This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of ampm. All opinions are 100% mine.
You don’t have to talk to a lot of computer programmers (or their families) to learn that sometimes they’ll skip meals to stay in front of the computer and keep coding. I’m no exception, but I try to get in my regular meals without losing too much coding time. This week, I departed from the drive through for a new kind of meal.
ampm wanted to know what a computer geek like me might come up with from their new menu and I was happy to create my very own food concoction for ampm’s secret menu tab on Facebook.
For a few days, I headed to the ampm near my office for lunch and dinner. I started out with just a plain chicken sandwich and worked my way up to my food masterpiece. Along the way, I tried a variation of the Triple Dipper Dog seen on the Facebook menu and it was really pretty good. I took Nachos, loaded them up with nacho cheese, chili, and some diced onions, and dipped a corn dog in it. If I do that one again, though, I’ll crunch up the nacho chips into tiny bits before topping them.
The Turtle Burger Crunch
After some days of food inspiration and a couple experiments, I ended up with my own food concoction. I was going to call my new creation the JoeTech.com Turtle Burger, but it just didn’t sound right, so here it is with its final name, The Turtle Burger Crunch.
Here’s what you need (my cost was just over $4):
- Cheeseburger
- Hot Dog
- Doritos (or your favorite chips)
Here’s how it’s done:
- Remove the top bun from the cheeseburger
- Remove the bun from the hot dog
- Center the hot dog atop the hamburger
- Pile some chips on top
- Put the hamburger bun back on top and press down a bit
When you’re done, your hamburger will have a head and tail and crunchy inner shell. Eat any way you like. I uploaded this to the Facebook menu, too, so you should be able to find it there soon.
The Secret Menu On Facebook
I’ve mentioned the secret menu tab a couple times already because it was a handy source to look at for ideas on what I wanted to make. The menu is where I discovered the Triple Dipper Dog I improvised. Better still, they reveal new items every week and even let people submit their own menu items like I did.
Just a glimpse of a few of the existing menu items should give you an idea of what menu items to expect from ampm, and the user created items offer their own taste of creativity. Check them out and add your own. That is, if you think you can beat The Turtle Burger Crunch.
What happens to your old dead hard drive after you’re done with it? Some destroy it to protect sensitive data. Some people just throw theirs away. Then there’s Ben Bedell, an artist with a techie flair who repurposes hard drives as clocks.
These are hand-crafted timepieces created from recycled hard drives out of personal computers. Each hard drive is disassembled, painted, and fitted with a timepiece and custom stand. Each unique stand is cut out of recycled motherboards, modems, video cards, and other various electronic components. No two clocks are the same!
Clock hands and hard drive components can be painted in a variety of colors:
- Black, White, Gray, Dark Blue, Blue, Dark Red, Copper
- Red, Orange, Neon Orange, Yellow, Neon Yellow
- Purple, Pink, Dark Green, Green, Neon Green, Teal
- Custom Color Combinations are available
Each clock comes with a “AA” battery so your clock will be ready to keep time.
The clocks run $30 to $40 and cost $10 to ship. That’s not bad for these geeky conversation pieces, but I emailed Ben and he was cool enough to provide a 10% discount to all my readers! Mention JoeTech.com at the time of purchase and he’ll knock 10% off the clock price. Throw one on your desk at the office and let me know what you think.
I spend what seems like 20 hours a day attached to my computer, but when I’m not, I sometimes seek out some of the arts. Some time ago, my wife and I headed out to the Tempe Festival of the Arts, where we found plenty of great artists, but one that stood out was Adam Homan and his metal sculptures.
The sculpture above is called “Speed Junkie” from what I can gather and I just love it. I loved a lot of his work, in fact. I was sure to grab one of his photo-postcards as a reminder that one day I’d have to buy one. I haven’t bought one yet, but that day will come, I’m sure.
About Adam
When I saw him in person, he was busy with a (hopefully) paying customer, so I didn’t want to bother him, but judging from his site, he’s a laid back guy with a sense of humor. Here’s what his site says:
Originally an 8th grade English teacher, Adam left teaching for the arts and has been sculpting full time for 14+ years now. Adam is one of the premier steel sculptors in the country and his work is included in the collections of Pixar Animation, Industrial Light and Magic, Clint Eastwood, and various private and corporate collectors.
The Female Form and Other Things
Adam has some cool robot sculptures, but I think one of my favorites is the one seen at right called “Self Made Woman“. It’s more than I can budget for art at the moment, but it’s smart and fun to look at. This piece is part of his Female Form pieces which includes other fun female-themed sculptures.
Having done this for so long, Adam has amassed a wide array of sculptures that crawled out of his imagination over the years, including birds, fish, dinosaurs, dragons, trolls, etc. Rather than listing them all out, I’ll let you take a look for yourself. While some are in more of an art enthusiast’s price range (from what I can recall), smaller sculptures were priced for everyone to enjoy.
