Intellectual Poison

I swear I'm not making this one up. It came up while I was defining words on FreeRice.com.

Flense means to strip blubber from.

How lovely. I wonder if there's an odd word for seal clubbing?

Labels: words

Why do sites feel compelled to spawn a new tab or window for every link you click on? Its a pain in the ass to have to keep shutting down previous tabs when they do this. Is this some way to game advertising or do they do it because they are just so very, very proud of their homepages that they want to keep them loaded up on your browser forever and ever.

This spawning problem is less annoying then the sites that hijack browsers altogether and then see fit to make them as large as possible, difficult to close and overload processors with garbage media embedded in the page. Actually, those sites are waaaay more annoying.

But window and tab spawning is stupid too.

I guess I'm on a stupid and pointless kick these days.

[Update: To clarify my point of annoyance! Sites that open a new window with each click annoy me. Either a new window or a tab. What this means is that, if you go four pages deep into the site, you've got five windows or new tabs. Unlike most sites where the clicked link opens up in the same window or you can right click and choose to open one in a new tab or window.]

Labels: advertising, internets

Doubledygook - (pronounced double-de-gook) repeating back whatever you say when you resort to nonsense words.

This is a fun game I play with my little boys all the time. Sully is just starting to speak and I'll parrot him to see if I can get him to repeat what he said.

For an 18 month old he's got a pretty decent vocabulary. So far my favorite saying of his is when he gets very proud of himself and proclaims "Big Boy!".

Labels: nwotd, raising children

Totally and shamelessly taken from the Midvale School for Gifted Alumni. I think I'm going to try and do this from memory just for fun, guesses will be in italics.

How many total songs?
6096 but this may be low since I'm still recovering from the hard drive failure earlier this summer.

Sort by song title - first and last...
A-Plus by Hieroglyphics
30,000 Pounds of Bananas by Harry Chapin

Sort by time - shortest and longest...
Chico Boy by Scapegoat Wax at 14 seconds
Blues for Y2K by Robert Walter's 20th Congress

Sort by Album - first and last...
Billie Holliday's The A - Z Encyclopedia
Deltron 3030's 3030 Instrumentals

Sort by Artist - first and last...
Woke Up This Morning by A3
I Need a Hot Girl by 504 Boys

Top five played songs...
Ain't No Sunshine When She's Gone by Bill Withers (84 plays)
Take Your Mama Out by The Scissor Sisters (76 plays)
Your Latest Trick by Dire Straits (72 plays)
Dibi Dibi Rek by Ismael Lo (67 plays)
A Love From Outer Space by Tahiti 80 (67 plays)

Find the following words. How many songs show up?
Sex: 37
Death: 13
Love: 313
You: 545
Home: 53
Boy: 162
Girl: 112

First five songs that come up on Party Shuffle...
You Shook Me All Night Long by AC/DC
No Particular Place to Go by Chuck Berry
Think by James Brown
The House of Love by The Beatles
Removable Tattoo (rare jungle remix #1) by Sade

Labels: itunes, meme, music

How about a gastronomic Cheddar X for a little change?

1. What do you make sure you keep in your fridge at all times?
For me? Mustard, in about six or seven different varieties. For my two boys, milk and lots of it!

2. What is the oddest thing in your fridge?
The severed goat's head comes to mind but its worth it for when guests visit. Actually, the oddest thing is a shelf organizer that came with the fridge, takes up a ton of space and has nothing in it.

3. What is the oddest thing in your freezer?
Frozen baby teethers for when Sully's teeth start to really bug him.

4. What is your go to comfort food?
An organic Cheetoh's knock off.

5. What food reminds you of your childhood?
Peanut butter fluff sandwiches (or Fluffernutters if you're cool enough) for good memories. Split Pea Soup for the bad memories (sorry, Mom, the stuff is nasty!).

6. How often do you eat out?
Not very often, maybe once or twice a week for lunch. We will get take out every so often when neither of us feels like cooking.

