I'm old like the Superbowl!

Hello out there in LJ-Land! It's your friendly neighborhood French Kzin who's fun to be with!
Today is an auspicious day. I am no longer the Ultimate Answer, I am now XLIII.
I feel about XXXI, except when I have a cold, like right now.
To celebrate, I went to Fatburger for lunch and got myself a Kingburger, onion rings and a shake.
I should probably treat myself to a nice dinner tonight, but you know, it's just no fun when you're alone.
Maybe a nice steak at Chili's. Outback Steakhouse and Black Angus are both way too far.

My taxes are done and my federal refund is here. I was able to finally pay off that big scary moving violation that
has plagued my driving record for nearly 5 years. That's a huge weight off my back.
I was also able to buy an external USB drive (Western Digital My Book 640gig model) to back up all my computer data
before the thing dies. I can't buy a new computer yet though, so I must continue to nurse this one along.

I also ordered a cheap digital camera, my first! It's a Canon Powershot A590, $109 at Dell (+ shipping & tax).
It's a special deal that includes a 4gig SDHC memory card. I can finally take decent pictures and do those
extreme close-ups I need to auction off small things like Lego minifigures. The ol' cellphone just doesn't
cut it since it has no focus capability and a dodgy color sense. I can't keep borrowing the coworker's camera.
I went with the Canon because it has everything I need in a camera:
1) it runs on 2 AAs, so you never have to wait for the battery to recharge
2) because of the AAs, the camera has the familiar right-handed bulge, making it easier for me to grip it
3) image stabilization, because this ol' kzin's hands ain't as steady as them used to be, doggone it!
4) an actual viewfinder in addition to its 2.5" color LCD
5) 8 megapixels, which is plenty for my needs
6) it has both full-auto modes and obsessive-conpulsive adjust-everything modes
7) it's dark grey, like me! :D
It should arrive some time next week. I'm so excited! It's my very first, very own digital camera!


So I got this e-mail from Best Buy today about the Rewards program and it being my birthday.
It was some useless faffing about triple reward points, and it included this little animated GIF:



Is it just me, or does this little guy look like Akbar or Jeff from Matt Groening's "Life In Hell" comic?
I mean, imagine him with a fez on his head and simple black dots for eyes.
Damn graphic designers! Always stealing other people's shit!!


Meanwhile, Coca-Cola has decided to make a few changes to their My Coke Rewards program.
Some of you may remember that I collect Coke Points (found on bottlecaps and box-flaps). That's how I got my
nifty lil' sammich maker that lets me make French-style "croque-monsieurs" (grilled ham and cheese).
The biggest change is the institution of a weekly cap on the amount of points that can be entered.
Here's a screencap of the rule change:



Under the old system, people are allowed to enter 10 codes per day.
The new system puts a weekly cap of 120 points in place.
And they make it sound like it's a good thing! No longer will people have to rush to enter their 10 codes
before midnight strikes! Now they can enter all their weekly codes in one setting! Huzzah!
If you can do math, you will realize that this is, in fact, complete bullshit.
Bottlecaps are worth 3 points. 10 caps per day is 30 points. 30 points times 7 days is 210 points.
Fuck you very much Coke!
It's gonna take me YEARS to enter all the bottlecaps that klaatuwolf sent me!
Maybe they found out I stopped drinking Coke Zero...