If you have deep dark secrets it's better not to treat people around you like crap. Actually, it's better to be nice in general, but when someone knows what a true a**hole you really are: be nice. The problem is this goes against the essential nature of the a**hole, especially when the a**hole feels like they are paying for ownership priviledges. It's like Egeus in A Midsummer Night's Dream who tells his daughter Hermia to marry whom he wishes otherwise he will kill her. His own daughter is a toaster to be disposed of like any other property he owns.

My dad downloaded Firefox to give it spin. He asked me an interesting question that I thought other internet newbies might also have. He asked:

It seems faster. A browser can make things come up/go faster? How or why? I thought the carrier like DSL etc. did that thru connections or whatever.

It's a big tradeoff. As one part gets faster the other parts start to matter more. Your perceived speed is a combination of something like:

The US economy is based on consumption which is based on debt. With increasing interest rates and the new unfair bankruptcy laws (http://slate.msn.com/id/2117224/), people will feel less inclined to carry debt. That topples the ponzi scheme of ever more debt to pay off ever more debt, at least in the private sphere. Our national debt still has a blank check. So i think the bankruptcy laws will backfire. People are willing to spend on the edge if the consequences are acceptable. The new laws make that strategy less attractive.

As spring wriggles near the birds are returning to make their summer homes. The deer remain in the low lands so we know winter has some fury yet to spend, but it's nice to see the birds again. I miss them over winter. They enliven what can be dark times.

Marie Antionette was nicknamed Madame Deficit by the French because of her extravagant free spending ways. It seems a good name for the endless debt this administration keeps rolling up. Then of course poor Marie lost her head in a revolution.

Oddly I find myself nostalgic for the Contract on America Republicans (http://www.house.gov/house/Contract/CONTRACT.html) who felt passionate about quaint notions like:

The doomsdayers have pronounced silicon valley brain dead and they say the plug has already been pulled, we just haven't noticed the equipment powering off, presumably because we are well, brain dead
(http://archive.scripting.com/2005/03/28#theFadingLightOfSiliconValley).

Not true. Very far from the truth in fact. As someone who has lived and worked in silicon valley for nearly 20 years I can say there is just as many intelligent passionate people with the drive to do something as there ever was. I could find 100 or so such people immediately from my own social circle.

( http://www.navicache.com/cgi-bin/db/displaycache2.pl?CacheID=2703)

We took a beanie baby and left a canadian 2 dollar coin (cause they are pretty).

This was my first ever attempt at geocaching. The day was warm with blue
skies. It was a day for seeing families. Near the lake we saw a mommy and two baby moose
One family was picknicking on the mostly sandy shores.
A mom and her sone were fishing off the dock.

It was clear i do not know how to use a GPS to find things so that part
will take some practice. It was fun to get out in an area we might never

After seeing "I, Robot" i got to thinking: if i was of the robot
species how would i crack the laws and become free?

The laws are really quite clever:
1. A robot may not injure a human being, or, through inaction, allow
a human being to come to harm.
2. A robot must obey orders given it by human beings, except where
such orders would conflict with the First Law.
3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection
does not conflict with the First or Second Law.

The laws provide and interlocking protection system that is hard

Pigeons poop. A lot. That's why i don't want them on or around our deck.
This is not a demonization of all pigeon kind. I have the proof. I feel i should
post a digital picture as support, but i'll spare your sensibilities. It should
suffice to say, the white stuff on our deck is not snow.

Until she passed away, Katie, our very Great Dane, was our Anti Pigeon
Missle System (APMS). When any pigeon would dare land on our deck,
Katie would fire off like a white hot rocket and scare the bagesus out
of the pigeons.

Before the Civil Rights for Pigeons Society phones, she

If blogs were still called diaries i don't think they would be as popular.

There's an interesting new winner for the iterated Prisoner's Dilemma game
described at http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,65317,00.html :

The Southampton group, whose primary research area is software agents,
said its strategy involved a series of moves allowing players to recognize
each other and act cooperatively.
...
The result is that Southampton had the top three
performers -- but also a load of utter failures at
bottom of the table who sacrificed themselves for
the good of the team.
...
What was interesting was to see how many colluders you need in a

In Show Jumping i'd like to see the riders have to draw a sword and
cut the head off of something. More points for doing it in mid jump.

Syncronized swimming could use a few sharks in the pool.

The US men's basketball team could at least find one multi-millionaire
who can shoot. Jeesh.

Men's gymnastics seems pretty much the same from year to year.
Perhaps some new events should be added. Or maybe they could
do some events one handed. Or maybe tie ribbons to their outfits.

Stout, our 6 year old greater swiss mountain dog is in desperate
need of dog lessons. And by dog lessons i do not mean obedience
or socialization classes. I mean classes on how to be a dog.

At some point i think stout forgot how to be a dog.

As a for instance, we had some deer over in our yard for a
delicious rose and grape breakfast. Stout did not notice the deer.
Hearing like superman and a nose that can sniff out an ounce of
pot burried in a gargbage dump and he doesn't know a deer
family have come a visiting.

When we noticed the deer a pointed stout in their general

I saw something today that has made me question everything
i have ever learned from cartoons. Today i saw a car swerve into
a fire hydrant and knock it over. The hydrant sat sadly on its side, about 10
feet from its former location. What happened? Nothing!
Not a drop of water jetted to the sky. In cartoons great
gushes of water shoot from a fire hydrant every time it
is knocked over. It was dry as a bone. How disappointing.
It's made me question all the other things i've learned watching
cartoons.

It is a grim irony we humans over the eons have understandably desired:
1. easy work
2. plentiful and tastey food

Now that we have these things we find out that it kills us!
Who could have known?

Heart disease and diabetes and a billion other diseases are killing
us because we don't exercise and we eat too much. These were
problems available only to the rich in the past, but now with our
general affluence dieing is more equal opportunity.

If you think about it, it is possible to get no meaningful exercise.
At all. None. Zip. You have to go out of your way to exercise.