Samuel has recently become a big Ben Folds fan. It started when Samuel discovered that Ben has a song with ‘Stan’ in the title. So, now when he listens to my iPod, he asks for ‘the Stan song.’ I carefully excluded this song from the playlist that Samuel listens to, but this past weekend, Samuel pointed out that I’d missed one song with objectionable lyrics. So, if Samuel starts using the F word, I guess I can just blame it on Ben Folds.
I just completed the public domain audiobook of The Secret Garden. The plot was blindingly obvious, but the book was still a fun read.
This MSNBC news article about cold-war era civil defense supplies having been found at the Brooklyn Bridge dredged up a childhood memory. I remember eating lemon hard candies that I thought were from civil defense caches. A quick Googling confirmed that they probably were indeed from a fallout shelter. The ones I remember were just like the yellow candies shown on this page.
The candies that I remember probably came from the grain elevator in Wichita, Kansas, that my maternal grandfather managed, which was a fallout shelter–though I’m not sure how the candies got from the shelter to my grubby little mouth.
I’m no great technology predictor, but I’ve been saying for some time that flash-based drives will be replacing traditional hard drives in portable computers soon. Well, Samsung has introduced a 32 GB flash drive that’s being positioned as a challenger to traditional hard drives. I can’t wait for a laptop with one of these things!
These study results are really interesting:
In the 1960s Jack Block . . . began tracking more than 100 nursery school kids as part of a general study of personality . . . A few decades later, Block followed up with more surveys, looking again at personality, and this time at politics, too. The whiny kids tended to grow up conservative, and turned into rigid young adults who hewed closely to traditional gender roles and were uncomfortable with ambiguity.
The confident kids turned out liberal and were still hanging loose, turning into bright, non-conforming adults with wide interests. The girls were still outgoing, but the young men tended to turn a little introspective.
. . .
In a society that values self-confidence and out-goingness, it’s a mostly flattering picture for liberals. It also runs contrary to the American stereotype of wimpy liberals and strong conservatives.
(via Follow Me Here)
Take a look. But remember, kids: tattoos are for life (more or less).
Sorry the entries have been sparse around here lately. No particular reason; I’ve just been more focussed on day-to-day issues. Stay tuned.
Interesting comparative photo set.
So, Katie IMs me from home and mentions that our home (VoIP) telephone is not working. I respond: “So, is Internet access out also?” A second later I realize I asked her this via IM.
This otherwise so-so article about office cubicles contains this awesome quote:
Reviled by workers, demonized by designers, disowned by its very creator, [the cubicle] still claims the largest share of office furniture sales–$3 billion or so a year–and has outlived every “office of the future” meant to replace it. It is the Fidel Castro of office furniture.
