Thinking of going into super-villainy, but not sure how to get started? These people have just what you need! (Via Doyce)…
Thinking of going into super-villainy, but not sure how to get started? These people have just what you need!
(Via Doyce)
We got off to the airport on time, despite the usual last-second flurry o’ stuff. About a year ago I started building a “Going on a Trip” checklist on my…
We got off to the airport on time, despite the usual last-second flurry o’ stuff. About a year ago I started building a “Going on a Trip” checklist on my Palm, building on it each time. It actually helps quite a bit in helping us not forget things.
So we’re a few miles from the parking lot at DIA when Margie looks in the back seat of the van and says, casually, “Um, do you think airport security will have a problem with our having a propane tank in the van?”
Um …
So Margie dove into the back and quickly shuffled thing around, burying the tank under the luggage.
Of course, since we were staying in the Cheap Lot, they didn’t even check. But you gotta know that if she hadn’t noticed it, we would have spent the rest of the evening in a brightly lit room with guys in FBI windbreakers …
Margie still got to be the honorary terrorist of the day, as they did the full search, including shoes, and went through her tote bag, while I juggled toddler, two other carry-on bags, and a car seat. It’s all her fault for forgetting that there were a couple of pairs of sewing scissors in the bag.
One thing they didn’t question was the half-full jug of apple juice in the tote. Which is probably just as well, since it was the remainder of the mead which Margie had made.
This camping trip is an annual event, a “Kleerup Organized Activity” (KOA), which originally grew out of a failed Boy Scout outing (failed in terms of not enough kids showing up); the parents who had already carved out the weekend for the trip decided, what the heck, why not do the camp-out. But since it was not going to be an Official Scouting Event, it meant that entire families — including females — could come. And they could have alcohol along. Etc.
This became, as I said, an annual event, and this was the 19th installment. I’ve been going for a bit over half of those. The attendees number usually somewhere around 60-80, though this year we maxed at just under 50. It involves family, friends, family of friends, and friends of family, from both Southern and Northern California (and, of course, Colorado, too). My parents have been going the past four or five years, too, which has made it all the more fun.
When I started attending, we were going to Kings Canyon National Park, but the park management started phasing out group campsites. Then we were going to somewhere in Sequoia, which was lovely but got kind of cold at night.
We’re currently going to a county park at Lake San Antonio, up above Paso Robles, California. While it gets kind of hot, up into the 80s and 90s during the day, the evenings are nice, we’re on a lake (which allows for skiing and tubing), it’s fairly scenic, the Paso Robles wine country is an easy drive, and …
… well, it’s worth noting that this is all considered “camping” only in the most technical of senses. We really do set up tents and sleep on the ground (though Margie and I inflate up an air mattress and have sheets and blankets). But this particular site has running water. And flush toilets. And showers. And electricity.
And we still make use of the Scout Troop’s equipment (and always return it cleaner than we received it). And this is a very well-financed troop, and thus well-equipped. Nice tents. Good cooking tools and supplies.
And we’re not talking Sloppy Joes and hot dogs on a stick here. We’re talking steak. Lamb. Salad bars. Personalized omelets. Smorgasbord. Heck, we did waffles for breakfast Monday morning.
And, as noted in the “Gone Campin'” picture, a full bar.
So, for about $75 a head, you get all the good food you can eat and drink from a Friday night through a Monday morning. Not a bad deal.
Everyone pitches in for camp setup, food prep, and clean-up. And everyone has a good time.
There’s usually a theme for Saturday night. We’ve gone as far as put together game shows, set up a real hardwood dance floor, stage a Highland Games, etc., all with appropriate costumes. Things have gotten a bit less elaborate in the past few years, but we still maintain the “theme” idea. This year it was “Solstice.”
Which is the very elaborate way of explaining the whole mead thing.
This was the first trip to the airport where Katherine recognized airplanes as something interesting. She ran around a lot from window to window, pointing at the “Murkees! Murkees!”
Though we took off at a little after 9 p.m., there was still a purple twilight above the clouds. As I watched Kitten looking out the window at the top of the fluffy clouds, swooshing through a fairy wonderland, I thought about how lucky she was.
