Just what the doctor ordered

We watched an episode of "Castle" tonight and saw the most peculiar thing. At first, I thought they were just kidding, but - no - the show was totally serious.

Ladies and gentlemen, I present:

Onion Goggles

Only $19.99/each at Bed Bath & Beyond, they come in Onion Pink and Onion White. The product description says:

Hate slicing onions? With Onion Goggles you can say goodbye to tearing, stinging and irritated eyes when preparing onions. They're even great to use when chopping, mincing, dicing or slicing leeks, scallions and chives. Goggles have a comfortable foam seal and anti-fog lenses that offer maximum clarity and eye protection. The unisex design fits most face shapes, however they will not fit over glasses. Comes with storage case.

So, say goodbye to tearing! Get your onion goggles today!


And, on another note, did you notice the string of final-comma-less lists?

Randomnews

Old Town Alexandria, VA makes the New York Times.
PG-13

I love the caption: The windows of Le Tache suggest that its wares may not be wholly in keeping with those sold elsewhere in the historic district.

... because, partially they do somehow? Please do tell in which way.

Fact for the Day: ZIP

ZIP = Zone Improvement Plan

 

I had no idea "ZIP" stood for anything. Here's a few more interesting tidbits about the ZIP code:

 

From the 1930s to the early 1960s, the volume of mail -- particularly business mail -- grew significantly, and the need for a better system became apparent. On July 1, 1963, the USPS introduced the ZIP code (Zone Improvement Plan) system. In 1967, the ZIP codes became mandatory on all mail.

A ZIP code is a five-digit number representing a specific location in the United States. The extended ZIP + 4 code adds a hyphen and four additional digits for an even more precise location. Here is how it works:

• The first digit represents the state. Numbers increase as you move west. Several states share each digit -- 2, for example, represents the District of Columbia, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, and West Virginia
• The second and third digits represent regions within the state -- the first three digits create the Sectional Center Facility (SCF) code. SCFs are the regional headquarters for mail sorting and distribution.
• The fourth and fifth digits represent more specific areas, like post offices and postal delivery zones within a city or town.
• ZIP + 4 has four extra digits that identify a specific segment of the five-digit delivery area -- like a city block, office building or individual high-volume mail receiver

(from How Stuff Works)

The luck of the Irish

(Or whatever I am...)

Life with Jill is great. We have a lot of fun, even if we seem kind of boring sometimes (trivia games with just the two of us, watching documentaries, doing taxes, cleaning the house, blogging, etc.).

Tonight we finished up dinner, made lunches, and got off the 'puter. Somehow (no finger pointing) we ended up getting in a tickle war. I'm not so good at these (I blame both nature and nurture). Anyway - it was a fun way to end the evening. Laughter is great medicine (even better when you're inflicting, er, administering, it on someone else).

I'm really lucky to have someone like Jill in my life (cue sappy music). We live quite the adventure together.

Thx babe - I <3 u mucho

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St. Patrick's Day - the original eco-holiday. Going green since the early 17th century.
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A "new media" primer

For those of you who may not be familiar with some of the "new media" that is out there, or who wonder what in the world I'm talking about sometimes ...

Today's lesson is about Twitter. If you know what I'm talking about, STOP! And go look at one of my other blogs and read (and comment on!) something else.




















You don't listen well, do you? Well, you can read on, but you probably know more about Twitter than the article will share. [Sorry to those new to Twitter; keep scrolling.]












For those of you who see Twitter and say, "Huh?" - I point your attention to this great article over at eNilsson. It's a great synopsis of what's going on. It still can't make money (which means it's living off the good graces of venture capital companies who are likely finding their pools of investment funds available shrinking along with the economy), so it might not be around as long as some would like it to be, but it's here now.

And it's part of the "now web." [Click HERE for an interesting article about Twitter that incorporates this concept.]

Later, at my tech blog, I'm going to talk about a different aspect of the web: the deep web.

Religion, Darth Vader, and Trekkies

How Science Fiction Found Religion

There is a young man, different from other young men. Ancient prophecies foretell his coming, and he performs miraculous feats. Eventually, confronted by his enemies, he must sacrifice his own life—an act that saves mankind from calamity—but in a mystery as great as that of his origin, he is reborn, to preside in glory over a world redeemed. Tell this story to one of the world’s 2 billion Christians, and he’ll recognize it instantly. Tell it to a science-fiction and fantasy fan, and he’ll ask why you’re making minor alterations to the plot of The Matrix or Superman Returns. For reasons that have as much to do with global politics as with our cultural moment, some of this generation’s most successful sci-fi and fantasy movie franchises follow an essentially Christian plotline.

Curious? Read on!

Quote for the day

"Heaven never helps the man who will not act."
-Sophocles

Think about it.

Now respond.

West Coast vs East Coast

I was sitting in a clothing store while Jill tries on some new work clothes. (She just got her hair cut today, and apparently the trim requires some cute pants and a spring-colored jacket ;-) ) And thinking about the basketball game we watched last night on Idaho Sports dot com (or something like that).

They showed some commercials and had radio-ad voice overs during the game with local companies (some frozen yogurt chain that was expanding) and big chain stores (like Les Schwab Tires).

