« Older Entries · Home · Newer Entries »

Principles, Shminciples

Bullet has a great post up on Left Brain/Right Brain about her son that reminded me of when I took Jared to the zoo with my par­ents. In just the same way that Tom can’t abide walk­ing around the park to the entrance, Jared used to hate back-​tracking.

We were at the National Zoo wan­der­ing around with my par­ents and Sierra up ahead, while Kellie and I wres­tled Jared along. We came to a fork in the path, and my par­ents went right, so we fol­lowed. Then, they real­ized that the right fork led back around to where we had just been, so they turned around and headed back to the left fork.

Jared was not pleased.

He fell to the ground, tears flow­ing and scream­ing his lungs out, and Kellie and I real­ized that all we could do was keep going around until we got back to where we could get back to the path that would take us to my par­ents. When we caught up, Jared had stopped crying, but we real­ized that the left fork dead-​ended and we’d have to turn around. I saw that there was a little round flower box in the center of the path­way, so Jared and I walked around it 4 times and headed back the way we had come. Crisis averted.

Because Jared has learned to do so much since then, it’s easy to forget how much he hates sit­u­a­tions like that. Part of it is that he can now tol­er­ate phys­i­cally going the wrong way, but Jared still hates doing things the wrong way. Miss­ing out on an appoint­ment? Not an option. Skip­ping a stop in our rou­tine? Oh no.

So Jared brought home a flyer from the Cub Scouts the other day and said that he wanted to join. We didn’t know if he was seri­ous about it though, and we had our rea­sons not to get involved, so we held off on calling.

Why wouldn’t we want Jared in scout­ing? Well, partly because it’s dif­fi­cult for Jared to par­tic­i­pate in unstruc­tured activ­i­ties. Jared can’t go with the flow. He has to know what the plan is, in order to manage his anx­i­eties. He has to talk through the things that we’re going to do, and then they have to go accord­ing to plan. And expect­ing a group of other kids to stick to a plan is impossible.

The other reason is that the Boy Scouts of Amer­ica doesn’t like people like me. Athe­ists and their kids are not allowed to par­tic­i­pate in scout­ing. In addi­tion, gay men are barred from being scout lead­ers. And that kind of intol­er­ance isn’t some­thing that our family wants to sup­port. Of course, it’s the national orga­ni­za­tion that lays out those rules, and I’m sure that there are many local groups that use their own judge­ment, but the Bal­ti­more BSA has an Inter-​Faith Rela­tion­ships Coun­cil for a reason: pro­mot­ing under­stand­ing and coop­er­a­tion between the dif­fer­ent reli­gious faiths by cre­at­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties for inter­faith dia­logue and advo­cacy. Not some­thing I’m really excited about get­ting Jared into.

I know that Jared doesn’t under­stand reli­gion at this point, but he also doesn’t under­stand the con­cept that people have dif­fer­ent opin­ions. Thanks to some games at the Arthur web­site, he’s start­ing to learn the dif­fer­ence between facts and opin­ions, but that’s a con­cept he only under­stands intel­lec­tu­ally. To Jared there are only absolute truths.

What’s more, if some­body at Boy Scouts tells him about their god or that he has to go to church, Jared will believe it. And if their god hap­pens to be Cthulhu, I’ll have to take Jared to where he can wor­ship the great old ones. Oth­er­wise we won’t be doing things the right way, and we can’t have that.

Which brings us back to Tues­day night. Evi­dently, the help­ful people at Jared’s school had put out a notice in the morning’s announce­ments that the first Cub Scout meet­ing was Tues­day night, and Jared had decided that he was going to be a Cub Scout: he was in first grade, after all.

But we hadn’t made up our minds about what to do, and that didn’t fly with Jared. He spent an hour or so scream­ing and crying that he was miss­ing the meet­ing at 7, and every time we got him calmed down, he would look at the clock and start crying again. By the next morn­ing, he had accepted what we told him: that Tuesday’s meet­ing was an ori­en­ta­tion for par­ents (not exactly, strictly speak­ing, true), but he still told the bus driver that he missed the Cub Scout meet­ing as he got on the bus.

