Office Monkey

• I love that Microsoft is sponsoring Mythbusters. Yay us! #

• @wayzgoose I’m certain you can come up with a better ending than Mr. van Lustbader did with that story. #

• Three hours later, and my taxes are done. What a way to spend a Saturday night. #
• There’s a website “Is your cat trying to kill you?” It provides simple hints as to what a cat’s behavior truly means. Here’s a hint: yes. #

• Braid may be $15 and DRM free, but the lead dev can’t write clean code. #

• Just copied over and compiled an existing project. 1884 errors. I may have made a mistake somewhere… #
• At Staples: Them: “You need to go to a paper store for that.” Me: “I thought this was an office supply store.” T: “It is, just not paper.” ? #

• I had a way to finish a trilogy I didn’t know I was writing, so I decided to go back and rewrite them from scratch. #
• Then I decided to write an application to help me plan instead. #
• Next, I’ll actually do something! #

• I like my new office. I look forward to one day having something other than leaf-less tree branches to look out at. #
• I have headphones on with loud music… and I can still hear the hum of the ventilation system. I’m glad I contacted Facilities 6 hours ago. #
• @wayzgoose Does rewriting an existing work qualify for wriye? #

Does anyone else find it curious that the prohibition of alcohol was intermingled with heavy illegal drinking, and the tail end of prohibition dovetailed with the beginning of the Great Depression?

Does anyone else look at the current economic climate, look back at the 30s, and wonder when drugs will be legalized?

Six and a half years ago, I made a few brief trips before moving across the country. One of my trips was to visit a good friend of mine from high school, let’s call him Al.

“Al” was (and is) one of the best graphic designers I’ve ever had the pleasure of working with – made more impressive by the fact that he’s color blind. I saw him almost every day for four years… and then we went to different colleges.

It was great to have the opportunity to see him; it was only a short visit, but was still nice to see him. Unfortunately, his lovely girlfriend was out of town, but that just meant we could have some quality time together.

This entry is not about Al.

Al had something I never had in college – cable. He left the TV on when sleeping, which I thought a bit odd, but now my wife does the same thing. However, I wasn’t quite ready to sleep when he was, so I was up watching late night television when he had already gone to bed – and I didn’t have the remote.

I have never forgotten one of the infomercials. “The Great Wok of China” – true, exact name. Now, I’m not the best customer for advertising. I don’t tend to remember commercials. I took a survey on Hulu last week that asked me about the commercials I had just watched. I told them there were no commercials for Chevron (which I buy whenever I’m paying full price for gas). Ten questions later, I remembered that EVERY commercial I had seen that day were for Chevron. My ReplayTV is one of the few models with commercial autodetection. It doesn’t hurt that my memory sucks.

I had no interest in buying the Great Wok of China. I still have no interest in buying the Great Wok of China. I wasn’t even interested in the Okay Wok of China. Matter of fact, at the time when our story takes place, I didn’t have a wok – or even a kitchen.

But for years I remembered one segment of the infomercial: how to make fried rice. It wasn’t as good as Chef Chang’s House Fried Rice, but… how on earth would I have learned otherwise?

I realized this afternoon that I no longer remember the recipe, aside from starting with refrigerated white rice.

However, I still remember The Great Wok of China.

• Win7 Superbar Feature That I Love: The IE Icon dynamically shades to indicate the state of an in-progress download. Awesome! #