My basement apparently harbors fantasies of being a swimming pool. I stepped in yet another puddle this morning, this time from leaks from the torrential rains and not the broken water pipe. Yay!
Also, I'm dearly hoping this is a hoax. 'Cause, really, parents shouldn't be that dumb.
Posted at 10:16:00 PM. |
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Sunday, March 30
Milemarkers
Things I learned this weekend:
- "If you play in Wal-mart, you don't stay in Wal-mart!" (Instructions from an irate Wal-mart manager to a pair of obnoxious high school boys bouncing balls in the aisles, leading Meghan and me to wonder if there are additional corporate-taught rhymes for other infractions.)
- The common adage that hoses should be disconnected from outside faucets before freezing weather should be taken seriously. If you don't, when you go to fill up your bird bath for the first time in spring the puzzled furrow on your face at the hose's lack of pressure will resolve to a bitter "well, that was stupid on my part" irritation at the water flooding your basement floor. I do so love water in my basement. I have rough instructions from my father regarding the necessary repairs, but plumbing really isn't my specialty so I may be filling up the bird bath by hand until the next time he visits.
- Thrift stores are nifty repositories of photographic props. And apparently the final hiding places of large quantities of Barry Manilow and Kenny Rogers vinyl records.
- Alec was attached to me today to the point of insisting on sitting on my lap through dinner, which made eating rather challenging. Kyle is showing fine mimicry and rhythm skills by singing songs from her kids' shows after hearing only the first few words.
Miscellany of the random sort (as opposed to the rarer organized variety):
- Cris has a hilarious Easter set in his Flickr. All that's missing was for Cris and Mark to do a live podcast as they made the eggs.
- I saw a newer Dodge Ram (or some similar monstrosity with four doors and "dually" tires), brightly emblazoned in maroon and silver colors, drive past my house last evening . . . with a Domino's Pizza Delivery light on top of the cab. The ridiculousness of the image aside, your fuel economy is going to really cut into your profit margins there, pal.
- Lane is playing the new "Super Smash Brothers" on her Wii. I've been content to watch (because she kicks my butt at it), but I have been amused that the game features an assortment of "classic" characters Lane has never seen (such as the protagonist from "Kid Icarus" from the original NES, suitably upgraded from 8-bit graphics).
I spent some time in the backyard (with wind and barking dogs) during the full moon last week. It's kind of sad that the neat aurora effect is likely at least partially due to pollution, but the pictures are pretty anyway.
Because winning fairly just isn't as much fun . . .
In recent weeks, conservative talk radio stars Rush Limbaugh and Laura Ingraham have urged loyal listeners to vote for the much-despised Clinton in open Democratic primaries so as to prevent Obama from sealing the nomination, and there are some indications that their calls have already been heeded in states like Texas and Mississippi . . . [T]here are signs that some Republicans are going so far as to switch their party registration by the March 24 deadline to participate in what Limbaugh has dubbed "Operation Chaos."
It's one thing to decide, based on your own opinions, to change parties and vote for a candidate you like. It's quite another to intentionally attempt to interfere with the voting of a group to which you don't belong (and have no interest in belonging) because someone else told you to. The latter is intellectually dishonest and shows a callous disregard for the concept of democracy in general. I see little distinction between this selfishness and actual instances of voter fraud; both dilute the vote of actual, honest voters and skew elections, and are essentially admissions of doubt as to whether your group can win based on merit.
Happy St. Patty's Day, one and all. Not being Irish or having any fondness for fermented barley, this holiday doesn't have the impact that, say, Halloween does, but I did remember my green shirt. It's perhaps a throwback to grade school and its silly "pinching" rules (and the associated cheaters who insisted that the some part of their braces or the socks under their shoes counted). Although it seems unlikely any attorney will yell "No green!" and pinch me in the elevator.
I'm happy to see a handful of groups are capitalizing on the "green" aspect of the holiday to promote green technologies. I "celebrated" a week early by buying about $40 of compact fluorescent light bulbs last week and replacing every incandescent bulb in my house (save one three-way bulb that won't accept a standard CFL). I even ordered dimmable ones for my dining room.
On my way in to work today I passed the Scottish Rite Masonic Center (as I always do, although simply because my route takes me that way, not because I'm keeping tabs on the Masons or anything). The Center always has a large sign out front with its name on it (the Center's, not the sign's). Today, they've also tacked a sheet over it to announce a corned beef dinner something-or-other. Except the sheet doesn't fully cover the sign, leaving the "S" from "Scottish" on the left, leading to an amusing advertisement for "Scorned beef."