She seemed to think so, too.
We had a bunch of grapes for Katherine to nibble on. She immediately tore the plastic bag, which we replaced with one of the convenient barf bags from the seat back in front of us.
Katherine got to sleep in her own tent. That was both because it would be fun for her and because if she were in the tent with us, nobody would sleep. She learned, after the first night, how to unzip the tent flap. Thus, after being put down to sleep the next couple of nights, she had a tendency to rejoin us.
We also had some late night and early morning visits by wild pigs.
Across the hills was the Camp Roberts California Army National Guard Training Site. Well, they sure were training, as we heard the WHUMP of artillery fire each night by flare-light.
On Saturday we went down to the wine country. Margie’s “Uncle Al” is big into wine, and had been in Paso Robles a month or two earlier for some event. He’d arranged a private tasting for us at a new winery in town. We didn’t realize they hadn’t actually built the winery part yet, and we ended up drinking some very nice Syrah and Zin blends, plus a Zin dessert wine, out on the gent’s back porch.
Last year Margie and I took off a second day for our own personal wine tour. That was fun, but this year we spent Sunday up in camp. More relaxing, and it gave me a chance to go out in the boat with Katherine and my folks. I went tubing, which was properly exhilarating (and exhausting). Katherine sacked out for most of the trip, but she enjoyed watching me being bashed around on the waves. Pictures will follow.
It was a great weekend. A lot of fun. The grandparents loved being able to spend the time with the Kitten (and we loved being able to let her do it).
When going on vacation, change the setting on “how many days should the main page show?” for your blog, so that folks don’t come back to your page three or…
When going on vacation, change the setting on “how many days should the main page show?” for your blog, so that folks don’t come back to your page three or four days later and see a whole lot of sidebar and nuthin’ else.
Hi, guys. I’m back. More in a bit …
I’m off in the air, in a car, in the woods, in a car, and in the air again until Tuesday evening. In lieu of your Regularly Scheduled ***Blog, might…
I’m off in the air, in a car, in the woods, in a car, and in the air again until Tuesday evening.
In lieu of your Regularly Scheduled ***Blog, might I instead recommend some viewing from the Link List o’ Alternatives down the left-hand side. You find me interesting, I find them interesting, perhaps … well, you do the aesthetic calculus.
So have fun …
… I know I will.
Now it can be told … again! Back in the dim, dusty, dark ages of my life, along about Summer 1994, my company got access to the Internet via e-mail….
Now it can be told … again!
Back in the dim, dusty, dark ages of my life, along about Summer 1994, my company got access to the Internet via e-mail. It was good timing, since I was seriously burnt-out from a six-month field assignment full of 18-hour days and bitter, hostile clients. I dove in like a drowning man to a swimming pool.
But at the time, I had a problem. Y’see, everyone on the Internet has a sig line. This has faded — slightly — at least in the circles I circle. But in those days, it seemed the bigger the sig line the better. Big, elaborate ASCII-art. Multiple boxes with names, addresses, pithy Blake’s 7 quotes.
Lots of which was obviously designed around an earlier era of fixed-pitch display fonts.
So Dave needed a sig line. But nothing that would look goofy and ragged on the right when translated into Times Roman.
Ever the imaginative graphics designer, I realized that a fixed, left-margin text border would look cool, and would translate into any font.
So …
*** Dave Hill
*** dhill@pas01.mycompany.com
*** “Reality takes its toll …
*** … please have exact change.”
And so it went.
And eventually I was typing “*** Dave” enough that I was using it even in company e-mail (which, in those days, was still a minority of my traffic).
And now you know the rest of the story.
(Note that, properly speaking, there should be a space between the third asterisk and the capital D. In most display cases, though, like on the page title, I leave the space out, since, in those cases, that looks better. Irritatingly enough, though, Google ignores asterisks in its searches.)
(This is a repeat of a post from last October, reprinted here so that I can link to it from the Archives page.)
From: Christine Hall Re: http://bears-cave.com Did you know that http://bears-cave.com is not listed on some search engines?No, I didn’t. Doyce is such a slacker. TrafficMagnet is the market leader within…
From: Christine Hall
Re: http://bears-cave.com
Did you know that http://bears-cave.com is not listed on some search engines?