So I guess Jared is going to be a Cub Scout. I don’t like their poli­cies, and it’s going to be hell to keep Jared calm and focused at meet­ings, but I’m out of options. The school is going to keep announc­ing meet­ings, and Jared is going to expect to attend them.

Because it’s the right thing to do.

September 13th, 2007 · Category: Autism, Family, Politics, Religion · Tags: , , , , , · 4 Comments »

Comics Addiction Going Strong

Last year I wrote about how Marvel’s Civil War cross-​over event was suck­ing me back into read­ing comics. And it totally worked. I’m on a first name basis with the guys at the local comic shop, I have two long boxes that are nearly full of comics, and I’m sub­scribed to the fol­low­ing titles:

And that’s just the stuff that I get every time it comes out - there are other things that I pick up on an irreg­u­lar basis. Not to men­tion the col­lec­tions of back issues (trade paper­backs - TPBs) that I get in order to get caught up on all of the things I’ve missed. Luck­ily, some of those are lim­ited runs, and many come out bi-​monthly. But it’s still a lot.

The sad thing is that there are a lot of great comics I’m miss­ing out on. I should really be read­ing Pun­isher now that I know that it’s being writ­ten by Garth Ennis. I missed out on Pun­isher: Bar­racuda Max, and now I have to wait for the TBP.

There are even things on the list that I don’t even like: Jus­tice League is really well writ­ten, but I just don’t know enough about the DC uni­verse to under­stand what’s going on. All-​Star Super­man is  great, but it’s not so much a con­tin­u­ing series as a bunch of sto­ries that I appre­ci­ate with­out enjoy­ing. I keep hoping that I’ll start to like it, but at three bucks an issue, I don’t think I can wait around much longer.

So what ter­ri­ble wallet-​emptying addic­tions do you have?

September 12th, 2007 · Category: Books · Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , · Comments Off

My Boring Desktop

This is the desk­top on my Mac­Book - pretty boring. I like to keep every­thing off the desk­top, so I keep the icons huge. Things get clut­tered quickly, so I end up drag­ging every­thing into folders.

The back­ground is from a T-Shirt design on thread​less.com called “Bad Reception” by Blair Sayer that I screwed around with. Notice I didn’t say improved.

Most of the Mac stuff is pretty basic - I didn’t spend all that money on a Mac to mess it up with a bunch of crap.

September 11th, 2007 · Category: Site Stuff · Tags: , , , · 6 Comments »

I don’t have time for addictions

Can’t play this, but by all accounts Blox­orz is addictive.

Via Kottke.

September 10th, 2007 · Category: Games, Web Sites · Tags: , , · 24 Comments »

That’s not what I remember

It’s odd, but accord­ing to the UFC, Cecil was the judge that scored the bout for Matt Hamill. Huh? How did I and every­one else watch­ing get the wrong impres­sion? I really wish I would have TiVo’d the show last night.

September 9th, 2007 · Category: Sports · Tags: · 3 Comments »

UFC 75 Wrap-up

Well, my picks weren’t nearly as good as last time, mostly because I under­es­ti­mated both French fight­ers and refused to pick another fighter because he’s so annoy­ing. Let’s run it down:

Quin­ton Jack­son vs. Dan Henderson

My pre­dic­tion: Ram­page: bigger, meaner, and better than ever.

Actual result: Ram­page by deci­sion in 5 rounds.

This was a pretty even match, both in terms of abil­ity and style. Both fight­ers were duck­ing and throw­ing over­hand rights, both fight­ers did most of their strik­ing in brief flur­ries, and both men took turns taking each other to the canvas and work­ing from side con­trol. But Ram­page was more dom­i­nant every round except the first, and was obvi­ously better con­di­tioned - no mean feat for the larger fighter.

Marcus Davis vs. Paul Taylor

My pre­dic­tion: Davis wins it because we’re sure he’s actu­ally a fighter.

Actual result: Davis wins by sub­mis­sion in the first round.

