patrick schneider

Check out Google’s “Suggest” if you haven’t already (http://www.google.com/webhp?complete=1&hl=en). It’s probably the coolest thing in web development I’ve seen in awhile. Actually, I suppose that GMail is littered with this new technology… this is just a higher-visibility usage of it, I think.

Anyway, enjoy.

So… I’ve turned off all Comments and Trackback capabilities for this blog. Looks like I will now be judge and jury, as the spamming community has once again proven themselves to be quite effective at ruining things that are cool.

Anyway, it’s been a long while since my last post. I was quite please to see that my Korea Garden entry made Google’s list (search for “korea garden austin”). Maybe they’ll end up needing that $90 after all ;o)

I decided to go to Korea Garden one last time to try and recoup the $90 they stole from me. No luck. In fact, the waitress who served us doesn’t work there anymore (allegedly). Hopefully she was fired for her theft. The employees who currently work there, however, couldn’t have cared less about my predicament; my judgement on this filthy sushi hell hole still stands. Never go there.

On August 17, 2004 I dined with three friends at Korea Garden on North Lamar Blvd. I had been supporting this restaurant and its lunch specials for many months previous to this visit.

Our dinner went well. When we received the bill, we split it four ways. The total was around $100, and my share came out to $11.17 (one member of our party had a few too many sake bombs and decided to plop down more than his share… the others felt this was agreeable).

I tipped $10, bringing my total to $21.17, and threw my receipt away upon exiting the building.

When my credit card bill for the month arrived, the meal at Korea Garden showed up as $111.17! I’ve been back to the restaurant THREE TIMES to protest, to no avail. A similar thing happened to a reviewer on austin.citysearch.com, whose transaction went through four times for the same meal. Korea Garden has a recurring problem with overcharging its customers.

Now I keep all receipts. And I will never again eat at Korea Garden, regardless of whether I can recoup my money.

…going to try to ping weblogs.com.

Ever since the election, I’ve had this nagging feeling that I couldn’t quite put my finger on. This morning it came to me: I’ve been wanting to research Alaska’s policy on marijuana because during the election, I heard a blurb about doobie legalization in that state. It didn’t take long to track down the information; remembering that I wanted to track it down in the first place was the difficult part.

At any rate, “Alaska courts have ruled that the possession and use of up to four ounces of marijuana by adults 21 and older in the privacy of their home is legal. The statewide Alaska court of appeals reaffirmed this in August 2003.” Wow. The problem is that it’s illegal to sell. I guess they’ll have to grow their own? But how do you do that if you can’t possess more than 4 ounces? Perhaps Canada sells weed…? I guess I should research their drug laws too.

I’m amazed that this kind of news hasn’t received more billing in the mainstream media. It seems so radical in light of the “War on Drugs” that we hear so much about. I say legalize ‘em all. I’m not a particular fan of any drugs besides alcohol for personal use, but big-daddy-Fed needs to shove off and let people do with their bodies as they will.

Here’s a great article regarding the drug-related events of this past election: http://www.alternet.org/drugreporter/20526/. Pay close attention to the moolah involved here and how the Feds have squandered our tax dollars on ridiculous “so-called anti-drug advertising.” (Hint: they have a $200 million annual budget.) Enjoy, man. Like woah.

It’s nearing eggnog time again. I could put up a fairly decent argument that it’s already here. Holy crap. Delicious! If you have any good recipes, let me know; tradition dictates that at least one batch for the holiday is homemade

NOAA is the best place to get your weather information.

Veteran’s Day: Partly cloudy, with a high near 67. North northwest wind around 20 mph.

Tonight: Mostly cloudy, with a low around 47. North wind around 15 mph.

Usually the best weather predictions come by looking out of your own window, but NOAA seems to be second best. It’s good for when I need bicycle commuting information. I didn’t ride this morning because I’ve been getting back into the groove of working out. Couple that with normal judo practice and the ride to judo I did yesterday, and I’m beat down. Need time to adjust… the sleeping in this morning helped a lot…

Recap of the past few days:

• Friday: judo, sleep.
• Saturday: breakfast, Chris & Lizzy came in town midday, beer and burgers at Boulevard, Robin’s place for some random football, The Tavern for more football and beer, Kristen calls with an extra ticket to the Longhorns game, I go for the first half, leave at halftime and miss the greatest comeback in UT history, Trudy’s, sleep.
• Sunday: Trianon coffee, Honey Nut Cheerios for breakfast, Academy to buy golf balls, golf @ HRC w/Jeff and Jessica, Freebirds w/Jeff, Robin picked me up and we shopped for awhile… got some new socks. They’re gray.
• Monday: work, judo
• Today: work, lunch with Moser (!), home, workout, going to head to the local watering hole tonight… meeting Robin and Moser there.

PBS is a good channel. Watched Frontline tonight. Interesting things about “The Persuaders” (i.e. the new marketing and advertising gurus). You should check out acxiom and be very afraid. They have banks and banks of servers with information about you. I promise. Of course they will use it for good. Good like marketing to you effectively. Reduce the junk mail. Only get what you interested in.

::Dire Straits - Walk of Life::

If you are in need of inexpensive CD duplication (or inexpensive DVD duplication), my friend Jared has started a company just for you. From what I know, they are extremely fast, reliable, and quality-focused. Send me a note and I’ll hook you up with him. In the meantime, I’ll see if I can find direct contact information for them (website, etc.).