Tour Roundup: San Diego

We arrived at the La Jolla Festival of the Arts not really knowing what to expect. Fortunately, people actually showed up - and some of them even knew who we were! (For the rest, the words "free cake" were more than enough incentive to cram into the tent. Heh.) Whatever the reasons, we had a hefty, happy crowd - so much so that our hosts ran out of books. (Oops. Sorry, guys.)

We neglected to get a shot of the crowd, but here's a cutie in a custom CW shirt:

John & I were touched by how many Wreckies chose to pay their own admission rather than allow us to pay for them. In the end, we only owed the Festival admission for 51 of the more than 150 people at the show. Several folks told me they paid their own way despite financial hardships and even unemployment. That's super humbling stuff, guys. Thank you.

And now...the cake!

Get a load of this jungle goodness! Lisa of Cake Dreams and Cookie Wishes pulled out all the stops in crafting this sweet treat - especially considering she only had a week's notice when our first baker had to cancel.

Lisa putting the final details in place.

A few close-ups:


And my favorite bits:

Awww. My name's on the Disney hat! Plus, the little book was perfect - and edible.

Oh, and Lisa's carrot cake? Phenomenal.

I was thrilled that there were any wreckplicas entered in the contest - and even more so when they turned out to be this amazing:

She even included the tiny penguin! Ha!

A photo of the WoW cake on a cupcake. Perfect.

Our "winners!"

I love that two of our three winners were wearing Disney shirts. :)

And their cakes:

This was our grand prize winner - because "Pink Cat Gives You Wings!"

And that's it for our third "world" tour! Thanks so much to all of you who came out, to our volunteer bakers, and to our host stores for making John and me feel like wrecky royalty. It's been a great week, thanks to all of you!

Note from john: Special thanks to Sean Boston for finding us a sushi knife/full on sword to cut the cake. You rock absolutely!

Burn hazard: Sony recalls VAIO F11 and CW2 Series

Firmware update fixes the problem



Sony has issued a recall for its F11 and CW2 series notebook PCs and is offering a firmware update to fix an overheating problem.

According to the company’s notice today: “In rare instances, these notebook computers may overheat due to a potential malfunction of the internal temperature management system, resulting in deformation of the product's keyboard or external casing, and a potential burn hazard to consumers.”

The FAQ in the notification said: “Certain units within the VPCF11 and VPCCW2 notebook series are affected by this potential overheating issue. Sony recommends that all units in the VPCF11 and VPCCW2 series be updated with the firmware download.”

Notification here: “Important Notification for the Sony VAIO® F11 and CW2 Series”

Tom Kelchner

What's THAT Supposed to Mean?

Sometimes, when I'm really grumpy (wha-aat? Jen gets grumpy? Get OUT!) I like to amuse myself by taking every little thing John says exactly the wrong way.

John: "So, you want a sub for dinner?"

Me: "Why? 'Cuz I'm too FAT to have a burrito? Huh? Is *that* what you're saying?"

John: "No! I just thought you might be hungry!"

Me: "Oh, I see, because I'm ALWAYS hungry, right? RIGHT?!?"

John: [backing away slowly before sprinting from the room.]

It's loads of fun.

Anyway, I can only imagine how much fun this lady had:

"Start talking, mister, or you'll be looking for wife #2 real fast."

Buddy? Nope. Not anymore.

Here's one way to tackle a friend's hairy situation:

"Cynthia, sweetie, this is an intervention."
[starting electric razor] "Grab her, girls!!"

When your dad turns the big 4-0, you want a cake that shows not only just how much you love him, but also how much time, thought,and effort went into finding him juuust the right design:

"Hmm...this purse design is a little plain. Oh! I know! Do you have any of those plastic Cinderella slippers back there? Yes? PERFECT."

Or, if that doesn't do the trick:

"I had them add the arrow so you wouldn't miss the teeny tiny heart. See how small it is? How there's all that extra room it *could* have occupied? Yeah? Good. Just checking."

Hillary H., Kris, Cynthia P., Mark R., & Kjaere, I love you guys this much. Which is to say, enough to type your names here.

More Orkut fun with Javascript recharge pages

Here’s another one of those “paste Javascript into your browser” scams that wants to make significant changes to the appearance of your Orkut account. The site in question here is 500-rs-recharge(dot)minhahomepage(dot)com.


