I’ve been playing job at Mac|Life this week. We’re finishing up a newsstand special-issue that I’m editing, and they need me in the office to get through everything. It’s been fun so far.

I haven’t worked on-site like this for several years. I’m remembering all of the things I like–and sure, a few I don’t–from an office situation. Mostly it’s things I like, but I’m sure part of the fun is trying the job on again this week like an old coat.

I can think of few people who get to throw eggs at a table for work.

Last night I had a dream where I was hard disk firmware, and I was trying to get updated. I don’t quite know how that works either.

The dream probably came from swapping many Xbox 360 hard drives and firmware in the previous couple days.

A man died yesterday.

I woke up early to stand in line at the AT&T store and wait for an iPhone. After about 15 phones being sold in an hour-and-a-half, I bailed and ended up trying Stonestown, riding along with my friend Robbie. After that line taking too long, we returned to the first AT&T store on the way home, to see if things had picked up.

At the intersection, police cars blocked progress along 20th, crossing Mission. Police tape barricaded the entire record store on the corner, across the street from AT&T. Tape stretched over the intersection and to the opposite building. A dozen police officers directed traffic or stood around. Few people were on the sidewalks.

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Okay, gotta rinse that last post out of my mouth. Here’s something I like: Spore Creature Creator. I’m still crossing my fingers that the whole game will fold together, but I think it could.

… At least on a Mac it isn’t.

I took advantage of the free $10 download plus a current crazy sale, and tried out some Rhapsody MP3 downloads. After I bought the songs, I was supposed to download them all as a zip file, then extract them. I just got a 4kb file.

I tried to email Rhapsody MP3, but the webform didn’t work on Firefox/Mac. So I called someone who slowly read from scripts and wouldn’t jump past “what happened when you tried to open the zip file?” once I told him how small it was. I eventually stumbled upon a way to re-download the tracks because the service recognized they didn’t work, just not where the FAQ said it was. So just before I got transferred to a third person, it worked.

The music arrived and extracted, but one of the songs stopped playing about 50 seconds in. It did this on two different Macs and a Vista PC. I redownloaded with a credit from customer service, and it had the same problem. I tried the customer service chat app, where I was told that the tech support guy couldn’t find the song in their system. I had no idea what to make of that.

He emailed our chat transcript to someone in tech support who must posses a search function. I’m about ready to give up on my song, but maybe they’ll email me back with help.

This reminds me of an Xbox issue where I tried to redeem a downloadable game code as a civilian, unrelated to work. Ultimately, after speaking with a bunch of people and not being called back several times, the final guy said I was in some queue where they would manually fix the problem. But he could give me no time-frame, not a few weeks, or a month, or anything. It’s been about seven or eight months.

Further digression: I try to persist to get what I’m owed on principle, but it’s usually a waste of my time relative to the issue. ATT, Gamestop, Microsoft (Xbox), Tivo, and others have recently caused problems that are worth paying an extra $5-10 to avoid the customer service shuffle.

Rhapsody MP3: You’re off to a bad start. All you out there in internet-land, try the free promo, but keep the expectations low. Stick with Emusic and Amazon downloads for now.

I had a checkup with my dentist today. He’s a nice guy and always interested about talking tech while my mouth is full of his fingers.

When I saw him most recently, two years ago, the receptionist said I should make a follow-up appointment in six months or a year. My other dentists always called or sent postcards to make new appointments. Even when I was leaving that day, I knew it’d take me much longer to set something up.

Today, the air-conditioned office was a break from the clammy Bay weather. We talked about the cool, indoor climate as I was leaving. He said I should follow-up again in a year, and no, they didn’t have a method in-place to send me a postcard.

He said my reminder should just be that I can dodge the sweltering summer for an hour again next year. I’ll remember that.

