Bad Customer Relations
There is a Quizno’s in World Square. I would like to order a sandwich platter for the staff who will doing the sale setup tonight. Unfortunately I cannot find a frickin’ phone number for that outlet anywhere. It’s not on their website. Neither phone number on whitepages.com works for them. Who doesn’t publish a phone number? Especially when their menu says to call your local outlet for catering? No business for you!

It’s here! I picked him up tonight from the EB Games on Broadway. We got the Wii, the “Wii Play” pack (which we thought was going to contain an extra nunchuk along with the Wiimote, but it doesn’t), and the Zelda game. Apparently the Australian retailers didn’t get any stock – consoles or games – beyond what we pre-ordered. So yay for forethought! We cracked open the box as soon as the Snook got home. Installation was pretty darn easy, and it picked up our wireless network and downloaded the required updates fairly quickly. We created our “Mii” characters (little avatars that you use in the games) and then fired up Wii Sports. Moving the controller around is both really weird and really natural at the same time. We started on some training modes just to figure out how it worked. They were amusing, but I’ll admit I started to get bored after a while. Then we figured out how to play head-to-head. THAT RULES. We played a couple games of tennis, and then a whole game of bowling (in which I broke 100 for the first time EVER). Then we put in the Wii Play game and had some fun with Ping Pong, laser hocky, and the shooting range. Suddenly it was 10:30 and we’d been playing for two hours. And get this – my shoulders are actually a little sore! This is definitely more of a workout than usual videogaming. (And the Snook burnt a lot more calories than he usually does playing Warcraft.) I’m looking forward to cracking open Zelda on the weekend…

Oh! And we took a couple more pictures. Here’s the Snook doing an impressive follow-through during our bowling match. And here’s me trying to hit a home run during our baseball training. (Sadly, that’s how I hit in real life too.) But the FUNNIEST thing is, I just got an e-mail from one of the Snook’s friends who was watching us on CouchCam. And check out the great action shot he got of Dr. Amy Jones!

The Japanese Wii Safety Manual. I’ll have to keep that in mind for tomorrow… WHEN I GET MY WII. (Incidentally, the only picture I don’t get is the one where the Wii’s sitting next to the bags of laundry. What the heck does that mean?)

Lenticulations. I love these. They remind me of looking through a Viewmaster, that sensation of something being almost hyper-realistic.

Dude, check out these hats from the FUTURE! They look like normal winter caps, but according to the manufacturer, they’re actually made from some space-age stuff that hardens the exact second something hits your head (like the ground), thus absorbing the force like a helmet. And then they go soft again. Does anybody else find this mind-blowingly weird?

More from the Snook: “It’s totally for real. It’s like silly putty — how you can pull slowly and it stretches, but pull it quickly and it snaps. Honey does something like that too. If you stir a pot of honey slowly, it’s just thick and gooey, but if you try to yank the spoon really hard it will freeze up tight. Basically wearing one of these would be like having silly putty all over your head (but hopefully more comfortable).”

I love that he’s so smart.

Some days my job is just fun. I just spent half an hour helping someone pick out wool to knit a koala suit. What’s it for? The forthcoming Snugglepot and Cuddlepie musical. The designer’s assistant has been in and out over the past couple of days collecting yarn for the costumes. I’m hoping he’ll comp me a ticket…

Um, not that I’m sitting at work hitting refresh on the BBC Sports site or anything… but ARE YOU GUYS SEEING THIS? The Poms are all out before tea on Day 5, and the Aussies need 168 off 36 overs. This is turning into a ripper of a match!

Fun link from the Snook: The UnSuggester. You enter the title of a book that you have and it tells you which other books you’re least likely to own. He writes: “Interestingly, the first search I did was for The Book of Skulls. Among the unsuggestions are several books in our library – The Lovely Bones, Stitch ‘n Bitch, Little Women, Naked. Hmmm… Those are all yours…” I should upload our bookshelves. Obviously we’d blow the system’s algorithms.

Huh. My boss Albert was on his way into the shop this morning when he noticed a woman at a stoplight with a coffee cup sitting on her car’s roof. He waved to get her attention and pointed at the cup. She called him over to thank him for the head’s-up… and gave him $15 in Starbucks gift cards. IT’S A PROMOTION. So if you see somebody driving around Sydney with a cup on their roof, let them know! Even if you don’t like their coffee, you can always give the cards to a homeless person.