Sometimes, things really do just happen
Posted by admin - 07/10/08 at 05:10:16 amI talked recently about how little other people typically think about you, and how that should be a freeing things. Also, just how difficult it can be to accept that because, let’s face it, we all see the world through our own perspective, and that perspective is utterly and completely focused on ourselves. So, it’s easy to begin to question what we’ve done or not done when a friend doesn’t respond the way we think they should.
Case in point, recently I had sent a couple of emails to a good friend of mine, and gotten no response at all. One of them even included a very simple question that didn’t require more than a yes or no answer, yet there was none forthcoming.
I actually did start to wonder what I had done or said to her that caused her to try and avoid me like this. We’ve been friends for years, and I was worried that maybe something had happened to suddenly make her uncomfortable with me.
I shrugged these concerns off and tried to continue on like normal, but it still left me wondering.
Turns out, her workplace email system had flagged my messages as spam, and she didn’t even see them until a few days or a week after I had sent them. There was no conflict, no nothing, just someone who was going about their days not really thinking about checking her spam folders for emails from people she hadn’t heard from lately.
So you see, sometimes, people aren’t trying to avoid you, they really are busy, or really don’t get your message. It happens, lighten up. 
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Generational Mobility
Posted by admin - 21/09/08 at 06:09:11 amMuch has been said about the gaps between the Boomers, Generation X, and Generation Y. The longer I live, the more evident these differences are becoming…but nothing marks these differences better than mobile technology!
Which one are you?
YOU KNOW YOU’RE A MOBILE BOOMER WHEN…
- You still have the 1st and 2nd generation cell phones. (What? It still works!)
- You’re really excited to have a cell phone.
- You answer EVERY SINGLE PHONE CALL that comes in on your cell phone, or if you don’t answer every single phone call on your cell phone, then you look at your phone while it rings, and say out loud, “I wonder who that could be?”
- You still yell into a cell phone.
- You make sure that your ringer is REALLY loud…you know, so you can hear it.
- You get freaked out when someone sends you a Text Message. (What do I do next?!)
- You hold the keys down way too long, and then wonder why someone in Guam keeps picking up your sister’s phone.
- You don’t know how many minutes are on your plan.
- You have to put on your glasses to read your cell phone screen. (The numbers are SO SMALL!)
- You purchase stocks in AT&T
YOU KNOW YOU’RE A GENERATION X-ER WHEN…
- You wait until your screen is scratched up and the numbers worn off before you replace your phone. (I paid a lot of money for this!)
- You throw your cell phone into your purse or bag (Oh! When did I get a call?)
- You ignore EVERY SINGLE PHONE CALL that comes in on your cell phone. (I don’t recognize that number…ignore.)
- You wish people would stop yelling into their cell phones, especially yours.
- You never turn your ringer on. (Someone better let me know when they plan to call, otherwise, good luck!)
- You prefer Text Messages. (Why speak when you can type?)
- You can dial, hold a separate conversation and get your subway ticket…all at the same time.
- You try to avoid the big corporate plans. (Why pay AT&T when I can use a company that plants a tree for every minute I use?)
- You keep wishing they’d add more keys. (See #6)
- You purchase stock in Virgin Mobile and Creedo.
YOU KNOW YOU’RE A GENERATION Y-ER WHEN…
- You sign up for Apple alerts to know when the next iPhone is coming out. (Screw work! The new iPhone is coming out and I just bought a new sleeping bag…awww yeah!!)
- You’re really excited to have an iPhone.
- You answer EVERY SINGLE PHONE CALL that comes in on your cell phone, and then follow it up with a Twitter. (Hey, I got nothin’ but time, and the world needs to know!)
- You listen to music, check your email and answer your phone…all at the same time.
- You make sure that your ringer is the latest Yeah Yeah Yeahs or Rihanna song…so, you know, everyone can hear it.
- You get freaked out by properly spelled Text Messages. (Did he really write Laugh Out Loud? That’s not funny.)
- You slide your fingers across your phone, rather than pushing in cumbersome keys.
- You don’t care how many minutes are on your plan. (Hey, as long as my parents keep paying for my tuition, I’m straight!)
- You hate buttons on your phone. (They just get in the way!)
- You purchase stocks in Apple.
How often do you think about other people?
Posted by admin - 18/09/08 at 09:09:33 amOne of the lessons I learned a few years ago, was that it’s actually quite rare for someone to really notice you, or think about you.
Now, that may sound like a pretty depressing thought, and to some extent, it is. On the other hand, it’s also very freeing. It frees us from worrying about doing something embarrassing, for example. Aside from the most outrageous examples, most of the things we beat ourselves up about, and feel embarrassed about, go wholly unnoticed by the majority of people. They never give it a second thought.
