JonahWeiland.com

Thanks to Mark Evanier for pointing out this article in the New York Times about the evolution of the TiVo remote control. This is the one that ships with the TiVo brand, Hughes and Phillips recorders, but not the Sony one. It’s easily the best remote control I’ve ever used.

Rob Worley sent me a couple of links to a very cool new robot toy that should be hitting the market’s soon. Robosapien looks to be a very fun, cool toy. Fully articulated with Kung Fu stylings, this is one of those few toys I’m actually going to want. Here are some videos of Robosapien in action.

Maybe my registering KungFuRobot.com was a good idea. Hrmmm …

So, here’s an update on my hopeful trip to London I told you about a couple of weeks back. My intention is still to go, by world economies are not cooperating with me. Since I wrote that bit o’ nonsense the dollar has progressively gotten weaker against the pound. Currently it’s $1.86 to one British Pound, which ain’t good at all. It’s been as high as $1.90. In order for this to work it’s gotta be at $1.60 or less. C’mon, dollar! C’mon!

Last week, when I was driving down to the LA Flower Mart, I found myself listening to This American Life on KCRW. This was my first time listening to the program, so the repeat they were airing didn’t bother me at all. The repeat followed a fascinating story of corporate greed, intrigue and betrayal. Originally broadcast in September of 2000, this episode deals with the global price fixing by Archer Daniels Midland and the incredible video and audio tape taken by a corporate insider who turned spy for the FBI. You can listen to the entire program online.

You should listen not because it’s another example of corruption in corporate America, but because the story is filled with more intrigue than your typical Hollywood movie. The FBI finds a high ranking official within ADM, one slated to run the company, who cooperates with the Government in a fashion never before seen. He gets to the point where he practically enjoys his new, quite precarious position. And all the while the Government thinks they have an honest witness on their hands, they learn something about their informant that threatens to destroy all credibility of their case. Twists and turns that’ll make your head spin.

I have the utmost respect for teachers. They should each be paid minimum $100,000 annually and be given great health care and tax benefits. It’s a noble position that receives little thanks, and it’s hard, hard work. Frankly, the hardest part of teaching can be just getting kids to focus in today’s MTV and Video Game dominated world. But I really don’t think a classroom that looks like the bridge of the Starship Enterprise is the solution.

Sun Online has the story. £70,000 to build this thing, about $120,000 U.S. … uhhhh, whatever.

Very cool site featuring a walk-through of the South Pole station. In my lifetime I’d really like to visit every continent on this world (I’ve so far visited just two of the seven) and one day I hope to include this place. Link via Sensible Erection.

Son of a bitch, I’ve got another cold. I think this is three colds in 5 months for me. Suddenly I’ve turned into Tiny Tim Cratchett, that sickly little brat from “A Christmas Carol.”

I felt it coming on Friday and thought I could beat it down with mental ingenuity and one night’s rest. So, I stayed home Friday, enjoyed some fine Showtime programming in the form of “Family Business,” but clearly the rest of my busy weekend of not staying home like I should have caught up with me. I don’t regret it, though, as I had an excellent weekend.

Saturday day was loads of fun. I woke up early to get a hair cut with Tim. Tim finally convinced me that long hair and Jonah don’t go well together. It was only two or three inches long in the back, but he’s right. With my hair line, if I let it get any longer, I’ll just look like an asshole.

After the hair cut I made my way down to the Los Angeles Flower Mart. Down at the Flower Mart you can get an absolutely excellent deal on roses that you won’t find anywhere else. I’ve been going to the Flower Mart to pick up flowers for my loved ones for five years now. I drove down there and fuck if the traffic wasn’t thick. I’ve never been to the Flower Mart when V-Day landed on a Saturday before and this year it was massively packed. So I drove two streets south of the Mart to find parking and to avoid the traffic. As I turned I found myself on a street surrounded by homeless people. There had to be well over 100 people in a single square block, maybe 200. There were maybe 10 or 12 people who clearly weren’t homesless, who apparently were bringing them food and other essentials. See, I’ve been to very poor places around the world, I’ve visited the poorest neighborhoods of Tijuana, Mexico and seen poor conditions on islands in the South Pacific, but I’ve never seen anything of this level in my own hometown. It was most definitely eye opening and sad. I found a parking spot and took the remaining breakfast item I bought at McDonalds that morning with me as I walked to the mart. I handed the food to the first homeless person I saw who thanked me profusely and devoured it instantly. Ahh, my good deed was done, so now I could fuck off for the rest of the day.