No, I didn’t. Doyce is such a slacker.
TrafficMagnet is the market leader within the search engine submission industry. TrafficMagnet could automatically submit http://bears-cave.com to more than 300,000 search engines and directories – every month! Specialized in providing search engine submission services TrafficMagnet offers cost-effective web promotion solutions to customers all over the world.
Huh. I wonder why he hasn’t done it, then.
TrafficMagnet is offering its unique and competitive search engines submission services for as little as $19.95 per month!
He’s a slacker and he’s a cheapskate.
But he’s still a nice guy. You don’t have to work through an intermediary, Christine. You can just e-mail him directly. He doesn’t bite. Hard.
Of course, if you want to cut me in on some of that $19.95 per month action, I’d be happy to be a go-between …
The inimitable Stacy at Sekimori has moved her Blogatelle weblog. Update your links, give her a visit, giver her a read. Good stuff….
The inimitable Stacy at Sekimori has moved her Blogatelle weblog. Update your links, give her a visit, giver her a read. Good stuff.
You are Fozzie!Wokka Wokka! You love to make lame jokes. Your sense of humor might be a bit off, but you’re a great friend and can always be counted on..Take…
 | You are Fozzie! |
(I’ve always thought of myself more as the Kermit type, but I can live with being Fozzie. Indeed, I think I’d prefer to …)
(Via Ian)
The Skyscraper Database…
NPR is learning the cost of trying to ban un-registered links to its page: a storm of protest, bad press, and — of course — additional unregistered links. Quoth the…
NPR is learning the cost of trying to ban un-registered links to its page: a storm of protest, bad press, and — of course — additional unregistered links.
Quoth the NPR Ombudsman:
“… NPR does not refuse links but it just wants to make sure that the links are appropriate to a noncommercial and journalistic organization.”
That’s not your call, any more than its the call of someone whom you are quoting in a news story to determine whether your quotations are appropriate to what sort of person or orgainzation they purport to be.
“We wouldn’t want a commercial outfit to use us in any way they pleased.”
What sort of ways are you envisioning? Your material is still copyrighted — use of the material beyond established Fair Use doctrine is already actionable.
He acknowledged that some commercial sites link to NPR — Yahoo, for instance — but “they have an underwriting relationship with us,” he said.
Aha. Here’s the meat of the matter, perhaps. If you don’t underwrite, you shouldn’t be linking. Well, folks, there’s a simple way around that — make yourself a pay site. Others have (albeit with mixed success).
It isn’t only commercial activity that concerns NPR. Asked if a link from someone’s noncommercial homepage would bother the company, Dvorkin said: “It depends on your homepage — what if you’re an advocate for left-handed socialist diabetics? We wouldn’t want to give support to advocacy groups.”
You report news. Information. If there is information that someone wants to use to advocate a point, that’s not your worry, is it? Indeed, don’t you want folks talking about something they heard on NPR?
Heck, do you propose that libraries not allow anyone to check out books because they could be used to advocate a particular position?
Don’t you, in fact, in addition to news, run commentary pieces that advocate certain positions?
What the hell does this mean?
“It’s part of keeping our integrity that our journalism remain noncommercial, and we’re not engaged in advocacy in any way,” Dvorkin explained.
If you are so afraid of a commercial site somehow profiting from a link to your page, or that someone might quote (or link to) an NPR article to advocate some position or another — then get the hell off the web. Heck, better shut down your broadcasts, too.
Still, NPR will continue to require that every site — whether it’s commercial or not, advocates a position or doesn’t — still ask permission. Why? “Because we want to keep track of who’s doing it — so says our law department.”
There’s this great device called “Google”? Maybe you’ve heard of it. Or perhaps your referrer logs could be used — the guys down in IT can explain that, too.
What about the folks who link without registering?
“Well, they’ll have to live with the guilt forever,” Dvorkin said, only half-jokingly. “I don’t think we’re going to chase them down into county court. But (seeking permission) is a matter of respect and honor for what we’re trying to do here.”
Since I don’t respect or honor this sort of intrusiveness, I guess that means I don’t have to do it, right?
Jerks.
