Initially I was slightly disappointed to learn that customers would not be able to reserve or choose specific numbers — of course after thinking about it, I realize what a logistical nightmare this would have been. On August 1st Jason posted Shipping Begins in Earnest, and on August 31st he posted that coin number 2,000 had left the building. When shipping 2,000 “anythings” in 30 days, I can’t imagine taking, tracking, and delivering specifically numbered coins to specific customers would be anything less than a major headache. On top of that, the really low numbers were reserved for investors, interviewees, and other groups, so those were already spoken for. Ultimately it would have been a big mess for a small pay off. Most people probably couldn’t care less about what specific number was stamped on their coin.

But I did — I wanted coin #405. If you are a child of the Internet, you may not feel any connection to your area code, but those of us who grew up using modems do (or at least did). Back then, people represented their area codes. Long before 90210 we had 213. One of the first groups of hackers to gain notoriety in the media were the Milwaukee 414s. Back in the day, I remember calling BBSes in 714 (California), 303 (Denver), 404 (Atlanta), and 312 (Chicago) … but 405 was mine. In fact, several years ago, I wrote a tribute to area code 405 for the Cult of the Dead Cow. As you can probably guess, it’s Text File #405.

After receiving coins #331 and #332 (I ordered two copies; one for me, one for Dad), I contacted Jason to find out if he was keeping a database as to which customer received which coin. Fortunately for me, fellow customer Shannon Harris announced in the comments of this post that she (I have assumed all along that Shannon is female) had coin #405. Jason got the two of us connected via e-mail and Shannon was gracious enough to agree to trade coins with me. The rest, as they say, is history.

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If you’re on Facebook — and who isn’t at this point — you know that the name of the game is sharing. From pictures and updates to virtual farms animals and high scores, Facebook is all about sharing parts of your life with the people you choose to share with. In that regard, Places is a way to share where you are, with whom you wish to. Like many aspects of Facebook, you can control who can see your Places updates from your profile. From your profile, simply click on Account > Privacy Settings and choose “Everyone”, “Friends”, or “Friends of Friends”.

Many of us were already doing this, but manually (“Having lunch at Taco Bueno!”) The only difference between that and Places is, Places uses your phone’s GPS location to provide a list of nearby places. From that list, you simply choose the proper location, tag any Facebook friends with you, add any additional comments (optional), and post. Keep in mind this is an entirely voluntary process. The app can’t automatically “place” you anywhere on its own. (Update: Places now notifies you when you are tagged in someone else’s Place update, and you are given the option to untag yourself from someone else’s Places posts.)

If there’s any controversial aspect of Places at all, it’s that you can tag other people in your own updates. When sharing your Place, you can tag any of your Facebook friends, announcing that they are with you. And if your friend didn’t want the world know he or she was hanging out with you … well, too bad. Then again, people have been doing this manually since the dawn of Facebook (“having lunch with Tim Dog”) so this is really nothing new. Plus, it might come in handy if I ever need an alibi for something …

I suppose the only question remaining regarding Places is, “Why?” Why would anyone want to share where they are at any given time? The simplest answer is, “because they want to.” I personally don’t think it’s any different than anything else we already share on Facebook. But above and beyond that, if you add yourself at a Place, you can see everyone else who has added themselves to that same place. In places like New York City or Chicago or San Francisco, where people may be in close proximity to one another, sharing your location might be a great way to meet up with your friends in real life. That’s less likely to happen here in Oklahoma City (which covers 620 square miles) but you never know. I could see perhaps going to the mall, updating my Place, and finding other people who are there at the same time. You never know.

One fault I’ve seen in Places is that the database is not completely populated. When the kids and I visited Pizza Hut in Yukon earlier this week, I found it missing from the database. Fortunately, adding new locations is very simple to do. You can also flag places that have closed down to get them removed from the database. In that aspect, it’s kind of fun to be part of building and molding the Places database. I do not know if there are any checks and balances to adding or removing locations from Places.

