Big deal (1) Sep 27, 2006
I work with a lady who constantly makes an extremely big deal out of extremely small things.  It's really stressful to be around her and/or to listen to her.  Every little thing she does is completely blown out of proportion as she quickly waddles around and yells profanities.  Somebody forgot to fill out their time sheet absolutely perfectly, so she had to go over to him and yell at him to make sure it wouldn't happen again.  What made it even worse was that he's a foreigner and doesn't know the English language too well.  So not only was the big-deal lady difficult to understand because she was yelling about insignificant and unimportant things, but her unprovoked tirade was getting lost in translation.  My question to her is:  What's the big deal?  Calm down lady.  It's not a matter of life or death.  The problem will get fixed.  It's not that big of a problem to begin with.  And using profanity in the workplace isn't that cool.  It's normal in some jobs and in some circumstances, but it's not really that acceptable in everyday speech concerning non-joke topics. 

The other "big deal" this lady makes happens in the morning, usually around 9am.  The people in my office area don't turn on the lights for the first few hours, and this is fine by me.  Everybody just walks into the dark room and assumes it's dark for a reason.  But not this lady.  She walked in the other day and tore up and down the cubicle aisles cursing and mumbling about how lazy we were for having the lights off and how we should just stay home if we're too tired to work.  She's the kind of person who ruins a person's day. #business
Jeremy Shockey (2) Sep 26, 2006
To people in the New York area, "Jeremy Shockey" is a recognizable name.  He's a tattooed, showy, emotional tight end for the New York Giants.  I'll ask the question we're all dying to ask:  "What's your problem, man?"  Every play of the game seems to offend you or go against you in some way or another.  Did you think you should've gotten that pass?  Should the refs have thrown a flag?  Were you being held or blocked in the back?  Did you think Eli should've seen that you were wide open?  After you got tackled, did you feel like you were being held down for too long?  Do you think everybody's against you?  Were you mad that when you finally got a pass, it wasn't thrown exactly where you wanted it?  Do you hate your quarterback for being too timid?  Do you hate your coaching staff for being ignorant?  What's the deal? 

Honestly, I'd really like to know what this guy's problem is.  I'd like to get a microphone hooked up to his helmet to hear what he's saying, because I honestly have no idea.  He's constantly mad at everything, even when there's nothing to be mad about.  In his defense he says, "I let my emotions get to me at times".  At times?  How about every time.  How about all the time.  Constantly.  Never ending.  Without fail.  Ad nauseam.  If you know your emotions often get the best of you, do something about it.  Prevent it.  Drink a cup of tea.  Punch a punching bag.  Read the comics.  Letting your emotions spill out all over the football field is obviously doing nothing for your team. 

Just to set the record straight, I'm "officially" an Eagles fan, though I'm very admittedly a fair-weather fan.  Since Eagles games aren't regularly on TV in the New York area, I'm forced to watch Giants games.  Hence, I'm a Giants fan while sitting on my couch on Sundays.  Also, when the Eagles are doing bad, I magically become more of a Giants fan.  And when the Giants do bad, I become more of an Eagles fan.  Right now I'm leaning towards the Eagles. #sports
Clutter Free Sep 26, 2006
Clutter Free is one of the most useful backend WordPress plugins I've seen in a while.  All it does is simplify the post-writing screen by taking away many of the options that are virtually never used, such as Post Status, Post Timestamp, Post Author, etc.  These things might be useful for some people, but I personally never even touch them unless I'm moving them out of my way.  Cleaning up the post-writing screen is something I toyed with in the past, but I found that it's quite difficult to modify core WordPress functionality without actually editing core WordPress files.  So I'll leave that up to the people who are paid to do it.  This plugin only technically works with WordPress 2.0.5 and above (which isn't out yet), but it does a few things to 2.0.4.  Good enough for now. #technology
Home improvement Sep 25, 2006
Every time something goes wrong with my house (which is frighteningly often), I'm presented with a dilemma:  Should I pony up the money to get a professional to fix it and risk know that I'll be overcharged, or should I attempt to learn a new skill by doing it myself?  The latter pretty much always wins that battle.  I'm under this strange belief system that says that if I'm physically able to do a job/project/thing, I'll do it.  When I'm 80 and/or a quadriplegic, I'll get somebody else to do it.  If it's a question of whether I'll pay someone to climb on my roof to remove my satellite dish or do it myself, I'll do it myself.  If it's a question of digging a stump out of my backyard or hiring a company to do it with a machine, I'll do it myself (probably).  But if it'll most likely cause serious injury, death or financial loss, I'll probably shy away.  Anything electrical scares me, so I usually don't even attempt it.  I'd most likely hire a guy to cut down a tree that has a good chance of falling on my house.  But everything else is fair game, which is weird because I have no discernible skills in anything other than academics.  I'm the product of a lifetime of honors classes.  I'm useless.  I'm skinny and pale.  I don't like getting motor oil on my hands or clothes. 