7. What are you most likely to get at a drive thru?
A cheeseburger with bacon these days.

8. What's your favorite fast food?
In-n-Out Burger, the fries are fantastic and the burgers are consistently excellent, I just wish we had one closer to where we live.

Labels: cheddar x, food

One Laptop Per Child sued for patent infringement because they dared to include multiple shift keys to support multiple languages to help keep the cost of these machines to a minimum.

Lancor wants to be paid for their allegedly stolen technology.

Sorry but my BS detector went off when I found out that Lancor is based in Nigeria, the home of the email scam.

If OLPC did illegally steal the design then they should be punished for it but I'm going to go out on a limb and file this lawsuit with all of the other patent infringement lawsuits that have been used as a substitute for a real business plan and/or sellable products.

Gifts for Every Geek: Shutterbugs, Empty Nesters, Foodies and Urban Commandos

Which include some pretty darned awesome goodies depending on what makes you salivate. I'm a foodie, motorhead, urban commando, modernist, shutterbug and mediaphile. I tend to think that I'm the easiest person in the world to shop for and not just because I have an Amazon wishlist.

If its new, has flashing lights, flies, makes sweet noises or takes pictures or all of the above then I'm pretty sure to want it and have a great time playing with it.

Which reminds me, I should go and update my wishlist. With some new cool schwag like the new Leatherman Skeletool or the remarkably practical and very coolly named Cube Jigger (though I'd have to say that Unica's web site ranks among the worst I've ever been to, too much information-itis) and, of course, I'd love me an iPhone.

But I think this Christmas will be pretty low key given I was off work for 8 months this last year. It will be better than a Christmas with me still looking for work though, that's for sure.

I'm off to update my Amazon Wish List! Woot!

Labels: cool, gadget, geek, gifts

Universal Music's CEO Gleefully Explains How Clueless He Is

Nothing like someone making millions of dollars who has absolutely no clue how to capitalize on the changing landscape of digital music and revenue streams.

Not only that but Universal Music CEO Doug Morris appears to be a business moron as well. He'd rather make a dime off you today then a dollar down the line. That's not just short sighted, that's bad and stupid business.

Redskins' Taylor Dies Day After Shooting after having his home invaded by robbers, now murderers.

What a waste of a life, of someone with great talent and, apparently, a pretty decent human being.

"This is the worst imaginable tragedy," Redskins owner Daniel Snyder said. "Our thoughts and prayers are with Sean's family."

Redskins teammate Clinton Portis also played with Taylor at the University of Miami. He had sensed a new maturity in his close friend.

"It's hard to expect a man to grow up overnight," Portis said. "But ever since he had his child, it was like a new Sean, and everybody around here knew it. He was always smiling, always happy, always talking about his child."

Okay, two thoughts, one, Daniel, if the single death of a single player is the worst thing you can imagine then I truly feel sorry for how tiny your little brain is. Why the first part of his quote was included in the article is beyond me. Second, Clinton Portis' quote is much more heartfelt and real.

I'm sorry for Sean Taylor's death, it didn't have to happen. Nobody should die because some scumbags decided to invade his home. You should be able to feel safe in your own home.

Labels: death, home invasion, NFL

Nope, not yet another post about how wonderful my two little boys are, though they are.

This one is about putting thought into action by taking those first little steps to start a project. You see, we've been talking about yard work for a long time, plans to move a whole pile of dirt from the end of the yard up closer to the main yard, to make some space near the fence and to keep Nande from scaring the bejezeesus out of people by sticking her head over the fence to bark at them as they walk up the hill.

And all it had been was talk because it always felt like it was too much to try and do without powertools.

But we put the shovel out near the fence with the intention of just doing a little bit when we were outside to get it underway. Well, both boys love to play in the dirt, of course and it gives me something tangible to get into at the end of the day.

The funny thing about starting projects is that they tend to get done. In the span of a few short days, I've relocated a reasonably good sized pile of dirt from near the fence to up under the bushes. The job isn't done but it is substantially far enough along to all but guarantee completion.

