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| Through the school in ma kilt I'll go... | La Vida |
You may recall that a few weeks ago I wrote about Nathan Warmack who was not allowed to wear a kilt to a school dance.
First of all, I questioned the Warmack/MacRaw story as kinda fishy, however it turns out to be current thought amongst at least some Warmacks. Go figure.
And in much more interesting news, the school board said the Principal was wrong to ban student's kilt.
Very nice. Young Nathan and his parents (and indirectly their lawyer and lots of angry Scots) got an apology in exchange for a promise not to sue. Suits me fine.
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| .:Posted by Michael at 10:52 PM
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| On Logic, safety, and the prisoner's dilemma | La Vida |
There are, in my experience, three arguments for driving an SUV.
- I frequently haul so much crap that it's cost-efficient to do so.
- I need a vehicle that can cross the rugged outback reliably because my home is in Alice Springs and my office is in Canberra.
- My family and I are safer in our SUV than you are in your Squishimoto.
One and Two are possible, but don't really account for all the single-occupant SUVs taking Dad from the suburbs to the office.
Three has been stated to me as trumping any question of initial cost, operating cost, fuel efficiency, environmental cost, additional risk to others, the ugliness of the Aztek or basically any other reason why an SUV is not inferior to a car.
Interestingly, it's not true, for the only period for which there is data. The study in the Journal Pediatrics showed an identical rate of child injuries in both cars and SUVs. As the link mentions, this is about a specific time period and there are changes coming that may affect how this compares in the future.
But for now, don't buy that expensive to buy, expensive to operate, gas-guzzling ugly-ass Aztek. It's not any safer for your family. It just puts more metal on the road and Force = mass x deceleration.
The prisoner's dilemma game changes quite a bit when the costs change. In the expected case, it's best to buy an SUV. In the actual case, it's best to buy a car.
| Actual | | Expected |
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| SUV | CAR | | | SUV | CAR |
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| SUV | WORST | EQUALLY BAD | | SUV | BAD | SUV LEAST BAD
CAR WORST CASE |
| CAR | EQUALLY BAD | LEAST BAD | | CAR | CAR WORST CASE | ALMOST AS BAD AS SUV/SUV |
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| .:Posted by Michael at 10:58 AM
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| Let the Wind Blow High, Let the Wind Blow Low | La Vida |
Kilt Banned at PromSo the lad at right, an 18 year old football player from Missouri, was required to change from his family kilt into trousers in order to attend a school dance.
The Principal said it was inappropriate.
I wore a gahdawful powder blue tuxedo to my Prom (In my defence, it was the 80s). I didn't wear Chucks, though. I didn't have any. It's very clear to me what is appropriate formal wear and what disrespects the institution.
We almost had a guy wear a kilt at our high-school, but it was because he was trying out for the girls field hockey team (because he'd lost his spot on the soccer team roster to a girl who was better than him) and they were trying to shame him out of it. He called their bluff, but quit the team on pressure from the AD.
I was married in my kilt
 and most of the wedding party joined us, as did a fair number of guests. It was great fun and seeing my mother give my new wife a sash in a 400 year old tartan that's connected to our family was amazing.
I wish I'd been cool enough in 1985 to wear the kilt to a school function. More power to young Nathan Warmack, I say.
OTOH, wearing the kilt didn't become popular in Scotland until the British banned it, so maybe this will end up being a good thing.
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| .:Posted by Michael at 07:46 AM
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| I sorta liked him in Birds of Prey... | La Vida |
  So, when we moved to New Jersey, we had two cars in Jersey City. We needed one car once a week for groceries. I walked to work, we got our culcha fixes in Manhattan, which is almost universally train-friendly. We had groceries and vacations for car activities. So, after a few months, we sold my Saturn Coupe. It was five years old and had low milage, so it was probably a good thing.
Now, things are different. Ginger wants to drive and it's a lot easier to go to the car. I've got a driving commute and there's not good public transportation for either of us. We're in the suburbs, where two cars are pretty important.
We bought a car.
It's a Volkswagen New Beetle.
It's Blue.