But like most new (cheap/poor) homeowners, I'm willing to give things a try.  And after several mildly successful projects, I've learned a few important lessons: 

1.  Everything is easy the 2nd time.  All do-it-yourself projects look so simple on the back of the box and in the Home Depot displays.  But when it comes right down to it, there's this little thing called reality.  Reality accounts for the fact that things rust over time, which means they won't be easy to take apart.  Reality has all the right tools.  Reality realizes that things break when you bang them too hard.  A single step on the back of the box could mean 45 minutes of intense physical struggling followed by 3 separate trips to Home Depot to find the right tools and parts.  And in the end, you might just end up using a hacksaw to achieve your goal.  The instruction manual tends to leave out certain aspects of reality, so first-time projects become difficult and seemingly impossible.  But after you do it once, you find out it's incredibly easy, and you become a self-certified expert. 

2.  Projects escalate and multiply.  Everything starts off with a simple idea:  "I think I'll try to fix this leaky pipe."  Upon further examination, I found that the pipe was hardly the problem.  Most of the ceiling was rotting and moldy from stagnant water dripping onto it.  After ripping the ceiling down, I found the real problem:  A rotten and leaking window sill.  Oh, and a cracked drain pipe.  Oh, and uninsulated and therefore sweating supply pipes.  Oh, and ... the list goes on.  What starts as a simple afternoon job turns into a several month overhaul.  But if you don't start it when you do, things will only get worse. 

3.  The end result is all that matters.  I usually have some sort of idea of how a certain project or task will work out in the end.  But the middle is a vast wasteland of changed plans, banged up fingers, broken tools, and bleeding head wounds.  When the project calls for "fixing a broken piece of pipe", the end result will achieve that goal, whether it involves actually fixing a broken pipe or using osmosis and black magic.  How it's done doesn't matter as much as the fact that it's done. 

4.  Hacks are great.  I wrote about this before.  Anything that can produce the end result by making life easier or by covering up mistakes is worth its weight in gold.  Things like caulk, expanding foam insulation, insulating tape, Teflon tape, silicone tape, duct tape (notice a pattern?), wood glue, molding, etc. come to mind.  Don't feel like replacing a section of drywall to fix a hole under the stove?  Load it up with some expanding foam insulation.  Something wrong with your bathroom?  Caulk to the rescue!  Bad with cutting straight edges?  Molding takes care of that.  Don't feel like using nails for the molding?  Use wood glue. #lifestyle
Rocket science vs. brain surgery Sep 25, 2006
This Yahoo News article talks about the controversy between rocket scientists and brain surgeons concerning which group is smarter. 
Rocket scientists, long considered the gold standard in intelligence among all professionals, are not nearly as smart as originally thought, according to a controversial new study published today by the American Association of Brain Surgeons.

The study, which appears in the organization's monthly publication, Popular Brain Surgery, is entitled "The Intelligence of Rocket Scientists: Myth Versus Reality," and suggests that rocket scientists' reputation for smartness is largely undeserved.

The article drew an immediate rebuke from a spokesperson for the American Society of Rocket Scientists, who blasted the study as "state-of-the-art pro-brain surgeon propaganda."
Yes, this is a joke.  (via Digg) #science
Leaf Sep 22, 2006
This picture was taken right near the NJ/NY border during the hike a few weeks ago. 

