Dean(ish)

The Sarah Palin Flow Chart

Dean — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 06:55:38 +0000

If you’re as sick of Sarah Palin as I am, then you’ll enjoy this. I couldn’t resist posting Aden Nak’s flow chart of Sarah Palin’s speech process here for all of my loyal readers (read: my grandma [I love you Granny!]) to see:

While I’m on the subject, let me say this: the Vice Presidential debate Thursday night was hilarious. Palin made strong (and sometimes, sadly, successful) efforts to get out of answering questions. She tried to change the subject at practically every turn. Hell, she still doesn’t know what the VP does. Watch as Joe Biden takes her to school (start at the 2:50 mark):

That makes me LOL. I hear her talk, and all she says are buzzwords. It’s all she seems to know. Just like the flow chart above, she just reads buzzwords off of her cards - “agenda”, “usher”, “flexibility”, “tapping into”, “administer” - big words that don’t really mean anything substantial.

It’s not just that she doesn’t say anything worth saying, but that she’s wrong when she does say something semi-meaningful. She thinks that she can expand the role of the VP further into the Senate, but then Biden comes in to take her to school: “[The legislative role of the Vice President is] to preside over the Senate only in a time when, in fact, there’s a tie vote. The Constitution is explicit. The only authority the Vice President has from a legislative standpoint is to vote only when there is a tie vote.” Owned.

I now know three new things about Palin:

She’s “straight up”. (Her words, not mine.)
She’s “tolerant“. (Gee, that’s nice. Again, her words.)
She believes that homosexuality is a choice.

So remind me, why should anyone vote for McCain/Palin? :? My brother was a hardcore Republican a couple years ago, which was the last time we talked politics. He has very different views than me, so politics can be a heated issue. However, I am really interested to hear his political views this year, especially considering the state of the American economy and the inclusion of Palin.

Appendix:
Letterman happened to be on TV as I was finishing this post and I saw something amazing. It would be wrong of me to not find and share this little treasure of editing magic:

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Random Adventures in Wikipedia

Dean — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 06:31:05 +0000

I love Wikipedia. Sure, it’s not always 100% accurate but that doesn’t stop me from getting sucked in for hours at a time. Here’s my random adventure for this evening, posted for your amusement:

I ended my Wikipedia shenanigans with Banshee.
How I got there: Banshee < Abyss < Azazel < Warren Worthington III < Beast < X-Treme X-Men < Revolution < Chris Claremont < Earth-616 < Marvel Comics Multiverse < Amalgam Comics < DC Comics < Larry Lieber < Thor < Space Phantom < Mac Gargan < Thunderbolts < US Agent
Why was I looking for US Agent in the first place? 4 color rebellion.

Are you like me? Do you get sucked in and lost in Wikipedia? Please tell me I’m not the only one…

PS - If you’re a fan of Wikipedia and use an iPhone or other smartphone, try Powerset.com; it nicely reformats Wikipedia entries for mobile devices.

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Productivity on the iPhone

Dean — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 07:35:52 +0000

…and one iPhone app that doesn’t exist yet.

Now that the iPhone 2.0 firmware is out, there are tons of third-party applications available for it. Here, I’m going to talk about some of the more productivity-centric apps I’ve used that I really like, as well as one that doesn’t exist (but should). What I’m talking about here is Jott, Xpenser, Evernote, and YouNote.

Jott is a service like no other that I’ve ever heard of. At its base, it allows you to record 15 seconds of audio. Big whoop, right? Well, that’s just the start. Jott then takes that audio and converts it into text. That’s pretty cool because it saves you time and effort when compared to typing notes out. Not only can you record notes for general note-taking, but you can make to-do lists as well. Pretty nifty.
(...)
Read the rest of Productivity on the iPhone (382 words)

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The Dark Knight

Dean — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 05:20:44 +0000

The Dark Knight is the best Batman movie ever. Here’s why:

Action. The movie starts off action-packed. The pacing of the movie is excellent. I was never bored; never left wondering, “When will this pick up?” There were more action scenes in this movie than in Batman and Batman Returns combined. (That may not actually be true. Just a guess.)

