More plate for the Review Board.

I'm sorry, but only in WI is a car of this color acceptable transportation. If you drive this down to Soldier Field, watch yer back.


I don't know if the Review Board would be responsible for the car's color as well, but this would still pass in the state of WI. Other states? Maybe not.

Now, for one of my favorite under-the-radar license plates of all time (so far):

Pretty interesting if you know what to look for... and I'd seen this Volvo station wagon parked on my block before. As I went down the street today to ship some eBay items, lo and behold, there it was parked right by my building. As many may know, Volvos are known for their Swedishness and also their high safety standard. Ok, where we going with this? Well, "sov" means "sleep" in Swedish and "vagn", well I didn't go over that in Swedish class, but let's presume it means "wagon". So, you have the "sleep wagon". I can see it now - cramming the family in the wagon for a rod trip, only to be left at the wheel with everyone else snoozing. Not bad, not bad at all - your license plate has been APPROVED!

Reverse in Profile Store.

I was recently in Chicago and was able to visit a popular online company that recently opened their own store. The company was founded and is still run in the Ravenswood neighborhood of Chicago, so it makes sense that their new store is also in the city. It's located on Broadway, a few blocks south of Belmont. As I hope you'll see, it's a store worth checking out, for a variety of reasons. I'm going to go through it in reverse, maybe you can figure out what the store/brand is by the end of the post?

Hmmmm, what is it, an art space under the L tracks on Franklin? A new spot in Wicker Park? Well, this is the upstairs loft at the joint and it's not very big, but it crams a lot in. Don't quote me on it, but I believe it's local artists and changes pretty often.


There's even a place to sit while you just stare off into the art. I like that. Reminds me of the scene in the museum in Ferris Bueller's Day Off.


Here's a nice big possibility for that tattoo I've been talking about. Maybe just like this, on my back!?! Or maybe it was telling me something right before the job interview I was on my way to?


So, now we're getting to the nitty-gritty, ok, really just their product. It's t-shirts, all day and all night. Mind you, these are not just normal t-shirts - this company uses online submissions and voting to determine the designs of all their printed stocks. And, if you submit a winning design, you get more than just pride... you get cash and credit (for their products). They basically make everyone creative (or dumb) enough to send in a design a partner in the company (to an extent, of course). All the actual t-shirts are on the shelves, but above each rack is a flat screen monitor that shows you normal and not-normal folks in the t-shirts... kids, adults, crackheads, everyone.


It might be a bit hard to see the screens, so here's a little bigger picture of one. Each t-shirt screen has images that scroll as you shop. This particular shirt/screen features some pretty good celebs if you like Best Week Ever, Flight of the Conchords, or Human Giant. It's Aziz Ansari and Rob Huebel... pretty cool for the "local t-shirt joint"!


Nice front counter and they even have paying customers!!! You know it's good. (ah, no, I didn't buy anything this trip.) It's also interesting to note that they pack A LOT of thought and features into a physically small space. It's bi-level, but not very big. You get the art space, retail space, dressing rooms, office, etc. Pretty neat. Good things come in small packages.


Well, if you hadn't guessed it by now, the company is called Threadless, which is the name on the storefront as well - makes sense. If you're in the neighborhood, check 'em out. If you're not in the neighborhood, look 'em up online and submit a design or grab some sweet shirts.

Discuss, Poll #31, Exercise.

I'm just trying to find out if the t.c reader spends a lot of time reading, exercising, or both. I would count 20 (or more) minutes of running, cycling, walking (not just to your car), weight training, chopping wood, mixed martial art fighting, etc., as "exercise". If you have to convince yourself that something you did was exercise, maybe it wasn't?

Also, if you have any comments about the poll's question or choices, please comment here.

Results, Poll #30, Earthquakes.

After the recent earthquakes in China and the US, I was interested to know how many of us had been through them. A friend in NYC/CA, had just flown home only to experience the most recent CA earthquake one hour after arriving - great timing, huh?

