Friday, September 11, 2009
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Celebrity Deaths
Ed McMahon, Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson. No, I didn't have anything to do with any of them!
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Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T
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Summer in the City
There is less than a week left in June. It seems like the summer months go by so quickly. Yesterday I had movers come and move most of my stuff so now I have to get the last of it packed and moved and clean the apartment. My roommate will be moving his stuff this weekend too.
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Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T
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Tuesday, October 21, 2008
"Dave"
I have never thought of Applebee's as a joint to hang out in, but apparently Dave has. I was sitting at a table in the bar area with The Boyfriend. There were a few different people at the bar, all watching the football and baseball games that were on TV. Dave comes in, sits down at the bar and announces two things: #1 his kids are in the car and #2 he just bought a house here. His fellow barsitters and tenders are friendly and reassure him when he expresses doubt about such a big purchase. He then goes on to explain that he owns a martial arts business in The Cities, but it's okay since that's only a 30-minute drive from here. (I think it's more like 55, The Boyfriend says 45.) He then launches into a story about a customer injury, a lack of insurance, his brother's failure to buy the insurance and how he just decided to pay the customer off. All the while, he has pointed out what everyone else did wrong. He did nothing wrong, of course, and has the money to just take care of things.
No one actually asked him anything about what he did or how the business was after he mentioned it. He got there all on his own. At this point, it's obvious to me that no one is paying much attention to him. The couple that was sitting closest to him went outside for a smoke. He then starts talking about several other things and finally settles on sports. Dave decides that insulting the Vikings is a good idea. He asks if they have ever made it to the Superbowl, and when someone points out that they have, he says, "Well not this year." Wow, he really knows how to make friends. He ends up bringing up a bunch of other teams and cities trying to stop the heckling that is coming at him from several of the formerly friendly bar patrons. When he finally gets up to leave, one of them tells him to take care of his kids, and he says, "You take care of yours, too," as if that was meant as a friendly good-bye. Some people just don't get it.
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Friday, September 19, 2008
Bitter and Dippy
There are two different women I know (well, that I am acquainted with) and I call one Bitter and the other Dippy. This is during my inner monologue, not to their faces. Anyway, whenever I see Bitter she looks put out and annoyed. If she is on the phone, she is griping at or about someone trying to scam her. If she is talking to someone, it is about how they should watch out so someone else doesn't take advantage of them. If she is alone she has a pained and tired look on her face. She once threatened a friend of mine, so I don't give her the benefit of the doubt. I just ignore her as much as I can.
Dippy is another story. On paper she's a lot like Bitter. Same age, job, family and fashion. But instead of Bitter's permascowl, Dippy wears a permasmile. If she's talking to someone else, it's loud and about how proud she is of X or how she can't wait for Y. The problem is when she is trying to convince you of something, she uses smiley faces and fifty-nine exclamation marks, wishes you a nice day and thinks that will "win you over". But her facts are wrong. She once told someone else I was "crabby", and I don't know of it was because I don't smile or talk loud enough, or simply because I remained unconvinced despite all her sugary sweet platitudes.
My point is, I don't like either of their attitudes. Life is not always out to get you. Smiles will never replace logic. That is all.
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Dippy is another story. On paper she's a lot like Bitter. Same age, job, family and fashion. But instead of Bitter's permascowl, Dippy wears a permasmile. If she's talking to someone else, it's loud and about how proud she is of X or how she can't wait for Y. The problem is when she is trying to convince you of something, she uses smiley faces and fifty-nine exclamation marks, wishes you a nice day and thinks that will "win you over". But her facts are wrong. She once told someone else I was "crabby", and I don't know of it was because I don't smile or talk loud enough, or simply because I remained unconvinced despite all her sugary sweet platitudes.
My point is, I don't like either of their attitudes. Life is not always out to get you. Smiles will never replace logic. That is all.
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Sunday, February 10, 2008
Blackberry
I got a Blackberry yesterday and my boyfriend got an iPhone. So we have spent the day ignoring each other and playing with our new toys.
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Monday, December 05, 2005
Peru wants it's stuff back
CNN reports that Peru has warned Yale University that relics taken from Machu Picchu by Hiram Bingham in 1911, 1912 and 1914 must be returned. Hey, could I accompany them on the flight home?
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Thursday, December 01, 2005
Soelo Desk Reference
I have been fiddling around with this Thing in my head for months now. I've called it everything from an Interests Inventory to a Mind Map and I have struggled with the how and why of it all. Basically, I want some sort of complete listing of topics/subjects/ideas that interest me and way to organize information about each of them.
How: I have a mind that understands things best when they are sorted, organized and aligned, so I started by looking at some ways information is handled by others, like search engines and libraries. I ended up with ten broad categories that I want to focus on and then broke those down into smaller and smaller parts.
