Wednesday, June 25, 2003

So I’m trucking along at the front of a pack of cars cruising at 60-65MPH on the Fairfax County Parkway when all of a sudden this 18-wheeler decides he needs to pull out from the residential area on the right to go left on the other side of the highway.

The Range Rover in front of me (he was in the right lane, I was in the left) managed to swerve to the shoulder while slamming his brakes. I slammed my brakes but had nowhere to swerve, so I laid on the horn while checking to see how close the cars were behind us. I could hear tires squealing behind me too.

Fortunately, we all managed to stop safely - no accidents.

What was he thinking? He had our whole side of the road blocked because there was steady traffic coming from the opposite direction.

Idiot. (Let me say that’s not the word I really want to use, by my mother read this. The word I want to use starts with “dumb” - I think you can figure out the second half.)

I won’t even bother to complain about the two accidents on Braddock Road that had traffic stopped before the Beltway.

On another note, I have drawn the Merge of Madness™ here by the office and I will post about that separately with the artwork.

I have seen this site at a couple blogs today. Since I’m interested in brain stuff, I thought I’d go ahead and take the test.

Your Brain Usage Profile

Auditory : 50%
Visual : 50%
Left : 58%
Right : 41%

Jen, you are somewhat left-hemisphere dominant with a balanced preference for auditory and visual inputs. Because of your “centrist” tendencies, the distinctions between various types of brain usage are somewhat blurred.

Your tendency to be organized and logical and attend to details is reasonably well-established which should afford you success regardless of your chosen field of endeavor, unless it requires total spontaneity and ability to improvise, your weaker traits. However, you are far from rigid or overcontrolled. You possess a degree of individuality, perceptiveness, and trust in your intuition to function at much more sophisticated levels than most.

Having given sufficient attention to detail, you can readily perceive the larger aspects and implications of a situation or of learning. You are functional and practical, but can blend abstraction and theory into your framework readily.

The equivalence of your auditory and visual learning orientation gives you two equally effective sensory input systems, each with distinctive features. You can process both unidimensionally and multidimensionally with equal facility. When needed, you sequence material while at other times you “intake it all” and store it for processing later.

Your natural ability to use your senses is also synthesized in your way of learning. You can be reflective in your approach, absorbing material in a non-aggressive manner, and at other times voracious in seeking out stimulation and experience.

Overall you tend to be somewhat more critical of yourself than is necessary and avoid enjoying life too much because of a sense of duty. You feel somewhat constrained and tend to sometimes restrict your expressiveness. In any given situation, you will opt for the rational, and learning of almost any type should be easy for you. You might need certain ideas explained to you in order to fit them into your scheme of things, but you’re at least open to that!

[via dave and chewie]

Tuesday, June 24, 2003

At least that’s what my favorite new channel is calling the case of the nurse’s aid who hit a pedestrian and drove home with him lodged in her windshield where she proceeded to let him suffer and eventually die of his injuries while she agonized about what to do went on about her life.

There is no excuse for her behavior. I have no idea what her defense is going to be, but there’s no way it’ll get her off the hook for this one.

Both prosecutors and defense attorneys say Mallard smoked pot, took Ecstasy and drank heavily in the hours before she hit Biggs and then parked the car in her garage without calling for help. The defense says Biggs’ death was an accident, not murder.

Prosecutor Christy Jack says Mallard could have sought help for Biggs at a fire or police station or called an ambulance.

Mallard, 27, faces life in prison if convicted of killing Biggs, 37, whose body was found the next day in a park.

[...]

Fort Worth fire Capt. Jim Sawder testified that Biggs’ best chance of survival was within 25 minutes of when he was hit.

“My opinion is that there is not a member of the Fort Worth Fire Department that could not have saved Mr. Biggs’ life with basic life support care,” Sawder said.

It’s a simple enough thing, right? Make a phone call.

I hope she rots in prison.

I (well, really it’s Bill) am working on the smiley issue for my comments. See all those error messages? It means we’re really, really close to getting them working.

Right, Bill?

And I have to say A BIG THANKS to Bill for his technical support today. You’re a good, good man.

UPDATE: Things may or may not look a little weird. Please excuse any weirdness here at the blog. I’m not weird! The blog has issues…

UPDATE (9:25pm): Bill is the greatest! The smilies are working. Because of his hard work his blog gets linked as “tech support 3” in my NAV at the right. Doesn’t seem like much for his efforts. Thanks again.

