san_j

"I'm not sure what the exact definition of geek is, but I think "enjoys recharging batteries" has to be very high on that list."

http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/001078.html

(from MF, though I read CH through YC's HN pretty regularly too...)

I had a thought the other day about why I endeavour to "do the right thing".

It's not to maintain some karmic balance, though I wish I could believe in that.

It's not to get me into someone's concept of Heaven.

It's not to maintain moral authority (though that's not a bad bonus).

For me, the reason is that it enables me to serenely accept when the world turns out in my favour. I don't have to feel guilty or undeserving: I can just let it be.

From: http://tinyurl.com/2jrzsx

"The result of all this hyper-carefulness, however, is that men often feel like untouchables. In Cochranville, Pa., Ray Simpson, a bus driver, says that he used to have 30 kids stop at his house on Halloween. But after his divorce, with people knowing he was a man living alone, he had zero visitors. "I felt like crying at the end of the evening," he says.

At Houston Intercontinental Airport, businessman Mitch Reifel was having a meal with his 5-year-old daughter when a policeman showed up to question him. A passerby had reported his interactions with the child seemed "suspicious."

In Skokie, Ill., Steve Frederick says the director of his son's day-care center called him in to reprimand him for "inappropriately touching the children." "I was shocked," he says. "Whatever did she mean?" She was referring to him reading stories with his son and other kids on his lap. A parent had panicked when her child mentioned sitting on a man's lap."

How I spent my weekend:

Converting 8 tonnes of rock into a 75 foot wall.

I'm employed!

I've accepted a job with Ambient Devices. Fun, fun fun!

"I don't mean to belabor the macaca point, and the story is much more nuanced than it seems, but I hope all the slobbering politicians, regardless of political persuasion, take away a simple lesson from this: If you fuck with Indians in America, you will lose control of both houses of Congress."


(from here which references an article in the Washington Times)

First Mr. Tyzik.

Now Saddam Hussein.

Coincidence?

I want BSG back.

Han and I were reading Bedtime for Francis the other night.

At one point it mentions the possibility of a spanking.

Han turns to me, looking perplexed and asks "Daddy, what's a spanking?"

Two things:

1. Yay for my little left-leaning-crunchy-attachment-parented-granola-monkey-boy!

2. It is really, really hard to explain spanking to a four yearold without it sounding awfully misguided.

Ok, let me start off by saying that I love Google. They don't always pull it off, but they really seem to try.

As an example, it is really nice the way that I don't have to break an address into pieces for a map. No more filling in a field for EACH PIECE of street, city, state, and zip. Take that Yahoo, MapQuest and others. Parsing an address is exactly what computer should do for me! Don't make cut and paste 4 times!

BUT who the hell decided that the standard format for entering an address into maps should be a single line text field!?

And then decided to replicate that decision for the location field in the calendar?

Has no one at at 6000 person company noticed that the standard for addresses is MULTIPLE LINES?

75 Pleasant Street
Arlington, MA 02476

And that this, I hasten to point out, is the way that ALL ADDRESSES HAVE BEEN WRITTEN SINCE THE BEGINNING OF (internet) TIME!

C'mon! Reduce it to a single cut/paste. I implore you.

And, while you're at it, let the first line be a name for the location:

Rogers Pierce Childrens Center
75 Pleasant Street
Arlington, MA 02476

Seriously. A stoned, one-armed lemur should be able to get this stuff right.

Excuse me while I go fix my own site.

Another one of those things which ricochets between way way cool and just plain stupid

And yet... I'm sorely tempted.

Anyone else?
sanj

I just learned about the Google web toolkit.

This is freaking cool. The notion that you can sit down and write code in Java and have it converted to something that runs as fancy-buzzword-compliant AJAX is really, really clever.

Write your app, then make it available over the web with little additional work. And, most importantly, you don't have to futz with browser glitches.

I'd be even more excited if I were still naive enough to believe it'd all just work.

Who knew that there was such a pent-up demand for hidden bookshelves?

Cheap, but not in stock (supply a country)

Ceci n'est pas un livre (like that, foolsjournal?)

and one that looks like a giant comb

I love them all. I must have them all. Perhaps I'll get a job.

ert shows up in the oddest (and oddly appropriate) places:

http://www.mendosa.com/snow.html

search for "ert"

New York to Rome 5/04/06 5:00 pm - 9:25 am Lufthansa
Rome to New York 5/12/06 1:10 pm - 6:15 pm Lufthansa

$645

Anyone else want to come?

Yep, I'm serious.

Han can pee standing up.

My little boy's becoming a man.

There has got to be a better name for breasts that "boobs".

It seems like all the other fun bits get much better colloquial forms. Or at least ones that lend themselves better to pillowtalk.

I feel like I need to start a campaign.

Let the comments roll...

So, at what age does residual facial hair morph between edgy, grizzled, and, finally, haggard?

I looked at myself a moment ago, and I feel like I'm jumping that final shark.

I need to go to TED.

No. Really. I'm serious.

"Daddy, what's a witch?"

"Well, there are two types of witches. In stories, there are bad witches that put children in ovens and eat them! But in real life, witches are nice and like trees and playing with kids."

"Oh, so real witches are good?"

"Yep."

"I wanna play with some witches!"