Erik Novales

Here’s the article. It’s nice to see my alma mater landing a prestigious institution, but, at the same time, I, uh, wish it were a different president. If you weren’t aware, Bush’s connection with SMU is via Laura Bush, who is an SMU alumnus.

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The Sam’s Club location down the street from me (of which we are members, due mainly to its proximity) recently opened a gas station. This is great for us — it’s essentially the same distance to the Sam’s Club gas station as it is to the other stations that, until now, we favored. And, naturally, [...]

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Apparently in order to become an executive or work in finance, your humor gland needs to be removed. This article about a prank caller who strikes during corporate earnings calls is doubly hilarious because none of the victims appear to comprehend the motivation for doing such a thing — that is, the joy in simply [...]

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Some people have asked me about how I find travel deals and keep my traveling costs low, so I figured that I would write a little bit about resources that I use and things to watch out for. FlyerTalk and Travel Tools My main resource for travel-related stuff is FlyerTalk, which has excellent forums and [...]

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While I was cleaning out and throwing away some old junk, I came across some old promotional stuff for iSmell scent technology which I guess I picked up at the 2000 GDC. I saved it for humor value. The company (Digiscents) met its demise in June 2001, to no one’s surprise. I thought I picked [...]

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We recently bought Culdcept Saga for the Xbox 360, and have been having a lot of fun with it. It’s essentially a cross between Monopoly and Magic: The Gathering — you roll a die and move your piece around the board, claiming (or contesting) territory with monsters that you cast out of your hand of [...]

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We were in Santa Barbara over the weekend, and while we were walking down State St. we saw a guy with three animals: a cat and a rat, who were riding on the back of a dog. Unfortunately I couldn’t snap a picture as my phone’s camera decided to quit working (until I rebooted it…really [...]

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The 2008 D-League All-Stars have been announced, and there are no players from the Arsenal on the rosters. It’s disappointing — having an All-Star representative would at least give Arsenal fans something to cheer about, but that’s not going to happen. The only other team without a representative is Albuquerque. (Rio Grande Valley’s representative, CJ [...]

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I just experienced a stereotypical moment of “tech columnist rage.” I had downloaded a mobile version of the (highly recommended) Keepass password manager, to make sure that I could access my personal information when I’m taking a trip or am otherwise away from my computer. For example, if I uploaded a trip itinerary to TripIt, [...]

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The Arsenal were unable to snap the Stampede’s winning streak last night, losing 93-87 in a game that was close throughout. As a fan, it’s frustrating to endure three close losses in a row to quality teams — I can only imagine the frustration the team is feeling. Positive highlights include Marcus Campbell recording a [...]

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