Beware...

...of Ache bugs! Apparently "when you're riding a scooter down the sidewalk, and are moving forward, they have suction cups that stick to you and cause an ache where ever you have a body part, like your legs, or your arms, or your nose, or your ankles." All is not lost, though. "When you stop, they fall off." And what about when you start moving again? "Well you have to get going really fast so that they don't get you!"

My 5 year-year-old, the entomologist... :-)

It's a small world, afterall...

WOW! I just got done chatting with a journalist in the UK. Didn't even know the guy. Never got his name. Not sure the name of his music magazine even. Just some random stranger who had a few moments to spare. Really interesting conversation. Those are the kind of chats that Omegle enables.

Started just a few days ago -- by an 18-year-old! -- there were over 1500 random people chatting with strangers just like me! I'm not much into social networking in general -- no "My Face" pages for me, and sure I was a little curious who this random stranger I was being connected to would turn out to be.

We talked about quite a variety of things -- from Google's Streetview (and how the UK folk's really feel about it) to the earthquake he told me had happened in San Francisco earlier today - that I had no idea about, to Twitter (how he found out about the quake), to the fact that his dad was coming over to the States in a couple of weeks, to performing Turing tests on each other -- just to be sure...

The site is free. The conversations will surely be varied. It can be a casual diversion or the start of something.

Did you remember?

Many places (including this household) participated in Earth Hour over the weekend in an effort to get people to really think about Global Warming. Take a look at some of the pictures of the participation at the Boston.com site or some from the EarthHour site... It's a small step, but a step nonetheless...

In honor of all those basketball fans...

Have you donated blood today?

A friend of ours from church is battling leukemia. A young guy, with a very devoted wife and three young kids, he's battling very hard, but he can't do it by himself. He needs and receives help from his family and friends. He needs and receives help and strength from God and his faith. He needs and receives assistance from very competent medical personnel. Recently, there was a need for something else.

A little less than a couple of weeks ago, the call went out for people who would be willing to donate neutrophils (a component of white blood cells). While battling this disease (which was discovered quite by accident), Gary's body has temporarily lost it's ability to produce the legions of cells necessary to fight off infection. He needs to get back to Ohio State University for a stem-cell transplant to end this fight, but he has to be stable enough to risk the transportation. While his body is working up the strength to re-build his own white-cell supply, he needs donations to tide him over so that he doesn't get any more sick.

I was lucky enough to be able to help, pass the screening tests and donate toward Gary's recovery. I can't cure his leukemia, but I can help him fight it. He has received my donation of cells as well as those from two other donors so far - that's 3 of 12 total. He has to have these donations every other day for a month! They're definitely helping, but they're not done yet. As long as he continues in a positive direction... We are all praying that he make it through this setback quickly and can move on to the real cure.

I learned a lot as part of this donation.

First, that you gotta do what you can - however small the task. It's not one person who saves the world, but all of us working together. A small donation or act might seem insignificant to those that donate, but added together it will save a life -- or many!

Second, that it's all a lot more real when you know the recipient. Donations in the past have been kind of blind. I go in, give a pint, and walk out, hoping that someone in need will be able to benefit. This time I was part of the process. I got to read about Gary's battle on their blog. I got to spend time with Gary and Tammy in his room and see how hard Gary was fighting and how loved he was.

Third, I learned a lot about the donation possibilities as well. I've always donated "regular" whole blood in the past. All blood is deeply needed, but being of type-O, I can help a very broad group of recipients. I've donated as often as I could, but schedules have made me miss the last couple opportunities. As a result of mentioning this during my time with the Red Cross nurses, as well as based on some of the tests that they ran for my neutrophils donation, I was presented with other options that would allow me to help even more people, while minimizing the impact of scheduling conflicts. As soon as Gary is out of danger of needing another white cell donation from me, I will be contacting the Red Cross to transition to one, or more of these other donation options. (see First observation above) Are you doing all you can?

