I suffer from a condition that makes me sneeze when exposed to grow-lamps or the sun. For years people tried to tell us sun-sneezers that we were allergic to pollen and it was a coincidence that we sneezed outside. But we all knew that the sneeze started in the eyes somehow, we felt the sneeze trigger in our eyes.

I did a little research into this, and some scientists gave it an official name: Autosomal Dominant Compelling Helio-Ophthalmic Outburst Syndrome. I can put that on my resume.

Apparently one in four people are affected by ADCHOO (get it?). I’ve only ever met like 3 people with it. Steven claims to sneeze when he combs his hair.

I’m in the market for a refurbished iBook for school next year. And I’ve been weeding through offical Apple dealers comparing prices and deals they offered. I had a lot of questions to ask too, I was impressed when my first question (“will you ship to Canada?”) was answered in 4 minutes from one place. That was great. I was happy, and asked a few more questions, they were pleasant to deal with and helped me out. Then they sold out of the model I wanted (I think it was already sold out, the site just wasn’t updated, they since updated it when I asked).

So I went to the Little Mac Shoppe and talked to the friendly staff (I think his name was Dale), and they let me play with an iBook (and the coolest damn USB-lightbulb I’ve ever seen). I saw on their site that they rented Macs, but it was too expensive for somebody just trying to see if they got along with OS X.

I decided to continue my efforts via the internet, and I was disappointed that when I emailed questions to them, I didn’t get replies within a day, and then in two. I understand if they can’t have somebody sitting there watching the inbox all day, but I would have expected them to check at least once a day. That sort of turned me off as a customer. Even though no malice was intended (as I said, my real-world visit was great) the email cold-shoulder made me and my business feel unwanted. Maybe this is how 8 year olds on ICQ who got my contact feel when I don’t get back to them in the first minute and they begin wondering “why do u hate me rob?? a/s/l?”.

So I’m remaining hopeful that somebody will read my question about whether or not the LMS is able to hook me up with a tasty, factory refurbished G3/600 iBook.

UPDATE: After speaking with the good Mac people, we’ve determined that there is a strange technical issue that is keeping me from getting mail them right now. They tried to be prompt, but the Man had other ideas. Furthermore, they have expanded their ways of being contacted to use some IM methods too. Cheers.

My passion for those wacky plastic bricks was rekindled a few months ago. I’m sure that most people have a fond memory or two about time spent with Lego. There is something so satisfying about the slight resistance, then click of two tiny bricks. Not to mention the enormous pride of completing a project, whether or not you used the instructions. I investigated a little bit and found many facinating places created by the online Lego communty.

The first of these, was BrickLink. Originally BrickBay, the name had to be changed when somebody noticed the similarity between the two. This place is an amazing resource for any avid builder. You can pick a little store that somebody who catalogued all thier Lego set up, and fill your boots with anything you need.

This leads me to my next discovery, the LDraw project. These dedicated people are in the process of (and have taken a good chunk out of) entering every Lego piece in existance into a library that can be used by various CADs (my favorite is MLCAD), and so you can build your own things virutally. That’s totally not as fun as hands-on. But you have access to way more bricks, AND, you can always order your pieces up if you do something genial. It’s also great for home-brew kits and instructions.

The last spot that amazed me was a community server to hold pictures of people’s work, Brickshelf. I have trouble finding good stuff by just browsing the site head-on, but I did follow this link to a crazilly well-done StarWars piece.

In closing, I’d like to say that the plural of Lego is Lego. Not Legos. Wierd kids said that. Don’t be wierd.

To my great wonderful joy, I was pointed in the direction of a cover band called The Moog Cookbook. These Space Rockers cover classic rock songs and some new (circa 1996) pop stuff.

They reduce Green Day’s “Basketcase” to slinky elevator muzak. Some other AOV favorites are Black Hole Sun and Hotel California (which I would like to add features the Popcorn lick at the end).

I totally dig this stuff, the Nirvana cover had me flailing my arms in an attempt to dance. This was only ever previously achieved by Joy Electric‘s Moogy* antics.Does anybody know of any other Moog rock like this?

* I like saying Moog. Moog.

Yesterday I learned about a suspicious connection (or a dark cloud gathering overhead) between a bacterium in Pasteurized milk and Crohn’s disease.

They haven’t proven anything, but if it is eventually proven to be true, I think it’s perfectly fair for a cow to give me a disease after I’ve eaten so many of thier brethren.

Dave Thomas, beloved founder and spokesperson of Wendy’s passed away last night from liver cancer.

I watched a biography about him once on A&E and he lead an interesting life. My favorite part was how he decided that paying sports heros and rock stars millions of dollars to sell burgers he said “Screw that, I can do it”. His work for orphans and adoption also indicates how he never sold out and forgot his roots.

He was a good fellow, he will be missed.

Merry Christmas.

With that out of the way I would like to tell the world about a fine use of Flash. I’m not as hugely into design as some of the readers around here, so try to think of me as an average Internut participant who found something that pleased him.

I am planning on a little trip up to Moncton tomorrow, and was curious as to what kind of weather I could expect. I checked a fine national weather site and to my delight they have a nice little Flash map of Canada with adorable (I’ll put my reputation on the line with that word) icons showing me the weather.

It was pretty and it worked. Cheers!