I spent the past 2 weeks in California for work. I created some posts while I was there but waited until I was home to post them.
Amanda was able to fly out for Valentines Day weekend and we had a great time.
X's Aunt T is the best Aunt ever because she stayed and watched him while we were out gallivanting the California coastline.
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Monday, February 16, 2009
dirty knick knacks
So Amanda and I were walking along the tourist traps at Fisherman's Wharf. All of a sudden she starts laughing and I ask her what's so funny. She points out that in the glass display case we just passed there are small porcelain figurines the size of a kiwi that are of a man and a woman in various sexual positions. This is awesome! There must be 50 of them there all laid (hee hee) out for people to see and buy! Cool!
So I think, hey, why don't I take a picture of this! So of course I do, at Amanda's disapproval. I would have seen the eye rolling or heard the sighing if I'd have been paying attention to anything except the x-rated knick knacks in front of me. It's not like I wanted to buy one!
I get my picture and we keep on walking. We are back in the parking garage waiting and waiting and waiting to leave so I thought hey, let's review today's pictures. So we flip through them and we get to the pornographic knick knacks and Amanda's telling me I have to delete it.
C: What? What are you talking about? No way?
A: Oh yea? Well what if Xander sees it on the computer. (sidenote - at home we have our pc's screensaver set to the top level folder where all our pictures are --so eventually it would pop up--pun intended)
C: So. He's not going to know any better.
A: Well, if he were to see us *cough* *ahem* he wouldn't know any better either, but we wouldn't do that in front of him now would we?
C: No.
A: No, because he would think it's happy hugging time and jump on in!
God, I'm laughing as I type this! She killed me with that one. So I guess I'll delete the picture.
So I think, hey, why don't I take a picture of this! So of course I do, at Amanda's disapproval. I would have seen the eye rolling or heard the sighing if I'd have been paying attention to anything except the x-rated knick knacks in front of me. It's not like I wanted to buy one!
I get my picture and we keep on walking. We are back in the parking garage waiting and waiting and waiting to leave so I thought hey, let's review today's pictures. So we flip through them and we get to the pornographic knick knacks and Amanda's telling me I have to delete it.
C: What? What are you talking about? No way?
A: Oh yea? Well what if Xander sees it on the computer. (sidenote - at home we have our pc's screensaver set to the top level folder where all our pictures are --so eventually it would pop up--pun intended)
C: So. He's not going to know any better.
A: Well, if he were to see us *cough* *ahem* he wouldn't know any better either, but we wouldn't do that in front of him now would we?
C: No.
A: No, because he would think it's happy hugging time and jump on in!
God, I'm laughing as I type this! She killed me with that one. So I guess I'll delete the picture.
Sunday, February 15, 2009
stuff I noticed about myself in California
Traveling to California these past 2 weeks has hammered home a point with me as a person. I don't dress cool anymore. Not that I was ever on the cutting edge of fashion, but I thought that I had some semblance of a cool, grungy, hippie look. I was in Boston a couple of months ago for work and walked around Harvard Square and had similar thoughts. However, I stalled this train of thought with the idea it was just an east coast phenomenon. My latest trip to the west coast has confirmed my fears that I'm just a working stiff that tucks in a collared shirt everyday.
Just a few random thoughts that I have that tell me I'm completely out of it...
1. Tell me, when in the hell did tight jeans become the in thing for guys too?
2. I hate uggs.
3. Why is it that the bigger your sunglasses, the cooler you are? Why don't you just walk around with a tinted windshield on your nose? Just wear it as a necklace and have a strap at the top and wear it like a headband.
4. How many people fit in Doc Brown's DeLorean time machine? You must be able to pack them in like sardines because they all went back to 1955 and forgot to unroll their pants from the flooding.
5. What is this emo crap? Is this the goth replacement?
Is anybody else out there in the same boat?
Just a few random thoughts that I have that tell me I'm completely out of it...
1. Tell me, when in the hell did tight jeans become the in thing for guys too?
2. I hate uggs.
3. Why is it that the bigger your sunglasses, the cooler you are? Why don't you just walk around with a tinted windshield on your nose? Just wear it as a necklace and have a strap at the top and wear it like a headband.
4. How many people fit in Doc Brown's DeLorean time machine? You must be able to pack them in like sardines because they all went back to 1955 and forgot to unroll their pants from the flooding.
