Nutty Squirrelbottom Speaks

Disclosure Policy

Nut E Squirrelbottom — Sun, 30 Dec 2007 02:37:10 GMT

This site accepts paid advertisement in the form of image and text links, as well as other forms of advertising. The occasional paid post may appear. I will do my best to mark such posts. Usually these will be marked as “Check It Out:” or similar.

At least one advertiser, and likely several, uses cookies to track sales in order to credit said sales to the correct party (preferably me). These cookies are not used to track personally identifying information. However, cookies can be turned off or cleaned from your browser’s tool section.

This page may be updated as pertinent information becomes available to me.

Are You An Idiot?

Nut E Squirrelbottom — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 03:10:02 GMT

It's an essential life skill to know whether you're an idiot or not. But if you're not sure, check out the idiot quiz. By the time you're done, you're sure to know if you're an idiot or not.

She's A Real Doll

Nut E Squirrelbottom — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 22:44:00 GMT

I must start this off by stating: I am a straight female.

That said, I totally want one of these. Ok, I can't actually link to it or I may damage my already precariously low PR, but go to Real Doll dot com and click on "dolls". If you're over 18, that is.

It is not a pr0n site, but it could probably be used as one. It's very explicit. However, none of it is actually real. It looks incredibly real though. Every bit is carefully sculpted to be as lifelike as possible. And boy do some of those dolls fool the eye.

Ok, the real reason I want one of these is because they're so lifelike. I can just imagine all the pranks I could play when guests come over. Or like hubby wants to do- strap her into the passenger seat and try to get pulled over. The one catch? She's $6500 for a stock model. You can customize everything from breast size to eyeshadow color, but some customizations will cost more. And there's a $500 shipping charge.

There are also male dolls, but they're not realistic at all.

Just don't let your kids in the room while you're looking at these! You may know they're not real women, but it could take years of therapy to convince your kids.

E*Trade's One Finger

Nut E Squirrelbottom — Sat, 08 Dec 2007 15:01:13 GMT

I so love this commercial. It cracks me up every time I see it, and I often run around repeating the "get to know your doctor" and "tell your high priced stock broker where to go" bits over and over.

Yeah, I'm annoying. So?

A Little Work Never Hurt Anybody

Nut E Squirrelbottom — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 20:18:05 GMT

But a lot of work did. Some guy in one of Toyota's Japan plans literally overworked himself to death. At least according to a court ruling. And who could blame them? The guy worked 106 hours of overtime in a week. Overtime people- not 106 hours total. 106 hours of overtime.

And they say Americans are workaholics and have our priorities messed up. Toyota's response? That it would further improve the management of its employees health. Oh yes, I can see they're really stepping up to the plate.

The O. Z. Corrected

Nut E Squirrelbottom — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 20:21:17 GMT

I was wrong.

The Tinman is only 3 episodes long and last night was the last. However, you can still catch it by tuning in to the Sci Fi channel on Sunday. I totally recommend it.

Welcome To The O. Z.

Nut E Squirrelbottom — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 21:30:58 GMT

I have to admit that for once I was enticed by advertising. The Sci-Fi channel's new mini-series The Tinman looked really, really cool.

And you know what? It is. I mean, obviously any remake of The Wizard of Oz is going to be a bit cheesy. It can't be avoided. But I'm seriously enjoying this. The only downer is that each episode is 2 hours long, and it's every night rather than every week.

This is seriously eating into my writing/business planning time. Good thing I did a lot of my week's writing Sunday afternoon, cuz I'm sure not getting any in during the evening anymore!

Like I said, it's a little cheesy, but the CGI is very impressive for a made-for-tv, as is the cast, and the costumes. The little twists and turns would make any novelist proud (had they written it), and there are plenty of "oh" moments.

There's still time to catch it before it goes totally over your head, and the recaps are helpful. But hurry if you want to watch it this time around. Soon it'll be way too convoluted to just step in and enjoy.

Paris By Light

Nut E Squirrelbottom — Sat, 24 Nov 2007 02:09:54 GMT

This settles it. The French can't do anything without style.

First, you have the clothes. If you look carefully, you can tell that he's dressing gangsta... assuming it's still considered gangsta these days now that everyone in America dresses this way. Except that this guy is French. And his "gangsta" clothes are clean, pressed, and cut well. No cheap grungy clothes for this guy.

And second, you have his graffiti. This bad boy does all of his graffiti using light. The only permanence is in video. And it's set to music.

Nope, the French can't do anything without style.

