Time You Enjoy Wasting Is Not Wasted Time

I never read the package the coffee comes in. I know what coffee is. I know how to make coffee. So I never really pay attention to the package. Tonight, as I was scooping out some coffee to get the pot ready for tomorrow, I noticed that near the Brewing Instructions there was a title that indicated Unbrewed Coffee. Is it really necessary to indicate that?  Shouldn’t the fact that it is not a liquid be enough of an indication that it is unbrewed coffee? Or even the fact that there are brewing instructions, doesn’t that sort of imply that what you have is unbrewed if it needs brewing instructions? Like having the warning May Contain Nuts on a jar of peanuts, this is just ridiculously unnecessary. When did common sense become uncommon?

http://www.nysut.org/cps/rde/xchg/nysut/hs.xsl/mediareleases_10605.htm

One of Merriam-Websters definitions for satire is:

trenchant wit, irony, or sarcasm used to expose and discredit vice or folly

As such the often talked about Obama New Yorker cover is a perfect example of satire. It is using sarcasm to expose and discredit the folly of the Republican smear campaign to convince people that Obama is a Muslim and his wife hates America. I was surprised to hear the uproar over the cover.

It is hilarious, because it is so ludicrous to see what the Republicans are saying actually put down in art. To hear someone claim that Obama is a Muslim could be believable. To hear someone claim his wife is militantly anti-American could be believable. To see him fist bumping, oh sorry “terrorist fist jabbing”, his Black Panther wife while dressed in African garb as the American flag burns in the fireplace below the portrait of Osama bin Laden is just too far out. It should be obvious that when taken to this extreme the Republican claims are ridiculous and unbelievable.

Unfortunately there are apparently many many people who just don’t get it. It is inappropriate. It is not politically correct. It is racist. And so on these people claim. But there is also the real fear that somewhere someone is going to look at that and say “Yup, there’s that Muslim fella that wants to be runnin’ our fine Nation. Just look at that, can you believe he had a flag burning while they took his picture?”

moar funny pictures

So I am constantly amazed by what radio stations choose to censor or not. I really like Kid Rock’s summer hit All Summer Long, but was surprised when it played on our toned-down adult pop station. This is the same station that plays an edited version of Tom Petty’s You Don’t Know How It Feels. How do they say it is OK to play a song that references “smoking funny things” when they can’t play a song that references “roll another joint”? I personally don’t think they should censor either song, nor should they stop playing either song. It just seems weird to me that there doesn’t seem to be any consistency. But at least when they play Tom Petty they use a different version that changes the line to “hit another joint” instead of the butcher job they did on the video…

After driving in many States I have to admit I hate the way that New York decided to number the exits on its higways. For some background, New York numbers its highway exits sequentially (sort of, more on that in a bit) so for example exit 66 would be the next exit after exit 65 if travelling in one direction or after 67 when travelling in the opposite direction. Other states number their exits after the milepost the exit is located, so exit 66 would be at milepost 66 and the next exit might be exit 78 12 miles down the road at milepost 78.

Theoretically the sequential numbering of exits should work. However, in practice it is very frustrating. There is no standard distance between exits, so it is impossible to tell how long it will take you to go from exit 12 to exit 66. Actually you can’t even say it is 44 exits away, since the sequential numbering of exits is thrown of by such things as exit 33N and exit 33S, or worse 51A through 51D.

The naming of exits after the milepost location is the most logical way to do this. I would know if I entered at milepost 112 and I had to go to exit 342 that I had 230 miles to travel. More importanly though is that at any point in the trip I could look at the milepost marker and after a simple calculation know how much longer there was in the trip.

Real world example. I drove about 230 miles to exit 66 on Rt 17/86. I knew I had about a four hour drive without stops. However things like construction and stopping for a bathroom break delay the trip. So then when the girls ask how much longer until we get there I actually had no way to give a good estimate. I could estimate generally, but not very accurately. But if the exit was named based on the milepost I could know very accurately how far away we were and give a good estimate on the time to get there. But knowing we are 33 exits away is meaningless, especially when there are more than 33 exits between exit 33 and exit 66.

So hopefully New York will join the ranks of the logical and re-name the exits based on milepost location instead of some arbitrary number.

more graph humor and song chart memes

So I’ve been toying with the idea of learning how to ride a bicycle for a while now. To that end I picked up a nice bike from the folks over at Spoke Folk on Wednesday. I haven’t ridden a bicycle since I was a little kid, so I am pretty much learning from scratch. I spent a little bit of time practicing after mowing the lawn today and then probably for an hour after dinner. I think I am really close to figuring this whole thing out. Maybe Bella and I can learn together.

I don’t want to take the effort to open a Twitter account so I can Twitter about updating my blog and blog about updating my Twitter and Twitter about someone blogging about updating their Twitter and blog ad nauseum but wouldn’t it be fun?

So I haven’t jumped on the Twitter bandwagon. From what I have seen I am either too old or too young to be in the target demographic. Most of the people I know who use it are a couple of years older than me and they think it is pretty sweet. I just don’t see it. But I was watching the A Team the other day and I got to thinking, what would B A Baracus Tweet?

BA got up to work on his van 05:00 AM July 23, 1984

BA loves his van. It’s hella fast. 05:30 AM July 23, 1984

BA has breakfast with the kids. Reminds them to stay in school and listen to they Mamas. 07:00 AM July 23, 1984

BA spots Colonel Decker. Time to warn Hannibal and Faceman. 08:00 AM July 23, 1984

BA finds Faceman. Off to find Hannibal. 08:30 AM July 23, 1984

BA and Faceman find Hannibal. 08:45 AM July 23, 1984

BA, Faceman, and Hannibal outwit Decker. Time to break Murdoch out of the mental hospital. 09:30 AM July 23, 1984

BA don’t want to listen to that crazy fool Murdoch! 10:00 AM July 23, 1984

BA thinks Hannibal is on the Jazz. 10:15 AM July 23, 1984

BA gets ready for next assignment. 10:20 AM July 23, 1984

BA ain’t gettin’ on no plane! 10:25 AM July 23, 1984

BA AIN’T GETTIN’ ON NO PLANE!! 10:27 AM July 23, 1984

BA is waking up in South America. 03:00 PM July 23, 1984

BA is standing guard outside cantina. 03:30 PM July 23, 1984

BA hears Hannibal and Faceman getting beat up. 03:35 PM July 23, 1984

BA is throwing bad guys out the window, over the bar, and into tables. 03:36 PM July 23, 1984

BA is shaking his head. That Hannibal loves the jazz. 03:37 PM July 23, 1984

BA thinks that fool Murdoch is crazy! 03:38 PM July 23, 1984

BA is welding. 04:30 PM July 23, 1984

BA is locked in a room with the rest of the team. 05:00 PM July 23, 1984

BA is making a machine gun and flame thrower out of random bits and pieces he found in the room. 05:10 July 23, 1984

BA and team escape using homemade weaponry. 05:15 PM July 23, 1984

BA throws some more bad guys. 05:20 PM July 23, 1984

BA smiles when the head bad guy surrenders. 05:25 PM July 23, 1984

BA is ready to go home. 05:30 PM July 23, 1984

BA ain’t gettin’ on no plane! 05:45 PM July 23, 1984

BA AIN’T GETTIN’ ON NO PLANE!!! 05:46 PM July 23, 1984

BA wakes up in LA. 11:00 PM July 23, 1984