Category Archives: Lite

Barnes & Nobles Surprising New Look

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Earlier tonight Scott, Craig, and I took a trip down to Scott’s Barnes & Nobles so he could get something he put on hold. While we were there he showed off all the hubbub regarding the changeover and the new stock and layout for his store. I have to admit that I was very pleasantly surprised by what I saw!

The new changeover made room for many new rows of games, as well as a really impressive new section devoted to education. There were many really awesome and very affordable surprises laying in wait for me amongst these aisles. Chemistry sets, Lego, and even working mechanical learning sets were arranged in a very smart way. As you progress through the aisles you see how it goes from items for teenagers down to grade school age kids and then all the way to toddlers and infants. There is literally an educational game, toy, or kit for every age and many pursuits. I found myself loving being there, looking at all the things arrayed on the walls, thinking “If FAO Shwartz was purely for education, this would be it.” The arrangement of the aisles and all the new things that B&N is carrying now is absolutely stunning.

If you have kids, or know someone who has kids, you owe it to yourself to pay the B&N in Portage, MI a visit. The most expensive kits are $20-$30 and look awesome and quite fun to try out. I myself saw a cute Triops Kit for $14! B&N is planning a special unveiling to the local educators this coming Saturday but I think that all the parents and all the people who care about education in my friends circle and who may read this post really should swallow your irritation and drive down Westnedge Ave and get to the B&N in Portage and see for yourselves all the new things that B&N is carrying. If I had a spare $100 there are many kits I would love to play with, and I’m an old fuddy-duddy! I have to really congratulate Scott as he’s responsible for a lot of the design and organization of the sections and he did a truly masterful job of it, everything is ordered with care and it’s such a wonderful feeling thing. The most charming things that B&N now carries is this series of stuffed animals that serve as security objects / sleep facilitators for very young children. A soft little sheep that has a smooth plastic insert that plays ocean sounds or running water sounds, just like Scott’s noisemaker that helps him sleep at night, seeing them in their clear plastic boxes kind of makes you go “Awwwww” and smile softly. If you are facing a young child’s birthday without anything, you have to go to B&N, you will find something there.

The only thing I was surprised they didn’t have were Radiometers and Gyroscopes, but compared to the depth and breadth of what they do offer, their absence is easily overlooked. If I can put aside a little bit of money I have my eyes on a few games that I’d love to get for entertainment around here, as well as the “Hydrogen-Powered Car” kit and the Triops Kit, a cheap way to give something like the delightful ecosphere another shot without the huge expense.

Mild Irritation of Obsidian Butterflies

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Unlike the Death of Obsidian Butterflies, which is a neat little construct in the Exalted RPG, I am the unpleasant recipient of the Mild Irritation of Obsidian Butterflies. First while making Guacamole for friends that are house-sitting for us while we are off to San Diego Comic Con I regularly, and in this last instance accidentally missed scraping the lime zest with my handy-dandy microplane grater and accidentally grated a bit of my ring-finger knuckle. Nothing to bleed over, but enough to make the rest of the Guacamole a trip through pain-town and dinner, which was Greek Lemon Chicken Orzo soup to be exquisitely painful as raw lemon juice soaked into my boo-boo. It is only aggravated today by TotalTech. I ordered a data cable that will allow me to move data from machine to machine without savaging the local ethernet network. The adapter came in a box and wouldn’t you know it, I accidentally scrape the same boo-boo against the staples that they use to secure the shipping manifests to the cardboard boxes. Just a little glint of sharp staple point, not enough to make me bleed, but lucky enough to hit me in the EXACT SAME SPOT.

They weren’t trying to get me, so I’m not, and can’t be angry about any of this, but ouch, the mild irritation of obsidian butterflies. 😉

Late Night Comedy

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When I went to visit Scott’s family in Minnesota I had a chance to see the Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson. I haven’t laughed that hard in a very long time. I used to watch The Tonight Show back when Johnny Carson was on the program and Jay Leno was just the vacation second-banana. Now the late night shows are all a flutter because NBC is thinking about changing time-slots.

I’ve given up on a lot of shows in my life. Shows that aren’t whatever they are desperately trying to be. In this case, funny. Saturday Night Live was the first I think to fall, they simply stopped being funny and just when with hacks trying to be amusing I was bored and stopped watching.

Now that I don’t watch classic television anymore, I only watch what my DVR records and play it back at my liesure I miss out on the usual programs that channels toss up from time to time, like the evening news. I haven’t seriously watched morning or evening news or news programs in years. The DVR lets me watch whatever I want on TV, fast forward through the commercials, and throw away whatever I don’t want anymore.

I am happy though, that I’ve missed out on the amusing’ness of much of what I’m not recording and that I’ve found a uniquely hilarious comic. So far I’ve nearly fallen out of my seat each time I see one of his shows and he’s got a series record order outstanding on my DVR. If you are looking for good TV, I recommend this show, he’s HILARIOUS!