Fourth, remember that whatever you're going through personally - FUD (fear, uncertainty, doubt) in this economy, sleepless nights, a long "honey-do" list that never seems to get shorter, never getting your own list checked off, not spending enough time with those you love, or anything else that brings you down... you're never too far down to extend a helping hand to pull someone else up.

Fifth, God does have a sense of humor, even in times like this. Quoting Tammy from their blog the other day:

[Gary] has been laughing in his sleep today and I ask him what is so funny- he said that God is telling him some jokes- laughter is the best medicine you know :)

Sometimes it's hard to understand the Master plan, or even our role within it, but it will all work out in the end.

Go get 'em Gary!

You can read more about Gary's fight on their blog at http://lathamgt2.blogspot.com/

You can find a Red Cross donation site via GiveLife.org.

Save the Earth?

Myth: we have to save the earth.

Frankly, the earth doesn't need to be saved. Nature doesn't give a hoot if human beings are here or not. The planet has survived cataclysmic and catastrophic changes for millions upon millions of years. Over that time, it is widely believed, 99 percent of all species have come and gone while the planet has remained. Saving the environment is really about saving our environment - making it safe for ourselves, our children, and the world as we know it. If more people saw the issue as one of saving themselves, we would probably see increased motivation and commitment to actually do so.

-Robert M. Lilienfeld, management consultant and author (b. 1953) and William L. Rathje, archaeologist and author (b. 1945)

Use at your own risk

One of the most ubiquitous posters of the last presidential election was that of a red, white and blue artistic representation of then Senator Barack Obama with the word HOPE underneath. The debate pits artistic license and fair use claims by artist Shepard Fairey against an AP photographer who took the source image of President Obama. You can catch up on the current status of the issue via Google News, but there is a web site now that you can use to make your own images in the similar style, with your own pictures. The site, provided by Paste Magazine is called ObamIconMe.

Create your own posters (liek this one I made of my daughter), but you might want to keep an eyes on the results of the lawsuits, just in case...

Lights OUT! March 28th, 8:30-9:30

We all do it :-)

...but who's the party pooper at the end of the video?

Think you can do better?

It can't be easy figuring out who to give all that bailout money to. See how difficult it is by trying to survive... The Bailout Game!

Amazing graffiti

MUTO a wall-painted animation by BLU from blu on Vimeo.

She's pregnant!

A friend of mine at work learned a few months ago that she was pregnant. Though both she and her husband wanted a girl, alas, the ultrasound technician saw a hot dog and not a hamburger... I think that they'll get over it. Somehow I don't think that this was the initial scene when she discovered, though...

Darn government data hoarding, creativity stifling, non-understanding, stink-at-customer-service jerks!

So a couple of guys decide to take free VoIP (voice over the Internet) software and a bit of programming skill and make available – for free – the availability of parking spots in Ann Arbor, MI. Sure, you could go to the City's web site to see it, or try calling one of the decks until you found one that was open, but this offered so many more options – and it was a cool use of technology, with publicly available data. Then the government found out about it…

You can read the entire story of the features, fights and future of the Ann Arbor Parking Data service on the VoIPTechChat site. I'm curious about your take on this…

One Trilllllllion dollars (said with pinky finger in corner of mouth, Dr. Evil style)

It used to be that one million dollars was a lot of money. Then came the Lottery. One billion was a big number until we started looking at the budget (deficit). Now we're talking one trillion dollars -- as a starting point?!

You might need a little help visualizing that. Fortunately there's help on the Web! PageTutor has a page that's all about visualizing One Trillion Dollars.

Scared now?

Poor André...

This financial crisis is forcing us to make tough decisions; there is a risk that we might need to lay off André.

(sorry about pic quality)

Economics

"The economy is so bad O.J. had to shut down the DNA lab he was using to find the real killers. That's how bad."

