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BuffaView - Washington and East Huron

Im really digging the restoration of the old Howard Shoes building, and now its ready for new owners. My favorite part (beside the rounded corners and the terra cotta tiles) is the insigned red apple, a sign of its early early days as the Waldorf Apple.

Daily Drag Queen Affirmations

I think I inadvertently became a Nikol fanboy… which is cool, cause Nikol is like the Molly Wood of sex ed. Anyways Nikol, I’ll do you one better.

For twice the price of a sexual favor (that would be $20), you can get access to 365 quips and quotes of affirmation, performed by various drag queens. Simply visit dailydragqueenaffirmations.com and sign up.

Daily Drag Queen Affirmations is a great way to start your day. Each morning you receive an email that links you to that day’s video. The video contains a man, dressed up like a woman, giving you praise or an uplifting thought that will hopefully brighten your day.

(It’s like those little page-a-day calendars except fiercer and we don’t kill trees.)

• Created by Start With A Laugh Productions

Midwest Teen Sex Show: I can haz sex ed?

Ok, so i’m not a teen, and sex ed for me in HS consisted of me filling out a worksheet, then being excused so I could run around the campus fixing computers. That was my out for gym class too, worked like a charm. It wasn’t so much that I wasn’t fit, or didn’t want to work out, I just hated my health/gym teachers and didn’t like the hassle in the locker room.

The Midwest Teen Sex Show was created to help teens get a little more out of sex ed then whats spit out in state sanctioned curriculum. And unlike more conservative methods, MTSS realizes teens are gonna screw no matter what if they put their heads and labias together, so why not give em the truth. Hosted by the ever beautiful (and fellow bear lover, for a girl at least) Nikol, and supplemented by a cast of nutballs (read: geniuses), the MTSS is as entertaining as it is informative. If you have a kid, or know a kid, or even know a few parents, send them the link to the free subscription on iTunes.

I sat and watched all the episodes at once, stunned by how amazing and ridiculous the approach was to sex education by MTSS. Slipping in serious facts admist satirical comments about STI’s and pedophiles, teens might actually learn something. The videos are mature to a certain level, but hey, its a sex ed podcast, shouldn’t it be just a little bit edgy?

A bt about the cast (from MTSS)

• Who the hell is Nikol?
  Former expert practitioner of teen promiscuity, Nikol lives out her days as a Midwestern mother of three. Her interests range from music, movies, trash television, and naked rodeo clowns with handlebar mustaches to cooking, reading and naked rodeo clowns with handlebar mustaches. When not involved in the usual humdrum of packing lunches and trying not to laugh her way through parent teacher conferences, Nikol spends her free time writing and teaching creative writing workshops to high school students. She hates the phrase “swimsuit area,” and hopes her own life experiences will better inform viewers on the realities of teen sexuality.
• Who is Britney?
  “I do all my own stunts.”
• Who’s that Guy?
  Director Guy Clark (aka Todd) is the creator of Midwest Teen Sex Show. He has won awards for his online spots for GEICO Car Insurance, Ready.gov, and Nerve.com. When he’s not busy editing episodes and duct taping Britney’s nipples, Guy produces new media content for online and broadcast venues. His commercial work and production services can be found at h-pep.com. He also loves cheese.

What Kind of Geek Are You?

[click above to embiggen]

Page four-dee-too of April’s Wired features a “field guide to the identification of unique species in the nerd underground.” Here’s the description for “gadget guy,” the type I most feel associated with..

The Gadget Guy

• Disposition: Sociable while waiting in line on launch day; ferocious in comments on Gizmodo. Seemingly unflappable in the face of early adopter’s remorse (AKA Apple Newton Syndrome).
• Beliefs: I can fix that. There’s no god but Macgyver. The price will drop in a month but I need it now.
• Turn-ons: Unboxing videos. Backup batteries. Blue LEDs. Laser pointers. People who RTFM. Things that make loud clicking sounds.

What kind of Geekster are you? Be sure to pick up April’s Wired, its a good read (as always) and features an in-depth article on the battle of Gizmodo vs Engadget and why Brian Lam is such a jerk. If you don’t subscribe to Wired, you really should, its the common denominator between all types of geek.

Macworld 2008: There’s Something in the Air

Same as last year, I’m here to bring you the latest of round the web-updates and information on the shiny new goodies to be unleashed this year at Macworld 08. The show starts at noon EST, and feel free to keep refreshing the page to get the updates as I’ll edit this post as soon as something new comes in.

I’ll be getting most of my info from Gizmodo live coverage. You can always check em out for more specs, but remember to hit me up for the commentary.

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Jay-Z and Apple to form Record Label?

Say it isn’t so, but the BGR (BoyGeniusReport) says it is:

• …we’ve just about confirmed it. For those that don’t know, Jay-Z left Def Jam as President last month, … we just heard that Jay-Z is launching a record label with Apple. … This is from a high-up person attached to Jay (no, not who you’re thinking), and it’s said to be a go! Jay is supposedly totally into the business model, and really wants this to happen.

