This may be a beer for dogs, but I’m kind of intriuged by the idea of meat extract in beer.

Chinese teenagers are getting addicted to the Internet.  Now we know who’s watching all those YouTube clips!

Something I never thought of: women paying cash in order to avoid arguments over money with their husbands. 

I joined in with the drooling over the iPhone a few weeks ago, but now reading more about the introduction and some of the specs, I may take some of it back.

Who knew?  Ugly is "in."   Best line in the article: "Vegetables shouldn’t be judged by looks."  I didn’t know that vegetables were discriminated against because of their looks.   Go hug a stubby piece of celery or a crooked carrot and make it feel better.

Speaking of ugliness up close and personal.  Here’s something to ponder: what happens when porn stars go high-definition?  Apparently you see cellulite, wrinkles and – yipes – razor burn.  Talk about ruining the fantasy!

A couple of quick shots for everyone this morning…  first of all, the whole Mentos/Diet Coke thing continues to get out of control.  This time it is an article in Business Week magazine.

Secondly, I would love to fly Virgin Airlines sometime and I hope that the politics and BS that is preventing them from flying in the U.S. will be resolved soon.

Speaking of Virgin, I think that seeing the earth from outer space would be the absolute coolest thing to do ever.

Perhaps by the time they allow people to go into space, marketers will figure out how to put a giant ad in the oceans or form the clouds into an ad.

Two articles that are inadvertently related:  the first one, about the death of design and how everything in our world has become over-designed.  Then one about the new "street furniture" that NYC is going to be installing over the next few years to help tie the city together better design-wise.

A couple of quick notes to call your attention to:

First, an absolutely fascinating article on "The Color Association of the United States," a meeting of which is probably either best or worst place to wear clashing colors.  They talk about color trends and how they are picked out and how they influence what we buy.  Apparently we need to be on the look out for fluorescent colors to make a come back.  Awesome.  Can’t wait for ducktails to come back into fashion as well.

I never thought that Lamborghini was a struggling company, since you know, they sell cars for $100,000 a pop and all.  But according to this, they are just "turning the corner" towards success.  Who knew?!!?

While there are people trying to figure out how to market high end sports cars and which neon colors are going to be adorning our winter coats in two years from now, the official baseball cap of the New York Sanitation Department is a hot seller.  Maybe Lamborghini should try making a garbage truck?

Last, but certainly not least…  RIP Momofuku Ando – inventor of the Ramen instant noodle.  Many a poor college student owe him their sodium-soaked lives.  Note that he died of heart failure – one has to wonder if it was after eating a bowl of his own noodles.  On a side note: "Momofoku" is the coolest name EVER.

I’ve been a baaaaaad blogger, I know.   It has been nearly a month since my last post, which is inexcusable on my part, but I’ll try my hardest to give one anyway!  It was the whole holiday season thing, really – the month of December just kind of passed me by it feels like.  It was a very busy month and while it was all fun and good, I’m kind of glad the holidays are over and things are somewhat back to normal.

A few things I have wanted to mention: went to see Trans-Siberian Orchestra again.  Nearly the same show as last year, but highly entertaining.  It has become a sort of holiday tradition for my family. 

Holiday traditions have been on my mind a lot this year – this being the first year with a serious girlfriend, it is amazing how important otherwise silly little things can become to people.  Specific holiday shows and movies; specific things that we bake and cook; and how we spend time with loved ones.  This year Meghan brought her tradition of doing gingerbread houses to the holidays.  My family did our usual Christmas Eve celebration of Chinese food and old Christmas TV specials with her. 

Speaking of holiday traditions, I got to experience two new ones this year.  Adding to my list of firsts this year, I went to see the Nutcracker, my first ballet.  Many people assumed that I was getting dragged to the performance, since apparently it is virtually a law that no straight man can enjoy ballet.  While I could have done without the dudes who were wearing tights that were… well, so tight that you could see more on him than I really ever want to see, I have always been a fan of the music of The Nutcracker and Tchaikovsky.  I treated it as an excellent concert with visual accompaniment.

The next day we went to see the Radio City Christmas Spectacular, which is a real throwback to the musical productions of yesteryear.  It reminded me of the type of shows that were being put on in the movie "White Christmas" which is a type of show you just don’t see any more – dancing, singing, stylized sets… not a feature performer or central plot line – just a collection of entertaining performances loosely strung together.  It was so different to be entertained by just that, and not sheer star power or story lines or over the top production.

The show ended with "The Living Nativity" and the story of the birth of Jesus – a.k.a. the real meaning of Christmas.  Now, I’m not the most religious of people but I appreciate the origin of Christmas and find the over-commercialization of it as gratuitous as many others.  I also think that the spirit of Christmas (giving, loving, generosity, reflection, time with friends and family) can be kept intact without offending anyone.  However, showing the origins of Christmas at a Christmas show that everyone has paid to see shouldn’t be a problem.  The production of this segment was gorgeous, complete with live animals and performers coming down the aisles. 

The monologue that was being played and shown during the segment kept to the Nativity story for the most part.  There was one part which caught my attention: it said that all the kings, rulers, presidents and leaders of the world combined have not had as much of an impact as Jesus Christ.   The more cynical in the audience probably were raising an eyebrow at the particular wording of that, since if you want to start talking about that, then you could also start talking about things like the Inquisition, wars fought over religion, scandal cover-ups, etc.  A cynical view for sure, but a realistic one as well – one wonders if they have considered changing that wording over the years.   

