Finally!

It only took a year, but it's finally finished!



Covers the better part of a queen sized bed. Same width, but goes from the foot to just below the pillows. I'd estimate it around 75"x65".

Back in my day...

I know my sister already blogged this, but I feel a need to reiterate. Back in my day, kids only got out of school when there was snow on the ground. Yeah, I know... back in your day, you had to walk two miles to get to school in a foot and a half of snow, uphill both ways. But really, we had to get up in the morning and check to see if there was snow outside. And even then it was questionable as to whether we would get the day off. The roads weren't even wet when I left for work this morning and school had already been canceled. And for what? A forecast of 6-10 inches, sure. Right now, there's still nothing on the roads. Where's my snow?

LOTD: And the latest... Time to boycott Taco Bell: Fla. Tomato Pickers Still Reap 'Harvest of Shame': "In 2001, the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, an advocacy group housed in the squat building where the workers get their pre-dawn coffee, launched a boycott of Taco Bell, an important buyer of Immokalee tomatoes. Taco Bell's corporate parent, Yum! Brands Inc., is the world's largest restaurant company with five restaurant chains. (KFC, Pizza Hut, A&W and Long John Silver's are the other four.)"

Not that I ate there that often anyway, but now I know.

QOTD: "see? this is a good sign... i haven't made a new screenname in almost 2 years!"

Weekend Recap

Friday -- Errand day: Went to see the doctor, ruptured my eardrum (it's ok... it heals), bought some groceries, went to the chiropractor, went to World Market in search for more Fair Trade chocolate (unsuccessful :( ), went to Target to fill prescriptions, went to the bank, met up with Ian for lunch and to buy supplies for TLD's party, got lunch, watched extra features for GG season 2, baked cookies, cut Ian's hair, delivered cookies, went to TLD's party. Party was fun. Lots of food and lots to drink. You know you hang out with a bunch of nerds when people are getting drunk and all they want to do is play Trivial Pursuit. Hehe...

Saturday -- Loafed around all day and watched movies with Ian: Better Off Dead, The Sting, Patriot Games, and Clear and Present Danger. I thought I hadn't seen Better Off Dead before, but it turned out I had seen bits and pieces of it when it was on tv. Don't think I ever caught the end of it though, so that worked out well. The Sting was cool. Kind of like Ocean's Eleven... con artists stealing from the rich. Anyway, cool movie. Patriot Games and Clear and Present Danger I haven't seen in so long that I didn't remember most of it. Just a few of the more memorable scenes. It was good to see those again.

Sunday -- Got up. Woo! Went over to my parents' house and ended up hanging out all by myself. Good thing my mom kept calling me yesterday. :) -J.

LOTD: Va. Proposal Would Make Prayer a Right: "I think the American people and the courts have been saying that the wall in the separation of church and state has gone too far, and it's suppressed -- I'd even say oppressed -- the Christian faith and silenced it..."

Because, really. When I think Christianity, I think: Oppression.

REESE'S Double Peanut Butter Cookies (a.k.a. Crack Cookies)
Ingredients:

* 1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter or margarine, softened
* 1/4 cup shortening
* 1/2 cup REESE'S Creamy or Crunchy Peanut Butter
* 1/2 cup sugar
* 1/2 cup brown sugar
* 1 egg
* 1-1/4 cups all-purpose flour
* 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
* 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
* 1/4 teaspoon salt
* 1 10-oz bag REESE'S Peanut Butter Chips

Directions:
1. Heat oven to 375 degrees F.

2. Beat butter, shortening, peanut butter, sugars, and egg in large bowl until creamy.

3. Stir together flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt; gradually add to butter mixture, beating until well blended.

4. Stir in peanut butter chips.

5. Form 1-inch balls 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheet, dip fork in sugar and then flatten dough.

6. Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until lightly browned around edges. Cool 1 minute; remove from cookie sheet to wire rack. Cool completely. About 4 dozen cookies.

They're so dumb they don't even know they're dumb

Snow!! So exciting! It's actually starting to stick finally, so I'm very pleased. I am skeptical about the 3-5 inches, but I hope they're right. I already shoveled once. Hoping there will be more snow in the morning to shovel. Woo! :) -j.

