http://scitoys.com/ this has to be the coolest website I have seen in a long time. Dad used to get us science toys for christmas an birthdays when we were little. I loved them. I think the goal was to lead us to a career in science, didn't work for either of us kids. It did leave me with an unending fascination with science toys though.

A lovely conversation with one of my friends over IM...just ME and him... this is what actaully happened, just now.

ME: Can somebody please explain to me why I never know about new computers until they arrive?
ME: And why do people come tell me about their arrival, it isn't like I ordered them?
ME: I hate this job
ME: oh good I just heard the shout "Where's Laura" Gee maybe in her closet.
ME: time to put my headphones on and pretend I don't know what is going in
ME: ooh more shouting for me.
friend: Don't these people know about modern communication methods?
ME: unknown
ME: at least the new boxes didn't come with XP Home edition on it
ME: we have two new employees starting on the 2nd of January. But they aren't getting the new computer.. no... that would be simple. I have to do a 3 step shuffle for each of the new computers to produce a computer out the bottom for the new guys.
friend: Lovely.
ME: oh and they tell me this today... just now.. when of course...everyone in their right mind is taking some fraction of the days between now and then off.
ME: oh well at least I have craisins.
friend: Insane deyhdrated grapes?
ME: dehydrated cranberries... but I like your description better

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/9.12/baron-cohen.html Goes with yesterdays article on geek syndrome well. More on how many high functioning autistic/Aspergers folks there might be out there.

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/9.12/aqtest.html ooh diaganose your self... well don't really it would be a sad life if every test you took online you used to influence your life. I mean how can you be a fire bellied toad, and a fat cat at the same time. But it is interesting to see how my co-workers are scoring. (they are passing this arround) What a suprize I got the least social score in the office.

http://www.salon.com/mwt/feature/2001/12/17/role_of_women/print.html I am glad to see somebody put this in print. It is absolutely true, but here we go, westerners on a colonization rampage (oh wait that is passe) we are aiding in their development that's it. Who are we to judge if they want to return to their old ways. They are there ways, not ours. Heck there are probably some traditional muslim households in the US, maybe even down the block from you. Think about it. Why would they want to be like us? Are we that cool? I think not.

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/9.12/aspergers_pr.html This is interesting. I had often noticed my friends were different than other folks, and geeks are more different than most, disconnected, socailly inept. Scary thought that their kids might be more so. Hmm...does explain a lot about lots of people, probably even myself if I were to look closely.

I woke up this morning to snow. Not a lot, of snow just a little. It was the sort of snow that as a child in oklahoma would have had me celebrating and looking for gloves to make a snowman. An ill fated prospect, as there is not quite enough snow to cover the grass, the concrete is just wet or in some patches icy. Nowhere near enough snow for a snowman. But as a kid in OK, you take what you can get. It was very reminscant of childhood. My friends, mostly native Minnesotans and Iowans, remember big snows, and things like sledding off the roof of the garage onto drifts and stuff. Not me. I do remember a displaced northerner ice skating on the street once, in Tulsa. Occasionally there was enough snow that dad would take us out in one of those disk sleds and spin us by a rope around him and let us go like a sling stone down the side yard. But not often. All in all very remiscant of childhood.

But I didn't get a chance to use my new snowthrower!

This is weird. Well actually as a long time resident of the internet I knew that people were writing fan fiction that was pornographic in nature, I knew some fraction of that featured homosexual pairings. What I didn't realize was that there was a whole sub-culture of it, and that most of this gay male porn is written by women. Weird. I suppose no weirder than men liking to see two women together in their porn though. I just don't know, the whole porn thing has never done anything for me. Bad writing irritates me. *WARNING HYPOCRISY ALERT* I mean if you are going to go to the trouble of writing a something and putting it on the web where the whole world can find it, why not at least run a spell checker over it and read it for logical sense. *END HYPOCRISY ALERT* I find most fan fiction irritating because people don't pay attention to writing, nor to the characters as they exist in the show they are fans of. Making Starksy and Hutch lovers I think takes that to the extreme. I guess this falls under the "your kink is not my kink and that's ok" rule.

Hmm Opera 6 is a mighty cool browser. I do have one problem with it though. It doesn't seem to like to render text boxes the way everyone else does. For example this one which is usually quite large. Is in fact only big enough to hold
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx That many characters. The whole box is two lines tall. Wonder why that is.

Coke VS Pop VS Soda The debate rages. I grew up in Oklahoma where everything was a coke.
Conversation between A and B for example.

A: Want a coke?
B: Sure, what have you got?
A: I have 7Up, RC, and Diet Pepsi, and it looks like one can of Coke here in the back.
B: I'll take a 7Up thanks.

Ooh benefits meeting this morning I won a highlighter (actually 2) for answering simple reading comprehension questions. I didn't get a third highlighter for knowing another answer, so I stopped answering. Basically I was just humoring the chick trying to get this stuff done as fast as possible.

Ok...I have recently become attached to Buffy theVampire Slayer. I had formerly thought it too campy and pathetic for its own good, and had little tollerance for it. But people I respect were still attached to it. So I gave it another try, convientely just as FX was starting to air it 2 episodes a night, giving me a convient way to catch up. Salon just did a piece on it. I think I know why I am still attached.. it isn't the sex, but the frankness about life in general is refresshing. "The tradition of epic poetry lives, if you know where to look for it." pretty much sums it up.

test

www.flingthecow.com A laugh riot for about 15 minutes... then it gets a bit old. Let me know your high score. :)

TIME.com: Business -- Reinventing the Wheel Ginger Revealed. Neat doodad.. don't see it working in northern cities. I also predict it will have a hard time catching on since disposable income is way down these days. Could be wrong does look neato, but what about those with mobility issues, or those who can't stand for long. Not impressive there. Ahh well.

This is wrong, free candybar to the first person who can point out why. (and yes I already know the answer)

Theorem: 3=4
Proof:

Suppose:
a + b = c

This can also be written as:

4a - 3a + 4b - 3b = 4c - 3c

After reorganizing:
4a + 4b - 4c = 3a + 3b - 3c

Take the constants out of the brackets:
4 * (a+b-c) = 3 * (a+b-c)

Remove the same term left and right:
4 = 3

Went and saw Harry Potter this weekend. Good movie, most things meshed well with how I saw them in my head. A few exceptions included minor things like characters hair styles, not really an issue. Anyhow... I really like this commentary. Goes well with my experiences. Including the bit about the religious nuts. Anyhow. Good move, nice empty theater at 10:35pm on a Saturday, about 15 people all over the age of 20.