And it serves as an excellent lesson that projects that never get started will never get done. And it feels pretty damned awesome to make headway on projects that have been awaiting attention for so long.

Soon we'll be able to start putting in the retaining wall to protect the slope a bit, recapture some lost yard space and prevent the dog from scaring walkers. All good things. And we'll also have learned that projects that don't get started are very unlikely to ever get finished.

Labels: house projects, life lessons

IBM to shove ads onto DVDs regardless of whether you want them there or not.

Which is just like most other failed or failing advertising schemes that equate forced viewing with more sales.

Overtly advertising to me while I watch a movie is a pretty solid way to permanently turn me off to your product. Please do not do this, please do not purchase this advertising and do not purchase DVDs that are known to have this garbage on them.

More advertising is not the answer.

Beauty queen overcomes spiked makeup for crown

Spiked makeup and a gown soaked in pepper spray which caused her to swell up and break out in hives. And there's almost nothing worse than a beauty queen all uglied up by hives and swelling.

Seriously, this being called a prank when it was pretty clearly an attempt to derail Ingrid Marie Rivera's ascent to competing in the Miss Universe pageant.

Of course, the majority of interest in the story is because she's absolutely drop dead gorgeous and everyone loves a story with a smoking hot central character. But the intrigue of the monkey wrenching the show is pretty ripe stuff too.

I. Thou shalt ensure the inclusion of an off switch on noisy toys.
II. Thou shalt ensure a mute or quiet switch on noisy toys.
III. Thou shalt include an extra set of batteries.
IV. Thou deliverest loud instrument type toys only unto parents you do not like.
V. Thou shalt bequeath age appropriate toys, too young and boredom cometh, too old and frustration cometh.
VI.Thou shalt consider the size of the toy.
VII. Thou shalt seek permission before offering toys of war.
VIII. Knoweth that a toy that imparts annoyance in short order in the store will absolutely drive the parents crazy.
IX. Thou shalt consider younger siblings and refrain from purchasing toys with many small parts.
X. Thou shalt try to gift durable, useful and educational toys above others but books are good too.

Labels: commandments, rules

Here are a couple of new words that have been sitting in my drafts for a little while. Two scatological ones and a cute one about dogs, oh boy!

Suppositorily - a theorem pulled from one's ass or, perhaps, inserted into one's ass

Sloppository - um, when you miss the first time?

Fluppy - floppy puppy

Labels: nwotd

I'm not worried that my dog is going to hurt someone, intentionally. I'm not worried that she's going to be a mean animal or a menace, except in the pesty term and not the vicious, snarling way.

My fear is that she'll get out and will charge someone who has a fear of dogs and, in retreat, accidentally hurts themselves. Nande gets labeled as vicious and is either put down or gets a one strike and put down rating.

The solution, of course, is to never let her off leash, ever. Which blows. But it certainly beats having to deal with my dog being put down for an accidental scaring.

One nice thing is that there are several places in the county where off-leash dogs are expected and accepted, if not explicitly legal. We're lucky enough to have a great dog park with a big enclosure that she can really run in. It also has a half mile perimeter path that dogs are supposed to be on leash for but most people let the dogs roam free. I take the opportunity to run her by pretending to throw rocks into the tall brush (and yes, I rub her down afterwards to make sure she doesn't pick up and foxtails or ticks).

She's a good dog but she's also a big dog and I worry that her size and vivaciousness will someday be her undoing.

I'm almost used to good manners being a complete afterthought in Watsonville, where I currently live. Almost because its still a pain in the ass when some fat cracker knocks into you and then looks at you like you got in their way on purpose. Or that there's absolutely no manners from people on the road.

It is annoying but there's really not much that can be done about it. Not without taking a tire iron to people's heads all the time and I'm not sure the message would come across anyway. And I'd just end up getting arrested.

But when someone is in a crosswalk, with a dog, it is the rare occasion when a car slows down and almost unheard of for them to stop and allow you to cross the street.

