Intellectual Poison

..go and think about it in the hot tub.
Tags: hot tub

Do you hate phone tree mazes when you call into a company for customer service? So did a guy named Paul English, so he put together a nice little IVR Cheat Sheet to help speed you through the phone maze.

The Discover one worked for me perfectly and got me right through their bullshit (here's a hint, the requirement to punch your account number in is useless and only there as a stalling tactic).

And anything to cut down on the hassle factor of getting a live person on the phone is good for me and my blood pressure. And, oh yes, Discover Card sucks ass, I would highly recommend not getting one.
Tags: phone tree, phone maze, cheat sheet

I've been very bad lately, bad at writing good blog posts, bad at keeping up on all the blogs on my lists, very bad at keeping up with the flood of photos from my Flickr contacts and terrible at writing back to friends who emailed weeks ago (sorry EB!, I haven't forgotten, just highly distracted). And then there is the long foundered Cheddar X that sits there with a sad look on its face awaiting some attention.

I would like to say that I can see some light at the end of the tunnel, that things will return to what passes for normal soon. But that would be lying. I don't see any light, I don't see any tunnel coming to an end. More than that, I see the tunnel getting narrower and more confining, I see the journey having to be ever re-focused to remove more distractions and allow me to concentrate.

But, as this mid morning post ably demonstrates, I'm not there yet. I still need to whittle out my distractions so that I can get my work done.

I'm working on achieving a balance but its rather difficult to get to and, even if you do balance your life out, it stays balanced just long enough to be recognized as balanced and then the car blows its transmission or the sink explodes.

Some good things to concentrate on:
- We're going to have another baby in the new year, late May most likely and we're both leaning towards it being another boy without any evidence one way or the other.
- We will also be moving in the next year, hopefully to a location where we can allow our roots to penetrate deep into the earth so that we can feel well and truly grounded. I can't begin to relay just how wearying it is to go to what passes for home now.

I'm sure there are more things that are good but those two are the first to come to mind and my brain's not really cooperating beyond them now.
Tags: update

Boy there is nothing like a full night's sleep with just a touch of Nyquil to help propel the sleeping part and a distinct lack of a toddler with a penchant for kicking my kidneys.

It makes even a crappy and rainy morning like this one bearable. Now if traffic works with me to then I might have a reasonably good start to the day. Until I get into the office and have to face the joys there.

Three and a half months, three and a half months and then I can really kick my career relocation into gear.
Tags: sleep

My brother out pulling the two older boys in a semi-surprise snowstorm that gave us a fun 6 inch dusting of snow to play in.

One of the boys was laying down with his feet towards my brother, the other was sitting on the seat.

As you might guess, hauling a kayak around on the snow is fairly tiring work so he asked for some help. I went out and helped him pull the kayak some.

As happens, on the last pull we botched the release and the kayak was launched at an unwieldy angle which resulted in the kayak doing an Eskimo roll about fifteen feet down the short hill. The boy sitting on the seat stayed in the kayak until it came back up and then was tossed out. He was okay but understandably a little shaken up. The boy who'd been laying down got thwacked in the eye a bit and ended up with a tough looking little bruise.

Both were done for the day, which was fine for me. The cold air and the unexpected running had sapped whatever energy I had when I stepped outside.
Tags: snow, kayak, sledding, Eskimo roll

I read an article in BusinessWeek last week about the rise of alternate belief systems in the US. People looking for something more than what Christianity offers, there are many that have explored Buddhism and found a more harmonious way of living.

There was one quote that really stuck out to me and I've been mentally reminding myself to post it when I got the chance.

"It is the illusion of separateness that is the cause of suffering."

And I may not have gotten it perfectly but I think I caught the main gist of it. The quote was in conjunction with a senior level executive who took a three day mission as a homeless person to break through the division. He said it was a very humbling experience to go from the center of attention to one of the unseen.

Its also a good reminder to look at those things that you may not normally notice, you might be surprised at what you see.
Tags: separateness, suffering, Buddhism

Hi, my name's Johnny and I have an addiction that I'd like to confess.

I love HotWheels. I love playing with mini cars and I love playing with the tracks and now they've got this line of cars with oversized and superfast wheels. I just can't help myself and I have to buy them. At least they don't cost much and I can pretend that they're for Graydon to play with.

