Tuesday, February 26, 2008

YouTube-sday™: the weather edition



I hate Fox News for a lot of reasons - here's just another.

Monday, February 25, 2008

YouTube-sday™: Special Edition

Regular YouTube-sday™ post tomorrow. I just could not hold back on posting this. What are you waiting for - click play!

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

YouTube-sday™: Rockin' the 80's

I mean, really.....does it get any better than this?

Thursday, February 14, 2008

Please don't ruin my childhood memories.

Tuesday, February 12, 2008

YouTube-sday™ - He shoots. He scores!!

This week, let us take a look at the future of the Chicago Blackhawks with a most excellent goal scored during the 2007 pre season by Jonathan Toews:



Wow!

Sunday, February 10, 2008

Talkback

So Crayola got back to us:

Dear Kathy and Jeff,

Thank you for sharing your thoughts and recommendations with us.

Crayola is constantly striving, through our own marketing and research and development departments, to develop new products, concepts and improve existing ones to meet consumer needs. We recognize that consumers like you are our most valuable assets. By listening to your comments, we can provide the best quality products and services available. Your comments have been recorded with similar ones received from consumers.

Crayola is the manufacturer of high quality creative expression products and artist materials, marketed primarily under the Crayola(R) and Silly Putty(R) brand names. Most of our color names are taken from the Universal Color Language and Dictionary of Names, which was published by the U.S. Bureau of Standards. We use this reference guide because everyone sees and expresses color differently. Using the Universal dictionary as a base, we can refer to a standard color system and color names. Many crayon names are also borrowed from traditional artists' paints.

To learn more about naming new crayon colors, please visit http://www.crayola.com/promos/kidsChoice/index.cfm.

We appreciate your contact. If additional assistance is needed, you may reach us by telephone at (800) 272-9652 weekdays between 9 AM and 4 PM Eastern Time or e-mail by visiting Crayola.com.

Best wishes for a colorful future!

Colorfully yours,

Bridget Weiss
Consumer Affairs Representative
CRAYOLA

This line caught my eye: Most of our color names are taken from the Universal Color Language and Dictionary of Names, which was published by the U.S. Bureau of Standards. There is an actual book out there listing the colors "Granny Smith Apple", "Neon Carrot", and "Razzle Dazzle Rose"??

Overall, a lame response. I hope they back that up with a free box of crayons in the mail or something.


Wednesday, February 6, 2008

Who are you?

The other day, my daughter Cera sent me one of the screwy survey emails. You know the ones - what about this? What about that? This one had the premise that you answered each question with a word that started with the first letter of your first name. Being a dad, you reply to these emails from time to time. It's a dad thing. My wife Kathy is sitting with me as I read the email, so we reply with both our answers; being the good mom she is. It's a mom thing.

As we are going through this survey (you'll get to read the questions in a bit), we get to the final question: a crayon color. Technically, the question was "a color", but for the reason you will soon see, we needed to adapt the question slightly. Well, it was a bit of a struggle for us to come up with a "J" answer, but decided "jade" worked. Now, a "K" answer - this proved to be quite the challenge. "Khaki" was an easy call at first, but a previous question was "something you wear", and we didn't want to repeat an answer, so we keep brain storming. Well, about 3 seconds into our brain storm, I decided to hit Google up with a search, and entered "crayon colors". Figured it would be a fast search, and surely Crayola has created a color named after some "K" phrase. Imagine our shock in reading this Wikipedia return and seeing nary a single "K" named crayon. On a side note - that page is just a trove of information and a colorful feast for your eyes. But com'on - NO "K" CRAYONS???? Now, if you look down the list, you notice 3 other letters have also gone a century plus without a crayon honoring them - Q, X, & Z. Those make sense. I mean - they are the highest scoring letters in Scrabble, but "K" scores only a 5 while "J" scores an 8 (as does "X"), and there have been two crayons with the letter "J". This is an outrage.

So off to Crayola's website for a little complaint. Maybe it was late in the day, but I think it's more the fact that my wife and I just aren't right in the head (and proud of it). Today, someone in Crayola's customer service department is reading the following gem:

Dear Sir or Madam:

Today I was filling out a survey based on myself. I came across the following question:

"a crayon color"

The requirements of this survey is that every answer I supply must begin with the first letter of my first name. Here - check out the survey for yourself:

1. What is your name?
2. Type of vehicle
3. Name a city
4. Girls name (not your own)
Boys name (not your own)
5. Name of a drink
6. A cartoon character
7. Someone famous
8. Something you'd find in a bathroom
9. Something you'd wear
10. An animal
11. A body part
12. A crayon color

But I digress - I came upon question 12 and I was stumped. You see, my name begins with the letter "K" (I hope you are not named Knute, Xavier or Zelda - and maybe for more reason that just the survey). I was unable to quickly come to an answer, so I entrusted a Google search on the subject "Crayon colors" to save my biscuits. Surely, Crayola, bringing years of joy and a myriad of colors to the United States - nay....the world - have created a color name with the first letter being the 11th letter of our syllabary. Imagine my chagrin when I discovered not one has been created in the entire history of your fine company.

Anyway - may we suggest a few names for an upcoming 97 count box:

Khaki
Kangaroo Brown
Katydid green (you could release that color based on locust outbreaks every 7 years or so)

Just some thoughts in our heads. And if an odd numbered crayon box would cause production line issues, may we suggest a "q" titled crayon, as one has never been created. Maybe "quinine"???


I can't wait to read their reply. If we keep this up, I am sure the disappearance of a "contact us" link on websites will be attributed to us.

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Now playing: "Jump Jimmy (Stronger Than Mine)" by Tonic
via FoxyTunes

Tuesday, February 5, 2008

President Obama

Is that not the face of the Commander in Chief? I mean - look at him! That smile. The trustworthy jaw. And damn...what a fine cap. If this picture doesn't seal the deal, read this.


Super YouTube-sday™

In honor of the Super Tuesday primaries, I thought I'd do a super YouTube-sday™ post this week. And let's change the color of the text of this post to help you decide just which ballot you should be using when you vote. Anyway, enjoy the videos:



I don't mean to make fun of a dead guy, but Grohl definitely benefited a lot when Cobain passed away.



Does it get any better than this?? Oh yeah.

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Now playing: "Gimme Some Lovin'" by Spencer Davis Group
via FoxyTunes

Monday, February 4, 2008

I feel ill.


Yeah....how about some more tax breaks for the oil companies??? WTH!?