Dads & Dates

I had a conversation with my friend Jon in Texas and he stated something that I’ve held for some time, but it reminded me of it, so I’m going to recycle it here: if girls dads treat them poorly then they will tend to go out with guys that also treat them poorly.  In other words dads are setting standards for their daughters boyfriends and husbands even when their daughters are little girls.  Moms, your influence is similar: your sons are going to tend to find a woman that is as lady-like (or not) and as respectful as you are to them and their fathers. If you’re dishing dirt, lying, sleezing, creeping and generally abusing your children don’t be surprised when they go out and find Mr. or Mrs. Wrong.

Also, it is possible to break this cycle.  Also, also: it’s a principle and not a rule, there are plenty of exceptions.

Communication Is Hard

At least that’s what they tell me.  If you tell someone something enough times your job as a communicator will either get infinitely easier because they’ll finally get it.  Or it’ll get much, much harder because the repetition causes the pith helmets and ear plugs to be put into place.  I tell my daughters, “Think before you act,” about a bazillion times a month.  I’m pretty sure they think it’s some mantra that my parents told me.  It isn’t.  My dad told me, “it is your mother and I’s responsibility to raise you to be an adult when you’re 18.”  That worked out pretty well because I was a kid who was just looking for a place, a time, and a thing to be scared about.  At 17 and 365 days I was scared of 18 because it meat adulthood.

I hope that my children one day learn to think before they act.  I suspect it’ll be a lesson they learn throughout their lives.  I also hope that when they turn 17 and 365 days they don’t panic like I did – because if there’s one thing I’ve learned it is that I have more than one thing to learn.

Strange Day in Marriage Land

So Harry Reid has decided that prostitution is bad for Nevada (I think it’s terrible for marriages).  And Obama thinks that the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) is unconstitutional.  If consenting adults… wait, you don’t suspect that these senators (one former, of course) are being inconsistent, do you?  Nah, that’s impossible.

My Favorite Child

I just overheard some dialog on the TV show ‘House’ a character tell her daughter, “I like your sister better than you.”  It is absolutely craptastic to hear even if it isn’t realy.  I love both of my daughters.  They’re precious.  They’re both my favorite.

Don’t favor a child.  It’s the worst thing you could do.

Hiybbprqag

I am flabbergasted that Google has its knickers in a twist over the Bing ‘copying’ strategy.  The truth is that Google spiders MSDN, Microsoft’s internal nerdvana site, and provides excellent results.  To the point that I go to Google to search Microsoft.  Just because Microsoft goes to Google to search Microsoft doesn’t mean they’re copying results, they’re just doing the equivalent to doping before a major competition.

Some folks have suggested that Google is upset because Microsoft copied their results because the algorithm Google has is better.  This could not be further from the truth.  Google’s algorithm is simply a bunch of code running on super-cheap hardware.  Microsoft’s code is simply a bunch of code running on Windows hardware and software churning out the best results Microsoft knows how to dish out: results from Google.  That’s just smart business.  Bing!

Oh, and Hybbprqag is one of the words Google says Microsoft copied results for.

Oh, and Oh, I should point out that I use Bing because I prefer their user agreement and privacy policy ever so slightly more than Google’s.

Smooth. Jazz.

I’m praying for our friends the Masons as they gear up to head to China.  In China they will meet and adopt their new daughter for the first time.  They already have a precious daughter Nadia and she’ll be excitedly meeting her Chinese sister for the first time, but from the perspective of a child.  I’m hoping that the trip goes well, the kids settle in together, and that Nadia says something funny, like she usually does, and Louanne or Mike will tweet it, blog it, or Facebook it (where Jessica will see it).  She’s said some pretty funny things before – but she’s pretty jazzed right now, so the funny may be quite amped.