Why: Renaissance Man is the term that keeps popping into my head, despite my not being male and living in modern day. Perhaps generalist is a better term. Having some general knowledge about a wide variety of topics is appealing to me. I keep feeling like there is another reason I want to do this that I have yet to find.
When: I hope to focus on this during the month of December. I assume it's an ongoing process, but I want some framework down before January and some routines built.
How: I have a mind that understands things best when they are sorted, organized and aligned, so I started by looking at some ways information is handled by others, like search engines and libraries. I ended up with ten broad categories that I want to focus on and then broke those down into smaller and smaller parts.
Why: Renaissance Man is the term that keeps popping into my head, despite my not being male and living in modern day. Perhaps generalist is a better term. Having some general knowledge about a wide variety of topics is appealing to me. I keep feeling like there is another reason I want to do this that I have yet to find.
When: I hope to focus on this during the month of December. I assume it's an ongoing process, but I want some framework down before January and some routines built.
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Wednesday, September 28, 2005
Soda Fountain
Cool: get a 2-liter bottle of diet soda and some Mentos and make a mess in your local park.
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Tuesday, September 20, 2005
Dark, acrid smoke now rises above Victoria Falls gorge in place of the mist
ZWnews.com reports on the current state of the area surrounding Victoria Falls. This is the result of Operation Murambatsvina (Shona for Operation Drive Out Trash), where the government destroyed the homes of urban poor people claiming it was just a crackdown on criminal activity.
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Monday, August 22, 2005
Nanotechnology
Scientists have discovered a way to make sheets of carbon nanotubes very quickly. "The new technique should allow the nanotubes to be used in commercial devices from heated car windows to flexible television screens."
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Thursday, August 04, 2005
Friday, July 29, 2005
Origami Tessellations
Flickr has a pool for them, and here's a seven level Fujimoto.
There's also an awesome hex tessellation here. That page is part of origamitessellations.com, which is complete with both English and Portuguese instructions.
There's also an awesome hex tessellation here. That page is part of origamitessellations.com, which is complete with both English and Portuguese instructions.
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Monday, July 11, 2005
Friday, June 10, 2005
Ride the light - to a dark place
Back in 2002, I had a problem with Qwest jerking me around about my DSL bill. I love to read things like this: How Jennifer Palmquist brought down the Roaming Empire.
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Wednesday, June 08, 2005
Monday, June 06, 2005
Fool your eyes
Kottke tells us to check out this page of optical illusions. I love how these dots appear to rotate both left and right.
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Tuesday, May 31, 2005
Your moment of zen:
I got up to a score of 734 on Reaction Effect, but it's not really a game as much as a relaxing way to get yourself thinking about catalysts and chain reactions. Or maybe I'm just a geek.
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Wednesday, May 11, 2005
TiddlyWikis
I came across a website yesterday that I can only describe as ingenious. The site describes itself as a reusable non-linear personal web notebook - but it's best if you check it out and see for yourself. It's called GTDTiddlyWiki and the best part is that you are encouraged to save the entire html file (a mere 123 KB) and create your own version for personal use. Even though the project is intended as a system for GTD - or Getting Things Done (according to the site, a simple and effective personal productivity method by David Allen), it could easily be used as an actual blog or about a hundred other things.
I find the term GTD a little corny, and think it's easy to turn GTD into just another thing you have to do, instead of using it as a tool. But, I do recognize that as an adult I have Things, most of which need to be Done at some point and it's easy for me to forget about them when they number more than 3. At work, I use Outlook to manage my projects, which works well because most of my incoming requests are via email. It's not that way at home, so I am going to try this out and see how it goes. My current system at home consists of piles of mail and lists that often get misplaced. Something tells me this will work better.
I find the term GTD a little corny, and think it's easy to turn GTD into just another thing you have to do, instead of using it as a tool. But, I do recognize that as an adult I have Things, most of which need to be Done at some point and it's easy for me to forget about them when they number more than 3. At work, I use Outlook to manage my projects, which works well because most of my incoming requests are via email. It's not that way at home, so I am going to try this out and see how it goes. My current system at home consists of piles of mail and lists that often get misplaced. Something tells me this will work better.
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Friday, March 04, 2005
I am heading out tonight for some drinking and general revelry. My computer is currently in the hands of a trusted friend, but it does not look good. I have some evil cold and cough thing that is threatening to turn into pneumonia yet again. I couldn't escape another February without some kind of respiratory problem, and I don't even smoke.
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Wednesday, February 23, 2005
PC troubles
My home PC will not boot up properly, so I am temporarily without a home computer. I was hoping to buy a new one this spring, so I guess my timetable has been sped up.
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Monday, February 21, 2005
Wikimedia Fundraising
The Wikimedia Foundation Inc. is a non-profit organization with the goal of providing free knowledge to every person in the world. That's right, non-profit, so they're doing some fundraising - It's a worthwhile cause. They run Wikipedia, as well as many other computing resources that are free to the public.
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