Today, when I took Nande down for a short run in the slough, one car approaching stopped for me, which was nice. The car on the other side stopped as well, which was amazing. And the car behind that one laid on his horn because he was so inconvenienced by having to move his big fat foot to the brake pedal. And, I know I shouldn't have, but I could resist shouting a little bit at him about crosswalks and traffic laws.

It galls the hell out of me that people are such overt assholes on the road. It makes pretty sad to know that my children already have better manners than most of the adults in my town. Poor manners are a sign of poor parenting and I'd have to say that most of the parents in my town failed, badly.

Labels: manners

Apparently some websites haven't gotten the memo that pop under advertisements do not work and are just an annoyance to surfers. Pop ups are worthless too but are slightly less annoying since you actually see them and can just close them.

But both pop ups and pop unders are just stupid wastes of money. Yes, I'm looking at your Classmates.com.

I was under the understanding that FireFox was supposed to block these stupid and pointless ads and yet they seem to keep popping under my browser window.

Its time for some new ad models, preferably ones that don't rely on hiding themselves and being annoying but I'm not holding my breath.

Labels: advertising, dumb marketing

It was about time to put up a new Cheddar X (and hey, I upgraded the blog as well!) so here it is.

1. What are your top 5 political annoyances?
Rudy Guiliani - he looks like a goblin when he grins
John McCain - never met a jowl he didn't like and that whole pandering thing
ShrubCo - he's a leader only he's led us down a dark and very dangerous path
Dick Cheney - he's just a mean and vindictive old bastard
The bile that passes for debate spewed by jackasses like Bill O'Reilly, Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter and others. They are poisonous to real debate about the real issues facing our country.

2. What are your top 4 entertainment annoyances?
Paris Hilton, the show Friends, Simon Cowell and Dr. Phil.

3. What are your top 3 family annoyances?
Not having enough money move, having to work when I'd rather be with my kids and feeling like the mess and clutter are neverending. Sorry, going for #4, the screeching contests my two boys engage in, they make me feel like my ears are bleeding.

4. What are your top 2 SO (that's signicant other) annoyances?
Um, I'll respectfully pass on this one. Oh what the hell, she doesn't turn things off (tv's, computers, lights, etc.) and she doesn't put things away in a reasonable period of time.

5. What is your single greatest annoyance right now?
Not being able to sell this damned house and move somewhere with more space, more privacy and a bigger yard for Nande to roam (and poop) in.

Labels: cheddar x

Saudi gang rape sentence 'unjust'

Which seems like the rapists were complaining about their punishment. But you'd be wrong, the victim of a gang rape by 7 men has been sentenced to 200 lashes and 6 months in prison because she violated some laws on the segregation of the sexes by being in an unrelated man's car at the time of the attack.

In other words, she was at fault so the gang rape she suffered through wasn't enough punishment and now she gets to go to prison and be beaten with a whip.

Yes, the rapists were punished as well with under a year to five years in prison.

What in the name of all that is right is wrong with these freaking people? Beating a rape victim and putting her in prison for being in a man's car? How deeply, deeply wrong this "justice" system is. To say I am disgusted is extreme understatement.

Target: Sportbikes

Expounded on in greater detail at NorCal Bikers

Army Desertion Rate Highest Since 1980

Army Suicides Highest in 26 Years

US Military Deaths in Iraq at 3,864

Casualties of the Iraq War

And the Bushies have the gall to pretend that everything is going well in Iraq?

Barry Bonds indicted on 4 perjury counts, obstruction of justice

Okay, I've been reading and hearing about this since it broke yesterday afternoon. Here are some thoughts that I'm sure the Bonds bashers will have a field day rejecting.

- If Bonds is being indicted then where is the indictment against Rafael Palmiero who swore during a televised interview in front of a grand jury that he's never used steroids and then got booted out of the game a few months later for failing a steroids test?

- How much money has been wasted on this stupid witch hunt and to what end?

- If Bonds is found not guilty then more money is going to be wasted as he'll undoubtedly sue for lost wages since he's unsignable now.

