Asymptomatic

There must be intelligent life down here

I Changed It A Little
June 21, 2011

Yes, this is not the original quote. I can’t stand the original quote. People have been trotting it out lately whenever they talk about genius, and I saw this image again today, and just had to mess with it.

I think the lesson from the original quote may have been that if you judge people by your own capabilities, of which they are not capable, then you’re likely to make them feel inferior. Well, Eleanor Roosevelt must have been smarter than Einstein, because no one can make you feel inferior without your consent. Instead, if you judge people by your own capabilities, of which they are not capable, they may think you’re an idiot.

Why I Don't Use GoDaddy and You Shouldn't Either
June 17, 2011

I have good reasons, bad reasons, and reasons that make little sense, but they all indicate the same thing: GoDaddy doesn’t deserve your money

The reason I like to trot out the most is the T&A. GoDaddy has an intentionally humorous intent with their advertising and marketing. Do you remember the superbowl ads? The ads where the busty girl in the GoDaddy shirt nearly loses her top in front of some kind of committee? Yes, those. I don’t know how a women like Danica Patrick - the first woman to win an Indy car race, a potential role-model for girls in a male-dominated world - can put her name on something that is so obviously objectifying of women and having no earthly reason to be.

Unknown Family Vacation
June 15, 2011

As summer approaches each year, and this is part of the problem for more than one reason, we start scrambling to assemble some kind of family vacation for the four of us. Often, it feels like we’re the only family that doesn’t bother to plan their vacation until a couple of months before we want to go, always “last minute”. For a few years now, we’ve failed to put anything together based on where wa want to go rather than what is left available.

For example, the past couple of years, we’ve gone to Williamsburg, Virginia. Strangely enough, I like Williamsburg. It has just enough of everything that it seems like a vacation destination. Virginia Beach is only an hour drive away, the historical stuff is pretty cool, and Busch Gardens is right there, with the water park that is even better. Plus, it’s only a few hours drive from home, so the travel costs aren’t crazy. Actually, this was the selling point for this vacation - cheap travel, many activities. But everyone else is getting tired of it, and we’d like to try somewhere else.

My Kid's Hero Is Not Me
May 26, 2011

I came upon a homework assignment on the kitchen table entitled “My Hero”. While I wasn’t expecting to be the subject of such a report, I was surprised by the opening sentence:

Now Abby’s not the sort to pick some singing pop star as her hero, but explicitly calling out her parents (and pets?) as people that are not her hero was a bit unexpected. Like I said, I’m not looking for adulation, maybe just a little recognition. Or something.

Deimos is Hurt
May 12, 2011

There are a few other happy things going on this week that I could write about - Abby’s Spring Concert, the school’s spring fair, Berta’s trip to help her sister move, and the kids’ going to a musical with my mom - but I’m finding it difficult to enjoy any of this fun stuff or even concentrate on work since yesterday afternoon.

Berta noticed that Deimos had escaped the house on Tuesday evening. He has been doing this a lot. He’ll sit, waiting for someone to open the door, and spring out, often even darting between your legs. I’m not sure what his obsession with outside is, but when he can’t make his escape he’ll sit at each door, front and back, and meow for a good long while. But he ran out the front door on Tuesday night when Berta came in from a short shopping trip, and we didn’t think to look for him outside before we went to bed.