I may be forced to name it Ted.
Actually, we don't know when we'll pick it up. Early next week. But the name came about the time I decided I wanted it. :)
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| .:Posted by Michael at 11:37 PM
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1 cup mayonnaise
1 to 2 tablespoons lemon juice
1.5 tablespoons dijon mustard
1 tablespoon sweet pickle mustard (can be omitted)
1 teaspoon dried tarragon leaves
1 teaspoon dried chervil leaves
0.5 teaspoon anchovy paste
1 teaspoon cholula or similar hot sauce
Combine ingredients, stirring well. Cover and chill thoroughly.
Serve with hot or cold meat, fish, or shellfish.
--Especially good with crabcakes.
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| .:Posted by Michael at 07:08 PM
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I know I was up sorta late last night messing around with my Calculator Widget replacement, but I shouldn't be so brain dead today. Just blah. Today started off under 50 degress and rainy. Now it's over 50, but not by much.
In other news, welcome CV 67 for fleet week! USS John F. Kennedy steamed past our office window on the way to the NYC portcall, led by celebratory fireboats and the USS Shreveport and at least two destroyers.
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| .:Posted by Michael at 02:52 PM
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| Welcome to My Wretched Hive... | La Vida |
Ginger and I were crossing 7th Avenue on our way back to the PATH station and New Jersey, when we impeded the progress of a driver turning left onto 7th. He was certainly legal, but so were we.
In his Road Petulance (a term Ginger coined just for him), he expressed his frustration verbally.
The sad part is he didn't articulate clearly.
It could've been "Yuppie Scum!".
It could've been "Hippy Scum!"
We couldn't tell.
Now, admittedly, I have shoulder-length hair. Even in New York F**King City, that's not common in Yuppie Scum. Also, 13th Street in the West Village is not your typical Yuppie Magnet.
So, maybe it was "Hippy Scum". Except... Except for the Topsiders, Dockers, Polo shirt and genuine dead-cow jacket, with a cellphone in one pocket and iPod in the other.
Maybe he should've said "Hiyuppie Scum!" and covered both his bases.
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| .:Posted by Michael at 09:19 PM
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| If the law thinks that, the law is an arse | La Vida |
Mexican City Bans Indoor Nudity.
In Villahermosa, Tabasco, Mexico, you no longer have the right to bare arms. In your own house. Where no one can see you. You'd better plan on showering with a swimsuit on. While someone who peeped in a window and saw two people in fursuits having wild Sonix-and-Tails sex would be arrested as a peeping tom, someone who saw two nekkid married folks and called the Federales would be a hero of the Partido Revolucionario Institucional.
"We are talking about zero tolerance ... for a lack of morality."--City councilwoman Blanca Estela Pulido of the PRI
We are talking about some of the dumbest dumbshit legislation I've seen outside of East Texas in 50 years.
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| .:Posted by Michael at 09:57 AM
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| Books, smooks, let's catalog the potables. | La Vida |
Wine Collector is bluetooth enabled barcode reading wine collection database.
I don't need one, we usually have 9 bottles of wine in the house. But it made me think of Amy.
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| .:Posted by Michael at 06:00 PM
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Pete blogs about the nasty practice of preserving your loved ones by taxidermy. While my gorge rose at the thought of corpses in the living room as hosts for household pests, I have to admit that the part where they talked about posing deceased loved ones in sexy lingerie and the effects of freeze-drying on penile implants to be profoundly disturbing.
NP: Austin Lounge Lizards: Grampa's Hologram
EDIT: Alas, it's almost certainly a hoax article. The site listed in the New Times article is registered to New Times Media. These are the same wacky guys whose Houston Press did a fake "Save Our Blight!" article a few years ago, so that they aren't truthful isn't overly surprising.
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| .:Posted by Michael at 03:36 PM
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 An (anonymous at hir request) friend received this unusual object for a wedding present and has been trying to identify it. The guesses range from "hot-wheels ramp" to "post modern candy dish" to "decorative thingy with no purpose" (I know people like that...).