(Via Boing Boing)
You know those al-Qa’eda folks the Saudis claimed to have captured earlier in the week (Huzzah for our Saudi allies!)? The ones who claimed to have flubbed a shoulder-mounted SAM…
You know those al-Qa’eda folks the Saudis claimed to have captured earlier in the week (Huzzah for our Saudi allies!)? The ones who claimed to have flubbed a shoulder-mounted SAM firing at US aircraft taking off from a Saudi base (Huzzah for our Saudi allies!)? The first al-Qa’eda folks to be arrested by the Saudis since 15 Saudi al-Qa’eda members participated in the 9-11 attacks (Huzzah for our finally-getting-off-their-butts Saudi allies!)?
Saudi Arabia has announced it will not let anyone, including the US, question them.
Expect confessions, followed by summary beheadings, as has happened with previous apprehended terrorists with connections to attacks on US citizens and installations. Whatever other information they may have will go with them to their graves.
Yeah. Some allies.
The makers of M&Ms have announced that the color purple has been selected as the new M&M color, beating out pink and teal, er, cyan, er, aqua. Some 10…
The makers of M&Ms have announced that the color purple has been selected as the new M&M color, beating out pink and teal, er, cyan, er, aqua.
Some 10 million people in 200 countries voted. The final tally:
Purple : 41%
Aqua : 37%
Pink : 19%
I’m not sure what color got the remaining 3% …
The official kick-off is in August, when purple will join with red, blue, brown, green, orange, and yellow.
For those of you who voted for some other color, despair not: my guess is that we’ll see another “election” within two years. And, in the meantime, you can order whatever color combos you want from a selection of 21 that includes cream, teal, silver, black, and gold.
Circuit City has announced that it will no longer sell movies on VHS. It’s the first retailer to do so, but it certainly won’t be the last….
Circuit City has announced that it will no longer sell movies on VHS. It’s the first retailer to do so, but it certainly won’t be the last.
Judge Kollar-Kotelly asked both sides in the States-versus-Micro$oft hearings to, in their summaries, discuss possible compromises in their positions. The states complied, ranking in importance the various remedies they’re seeking….
Judge Kollar-Kotelly asked both sides in the States-versus-Micro$oft hearings to, in their summaries, discuss possible compromises in their positions.
The states complied, ranking in importance the various remedies they’re seeking.
Micro$oft’s lawyers basically said, “Screw you.”
Yeah, that was smart.
The M$ position is that they compromised as far as they possibly could in their sweeheart deal with the DoJ. “We have been through this. We negotiated. We went as far as we can go,” their lead counsel said. “That’s the deal.”
No … the “deal” in this case is not what they can browbeat a business-friendly DoJ into, but what the federal judge who has to agree to the settlement says the “deal” is.
M$ may feel that by standing their ground, by continuing their corporate behavior as “We set the rules, you follow them” in court, they won’t have to give up anything.
Here’s hoping they learn just how wrong they are.
It’s time for The Thursday Thumb-Twiddler: 1. You receive notification of jury duty. Do you go willingly, or do you try and find some way to beg off (or get…
It’s time for The Thursday Thumb-Twiddler:
1. You receive notification of jury duty. Do you go willingly, or do you try and find some way to beg off (or get yourself disqualified)? What if you were told that the case you were being impaneled for might go on for months?
Okay, so I picked this one on purpose, in reaction to the incessant searches here for “how to get out of jury duty.”
Note the last word of that phrase. “Duty.” The concept of “duty” has fallen on hard times in our present-day society, since it implies having to do something that you don’t really want to, or being coerced by cruel parents, evil governments, or oppressive social systems into great self-sacrifice, drudgery, unhappiness, or (gads) inconvenience.
You see where I’m going here …
Most people consider themselves more intelligent than average, wiser than average, smarter than average, of better judgment than average.
Why would you rob the criminal justice system of that talent?
If it were you sitting there in the dock, or you sitting there as the crime victim, or surviving relative thereof, wouldn’t you want the smartest, wisest, most discerning-of–bullshit people in the jury box? Damn straight.
