Salad after Aug 28, 2006
When I eat dinner at my house or my family's house or a friend's house, we never eat salad before the meal.  And for good reason:  Eating something before the main meal ruins (actually it satisfies) your appetite, and eating cold food before hot food means the hot food will cool down before you start eating it (obviously undesirable).  But at restaurants, eating a salad before the meal is the norm.  Why?  Who knows.  Meals at restaurants are oversized as it is.  Why should I half-fill my stomach with leafy vegetables and garlic toasted bread cubes, and then try to fit a meal-for-two in a stomach-of-one?  It's just stupid.  A solution to this problem is to ask for the salad after the meal.  I usually get a weird look from the waiter followed by a "No problem" because waiters know that extra questions mean a smaller tip.  A different solution to this problem would be to offer smaller portions.  Maybe I don't eat quite as much as the average fat American (though I try my hardest).  I wouldn't mind paying 3/4 the price for 3/4 the amount of food.  That sounds like a fair trade to me. #food
Mumble (2) Aug 24, 2006
A famous person once said, "If you mumble, you don't deserve to be heard."  Although that's kinda mean, I think it's somewhat true.  I just sat through a 2-hour meeting where a guy in the back of the room kept mumbling stuff in response to what was being presented.  He might've had good things to say.  Maybe people should've listened.  But he didn't even try to be heard, so people kept talking over him.  He wasn't a victim though; it's not like he was a quiet little weak guy (like me) who wasn't sure of himself and so got trampled on by the louder, quicker people.  His mumbling was his downfall.  Somebody would be talking and he would say something along the lines of, "Um, but ... the number ... on the slide ... different ... need to redo ... requirements ... huminah huminah ... shrimp scampi ... weaponized plutonium."  In this case, the rule applied:  He mumbled, so he didn't deserve to be heard.  If he had something important to say, he should've spoken up or gotten one of the loud people to say it for him. #business
Small differences Aug 24, 2006
Recently, someone asked about the difference between a sound (such as Puget Sound) and a bay (such as San Fransisco Bay).  Here's what Wikipedia says: 
A bay is an area of water bordered by land on three sides. 
A bight is a large (and often only slightly receding) bay. 
A gulf is a part of a lake or ocean that extends so that it is surrounded by land on three sides. 
A fjord is a narrow inlet of the sea between cliffs or steep slopes. 
A sound is a large sea or ocean inlet larger than a bay, deeper than a bight, wider than a fjord, or it may identify a narrow sea or ocean channel between two bodies of land. 
A bay generally occupies an area wider than a fjord but smaller than a sound or gulf, either of which may include one or more bays. 
Twice in the past 6 months, I've learned and forgotten the difference between a state and a commonwealth.  Here's what Wikipedia says: 
A state is one of the 50 entities of the United States. 
A commonwealth is an area/region that has a "government based on the common consent of the people" as opposed to one legitimized through their earlier Royal Colony status that was derived from the King of England.  This designation, which has no constitutional impact, applies to Kentucky, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. 
A commonwealth (insular area) is an organized territory or colony that has established with the Federal Government a more highly developed relationship, usually embodied in a written mutual agreement.  This designation applies to the Northern Mariana Islands and Puerto Rico. 
I continually confuse the following two words, though they have completely different (opposite) meanings: 
Condemn:  To express strong disapproval of. 
Condone:  To overlook, forgive, or disregard (an offense) without protest or censure. 
#language
Volleyball Aug 23, 2006
Volleyball is one of the most common sports played as a pick-up game.  Whether it's on the beach, at a BBQ, or during the 10am and 3pm breaks at work, volleyball can be easily played by people of all shapes and sizes, backgrounds, and levels of ability. 

However, volleyball is one of the most misunderstood sports on the planet.  Everybody knows the basic idea:  The team on one side of the net hits the ball to the team on the other side of the net.  But what amazes me is that a lot of people don't know much more than that (if that).  People don't understand why the ball goes in random directions when they fold their hands and hit it with their knuckles.  People don't know how to hit the ball if it comes at them above their waist.  People aren't able to hit the ball over the net on a serve.  People don't understand the idea of scoring and winning/losing the serve. 