They're all wrong. I saw this thing on an episode of Star Trek. It was in Kirk's bedroom (this may have been in Mirror, Mirror, or perhaps it was in the Animated Series (where they introduced Cat Girls to animated American SF...)).
The only thing it could possibly be is a Commemorative Star Trek James Tiberius Kirk Condom Dish.
I mean, really. Does anything else make more sense?
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| .:Posted by Michael at 10:01 PM
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An (anonymous at hir request) friend received this unusual object for a wedding present and has been trying to identify it. The guesses range from "hot-wheels ramp" to "post modern candy dish" to "decorative thingy with no purpose" (I know people like that...).
They're all wrong. I saw this thing on an episode of Star Trek. It was in Kirk's bedroom (this may have been in Mirror, Mirror, or perhaps it was in the Animated Series (where they introduced Cat Girls to animated American SF...)).
The only thing it could possibly be is a Commemorative Star Trek James Tiberius Kirk Condom Dish.
I mean, really. Does anything else make more sense?
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| .:Posted by Michael at 10:01 PM
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Thank you, but no. I do not "want my ${E|_|PHEM15M} to be hard all the time".
I work for a living, and it would be distracting in staff meetings, it would be rude on the tightly-packed subways, and it would make it difficult for me to use the facilities.
Priapism is a treatable disease, not something to buy from a spammer.
But thanks for thinking of me!
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| .:Posted by Michael at 08:50 AM
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Synapse-Films.com has explained their delays in releasing The Deadly Spawn.
The new tentative release date is my birthday.
Go Synapse and Ryko.
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| .:Posted by Michael at 11:10 PM
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| Steaming Past my 11th Floor Window as I type... | La Vida |
The Cunard Lines Queen Mary 2 is a big ship. The stacks and flags are taller than my office.
Hmm. Fireworks Sunday evening as the QM2 and QE2 go past Liberty State Park, to which I've been meaning to go...
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| .:Posted by Michael at 11:41 AM
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In response to Shadowflyer's comment on the color of beer, I modified a bit of song. It's a White St. Pat's here in NYC, but still.
Black is the color of my true love's beer.
The foam on top is wond'rous fair.
The sweetest taste
And the thickest foam
I love the kegs that it pours from.
I love the kegs that it pours from.
Oh I love my beer
a'though now it's gone
It was so smooth and now it's done.
Yet still I hope
that the time will come
when I shall have another one
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| .:Posted by Michael at 02:18 PM
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Green and yellow jars
Dull supermarket salsa
One red top, hooray!
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| .:Posted by Michael at 06:42 PM
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Well, I had an excellent weekend with Ginger in New Jersey/New York. We saw lots of friends, went interesting places, ran around like crazy, danced, drank, listened to music, took lots of mass transit, saw great art, walked our butts off, and generally reconnected after our 3.5 week separation. It was wonderful.
(More:
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| .:Posted by Michael at 10:18 AM
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No Diet D. P.
"Sold Out" it blinks, mockingly
Hot Cocoa instead
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| .:Posted by Michael at 08:32 AM
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Walking to work.
The good: It's 6/10ths of a mile.
The bad : It's cold out there, baby.
The ugly : Some of the intervening neighborhood needs more fixing up.
On the whole, a reasonably positive experience, and it'll be neigh-perfect when it's warmer. This morning I took 25 minutes to get to work, but after looking at the map, I decided to take the longer leg rather than the hypotenuse and the shorter leg and I got the time down to 17 minutes. Anyone who wishes to do so may use the pythagorean theorem to determine about how far it is from Christopher Columbus Ave to 2nd Street along Hudson.
I haven't decided if I want to be a bicycle commuter yet. The walk may be easy enough.
NP: The Raid from the album Anúna by Anúna
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| .:Posted by Michael at 05:44 PM
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| "Let us shut our eyes, and talk about the weather." | La Vida |
When last we looked upon our poor wand'ring one (me!)... I had found a place to live. Since then...
- I've started work. One week down, many to go.
- I've walked to a subway station through the snow.
- I've moved in to our new apartment.
- I've found the grocery store and BloodBath and Beyond.
