Showing my ignorance (maybe) here, but is there anything special (other than the red line wheels) on that green Chevy Truck, Brent? I've got the exact same truck sitting on my desk (sans packaging) with the intent of taking it home to my girls, simply because they don't have a pickup in their "collection" yet.

Ya know, this one just gets to me and I need to just let it out.

There was this great local station that I'd been listening to on my commutes for the last year or so. It played a mix of 70s, 80s, 90s and aughts; hardly ever repeated a song; played stuff I hadn't heard in forever; didn't have a stupid morning show; and didn't have any DJs. It was almost perfect. Well, beginning yesterday afternoon on my drive home, the station began just playing this computerized voice that would utter a countdown in hours, minutes and seconds. I began to sense something bad was going to occur and, according to the computerized voice, it was going to occur in sixteen hours, 28 minutes, and so-and-so seconds. Uh oh.

So, this morning, as I drive in to work, the computerized voice is still counting down, but it's down to just a couple hours. When I get into the office, I do a little search on the Web to see if there's any info, and it seems as if the station is changing formats to "something fresh and exciting that will appeal to the greater Bay Area." Uh oh.

I checked again just a few minutes ago, and the station has changed formats...to modern country. Guess I need to reprogram my presets.

But this is just the last in a string of sudden format changes by local stations. All stations that I have listened to. And most of these format changes are to stuff that I can't understand would have a big audience here. I mean, this isn't exactly "modern country" uh...country around here. And the previous format change I remember was from popular rock to Romantic Spanish music. Talk about a niche market.

Basically, it's just a very rude thing to happen.

So, it's back to sports talk radio for me...and CDs.

My commute situation has changed a bit, too. Though I'm still at the same company, our office has moved to a different building in the same city. As a result, taking the train isn't viable anymore. The new office is much farther from the train station, so I'd either have to bike or take a shuttle from the train station to work. The streets are totally not bike friendly and the shuttles are only on the hour, so those solutions don't work. So, I now drive to work. Luckily, the drive to work at 4:30-5 am is pretty smooth, so it only takes about 30 minutes. The drive home in the afternoon takes about 45 minutes.

I'd love to live closer to work or work closer to home, but moving to where I work would take a much larger paycheck than I get. And moving to a different job would entail a company actually looking for and willing to hire someone with my "skills." Or, in a best-case scenario, forcing me to work 80-hour weeks.

However, I'm trying really hard to get a research/analysis position within my current company, which will definitely help monetarily, so everyone, please keep your fingers crossed. This'll make the commute all the easier to stomache.

My girls have taken a particularly keen liking to Hotwheels, which I had never really paid any attention to. Whenever I've taken them to Target or some other place with Hotwheels, and they've been especially well-behaved (not an easy task; they're two and three), I get 'em each a Hotwheel. A well-spent $1.98.

What I couldn't believe is how cheap these are. It seems that SW figures should be a lot cheaper if these highly collectible cars are only $99 each. Of course, SW has the licensing costs and other things, but still, seems like SW figures...even the Galactic Heroes, should be way less.

And this all ties into me wanting to buy my girls (and me, I guess) more Star Wars related stuff instead of or in addition to Hotwheels.

Haven't ever seen a Treasure Hunt, or the cereal editions, but we do have this cool gray Mustang and a Green Dodge Challenger that I'm particularly fond of. 

All these look great, especially the troopers. And though I always try to be as positive as possible, or at least just not voice my disapproval, I can't help but mention that the name Force Unleashed is awful. To me, anything with Unleashed has tended to suck (for lack of a better word). And if I hadn't have read the previous posts, I'd have no idea that these figures are the standard 3 3/4 variety and not part of those larger or smaller Unleashed lines. Just basically, the name's confusing.

So, any packaging indications? Are these going to be sold separately or in a multipack for the game? 

Find out which bands are turning your children gay.

Ted Nugent?

Scott bought a load of Kubricks from me, and it was a pleasure.
Thanks, Scott!

Just what I needed to start my too-early day. Notice the especially "geeky" boyscouts with the lightsabers and Vader helmets? Nice touch.