/dev/null/kevin

Today I celebrate eleven years married to my wife.  Yeah us!  This also concludes my month of gifts as June is packed full of such occasions.  It starts with my wife's birthday, my mom and grandmother's birthdays, our anniversary, Father's Day, and usually a wedding and graduation (or two).  At least part of Father's Day is for me now.  I can't wait until Hallmark turns Flag Day into a gift-giving occasion!

I think one of those jobs of tommorrow should be spell checker.

Tags: hillary clinton | spelling | tommorrow

Is it me or are 80s fashions coming back?  It's about the right time for it as retro 80s stuff is just starting to be cool now.

Retro usually only goes back about 25 years, mainly because retro stuff is only cool to those who weren't alive the first time around.  In the early 1980s, retro was the 50s (cf. Preppy).  We rejected the slovenly and sloppy 70s styles and music.  Disco was declared dead, clothes were neat and colorful, and music was techno and precise (no ad libbing allowed!).  Women's pants covered their belly buttons.

In the early 1990s the 60s retro came calling.  Bell bottoms and tie-dye were back, and grunge music took off.  Hair bands and over-produced music were banished to second billing behind "Puppet Show."    We even tried to recreate the magic with Woodstock '94 (aka Mudstock).

The late 1990s and early 2000s begot 70s retro.  Disco was back!  The song Y.M.C.A. became a staple at every wedding and karaoke bar in the nation.  Wayne's World made head banging to Queen cool.  Low, hip-hugger pants were required by law for everyone under the age of 25.

Fast forward to 2007.  Gone are the syncopated and funky rhythms in pop music.  They have been replaced with boring 80s repetitive 8th note bass lines (same same note).  Avril Lavigne's latest song sounds like the return of The Go Gos.  The kids in High School Musical dress like when I was in high school (class of '84).  Today I saw, not one, but two pictures of young, trend-setting, celebrities wearing pants that, I swear, are identical to ones my girlfriends wore while dancing to Duran Duran.  Goodbye low-rise jeans.  Goodbye belly buttons.  Hello suck-in-your-gut-high-waisted pants!

The 80s, for better or worse, are back.  Be prepared.  I'm pulling out all my thin ties now.

Tags: 80s | fashion | retro | music

It was a sad day here at our house.  The little silkworms we were raising were attacked and eaten by ants!

Last spring my daughter's teacher gave out little silkworms to anyone who could take care of them (you need access to mulberry leaves).  For most of the summer she had fun watching her own "very hungry caterpillars" eat leaves and get bigger.  It was exciting to watch them make cocoons and even more exciting when the white silk moths emerged (they don't fly away).  Within a week the moths had all laid hundreds of eggs and then lay down to die next to their offspring.  The eggs either hatch quickly, or they remain dormant until spring if it's late in the cycle.

Fast forward to last week.  The eggs lay dormant all winter so I put the box outside so the eggs could detect whatever natural triggers there are for "spring."  It worked because just as the new mulberry leaves started growing, the little eggs hatched.  Hundreds of tiny, tiny silkworms everywhere.  I tossed in some new leaves and within minutes the leaves were covered with worms.  Again, it was incredibly exciting for my daughter to see the eggs hatch.

A few days later I went to transfer the eggs to a new box and noticed that there wasn't a single worm in the box!  In their place were a bunch of ants.  I can only assume that the ants considered the worms food, or a threat, and killed them.  So sad.  My daughter doesn't know yet.

Tags: ants | death | silkworms

Perhaps you're already read this story from Boing Boing where a maintenance worker was sprayed with blood from the sewer.  Yes, how charming.  He complained how awful is was that he got blood in his mouth  The story went on to say how workers will now be required to wear masks, but just by that particular medical laboratory, which can apparently legally dump human and animal blood into the sewer (how nice).

The focus of the story was how awful it was to have blood in your mouth (and I'm sure it is), but I just couldn't help wondering why these worker don't mind all of the that other stuff in the sewer spraying into their mouths.  I can just picture this guy cleaning the sewer, dead rats and human feces flying all around, and none of that bothering him.  But when the blood gets in his mouth he's spitting it out all day because he can't get the taste out.  I guess everything else tastes okay?

You couldn't get me into a sewer without a deep sea diving suit sprayed with Teflon and these guys are down there without masks.  Sheesh.

Tags: sewer | blood | yuck

I think I'm going to get a job as an editor in my next life.  Read this story and and tell me what's wrong with it.  BTW, it's a very sad story and I'm not making fun of it or the people involved.  My beef is with the reporter who screwed up the story.

