Asymptomatic

There must be intelligent life down here

You are all idiots
December 28, 2011

I read an account yesterday of a woman who was arrested (let’s just call it that right now, to simplify things) for reading the US Constitution while being scanned at an airport security checkpoint. I think the point of the article, given its source, was meant to elicit a reaction of outrage. But I can’t help but think how outright foolish everyone involved is.

For example, what possible outcome could the woman expect from her actions? Did she expect that the crowd would suddenly decide not to be subject to scanning? Did she expect to casually walk through security unmolested after having made this stir? Did she truly expect that the only consequence would be that she’d have informed her fellow air travelers that their rights were (possibly) being violated?

Not Enough To Bother Writing Home
December 21, 2011

Random thoughts I’ve had over the past 5 minutes that weren’t enough to fill a whole blog post on their own, but were too much to shove into a tweet:

I wish I didn’t have to sleep. Things happen overnight that would be useful to be present for. My coworkers being awake and international Habari support, for two. Also, I’d be able to get all of those things done that I don’t have an extra couple hours every day for. It would be useful not to sleep. Being sick has put me into the routine of sleeping more, which is good for sanity, but bad for productivity.

Operation "Bus Graffiti"
December 01, 2011

Between 8am and 8:30am on most weekdays, I’m responsible for preparing the kids for school and seeing them safely onto the bus. In that last sentence, “safely” might have been an overlooked, throw-away word, but it’s the most important one in relevance to this story.

You see, the kids at the bus stop jostle and jockey for front position in line at the bus. And while this type of horsing around is natural for the ages of the kids we have at the stop, it has lately become quite excessive. Over the past few months, efforts to get in front of the line have caused the virtual front of the line to keep moving farther and farther forward.

Extensive Vocabulary
November 30, 2011

We’ve been suffocated by Abby’s 5th grade homework assignments so far this year. There have been many days when her homework takes her from when she gets home to well past her bedtime to complete. As a result, Berta and I have been helping her - more directly - to cope with the overwhelming onslaught of busywork.

More than a few times while helping Abby to complete her homework, I’ve pulled some arcane word out of my back pocket and suggested that she write it into her responses, only to be reprimanded by Berta for producing language that Abby wouldn’t use in completing her assignments on her own. I suppose that’s fine, but as a result I’ve not been using the “big words” in daily routine.

iPhone iOS5 upgrade "unknown error" 3200
October 12, 2011

This is just a quick update among all of the other insanity that is going on around here, regarding my iPhone 4 upgrade to iOS5. I tried to perform the upgrade several times, even after rebooting and removing other USB devices (which have caused these problems during upgrades before), but I kept getting this error:

As it turns out, the solution is quite simple, and is in fact shown on the Apple support site that appears if you click the “More information” button. But you’re not going to like it.