"The federal government agreed on Sunday to provide an additional $30 billion to AIG. According to AIG, $15 billion will be used to build the world's biggest toilet, down which the other $15 billion will be flushed."

"Citigroup on Thursday set another milestone as the beleaguered bank dropped below $1 a share, marking the first stock to be offered on the McDonalds value meal."

This weekend is Daylight Savings Time. ... You're going to lose an hour of sleep, and then I thought but what the hell, you've pretty much lost everything else. But not everyone sets their clocks ahead. Not everyone. No, no, no, no, no. On Wall Street, they've already set their clocks back to 1929."

"President Obama got some good news today. It seems so many of his cabinet appointees have been forced to pay their back taxes, he now gets a finder's fee from the IRS."

"Hey, quite, quite a scare in Washington, DC, today. You may have heard about this. Police were called to the White House. Apparently, President Obama was in a meeting with some potential cabinet nominees. Someone noticed a suspicious looking document on the table no one had ever seen before. Turns out it was just a tax form, but it gave them quite a fright."

"I love this story. The President's latest nominee, this one for US trade representative, a man named Ron Kirk, who owes the government $10,000 in back taxes, has agreed to pay his taxes. That's what the paper said today. He's agreed to pay them. When was there a choice?"

Got more to share? Post a comment...

Promises, Promises

The campaign trail was full of promises this past year. At least one promise was kept - Change! How many of President Obama's other promises have been kept?

The folks over at Politifact have been keeping track. They collected more than 500 promises made by then-Presidential hopeful Obama and have been tracking actions made to fulfill those promises.

As of this posting, he looks like he and his administration have a good start with a certainly greater percentage of truthfulness and action that most politicians I can think of.

There are a lot of people that said he'd not be able to keep a lot of his promises because of political roadblocks, legal challenges, etc. I'm sure it's not been an easy couple of months so far, but I don't see those challenges stopping progress so far.

Keep up with the rest of his promise chart at the Obameter site, provided by Politifact.

Due to budget cuts, this is your new cubicle

Complements of HR... New Cubicle photos. New office policies are also posted.

There's no "we" in "us"

My youngest (in kindergarten) had some homework the other day in which he was supposed to find his week's words in use in magazines, newspapers, etc, cut them out and paste them on a sheet of paper. His words were simple words like "we," "be" and "it." I was helping him scout words. I would find a page with one of the words and then he'd have to find the actual word on the page.

He had to find at least three occurrences of each of his words. The be and it came fairly fast, but the we was a little more elusive. OK, a lot more elusive. Yeah, most people would leave it at "Wow. The we is really hard to find." Not me. I took it as an excuse to analyze the state of mind of the media out there today :-)

Why is it that they always write articles about "They did this," or "You should do that." Nowadays especially, we are all in this together. But the voice on the page never says "We need to do this to get through this," or "We believe..." It's as if the writers is sitting on some ivory pedestal looking down at us wee-folk and all of our problems, and saying "Been there, done that, now here's what you need to do." Come on! They lost 40%+ of their retirement too! They are concerned about their job security too! They have friends and family that need their help too! Someone that they know is overseas trying to stay alive! They have hopes and ambitions too! They're clipping coupons and trying to stretch their paycheck just a little more too! They are playing and living with their children too! They love someone too! Why no empathy? Is it too weak to show that they're human? That they really could pass some Turing test with flying colors? Can they not associate with readers?!

Think about it the next time you read an article, or a book, or an advertisement. I think that WE need to really think about their motives.

A catchy little tune...

As someone with a few kids, I've heard my share of Sesame Street music. Some of the songs I actually remember from my own childhood. The guys over at Mental Floss have put together a little quiz of Sesame Street songs. The provide very short snippets of the songs and you need to pick which song it's from. As a parent, I'm embarrassed to say I only got 80%. :-(

Leave a comment and let me know how you did...

We're being invaded!

