It’s 11:15 p.m. Just after checking the Saints score, I went over to U2.com to see if the new song was released and found that the band will be signing books at Union Square tomorrow at noon. 250 books only. (It’s 11:15 p.m.). Now, my job gives me the liberty to pretty much set my own hours, meaning I could techincally get in line at 9:00 a.m. to get a wristband and a chance to get a signed book . . . the only problem is, it’s 11:15 p.m. and the headcount for the line is already 128.

Apparently, I’m not the only one with loose work schedule.

Yup, I must be a sucker.

I recently went out and purchased STEP INSIDE DESIGN’S “BEST OF THE WEB” issue. It set me back $12.95 (designer mags are never cheap!). Don’t get me wrong, the articles are usually interesting, but this year’s issue felt like a big advertisement for Odopod. I mean, what kind of awards contest allows one of the judges to be the creative director of a nominee? Granted, Odopod didn’t win the grand prize, but four pieces of Odopod’s were included (Hello Design was represented with a judge but had only one piece).

I’ve often wished that these firms would recognize products that were done on a smaller budget or in a smaller market. Hmmm, does Kansas have Web designers? Granted, such sites might not be quite as polished, but don’t constraints spawn creativity?

Getting back to the issue, I know how it works; firms often submit as many sites as they can to get any publishing space available, and I’m not saying that Odopod’s work wasn’t some of the best of the Web this year, but some very impressive sites were excluded from this year’s list, and I would hope that in the future STEP would find some unbiased judges.

If the Yankees had an NFL counterpart as far as fan-base goes, it’d be the Steelers. I swear, there are more Steelers fans around the country than followers of any other team.

Thanks to SteelersNYC.com (they found me . . . somehow), I was able to find Steelers Country in Manhattan–Iron City Beer and all, over at Scruffy Duffy’s in Midtown. Too bad Jacksonville wasn’t Steelers Country last night, though.

Can’t the NFL just let NFL games to stream on the Web like MLB (yes, I know Direct TV has a contract locked-in until 2012, but more power to the people)? I don’t bother with cable TV, although last night would have been nice to have ESPN. Fortunately, I’ll be back in PA, with cable, for Sunday’s game.

If you’re starting a small business like me, it’s helpful to find legitimate and valuable resources. One great resource pointed out to me from a friend is the New York Public Library’s Small Business Center. Even though it’s specific to NYC, it’s something that would be helpful to have in any area attempting to attract more small business.

My work has me visiting Midtown Manhattan on a fairly regular basis, and this would have to be my favorite billboard as of late:

It’s interesting that the BBC is targeting America. I remember BBC.com being the only site accessible to me on 9/11, and I ocassionally check it to get that second opinion to go with any U.S. media outlet.

Fuse Kit Documentation is up! Hooray! Congrats to Moses Gunesch on posting up documentation on his Fuse/ZigoEngine kit.

If you have no idea what I’m talking about and use Flash, you really need to look into it . . .

I happened to run across a link the other day that explains how to play a built-in version of Tetris on Mac OS X’s Terminal (it’s really included in UNIX). Perhaps more interesting is to run the game “doctor” instead of Tetris (follow the same instructions and instead of tetris type “doctor”). It’ll bring up the old, well-known, simple-to-program psychotherapist program that provides feedback to your answers.

I’ve only started drinking Starbucks, as I was (and still am) against them overtaking the world of small, local coffee shops. They don’t hold a candle up to some of the local NYC shops, but I blame my change of heart on a 60 Minutes documentary, along with the fact that their drip coffee is good and consistent (I wish they’d put the creamer in, though, rather than force me to use the sometimes-nasty public creamer station).

I caught myself reading their packaging the other day, and while I like their campaign, I’m not crazy about that exclusivity of it. For those of you that don’t read Starbucks product packaging in their spare time, the whole idea is a play on starting conversations at coffee shops, and it involves displaying the opinions of famous and influential people.

It’s all done tastefully (I’m thankful to read Bob Edwards’s opinion rather than Paris Hilton), and it invites consumers to mention the way they see it on the Starbucks Web site (see http://www.starbucks.com/wayiseeit). My question is, why stop there? Why not display the common consumer’s opinion on the packaging? Why must it be some well-known or “successful” person? So long as it’s interesting to read, I don’t think I should matter who’s voice it is.

Too expensive to produce, you say? Hogwash! Look at Jones Soda. They’ve been publishing submitted pictures for years.

Well, Starbucks, keep up the good coffee, but think about giving the little guy an equal soapbox.

Okay, maybe I should call it a Flash Shared Object. One of the freebies from Adobe during the FlashCodersNY Flash 10th Anniversary party.

Friday after the game I finally made it over to the Laugh Factory after passing it nearly every day for the past two years. The mandatory 2-drink limit reminded me of the Vanguard, but it was worth it (maybe just not the $4 Sprite); my face was hurting from laughing through most of the sets.

I was really surprised that one of the comics actually referenced Harrisburg, PA for having outdated bands headline shows. It’s sad but true.

After hitting this place, one thing Harrisburg’s Comedy Zone could do is place their shows in a smaller room. It was much better being right in front of the comic (just not close enough to be picked on).