Hrm. Hrm. Hrmphf!

I dunno about this, but as incredible as it sounds, this could totally work. Apple has been trying to establish a firm bargaining chip with the music industry for a while, since Record companies have been bucking with DRM and song costs.  This isn’t the first time that Hip-hop and Apple have been mentioned together, either. Remember that story about the 50-Cent inner-city budget mac? Yea, didn’t think so.

• Boy Genius Report 

While I was out: Verizon Sucks

I’m sure all three of my blog readers are interested in seeing the final chapter of the Dunny Fiasco, and I’m interested in writing it. I’m also sure that my bloggers on WNYMedia are really eager to get a few new features rolled out. This all could happen I suppose… if Verizon didn’t suck balls and Vaspian was a crappy T1 provider… So while the intertubes were down at the office, I missed a few of these interesting web bits:

• Glo-Paint creaters, MPK, has come up with self-luminous micro particles called Litrospheres™ which they say are inexpensive, non-toxic, and will stay on for 12+ years (half-life point) continuously — without having to be plugged into any power source [peswiki.com]
• I was waiting for the Gizmodo review on the Plastic Surgeon clamshell case opener, and they said it’s “fantastic.” [Gizmodo]
• nerdsniping. wow. [xkcd]
• This is like digg for fashion and design trends. great coding and functionality for a beta site. +chic! Will elaborate on this more. [chictini]
• Fanboys don’t know how to act now that Apple has made the move from niche to mainstream [Datamation]
• Girls from Buff State: Carry mace and a brick [Buffalowatchdog]
• Apple says you can haz 5 iPhones this xmas. [Homotron]
• And now a trailer for a film called “Look,” which was supposedly filmed using only surveliance cameras, should hit theatres this Friday.

MacHeist 2 Begins

Last year, any company that employed free software loving macheads took a 45% hit in productivity due to MacHeist, a type of internet scavenger hunt where you solve “heists” to gain access to free loot (OSX apps) and discounts on the big bundle at the end.

Last year, we were sent from site to site, decrypting cyphers, and solving visual puzzles with pieces more separate from each other than the Jackson family. The loot comes from the ginormous developer community. Last year, we got Cha-ching, 1passwd, Captain FTP, and others, which all led up to a huge bundled grab bag which we applied discounts we earned to get it for next to nothing.

With Heist #1 underway, the puzzle seems to be a bit more mixed media. No spoliers, but lets just say you better be on a mac for this one or you can’t solve it. This poses a difficulty for me, as I won’t be on a mac till christmas (I hope), but i’m following what I can on teh office PC.

So, if you are on a mac, you love puzzles, and you want free stuff, get on board and don’t let your boss catch you when time comes to print out a sundial on the office printer.

• Macheist 2

Apple: Your House Burned Down, have an iPod

• More than 100 high school students in the Poway school district who lost homes in the October wildfires have received a surprise gift – iPods donated by Apple. Kari Afshari, 15, a sophomore at Rancho Bernardo High, said she was told last week to drop by a classroom for pizza and was surprised when she and fellow students were handed nano video iPods.

The kids were gifted the iPods after a member of the community sent an email to Steve Jobs asking for help. Jobs never responded, his email address is handled by super intelligent squirrels, but it ended up with  Michael Foulkes, the state and local affairs manager for Apple. Shortly after, the Nanos were delivered.

Apple mentioned they didn’t want any publicity for the act.

Ok, so its a nice gesture, and I’m sure a bunch of the kids had iPods that were lost in the fire. But see, their old iPods just happen to be in their rooms, in the house, that also burned to the ground. No computer to dock to, and all their music, photos, and videos are gone. Hold that, Apple should have no problem letting them redownload all that music again from iTunes, given the situation. Whats that? you downloaded all your music from p2p and bittorrent?  The only thing you bought on iTunes was The Office? In that case, you are S.O.L.

The point is giving a kid who just lost everything an iPod is not as good as giving them relief funds.  I don’t blame Apple, I blamed the dumbass who asked apple for iPods.

• SignOnSanDiego {via engadget}

New iTunes ad: Queen (Work That Mary)

It’s been a little while since we’ve seen a new iTunes ad, but Apple is back and featuring Mary J. Blige. Backlit with her backup iPod silhouettodancers, the ad perfectly shows the new bright side to Mary; no more tears, no more, pain, she’s just fine.

One thing to note is everytime the iPod gets an update, the white silhouettes in the commercials reflect the subtle changes to design. TUAW notes the absence of an iPhone; I kinda enjoy that only the classic iPod gets featured, it’s still iconic.

• Queen (featuring Work That by Mary J. Blige) iTunes ad
• Mary J. Blige on iTunes