Nancy Whiskey Bar -- New York, NY

You love this place!  The trick, it turns out, was to search for articles on "the best Old-Man Bars in Manhattan.  Who knew?  Get off my lawn!

Located right next to a police station, it avoids being a cop bar, though some folks seem like they are the law enforcement types.  This is nicely balanced by local artist types that bring a vibe of a side-street bar in North Beach.

Right next door to the subway -- like, five feet to the left and the stairway would come up in the bar's basement -- makes it perfect for grabbing a Fernet and a beer right before heading out to the airport.

Novotel Sydney Darling Square -- Sydney, NSW

This place worked out very nicely.  Grab coffee downstairs and walk to work or Central for the train.

If you ask to be on a higher floor, do not stay on the top floor, as it's weirdly set back from the others with an ugly rooftop there.  Also, you want a "garden view" room, as they look frontwards to the Chinese Friendship garden thing.

For laundry, they are affiliated with the Holiday Inn across the street somehow, and if you ask the Novotel front desk folks, they'll call over and get you access to the Holiday Inn guest laundry room.

Hilton Garden Inn -- Mayfield, OH

You like this one.  These places are usually just fine, and this one's better than most.  The bar staff are quite nice, and they have a couple of local (bottled) beers.  The kitchen is okay, though the salmon is grilled into oblivion.  I'm going to bet that's a corporate policy, not the choice of the chef.

You visited in the winter, and happily they have a good contract with a snow plowing company so that the parking lot egress was cleared by the time you had to leave for work.

The first time you stayed here, your room's heater did not work, but they quickly moved you.  The second time, it all worked right from the start.

Neil Gwynn -- London, England

You like this place.  It's in a tiny alley, and the bar is small, but what happens is half the customers are inside, and half the customers are outside in the alley smoking and drinking.  It's kind of like Small Bar used to be, when smokers could loiter in the side walkway, or out front at the tables.  Of course now you can't do that at Small Bar.  Thanks a lot, preachy California busybodies.  I mean, I don't even smoke anymore, but I do appreciate an establishment where smokers are welcome as long as they aren't bothering other patrons.  This bar is one of those places.  Also, the bartenders are nice and snarky, so there's that going for it.

Hotel Valley Ho -- Scottsdale, AZ

This is definitely the place to stay if you're in the region.  It's worth a twenty-five minute commute to the work site, to be some place real.  There's a good run along the canal -- not the most exciting scenery -- but you only have to brave two crosswalks for a 10k round-trip.

Also, the hotel bar is nice, though sometimes loud.

There's a pool party thing on Saturday and Sunday that's fascinating to watch.  It's a total bro-fest though, so steel yourself.  Nice pool.

Parking costs extra, but here's a secret: park on 68th where Main street would run into it, if it continued that far.  There's an opening in the wall and presto, you're right at the front door.

The Local Bar -- San Antonio, TX

Have you finally found a bar in downtown San Antonio that's not pointless?  Maybe.  Service folks seem to come here after work, so that's a point in its favor.

On the other hand, some idiot just played an hour's-worth of anthem rock on the touchtunes jukebox.  No matter how well you're paid, you can only justify so many "priority plays" of Black Keys and Rolling Stones before you realize that the tidal wave of crap music will just keep coming.  (Note to self: play Rick Astley on their jukebox once you're safely back at the hotel.)

The bartenders are cool though, and you have professional hearing protection, so what's the big deal?  Plug your ears and write some reviews.

Home2 -- Austin, TX

Actually, if you're stuck up north of Austin, this place is pretty good!  It's nice and quiet.  The wifi works.  You're walking distance from a two-block-long Car2Go service area, so you can theoretically get to downtown and back.  Also, you can stumble down to the "Detour" bar -- though part of the stumble involves no sidewalk, so save some battery power for the flashlight app.

