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October 25, 2002
A few months ago we
A few months ago we had some Jehovah's Witnesses come by the house, and Nicholas invited them in and proceeded to debate them on their beliefs. In retrospect, he didn't feel he fared all that well, as they really knew their Bible and were able to quote verses to support their positions. Nick argued context, but felt it was not convincing enough. He is, however, confident that he will do better next time, and I am sure there will be a next time.
I had to smile. I was reminded of when my Dad used to do the same thing. He had an advantage over Nick, though, in that his father was a preacher. I don't recall ever telling Nick that he used to do that, so I guess it's genetic. "Hey, you want to argue? Come on in!" Ours is a house of spiritied discussion, and I wouldn't have it any other way.
I was reminded of that by something I came across today, courtesy of Paxtonland. Every once in a while, when a telemarketer calls and I'm not busy (which isn't often), I will string them along, asking questions, getting them excited about the potential sale that I represent, then shut them off. It gives me a certain amount of satisfaction. There is, however, a better way. These intrusive, obnoxious, won't-stop-talking, calling-during-dinner lowlifes have a script they use, and well, you need one too.
Posted by John at 12:55 AM | Comments (0)
October 19, 2002
More pictures, this time from
More pictures, this time from the "Tiburon Fall Classic", an annual bike riding fundraiser held up in Napa Valley along the Silverado Trail. Tiburon Baptist Church fielded about 20 riders this year, raising money for veterinary clinics in Africa. Doug Nix, one of our member, started the event last year, and I think it going to grow every year. Julie, Matt and Colin were among the riders. Matthew rode over 30 miles, Julie and Colin rode together for about 12 miles. Stellar performances all the way around. Here's my favorite pic, showing Colin and Julie in front of one of the winery entrances:
Posted by John at 01:13 AM | Comments (0)
October 14, 2002
The first interstellar spacecraft should
The first interstellar spacecraft should be launched in 2004. Powered by a Mylar solar sail, it will be "the size of a bread box with a sail the size of a football field". Not exactly up to Star Trek standards yet, but still... a step in the right direction. And seven miles per second is over 25,000 mph, which is not too bad, although over interstellar distances that's still a long commute.
Posted by John at 03:50 PM | Comments (0)
October 11, 2002
If anybody knows of a
If anybody knows of a good free Guest Book for the web site, preferably one I can host on my own server, let me know. Thanks for the emails - I know the link is broken, since BeSeen.com went under. Da da dum dum dum... another one bites the dust.
Posted by John at 11:35 PM | Comments (0)
Word Spy lists "new" words
Word Spy lists "new" words that have emerged into our collective daily lexicon. I got a kick out of just reading the list; a few I know and use frequently and many I can guess at the meaning. If you're curious and want to look one of them up, follow the link under the "Top 100" tab at the site. For the record, as of today the top 100 words are: metrosexual, time porn, hedgehog concept, stop-doing list, bridezilla, garage wine, pickade, newater, hygiene hypothesis, resistentialism, minds-on, war chalking, Iraqnophobia, prooflisten, wallet biopsy, regift, hillbilly heroin, 9/11, CXO, acoustic terrorism, NASCAR dad, upskirt, killer litter, linguistic profiling, thumb culture, post-traumatic job switcher, belligerati, communal bereavement, chicken hawk, NOTE, Google bombing, transnational suburb, anus envy, dead cat bounce, Special K, appointment television, himbo, bads, panda-hugger, toxic bachelor, go commando, going plural, secondary virginity, man in the middle attack, hasbian, monster home, braggables, electric-can-opener question, sleep hygiene, domestic pornography, precautionary principle, financial pornography, big hair house, secret shopper, soft power, social swarming, hand salsa, male answer syndrome, fad surfing, salami attack, debt porn, drink the Kool-Aid, tankini, Generation Y, vampire state, drunken trees, stovepipe organization, packet sniffer, alpha girl, just-in-time learning, Kmart realism, tipping point, BANANA, egoboo, google, earthship, techno-strike, corporate perp walk, yuck factor, stepwife, Lexus lane, McMansion, carnography, data hygiene, bed blocker, alcopop, love beeper, LULU, weddingmoon, technoplegic, steampunk, locked-in syndrome, mindblindness, makeunder, joy-to-stuff ratio, NOPE, earballs, Pierre Salinger syndrome, malternative, and perennial shower.