- I've
almost arranged a place to park.
- I've gotten back to gaming! yay!
- I bought a cheap small desk and a futon to sleep on.
- The apartment was without heat all weekend.
Luckily, the apartment never got below 60 degrees. It was annoying, not unlivable.
- When the heat came back on, a pipe burst, so there was water dripping in the spare bedroom.
Luckily, the plumber was already here to fix the heat...
So it's adventurelike, as expected. Ginger is having her own adventures. I get to see her again in two weeks! I am very excited about that.
NP:Crazy Man Michael from the album Circles of Stone by Ceili's Muse. Also listening to the happy sounds of the heat being on...
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| .:Posted by Michael at 06:50 PM
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I've gotten self to NJ (Brooklyn, actually), and found us a place to live. I've seen Kris and Tara and Amy and Jessica, all of whom have been very helpful.
It was colder than the proverbial last night, but it's warmed up some today.
I miss Ginger, but we both have a lot to do.
Onward...
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| .:Posted by Michael at 12:13 PM
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If the insulation for the wires to the igniter on your gas stove fails due to the 900° heat of the self-cleaning feature and the positive lead welds itself to a ground-connected metal plate and this causes the heavy-duty relays of the lower relay board assembly to short out and cause the oven to stop working, you'll be glad if you've called professional appliance repair people to fix it, because gas+electricity can add up to death, and no home appliance repair is worth dying for.
Thus endeth the lesson.
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| .:Posted by Michael at 12:22 PM
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I'm off this morning to a job interview. It's a position I'd be very happy accepting, even though it would mean quite an upheaval in our lives. I've had this interview arranged for nearly two weeks, and I've spent a pretty good amount of that time studying and reading up on technologies and methodologies they are likely to want.
Wish me luck!
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| .:Posted by Michael at 07:45 AM
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 The National Beard Registry is pretty non-exclusive. You send them your picture and some information about your beard and they register it and put it on their beard registry web page.
This is the kind of simple, utterly useless project that the web excels at. My picture was taken at my wedding. Ginger does not have a beard, and so she is not listed.
One wonders if, based on Orlando Bloom's comments as reported in APCB, his girlfriend could be be listed as his beard.
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| .:Posted by Michael at 06:51 PM
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| Attention Mouthbreathing Homonculi | La Vida |
If the HOV lane ahead of you is a clear ribbon of vacant highway and you are driving 10 miles under the posted speed limit and there are more than 30 vehicles backed up behind you, you are not part of the solution.
That is all.
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| .:Posted by Michael at 12:53 PM
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| The Dark Side is the right side... | La Vida |
Pete of A Perfectly Cromulent Blog mourns UT's defeat at the hands (and feet) of Oklahoma. Something needs to change, he suggests, at Texas to solve the problem. Indeed. I recommend Gordon Gee's solution.
Malcolm Gillis: Anakin, what happened to the Athletic Directors?
Gordon Gee: I killed them. I killed them all. They're dead, every single one of them. And not just the men, but the women and the children, too! They're like animals, and I slaughtered them like animals! I HATE THEM!
Come over to the dark side, Pete. Div I athletics shouldn't be a very expensive farm system for pro sports.
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| .:Posted by Michael at 11:34 PM
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| Neighbor, How Long has It Been? | La Vida |
Wolf Brand Chili is the ubiquitous canned chili in Texas and was at one point the number two selling chili in the nation, despite being sold only in Texas. The page has a good basic recipe for Frito Chili Pie.
Given the Texas/Furrin Parts disagreement about Chili ingredients, one wonders just what role Wolf Brand Chili played in the split...
"Kaiser Bill", mentioned below, was the name of the company's mascot wolf.
How many authorized chili company histories would admit that an attempt to sell their product in Oklahoma failed because grocers, confused by Kaiser Bill's portrait on the label, stacked it with the dog food? Indeed.