- Ronnie Lott on KNBR this morning made an interesting comparison between Pat Tillman's death and shameful coverup and this witch hunt against Bonds. If the government could so completely botch Tillman's death then why in the hell should they be trusted to handle this properly?

- I find it rather shady that Greg Anderson, Bonds' trainer, was released the same day the indictments came down. Not that I expect he talked but that I think they want the Bonds camp to think he did in order to create divisions and try to turn him.

- Bud Selig and other complicit owners that looked the other way while steroid use was tacitly condoned needs to be held accountable as well. The singling out of Bonds and the attempt to whitewash the other players, owners, managers and coaches from any suspicion is shameful and deeply wrong.

- Victor Conte, the head of BALCO, made some good points about chain of custody and the reality of what was available over the counter in 2005.

- I've heard that he might be facing 30 years for perjury. Thirty years when Scooter Libby outed a CIA operative and destroyed decades of intelligence work and was in prison for less than 6 months is just so incredibly out of whack and wrong. Scooter Libby (and Rove and the other traitors pretending to be patriots) exposed our country and our people to terrorist attacks and death. Bonds allegedly used drugs to hit a baseball further, what's wrong with the scope of crime here?

The end result of all of this will be a huge amount of wasted money to no good purpose. Even if Bonds does jail time, does that absolve MLB from the steroid and PED problem? Does it solve any real problems in cheating in sports? Or does it just punish one player for the "crimes" of a whole sport?

I am all for holding cheaters accountable but I'm for holding ALL cheaters accountable, not just a couple of high profile people who happen to be jerks.

This is beautiful, hilarious and so neatly displays the mental hoops one must have bound to themselves to actually buy into Creationism as a belief system. By the way, I'm now calling Creationists, Contradictionists because its more accurate and more fun that way.

Check out the entire photoset, A Visit to the Creation Museum, you'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll wonder just how dense someone has to be to really buy into this load of garbage.

Found via Intellectual Properties.

Labels: bad logic, creationism

Here are some interesting facts about gold that you may not have known.

- The Aztec word for gold is teocuitlatl which translates to "excrement of the gods."

- Conrad Reed found a 17 pound lump of gold on his father's farm in North Carolina in 1799, the first documented discovery of gold in the US. The family used it for a doorstop for three years before a local jeweler identified it. Said local jeweler bought the rock for $3.50, less than one thousandth of its value.

- A one ounce piece of gold can be beaten into a translucent sheet five-millionths of an inch thick or drawn out into 50 miles (MILES!) of wire five micrometeres thick - one tenth the diameter of a human hair.

- Gold is virtually indestructible and has been highly valued throughout history. Upwards of 85 of all gold ever found is still being used today.

- The largest reservoirs of gold on the surface of the earth, an estimated 10 billion tons, are the oceans. There is no practical way to extract it though.

- In 1999, the NEAR spacecraft showed that a single asteroid, Eros, contains more gold than has ever been mined on Earth. There's no way to retrieve that gold, yet.

Labels: facts, gold

Taipei diner attracts clients with toilet humor

That is ice cream in a miniature toilet shaped to look like poop. And you're supposed to eat it. No really. Apparently there are a whole bunch of wanna-be poop eaters in Taipei. Taipei, incidentally, has just been crossed off of my list of places I want to visit. Coincidence? No.

Modern Toilet draws on people ages 15 to 35, especially students from the three universities near Yang's facilities because they're "easily excited," Yang said. He said older people just wouldn't get it.

Wouldn't get it? Or are smart enough to know that eating poop or simulating the eating of excrement is gross, wrong and a sign of mental illness.

Now, if you wanted to go there as a joke then I could see it being pretty funny. But there's a limit to any humor I'm finding in it. I'm sure Ryan will find it he-larry-us.

By the way, here's a lovely term for an eater of excrement, coprophage. Copro for crap, phage for eat. The more you know!

Labels: coprophagia, gross, potty humor, TMI

Otherwise known as the link dump.

