Month: October 2006

  • Challenges of self-employment

    I work as an independent consultant. I do anything involving computers. Typically I build business systems on the Internet such as e-commerce websites. My skills are varied. I have bid on automating assembly lines in factories. I also do repairs such as virus removal on business and home computers. I enjoy project management the most.

    Sometimes clients are slow to pay and in some cases never pay at all. These situations cause difficult cash flow problems and make for uncomfortable decisions at times. This week our websites may temporarily go offline. Cathy’s email and blog may become unavailable as well as Reality Me and a half a dozen or so other sites. We may also be without phone for a bit. I post this so that when it hits the fan you don’t think we fell off the Earth.

    As a minor act of desperation, I have created 3 ad sponsor places on the blog and will keep them there until January 1, 2005. If anyone wants to donate any amount (paypal button below), I will happily fill that space with your advertisement. (that was dumb) Purchasing webhosting via this link could also help.

  • Watch a family grow

    What a cool idea! I have been trying to get Sarah to photograph herself once a day then morph the pictures together in a few years. This family simply takes a picture of everyone in their family once a year. Notice the guy never smiles again after 1978.

  • Strange Inventions

    My current project involves the US Patent Office. In randomly searching patents I came across Patent #5782779 for a vibrating tampon which first showed up in the US Patent Office June of 1947 and is currently not available to the general public because they are "…in the process of developing high speed manufacturing equipment." I would hope the vibrator would have a high speed! The ladies will have to wait until late 2007.

    Btw, I found it randomly after growing tired of looking at Patent #5000000 for Ethanol production by Escherichia coli strains co-expressing Zymomonas PDC and ADH genes.

  • Yikes

    The first dominoe could fall today.

  • New Super Hero

    Two days ago, she was just a normal woman. Now, lightning fires from her butt. I suppose it could have been the chili.

  • Today’s Political Video

    We all know that Google has now purchased YouTube.

    MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., October 9, 2006 – Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) announced today that it has agreed to acquire YouTube, the consumer media company for people to watch and share original videos through a Web experience, for $1.65 billion in a stock-for-stock transaction. Following the acquisition, YouTube will operate independently to preserve its successful brand and passionate community. [Source]

    There’s some CYA! "Yes, we own them but they operate independently so you can’t touch our bank accounts with your lawsuits!" Of course, some questions remain unanswered. If you fear the transition to Google, you can use other services like Dailymotion. So, while you still can, watch Jon Stewart on Bush speeches. The best part of this video starts at 3:33.

    An interest tidbit for you Daily Show lovers. The theme song is performed by none other than They Might Be Giants. The original theme song is "Dog on Fire" by Bob Mould.

  • TIA

    Cathy feels that within 12 months I will have a life altering event.

    They can occur days, weeks or even months before a major stroke. In about half the cases, the stroke occurs within one year of the TIA. [Source]

    What’s a TIA?

    A TIA is a “warning stroke” or “mini-stroke” that produces stroke-like symptoms but no lasting damage. [Source]

    And the symptoms:

    • Sudden numbness or weakness of the face, arm or leg, especially on one side of the body (see the last point with the target reference – that was sudden!)
    • Sudden confusion, trouble speaking or understanding (Sarah)
    • Sudden trouble seeing in one or both eyes (see)
    • Sudden trouble walking, dizziness, loss of balance or coordination (June 19, 2007 actually)
    • Sudden, severe headache with no known cause (Click, Kneed and death)

    Guess I better play a littler harder this next year.

  • Trade Your Guns for Boxing Gloves

    You know. I don’t think I ever feared students shooting up the various schools I attended. I recall fights and stabbings, sex in the theatre sound booth, marijuana in the bathrooms, and cocaine on the desktops. I bought a 10 inch Rambo knife in highschool. But no one talked about having the school shot to pieces. When they talked of putting metal detectors in my middle school there was a public outcry against it. Now the public begs for it and the students practice lockdown drills where they hide under desks.

    I would love to get a peek at the family lives of students that bring guns to schools. Their cries for attention are going to have terrible reprecussions on our already failing school systems.

  • Today’s Non-verbal Communication

    For no apparent reason, Cathy wants me to stand behind the van. And I knew it before she posted this!

  • Sarah did a doubletake!

    Sarah is one of those "must contain all my emotion inside and always look morose" teenagers. She refuses to say "I love you" to anyone and conversation with the parents is totally uncool. Although I have minimized the amount of NPR listening when she is in the car I still force her to hear a little bit about what is happening in the world. She does her best to ignore me.

    As I dropped her off at school this morning I chimed out, "Have a nice day Sarah! I love you!" then as she got out my autotomic brain spouted out, "Have a nice day Noah." Sarah had already begun closing the door and instead of running from the car as quickly as possible like normal, she stopped, turned back to car, opened the door and gave me the quirkiest look wordlessly declaring, "you are the craziest dad in the world!" then went off to school with a smile on her face.