5. What is this emo crap? Is this the goth replacement?
Is anybody else out there in the same boat?
stuff I noticed while in California for 2 weeks.
Do you know what California has an abundance of? Toyota Prius's and graffitti. They are everywhere. Stop at any traffic light in silicon valley and you'll spot one or the other. Or both.
wife swap
Do you ever watch wife swap? A couple of weeks ago Hugs and I caught parts of an episode where the hosting husband was a complete jerk, http://tv.yahoo.com/blog/husbands-behaving-badly--120. I couldn't get over what an ass this guy was.
One characteristic that makes a person good, is when they can get along and understand people across the classes.
One characteristic that makes a person good, is when they can get along and understand people across the classes.
Friday, February 13, 2009
you know what's funny???
You want to know what's funny? Two grown men acting like 3 year olds. It went like this, Brat 1 is moving equipment around in the lab getting it arranged just so. What Brat 1 doesn't realize is that he's not the only one who uses this equipment or this lab space. I considered it quite a futile effort...but that's just me.
Brat 2 comes in and says "don't bury that simulator back in there, we need to use it with these *crummy* testers."
"It's not made for those testers, it was designed to work with these *cool* testers."
"No it's not."
"Yes it is."
"No it's not."
"Yes it is. It was designed to work with the *cool* testers" (--sidenote --he is so full of crap)
"No it's not."
"Yes it is."
Brat 2 finally realizes this is going nowhere and says "well the simulator needs to be out where everyone can access it" and walks away.
Brat 1 not wanting to be out done, tries to get the last word in by says "well, it's not supposed to be!". He then carries on to me about how he's right and Brat 2 is wrong after Brat 2 has walked away. Like I care.
At this point I give a mental sigh of relief, thinking, aaaah --the awkward moment is over. I can stop admiring the white tile with flecks of gray.
Aaah, and here's the best part: within 1 minute both of them were on their cellphones calling Daddy to tattle on the other one. Well, Brat 1 was, I couldn't hear Brat 2, but if I were a betting man.....
So to enlighten you readers out there....first, I did not play the roll of brat 1 or brat 2 above. Second, this childish behavoir was carried out by engineers. So for those of you out there who know an engineer and think that they are so smart, and know so much and you look to them for their divine engineering wisdom. Phah, I say!
Know this, we do not have people skills nor do we know how to interact with others in a constructive way. If we did, we'd all be driving speeders like George Jetson. We are flawed with ugly traits like, pompusness, an inability to work well with others, arrogence, pretentiousness..... just like everybody else. Don't get me wrong, we do some pretty cool stuff too like make ipods and ataris, but we are just as average as the next guy.
No good segue for this one....I just finished reading 'The Silence of the Lambs'. Excellent book. I highly recommend it. I wasn't at all grossed out, although my tolerance might be out of calibration.
Brat 2 comes in and says "don't bury that simulator back in there, we need to use it with these *crummy* testers."
"It's not made for those testers, it was designed to work with these *cool* testers."
"No it's not."
"Yes it is."
"No it's not."
"Yes it is. It was designed to work with the *cool* testers" (--sidenote --he is so full of crap)
"No it's not."
"Yes it is."
Brat 2 finally realizes this is going nowhere and says "well the simulator needs to be out where everyone can access it" and walks away.
Brat 1 not wanting to be out done, tries to get the last word in by says "well, it's not supposed to be!". He then carries on to me about how he's right and Brat 2 is wrong after Brat 2 has walked away. Like I care.
At this point I give a mental sigh of relief, thinking, aaaah --the awkward moment is over. I can stop admiring the white tile with flecks of gray.
Aaah, and here's the best part: within 1 minute both of them were on their cellphones calling Daddy to tattle on the other one. Well, Brat 1 was, I couldn't hear Brat 2, but if I were a betting man.....
So to enlighten you readers out there....first, I did not play the roll of brat 1 or brat 2 above. Second, this childish behavoir was carried out by engineers. So for those of you out there who know an engineer and think that they are so smart, and know so much and you look to them for their divine engineering wisdom. Phah, I say!
Know this, we do not have people skills nor do we know how to interact with others in a constructive way. If we did, we'd all be driving speeders like George Jetson. We are flawed with ugly traits like, pompusness, an inability to work well with others, arrogence, pretentiousness..... just like everybody else. Don't get me wrong, we do some pretty cool stuff too like make ipods and ataris, but we are just as average as the next guy.
