Puke (4) Jul 25, 2005
I was always the kid in school who puked.  I remember being in kindergarden and we had a substitute.  Her name was Mrs. Piontkowski.  I had been feeling weird all day, but I wasn't sure what it meant.  And then all of a sudden, I puked, but held it in my mouth.  I thought, "Oh it's ok.  I'll just hide it."  But then it was too much too hold in and it spilled all over my desk.  But Mrs. Piontkowski kept talking, so I raised my hand to let her know that I was having a bit of a problem.  From what I remember, she kept talking and didn't seem to be doing anything about my situation.  So I just kept my hand raised.  After a while, somebody did something about it.  And then when I was in the nurse's office, I was laid down on that "bed" covered with a sheet of deli paper.  That's where I puked again and it went all over me.  The nurse gave me "loaner clothes" that had the school emblem on them. 

Another puke story took place when I was in third grade.  It was the second or third day of school.  I had been feeling weird again, but this time I knew what it meant.  At the point of no return, I got out of my seat and started walking to the bathroom.  But then I got scared because I wasn't sure if I was allowed to leave my seat without asking.  So I started walking back to my desk.  But then I realized that the teacher wouldn't care if I puked in the bathroom, but she might mind if I did it in her classroom.  And then it happened.  Too late to try to keep it clean.  It went all over the rug in the classroom. 

After one of my puking extravaganzas, I was at home, lying on the couch.  My sister Dana was practicing piano.  All of a sudden, I got up and ran out of the room because it was time.  She said, "Thanks, Dave.  I didn't realize my playing was that bad." #health
Competition Jul 25, 2005
I'm not a huge fan of electronics that try to further themselves by going against the flow.  For example, I mistakenly thought that Apple's iPod only played Apple's brand of compressed audio.  This made me mad.  What a great way to restrict people to only using your own brand of stuff and deny the use of industry standards like WAV and MP3.  But I was wrong.  This isn't the case.  But the idea still made me mad.  This is the case with stuff like Sony cameras and laptops, which use Sony MemorySticks.  I think this is dumb.  Why did Sony need to create a new format to store information?  Probably to make more money.  They make this little plastic thing that holds a simple little chip, and sell it for 500% markup.  I'm a bigger fan of people like Canon and Palm, who use Secure Digital (SD/MMC) storage.  Sure, they put out their own brand of this storage, but you can get the same thing from other manufacturers for much cheaper.  It's the same idea as making things that are incompatible or are in competition with Microsoft products.  Sure, Microsoft is a big, mean, emotionless machine.  But too bad.  It's not gonna change.  Instead, people should make things that make Microsoft products better. #technology