Jori would be happy to tell you that I am a very heavy sleeper. When I hear my alarm, if I hear my alarn, I typically hit snooze or turn it off in various states of semi-consciousness. The only way to make sure I am truly awake is to engage me in some way. In other words, my mind tunes out an alarm but if the cable guy knocks on my door at 8am I won't have any problem getting out of bed.

These four clocks force you to put your mind to work.

Clocky

Clocky is kind. He gives you one snooze to wake up before he rolls off your nightstand. Then you'll be forced to crawl under your bed to turn him off. Thankfully, he's fairly rugged and can withstand drops of up to two feet. While by far the cutest, Clocky doesn't require much mental exertion, just nimble feet. Buy Clocky for $50.

Danger Bomb Clock

Finally, I can realize my dream of being Jack Bauer. Each morning, you will hear a loud explosion and must choose the correct, randomly-selected wire to make the noise go away. Good idea kids, but only picking one wire is a little too easy. Though resetting it might be a pain, which means it might just work for me. You can buy Danger Bomb Clock on March 17th. (via Product Dose

Puzzle Alarm Clock

Finally, an alarm that gives you a challenge. Every morning, your alarm will begin to blare and four puzzle pieces will launch into the air. The alarm won't stop blaring until the pieces return to their original resting place. This one should wake me up, but I would have liked at least nine pieces. The Puzzle Alarm Clock is $59 at Bim Bam Banana, but out of stock until March.

Kuku Alarm Clock

Like the puzzle clock, but more fun! When the work day is nigh, the Kuku Alarm Clock will begin crowing and will lay its eggs. The clucking won't stop until those eggs make it home. While I don't think I'd enjoy the clucking, this would certainly wake me up. I guarantee these eggs would be impossible to find. You can get the Kuku Clock for about $40 US at Latest Buy.

Bonus Idea

My friend Tien posted a picture just after waking up a few weeks ago. Immediately, I decided there needs to be a clock that takes your photo every time you hit snooze or turn it off. No, this wouldn't help you wake up but it would still be awesome. And if you're a clock maker and reading this, just combine this with the puzzle alarm clock, give it the ability to email photos (flickr!) and I'll buy two.

Photo by Donald Miralle/Getty Images

Yesterday was rough. It was rough for me, the Bears and all of Chicago. In the end, I think it'll be roughest on our pal Rex. Rex, you started strong but crumbled under the pressure. It was certainly not all your fault (the pass blocking was shoddy at best and our defense couldn't get off the field), but if you hadn't freaked out and turned the ball over three times, I'd probably be eating chocolate and swimming in a huge pool in Happytown right now.

I've had enough. At the start of the year we thought we had a consistent QB, the one thing we'd need to win it all, and you didn't come through. This is why I suggest we continue our trend of dropping QBs with more than 10 wins to the bottom of the depth chart (see: Kyle Orton) and follow the advice of WBRS Sports — let's go after Jeff Garcia for next year. He may be aging, but what are our other options? Rex is losing games for us and I just don't have enough confidence is Griese to make him our number one. The only other option is going for one of the top QBs in the draft, but who are we going to trade to get there? Garcia still moves well and looked great this season, which is more than we can say for Rexy.

I think you're a nice guy, but your playing style is not suited for the Bears. You've got an offseason to work on your mechanics and prove everybody wrong, but I'm hoping the Bears organization wises up and tells you to shape up or ship out.

I'm a sucker for Sony phone design and this is no exception. It's an upcoming clamshell that has pretty typical features (2mp camera, big screen, blah, blah, blah) but I just love front panel. It's hard to tell if it's real or simulated, but the textured front with three LED lights is perfect for a clamshell. The only thing missing is a clock on the outside. It's simple, elegant and gets you the information you need. I'm excited to hear more about this phone. (via gizmodo)

Most of my friends aren't football fans and watch only one game a year — the Super Bowl. I've heard from several of them that the experience would be much better if they knew what the hell was going on. Well, since I'm having friends over to watch the game I thought I'd try and help out. Here is some helpful information for Sunday's game. May the best Bear win. (Note: I've also prepared a printer-friendly version for those who want a cheat sheet. It should fit on one sheet, front and back.)

Update (2/2/07): Anil just posted a Prince Primer. What a great companion piece!

What's Football?

It would take too long to cover this properly, but it looks like Mom's Guide to Sports has the basics covered. This guide assumes you have no knowledge of football whatsoever and has a good lingo section for those hoping to impress their friends.

If you've got the basics covered but would like to step it up, take a look at Wikipedia's explanation of offensive and defensive formations.

About the Super Bowl

This is Super Bowl XLI (41) and it's taking place at Dolphins Stadium in Miami, Florida. According to SuperBowl.com, this is the ninth time the Super Bowl has been in South Florida. SuperBowl.com also has recaps of the last forty Super Bowls for those who want to talk about past years' games. You'll likely hear talk about Super Bowls V, XX, XXXV and XL (last year).

Who's playing?

The Chicago Bears are playing the Indianapolis Colts. Although they are playing on neutral ground, the Bears are considered the home team. This means they get to choose which jersey they'd like to wear (home or away) and the Colts will call the opening coin flip. In regular season play when the two teams have matched up, the Colts have won 22 games and the Bears have won 17. (The Colts smashed them 41-10 two years ago in their last meeting). The teams have never met in the playoffs. Here's some background on the two teams.

More details are after the jump.

Read the rest of this entry »

Yes, it's a post-9/11 world. No, we shouldn't jokingly claim to have a bomb when boarding a plane. But freaking out over an ad campaign? Get over it.

In case you don't feel like clicking through, the Cartoon Network had an ad company do some guerilla marketing for Aqua Teen Hunger Force. They put up devices that look a lot like Lite-Brite in various spots around the city. Fast-forward to yesterday when people were calling the police about suspicious devices and the bomb squad had to come out and you'll begin to see the insanity.

I would just think this is all hilarious if they didn't arrest the poor kid who was told by his bosses to put these up. It may be vandalism to hang these power lines, but don't take out your anger on some guy who likes LED Throwies and not getting fired. I might have some sympathy for the Boston Police if the same devices weren't up in ten other cities around the country. You screwed up, don't be a pussy.

Bonus! I just found a link to video of the press conference with the evil-doers. They would only talk about 70s hairstyles. Everyone in the media got all pissy and it made me happy.

If you would like to give the Boston cops the finger, you can buy this shirt that says, "Aqua Teen Hunger Force is the Bomb." Indeed it is.