I was a little bleary-eyed when I came into the office this morning since I worked pretty late last night, but I got an instant wake up jolt when Travis walked by my office. I wonder if @chriscasper is wearing the same thing again?
{ Sent from my iPhone }
I have read a lot about other BMW owners getting anniversary gifts while others didn’t. And since my 1 year came and went without anything coming in the mail, I thought I was going to be one of the latter. Well, when I saw a cardboard-backed envelope from Sterling, I had a feeling I knew what it was...and sure enough, I now have my concept drawing. It’s an E90 instead of an E92, but whatever.
Come to think of it, my car actually arrived in Port Heueneme on September 27th, and I picked it up from my dealership on October 9th, so I guess if you look at it that way, it’s about a year. I was considering my original pickup date of August 4th in Germany as the first date of ownership.
It’s a simple thing they do, but definitely helps build loyalty.
The other pics were taken “before” Nutti had his ride, LOL. The best comparison is between pics 1 and 2.
This thing does 0-60 in 3 seconds. All I have to say is, “wow.” Neil is tuning this car for a friend so naturally we had to get ourselves a ride in it. Since it’s only a 2-seater, he took Nutti and I on separate hot laps around the O. When I went, my cheeks were flappin’ like crazy.
Pretty incredible car, and lots of fun to ride in.
Although it seems like I’ve been in Italy for a long time, I actually had very little time to get out and explore on my own. The last 5 days have been full of meetings and meals with my Oakley and Luxottica coworkers. Today (the day before I leave) was really the only day I could do some shopping and site seeing, and even that was limited to just a couple hours since I still had other business functions to attend to.
The Interior. This first one was pretty creepy. I overheard someone saying this was a statue of someone carrying his own skin. Don’t ask me why or what that was supposed to represent. The cathedral is huge inside. The images in the middle are only two of the dozen or so scenes on the inside. There were also huge paintings and stained glass everywhere (which, like an idiot, I didn’t take any pictures of). The last shot with the nuns is the main podium area. There is also at least one massive crypt underneath the cathedral (that had the remains of some saint) but I wasn’t able to get down to see that since it was closed.
The Exterior. There are amazing marble statues everywhere. Literally. In fact, it seems like the entire exterior is made from carved marble. I could figure out that some of the scenes were based on biblical stories, but some, like the first one here, were just plain obscure and weird. What the heck is that creature is at the bottom. Horse (or dog’s) body? Flippers for feet? Snake-like head? Just weird.
The Roof. The building is free and open to the public, but for €8 you can buy a lift ticket to get up to the roof. There were also stairs on the other side which might have been free, but it was pretty hot and humid out so I went for the elevator. The roof is pretty incredible since there is just detail everywhere you look. There must be thousands of statues all over this building.
The Plaza: And finally, here’s a couple shots of the horse & rider in the middle of the plaza, along with a detail of the lion underneath. The last shot is of one of the adjacent buildings which is full of shops.
For those interested, these were all shot on an iPhone 3GS and processed with the Pic Grunger app. More information about Duomo di Milano can be found on Wikipedia.
So...after the initial round of “keypad” and “card swipe” it looks like the girls have decided to add some additional security measures:
• Hand Scanner
• Foot Scanner
• Camera
• Flip Video Camera
The little instruction notes are priceless. The one about “No Spy Cars” is there because the boy actually has a spy car with an on-board video camera that he can view through a headset that he drives around remotely
I guess growing up means needing more privacy. The girls took it upon themselves to add their own security measures to their room door. Signs apparently weren't enough so they decided to install a keypad (calculator), a hanging lock to “show when the door is locked” and a permit card that grants entry.
The girls surprised me last weekend when they said they wanted to learn how to play handball. Usually, they steer clear of anything that would make them break out in a sweat. The boy, claiming expertise said he would teach them, so I took them over to the school and took some pics while they were at it. That first one cracked me up.
Original Facebook movie trailer:
Twitter Parody:
And the not-as-good eBay Parody:
Just got my Big Boss Robot from Giant Robot today. Had a gift certificate that I hadn’t used in a long time so I finally found a use for them. Bought 3 blind boxes and I’m glad I didn’t end up with any duplicates.
Sorry for the lousy iPhone pics, but the Lobby Store at Oakley Headquarters is now testing (and selling) Custom Fuel Cell Sunglasses with dye sublimation prints on the stems.
You can configure your custom design using a touch screen interface. Currently, there are 4 patterns to choose from and multiple color options, but I’m sure we’ll be adding more in the future.
Once configured, a sheet is printed out with the design which then gets fused onto the stem. It’s a pretty interesting process to see the design being “baked” on in the oven. You can see the sheet adhering more and more as time goes on.
This is what it looks like after it comes out of the oven and the sheet is removed. The last two pics here show the sheet after it’s taken off the rubber stem holder.
Here’s another stem detail before the gunmetal icon is applied, along with some blurry shots of it getting built and on my fat head. The light in our lobby is pretty low so it’s not exactly iPhone camera-friendly.
And finally, here’s a few shots of what the lobby setup looks like:
If you’re in or near Orange County, come on down to 1 Icon in Foothill Ranch if you want to build your own. At present, this is the only location where you can get them done.