LOTD: Unskilled and Unaware of It: How Difficulties in Recognizing One's Own Incompetence Lead to Inflated Self-Assessments: "Across 4 studies, the authors found that participants scoring in the bottom quartile on tests of humor, grammar, and logic grossly overestimated their test performance and ability. Although their test scores put them in the 12th percentile, they estimated themselves to be in the 62nd. Several analyses linked this miscalibration to deficits in metacognitive skill, or the capacity to distinguish accuracy from error."

So, I guess I shouldn't blame people for being dumb. They really don't know any better.

QOTD: "I would be more effective in my underwear."

Edit: For some reason, that link isn't working for me anymore, but google has it cached: Unskilled and Unaware of It: How Difficulties in Recognizing One's Own Incompetence Lead to Inflated Self-Assessments

Baby Got Bible

LOTD for Lenny: Baby Got Bible

Harvard Chief Again to Face Angry Faculty Over Remarks

Take a look at this article and see if you notice anything interesting about Summers's supporters:
Harvard Chief Again to Face Angry Faculty Over Remarks

When you're done, come back and see if you saw what I saw or if maybe I overlooked something.


Up until the last two paragraphs all of the people quoted as supporting him are men:
economics professor David Laibson
psychology professor Stephen Pinker
conservative pundits, such as writer Andrew Sullivan and radio host Rush Limbaugh
Gene Sperling, the chairman of President Bill Clinton's Council of Economic Advisers
Stuart E. Eizenstat, who served as the former Treasury secretary's deputy

Then, there's the fact that, "Last year, only four of 32 slots filled in the faculty of arts and sciences went to women."

And, finally, "...some who were troubled by Summers's remarks say they now see the opportunity to effect change.

"He was very responsive to the concerns we raised," [Mariangela Lisanti] said. "This has opened up a really exciting opportunity, and it's a matter of seizing the moment. We are moving beyond the comments."

So, it's not even that a group of women necessarily support him. They believe that by moving past these comments, they can promote change.

QOTD: "Female tigers... the sluts of the jungle."

Adventures in the midget house

Watched Lost in Translation Friday night with the boy. It was pretty good. Some parts were slow, but the funny parts were excellent. So, overall, pretty good.

Spent a good part of yesterday with Ian and a bunch of TLD's friends helping TLD move. For some reason, the ceilings in the stairwells and the downstairs bathroom of the new place were extra low. The doorway was pretty narrow and the dining room light was hanging pretty low. I've never had to duck under a light fixture before. Ever. There were a number of minor casualties, but all in all, it didn't turn out too bad.

Spent the evening over at the HOY, watched Garden State again, and then we all sat around surfing the internet together on Squidgey's new shiney hooked up to the plasma. And fun was had by all.

Today was mostly napping and working on my blanket. Went with my sis for our weekly visit to the parents' house. Tried to convince my parents to try a poly-phasic sleep cycle. I think I may have sold my mom on it. I'm very excited. Think I'm going to get some reading in for once. I'm off! :) -j.

Circadian Rhythms

Just got up from my afternoon nap and saw my brother's latest update. He's proposing 30-hour days to his superiors. I'm skeptical, but I also agree with him that this is a good idea. The problem being that humans are set to have their internal clocks reset every day by the sun to live by a 24-hour day. Without external cues, from my readings, have resulted in 27-28-hour days. Which is closer to what he wants.

I read that and was very interested, so I proceeded to do some research on Circadian rhythms, shift work, and poly-phasic sleep. I tried a brief experiment one summer when I was down at school with a 6-hour-wake, 2-hour-sleep cycle, which worked out pretty well for me. It only worked for my summer schedule though, so I had to ditch when I got new classes the next semester. I don't know if that'd be any good for them though... You know, soldiers passing out for their 2-hour-nap whenever their internal clock was scheduled to.

Anyway, I think some of that may have stuck with me. Or maybe it's just that the only times I actually get around to taking naps is when I'm REM-deprived, but every time I take a nap, I wake from some vivid dream. Like just now, I was going around a school looking for water and the only thing people would offer me were heart-shaped, red Mentos(TM). I've never even seen Mentos like that. There was this long line for the water fountain. Think: Women's bathroom after a movie. So, I didn't want to wait. I finally got so thirsty, I pulled myself out of my slumber to find that I had rolled over in my sleep and had started drooling. Yes, a gorgeous mental image of me, I know. I had drooled so much that one side of my tongue was dry.

In conclusion, sleep is good.

