Bicycle sound…
I remember my bike when I was a kid. Adding sound to it was a special art: the right kind of card or piece of cardboard, an appropriate clothes-line clip or other attachment device…it was tres chic.
My typical upgrade project…
I came across this comic on xkcd today…and it seemed so true to what happens during my upgrades that I felt compelled to share it
The Slobbification of Kelly
I just changed out of my pajamas and put on my normal day wear. As I looked at myself in the mirror, I realized that there really wasn’t a significant difference between these two modes of dress.
I was a reasonably well-dressed man less than a decade ago. No, never really stylish, but I was at least a step or so above “slob”. I had three modes of dress:
- Work: I had three or four good suits: tailored, from a reputable suit store. A decent collection of tailored cotton shirts. Some nice ties: when I went to the office, I was typically wearing over $1,000 worth of clothing, and I bought at least one new suit each year
- Home/casual: Cargo pants, cotton tourist slacks, a pair or two of jeans and golf shirts; I even had a couple of pairs of Tilley pants
- Rough/yard: a few pairs of sweat pants and T-shirts for working in the yard, washing the car, what have you
I the last seven years I’ve significantly simplified my life. I have my “work/social” clothing, which is basically the “home/casual” category above, and everything else is in the “rough/yard” category. I’ve gone from budgeting $2,000 a year for new clothes at my peak of sartorial excellence to probably spending $150 a year. My suit trousers are so far from fitting that I really have no idea why I keep them any longer. So if I’m relaxing at home, going to the store, going to the park, or generally doing anything other than going to dinner or visiting with the family, I wear sweat pants and a T-shirt. If you drop in unexpectedly or come to stay in my house for a few days, that’s the way you’ll see me: sweat pants and a T-shirt.
But what I do is one thing- trying to figure out why is another matter entirely…
Turn around and put your hands behind your back…zzZZap!
I generally have a lot of respect for police officers. Lately, there have been a lot of questions raised regarding the use of tasers by police. To me, a taser is an alternative to deadly force: if the cop feels they have to use a gun, or if they feel that the next step will be hand to hand combat, then the taser gives them an alternative.
Need a $1,000 program to draw? Hardly…
I stumbled across this video which gives a stop-action view of someone using the least impressive of computer tools to perform some rather impressive illustrating magic…
Giving thanks…
It is thanksgiving in the U.S., and so there the usual news items regarding how many things we have to give thanks for abound. I’m Canadian, so our thanksgiving was a few weeks ago…but our friendly neighbors to the south generate the majority of our news, so we sort of get the benefits of two holidays through a sort of osmosis. Unfortunately, I’m feeling under the weather today, and any time I have a cold or flu I end up feeling a bit sorry for myself- I wasn’t feeling any particular “thankful” vibe today.
Stupid Mac tricks…
In computers, bugs are a fact of life. No matter how much someone might claim that an application or operating system is “perfect”, the truth is always quite different.
Take the Macintosh, for example. I’ve been using my MacBook Pro for a while, and am pretty impressed with its behavior. But “bug free? Heck no. Here are a few recent examples of “unexplained” behavior:
Looking for a cool home theatre? Look no further…
I like watching movies in my home. A nice big screen TV, comfy chairs, a DVR or DVD player…I can pause whenever I want, stretch my legs, rewind and re-watch scenes. It can be a better experience than what you get at many commercial theaters these days.
Saudi woman sentenced to 200 lashes for the crime of being raped…
I am generally tolerant of different cultures. But after reading about a young woman sentenced in a Saudi court to 200 lashes and six months in jail for the crime of being gang-raped 14 times by seven men…well, tolerance is out the window.
I feel a lack of power…
When I cracked the case, however, it actually wasn't too bad: yes, it definitely needed cleaning, but the dust/hair build up had mostly been stopped from entering the chassis by the air filter on the case.
...When I listened closely to the fans, I noticed that it seemed like the power was going off and on at about a half second cycle during that minute, before finally "catching" and staying on.