Tocci's Blog

When Tocci blogs you know there's big things poppin', little things stoppin'. (I borrowed that line from MVP.) So here's what's been happening.

First and foremost, we bought a house! I was getting sick of living in an apartment during the warmer months with no lawn to mow. Plus I haven't been spending nearly enough time at the Home Depot. Seriously though, we're psyched to finally have a house of our own. Our closing date is April 30th. More on Jenny's blog.

Tocci Ponders: Why is it that high-end stores always have very little merchandise on display, while discount stores are overflowing with sale items? I suspect there is some sort of cost of items per unit area rule that all stores must adhere to.

Fishing season has started and I went out three times so far on the boat. My dad and I were skunked on our first trip. Then Chris and I managed a couple of pickerel the second time out. But yesterday with Mike was a very successful day. Among the fish caught were Mike's first bass ever, my biggest pickerel ever, and my first bass on a lipless crank bait. The action is starting to heat up! Photos on flickr.

Tocci Ponders: The other day I saw a sign near an elevator that said, "In Case of Fire Use Stairway". What if the fire is in the stairway? And if there is a fire, how is a stairway going to help put it out? It should say "In Case of Fire, Use a Fire Extinguisher or Call Fire Department". Duh.

Today we went to the NY Auto Show to see the latest and greatest that the auto makers have to offer. I always enjoy checking out the concept cars, but lately I've become jaded because I have yet to see a production model car that even remotely resembles any concept car I've ever seen. The concept cars always have awesome super-thin seats, doors that flip open in all kinds of directions, huge rims and ultra-slim profile wheels, and more bells and whistles than a bird caller riding Santa's sleigh. But year after year the new cars come out with the same old seats, same old wheels, and same old doors. Maybe next year... Photos on flickr.

Yesterday, I met Alton Jones at the World Fishing and Outdoor Expo in Suffern, NY. Alton is a professional bass angler and the winner of the 2008 Bassmaster Classic, the Superbowl of pro bass fishing. I've seen him on TV many times, watched his video clips, and read his articles, so it was a real treat to meet him and shake his hand. I'm hoping some of his fish-catching mojo rubbed off on me.

Overall the fishing expo was a good time. Chris and I wandered around for a couple of hours amongst countless guys with long beards wearing camouflage. We browsed the stands, bought some hard-to-find tackle, and watched a reptile show where a guy who was apparently nuttier than squirrel crap played with poisonous snakes and aligators. Photos on flickr.

Random thought: Being cool is a catch 22. You may want to be cool, but anyone who thinks they're cool is not cool, and anyone who tries to be cool is not cool. So basically, you can only be cool if it's not on purpose and if you don't know about it.

Some not cool links:
(Or maybe they are. I don't know. If they are I didn't mean it.)

• All the curses from the Sopranos in chronological order. It's mesmerizing and definitely NSFW. Thanks, Chris.
• For those looking for a good time waster there are some entertaining games at random-good-stuff.com. I played popopop and touch the bubbles 2 for more than 10 rounds each before I ran out of gas. Thanks, Jenny.
• The Office (musical)
• You can get lost dragging your mouse around this image. Very cool water effect.
• Grocery Shrink Ray - Have you noticed you're getting less food per container? Thanks, Jon Jon.
• There's some very cool text-to-speech technology at text-to-speech.imtranslator.net. But that's just where the fun begins. I wrote a few quick scripts for the various speakers. Turn on your sound and enjoy: English male, English female (nsfw), Italian male :-)

This morning I awoke to the news that my beloved Siamese fighting fish, El Guapo, had passed away. I fed him a few pellets last night before I went to bed and he seemed happy as a clam... or a happy betta. This morning he was motionless. Poor little guy. Sure, he pretty much hated my guts, flaring his gills with malice whenever I caught his eye, but I enjoyed watching him swim around and make bubble nests on my desk. I have fond memories of the way he'd attack the end of my pen through the glass as if it were a rival male, or threaten my cat Leia if she got too close. I'd like to think that he lived a good, happy life, but it still sucks to lose him. So long, El Guapo. We'll miss you.

On a lighter note, I bought a flippin' stick today. I've been looking for a 7'6" medium-heavy rod that I can use to pitch and flip jigs and baits up to 1 1/2 ounces, and I found one today on sale at Sports Authority. Combined with a coupon from CJ and a gift card from the Chens and I practically got it for nothing. Score one for the good guys. Now I just have to get a reel for it and wait for the lakes to melt to try it out.

