10 Thoughts for September 15, 2014

1. Have you watched Fox's Utopia, a sort-of-reality-but-not-real-at-all show?  It's mildly interesting, but the most amusing part of the show is the narrator.  Do you know who he is?  Dan Piraro, the illustrator of the comic strip Bizarro.  Awesome.
2. The not-so-odd thing about the coalition against ISIS: No one wants to contribute ground troops but everyone is willing to contribute planes.  Right about now, I bet the US military wishes that it had those humanoid drones ready to go.
3. IKEA Portland's restaurant has a few interesting things this month, but the most enticing offer has to be the bistro's lemon froyo.  For reference, everyone else in the country is directed to this page, while Portland has its own, special page.  Hint: Portland now has weekday specials.  Thursday's chicken dinner looks tasty, doesn't it?  Monday mornings now have free breakfast, too.  PDX IKEA is the best, isn't it?
4. So, it seems like everyone blew it this weekend.  Seattle's defense at San Diego wasn't good enough to stop the Chargers, and the offense had three series of four plays or less, each with negative yards.  That sure looked a lot like USC's offense and defense on Saturday.  Worst weekend in sports, ever.
5. By the way, the flaws in USC's performance against BC were so obvious, you could read any publication covering it and you'd come away with the same understanding.
6. Okay well, it wasn't a complete loss this weekend...the 49ers did lose in their first regular season game in their new stadium, so Seattle is even with them.
7. Never name your dog "Butternut".  Why?  Three syllables always gets shortened to two syllables: Buttnut, Butters.  Everyone knows who Butters is.
8. Wait, didn't everyone including Tim Cook tell us that Apple's accounts were safe?  Well, the folks at Wired don't seem to think so: "Scummy forums devoted to hacked nudes like Anon-IB made clear that Apple’s security weaknesses were still being exploited."  Here's my favorite: "Cook’s promised changes sound like band-aids, not fundamental fixes."
9. iPhone preorders breaks record...turns out, Apple fanboys really did want larger screens after all.  Samsung enjoyed mocking Apple's leadership.
10. With rising oceans -- documented around the world -- expected to speed up, would you pay 4x more to live on the waterfront, in Hawai'i?  I wouldn't ever live on the waterfront, even if you paid me to.  I will gladly live on a short hill overlooking the beach, a half-mile inland.