Morford's latest: Outrage Fatique hits home, its too easy (and plays directly in their gameplan) to just tune out the scandals, hypocrisy and stupidity of our government leaders.

The zeroHouse is very green, off-the-grid and cool looking too. No electrical hook ups, no sewage hookups. I want one.

Next up is a video of Time-lapse photography at Vikings-Packers game. Pretty cool to watch a day in the life of Lambeau Field.

And here we can learn how to
Build a Hackintosh Mac for Under $800 which doesn't include the hours of work to get this Frankenputer working.

Here are some cool Ipod skins to Steampunk-ify it.
Gelaskins: Steampunk because everyone knows if its cool it becomes cooler when it gets Steampunk'd.

Labels: greentech, ipod, links, macintosh, politics

So alot of the shows on tv have gone into hiding with their writers on strike, including Saturday Night Live and, I'm guessing they have writers, MadTV.

Because the world needs a good laugh and sometimes even a pitying chuckle will do, I thought I'd offer what help I can.

So here's my idea for a couple of skits:
Dog the Bounty Whisperer - an N word spewing Cesar Millan uses passive dominance techniques to control the targets of his operations. He would have a flak jacket, tattoos and a mullet as well as a couple of tough looking leashes hanging from his utility belt. And, once he'd coerced the bail skippers into custody, he'd sit down and have a heart to heart with them about finding Dog.

The Britney Alert - Expanding on the Amber Alert, child abduction notification system, California is planning on implementing the Britney Alert, a system to alert drivers that Britney Spears is driving on public roads and your toes are not safe.

[Update: Another new skit.
Steampunk'd - A new show where people get tricked into thinking something they value has been lost or stolen and it gets a steampunking treatment. And no, Ashton Kutcher will not be hosting. For more Steampunk goodness, swing by the Steampunk Workshop]

Labels: satire, skit, steampunk, writer's strike

Cruise Ship Built at Home

It took him 11 years to make but this gentleman designed (well, copied) and then built his own cruise ship. And now he's sailing the seven seas.

If you work at something hard enough and long enough, you can achieve your goals. A good lesson to keep in mind.

An interesting comparison in this month's Discover magazine.

To produce 115,400 Btu, the amount of energy in a gallon of gasoline, it'll cost you:
Gasoline: $3.35
Nuclear: $3.75
Solar: $14.44
Hydropower: $0.91
Wind: $1.66
Geothermal: $1.69
Biofuel: $2.70
Natural Gas: $5.37

Nuclear, Solar, Hydro and Natural Gas are based on high average price per kilowatt-hour according to the California Energy Commission.

Solar will continue to get less expensive as the technology develops. Wind is already a great deal and I've love to get a residential wind turbine going. Heck, I'd love a farm of them. But Hydropower trumps them all and by a decent margin.

Just some energy food for thought.

Labels: energy

We had a fun holiday today and took advantage of the amazing fall weather we get in Santa Cruz. It took some effort but we loaded up the car with two bikes, the Wee Ride and the Trail-a-Bike.

We parked outside of Natural Bridges on the northern end of town and pedaled down to West Cliff, followed it all the way down to the lighthouse (with the wind) and then back out to Natural Bridges.

Due to technical difficulties, both Sully and Grady rode with me. Sully in his perch on the Wee Ride with a great view and well protected inside my arms. Grady trailing behind me on his one-wheeled Trail-a-Bike. His legs aren't long enough to pedal but he's trying. And he gets to learn how to hang on and lean and get comfortable on two wheels. But he is alot closer to needing his own bike to learn on his own.

But we'll cross that bridge when we have to. For now, it is alot easier to keep us all moving in the same direction together.

We had a nice snack break in the crow's nest above the beach and both the boys were ready to go riding some more. Which makes this two wheeling poppa very happy! I shot some video of the ride but it doesn't get us with on the bike, just the path in front of us.