I didn’t have a lot of respect for Taylor going into the fight, call­ing him “The Busboy” during the fighter inter­views, but he was right about one thing: he has a hell of a high kick that nearly ended the fight early. But Davis proved me right by stay­ing com­posed while taking some severe pun­ish­ment and pulling out an armbar for the win.

Mirko Filipović vs. Cheick Kongo

My pre­dic­tion: Cro Cop wins by tap out in the first 5 seconds.

Actual result: Kongo by deci­sion in 3 rounds.

It seems that Kongo has been work­ing out in Big Bear with Ram­page and his trainer Juanito Ibarra. I wasn’t aware that Kongo had devel­oped beyond the one-​dimensional kick-​boxer that we’d seen in the past. He came in with a great game-​plan, back­ing up Mirko and keep­ing him on the defen­sive, and looked rel­a­tively com­fort­able on the ground. I think Mirko may be head­ing back to law enforce­ment after these last two defeats.

Michael Bisp­ing vs. Matt Hamill

My pre­dic­tion: Bisp­ing wins because this isn’t a wrestling match.

Actual result: Bisp­ing eeks out a split deci­sion because two of the judges had dif­fi­culty seeing the match with their heads so far up their asses.

I liked Hamill on The Ulti­mate Fighter 3, but found him to be entirely one-​dimensional. Last night he showed that he’s fig­ured out how to turn his explo­sive wrestling shot into a lung­ing punch and worked well in the clinch. He spent the entire match chas­ing Bisp­ing down and turn­ing his face into a lumpy mess. But I guess in London they follow the Pride rules where unless the local fighter is com­pletely knocked out, he wins the deci­sion. Disappointing.

Fight­linker comes up with the best quote:

You’d think [Judge Cecil] Peo­ples would have been sym­pa­thetic to Hamill because they both have dis­abil­i­ties. Hamill of course is deaf, but not many seem to know that Peo­ples is blind.

Hous­ton Alexan­der vs. Alessio Sakara

My pre­dic­tion: If I had to put down money on this fight, I’d bet that Alexan­der wins, but he keeps open­ing his mouth. Sakara just because if he bab­bles a bunch of bull­shit, it’ll prob­a­bly be in Ital­ian and I won’t have to care.

Actual result: Alexan­der knocks Sakara out in the first round.

Alexan­der proved him­self to be just as dom­i­nant as he was in his win over Keith Jar­dine, but also proved that he’s still just as annoy­ing, announc­ing to the London croud that “Nebraska is in the building,” leav­ing many con­fused about which tube sta­tion they had arrived at. I guess I’ll call this a missed pre­dic­tion for me, since I wanted so badly for Alexan­der to lose, but I still want him to have lost.

I can’t find the pre­lim­i­nary bouts on the inter­net yet, so there will be no snappy com­men­tary for the rest of these fights.

Terry Etim vs. Glei­son Tibau

My pre­dic­tion: Tibau because some­body cared enough to make him a Wikipedia entry.

Actual result: Tibau by unan­i­mous decision.

Anthony Torres vs. Jess Liaudin

My pre­dic­tion: Torres because while he’s Chamorro, Span­ish and Irish, he isn’t French.

Actual result: Liaudin by TKO in the first round.

Thiago Silva vs. Tomasz Drwal

My pre­dic­tion: Silva will knock him out.

Actual result: Silva by TKO in the second round.

Dennis Siver vs. Naoyuki Kotani

My pre­dic­tion: Siver by decision.

Actual result: Siver by KO in round two.

So that’s 6 right and 3 wrong, though one of the fights I got wrong I knew I would get wrong, and one of the fights I got right was won by crap judg­ing and home court advan­tage, so I feel okay about my results. Ulti­mate Fight Night is in 10 days, so I can get my aver­age back up then if I start doing my extremely thor­ough research now. Step one: com­pare nicknames..

On a sep­a­rate note, watch­ing the UFC for free: awe­some. Watch­ing the UFC tape-​delayed with com­mer­cials: crap. So, another night of awe­some crap, but at least it didn’t cost me 40 bucks.