It also frees us from unrealistic expectations. Knowing that outside of my wife, and a few other people, most people are not going to give my upcoming birthday a second thought, frees me to be able to appreciate the folks who do take the time to wish me a happy birthday, or do something nice for me. It comes as a nice little surprise more than anything else. I go into it expecting that no one needs to do anything, and get to feel grateful when someone does.
Lastly, it also makes it pretty easy to impress someone. Like I said, when I come to realize that it’s highly unlikely that most people gave me a second thought, I’m very impressed by, and appreciative of, the thoughtfulness of someone who actually does. Remember, being thoughtful and being considered a good friend is all about being slightly better than other people. We don’t have to be perfect, we just have to stand out among the crowd. If the crowd is full of people who rarely give others outside their immediate circle a second thought, it doesn’t take much to stand out. A simple willingness to remember a birthday, help out with a problem PC, follow up on an idea you’ve discussed, or an inclusion in social plans can go a long way to showing yourself as a caring, thoughtful person. Of course, that assumes you’re doing it to be thoughtful, and not in an insincere attempt to get something out of it for yourself. That won’t get you far, but a small gestures of kindness, goes a long way in a world of self-centeredness.
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adsense, if there is any
Posted by admin - 02/08/08 at 01:08:48 pmJust checked AdSense and it looks like my recent increase in traffic (daily volume has doubled since July) means my daily ad revenue has tripled+ — from 15¢ to 50¢. At $15 and change per month, it’s not even covering bandwidth costs, but perhaps it does encourage me to try boiling some stuff that worksâ„¢ into readable prose. At this rate I may see a check by 2009.
Bad Things Happen
Posted by admin - 13/07/08 at 12:07:57 pmAll of us have survived bad things, most of us have survived some of the worst things we can imagine. We’ve proven to be capable of surviving all the bad things that life has thrown at us over the years. Yet many people live in fear. Fear of change, fear of people, fear of what the next day may bring. As if insulating ourselves from change was going to prevent bad things from ever happening again.
It won’t.
Bad things are going to happen, no matter how much you try and protect yourself from them. Now, I’m not saying you shouldn’t do what you have to do to be safe. Survivors especially need to feel a level of safety in order to go about their lives and that shouldn’t be ignored. I don’t advocate putting yourself in unhealthy risks. I do, however, strongly advocate not being afraid of trying something new, of doing something outside the routine. Simply put, I’m a strong advocate of living life, as opposed to living to avoid things that you cant do anything to avoid to begin with.
It saddens me to see friends and fellow survivors unable to do more. Unable to do some traveling, unable to go out on a date, unable to find a more fulfilling job, or unable to take a small risk to find some more happiness in their lives. It’s literally heartbreaking to see people who have overcome so much, and shown so much strength, live unfulfilled lives because they’re afraid.
It saddens me most of all because I’ve been there, and learned better. I know how much I missed out on by living in fear. I know how many exciting opportunities I talked myself out of because I was comfortable, and afraid of change. Eventually, though, I also learned that whatever happenes, I will survive. I’ve already survived, and I know how to overcome some horrible things. So have you.
Have the confidence in yourself to know that you can survive whatever may happen. Yes, that date might not go well, the car might breakdown on that road trip, you might struggle to learn that new job, or whatever opportunity your pursue might not work out, leading to disappointment.
You can survive that. You are strong. You’ve already proven that to everyone but yourself. It’s tme you believe it too.
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more on money that’s not worth making
Posted by admin - 21/02/08 at 04:02:04 pmThis business of having a conscience could get expensive. I got an assignment for that “mystery shopper” gig and it would pay $200 + up to $100 worth of anything Wal★Mart sells.
I wonder if economists factor those expenses, the third party supervision, into the expected gains from reducing management or other staff?
the triumph of hope over experience?
Posted by admin - 25/01/08 at 10:01:56 pmWhat do you call nostalgia for a past that never existed? In 1984, they simply swept the unwanted bits into the memory hole and didn’t replace them.
TBogg » Losing my religion :
Not wishing to see Rod [Dreher] make a fool of himself, which is like asking him to not pray or breathe, reader JPL sums up Dreher’s entire life in just a few acid-etched paragraphs:.
Rod, you’re the living embodiment of the old phrase “there’s a sucker born every minute.” Look, regardless of this woman’s qualities, many of which do truly seem to be fine, she isn’t the President. And, before Cheney, VP’s didn’t get to do a hell of a lot. It’s still McCain at the top of the ticket, and everything that was wrong with him before remains wrong with him now. More war, more tax cuts, more support for the rich and powerful, more torture, more unilateral international relations, more Bush. He’ll just have an attractive woman near him who shares your values, and who, given his treatment of women in the past, he will completely ignore. Your best hope is that he drops dead, leaving her in charge. And then you’ll discover that all those nifty Alaskan values don’t get you very far in the rough and tumble of global politics..