And I have no plans to arrest my addiction. No sir. In fact, I plan to let it blossom and flourish all the more and am already planning on how to make better use of the tracks than laying them out on the floor. I'm thinking about a 4 x 8 sheet of plywood prepped, primed and painted and made ready for use as a car park.

I have an addiction and I have already succumbed.
Tags: hotwheels, addiction

You may get a email with a link to this very slick looking (but fake so don't enter your information there) Process your Refund page that is intended to collect your social security number and credit card and billing address as I just did. Its almost certainly a scam.

It is quite well done but backtrack the link and remove everything after the porterfam.org and you get a page of stats. Pretty good indication that its a phishing scheme.

It was nice that they had a link to the IRS home page because I went there and reported them. Shame about internet snitching is you can't hide out on the corner and watch them get busted. Not that I expect anyone to get busted but its a nice thought.
Tags: phishing, IRS, scam

So ugly he was beautiful, Sam the world's ugliest dog for three years running (and who could compete with that mug?) has passed on at the grand old age of 14.

Which leaves the throne vacant for another hound to ascend to. I can only wait and hope that the new dog king of ugly carries the mantle with as much dignity and gnarlish hideousity as Sam.
Tags: Sam, ugly, ugliest, dog, beautiful

So I had to do a few in-flight adjustments on my pie making plans for Thanksgiving tomorrow. Instead of the Pineapple Rhubarb and the Brandied Date and Walnut pie, I reloaded and went for traditional with a little twist.

The rhubarb had to be scratched because fresh rhubarb is hard to come by in November in New England and the Date pie had to be scrapped because my lovely wife thought it sounded gross.

So I made an Caramel-Apple Pie. Its in its ten minute cool down right now and then it will get drizzled with the remaining caramel over the crumbled topping. It smells pretty damned awesome though and I'm excited to dig into it tomorrow night after the feast.

And no, you cannot pronounce car-a-mel, car-mel because Carmel is a pretty little seaside down in California that used to have Clint Eastwood as its mayor.
Tags: thanksgiving, caramel, apple pie

"Don't just do something. Sit there!"
- Thich Nhat Hahn
Tags: quote

Connections will be minimal over the next few days, nothing like a return to the dial up world to remind one of how lucky they are to have a sweet juicy broadband pipe.

But its okay, the company here at my Mom's in New Hampshire more than makes up for the lack of wicked fast downloads and rhubarb.

I was intending to try a new pie for Thanksgiving this year, Pineapple Rhubarb, but I will apparently have to scrap that plan and go another way as there is no rhubarb available in New England from what I've been told. I've got another pie recipe to try, Brandied Date and Walnut Pie, so that'll be good fun.

The flight was pretty decent overall and made ten times better by not having a person sitting in the third seat in our little row so we could give Grady some space to crash. Which he did do after some effort and some milk but boy was he testing the limits before he went down. But once he was down, he was down and done for the duration of the flight. And I can say that JetBlue has done plenty to warrant my continued business. From the curb to the de-planing in Boston, they do it right and with the right attitude. Plus, I liked having the tv screen to occupy my non-sleeping body.

Tonight is a smaller gathering, probably no more than 30 people. Tomorrow will be bigger as its the traditional lasagna dinner, the estimates are 50 adults plus another 19 munchkins.

Would you believe that tomorrow is just a warmup for the main event on Thursday? I don't have a final count yet but I'm expecting we'll break 150 for Thanksgiving dinner this year as it the 100 Year Anniversary of our Family Thanksgiving (no, not the working title and we'll just leave it at that, okay? good). Yes, that's 150 friends and family for dinner. The table of pies should be EPIC!

It was snowing after raining all morning and now the ground's lightly covered with snow. Very pretty until you go outside and realize that its butt-ass cold here. Then its nice to go back inside and just look outside.

Lots and lots of pictures pending but they'll have to wait until Saturday because I'm travelling almost blind, no laptop. Scary, huh? Don't worry though, I still have my Clie so I can get access if I really, really, really need it.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone, eat some turkey, gobble some pie and then plunk down and watch some football with your family and friends. That's what its all about (I know its not really but it works for me).
Tags: Thanksgiving, JetBlue

I wish I could say I snapped this while motoring along at speed on the highway but I didn't. I just liked the title and figure that I'm allowed a little artistic license.

What's that? I'm not allowed any artistic license?