While reading a new book the other day I realized something that just kind of hit me. The author, James Patterson, is very descriptive when he writes so it took a little for me to realize it, but I think he's inserting advertising, or more appropriately - product placements - in his books. Instead of saying something like...

Mr. X fired three times. The first bullet hit its mark dead center -- the last two were for show. As the sickly smell of gunpowder slowly drifted through the air, he grabbed a glass of tea from the counter and gulped the icy liquid before turning toward the door and limping out of the room.

...I was reading:

Mr. X fired his GLOCK 30 .45 AUTO pistol three times. The first bullet hit it's mark dead center -- the last two were for show. As the sickly smell of gunpowder slowly drifted through the air, pushed around the room by a Frigidaire barely hanging on in the window, he grabbed a bottle of Diet Lipton Green Tea with Citrus from the stainless steel Kenmore refrigerator and and gulped the icy liquid before turning toward the Andersen wooden door and limping out of the room.

OK, so I exaggerated a little...but not much. He's such a good writer, and so visual, it almost seemed natural for him to mention the objects in the room by brand name. Until this week.

I find myself a little conflicted about skipping commercials while watching TV now that we finally have a DVR and can skip the commercials. I feel like I'm missing out on something -- some new show that I need to program to record, some new movie that I should be adding to Netflix, some new local event I can take the kids to... I could do without another SHAM-WOW! commercial, and my life would be no worse if I didn't have to see another Snuggie commercial. There will be other unfortunate souls that might have to endure Billy Mays, but surely I don't have to be one of them.

I suppose it's inevitable that the advertisers will continue to find ways to bombard us with their information - that's their business. And what a business it is!

I suppose that Patterson is only reflecting reality then as he places those images in my mind while I read his words. It's what's makes his novels so real, his ability to place you in the story --almost as if you're hovering over the scene, reading the minds of his characters.

Still, I wonder if he's getting placement fees...

A little mayo and coffee

I thought I had posted this earlier, but didn't see it when I checked. Even if I have posted it, it's worth remembering...


When things in your life seem almost too much to handle, when 24 hours in a day are not enough, remember the mayonnaise jar and the 2 cups of coffee.

A professor stood before his philosophy class and had some items in front of him. When the class began, he wordlessly picked up a very large and empty mayonnaise jar and proceeded to fill it with golf balls. He then asked the students if the jar was full. They agreed that it was.

The professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured them into the jar. He shook the jar lightly. The pebbles rolled into the open areas between the golf balls. He then asked the students again if the jar was full. They agreed it was.

The professor next picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar. Of course, the sand filled up everything else. He asked once more if the jar was full. The students responded with an unanimous 'yes.'

The professor then produced two cups of coffee from under the table and poured the entire contents into the jar effectively filling the empty space between the sand. The students laughed.

'Now,' said the professor as the laughter subsided, 'I want you to recognize that this jar represents your life. The golf balls are the important things--- your family, your children, your health, your friends and your favorite passions---and if everything else was lost and only they remained, your life would still be full.

The pebbles are the other things that matter like your job, your house and your car.

The sand is everything else---the small stuff. 'If you put the sand into the jar first,' he continued, 'there is no room for the pebbles or the golf balls. The same goes for life. If you spend all your time and energy on the small stuff you will never have room for the things that are important to you.

'Pay attention to the things that are critical to your happiness. Spend time with your children. Spend time with your parents. Visit with grandparents. Take time to get medical checkups. Take your spouse out to dinner. Play another 18. There will always be time to clean the house and fix the disposal. Take care of the golf balls first---the things that really matter. Set your priorities. The rest is just sand.'

One of the students raised her hand and inquired what the coffee represented. The professor smiled and said, 'I'm glad you asked.' The coffee just shows you that no matter how full your life may seem, there's always room for a couple of cups of coffee with a friend.'

[ed. I hate coffee, but I'm always open for a pop with a friend...]