One of the Les Schwab commercials mentioned something about Free Beef. And I thought - this probably wouldn't fly well with segments of the East Coast audience; they're probably not likely to get new tires because they can get some beef to feed their growing family with. But they may be interested in (properly inflated) tires made from partially recycled materials that they could pay additional fees for to offset their carbon usage.

(ASIDE: Not really sure how that works - or if it applies to this situation - but we were looking at British Airways tickets from Dulles to Heathrow (that were $250 one way) that had a check-box during the ticketing option where you could voluntarily add a few dollars per ticket to offset your carbon usage. Apparently. They were the first airline to offer that http://www.britishairways.com/travel/csr-your-footprint/public/en_gb . )

Anyway - just made me think about some of the West vs East differences I've noticed.
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Quotable quotes?

We watched WarGames last night. Jill had never seen it, and it had been years since I had. (To be honest, I'm not one to recommend movies - everyone has different tastes - but I think this one is worth renting some time for several reasons, upon which I may or may not explicate.)

Anyway - the quote.

At one point in the movie, the young antagonist is talking to his female friend in his room about this scientist/programmer that he was researching, only to discover that the individual was dead. The following conversation takes place:

JENNIFER: He's dead?
DAVID: Yeah, here's his obituary.
JENNIFER: He wasn't very old.
DAVID: Well, he was prety old. He was 41.
JENNIFER: Oh yeah? Well, that's old.

Guess you have a different outlook on life expectancies if you're a 17-year old back in the early 1980's?

At another point in the movie, a character discusses the extinction of the dinosaurs and the rise of the humans, and then notes that perhaps humans won't be around all that much longer. He says:

FALKEN: And when we go, nature will start again. With the bees, probably.

Nothing deep to say about the bee quote, but it was a random connection to the other movie we rented that Jill wanted to see, The Secret Life of Bees.
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Stuff I was going to blog about...

When I find something online that I like, I'll put a link to it in a draft email and type up some initial thoughts. That way, I can go back later and cut-and-paste from there to Blogger, or just hit "send" and send it to my Blogger address(es) to post automatically. However, I've been behind lately and I have nearly 30 drafts saved. I tried to post a few each day for the last few days, but I realized I keep finding new stuff and the thought of going back to write up all those seems daunting. Plus, some of it is old(er) news, and--in my mind--won't quite have the zzzziiinnggg that I was hoping for when I first saw it and thought I'd write about it.

That being said, I figured I'd post the links and my one-sentence summary and clear out my draft folder. (Yes, I like things neat and organized). Now you can scroll through and pick out what you think is interesting. I happened to think they were all interesting (at the time) - and figure there's something of worth/interest/distraction here for everyone. Enjoy!

In no particular order:

1) US News: A Slim Majority Favors Obama's Order to Close Guantánamo Bay (01/26/2009)

2) New York Times: John Thain resigns BofA (01/23/2009)

3) Clay Christensen's Disrupting Class Blog

4) The NCAA, the BCS, and the US Congress

5) Where's Waldo? - Inaugural Style

6) Governor Romney's Remarks to the House Republican Conference Retreat

7) President Obama: Too tall for the chopper? And here. And President Bush got flack for a closed door...

8) Panic, Sully, and Washington

9) Disappointment:
You can thank Senators Susan Collins (R-ME), Olympia Snowe (R-ME), and Arlen Specter (R-PA) for throwing any semblance of fiscal discipline to the wind as they voted in favor of the [controversial] $838 billion, providing the 60 votes needed to end debate on the bill and pass in the Senate, and Senator Edward Kennedy (D-MA) came back from convalescence to make the vote 61.

Republicans claim they were prevented from offering amendments. Surely you have heard by now about some of the earlier controversial items (such as prophylactics and new grass, among others) - and perhaps you have heard President Obama "blast 'tired old theories.'"

One problem- [BHO campaign rhetoric- pay increase with spending cut] [continuing gov't spend to stimulate economy that Pres. Bush was trying. $200B didn't work- so $800B will?]

Besides the long list of things that don't affect the nation's infrastructure [see Heritage Foundation's list], there's something else you should be aware of:

An amendment was added that will significantly affect your health care, and create another bureaucratic organization.

opinion article re. health care amendment on Bloomberg

the gov't telling doctors what they should and shouldn't be doing to treat you; ie, the rationing plan

5 most misleading BHO statements

10) Obama Lobbyists: making lots of money post-campaign on K St -OR- over a dozen exceptions made to let them work for the Administration

11) NOVA show re. FISA, NSA, etc.

12) The Internet, the First Amendment, and You. Could bloggers be sued for telling the truth?

13) Minnesota Senate Race / Recount Update

14) A Manual for the White House.

15) Local News: Streetcars for Alexandria? Expanding the public transit in the Arlington/Alexandria area.

16) Another note or two re. the USS Port Royal (remember, the Navy ship that got stuck out by Hawaii?)

17) Local News: New NOVA political blog that I found

And more to come!

Did I read that right?

Bulldozer rams Israeli police car
Palestinian driver shot after injuring two officers and hitting empty bus in attack in Jerusalem

Come back after you've read the article.














Anyone else notice that the taxi driver fired shots?