Sold the old 27″ boob tube and replaced it with this 32″ 37″ 1080p-native flat panel. Woo hoo!

New (KDL-32XBR6 KDL-37XBR6):

Old (KV-27FS320):

RPA’s own BBQJunkie (aka Big Lu, aka Lu, aka Luis Emilio Ramirez) has a Honda Pilot DIY video up on YouTube. Checkit! It’s ok for the ending to be a bit confusing.

My 2.6Ghz 15″ MacBook Pro arrived. I’m finally gonna do what I recommend to everyone else- switch to a Mac!

Please welcome Matt to the blogosphere with his blog “Is America Ready?”

As he summarized, it’s “A quick, funny and cynical Yahoo! keyword search analysis that takes a look at what is really on the American’s mind.” All yakking and describing and getting meta aside, his posts are plain hilarious. You gotta check out the first post where he digs into what people are searching for on search engined (you know, Google, Yahoo!, etc) given the whole excitement around the presidential race.

At the end of the day, the stuff he seems to be blogging about really captures what I’ve always believed to be true about Americcuuuh- most of this country is so obsessed with stupid nonsense (TV shows, celebrities, and other garbage) that its brains are being eroded and the whole “superpower” thing is soon to be part of the “glorious old days”.

So, stop wasting your time reading my nonsense, go read his blog, and, more importantly, buy some Britney and Paris Hilton CDs. America needs to be saved!

A friend used the most priceless words over IM to describe someone:

Fucking Skeletor.

I’m dying!

The crew at RPA launched an all-new Honda Automobiles site this past week. What a beast of an effort.

As someone who lives, works, owns property, and pays taxes in the City of Santa Monica, tonight’s South Park Episode (Night of the Living Homeless) really hit the homeless nuisance issue dead on. I’m going to just quote the song that the boys sing at the end. To spare those who haven’t seen it yet, it’s after the jump.
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Rick IMed me the link to the new Volkswagen site earlier today. Check it out for yourself. It’s slick, it’s cool, it’s gimmicky, it’s nicely designed, the icons are cute, the images are awesome, Michael Newman says the Flash is “crazy” and remarked “wow a tag cloud” and then said “i like it [...] cool icons [...] it’s very apple”.

Sounds all good and looks all good. But then you dig deeper. Mike Margolin dug deeper and we really began seeing the holes. The big honking Search box is a fantastic concept, but falls flat on its face. Try entering your ZIP code in it. It returns

HMM, YOUR SEARCH FOR [My ZIP] HAS NO RESULTS.

WE’RE NOT SAYING IT DOESN’T EXIST, BUT YOU MAY WANT TO CHECK THE SPELLING. NOT THAT YOU’RE A BAD SPELLER. JUST TRY A SIMILAR TOPIC.

Why couldn’t it just give the closest dealer?

Then, go to the Find a Dealer. The Yahoo! Flash map is hot, and when I zoom into where I live, I see no dealers. To see the dealers, I’m required to enter my ZIP code to find dealers. Why? Isn’t it enough that I’ve found where I am on this map for the site to tell me where the dealers are around me?

Mike said it best when he said something to the effect of “This site is cool. It’s all cool. It’s exactly something that a cool, creative-type agency would put out. An agency that doesn’t understand usability and website user experience. And most importantly, an agency that doesn’t understand how to use the web to sell effectively.”

So, cool site, gimmicky, and slick. But effective and useful? I think not.

Apparently Anna Nicole Smith died- praise be to the Heavens (BTW, I don’t believe in god)! Now let’s hope that whatever killed her somehow hunts down the rest of the people like her. You know, the Tom Cruise, Paris Hilton, Britney Spears types.

I know for a fact that the world will be a much better place when the oxygen isn’t used up by idiots like these. Where the media has to report on real, consequential matters like two really fucked up wars that are causing hundreds of deaths per week. Where people look up to those who are intelligent, smart, and those who make a difference on the planet and not duffer scumbags like those named above.

All said, I am happy at Anna Nicole Smith’s death because some poor kid in Africa has one less person to compete with when fighting to breathe. I’m happy at Anna Nicole Smith’s death because we’ll get to see, once again, how the media is really a whole bunch of sensationalist nonsense that has lost sight of all that is real and important. I’m happy at Anna Nicole Smith’s death because it shows that these larger than life walking talking bags of trash can be wiped off the place of the planet. Finally, I’m happy at Anna Nicole Smith’s death because I think she had lived on way past her 15 seconds of fame and when it came down to it, she was really nothing more than a waste of precious space on this planet.

Praise be to the Heavens (again, I don’t believe in god, so this is really a different way of saying ‘Whoop dee fucking doo!!!’)

If you want to read the news on the wires, here is Google News’ collection of “Anna Nicole Smith” stories.

I have always believed (largely due to experiencing it myself) that Bombay has some fantastic world-class food, but it was generally confined to the major five-star hotels. However, things have really changed recently. During this trip, we have eaten some truly fantastic food in some truly amazing places. Every detail was attended to and perfected- the ambiance, the waitstaff’s knowledge of the menu, the presentation of the food. Just plain fantastic. Here’s a few of the places we went to (most recommended by my sis-in-law):

Saltwater Grill on Chowpatty Beach
Beachfront upscale open-air place where I had the second-best filet mignon of my life. One can sit here for hours at end.

Dome Bar atop the Intercontinenal Hotel at Marine Drive
Very chic open top bar with a reflecting still pool with lounge-like seating with sweeping views of the Queen’s necklace. Unfortunately they have a DJ that plays after 11pm who doesn’t understand that house music does NOT sit at all with a lounge-like setting. Just let Woody play… he understands mellow lounge music.

Olive off Carter road in Bandra
Lovely tapas-style food, good drinks, but crowded (it’s popular). Beautiful ambiance and nice music. I was here in 2004 and it was good then too.

Tiffin at the Oberoi in Nariman Point
Relaxed dessert and brunch place. Relaxed mellow setting with some seriously decadent desserts.

The pool-side barbecue at the Taj President in Cuffe Parade
Fantastic kababs and very quiet/ empty during the week. Get a cabana and you’ll feel like you’re completely in your own private resort.

Some others that we didn’t hit up, due to time running short are:

Wasabi at the Taj (Japanese)
Seijo & the soul dish (SE Asian)
Potpourri
Vie Lounge

Next time for sure.

Also, to those who dream of eating their way around the world… set aside a good solid week in Bombay. You’ll experience some unreal food with service and atmosphere to match.

Oh, and in all this fanciness, let’s not forget the “local” places like Swati Snacks, Trishna, the roll wallah on Carter road, the Bombay Gymkhana amongst others.