I always wanted to see a Cirque du Soleil show, so when I was presented with an opportunity to review KÀ in Las Vegas, I agreed eagerly. You see, I had heard for years about how great the Cirque shows were, but never found myself attending. Michelle and went to see about attending a show last year, but everything was sold out. I knew I was missing a good show, but never knew just how good the show is until this weekend.
Seating and tickets
When purchasing tickets for any show, I always want to know where the best seats are and how much they cost. As soon as I found out that we were near the rear center of section 102, I looked it up to see how good those seats were.
Adult tickets run from $69 to about $150 for adults and about half that for children. The pricing depends on the seating category. Being where we were, I figured our view would be pretty much in the middle of the scale from worst seats to best seats. When we got there, I realized that these were pretty great seats. Although they were definitely not front row or the best seats in the house, the view was great. In fact, it looked like all the seats had a pretty good view, with the possible exception of the far edges on the left and right. Every seat has speakers in the head rest, which sounds more like you’re just in the sweet spot for the sound rather than that you have speakers right behind your head and some cast members wander around through and interact with the audience. Wherever you’re seated, it seems you’ll be pretty immersed in the experience.
Photos and video
If you want photos or video, you’ll want to look at the KÀ web site because you can’t use your camera in the show. I asked about this before attending, as you should with any show you plan to bring a camera to and I was told that there’s a pretty strict policy against the use of cameras in Cirque shows. When we got our tickets, “No cameras” on the ticket, itself, reminded us about this rule and we saw signs when we arrived that served to make sure people know about the camera rules. Still, amazingly, a lot of people were taking photos before the show began and the show staff were quick to politely remind these people of the rules. Just to bring the point home, they had a small theatrical example before the full show of why not to use your camera. So how do you get a lasting memory of that special occasion with a friend or loved one? The offer some professional photography before the show.
While we waited for everyone to arrive and be seated, photographers from Cashman wandered around to take photos of those who wanted it. We had ours taken by Jeremy and after the show we decided to purchase the album shown above out of the two he presented us. It came bound nicely and the photos are professional quality (though I think they were just a bit bright). At $44 each, the album has two photos in it and is great to have, but not something I would get every visit to Cirque. My wife and I were out celebrating our wedding anniversary and made KÀ a part of it, so we purchased one.
The show
I had my choice of a few of the Cirque shows and I opted for KÀ because it looked best suited to my tastes. There’s plenty to choose from, so if KÀ isn’t your cup of tea, there may be another show that is, like Mystere, O, Zumanity, The Beatles Love, and Chris Angel Believe. Right now, they’re celebrating their 25th anniversary with some cool promotions and breaks on ticket pricing. We made sure to grab a drink in a souvenir cup while there. Before we were even seated, the experience had begun. The atmosphere was incredible, from the ushers in full costume to the scenery that enveloped the whole theater, the mood was set right away for a majestic evening. I was already a little impressed and my wife was excited for the show to begin.
The detail in the set design was incredible, and that’s an understatement. There wasn’t a traditional stage, but rather a stage area where a stage could rise up, rotate, elevate, etc. Surrounding the stage was a several stories of almost scaffolding-like but very decorative platforms on which many of the actors played out their roles. From a technical standpoint, the stage was a marvel. It spun in many directions and any side or corner could be elevated to as much as 90 degrees to help create the array of amazing effects that Cirque shows are famous for. The stage also included lower platforms, trap doors, and posts that rise out from the surface, all to add to the effect and provide function for the actors. As a geek with a love for unique engineering, I was pretty excited about the stage, but it still couldn’t detract from my amazement at the show itself. The video below should give an idea of what to expect, but really doesn’t do it justice.
Around every corner, I was in awe of the flawless execution of every stunt or acrobatic feat performed and I was moved by the beauty of the show as a whole. From impressive baton twirling to airborne acrobatics, the actors in this show are truly a collection of talent that I’ve not seen anywhere before. That of course, is not to discount the talent of those behind the scenes, as well. The creative affects with video, lighting, smoke and fire as well as the larger-than-life puppets continued to keep me immersed in the show.
Words like spectacular, amazing and incredible really fall short of conveying how I felt when it was over. I remember not wanting it to end and wondering when I could get to the next Cirque show. I think this show could be enjoyed from any seat in the house, but I would definitely shoot for somewhere in the middle of section 102 as that’s a pretty good area to get the whole experience without having to be too close to too far. Is it worth the cost? Definitely. I would have liked the option for a $10 or $15 photo in a cardboard sleeve that I could frame myself, but the show itself is a masterpiece and well worth the price of admission. Cirque is now in my travel budget for my next trip to Las Vegas and should be in yours, too.
Last night, Michelle and I went on a little date to see the Chihuly exhibit at the Desert Botanical Gardens. Although it’s not really technology related, it’s a beautiful exhibit and I thought a lot of you might appreciate it’s beauty. I took along my Canon Rebel XTi DSLR camera and a tripod and shot about 250 photos. Below are just a few. The rest are on my Flickr account
