kirsten on November 19th, 2008 4:37 pm

why dont you goddamn feminists go shave your legs.

if you dont like the idea of women needing help, then DONT read the books or go out into the real world, because women should just stay in the kitchen and clean. Im a girl, and i think women usually do need a man to help them with things, and thats why we arent all lesbians.

its a good book, and a good love story. most love stories girls are helpless to a man anyway.
seriously, no man wants a girl whos all about womens right, so shut up and be happy you can vote.

Here is my favorite:

Cassi on November 14th, 2008 9:24 pm

If you all hate twilight so much how come you seem to know whats in all four books
If you hated it so much why didn’t you stop after the first one
I love twilight and am listening to the Soundtrack right now as i right this
I would like to know why you all hate it so much
Its a love story and vampire story all in one what could be better
Stephanie Meyer is a genius !!!

Oh dear lord.

Yes, because if you hate something, the best thing to do is stop reading and pretend it doesn’t exist.

Future of America?

Blast is releasing a Twilight Extra Edition Monday.

I don’t have a strong opinion either way, but it’s amazing to read all the responses we’re getting to both our several Twilight features and our well-written “Twilight Sucks” opinion piece.

But enough about my hobbies; I have one more update I wanted to throw out now that I’m on the East Coast again. There are some gadgets I brought along with me to test out for just such an occasion.

First of all, this week was a prime chance to try out my new Butterfly from American Express. I have been a Gold Card member for two years, and one day last month, I got this box on the mail from Amex. In the box were a new card and a keychain, which I thought was weird because I had just received my new credit card a few weeks previously. Then I realized that the keychain was actually a new gadget that allowed you to fold up your card and carry it on your keychain wherever you went.

I thought this was absolutely absurd at first and thought I would lose it with a degree of certainty.

The card is actually a neat new toy. The number on the butterfly card is different than the regular card, so if you do indeed lose your keys or the butterfly gadget, you don’t have to replace your entire Gold Card account.

The first unsuspecting merchant I sprung the butterfly on was the bartender at Wolfgang Puck’s in Boston’s Logan Airport, and he had no clue what I was giving him.

“It’s kinda neat, but I thought you were giving me your keys,” he said.

Next test, I removed my keys from the butterfly as I clearly did not need them in Las Vegas. Oddly enough, we ate at another Wolfgang Puck’s, this time at Spago in Caesar’s Palace. No comments this time; the waiter took the metal trinket, opened it and swiped it, bringing it back with a slightly larger monthly balance pending.

Overall…interesting status symbol toy, but I don’t think I’ll be abandoning my wallet and “traditional” cards anytime soon.

Now, I needed to be able to post my “notebook” series while I was in Vegas, and I did that by bringing my Dell Latitude D610, which is one of the best Dell notebooks I’ve ever used. It’s powerful enough to fire up Photoshop and light enough to carry on my arm across the airport terminal when the connecting flight from Boston to New York is an hour late and we’re running to catch the boarding Vegas flight, which we barely made-and our luggage didn’t until the next day-THANK you Jet Blue.

But the laptop isn’t what I’m here to discuss, nor is the worthless 40 minute flight from Boston to New York that took three hours to accomplish.

LapWorks, with the slogan: “When it comes to mobile computing…we’ve got your lap,” has a few products out there that will make your life easier if you’re a traveler like me who needs his or her laptop in inconvenient places like an airplane or hotel bed.

The company’s public relations efforts are headed by Michelle Moody of Moody & Associates, and she’s been able to generate considerable play for the Laptop Desk product line, including an article in USA Today and a top 10 holiday list on ZDNet a while back.

The product is almost too simple, when you think about it. It’s just two pieces of strong molded plastic that can either hinge on top of each other to boost the laptop to a better angle or fold out flat creating a comfortable mouse surface. It folds up to about 1.4″ thick and fits perfectly in my laptop bag, adding almost no additional weight.

I tested the “ultralight” model on Vegas and tested out the 2.0 model since. I used the products, and I’m happy with the products. Good job, LapWorks on creating a buzz for your product which fixes a common inconvenience for laptop users.

I came to a sad realization, however, during my trip. My pride and joy digital camera, the Canon SD110 Digital Elph, is nearing the end of its lifespan. It still works perfectly, but at only 3.2 megapixels and 2x optical zoom, it really isn’t cutting any edges anymore. It also takes too long to focus and take the shot. Turning the camera on, pointing, focusing and shooting is a five second project, and sometimes that’s too much.