Here's how it sorted out this week:
> 5 people (31%) chose "yes, pretty fun/freaky" - I can only imagine. I guess everyone is still alive from their 'quake or they couldn't have voted. Maybe they're just more scary than anything else... at least the common ones in CA.
> 3 people (18%) chose "no, but my family/friends have" - Hmmmm, the firsthand knowledge must have steered them clear of wanting to try it on their own.
> 2 people (12%) chose "sort of, I have bad gas" - comedians... but I guess I was the one that started it in the first place. I dealt it.
> 5 people (31%) chose "nope, but I'd like to try a little one" - this choice tied with "yes" for the most votes. I'm in this pile myself as I think it would be something one would want to try once in their life. I guess it could be pretty risky as you don't know how strong the quake would be. If the one time I got to experience once was the last time I was alive or I got buried for days and my class' hall monitor had to save me - I'll pass.
> 1 people (6%) chose "no, not interested, thanks" - are you sure you're not just a little curious? What if someone could guarantee it wouldn't be bigger than like a 4.0 or something? I think it would be interesting to find out... try everything once.

Thanks to the the 16 respondents this week, new poll up NOW!

Commercial.

Now, Will Ferrell did some commercials for Old Spice when "Semi-Pro" was coming out, and they were funny, a good theme match, and, I believe , aimed squarely at the I'm-a-smelly-teenager-that-worships-Ferrell crowd.

But a delightful surprise to me was the new series of Neil Patrick Harris editions. Of course, I'll always think of NPH as "Doogie", but these are funny. I'm just not sure where they're targeting? Doctors? The gay community? Teenagers? Nostalgic SOBs like me?

"I used to play a doctor, for pretend."

Olympic Tech: Swimming.

In case you've been in the NorthWoods of WI for the last week or so, below is info on the suit that many of the fastest swimmers in the world are rockin' in the Summer Games. It's won some gold medals already and promises to rack up more before the week's out.



Here's some 411 on the Speedo Fastskin LZR Racer:

• Speedo used NASA to help design the suit. Yup - rocket scientists.
• Lots of tests in water flumes to test passive drag (10% better than the Fastskin FSII - 2004's fast Speedo swimsuit - and 5% better than then the FS-PRO, the fastest Speedo suit from 2007.
• Tests to show where the most drag occurs on a swimmer's body led to a suit designed to minimize drag in those areas.
• Body scanning of 400 elite athletes to help develop an efficient suit pattern for construction.
• Bonded seams, so no stitches to cause drag.
• A hidden zipper - again, less drag.
• LZR polyurethane panels reduce drag in some areas of the swimsuit by as much as 24% compared to other Speedo suits.
• And a bigee - 5% less effort to go the same speed - a swimmer can use less energy to go a given speed, so they ought ot have more energy to go faster or hold that speed longer.

Of course, swimmers not using Speedo products don't want to be left on the blocks, at least 6 other companies will be making their own version of a fast suit for their sponsored athletes. Thank God.

And since t.c is all about bringing great stuff to the masses, like all the other Olympic Tech posts, you can go out and buy this too, just pony up the $500 for the suit, then get two friends to help you get into it while you stand there naked. Fun.

It's all in the name?

Not being a parent, I've been pretty amazed, er, intrigued, by what some of the first names are of our US athletes. A quick trip to the USOC webpage pulls up some rather unusual names. Some are just rare, but some are unique due to the "novel" spelling. I guess everyone wants their little Britneigh to be different.

Here's a sample of the names I found:
Seimone
Benn
Tayshaun
Cappie
Levi
Deontay
Taylor (male)
Kelci
Hayley
Nancilea
McClain (yes, first name)
Beezie
Sada
Erinn (yes, two 'n's)
Chellsie (a Wisco native no less)
Keeth
Benny
Marvell
Tairia (I don't know how to say her name)
Caitlin
Klete
Rebekah
Liezel
Shalane
Dathan
Queen
Torri
(and one of my favorite athletes to watch) Misty

Perhaps a unique name might have something to do with all these people being Olympic athletes?