February 2006 - Posts
This story moves me (watch the video if you haven't caught it on ESPN yet).
I don't know what to say about it other than I wish every child -- male or female, tall or short, fat or skinny, ugly or pretty, coordinated or klutzy -- could feel for just 4 short minutes what that boy felt that day. It might not be due to achievement in a sporting event with a crowd cheering, but the power of that elation and unadulterated joy cannot be overestimated.
It is good to know there are good people out there, and that kids are still allowed to be kids sometimes.
My pet peeve is that it is annoying when you have an ongoing conversation through email with someone and they just stop. We've all done it at one point or another, but it is rude, and it makes it hard to know what to do. I am dealing with a customer right now that likes to start a conversation about scheduling something, then stops responding to my emails under after the proposed event has passed. When I am trying to pull other people into these meetings, it makes it REALLY hard to not annoy people.
Me: "Hey, can you participate in a call on Wednesday?"
Co-Worker: "Sure, just let me know when and where..."
Me: "Thanks, as soon as I hear back from the customer I'll let you know what's up..."
Then, when I email said customer, there is just the sound of crickets chirping... My co-worker inevitably comes by later and says, "Hey, whatever happened with that call you mentioned?" and I get to respond that I haven't heard from the customer and I have no idea what's going on. Eventually, the customer responds and apologizes, and starts the process over again. This has now happened three times, with the same customer. It gets a little annoying after a while.
Okay, now I am done whining... (for now).
Ran across this site while getting my newly imaged laptop harddrive back in shape. Pretty cool. Now the freetextbox that comes as part of Community Server (which this site runs on) works perfectly in IE7. I disagree with some of the stuff that the guy spouts about in the site (he decries whitelisting as a bad idea as opposed to blacklisting -- I don't agree) but the registry hacks work nicely for any sites that aren't IE7-Friendly, and IE7 seems to have pretty solid compatibility, even at the Beta 2 Preview level...
Check it out if you're an IE7 tinkerer...
Okay, okay -- so we didn't bowl very well. No need to rub it in. I ended up with 1454 scratch/1883 handicap (445, 557, 452) for the weekend, which isn't horrible, but not exactly good, either. That's about 6 under each game, on average. Luckily, I bowled the one solid series during singles (700 with handicap), so maybe I'll eke out a few pennies for that. It was still fun, and I was duly humbled by the somewhat challenging lanes on Saturday and by my complete inability to find a line on Sunday.
On other fronts, Joshua appears to be developing some kind of allergy to something at my parents' house. The last three times we have visited, he has developed a serious cough and his breathing becomes wheezy and labored -- not a good thing. To make matters worse, after we got home last night, he stopped coughing, but developed a pretty serious fever (103.5F axillary). Apparently today he is still very feverish and not feeling very well. Poor little trooper.
Finally, and on a good note, we really like the new ride. The drive was pleasant and the little amenities are a definite upgrade from the old car. We have slightly more room in the back, meaning Dusty can ride in the very back of the car, giving her enough space to lay down and relax. On the adult comfort front, the car is much easier to get in and out of than the Saturn, and the seats seem to be pretty comfortable for the couple of hours we had to ride. The radio is probably the nicest change. We got a CD/MP3 player, with XM Radio, and I like all three. I got the slightly upgraded speaker package, so the sound is pretty good. We listened to an MP3 CD I made that has the Chronicles of Narnia on it, and I am pretty sure I enjoyed it more than the boys did. Then while tooling around in GR, I tried out the XM a fair bit. I like that there are no commercials, but I haven't found a station I love yet. I haven't given up yet. Not much variety in the way of 'new' music. It seemed like every station was playing stuff that was pretty dated. Maybe it will grow on me, but I couldn't find a station that played any of the stuff I listen to a lot lately (Dave Matthews, Ben Harper, Jack Johnson, Donavon Frankenreiter, G-Love, James Blunt, Amos Lee, and so on). I'll have to keep looking. Anyway, overall, I like the car. It handles pretty decent, it seems to do okay on gas mileage (we got about 27 mpg) and it (for now) seems to have enough space for the family. Good thing, too, since it is a little late to send it back!
Those are two topics you don't mix often, huh?
Anyway, yesterday and today, I am spending the entire day attending some training we arranged for all the devs to get spun up on Microsoft SQL Server Analysis Services 2005. So far it has been going well, but then, I mostly knew a lot of this stuff ahead of time. Pretty cool stuff that they're doing there, even if our specific use pushes the limits in ways they don't seem to have solutions for yet.
After lunch, I will be bailing out and heading to GR for the weekend so I can bowl in the Michigan State Bowling Association tournament. If anyone wants to come out and cheer us on, we'll be bowling singles and doubles Saturday evening at Westgate starting at 5 PM, and team competition on Sunday at Fairlanes starting at 12:30. We will (of course) be kicking butt, so come out and witness the brilliance that is the Bachman Embroidery bowling team -- we rule!
22 Greatest Voices in Music (from the last 25 years)I can't say I agree with this.
First, you HAVE to qualify this as
popular music, since singers like Charlotte Church and Andrea Bocelli kill pretty much everyone on this list for pure vocal prowess (maybe not Mariah, but her vocal control isn't as fine as theirs).
Second, Chris Cornell behind Christina Aguilera and Tupac? I can understand the sentimental vote for Kurt Cobain (even though Chris Cornell's voice is much better than Kurt Cobain's, he just wasn't dumb enough to do enough heroin to kill himself) and even could go with Celine Dion (gag) even though I hate her voice, but seriously -- Tupac!?!?! Who the heck votes in these things? I like Tupac as much as any white-bread, suburban dude could, but I would never say his voice was one of the best in music. Sheesh, LL was a better rapper and has a better voice -- he's not on this list (probably 'cuz he didn't get capped).