Colorado has what I would want to see as a national minimum standard: one day/one trial. When you get called, (assuming, when you call the county number the night before that you actually are told you have to go in), you are in the pool for only one day or, if selected, for the duration of that case. Colorado state law also requires that employers pay up to three days of regular wages.
It’s not enough, of course. Frankly, either employers or the taxpayers should pay normal wages for however long it takes. This is crime and punishment we’re talking here. Innocent people possibly about to be locked up in slammer. Guilty beasts possibly about to be let back out on the streets. Not a lot is more important than that, folks.
“But it’s inconvenient!” Tell it to the unjustly accused defendent, or the crime victim.
“But my business will fall apart!” Then you’re doing something wrong with your business. That’s your concern, not society’s.
It always used to disgust me, a decade or two ago, when my employer, which wrapped itself up in patriotic colors and concern over society’s ills, which was run by a “compassionate conservative” contributor to various causes and associate of various high government officials, had a well-known but unwritten policy of “If you get a jury summons, HR will write an excuse letter for you, claiming it will be a hardship because we won’t pay you.”
Bastards.
If your local laws are less generous, I strongly urge you to write your state reps. If they’re conservative, play up the law-and-order aspects. If they’re liberal, play up the hardship angle.
But in the meantime, just do it. Just do it. If it’s inconvenient, or troublesome, or you just plain have to take a vacation day or two — just do it.
Because what’s the alternative? Leave the jury system to the unemployed, the retired, the idle? Just trust that “somebody else” will do it?
Now, if it’s going to be a few months … well, I can understand reluctance. There are very, very few people for whom that wouldn’t be a real hardship. But if it’s at all possible, it should be done.
Because, at the risk of making people run for the hills — it’s a duty. Suck it up and do it.
UPDATE (a few minutes later): If you need to get out of jury duty, plead the truth. If you’re going to lie about it, then make sure it’s for a damned solid reason. People who intentionally and falsely disqualify themselves just to avoid the inconvenience are assholes, in my opinion. And one of these days I may have the balls to tell them that to their face.
2. Would you be willing to give up sex for one year if you knew it would give you a much deeper sense of peace than you have now?
Define “sex.” (Yes, I realize I wrote the question.) I have gone for (over) a year without sex, by some, even many definitions.
But that was a different time, and I now have the convenient excuse of having (if I can use the word) certain duties. Even if I knew to a certainty that remaining celebate for a year would give me peace, happiness, moral clarity and a big raise, that’s not a decision that I could make on my lonesome. My sexuality is intermingled with someone else’s right now, and she’s got something to say in the matter.
3. What’s the most violent television show you watch? What about the most sexually graphic?
(This question was inspired by the web info in the last few days that violent and graphic shows tend to interfere with folks’ ability to remember commericials — which may actually be a good thing.)
Problem is, I don’t watch much TV regularly enough to be able to point to many shows that I “watch” — and a lot of those, these days, are on Nickelodeon and Disney …
I’d probably say “Farscape” for both, which is pretty sad.
One of our network admins has three or four monitors up on his desk. And one of them, I noticed a few weeks back, regularly has a “Blue Screen of…
One of our network admins has three or four monitors up on his desk. And one of them, I noticed a few weeks back, regularly has a “Blue Screen of Death” (BSOD) error up on it.
It’s none of my lookout, of course, but I expressed sympathy. “Yeah, it happens all the time,” he said, solemnly. “I’ve got this special program running that reboots it after it happens, but it still happens all the time.”
And, indeed, after a few moments it started going through a boot sequence.
This cycle of commiseration and “How’s it going fixing that?” goes on for a few weeks.
Yesterday, I said, sympathetically, “Oh, man, you got that BSOD again. I’m really sorry.”
He shrugged. “It’s a screen saver.” He tapped a key, and it popped to a login prompt.
I stared, like I’d been hit by the proverbial pole-ax. He smiled. In his usual, quiet, solemn tones, he said, “Gotcha.”
Revenge will come. Not today. Not tomorrow. But it will come.
(It’s actually a really cool screen saver. If I could think of an application for it that wouldn’t get me into big trouble, I’d get a copy from him.)
