Motorcycles
I recently took a motorcycle safety class here in las Vegas. I took this because I plan on getting a two-wheel form of transportation. I will need some sort of transportation here in Vegas, and two wheels is cheaper, and more gas efficient than four wheels. So, I took the class and learned about motorcycle safety, and the basics of riding. Now I need to find myself a ride. Maybe I should just take a note from this guy and start building my own.
Movie Waste
For just over a month I have been working at a movie theater as an Usher. It’s not a bad job, it is also not a great job. We work hard for minimum wage, and seem to be under appreciated. I blame the fact that most of my co-workers are high-school kids, or college kids, and this job is not very important to them. I understand that completely. I felt that way when I worked at a grocery store back when I was in high school. Anyways, I didn’t want to talk about the job itself really. I wanted to talk about waste.
The theater creates a lot of garbage. Well, the customers create a lot of waste, the theater does nothing to recycle, or cut down on the waste. It’s very disgusting the amount of trash that gets thrown out. People get giant things of soda, giant tubs of popcorn, big boxes of candy, and amazing wads of napkins. Most people leave it in the theater for the Ushers to pick up. I am torn as to whether I would like them to pick up after themselves. If they did, my job would be boring and most likely obsolete, but it would give me greater respect for the movie patrons. Again my course is drifting, I wanted to focus on one piece of waste in particular, the movie ticket. This is a silly piece of paper that we require everybody to have. They get it at the ticket booth, walk 100 feet and give it to an Usher to tear. Most people don’t keep their tickets on them, and most tickets end up on the floor for Ushers to pick up later. Nobody needs a ticket really.
Lets take a second to think about your keychain. Do you have one of those little cards that you scan at the grocery store on it? I bet you do. It can easily save you money, and is also easy to use. If you scan this every time you shop for groceries the savings add up, and who keeps track of what you save on? The grocery store. That way they can give you targeted savings via coupons. I don’t know for sure, but I imagine that they have a centralized computer system that links every keychain card barcode to your information. It’s their way of tracking you and figuring out how much of what item you buy, and how they should best stock the stores. This is what movie theaters need to put in place.
Here is how it would work:
At the movie theater you would go to the ticket booth and buy your ticket, they would scan your keychain card and the movie you paid for would be attributed to your account. Ushers would no longer rip tickets, they would scan these cards. The movie theaters could track people to see exactly how many people went to each movie the same as they can now. The only difference would be that they might have some extra data, specifically whatever they decide to gather from customers: zip code, phone number, sex. They would also get a persons movie viewing frequency, and movie preference. The customer could also get points per purchase, or some sort of discount that they could use on movie tickets or concessions.
The only thing I haven’t figured out is how to deal with multiple people going to the movies when one person buys all the tickets. I imagine that the Usher’s scanner would just tell the Usher that the customer bought X number of tickets. That’s not a problem, the problem is when people leave the theater, do they need to take the keychain card with them? Perhaps there is a “safe” zone in the theater where it is just assumed that people have paid for tickets. This would require Ushers to be more vigilant with people sneaking in and not paying for tickets. That might be the hardest part, getting the Ushers to care enough. Perhaps paying them more would do the trick?
Mad I tell you
I am going crazy. I am going crazy in Texas. I am ready for this year to be over. I am ready to move on and say goodbye to this land. I have enjoyed the novelty of this place. I have explored and adventured. I have given it a good run, but I am done. I am ready to pack up my things and hit the road.
The next place should be better, but I don’t know where it is yet, so all I can do is hope that it will be. I hope that it will have friends. I hope that it will be fun. I hope that it will have more likeminded people. I hope it isn’t like Texas. This area of Texas is flat, and hot, and though parts are green, it has a brownish tone to it.
I long for the day when I can go on a snowboard trip again, it has been many years since I have been on a mountain. I keep moving my snowboards around, and I keep moving to flatter places that get less and less snow. I miss the snow, I miss a real Winter.
I also want to be able to climb a mountain, something tall, and green, and lush. A mountain that makes my legs hurt, that makes me sweat like crazy as I climb it, only to get to the top and need a jacket. I want to go above the tree line, I want to bound over rocks looking for the geological marker that is hidden atop that grand mountain.
And kayaking, I want to cool off in a nice cool river on a hot Summer day. I want a river that has some actual current to it, and some drops, and rapids that are not man-made. I want to feel secluded on the river, looking for wildlife and enjoying the vegetation. I want to hear the noise of a rapid coming up, and feel the thrill of going through that rapid. I want to get out of that river and enjoy a wonderful day with some friends and a beer.
