Logos and Microwaves

Here's an interesting look at how logos have been overhauled for better and for worse. I hate the new crooked Pepsi logo; the old wave was Pepsi, and new one looks like some stupid Pokémon logo. I don't really mind the new BP look, but the old staid and simple shield was always a favorite of mine. The Kraft makeover is horrendous. Lower case letters and a binky little splat at the end still doesn't make Walmart a brand I'll trust or go to for any reason other than to puke on them.

Yesterday we went to the big park by the lake in Excelsior and just laid in the sun. The place was almost deserted, which seemed weird, but then it was the middle of the week. After that we got delicious ice cream; a peppermint shake for me and something called Superman sherbet in a sugar cone for Kim. Cooked pork chops for supper and played with the mini. I found some more apps for the iPod to use as a controller. Air Mouse Pro is by far the coolest and offers the most features, and it's on sale for $2 instead of $6. Whee. Also got the free Mocha VNC Lite to do screen sharing. It takes a lot of zooming and scrolling to navigate around a 1920x1080 screen via the iPod touch screen. We've been using Boxee, which sort of gathers many video sites (Hulu, Joost, MTV, etc…) into an easy–to–navigate FrontRow type UI. It also has a free iPod app for getting around in it. Boxee is still in alpha, so many of the sites don't work. But nicely, many of the commercials also don't work at this point. Score!

We walked around downtown Hopkins today, looking at all the little stores on Main St. Really not much that interested Kim, but I dig junky old antique stores. We went into a couple. I got a genuine Dog 'n' Suds heavy glass mug at one. I know I've been to a Dog 'n' Suds when I was a kid, but I can't remember where it was? Was the drive–in in Washington always an A&W? Hmm.

After that we went back to the place where I got my glasses and had my regular lenses put back in. I just wasn't digging the Progressive lenses that I wanted to try recently. The number of times that they pissed me off far outnumbered the times that they helped: Watching TV sucked, forcing me to sit upright (not gonna happen) or perch my glasses down on my nose. Could no longer glance at driver side rear view mirror without turning head. Couldn't look at something straight down on the floor without having to bend my neck way down so I looked like Charlie Brown when he was depressed.

Since we were over there, we went to Warner's Stellian and picked out a new microwave to replace the underpowered cheap black one that was in the house. We decided on an LG—this'll be my first experience with one of their products. The one we liked has a great looking front face that mimics our oven door, 2 lights near the front for much more useful stovetop lighting, and a 5–speed fan whose slower speeds are actually not annoying like so many vent fans are (not that we use it much because of the downdraft exhaust in the stove, but it is useful once in a while). It also has a unique turntable that also rolls from side to side as it turns, helping to eliminate any cold or hot spots that the magnetron misses or focuses on.