Mmmm, Pepsi

I've seen this, but yet I'm still sitting here drinking a Pepsi.

Preparing for the Mayhem Festival

Something about the Boise area seems to call to music tour promoters. It seems that it was just a short time ago that we were lucky to be a quick stop for mid-level acts that were just passing through to larger cities, like Seattle, and wanted to maximize their nights on the road with some extra income in the little city of trees. Now, premier acts look forward to visiting this growing mini-metropolis filled with top-notch fans that enjoy the music without some of the violence and drama that plagues large city venues (aside from the occasional thrown shoe).

This year, the Mayhem Festival passed over many larger cities to come to the Idaho Center in Nampa and the visit should cement a stop here for future tours.

A few notes about the Idaho Center as a venue that you need to consider:

• The only cameras that are allowed are point-and-shoot models that can fit in your pocket.
• No food or drink can be brought from outside the venue other than a single, unfrozen, sealed water bottle.
• There are no plans for locker or storage rentals.
• No bags of any kind will be allowed. This means backpacks, purses, etc.
• Since the only option for food is going to be from the venue, expect high prices and plan accordingly (i.e. eat big before coming).
• Leave your Discover and AMEX at home. Cash, debit, MC, and Visa are your payment options. Plan on cash being required for most merchandise purchases.
• Leave your pocket knives, wallet chains, etc. at home also since you will not be allowed to bring them into the Idaho Center venue.

Also, you don't have to be there for every show. If you only care about the "big" acts then you can come much later and see them on the main stage, but really you should see all the acts including the Boise Battle of the Bands winner Fly2Void which kicks off the festival. The tentative schedule can be found on the Idaho Center website here.

Above all, have a great time, drink lots of water, and enjoy the kick-ass music.

Thanks to Christy Vos of the Idaho Center for clarification of the venue policy for this event.

And people wonder why I don't eat Domino's pizza

http://www.goodasyou.org/good_as_you/2009/04/video-let-the-dominoes-appall.html

Of course, this kind of thing can happen at any location where food preparation cannot be monitored. Much of the time the person making your food at a chain fast food or pizza place is a minor that makes less than 20% above minimum wage at most. Studies have shown that our decision making center in the brain is not fully developed until 25 years old so these teenagers actually think they're doing something right. Hopefully, you weren't reading this while eating a slice of pizza (or your copy of sTORI TELLING).

April fools day in the business world

As I sat here contemplating the quasi-evil things I'm going to do to coworkers today I decided to hit briefly on the topic of April fools in the business world (yay! I used the title in the post so it must be relevant).

The Good:

Companies like Google and Woot embrace April fools day with items that have $1,000,000.00 shipping or fake AI programs that mean you never have to respond to email again. These kinds of things engage the users and increase site traffic which is a good thing for businesses. Long gone are the days of a company ignoring its users and relying on a product to generate traffic.

The Bad:

I'm pretty sure antivirus companies teamed up with reporters to create sensationalistic articles/reports meant to drive people to purchase new antivirus software. Isn't it convenient that one of the main symptoms of the conficker worm is that it blocks access to antivirus company websites so everybody is testing to see if they're infected by going to these sites trying to scare you into upgrading. The only April fools with this worm is on the uninformed user.

http://www.google.com
http://www.woot.com
http://www.avast.com
http://free.avg.com

Already a todo list

You would think my entry into the blogosphere (actually, I hate that damn word so you will it no more) would have been much sooner, like maybe in 1993 when I made my first web page. I've had websites numbering in the hundreds, but I really am not big on talking about myself. Don't get me wrong, I'm pretty conceited, just not usually openly.

I feel sorry for the people that elect to follow my blog and actually wind up reading this message since I'm sure it's just a predecessor to the random rantings to come.

Okay, time to be true to the title. Here's my todo list:

1. Get rid of the craptastic built in theme.
2. Decide what I want to put on here.
   
3. Take a look at the settings to see what I can bork here.
4. Write an explanation of "bork" for the people privileged enough to not see in my mind.
5. Figure out how to make some categories here since I will probably have the occasional serious post.