A quick thought about walkers, they seem to tend to expand all the way across a path if they can. And single walkers will almost invariably walk down the middle of the path regardless of oncoming or overtaking traffic. Kind of odd but it was alright. No close calls at all is a good ride (and no scratches to allow the skin eating bacteria in to eat me alive, Su).

Really a perfect way to spend a day off for Veteran's Day.

Labels: bike ride, family, santa cruz

Lifted from Lujza.

1. Do you like cheese?
Heck yeah. When I was a kid I used to get a container of parmesean as a joke gift. Favorite these days is Cabot Extra Sharp Cheddar.

2. Have you ever smoked heroin?
Um no, not to my knowledge.

3. Do you own a gun?
Yep. Its kept locked up.

4. Your favorite song?
Hard to say as it depends on my mood. I've been enjoying Don Tiki's "The Natives are Restless" alot. Favorite song of all time is probably something classic by The Beatles or Led Zeppelin.

5. Do you get nervous before doctor appointments?
Depends if the exam includes a prostate check.

6. What do you think of hot dogs?
They're gross since they're made of leftover meats and dyed to look uniform but the Miller's hot dogs are pretty damned tasty too.

7. Favorite Christmas song?
Mela Kamiki by Jimmy Buffett. Or Christmas in Capetown by Randy Newman.

8. What do you prefer to drink in the morning?
Coffee and I try to follow it up with the same amount of water.

9. Can you do push ups?
Yeah, a few. I once did 15 one armed pushups.

10. What do you think about your job?
I love it. Kids are almost always a hoot. And, since I'm an unabashed geek, I like messing around with computers all day and resolving other people's problems with them. Its also a totally sweet commute.

11. What’s your favorite piece of jewelry?
The only jewelry I have is a gold wedding band.

12. Favorite hobby?
Going out for long bike rides with my dog through the redwoods. I also love photography but not sure if that counts as a hobby since I've been earning some money by doing it.

13. Bedtime?
I shoot for 11 but usually end up going to bed closer to midnight.

14. Do you have A.D.D.?
No but I am highly distractable.

15. What one trait do you hate about yourself?
I wish I could focus more and see individual tasks through to completion more quickly.

16. Middle Name?
Carl, after my father and his father before him and his father before him. I'm the 13th Carl in the line and Grady is the 14th.

17. Name 3 thoughts at this exact moment…
Need to go use the bathroom.
Is my lip healing or getting worse.
Not looking forward to a couple of hours of driving tomorrow even though I'm very much looking forward to the party on the other end.

18. Name 3 things you bought yesterday.
Sake, beer and cheesecake.

19. Name 3 drinks you regularly drink.
Coffee, diet Coke and Ovaltine (and water, of course).

20. Current worry right now?
Not getting my first paycheck until the 10th of December.

21. Current hate?
People who behave like they are the only people that exist. A pretty prevalent attitude in my town unfortunately.

22. Favorite place to be?
On the beach with my wife, kids and dog.

23. How did you bring in the New Year?
At Pigeon Point up on the coast with my family and my wife's brother and his family. It was a ton of fun.

24. Where would you like to go?
Back to South Africa.

25. Name three people who will complete this.
I can name three people I'd like to read their responses to this since I don't know for sure who will pick it up.
I'd like to read Amy, Ryan and seed.

26. Do you own slippers?
Yes, but I rarely wear them.

27. What shirt are you wearing?
My black OP long sleeve pique.

28. Do you like sleeping on satin sheets?
No, not really, too much like a slip n'slide.

29. Can you whistle?
Yep, quite well. I can whistle without pausing for breath because I can whistle while inhaling as well as exhaling. And Grady has learned how to whistle already as well.

30. Favorite color?
Green

31. Would you be a pirate?
No, they smell, they have awful teeth and they live by making other people miserable. I do like rum, swords and firearms though.

32. What songs do you sing in the shower?
Where'd you go? by the Mighty Mighty Bosstones.

33. Favorite girl’s name?
Alexandra.

34. Favorite boy’s name?
Draco, just kidding. I guess I'm partial to Graydon and Sullivan but I've also been a fan of Nicholas for a long time too.

