Bbq set?
Late in May, 2008, I wrote a man on Craigslist that was known to go around and offer other people on Craigslist a “bbq set” instead of the cash they were seeking for items they had listed. The following is what transpired.
Bbq set?
12 messages
From: me Wed, May 21, 2008 at 1:39 PM
To: dadwith1son
Hey I heard you have a brand spankin new BBQ set? I’d classify my interest
at “high.”
Email me and lets talk deals.
Yan
From: dadwith1son Wed, May 21, 2008 at 1:41 PM
To: me
yes here it is
NEW! Char-Griller 2123 Wrangler Charcoal Grill / Smoker
BRAND NEW IN BOX NEVER USED
Product Features
Heavy Gauge Steel Construction and Double Bottom for Years of Use
Airtight Flanged Hood with Heat Gauge
Cast Iron Grates Provide Even Heat and Locks In Flavor
640 Sq In Total Cooking Area (435″ Main Grill + 200″ Warming Rack)
Adjustable Fire Grate for Easy Clean Up and Heat Control
Product Description
Amazon.com Review
Whether you’re a backyard barbecue hero or a professional chef cooking for big events, the Char-Griller Wrangler’s cavernous interior and even cooking temperatures wrangle up large quantities of delicious barbecue for any occasion. The Wrangler features 635 inches of cooking space to feed family, friends and neighbors. Heavy gauge steel and a double reinforced bottom offer years of dependable use. Cast iron grates distribute heat evenly, and sear meat perfectly to lock in juices and flavor. An adjustable fire grate makes it easy to control the heat, and an easy-dump ash pan makes cleaning up a snap. No more cumbersome tipping of the grill to clean out the ashes! A built-in heat gauge and an airtight, flanged hood make it easy to monitor and control cooking temperatures to ensure tenderness. Three handy shelves are great for storing utensils, spices, and sauces. The Wrangler is designed to accept rotisserie and side-fire-box attachments for a wide variety of versatile cooking applications. Large round legs offer sturdy support. A large drawer slides out and let’s you add coals without removing the grate. –Brian Olson
From the Manufacturer
The Wrangler is the perfect size for decks and patios, it has enough cooking space to feed your family and the neighbors. Over 600 sq. in. of total grilling area will let you feed a crowd! Made from heavy guage steel this grill will last for years. The cast iron grates give you an even heat and sears your meat to lock in the flavor. Our adjustable fire grate makes it easy to control the heat, and our easy dump ash pan makes cleaning up a snap. Just think, no more tipping over the grill to clean out the ashes! The heavy gauge steel construction and double bottom will give you years of dependable use. Features a built in heat gauge, airtight flanged hood, and 3 shelves. Rotisserie and Side Fire Box adaptable.
From: me Wed, May 21, 2008 at 1:43 PM
To: dadwith1son
Looks GREAT! What are you askin for it?
From: dadwith1son Wed, May 21, 2008 at 1:44 PM
To: me
100 did you see the ad on craigslist ?
Make every e-mail and IM count. Join the i’m Initiative from Microsoft.
From: me Wed, May 21, 2008 at 1:50 PM
To: dadwith1son
Hmm… will you consider trades?
From: dadwith1son Wed, May 21, 2008 at 1:51 PM
To: me
yes what do you have to offer?
Change the world with e-mail. Join the i’m Initiative from Microsoft.
From: me Wed, May 21, 2008 at 2:04 PM
To: dadwith1son
I have a collection of miniature trombones and a rusty bike with shattered spokes. Do either of those pique your interest?
Also I have a bowling ball that has a painting of a naked lady on it.
I have 4 lawn chairs that have been semi burned by a fire that got out of control.
I have seven bathring suits that have the penis netting scratched out.
Also I have a LOT of fireworks.
Want to hear more?
From: dadwith1son Wed, May 21, 2008 at 2:06 PM
To: me
any electronics or remote control cars or something?
From: me Wed, May 21, 2008 at 2:11 PM
To: dadwith1son
Actually, I used to have an RC helicopter until I crashed it into my neighbors pool. He was in it at the time, so the helicopter gave him a pretty good haircut.
