When Everyone's Doing the Wrong Way, Is It Still Wrong?

Some days, I think they should just change the spelling to "nukyular" since that's how people seem to say it, any way.

Stop Scaring the Children

I welcome the return of cooler whether: it means less sight of scary feet/toenails being displayed in flip-flops and sandals

I Likes Jelly Beans

Every so often, Donna likes to stop at the tea and coffee shop down on the Strand in Old Towne Alexandria. While she's there loading up on exotic teas, I head to the back of the store and hit the bins of jelly beans. On prior trips, I'd always just filled one bag. However, the last trip, Donna was exasperated by how filled to capacity I'd made my one bag. So, she'd said, "next time, just use two bags: we can't get this one shut". 

Today, I did just that: I got a second bag. I got up to the counter and she was all upset with the results ...As I'd filled two bags to capacity. Ok, so, yeah, maybe four pounds of jelly beans is a bit much, but she told me to use two bags.

Maybe It's Just An Alexandria Thing

Not ONE bicyclist I saw, today, could be bothered to observe traffic laws of any sort. I have my doubts, however, that it's just an Alexandria thing, given how prevalent it seems elsewhere. And yet, all I hear from the (typically snotty, caucasian bike rider in their poncy shorts, marqued-up biking jerseys and precious helmets) is that drivers should "share the road".

Well, guess what, fuckers: I might be a little less hostile if you were a little less of an ass when you're out, sniveling-about on your economy car-priced bicycling kit.

Fuck you.

Not the First

Tonight, I saw the Flyers finish up their pre-season against the Buffalo Sabres. This year, Buffalo has seen fit to bestow the captaincy on Grier. Kinda cool. I saw the "C" on his jersey and couldn't recall whether he was the first black NHL team captain or not. So, I decided that, upon getting home, I'd look it up.

Ok, so, it turns out that Jerome Iginla was the first black NHL captain. Put him next to Grier, though, and tell me which one looks he's the first black NHL captain? Not to put too fine a point on it, but Jerome Iginla is about as black as Tiger Woods is."

And, cool for being the first, but it seems like it was an "acceptable" first. Much the way that Obama was an exceptable first to be PoTUS. As it is, I just don't think much of the broader America is ready for someone that looks very black to hold certain positions or be widely popular. We may like to think we are or to say we are, but there just doesn't seem to be a lot of support for it.

So, yeah, it was kinda nice to see someone that wasn't just "acceptably black" getting the "C".

WTF is this: bus accident in DC Metro week??

Tuesday: a limo-bus overturns on I-270 at the beginning of rushour, shutting down a major point of egress from the Metro area for several hours

Wednesday: two Metro buses crash into each other.

Thursday: some car decides to slam into the back of a bus. Fortunately, the bus was on it's way from having already dropped of it's load of school children and was, thus, empty. Car looked fucked up, though.

Internet Exploder Hatred (Win 2008)

I give: why is it when I set "allow all" rule for Google in Exporer security does google tell me it still can't set cookies?

Ain't That a Coinky-dink

Amusing: yesterday, I wore my old ATG Dynamo polo shirt; today I got a headhunter email looking for ATG architects.

Observer Effect?

Just because you're REPORTING on something more doesn't mean that the underlying issue is any larger than it ever was.

A Taste of Home

Awesome: that limo-bus that closed down I-270, this week, was carrying (nothing but) people from my hometown.

Moth-eaten Dawg

Having to put baby/toddler socks on a dog to keep him from scratching himself really sucks (but has comical results).

Shiny Death-Towers

Ok, remind me not to stay at this hotel...

Office Pigs

I swear: industrial feed-lot livestock has more sanitary bathroom habits than some of the people working in my office.

Auto-Connect?

I still don't understand why I get emails via grouply (apparently) from people that happen to read some of the same Yahoo groups I do

Nut Just a Hack, But a Whore, Eh, Lucas?

3Difying and re-releasing Star Wars? You really like raping my childhood, don't you Lucas.

Some Innovations Aren't

Ugh... Who actually thought "tap-to-click" was a good idea for touch pads?? ICK!

The Everlasting WTF of Life in DC

Shooting at a funeral? Stay classy, DC.

Awful is Relative

Watching videos via nhl.com is about as awful as NHL Center Ice in SD on a largescreen HD TV

Gentlemen: Start Your Engines!

You haven't adequately primed the gas grill if the starting *FOOM* doesn't blow the doors open.

Really: Just, "Why?"

Always amuses me when luddites participate in technical forums.

It's nearly as bad is when a non-technical engineer tells me what the better solution is because he read a damned glossy somewhere.

Self Documentation

I think people underestimate the potential longevity of "social media". The fail to see the forest for the trees. They see that specific sites have popularity lifecycles (e.g. LiveJournal and MySpace) but fail to see the overall trends or place them within the larger historical context. Simply put, people have a compulsion to document their lives. People have a compulsion to be social. All that FaceBook, BlogSpot, Twitter and the like are is an extension of these compulsions.