35. What’s in your pocket right now?
My wallet and I had some Super Immunity Boosters from Trader Joe's but I already took them as I'm fighting off a cold (working around so many kids will do that).

36. Last thing that made you laugh?
Gotta be my boys, they are pretty damned funny when they aren't being pretty damned annoying.

37. Best bed sheets as a child?
My Star Wars sheets stand out.

38. Worst injury you’ve ever had?
Blowing my right ankle all to hell and requiring surgery three times including plates and screws. Yeah, that was a tough way to start my sophomore year of college.

39. What happened to 39?
Ten months from now.

40. How many TVs do you have in your house?
Three.

41. Who is your loudest friend?
My wife can get loud when she gets worked up. But both of my boys can be excrutiatingly loud with their screeching contests.

42. This was missing from Lujza's 50 so I'll make one up: Favorite gadget?
Probably my Clie UX50 because my Rebel XTi isn't a gadget, its a full on camera.

43. Does someone have a crush on you?
Probably, I'm a pretty nice guy.

44. What’s your favorite quote?
"Winners never quit and quitters never win."

45. What is your favorite book?
A Mantis Carol by Sir Laurens van der Post.

46. What is your favorite candy?
Skor or Watchamacallit or Butterfingers.

47. Favorite Sports Team?
Probably the San Francisco Giants.

48. What song do you want played at your funeral?
Where'd You Go by the Bosstones.

49. What were you doing 12 AM last night?
Sleeping, like a good boy!

50. What was the first thing you thought of when you woke up?
"What's that noise?" my wife asked me if someone was going through our garbage.

Labels: 50 odd things, q and a

Tivo rocks, there is no question about it. It has completely changed how we watch and enjoy television. But, as with anything, there is always room for improvement. Here's my list of "Wants" for my Tivo.

1. If it has three thumbs down on it (i.e. shows I hate) then change the channel off of it.
2. If it has three thumbs up and I'm watching it then don't change the channel to a suggested recording, ever.
3. Figure out the difference between previous season reruns and new episodes.
4. If I've deleted a suggested recording three times without viewing it then stop recording it as a suggestion.
5. Stop recording channels that no longer broadcast.
6. A channel lock so that I can watch a show without having to keep telling it not to change to a suggested recording (sometimes I don't want to record it but still want to watch it).

I'm sure I'll come up with more but this is a pretty good list of feature requests for now. Tivo-techs, why don't you get started on these and I'll update this post as I come up with more.

Labels: feature request, improvement, tivo

I was just watching Pimp My Ride where they took a piece of shit Subaru and turned it into a rally car with a couple of other special things. Overall I thought the job they did was pretty mediocre. Some of the cars they redo are pretty good, most are gaudy and cheesy as hell looking. And I expect that the cars get beat to hell pretty quickly since most of the owners are irresponsible or their car's wouldn't be so beat to hell in the first place.

But what I wanted to write about was the name of the car owner's friend which is the official tipping point for stupid names.

Her name was Loinette. Loin-ette. Like a small loin. A loin is a human or an animal's crotch.

What kind of crack were her parents smoking to come up with that freakin' name?

Also, there's an announcer on Disney, a black girl named Simmi, as in simian. Awful and wrong.

Almost as bad are the people with standard names just spelled in the most annoying way they could come up with. I saw a photographer named Airic which was stupid and pretentious. But not the absolutely most annoying way to spell Erik. No, that would be Aeryique. Makes you want to puke and then punch me in the face, doesn't it?

Oh yeah, I know a little boy who's name is, no joke, Draco. Luckily he's going to be a big boy when he grows up so he'll be able to kick the hell out of people who make fun of him.

Parents, name your dog or cat those stupid, stupid names and try to name your children something reasonably normal. Or, if you're going to go unique, then keep in mind that your kid is going to have to live with it until they're old enough to change it legally themselves. Or make it a name that lends itself to a shorter and less "out there" name. Please, for all our sakes.

Labels: names, unique