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| .:Posted by Michael at 10:59 PM
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| Why any candidate can campaign on 'streamlining government'. | La Vida |
I ended up leaving with my check and my forms...
| Me: | So, I can't turn in the forms that the forms said to turn in. |
| Clerk: | No, sir, you can mail those forms in, but we use different forms here. |
| Me: | I have forms for me and forms for my wife. |
| Clerk: | Your wife would have to appear in person. |
| Me: | But her signature is notarized like the form requires. |
| Clerk: | You should mail the forms in. You have everything in order to do that. |
| Me: | So, you'd take the forms by mail, but I can't hand them to you and have you accept them? |
| Clerk: | It's better to mail them to the other address. If you mailed them to us, we'd have to forward them to the other address, and that would take an extra day. |
| Me: | That's fine by me, they're not even due this week. Can you pretend you got them from me by mail and forward them to the other address? |
| Clerk: | No, I'm afraid I can't do that, sir. |
"What I should've said...":
Me:Miss, can I assume that you realize that this is fscked up?
I'm mailing in my forms. Because you can't hand in a mail-in form. Note to self, next time wear postman costume...
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| .:Posted by Michael at 03:03 PM
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| The Magazine with Altitude... | La Vida |
The Height of Style
Tall Magazine has launched, and while I am 6'4" tall, I'm not sure how much I care.
On the one hand, yes, it's nice to see, but for the most part I'm not interested in my height. I have no more common interest with other tall people than I do with other men with beards.
Heck, I only occasionally buy Renaissance The Renn Faire Magazine (Huzzah!), and I worked at TRF for years...
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| .:Posted by Michael at 12:20 PM
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| The last thing I need while job hunting | La Vida |
Is an unreliable car. Today the car wouldn't start. Ginger came home for lunch and we couldn't jump start it. Diagnosis: Bad Battery Cable. Or at least the connection was bad.
One $5 Side Battery Terminal Wrench and one $2 Battery Terminal Cleaning Tool later, I had the terminal off and a lot of crud off it. I may replace the terminal, which would also be cheap.
It's all cheaper than getting towed or buying a new battery. OTOH, the battery is original equipment, so it's more than due for a replacement.
Between the Ceiling Fan Light Kit, the Oven Control Touch Panel, and this, I'm actually getting a fair number of things done that I didn't know I could do.
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| .:Posted by Michael at 03:46 PM
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My ferret Duncan, aged nine years and two months, died this morning. He had Insulinoma and a weak heart. Ginger and I will miss him, as will our other pets, Grainne who looks so alone in the big cage, and Linette, Lionors, and Laudine, who lose their playmate. I think it's too bad that Laudine, who is not quite six months old, never got to know him when he was feeling well.
(More:
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| .:Posted by Michael at 03:13 PM
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As you may have read on Perverse Access Memory, both Ginger and I were laid off from our jobs at ADP today. There is never a good time for such news, but we are both free to pursue new opportunities and ADP was generous to us both.
We're still sorting through how we feel and deciding what we need to do next, but it has been very nice to have supportive friends and family.
I was at ADP for 5 and a half years. Here's to new challenges ahead.
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| .:Posted by Michael at 07:09 PM
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| The connection between comic books and infant genital mutilation | La Vida |
Charles Kuffner over at Off the Kuff discusses the early 1950s work of child psychologist Dr. Fredric Wertham. Wertham's book, Seduction of the Innocent, is an attempt to demonstrate the danger to children inherent in all comic books, from 'True Crime' to 'Romance' to Looney Toons.
I only read it for the pictures.
It's really lousy research, AFAICT.
Child 1 is from a broken home, was heavily abused when small, has a low IQ, is violent and likes to read comics, therefore comics are responsible for his violent tendencies.
Correlation is not causation, and this doesn't even show correlation. It's a good example, however, of how we can 'scientifically' prove any of our biases are true by looking for them and finding them.
Chuck uses this as an example of what's wrong with the 'Video Games/the Internet/Rock n Roll/etc. must be suppressed for the sake of the children!!' argument. Amen, brother.
The next thing we'll find out is that parents are being scared into cutting the foreskins off their baby boys because it cures them of excessive, unhealthy masturbation.
