Sometimes funny, sometimes thoughtful, always a good time
My expertise has just been called into play on a matter of the most sensitive national security. The fate of the world lies in the balance, and I must solve this cryptic puzzle!
(Okay, truthfully my friend Bech sent this to me and expects my answer by Monday…)
The ultimate Zen dialog box, straight from a Mac OS X screenshot:
This article from today’s edition of The Register is so funny I’m just going to quote it verbatim:
So, when little Johnny finally asks “Dad, where does intellectual property come from?”, there’s no need to fake an urgent appointment and rush from the room with a quick “ask your mother”, because Captain Copyright is on hand to set the record straight.
And how. Try the unexpurgated glossary of copyright terms, the heartwarming Story of Captain Copyright, or the educational Copyright Quiz which kicks off with: “You wrote a poem for class. Do you have to register it with the Copyright Board of Canada for your poem to be protected by copyright law? Yes or No?”
Oh yeah, and here’s a fun fact about Canadian copyright guaranteed to burn itself indelibly into any developing brain: “Ottawa in 1889 passed an act requiring that, in order to secure Canadian copyright, a book would have to be published in Canada within one month of its publication elsewhere; otherwise, that book (in intent, that American book) would be considered common property in Canada, which meant it could be re-published without penalty by any Canadian firm.”
Yes, I tried that one on my own 14-year-old son and he immediately jumped from the sofa where he’d been punishing his Playstation and declared: “Dad, forget that quad bike I wanted for Christmas. Get me a book on Canadian copyright law instead because I see now that when I grow up I want to be an intellectual property lawyer and make the world a safer, better place for my children and my children’s children.”
Thank you, Captain Copyright!
The site itself is available in all its glory at www.captaincopyright.ca. Whee!
I goofed up my taxes for 2003 and 2004 (and only figured out they were wrong when I did the 2005 return!) so I had to file some corrective paperwork with the IRS. The resulting envelope of goodies was pretty hefty, so I figured I’d slap two stamps on it and send it on its way. Yesterday I received the envelope in the mail with a note that I owed nine cents of additional postage.
Luckily for me– because I was in a smart-aleck mood– I had a bunch of one-cent stamps laying around.
“The difference between a democracy and a dictatorship is that in a democracy you vote first and take orders later; in a dictatorship you don’t have to waste your time voting.”
— Charles Bukowski
So today I had a conundrum: it’s Thursday, which means (of course) there’s pickup ultimate at lunch time. But I went to Zack’s preschool “graduation” party, and then Alex and Kyra’s last-day-of-school party, and wasn’t going to be able to catch the e-mail saying whether the game was a go. (We use an advanced system whereby everyone RSVP’s to a single guy about the game, and then he reports if we have enough players.)
Thinking about how I might find out the result, the light bulb of inspiration was lit and I created a mail filter that forwarded all ultimate-related e-mail messages to my cell phone– which of course I had with me at the parties. So there I was, sitting on the school lawn with the kids, and my cell phone chimed with a text message “game on”. Woo hoo!
I’m so clever.