Ok, folks, its quiz time

My high-school friend Tom Ciborowski, an amazingly good P.E. who's in the Middle East these days building an artificial island, sent this to a bunch of us:

Today's quiz is on areas:

1. How many Nooks are there in a Bunder?
2. How many Dhurs are there in a Tsubo?
3. How many Carreaus are there in a Rood (not Rod)?
4. How many Cawneys are there in a Stang?

(Yes, there are answers to this. You can get the hard math at www.convertunits.com, but the explanation of what these are is to be found elsewhere.)

Ok, folks, its quiz time

Twitter meets Reality TV....

....or some such conjunction. There's a website that Susan the Wonderchild pointed out to me this morning called FMyLife.com (motto: "My life sucks, but I don't give a f***"). It's kinda like bits of Twitterage about doom, gloom, and boom.

The format is you post a short comment about something you've done or that's happened to you, followed by the initials "FML." As I read these, I keep thinking of Bill Engvall's "Heeeeeere's your sign!" Here are a few examples:

• Today, I gave my 16 year old step daughter and her friends a lecture on respecting other people's privacy. Two hours later, I accidentally walked into her room without knocking. She and her friends were giving each other bikini waxes. Now her friends call me the hypocritical pervert. FML
• Today, I learned that I have carpal tunnel syndrome. I got it from playing too much World of Warcraft. I got a disease in real life by living in a virtual world. FML
• Today, I had all four of my wisdom teeth extracted. Under anesthesia I proceeded to tell the dentist my entire sexual and drug history in detail. FML
• Today, not wanting to be known as a lightweight anymore, I started drinking with some guy friends. After one beer I ended up in bed with one of them who kindly put my bra back on for me after, as I was too sloshed. I'm no longer known as lightweight, but instead, the slutty drunk. FML

It's really rather depressing and frequently sad, but there's at least a measure of schadenfreude that this isn't you, at least.

And it's 8:02, so I need to clock in to work! Y'all have a great day. Or better than these people, anyway.

Twitter meets Reality TV....

Kamikaze Cooking: The Perfect Steak

This is amazing. The opening bit before the real segment ("Cooking Is Easy If You're Rich and Famous") is perfect.

Kamikaze Cooking: The Perfect Steak

"Hedtke's Law" and proper attribution

I was off at the STC conference in Atlanta this past week. It was a lovely event and the photos I took can be found at my Flickr website. Two of my all-time favorite people got their Associate Fellow credentials and I got to see any number of other old friends as well.

At the Board meeting on Friday, no less than 4 people pointed out to me that "Hedtke's Law" (identified as such) had become part of Board canon. Hedtke's Law is something I kept saying while I was on the Board when dealing with people who are too 'nice' (the nose should wrinkle when you say it). 'Nice' is ineffectual, unable to do anything, because you're worried that someone, somewhere will be offended. You may be able to put a name and a face to that somebody, but the idea that SOMEBODY will be upset would completely prevent the STC from doing a lot of things in the past that should've been done to the betterment of the members or the Society as a whole. (And fuck that noise, btw.)

I have no patience for people who don't want to get anything done because they're in mortal fear of offending someone, when, in fact, they're there to get something done. When confronted with this ineffectual thinking--of which we had an awful lot at the time--I kept saying this:

"If it doesn't offend somebody, it couldn't possibly interest anybody."

I said it so often that this was dubbed "Hedtke's Law," and it's a very flattering legacy for getting the STC turned in the right direction. (There's a corollary to this, too: If you're the one offended, it's just your bad luck that this time it was you.)

But I really need to set the record straight on one point: I didn't write this. My old friend, Allyn Wolfe, was responsible for saying this some 35 years ago in the pages of Red Garters, a Craft magazine that he edited. (His editorial policy was, similarly, "I shall continue to provoke everyone within my reach!") It's a profoundly great statement and, although I'm getting the credit for saying it, I want it stated for the record that it was Allyn who came up with this in the first place.


For more on Hedtke's Laws, click here.

"Hedtke's Law" and proper attribution

Quote du jour

From Grant Hogarth:

"Ah, but a man's screech should exceed his rasp, or what's a fiddle for?"

Quote du jour

I'm rubbing off on people....

We were at the mall yesterday, picking up a few additional games for the Wii that we just ~a-hem~ bought Susan the Wonderchild for her birthday this coming Tuesday. On the way in, we spotted a sale on silverware. We've been looking for a new set because my silverware, which I like, is dying: the handles (which are some kind of black composite material) are beginning to fade and chip. Time for something new we buy together.

We looked at a number of sets, none of which grabbed us strongly, but some of which were kinda nice. We didn't get anything, though. We then went to the Game Stop and bought 3 more games for the Wii. (For Susan, you understand!)

This morning, the Babe woke up and said "I had a dream last night that had to have been because we were looking at silverware. I was walking down a road when I saw something. I couldn't quite make it out but when I got right up to it, I saw that it was a fork. There was a fork in the road! I even stopped in the dream just to go 'A fork in the road?!?' And that was all the dream was."

Clearly, my work here is done.... hehehehehehehehehehe

I'm rubbing off on people....

Quote du jour from Atlanta

Made it to Atlanta without any problems. I've been attending some meetings already but haven't been tagged for a lot of assignments at the STC (and I'm reasonably thankful for that!). I'm doing a zillion things on the computer this afternoon and I have a quote to share with you:

I dream of a world in which chickens can cross the road without having their motives questioned.

I'm glad to be here and getting things done for the STC, but I am still gacking at the idea that morning comes three hours earlier on Eastern time.

Quote du jour from Atlanta

Quote du jour

There was another life that I might have had, but I am having this one.

-- Kazuo Ishiguro

Quote du jour

One very silly cat

De Murr sent me the following clip:



And back to work for me. Y'all have a lovely morning--I am!

One very silly cat

Do you need a sound effect?

Go to this website and click the red button. Have your sound up enough to hear. (This is totally safe for work and might even be helpful during a meeting.)

Do you need a sound effect?

Cuteness and odd animals

I ran into a lovely site for animal lovers and them as aren't getting enough cuteness in their lives: Zooborns, which is a site of baby animal pictures from zoos all over the world. For something truly strange, look at the pictures of the baby aardvark. I'm very fond of the tiger cubs.

And this is possibly the weirdest looking bird I've ever seen. Right around 0:44, it opens its eyes all the way, which is kind of frightening.

Cuteness and odd animals

Quote du jour from Eleanor Roosevelt

I had a rose named after me and I was very flattered.
But I was not pleased to read the description in the catalog:
'No good in bed, but fine against a wall'.

~ Eleanor Roosevelt

Quote du jour from Eleanor Roosevelt