It's a shame that certain issues end up becoming politicized.  Like global warming.  I wonder if this topic would've become as polarizing if Al Gore wasn't its spokesperson.  What if it was Oprah instead?  Would we pay attention and treat it like a real thing?  Only if she hid prizes under our seats, I suppose. 

And, related but unrelated, why must we focus on the actions of the spokesperson?  Yes, Al Gore flies around the country in his jumbo jet, burning tons of carbon-based fuel so he can spread the message of the effects of carbon-based fuels on the environment.  In that respect, he's a hypocrite.  But that's beside the point.  Regardless of whether or not he follows his own advice, he's still making a valid point.  It sucks that everything comes down to political affiliation and finger-pointing. #politics

Watch out for the butterflies at the Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden. #nature

In my side yard.  Right before my camera battery died. #nature

I think it's weird that in our capitalist country, we still go to a car dealership where we shop for a certain size car of a specific brand, as opposed to going to a car store where we might shop for a specific brand car of a certain size.  I realize there are complicated car company and dealership incentives involved, so it probably wouldn't make financial sense for a dealership to carry several car brands.  And I realize that things like the Apple store exist for the purpose of selling a single brand, and they do quite well.  But I still find it odd that I have to go to a Toyota store, look at the Toyota products, then drive across town to the Honda store to compare the Toyota products to the Honda products, then drive over to the Ford store and compare all three.  It would be much easier (for me) to just go to my local car store, peruse the various offerings by Toyota, Honda, and Ford, and make my decision.  To make it easier and more affordable for dealers, they could have separate stores for cars, trucks, and minivans, since customers typically don't go in to buy a car and come out with a truck. #money

The Laptop Compubody Sock (picture from here) is one of several "Body Technology Interfaces" designed and knitted by the artist Becky Stern.  Sometimes you just want some privacy where there isn't any. #products

A few weeks ago, my toaster oven broke.  The heating element still worked which means the bake function still worked, but the button that simply engages the toaster function stopped working.  Electronic devices are generally above my level of understanding, so I didn't even think about trying to fix it.  And it's not technically broken; it just doesn't work as well as it originally did.  So I decided to forget about it in the hopes that it would fix itself.  We continued to use the bake function and simply stopped using the toast button.  And whether it was a loose wire that melted back into place or a touch from the mighty hand of God, it magically started working again this week.  I'm not sure why and I don't understand how, but now I'm wondering if I should worry about it becoming self-aware and toasting me in my sleep. #technology

A few weekends ago, I was using the GPS function on my phone to find a friend's house in rural Massachusetts.  The thing about my phone's GPS is that it needs a data connection as well as a GPS connection in order to work.  This is fine for heavily populated areas and interstates, but not so good for everywhere else on earth, such as a friend's house in rural Massachusetts.  Needless to say, my phone stopped working the second I got off the interstate, leaving me fumbling around with a useless phone in a completely unfamiliar area. 

Similarly, but quite differently, there were these two mushrooms that popped up in the middle of my yard over the weekend seemingly out of nowhere, acting like they owned the place.  The grass is dying, some leaves are falling, there are seventy billion acorns, and these mushrooms are like, "What's up?"  So naturally I got my camera and took a picture.  Right before I could take the second picture (the first one is never good) my camera stopped focusing and wouldn't let me press the shutter button.  That's when I noticed a warning light telling me the battery was pretty much dead. 

The central theme of both these stories is simple:  Technology always fails exactly when you need it.  I don't need GPS service on the interstate, I need it in rural areas.  A camera without a battery is worse than no camera at all.  Satellite TV loses signal when there's cloud cover, when all you want to do is watch TV.  My electric razor always dies right in the middle of shaving my face, leaving me half-shaved and pissed off. 

For product designers and engineers, the solution to these problems would be to anticipate failure, and make adjustments.  Anticipate a lost GPS signal, and give the user a simple list of turn-by-turn directions.  Have a better battery meter that alerts the user before, not after, the battery dies.  Admit that a satellite signal has been lost, and advise the user to go read a book.  Allow the device to be used while charging. 

It's stupid to produce a product and think it'll always be used in a perfect world under ideal circumstances.  Technology always fails.  Fix it. #technology

I'm ashamed it took me this long in life to figure this out, but the best way to make time spent in the waiting room at a doctor's office go faster is to bring a good book.  The crappy magazine selection usually doesn't help, but a book that you pick out and that you're interested in magically makes time disappear.  Plus you can totally shove it in your doctor's face when they call you into the back room and you don't respond right away because you're thoroughly immersed in your book.  Take that, stupid doctors. #entertainment

Fear can be defined as "believing what hasn't happened yet will definitely come true."  We fear spiders because they're creepy crawlies and sometimes poisonous.  We fear plane crashes because there's no way to survive them. 

Oddly enough, faith can be defined in the exact same way. #religion