Hello, hello, hello
Is there anybody in there?
Just nod if you can hear me.
Is there anyone at home?
Category: Of Interest
Those miscellaneous things that just must be published.
Habits Meme Redux
My wife enjoyed my Habits Meme so much that she’s asked for more.
Pocket Rules:
- If at all possible, I must carry two quarters, a nickle and a dime so that if I become bored I can balance the nickle vertically on a horizontal quarter; then the dime
horizontally on the edge of the nickle; and finally the remaining quarter horizontally on the dime. (click picture to enlarge) - Minimal “pocket stuff”: 2 pocket knives, 1 American Red Cross breathing dam for CPR, 2 sets of keys (1 for each car plus store discount cards etc), loose change (see #1), 1 handkerchief, 1 pen, 1 cell phone and 1 wallet. [I frequently make an effort to leave with only 1 pocket knife, wallet, cell phone and 1 set of keys. I rarely succeed.]
- The pocket knives and ARC equipment go in the front left pocket. If the cell phone cannot clip to a belt it also goes in the front left pocket. Loose change and keys in the front right. Handkerchief and pen in the back right. Wallet in the back left except in crowds when it is moved to the front left. Wallet and keys are removed when sitting down for long periods of time. Wallet and keys are always kept together because when I removed only the wallet I kept leaving the house without it.
- I prefer to have empty pockets so I used to carry a purse (a “man bag!”) which allowed me to carry more stuff including juggling balls, lock picks, kleenex, eye glasses, sunglasses, a pda, and a journal (just to name a few things). My wife didn’t like my man bag. I don’t have a purse anymore. Once I was denied service at K-Mart because I wouldn’t leave my purse at the customer service counter despite it being far smaller than most of the luggage the female customers were carrying. During the scene that ensued more than one woman approached customer service, unprompted, to offer their purses in order to point out the ridiculousness.
- I always pat down my pockets before leaving the house. Two pats to the front pockets; one pat to the back pockets. I can usually tell by feel and jingling if everything is in its place. I’ve been mistaken before and been uncomfortable without the missing item (usually the cell phone) even if it wasn’t needed.
There. Ammunition for my wife to decry OCD.
Blogger comments now with your real name
Blogger, that horrible company which deleted my account without correspondence and which still refuses to answer my emails, doesn’t care about customer service but is very quick to cover their own butts. In answer to Mr. Bush’s further shredding of the Constitution, Blogger comments are now done with your display name instead of your Blogger alias.
National Delurking Week
I have turned off comment moderation to help encourage participation in National Delurking Week. So, let’s see how many readers were lost to the Blogger debacle in which my account and 2 years of drafts were deleted. I call out to you! Delurk! (comments from non-lurkers also encouraged)
Habits Meme
In two years of blogging, I think I’ve done one meme. Barry from the Inn of the Last Home has tagged me.
The “rules†indicate that I should add this portion of text so here you go; enjoy.
The first player of this game starts with the topic “five weird habits of yourself,†and people who get tagged need to write an entry about their five weird habits as well as state this rule clearly. In the end, you need to choose the next five people to be tagged and link to their web journals. Don’t forget to leave a comment in their blog or journal that says “You have been tagged†(assuming they take comments) and tell them to read yours.
My wife thought I may find this one rather challenging. She wondered how I could possibly choose only 5. I agree that I could list far more than 5 so I’m going to focus on the morning habits.
- I wake up chastising myself for sleeping [to long]. I used to wake by jolting from the bed to the center of the room into a fighting stance, often still not fully awake. My roommate in my first apartment found this quite amusing. I wake without an alarm clock usually within minutes of the time I told myself to wake up as I fell asleep. I can fall asleep within seconds of my head hitting the pillow.
- I blow my nose first thing after waking whether I need to or not.
- After blowing my nose, I wipe my right nostril twice; then my left nostril twice; then my right nostril once. Despite my wife mimicing me I can’t stop the habit.
