Seasonal Inspiration

At this time of year, every year, I start getting a fever for some serious woodwork. For some reason, the change to Fall brings out the craftsman in me and I begin planning new designs and reviewing old plans for carpentry projects I’d like to do. Some are extreme, long-term projects like a three-story deck… Continue reading Seasonal Inspiration

Dragon*Con 2007 :: Wrap-Up

Upon arrival at DragonCon Friday evening, I was met by a frantic Jeff at the Hyatt hotel. It would seem that the hotel doesn’t actually guarantee two beds in reserved rooms. A curious approach, as we had booked the room for quad occupancy. To make matters worse, the room presented to Jeff had a window… Continue reading Dragon*Con 2007 :: Wrap-Up

Combining Cultures

This past week, Fiserv announced that it is acquiring CheckFree Corporation, the company I have worked for over the last few years. The news came as quite a shock to everyone I spoke to, though that doesn’t necessarily mean people fear the worst. It’s split pretty evenly between pessimists and optimists. I’m a pessimist, though… Continue reading Combining Cultures

Polar Cities

I must prefix this post with a bit of back story… A reader in Taiwan, Danny Bee, left a comment on an article I wrote (“Emily Yoffe Learns The Secret“). I had first assumed that the comment was spam, though the suspect spam did not follow my preconceived notions of spam. It had no sales… Continue reading Polar Cities

Sir Ken Robinson: Do schools kill creativity?

TED.com speaker, Sir Ken Robinson, delights the audience with his clever wit and poignant message on the worldwide problem of education systems. My aunt in Pasadena, California is a teacher to early elementary school children and can probably speak on this fact. I have had at least one conversation with her on what I call… Continue reading Sir Ken Robinson: Do schools kill creativity?

Quandries of the American English Dialect

ar·chi·tect (är’kĭ-tĕkt’) n. One who designs and supervises the construction of buildings or other large structures. One that plans or devises: a country considered to be the chief architect of war in the Middle East. [Latin architectus, from Greek arkhitektōn : arkhi-, archi- + tektōn, builder.] At some point (I believe within my lifetime), the… Continue reading Quandries of the American English Dialect

Pope *Hopes* for the Best, Pagan Babies Okay

It’s a bit late getting to my attention, but I was made aware recently of the Pope’s exoneration of pagan babies in limbo. The documentation on this subject is actually quite lengthy; I had to follow a couple of citations to other fascinating topics regarding in vitro fertilization and other immoral acts of life indignities,… Continue reading Pope *Hopes* for the Best, Pagan Babies Okay

Emily Yoffe Learns ‘The Secret’

Emily Yoffe at Slate.com recently wrote a piece for the Human Guinea Pig column regarding The Secret. I haven’t read the book myself, but I did read The Power of Intention which I am to understand is a similar concept. Emily retells her two month account of following the book’s advice and finds inspiration for… Continue reading Emily Yoffe Learns ‘The Secret’

Charter Communications: “Value of Services”

“Effective with your March billing statement, price adjustments will be made to…reflect the overall value of our services” Part of the value of services they’re talking about is snowy reception on select digital channels (how is this even possible) and the very real possibility that the digital provisions offered like OnDemand and PPV will probably… Continue reading Charter Communications: “Value of Services”

Curiosity Killed the Cat

We were quite suddenly frightened tonight when we arrived home from dinner to find our sleeping son’s finger had turned mostly black. While he drifted into sleep in his car seat, he had been playing with a Beanie Baby elephant. While doing that, he had apparently worked his finger into the label loop and begun… Continue reading Curiosity Killed the Cat