QOTD: "Aren't you going to help me inspect my phlegm?"

LOTD: Cola across America

Mm... road rage...

Hey guy in the green sedan,
I'm glad you love America. And it's nice that you support our troops. And thanks for having God Bless this country. It's a shame with all those stickers on the butt of your car, I couldn't tell what kind of car you were actually driving. In any case, it's great to know that you're not a terrorist and all, but you still drive like a jerk. Exit lanes are not for cutting ahead of the mile-long parking lot on 66. I hope you understood that I was only "Honk[ing] for our troops." Jerk.

-j.

QOTD: "'Cookies are the ultimate comfort food,' spokeswoman Liz Rayo said. 'We don't want anyone sued over cookies. Cookies are good. This is an emotional issue for us.'"-- DenverPost.com

LOTD from Squidgey: Puzzle Bobble

Boston trip

I went with Ian to Boston again, and, as usual, I had no idea where we were half the time. This was unfortunate because this time was not like the others. This time he got shot. Twice. In the chest. Why? I'm not quite sure. It was the middle of the day and there were people everywhere, but no one seemed to notice the small mob of guys come up to us, shoot him, and then run off.

I don't know how, but Ian continued walking next to me as we tried to find a phone to call for help. For some reason, neither of us had signal. Not really unusual for me (Sprint), but he usually has pretty good coverage. In any case, we went into the nearest establishment, which was a pizza place. Someone was using one of the phones, but they said we could try the other. No luck. The line wasn't functional.

Continued down the road and no one would help us. Finally got to a produce shop toward the end of the block. There was a woman inside looking at a list. Possibly a shopping list, possibly checking inventory. I asked her if she worked there or if she was just shopping. "A little of both," she replied. I asked if she had a phone we could use. She looked hesitant, but seeing the state that Ian was in, she handed me her phone.

I dial 911.

Operator: Hey, this is Ricky. What's up?
Me (confused): Is this 911? I have an emergency.
Operator: Yeah, what do you need?
Me: An ambulance. My boyfriend was shot twice in the chest.
Operator: Where are you?
Me: Uh... I don't know.

I name the street we're on. Can't see the cross street. Don't know how to get there from anywhere. We're right at the edge of where the businesses and restaurants hit a residential area. Does that help?

They'll have somewhere there soon. Stay on the line as Ian and I go outside to wait. While we're out there, the guys who shot Ian show up again. We try to walk away from them, but they catch up to us pretty quickly.

They bully me into going back to work and kidnap Ian. Where's the ambulance?

Somehow, I show up back at work, still with this woman's phone with Ricky on the other end. This ambulance still hasn't shown up. I don't know where the people took Ian. I don't know what happened to the woman or how to get her phone back to her. I don't know how I got to work. Suddenly, everything clicks.

It was a setup.

I need to call 911 from a different phone without letting Ricky find out what I'm doing. They must have wanted me to go to work so they could keep an eye on me. My phone must be bugged. Try my cell phone. Finally, it works. I call and explain what happened and they say they'll send an ambulance right away. Minutes later, I hear sirens. But I don't need the ambulance. Ian got shot. I don't know where he is. I don't know where they need to send the ambulance.

*hit snooze*

Ambulance drives away with sirens turned off. I call 911 again. Explain to them the situation. I don't need the ambulance, but I don't know where they need to send it. I just need them to find Ian and see if he's still alive. Ok, now they understand. Minutes later, more sirens.

*hit snooze*

I explain again. It's like these people can't understand me. How many times do I need to explain this?

Apparently 2 more snoozes. Oops...

So, the setup-- I don't know who the shooters were. The woman was part of that setup. They staged her location so she would be available to offer her phone. When I dialed on her phone, I got one of their guys, who obviously didn't know how to answer for EMS, but I guess that didn't register with me anyway. They kept me on the line to make sure I went to work, though I'm not sure why. Again, I think so they could keep an eye on me after they kidnapped Ian. And... I have no idea why they kidnapped him. So, a very elaborate scheme. To what end? I don't have the faintest idea.

