Prosciutto

Today I went into the Albertson’s Deli and asked the woman behind the counter if she had any prosciutto I could buy.  Prosciutto might be described as Italian Bacon.  It isn’t something that is at every store, but I would personally consider it common to most super-markets.  The gal behind the counter told me bluntly that she didn’t know what it was.  I scanned the deli fridge to see if maybe I could spy any, I had already evaluated the selection in the pre-sliced section before coming to the counter.

The lady kindly asked her co-worker, “Do you know what prosciutto is, and if so do we have any?”

“Prosciutto, is that a kind of cheese?”

Apparently I’m a food snob in yet another area.

Rain, Because Water is Good in Large Quantities

It is raining again today, which is a break from just being overcast.  Overcast is nice, but rain is nicer.  If overcast is two-buck-chuck, rain is like a $35.00 merlot.  If rain is a pizza, then hail is like the ‘atomic [chicken] wings’ I had at dinner last night that are wreaking havoc on my internal organs as I type this.

That concludes this portion of the SAT reasoning test.

Today the plan was to go to a lake & go fishing as well as have fun on the slip’n’slide.  It appears that we could try to go driving in some mud and go sliding [except for where we get stuck, that part I don’t imagine would be good].  On top of that rain is also crumby to grill in (though in some cases like at our house things are at least covered by a porch).

Congrats Ed & Shari

Congratulations Ed & Shari on your new baby girl.  I’m sure proud to be an uncle again!  Baby was born at 7:47, which couldn’t be more appropriate since one of her grandpas is a pilot.  Latest news is that all is well, and that’s terrific news!

Write It Like You Want to Experience It

I dabble in the world of philosophy at times and one of the philosophical movements that I don’t participate in, but find interesting is existentialism. Experience is all that there is doesn’t suit me, but in the world of software development experience is all that there is.

  1. Does your software do what it says it can do?
  2. Does your software do that in a way that is simple?
  3. Does your software do it in a visually attractive way?
  4. Does your software do it in a way that is memorable?

For some folks these questions aren’t critical, but they help. I personally love to use certain pieces of software because they deliver on the promised goods, they’re simple, they’re attractive and most of all I remember them when I’m talking with others about software they may want to purchase. It isn’t grassroot software advertising that makes software catch on, its software that is designed well that brings about grassroot advertising.

Thankful Thursday: Having Been a Sunday School Teacher

I’m thankful this week that I was a Sunday School teacher to a high school class for a while in the earlier part of this decade.  This week I’ve had breakfast with students and acquaintances of those students all week long 🙂  Friends of former students who even wanted to get together.  Neat folks, neat to have had some sort of impact.  Neat to have the opportunity to continue to have an impact.  Life is good.

Evie Video

I’m heading out on yet another business trip.  Here’s a video of Evelyn for you to watch and me to watch, too.  Unfortunately the Mac is already packed up so we’re using the web cam on the Windoze machine.  Lower quality, but Evie’s just as cute.

Evie and Daddy

Abby’s Dance Recital

Today is Abby’s dance recital.  She’ll be doing the performance around 2:30 or maybe later, but here’s video from the dress rehearsal.  Unfortunately I’m not allowed to photograph or record in any way the final performance.  Dictatorship being what it is, I wasn’t assigned the duty of video work (and this clip is probably a good enough reason why), and I also was instructed that taking video would lead to my demise as a parent at said recital.

Anyway, here’s the video [requires Quicktime size: 7 MB]:  Abby’s Dance Recital 2007-05-19

Making Sense of the Microsoft Buyout of aQuantive

What makes sense in the aQuantive acquisition? Not much, the long and short of it is that Microsoft just spent a huge amount of money to do some saber rattling. You could probably guess that Microsoft is peeved to be out of the loop in the lucrative online advertising world. You could also probably guess that they’re upset that other deals have fallen through, but what this acquisition does is allow Microsoft to get huge media attention and get free advertising at a six billion dollar cost. Sure, its not free, but it just makes more noise and that’s what they need. Advertising that they’re going to be better or more powerful that Google or Yahoo! is talk only. They can’t drive people to deposit their money there, or to get web sites and bloggers to switch over to their advertising system. This could be six billion dollars down the flusher or it could be the biggest noise maker deal, which is what Microsoft wants.

Microsoft wants every online advertiser in the market to buy into their system, this deal helps draw more attention to it and makes it seem like they’re a better choice. So far I think Google and Yahoo! have it. Microsoft has just invested a huge amount of money for what may help them in 2015. Watch out for 2015, because they may have the lions’ share of the market then 🙂

No Way

Someone taught Evelyn how to say, “No way.”  I don’t know who, but for the record, there Lost-Vivor-like score has been decremented one point.  When Evie doesn’t like something now the no way comes out.  It was cute the first time, strange the second time, irritating the third time, patronizing the fourth, and Beethoven’s fifth [that was a non-sequitur, it wasn’t supposed to make sense just in case you’re Lost].  For example today at lunch Evelyn was told to come give me a snuggle (read:hug) before going to bed.  I picked her up and said, “Give me a snuggle.”

“No way.”

Just re-telling that story has debited the person who taught her that yet another point.