Weekend highlights: Meghan's dance performance at the Shark Club was good (in performance and turnout), which slightly made up for her overabundance of stress (apparently cab companies in Omaha can't be bothered to help find lost keys). The twins were happy to see me (Kylie moreso because I was carrying an umbrella she could play with). I ordered my copy of CS3 (Design Premium rather than Web Premium, as I'd originally planned; I've never had much interest in hard-copy publishing, the purview of the major difference between the two, but I've recently discovered a company that will make actual hard copy books of my photos, so I guess it's time to learn InDesign). My left eyelid is *still* twitching (grrrr).
Hope everyone is having a great St. Patty's Day. :)
Posted at 12:25:00 PM. |
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Friday, March 14
Held Back
There has been some hoopla about the final Harry Potter book being made into two films instead of the traditional one (I'm sure Lane will be thrilled, given that the longer format means, hopefully, a movie truer to the book). I find it interesting, though, that by the time the final movie is released, the actor playing Harry will be 32 . . .
Update: Okay, I can see where Apple was going with this, but it's not quite there yet. I was going to try to incorporate it into the blog in much the same way as my Flickr badge (there's a smaller version of this that would fit), but this widget as is has some problems. It defaults to albums, which is a problem since I rarely buy an entire album anymore (the two it lists are well over four months old), and even if viewers are cognizant enough to click "songs" the links therein redirect to iTunes itself, which is a very unwieldy method of listening to music samples. It also displays *all* of the songs I've purchased, even if I ended up not liking them. Optimally, it would use the rating system customers can use to rate songs within their iTunes collection to display only those "3-star" or better selections.
Posted at 11:06:00 AM. |
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Tuesday, March 11
Geek Chic
Reality television shows have never demonstrated the addictive qualities to me that they seem to exhibit to a sizable portion of the population, and thus I make no claims of ever having seen "Beauty and the Geek" or knowing anything about it. Still, I shook my head in puzzlement at Yahoo's front-page photo slide show of the latest episode, wherein the "Beauties" (as I assume they're called) were "transformed" into "Geeks" and sent to collect phone numbers from unsuspecting guys at a bar. Hair/clothes/makeup I can see, but prosthetic noses? As though being a "geek" involves bone structure deviations from the general population? 'Cause, you know, there are no cute geek girls . . .
To the best friend on the planet, Lisa, who turns 29 today. Hope it's a good one. ;)
Posted at 11:09:00 AM. |
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Wednesday, March 5
Live, From New York, Update
I realized today that Flickr's format may not have correctly conveyed the accomplishment with which I was being enamored regarding my video conferencing test. This is a more accurate representation of what Cris saw on his computer (although, of course, it will vary by viewer based on monitor size and screen resolution). According to Skype, that's supposed to be 640x480 at 25 fps, although we didn't test it long enough to verify that it will actually maintain that.
But a February 2006 investigation by ABC's "Good Morning America" found Airborne might not work as advertised. The investigation revealed that Airborne's clinical trial was conducted by just two people in the absence of a clinic or scientists.
Yes, that's me on a web cam. Rest assured I will not be charging $2.00 a minute to strip for strangers or anything of that sort (although for a copy of Photoshop . . .). I set up my iSight for the first time last night (both in iChat and in Skype). This was Cris's view of what is apparently a pretty decent quality (both in framerate and screen size) live video chat with me. Humorously, he didn't have a Web cam hooked up, so while I was speaking normally (like a phone call with video), his responses were typed into the chat window, a somewhat disjointed experience that nevertheless holds promise for live video conferencing with family and friends (everyone go download Skype).
Rarely is that view expressed openly. "There's just something about Obama that makes me uncomfortable," said one woman at a Clinton event in Hanging Rock, Ohio, last week.
What the hell? Concerns that Democrats wouldn't vote for an African-American? In 2008? Seriously? Is that "something about Obama" that makes the woman nervous the fact that he's black? Or is it something else and the writer cherry-picked the quote? Am I so incredulous that I can only end sentences with question marks?
- Meghan and I saw the "Elegance of the Qing Court" lecture and exhibition at the Joslyn on Friday evening, followed by (appropriately) Chinese food with friends.
- I spent 15 minutes and seven attempts before successfully tying my tie for the first time. Go Internet tutorials.
- Thanks to Meghan and Netflix, I've discovered 30Rock is a worthy successor to the Tiny Fey-era of SNL (sadly lost to us). I've always liked Tina Fey, and in this show she's a Star Wars-fan . . .
- I finished the first season of "Dexter." I have people waiting to borrow my DVDs, so I won't spoil the ending.
- It was 65 degrees on Saturday and then we had freezing rain/snow on Sunday. Nebraska is schizophrenic.