26 posts tagged “qotd”

How do you pass the time during a flight?  What do you bring in your carry-on?

The only standard thing is I get a car magazine to read on the plane.  The airport is the only time I buy magazines at a newsstand.

Lately, I've been bringing an ipod full of podcasts as well.  It also helps pass the time.  More interesting than music for the most part.  Audiobooks are nice, but they are usually too long for the flights I'm on.

Who's the hardest person to shop for on your holiday list?

My Dad is very difficult.  He doesn't overtly want anything, and I (and probably everyone else in my family) have no idea what things he'd find neat.  I guess clothes are ok, but what;'s the fun in that?

I am looking forward to hearing my sisters complain about me.

What's on your Top 5 video games list?
Submitted by mileena.

Nerd question!!!

1. Civilization (I-IV) (PC) - I have purchased every edition of this game since it originally came out as a DOS game in 1990.  Civ 4 is a great game.

2. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (PS2/XBox/PC) - The best 3rd person shooter ever.  The whole "Hot Coffee" thing was dumb.  This is the greatest game.  Yeah it's violent, yeah, it's vulgar, yeah, you play a pimp for a while, it's still great.

3. Wolfenstein 3-D (PC) - The original 1st person shooter.  Still a fun game.

4. System Shock (PC) - I really enjoyed this game.  Probably the first game with a "cyberspace" element.

5. Microsurgeon (Intellivision) - One of my favorite Intellivision games.  Yeah, I'm showing how old I am.  Travel through a body in a mini spaceship blasting tumors.  Probably one of the first 2 person collaborative games.  One player steers the ship while the other person shoots the tumor.

How do you eat your pizza:  folded, flat or with a fork and knife?
Submitted by danimass.

There is only one answer:  It Depends!

Real NY pizza (or Sbarro) is folded.

Other thin crust pizza is eaten flat.  The Chicago custom of cutting a round pizza into squares is dumb, btw.

Stuffed pizza usually needs to be eaten with a knife & fork.  Unless, of course, if it is cold you can eat it flat.

I went to an authentic Naples-style pizza place (Spacca Napoli) in Chicago recently.  Their pizza came out to us uncut.  I was told this was the custom in Naples.  So we had to use a knife & fork.  It was incredibly good & messy.  If you go get the 4 cheese pizza and the tartufo.

End of lesson.

How did you pick your Vox name? Does it mean something? 
Submitted by LeendaDLL.  

    I have been playing the Civilization PC game since it was a DOS game over 15 years ago.  In the game you are the leader of a civilization which you develop over time.  They use real life leaders like Napoleon, Lincoln, and Montezuma.  Since I don't have that much imagination I would change Montezuma to Mattazuma when I played as the Aztecs.

    So a few years ago I started using Mattazuma when I signed up for forums.  Since it was a nonsense name, I haven't had to put a number on the end of it.  I bought the domain name a few years ago.

    Amusingly, there was a harness racing horse named Mattazuma a few years ago.

    Oh yeah, Ln reminded me of another Mattazuma story.  I received a couple E-Mails to my GMail inbox from a travel agent with itineraries for flying to Japan.  There was a phone number on the itinerary, so I called it to see what was going on.  I ended up speaking with a woman with a very heavy Japanese accent.  She was trying to send to itinerary to someone named Matt Azuma and just guessed at his e-mail address.  After sending me two or three more itineraries (with the real Matt Azuma's e-mail address on them too) the travel agent finally figured it out.

What is your favorite scent?
Submitted by Erinen. 

I have a Pavlovian response to the smell of cilantro.  No idea why, but the smell makes my mouth water and I feel happy.

How many computers do you have in your house? 
Submitted by Foomper.

Only 4, the main one is a Dell 8300, with 3GB of RAM, two monitors, two printers, two hard drives & even two mice.  It's a couple of years old but it works just fine.  Here's a picture I used previously showing it & the mess:

My Messy desk

Do you listen to podcasts?  Are there any you'd recommend? 
Inspired by Alex.

Podcasts, I listen to lots of podcasts, here's a big list:

This Week in Tech (aka TWiT) - Great podcast that's usually hosted by Leo Laporte (formerly of TechTV) with a rotating cast of other tech reporters and gurus.  As you might assume from the name, it comes out every Sunday night.

The Daily Giz Wiz - Another Leo Laporte hosted show, this one co-hosted by Dick DeBartalo, a writer with Mad magazine and a gadget guru.  They pick a new gadget to talk about every from Monday - Thursday and on Friday Dick pulls an old gadget out of his collection to talk about. Dick also talks alot about the career at Mad and his days as the head writer on the Match Game.

Diggnation - The podcast from the guys at Digg.  They drink beer while talking about some of the popular stories on Digg.com.  It's really funny.  It's also available as a video.

Coverville - The cover song podcast.  Brian picks out great covers three times a week.

Boing Boing Boing - Not surprisingly, this is the podcast from the people at boingboing.net.  I expected not to like this one because I figured it would be a big political rant, but it's not for the most part, they talk more about the things they have posted in the previous week and they have interviews as well.  I really like this one a great deal.

Inside the Net - Leo (again) and Amber MacArthur (formerly of TechTV Canada and now with CityTV) every week interview the people behind hot new websites and/or internet related software.  They interviewed the YouTube guys right after Lazy Sunday popularized their site.  Most of their shows are good, there is occasionally one I'll skip.

That's enough to get you started I think.

Remember - You don't need an iPod to listen to podcasts!!!!!!!!!!

Some people don't understand that.

One more thing, Leo would prefer you called them netcasts.

If you are going to dress up for Halloween, what will you be? Why? 
Submitted by Auweea.

Well, as I blogged before on my Typepad blog, I am going to be one of Jean Girard's pit crew members from the movie Talledega Nights.  I won an EBay auction for a lab coat and shirt that was used in the movie.

Team Perrier Pit Crew

What was your very first job? 
Submitted by Laurel.

    I stocked shelves in a supermarket in Northport, NY in high school back in the late 80s.  Can't remember the name of the store, but I think it was a NYC area or Long Island only chain.

    I remember that after a few months I didn't want to spend any more time than I absolutely had to in the detergent aisle.  I remember feeling sick whenever I had to work in that aisle.

    I also had my first experience with getting fired and office power struggles.  There was a day manager and a night manager.  The day manager was a good guy and the night manager was a jerk.  I worked from 5-10PM during the week, I think there was a NY state law that said high school kids couldn't work later than 10 (but I could be wrong).
    Well, the night manager at some point decided that I and the other people my age had to stay until the semi-truck of groceries was unloaded each night.  Well, since my parents picked me up at 10, I couldn't stay past then.  One night, 10 PM rolled around and we weren't done yet.  My parents were there so I had to go.  I told the guy I had to leave and he blows up at me and tells me if I leave I am fired.  Well, that set me off, so I left and figured it was the end of my supermarket career.  The next time I was scheduled to work I didn't go, because I thought I was fired.  Around an hour after my shift would have started the day manager call and asked why I wasn't at work.  I told him the night manager fired me and he started to laugh.  He told me the night manager was full of crap, he can't fire anyone and can I come down to the store that night.

I think I lasted a few more months after that, but then I started running track after school and didn't have time to work.