Lego Sorting Evolution

I found a rather hilarious generic timeline of the evolution of a Lego collection, or, more specifically, the organization of the Lego collection as said collection grows. I laughed so hard at number 15 that I had to stop reading for a minute. Just that afternoon I had been in Wal-Mart, grumbling about how Rubbermaid's quality had gone downhill in the last few years. I'm kind of at step 13 with my Legos at the moment. If only I had known the Silverdome was going to be so cheap, I could have skipped straight to step 24.

Quote of the Day - May 6, 2008

Cake or death?

- Eddie Izzard

live or Lego form

LEGO Futurama

Okay, whoever did this needs to go to Lego's Factory and upload their design, like, NOW! I mean, they even have Hypnotoad! How can you say no to the Hynotoad?

*monotone* You can not. All glory to the Hypnotoad. /*monotone*

We Apologize For the Delay

I'm currently on hold with Wachovia. 10 minutes and counting. Every minute, a woman's voice comes on the line and gives one of 5 different apologies. My favourite is "We apologize for the unusual delay." As if being on hold for more than 5 minutes is unusual. Verizon dropped my first freakin' call, just as I was being transfered to someone who could do what I needed. The first wait was about 20 minutes. The woman who apologizes makes me think of Joo Dee. It's kind of creepy. "Hello. I am Joo Dee. I will be your host while you are listening to Muzak over a choppy connection."

Okay, only 15 minutes this time. "Believe-it-or-not." Nope. Never heard that one.

I've spent a fair amount of time on the phone with customer service over the last couple of days. I took off work to do all the little things that I haven't been able to do for months like, you know, stock up on tissues and toilet paper and ended up getting the flu (my apologies to everyone a WalMart, which is where I was when I decided that maybe I should stop at the Patient First across the street because me no feel too good), so I haven't gotten quite as much done as I wanted (oh, exclamation points of overdue-ness, will you ever stop haunting me?). Yesterday, I decided I was well enough to call Lego without screaming at them in frustration (calling customer service, which tends to frustrate anyway, is not a good idea when one is sick and tired). I bought their Mindstorms NXT about a month ago. The intelligent brick, um, wasn't. I tried to return it, but the store said I had to contact technical support (No returns!). Their phone tech support is only available 8am to 8pm Monday thru Friday. Fat lot of good that does me with the hours I've been working. I tried e-mail, but when the steps they gave me failed they said... call tech support to get a new one. Grrr. I did. They sent me the same steps they sent me a month ago. THEN they finally agreed the intelligent brick was missing a few IQ points and should, indeed, be replaced. It will take 3 weeks because Denmark is apparently very far away. Good. Maybe by then I'll have time to play with it again.

I am very tempted to bring an ESD strap home from work and use it in my apartment. The static electricity in here is getting ridiculous.

Can you tell that I'm tired of being at home and being unproductive?

Happy Lego-versary

Okay, so I'm, um, 35 hours late, but Lego celebrated the 50th anniversary of the patent for the classic LEGO brick on Monday. Even Google celebrated with a LEGO-style Google logo. Now, if only I could find time to play with my LEGOs in celebration.

LEGO Master

My LEGO collection has gotten large enough to justify buying bins from Home Depot that are usually reserved for organizing things like nuts, bolts, nails, and screws. Several cubes in my closet and my entire kitchen table are taken up by LEGOs. I am a rank amateur with a passing interest compared this guy, who makes a living building LEGO models. He has more LEGO's than a LEGO store. Just LOOK at all those bins! (Oddly, the LEGO set he wanted the most as a kid but never got is one of the ones I had as a kid - the instruction booklet is in my closet, but I have no idea where most of the pieces went). You should take a closer look at his Google Logo, there's more to it than first appears. And the LEGO medical robot is pretty cool, even if it can't actually move. For figures that could actually be built by someone with an average LEGO collection, look at the models with under 250 pieces. To abandon all hope of ever having the skill, patience, or money to build the model you're looking at, go to the models with over 10,000 pieces section. Guess which 60,000 piece model I like. ;) Thanks to Jeremy's Status Message for the link.

You Know You're Out of Shape When a Virtual Workout Leaves You Sore the Next Day

Well, I spent much of yesterday playing on a Wii. I did bowling, baseball, tennis and boxing. Boxing was the best workout. Bowling had the best physics. And for some reason my Mii kept doing ninja moves when trying to hit the ball. Crouching Server, Hidden Racket! And now I'm about as sore as I usually am on the rare occasions that I go actual bowling. So apparently, it's not the weight of the ball that was my problem. Anyway, now I want a Wii. I want it so much! Why must Nintendo be so horrible at keeping up with demand? I have a feeling I could get back into an exercise routine if I had a Wii.

But it costs the same as another tempting purchase that is easier to acquire. I'm warning you, Nintendo! Lego already has a firm grip on a significant portion of my toy budget. If you're not careful, the rest may go there, too. So make me a Wii from the sky! I command it!