Got myself into the Flower Mart and purchased six dozen red roses and a dozen carnations. Total cost: $56. Trust me, this same purchase at your typical florist would cost close to $200, if not more.

As I drove from Downtown LA back into the valley to pay my lil’ sister Sharon and my Mom a visit with the flowers, I had to traverse a number of LA’s famed freeways. As I was driving on the 101 West I was amazed by the incredibly bad driving going on Saturday morning at 11:00 am. Pretty much every driver seemed to have his or her head shoved straight up their own asses. In fact, they very well might have had some other objects shoved up as well. I was tail gated going 80, was cut off twice, witnessed numerous people on cell phones not able to properly drive because their efforts were more focused on finding out how Aunt Bertha was doing rather than the rules of the road. I saw two very near miss accidents and one rear-ending. I guess every jackass in the world waited until Saturday to do the “God I Hope My Wife Gives Me a Hummer Tonight” Day shopping and were racing around trying to finish. It was at this moment that I realized that all these people were afflicted by the same, strange illness. It’s not SARS or Mad Cow or some Poultry flu. No, it’s an all new disease that’s spreading like cold sores - Adult Onset Mental Retardation. Apparently as you hit a certain age you’re overcome with the urge to act like a massive motard. I’ve started taking 1000 mgs of Vitamin C and a shot of bourbon daily to ward off the AOMR.

Oh, so who were the flowers for? My lil’ sis got two dozen, then I made my way to my Mom’s and brought her another two dozen roses as well as the carnations. The final two dozen went to Tracy, Dawn and Marnie (who each picked two of their own) and the rest went with me to the party I went to Saturday night. All the ladies received a flower, which seemed to make a few pretty happy. So, Saturday I fed a homeless guy and gave multiple women the happiness. I’m just loading up on karma.

Saturday night was the party at Steph’s house (Steph who I happened to see on “Family Business” the night before. She’s the girl who welcomes Adam to Rapid Dating … I had no idea she was going to be on, so it was a shocker). Good times. Around 1:30 in the morning Charles and I made our way over to Spundae to catch Nick Warren. We arrived at around 2:00, walked to the main room and didn’t see Nick there. Shit, we missed him. So we went outside and bought a couple of burgers, enjoyed the sustenance, and went back inside to see what was happening and sure enough, there was Nick! I saw Nick a year ago at Spundae and have to say I thought that set was a little better, but overall he did an excellent job once again and had that room raging until 4:00 in the morning. Pretty amazing how the man can work a crowd.

Sunday was a day of nursing my cold, then that night I went up to Jacob and Kimmy’s. Dave and Shane were there, too, and Dave cooked us all dinner. Dave’s going to be cooking the meal for Jake and Kimmy’s wedding in June, so Sunday night he cooked all the food stuffs he plans on making for the wedding. He made two chicken dishes (one that was stuffed with sun-dried tomatoes that kicked major posterior), a salmon dish (excellent) and served it with asparagus and rice pilaf. Absolutely excellent meal. Terribly impressed, Dave, terribly impressed. After that the much drinking began, but I didn’t really partake due to the jungle fever I’m currently experiencing. Charles showed up shortly after the drinking began. It was a really excellent experience. We all sat around and talked and joked and had, well, just had an excellent time. I’ve known Jacob for 17 years now, he’s one of my best friends, and last night reinforced those feelings. I’m not going to go into details of the evening as it would be rather boring for anyone possibly reading this and I’m not one to broadcast my personal life to the rest of the world.

Monday was sleep, sleep and more sleep.

Tuesday will be work, work and more work. Fucking three days weekends are too short.