How I wish the sun would shine

I was glancing at the flyer from our public library system about upcoming events and did a doubletake.
Help Fishbone create a World of Music

Alas, it was nowheres near as cool as I'd hoped. It was for storyteller and musician Robert Fishbone, not the awesome band. He does actually look like he puts on an entertaining show.

read more

And we'll get down to the end

From: HR
To: All Managers
Subject: Corporate VP Visit Bill Lundbergh will be here Monday afternoon and all day Tuesday. Please make sure your area(s) are in good shape and that your employees are dressed appropriately.

From: Griz
To: Team
Per requirements below on Monday and Tuesday next week, please make sure that your clothes have been laundered at least once since you last wore them, have no obvious holes, and that you shower with soap each morning before coming to work. If you are unable to shower at home, there are showers available in the locker room. Please arrive early enough so that this will not interfere with your normal work duties. Also make sure that your desk is neat and clean. Especially of leftover food and beverage containers. If you have having any rodent infestation problems please let me know so we can take appropriate steps over the weekend.

Oh screw it. You're all adults - don't do anything stupid, don't get yourself fired, and please resist the urge to embarrass me.

read more

I've heard them say a man with a beard may frighten children and dogs

In the fall I stopped shaving. Several people commented on my decision to grow a beard. Let me be clear on this. The decision was not 'to grow a beard'. The beard was a side effect of the real point: to not have to shave. It is true that the one naturally follows from the other, but that does not mean that the most obvious result was the primary intent. Something to consider when trying to divine the motives of others in many situations. That's good advice there, son. Don't forget it. As I always do.

But I digress. It only took about two weeks before the beard looked good, or as good as it was ever going to at least. It was I believe another two weeks before my wife noticed. This past weekend the topic came up again and I was advised by both her and Boo that I should shave. So I did. To her credit it only took two days for my lovely bride to notice. Boo noticed right away and gave a disapproving look when she said "You didn't shave it ALL." Which I won't.

read more

Yeah we're gonna let it slide

I am not the most graceful person I know. I might be the most graceful person you know, but that is unlikely. Or you know very very few people. I took dance classes back when I was in theatre in junior high and high school but was not very good at it. I've been ice skating twice with disastrous results. I've been roller skating a handful of times and my prime goal is to fall down as few times as possible. It is a given that 'not falling down at all' is not an option. Failure is always an option.

So today at the gym they had a slide class and it sounded like a good workout.

I managed to not fall down, but just barely.

read more

Listen to the music

How do you know if you're a real music geek in the vein of High Fidelity?

If you are looking at the grocery list and see "Swiss Cheese" and your first thought is "Fire".

read more

Gainin on ya

Green and Black's Bittersweet Dark 70% Chocolate With A Soft Mint Center. Certainly the most descriptive name for a chocolate bar I've ever seen. And accurate. The mint has a very sharp taste, very strong but not overwhelming. The chocolate is smooth in texture and bitter as described. I like my dark chocolate around 65%, this is a bit much for me. The flavors blend very well and if it were a slightly less bitter chocolate this would be a real contender. The form factor is tall squares about a quarter inch wide and high by about a half inch long.

read more

I want to love you, you make me wait.

Dark Chocolate with Deep Forest Mint (70% Cocoa Content).



Some combo bars blend the ingredients entirely and stamp out the bars into bite-sized chunks, others go with putting the non-chocolate portion in the center of the chocolate squares. I prefer blended, myself. The Endangered Species brand has a nice texture and consistency to the chocolate, and is surprisingly mild considering the 70% cocoa content. The mint is blended with the chocolate so you get even amounts of both in every bite. It is a slightly dry chocolate, thought not crumbly at all. I would've liked it more if it were ever so slightly moister, but I would definitely buy this again.

read more

this song's just six words long

So someone has posted reviews of all 763 songs offered in the SXSW torrent. I'm still going to listen to all of them, because who knows where our tastes diverge. But seriously, when else will I ever be able to use that song in my post title?

read more

But in truth I'm lost for words

Spring approaches. The weather begins to warm, the colors begin to reappear, and a middle aged man's fancy turns to thoughts of... Girl Scout cookies. Mmmmm Thin Mints. For a brief glorious time each year I can indulge in one of the greatest treats of the modern world. But what about the rest of the year. I now begin a quest to find a suitable substitute for the Thin Mint during the off season. I quickly determined that no other cookie would do. It would never compare so there was no point. Instead I decided to find what is, for me, the perfect mint/dark chocolate candy bar.

The increasing popularity of dark chocolate has made this a good deal easier, as there are now dozens of vendors with dark chocolate options and they are all branching out into flavored dark chocolates trying to capture a sliver more market. I will start with one that just appeared on my radar this week.

I'm not a big fan of the traditional 3 Musketeers, so I didn't have high hopes for this. It has a lightly minty filling of the same consistency as the standard 3 Musketeers bar. The emphasis with this bar is the mint rather than the dark chocolate (hence the name 3 Musketeers Mint with Dark Chocolate). I could taste no difference between the dark chocolate outer layer and the standard 3 Musketeers milk chocolate outer layer. If you love mint and aren't too picky about the chocolate that accompanies it, this would be a reasonable choice.

read more

Pressure pushing down on me

I went in for my fitness evaluation at the gym today. I used to go to the gym downtown when we worked there, so the manager knew me and we spent some time catching up talking about our kids etc. She took my blood pressure, looked at it for a minute and said "Maybe we should talk about something other than your sick family before I take your blood pressure."

read more

Sounds like a riot in the dungeon

Geeks teh world over are lamenting the passing of the great Gary Gygax. I was of course a D&D fan in Jr. High and part of High School, though I prefered classic D&D to the 'innovations' of some of the later editions. More than D&D, however, I loved the lesser known Tunnels and Trolls. D&D lent itself to more serious gameplay and some of my friends took the game very personally. T&T was far more lighthearted and suited my sense of humor far better.

read more

Unplug myself I want nothing right now

Over the years I've frequently seen articles/blog entries/etc on 'going offline' as though it's some sort of superhuman feat. The NYT is the latest in this occasional meme. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm reasonably sure that more than 99% of all humans who have ever lived were offline 24/7. It is, as it were, our 'natural state'.

It's not as though it requires any special effort to go offline. Don't turn on the computer. It requires effort to turn it on, not leave it off. It takes more effort to respond to your Crackberry or answer your phone or turn on the TV than it does to not do those things.

I view these sorts of 'oh the horror of trying to mentally cope with not being online' with the same sort of disdain as people who write about 'oh I'm buying a new car and it's just SOOO hard to decide between the Beemer and the Audi and oh isn't my life so challenging.' They are dishonest. Those people aren't actually complaining, they're bragging. Which I have no problem with. But presenting their bragging as complaints because we as a society for some sick reason value suffering over pleasure is disingenuous at best.

read more