Month: January 2007

Dinner at Wasabi

Last night, the wife took me to a TasteDC event at Wasabi in DC.  It was a Christmas present, and I recommend the restaurant whole-heartedly.  It’s a kaiten-zushi restaurant, which means they have a conveyor belt coming from the kitchen, and you take what you want as it passes by.  This type of restaurant is very popular in Japan, and getting there in London, too.  This is DC’s first one.

The food was great.  And, because it was sponsored by TasteDC, they explained a little bit about the sake and the sushi that they served.  They also made it a little bit like a summer camp orientation day, but that was okay.

If you go there, try the green tea mousse.  I’ve had green tea ice cream before, and I don’t love it, but this was great.  All the sushi they served was great.  The wife especially liked the nigiri.

The owner of the restaurant looks like some minor movie or tv star that we can’t place, but that you’ll probably recognize.  I think he played a principal in some cheesy comedy (Like Saved by the Bell, but it wasn’t that guy).  I wish IMDB had a search by facial description.

Looking at houses today

We’re finally going out looking at new places today.  We’ve decided to see if we can keep the place I own now, rent it out, and still manage to buy a new place.  If it works, it will be great, because eventually we’ll have rental income from this place, and it will always be sort of a savings account.  And if it turns out we can’t afford it (We can’t rent it right now for the amount of the mortgage), we can sell as investors rather than residents, and the taxes work out much more nicely.

So, anyone looking to rent a lovely two-bedroom condo, conveniently located in beautiful Falls Church, Virginia?  Near Metro, 66, 495, Tyson’s Corner . . .  We’ll probably be advertising on Craigslist soon.

You! Go take an econ class, right now.

Techdirt: Infinity Is Your Friend In Economics

So the trick to embracing infinite goods isn’t in limiting the infinite nature of them, but in rethinking how you view them.

I’ve said many times to anyone who will listen that no one should graduate college without an economics class. I took Principles of Econ as a freshman (And got one of only two or three A’s for the semester, despite being one of only a few underclassmen), and it changed the way I thought about things. Just understanding a supply and demand curve, even a basic understanding, can allow you to look at things differently.

I wonder what would have happened if I had graduated as an economics major. I started off that way, then, through some sort of entrance test mixup that placed me in Calc I after two years of Calc in high school (I think maybe I was asleep for the test? I don’t know) and the subsequent working it out with a math professor, I became convinced that Math-Econ was the way to go. I managed two Econ classes before I dropped the major. It wasn’t the material, it was just that the class was so boring. There was no discussion. We just sat and took notes and then took tests. I wanted to shoot myself.

Anyway, this is sort of relevant to the link at the top. Business flips out when there is no scarcity – when supply really is infinite. This makes sense, because an infinite supply means you should be selling it for nothing. Obviously you aren’t going to make any money that way. But this article points out that markets do not exist in a vacuum. A free good can be used in other goods or used in relation to other goods, and money can be made.

It’s all about, as Techdirt says, continuous innovation. You can’t ride one great idea forever. Sooner or later, someone will do it better and cheaper. And when your old business model is obsolete, because the good you were selling is now infinite, or whatever else might happen, you can’t run to the government and ask them to make competing with you illegal. You have to think about the next step. There’s almost always value to be added.

Edited to add:

BoingBoing has a post about inflation in virtual worlds that seems appropriate here, too. I actually didn’t read the linked article, but it’s probably interesting and relevant.

I LOVE Web 2.0!!!!

Web 2.0

Of course it might have to be explained to someone like your granny, but how many shirts do you honestly own that she doesn’t get anyhow?

Awesome t-shirt over at Preshrunk.  I’m glad the bitter guy who runs that site came back from his little hiatus.  I actually read three t-shirt/clothing blogs regularly now.  Is there something wrong with me?

Commenter with interesting site

The Average White Guy

I hope you find my blog to be well…average! If it’s too good, expectations emerge. If it’s not good enough, I’ll be the only one reading it. So I figure: “Average”.

I got a comment from this guy the other day, and I checked out his blog.  He and I have a lot in common, I think, but maybe I’m better at creative rationalization, so I haven’t had to come to terms with my place in the world yet.  Maybe that makes me worse.

Anyway, I’ve been reading his stuff, and it’s interesting.  He is a Yankees fan, so that’s minus two points, but he said good things about Cal Ripken when he got into the Hall, so I guess I can give the two points back.