Even when you qualify it with the statement that it includes how influential the voice is in people's lives, are they referring to the music, or the actual voice? I can understand people saying that Whitney Houston's voice was influential, since without her particular vocal stylings, the best version of the Star Spangled Banner I've ever heard would not have been nearly as remarkable (and lots of people sing that song). I can see the same being said about "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" by U2, in Bono's defense, and that gawdawful song from Titanic with Celine. Can you really say that about Tupac? Alanis? Even Kurt Cobain I struggle with a bit. I think this is what most of these top X lists are -- very subjective, and therefore I reject their list as flawed.
It's my blog, I'm allowed to spout if I want to. Phbbbbbt.
I have 100 invitations at this point. If you're interested, let me know...
I saw this on Jayson Knight's blog (one I follow mostly for technical stuff, but he posts some other stuff, too) and thought it was cool.
Top Ten Albums -- ones you can listen to end to end, over and over, and never get sick of...
- Led Zeppelin -- Houses of the Holy
- Dave Matthews -- Some Devil
- Jack Johnson -- On and On
- Nick Drake -- Pink Moon
- Thicker Than Water (Movie Soundtrack)
- Norah Jones -- Come Away with Me
- September Sessions (Movie Soundtrack)
- Pink Floyd -- Dark Side of the Moon
- Jack Johnson -- Brushfire Fairytales
- Alice In Chains -- Jar of Flies
You can throw any Dave Matthews CD in that list, as you can add the new Jack Johnson CD (In Between Dreams) as they all get heavy play on my systems. Other runners up include Clapton Unplugged, Alice in Chains Unplugged, Godsmack The Other Side, Neil Young Harvest Moon, and assorted older stuff (more Zep, Beatles, Pink Floyd, and on and on).
Well, the new car is here, and Jodi is already out driving all over the place in it. :) Okay, that's not exactly true, but I completed the transaction tonight and drove the car home, and Jodi is out driving to Target and Babies'R'Us for a couple of things. We got an XM capable radio, which is kind of cool, but better yet, the CD player plays MP3 CDs, so that's cool (the one I put in the Jeep does, too, so I've got a bunch of CDs all set up already). Anyway, we will be putting it through its paces this weekend when we drive to GR so I can bowl in the State tournament, so we'll get the first real road test, with kids in seats and the dog and the whole shebang. The real review will come after that whole thing...
Since we couldn't find one that exactly matched what I wanted, and Jodi decided she wasn't quite as excited about the orange color (it's too brown -- she wanted the old-school bright orange), we did another dealer inventory search and found a blue one that is spot on. We pick it up tomorrow afternoon. Cool. The poor little Saturn will finally meet its end, 181,000 miles traveled. Jodi's pretty excited about the whole thing. I am too, but at the same time, I am not looking forward to car payments again.
Last night when I got home, Jodi was up and said I was not to leave the house, since she had been having contractions already. Hm. We've got at least 8-10 weeks to go, so hopefully they don't keep happening (this sort of happened with Caleb, and we spent a fair bit of time at the hospital in the weeks leading up to his birth). It apparently was mostly due to dehydration, although I know how much water she drinks and it seems like more than enough. Keep your fingers and toes crossed for her, say prayers for her, do whatever you do (no sacrificing of goats, though, please). Hopefully we can have a relatively calm remaining pregnancy...
On another note, our tax refunds are in our account, so this weekend we will likely order (or pick out, if theres one that we like) our new
Orange HHR
Check out this article about how many people in Denmark are clueless about their own country and the rest of the world.
I'm sure this will come across too strongly, but "Welcome to the playing field."
Anyone who thinks their country is more "open minded" than America and is therefore less susceptible to the castigation that radical religious elements are constantly spewing toward the US obviously don't realize that it is that very open-mindedness that religious radicals hate! If you are not like me, and don't worship my God, and bow before him when some lunatic guy in robes says it is time to bow, you are evil and must die. Christians have done it, the Greeks and Romans did it, Muslims have done it and I'm sure we could find that nearly every religion has played a part in such things at some time.
However, that doesn't mean it is the religion at fault -- it is the inability of the people who practice the religion to see the value of anything outside their comfort zone. The religious right in America is not all that different than the radical extremist Muslims that have captured our attention of late. In fact, I think I'll nickname the readical extremist Muslims "Puritans." Maybe you get what I'm saying... Maybe not. However, just because I accept you and your beliefs doesn't mean the return is true. There is no law of reciprocity in religion.
Thus, wake up Denmark, and every other cluelessly insular country that has any contact with people outside your country. You are just as much a part of the problem as anyone else, and you are hated by many people just because you are not like them.
Warning: the following is a quote and has some bad words in it.
Don't read it if you might be offended. If you read it anyway
after reading this, and are offended, don't bother whining to me
because I am trying to warn you that you might be offended.
Probably, in fact. Especially if you have a closed mind...
AVC: You use your column to advocate freedom, but that often seems to
scare people. Historically, it seems like there's a real terror that other
people might somehow get the freedom to do the things we ourselves don't want to
do. Why do you think that is?
DS: Because Canada got the French and Australia got the convicts and
we got the fuckin' batshit crazy Christians. And that matters. We're all lied to
in high school—"The Pilgrims came here seeking religious freedom." No they
didn't. They were the Puritans kicked out of England. They went to Holland,
Holland was like "Fuck you people," and they kicked them out too, so they came
here. They came here seeking the ability to persecute everybody else—and each
other—for their religious beliefs. And we are living with the descendants of
those nutjobs, and we have to fight them.
Read the whole interview (on a variety of topics)
here. I think it is funny anyway...
More Posts
Next page »