Entries Tagged 'random' ↓

I give this guy a 10 for originality. I’m glad he’s not just using the cash to pay a ransom, but is instead wisely choosing to learn a life skill. Teach a man to fish versus giving a man a fish.

Of course, the flip side of the sign probably says he needs the money for gas so that he can take his kid to the doctor.

An old geek joke says there are 10 types of people in the world.

Those that understand binary and those that don’t.

The same can be said of this shirt.

Wishing to be friends is quick work, but friendship is a slow ripening fruit.  ~Aristotle

Over the last couple of weeks, I have spent a few days with my lifelong best friend. First, he came to visit me and we spent a couple of days engaging in the manly pursuit of big game hunting (deer). Then, over the holidays, my family and I visited Eric and his wife, Barbara, at their home for a day, where we engaged in the manly pursuit (even though Barbara knows more about college football than most men) of watching college football.

It takes a long time to grow an old friend.  ~John Leonard

Eric and I grew up into manhood together. We became good friends just out of high school and were best, hang-out-every-day friends for the next 10 years. Since then, we have lived in different states for the last 15 years, trying to visit each other a couple of times a year. Despite the geographical and chronological distances in our friendship, I know that with a single phone call and no questions, Eric would be at my doorstep to lend a helping hand. And he knows the same of me.

Friends are relatives you make for yourself.  ~Eustache Deschamps

I suspect that at first we liked each other because of shared common interests or possibly shared traits that we like in ourselves. But, I wonder if friendships deepen when people begin to see traits in the other person that they wish they had themselves. In Eric’s case, I’ve always admired his spontaneity and adaptability to change. Since I’ve known him, Eric has had multiple careers including machinist, sailor, high school teacher, salesman, real estate investor, hair stylist, camp counselor, and a few others I can’t recall offhand.

Friendship… is not something you learn in school. But if you haven’t learned the meaning of friendship, you really haven’t learned anything.  ~Muhammad Ali

In the long run though, I think true friendships are created when a casual friendship accrues a critical mass of shared experiences. Put another way, the shared experiences reinforce the friendship until they become a buttress making the friendship truly strong. To carry that analogy further, not only do the shared experiences buttress the friendship, but the friendship buttresses us against the stresses of life. Which leads me to one last friendship quote for a regular reader — and you know who you are…

A good friend is cheaper than therapy.  ~Author Unknown

My partner and I drove by a Sharper Image store today and, being the gadget geek that he is, he just had to stop and browse. As he remarked, Sharper Image is a chain built completely on products you will never need. Items such as the "rainproof" electronic meat fork with built-in thermometer. Or the lighted pepper grinder. And, not too far from the atomic clock that was 1.5 hours behind the correct time, was a true sign of the apocalypse. Of what possible use is a ropeless jump rope? If there’s no rope, then it’s not really a jump rope is it?

I guess this gimmick is for people who can’t count jumping jacks.

Last weekend at this time, I was at a friend’s 40th birthday party getting my dose of yoostas.

At the party, the birthday boy’s wife was telling a story and made the comment, “we all know that guys have to give up their brain when they get a penis.”

I immediately responded, “Jan, it’s a fair trade.”

Marla Olmstead is a little girl who has taken the art world by storm; she has been hailed as a Picasso-type prodigy and also compared to Jackson Pollock. Her paintings have sold for tens of thousands of dollars. Marla began her painting career just before her 2nd birthday; she is now 6 years old.

When she was featured on 60 Minutes however, questions were raised about whether she actually did all the painting. A child psychologist, Ellen Winner, who has studied gifted children and specializes in visual arts studied the paintings and videos of Marla painting, has grave reservations about whether Marla is the artistic force behind the paintings. According to Winner, videos of Marla show an young girl painting in the manner of ordinary young children, essentially pushing the paint around, playing and experimenting with the paint. Prodigies exhibit a feverish “rage to master”, working with an intense focus and drive. In addition, Winner says, “I have never seen a child prodigy paint in art abstractly. I’ve only seen them paint realistically or representationally. I have a drawing of Picasso at age 9. It shows that Picasso was struggling to draw realistically, and he was way ahead of his age.”

So, who is the artist doing the paintings for which people are paying many thousands of dollars? Some people think it’s her father, an amateur artist who is present when she paints. Her parents, of course, dispute the accusation. They say that while the father does help Marla by priming her canvases, she does all of the painting. The only help they provide Marla is love and encouragement. The 60 Minutes reporter says that while he has a hard time believing Marla created these paintings, he also believes her parents are good people and wouldn’t use their little girl to deceive the world.

