Malbela.com

Starting a KnitKnerd section on Malbela. Maybe this will inspire some actual friggin’ posts.

Current iPhone Wallpaper:

My Current iPhone Wallpaper features LaLa from TikiBarTV, one of my favorite podcasts, that gets updated about once ever 6 to 10 years.

RENT:

Finally got to talk to John again about seeing RENT on Friday. I’m kinda excited, a bunch of us are going, including MJ & Jason. Should be fun, though… it’s weird because I’m sure everyone else has seen it live, but me… nope. Despite the ‘pop culture’ category on here, I rarely watch TV, go see movies, and plays… hah. Now, ask me what piece of software is in the works at Apple or the real occupation of the creator of Wonder Woman (and what he’s even more famous for) and I’m your man.

Work:

Dear god… I put stuff on eBay and Amazon for a living. It’s both the coolest and saddest thing in the world all at once. But at least I never have to hear about people’s bowel movements. Now when people over-share, it’s about the cruise they’re about to go on. So much more fun this way.

Facebook:

I just joined the Nerdist group (which is the fan group for Chris Hardwick’s blog) over on Facebook. Combine that with the fact that I have willingly listed myself as a ‘Star Trek’ fan over there… and well, you can see why I go on so few dates.

Well, I never would have guessed he was gay. An old lesbian sure, but not a gay man.

I just went thru my email and finally deleted over 300 unread messages. I now have a mail icon that is the nice blue color rather than the angry purple color. The thing is, my icon only counts up to 9 unread messages. It has said ’9+’ for months. Now it says ’0′. It’s almost enough to make you cry.

Thanks, Shelybean.

I’m working on an actual post, but seriously, people. When Britney Spears has a four hour stand-off with police… you’re supposed to call me, text me, send up balloons and smoke signals!

I’m officially on Team Elijah now. I have no choice. I know he and Elijah have problems, but I was trying to stay out of it. Even though Elijah gave me a shout out, I thought me & Jordan Jared were cool.

Apparently not: The Dude is stalking me.

I’m about to leave work and Jordan Catalano Jared Leto is standing at the register, wearing a hoodie (with the hood up) with a tshirt over the hoodie and his silver crocs. And he was wearing white socks under his crocs.

Kim has seen him in the store and came to tell me because she felt that I was the only one who would appreciate the fact that Jordan Catalano Jared Leto was in the store. Since we had to tell everyone else in the store who he was, I don’t think Jordan Catalano Jared Leto needed to worry about keeping the hood up.

Kim whispers to me “When I came out of the backroom, I saw him and I wanted to say “Hey! You were on My So Called Life!”

I look at her, and in all seriousness say “You know he has a band right? He’s done other things and all you can think of is ‘Hey, you knew Claire Danes when she had a career!’”

About that time, Jordan Catalano’s Jared Leto’s friends walked behind me.

So… yeah.

Go, Team Elijah!

Gloria Steinem & Jane Fonda on The Colbert Report:

So, Apple has decided to join with (Product)Red and create a killer candy apple (fittingly) red iPod nano. The iPod Nano (Product)^Red retails at the same price as the regular Nano, $199US.

Many people online are dismayed that Apple is only donating $10, or 5%, of their total sales of the new iPod. Apple happens to be the most forthcoming, stating a specific amount. Other companies involved either state percentages of sales, profits, or even wholesale prices to figure their donations.

The one of the moregenerous companies, according to sources, appears to be Gap which is has a huge line of 40 (Product)^Red items. Gap is also donating 50% of profits of these items. Motorola will donate $17US(£10) to (Product)^Red.

To figure out how much companies are actually donating, let’s set the playing field level. We know that the iPod is $200 so we’ll use $200 as our guideline. Some companies donate based on profits or wholesale, we’ll set the estimated profit margin to 50%. That means that if a product costs a dollar to make, it’d be sold for $1.50. A $200 product with a markup of 50% would have a wholesale cost of $133.34 and profits of $66.66.

Please note that a 50% markup is an estimate based on years retail experience. Very, very few products are ‘keystoned’ (set to a 100% profit) anymore. IE, $2 product cost $1 to make.

So how much are other companies donating in comparison?

Obviously, Apple’s donation is fairly middle of the road. American Express’ donation is nearly pathetic, donating just $2 out of the baseline $200.

On an interesting note, Apple UK only claims a ‘Portion’ of the price. I believe we can assume that Apple is probably donating the same amount in the US and in the UK. If you convert $10US to British Pounds, Apple is donating £5.37, which pales compared to Motorola’s donation.

Many people have also stated that Apple has broken (Product)^Red tradition by calling it the iPod Nano Product Red. It appears that this is the standard for some in the US version, as Converse and Gap are also marketing their products by the item name followed by (Product)^Red. Motorola’s efforts are all over the place using both conventions. American Express calls their card American Express Red, which creates a separate convention all their own.