It’s my birthday today! “Happy Birthday to you! Thank you for being born, you make this world a better place. :)” —twitter from a friend Well, thank you, thank you. I can’t claim all the credit for being born—my mom pushed too. 🙂 Which reminds me of a story… [A birthday story after the jump.]
From Chris Kelly’s article on Huffington Post: One good thing about Hillary proclaiming her right to a four-day national non-concession? We’ll never have to wonder what it would have been like if she’d been elected and that phone in the White House had rung at three AM. THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES Hello? KIM […]
As I mentioned before, everyone in my family but me is an expert at statistics. It’s hard to explain… When my brother was angry that O.J. got away with it, my dad calmed him down by pointing out that in was a natural consequence of our legal system minimizing Type II error. When my mom […]
The child on the bus has just entered the quizzical-pointing phase. Child: “Why are we stopped? Where is the bus driver, mommy?” Mom: “Oh! I think she just stepped out to go the bathroom.” *laughs* Child: “Why? She’s a big person and she’s wearing underwear.” And I think to myself, How thoroughly practical—that kid will […]
A friend broke the news that he has a second child on the way. I was like, “Already? Must be the Irish Catholic in you!” It occurs to me that now his first born has entered ankle-biting school. And maybe some of you have kids. How are you to know your child has a future […]
Someone noticed today my random use of Latin. And it got me thinking about translations, mostly because English is the only (non-programming) language I know. [The Stranger and Latin maxims after the jump.]
Overheard over dinner. Girl: “I’d like to order some expensive beer but I can’t finish it.” Boy: “Don’t worry, honey, I’ll chug this equally expensive beer and help you with yours later.” Now that’s love right there.
I’m preparing a list of things to do tomorrow, when it occurs to me: I wonder if Larry or Sergei ever have to fix their family members’ computers? If so, that’s got to be the World’s Most Expensive Tech Support. I wonder how many six(or more)-figure-salary software engineers weekend as the family Geek Squad?
(I am sitting in a presentation on a web framework in our office conference room given by a former employee who is now a consultant. One of my engineers asks the consultant to give an example from experience where he had to modify the framework code itself.) R—: “Yeah, that happened to me, you know […]
“The front office is to your back that way and to your left,” someone says. The delivery man walks a bit, gets confused, and looks at me across the floor, “Which way from here?” he points. “It’s right of that.” I shout back. He points in another direction, “That way?” “No. Bisect the angle you […]