But, the old Elph is a beautiful camera that I am sad to report is just getting old. And this is something, after two years of ownership that you didn’t used to have to say about a camera. I am thinking of staying in the Canon family with an SD630 in the future, but I’ll ask you, the educated reader, to help me out on that one with any comments.

On the subject of all things digital, the last gadget I carried was my Nextel Motorola i560. I can write a book on why I made a mistake switching to Nextel, but I will stick with it’s public relations deficit: they’re not even trying anymore. The biggest buzz-generator to hit Nextel in the last year and a half has been their merger with Sprint in 2005. The company will be keeping the Nextel iDEN network (with the walking-talking service) through at least 2010, so any benefits the consumer is hoping for through this merger are far from coming.

Not only is the Nextel voice service terrible, the i560, marketed by Nextel as a “rugged flip phone” that “adheres to Military Standard 810F for dust, shock, vibration, temperature extremes, low pressure, and solar radiation…performs in extreme outdoor environments and stands up to dusty environments, drops, exposure to vibration from heavy machinery use, and hot/cold climates,” has a little problem.

I can throw it against the wall, bury it in sand, put it in the freezer and expose it to x-rays, but when I was playing poker at Caesar’s on Wednesday afternoon, I had the phone in my pocket and noticed the phone had turned off. And then again Wednesday night it turned off a few times. A few more times Thursday. My brother and father, both much longer Nextel subscribers than I, have the same phone and had the same problem. There is a defect in the phone where the battery comes loose and the phone shuts off.

So much for using this phone in the heat of battle with bullets flying past and extreme elements pushing the phone to the brink: the phone was no match for the front pockets of my Gap khakis.

Those were the things I carried in Vegas. It was a balmy 110 degrees when we left, but there were clouds throughout the week and I even heard a rumor that it rained while I was buried in the Harrahs’ poker room Friday night. If you’re in Vegas, don’t miss The Buffet at Bellagio. You’ll pay $30 for it, but it is by far the best buffet I’ve ever eaten at. Try the Chicken Wellington and buffalo tipped steak. If you’re looking for some alternative poker games, Paris has a nice little poker room in the middle of things with nightly Omaha tournaments. I really liked the ambiance of the Paris casino over many of the other places that seemed to run together.

Also while in the air to and from Vegas, my good friend Mark Scalia and I were able to get some reading done. He finished The Professor, The Banker, and The Suicide King en route and One of a Kind on the return flight. Both are great looking poker books if you’re looking for an interesting read. The first book tells tales of ultra-high-stakes poker games where people literally throw down millions. The ladder is the story of card legend Stuey Ungar.

]]> http://prrag.com/2006/07/05/las-vegas-notebook-part-3-the-things-they-carried/feed/ 3 http://prrag.com/2006/06/14/aristotle-is-turning-over-in-his-grave/ http://prrag.com/2006/06/14/aristotle-is-turning-over-in-his-grave/#comments Thu, 15 Jun 2006 03:21:00 +0000 John Guilfoil http://prrag.com/?p=18 Jay Leno will play “Golden Mean” this evening on NBC’s “The Tonight Show” when two ideological extremes come together—-hopefully.

Ann Coulter, the blonde bombshell/conservative firecracker whose latest book, Godless: The Church of Liberalism, is causing an explosive stir, will be a guest alongside legendary comedian George Carlin.

The two are scheduled for separate timeslots, however.

Coulter’s book has drawn fire for, among other reasons, questioning the motives of 9/11 widows when she said: “I’ve never seen people enjoying their husbands’ deaths so much.”

Carlin is known for his no-subject-is-taboo comedy and commentary on politics and religion especially. He was the first host of NBC’s Saturday Night Live in 1975 and has been a perennial guest of “The Tonight Show” since even before Johnny Carson was hosting. He has written three books; When Will Jesus Bring the Pork Chops, Napalm and Silly Putty and Brain Droppings.

Does the “extreme” work in public relations? Certainly to liberals, Coulter is no less than the devil in Prada. But how many books has she sold? Carlin has made jokes saying that rape can be funny and once said “Fuck Mickey Mouse,” but he is one of the most followed American comedians in history. You be the judge.

I just really hope they get a chance to communicate meaningfully.