Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Overheard

In a thrift store, I saw an old man with light hair, cut short on the sides. He was wearing jeans which had colorful embroidery on the pockets. I think he thought he was a cowboy.

I also saw a man wearing one of those bandannas that seem to be worn in support of Palestine. He was carrying a cat toy.

Driving home, I saw a man wearing an orange jacket and a green hat, carrying a big black garbage bag. He looked like an urban pumpkin hobo.

I walked past some neighbors, a mom yelled at her son, 'Do you know what happens on four days?' I didn't hear the answer, but I wonder what happened then.

I walked past two other neighbors, on said to another, 'I've got a fifth of Ever...'

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Sick day

I'm feeling ill today, I've had a cold for the past three or so days. I'm working from home, doing low-key things like reading articles and reviewing my projects.

When I was a little kid, I would get excited whenever Dad would take a sick day. Not that I wanted him to get sick, but I got extra Dad time. Even if Dad was lying on the couch, sipping ginger ale, holding a bucket close, just in case, I was glad to just be around him.

One time when Dad was sick, Mom and I were downstairs doing an experiment, we were learning about how water expands as it freezes. I asked Mom why, and she didn't know, so she sent me upstairs to Dad, who was lying ill in bed. I asked Dad why water expands as it freezes. Groggily, Dad told me to go get my Ramagon set.

Ramagon is a building toy that never took off; I have no idea where my set came from. It had a bunch of spokes that would connect to hubs. It was good for making truss structures. I made a bunch of little L's with the Ramagon, two spokes sticking off of a hub at right angles. Dad told me about how these L's are like water molecules, with the tips of the spokes representing hydrogen and the hub representing oxygen. Water, as a liquid, is a bunch of these L's sitting in a puddle, but, frozen, the water forms structures out of all of these L's stuck together, spoke to hub, hydrogen to oxygen, and that's why water expands when it freezes.

I let my rabbit out of her cage today, she's running around. I'm sitting on my futon, and she keeps jumping into my lab and nipping at the articles I'm reading.

Why the dislike button is a great idea

Facebook doesn't make much sense. The like button means three things:
I like this
I want to be notified when people comment on this
I want other people to see this
It stinks when something bad happens to a friend and they post about it, for sympathy, "I lost my job", "My dog died", etc, well, it stinks for my friend when those things happen. But it also stinks for me, because I want all of my friends to know, so they can show sympathy, and I want to be notified when other people say nice things to my poor, jobless, dogless friend. I just don't want to click the like link, because I don't want people to think that I like it that my friend is living under a bridge without a dog. This is why we should have a dislike* button, it would differ from the like button in name only.

*It could also be the "I express my sincere condolences" button.