Slippery Slope

Anyone tried Line Rider yet? It's a little on-line Flash "toy" that has become a bona fide, world wide, phenomena. Supervisors across the country are cursing the day young Boštjan Čadež unleashed his class project on the masses. It's only been around for 2 months and already written up in Time. The idea is pretty simple: draw a line with a pencil from the top left corner of the screen to the bottom right. You're essentially creating a ski slope. When you think you're done, press the PLAY button. A little joyrider on a sled drops down and attempt to run the course you just created. It's a cute little time killer...at first. Then it gets serious. Then it becomes a compulsion. Go ahead, give it a try.

Now imagine coming up with something like this. That's serious physics folks. I have trouble keeping the little guy/gal from falling off a straight line.

As God as my witness, I thought turkeys could fly

WKRP Thanksgiving Turkey Drop

Meister Eckhart

"If the only prayer you said in your whole life was, "thank you", that would suffice."

Happy Thanksgiving.

Visually Correct

I had my eyes evaluated for Laser Vision Correction this week. I think we're both going to do it. In fact, when I give my name to the receptionist at check in, she says: "Oh, hi! I met your wife this morning. She was so nice. She already scheduled surgery, for both of you, for this Saturday. Hope your eval goes well."

I go through the battery of tests and examinations. My eyeballs were thoroughly poked and probed and rendered in 3D. But in the end, it did go well. The Doc said my eyes are perfect for the procedure. She gave me a 95-98% chance of 20/20 vision. Those are darn good odds to work with. Although, when I ask how many people end up with worse vision afterwards, she looks at me like she hasn't been asked that question before, and says: "Not many".

So, I'm back at the front desk to finish the paperwork and check out. That same receptionist is assisting me. She looks up and says: "There's a $100 deposit to hold your surgery slot. Your wife said you'd take care of that for both of you."

Thanks hon'. Who's your daddy?

Effectuation

I haven't exactly decided what I want this blog to accomplish. Update family? Keep in touch with friends? Discuss politics? Film? Computational Chemistry? Maybe I'll make it a revealing on-line diary that will allow me to confess the scintillating details of my life for the world to read; and then post feedback on. I don't think so.

Right now, what I'm actually leaning towards, is...Nothing. (I know, so Seinfeld.)

According to Wikipedia, as of this August, blog search Technorati was tracking almost 60 million blogs world wide. I'm pretty sure I don't have much of anything new to add to the Blogosphere. I might just post whatever I feel like, whenever the posting mood strikes. Hence that last little Jay-Z blurb. (My friend, Kenny Joel, sent that to me in an unrelated email and that was my response to him. That big hand just cracked me up.) I've already posted a lot more than I expected. And I have a bunch of unpublished notes that are waiting to be edited. I'll just have to see how things progress. Though, in all likelihood, I'll get bored with this in a few months.

Oh well. It's a fun little experiment for now.

Cristal Is For Poseurs.

What the hell is up with Jay-Z's gianormous hand? That's the biggest flipper I've ever seen. Jay has Sasquatch knuckles. I guess Even Rap Stars Get The Blues; except it's his whole hand. I bet that mungo paw has to be in his top 5 problems. Although, it probably comes in handy when he's slapping Beyonce's colossal rump! Who's your daddy?

No For An Answer

"Do, or do not. There is no try." I heard someone use this geeky Star Wars quote on the radio last week. Yoda voice and all. It caught my attention because I recently adopted a similarly geeky saying: "If the answer isn't yes, then it's no." It just helps everyone I communicate with. It's annoying to not get an answer. "OK, sure, that's good. Or we could...how about...maybe we should...but..." Uhg. Why's it so hard to say "no"? And if I don't really mean no, then how about: "Yes, I'd really like that". It's great to hear something like that. "Sure, I certainly can do that for you today." It's too bad I'm usually surprised by a response like that. "Umm, yeah, that sounds...'OK'". That really means "no" and we all know it.

This is another of my new life enhancements: Give honest responses to the people I'm talking with. Oh! And not be afraid to commit to an answer. That's a big part of why I hesitate and not answer honestly. I'm finding, however, it's harder to do than expected.

I think we, as message "senders" and "receivers" tend to miss things when we're trying to interpret a message. It's not one person's fault either. We have to interpret the message were getting. But things can actually get lost in translation. Or, we add things during the translation that the sender didn't intend. I might insert what I think the sender is "really" trying to say. Then I sometimes overreact to what I'm hearing. That's just as wrong. Either way, the message gets mucked up. And that can cause confusion with family, friends, co-workers, whomever we're communicating with. We need to make ourselves understood, but people need to hear the point we are conveying. If the answer isn't "yes", then it's "no". I know it's a little more complicated than that, but it's something I can repeat to myself when I'm in the middle of an interaction; whether I'm the speaker or the listener. I think it's helping. Although I've been saying it out loud to my wife and I think she's getting a little annoyed with it.

(PS: Reminds me of my 80's hardcore days.)

Ascending

I'm usually looking down at the activity on the Mississippi River and the Robert St. Bridge. That's my office, in the left corner, on the 8th floor. Lately, I've been trying to look up a lot more. I think it was Albert Einstein who said:

"There are two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle."


This morning, after I parked my car under the bridge, I was glad I looked up.

Inaugural

Today is the greatest day. The first day of the rest of my life, right? As clichéd as that sounds, it's totally true. And something's going on that has made me think about it each new morning for a while now.

"My future starts when I wake up every morning. Every day I find something creative to do with my life." - Miles Davis

So today, along with a few other, what I'm calling "life enhancements", I decided to start my own blog.