I can’t find a link, but when I was sort of listening to Neil Cavuto this morning, he was interviewing someone about how miniskirts may indicate a bull market.

The idea is that as women (consumers) are feeling more confident their skirts get shorter and the economy booms. The guy said you could track this from as far back as the 1920s. Apparently, skirts would get short to show of the stockings, which were expensive. As the economy tanked and things got tighter in people’s wallets, the skirts got longer again because women couldn’t afford the luxury of stockings.

Wacky idea, but interesting, no?

UPDATE:  Here’s a link. [Thanks, Tommy]

Say what you will about Barry Bonds, he is one of the greatest modern baseball players.

He has some impressive statistics, and there’s no doubt that he will be in the Hall of Fame with his first eligible nomination.

I was listening to WMAL talk radio - the Andy and Grandy Morning News Show (yes, that’s Fred Grandy of Love-Boat-turned-Congressman fame) on the way into work and they did a news story about a local 19 year old who murdered his parents last year because he thought he was in the matrix. So this is his defense. Good luck, kid.

In case you’re wondering, Grandy is pretty good. I’m happier listening to him than Bill Press anyway.

You know summer has officially arrived when they start announcing the ozone alerts.

Monday, June 23, 2003

I’ve had many discussions with various folks about the Harry Potter books.

I like them. I’ve read the first four and plan to buy and read the new one. I plan to buy and read the rest as they come out as well.

As a Christian, I can understand the concern Christian parents have about certain aspects of the HP stories - the elements of witchcraft, the way “regular” people are portrayed negatively, the way the kids in the stories seem to flout the rules and discipline, etc. I’m not going to argue my points on those specifics. But I will say this (as I posted over in the comment thread at the Thinklings post on the subject, where there has been a sometimes heated exchange along a couple of their posts about the wickedness vs virtue of HP.

My latest comment was this:

And maybe it’s because I don’t have children, but I think we credit books (and some movies) like this with having a little too much influence with kids. When I was a very young child, I read plenty of fairy tales that included magic and fairies and unicorns and wizards and flying carpets and pumpkin coaches, and I don’t believe that I ever thought that stuff was real or possible. I understood from a very early age that there was no Tinkerbell, no Wicked Witch of the West, no Fairy Godmother, no Dracula or Frankenstein, or whatever. I knew it was just a story. A fictional, entertaining story.

So why are we assuming that kids today won’t be the same?

This is where I need an emoticon that shows me pulling out my hair in frustration.

I cannot figure out what I have wrong in my code. I followed the directions. I think I’m missing a step somewhere, but I’m not sure.

It’s very frustrating not being a techie.

It’s a beautifully sunny Monday. It’s a shame I have to sit in my windowless cubicle.

LW and I did venture out to pick up lunch in Old Town. So we got to enjoy the warmth along with the rest of Alexandria. Seems everyone wanted to get out today, the sidewalks were crowded.

I’ve been working on my smilies problem. I’m no nearer a solution with the fixes I’ve seen at other places. I can’t read the page that Tony recommended because of the colors vs. my browser. So I’ll have to wait to try that tonight. I feel like I’m really close to a solution though.

It’s quiet in the office today. There’s been this trial that I can’t speak of right now. We’ve been waiting for the verdict - I think it’s happening right now.

I’ve checked the forums at pMachine.com. I’ve googled. I’ve checked ScriptyGoddess and I can’t figure out what I have wrong in my smiley javascript that’s preventing the clickable smilies in my comments from working.

The code I’m using was developed for Moveable Type, so maybe that’s the problem. I did find a couple posts to the pM forums, but they’re only accessible for Pro users and I’m a Free user.

So I put out the call for geeks** everywhere...can someone help me get them working? (Tony, I didn’t want to bug you with this since you’ve already helped me a ton.)

**I mean geek in the most positive sense, of course!

I got to the office at 8:10 this morning. My hours are usually 8:30-5:00. I beat my boss in, so that was good. But I have a feeling the day is going to be a long one.

Mom gave me another picture of Harry to scan. Isn’t he the cutest?

Sunday, June 22, 2003

I think I may have been the last person to see My Big Fat Greek Wedding. I watched it this afternoon. It’s very cute.

Best line:

I don’t remember frump girl, but I remember you.