Sesame Street Isn't For Kids

Nut E Squirrelbottom — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 00:08:42 GMT

Funny, I always thought it was for kids. Then again, for some reason I never liked it much when I was the target age group. About the only things I liked from Sesame Street was those weird aliens, Super Grover (only when he was super) Cookie Monster, and Oscar the Grouch.

Ok, those are still the only things I like about Sesame Street, but apparently the people releasing the first season of Sesame Street to DVD don't feel the same way. Apparently there are too many instances of irresponsible behavior in the earlier episodes of Sesame Street that can simply lead our children astray. I mean, of course Cookie Monster is to blame for our trouble with childhood obesity. Of course Big Bird was clearly deranged since he could see the invisible Snuffleupagus. Thank heavens I was never a fan or I would be traumatized too.

Yeesh. People really need to get lives.

I'm just waiting for them to take away Yosemite Sam's shotgun and hide the dynamite sticks from Wile E. Coyote.

Music Goes Old School

Nut E Squirrelbottom — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 02:38:01 GMT

I was writing a sponsored post at another blog for bettercaring.com and came across an article about a group of retirees(I believe they're actually in the same care home) who formed a cover band for modern rock and hip hop.

How cool! These guys cover the Pussycat Dolls, McFly, and a few others. You have to see it to believe it, but I love seeing seniors get their groove on. Hey, my mother's 61 and just graduating from nursing school, so you know I'm all for living out your dreams at any age. Or, just having fun.

The Amazing Paul Potts

Nut E Squirrelbottom — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 00:20:23 GMT

Have you heard this guy yet? If not, you will.

Paul Potts is an opera singer who used to be a cell phone salesman. That is, until he won Britain's Got Talent. I've only just heard about him, and I probably wouldn't have thought twice about it had I not seen this clip on a venue that I take seriously. After all, I don't like opera, so why would I care?

At least, I didn't like opera until I heard Paul Potts sing it.

Think of it this way. If a performer can make Simon Cowell not only not say anything negative, but actually praise his talent... Yeah. He's got talent. He also has an album out: One Chance (With Bonus Tracks)

Take a listen, you'll never see opera the same way again.

Can It Be True? Virgin America

Nut E Squirrelbottom — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 01:09:26 GMT

I hate to fly. Truly, I hate it. It's not just a fear, it's a loathing. There's only one airline that I'm willing to fly other than the occasional puddlejumper. Virgin Atlantic.

The thing is, Virgin didn't provide flights within America. Yes, you could fly to and from the USA/Canada/related areas, but not within.

But tonight I watched the Colbert Report with Richard Branson as his guest. Guess what he plugged? That's right, there's Virgin Atlantic, and now there's Virgin America. Whoopeee! I actually may make it out to California some day.

Sadly, when I did a search on Google it turns out that Virgin America launched in December 2005. So, yes, I'm behind the times. I certainly hope it's a success since I'd love to see Virgin Railways come over and whoop the pants off Amtrak (the blood sucking leeches with crappy trains, service, and prices).

This Site's Gone To The Dogs

Nut E Squirrelbottom — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 23:43:23 GMT

ObeyThePureBreed.com has something to say about the sneaky barkers infiltrating our government, and attempting to usher in a new world regime.

This bizarre site makes a compelling case for guarding ourselves against terrierism, and even has a blog tracking their movements. (btw, my favorite post is about a chihuahua stalking Vick)

You Think You're A Sports Fan?

Nut E Squirrelbottom — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 01:01:35 GMT

Check these guys out:

(I saw a better video of this, but couldn't find it again to post)

And this video shows you a bit about how they do it.

Tortoise And The Feline

Nut E Squirrelbottom — Sun, 14 Oct 2007 18:09:36 GMT

But it's a hare-y feline!

If An Amoeba Can Do It, Why Can't I?

Nut E Squirrelbottom — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 01:12:49 GMT

Here's some news you can use. Apparently there's a microscopic organism that doesn't just reproduce asexually... which wouldn't be news at all... but actually evolves while doing it!

Asexual reproduction generally means that your gene pool doesn't really give you too many options, but this little sucker has allowed its genes to evolve separately. So when it reproduces, it's not just a copy of itself.

Seagulls Can Not Be Trusted!

Nut E Squirrelbottom — Tue, 09 Oct 2007 19:17:08 GMT

Again, I find something in my email that's probably be circulating for years, but I've never seen before. Apparently, there's a seagull in Aberdeen, Scotland (hey, I was there once!) that goes into a shop on a regular basis and steals a bag of Doritos, rips it open, and shares the contents with friends.

