Being that The Beast (my broken down 1988 Ford Bronco) is sidelined indefinitely with an unknown injury, I figured I’d take a gander at last weeks New York International Auto Show. All I can say is that I want need a new car. The only question now is do I want a sports car like the new 450 horsepower supercharged V8 Ford Shelby Cobra GT500, something a little more practical like the four door 425 horsepower 6.1 liter Hemi V8 Dodge Charger SRT-8, or I could stick with the SUV trend and look towards the 415 horsepower 6.1 liter Hemi V8 Jeep Grand Cherokee SRT-8.

So many choices, so little money .

For all of my high school readers, or any of my readers who would like a little extra security on the internet from time to time, I introduce you to Virtual Browser.

Virtual Browser allows you to browse the internet from behind their proxy. What does that mean? Well, it means that your high school’s internet filter won’t have a clue if you decide to use the corner computer in the library (don’t act like you never did it). It also means that if you are feeling like you want to check out the domain that keeps sending you those sketchy spam emails that your virus scanner loves to pick fights with, you can.

Just so no one thinks that I was trying to look up porn on campus, I came across this website while browsing Firefox extensions.

Does anyone remember the old version of this idea? While I was a Jr. in high school I remember finding out about a very similar idea… www.tridium.com? If I remember correctly it was made for the sole purpose of allowing Chinese citizens the ability to surf the web free from government tracking. Then the Chinese government bought the website out and shut it down.

In my mind one of the few organizations that has a viral sales effect similar to Mac’s is that of the Girl Scouts. For two months in the spring of every year, thousands of young women spread out to knock on our doors and hawk over priced cookies. And every year we buy them up. What is it about an 8 year old girl with a green vest on that sucks those singles out of my wallet?

From personal experience while working in the warehouse at Dircks Moving Services the transportation, sorting, and distribution of the cookies is nothing less than jaw dropping. First, the cookies come in by the ton (seriously) and are stacked in the warehouse until about a week before “C-Day” (Cookie Day) when the updated order quantities come in. The warehouse staff breaks the cookie pallets down and sorts them into districts and readies them for distribution. Then early on Saturday “C-Day” morning the vans and suv’s start to line up in the parking lot. The troop mom’s armed with their order list, and megaphone take over from there ordering pallets to be broken down, sorted out, and readied for pickup. By midnight or so on “C-Day” the parking lot is covered with cookie crumbs, cardboard, and a few last scattered green vests. To give you an idea of the scope of the Girl Scout Cookie operation, check out these statistics for the South Carolina Girl Scout Cookie Sale.

Sidenote: In case anyone is looking to pick up a last second Easter present for me, I looove Samoas.

Mac finally roped me in today. On a mission at Best Buy to pick up a new alarm clock (which was of course sold out) I found myself with $75 in gift cards burning a whole in my wallet. I dabbled with the idea of a computer component, a memory card for my Treo, and a new PS2 game before deciding to head for the door empty handed. Ah, but those pesky marketers were up to no good and plopped the mp3 player kiosk right near the door.

Trying hard to maintain face in front of a known Mac user friend of mine, I looked over all of the portable media devices like the Rio, and the Nomad. I was convinced by said friend that I didn’t want an MP3 player that I would have to buy batteries for every other day. With that in mind, my skeptical outlook on the need to have any more than 512mb memory, and my even more skeptical outlook on the price/value of the device, I was pointed directly at the iPod Shuffle.

Impressions thus far:

• Impressed at the quality of the included headphones and the power put out by the .8oz item.
• Angry at the inability to add/remove songs via Windows Explorer.
• Thus, angry that Mac’s proprietary iTunes software was a required install.
• Even more angry that the iTunes software come bundled with the dogpoop of a programm QuickTime
• Inspired by the Shuffle’s simplicity; ie: no lcd, simple user interface, and unobtrusive branding to name a few examples.
• Intrigued by Mac as a brand a little more than yesterday when I was a little more intrigued by Mac than the day before.

Now, maybe I will be able to put it to good use, while working out on a regular basis for example. In other news, I need to win at poker this week to recover the lost cash cost spent on the damn thing.

I was going to write a post about the lacking coverage and attention given to the Iditarod Dog Sled Race. Unfortunately I got sick of trying to express what I really wanted to say about it so I decided to can the post all together in favor of this brief mention and a link to a story about it on ESPN.com