Heroes and villains. Scarecrow turns from psychotic villain to random vigilante. Batman walks the line between his ethics and his rage. Harvey Dent, a new hero, rises to the occasion, but at what cost? And then, of course, there’s…

The Joker. Heath Ledger really nails the character of The Joker. This is the freak I’ve always imagined The Joker to be.

Duration. This is a long movie, jam-packed with awesomeness every step of the way. There was a point where I nervously thought the movie was going to end, but then I realized that it was only halfway. So it’s basically two movies in one.

In conclusion, you must watch this movie. That’s all there is to it. If you’ve already seen it then you know what to do; go see it again. Next time, I’ll see it in IMAX.

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Pics from Las Vegas

Dean — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 08:11:02 +0000

Here’s a gallery of pics from our trip to Las Vegas. We had so much fun. We saw Wayne Brady, Louis Anderson, the Tournament of Kings, took a ride on a gondola, saw the sites, and made new blisters on our feet. There’s so much to do in Vegas - way more than 4 days would allow. We’ll definitely go again.

Click here to view photos.

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They Call Me Beans

Dean — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 07:57:25 +0000

It’s late. Quite late. However, I feel the need to tell a brief story. So sit down, my children, and you will learn why they call me Beans.

I work in retail. As happens from time to time, stores change. The items change. The members of the staff change. Things change. I was involved in a change almost exactly two months ago, where I was transferred to another store within the same company. We’ll call this company… Bob. As I was saying, I transferred to another store within Bob, but still working for Bob. Although I truly enjoyed working at my former Bob store, the new Bob store was much closer to home so at least I had that much going for me.

On my first day at the new Bob store, I was invited to a party that same night by the nice folks at the new Bob store to celebrate something that happened a month or two prior (something to do with hitting sales goals or some such). Anyhow, the party ended up being a lot of fun, even though many were quite… shall we say, ‘inebriated’… and I was, as always, sober. In a moment of what would become history, one of my new assistant managers randomly brought up the subject of nicknames.

“I want to call somebody ‘Beans’”, he said.

“Why?”, I replied.

He responded, “I don’t know. I’ve just always wanted to call somebody Beans.”

“Well”, I said, “you can call me ‘Beans’. People call me ‘Dean Bean’, and ‘Dean the Bean’ anyway, so you can call me ‘Beans’.”

“All right!”

I’m glad he randomly talked to me about using Beans as a nickname. Had it been anyone else, history would not have turned out the same way and, somehow, I think it’s fitting for me to be Beans. It’s like a name that I have to live up to now, even though there can’t possibly be any reasonable expectations from someone named Beans. Perhaps that’s why I like it. What’s funny is that everyone at the new Bob store - everyone - calls me Beans. They call me Beans far more than they call me Dean. I think that’s a testament to how good the name is. And one day, when I’m old and decrepit, I can be Papa Beans and shake my stick at young whippersnappers as I talk about the good ol’ days and explain why they call me Beans.

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We’re Going to Vegas

Dean — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 07:33:07 +0000

That’s right kids, mom and dad are taking some time off. We’ll be staying for three nights at Las Vegas’ wicked-looking Egyptian pyramid hotel, Luxor.

I created a trip planner on Yahoo! Travel, which you can see here. I’ve never used this planner before - it’s definitely handy. I started making a list as a simple document, but having it integrated with Yahoo! Travel is way easier than doing it myself. As for the trip, feel free to make recommendations if you know of good places to go, eat, or see.

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Congrats, Dré!

Dean — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 05:30:12 +0000

Today, my good friend André was offered (and accepted) a job with Prima Games! André was assigned the duty of writing the strategy guide for Heist! Congrats!

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Proof that John Mayer is Awesome

Dean — Fri, 09 May 2008 03:06:48 +0000

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Old Batman vs New Batman

Dean — Thu, 01 May 2008 21:28:39 +0000

It’s pretty awesome how similar the 1989 Batman and the new Dark Knight trailers are. Check ‘em out side-by-side:

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