Oh well then, pisser that.

At least Jesus loves me, kind of nice of him seeing as I don't believe in his pops.
Tags: jesus loves me

Celebrity Maps, the easiest way to stalk your favorite celebrity. Funny, they don't seem to have Yahoo Serious, I wonder why. Strange, I didn't know Kim Cattrall and Halle Berry lived together. Do the tabloids know about this?
Tags: celebrity maps, stalking, Halle Berry, Kim Cattrall

Heisted from Rambling Rhodes who stole it from Steve and maybe, if I'm lucky, someone will steal from me and keep the heisting going.

1. What is your occupation? Public relations.
2. What color is your underwear? Right now or when I first put them on?
3. What are you listening to now? Dazed and Confused by Led Zeppelin
4. What was the last thing you ate? Chinese Chicken Salad from Trader Joe's.
5. Do you wish on stars? I wish some stars would fall down and go boom, does that count?
6. If you were a crayon, what color would you be? The one with all the teethmarks in it.
7. How is the weather right now? Too damned nice to be stuck inside looking out.
8. Last person you spoke to on the phone? John about poker and football.
9. Do you like the person who sent this to you? I stole it.
10. How old are you today? 36 and change.
11. Favorite drink? Non-alcholic would be Ovaltine. Alcoholic drink would have to be a mojito on a hot day, Long Island Iced Tea any other day.
12. Favorite sport to watch? On TV? Live? Baseball, baseball, baseball.
13. Have you ever dyed your hair? Yep, used to go blond in the summers.
14. Do you wear contacts or glasses? Not anymore.
15. Pets? Yep, dog and fish now.
16. Favorite month? July, I guess, its hot and perfect beach weather.
17. Favorite food? Grilled teriyaki skirt steak with grilled fresh sliced pineapple on top.
18. What was the last movie you watched? Constantine from NetFlix after it sat for three weeks.
19. Favorite day of the year? Thanksgiving Day
20. What do you do to vent anger? Scream, shout, throw things, throw people, throw cars, throw small convenience stores.
21. What was your favorite toy as a child? Micronauts
22. Fall or Spring? Spring, falling hurts.
23. Hugs or kisses? Sure.
24. Cherry or Blueberry? Blueberry, makes better stains.
25. Do you want your friends to email you back? For the ones that have email, yeah, that'd be nice.
26. Who is most likely to respond? Jay.
27. Who is least likely to respond? Haytham.
28. Living arrangements? Um, share my house with my wife, son and loopy hound.
29. When was the last time you really cried? At my father's wake several years ago.
30. What is on the floor of your closet? Clothes, shoes,
31. Who is the friend you have had the longest? On the list of people from the email?
32. What did you do last night? Watched football, coughed up phlegm and
34. What inspires you? Elegant beauty, something that's both beautiful and functional. Also people who aren't afraid to fail.
35. What are you afraid of? Getting caught.
36. Plain, cheese or spicy hamburgers? What is a spicy hamburger? I'm all for cheese, bacon, lettuce, tomato and some mustard and ketchup.
37. Favorite car? Ford GT40 but its not very practical.
38. Favorite dog breed? Rhodesian Ridgeback.
39. Number of keys on your key ring? Four on the "big" one, two on the smaller ones.
40. How many years at your current job? Coming up on 4 now.
41. Favorite day of the week? Friday
42. How many states have you lived in? Nine.
43. How many cities have you lived in? Six but not all are in the US.

There now, that only took me, what, a little over two weeks to complete. I should get a bonus for speed.
Tags: memetag

Yes, I'm a fanboy sometimes, not often but I do have a few shows that I get into and enjoy. The main one right now is Survivor Guatemala and, last night they voted off the second member of the jury in Jamie. Jamie's a burly southern guy with some pretty warped logic about the world and a rather large chip on his shoulder too.

And, as the survivors worked through their fourth week of the game, the guy was pretty clearly losing his grip on sanity. He'd devolved into a nagging paranoiac and bully and argumentarian to the point where his fear of being blindsided and voted out of the game game true because he kept pushing people not to.

Just stupid really. I'm glad he's gone though because he was a seriously annoying personality. I hate people who pretend to be all about logic and reason but have no problem backing it up with "Or I'll kick your sorry ass" which he used on numerous occasions.