September 9th, 2007 · Category: Sports, TV · Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , · 2 Comments »

Drew Carey’s Secret Past

Well, it’s not really a secret since he talks about it on TV, but Drew Carey was once in the Marine Corps. No, really. For six years. So the ques­tion that comes to mind is WHAT? That guy? With that gut? REALLY?

Luck­ily, Wikipedia comes to the rescue: Drew Carey in the Marine Corp.

Check that out. Not the most hand­some guy in the world, but still! That guy needs to go back to run­ning 6 miles a day singing jodies about blood making the grass grow!

September 7th, 2007 · Category: TV · Tags: , , · Comments Off

UFC 75 Predictions: Picks vs. Picks

So I’m sure you’ll all be tuning in to Spike TV’s free broad­cast of UFC 75: Cham­pion vs Cham­pion this Sat­ur­day at 9pm, if for no other reason than so that you can watch as all of my fight pre­dic­tions are proven wrong. Oh sure, I’m no fight expert, and I’m cer­tainly not a fighter myself, and maybe, just maybe, it’s true that I’m not even sure who all of the fight­ers are, but that’s not going to stop me from flaunt­ing my inex­pe­ri­ence. So once again, it’s time for my incred­i­bly super­fi­cial fight picks!

Quin­ton Jack­son vs. Dan Henderson

Quin­ton “Rampage” Jack­son recently came over to the UFC from the now-​defunct Pride Fight­ing Cham­pi­onships where he spent years as a good, but not great, mid­dleweight fighter before enter­ing the UFC where he faced Chuck Lid­dell for the light heavy­weight belt, knock­ing him out in the first round. He has a back­ground in wrestling, but has improved his strik­ing game with a great right hand.

Dan “Hollywood” Hen­der­son recently came over to the UFC from the now-​defunct Pride Fight­ing Cham­pi­onships where he spent years as a good, but not great, mid­dleweight fighter before enter­ing the Pride Bushido Wel­ter­weight Grand Prix where he faced Murilo Bus­ta­mante for the wel­ter­weight belt, win­ning by split deci­sion. He has a back­ground in wrestling, but has improved his strik­ing game with a great right hand.

Who wins it? Ram­page: bigger, meaner, and better than ever. Plus he wears a big chain to the ring - how does a guy nick­named Hol­ly­wood com­pete with that?

Marcus Davis vs. Paul Taylor

Marcus “The Irish Hand Grenade” Davis has been forced by the UFC to change his nick­name to “The Celtic Warrior” for this fight because it’s being held in London. Paul Taylor is fight­ing because he’s from Wal­sall, Eng­land, and the UFC is hoping to draw more Eng­lish fans. Davis wins it because we’re sure he’s actu­ally a fighter.

Mirko Filipović vs. Cheick Kongo

Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipović is the most feared striker in MMA. So feared, in fact, that when he nick­named his right leg “Hospital” and his left leg “Cemetery,” nobody laughed. Even so, he’s had a pretty up-​and-​down career with some losses that just don’t belong there, includ­ing his recent loss to Gabriel “Napao (trans­la­tion: I can’t fight because that old man busted up my big nose so badly that the blood in my eyes is making me cry)” Gon­zaga. Cheick “The French Sensation” Kongo is French. Cro Cop wins by tap out in the first 5 seconds.

Michael Bisp­ing vs. Matt Hamill

Michael “The Count” Bisp­ing is big with pre­cise strik­ing and excel­lent sub­mis­sion defense. He was unde­feated on his season of The Ulti­mate Fighter, and has been impres­sive since. Matt “The Hammer” Hamill is an amaz­ing wrestler who “happens to be deaf.” But he’s one dimen­sional: he takes oppo­nents down and hopes that they twist some­thing on the way to the canvas. His strik­ing looks like everybody’s drunk uncle boxing with a pinata at a REALLY good birth­day party. Bisp­ing wins because this isn’t a wrestling match.

