The watermains are getting an early start this season – usually they don’t start popping until mid-December or January. (I don’t know why, but for the past several years, we’ve had two or three breaks each winter.)
Fortunately the guy from WSSC was a bit more careful about parking his truck than the crew from Washington Gas a few months ago.
The TED Talks (Technology, Entertainment, and Design) have a reputation for being quite fascinating, though perhaps a bit disconnected from every day life. For example, David Gallo’s talk about astonishing creatures living beneath the seas. They’re all fascinating (particularly the octipus at the end), but how much relevance does it have to every day life?
But then we have other talks, such as this one by investor Yossi Vardi who talks about how important it is to prevent not just global warming, but local warming too.
This seems to imply that it’s OK to run over people if they aren’t in the crosswalk.
I feel obliged to point out that in order to take this photo, I had to step out of the crosswalk. And yes, I did notice the oncoming semi. (That street is closed most Sundays for outdoor concerts and the like. The truck was there to pick up the equipment.)
A piece of my stir-fry didn’t go down quite the right way with the result that I had a minor coughing fit.
Throughout the incident, Wylie looked at me with a look of grave concern, clearly worried. From the way he held himself, it was clear that there was only one thing on his mind:
If you choke to death, can I have your dinner?
Installing a piece of software at work on Friday, I at long last arrived at the final screen of the product’s install process. It displayed a list of installation notes with these helpful words:
Always read the Installation Instructions
Section below before any install.
Maybe it’s just me, but it seems like that might have been a useful thing to display on the first screen.
The possibility of Wylie doing something like this is only one reason why I don’t have a video game console in the house.
Yes, it’s true. Sesame Street has sold out – to Google! Never mind that whole “Veggie Monster” flap from a few years ago, check out this video of Cookie Monster singing the praises of Google. (“When me hear a bugling sound, it make me want to Google around.”) Kermit the Frog even gets into, billing Cookie Monster as “one of the world’s finest Googlers.” (It’s no wonder, “with a Google, Google here and a Google, Google there.”)
What’s truly amazing is that they recorded this song 26 years ago. They managed to sell out 16 years before Google launched!
My new neighbors are still in the process of painting and such before they move in. They hadn’t thought about trick-or-treaters until they saw me putting out a couple decorations this afternoon.
Mom can probably tell you exactly many how many kids came by their house any year for as long as they’ve lived there. But when the neighbors asked me, I had to admit that I don’t really know. When the husband asked whether four bags would suffice, I allowed that it probably would.
The skies have been overcast for most of the past week. Right around sunset, it finally rained. Not a heavy downpour, and it only lasted a short time. But it was enough.
So far, fewer than two-dozen kids have come by this evening.
The new neighbors will probably never believe me again.
October is, of course, National Breast Cancer Awareness Month.
According to the CDC, breast cancer is the most common type of cancer among women, and twice as prevalent as lung cancer, which is in the #2 position. (Regrettably, I can’t link directly to the stats, you’ll have to play with the selectors near the top of the page.)
Of course, even though Breast Cancer gets more press, it is (of course) important to remember that there are many other other types. The media seems to be picking up on that.
Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma on TV.
Early in the month, Angela discovered that on the show “Brothers and Sisters,” they’ve added a cancer storyline where one of the characters has Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma. (This touches particularly close to home for Angela since that’s the type of cancer she beat two years ago. She’s been comparing it to her own real-life experience.)
Lung Cancer in the comics
Also early in the month, I was surprised to find a cancer story line in User Friendly in which one of the characters is diagnosed with lung cancer. UF is an online comic strip following the adventures of a small Canadian Internet Service Provider, so a lot of the humor is geared toward techies. Illiad has occasionally touched on serious subjects, so I was curious what he’d do with this topic.
I was quite pleased by how the subject was treated respectfully, yet Illiad still managed to sneak in some geek humor including (so far) a Monty Python reference, a Star Wars reference, and a few others.
Collected Links:
Talk Like a Pirate Day was (of course) back on September 19. I’m just a wee bit late posting the photos. Time for me to get with the program and take care of not only this, but a number of other things which have been on the back burner.
First up, we have Wylie demonstrating that he can still get the girls.
Blaine recently had a birthday and spent some time trying to blow out anything that looked like a candle. And since at the time it was still mosquito season, there were tiki torches all over the place.
Wylie agrees that the name “Wylie and the Pirates” has a definite ring to it, but his band will be keeping the name “Wylie and the Coyotes” for the other 364 days of the year.