As far as electronics, I have four gently-used hearing aids, a receiver with 12″ Cerwin Vega stand-up speakers, and an Xbox 360 that had some pancake dropped in it. Still works though, but the games smell like syrup.
From: dadwith1son Wed, May 21, 2008 at 2:14 PM
To: me
what’s the deal with the 360?
E-mail for the greater good. Join the i’m Initiative from Microsoft.
From: me Wed, May 21, 2008 at 2:18 PM
To: dadwith1son
It works fine, it just got “caught in the crossfire” during one of my delicious Saturday breakfasts. Have you ever played Splinter Cell with the rich, heady aroma of hickory maple syrup wafting in the breeze? It’s resplendent.
From: dadwith1son
To: Sean Gilbertson
would you want to trade that or what were you thinking?
I would never have made that turn like that.
I was driving around the other day and saw my exact same model and color of car in front of me.
Not many people own my car, and I’ve never seen anyone with the same color*, so this was kind of an amazing moment in my life. It was like watching myself 5 seconds in the future. Also, in the future, apparently I don’t drive so well, and I don’t have XM Radio any more. I guess I’ll have to watch my back.
(* Sort of an upper-class, classy hunter green, with sparkles.)
Office convo
This is what me and my co-workers talk about in instant messages all day:
(I’m the red one.)
Hey, it *could* be real
Test address #2:
Jacine’s gonna be piiissed!!
I’ve been testing this donation system at my work, so I’ve been making up a lot of fake names and addresses. Sometimes they come to me right away; other times I have to wait for inspiration, until I get an Edison-like “that’s it!” moment.
Here it today’s Edison moment:
How to get themes working again in Windows XP SP3
Windows XP SP3 - the service pack that was launched and then pulled almost immediately - makes it so that themes no longer work.
(By the way, if you want to download SP3, you still can, as of this morning, 4/30/08, at this Url.)
Anyway, you can get themes working again by following the instructions in this forum post, or you can follow the abridged instructions that worked for me right here:
- Download a patched version of Uxtheme.dll here (and un-Rar the DLL).
- Download and unpackReplacer.
- Open a Command Prompt and run Replacer.cmd.
- When Replacer asks you to, drag the file Uxtheme.dll from your Windows\System32 directory (usually c:\Windows\System32) onto the Command Prompt window.
- Hit enter.
- When Replacer asks you to, drag the new Uxtheme.dll that you un-Rared onto the Command Prompt Window.
- Hit enter.
- Confirm that Replacer should do this replacement, and wait for Replacer to finish.
- Reboot.
- Now your themes should work! Enjoy! (And might I recommend the wonderful theme HmmXP?)
Anatomically-correct Cap’n Crunch
I bought a box of Crunch Berries the other day, even though I already have a box of Crunch Berries that’s so big that I’ve literally had it since last August. (I bought the new one because my girlfriend and I were whisking ourselves away to the country for the weekend. Now, the new box is my emergency Crunch Berries ration at my office at work.)
Anyway, I was inspecting the dramatic artwork on the front of the box, and I noticed that Cap’n Crunch’s mouth is open so wide that the artists apparently couldn’t deny that we should definitely be able to see his uvula:
I don’t like when you can see inside cartoons. I don’t want Cap’n Crunch to be anatomically correct. Stop, General Mills. And generals are above captains in the chain of command in the milled cereal industry, so you should be able to tell him what to do.
By the way, have you noticed that the letters in the “CRUNCH” portion of the title are all shaken up? Apparently, Cap’n Crunch is so crunchy that he calls into question the stability of the very bedrock we walk upon.
Configurate Your Preference Options
A host of programs, from iTunes to AppRocket, do this really annoying thing whereby in their menus, they give you Options, but they also give you Preferences. This is very confusing to us users.
The problem is that there is no meaningful distinction between “Options” and “Preferences.” I mean, my God, these words are synonyms, people!
