10 Things I have done during conference calls the past few weeks I get stuck on these conference calls and often my presence there is only for a few issues and I spend a lot of time being bored listening to other people blab on. Here are ten things I have done to pass the time
10 - bounce a rubber ball off my wall 9 - eat snacks 8 - clean my favorite's folder up 7 - edit photos so they appear to show severed body parts 6 - chat bot 5 - talk to my neighbor 4 - clean my desk 3 - IM other bored meeting participants 2 - wonder if I am wasting my life by not following my childhood dream of being a veterinarian / computer software magnate 1 - look at my computer's registry settings
Bye Manhattan Portage I own 4 or 5 Manhattan Portage bags, from the small man-bag to the larger messenger type bag and until recently have been happy with them. Maybe it's because I am not working at a dot-com and wearing my pajamas everyday, but I began to notice that their rough canvas material is efficient in 'pilling' your clothes, especially cotton pants. Then there was the addition of my new work laptop that fit perfectly in my favorite bag, but the strap was so crappy it made carrying the bag painful (and it's a really small laptop).
The camel that broke the straw's back was when I went into the Manhattan Portage store to look for either a strap pad or a new bag that had a better strap on it. The guy excitedly showed me their bags with their special 'soft strap' and actually was showing me the exact same bag I had with the exact same lousy strap.
Me: "Wait, but this new soft strap bag.. It's the same bag I already have" Him: "But, it's soft. See? Feel." Me: "Soft? No it's not - it's the same dumb strap I am complaining about"
Product Plug I went and bought a new bag. Turned my back on Manhattan Portage after all these years. So, here is my plug (wait, why I am plugging something for free - they should send me something for this): Timbuk2. They are made in SanFran, so that is kind of local. Well, maybe not, but they aren't a huge company with a sweatshop somewhere. The neat thing is that their website lets you custom build a bag with a neat little Flash based bag builder. It's pretty fun in general (Mrs. Robot and I played with it one day trying to make the ugliest bags possible).
I got the small Pee-Wee bag which is actually just a tad larger than I need (the laptop is only like 10x9 inches). It's got the shiny clothes friendly finish, the fat strap pad, and lots of pockets. So far, so good.
Email to Ian, circa 11/1999
you ain't so bad. i could wrestle your ass down any day, and then drag your ass to the damn police station where your law breaking ass belongs!
Quote of the day "Any guy who says he won't watch the shittiest movie in the world if they think that the hot lead actress will get naked, even for a second, is a lying bastard."
