http://www.julieruvolo.com Mon, 04 Aug 2008 14:40:34 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en This part is nothing atypical: I spent a month out of the country. I called at&t (painstakingly rebranded from AT&T after billions of dollars) to get my Blackberry Pearl (out of warranty, crashes frequently, cracked screen) ready for the trip. The first rep told me texts would be 50 cents either direction; ... http://www.julieruvolo.com/2008/08/04/death-to-the-carriers/ I generally dislike animation, kid’s movies and adaptations. And especially car movies. Speed Racer is all of those things. It’s also one of the most visually stunning movies I have ever seen. Behind the predictable melodramatic scenes, Disney-style moralism and Emile Hirsh’s effeminate sailor/hipster costuming , some absolute masterminds were at ... http://www.julieruvolo.com/2008/05/04/speed-racer-seriously/ I just had my first Idol moment. It’s 8:30pm on Wednesday. I took a break from my internet addiction and turned on the TV while I ate dinner. Keep in mind the only channels I get are the ones my antenna picks up, and as a result I have an unopened ... http://www.julieruvolo.com/2008/04/09/my-first-idol-moment/ Problem: the updated directory assistance number in Switzerland is similar to the fire department’s emergency number. Solution: a Swiss fire department rap video: Duly noted, another example of cross-culture pollination via YouTube. Duly noted, they make fun of the effeminately gay guy. But what’s really cool here is the following. In the old ... http://www.julieruvolo.com/2008/01/16/this-is-how-you-do-a-psa/ “Britney Spears” is, for the sixth time in seven years, the most popular search term that Americans look for on Yahoo. The Top 10: 1. Britney Spears 2. WWE 3. Paris Hilton 4. Naruto 5. Beyonce 6. Lindsay Lohan ... http://www.julieruvolo.com/2007/12/03/reflections-on-american-culture/ Black Friday trades places with the Saturday before Christmas as the busiest shopping day of the year, measured by sales volume and also people volume. Somehow the origin of the term “Black Friday” has less to do with retailers entering the black (the biggest US retailers turn a profit every ... http://www.julieruvolo.com/2007/12/03/monday-is-the-new-friday/ Wedgie-Proof Underwear are the winners of Ohio’s 2007 Invention Convention. There is something socially and psychologically really fucked up about this. First, wedgie-proof underwear are about as conceptually efficacious as calling antacids a solution for eating poorly and excessively. Wedgie-proof underwear don’t stop the wedgie (or the bullying and psychological/physical aggression ... http://www.julieruvolo.com/2007/11/07/so-wrong-that-its-right/ A good portion of San Diego is on fire. Local news station KPBS has a Google mash-up showing updated coverage on the fire, evacuation centers, etc. Notice how coverage stops literally at the Mexico border: Why does the data stop there? (update sometime later: Apparently the border fence largely stopped the fire ... http://www.julieruvolo.com/2007/10/23/tech-evolutions-san-diego-fire/ LinkedIn is a social networking site for business people. With LinkedIn, business cards are becoming merely paper-scrap extensions of a company’s brand, a formality. You link to business people (colleagues, business partners, bosses, recruiters etc) such that you can see who knows who, who’s recommended who, who’s hiring; you can ... http://www.julieruvolo.com/2007/10/01/this-is-huge/ I would love to do a study on social/power dynamics at Manhattan velvet ropes. Not that obnoxious memoir-style “my years as a bouncer at New York’s most exclusive clubs, and how I define my importance accordingly”. Something snappier. Last night for example I made an increasingly rare trip to 27th ... http://www.julieruvolo.com/2007/08/31/new-york-is-funny/