QOTD: "Because the--all which is on the table begins to address the big cost drivers. For example, how benefits are calculate, for example, is on the table; whether or not benefits rise based upon wage increases or price increases. There's a series of parts of the formula that are being considered. And when you couple that, those different cost drivers, affecting those--changing those with personal accounts, the idea is to get what has been promised more likely to be--or closer delivered to what has been promised. Does that make any sense to you? It's kind of muddled. Look, there's a series of things that cause the--like, for example, benefits are calculated based upon the increase of wages, as opposed to the increase of prices. Some have suggested that we calculate--the benefits will rise based upon inflation, as opposed to wage increases. There is a reform that would help solve the red if that were put into effect. In other words, how fast benefits grow, how fast the promised benefits grow, if those--if that growth is affected, it will help on the red." --President Bush explaining his plan to save Social Security, Tampa, Fla., Feb. 4, 2005

And I thought my parents were incomprehensible some days... at least they have an excuse. What other language does this guy know? Texan?

LOTD (If you're my parents or don't like vulgar language, take a pass on today's link please. Thanks!): How to stay in my pants -- Some tips for boys... and while, a lot of the things on this list have to do with being considerate, thoughtful, and respectful, this chick does not sound like any of those things. She's full of herself and thinks she's charitable for sleeping with nerds. Hey, try dating people you like instead of liking people who want you for sex and acting surprised when they don't appreciate your other wonderful qualities. Still kept me entertained for a while though, so that's something.

Yo

JOTD: A Polar Bear walks into a bar and says, "I'll have a Gin and................................tonic, please."
The Barkeep says, "Why the big pause?"
The polar bear replies, "I don't know. My Dad had 'em too."


LOTD: Brainpower as easy as X and Y -- Men and women are different... Go figure.

Happy Valentine's Day...

First it was diamonds, then it was chocolate... Now, flowers?

The dirty truth behind America's traditional valentines: "In the weeks and months preceding Valentine's Day, life as a rose worker is often unfair and difficult. Workers are required to labor from 7 a.m. to 3 a.m. in extreme heat and receive little overtime pay. During one hour, they cut as many as 600 stems just to stay out of trouble. Due to the rushed production, workers feel hurried and are often prone to injury."

Weekend recap

Friday -- Cookie day! Baked Valentine cookies for distribution. Might bake more this weekend. We'll see...

Spent the day with Ian and the evening with him, his brother, and his brother's gf. Met some Mormons from Texas and California. Hung out and loafed.

Saturday -- Went over to watch Princess Diaries 2 with Ian and my sis. Then, grabbed some food at Chipotle before heading out to the Brickskeller to meet up with Roy and some of his fencing friends. Tried to drink as much as I could drink, but still no luck. Met a bunch of cool people though, so that was cool. Overall, a pretty fun night.

Sunday -- Attempted to attend the grand opening for Wegman's, but saw the lines and just did a drive-by. There were so many people and there was additional parking over toward the government center, but it seemed too stressful to get in. Decided to just get lunch with Ian and head over to pack up boxes with my sis. Spent the evening over at the parents' house collecting gossip. Now, time to read and get to sleep. :) -J.

LOTD: Things I hate about my Flatmate

New Ash Birthday

Happy Birthday to Roy! Happy New Year! Happy Ash Wednesday!

QOTD: This your idea of humor? "You know, somebody asked me, 'Do you think the war on poverty is over?' I said, 'Yes, the poor lost.'

LOTD: Thai elephants get potty training

What the deuce?

Apparently, you can't buy alcohol (closed container) after midnight in Virginia. I did not know this. I am less than thrilled.

New Year's Eve!

On the subject of tipping and whatnot --

Money etiquette: Avoid these financial faux pas: "'Books of etiquette used to say, ask not 'How is your husband?' but 'I trust that your husband is well.'"

QOTD: "He's ooold, so his junk works slow."

Yadda Yadda

Pretty quiet day today. Caught up on some gossip with BFF and did some laundry. Getting ready to get some reading in before bed now. Stayed up too late after the game last night. Anyway, that's about it. I'll leave you with a link and a quote. :) -J.

LOTD: Texas cops doing illegal searches in Canada: "The RCMP settled with Laing out of court when he threatened to sue for unlawful detention. But the Mounties defend the search, saying Laing was suspicious because his eyelashes were fluttering and his eyes were flashing."

QOTD: "What other word, besides "zoom," has a Z and two Os in it?"

Weekend recap

Friday -- Went to Chipotle with Ian for dinner. Bumped into my sister there (not literally) and chatted for a bit. We had made plans to go see Sideways, but Ian had brought over Gilmore Girls for me, so we ended up watching about 10 episodes of that.