Hous­ton Alexan­der vs. Alessio Sakara

Hous­ton “The Assassin” Alexan­der made an impres­sive debut knock­ing out Keith Jar­dine so pow­er­fully that even Jardine’s ene­mies felt bad for him. Alessio “Legionarius” Sakara is an Ital­ian that nobody has really ever heard of. If I had to put down money on this fight, I’d bet that Alexan­der wins, but he keeps open­ing his mouth. Strikes against him: he claims to have won “hundreds” of under­ground fights, his spon­sor is “8-ball Nutrition” and he was scream­ing “Nebraska” over and over after his last fight. Pre­dic­tion: Sakara just because if he bab­bles a bunch of bull­shit, it’ll prob­a­bly be in Ital­ian and I won’t have to care.

Terry Etim vs. Glei­son Tibau

Glei­son Tibau is a Brazil­ian Brazil­ian Jiu-​Jitsu fighter who trains with Amer­i­can Top Team. Terry Etim is another guy with freaky abs that last fought in UFC 70, in Man­ches­ter. I guess he’s another Brit that they’re going to keep bring­ing to every event in the UK. Tibau because some­body cared enough to make him a Wikipedia entry.

Anthony Torres vs. Jess Liaudin

Anthony “The Crush” Torres washed out of the second season of The Ulti­mate Fighter. Jess “Joker” Liaudin is French. Are they trying to make this event easy for gam­blers? Torres because while he’s Chamorro, Span­ish and Irish, he isn’t French.

Thiago Silva vs. Tomasz Drwal

Thiago “Anderson Ramos Da” Silva is… wait, that’s not a nick­name! That’s just his long-​ass name! It’s a good thing that Silva has the Chute Box Muay Thai expe­ri­ence to back up all those names. Tomasz “Gorilla” Drwal is polish, as anyone who noticed the dis­tinct paucity of vowels in his name can tell. I’m sure there’s a “How many pol­lacks does it take to knock out a Chute Box fighter?” joke in this some­where, but it doesn’t matter. Silva will knock him out.

Dennis Siver vs. Naoyuki Kotani

Who? I don’t know any­thing about these guys. Well, I know that Siver is German. And Kotani is Japan­ese and fights for “Rodeo Style.” I guess in this battle of former Axis allies, who­ever doesn’t fight for “Rodeo Style” wins. Siver by decision.

So those are my picks. While I was 8 for 8 last time, I would encour­age you not to take my advice too seri­ously, since I have no idea what I’m talk­ing about.

September 6th, 2007 · Category: Games, Sports · Tags: , , , , , , , , , · 2 Comments »

All My Add-ons

It’s time for another of my semi-​quinquennial posts where I list every Fire­fox add-​on I use, not so much to enlighten you, but so that I have a link to them for the next time I need to install them on another com­puter. Your indul­gence is appre­ci­ated:

That’s just about every­thing I use, though some of these prob­a­bly need to be culled from the list soon. Some are only there for test­ing, like Tab­bable Tool­bars, and others are only used occa­sion­ally like Tamper Data. One I left off the list is my own Auto Zoom Grease­mon­key script which I put together for low vision users and isn’t much use to me yet.

So what am I missing?

September 4th, 2007 · Category: Site Stuff, Technology · Tags: , , · 7 Comments »

No Wonder I’m Not Making any Money

I’m get­ting a little ticked at Google. In the hopes of scrap­ing together some cash for some essen­tials, I’ve got a few ads on this site. And in order to increase the effec­tive­ness of Google’s ad tar­get­ing script, I placed little hidden com­ment tags to empha­size the parts of the site that have the con­tent. But half the pages on my site seem to be adver­tis­ing RSS feed read­ers or ancient Chi­nese dynas­ties. Seriously.

I know it’s just a stupid per­sonal site, Google, but help me out here! Give me the good ads! Tell me what to write about, and I’ll do it!

You want arti­cles about mesothe­lioma? I can do that. Real estate lawyers? I can do that. Pre­scrip­tion drugs at bar­gain base­ment prices? Done. Just say the word and this blog can be what­ever you want it to be!

But ancient Chi­nese dynas­ties? How are those people even buying ads?

September 3rd, 2007 · Category: Site Stuff, Web Sites · Tags: , , , · 3 Comments »

« Older Entries · Home · Newer Entries »