So, Encyclopedia Brown, did you catch the mistake?  Either the reporter got the name wrong in the last sentence or Sgt. Gittens is charging a dead man with a parole violation.

Tags: news faulty reporting

Our Honda Accord has a safety (?) feature (?) that automatically locks the doors after a period of time.

I hate this feature.

Here's how it works.

1. I use the keychain fob to unlock my car and open the trunk.
2. I put my stuff in the trunk.
3. The car locks the doors just as I'm about to get in.

Here's the other way it works:

1. I drive somewhere and exit my car.
2. I forget to lock the door when I leave.
3. I return, hours later, to find the car still unlocked.

 I'm guessing that this auto-lock system was made by the same Honda engineers who require that I turn both the heater and the air conditioner on just to defrost my windshield.

Tags: lock | honda | autolock

I can't help thinking of Caddyshack.

Tags: caddyshack moles

Merry Christmas to all who read this blog!

I hope Santa brought you everything you wished for.
 

Yup, gas prices are back up again.  You'd think they would at least try to make it not so obvious.  My local gas station went up 5 cents on Tuesday.

 Tags: election, gas

If you live the in San Francisco bay area then you know that BART is the Bay Area Rapid Transit system, a.k.a. an electric rail system.  Today BART began an experiment with Smart Cards to replace the old paper ticket system.  To listen to the news and to BART's own press releases you would think that this is something new and innovative.

*Sigh*

This is pretty much old news to many other places in the world.  I'll just give one example, which is Hong Kong.  Hong Kong has its Octopus system which has been aroud since the 1990s.  Almost all rail and bus systems use it these days and it's popularity as a form of cashless payment has increased to the point where you can use it almost anywhere.

The Octopus cards uses a proximity sensor so you don't even have to take it out of your wallet.  If you go to the train station, you will see most people just dragging their entire wallet or purse across the sensor.  I believe the new BART cards will still require you to swipe them like a old credit card (new credit cards also have "touchless" interaction now.

Hell, my Sun ID badge is also a Java Smart Card and works the proximity door locks.  The door sensors are a little to high for me to just swipe my butt against it to open the door, sadly.

Tags: BART, transportation, smart card

The guy who yelled "Tequila!" in the song of the same name has died.  Danny Flores, aka Chuck Rio of The Champs died at age 77.  He also played the sax on the song, so he's pretty much responsible for the whole song.  Originally released as a throw away "B" side, the song went to #1 and even won a Grammy.

Everyone who went to a party in college should raise a shot glass in honor Danny Flores.  I really hope his tombstone says "Tequila!" on it.


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September 22, 2006 02:47 PM PDT Permalink | Comments [2] |

The folks at Crazyshark now offer a huge inflatable floating iceberg suitable for climbing and certain injury.  Three sides have climbing walls with varying degrees of difficulty, and the 4th side is a giant slide.  Whoo hoo!


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September 12, 2006 05:26 PM PDT Permalink | Comments [4] |

This story about remote check-in, where you can check-in your bags and get a bording pass before you get the airport sounds like a good idea at first.  It should make things more convenient for some people and probably reduce lines in the airport.  But it seems like there are some hidden problems.

To begin with, this process seems less secure.  If I were a terrorist this new system would seem like a good thing to exploit for my purposes.  It will be new and mistakes will be made.  There may be several weak points in the process where something can be slipped in.  How secure will the luggage transports be?  Armored cars?  I doubt it.

Also, if you thought luggage got lost frequently before, I'll bet this new system makes it worse.  Any number of things could happen to the transport on the way to the airport.  Thieves could get access, the truck could be in an accident, or it could just get stuck in traffic and miss the plane.

Hopefully the LA system will work out most of the kinks.

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September 11, 2006 10:44 AM PDT Permalink | |

I've already commented on how Scott Adams is kind of a jerk.  Now he is a wimpy jerk.

On Monday, the same day that Steve "Crocodile Hunter" Irwin died, Scott posted on his blog a very insensitive rant about how Irwin basically deserved to die.  There were all kinds of negative comments and I'm sure a few emails.

Today, that post is gone with no explanation.  I'll give Scott the benefit of the doubt and say he had second thoughts about the posting, but the honorable thing to do would be to make a second post (or update the first) with his thoughts and maybe an apology.  It's a cop out and coward's way out to just delete the post.  Mr. "I'm always right" makes a mistake but instead of owning up to it, he just tried to hide it.  Shame.

Maybe Scott will make a second post, but as of now he hasn't.  If he does, don't exect this post to disappear.

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September 05, 2006 10:22 AM PDT Permalink | Comments [2] |