The only additional caveat is that Places, like anything else we share via social networking, should be used responsibly. Don’t tag friends that don’t want to be tagged, don’t tag your whole family as being out of town on vacation, and don’t tag yourself at a place you don’t want your spouse/boss/ex to know you visit, and thing’s should be just fine.

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N.W.A. – 100 Miles and Runnin’: The follow-up EP to the band’s seminal Straight Outta Compton album. This EP marked the departure of Ice Cube (who would soon launch his own successful music and acting careers). Despite the fact that “100 Miles” is an EP containing only five songs, it went platinum (selling more than one million copies) two years later in 1992.

Alice in Chains – Facelift: The debut album from one of the original grunge bands. “Man in the Box” quickly took MTV and radios by storm, while “We Die Young”, “Sea of Sorrow” and “Bleed the Freak” are all classic tracks from this album as well. Alice in Chains went on to great success, and their debut album has been certified double platinum.

Vanilla Ice – To the Extreme: Laugh all you want, but I guarantee if you’re my age, there was a point in time when you thought Vanilla Ice was cool. As Vanilla Ice himself once said, “It’s amazing that nobody admits to owning this album, and yet ‘To the Extreme’ sold eleven million copies.” Sadly, I owned one of those copies.

LL Cool J – Mama Said Knock You Out: “Don’t call it a comeback, I’ve been here for years.” The song “Mama Said Knock You Out” got heavy rotation through MTV Raps as did “Around the Way Girl”, solidifying LL’s reputation as both a lover and a fighter. This is another double-platinum album, selling two-million copies in a short period of time.

Extreme – Pornograffitti: Although the band had a couple of radio singles with their debut album, Extreme didn’t blow up until the release of this album. Songs like “Kid Ego” (from their first album) and “Get the Funk Out” showed off the band’s chops, but singles “Hole Hearted” and “More than Words” turned the band into (wimpy) superstars.

Jane’s Addiction – Ritual de lo Habitual: Jane’s Addiction’s second and most successful studio album. “Been Caught Stealing” helped put both the band and alternative rock on the map. This was one of the first albums I remember being released with alternate covers so that it could be sold at Wal-Mart. “Ritual de lo Habitual” went on to sell 3 million copies and was (by far) Jane’s Addiction’s most successful album.

Garth Brooks – No Fences: Growing up in Yukon, Oklahoma (the same town as Garth) made ignoring Mr. Brooks rocket to fame impossible to ignore — especially when they painted his name on our town’s water tower. (I wish I was kidding.) “No Fences” includes “Friends in Low Places” and “The Thunder Rolls” and a bunch of other songs I never heard. Sorry, I didn’t buy this one, but 17 million people did. This album is the reason half of the people at my senior prom wore cowboy hats.

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When I was a kid, my mom used to buy me lots of “knock-off” records — compilations of songs and movie themes recorded by people other than the original artists. I think K-TEL released a lot of these types of records. There’s one I specifically remember owning that had the theme to Star Wars and a few other movies on it. Every now and then for no particular reason that album will pop into my head. I’ve tried finding it via Google before, but the only details I can really remember is that the cover had a drawing of a lightsaber from Star Wars, and that the album contained the themes to Star Wars, 2001, Superman, and Omega Race.

Something at lunch today sparked the memory of this album once again, and when I got home I decided to try (once again) to find it. I tried dozens of different combinations of the words “album”, “record”, “vinyl”, and “lightsaber on cover”, combined with the movie titles I previously mentioned. The breakthrough came when I figured out that the song I keep remembering was not called Omega Race — it was called Space Race.

Armed with that information, I went back to the watering hole and found this link, which lead to the following picture:

Underneath the Star Trek album on the right, there are four miniature thumbnails. The one with the purple writing and the two lightsabers is it!!

WONDERLAND, not K-TEL! That was the final piece of the puzzle. A quick Google search of “Wonderland Star Wars Theme” came back with the Franklin Mint Blog, who has kindly (and maybe illegally?) posted a link to download the entire album.