Oh, wait, we're still dealing with the ramifications of that bit of Victorian pseudoscience. The original motive was potted, the cure was ineffective, and later rationales were equally suspect. Anecdotal descriptions of botched circumcisions are deeply disturbing.
I will always be deeply suspicious of anything that someone suggests needs to be done urgently 'for the good of the children'. The phrase has such a long history of being used to promote programs that don't stand up to the scrutiny of logic. It's an appeal to emotion and fear and and leads primarily to conclusions that are hasty at best.
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| .:Posted by Michael at 12:12 PM
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So, the stove started beeping and displaying an error code. Beeping desperately. At 3AM. Saturday Morning.
Ah, shite.
But I am resourceful. Repair Clinic said it was the membrane touch switch. A part that we'd already replaced 3 years ago. An easy part. A part I'd seen replaced in 1999.
I called around. The Maytag people didn't return my calls.
It took me longer to take off the front panel than I'd've liked and Ginger wasn't 100% pleased that the stove sat in the middle of the kitchen for 5 days, but the part got here tonight.
Installed like a breeze. I even got the range top back on (non-removable, hah!).
So, all in all, a pretty good experience.
Maybe I'll try to fix the dryer timer next.
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| .:Posted by Michael at 09:14 PM
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| Everything I needed to know, I learned from my ferret | La Vida |
- Everyone likes to play, play with everyone.
- Anything that isn't nailed down and is shiny should go under the couch, with me.
- Bright things are interesting.
- I can successfully attack beings up to 100 times my own weight.
- If I haven't run around in the last 20 minutes, it's because I've been taking a nap.
Based on an IM about how we GM for Folly in House of Cards
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| .:Posted by Michael at 02:45 PM
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Unqualified Offerings has stirred up a pot of controversy by making the self-evident statement that Chili is a dish that is prepared without adding beans.
I add "or Blue Bell Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream". There is nothing wrong with beans, and a beef-and-bean stew can be enhanced with chili peppers, garlic, and cumin (and, indeed, beer and tomato paste...). Beans make an excellent side dish to serve along side chili.
I could go on at length about sub-culture membership identifiers. This is one of those things I just can't approach with an open mind. The extent to which someone disagrees with the statement that "chili must not have beans in it" is the extent to which they are wrong on this issue.
If any of my readers can find a source to the story I recall about the waitress who shot a customer for requesting that she add beans to his chili, I would be obliged. Even if it isn't true (and I will state for the record that no one should be shot just for being wrong), it was a story we all knew growing up...
My wife tells a story about her father's dining experience in London which I think is relevant to this question. Lonely for the taste of home while in England, he decided to dine at an eatery advertising 'Tex-Mex food'. He started by ordering nachos, which should have been perfectly safe. They quartered a tortilla, covered it with mozarella cheese, and added black olives to the top.
Ginger's father's comment: "That's not a nacho, that's a god-damned pizza."
The moral of this story is that calling your dog's tail another leg does not mean you have the world's only five legged dog.
Kent Finlay (singer/songwriter and owner of Cheatham Street Warehouse, a music hall in San Marcos), wrote the following song about Chili, which I did not find the lyrics to in time to send to UO.
If You Know Beans About Chili You Know That Chili Has No Beans
You burn some mesquite
And when the coals get hot
You bunk up some meat and you throw it on a pot
With some chile pods and garlic
And comino and stuff
Then you add a little salt
Till there's just enough
You can throw in some onions
To make it smell good
You can even ad tomatoes
If you feel like you should
But if you know beans about chili
You know that chili has no beans
If you know beans about chili
You know it didn't come from Mexico
Chili was God's gift to Texas
(Or maybe it came from down below)
And chili doesn't go with macaroni
And damned Yankee's don't go with chili queens;
And if you know beans about chili
You know that chili has no beans.
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| .:Posted by Michael at 04:38 PM
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I didn't know Allison Horstmann Jones well when we were in high school. She was in my sister's class, and I knew a bunch of her classmates.
My sister sent me an email, asking if I knew that she'd died in the WTC attack. I didn't know.