Another Q&A via the tinyblog 1. Do you believe in God? I mean like…a being that embodies all goodness that one can relate to personally, not some amorphous ‘jedi force’…
Another Q&A via the tinyblog
1. Do you believe in God? I mean like…a being that embodies all goodness that one can relate to personally, not some amorphous ‘jedi force’ principle.
Yup.
2. If you have some other conception of God then as a being, then what does it look like? How do you interface with it? Do you have some kind of persistant connection to it?
Hmmm. Wouldn’t a being be looked at?
I don’t think it’s possible to relate to God as a Great, Omnipotent, Amorphous, Being-Beyond-All-Being. That’s why, for example, God shows up in the Bible in a variety of odd forms, be it Burning Bush or Strange Visitors (or, if you will, a carpenter’s son).
By the same token, thinking of God as just a Burning Bush or a Golden Calf or an old man sitting on a park bench has its own perils. God is beyond gender, to take a basic example, so once you start labeling God as male, you run the risks of (a) placing limits on God’s nature, and (b) making assumptions about God based on those limits.
So it’s tough for humans to have a personal relationship without, let’s say, gender being involved, because gender is a fundamental element of so many of our relationships. We just have to be careful not to let an image of God as Stern, White-Bearded Father make us think that’s all God is.
Frankly, when I have conversations with God, She looks a lot like Mother Nature from the old Parkay commercials. I don’t for a second think that’s all She is, but it gives me some personal hooks to relate to her.
3. What (if any) established faiths do you participate in, or have dabbled in, or have observed enough to get some insight into?
Well, various branches of Christianity, of course, particularly on the Catholic/Episcopal end of things. I know a bit about Judaism, but not enough about Islam to make any but the broadest and benign of generalizations. My knowledge of Hinduism, Buddhism, and Shinto is pretty artificial. I have a passing knowledge, mostly through reading, and partly from acquaintances and friends, of various branches of neo-paganism.
4. What is your view on religious traditions?
Traditions give us continuity and structure. They help us be something bigger than we, individually, are. They give us guidance and order.
Hey, whaddya expect? I’m a Catholic-turned-Episcoapalian. We’re all hot on tradition.
Traditions, though, can also be straitjacket and blinders.
Discard traditions with care. They are precious. But don’t let tradition do all your thinking for you.
5. What do you make of John 14:6? ‘Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.’ (NIV)
I don’t think it means that if you aren’t a card-carrying Christian that you are trapped on a life-bus straight to the Fiery Furnace.
If you look in context, I think the emphasis is on I, not on the. Jesus is the one who’s there, talking to the Apostles. He is their way to access God and to know what God wants. They are called upon to follow him, to do what he does, to live as he preaches.
That doesn’t mean that Jesus is the only way, in my book. This particular passage has been used far too much as a club, rather than an inspiration.
6. Either inside or outside these traditions, what can one do to deepen their connection to their life or spirituality?
I’ve found that the way to deepen one’s spiritual life is to be spiritual. We are what we do (and we do what we are). That doesn’t necessarily mean going to church every Sunday, though that can be an element of it. It does mean that if you don’t think about the spiritual side of life, you’re not likely to have much of one.
7. Do you believe that there is some stream of conciousness that continues after your biological body becomes a corpse, or do you believe that conciousness is an illusion generated by biological processes that will stop when those processes stop? Feel free to elaborate. (Simple version: do you die completely or continue on?)
I believe the soul/self continues its existence after this life here. We get to find out what our grade was, if we have to take the class over, or if we can move on to the next lesson.
8. How (if at all) do your spiritual beliefs alter or influence your behavior?
I have a hard time thinking of how spiritual beliefs would not influence one’s behavior.
I try to comport myself with others in accord with my beliefs. I try to be virtuous, not because it puts me at some sort of practical advantage, but because my spiritual beliefs inform me that I should be virtuous.
9. How do you think spirituality relates to sexual conduct? What is the highest purpose of sex?
What is the highest purpose of eating? Of laughing? Of playing the violin?
Sex is part of what we are. Sex is. It’s not, per se, evil or good. That’s determined by what we do with it and through it. My spirituality affects my sexual behavior to the extent that it tells me what is good and what is evil behavior. Intentionally and meaningfully hurting someone is evil. Betraying a trust is evil. Not taking responsibility for my actions is evil. Nurturing my relationship with my spouse is good. Making my spouse happy is good. Responsibly and consensually procreating is good.
