BoomFlag

So I just got back from Denver, where I’d gone for the afternoon to (whee!) rebuild a couple of servers at BitRelay, my web hosting company. When I returned from the facility to my car, I saw a nickel on the pavement beside the door. Cool– even better than finding a penny.

But then I got into the car (thinking it was strange that the door wasn’t locked) and noticed that all of the change had been stolen! I have a little cup holder in my console where I keep about $30 worth of change– mostly for parking meters in Boulder and thereabouts. All of it, except a lone dime, was gone.

Looking around a bit, I noticed that both doors were unlocked, which never happens because I always keep the passenger one locked. I suspect what happened was a punk kid (or two?) used a hangar or long stick and reached through the one-inch gap where I’d opened the windows to keep the car cooler, and managed to pop the lock mechanism.

Bummer.

On the other hand, I can look at the positive side: they didn’t steal my wallet or credit cards, they didn’t jack the stereo or speakers, and nothing else was damaged. They snagged a handful of quarters and probably ran over to Arby’s for a nice juicy roast beef or something.

It’s too bad people are like that. Karma will catch them someday. In the meantime, I guess I’ll have to dig up another handful of quarters so I don’t get caught at a parking meter.

When Rudy Guliani was mayor of New York City, he gave a speech and said this:

I’m pretty sure I don’t want a leader who espouses those values.

“During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act.”

— George Orwell

We just got back from our trip to Minnesota, which was a huge twine ball of fun.

One of the funny parts of the trip– at least for me– was the plethora of tourist stores hawking their goofy overpriced junk. A perfect example:

For some reason it cracked me up to see that you could buy a bag of rocks for five bucks. It was, in fact, a better deal than some other things you could pick up at these meccas of kitschy crap.

The Decider strikes again.

Scooter Libby was tried by a jury of his peers and found guilty of obstruction of justice, then sentenced to two and a half years in the slammer. It seems justice had been done.

But then along comes Bush, waving his magic wand and commuting Libby’s sentence. No jail time for friends of the administration!

Aha! Why do we even need these pesky juries and judges when The Decider can simply determine what’s right and fair? The rule of law has no weight any more.

First there was the Roomba, which is a clever little robot that wheels around rooms in your house and vacuums the carpets. It’s one of those “why didn’t I think of that?” concepts, and I don’t know how successful or popular the devices are, but I’ve always considered them pretty cool.

Add a new chapter to “why didn’t I think of that?” as the Auto Mower is released. Here’s a quick summary:

Sweet! I’d buy one if they cost less than $2,000– that’s a hefty sticker price.

Since Zing is hiring a new programmer, I’ve been wading through resumes sent in response to my job posting on Craigslist. Sometimes there are some real gems in there… people who say they’re PHP programmers, but upon reviewing their resume, you see they’ve been in the computer industry for about a year, and prior to that they spent four years at (for example) Blockbuster.

Take this fabulous item, quoted from an actual resume, discussing experience at Blockbuster:

Holy cow! That’s an impressive list of duties for someone who basically stands behind the counter and asks “Would you like some Goobers with your rental tonight?”.

While I think it’s great that people work at Blockbuster, it’s hard for me to understand why they think I should hire them as a web developer for over $50,000 a year…

One of the kids’ friends brought her copy of Dance Dance Revolution to our house (she has a different version than we do) and the kids were all listening to the music– not dancing, mind you– when I came in for my afternoon snack.

“Hey dad, there’s this awesome song you should hear,” said Kyra.
“Oh yeah? What’s that?”
“It’s called ‘Whip It’!” added Alex.
“You mean by Devo?”
“Yeah.”

Oh my. I explained to them that the song is probably twenty years old (still a classic, of course!). I’m surprised they have it in the game, because most of the music is modern dance stuff. I guess some tunes just never go out of style.

They really got a kick out of the music video, too. “Look at their hats!” they said. “And did you see how they whipped off that lady’s hat?”

I don’t get much spam any more (hooray) so unfortunately I miss out on all of the cheesy loans and mortgages and drugs and money transfer deals. But today I picked up a great ad:

I particularly like the happy punching guy on the side. Not only do you get $1,500 BY TOMORROW but you also get a free bonus SOCK TO THE KISSER BY SOME ASIAN GUY!

Our family enjoys playing Dance Dance Revolution, but I wonder how much more fun we’d have if we installed a Dance Dance Immolation set in our family room.

As shown here, you do the standard dance moves on your control pad. Note the fashionable fireproof suits.

When you goof up a step, you get sprayed by a flamethrower! Whee!

That’s way more exciting than the word boo on the screen…