We have a plague of flies in our office. It is not quite to the ‘Biblical proportions’ stage yet but we are keeping a close eye on developments. They’re these sort of mutant oversized houseflies. Big, loud and stupid. Stupid even compared to regular bugs. A normal housefly will move if you swat at it. These ones sit on whatever surface they’ve picked and sort of mosey around and don’t do much to get out of the way. I’m starting to wonder if we have some kind of radiation source within our building that is forcing the growth of these items. They would be more accurately called ‘apartmentbuildingflies’ or possibly ‘residentialdevelopmentintheformofsubdivisionflies.’ Basically they are far too large to be considered mere houseflies.
We celebrated Amy’s dad’s birthday yesterday and as I was helping him learn to use his new iPod, Amy’s mum got out a box of old family photos. Old meaning as far back as the early 1900’s. We looked at them and remarked on how ugly some of her ancestors are. She had a lot to overcome, I must say. Her brother observed that several of them appeared to have been beaten with an ugly stick. Quite frequently and from an early age, it seems. One of her great-grandmothers (or possibly great-great-grandmothers, I wasn’t too sure how far back this was) had a face like an artillery piece. She looked like the kind of thing one might point at an enemy and light a fuse. Another forebear had a face that I’m convinced could sink a thousand ships. I’m not for a moment suggesting that I have any kind of superior stock in my gene pool. I just haven’t looked at pictures of them for a long time and so I think absence has blunted my memory.
Here are a couple things I’ve read lately that I thought were kind of neat:
- Remember the Milk – This is a handy to-do list site that apparently ties into one’s iPhone or other cell phone. I don’t have either of those so I just use it online to prompt my memory (notoriously porous)
- I am presently considering the Zune HD as my next portable media device if/when my 2nd gen iPod nano bites the dust. I am concerned about being stuck with the Zune software, though (I’ve tried it and it’s not great. Huge resource hog and not really even very good at playing music on a PC). I will wait for further reviews but it certainly is nice looking.
- Tim Ferriss (of whom I have never heard before) has posted an article on Speed Reading with a relatively easy how-to. I am thinking about giving this a shot over the next couple of weeks and we’ll see what develops.