I would love to have all three of those within reach of my home, but right now I do not. I have flat lands, and heat, and sand. It is perfect for biking, and biking I have been doing, but I long for more. I long for someone to go on long, fast bike rides with, over hills and on trails.
I really hope that the next year brings me some of those things, because if it does not I will go mad. Mad I tell you.
Notifications
People keep talking about all the things that they want to see in the next iPhone OS, here is just one example, and today I finally thought of one. I would like to be able to change the notification sounds for the apps with that ability. I would be happy with being able to set a different sound for each, or just one sound for all the apps. I just wish it could be different than the one for text messages. And yes, I know that I can switch the text message notification sound, but I like the tri-tone one. That’s it, just a simple wish for this Thursday.
Olive
Last Saturday we found ourselves a dog. We had been on the hunt for one for a while, and when I saw this dog on petfinder.com last Wednesday I knew we had to see this dog. So, Saturday we headed out to the Sam Houston National Forest and the foster home where the dog was. She was exactly what I was looking for, something a little smaller than a medium dog, and a terrier. More specifically she is a rat terrier. We played with her a little, and looked at all the other dogs at the foster home. In the end, we knew that she was the dog for us. We adopted her and headed home, but stopped at the Huntsville State Park and PetSmart before bringing her home.
One the ride home we decided that her name will be Olive. The foster parents had named her Bella, but we weren’t too keen on that name. It’s been good times so far. She has been adapting to her new home pretty well, and we have been happy to have her here. Some things have been pretty new for her, like not getting on the couch or bed, but she is learning the rules pretty well.
While we are on the topic of Olive, I think it’s time for a walk. I know I could use it, and I bet she would like it too.
Check out her little site here.
Stacey
Stacey is a lightweight content management system.
No database setup or installation files, simply drop the application on a server and it runs. Your content is managed by creating folders and editing text files. No login screens, no admin interface.
I’ve been playing with this for the past day, it’s a pretty neat alternative to WordPress and other database driven CMS. Now I just need to find a project to use it on. In the meantime I have it set up, as a test site, over at spacescurvy.com. Or, you can check out the Stacey site here.
New Discs
Got 2 new discs today, thanks to a little help from my sister who provided me an REI gift certificate for my birthday, to replace the one I lost in a water feature. Stupid water feature. I would have gone in if it and retrieved the disc if the water wasn’t murky and I could have felt the bottom. I was poking a pretty long stick in the water to gauge the depth, but I couldn’t feel the bottom, so I was not going in. I will know better next time and avoid the water feature.
Now I just need somebody to go play with…
IOGraphica
I came across this neat little application today, I think it was posted on a blog I follow. It is called IOGraphica and all it does is track your mouse movements. But it does it and creates an image of your path. You can just start it and let it site all day if you want. I’ve had one going for just over 3 hours and it looks like this:
Click on the image to see a larger version of the image.
You can learn more by heading on over to the website for this application here. Or, if you are already sold, head on over and find the right one to download. Have fun.
Cooking
I follow a couple cooking/recipe blogs that usually have good looking food. I like good looking food, it usually tastes good. I star all these posts, or try to remember them somehow, but I never actually make the things posted about. I need to start doing that. If I am going to try to start working from home, I should start cooking more. It would give me something to do while taking a break from the computer.
Here is another recipe I will most likely not make, but looks damn good:
Rhubarb And Red Berry Crumbles
A Tale of Two Books
Recently, I decided that it was a good thing to finally sit down and go through my JavaScript book again. The last time I really used JavaScript was way back when I worked at ArnoldWorldwide, and what I knew was very rusty, and most likely very out of date. I still had my Visual Quickstart Guide from back then, and I figured that re-reading this book would be a cheap way to get back into it, so I sat down and started reading it. Man was I wrong. This book was talking about Netscape and IE for the Mac! Then I checked the published date… 2001. This book was not going to do me any good. Well, it might, but having to sift through the code to find stuff that was relevant to today and not 9 years ago would be too much work for a beginner. So, I went out and picked up the new edition, that was published in 2009. No more mention of obsolete browsers, more mentions of current technologies, like AJAX, and much better for a beginner.
I am liking what I have been reading/practicing so far. Learning PHP made learning JavaScript easier I think… I hope.