I'm not saying that everybody should be awesome at volleyball.  Heck, I'm no virtuoso.  I'm just surprised that a majority of people still don't have a grasp on the sport they so readily enter into playing. #sports
Topics and history Aug 22, 2006
I changed my category base from /category/ to /topic/ because I feel like topic is a more representative term for the kinds of things I write about (really, either word works).  This means I also changed my categories page to a topics page.  I also changed archives to history because I think "archive" can be a slightly misleading word.  An archive is a place where things are stored; a collection.  While my site is a collection of thoughts, I feel like it's more of a history of my thinking.  Once again, either word works.  The working of the site shouldn't change at all because I set up all the necessary .htaccess redirects. #technology
Prayer antenna Aug 22, 2006
The prayer antenna is a helmet with multiple antennas sticking out the top, enabling a person to "[receive] signals from God (yes, your God)".  Operation is simple:  "To use the Antenna the worshipper must kneel on the stool and [insert] their head into the helmet."  Hilarious.  (via Cynical-C)
#religion
Where a picture falls short Aug 21, 2006
I'm a fan of photography.  Sort of.  I don't spend a lot of time or money on it, but I own a camera and I enjoy taking pictures with it.  But there are some instances where a picture falls short of capturing a moment, event, object, or view.  And actually, I'm noticing more and more of these instances as I take more and more pictures. 

Traveling anywhere with views of "big things" usually presents a problem.  It's really difficult to capture the hugeness of something like Mount Rainier with a tiny little electronic box that stores color information in the form of pixels.  I would imagine it would be difficult no matter what type or size camera was used.  There's just too much information.  There are too many colors, too many details, too many pieces.  I always end up feeling disappointed with a tiny little picture of a big huge thing. 

It's similar with wildlife shots.  My cats do the funniest, most uncatlike things imaginable.  But as soon as I get my camera, they're doing something else.  If I try to get them to do it again, they don't understand what I'm trying to do and they bite me.  "Real" wildlife is also hard to film sometimes because animals and bugs are often unpredictable and skittish.  Moving objects are really hard to capture on film, and jumpy squirrels and speedy deer are no exception. 

Nighttime photography is notoriously difficult and unsuccessful.  Actually, low-light conditions are pretty similar to no-light conditions.  A flash would normally light up a dark room, but it won't do anything for a picture of a full moon or a nighttime landscape.  One of the most amazing experiences of my life was witnessing the Elkmont fireflies in the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee, where tens of thousands of lightning bugs blinked in unison.  I tried taking a few pictures but couldn't get anything to show up because it was pitch black except for those thousands of little blinking things. 

This brings up another interesting point:  Some experiences are hard to capture on film because much of the experience takes place outside the visual realm.  Pictures of the ocean don't capture the smell of salt water.  Pictures of a street in Chicago don't capture the force of the wind.  Pictures of New York don't sound like New York.  With experiences like these, I wish there was a way I could capture and package everything that's communicating with my senses.  It would be cool to go back and experience certain things all over again, from the sites and sounds to the smells and "feels". #entertainment
Treadmill bike (1) Aug 21, 2006
The Treadmill bike is a "bike" that's powered by walking/running on a treadmill instead of by pedaling pedals.  The idea is somewhat interesting, but the video on the site shows that the product is laughably ridiculous.  Other "bikes" on the site include the Couchbike, the HulaBike, and the Rowingbike.  I would say the website is a joke, but videos prove that these products exist and can be used.  (via Mental Floss) #sports
WordPress autosave Aug 21, 2006
WordPress.com just recently enabled autosave functionality while writing posts.  This seems like an insignificant addition, but I think it's extremely significant.  Several times in the past, I was writing a post (usually long, in-depth, and unfathomably awesome) and I accidentally clicked a link or pressed a magic button on my keyboard that made me navigate away from the post-writing page or just completely erase everything I had written up to that point.  This is incredibly frustrating and completely impossible to undo.  But with an autosave feature, there's no reason to worry about it ... except for the fact that regular WordPress won't have this functionality until the next major version.  Enter the Twilight Universe Autosave plugin.  This plugin automagically (finally, I used that stupid word) saves the post content so that if you accidentally navigate away from the post-writing page or close the window, you can go back to the post-writing page and get the contents of the post.  It doesn't store the post's title or category, but that's not a big deal.  It's also a little buggy, but for the purpose it serves, it's worth it.  So until WordPress comes prepackaged with autosave, I'm using this plugin. #technology
New Mondays (3) Aug 21, 2006
Although it may seem a little weird (I can't believe I'm typing it), I sort of enjoy Monday mornings.  I don't enjoy getting up at 6am after a weekend of sleeping in, and I don't enjoy going back to the normal weekly routine.  But I do enjoy sitting around in my quiet office and catching up on my reading list.  I usually have a lot of catching up to do because I'm often away from a computer the whole weekend.  Plus, certain sites like News of the Weird publish a new thing once a week, which means Monday morning is my time to read it.  Also, ever since I moved to a different job function at work, mornings have been quite a bit different.  My old boss used to get in at 6:30am (he lived in PA and needed to beat the commute), so I would have to enter the office at a run instead of a walk (or a crawl as is usually the case).  But my new boss doesn't come in until somewhere around 9:30 or 10am, so I have a solid 2 hours of catchup time and Monday morning tiredness. #psychology