Tag Archives: mall

Eye See You

Posted on September 27, 2009 by Kelson

Optometrist sign with a giant eyeball
Eye See You, originally uploaded by Kelson.

The Eye is WatchingI think the picture says it all.

I took one other picture that’s framed better, but doesn’t have quite the same creepiness factor.

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Powerless at the Mall

Posted on September 3, 2009 by Kelson

How an outdoor mall dealt with a lunchtime power outage. And some Apple observations.

  • Power’s out at mall. No teriyaki bowl for me. Subway it is! (Hmm, and no iced coffee either. *sigh*) #
  • Near as I can tell, the Apple store is just completely shut down. Hazards of making checkout depend on computer network, I guess. #
  • For contrast, Subway just dug out a pad of paper credit card slips & did texture rubbings w/ a pen. #
  • Odd: muzak is so omnipresent I didn’t notice it was still playing. Speakers must be on another circuit from the stores. #
  • Turns out only some buildings have lost power. Including all the coffee except Starbucks. But Jamba Juice has power! #
  • Was weird walking through mall at lunch seeing lighted stores on right & dark on left. Some stayed open, some closed, some adapted. #
  • Coffee Bean mostly closed during the power outage, but set an employee out front with 2 urns of coffee. No ice, though. #

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Coffee & Crowds

Posted on June 19, 2009 by Kelson
  • You know you need coffee when: you put a filter in the coffee maker, then go back to get…a filter for the coffee maker. #
  • It gets better: after that I went to put the bag of coffee back in the fridge. Where I’ve never kept coffee. Ever. Batting 1000 today. #
  • Mall is a lot more crowded than Wed. Sure, it’s Friday, but also I think schools let out yesterday. Waiting in line this time at Jamba #

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Trekking Through the Mall

Posted on May 17, 2009 by Kelson
  • Not in Star Trek IMAX b/c they sold out while we were in line. Got tix 4 next show, but now we have 2.5 hours to kill at the Spectrum #
  • Star Trek meets reality: when we registered at Robinson’s May for our wedding 5 yrs ago, the barcode scanner was called a phaser. #
  • Aaargh! In Apple store and the song used in those interminable Air commercials just started! #
  • Everyone else in the movie theater noticed the earthquake earlier. No one got up to leave, a murmur just passed through the audience. #
  • Earthquake timing was good: right when they open a huge, loud door on the ice planet. #

Update: more thoughts on the movie (and quake).

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South Coast Plaza Garden Show

Posted on April 26, 2009 by Kelson

Garden Show Centerpiece, originally uploaded by Kelson.

Braved South Coast Plaza this Saturday, and ended up in the middle of the Spring Garden Show, which took up all the non-store space in the wing formerly known as Crystal Court. I ended up wandering the garden show for a bit.

First floor was mostly furniture and decorations. The second and third floor were mostly people selling or showing off plants of various types, tools, pots, etc., with half of the third floor dedicated entirely to orchids.

There was also this huge centerpiece in the middle of the mall. Coincidentally, I was looking through old photos from one of our trips to Las Vegas earlier that day and found the pictures of the giant flower-and-insect display in the Bellagio.

I’ve posted a few photos taken with my phone.

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Stealth Mime

Posted on April 25, 2009 by Kelson

Today I saw a guy dressed like a mime, standing by an actual glass wall. #

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Mall Crush

Posted on December 22, 2008 by Kelson

Must remember: just because the mall is the CLOSEST place to grab lunch doesn’t make it the BEST place, esp. 3 days before Christmas. #

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Christmas Shopping

Posted on December 21, 2008 by Kelson
  • Need to sleep. Found myself typing “Satan Claus” by mistake. #
  • Symptom of car culture: I almost feel like I have to justify crossing the street on foot to go to another store instead of moving the car. #
  • Sun Halo. All you have to do is look up once in a while. #

Halo and Light Posts Empty Shelves For Sale. No Linens, No Things.

  • Linens & Things: Nothing left to sell but the shelves… #
  • Almost. Walked around a corner and they do have SOME stuff left #
  • Virgin Megastore is closing too, but they’ve still got lots of stuff. Incl 5000 copies of Serial Mom. #
  • Replica toys: I get the nostalgia factor, but at the same time it’s a weird idea. #
  • Going out of business sales seen today: 4. Mervyns, Linens&Things,Virgin,Steve&Barry’s. #
  • And the more stores I look at, the more “What You Own” competes in my head for the ubiquitous Christmas music. #
  • Amazon’s wishlist needs a generic option. Like “I want an 8GB Micro-SD card” rather than “I want THIS Micro-SD card specifically!” #

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Shopping Observations

Posted on December 20, 2008 by Kelson
  • Can we get a moratorium on covers of “Last Christmas?” Actually, can we get one on the original too? #
  • Funny how easy it is to spot a cover by Darryl K. Sweet. It makes me want to mash up Xanth, WOT, and every other fantasy series he’s covered #
  • I can’t see giving someone Countdown to Final Crisis as a gift. Maybe a gag gift? #
  • Someone EXPANDED The Red Balloon into a full-length film???? #
  • Nothing says Christmas like 50s xmas song played on a mall stage by a guy with a ukulele. Now he’s singing Over the Rainbow. ???? #

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iPhone iLine

Posted on July 11, 2008 by Kelson

I went by the Spectrum for lunch, and the line to get into the Apple Store for the new iPhone was still stretched past several storefronts into the nearest courtyard, right up to the fountain by the carousel — even though they’d launched that morning. Actually, I had several co-workers who were late today because they went down at opening for the launch.

From what I hear it was fairly chaotic, at least in the morning. Apple’s new policy of making you activate the phone in the store was causing delays, especially factoring in the fact that iTunes’ servers got swamped. That would explain why the line was still so long several hours after opening.

Usability note: One of said co-workers got tripped up trying to sync music to his new phone, because the default is to not synchronize music, and the “Sync only checked songs” box looked close enough to being the right option that he didn’t dig deeper.

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