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It’s just out of shot, but there’s a little “How many people are on this site” doodah (technical term) at the bottom of the page which veered between around 35 and 60 visitors while I was there.

Will we get some more Javascript code to paste into the browser? Yep.



This one gives you the usual popup about the fact that your “recharge” is on the way, while making some updates to your Orkut page.


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“You’ll have your free recharge in 24 hours”. Funnily enough, it’s been 24 hours since the first attempt at running Javascript from the original page and I don’t have any recharging action taking place! Anyway, you’re taken to this URL:

500-rs-recharge(dot)minhapagina(dot)info

The website refuses to load for me at the moment, but it has been submitted to PhishTank by somebody so we’ll have to wait and see if it turns out to be a Phish. I certainly wouldn’t advise logging in on there given what we’ve seen so far, though.

If we take a look at the test profile, there are now a whole bunch of random people staring out at me from the “Friends” section:


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Even better, take a look at my “About” section:



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“Free recharge version of Orkut, this version was introduced to all Orkut users as a gift from Google services”.

Uh…call me suspicious, but I’m going to chalk this one up as a “not buy”.

Christopher Boyd

Tour Roundup: Pasadena, CA

On Saturday we did our 16th tour stop at Vroman's in Pasadena, CA. If you haven't been there you should go; it's awesome. And a big thanks to Connie, the book store rep, for being all around wonderful.

Some smiling faces in the crowd:


And hey, look! Our computer's working! Weird!

Our last-minute replacement baker was the phenomenal Linda Darck of Sweet Art Cupcakes. She made a meringue-based buttercream that was sooo good. The chocolate tasted like rich chocolate mousse, and John loved the strawberry so much that he stole a bunch of them to bring back to the hotel room for later. :D

Plus, look how pretty!


And a few of our fav wreckplicas:

A few fun Disney ones:

The photo on the table is of the Epcot attempt that went horribly, hilariously wrong. ;)

Seriously, you guys have mad wreckerating skilz.

(We'll put the rest of the entries on Facebook later this week, so watch for those.)

And our "winners!":

We didn't get a close-up of the stuffed bunny on the cupcake, but as you can see, it was a stuffed bunny. On a cupcake. John laughed so hard I think he teared up a bit. Then he stole the bunny. (Yes, we still have it.)

The suggestively hairy graduation cheese! Isn't it great?

And our grand prize "winner":

Complete with censor bars. Awesome.

Thanks to everyone who came out! Oh, and thanks also to wreckies Mike & Michelle for taking us to an amazing Afghan restaurant later, and not kidnapping us. That was swell.

Royal Wrecks

Princess-themed balloons, tiaras, and party favors: $54.00.

Special appearance by I Can't Believe It's Not Disney!^©'s Princess Bimberella: $134.99.

Misspelling your daughter's giant hot-pink birthday cake:

Priceness.

Eh, it could be worse... I guess...

Say it out loud. It's fun! "PRY-ness."

See?

(P.S. In the future, I'd like to be referred to as Priness Number 1. Spread the word.)

Because you're never too old for the "magic:"

I wonder if that's royal icing.

At least here they spelled "Princess" right...

...but you do have to wonder what happened to the first 10 Princesses.

We bow down to her royal highnesses, Rebecca B., Ciere O., Heather, and Priness Nicky. These cakes rule! (Say, is the plural for highness "highni?" 'Cuz if it's not, it should be.)

Black Fashion Models 2009

The current issue of Italian Vogue looks at how the fashion industry has moved past the rail thin negative size models to the lack of black models in the industry.

In a move that is causing the industry to take a deep look at itself the July issue of Italian Vogue features only black models shot by fashion photographer Steven Meisel. Mr. Meisel is also the photographer behind Madonna’s infamous 1992 book, “Sex”.

black fashion models
black fashion models
black fashion models
black fashion models
black fashion models

Fashion Models 2009

Tao Okamoto. Tao Okamoto, Japanese (1987), mysterious, elegant. She had long hair, now it is short. Very professional, very perfectionist.

models interested in being featured, interviewed or photographed can inquire via e-mail: models (at) asianglam.com - of course replace (at) with @

Fashion Models
Fashion Models
Fashion Models
Fashion Models
Fashion Models