Thursday, March 29, 2007
Spring showers
Sunday, March 25, 2007
improve!
So, I'm at this friend's house with some people from church, and we've bbq'ed some stuff, eaten, played a game, and some people are downstairs playing a bongo drum video game, others are upstairs, talking, and watching videos on the internet using the TV. Sure, it's not the best way to spend an evening, but it has a lot more interaction, and therefore is better, than zoning out for an hour and a half watching a movie. It's also better than dropping acid (even a face-shield and lab apron won't fully protect you from the broken pyrex and splash damage!)
So, anyway, if you are watching Mario Bros. Matrix remixes, the advertizements that are targeting your demographic range from beer-ad graphic styles to outright softcore. This is a little awkward when it is a mixed-company church group. Granted, maybe it is a little more suprising to me since I never see ads. So, I repeatedly make comments about Firefox until I was probably getting annoying. I'm not trying to be a nuisence, I just think we can do better than this. He was using IE 7, which has tabs--and admirable leap for the browser monster. But the ads are so annoying, taking up screen space, causing information dilution, and just not necessary. So, get Firefox, install Adblock, and reclaim your web experience, making it safe(er) to watch a guy playing a guitar, using a spoon in his mouth for a slide.
So, anyway, if you are watching Mario Bros. Matrix remixes, the advertizements that are targeting your demographic range from beer-ad graphic styles to outright softcore. This is a little awkward when it is a mixed-company church group. Granted, maybe it is a little more suprising to me since I never see ads. So, I repeatedly make comments about Firefox until I was probably getting annoying. I'm not trying to be a nuisence, I just think we can do better than this. He was using IE 7, which has tabs--and admirable leap for the browser monster. But the ads are so annoying, taking up screen space, causing information dilution, and just not necessary. So, get Firefox, install Adblock, and reclaim your web experience, making it safe(er) to watch a guy playing a guitar, using a spoon in his mouth for a slide.
Monday, March 12, 2007
Moving
Today I moved. My desk at work used to be one cube-set over from where it is now, but it is enough to change the whole environment. One of the cool things about the change is now I have a flatpanel monitor instead of a bulky CRT. Much of our group of 30 or so people are being rearranged. The purpose it to get the people who work together in position so that they might actually talk to each other and coordinate with each other. This is going to take a shift in Culture, but we may be able to break some of the "over the wall" syndrome. That is going to be the real change, not the fact that my cube is rearranged a little.
My bean plant is growing quite well at work. I used to just have a spider-plant-type critter, but a week or so ago, I found a bean in my pocket (must have fallen there when I was sorting beans earlier) so I stuck it in my flowerpot. A few days later, the dicot was growing out of the soil, and now it is reaching for the florescent lights with a pair of leaves. I've begun to leave the light on for it when I go home, so it can get all the light it can. Some other legumes caused a little more trouble. I was out at the park, and I found some beanpods from a tree. In digging out the seeds, I noticed the green, partially-hardened goo stuff that went between the seeds, so I kept some, and took it home and reconstituted it in a small, stemmed glass, setting (sitting?) it on the side of my sink. Unfortunately, I have this habit of memorizing my house, so that I can move about it without having to use some of my sense(s). So, a day or so later, I turn the corner into my kitchen, my right hand moves out, grabs the jar that is always at the corner of my sink (while my right arm turns on the light) and then the right hand snaps back tossing the jar into my left hand and then turning on the water. That's about when I felt my right elbow had connected with the glass-of-goo, sending it onto the floor. My left leg attempted to nudge it onto the carpet, but I don't think it thought of that until it had heard the crash, and identified it as glass breaking. And still the water ran. Tree-bean goo, while interesting, does not yet have a practical use identified. (Need a slow-hardening, semi-clear gel that is organic based?)
In other news, I've been playing frisbee lately--both disc golf and Ultimate. It's fun, and Ultimate is lots of exercise. And I get most of the thorns out of my arms and hands by the time Sunday rolls around again. Maybe I should start being more careful, I don't want to break a hip or anything. I guess really the problem is when I mow someone else down, not so much when I slide on my forearms attempting to catch the frisbee.
Congratulations to my two cousins (and fiance's) who are getting married, and a call for prayer for my cousin and sister who are overseas, and a note of happiness for my nieces who are getting siblings.
My bean plant is growing quite well at work. I used to just have a spider-plant-type critter, but a week or so ago, I found a bean in my pocket (must have fallen there when I was sorting beans earlier) so I stuck it in my flowerpot. A few days later, the dicot was growing out of the soil, and now it is reaching for the florescent lights with a pair of leaves. I've begun to leave the light on for it when I go home, so it can get all the light it can. Some other legumes caused a little more trouble. I was out at the park, and I found some beanpods from a tree. In digging out the seeds, I noticed the green, partially-hardened goo stuff that went between the seeds, so I kept some, and took it home and reconstituted it in a small, stemmed glass, setting (sitting?) it on the side of my sink. Unfortunately, I have this habit of memorizing my house, so that I can move about it without having to use some of my sense(s). So, a day or so later, I turn the corner into my kitchen, my right hand moves out, grabs the jar that is always at the corner of my sink (while my right arm turns on the light) and then the right hand snaps back tossing the jar into my left hand and then turning on the water. That's about when I felt my right elbow had connected with the glass-of-goo, sending it onto the floor. My left leg attempted to nudge it onto the carpet, but I don't think it thought of that until it had heard the crash, and identified it as glass breaking. And still the water ran. Tree-bean goo, while interesting, does not yet have a practical use identified. (Need a slow-hardening, semi-clear gel that is organic based?)
In other news, I've been playing frisbee lately--both disc golf and Ultimate. It's fun, and Ultimate is lots of exercise. And I get most of the thorns out of my arms and hands by the time Sunday rolls around again. Maybe I should start being more careful, I don't want to break a hip or anything. I guess really the problem is when I mow someone else down, not so much when I slide on my forearms attempting to catch the frisbee.
Congratulations to my two cousins (and fiance's) who are getting married, and a call for prayer for my cousin and sister who are overseas, and a note of happiness for my nieces who are getting siblings.