No good segue for this one....I just finished reading 'The Silence of the Lambs'. Excellent book. I highly recommend it. I wasn't at all grossed out, although my tolerance might be out of calibration.
Sunday, February 8, 2009
recent books
Have you ever read the first book in a series and thought, wow, this is pretty sweet...then you pick up the next one and it sucks? Well, that happened to me. I read Dune, by Frank Herbert and according to the cover of the book, it is one of the all time greatest sci-fi novels ever written. So I think, okay, I'll give it a whirl.
The story is set 10,000 years in the future, so there is intergalaxy travel, force fields to protect those inside and deciet around every corner. It's about a royal family, the Atreides, who are going to take over control of another planet, Arrakis whose sole planetary output is a spice that allows the person who eats it to have a prescience and see into the future. The spice is the most valuable commodity in the entire known galaxy. The current royal family in control of Arrakis, the Harkonnens are the archenemy of the Atreides. So we've established our good and bad guys.
Now our good and bad guys are both trying to stay on the good side of the emperor and remain an important contributor to the galactic economy. The spice that is a product of the planet Arrakis is imperative to the guys in charge of the interplanetary transportation, the Guildsmen, to safely navigate from one galaxy to the next. Without it the trade between planets would cease to exist and chaos would ensue.
The story unfolds with our good guys ending up on the short end of the stick and how they fight back and overthrow the bad guys. I enjoyed how the main character matured and grew into his role. I also liked how the author switched between different points of view on the fly between characters within a scene, allowing the reader to understand each characters perspective as the story played out.
However, I'm certainly not on board with the rest of the readers who think that it is a masterpiece and most likely the best sci-fi book of our time. It was an interesting story, but it just didn't pop for me.
So I pick up the next one in the series thinking I'll get a glimpse into the story arc that the author has created (there are 6 books by the original author, then a bunch more by his son) and follow the adventure. Turns out that I can't take it any more. I realize now one of the aspects of the author that really annoyed me was his failure to get to the meat of the story and send our cast of characters on their adventure. It wasn't so bad in Dune, but in Dune Messiah the author seems be taking his sweet ass time establishing the adventure.
Combine that with the fact that I found a used bookstore and bought 10 used books for 5 dollars, my patience and desire to stick to the story and carry on with the adventure bottomed out. I moved on to The Silence of the Lambs. Much more interesting. I've seen the movie, so I know what's going to happen, but as always, the book is better.
The story is set 10,000 years in the future, so there is intergalaxy travel, force fields to protect those inside and deciet around every corner. It's about a royal family, the Atreides, who are going to take over control of another planet, Arrakis whose sole planetary output is a spice that allows the person who eats it to have a prescience and see into the future. The spice is the most valuable commodity in the entire known galaxy. The current royal family in control of Arrakis, the Harkonnens are the archenemy of the Atreides. So we've established our good and bad guys.
Now our good and bad guys are both trying to stay on the good side of the emperor and remain an important contributor to the galactic economy. The spice that is a product of the planet Arrakis is imperative to the guys in charge of the interplanetary transportation, the Guildsmen, to safely navigate from one galaxy to the next. Without it the trade between planets would cease to exist and chaos would ensue.
The story unfolds with our good guys ending up on the short end of the stick and how they fight back and overthrow the bad guys. I enjoyed how the main character matured and grew into his role. I also liked how the author switched between different points of view on the fly between characters within a scene, allowing the reader to understand each characters perspective as the story played out.
However, I'm certainly not on board with the rest of the readers who think that it is a masterpiece and most likely the best sci-fi book of our time. It was an interesting story, but it just didn't pop for me.
So I pick up the next one in the series thinking I'll get a glimpse into the story arc that the author has created (there are 6 books by the original author, then a bunch more by his son) and follow the adventure. Turns out that I can't take it any more. I realize now one of the aspects of the author that really annoyed me was his failure to get to the meat of the story and send our cast of characters on their adventure. It wasn't so bad in Dune, but in Dune Messiah the author seems be taking his sweet ass time establishing the adventure.
Combine that with the fact that I found a used bookstore and bought 10 used books for 5 dollars, my patience and desire to stick to the story and carry on with the adventure bottomed out. I moved on to The Silence of the Lambs. Much more interesting. I've seen the movie, so I know what's going to happen, but as always, the book is better.
Thursday, February 5, 2009
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