. . .and step away from the urinal! Spray, drippage, flush flings, all sorts of stuff flying around the bathroom. And someone thinks that would be a good place to eat? I just walked into the bathroom here by my office and there was a medical student, standing at the urinal, aiming with one hand, eating a donut with the other. And yes, he was eating. Not just holding it. Taking bites. While he peed. I don't think I would do that. Change that. I know I wouldn't do that. It is j...

I don't have TiVo, so no worries about it thinking I am gay. But I have discovered a different problem: My LAUNCHcast radio station thinks I am a hair metal fan! What conditions could have led to such a terrible and erroneous error you may ask. And the question is a sound one. The problem, you see, stems from the fact that there are, in fact, some really good bands that get too often dumped in the hair metal category. Def Leppard, back in the 'High and Dry', 'On Through the Nigh...

I received an invitation to Yahoo!'s new 360 program (currently in beta stage). It is sort of meta blogging, community based site that allows you to post blogs, lists, link to friends, photos, write reviews, etc. I have only been playing for a day or so, but it is cool. I don't do this in any attempt to lure folks away from JU, but just to complement their online blogging experience. As mentioned in the subtitle I have 100 invites (a handful of which I am going to reserve for family...

It has happened.  I have officially become a "Soccer Dad". Yeah, yeah.  I know they always talk about "Soccer Moms", but my Y chromosome prohibits that from being an accurate label.  We don't have the mini-van or the SUV (though my wife really wants the mini-van), and we aren't all that preppy, but our daughter began soccer last night.  It was an interesting experience.  Half way through she didn't seem too excited.  Water break led to me putting my arms arou...

I decided to attempt a dual-boot install of Linux over the weekend.  Yes, I am that big of a geek.  Installing an OS sounds like fun. Alas, I was not met with success, and conferencing with a Linux using friend were eventually fruitless (though I am extremely grateful to him for sacrificing precious board-prep time to assist!).  As it ended up I had a copy of Linux installed that eventually got me into KDE, but the computer didn't recognize there was a copy of Windows to boot i...

I have been putting this off for a while now. As I look back it is at least a month or more in coming. But I just wanted to let those friends I have made here know that I can't help but feel it is time to step away for a while. There isn't any specific reason, I just have felt I needed to force anything I have written, and I don't care for that. I would like to chalk it up to RL, but I simply am not enjoying this at the present. And that alone tells me I need to take a break. So I a...

So, for the first few episodes of this season I was writing a weekly rundown on the television show Alias. But alas, that just hasn't happened for a while now. In fact, we are still a couple of episodes behind (thanks to VCRs and torrents we have been able to acquire the missed episodes). And so, once we finally get caught up, which should happen this weekend I hope, I will try to get back on track. Some brief thoughts though: -I was initially disappointed with the lack of a centra...

It is interesting how quickly the 2+ weeks have gone by since Big Al joined our lives. In fact, most of the time we find ourselves asking where the days have gone. But what is most odd is that it all just seems like one really long day. Really long. I'm not going to complain, because Big Al is really sleeping pretty good. He is now sort of on a schedule of eating right before we go to bed at around 11:00 pm, then he wakes up once more during the night (anywhere between 3:00 and 5:00)...

So, just to let it be known, I do have the most adorable family in the universe. Don't get me wrong, there are other great ones out there, and some come dang close to being as cute and wonderful as mine. But, well, when your family is as amazing as mine, it's hard not to think fate has smiled on you. I have uploaded some more photos to my Wincustomize photo album. Some good ones of the little fella, as well as the other girls. And I can't help but share. Clicky, clicky

I really love the look of the new Silica widgets. Excellent work. By question is this: Will there ever be a Silica Weather widget? Yes, I know there are already too many weather widgets. But as nice as the silica widgets are I would love to have a matching weather widget (just like I love the unified look of the "Core" series). Just curious.

Years ago, when I still lived at home, my father and I would get tickets to first round games of the NCAA tournament up at the Huntsman Center at the U of U. Hours and hours of basketball, good basketball played by kids who just wanted to play their hearts out and make the season last a little longer. It wasn't extravagant, but it was a lot of fun, just two guys hanging out and watching some basketball. Since our little one was born my mom came out for a week, then my dad came out. This...

Shackles and chains. Used to detain people. To prevent freedom. I never have been shackled or chained, other than part of, say, a Halloween costume. And I don't ever recall seeing anyone in leg irons either (other than on TV or movies). The prospect of being detained in such a manner seems less than desirable to say the least. But yesterday, as I walked from the lab to the car, realization struck. There are millions of use who have willingly shackled ourselves just as securely. ...

I often hear (and read) comments about musicians "selling out".  I have my own notions of what constitutes selling out, and, having listened to lots of this music that supposedly sold out, I have come to a conclusion. Frankly, I think the phrase sell-out has become a tool for the lazy critic.  Don't misunderstand me, there are most certainly examples of musicians/artists/people who have sold out.  But there are a lot of artists who get the label of sell out and don't deserv...

Faith is a fascinating thing. We all have it, to some degree, though many choose to pretend they don't. Most of us probably have faith that the sun will, in fact, rise each morning, marking the dawn of a new day. We probably have faith that we will be able to rise the next morning in pretty much the same condition as when we went to sleep. And the list goes on and on, little things we do each day because we have faith we can or faith they will happen. Why do we have faith in those th...

We use them daily. Often even without thinking about it. Many times we use them innocently. But just as often the epithets we use give a name to our hate. Not necessarily derogatory, epithets can act simply to describe something or someone. In this function they are surely useful. Yet how often do we fall into the trap of using them in a disparaging manner? Far too often I would assert. They come in all shapes and sizes: some blatantly derogatory, others simply descriptive. For e...