Category: Media

Yelp

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I love Yelp and use it all the time. I’m very active on it posting reviews and photos, so there’s some things about the way it functions that annoys me. I just submitted this feedback to the Yelp team this morning. Let’s see if anything comes of it since I’m pretty sure I’ve already submitted feedback regarding # 2 years ago and nothing has changed.

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# 1 Lists – Is there a way to add a business to an existing list while on the business page? I don’t see it, but editing a list and trying to add a business from there is cumbersome when you have over 500 reviews like I do. Sorting by date would be more helpful if the list shown on the screen actually includes the date. Sorting by name is useless because the list takes up the entire page and anything below a screen’s worth is not able to be dragged and dropped to the list as it’s no longer visible and the screen doesn’t scroll back up so I can do it.

# 2 – Bookmarks. I see no way in the mobile apps to view notes I’ve put on bookmarks while using Yelp in my web browser. This is rather limiting when I’m on the road looking for a place to eat and I can’t remember what dish I wanted to try when I initially created the bookmark.

Thanksgiving Part Deux

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Saturday we had our Thanksgiving with E, my SIL, and Brother # 2. I cooked an actual turkey this year instead of a turkey breast like past years. It came out… a bit dry. But it was my first time and it wasn’t so dry that it wasn’t edible (good enough that I made two turkey sandwiches for lunch yesterday, oh yea)!

Friday I made the green bean casserole, sweet potato casserole, and mac and cheese so that I wouldn’t have to figure out how to get those done while the oven was busy cooking the turkey. Oh, and we used a nice roasting pan we got at IKEA last weekend for only $12.

Thanksgiving Dinner

Earlier on Saturday I was using my food processor to make hash browns (I did actually use it to chop pecans for the sweet potato casserole but right now it’s mainly used to shred potatoes) and I cut the tip of my middle finger on the shredding blade while extracting it from the protective cardboard I’ve been keeping it in to prevent getting cut. Irony, I love thee.

After dinner on Saturday we decided to nix our original plans of going out to see Christmas lights since it’s been so cold lately and played Phase 10 instead. At some point the cards kept rubbing against my cut and unbeknownst to me it started to bleed. E pointed out there was something red on some of his cards, so I put a band-aid on. As the game went on and on we got sillier and sillier and I ended up drawing a face on my band-aid and flipping people the bird, or, depending on your interpretation, the cat or fox since that’s what it ended up looking like after I kept adding onto the face.

Finger Band-aid

Speaking of foxes, I think Joe and I were probably the last people on Earth to see the What Does The Fox Say video that’s been making its rounds online. My family introduced it to us on the real Thanksgiving. As we watched we were getting frustrated because we know we hadn’t seen it before but the melody sounded so infuriatingly familiar. It wasn’t until two days later that it came to Joe why – we had seen a parody of the video on SNL a few weeks ago not knowing it was mocking a real video. I’m not sure about you, but I prefer the SNL version, What Does My Girl Say.

Louie Louie Louie

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There are so many reasons I love Louie CK, and what a jerk he can be happens to be one of those reasons.

I bought one of his stand-up specials this morning to listen to on the way into work but I had forgotten my password in order to log in and download it, so I clicked the “forgot password” link and got directed to a page that says “Oh my god you’re an idiot. Give us your email address, and we’ll send you a new one.” So I entered my email address and within 30 seconds I get this email:

Apparently you forgot your password? Ok, so here’s your new one, stupid:

EMAIL: —-
PASSWORD: —-

Here’s the login page in case you forgot that too:
http://buy.louisck.net/account/signin

Louis

And the password includes an insult in it. I love that man! Now go download his material. I particularly like the stuff about twenty-year-olds on the Live at Carnegie Hall special. I was laughing out loud like a moron driving on the expressway this morning. It’s similar to this bit from his show, although even more intense, so you should download it now.