Posted by John at 06:43 PM | Comments (0)
October 08, 2002
Just finished reading Tom Clancy's
Just finished reading Tom Clancy's Op-Center: Mission of Honor on the plane back from Geneva. His description of Botswana, the plains of the Okavango delta, and the general attitude of the people there were right on target. I was impressed. We were lucky enough to visit there a year ago; I would not go back now with the escalation in terror and military action and local unrest. In the novel, Clancy went into some detail about voodoo, the history and the practice. It was mostly new information to me which was surprising. For instance, he refers to the history of the name as being derived from "Vous Deux", french for "you two". His characterizations are supported by some histories like this one, which focuses on Haitian voodoo.
Then I came across this special feature entitled The Truth About Voodoo, and it pretty much directly contradicts a lot of what Clancy has to say. (Actually the writing was apparently done by Steve R. Pieczenik, although I'm not taking Clancy off the hook for it -- if he licenses use of his name and he's getting royalties from the book because it bears his name, he ought to be held responsible for the contents. I would also like to go on record as saying that practice -- authors licensing out their names -- sucks. It creates expectations of a certain "voice" and quality of narrative that are usually not met by the ghost writer). Anyway, very thorough and interesting information about the religion of voodoo and the rituals that are performed.
Posted by John at 06:09 PM | Comments (0)
I thought Rupert Murdoch's plan
I thought Rupert Murdoch's plan for an American Candidate TV show was the low point in commercial programming, but I forgot to consider that it is an international arena. Apparently, the Argentinian TV-viewing audience has an even higher tolerance for opportunistic insensitivity -- even downright cruelty -- than we do. Sony has bought the international rights to ''Human Resources'' (Recursos humanos), a show airing in Argentina which pits unemployed contestants against one another for jobs, cash, and employee benefits.
Hey, wait, maybe we put starving people into a ring, and then drop a hamburger in the middle! You know, sort of a "two men enter, one man eats" kind of thing. We could call it HungerDome! Or maybe we could visit the AIDS ward at the hospital and ask for volunteers to fight over medication! (It's a public service, right? People get medicine that wouldn't otherwise get it, and our TV audience gets top-notch "reality" entertainment.) Let the good times roll!
Posted by John at 05:22 PM | Comments (0)
October 04, 2002
All you have to do
All you have to do is feed the fish. You feed them, they grow. And they drop coins, which you collect, and use to buy more fish food. And the aliens come and start eating your fish. So you blast the aliens and buy more fish. You buy a piranha, because they drop diamonds, but they eat your smallest fish, so you have to buy more fish. Then the alien robots come and start firing rockets at your fish, and it gets complicated. Totally absorbing fun. Insaniquarium, another nifty little java game from PopCap, and a new entry in the Games Hall of Fame.
Posted by John at 11:32 PM | Comments (0)
Long-time readers may recall a
Long-time readers may recall a search for the world's funniest joke, first mentioned back on 9/7/01. Yahoo reported an unrelated finding on the world's funniest joke on 12/21/01. Now, 10/3/02, the world's most comprehensive study has concluded and the definitive results are in. Here is the world's funniest joke:
Two hunters are out in the woods when one of them collapses. He doesn't seem to be breathing and his eyes are glazed. The other guy whips out his phone and calls the emergency services. He gasps: "My friend is dead! What can I do?" The operator says: "Calm down, I can help. First, let's make sure he's dead." There is a silence, then a shot is heard. Back on the phone, the guy says: "OK, now what?"This article is excellent. The jokes are good, and the observations on regional humor differences around the world fascinating, but the funniest things are the statistics about exactly which jokes are funniest. "Computer analysis of the data also showed that jokes containing 103 words were thought to be especially funny." "Jokes mentioning ducks were seen as funnier than other jokes." And, "People found the jokes funniest at 6.03pm on October 7."
Posted by John at 02:48 AM | Comments (0)