- I drink a half a pot of coffee everyday even if I don’t want the coffee. It used to be two pots a day then I quit cold turkey for a while. I only brew half a pot so that I can’t drink more without concerted effort. I choose my coffee mugs very particularly based on mood and the activity I’ll be doing while drinking.
- I put my right shoe on first. When I was 10 or 11 living in New Orleans with voodoo and superstition, I became convinced that it was bad luck to put your left shoe on before your right. Since then I have laughed off the superstition but never kicked the habit. Occasionally I put the left shoe on first but it is very intentionally going against the grain and often with the inner dialog of “I’m putting on my left shoe first just to show that it doesn’t always have to be the right shoe first.”
Ah! Now comes the tagging. I see there is a “5 weird things about me” meme going around that is similar to this habits meme. So KristyK is absolved.
And I tag: Mackee at Appalachistan, James of Puerilis, Philip of The Blue Sloth, (going on a limb here) Amanda Congdon of RocketBoom, and Juliepatchoulie.
Mom sues Applebee’s for $75k after 5 year old served Long Island Tea
Something about this story stinks.
Pereles said she did not realize her son was drinking a concoction of white rum, gin, vodka, triple sec, Coke and sweet-and-sour mix until it was too late. The boy’s eyes became glazed and he began to laugh uncontrollably
I’ve mixed many Long Island Teas and the best of them never tasted like anything that wouldn’t make a 5 year old sneer. As a parent, I am acutely aware of what my children are being served and if alcohol passed near our table, I’d smell it! I feel like restaurants are simply targets for scammers looking to make a buck off a lawsuit. Perhaps restaurants need warnings from the surgeon general “Warning! Food here is prepared by fallible humans. Despite regular inspections, health hazards such as fingertips in the food or incorrect orders may occur. Cranky, complaining customers are at greater risk. Eat at your own risk.“
Bush Throws Out The First Ammendment – Again
“Annoying someone via the Internet is now a federal crime”
Last Thursday, President Bush signed into law a prohibition on posting annoying Web messages or sending annoying e-mail messages without disclosing your true identity.
I like this exerpt from the article giving some real life scenerios that now could have legal problems:
Think about it: A woman fired by a manager who demanded sexual favors wants to blog about it without divulging her full name. An aspiring pundit hopes to set up the next Suck.com. A frustrated citizen wants to send e-mail describing corruption in local government without worrying about reprisals.
What I find funny is that our government in their lack of understanding keeps trying to create laws for an entity (the Internet) that spans the world and operates within and without our political boundaries and that is in addition to taking away our freedoms as outlined in the Constitution.
If President Bush truly believed in the principle of limited government (it is in his official bio), he’d realize that the law he signed cannot be squared with the Constitution he swore to uphold.
The full law from The Library of Congress. Be sure to read the complete C|Net article.
Father of LSD turns 100 on Wednesday
The New York Times has an interesting article on Albert Hofmann who created LSD. He turns 100 on January 11, 2006 and is still “mentally clear.” He remains a strong advocate of LSD.
Mr. Hofmann calls LSD “medicine for the soul” and is frustrated by the worldwide prohibition that has pushed it underground. “It was used very successfully for 10 years in psychoanalysis,” he said, adding that the drug was hijacked by the youth movement of the 1960’s…
Wikipedia has more information.
Backmasked Lyrics
We’ve all heard that if you play certain music backwards that you can hear hidden messages but have you ever tried it? This person actually went to the trouble of recording his music backwards to find the hidden messages. Technically he just recorded the music then reversed it in Windows Recorder. If you are only going to check out one, let it be Britney Spears “Hit Me Baby One More Time.”
Parent Hacks
Thanks to BoingBoing for welcoming Parent Hacks to the blog scene. Parent Hacks bills themselves as “a collaborative weblog of practical parenting wisdom,” something we all have, need and should share!
