I need to take a picture when the day light shows up tomorrow, but I picked the bright orange habanero that has grown on our plant. Yes! I can’t wait to cry as I consume it in tiny, tiny, tiny quantities. These things are intense – only their camping site is in your gut… and your gut isn’t heat rated for them.
The Double Save
I just finished proving my residency as a Colorado state citizen for some continued education. I needed to do this so that I didn’t have to pay out-of-state tuition fees of over $1000.00. While the staff at the Community College were trying to change my status to resident they went through all sorts of heck with generic error messages that didn’t help and java dialogs asking them if they wanted to try again until either their computer crashed, their computer became outdated, or the miraculous happened and things actually saved as they were supposed to (I am not making up the number 48 when I say they had to try 48 times to get things to save).
What really concerned me though was that the staff had been trained to get things to work by saving the information twice. You see the first save worked, but the second save refreshed the information from the database. Whomever coded the sorry Java/Oracle/Pergatory application was too lazy to write the code correctly and failed to understand the need to refresh tainted data. If people use your software please don’t train them to double save. It just isn’t worth keeping your code around if you work that way.
Sniped
Jessica just got sniped on eBay. For those of you who don’t know what that means it means this: She’s really ticked off because just one minute before the auction was supposed to end someone else bid more than her and ‘won.’ Sniped means that I’m going to have to endure a woman scorned and I had nothing to do with the scorning. Sniped means that she’s going to go out and pay suggested retail on something out of anger. Sniped means… that eBay is not going to be her friend 🙂
Bad Parenting Choice #3,456,789
This morning Abby came into my office and said, “Dad, I wish you hadn’t had that last beer. I really love beer.” Which is a little tough to swollow given that she has never had beer. But she has had Root Beer. Which is not the same. She just doesn’t know it. The place where I should have piped in, “Sweetheart, beer and root beer are not the same thing.” was instead replied to by me giving her a hug and telling her that she can’t have beer. Which is close, but didn’t differentiate enough. This is where I should probably start fearing for her that she’ll become and alcoholic by the time she’s 5, but I’m not going to because cute children never do anything wrong.
Yew Nork
Yesterday Abby announced to us on the way home from church that she wanted to marry our neighbor Wayne, whom I believe is older than all of her grandpas. Jessica told her she couldn’t do that because Sue, his wife, had already snatched him up. After a little time of thinking she announced that she would have to go to ‘Yew Nork’ and find a man to marry.
Abigail, if you read this when you get older: you don’t have my permission to do that, but I couldn’t say it with a straight face when you suggested it 🙂
With or Without U2
If you like U2, and I know you do, then you may have some thoughts on this.* I just listened to the Coverville episode that was a U2 cover story. Some of the covers are good, but the last one really grabbed me the most [When Love Came to Town featuring Herby Hancock, Joss Stone and Johnny Lang]. Anyway, I found that almost all of the covers lacked the passion that Bono puts into the vocal parts. When you get accustomed to certain sounds, songs or bands some covers really come up short. But this got me to thinking – I know, I try not to think too much, but I had to this morning.
When U2 eventually stops making music (I’m referring to death, not the reunion tours, the senior home tours and the depends sponsored tours that the Rolling Stones have done) more bands will do covers and the next generation of fans will be born. Bands will do U2 covers to new listeners, those listeners will then get turned onto the original band and it will be a new sound, even though it may be decades old. Or, because they don’t know the original song will they later not like the U2 version?
In the end I think what will impact people most is the fact that Bono looks like he’s Robin William’s brother.
*I also know you like rice cakes with butter and salt on them. Yup, I know my readers really, really well.
Red Umbrella
Red Umbrella is a band that I stumbled upon through the Dallas/Ft. Worth based Spin 180 podcast. If you have ever been drawn to the fantasticly unique voice of David Byrne (of Talking Heads fame) then you must check this band out. Their music is just brilliantly catchy, creative and did I mention creative? There are 80’s pop sounds, infectious grooves and modern rock sensibilities. All in one band. It is their first album, but if they keep going like this I hope it isn’t their last!
I want to buy their album on iTunes but I have been unable to get it yet, though their site says it is available there. I assume Sony will be getting it up soon. There are three tracks that you can listen to on their site which should warm you up 🙂
Things I’ve Learned: Rockies Baseball Game Attendance
I take the light rail every time I go to a Rockies game. My buddy Brian White taught me that. It isn’t because it is cheaper than parking downtown, it is because that is the pattern. Sure, I have to stand next to strangers, walk from Grand Central Station to the stadium and wait on the train schedule, but I also get to not think about parking, try to find parking or worry about exactly how long my driving through downtown traffic will be. I take the light rail and I like it.
Things I’ve Learned: Apostrophe S Vs. S Apostrophe
My mom used to drive me absolutely crazy when I was younger by refusing to tell me how to spell words. Instead she would force me to use the dictionary that I had to learn how to spell. I would probably still be a bad speller if it weren’t for those years spent looking up words when other kids were getting helped by their parents. Wait. I’m still a bad speller. Lets pretend I’m not for the sake of this story. OK?
Mrs. Williams, my fourth grade teacher had a playground ball that we wanted to stake claim to. The other students put “Mrs. Williams” on the ball. You can bet your sweet carrot cake muffins that I had to change the spelling to have an apostrophe to convey a sense of ownership. “Mrs. Williams'” ball ment it was hurs. And aint nobody gonna tell me diffrent. So their. Why I had to be anal about that is beyond me, but it was important! Kind of like another time when I had a lottery… but that’s different.
Things I’ve Learned: Making It Up Won’t Get You Anywhere
My cousin Norm had a neighbor Jimmy. One time my cousin came over to our house with Jimmy and they declaired that they knew everything that could be known (and they weren’t even teenagers!). So my brother and I set about to stump them. It didn’t take long before we were asking questions about how certain things happened and they would dissertate and pontificate about how things went down. Lies. All lies. More lies than a politican on trial. More lies than I had heard from one stream of consciousness ever. But it was entertaining.
The obvious stupidity of Norm & Jimmy’s truthiness made an important statement: it is better to say that you don’t know than to lie your way out of anything. Confessing that I don’t know anything about why worms are tasty treats to fish is much better than coming up with stories involving schools of fish being taught to eat the worms… really.