I have a stone in my shoe and you know what that means...

Vent the stone.

Earlier this month I saw an ad campaign go viral across Facebook: a guy claiming that they could best Gillette in terms of razors. Something Schick has been trying to do for years and continuously coming up short... Bic? Does Bic still make razors? Anyway, I LOL'd: Gillette has been at the top of the food chain for years and for someone to bump the king off the throne... would take more than Ned Stark.

I've been using Gillette "advanced" razors from around 1990. I don't remember what I used before the original Gillette Sensor but I've been with them through the Sensor straight through to the Power Fusion ProGlide line... I have not looked into the 3-in-1 styler because... well, that just looks too big or silly, but the rest of it I've been using for years. Decades, even.

Now I'm a member of the Dollar Shave Club - what the hell happened?

Drove to work this morning... Didn't stop at Bellevue Square mall. Didn't stop at Best Buy. Didn't even stop at Target. I'm not obsessively looking at the UPS status page for delivery notices, because there's nothing new coming.

I've got an extra $660 in my bank account as a reward for all of the above. You see, I'm not getting a new Apple iDevice on launch day for the first time in years, and it feels wonderful.

Why? Because if I'm going to pick up an iPad 2S, it will be after all the thrill has died down, and then I plan to pick it up on the cheap, if at all.

MSN: Clay and Shauna Sauer, still grieving over their 18-year-old daughter's Jan. 12 death, have become lobbyists in their home state to urge the state legislature to pass a ban on texting while driving. Idaho is one of 13 states in the U.S. that has no such law in place.

/sigh

MSN Now: More students are turning to prostitution to pay debt

Should I be conflicted by this? Hard to say. I mean, back when I was in school - you know, before they invented color and the world was many shades of gray - people would shag away for the fun of it... not very discriminating in who they slept and not many problems came out of it. Given that "kids today" are sleeping together at a far younger age, whoring around with much more ease (and less shame), and wearing bumper stickers for skirts, shorts, and shirts, doesn't it make sense to pocket the cash to pay for the rising cost of tuition and gain the education?

There's a certain logic to it. If you take the morality out of the conversation, which the youth of any generation often do, and take the risk vs reward ratio out of it...

I blame the Jersey Shore.

It's the first Friday in Lent and for the second year in a row, I missed Big Steak Thursday!

/sigh

Happy Ninth Annual Big Steak Thursday to all!

SharpKeys is a Registry hack that is used to make certain keys on a keyboard act like other keys. For example, if you accidentally hit Caps Lock often, you could use this utility to map Caps Lock to a Shift key or even turn it off completely. This official release includes support for up to 104 mappings, an extensive list of available keys, and a "Type Key" option to help when managing mappings. As it relies on internal support within Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista, or Windows 7, you must be running one of these OS's for this Registry hack to work.

With the move to version 3.5, the code now compiled against the 4.0 version of the .NET Framework. The source code on Codeplex has been updated to reflect this change, so the developer community can actively pick up the change and continue enhance and support SharpKeys. My hope is that the list of available keys will grow to include more international options and that other random asked-for features get added as people require them. I will continue to host a copy of 3.0 and 3.5 but I still ask that all support requests go through Codeplex - this will allow other people to help with new features, going forward.

The source code can be found at http://www.codeplex.com/sharpkeys - enjoy!

Download SharpKeys 3.5: MSI | ZIP | requires .NET Framework 4.0
Download SharpKeys 3.0: MSI | ZIP | requires .NET Framework 2.0
Read: SharpKeys FAQ [updated!]
Screenshots: 1 | 2 | 3

After another three years, I've decided that I should a change to SharpMT... I could have made the changes to the version at Codeplex but I decided to do it on my own local code base (and share the bits) because 3.x includes spell checking and the 4.x on Codeplex does not due to licensing issuess. There's really only one change here: SharpMT now uses the .NET Framework 4.0 instead of aging 2.0. Why? Take a look at the Windows Development Preview for the hint of a clue...

SharpMT 3.5: Install MSI | required .NET Framework 4.0 | FAQ and Product Info

SharpMT 3.3.1: Install MSI | requires .NET Framework 2.0

I'm trying to stay away from blogs and Twitter this week. Facebook seems to be safe for some reason, but the rest of the intertubes are in an uproar over some bits and pieces about the proliferation of ads in certain services and it's like poking bamboo under my fingernails... and it's not a new thing. In fact, I think I'm the problem with this. It's the same irritation I when Facebook or Twitter make a change to their home page and people run out of their houses screaming about the New Thing and that [the site] doesn't respect their customers and "aaaaaaaah the world is on FIRE! FIRE! FIRE! FI- what's that new shiny thing? Oo. Wait, what fire?"

I find that if I wait about four days, the loud angst shrinks to a duller din; after two weeks, the entire episode is done. I just need to keep my shit together for the first few days of such events. I find that if I can hold it together for that long I won't pull my own spine out and try to use it as a Q-Tip for my right ear.

In all honesty, I would turn into a "it's not you - it's me" thing but in this case, I think it's just a general change in expectations that everyone needs to heed and it's one that's worth noting.

Petition: No Netflix Parties, No Way.

On December 6th, 2011, Microsoft updated its dashboard to the metro style look. With this update came a new and "improved" Netflix app. For us Xbox Love members paying $65 a year for Xbox Live and ~$100 for Instant Streaming Netflix we deserve the right to watch movies with our friends in a simple and easy way. Sign this petition to convince Microsoft to give us back our original Netflix App's functionality with Xbox Live Parties. For more information follow @NetflixParties.

Uh... what?

On December 6th, 2010, I voluntarily let someone stick a laser in my eye with hope of being able to get 20/20 vision without glasses or contacts for the first time since 1982.

One year in, the story continues...

How's the 4S and iOS 5 holding up?

Not as well as I had hoped...

There's been a ton of press over the last few weeks over the Occupy [insert your city here] movements... I thought it was time that someone send out a PSA to the people that have taken to the streets. I'm pretty sure that the protesters that are actually out there already know that it's hard to live this life outside - no matter how many Starbucks or REI products you have - and it's not very much fun, but I don't know that they've learned the most common lesson for people in their situation:

Just because you protest it doesn't mean you'll get your way - hell, it doesn't even mean that you're right.

MSN: PETA attacks Nintendo over fur-wearing Mario

Does PETA have to protest itself for shark jumping? I mean, is this what happens with hippies achieve their dream and have nothing left to complain about?

Let's be clear: it's a game. Worse, it's a rehash of a game. Mario was swinging that tail back in the early 90's if memory serves. This is a refresh, not even new IP, and Mario doesn't capture a racoon to get the suit: he jumps below a block to get a power up icon... if the Mason's are OK with this wanton destruction of blocks, what is the argument here? we don't even know that the fur that Mario wears is real fur. If Ninty puts out a press release saying that it's faux fur, would that be OK? Is this some reaction to the game being in 3D? Did some treehugger get confused and think this was a window into reality?

Hell, if you're going to go after Mario for the alleged fur costume, why not tag the poor bastard for jumping on the backs of turtles, knocking crabs upside down in the 80's, or shooting living snapping flowers with fireballs?

I swear: it makes me want to go skin a chinchilla for a 3DS case just to spike these people.

MSNBC.com: Michael Moore confesses: I am the 1 percent

Ya know, I'm beginning to feel like the media is creating those images where you have to let your eyes go lazy and then you see something in 3D... or that I'm seeing things very much like Picasso did.

Either way, I pose this realization: Michael Moore is a non-racially driven, Caucasian version of Al Sharpton... or if I may humbly submit the following term: Media Bimbo.