And, just like the pretty boy Blake who dogged it around camp only to shine during challenges and wouldn't shut up ever, Jamie didn't get it either. He didn't see why or how he got tossed.

Right now, my money's on Gary because I like how he's carried himself with the exception of being stupid and lying about being an NFL quarterback back in the day because he thought people would assume he was rich. But beyond that, he's been a stand up guy. And I can definitely say that Lydia doesn't deserve to win, Rafe's starting to show some stones by winning two of three individual immunities, Steph's just trying to stay under the radar for as long as possible and has a chance of winning but not if she doesn't get to choose who she goes against in the final two. Judd's not going to win but he's certainly cooled his temper down. I go from liking to disliking him in almost the same breath which generally means I think he's kind of an ass.

And please, would someone send Danni something to eat, her emaciation is starting to border on kind of gross. Like she's trying to be Mary Kate or Ashley or something.
Tags: Survivor, fanboy

On this day in history: November 18, 1978 Mass Suicide in Jonestown where Jim Jones leads his followers in the drinking of a poisoned cocktail in Guyana, East Africa.

In all, 913 people died and 276 of them were children. The re-enactments I've seen were not gentle, they had armed guards ready to shoot anyone who tried to not drink the poison cocktail so I'm sure how it can really be called a mass suicide. It would be more appropriate, I think, to call it a mass murder by brainwashing and then by force. Also, from the Wiki link, they had dry runs where everyone was given what they thought was poisoned Flavor-Aid. Those that didn't drink it were engaged in a debate and usually complied quickly. Only after everyone had drunk the fake poison would they be told that it was just a test of loyalty to Jim Jones.

Friends don't let friends get brainwashed into being culties. And real friends will tie you up to keep you from being sucked into a cult if you're prone to that sort of thing. Really, really good friends will even break into a cult to get you out but its just best to stay out of them to begin with. Any group of people that requires you to subordinate your own desires for some false prophet's desires is no place you want to be. Of course, I'm reminded of David Koresh and his Branch Davidians and the colossal clusterfuck that was the taking of their compound in Waco. There are cults everywhere, heck Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes are part of a cult, just a really big and well organized and thoroughly scary cult.
Tags: Jonestown, cult, suicide, Waco

This is gold, this is an AskMetaFilter post by a guy who is trying to appear as if he was scammed when, in reality, he was simply trying to refine his scamming techniques by querying the intelligentsia at Ask MetaFilter.

It is totally worth the read and is getting better and better. The short story is this guy asked whether it was ever possible to get money back from an eBay scammer. But it pretty quickly becomes apparent that he's the scammer and the person he scammed joined MetaFilter to post in the thread and now the Bakersfield police are involved and the USPS mail fraud division.

This might be the first time someone got arrested directly because of MetaFilter. Someone needs to write this up! The human interest angle alone is just incredibly fascinating and then there are the dumb, dumb mistakes the scammer made. This is just begging for widespread media coverage.
Tags: MetaFilter, eBay, AskMetaFilter,scam

Sony's new USB device is NSFW (that's not safe for work) but is a pretty damned funny hack nonetheless.
Tags: sony, hack, usb

Pat Robertson Warns Pa. Town of Disaster because they've removed every school board member who advocated the teaching of the farcical theory of Intelligent Design in schools when ID is a faith based theory that has absolutely no business in a science classroom.

Sure, it can be discussed in an ethics class and used an example of religious nutfucks trying to stupid up America with their nonsense theories (and it should be noted the chasm between the validity of a widely held scientific theory and Joe Blow's theory about why girls wear thongs, a scientific theory is much more concrete and provable than some guy's pet theory). From the Wiki link above: In scientific usage, theory is not the opposite of fact. Theories are typically ways of explaining why things happen, usually after the fact that they happen is no longer in scientific dispute. In referring to the "theory of global warming", for example, there is no implication that global warming is not occurring; world temperatures have been measured and are increasing. The "theory of global warming" refers instead to scientific work that explains how and why this has been happening.

So, the theory of evolution isn't open to dispute about its validity as a method of explaining how life came to be in the current state it is on this planet. Its intellectually dishonest to try and dismantly evolution as false because its called a theory, scientific theories are already held as true and the theory refers to explaining the mechanisms by which the phenemenon function, not that there is room to dispute the underlying science.

