Gee Why
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Starbucks Rewards Is Economical
I gotta admit that Starbucks has done a good job of finetuning its Starbucks Rewards program to its advantage. Of course, we all should have expected it over the years. As more and more of the public got caffeine-addicted, Starbucks gradually tightened their loyalty program. Now the siren has your credit card number stored (probably set to auto reload your gold card), and you making mobile orders without thinking of the (unseen) money being transacted.
In the early Rewards days, bonus stars were easy to accumulate. Remember the days when even loading up your rewards card using your credit card gave you a star? Of course that led to the abuse where large orders were split into many individual orders resulting in a bunch of stars.
And now we’re here where stars are based on amount spent. While seemingly fair for those spending a lot per transaction, it really has limited my personal star collection. Since the new Rewards program started on April 12, 2016, I have yet to accumulate enough stars for one free drink. I’m pretty sure I would have had a freebie by now with the former Rewards program.
Oh well. That’s how economical Starbucks Rewards has become.
Yes, Four Days for Your Birthday Treat from Starbucks
I just saw this (old) confirmation that Starbucks only allows four days to redeem your Birthday Treat for registered Starbucks Rewards members. While I didn’t miss out, four days isn’t a whole lot of time so don’t celebrate too much on you birthday and overlook this gift.
Game of Thrones Thought: Dragonglass
Just more random thoughts about the Game of Thrones. Now-Maester Samwell Tarly figures out how to produce Dragonglass in quantities. Heck, maybe Sam’s hometown has Obsidian deposits from which weapons can be forged.
And guess who comes to the rescue when Jon Show and company are cornered by the White Walkers? Yup, Sam the Slayer. Well, he just provides Dragonglass tipped arrows to archers who lay down an escape route for Jon.
Game of Thrones Thought
Just a random thought about Game of Thrones. Ramsay Bolton (eventually) gets taken out by the remaining direwolves. Seems like Ramsay uses his dogs and hounds to do some of his dirty work. So why not turn the tides and show the real alpha dogs, the direwolves? That would be an appropriate reunion of Ghost (Jon Snow), Summer (Bran), Nymeria (Arya), and hopefully Shaggydog (Rickon).
Amazon’s Alexa Needs Some NBA Schooling
While my general experience with my Amazon Dot and Alexa has been good, someone needs to educate Alexa about the format series of the NBA playoffs. When I asked for my sports update, this is how Alexa replied.
Did you catch that Spurs and Thunder report? Yes, OKC took the Western Conference Semifinal series from San Antonio, 4 games to 2. Unfortunately, Alexa is saying the next game of the (finished) series is Sunday at San Antonio.
“Impietence” Defined
By now, you know of the goodness from the Hawaiian Pie Company. Fresh or frozen, their creations do not disappoint.
But…
If you get a frozen pie, you have to keep in mind the preparation time. That is, the oven preheat to 400 degrees. Then the actual baking for one hour (or more) until golden brown. Then the cooling off for 30 minutes. You get the picture. If you don’t start early enough then you’ll come to understand impietence.
Yes, impietence is what happens when you can’t wait for the prescribed pie preparation time. Bake until not so pale (but not nearly golden brown) and let cool for say three minutes and blow on each bite to prevent serious scalding. Your Strawberry Guava pie will still taste great but won’t hold its shape when served. Blame it on impietence.
Krispy Kreme Kicks
Gotta love Nike’s latest kicks collaboration with Krispy Kreme for Cavs guard Kyrie Irving. While I’m not a fan of the actual look of the Ky-Rispy Kreme, the overall idea is crazy good, especially the donut truck driving across America selling the special makeup.
Prince Can Cha Cha?
Back in 2010 and the 10th season of Dancing with the Stars, Nicole Scherzinger channeled the Purple One in a nearly perfect cha cha.
Learning How to Brew a Wii
I had never come across this before and only recently inherited an used Nintendo Wii, but it looks like the Wii still has some tricks left. Released in 2006 and discontinued in 2013, the Wii hardware supports other uses like running emulators of other gaming consoles. By modding the Wii with the Homebrew Channel, users can install emulators for the NES, Genesis, and other old school favorites.
Overall, the steps look straightforward and well documented. As a follow-up project, you can also connect an external USB drive to hold and launch games from. To be on the safe side, it seems a wired controller is recommended, not only for navigating the menus, but then when you have your retro games going, the control and button layout of the wired controller makes more sense for games from yesteryear.
Uncle Martian
This is so bad that it’s good! There can be no doubt that Uncle Martian, a new sports brand in China, is copying the look and logo of Under Armour. I mean really “Uncle Martian???” I guess any sportswear brand name is just a name, but Uncle Martian doesn’t conjure up images of sports or performance for me anyways.
For grins, I’m curious to see the Uncle Martian lineup. Maybe they have products copying existing items from other brands or maybe they have something original. I guess the term Uncle Martian is kinda original seeing how they needed words that could match the UA logo.
Light It Up!
Looking for a floor lamp that lights up the area for reading purposes, not overall room lighting. At 4.8 stars out of nearly 2000 ratings, this Brightech floor lamp looks like it’ll do the job.