For a running route, you'll need to drive, but it's ten minutes to the Walnut Creek trailhead.  Take two Gatorades, because when you finish your run, you'll want to hang out for a bit and watch all the softball teams who use the fields right there by the trailhead.

Lyman's Tavern -- Washington, DC

Well, you found the hipsters.  Hooray, you!  But you also found some fun pinball machines.  I think they rotate the beers around -- the drafts all suck -- but you can probably find a bottled beer that is okay.  Or, I guess you could give up and drink PBR.  The brand is enshrined in knick-knacks and metal signs and neon and ... well, you know this place.  It's that place.

Good for an hour or two of playing the crazy Pabst Can Crusher pinball machine.  (Which, incidentally, dates back to only 2016.  Brilliant fake retro.  In fact, don't follow that link.)

If you bring a friend, it could be a whole evening.  Lyft it.  The tasty beers are high ABV.

Kurukkiru Hand-Cranked Shredder

If you travel as much as I do, you accumulate receipts and papers that you need to destroy .. but you're miles from a shredder.  Too many secrets!

This little guy is the Kurukkiru by Nakabayashi.  It's a hand-powered shredder, with a mouth that's wide enough to fit a third of a US Letter page.  Which is to say, more than enough for register receipts (pictured).  And for whole pages, tri-fold them, tear them in thirds, and feed those into it.

No batteries means it's light.  Bright green means it's cute.  I keep it in my large bag.  As soon as I return to my hotel room, I can destroy evidence the same day it's made!

Super Meat Boy for PC

There's a section in the Bhagavad Gita about a million deaths that are fated to happen, right?  Super Meat Boy is like a pre-battle meeting with Krishna, if Krishna was a devilishly difficult platformer that packs in nods to other games, other game makers, and other gameplay styles at every possible spot.  It's an epic of game playing.  You'll find yourself gasping "argh" as you die just millimeters from the end of a level, only to smack the keyboard and start the level again.  Just one more and you'll get it.  Sure...  Keep your RSI braces handy -- you won't be able to stop playing this one.

New Super Mario Bros for Wii

Yep, it's awesome! It's all the classic gameplay that you spent days and days playing on SNES, with some sweet new powerups and an interesting twist or two. The music is true to the original's spirit, yet hi-fi. The graphics are old school, yet cleaner and smoother. And the turtles, they do a little dance step that's unbearably cute. Plus you get these little bonus mini-games that are really fun. Two thum-bahs up -- way-ah up!

Call in sick! (How's the glaucoma?) You're gonna want to dedicate some serious time to this one.

Wolfenstein for PS3

I used to love playing Castle Wolfenstein on the Apple ][.  I liked how you were outnumbered, stealing ammo off the bad guys, and saving the day.  It was missing just one thing ... zombie nazis.  Well, these may not be exactly zombies, but they sure are supernatural nazis.  And they still make "aiiieeee" noises when you gun 'em down!

Once I'd popped the disc into the PS3, it didn't come out until I was done with the single-player campaign.  It's excellent!  There's a goofy story.  There are nazis using gateways to other dimensions.  There are weapon choices and upgrade choices that let you pick your fighting style.  A ton of detail makes it extra compelling.  I really enjoyed it!

Gottlieb's Pinball Hall of Fame for PSP (PSN)

I'm totally enjoying the Pinball Hall of Fame on my PSP Go.  You get to pick from a few of Gottlieb's most popular tables, and naturally you have to beat a challenge on the simple ones, to unlock the others.  But also each table comes with a snippet of the history of the machine.  My favorites so far are the Genie machine and the Black Hole machine ... but I keep trying my hand on the love tester (yep, the thing that tells you how hot a lover you are) just 'cause it's, well, weird to include a machine that you can't "win" on a gaming platform.  Well done!