And lastly, Pat Robertson, shut up. Just shut your stupid-making pie-hole up. Quit talking about assassinations, quit talking about Intelligent Design like it has any business being mentioned in the same frame as evolution. Just shut up. Or go back to your 700 Club echo chamber.
Tags: evolution, science, theory, intelligent design is a lie, religiouscience, STFU Pat Robertson

I don't normally write about my ride home from work but last night's was strange not once or twice but in four separate incidents.

The first was a camper parked on the side of the road with black smoke coming from it and bright flames growing underneath.

The second, a scant quarter mile from the burning camper, was a motorcycle in the middle of the lane, the rider propped up against the barrier between the north and south routes, his helmet was off and the paramedics were attending to him. He looked like he would probably be alright but was gonna feel like utter hell this morning.

The third was a biker I was following for a good portion of the ride. He had a super skinny back tire and a suicide shifter behind his left leg, this means that, instead of a normal lever at the left foot to shift, he had a gear shift like you find in a car. That wasn't the unusual part though. Bear in mind that it gets dark early now, it was almost 5:30 and it was dark out on the highway. At one point he was duffing along and there was an opening and, since I tend to ride alot faster than most cruiser style bikers, I passed him. Once I was riding in front of him, he disappeared and I couldn't find him in my mirrors. Until he happened to get shined up from behind by a car's headlights. This guy was riding his motorcycle through traffic at night without a headlight. Without a headlight and a suicide shifter and a skinny little backtire and an engine that sounded like a turbocharged chainsaw. I can't imagine how he was able to sit on that bike with such enormous balls.

The fourth wasn't so unusual but it hasn't happened in a long time and makes me laugh. People in cars that have been lowered generally hate bikers because our headlights sit above their trunks and basically light up their cars like a hundred watt bulb. Well, last night, four teenagers in a Celica took umbrage at my low beam in their car and started flipping me off because, I assume, they thought my low beam was my high beam. So I showed them what my high beam looked like and they went fucking ballistic in the car. Or, if you can call really aggresive middle fingering of people at 75 miles an hour on the highway ballistic, they did go ballistic. And when I pulled in front of them, they immediately set on their high beams and tried to pace me.

Which is really stupid in a car with four kids against a pretty new motorcycle with a sport engine. Good luck, idiots. I dusted them pretty easily and got the rest of the way home without major incident.

Of course, on my way back out, there was another accident in the middle of the street that turned a 6 pm reverse commute drive into a crawl.

But it was all made up by pulling a 6 on the river in some No Limit Poker last night and completing a six through ten straight the hard way to scoop in a decent little pot and end up positive on the night. And then knocked back down because somehow the bank got badly screwed up and I had to give up some winnings. Oh well, still fun. Even if I'm beat and burnt today.

Tags: commute, motorcycle, poker

Colored Soap Bubbles

Look, pretty!

If you're interested in the pretty serious science behind suspending dye in a soap bubble, you might want to read the accompanying article, The 11-Year Quest to Create Disappearing Colored Bubbles. I love a good story and this is a good one. The kind my father would have absolutely loved reading. The only bummer thing about these cool new vivid soap bubbles is that they aren't commercially available yet. But they will be and then the technology can and will spread into a whole passle of other applications, think of where you'd like to be able to see if you've wiped or applied a cream or something and then have that dye slowly fade to nothing. Sunscreen, disinfectant towels, paintballs, the list is nearly endless and that's what makes it so cool. A scientific breakthrough while searching for a way to make a better bubble.
via
Tags: colored, soap bubbles

So I finally got around to shoving a blog into the Wal-Mart is Pure Evil page which had been sort of adrift for a while. Now I've got an easy place to put the Wal-Mart stories that I'd like to post and comment on. Like the memo which I haven't forgotten about, its just gotten buried in front page drafts. Now I can pull it back and put it over there. Oooh man, the organizational possibilities are exceptional.

Anyway.

And the first real post is for Wal-Mart the Movie. There's going to be a free screening in Pajaro on Saturday.
Tags: Walmart, Wal-Mart

Because I utterly loathe websites that refuse to publish customer service numbers on their site I am going to republish Yahoo's Customer Care number here in the hopes that other people find it and use it to get straight to Yahoo and not wait days and days and days for their slow ass email replies with no help contained in them.

