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Messy Mangers

Tim turned me onto this article by Mike Bellah that actually says mess is ok (sloppiness and laziness is not).

Whether it’s fruitful fields or fruitful people, success doesn’t come without a degree of messiness.

The mess we have is our lifes. It is how we live and although I would like to see the mess reduced, we have a messy manger for a reason.

…lives that are always clean and tidy may have the appearance of success, but, in reality, they are empty, lonely places.

Mike Bellah’s article has its roots in Proverbs 14:4

Where no oxen are, the manger is clean. But much increase comes by the strength of the ox.

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True Lost Fans Need to Get Technical

So if you want to catch all of Lost you’d better get yourself a nice cell phone with Verizon and an Apple video iPod!

The deal is a fresh example of the broadcast networks’ rush to embrace portable media — but this time with original content. Disney might have triggered the trend with its groundbreaking deal to make episodes of “Lost” and other Disney programming available on the new video iPod.

I’ll have to wait until the "Lost Video Diaries" come out another way because you couldn’t get me to use a Verizon phone if you sewed it my hand. As for the details of the Lost Video Diaries, "the series will introduce two characters said to be stranded alongside the cast featured on the primetime version." which is a terribly cool concept!

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Lost

Interesting read for those that like to see where all the numbers showup. This was my favorite albeit a little reaching:

Assign each letter of the alphabet a number so that 1 is A, 2 is B, etc. up to 26 for Z. Then wrap back to the beginning so that 27 is A again, 28 is B, 29 is C, and so on.

4: The 4th letter in the alphabet is D
8: The 8th letter in the alphabet is H
15: If you add 4 + 8 + 15, you get 27 which wraps back to A.
16: 4 + 8 + 15 = 27, and 4 + 8 + 15 + 16 = 43. 27 + 43 = 70 which gives you a R.
23: 16 + 23 = 39, which is M.
42: 4 + 8 + 15 + 16 + 23 = 66, and 23 + 42 = 65. 65 + 66 = 131 which is an A.

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Headaches

The school called to report that 25 minutes into the school day Noah has reported a headache. She said it came on outside when he was waiting for the bus. Is there something stressful about the bus ride? Noah stresses over school far too much! It could also be the cold front that has come through. Noah is very sensitive to weather changes. It could also be that the fumes lingering in the house from the burnt popcorn set him off.

I want to get him into a chiropractor. I prefer Barry Bridges (of course, I’m supposed to plug my brother here but 5 hours is a long way to drive for an appointment). Barry has a great approach to Chiropractic and a fantastic bedside manner.

Time to take Tylenol to the school.

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PEeewhew!

The persistent stench in the house reminds me of the time I shutdown the Digital Crossing Building downtown. Yes, I evacuated the Digital Crossing building. See, I was working late and needed a snack but I had been up for a couple of days (wrote an ad server in 4 days complete with campaign management and ..well, that doesn’t matter) so after putting my popcorn in the microwave I went back to programming. After the smoke alarms went off and the building alarms started screaming with the flashing lights saying to "get out" I remembered my popcorn. Then a nice fireman came to walk through the building and make sure everyone else working late knew that I was hungry and needed a snack.

Microwave popcorn left in the microwave beyond the 2 second pop limit (don’t judge it by minutes!) starts to burn. Left too long it mergers into a black block and produces a thick gray smoke. Given enough time I am certain it would erupt into flame. All that aside, burnt popcorn stinks to high heaven!

Microwave popcorn should come with a warning label "if you should be on Ritalin but aren’t, do not use this product!"

My wife said I wasn’t clear. Yesterday, I wanted a snack and put some microwave popcorn in the oven. It said to pop from 1.5 minutes to 4 minutes so I maxed it at 4 knowing that we typically are done in 2. Then an incident happened and I rushed out of the kitchen to forget the popcorn. Those 2 extra minutes almost started a fire! And today the house still reeks and the microwave is going to require extra cleaning. So, I guess I can’t be taught.

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Orwell UK Style

The leap from tracking every vehicle movement 24/7 on UK roads and retaining the information in a database for 2 years to tracking every person’s every movement 24/7 is not that big. From license plate recognition to facial recognition just doesn’t seem that big a deal. Just a tad scary.

I hope my friends, with the office here and in the UK, that work in the camera license plate recognition business are reaping the benefits!