#nature
Feedback sweepstakes Sep 22, 2006
I get pretty annoyed when the cashier tells me to "Visit our website and use this code to enter a contest for your chance to win a prize".  First of all, I don't believe in democracy.  I don't think that the opinions of one skinny, irate, white male will have any effect on the policies of a multinational, multibillion dollar corporation.  Plus, I just used a credit card to buy a pack of gum.  You actually lost money on that transaction. 

Second, I don't like entering my personal information into websites unless I'm buying something or signing up for something significant.  Why should I tell you what my household income is?  Why do you ask to know my race yet give me the option of declining to answer?  Do you want to know or not? 

Third, I don't believe in sweepstakes, contests, or trying to win prizes.  I might be a little more willing to try them out if I heard of a single person who won anything.  I know a few people.  And not one of them has ever said, "Yeah so I entered that stupid contest on the bottom of my receipt and I won $5000."  I never hear any stories on the news or through important email forwards that say something about somebody's neighbor's cousin's step-daughter's boyfriend who won anything.  When I walk into the store, they don't say, "You should really do this feedback thing.  A guy from this store just won a bunch of money by going to our website.  I'm serious." 

Fourth (I thought I was done too), I might be a little more inclined to believe these stupid offers if they were at least somewhat reasonable.  A free Coke.  A $20 gift card.  A 5 second shopping spree in the pet goods aisle.  Instead, they offer $50,000, a brand new Ferrari, and a free trip to the International Space Station.  I mean come on.  What kind of company just gives stuff away for free because a person provided some useless, biased, self-centered, racist feedback. #business
Rechargeable Sep 22, 2006
I have a rechargeable facial hair trimmer that has an amazingly stupid feature:  It doesn't work while it's plugged in.  That's right.  Some genius engineer came to the conclusion that it would be a good idea to make a rechargeable device that'll only be used while not plugged in.  To that jerk face idiot, I say this:  It's impossible for this feature to not fail.  Without question, the device will run out of batteries while it's being used.  What does this mean for the user?  A half shaved face.  And when the user plugs the device into the charger, what do you get?  An angry, half-shaved user with a rechargeable device that doesn't work while plugged in.  It would be one thing if the device had some sort of battery meter telling the user when it was time to recharge.  But no.  It's left up to chance.  Will it die this time?  Will it die while I'm trying to shave my face?  Will it die right before I shave off my mustache, leaving me with a dirty dirt-stache (yes this happened to me)? #technology
Brown sugar and cinnamon Sep 22, 2006
I always get food that's flavored with some variation of brown sugar and cinnamon.  Always.  I get granola bars of the "Maple Brown Sugar" variety.  I get "pastry bars" (funny little snack that thinks it's a breakfast food, and yet is relatively good for me) of the "Cinnamon Danish" variety.  I used to eat Frosted Brown Sugar Cinnamon Pop Tarts (until I found out that they're pretty bad for me).  I was on an oatmeal cereal stint for a while there and guess what flavor I got?  That's right, cinnamon sugar.  I can't explain my obsession with this flavor, but I can say that it's the best food on earth.  And that's a fact. #food
Nerd, geek, dork (8) Sep 21, 2006
This reminds me of one of those stupid email forwards that people I hate send me and expect me to complete and send back to them.  But this one is different:  "The Nerd? Geek? or Dork? Test".  It turns out I'm a nerd.  More specifically, I'm 56% Nerd, 13% Geek, and 26% Dork.  And to emphasize my nerdiness, I noticed that those percentages only add up to 95%, which means this website apparently doesn't think I'm a whole person.  But then I realized that these numbers are independent of one another.  A person can be 100% of all three.  Wouldn't that be super. 
For The Record:

A Nerd is someone who is passionate about learning/being smart/academia.
A Geek is someone who is passionate about some particular area or subject, often an obscure or difficult one.
A Dork is someone who has difficulty with common social expectations/interactions.
You scored better than half in Nerd, earning you the title of:  Pure Nerd.

The times, they are a-changing.  It used to be that being exceptionally smart led to being unpopular, which would ultimately lead to picking up all of the traits and tendencies associated with the "dork."  No-longer.  Being smart isn't as socially crippling as it once was, and even more so as you get older:  eventually being a Pure Nerd will likely be replaced with the following label:  Purely Successful.
(via Digg) #technology