A Joke by Tocci: Did you hear about the boxer who ruined his own bachelor party? He misunderstood when a stripper asked for a body shot.

It's a bit linky out there. Wear a jacket.

• Literal Videos - Dustin McLean came up with the brilliantly funny idea to remake popular videos so that the words of the songs match what's actually happening. There are three videos in the web series: Take on Me, Head Over Heels, and Under the Bridge.
• The Matrix Runs on Windows
• The 10 Most Successful Potheads on the Planet - Cool Enough to Admit It - One day I hope to make this list. Thanks, Nong.
• Pooktre Tree Shapers - Have you ever longed for a tree to be a chair, or even a person? Well pine no more.

The NY Times picked up the story of my Double Bird Strike game today and posted an article online with links and everything. It will be in the printed paper tomorrow. A few minutes after the article was published, WCBS 880 radio called me to record a phone interview. How cool is that? They even linked to the game from their "mentioned on air" page on their website. Here's the audio clip. To me, it sounds like my voice was hijacked by a stuttering little girl.

I think I need to practice being interviewed. They only use maybe 5% of what you say, and they try to pick the juiciest stuff without including the reporter's questions which frame the responses. I can't blame them, but it sucks for me because I tend to explain myself after I say things, and those bits don't seem to make the cut. I guess if the interview is not live, it pays to stop and think for a few seconds before speaking to better phrase things. Next time...

Also in the news, and far more prominently, have been Michael Phelps and Christian Bale. Leave Michael Phelps alone. Poor guy can't even have a little fun at a college party without people flipping out on him. What else are you supposed to do with swimmer's lungs in the off season? That guy is definitely the most impressive pull in the cypher. Christian Bale, on the other hand, deserves all the crap he's getting for being a jag to the lighting guy on the Terminator set. That dude needs some anger management.

UPDATE (2/5): MSNBC picked it up now. The article seems to imply the game just came out, even though it was the first one published. And the description of the end screen is off, but hey, any press is good exposure and it's a really nice article. Also, if you have the NY Times today, check page A27 for the story.

Two of my games were mentioned in a writeup on Reuters today. The stuff about the game has some inaccuracies, but it's cool to be mentioned in the news.

Random Thought: Every kid hates writing book reports, but book critics chose to do it for a living.

In other news, the groundhog has seen his shadow, so this winter is now supposed to continue. In this day and age, you'd think someone would slip that little rat an Ativan to make him less skittish. Who isn't sick of winter by now?

Tocci Ponders: Why does one loose hair inside my undershirt itch like crazy but a hair that is still attached doesn't itch at all? (Not even the end that's not attached.)

I've been focusing on websites lately. MiiCharacters.com has some new features including a "Mii of the Day" on the homepage. It changes daily (big surprise there) so there's always something new on the site. I also added an auto-complete to the search boxes which tries to guess which mii you might be searching for. The overhaul of TocciOnline also continues. I've touched up the "miscellaneous" page and named it "odds & ends". I also updated a few pages and removed some older crap. Slowly but surely it's turning into something I can be proud of once again.

A Terrible Joke by Tocci:
Q: Why do Native Americans always get seated at fancy restaurants?
A: They have reservations.

For those suffering from link withdrawal:

• In case you missed the SuperBowl ads last night, they're pitted against each other in a tournament on MSN. For me it came down to Bridgestone "Taters" vs Doritos "Power of the Crunch", with "Taters" taking top honors.
• LookLiker.com is a funny site. I discovered it when searching for juxtapositions of Michael Phelps and Eli Manning. Then yesterday I was thinking how much Mike Tomlin looks like Omar Epps and sure enough it was already posted there. The only comparison that I thought of recently which didn't already exist on the site was Matt Hughes and Guy Ritchie, so here it is.
• Neoformix is an interesting website which discovers patterns in data. I had some fun with their twitter ven app. A related site is FlowingData, which has some cool stuff as well such as The Growth of Walmart Across America. Another cool related site is breathingearth.net, which shows CO2 emissions, births, and deaths in simulated real time around the world.
• Optical illusions - I've seen many of these before, but there are some cool new ones.