Shaky Lion Outing

On the plus side, PSU won; unfortunately, they did so in a way that looks like it's going to be a LOOOONG season.

Dear Bieber:

Please to be finding your very own "this generation's Courtney Love".

The Fatness

We're number 1!

Does FaceBook Get Paid to Make "Friend" Recommendations?

FB suggests I add "Amanda Blow" to my friends list - yet, we have no social connections.

Hooray for TV

Re-watching last night's Flyers win until the PSU/Temple game comes on Big Ten Network (yay: HD coverage!).

Bored to Emoness

Another fulfilling weekend coils in sleepy boredom, waiting to strike me down.

Clue Alert: You Are *NOT* a Designer

The problem with making it easier to "design" web sites is that it makes it so more people think they're designers.

If the results of your efforts to hand-crank HTML and CSS were trifling before this "nifty" tool, chances are rather high that your results after the new tool will be trifling. Just because it now looks like every other site using the same development tools doesn't mean that any of those sites look particularly good. For starters, for a site to stand out, it has to be both good and unique. You can't stand out by looking like everyone else.

In the end, junk is junk. All that the various design tools do is make it easier for junk to be thrown out there.

"Canning" and "Caning"

...So close in spelling, so far apart in action.

Death of a Pastime?

With all the electronic babysitters (in car DVD players, iPods, etc.) - do modern kids play travel games? Is punchbug dead?

Proof of "Just World" Fallacy

People like Michaela Salahi make you wish that karma existed but are, most likely, proof that it doesn't.

Fix This Please

One thing I miss with transitioning to Chrome: no "block site" option on the StumbleUpon toolbar.

You're Special ...Just Like Everyone Else

If you define yourself by everything you're not, then you're still being driven by all those things you wish not to be.

Down, Down, Down

http://downforeveryoneorjustme.com/facebook.com is saying FB is tits-up. Least it's not a local problem...

FaceBook Needs a "We're Broken" Mascot

Where's my cute little FailWhale for FaceBook?

Share the Road?

Dear Bicyclists:

I'll be happy to "share the road" just as soon as you twats start obeying posted signs and signals. "STOP" means you too.

Call-tree Madness

Wonder how many CSRs get yelled at simply because of call-trees' irritation of customers

Can We Afford Universal Compliance

I sometimes wonder what parking meter rates would be if everyone parked legally?

That Train's Already Left the Station

The nofoodtaxes.com commercials kill me: Gov'ts been regulating consumption of alcohol and tabacco through taxes for DECADES.

Please Don't Share Your "Taste" in Music

So, the NBC morning show's iHoda segment is always an exercise in horrible taste

Almost Wish I Was Gonna Have a Gravestone

I can only hope that, when the time comes, I have something bizarely memorable to say when I die (and that someone records it, natch) - and the wits/awerenes and capability to say them. Really just want to leave the world with a final "WTF".

Flaming Lips

Hmm... Stealthy hot peppers. Didn't taste/feel them while eating, but, right now, my mouth's like an Oklahoma-based 80s rock band.

It's All in Your Point of Reference

Today, we had our weekly project-team meeting at work. It's a fairly large team and there were some new people in the meeting. I'm not real good keeping track of names - I'm more a visual person (i'll remember faces forever but can never match to a name, somehow).

At any rate, the meeting is a long one and runs well into the normal "lunch hour". So, after the meeting ended, several of us headed out in search of sustenance. As is often the case, after meetings are over, they remain a topic of conversation (usually related to frustrations due to the meetings - such as from their content and their length). One of our lunch group was making reference to another person who'd spoken in the meeting. I was drawing a blank on who they were referring to (we all talk in this meeting, at some point, even if only briefly). To try to clarify for me, I was told, "it was the guy with the unique hair." Now, given the some of the people I hang out with (and some of my own past hair "experiments"), I couldn't recall anyone in the meeting who had particularly notable or unique hair. I didn't recall anyone with any particularly radical hairdos. I didn't recall anyone with any particularly unnatural hues in their hair. 

In essence, the point of reference clarification was about as useful as being told "look for the guy in black" at one of the concerts or clubs I go to. Oh well...

Too Much Intarwebz

Whenever I see Xen components installed in a Linux installed in a VM, I expect a "Yo, Dawg" balloon to pop up on my screen.

Why I Love DC Traffic (Probably a Continuing Series)

Depending which route I take, my office is about 15 miles' driving distance from my house (eleven as the crow flies). It used to be, I'd hop on I-95 at the Telegraph Rd. interchange and hop off at the Merrifield/US-50 exit. Unfortunagely, VDOT's in the middle of fucking up my life with several projects in that area. What used to be about 25 minutes, end-to-end, became a 90+ minute drive. So, I switched to an "over land" route. It's actualy a little more than a mile shorter distance traveled. This route generally takes me just shy of an hour, most mornings (10-20 minutes just to get more than 2mi from my house; 10-20 to cover the last two miles to my office).

This is why I'm glad that I can generally telecommute. I could probably do so nearly every day, but, it's good to get at least two days of "yes, I'm still alive and working here: don't steal my desk" time at the office each week.

Fortunately, the trip home, most evenings, I can take the highway route and it only takes 30-40 minutes, on average (again, with the two miles closest my house and office taking the bulk of the time).

