Kleenex Klap

I caught this Kleenex ad several times today.

Homegrown imitations in 3… 2… 1….

Codeorgan

If this web site could sing, this is how it would sound.

Snomenclature

Snow accumulation on Capitol Hill. January 21, 2007.

Thanks to a heavy snowfall in late December and the still forthcoming snowfall today, there is no shortage of nicknames for winter weather. I will attempt to list them all here and update as more arise in the popular vernacular — or at least become trending topics on Twitter.

So far, I have:

• Snowmageddon
• SNOMG (variants: SnowMG, snowmygod, snowmgasm)
• Snowpocalypse
• Snowlyshit

Additionally, I found snowfuckyourself. It’s not clear to me if that’s supposed to be a nickname for the storm or an insult; the jury’s still out on that one.

Have I missed one?

snOMG

During the 8 1/2 years I spent at my last job, we had two – maybe three – snow days. The last official one was long enough ago, and something of a non-event really, I couldn’t even tell you when it was. Regardless, snow days were paid leave; I left that job 8 weeks ago.

Snow days are now unpaid leave for me, at least for now anyway. Don’t get me wrong, I love a good snow day – especially when we get to call it Snowpocalypse – but I also enjoy maintaining an otherwise minimally fabulous lifestyle.

We’re expecting upwards of 3 feet of snow here in the D.C. area. I’m done with my stocking up. That said, nature can bring it on!

Monopoly Revolution

U.K. edition of Monopoly Revolution.

After 75 years as one of the squarest games in creation – and I mean that in the nicest way – Monopoly will receive a curvier facelift. A vast update to the classic board game will include play credit cards in lieu of paper play money, and a round playing field.

'Wheel of Fortune' wheel. (WikiMedia Commons)

Yep, you read that right: round. The new board reminds me of Wheel of Fortune. I’m a little on the fence on the board shape, but from everything I’ve read, the board and other updates don’t affect the core gameplay too drastically. This is more than I can say for Clue, which received a series of updates in 2008.

The new version of Monopoly is due out this fall and according to Uncrate will retail for about $35. I’m not sure I’d pay that much for it, to be honest.

Sleeping With Twitter

Yes Virginia, twitter will allow you to sleep – you just have to tell it to.

Figure 1

In the interest of keeping other people from managing my online presence – I’m not particularly interested in playing that game again – I offer a simple guide to setting up what I call twitter’s silent mode.

Say you use twitter from a mobile device and for whatever reason you have it send new tweets to you via SMS; perhaps your device has no app for that. You can set up twitter so new tweets only come to you between certain hours. There are six easy steps to do this.

1. Log in.
2. Click Settings.
3. Click Mobile.
4. Check the box labeled Turn off updates during these hours.
5. Set the hours.
6. Click Save.

Boom, you’re done. It’ll look something like Figure 1 above. In my case, device updates are off since I use an app to aggregate and view new tweets. And thank goodness for that; getting all those tweets via SMS drove me nuts!

‘Face’ the Music

Perhaps my gay card will be revoked for this, but I am not a fan of Lady Gaga. Honestly, I just don’t get the fascination.

Be that as it may, her mere presence in the pop culture landscape of the past year really touched a nerve. Her songs are veritable earworms. Take “Poker Face,” which became a number one hit on several charts, including no less than four Billboard singles charts here in the U.S.

Naturally, when something becomes so popular, it gets re-imagined and parodied in some fashion. That said, I present two videos for the viewing. First, Chris Daughtry’s acoustic cover version.

And second “Neutra Face,” a parody laden with typographic references. The parody is also available as an MP3 download.

Brad Graham

Brad Graham in 2003. (photo by sheeshoo)

Nearly a decade ago, I created my first blog, “fredo today.” This later evolved into the now-defunct “Grapefeed”; more on that in a future post. Several people inspired me to jump on the then-hot blogging bandwagon. Some I became very close to; others I wish I took the opportunity to know better. Brad Graham was among the latter. I learned this afternoon that Brad, 41, was found dead in his home today.

To say I didn’t know him at all would be a minor understatement. For a time, we followed each others’ blogs and connected on social networking sites. In my early blogging years, we conversed by email. A few years ago when he visited the D.C. area, we talked briefly about meeting up in person to break bread with other local bloggers; I was ultimately unable to participate for reasons I forget.

My most important interactions with Brad revolved around A Day With(out) Weblogs, later Link and Think, a project to commemorate World AIDS Day. I participated in this project several times.

Many of us who began blogging in the late 1990s and early 2000s remember Brad today: kind; funny to a fault; father of the word “blogosphere.”

Truly, it’s a sad note to reboot my blogging habit with, but it’s somehow appropriate to do so for someone who inspired me way back when.