She's not the first school-mate of mine to die. She's not the closest friend. I don't miss her, because I didn't keep track of her. I didn't know her husband or her sisters. I probably wouldn't have recognized her on the street. Lots of people have closer friends and loved ones who died. For them I wish remembrance of the good things about their lost ones.
She shouldn't have had to die because someone had a heart so large that it could encompass hating the entire United States and an evil vision wherein he could imagine a way to hurt the entire United States at once.
I don't watch TV regularly and I don't want to see any memorials. I remember just fine and I don't want to see it.
But tonight I'll be thinking about a girl I once knew, not very well. And I will be sad and angry.
I can't talk about big things right now, like politics or war, or national security. I'm just looking at a picture of someone I once knew who didn't make it down from the 104th floor.
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| .:Posted by Michael at 05:06 PM
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Auntie Beeb tells of an exciting new development in the care of diabletes: Flourescent Tattoos. You can read the article if you're interested in a really clever non-invasive (no-stick!) continual monitoring system.
Think about the implications for a device to monitor, record, and upload everything (via, forex, Bluetooth) to a phone & to your computer.
And once you're done with Frontiers of Science, turn your mental energies to the truism that "the street finds it's own uses for technology". Consider the possibilities of artistic flourescent tattoos.
"I may have Juvenile Diabeties, but I'm gonna be the coolest one at the Rave..."
I think I'll see if I can get mine done up as The Sacred Chao
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| .:Posted by Michael at 09:03 PM
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The scene is the office canteen. The fridge is being cleaned out. This happens every Friday, to prevent science experiments. Apparently, we're a forgetful bunch. Remember that, it'll be important later.
The contents of the table are about what one expects. A few frozen dinners, take-out boxes, tupperware. A pink-on-pink striped bag.
Hold it.
"Patrick?"
"Yes?"
"That's a Victoria's Secret bag."
"Yes it is."
"What comes from Victoria's Secret that needs refrigerating?"
"I do not ask questions."
"I can't decide if it's more disturbing that someone left it in the refrigerator, or that whoever put a bag from Victoria's Secret in the fridge abandoned it to be cleaned out at the end of the week."
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| .:Posted by Michael at 03:58 PM
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It's a post card from New Jersey...
My High School graduating class is arranging a reunion. Good for us, we haven't done one yet. Didn't do anything at 5 years. Didn't do anything at 10 years. Didn't do anything at 15 years. It's 4 long years to '20th'. So what do we do? A 16 year reunion!
This is so typical of us.
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| .:Posted by Michael at 07:45 PM
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| Be careful what you ask for. | La Vida |
One of my friends was thinking about the pace and methods by which attitudes change:
...it got me thinking about how things and attitudes change. What stories will they be telling in 2050? They will back at us and think us neaderthals for something we believe or take for granted... I'm
wondering what though...
Also, anyone have stories about your parents/grandparents and their adventures on that front?
It got me thinking, because my grandmother was involved in a fight for her rights when she was a nursing student in the 1920s. She organized, negotiated, led, and generally worked her tail off to make the University of Minnesota treat her choices with respect.
My grandmother led the campaign to allow students to smoke in the dormitories.
She died of lung cancer when I was 6.
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| .:Posted by Michael at 07:11 PM
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It is difficult to type with a small cat curled in your lap, purring her fool head off and demanding that you pet her.
But it's worth it.
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| .:Posted by Michael at 08:42 PM
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So, two of my friends are excited about the possibility of gettng a Segway, both San Franciscans. They probably won't be as popular in a place like Houston where it's easy to need to go more than the fuel range (17 miles or so) of one.
However, I am intrigued by the idea of yuppie businessmen in suits (as in the ads) crowding the kiddies out of the skateboard parks and catching some air. You could probably do some amazing tricks on a gyroscopically stabilized scooter in an empty swimming pool
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| .:Posted by Michael at 10:05 PM
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The eyedrops are going to cure the conjunctivitis, but they travel down my sinuses and taste awful. Note to self: Do everything the eye doctor says so that he doesn't have to 'cure' you again...
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| .:Posted by Michael at 09:54 PM
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