Beau Jackson

I read this article today about Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez. He was addressing the U.N., and referred to Pres. Bush as “the devil”. He referred to the “American empire placing at risk the very existence of the human species”. My favorite bit is when he says the podium still smells like sulfur (GW addressed the U.N. from the same podium the day before).

Anyhow, it struck me as ironic, because not an hour earlier, Allena and I were discussing posts in forums, and how it’s the provocative ones that get reactions. I’ve noticed that if you say something insightful or profound in an online forum, you *might* get one or two responses. If you say something provocative, you get a LOT of responses. It doesn’t matter how innocuous the topic, a provocative statement will open the door wide to everyone else that has an opinion on the subject.

For example, if I say that I always put my left shoe on first. That’s pretty lame, and nobody will respond. If I say I put my left shoe on first, and to do otherwise indicates some kind of social problem on the part of the right-shoe-first person, then I better duck quick because the responses will fly. The funny part is, some people will just flame away, and other people will post legitimate opinions about why it’s really better to put on your right shoe first. Others will post stuff like “right on! tell it like it is brother! left-shoe-first people rock!”.

I find I get similar reactions in work related discussions. If I ask a group “how should I handle situation ‘X’?”, I almost always get either no response at all, or “I don’t care” or the like. If I state to a group “this is how I’m going to handle situation ‘X”, then suddenly everyone has an opinion. Try it sometime…it’s startling.

I have to wonder why Chavez chose to rant about our president, our country, and the aroma of podiums at the U.N. What kind of response was he trying to provoke? It’s funny…the article was all about his comments. It didn’t even say what the subject of his actual speech was. Maybe all he did was rant?

BTW…all you right-shoe-firsters are wacko. :)

(ducks)

USB Gadgets for your desk

I got the above link from Slashdot.  It’s got gizmos from the amusing (see the desktop rocket launcher) to the useful (like the usb flex-light).

Not a bad idea really to plug devices with low power requirments into the USB port.  I better go slap patents on the USB powered nose/ear-hair trimmer, the USB powered electric shaver, and the USB powered electric tooth brush charger before somebody beats me to it.

Five years ago, right around this time of day, I was having breakfast with a client in Bloomington, Indiana.  We were chatting, and then her co-worker came down to breakfast.  He went over to a T.V. mounted on the wall, and turned it on.  One of the World Trade Centers was on fire.  Both of the clients were from New York, and had friends that worked in the towers…we were all riveted, and pretty soon everyone else in the restaurant was too.  A few minutes later, we watched the second jet come streaking across the screen and slam into the other tower.  I’ll never forget it.  It gives me chills just thinking about it now.  The plane just literally disappeared…there was nothing left to see but a smoking hole in the side of the building.

The rest of the day is kind of a blur.  Needless to say, we didn’t get a whole lot of work done.  We ended up going to the bar next door to the office around 11, because they had a T.V.  The bartender didn’t want to turn it on, because the manager had strict rules about when the T.V. was to be on, and when the music was to be on.  We managed to convince her that in this case, the manager wasn’t going to complain, and if he did we’d personally come back and ream him for his insensitivity.

Our clients ended up keeping their rental car and driving back to New York.  It was kind of funny…they called Hertz and basically said “look…I know we’re supposed to bring it back, but we’re just not going to…get over it.”

Anyhow…it’s something I reminisce about on this day, and I say a prayer for all the people who died so needlessly.  May God be with their families today, and everyday.

I’ve been spammed!  I feel so violated.

Some spamming JERK (well, bot most likely) posted a comment that advertised credit cards.  I suppose I should be glad that it wasn’t something worse.

Consequently, I’ve enabled the little wordpress option that requires a poster to have one approved comment before it displays automatically.  Hopefully that will remedy the situation.  If not, I’ll have to moderate all comments (which I really don’t want to do).

Hopefully, I won’t get innundated with spam on my blog.  I don’t know what I’ll do at that point, but it’ll really tick me off.

We’ve had sick kids lately.  Here’s a GREAT tip: If you feel like you’re going to puke, drink flat Pepsi.  Seriously.  It’s miraculous.  Just pour it back and forth between a couple of glasses until it stops fizzing, and then drink it.  You’ll feel better in seconds.

I mentioned this to a guy at work today, who had never heard of this wonderful use for Pepsi, so I thought I’d share the info.