Saturday -- Got lunch with Ian and then met up with Roy and Becca to see Million Dollar Baby. That was probably one of those movies I should have heard about or even seen a preview for or something, but I hadn't. And I had no idea what it was about going in. Just in case anyone else doesn't know, it's not like Rocky. I liked it though. Very powerful. And not to give away the movie, but there is no twist ending. I just read an article on CNN saying there was a surprise twist ending, but I severely disagree.

Went out for dinner after the movie and then headed over to Crystal City for drinks. Hung out for a few hours and caught up on the last few weeks/years. Even though I barely knew Becca in high school, it was cool catching up with her. I think what I liked was that even though it was essentially hanging out with someone new, I didn't have to go through the motions of "Where do you work?" "What do you do?" "Are you from the area?" "What'd you major in? What do you want to do with your life?" "Gee, the weather has been cold lately." Maybe I'm just really bad at smalltalk. Or maybe the people I meet are just really boring. Who knows...

Went home and watched more Gilmore Girls...

Sunday -- hung out with my sister, her roomies, and one of my roomies for a little while before everyone headed out for various activities. They weren't particularly interested in watching the game, so they went to the Cheesecake Factory while I took over her house and watched pre-game show with the dog. Looked for my bro in the shot of BAF, but didn't see him. Ian showed up shortly after. The game was excellent, but the commercials were disappointing. I liked the FedEx commercial (10 things to make a good SuperBowl commercial) and the CareerBuilder.com commercials (chimps, but the guy says he works with a bunch of monkeys. Still a good commercial though). Stayed long enough to watch Simpsons and American Dad. American Dad was cool... Same type of humor as Family Guy, but without the kid with the football-shaped head and the talking dog.

Now, I'm off to work! :) -J.

What's your WPM?

First, a special hi to all of Sonny's readers who followed his link over here. He mentioned me a couple days ago and I noticed an influx of referrals from his site. Very cool... :)

I was visiting the parents last week and got on the subject of their public speaking class. They were discussing their talking speed. I guess it's pretty obvious that there's a range for normal speech rates and outside of that range, it's somewhat noticeable that someone talks fast (Micro machines guy) or that they talk slowly (people talking to foreigners). I never really bothered to figure out what that rate was because it never occurred to me to quantify it. My parents' class, however, found the need to incorporate that into their speech education. They learned that normal speech ranges from 120 to 180 words per minute (more info if you're interested: here). Outside that range, and you need to work on speeding up or slowing down your speech.

My sister and I were both over there, so of course we decided to figure out how fast we spoke. We picked one of my mom's books (actually, the one I got her for Mother's Day last year) and read a couple pages out of it. I felt as though I was reading slowly, as I might read to a 3rd grade class or something. Not remedially slowly, but slower than my everyday speech, which my sister confirmed. My sister did the same, then my mother. I had the same comment to my sister that she was reading slightly slower than her normal speech, but it was close. Anyway, we counted up lines and estimated. I came out around 220wpm, my sister 190wpm, and my mom 110wpm.

I don't think I talk that fast. Although, now that I say that, I do think that a lot of people talk too slowly. Namely, my mom and Lenny. I kind of want to get Squidgey to try this out and see how fast she talks. People say she talks fast, and I know she's faster than me, but I never really thought she spoke that much faster than everyone else. Anyway, after this, my mom said that I need to work on slowing down my speech so I can talk at a "normal" rate like other people. My sister tried again counting the number of words she was reading as she read and that worked in slowing down her speech to a very average norm of 150 wpm. Talking to my sister on the way home, we tried this "normal" thing and it was really annoying. So, I think I'm going to try the other way. I want to break 300wpm. I think that would be useful, efficiency-wise.

I bring this all up today because I had actually forgotten about that evening's discussion until last night when Ian and I were watching some episodes from Gilmore Girls: The Complete Second Season. Rory and Paris were preparing for a debate and Paris mentioned that she spoke at 150wpm and Rory was only 130wpm or something like that. I don't remember Paris's rate, but she definitely said Rory was 130. That blows my mind because I find that impossible. At the rate that the people on that show talk, there is no possible way that Rory speaks that slowly. They definitely talk faster than I do, so no way she's at 130, especially not during a debate. It's just a tv show though... so they probably didn't bother to do a count to find out what their real rates were.