Our primitive ancestors drew pictograms and glyphs on cavewalls.

Clans, tribes and communities sat around communal fires telling stories of their daily exploits and of their ancestors epics and sagas.

People who have had the capability of recording their thoughts in writing have kept journals, exchanged letters or otherwise recorded their lives and their thoughts for themselves and, in some cases, posterity. How many history shows or articles have you seen that have centered around uncovering the lost journals, letters, etc. of the famous, infamous and the "Average Joe"?

Granted, the mid/late 20th century saw a wane in personal writing. It saw the beginning of the decline of the personal letter and the diary. But, it also saw a proliferation of camera ownership. "Regular people" had anything from big, fancy, professional rigs down through Polaroids and disposable cameras. These days, though film seems to be dying, it's replaced by digital cameras with ever more MegaPixels - and cameras are ubiquitous on converged devices like cell phones.

Cell phones, themselves, are just another extension of this desire to record and share. How many people walking down the street, absorbed in their phones, are doing anything more than sharing their lives with the people on the other end of the line. Yes, they were originally marketed towards business people needing to make work-related calls, but that's such a small portion of what they're used for any more.

So, while Vox may die and while MySpace, LiveJournal, etc. may all lose popularity, the underlying need will continue. So long as there is someone or something to fulfill that need in a way that's relevant to the consumers of that time period, there will be successful providers of those outlets.

So, yeah, FaceBook may be a passing fad, but the larger trend is unlikely to fade while humans have the time, capability and inclination to share. Until such point as the fundamental nature of humans change (i.e., we evolve to be non-social beings or simply die off), there will be a place for some equivalent to "social media".

What's So Hard about "One Way"?

The problem with living at the intersection of two ONE-WAY streets is the daily reminder of how selfish and/or inattentive drivers are.

Recursion Error?

I gotta watch an unwanted commercial before watching the commercial I actually wanna see?? http://is.gd/fwvI0

Chuck?

Gotta hate when woodchucks won't stop chucking your wood.

Need a "One Ring" for Scheduling

How I would love to be able to receive a calendar invite via Thunderbird and process it directly to a specific Lightning calendar...

SouthWest Airlines Can Eat a Dick

No: make that a whole bag of dicks. 

Why is it that companies buy other companies, only to change the things that made their acquisition targets a customer preference in the first damned place. From the SWA AirTran-acquisition FAQ:

Q: What about assigned seats?

A: As you know, Southwest does not assign seats. AirTran does offer seat assignments including Business class and Coach. Upon full integration, it is our intent to have a consistent product offering. It is our intent that seat assignments would not be part of that product.

Q: What about dual class service?

A: As you know, Southwest offers one class of service. AirTran offers Business class and Coach. Upon full integration, it is our intent to have a consistent product offering. It is our intent that dual class service would not be part of that product.

So, the two things that I like most about AirTran - and pretty much the only reason I flew them - SouthWest intends to get rid of. Fuck you, SouthWest: I didn't like you and didn't fly you before this. Taking a good, unique brand and destroying some of its best features does rather little to make me ever change my mind about using your services. All you've done is reduced my choices. All you've done is set in motion the destruction of a good flying experience. I hope your entire executive staff, especially your mergers and acquisitions team, dies - slowly and painfully - in a fire. Even better would be for you all to go down in an airwreck in a remote region and have to cannibalize each other to survive the experience. Fuck you all.

I Love Elimination of Choice

Ugh... So much for ever flying on AirTran, again (unless SWA operates them as a separate entity)

Who Said Cheerleaders Were Dumb?

<facepalm>
   I mean, if it's the Boy Scouts of America's 100th anniversary, of course they were founded in 1930! :p
</facepalm>

What to Have With Hamburgers

Time for a fine boxed-wine?

What to do With Extra Ground Meat?

Friday, we went to the Springfield farmers market and bought a 3½lb. buffalo shoulder. I trimmed it and chopped it into 1" cubes and Donna ground it up into fresh buffalo burger with the meat-grinding attachment on the KitchenAide. Last night was to be burger-night with the fresh-ground meat.

Donna baked up a batch of hamburger buns and chopped up a fresh-picked yellow onion.

I took the beef and the chopped onion, and mixed them together with some capers, the remains of a block of blue cheese and some wocestershire sauce and made up some nice, flavorful, hand-formed patties. Tossed them on the grill. I thinly sliced a couple of green zebra tomatoes Donna'd picked from the garden, that day, and topped the burgers with them and a little more blue cheese. I slathered the buns with some Löwensenf mustard and homemade ketchup and tossed on a leaf of hydroponic lettuce.

The results were rather good. However, 3½lb.of ground buffalo shoulder minus two servings of hamburger patties meant we had still had  2lbs of unused meat to sort out. So, tonight, Donna's mixing in some ground pork and making a bacon-draped meatloaf. House is already smelling pretty damned good. Still... Gotta figure out what to do with the remaining pound of meat.

Unlikely QB

WTF? When did Vick become a passer??