But I digress – my point is that at the end of the show, I heard people several rows behind me say "that was great, except for that last part – could have done with out that."  I kinda hate the whole "politically correct" thing, but I also have a good amount of tolerance for it as well, as I understand we live in a world with diverse cultures.  However, I went to a CHRISTMAS SPECTACULAR and while it was strange to see a production involving the Nativity, it was only strange because it isn’t that much of a part of Christmas in popular culture, not because I found it offensive.  I came to a Christmas show and they talked about the origins of Christmas.  What do people want?  A story about the Easter Bunny?  You can take political correctness only so far, especially when you’ve paid to go to see a show about Christmas.  Take it or leave it, it was a gorgeous production and is a great story that deserves to be told during the season. 

Too many people in America take the right to vote for granted.  I’m always amazed when a developing country goes through its first democratic process – often you see lines of hundreds and hundreds of people turning out to vote.   

Here, even though there are some very decisive issues at play right now, you could vote easily and with no wait at all.  That is something that we should appreciate.   

Turns out that it was still a good year for voters, especially young ones, who turned out in droves.   I’m an ardent supporter of registering to vote and then putting it into action, and I’ve been involved with Rock the Vote before, so this makes me very happy.

A couple of things that caught my eye today:

I haven’t seen it yet, but apparently the new Jay-Z video features a gold bottle of champagne, and conveniently enough, it will be available before the holidays this year.  I’m sure all the 13 year olds watching MTV will appreciate that. 

There is a Ford commercial that I have seen a few times and the first couple of times I said "wait… was that what I thought it was?" and sure enough it is.  A car commercial that shows the typical American family: dad hanging out with his ex-wife and kid on the weekend.  Of course, he had them drop him off at a nice condo, but what they didn’t show was dad walking 30 minutes back to the half-way house where he and his buddies Jack, Jim and Johnnie help him to cry himself to sleep as he dreams about the cars and houses he used to own before the divorce.

Interesting article about how the iPod just isn’t that big of a deal.  I kinda get his point, but at the same time, I think the article ignores a few other things.  First of all, the iPod was a major part of enabling the current demand for music.  Yes, it started with MP3’s in general, but it also put it into the hands of the common people, not just the geeks.  Apple’s simple design made it possible for everyone to convert a digital sound signal to a compressed Moving Pictures Expert Group 1, Layer 3 file and transfer it via Universal Serial Bus connection to a click-wheel controlled portable 60 gigabyte high-speed hard drive – even if you have no idea what I just said.  Plus, how did the Walkman serve as a plot device in Ghostbusters, Back to the Future and Goonies? Did I miss something?

And last but not least…  Pop Culture Gangster was at the forefront of this, having been at the world premiere of the original Eepybird film, and it continues to expand.  Coca-Cola has a contest for combining Coke and candies.

Last night I was playing tennis, a new favorite hobby of mine, and managed to BADLY pull my right calf muscle.  And when I say "BADLY" I mean "I’m on crutches now after a visit to the emergency room."  I should be off of them in a few days, but let me tell you – it hasn’t even been 24 hours yet and I still technically have the full function of my legs, but its made me realize how much people who have to live with crutches go through.  Suddenly every doorway and hallway seems half the size it was before and I try to figure out how to do things without either bending over or moving too much.

Slowly getting back into the swing of things here… got a few articles I wanted to share:

I have some friends who just came back from Alaska and bought some liquor at the duty-free shops and ran into the problem of transporting it home now that you can’t take liquor on a plane.  They aren’t alone.

This one is for Lauren: this article about the hoody (hoodie?) is amazing for two reasons: first, it is a very interesting piece on how culture changes and a simple piece of clothing can change people’s perceptions.  Secondly, I can’t believe that they wrote that much about a sweatshirt.  Really.

This is a very cool idea: basically a YouTube for Xbox games, allowing consumers to write video games.  I don’t like Microsoft, but I have to give them kudos when its due.  Now if they could just make using Word easier, it would be great.

Kickball is back!  That either makes you happy or it brings back bad, bad gym class memories.

Just in case you don’t have enough with a brand logo being on your underwear, socks, pants, t-shirt and, of course, your hoody, you can always have one tattooed on you.

Advertising is the art of the 20th century (be afraid) and this is someone’s attempt at listing the Creepiest Icons in Advertising History.  He forgot Joe Isuzu.

I have made mentions of the growing power of China, and Asia in general, in a global economy a few times before, but here is an article about counterfeit phones posing a threat to the companies who sell the real thing.  Counterfeiting is a major issue in China, and is one that needs to be resolved if they are to get the investment from the big branded companies.

Tagging for travel sounds cool and the concept might be a technology that could become really big.  Though I still like sitting down with a guide book and reading it, folding pages, underlining it and being able to take it with me.

Trend alert!  Hyphy dancing. Of course, according to some, its already too popular (read the last part of the article).

Remember "Pretty In Pink" or the "The Breakfast Club"?  Teen movies have changed and this article offers an interesting history of them.  Of course, being a teen has also changed… I remember being mainly concerned about the "fag tag" on the back of my shirt, not taking the right prescription drugs for my ADHD, terrorism, or STDs.

Last but not least… further proof that apparently no one can make their own decision without being influenced by celebrities.