It’s someone’s birthday today, and even though I shouldn’t draw attention to it, I can’t help it. I won’t mention her name, but I will say that she lives in the same house as me. In fact, she has the same number of children as me. It’s even the same child. If people were to wish her a happy birthday, I’m sure she wouldn’t be too upset, but don’t ask her how old she is - that’s impolite. Especially on a milestone birthday like this one.

Simpson’s quote of the day: “Marge, with todays gasoline prices, how can you afford not to buy a pony?!” - Homer

I forgot to pack a fork with my lunch today. Luckily I managed to find a plastic fork, because eating lasange with your hands can get messy. I know - I’ve seen it.

Simpson’s quote of the day: “All right, all right, you win, heh. I see you’ve played Knifey-Spooney before.” - Australian man

William was awake this morning when I left for work, and he really wanted to come with me. He has shown that he enjoys my company in the past, but never to the exclusion of his mother’s company. He wouldn’t let her comfort him, and he kept reaching for me. It was touching, and sad at the same time, since he was crying his little blue eyes out.

He probably will have completely forgotten about it by the time I get home tonight though.

We went swimming on the weekend, which was good. The only downside is that I didn’t bring a book, and the library wasn’t open yet when we got out of the pool. William wanted to nurse, so he and Erin were busy, while I sat on a bench and watched the world go by.

I spent some time playing flash games over the weekend, and thought I’d pass this one along - Disinfect the Core. It’s a neat little game, I lost the first time I played, but have managed to beat the computer every time since. I think it would be a good two+ player game. The object is to eliminate your opponent’s color. When you click on one of your pieces, it rotates to the right, which connects it to a different set of pieces, which you then take over. It’s a lot easier to play than explain though.

Simpson’s quote of the day: “Manimals, invertabroads. You must fight back against the one who did this to you!” - Homer

This list of 100 movies that deserve more love, seems pretty interesting. The ones I’ve seen are pretty good movies (with the exception of “Kiss of the Dragon” which I thought sucked.) I might have to check some of the other ones out.

Simpson’s quote of the day: “At the risk of being unpopular, this reporter places the blame on you the viewers.” - Kent Brockman

I’ve always held a fascination with magnets. I can still remember watching my dad use his magnetic ring and magnetic bugs to great effect, flies coming out of a glass or whatever.

There were (maybe still are) always ads in comic books for various gag toys - X-ray specs, footlockers of army men, etc. The one that always drew my attention was the one hawking 1000 magnets. I’d love to have an army of tiny magnets at my command. So, you can see that I’d probably enjoy something like
Magnetoids (link via Boingboing) They look like fun.

On a somewhat related topic, something that bothers me, is when a product is sold as “magnetic” when the end product is something that it’s something you can stick magnets to, but doesn’t have a strong magnetic field of it’s own. My fridge wasn’t advertised as magnetic, but I can stick magnets to it. I can’t put a coin on it and have it stick there though - at least not without a magnet attached to the fridge too…That’s not to say that these products are useless, but “magnetic paint” doesn’t actually mean you’re painting a magnet on your wall - you’re painting with a paint that’s full of metals that are attracted to magnets.

I’ll fully admit that my magnetic theory is one of those pieces of information that I no longer retain. Maybe it’s possible to magnetize “magnetic paint.” I don’t think you’d want to, but still, it might be possible. It’d be cool trying to get the paint out of the can, and keep it from sticking to the metal bits on the brush. It’d make the studs stand out, but a magnetic stud detector completely useless.

Simpson’s quote of the day: “As you can see, I have created a lemon ball so sour it can only be safely contained in a magnetic field. The candy, known as 77X42… Bwei… Where the hell is the candy?” - Professor Frink

I’ve previously resisted any urge to come up with a slogan, or tagline for this website, but over the last couple of days, I came up with that one. What does it mean? Basically I think it’s my philosophy on life. Maybe.

Deep down, I think I have an addictive personality. I find it really easy to become absorbed by something, to the point where I’ll temporarily become so knowledgeable about a topic that 95% of the world would have to come to me for advice. The key though, is that it’s 95%, and not 99%, 99.9% or 99.9999% or whatever. I’ll become a sort-of expert, or sort-of devotee, or whatever, and then lose interest, or back off because the fanaticism starts to impinge on other aspects of life. The internet is a terrible place for people like me. I can have an obsession, and literally find enough information to keep me reading for months. Once I’m done with my fanatacism though, my interest level drops out the bottom, and I either become very out-dated in my knowledge, or just no longer care.

