Dirty mouse Mar 6, 2012
If you ever want to feel bad about your personal hygiene, take apart and clean your computer mouse.  It's horrifying. #lifestyle
Personal taste Feb 28, 2012
A short while ago, I was at a wine tasting at a vineyard in Italy, and the head honcho tried to explain in his Italian-accented English the importance of personal taste.  He said something like, "My wine has won awards all over the world.  It's widely regarded as a great wine by people who know what they're talking about.  But if you don't like it, that's ok; you're allowed to not like it."  I like that whole idea.  I sometimes have unusual tastes in wines, music, hobbies, etc.  And I often feel compelled to try to explain why my tastes don't match up with the tastes of "the people who know what they're talking about."  But when it comes down to it, personal taste is a circular argument; it is what it is.  You can't convince me to like something I don't like.  And that's that. #psychology
Stock market news Feb 14, 2012
I subscribe to the CNN Breaking News Twitter feed.  It's good for small doses of relatively important news items.  One item that tends to show up every day or so is something about the stock market.  This morning it said something about a European country doing something ... yadda yadda ... and the Dow Jones is up 31 points.  The Dow is at almost 13000 right now.  A 31-point increase or decrease is about a quarter of a percentage point.  To be honest, I'm not the kind of person who's interested in financial news to begin with, but it seems to me that for something to be "breaking news," it should at least break the one percent mark. #money
Microchip cat door Jan 30, 2012
It amazes me that there's a locking cat door that only opens when it recognizes a specific cat's flesh-embedded microchip, yet I still have to fumble around in the dark to insert a fancy metal key into an inexplicably difficult door lock just to get inside my house. #products
Tony Romo chokes (1) Jan 24, 2012
This image of Tony Romo from the 2006-7 playoffs still makes me laugh: 



On the one hand, I feel a little bad for the guy, since this image has been burned into the collective conscience of the American football fan.  On the other hand, it's always good to see the Cowboys lose. #sports
Reusable coffins Jan 9, 2012
One topic of conversation that came up at a recent funeral (besides cremation and resomation) was the idea of reusable coffins.  Because honestly, the last thing a dead person needs is a $10,000 wooden box. #lifestyle
Cubeicals wine rack (2) Jan 3, 2012
A few months ago we got some of those ClosetMaid Cubeicals to store stuff in our kitchen.  One of the items we like to store in our kitchen is wine.  But typical wine racks take up space, and space is something our kitchen conveniently lacks.  So we took to storing our wine upright, in direct sunlight, on top of the Cubeical, which violates several rules of wine-drinking.  So naturally I figured, "Surely someone on the internet has made a wine rack that fits in this widely available cubical storage system."  Naturally, I was wrong.  Consequently, I became that person. 

[gallery /img/2012/01/wine-rack-1.png:::/img/2012/01/wine-rack-1-150x150.png:::I'm an engineer, so it all started with scribbles in a notebook during boring meetings.  Of course I used graph paper.:::/img/2012/01/wine-rack-2.png:::/img/2012/01/wine-rack-2-150x150.png:::From there it went into a variety of 3D computer models.  How else was I supposed to visualize things and make sure everything fit perfectly?:::/img/2012/01/wine-rack-3.png:::/img/2012/01/wine-rack-3-150x150.png:::Then it came down to selecting a design that could actually be manufactured using lumber bought at a real lumber store.:::/img/2012/01/wine-rack-4.jpg:::/img/2012/01/wine-rack-4-150x150.jpg:::Building it was fairly easy from that point due to all the thinking and drawing done up front.:::/img/2012/01/wine-rack-5.jpg:::/img/2012/01/wine-rack-5-150x150.jpg:::The final assembled product fit perfectly and performed admirably.  But some might say it was a little ugly.:::/img/2012/01/wine-rack-6.jpg:::/img/2012/01/wine-rack-6-150x150.jpg:::Some black paint (and some missing bottles) later, and we have a wine rack.:::]#products
Bowl schedule Jan 3, 2012
I think it's stupid that the current schedule of college football bowl games consists of a bunch of insignificant, poorly-named, ill-timed matchups that take place randomly over the course of 7-10 days, often over a month after the end of the regular season.  When I'm elected Supreme Commander of All Things, here's how I would change that: 
  • First of all, no more PAC-10 changing its name to PAC-12, or a BIG-10 with 12 teams.  Stick to letters.  BIG-10 and BIG-12 get to fight out the details.
  • Season ends with conference championships.
  • Conference champions compete in bowl games.
  • The National Championship Game cannot contain two teams from the same conference.
  • Bowl games take place no more than two weeks after the end of the regular season.  All in one day.  The end.
Everybody who has ever had an opinion about college football agrees that the current system is stupid.  Yet the system remains. #sports