Anyway, that's about all I have for now. If you have some free time, grab a newspaper or something on your computer and time yourself reading out loud for a minute and then do a word-count to figure out your speaking rate. Share your number. I'm interested in disproving the normality of a 120wpm speech rate. (And I don't care if I don't have a random sample. I just want to believe that not everyone talks that slowly.) :) -J.

Poll of the day --

Please share your thoughts on the following (or anything else... I'm not really in the mood to censor people today):

1. Which is worse:
a) Telling a guy he smells pretty.
b) Telling a guy he is pretty.

2. Is it ever appropriate/complimentary to tell a woman gal she "is a tank"?

Thanks for playing! :) -J.

Walk America

Solicitation of the day... WalkAmerica:

Individual Walker
5/1/2005, 9:00 AM
Constitution Gardens
Corner of 17th and Constitution Ave.
Washington , DC

Trying to give some advance notice to people. I'll be doing this walk in May and Race for the Cure in June (Will have a link for that at some later date.). If you have it in your budget and would like to support either/both of these causes, please donate what you can. Every little bit adds up. Thanks, everyone!

Funeral question Part II

A woman, while at the funeral of her mother, met this guy whom she did not know. She thought the guy was amazing, her dream man! She fell in love with him instantly, but never asked for his phone number and could not find him after the funeral. A few days later she killed her sister.

Question: What is her motive in killing her sister?

Answer: She was hoping that the guy would appear at the funeral again.

Supposedly, if you answered this correctly, you think like a psychopath. "This was a test by a famous American psychologist used to test if one has the same mentality as a killer. Many arrested serial killers took part in this test and answered it correctly. If you didn't answer correctly - good for you. If your friends hit the jackpot, may I suggest that you keep your distance. (If you got the answer correct, please let me know so I can take you off my distribution list...)"

Anyway, I know this is a hoax, but it sounds reasonable enough.

QOTD: "The same way God is a firetruck is the same way this lady killed her sister to meet the man again."

Beware of angry waitrons

I just spent the better part of the evening reading angry waitron websites. Saw an article in the NY Times yesterday about angry servers. Had links to a bunch of sites, but I have only visited a couple: Waiter Rant and Bitter Waitress.

I found some of the people posting on the bitterwaitress site somewhat unrealistic, expecting a 20% tip standard, 25-30% for good/excellent service. I don't think a 15% tip is appalling for adequate service. What I judge service on:
1. drinks are filled
2. the order is right, especially if a minor request was made (no croutons or something simple like that)
3. food is brought out hot (or whatever he proper temperature should be)
4. they are personable. They don't have to like me, they just have to be polite.

That's good service and that earns 20%. If drinks are slow, food is tepid, and no one comes back to check to see if everything is how I want it, that's adequate, but I'm not impressed. And yes, even though I order water, I still expect it to be filled like any other beverage. Just because I don't want to drink soda doesn't mean I'm not going to tip appropriately.

Anyway, the people on the sites have a lot of complaints, and like a lot of the trolls who leave messages for them, I agree that if they don't like their job, they should do something else. But for the most part, they sound like they enjoy most of the customers, it's just the jerks that make it frustrating and not worthwhile.

Going to college in a small town, it's pretty apparent that a large percentage of students pay for college by waiting tables, so it's not like all of them have many options while they're taking classes and need a flexible schedule. And even after graduating, if they find that working in a restaurant pays more than whatever other job they might get, so what if they get something out of complaining about their job? Who doesn't have some kind of complaint about their job? Besides me, I mean... ;)

I got away with not having to do the mainstream customer-service thing while I was in school because I latched on to a pretty cushy tutoring gig. I did kind of want to try waiting tables or bartending for a while, just because I thought it'd be entertaining, but that was mostly from a psychology perspective. After reading those horror stories, though, I'm not as interested anymore. The closest I've been to being a waitress was taking orders at a take-out place and working the concessions stand at sporting events in high school and I remember everyone being really nice to me. I don't know if they actually were, but that's how I remember things.

I hadn't realized that so many people either don't understand how to tip or choose not to tip appropriately for good service. My family didn't eat out much growing up, but my dad would play this "game" with us when we did. When we got the bill, he'd ask everyone how much we thought he should tip. He used to wait tables, so I'm pretty sure he taught us appropriately. Haven't had anyone feel the need to teach me otherwise yet.

