Entries Tagged 'Blogging' ↓

Stupid news story of the day is the video of Tigger attacking a 14yr old boy. I'd just like to point out that a 4yr old can distinguish "Daddy, that's not Tigger, that's someone dressed up like Tigger." I always wondered about that whenever I'd hear that nonsense about "irreparably damaged because my kid saw Mickey take his head off."

Anyway, watch the video. Looks pretty obvious to me that the kid, coming into the picture late, does something at the back of Tigger's costume. Maybe he just put his hand too close to Tigger's neck, maybe he actually started feeling around for a zipper because he thought it would be funny. Either way, Tigger wraps and bars the arm (nice!), and then whacks the kid.

So what's the dad do? Goes on the news. What's he expect to get out of it? Disney will pretty safely fire the guy in the suit, it's a big no-no to hit the guests (or to hit on them, which is a different lawsuit :)). I think they already offered the family a free day at the park. The father wants a face to face apology from the kid in the suit, which I'm pretty sure Disney won't allow because they're not supposed to break character like that.

What the father apparently doesn't care much about is how stupid he's making his son look on national television. "How hard did he hit you, son?" he asks for the cameras. "Pretty hard," says the son, "I could feel it through the soft gloves." I think he even said "I can still feel it" at one point.

So…your kid is on video being a punk, and then on the news being a big wimp. Nice dad.

I just can't help envisioning a real Tigger beatdown, and how the kid would explain that. "And then, and then…he kept bouncing up and down on me with that springy tail of his, boing! boing! boing! And the laughing….oh, the laughing….sometimes at night I can still hear the laughing. HoohooHOOOO! HoohooHOOOO! And there were Pooh and all his friends, just pointing and laughing….."

Normally I don't blog politics, but I think this story's got a punch line that's right up my alley. You may have heard the who big issue with Rep Keith Ellison (D-MN) taking his oath on a Quran instead of a Bible. Even better, it was a Quran once owned by Thomas Jefferson. This made big news because Rep. Virgil Goode (R-VA) made a big stink over it, saying that if you're gonna swear in on a book, it should be the Bible. Even though the Constitution clearly says "no religious test shall be required", in other words you can't make somebody swear on a religious text. (Technically the official swearing in is done with no book at all — the issue is about what book they use for the traditional photo opportunity that happens after the fact).

Anyway, what's the punchline again? It's done, it's over, he swore in, the world didn't end. What I like about the story is Rep Mazie Hirono, one of two Buddhists to be sworn in during this election, opted not to have a book at all, saying "Whatever happened to the separation of Church and State?"

Love it.

Ok, here we go.

• Get back on the weight loss track and hit my goal weight. Right now that'd mean dropping about 12 more pounds. 6 of which I'd gained over the holidays 🙂
• Get published in a meaningful way. I've written a couple of e-books before, but none of them are going to ever even make it onto the radar, as far as secondary income goes. I'd like this year to write and publish something that I feel could make me some pocket money. Whether it does or not, well, I don't control that.
• New mantra: Complete the bad stuff so there's more time for the good stuff. At any given time I've got a good dozen projects running around my brain. Some work, some personal. Some practical, some blue sky. Some take two minutes, some take two years. Whenever I focus on one, particularly one of the "have to get done" ones, I have a horrible habit of spending all my mental energy thinking "As long as I'm working on this, I'm not working on [other, probably more fun project]." And when I do allow myself time to work on the fun ones, I'm inevitably thinking "Man, I should really get back to the boring have-to-do and just do it." So, I don't win on either end. My new goal is to tackle one project at a time and stay focused on it until I make meaningful progress. I won't say "finish", because often you'll hit a wall where you can't finish it right that moment. But by making recognizable progress I'll at least feel better about putting it down and moving on to something else.

There you go, that's my list. Consider it documented. Who else wants to volunteer?

The other day I wrote about my "not so Zen" children who were baffled at the concept of one hand clapping. In one of those moments where I like to say "The universe is small", I see a news story about a company called Zen Babies. I did not go looking for it, it just fell in my lap. There ya go.

So, the story of the day is about the woman who put a baby through the x-ray scanner at the airport. The baby was quickly extracted from the machine, taken to the hospital (something she apparently did not want), and it was confirmed that the baby's fine, no damaging exposure was sustained.

But man, the fodder for Incredible Hulk jokes is just outstanding! The kid's got a new nickname for the rest of his life.

Don't make that baby angry. You wouldn't like him when he's angry.

Baby smash!

He's turning green! Oh, wait, no, that's strained peas.

Taking the cue from Hugh Macleod at gapingvoid, Rebel Dad is calling for 500-word manifestos on "any parenting/balance topic you can think of."

