In Spite of Technology: These Things have NOT Improved

Things that have not improved at all, in spite of technological advances over the past 5 decades:

1. Making toast
2. Boiling water
3. Brushing teeth
4. Treating Jellyfish stings
5. Mowing the lawn
6. Bathing a dog
7. Rush hour traffic
8. Combating insects
9. Changing car oil
10. Dealing with "customer service"
11. Painting the inside of a house yourself
12. Roofing
13. Patching holes in asphalt roads
14. Wiping your ____
15. Delivering the mail

Cranium Drainium 16

It’s been a long time since I opened the flood gates to let dead brain cells dump out onto the blog.  Here goes…

• Fixed a toilet, a refrigerator water filter, a light fixture, and the A/C return filter all before 7:30 AM on a Saturday, including a trip to Lowe’s the same morning.  I feel manly now.
• Earned my MCITP Enterprise Administrator certification this past week.  Exam 70-647 was tricky, but I passed the 2nd time around after insane studying.
• I wired in a 10/100 switch at home to replace the 802.11x wireless bullshit around the house.  I have one more line to run to get all our computers on the circuit.  Only the Wii and mobile devices will use the wireless.  I f-ing hate wireless.
• Starbucks ended the seasonal supply of Pumpkin Spice Latte and replaced it with “Dark Cherry Mocha” which is not very good.  I’m going back to Caramel or Mocha from now on.
• I finished up two intranet portal side jobs and added two Internet web projects.  Looking forward to the road ahead.  Nothing to lean on, financially, but it does help with coffee and beer funds.
• I diverted some of my tax refund to buying a Dell Inspiron Zino HD with extra trimmings.  I can’t wait for it to arrive, I’m stoked!  I will then cycle my current workhorse to my son, and his computer will become the TV media center box again.
• Taking my kids to the Contemporary Arts Center (CAC) of Virginia this weekend.  We have a free pass, so why not?
• Tired of the shitty cold weather.  Waiting for Spring to return.

Weed Pulling: The All-American Sport

If you own or rent a house and you care even a little about your yard, you should fully understand the title to this post. You know those moments when you're otherwise doing something mundane and something out of your periphery catches your eye and you think to yourself "that's it! I can't take it any longer!" and you give into an impulse to tackle something that you just can't put off any longer. Yeah. I'm like that with weeds. I see weeds out of the corner of my eye and I can't stand it. Call me OCD, fine. But when I drive around my neighborhood on weekends when the weather is nice, I see all the other folks out doing the same thing. They should add it to the Olympics.