Truth is stranger than fiction, folks.

The video is a bit quiet, but it's the clearest I could find.

Japanese Divorce Loans?

Nut E Squirrelbottom — Sat, 06 Oct 2007 22:39:47 GMT

Here's something new- apparently in Japan, recent divorcee's can get an extra special low interest rate on their divorce loans. Yup. Divorce loans.

It seems that the average payout... er, I mean, penalty, for the offending party (or leaving party) in a divorce is about $35,000. Think you'd need a loan for that? I know I would. It also seems that said parties take out credit card loans to pay off the pay out, so some clever bank came up with a nice low rate, a considerably lower interest rate than the credit cards interest rates.

I'd expect American banks to follow suit, but given the high rate of divorce over here, I don't think our banks could afford to give low rate loans for divorcees!

Disney Mobile Goes Bye-Bye

Nut E Squirrelbottom — Sat, 06 Oct 2007 00:29:30 GMT

I still don't know how I feel about this. On the one hand, we really did not have good luck with our Disney Mobile phones. I mean, the phones themselves were fine. Unbelievably slow, but fine. But our service sucked.

If you stood anywhere in our townhouse- even next to a window with the antenae pointing out, even with a door wide open and your hand sticking just past the walls, we couldn't get service. However, if you walked 10 feet outside the building we had five full bars. Seriously. I had to walk outside or sit in my car if I wanted to talk to my mother (long distance on the landline).

On top of that, we had all kinds of billing problems, problems when the phones were delivered, problems with getting charged 10 times for a single download that never worked, and again with the billing- overcharged, undercharged, credited and charged for the credit, and getting the run around on the phone because they never seemed to know what we were talking about. The website barely worked and took almost a year to offer payment online which they'd promised before they even launched.

On the other hand, the people were nice, tried to be helpful, and the basic phone model offered much more than any other company (dowloads, camera, text and picture messaging, GPS, and games already on the phone, as well as exclusive Disney downloads which included ride soundtracks as ringtones). We love Disney. I hate to say anything bad about anything Disney- but we were talking people out of getting Disney Mobile because of how bad our service was.

I think the idea was great, there was just something wrong with the execution. I don't know if they didn't plan well enough, or if things beyond their control happened. Maybe it was just lack of sales. But whatever happened, this is a little bittersweet.

I now have a KRAZR which I totally wanted, but there's no Disney on it. I had to pay to get a phone with all the features Disney Mobile gave me for free, and our monthly bills were much better than competitors offered. But... I can actually get calls inside my house. That's got to count for something.

Death To All Mail In Rebates!

Nut E Squirrelbottom — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 18:48:19 GMT

Here's what I don't understand: why companies are oblivious to their own bad marketing. Do they realize that when they say: ONLY $49.95
After $50 Mail-in-Rebate

That the average customer, who was about to buy that $49.95 item is now about to walk out the door- without your product? If it were an instant rebate, or even a "register online" rebate, your company might have actually sold that product. But no. You want us to not only put in the extra effort, but you're hoping that we'll forget to do it, or do it wrong so that you don't have to give us the discount at all. Or maybe you're just trying to harvest information to sell off or put us on your mailing list. We know that's what you want. And we don't care. You know why?

Because we don't actually need your product. Unless our agenda was specifically to purchase said item, at its original price (in which case we might be thrilled with our luck, and you're losing the difference in price)- you've just lost 9 out of 10 sales. But you think you're ahead because of that 1 sale.

Yes. I know what you say in your little meetings. "Oh please, if they can't be bothered to cut out a piece of box here, and fill in those little lines there, and attach the receipt, do we really want them as customers anyway?". I know you say it, and I know why. Because you're rationalizing. You know that the lower price looks good, but you can't justify simply slashing the price or offering it as a sale. You have to justify it somehow. Because you get to hold on to our money until you bloody well feel like giving it back to us. Just like a bank that offers you a good interest rate on a CD except... oh, you don't actually give us anything for the trouble. You claim that it's a discount, you claim that you're giving us a $100 product for $50, but you know what? We know that it's not worth $100. Yup. You heard me. We know.

Go ahead and hide in your little meetings, and tell your boss how well that sales push is going because that 1 person actually wanted your product enough to deal with the BS. But don't ever think that we're stupid enough to actually buy your line. If we shell out money, it's because we want it- not because you're good liars.