Thu Aug 21, 2008
Boys Will Be Boys
There's just something wonderfully stupid about this picture that I came across yesterday in our local newspaper's photo coverage of Tropical Storm Fay.
Take a few boys, give them the day off from school, and then provide a flooded canal next to the street, a pickup truck, and a wake board and you've got the perfect recipe for either:
1) A great memorable boyhood experience
2) A painful lesson in why combining the things above is not a good idea.
Either way, you gotta love the capacity that boys have for the foolhardy, dangerous, and totally stupid things that they get themselves up to.
Wed Aug 20, 2008
Snow Day for Floridians
Tropical Storm Fay has come and gone, and as you can see from the radar images down below what we mostly received here in South Florida was a whole lot of rain. Steady winds for about 24 hours and some real blustery moments, but for the most part Fay didn't give us all that much.
Except for a day off of course! Sort of a snow day for us as schools and most employers close their doors and everyone "hunkers down" and prepares to flee into the safe room. OK, most of us are a lot more experienced these days, after going through 4 hurricanes since 2004, so for the most part I imagine folks just stayed home, watched the Weather Channel, or found other ways to entertain themselves at home. We got a little stir-crazy ourselves in the afternoon, so we hopped in the car (against all official advice) and took a short cruise over to the beach to watch the wind blow the tops off the waves and see mountains of water that the storm was piling up against the beach.
But for the most part Fay was a welcome break, even if schools were only able to get the first day behind them then take a day off and have the second day of school today. A bit weird, but part of life here in Florida these days, where tropical storms that bring lots of rain to areas that are too dry--and a free day off--are actually welcomed.
(Best source of cool stuff for weather geeks? Definitely Weather Underground where these radar images were found.)
Tue Aug 12, 2008
Please Upgrade Your Computer to View the Olympics on MSNBC
You know, it really frosts me when a web application requires that I own a particular kind of computer or have a certain plug-in installed to view information. It just seems so--I don't know--2002-ish--for a web publisher to assume what I ought to own before I can see or hear something or perform a particular operation. Hasn't the wisdom of the crowds taken us past the place where information technology is more important than the information?
I guess not, since MSNBC and their choice of Silverlight from Microsoft to deliver video of the Olympics requires that I upgrade my perfectly fine iMac to a newer model with an Intel processor.
Oh well, I'm sure I can find the video clips I wanted to see at another site. 'Cause when I go to MSNBC all I'm offered is a warning window and a list of my choices for viewing their vids.
Tue Jul 22, 2008
The Man in the Purple Dinosaur Suit: Why It's Always Good to Think Before You Speak
Saturday morning found me up bright and early and heading out to the local nursery association's sale of fruit and tropical trees. I'd never been to one of these particular shows, but as I'm (finally) in the middle of landscaping the front of the house, I thought it would be a good place to pick up something a little different for my project.
There were all sorts of cool and unusual fruit trees to choose from and I nearly went for the Jackfruit tree, producer of the world's largest fruit, but then thought better of having a tree full of 60 pound missiles if we have another hurricane blow through. Instead, I went for the semi-Florida native sapodilla tree. And a more pedestrian pineapple plant for an area by the front door.
Now, there were plenty of cool plants, but the day was anything but cool. It was one of those typical South Florida mornings where the humidity hovers around 99% while the sun beats down. Brutally hot and guaranteed to have buckets of, shall we say, perspiration, cascading all down your everywhere. Whew! Just walking to my truck with my two little purchases was enough to get me good and sweaty.
As I walked around the corner of the pavilion, thinking my little horticultural thoughts, my eye fell on a man sitting and sweating profusely in the shade next to the building. As I took in this very large man, my immediate thought is "Good Lord! They've dressed this poor guy up in a purple dinosaur outfit and asked him to help entertain the kiddies while Mom and Dad shop for plants. No wonder he's taken his head off and has decided to rest here in the shade away from the kids."
And just as I open my mouth to commiserate with this ersatz Barney, and tell him that I'm glad I don't have his job on a day like this, it dawns on me.
This is not a man in a large costume.
This is a very, very large man in a sweat suit with matching tops and bottoms.
And it's not purple, but it looks that way because he has completely sweated through his blue outfit.
And as I look closer, only for a brief instant, I see that he's sitting in one of those electric mobility thingies, probably because he's just too darn big to haul himself around.
Okay then! I mumble "Good morning" as I pass by, shifting the weight of the pineapple plant to hide my embarrassment, and thanking my stars that just this once I didn't make the mistake of opening my big mouth and saying something stupid before I took in all of the details.
'Cause I don't think "Barney" would have been amused....
Fri Jul 11, 2008
No! No! I Said Fire Achmed! Fire!
OK, so there's been all this controversy around the Photoshopped Iranian missile test. Newspapers all over the world ran one image that was released that showed four missiles streaking into the sky, while another, taken at an almost identical moment shows three missiles launching and another sitting on its mobile launcher (i.e. truck).
I haven't heard anyone say that this was Michelle Obama's fault quite yet, but the conspiracy theories are running rampant. Of course.
But the real and simple truth that I think everyone is missing is that this was merely a cover-up of simple military incompetence. Who knows. If it's like the U.S. Army the final launch probably came down to a young kid relatively fresh from the farm. A scared teenager with all these very scary adults screaming at you. At least that's what it was like when I was an artillery officer.
So, the kid doesn't quite mash the button at the precise moment he's supposed to. No big deal right? Except the officers in Iran know the whole military world will be laughing at them when the picture of three missiles firing, and one big fat failure right in the middle, are released to the world.
Luckily, the press agency has PhotoShop! Hey, just copy and paste one missile over there to over here, magic erase the truck away, and voila! Glorious success. All Praise to (insert deity of your choice here.)!
Gee, think anyone will notice? And still make fun of you?
Thu Jul 10, 2008
The Problem With Working With Young Developers
Want to feel old in a hurry?
1. Do some collaboration work with a young developer.
2. Launch into a story about how you learned to do X or Y or Z back in the day.
3. Realize that when you were doing that the young developer....
4. Had not yet been born.
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