Oct 30

I’m on vacation

I’m neither bragging nor complaining. Mostly I’m just tired. I’ve been tired for months now, due to a frenetic work schedule for the past several months, and a busy church schedule this summer.

So I’m not doing much of anything. Heather and I started vacation tired, and four days later we’re still tired. Yesterday we cleaned out the vents and did some other light cleaning, then collapsed on the couch to nap and play video games.

So hopefully by the end of our break we’ll be ready to return to work.

Blah.

Oct 17

Quotable: George Washington

“Few men have virtue to withstand the highest bidder.”
Letter to Major-General Robert Howe

Oct 16

Photo: garage door

This is a garage door near 43rd and Main in downtown Kansas City. Unfortunately this is the first thing Chiefs’ defense sees on their way to work.

Oct 15

Dipstick design

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It might not be readily apparent from this photo of my dirty engine, but you are looking at an example of very good design. The small sliver of yellow you see is the dipstick. It was handy enough coloring it yellow for ease of finding it among all the black and gray of the engine compartment, but more important is the piece of metal obstructing it. The designers appear to have intentionally place the prop rod for the hood right in the way of the dipstick so that you would be forced to prop the hood up properly (and safely) in order to check the oil, just in case you might be otherwise inclined to simply lift the hood with one hand and pull the dipstick with the other.

Oct 11

sneakybowed

As far as I know Kaleb coined this verb. It’s a rather technical term, specialized to a particular activity within a specific series of video games.

In the Elder Scrolls series you can shoot opponents / attackers with a bow and arrow while ‘in sneak,’ a state of stealthy concealment that provides extra attack damage at the expense of speed and mobility.

Usage: “I sneakybowed that bear and took him out.”

Like many other good words, ‘sneakybowed’ is both concise and precise.

Plus, it just sounds cool–sneakybowed.

Oct 10

Finally…

One of the teens in our church posted after we had our first big rain after the drought. I don’t think he appreciated my humor.

Oct 09

Write in candidate

This entire non-window surface of this eastbound and down van is covered in spray paint. The occupants (or, vandals) are endorsing Leonard Steinman for governor of Missouri.

The side of the van says, ‘Missouri news media are prositutes.’

It could be that they don’t know how to spell, or I suppose they could just be huge Uncle Remus fans, and are spelling the word the way they normally pronounce it.

Steinman ran as a Libertarian candidate in early 2012, but withdrew before the primary. However, you can still write him in.

 

Oct 07

Quotable: W.E.B DuBois

“I believe that democracy has so far disappeared in the United States that no “two evils” exist. There is but one evil party with two names, and it will be elected despite all I can do or say.”

Oct 06

“Are you the Good Jimmy or the Bad Jimmy?”

The customer asked me this seriously, without the slightest bit of irony.

“My name’s Dan,” I replied.

The whole thing was rather curious. Jimmy was our lead tech at the time, and he is legitimately one of the nicest guys ever. For some reason the customer had gotten it into her head that 1) Jimmy was not nice, 2) I was also named Jimmy, and that 3), I actually was nice.

Oct 05

“Are you stupid?”

That was what a mom asked one of her children while I was eating lunch. I don’t know if the child was stupid or not, but the mom was the one wearing skintight sweatpants out in public.