I know this about myself, so I try to keep it in check. I don’t let my obsessions consume me, because I recognize that they very easily could. It’s a delicate balancing act at times. I think more than anything though, I’m addicted to information, and not necessarily what the information is about. Does that make any sense? The thrill of learning which piece of software will do a particular job better than all others, and being able to coherently explain it’s advantages is more important to me than what the software actually does. The power of being able to find the best digital camera for $X is like my anti-drug. Once I’ve done it though, I let the world pass me by. I’m a short term fanatic.

The reason that I mention all of this though, is that the world is full of long-term fanatics. People who find their niche, and happily sit in it until the end of time. There’s probably a guy out there who could tell you the history of digital cameras, and which one was the “best buy” in any given price range for any given time frame over the past 10 years. Not me - I had that information in my head for about a 1 month period. When I was done with my digital camera obsession, I quietly moved on to the next obsession, taking my kickass digital camera with me (for the record, it still takes great pictures when compared to a lot of newer digital cameras with higher resolutions.) I don’t feel the need to stay on the bleeding edge. I get there once, and then slowly let the world pass me by.

The last “new” desktop computer that I bought was top of the line. It cost me something like $4500 at a time when Erin and I were bringing home $12-18000 a year between us. Looking back on it, it was a stupid investment - I should have spent less and got an older computer. At the same time, that very same piece of 10 year old hardware is serving this webpage up to you. I will probably use it until the proverbial wheels fall off of it.

I’ve got memberships on message boards all around the world, each with a dozen or two posts. There are people on them that have literally thousands of posts on the same message boards. The topics are diverse, and when I go back to check on any particular one, I see the same people hanging out there, telling the same stories to a different batch of newcomers. To me, that’s boring, so I move on.

See, today, I was addicted to rambling with no apparent purpose or focus.

Simpson’s quote of the day:
Bart: “So, what’s it like being famous, dad?”
Homer: “People know your name, but you don’t know theirs. It’s great.”

I got to watch both Canadiens’ games on the weekend, which was good. Moreso because they came away with three out of four points, which brings them into a tie for 6th. They’re one point away from clinching a playoff berth, with 6 games to play, which is to say that they’re virtually assured of a trip to the post season - especially with how they’re playing lately.

The interesting thing is that suddenly the Oilers are winning, and are actually in a playoff position right now. That means that all six Canadian teams are in the playoffs at this very moment. The Oilers are on the bubble - they have to keep winning - but the other 5 are virtually guaranteed a spot. I don’t honestly remember the last time 6 Canadian teams were in the playoffs, but I have to believe it was before Winnipeg and Quebec moved to Phoenix and Colorado respectively. The truly interesting thing is that as of right now, the only Canadian teams would wind up playing another Canadian team in the first round are Toronto/Ottawa. This could mean that 5 will advance, or only 1 will. It’s an interesting situation at any rate.

The real rant here though, is on the overtime loss point. Going into the playoffs, a team like Boston, with 7 overtime losses, and 14 ties (14!!!) would have home ice advantage over the leafs, who have 4 more wins than them. The league rewards ties far too much, and the end result is that there are a lot of ties (look at the West, where only Calgary and Columbus have less than 10 ties.) That leads to less excitement in the late stages of a tie game, as both teams lock down defensively, and take few chances offensively, just to ensure the single point from making it to OT. There’s talk of going to a three point game system (wins worth 3, ties/OT Losses 1, OT wins 2(?)) To a certain extent it makes more sense than what they’re doing now, and it should result in more games being decided in regulation time. The only problem I have with it is that it changes the mark of excellence. They’ve already changed it enough with the OT Loss point - there are lots of teams out there who have never hit the 100 point mark without the OT Loss points (I’m lookin’ at you Toronto) and it would be nice to see some of that history preserved. At the same time, the 82 game schedule, and 30 team league is quite different than the 18-60 game schedule they played “back in the day.” (for some definition of “the day”)

Simpson’s quote of the day: “I think we got our umbrellas switched.” - Grandpa Simpson