy than one who'd straddle a hog. I'd like it in Liquid Silver, please. Of course, my wife thinks I'm crazy...

I just saw the motorcross commercial on Fox Sports (Southwest) for their show "54321." The motorcross biker clapping at the end, after the doofus crashes the gate--just seems like something Dan would do. :)

Mark Newhouse's daughter Jordan donated a 14-inch ponytail to Locks for Love on Valentine's Day, and Mark has documented the event in the form of a QuickTime movie:

"Locks of Love is a non-profit organization that provides hairpieces to financially disadvantaged children across the U.S. under age 18 suffering from long-term medical hair loss. "It takes ten to 15 donated ponytails to make one hairpiece because Locks of Love only uses lengths of 10 inches and longer. 80% of donors are children."