I made it since the Wii launch without hurting myself on Nintendo’s large-motor-movement console, so I’m humbled to be beaten by a glorified upgrade to Wii Sports Boxing. At the end of the Wii Fit boxing routine, players get a chance to score bonus points by wildly flailing with both hands. I took the opportunity to smash my right thumb between the right- and left-hand controllers. And while I’m sure it hurt my score, I toughed it out to flail a few more punches like an, umm, real boxer? My thumb should be fine, but it swelled up pretty quickly at first.

Other thoughts on Wii Fit: Pretty underwhelming so far. At every Nintendo event I’ve attended where the company has shown it off–and those I know of that I didn’t personally attend–there have always been PR people controlling half of the game. Sure, before a game launches, companies spend crazy money to control how we tech folk interact with it; I was chided by Nintendo PR for cheating in part of Wii Fit, just to see if it was possible.

I didn’t realize that part of the reason the PR people have always been on-hand to control the game is that they smooth some of the jerky start-stop-start momentum. Nintendo even delivered it to a handful of tech journalists with personal trainers to set it up. Playing alone, I’m constantly picking up the Remote, pushing a single button, and putting it down before I can do a 30-second game. And then there are high score screens and way too much feedback about my balance afterwards.

So far, Wii fit doesn’t have enough exercise or enough game. It’s been an ugly combination of exercise and/or game moments hidden inside endless menus.

Much of the game is also hidden, requiring players to unlock new modes after more play. I’m still hopeful that extended scenarios–like a longer boxing mode–will offset the terrible pace. But others have rightly complained that the game should include full workouts with seamless transitions between activities to keep players active for a constant half-hour or so.

Nintendo has suggested that there will be downloadable add-ons for the game, but the company has implied that those will be new activities. Here’s hoping they include a better way to play a sequence of games.

Anyway, I ordered a refurbished iPod Nano so I can keep playing around with Nike+. I don’t like running, but the tech-fun of that gadget–and timing with my music–is appealing. And I should get back out to a soccer field again. I’m sure I’ll have fewer Wii-Remote injuries in the real world and get better exercise, too.

Yeah, that title would be best if I had used ketchup in this dinner. But anyway. I cooked this for game night recently. Chicken stir fried with noodle cake. And it looks like this picture is from the first time I made it, a couple weeks earlier.

Everybody loves noodle cake. If they don’t, they’re part of the invasion. I’m sorry I had to ration it and then I ate more of it than some most of my guests. Yeah, sorry mom. I should have given them the most noodle cake, but after working longer on the dinner than I’d planned, I just indulged. Then we played Halo.

I like cooking for game night, but I think I should find a middle ground between somewhat complicated, great-tasting things like this, and simpler fare. I think the slow cooker would be a good start next time.

Tips:

• Set the noodles in the pan and push them down. Most of all, just wait. I think a medium heat longer gets them browner, while a higher heat just burns them.
• The “velveting” process for coating the chicken worked quite well. I think I’d rarely, if ever, eaten good stir-fried chicken before learning how to do this. Usually, I would cut it thicker and steam it, too. But even then, I’d usually cook it a bit long.
• I also made a special version with tofu instead of the chicken. I did the velvet-coating on the tofu and probably didn’t need to, but it did get a little crispy after all. It was good. Oh, and drain your tofu, kids: set a weighted plate on it for about twenty minutes.
• I made a bunch of substitutions, including adding a splash of A1. Just go with it.
• Silicone baking sheets don’t hold up against pizza cutters.
• If the shark–or worse, sharks–get on your boat, climb as high as you can, and keep shooting down.

I’m writing about the Chumby, and in perhaps a fit of internet insanity, I’m asking you to send it photos directly. One of the widgets I’m running is supposed to flip through photos sent to a specific email address. That address: A625B00 AT dailio.com. Imagine, your picture will show up on the cute little Chumby automatically. It’s Web 2.0 or something.

There doesn’t seem to be a maximum/minimum size to send, but the screen is only 320×240, so feel free to email small files. And if you include a title, it looks like that turns into a caption. So, send me pictures. Don’t make me regret publishing that info. Or do! It’s up to you now.