ROFLMAO

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I’ve been hooked on comedy albums as of late, particularly the genius work of Louis C.K., my new favorite stand-up comedian of all time. I think I have a non-sexual crush on him; no one makes me laugh as much as he does. It doesn’t matter how wicked or vulgar he gets, it’s all gold in my eyes. One of the things I most admire about him is how often his material changes instead of using the same old stuff over and over for decades. It’s a testament to just how funny he is.

Also? Dane Cook totally stole his material! It’s so obvious now. Fuck Dane Cook anyway. I haven’t liked him or Carlos Mencia for awhile now and I take back what I said in this entry because Louis DOES do the material better, *I* just didn’t know any better back then. You have to check out his old HBO series, Lucky Louie, and be sure to tune into his current series, Louie when it returns to FX later this year.

If I had to put together a list of my other favorite comedians right now, they would be:

The late, but great Mitch Hedberg. There won’t be another like this guy. Until Louis came into my life I’d listen to Mitch’s work often. I’m still sad that he died.

Nick Swardson – his half hour show on Comedy Central, Nick Swardson’s Pretend Time, is bizarre but great (who doesn’t love a wheelchair-bound cat addicted to drugs?), and he was so funny on Reno 911 as Terry (the gay guy on rollerskates). I absolutely loved him in Grandma’s Boy which he co-wrote and happens to be one of my favorite movies. He also wrote another favorite of mine – Malibu’s Most Wanted. No wonder Adam Sandler took him under his wing. The guy is hilarious!

Aziz Ansari – Ever since I saw him on the last season of Scrubs (albeit briefly), I was hooked. He’s highly entertaining on Parks & Recreation and his stand-up is engaging.

Russell Peters – His racial comedy never stops me laughing. I love when he does he’s accents, particularly the Indian one. “Someone gonna get a hurt real bad!”

Dave Chapelle – His stand-up can be hit or miss, but I always found the Chappelle Show funny and enjoyed him in Half Baked. It’s too bad he’s dropped off the face of the earth.

Strangely enough, the only one I’ve seen live so far is Aziz but I hope to change that once the other guys make their next circuit.

Interesting how the list only includes male comedians. I think it has to do with the material. Women just can’t pull off talking about diarrhea or how much their kids are assholes and I like that sort of thing. If I had to pick one female I do find amusing, though, it would be without a doubt Wanda Sykes, and she’s a lesbian, so it’s clear I only like comics who like women. ;)

Best of 2009

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So this is my slapped together at the last minute best of 2009 entry. Sorry I didn’t put more thought into it but the end of the year kinda crept up on me if you can believe it.

Music

Favorite album discoveries:

Songs in heavy rotation on my iPod (not necessarily released this year):

iPhone Apps

Favorite Games:

Favorite Apps:

  • Cardstar – store all your reward cards on your phone. The best part is how amazed the cashiers are to see it in action. I’ve gotten a comment every time I’ve used it at Blockbuster and Petsmart.
  • Comcast – Believe it or not, Comcast’s app isn’t half bad. Pretty handy when looking for something to watch. Even better than the on-screen guide.
  • Dropbox – Great way to keep files synced for access away from home.
  • eBuddy – An inexpensive alternative to Trillian. It only keeps you logged in for a half hour after exiting the app, but it supports multiple chat platforms.
  • Echofon – The only Twitter app I’ve used and liked.
  • Evernote – Great way to keep notes on things you might want to look up later. Allows tagging.
  • Facebook – Self explanatory.
  • Genius – Nice camera app that’s better than the built-in camera.
  • IMDb – It took them long enough, but I love using this app when I’m on the couch watching TV.
  • Pandorabox – Great way to find new and discounted apps. You can add apps you’re interested in to a favorites list and it will notify you when they go on sale.
  • Shazam – Best way to find out the name and artist of a song on TV.
  • Shopper – Eliminates any need for me to keep a paper grocery list.
  • Todo Lite (until the $10 full version comes down in price) – I can’t be without my to-do app. I use it daily to remind me of all sorts of things.
  • Yelp – Not as robust as the site, it has come quite in handy when out shopping and we’re looking to grab something to eat.

Well, that’s it. Another decade is over. Welcome to the 10’s. That sounds so weird.

Happy New Year!