This is a screenshot of what I’m talking about:
This screenshot is from AppRocket.
I mean, okay, to the developers of the program, the distinction must be clear. “Configuration is obviously meant to configure the content indexer, while Preferences is where the user merely chooses aesthetic options and whatnot.”
But to a user, none of this ever makes sense. Programs are too complicated to begin with!
iTunes does it the worst: They have Preferences, and View Options. Now, what iTunes means is that you will be setting up the options for the view. But, at least for me, this is read as “I want to view my options”: Most menu options are either nouns or verbs, and I feel like the brain tends to err on the side of verb, especially when you’re looking at a two-word phrase (as in “View Options”), rather than a single word. So I’m always confused by “View Options.”
Also, since I change preferences so infrequently, I have to re-figure this out each time.
I’m laying down a new rule: Only one Options/Preferences/Configuration menu item. Pick one, and shove everything into that.
And if the Preferences/Options window gets too cluttered, then insert a filtering text box that searches all the preferences, and then only displays what’s relevant. MyEclipse and RSSOwl do this beautifully.
Users do not (and should not, it could be argued) need to set up Preferences often. It’s okay if it’s an exercise; it doesn’t have to be perfect.
Minimize your windows into little tiny windows on your Desktop
The free Windows program miniMIZE lets you minimize your applications to little tiny versions of themselves, and then move those minimized windows around on your Desktop.
What miniMIZEd windows look like
Pros
- Visually organize all of your windows, putting like things together. For example, you could keep all programs related to a website you’re working on in the same place.
- It’s pretty satisfying to just look at an icon and know exactly what it contains, and what it will look like when you bring it back up to normal size.
Cons
- A lot of minimized windows can be hard to organize and can feel cluttered.
Download miniMIZE here.
I used this program for a while, but not permanently. miniMIZE is cool, and organizing minimized windows into areas that makes sense appeals to me, but sometimes it got to be a burden, and I didn’t want to have little copies of everything I had open staring me in the face. And some stuff I actually wanted hidden. And, to my surprise - possibly due to habit (and possibly due to Windows XP’s similar-window grouping) - I thought that finding windows in the taskbar was less mentally cumbersome.
SmartyPig: A little too greedy
I was very excited to hear about SmartyPig, since saving toward goals is part of my new budgeting system (I use YNAB, which is great). SmartyPig promised the possibility of splitting savings up into sub-categories, something I still can’t figure out with my Orange account, though supposedly I should be able to.
Anyway, my girlfriend and I watched SmartyPig’s introductory video (on their homepage), and when the video reached the “Goal complete” portion, the only options for withdrawing money they described were a MasterCard Gift Card, and online retailer gift cards. I assumed you could also just withdraw your money, but my girlfriend was suspicious.
So I looked into the SmartyPig Terms and Conditions, and as it turns out, my girlfriend’s suspicions were warranted: You can not withdraw money in the normal, “put it into my checking account” way.
If you want your money in a non-gift card form, you have to call an 800 number and set something up that way.
Here’s the relevant excerpt from the Terms and Conditions:
Stop/Close A Savings Goal
The Primary Account Holder can stop a Savings Goal at anytime. A goal cannot be closed if there are pending transactions. In most instances, credit card transactions post within 2 banking days and ACH transactions post within 4 banking days. In the case that there are outstanding gifts to a Public Savings Goal, it is the responsibility of the account holder to accept or deny any gifts before closing the goal. Only the Primary Account Holder may close a SmartyPig Savings Goal. Any money or interest earned in an account is the property of the Primary Account Holder. In the case that there are Co-Owners assigned to the account (View-Only or Limited Access) the Co-Owner has no access to or ownership of the funds in the account. When closing a Savings Goal online, the account holder has the option to place the funds on a pre-loaded SmartyPig MasterCard® Debit Card or a Best-In-Class Retailer Gift Card. Funds can be received on a check by calling Customer Support at 888-567-6278. Checks will be made payable to the Primary Account Holder and be mailed to the address in their profile.
Sorry, SmartyPig. You’re a little too greedy.