Here's mine:

When Jingle and Jangle get to visit the Mayor, he makes them a deal. If they can make it snow in Southtown, then he will take that as proof that Santa exists. They will then celebrate by…giving Santa the day off. Huh? They're down there in the first place to prove that he exists so that he won't take the day off, but then they're going to give him a holiday anyway. Now I'm just totally lost. How was that supposed to work when they got back to the North Pole? "Santa! Santa! People really do believe in you, you can go to work this Christmas! Only don't, because the kids don't want you to come!"

Read more…

Got a message on the company email yesterday that there's going to be a movie filming on our street and in the building next store, so be prepared for the traffic and detours and so on.  Turns out that this movie is The Game Plan, starring The Rock.  How cool is that?  I wandered downstairs today for lunch (nice that it is 60+ degrees outside) and yeah, they're shooting a movie all right.  Just like you see…well, in the movies. Lots of big spotlights, and people carrying around what look like posterboards with tinfoil on them.  We can't get anywhere near the action, of course, but the crowds are positioned so that you can get a glimpse.  I didn't get to see him (yet), but apparently others have, as I heard some conversation like "Can you see him?  He's sitting in the front seat of the car.  There, he just got out, that's him…"

What reaallllllly annoys me is that according to the trivia for the movie, just last week they were filming in my own hometown!  Argh. The Rock was wandering around my home town and I missed it.  That's annoying.  Surely that would have merited a sick day from work.  After all you can hardly expect North Andover to draw the same sort of crowd that downtown Boston does.

Didn't he just make a football movie?

Update: It's funny how different audiences see things. I'm in a meeting, there's a pause while we wait for some people, and I toss out, "So, did anybody go downstairs to see The Rock? He's shooting a movie."

Lady across the table looks interested, but kind of shrugs off the reference with, "I don't know who that is. Who else is in it?"

"Kyra Sedgewick," I say.

"Oh my god I love her!" she says, and begins chatting excitedly with the woman next to her about this woman's movies.

All I know about Kyra Sedgewick is that she's Kevin Bacon's wife, and I sat across the row from her on a plane once. One of those moments to kick yourself, because the entire flight I kept wondering, "Is that Kyra Sedgewick?" but not having the guts to ask. She was with two kids. Getting off the plane she even had trouble with her luggage and I should have been a gentleman and offered to help lug it, but I didn't. I think I assumed that when she walked off the plane there'd be people waiting for her or something. Instead I went home, went online and looked her up, and sure enough that was her – the description of the two kids matched perfectly. So now I tell people that my Kevin Bacon number is 2. 🙂

What's funnier, given that I changed jobs about 4 months ago:

The former coworker (former to me — he still works there) who contacted me last week asking when I knew it was time to leave the company…

…or the one who contacted me to ask "Hey, have you seen the sysadmin around? I think the email server might be down."

I'm gonna go with B.

You'd think that having spent three days in San Diego at a hotel with free wireless internet, I would have found more time to blog. Well, not if it's a bad hotel. The wireless was indeed free, but the connection was always so very low that I couldn't stay connected worth a damn. So I got very little done.

I've been to San Diego once before. I stayed at a place called the Hotel Del Coronado, and I think it screwed up my expectations. This is one of those places where, when you put in your wake up call, not only does the operator say "Have a pleasant night, Mr. Morin" but there's an actual human who calls you in the morning to say "Good morning", not just recorded music. Even better, the event that defined the standard for me for all good hotel service? When I took my rental car out for the day to go into town, and I came back, the valet opened my door and said "Welcome back Mr. Morin, did you have a nice day?" I mean, come on. I knew when that happened that I'd be talking for years about the quality of service. Look at that, I still am.

So I'd gotten it into my head that all San Diego hotels were like that. When I found out I had a conference at the "Resort Kona Kai Marina", I thought I was in for sometihng special. Nope. Not at all. Totally generic hotel. As I mentioned, free but lousy wifi. No minibar. Not even a pen and pad of paper by the phone. And would you believe, no gift shop? I go looking for some quick gifts for the kids, maybe a magazine to carry around for downtime – nothing. There's a sign that says "Gift Shop", but I'm told they no longer have one. They say that maybe — maybe — the hotel next door does.

To understand that little statement you have to appreciate the geography. The hotels are not built up, or deep. They are built…long. So from lobby to your room could be a five minute walk. My coworker Gary was in the "next" hotel which was about 10+ minutes away. They really are next to each other, there's just such a long line of buildings represneting each hotel that it's hard to figure out where one ends and one begins. Sure enough, by the way, Gary's hotel does not have a gift shop either. The third one does, though – but no magazines or books.

So here I am on the floor of Phoenix airport, waiting for my flight back to Boston. This is the best connectivity I've had. I'm getting lots of work done. 🙂