comcast is... awesome?

a year ago, i finally broke down and got cable. i had it briefly in 1994 or so, but thought it too expensive and not worth it. that's when i still had dialup.

after several years of declining earthlink DSL service, and desiring a couple more channels on the TV, i ditched DSL and grabbed a year-long cable TV / cable internet promotion. about $85/mo., including DVR and some premium channels.

i knew my year was up today, when I opened the bill and saw it had jumped by $100. an amount i find absurd.

free Starz was part of the original promotion, which i didn't mind ditching. but once on the phone, after establishing that the jump in price was due to the promotion ending, i thought i'd have some fun and request a continuation of the promotion.

and they agreed.

only Starz had no promotion available, so i ditched it. but HBO, the package with BBC/America and DIY, the DVR, the internet, all of it was eligible for another year of promotion.

i'm shocked. that's gonna save me $1200, until this time next year when i request it again.

oops, i have done it again

i went for my post-dinner piece of dark chocolate, not realizing that the chunk i grabbed was from the same 100% cacao baker's chocolate bar that i took a bite of a couple weeks ago. only this time, i wasn't expecting it.

new beetle meets scirocco?

i just came across this photo of a prototype of a possible future NB. i do think the NB shape is pretty darn tired and that VW should have killed it off a couple years ago. but i do like this new shape, even if i am unconvinced about Scirocco 3. then again, i was unconvinced about Scirocco 2, as the original Scirocco shape is fantastic, i think.

judaism defined

i've been combing through food is love posts recently, a blog i'm really enjoying. i came across the following, in this post of hers:

Judaism, as I recently told a friend, is built on two basic principles: 1) Treat other people the way you’d like to be treated, and 2) Onions and potatoes taste really good cooked in chicken fat. The rest, as Rabbi Hillel sort of said, is commentary.

adding insult to injury in the insect world

from here:

There are numerous parasites and predators of cockroaches, but few of them have proven to be highly effective for biological control. Wasps in the family Evaniidae are perhaps the most effective insect predators, as they attack the egg cases, and wasps in the family Ampulicidae are predators on adult and nymphal cockroaches (e.g., Ampulex compressa).

[...]


Ampullex wasps sting the roach more than once and in a specific way. The first sting is directed at nerve ganglions in the cockroach's thorax; temporarily paralyzing the victim for 2–5 minutes, more than enough time for the wasp to deliver a second sting. The second sting is directed into a region of the cockroach's brain that controls the escape reflex among other things.[28] When the cockroach has recovered from the first sting it makes no attempt to flee. The wasp clips the antenna with its mandibles and drinks some of the haemolymph before walking backwards and dragging the roach by its clipped antenna to a burrow, where an egg will be laid upon it. The wasp larva feeds on the subdued, living cockroach.

"get down there, little doggie!"

... i said as i flushed for a second time.

i saw my first Ariel Atom

was heading out to Michigan this weekend, and on the Boorman near Chesteron, I saw a string of fast cars heading west. one was a Lambo, followed soon after by a black Atom.

it went by quickly (naturally), and it was a lot bigger than i expected. black was a pretty cool color for it, as well. gf gave me permission to buy one, after verifying it had 2 seats.