So which is it? Are Marla’s parents horrible monsters using an innocent little girl to commit fraud on the art world? Or, in a “the nail that sticks up is the one that gets beaten down” scenario, is the world so coldly cynical that it cannot accept the explosion of a extraordinary talent in one so young? Either way, the situation is a somewhat sad commentary.

I know that the truth will eventually win out, and that I, for one, hope there is indeed a superlative new artist in the making.

I went to a friend’s 40th birthday party this past weekend. Of course, everyone at the party was reminiscing and reflecting on middle age. Personally, I have found my years since 40 (all 5 of them) to be my best; for the most part, I have thoroughly enjoyed my forties. Even so, I heard myself and a lot of the people at the party show the symptoms of a bad case of the yoostas. You know what I’m talking about.

I yoosta:

• Throw a football over 60 yards.
• Bench press 315 pounds a few times.
• Recover from a strain or bad bruise in a couple of days.
• Never buy any type of liniment.
• Party all night.
• Play sandlot tackle football with no pads.
• Eat anything without considering the consequences. Indeed without having any consequences.
• Get out of bed without any aches or pains.
• Not have to trim ear and nose hairs.
• Attempt physical stunts with no thought of injury.
• Read fine print in dim light.
• Not really know what hemorrhoids were.
• Never reflect on what I yoosta do.

Warning: this is a rant.

I have a vice of absolutely loving good coffee so I’m familar with Starbucks’ The Way I See It campaign, which is, in their words

a collection of thoughts, opinions and expressions provided by notable figures that now appear on our widely shared cups.

And I admit, I’ve seen more than my fair share of Starbucks’ cups. The cup I received yesterday had the following thought on it.

The Way I See It #252
Give me world politics, gender politics, party politics or small-town politics … I’ll take them all over the politics of youth sports.

Brenda Stonecipher
City council member and Starbucks customer in Everett, Washington.

This cup’s communiqué conveyed a colossal conjunction of coincidence (I couldn’t resist the alliteration). My son’s football team has been the stage for truly ugly politics this season.

Before I begin truly ranting, let me say that all of the coaches in his league are purely volunteers and –having been a youth sport coach myself– I applaud them for their huge commitments of time and energy to what is largely a thankless job.

OK, now let the rant begin.

My son plays football in a league for 11-13 year olds; his team is a brand new, expansion team in the league. Before the season, all new players participated in workouts so that the coaches could grade them. The coaches then held a draft, allotting new players to each team. Normally, this would be a fair system.

But it’s not.

Continue reading →

My son and I went running this morning before dawn. We normally walk for a few minutes to loosen up before running. While we were walking in the dark, I sleepily stumbled through a spider web that was strung across part of the road. No biggie, just a few strands of web that I casually brushed off.

About 30 seconds later, I suddenly realized there was a BIG HONKIN’ SPIDER CRAWLING ON MY NECK!!! Whoop! Whoop! Alert! Battle Stations! Man the adrenaline pumps! I slapped at the spider to brush it off, but it got caught in the collar of my t-shirt and I ended up having to grab it and throw it off of me. The spider, fearing for its life and rightfully so, bit me at least twice on the back of my neck to the left of my spinal cord.

At first, the bites didn’t bother me; in fact, I didn’t realize I was bitten for a couple of minutes — probably thanks to the wonders of adrenaline. However, it’s now been an hour since I was bitten and it feels like I’ve been stung by a wasp (albeit without the swelling) and the site has an infuriating fiery itch. So, just to be safe, I googled the spider, an orb weaver, and am assured that there’s no danger.

Thank God for that, it would s u c k t o . . . . . . <thud>

I ran across this today and found it interesting. Do you see the dancer spinning clockwise or counter-clockwise? According news.com.au, you use more of the right side of your brain if you see the dancer spinning clockwise.

Personally, I first saw the dancer spinning counter-clockwise (no big surprise there), but by looking away and back again, I can see her spinning in either direction now. Although, try as I might, I can’t see her change direction while looking at her.

Update: The animated dancer illustrates an interesting browser difference. In Internet Explorer, the dancer moves jerkily, leaves blips on the screen, and consumes an inordinate amount of memory. Firefox, on the other hand, displays a smooth animation with no blips and only uses 20%-25% of memory compared to IE.