You know what I mean

In filling out yet another set of medical history forms I got bored with the tediousness of it all. After the "do you have any allergies" and the long list of "do you have a family history of any of these things you've never heard of" the next question was "Is there anything else we should know about you?" I checked 'yes' and in the provided space I wrote "I'm a wonderful guy." I doubt they'll read it.

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It's just a phase, you'll grow out of it

This weekend my lovely three year old daughter said the following to me: YOU RUINED MY LIFE I almost very seriously injured myself laughing. Though if I've already ruined her life by the age of three, it doesn't leave me much to work towards.

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I can't believe the things you never said

[13:41] griz: every so often HR sends out an email to remind everyone that the things like bagels, cheap pop, etc. are all part of the "benefits" package. And there is this one: Book Exchange located in HR - need a book? Have one to trade in? Stop by HR and check out a book.HR has taken the fact that people kept bringing in old paperbacks and leaving them in the break room, and turned it in to a "perk"
[13:42] rev: slever
[13:42] rev: clever
[13:42] rev: heh slever: sleazy + clever
[13:43] griz: and you didn't even mean to do it
[13:43] griz: is the sub concious a wonderful thing?
[13:44] griz: conchous?
[13:44] rev: conscious
[13:44] rev: not conch shells
[13:44] griz: consus.
[13:44] griz: @#^@$^@#% english
[13:44] rev: I'm familiar with the term retronym, what's the term for when you turn a typo into a new word?
[13:45] griz: neonym?
[13:45] griz: natonym?
[13:45] griz: typonym?
[13:45] rev: I like typonym
[13:46] griz: there you go then. you get slever, and I get typonym
[13:46] griz: put in your blog, get enough people to use them and we'll be famous.

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I might as well work in a bank

It's a quiet day. The government mice are at home. There's no air circulation so the bathrooms are a hazardous place and it's getting uncomfortably warm. And I get to spend my time here today trolling through hundreds upon hundreds upon hundreds of views and stored procedures in ClearCase and make sure they've all got the appropriate grant statements. My mind is numb.

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That's a might big word for a nine year old

"If you can’t outsmart a 3 year old, then what the fuck are you doing raising one?" - Violent Acres

That ranks up there with my favorite observations on parenthood.

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You'll speak in tongues now let me demonstrate baby

On occasion at work we discuss strategies for dealing with our children reaching the dating age, particularly as Bob has a 15 year old daughter.

We were proposing ideas for scaring the boys when they picked up the girls and of course the shotgun was mentioned. Between us we added bloodshot eyes, a few days facial hair growth, a rocking chair on the porch in which to be sitting while cleaning said shotgun. Bob noted that if you take cotton longjohns and artfully apply tea to them and wash them they will look very scary. He was going on to theorize about the proper tones to use in your voice while threatening bodily harm. And then it hit me:

Don't speak in tones to scare the boy off: speak in tongues.

I will now look for video of Southern Evangelical snake handlers.

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Somebody get me a doctor

There's a great article from NYT on the coalition of mortal enemies Service Employees International and Wal-Mart in addressing the single largest problem facing the U.S.: health care.

Also a nice overview of the industrialized world on DailyKOS. In case you weren't aware health care costs more in the U.S. than anywhere in the industrialized world, for worse service.

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They give then take away, reposses and crucify

Not enough sleep combined with a tangential discussion of recalculation of early principle payments and how to properly charge late fees on the remaining principle before it's due* make for a truly impressive headache.

*Yes, that means charging late fees before the payment is actually late.

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How funky is your chicken

My nuclear lunch says "Pollo al Horno". I've watched too much Beavis and Butthead.

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I see an old friend when I look into your eyes

Advantage of overnight feedings is finding new shows to watch: Ms Adventure, Up Close and Dangerous, and The kumars at Number 42. I'm disappointed in the tendency of National Geographic and various Discovery channels to run 'totally speculative historical reenactments' during the late night hours. I had hoped that sort of fact free nonsense was mostly relegated to the history channel. Animal Planet is mostly reliable, though I can't take the Animal ER shows. BBCAmerica usually has something worthwhile on.

I was really surprised at Comedy Central. I got through the nights with Boo almost entirely with the help of CC and National Geographic. Now other than Daily Show, Colbert Report, and South Park there is nothing on CC that I find at all funny. No new Reno 911. No more Insomniac. I don't find Mencia or Drawn Together or Naked Trucker to be at all entertaining. Most of the stand up they have is 'redneck standup' which I also dont' find at all funny.

Often I just watch DVDs on my laptop in the office while doing feedings. I considered trying to work on code, but both hands are occupied with feeding at this point.

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I'll turn you into me

Meant to mention this back when it happened, but Randi was on Anderson Cooper last week. I see much more TV now that .Next is home and having feedings every 3 hours. I've always liked Cooper, but he went up several more points in my estimation. He repeatedly referred to Sylvia Browne as an 'alleged' and 'self proclaimed' psychic instead of acting as though it were a fact the way Larry King does. Personally I don't think King buys the pyschic act at all, but he knows that it makes good ratings and a lot of his viewers are dumb so he plays along with it. It is very very rare in the mainstream media for anyone to express any skepticism whatsoever about whatever woo woo claims people make. The fact that they were willing to allow a skeptic even come on the show was impressive enough, but for the host to then take a rational position and challenge the scam artists was wonderful to see.

As Randi notes in his commentary, Cooper went on to challenge the 'success stories' the manager presented. The manager had no idea how to handle this because normally the 'news' media just blindly accepts all claims of success on the part of psychics and doesn't actually do any of that boring research that they were supposed to have learned how to do in journalism school. I'll be watching a lot more of Cooper in the future, even though I normally avoid CNN as much as possible.

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We love the winter, it brings us closer together

Finally some SNOW. It won't last, sadly. And it was the best kind of snow: powder with no ice. I just brushed it off the car, didn't even need the scraper it all. I wish we got more of this kind of weather. It's very wintery.

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