(It’s worth noting, I lived in Alaska for years, and though I hate stereotyping, most Alaskans were the most short-sighted, backward people I’ve ever lived among. And I’ve lived in 8 countries.).But there you are, bursting with eagerness to pull that lever for the Republicans again. And two years in, when things have gotten even worse, you’ll do just what you did with Bush…just what you did with Catholicism. After singing their praises endlessly, you’ll turn on them, with surly descriptions of how they fooled you, and how could you have known?.
Except that millions of people did know. They don’t fool you…you keep fooling yourself. You’re so desperate for the world to be the way you think it should be, the world you’ll feel safe in, that you just can’t accept that it isn’t now, and it’s never going to be that world again. Hell, I doubt it ever was, except in your own fevered fantasies. But you’ll blame it on someone else, switch teams again, and wait for the next wunderkind to show up and promise a blissful return to traditional Christian values and a bucolic life on the farm..
It’s a good thing you’re happily married. As a single man, it would be hard to imagine how any even vaguely clever gold-digger wouldn’t take you for all you’re worth in a few months. I think you should consider renaming your genre from Crunchy Con to Gushingly Gullible..
If it didn’t mean the continued ruin of our nation, and the future of my children, it would be almost endearing. As it is, it just seems sad how traditional Conservatives will keep selling this country right down the gutter for the smallest possibility that their values will once again dominate the public discourse.
Ouch. That’s gonna leave a stigmata…
Did he miss anything? I don’t think so.
Rails 2.0, out now!
Posted by admin - 16/06/07 at 12:06:08 pmI’m a little bit late to the party on this one, but it would appear that Rails 2.0(.1) is finally out. Friday saw the birth of the second major release of the framework we love to love, and it jam packed with lots of loveliness and joy.
Rails 2.0 (i wonder how long until the trolls think Rails 2.0 is a Rails mash-up or something) brings with it lots of new features, polish, fixes and sexy, here are some of my favourites:
- Namespaces in ActionPack
- Seperation of view-type and renderer (ie.
show.html.erborshow.html.haml) - Automagic record routing:
form_for(person) - HTTP Authentication baked in!
- Request Profiler
- Sexy Migrations, say a big thanks to err.the blog for this one
- ActiveRecord XML deserialization and JSON serialization
- ActiveResource (like AR for REST api’s)
There are (obviously) tons more features to the release, i suggest you check out the official announcement as well as Ryan’s awesome post. Happy coding bitches!
That may be the first time anyone has ever said that to me!
Posted by admin - 03/06/07 at 06:06:17 pmUnfortunately our toll free number at work is very… Very close to that of the Department of Children and Family Services for some undisclosed state, that I can only imagine, based on the accents of the people calling, is located somewhere south of the Mason-Dixon line, where Nascar isn’t just a sports franchise… It’s a religion. And Bubba is not just your uncle… He’s your cousin too.
photo credit: The G-tastic 7
As you can imagine this can tend to create some annoying, albeit occasionally amusing exchanges between our employees and an assortment of nefarious scumbags ranging from dead beat dads, to drug addicted welfare collecting moms. They are always angry… They are always rude, and they are always ready for a fight.
You get the feeling that they are well aware that they are dirt bags, or at least considered to be, and are pretty well resigned to being treated as such. I’m assuming this comes from years of dealing with beauracracy and attempting to defend an indefensible position…
I guess…
From what my mom tells me anyway…
It’s pretty tough to explain how you lost custody of your 3 month old baby because you went on a crack binge for three weeks and ended up leaving junior at a crack house as collateral. So they’ve, for the most part become accustomed to being treated like shit!
I know… I know… My kinda’ people right?! So this morning the phone is ringing and I grab it…
“Thank you for calling (blank) how can I help you?”
“Uhhhhhh… Whatchoo’ say?”
“How can I help you???”
“Dis’ mus’ be da’ wrong number!” “Dis’ be da’ numba’ I call fo’ my benefeeits don’t get cut?” “I gotta report my baby daddy social security so ma’ benefeeits don’t get cut!”
“Ummmm… No. We’re a (blank) company, I’m afraid I can’t help you.”
“So who I gotta call?”
“I’m sorry I really wouldn’t know, as I said we’re a (blank) company.”
“Dis ain’t DCFS?”
“Ummmmm no (laughing audibly now) this is a (blank) company.”
“Damn… I thought so. You was too nice.” *click*
I set the receiver back in the cradle thinking… That may be the first time I’ve ever heard that phrase… Well the first time it’s been directed at me anyway. So thank you! Thank you un-wed teen mother, for making my day! If you only knew the real me… If you only knew.
Oh… And by the way. If anyone out there knows the father of Bristol Palin’s baby personally, you may want to tell him that I think she may be looking to turn his ass in!
I’m just sayin’…
If you liked that…
It’s 3 am and Something Important Is Happening Somewhere in the World
Posted by admin - 24/04/07 at 03:04:40 am
It’s 3 am and Something Important Is Happening Somewhere in the World
Originally uploaded by Sister72.
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