10. What do you think is the purpose of a human life? How do you think you are fulfilling it?
To learn how to be what God intends us to be. I strongly suspect it takes us more than “three-score years and ten” to do so.
I think I’m doing okay. I also think I’m still in kindergarten, if that far along.
11. What makes you get up and keep doing it every day? Are there any circumstances under which you would want to stop doing so?
I have a responsibility to my wife and child.
I enjoy life.
I can do good to others.
If those conditions — all those conditions — change, then I don’t know as I wouldn’t be ready for the end of the term.
12. What is the most important thing life has taught you? (Please no platitudes…I’d rather hear something very small and personal life has taught you than a rehash of The Golden Rule.)
The most important?
We cannot control life. The most we can try to control — and what we have a responsibility to control — is our reaction to it.
Donald Rumsfeld, our Secretary of Defense, is irked that he had to pay $60,000 to accountants to fill out Office of Government Ethics forms. Given that the disclosure forms noted…
Donald Rumsfeld, our Secretary of Defense, is irked that he had to pay $60,000 to accountants to fill out Office of Government Ethics forms. Given that the disclosure forms noted that he had to sell between $20.5 million and $91 million in assets last year to avoid a conflict of interests, I’m really not too sympathetic toward his cause.
Yet another meme … 1. Popcorn at the movies: buttered or not? Unbuttered popcorn is only usable for packing material. Lots of butter, lots of salt. If it isn’t too…
1. Popcorn at the movies: buttered or not?
Unbuttered popcorn is only usable for packing material. Lots of butter, lots of salt. If it isn’t too buttery and too salty at the bottom of the box to actually eat, you’re doing something wrong.
2. Sometimes you feel like a nut..sometimes you don’t…Mounds or Almond Joy?
Why would I mess up perfectly good chocolate and coconut by putting a big whonking almond in the middle of it. Bleah.
(Of course, Mounds can hardly be called perfection in either chocolate or coconut, but you get the idea.)
3. Chips or pretzels?
Pretzels. Not my favorite in the world, but most chips are too salty and greasy for me. Salt and grease are for french fries and popcorn, not for potato chips.
4. Milky Way or Snickers?
Milky Way, if need be. Both are a bit too prefabricated for my taste.
5. M&M’s or Reese’s Pieces?
If there’s one thing worse than cheap chocolate, it’s cheap peanut butter. M&Ms, definito.
6. McDonald’s or Burger King?
As a former BK worker, I should vote for the latter. I do still love the taste of a Whopper (no tomato), and I like what BK’s done with its fries. But I regularly find the upkeep and cleanliness of the BKs in the area sorely lacking. And, let’s face it, if you can stare Death in the face by eating a McDonalds double-beef cheeseburger, then you’ll know you are a man, my son.
7. Vanilla Coke or Pepsi Twist?
Haven’t tried the latter yet, but the former (first tried this weekend) was decently tasty. I’d prefer a real Coke with a bit of vanilla syrup, though.
8. Hostess Twinkies or Cupcakes?
Actually, I’m a Ho-Ho or Ding-Dong Man, myself, but I’ll settle for the Cupcakes.
9. Hershey’s Kisses or Hugs?
Kisses. Bad white chocolate is more distasteful than bad milk chocolate.
10. Original Mountain Dew or Code Red?
Um … I’ll just have some ice water, please.
Could it be? Some recent studies indicate that folks don’t remember commercials as well if the show is graphically violent or sexual. More visceral content seems to distract viewers from…
Could it be? Some recent studies indicate that folks don’t remember commercials as well if the show is graphically violent or sexual. More visceral content seems to distract viewers from the ad messages.
In some ways, that’s almost a no-brainer (literally), but nobody seems to have thought of it before now.
So, will advertisers …
… force TV producers to tone down the sex and violence?
… pump up the sex and violence in their ads to somehow beat out the distraction? (That doesn’t seem to work, but …)
… ignore the study and figure that more people are watching shows that have sex and violence in them so they’d better advertise there?