My friend David hopes to "eliminate unwanted speaker interference noise and government brain intrusion" with the new iFoil Hat for iPhone
iFoil government brain intrusion
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Category Archives: Miscellany
Word Diet
I’ve never had a weight problem so I’ve never thought much about counting calories. But I seem to recall reading or hearing that 2,000 calories a day would be about right, depending on your weight and level of activity.
While I don’t overeat, I do have a tendency to talk to much (and listen too little). I’m wondering if I could put myself on a “word diet.”
If I allot myself 2,000 words over a 16 hour day, it works out to 125 words an hour.
If you knew you had a meeting with your boss coming up, you could be silent for an hour or two and bank the words you would need.
And if you could come in under 2,000 for the day… save ’em up for some emergency (drinking with your pals or a fight with your spouse).
The problem, of course, is counting the words. You’d need some device that monitors your speech and displays the number of words, with a little beep to warn you when you have less than 25 words in an hour.
If I could do this, I think I’d sound (be perceived as?) smart as hell. Deep. Thoughtful. And who knows, if you had to ration your words, you might choose them more carefully.
When you hear someone talking about what a great president Bush has been or McCain will be… instead of blurting out “Bull shit!”… you’d save those words rather than waste them.
I can’t really count my words but I’m going to try a one day experiment and pretend that I can. I’m not going to say which day it is until after the fact. I’ll report here.
Blog posts and tweets do not count against daily allotment.
Home, Sweet Home
Ennui Gas
WASHINGTON — “Calling it the most effective tool to date in the War on Terror, the Pentagon announced Monday that it had developed a new chemical weapon called “ennui gas,” a nerve agent that overwhelms its victims with sudden philosophical distress over the meaningless tedium of human life and a sinking sense that everything they have ever accomplished ultimately amounts to dust.”
The Onion
Scary Clown Photo #246
Photo stolen from my friend Chuck. And David shares this disturbing video.
Coffee Zone tattoo
I’ve been helping my friend Taisir feed and care for a blog for his coffee shop. It’s a labor of love and I’m there every morning anyway. With help from Phil we got his domain in place.
In time, we hope to build an online community to compliment the one he has built with his customers.
It was in this spirit that I stopped by Our Ink Don’t Stink and got my first body art.
UPDATE: The website where the image above was created no longer exists. But I did find what appears to be the source image.
Best thing about being 60? Being 20 in 1968.
Twitter pal Matthew is at a party, grooving on tunes from my era. (We need a term for drunk tweets. Dweets?) I’m flashing on music from my era, specifically, 1968:
Hey Jude, Beatles
The Dock of the Bay, Otis Redding
Sunshine of Your Love, Cream
Mrs. Robinson, Simon Garfunkle
Hello, I Love You, Doors
Born to Be Wild, Steppenwolf
Jumpin’ Jack Flash, Stones
You Keep Me Hangin’ On, Vanilla Fudge
White Room, Cream
Think, Aretha Franklin
Piece of My Heart, Big Brother and the Holding Company
Suzie Q., Creedence Clearwater Revival
Best thing about being 60? Being 20 in 1968.
More Seth Godin: “Build trust before you need it.”
“The best time to look for a job next year is right now. The best time to plan for a sale in three years is right now. The mistake so many marketers make is that they conjoin the urgency of making another sale with the timing to earn the right to make that sale. In other words, you must build trust before you need it. Building trust right when you want to make a sale is just too late.” [Full post]
The only sales I’ve ever done was in the form of affiliate relations for our networks. Whenever a new GM took over at a radio station, I felt like the clock started ticking. My challenge was to meet, get to know and earn the trust of the new boss BEFORE I needed something from him/her. There’s just no shortcut to building trust.
Fezorocity
Over on the Order of the Fez blog we’re asking the Brotherhood to submit essays defining (describing?) that ineffable quality we call fezorocity. Here’s one graf from Dr. T. Everett Mobley:
“Some years ago, one of the numbers presented in a high school choir concert was a choral setting of Lewis Carroll’s “Jabberwocky”. The director asked me to recite the poem for the audience before the choir sang. Later, I was asked how long it took me to prepare. I replied that there are those of us who have been waiting their whole lives for a chance to declaim “Jabberwocky,” and no additional preparation is necessary. Thus it is with fezorocity, yet it may be that this quality simply lies smoldering within you unrecognized, awaiting only enlightenment to quicken the spark.”
Vacation calculus and parenthood
“…most vacations are about memory upgrades. You become a different person after each trip, literally, as your brain takes on new shapes and chemistry from each experience. I think the selective memory phenomenon is what makes three bad days of planning and travel a worthy trade for two good days of actual vacation.” — Scott Adams
I’ve long held to a similar theory about parenthood. One might dislike everything associated with being a parent… might even dislike children… yet the second their child is born, they change. “I can’t explain it. You’d have to be a parent to understand this feeling!”
The common explanation is that the blessed event transforms you and erases any previously held notions you had about children and parenthood. I believe it has more to do with the species protecting itself. If the new parent did not change… well, you can finish the thought.
And even then, I wonder how many parents –in some dark corner of their hearts– occasionally wonder, “If I had it to do over again…”
But there are no do-overs in this game. So I hope every parent gets that molecular make-over that transforms them into loving, caring parents.