So, on July 4th, on your birthday, this is my wish for America and for Americans – that you remember that the right thing to do morally is almost always the right thing to do pragmatically. There is no choice between "freedom and safety"; there is no choice between prosperity and massive inequality; there is no choice between generosity and fiscal prudence and there is no such thing as "managed free speech".
Be the America the world loved. Be the America you can be proudest of – the one that does not torture, that treats all men as equal and with unalienable rights. Be the America that rebuilt Europe and that lends a helping hand to countries like Afghanistan. Be the America that would never invade a country that had not attacked you first. Be the America that is about lifting all boats and not just a few.
Be that America, and we will all be Americans.
[Source]
Day: July 5, 2007
Good coders reuse code
Who knew the same rule applies to animators?! (link via BoingBoing of course)
It’s good to answer the phone. Sword Swallowing!
I have this mixed luck. I get some of the most horrendous, ill-timed, apparent "bad" luck. But it is all perspective. Yes, the power went out last night and forced me to experience a 4 hour delay; however, I got some much needed sleep and was of clearer mind for it. I do believe strongly in karma as well as outlook.
An Irishman was out walking and stepped in some dog poo. He declared, "look at my great fortune! I could have been wearing my good shoes!"
Two weeks ago I asked if we could go to the Bindlestiff Family Circus. JackFM 95.7 put up a contest which I entered and they drew my name! This is exciting on a variety of levels. One, I rarely win anything. Two, the family gets to do something unique and entertaining! Three, I love the Bijou. I even appear in a fund raising video around the time the future of the Bijou was in question. Four, Sword Swalling and JUGGLING! Thank you JackFM!
Condom testers wanted for new positions
First, no I am not on a condom kick. This story just came out coincidentally close to my anecdote on shopping for condoms with Evan.
You read that headline and think "ew" or "what a cool job!" I whip out my copy of the Kama Sutra to try to figure out what positions they could have possibly left out!
Durex is a great company with the funniest commercials. They impress me most with their website. Unlike their competitors who use bloated, slow loading flash sites, Durex has a clean, fast loading website packaged with educational information (except for their image downloads which despite numerous back and forth emails I cannot convince them that they are broken).
The position is not paid, but successful applicants will receive a free $60 selection of Durex products and will be required to provide the company with honest feedback about the products’ performance. [Source]
You know, I could picture the feedback going something like this: "The condoms were very comfortable. Like they weren’t there at all. Oh, and let me introduce you to Junior. He was conceived about half way through testing. Btw, I recorded that you have about a 43% breakage rate."
Just My Luck
What kind of luck do I have? It’s actually rather good luck but sometimes that is hard to keep in prospective. Murph was in rare form last night. I step away from the computer only to return to black monitors. The power is gone. I try turning on the box and reseting it and I get nothing. I finally figure out that the UPS/SurgeProtector has died died died. A fruitless search for an extra surge protector/power strip leaves me ready to go to Walmart to buy one then I cast eyes on a 3 pronged extension cord. How fortunate! So I plug the extension cord, sans surge protection, into a wall outlet and boot the computer. As the computer is coming up, the entire house goes dark. My first thought, "would the power company cut us off at midnight?!?" Two minutes later the power returns but it takes another 4 hours of troubleshooting to get my computer to actually boot.