Flaw in the Design

Sometimes, I wonder how one can be allowed to create or enforce laws when one can't be expected to uphold or live by the laws created for or enforced upon others. Something just not quite right in that setup.

Well, That Was Smart...

Clue Alert: when the company Security Officer sends a company-wide email asking for personally identifying info, don't hit "reply all".

My Continuing Love of Spammers...

Cool. I just got an email saying they need "mystery shoppers" in my area. Free money for doing something I so love!

My Moth-eaten Daig

Nearly $400 later, we may find out, in 3wks, what's making Puckett look all moth-eaten. Till then medicines and 2-weekly medicated baths!

Really Wish I Had RCS for Windows

Clicking "Save" when you meant "Save-As" is a quick route to having to rewrite an obliterated document.

That's Not Quite... OH! SHINY!

I find there to be a natural irony to a six page web article on ADHD

The Emo-Mop Looks Good on NO ONE

Did Brady kite Bieber's emo-mop just for the Xfinity commercial?

Marketing

Would having "WTF" as part of the title of a technical blog be seen as "unprofessional"?

Pick Your Poison

Can't tell which is worse: realizing a mistake, even before its uncontrollable repercussions unfold, or one realized years after the fact. Either way, you can't do anything about it: the former, because it's basically attained the "unstoppable force" status; the latter because you're usually so invested in where you are that you can't afford to fix the past mistake that got you there (and, the further displaced from the error, the more firmly entrenched you tend to be).

Ugh. Always best to try to set aside the things that are out of your control. Only way to help keep the bitterness at bay.

What's It All Worth

Can someone tell me what the point of continuing to draw breath is, again?

Keep an Eye Out

You always gotta be wary of the "whatnot"

Chlorine for the Gene Pool

The world would be a better place if stupidity were painful - even better were it lethal. Of course, when it comes to stupidity-related injuries, it would be better that they were fatal rather than causing chronic debilitation. Don't need people being able to collect benefits because they were stupid.

RSAT: WTF?

Ok, so, for whatever reason, Microsoft likes to make things painful when you want to do remote server administration from your Windows desktop. It used to be, if you were running XP, or even vista, you just installed the Server 2003 Adminpak and you were pretty much "good to go". Why they didn't just make this part of Windows - particularly the "pro" versions - I'll never know. It's just a headache you had to put up with.

Apparently, Microsoft didn't think that this was enough of a headache for people that wanted to remotely administer Windows systems from a Windows 7 system. They made it even more of a pain in the ass:

1. Go to the Microsoft website and download the appropriate MSU file. One would think this would be rather straight-forward. However, they start fucking with you, even here. If you're a 32bit x86 user, everything's pretty simple as far as which file to download: you just grab the "x86fre_GRMRSAT_MSU.msu" file. If you're running an AMD CPU, things are also pretty simple: you just grab the "amd64fre_GRMRSATX_MSU.msu" file. However, if you're using Intel 64bit, it's a little less straight forward. Most other vendors, they either have a specific x86_64 file or both the 32bit and 64bit files are in the x86-named package. However, Microsoft, in their infernal wisdom, puts all 64bit versions into the "amd64fre_GRMRSATX_MSU.msu". And, because that file's named "amd..." you assume, "oh, this is the version for AMD-based CPUs and download the x86 one, instead. FMEH
2. Run the MSU and install the binaries.
3. Wonder to yourself, why the hell the 222MB file you just downloaded and installed appears to have not actually installed anything
4. Google around to figure out where the fuck your admin tools are
5. Discover that, Microsoft, in their infinite bloody-mindedness, has decided to make you jump through hoops to actually be able to see and use the files
6. Open up the "Control Panel"
7. Navigate to the "Programs and Features" option
8. Click on the "Turn Windows Features On or Off"
9. Search through the available features to turn on until you get to the RSAT tree
10. Click on the top-level option
11. Go to find your tools and still find them not there
12. Go back to the "Turn Windows Features On or Off" and discover that clicking on the top-level box actually did nothing and that you had to actually individually click on each and every function you want enabled.
13. Go to find your tools are now findable with the search bar but still not in your Start menu
14. Google around some more and find out, "Oh, in addition to the braindead way that I have to enable each and every feature, I also have to tell my damned system 'please to be displaying these tools in my program menus'
15. Go in and enable the items to show up in my start menu.
16. Finally be able to access and use the remote administration tools that should have been part of the freaking OS in the first damned place

Fuck you, Microsoft. I just shouldn't be that involved to get access to these tools.

Dear Troy Aikman:

Just because you're a terminal jelly-head doesn't mean every hit to the QB is flagable.

Mysteries of Sports TV

DC's much closer to Philly than Dallas: why is the Cowpats' game on the local Fox affiliate?

NOT Why I Went Bigscreen HD

Fox Sports can suck my left nut. I got a big screen TV for a reason: so that I can have a big, high-definition picture. Taking that 16:9 image and putting letter boxing around all four borders - costing me 14" of horizontal and 9" of vertical is not acceptable:

At least I can see the commercials in full size, though:

Define "Good"?

Meh... Not so good on the Halo: Reach multi-play ...unless you count "good at dying".