Critter Crunch for PS3 (PSN)

The launch of Critter Crunch was less than impressive -- the trades should've been heralding "The next PopCap" or something like that. This is an action-puzzle game, where the rules are simple, the controls are dead simple, and everything is just cute as hell. Plus, the music is catchy, and the goofy noises things make as you catch 'em with your tongue and spit them into the waiting mouths of predators higher up on the food chain add a cutsey percussion to the whole thing.

Oh, and there's actually a part called the "Puking Tutorial" where they instruct you on regurgitating rainbows. Kris plays several-layers-deep strategically, while I mostly mash buttons, and we both love it!

Battlefield 1943 for PS3 (PSN)

I can't stop playing this one!  You switch off being a japanese or american soldier trying to gain control of all the flag points (five) on small pacific islands.  There are only a handful of maps, and a handful of strategies, and it's all so very simple, and that's exactly what makes it fun.  You can run around shooting, or get in a tank, or a jeep, or even airplanes ... and for extra fun you can jump out of your airplane and parachute onto the other teams' positions.

This is my new laundry game.  It's easy to just pop in and enjoy a few minutes of mayhem between loads of laundry.

Burn Zombie Burn! for PS3 (PSN)

Burn Zombie Burn is practically the definition of "casual game."

Clear rules: kill all the zombies before they eat you.

Simple controls: a top-down point of view, as you run around and shoot stuff.

True to theme: while the shotgun and uzi are the simplest to use, the chainsaw and cricket bat are far more rewarding.

A twist: zombies are afraid of the burning torch you can brandish ... but if they catch on fire they fearlessly sprint towards you ... BUT point values are increased while there are zombies buring.

It's perfect for killing time (and zombies) between loads of laundry. A couple rounds coincide nicely with the wash cycle. And the price is right -- one roll of quarters!

Ogon Designs Aluminum Wallet

I haven't carried a wallet for decades. I much prefer a folded stack of bills in one pocket, and a calling card case in the other. My last card case finally got too scungy and I found this brilliant replacement that opens to an accordion of little folders. Clever!

You can fit up to thirty-six cards in it, in seven little pockets. I have frequent-buyer cards in one slot, my business cards in another, my id in one of its own, collected colleages' cards in another slot, and a whole slot for keeping my video game pre-order receipts until release day.

Super Mario Galaxy for Wii

Once again, Mario's eternal quest to impress the princess yields a fabulous game. It's the usual run-and-jump rules of Mario ... collecting star pieces (instead of coins), stomping on things, shooting stuff, and beating up bad guys.

You start out running around on teeny planets, like the little prince but with less French. Then there's a part where you get a pair of bee's wings. Another part and you're flipping tiles by walking over them, trying to make 'em all match. After that you might ride a manta ray down a water slide. The same wacky stuff you'd expect from a hero who collects mushrooms.

When this disc isn't *in* the Wii, it's right next to it!

mippin.com

Mippin is an RSS reader for mobile phones, currently in beta. I like having some reading material on my phone (for lunch time alone or when I arrive at appointments early) and I've been using Google Reader up until now. After two days with Mippin, I tossed Google out. Here's why:

* Mippin is pretty, with favicons and all. (What’s Google’s obsession with the Windows 3.1 color palette?)
* Mippin displays things compactly, yet expands for modern phones with larger displays.
* RSS feeds with image attachments include a thumbnail next to the entry’s title.
* I can ignore RSS for a couple days and not have a stack of "unread" messages. (Didn't we learn anything from usenet obsession?)

faceyourpockets.com

The concept is simple, empty your pockets onto a scanner, then press your face down on it and hit "scan." The collection of people's scans is fascinating.

It's one of those weird sites where your first thought is, "wow, this is neat." Followed quickly by the skepticism of "wait, some people are staging the contents of their pockets." And then slowly, after a dozen more faced-pockets, you realize that "staged or spontaneous, there's something eerily 'genuine' about this."

I've pulled a dusty HP scanjet 4670 out of the closet just so I can contribute, because after a few dozen faced-pockets you just can't stop wondering how *your* scan will compare.