Since I rarely see advertisements, I hardly ever investigate contextual advertising.  But given the sheer variety of products and services, I had to check out some of these:

• The Gold Cockerel Books company offers a chicken coop construction booklet at a mere $13.00.  Except they call it a “poultry house” which is surely a major step up for any fowl who grew up in a lowly coop.
• Google picked up on a keyword for a traditional Ethiopian clothing worn around Christmas but instead provided a few links for Chinese clothing.  That’s a pretty far off from Africa, but the wedding dresses were still beautiful.
• Perhaps the most confusing advertisement was the How to be a Manhattan Dad, which linked out to a blog by a father with two young children The City.  There are some rather cute videos of his children endorsing Barack Obama and a brief rant on paternity leave disparity.

I often get stuck in a cycle of reading my big news sites, my rss syndication and checking the analytics on online properties I control.  For those Gmail users seeking adventure, I recommend cruising some of your more colorful past conversations for odd destinations on the web you would otherwise never have considered.

This music video comes from Pete Miser, founding member of the Five Fingers of Funk. Pete hails from Portland, Oregon and his band had a following in the PDX area back when I was in high school.

Apparently, Pete was actually asked to fly to LA for an iPhone commercial and was inspired to create his own. He wrote and recorded the song and then got some help from Merritt Duff and Arrow Kruse putting it together.

With the video remixing you might think it is another parody, but if you listen to his words you’ll come away seeing unique satire. Either way, I’m now officially sold on the iPhone and now intend to liquidate my Blackberry Curve.

Hit Me On My iPhone sort of reminded me of this other hip-hop mashup with a bit more of a traditional bit of popular culture, Outkast’s Hey Ya! matched up with cut scenes from A Charlie Brown Christmas:

Pete’s out in NYC doing his thing now, but about a while back he put out this other music video for something called “Scent of A Robot.” [.mov] That is sort of an Office Space inspired film about the future.

Bigups to Pete for keeping it relevant and cool. Thanks to Ross Petty for introducing us to the many legal questions surrounding the C. Brown video in Law last semester.

I decided that I must have this new burrito. I finally got around to trying it out this afternoon, so here’s a quick review of the new offering from Baja Fresh.

First, you should know that Baja Fresh was bought by Wendy’s in 2002 for 245 million dollars. I graduated in 2003, so the timing makes sense given the hype around the company. However, in only a few years the business has become increasingly less valuable to the point where it was bought from Wendy’s for a song–David Kim of Anaheim, CA led a group of investors to buy Baja Fresh for only $31 million.

After closing a few stores, Kim has supposedly launched some initiatives to reduce wait times and refresh the menu with some new items. The Nacho Burrito is a part of this effort.

First, after I ordered the burrito I was offered some chips to munch on while I waited for the my food. I gladly accepted, even though it was only a small portion of chips. It did make me hit the salsa bar up earlier than usual. Anyhow, the burrito became ready and it was big. I’d say the nacho burrito is roughly the size of an adult hamster, only flatter. To my dismay, it did not come with chips. This meant I was picking through the small little bits I had left from my “wait chips.”

My expectations for a nacho burrito were different than what I experienced. When I saw the billboard, I was thinking that I would run into a lot of chips or crunchy parts while eating it. However, there were only a few small chip things in there. A bit of a let down, as crunch textures go well with burritos, (hence the need for chips). Unexpectedly, there was a strong hint of nacho cheese in the burrito.

How might this be unexpected? I don’t eat nachos. They are gross. I don’t know why I wasn’t expecting nacho cheese there it was. You couldn’t really see it, just taste it. I ate the whole thing and wasn’t grossed out but was way too full and the walk home was slow and plodding.

So I give the new Nacho Burrito at Baja Fresh a C+ because it had few chips inside, no chips outside and (admittedly my fault for not thinking this through) a strong helping of easy processed yucky cheese taste.

1. Perform Baptisms
2. Performing Weddings
3. Performing and Speaking at Funerals
4. Visiting the sick
5. Counseling
6. Establishing New Congregations
7. Ordaining others

I have already done items two, three, four and five–which leaves baptisms, creating a congregation and ordaining my own clergymen and women.

So, to my friends and those I do not know, please let me sprinkle water on your child. I will say some nice words too. I haven’t decided what to name my church yet, but I expect all of you to show up on Sunday for the prayer and the basket passing.

About ten minutes ago about two hundred santas descended on 23rd avenue on their way to the Gypsy lounge. They’re part of the 2005 Portland Cacophony Society.

According to their official webpage, anyone can join in the herd, so long as you wear a santa suit. Includes “A coat, a hat, a beard, red pants and accessories. Gifts and candy for the kids, cash for bars and strippers.”

At their last stop before hitting the bar, I snagged a video of them chanting, “Santa needs a drink!” at the top of their lungs.

Check out a few pictures of Portland Santacon 2005 on my flickr page.

I try to stay up on my Internet meme, but I simply can’t catch it all.  Captain Dan Broschart dropped a doozy on me the other day after I probably said something boring and repetitive to him in a chat.  That doozy was "O RLY?"  [See Definition of O RLY?]Thus began a new minor obsession for me, that being the "O RLY?" owl.  I flippin love this owl!

 This guy describes the O RLY? Owl quite well and I feel better knowing that I am not alone.  Know this, if I respond to you in a verbal conversation with "Oh really?" I am actually mocking you and thinking of this terrific creature.

Not much else to say about it, except perhaps…O RLY?