Here is the album’s set list:

01 – Theme From Star Wars
02 – Rocket Man
03 – Theme from the Six Million Dollar Man
04 – Beyond the Outer Limits
05 – Starlight
06 – Theme from Star Trek
07 – Theme from 2001 (Also Sprach Zarathustra)
08 – Space Race
09 – Theme from the Bionic Woman
10 – Theme from Superman

It’s as cheesy as I remembered it! Thanks to Franklin Mint for posting the album. Remember kids, with Google, anything is possible. :)

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When you’re in Oklahoma, “Chicago-Style” doesn’t mean much. Take pizza, for example. It could mean a flat, sausage pizza like Frank’s Pizza, a more traditional pie like Aurelio’s, or something else entirely. We get that a lot around here. It’s like half the time, people call their food “Chicago-style” because they went to Chicago once and “sorta kinda” remember what the food looked like. It’s just like when someone advertises Chicago-style Hot Dogs. People manage to screw that up all the time. It ain’t a Chicago dog unless I have to pick off the tomatoes.

Humble Pie serves three sizes/styles of pizza: the deep-six (6″), Chicago-style (16″), and New York-style (22″). I stole the following two pictures from Humble Pie’s website:

As you can see, the Chicago-style is a (very) deep dish pizza, while the New York-style is a flatter, more traditional pizza. You know, come to think of it, I had pizza twice in New York this year and both times it was a giant, flat pizza with big floppy pieces that you had to fold in half to pick up.

We got to the restaurant around 11:40 and discovered that they didn’t open until noon, so we killed half an hour and came back. By the time we got back, the restaurant was packed! We were lucky to get a table for five. The people arriving after us found themselves waiting 20-30 minutes for a table. We decided that was a good sign!

Humble Pie’s has about a dozen specialty pizzas with names like the Bermuda Triangle, The Samoan, Buffalo Chicken, the Greek Goddess, The Garden of Eden and Mushroom Madness, but in the end we went with a traditional Chicago-style Meat Lovers, with two deep-six pizzas for the kids. We were told that it would take 25-30 minutes for the pizzas to arrive, which was about right. For an appetizer we had an order of HP’s “Bottomless Pretzel Basket”, which according to the menu is “Seasoned With An Addictive Secret Blend Of Tang And Spice.” We weren’t sure what the secret blend of flavors were. Susan guessed spicy mustard and maybe lime.

The restaurant was busy enough that there wasn’t room to get up and walk around while we waited. If we had been able to get up and walk around, we could have looked at the pictures. One wall is decorated with pictures from Chicago; the other, New York.

When the pizza arrived I was initially a little disappointed in its size. At most pizza chains, a large pizza is 15″, and even though this one was supposed to be 16″, it seemed a lot smaller than a traditional large pizza. Anyway, here comes the part of the review you are probably waiting for: it was delicious! Absolutely great! We all loved it. The pizza was definitely Chicago-style, with toppings on the bottom and sauce on top, covered with Parmesan cheese. Although my initial reaction was the pizza was too small, probably due to the thick crust, Dad and I only ate two pieces each. For what it’s worth, the crust was cooked to perfection — thick enough to support the heavy toppings, but not overcooked or crisp. Just really, really good.

Other than a map and the menu (sans prices), Humble Pie’s website doesn’t offer much information about the business. You’ll learn more by going there, which if you enjoy delicious pizza and are looking for something a little different, I highly recommend you do. Friendly services, decent prices, and delicious pizza.

Humble Pie
1319 S. Broadway
Edmond, OK

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Nope. Bad idea.

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… except, Sony screwed me. Earlier this year, Sony removed my ability to load other operating systems on my PS3. They did this because it could potentially have led to the PS3 being hacked. You can literally count on your fingers the number of people in the country that had the ability, knowledge and equipment needed to duplicate the hack, and ultimately the hack didn’t lead to anything — no real exploits, no mod chip, no anything — but that didn’t stop Sony from removing a feature that I was using and is printed on the side of the box as a feature from every PlayStation 3 owner. (Is that enough italics to make my point?)

So, no. I won’t be buying a Sony Ebook Reader, a Sony Phone, or anything else of theirs for a long time. I hope I’m not the only one that feels this way.

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