Adding to the list of thankless jobs, other people who deserve more respect:
Valets
Volunteers (Treat them well; they're working out of the goodness of their hearts! Or because they were court-ordered to. Whatever.)
Nurses
Cashiers
Teachers

Hm... that's all I have for that list for now. And to make up for all the negativity, here's my list of little everyday things that usually go unnoticed or unappreciated:
- Riding escalators properly: stand right, walk left.
- Holding doors open or giving it an extra nudge so it's still open when you get to it.
- Using turn signals and following other traffic rules, especially when merging.
- Holding the elevator those extra seconds for the person two steps behind.
- Allowing people to exit an elevator/traincar before entering.
- Candy dishes everywhere
- Carrying a pen on you for whatever reason... Just in case.
- Shoveling snow, raking leaves, or mowing the lawn even a little bit past exactly where your property line ends.
- Thank you./You're welcome.
- May I?/Please.
- Letting someone standing know that they can share a bench with you or have your seat.
- Telling someone the time when they ask.
- "Good morning."/"Have a nice day."
- Chewing with your mouth closed.
- Updating your blog.
To all these people: Thanks. You make the world a little nicer for everyone else, even though they probably don't notice until someone doesn't do what is expected. :) -J.

QOTD mostly funny because TLD said this at work: "I need money... so i can buy pornography!"

This is not my beautiful house!

Tonight I was asked to post on here for the first time. This is exciting for me, because I've never really posted on a blog before, but I have a feeling this blog thing could really take off, and I want to get in on it early.

The timing of this is unfortunate, however, because I spent much of my evening watching the State of the Union address. I could probably rant about this for hours, in person, but at the same time, I'm at an almost total loss for things to say. I will not explain the apparent contradiction.

So instead, here's a list of things I miss about computers.

Turbo buttons. The first IBM compatible computer I ever owned -- and here I of course mean, "was related to a person who owned" -- had a turbo button. What's great about this is that the button served not to speed the computer up, but to slow it down. That is to say, when the "turbo" was on, the processor ran at its intended speed. When the turbo was off, the computer was deliberately slowed down. This was intended to allow you to run software, including games, which needed to be run more slowly.

I have periodically explained this to people of a younger generation who play computer games. The looks I get are priceless.

Degauss buttons. CRT monitors, as a natural byproduct of proper functioning, build up gauss on the inside of the glass. I'm not totally clear on what gauss is, really, but I know it attracts dust and hair and can cause your skin to tingle if it gets too close. Anyway, CRT monitors frequently have a degauss button, which, when depressed, causes the screen to get very colorful, and any displayed images to be temporarily twisted and warped on the screen. This eliminates the gauss (think of it like a self-cleaning oven, which cleans itself with heat, but, you know, lots of it).

LCD, or flat panel, monitors claim not to build up gauss, and thus don't need to be degaussed. This is a shame. I think my early involvement with computers was primarily to give me an excuse to sit in front of them for long periods of time and degauss it periodically without looking like a dork.

For the record, this did not work.

Floppy disks. I'm not talking about the big 5 1/4" ones, but the little 3 1/2" ones. I could care less about the big ones. They sucked. The little ones sucked too, but I liked them better. They didn't really hold much of anything at all. They were pretty slow. They were generally unreliable, even though they put up a show with that little sliding metal cover. The cover sucked. More often than not I would discover that one of my disks didn't work because the cover just slid out of the way like a geriatric guard dog and allowed some piece of detritus from the lower stratum of my bag to lodge itself inside the disk, and then promptly snapped back into place, giving no sign that the integrity of the disk had been violated.

Oh! And when you gave up on trying to recover your lost data you at least got to take the disk apart and play with it. Which, now that I think about it, sucked too. The promise of the sliding door turned out to be nothing but a weak spring and some easily bent metal junk, and the innards of the disk turned out to be nothing but a crappy circular piece of plastic with none of the mysterious magnetic properties you would expect. I always felt so excited and rebellious when I took disks apart, and I have no idea why. Sucked. I still miss 'em, though.

I'm done.

Free Chipotle!

Valentines Day:
1) Buy a Chipotle gift card between 1/31 and 2/11 for a minimum of $5.
2) Save the receipt.
3) Bring the receipt back 2/12-14 and exchange it for a FREE BURRITO!!