The secret to beautiful hair

Posted 22 Dec 2008

Daily Life, Language | 2 Comments 

Ladies and gentleman! Worry no more! After years of suffering through dirty, grimy hair that just wouldn’t get clean no matter how many times I washed my hair with shampoo, I have discovered something of a miracle elixir:

Folks, read the label closely. Only there will you see the real power of Tesco’s brilliance:

Did you read it closely? That’s Tesco’s Cleansing Anti-dandruff Shampoo. The secret is in the cleansing! I had never appreciated that before. A subtle but oh-so-important difference! Now my hair is not only dandruff-free but it is blissfully clean! Yeah!

CRAZY DRUNKEN NOODLES

Posted 19 Dec 2008

Daily Life, Food | Leave a Comment 

At the Thai restaurant where I ate last night, two menu items called for my attention:

They were begging to be combined into … CRAZY DRUNKEN NOODLES! And so they were, and the combo was delicious.

(Apologies for the horrendous quality of these photos … I was drunk on noodles when I remembered to wield the camera.)

When Alex just isn’t enough

Posted 17 Dec 2008

Daily Life, People | 2 Comments 

If any of you know anyone by the name of Alex, you may find this product useful, for those times when Alex just doesn’t cut it, and you need something more.*

*This is asserted without consideration for the particular way in which you find Alex to be falling short.

Extreme Denial of Warranty

Posted 16 Dec 2008

Daily Life, Design, The Little Things | 12 Comments 

I own a SanDisk MP3 player. It is a pretty good little MP3 player. Nothing too fancy. Nothing I have to worry about losing. Functional. I can imagine a few improvements for it, but overall it really answers my needs for music on the go.

One of the few issues I’ve found with the player is that the screws that hold the device together tend to fall out. After normal usage, the tiny screws which attach the back-plate to the faceplate start to come loose. This process is exacerbated by activities that I would still consider normal use for MP3 players, for example, going for a run.

After owning the player for just a month and running with it about five days a week, one of the screws fell out and I wasn’t able to find it. I contacted SanDisk, which still held the player under warranty, and I was a little stunned by their response.

Note: To read a larger, more legible version, please click on the scan of the letter.

They are claiming that the screws are “accessories” to the player!  Really???

But they are an understanding company, so they go ahead and extend me the gracious offer of sending me some of the missing screws. Unfortunately, they then qualify that with the statement that the replacement parts may not come soon, or ever. With a qualifier like that, they can promise just about anything can’t they?

Note: As you can see from the date on the SanDisk response, these emails occurred in mid-July, so it has been about six-months and no replacement screws have arrived. I guess it is high-time I just go buy some from the store myself.

Cycling your way to a tax break

Posted 15 Dec 2008

Commuting, Daily Life | 3 Comments 

In the newpaper today I saw an article about a tax break that will be available to Americans who ride their bikes to work.  Starting January 1st, 2008 there will be some sort of “cash back” given to people who use their bike regularly to get to work.  Now, no details about how this plan is to be implemented were available in this article, but that’s not the point of this post. I just want to know, why won’t people who walk to work get a tax break too?