  • The Nietzsche Family Circus

    Family Circus
    Not by wrath does one kill, but by laughter.

    Now this is pure genius!

    The Nietzsche Family Circus pairs a randomized Family Circus cartoon with a randomized Friedrich Nietzsche quote. [Source]

    Note the poor little server is getting hammered. Wired had it. Wonder if it got dugg.

    These are so apropos! Like mirrors into our lives. Big, gigantic mirrors!

  • True Love – Speechless Communication

    When Cathy and I were dating, I could read her mind. How connected! To know one another’s thoughts without speaking a word is bliss.

    All married couples are familiar with this non-verbal communication. It changes a little after tying the knot. Ok, it changes a lot. For instance, when dating, I knew what Cathy needed. Now married, I simply know how angry she is with me.

    The kids have a game called Punch Buggy. We archaic folk know it as Slug Bug and shun the unnecessary "no punch backs" childishness. Our most open communication comes through this game.

    When things are hunky-dory
    Cathy will call Slug Bug and the color and choose a child. No hit thrown of course. Occasionally, for balance, I receive a no hitter. And we all laugh.
    I may have irritated Cathy or she has had a frustrating day
    I get a light punch to the arm.
    I said something stupid
    I will feel a sting, still to the arm.
    I directly confront her, maybe without substance
    She stares into the parking lots like a hawk searching for a mouse and wallops me a good one possibly leaving a bruise. Any body part is fair game.
    My very presence annoys her for no rationale reason
    She will make up seeing a slug bug and magically find one of those Jedi nerve places bringing subtle tears to the corners of my eyes
    I yell at a child, scare her, or momentarily forget where I am
    She waits until we move to the back of the car, then she takes the tailgate and repeatedly slams it on my head. As I falter toward the ground she takes the baby from my hands and storms into Target with the other children leaving me bloody, dizzy, and barely standing in the parking lot. She never tells me the color of the Volkswagen.

    Ah! Now that’s efficient communication.

  • Beware the Intertubes!

    No wonder I can’t get any work done! It’s that 97% thing!

  • Odeo closes Audioblogger

    If you have used Audioblogger (run by Odeo, Inc.) then you need to know that they are closing the service. MP3s made with the service will continue to exist and be hosted but you cannot create anything new. I never realized that Audioblogger wasn’t owned by that evil company Blogger.com.

    Hello,

    As of November 1, 2006, Audioblogger will no longer accept phone calls. MP3s made with the service will continue to be hosted and served but you will no longer be able to use Audioblogger to post new audio.

    Audioblogger is an independent product, run by Odeo, Inc., a small startup company in San Francisco, CA. We are not affiliated with Google or Blogger except that we operate and provide the Audioblogger service.

    Given our limited resources, we have to make tough decisions about what projects to focus on. And we’ve come to the difficult decision that Audioblogger demands too many resources, time, and money for us to continue its operation.

    However, there are several other services that offer similar functionality. Odeo is not affiliated with any of these services, we only suggest them only in hopes that one or the other will be a good alternative for you.

    Gabcast.com is a free service for recording by phone Hipcast.com has a seven day free trial and lots of features Gcast.com is another free service for phone recording

    All of the phone posting services listed above are compatible with Odeo in that they produce podcast feeds, which can be imported to Odeo. Any audio file at Odeo can be posted on a blog by copying and pasting some embed code.

    Odeo would like to extend a huge thank you to everyone who has tried Audioblogger. If you are interested in keeping up with our other blog-friendly projects, please have a look at Twitter.com and our customizable audio players.

    Thanks,
    The Odeo Team

    Links:
    Gabcast – http://gabcast.com
    Hipcast – http://hipcast.com
    Gcast – http://gcast.com
    Odeo Importing – http://www.odeo.com/create/addfeed
    Twitter – http://twitter.com
    Players – http://odeo.com/channel/102054/embedded_player

  • Hot Pants! Lee Can Sell Down Under (but not North America)

    Well now, if you are in Australia (Tim), you can buy these pants. If you are in America, you had better not click that link from work!

    Lee Jeans’ controversial “Lolita” ad poster for spring-summer 2006 has been found acceptable by the Advertising Standards Board.

    “The board (notes) that the woman is over 18, is fully clothed in attire that is fashionable amongst young women for summer, and that there is no nudity,” its determination said.

    “The board also (notes) that consumption of this style of lollipop is now common amongst people over 18.”
    [Source – probably NSFW]

    What nipple?

    Update: Search Flickr for "Lee Jeans Lolita to see more. These pictures show how the American version will have the hint of nipple removed.