And how did I find this number, you ask? Well, after searching through their useless help pages, I went to Yahoo's main page and scrolled down to the bottom. There was a link to Yahoo Company Information with a further link to their Media Relations page. That page has a phone number on it so I called it and never did speak to a human but the computer voice told me the number below. Also the Media Relations page has handy directions if you feel the need to register your ire in person.

So, if Yahoo is screwing you over, call (408) 349-1572 and be prepared to wait and wait and wait. I've been on hold for twenty minutes now (thanks speakerphone for saving my ear and neck) but I'm not going to give up now. And try not to scream at the idiotic voice telling you to seek help on the incredibly unhelpful help pages.

And yes, once I finally got someone live on the phone, it was a pretty straight forward password resetting without the dire warnings and drama. Why couldn't they just send an email saying call this number and we can sort it out in fifteen minutes? Just stupid and short-sighted.
Tags: unlisted number, customer service, Yahoo, hidden contact info

There are some nice aspects to having a little bit of a commute, not many, mind you but there are some. Like the ability to take alternate routes in to work, routes that can include rather long detours through the Santa Cruz mountains.

Its important to sometimes go out of your way to take the long way. You never know what you might see if you do.

So I'm going to try and do a little back country moto this morning and enjoy the ride.

PS Did you know that Sesame Street comes on at 6 in the morning? I didn't until Graydon decided that 6:20 was wakeup time this morning and we weren't quite ready to shake and wake. So now I've got the theme song to Elmo's World playing on endless loop in my brain. It could be worse, it could be the Journey to Ernie themesong.
Tags: commute, enjoy the ride

Via SlickDeals - eBay has coupon codes for regular and buy it now auctions when paying with paypal. It only works for one item. And the codes expire on 11/30/05 but saving money's almost never a bad thing, is it?

* 10% off ($25max) coupon code: C1-Holiday2005
* $5 off coupon code: C2-Holiday2005
* $15 off coupon code: C3-Holiday2005
Tags: eBay, coupon, slickdeals,
PayPal, Buy it Now

Well, I'm not sure how long I'm supposed to wait for Yahoo to try to restore access to my account after I've faxed them their demanded information.

I have little doubt that I didn't get the information exactly exact as they commanded so I'm resigned to the fact that I've lost my figan8 at yahoo dot com email address. Which is really pretty sad actually as I've had that address for a very long time and there are a huge number of emails from family and friends in there that are gone. If you're trying to get ahold of me, use jh at intellectualpoison dot com for now until I get things sorted out.

Not to mention my fantasy teams that are pretty well screwed now and I think I'll be demanding my money back for the Statracker add-on now that the account is broken.

Its pretty damned galling really to me that Yahoo can treat people's accounts so wantonly. Sure, they're trying to help me get back into my account but they aren't trying very hard and they love, love, love to put in the dire warnings about what happens if this doesn't work.

Here's the final line from their email to me:
For security reasons, if you are unable to supply us with the correct information in your next request, we will not be able to offer assistance with this account.

Which I take to mean, nice work screwing up your account, moron, unless you have every little bit of random information we're going to ask for now, you are fucked but thanks for giving us all that money for so long.

Which basically means that, if they don't get this shit straightened out, I will sever all contact with Yahoo and never use any aspect of Yahoo again, save Flickr. How's that work for you, Yahoo? Do you want a fully disgruntled and angry ex-customer ready to counter-evangelize Yahoo? That is, are you ready to have me thoroughly pissed off and happy to relate the details to anyone who'll listen in order to help them avoid doing business with you?

Good because that's pretty much exactly what I'm going to do once you come back and regretfully inform me that the account is broken and cannot be fixed even though that's an utter and complete load of bullshit.
Tags: Yahoo, lost password

Here's some pain that someone else can hopefully avoid. If you use Yahoo, make sure you've got access to your alternate email address in case something happens with your password. I didn't and had my password inadvertantly reset and now have to send in a fax with all kinds of info to Yahoo to give them the power to go in and repair the stupid account.

A wee bit of a pain in the ass. Well, more than a wee bit since I get all of my email through my Yahoo account. But its prompted me to get my alternate emails in order and I think I'm going to actually start to migrate to a new Yahoo address in any case. The old one has some legacy issues.

Be careful not to accidentally reset your password and not have access to your alternate email, unless you wanted to have no access to your email or homepage or fantasy teams all weekend. If that's the case then go right ahead and delete your password. Loads of fun await.