This is in my hood

Woman Crashes Car Into 7-11 Store – News

The woman, driving a Honda Accord, said she thought she was going into reverse when the accident happened.

We passed this on our way home last night at about 8:15PM – the store is two blocks from our house – and this morning at 7:05AM the store was open for business with boards covering the hole in the window/wall.

I’m curious how she managed to get that far.  She would have had to go up over the curb, across three feet of sidewalk, and through a brick wall to do the damage she did.

Maybe I’m not a good driver, but I usually notice which direction I’m going pretty quickly.

This is a good argument to outlaw automatic transmissions.  They’re just not safe.  You never know which direction you’re going to go until you’re in the candy aisle at 7-11.

A way to submit your own complaints thats better than mine

VentBox â„¢ » VentBox is coming… real soon (beta invite)

My co-complainer over at VentBox is releasing a beta version of his complaint (vent) submission site.  It’s way more web 2.0 than mine, and much more involved and well-done.   Anyway, go get a beta invitation and check it out.

Nicest thing hes ever said

ESPN.com – MLB – Bonds denies receiving amphetamines from Sweeney

“He is both my teammate and my friend,” Bonds said in a statement. “He did not give me anything whatsoever and has nothing to do with this matter, contrary to recent reports.”I want to express my deepest apologies especially to Mark and his family as well as my other teammates, the San Francisco Giants organization and the fans,” he said.

After my recent post bashing Barry Bonds, I feel some obligation to show the other side, as well – he actually said the right thing for a change.  I obviously can’t attest to the sincerity of what he said, but I can at least say that this is the first time I’ve ever read a quote from him and thought, “Assuming he’s sincere, that was the right thing to say.”

Of course, you may argue that he wouldn’t have had to apologize if he had never a) taken amphetamines or b) blamed an innocent teammate for giving them to him.  And you’d be absolutely right.

The perfect commercial

There’s an Olive Garden commercial that I saw four times last night that got me thinking.  No, that commercial is not the perfect commercial.  That commercial sucks.  Although, I’m obviously not the target audience.  The commercial starts off with a woman coming into the Olive Garden saying she’s looking for her date.  She describes him as, “handsome, and his shoes are probably untied”.  At this point, off-screen a child calls, “Mom!”, and the mom and the hostess share a syrupy moment as it becomes obvious to all that the woman is having dinner with her husband and her son, and isn’t some divorced hussy on a blind date.

So, my idea starts off similarly.  It’s obviously a commercial for anti-bacterial kitchen wipes or healthy frozen dinners or something.  Just as we’re getting to the syrupy punchline moment, the director walks out yelling, “Cut!”.  The mom stops.

“This is the wrong commercial.  We shot for the female 35-55 demographic yesterday.  This is for the male 18-35!”  He says.

“Oh.”  Says the mom.  She pauses for a moment.  “Okay.  Should I take off my shirt?”

“Yes, that would be great.”  The director says.  “Someone get these kids out of here!”  He walks off screen and we see the mom start to pull her shirt over her head, and then the commercial cuts to the screen that shows the company name and website and whatnot.

The voice-over then comes on and says something like, “At blah-blah company, we know what our customers want.  And we work tirelessly to give it to you.”

This commercial has it all.  Syrup, humor, memorability, sex, self-referential “we joke about ourselves because we’re real people, just like you” stuff . . .  It’s perfect.  Someone needs to contact me about the rights to it.

Bonds is a druggie, CEO of MLB players association a liar

SI.com – MLB – Caught speeding – Thursday January 11, 2007 3:09AM

“I can say unequivocally in my 22 years I’ve known Barry Bonds he has never blamed anyone for anything.”

So says Gene Orza.  A quick Google search for “barry bonds blame” turns up this:

“I’m tired of my kids crying. You wanted me to jump off a bridge, I finally did,” Bonds told reporters Tuesday, shortly after returning to training camp. “You finally brought me and my family down. … So now go pick a different person.”

So, maybe Orza was exaggerating a little.  Why do people make statements like that when they must know them to be false?

Anyway, Bonds is a jerk.  I don’t care how many home runs he hits or what his career stats look like when he finally retires.  He has made himself the poster child of everything that’s wrong with Major League Baseball.  It would make me very happy if he doesn’t break Hank Aaron’s record because he’s in jail for perjury.  That would be too awesome.