In other news, Graydon thinks its funny to try and get hurt.
Tags: password

As usual, the internets will offer up something that kind of just makes you sigh and feel bad for humanity in a sort of lonely and depressing way. Its with this mindset that I offer, House With Bride.

The house costs $600,000 and comes with a free bride who, unless the photos are massively photoshopped, is quite a looker and reasonably successful. Even more so knowing she's nearly 50! Which makes me wonder why she's had such a hard time finding someone to be with and really the only conclusion I can come to is that she's completely batshitinsane. And by batshitinsane I mean that she's got a bar of standards set so high that God himself (or herself if you prefer) wouldn't pass muster.

And oh yes, God is part of the equation. I suppose I shouldn't really knock her effort to find someone as I'm a product of an unusual coupling. However you find that special someone (presuming you're not surfing death row looking for your perfect mate) is valid in my book. Its just that these sorts of plaintive pleas are sort of sad really. I wonder if she thinks it her or the rest of the world that's messed up?
via
Tags: house with bride, matchmaking, batshitinsane

I'm listening to a new track called "Rubber Glove Seduction" by PTP and I've gotta just say that its one of the best names for a song I've heard in a long, long time. The song's alright too, heavy bassline and sort of a tribal feel.
Tags: great song title

The fine folks at Comfort Stand have a couple of nice mellow lounge albums available, Various Artists - Two Zombies Later. Some decent tunes so far, I'm always in the market for music to have on in the office and the ambient/lounge/groove genres work nicely for that.

Other good background music: Lemon Jelly, some Morcheeba, some of the mellower Thievery Corporation stuff, Lovage and some Portishead (which gets old to me quickly as alot of it sounds very similar and starts to sound like a whiny person after a little bit).

But the lounge stuff is good.
Tags: mp3, lounge

Today's going to be a fairly low-key day. Graydon's been sick since yesterday afternoon, including several rounds of vomiting. He's a little shaky now but seems to be feeling better and appears to be keeping some electrolytes in him.

This is the first time he's gotten sick sick and its actually pretty scary. So much so that I slept in his room for a while last night just because I wanted to stay close to him.

I think he'll be fine but he'll be staying home today. And its pretty heartbreaking when you know he feels so poorly and there's almost nothing that we can do to help him out.
Tags: sick baby

So, a quick post before I get on with getting on with my day.

I visited Tuckle this morning and noticed she'd added a couple of new links to her sidebar, Roe v. Wade and abortion as well as a link to Geekery Today where the idea of a new Google Bomb project is explored.

I am very much pro-choice and have not the slightest hesitation in jumping aboard this bandwagon. Prop 73 was defeated in California but I would highly doubt that its the last attempt by the Republicans to legislate abortion into the annals of history. Actually, here's a nice summation from the World Socialis Web Site:

Proposition 73, which would have required parental notification before a minor could receive an abortion and would have changed the California Constitution to define abortion as the “killing of an unborn child,” was defeated by a vote of 53 percent to 47 percent. Proposition 73 was a favorite of the Christian right, which attempted to manipulate the genuine concern of parents in order to attack a women’s rights.

So I am joining the Google Bomb: Project Abortion Education. Stand with people who desire choice or stand with the people who want to dictate what you and everyone else can do with your body because of their religious fervor. Seems pretty straightforward to me.

Okay, back to the millstone.
Tags: abortion, Roe v. Wade, google bomb

So its pretty much the end of the day and, overall, I did pretty decently in unplugging myself. A few times I found myself following links from my Yahoo page but stopped before they loaded. I read my email (and synched it to my Clie, which was cool), took notes on things that happened today and actually ended up getting a fair amount of work done. And that's kind of what I was afraid of, not that its any leap of logic or anything, its just easier to deny without empirical evidence.

So the end result is that I'm going to be trying to make more of an effort to unplug during the day as I can. At least for now, things have taken a turn at work and I'm going to be substantially busier for the foreseeable future. And I need to be able to concentrate on that.

Which means I'll have to be catching up in morning and evening posts or maybe I'll just do the mini Blog This posts during the day. Or something, who knows. By no means does this signal the end of IP, just a necessary shift in priorities until things settle back down or I convince my bosses that I need a monkey to run my errands for me.
Tags: paradigm shift, prioritization