wayner

There’s something about this house and birds. That’s all there is to it.

I had not one, but two little “encounters” with an avian that were unusual. And I had two more this weekend.

First on Saturday, just when Stewart was leaving, he came back to the door and said

Wayne, you gotta see this!

There was a pigeon sitting on my car. And it wouldn’t move. Stu snapped his fingers at it at an attempt to scare it off but it just sat there.

So, of course, I snapped a few pictures of it.

After Stewart left I had to go to the Home Depot (to spend yet even more money…) and the avian was still sitting on the car.

I got in the car and started it up and not even a look of concern from the bird. I moved the car slightly and I think it might have flinched a little bit but still no going anywhere.

Stu thought it might have been looking at it’s reflection in the window thinking it was another bird. So I backed the car out of the driveway and parked on the street in a different direction in the sun.

This got a reaction. The pigeon seemed a little surprise as to where the other bird had disappeared. But decided to wait around to see if he came back.

I didn’t have time for that and I didn’t want it to get hurt if I just drove off, so I finally got out and scared the thing away. I was hoping I could have avoided being so direct but the guy didn’t leave me much choice.

Now, today I heard chirping of finches while I was sitting in my chair and suddenly one slammed into the patio door.

Magic was sitting on the arm with me and immediately leaped over to the door and started stalking the little birdy. The little guy must have been dazed (and who wouldn’t be?) cause he just sat on the patio for about 5 min’s or so (all the while Magic was running back and forth between different windows trying to launch the best attack). But in due time (and to Magic’s disappointment) he finally flew away.

I have gone 30 years without anything like this happening before and now I have at least 4 incidents in less then as many months.

You know what this means???

They’re all crazy with West Nile! We’re all going to die!!!!

Have you seen the new pictures of Firefox 2.0 default theme?

Pretty sweet, no?

Turns out, I know the guy who’s doing the pixel pushing for it.

Now, I think this is a pretty big deal. Millions of people are going to see his work and not just once. ‘Cause really, who’s a big enough geek to bother changing the default theme in Firefox? Losers. That’s who.

Sean will, in some form, be a internet celebrity. Unfortunately that and pocket lint gets you Xeni and not much more. But hey, celebrity is celebrity!

Also, this is open source software. Do you even realise what that means? Open Source weenies will descend upon his designs like a biblical plague. Self-styled myspace “webmasters” will decry his use of colour-theory and second semester Art Appreciation students will present B- papers on:

It will be vicious. Make no mistake, when Nerds strike from their parents basement in Wyoming – they take no prisoners!

Therefore, to help my brethren I supply this first-strike of a photo. May it serve you well in your juvenile photoshopping!

I found out today about a woman who works in our little translation department who died of cancer last night.

Their group doesn’t call on us that regularly but often enough to get acquainted with them easily. From what I’ve heard, she went to the doctor 2 months ago who confirmed that she had the disease and that’s how quickly it took her.

I’m not sure how old she was, but I think I’m closer to her age then I am away from it.

That’s scary.

It’s like some magical boundry has been crossed and demons & monsters lay in wait behind everything. Her cancer wasn’t some strange abberation like when you were young and it would happen to a 12 year old on the news. Something that you could say “Hey, that couldn’t happen to me“. No, this is the thing that makes you take note that this journey’s destination leads you into the shadow of the valley of death.

And at the moment, I fear evil.

I saw a cute little blond girl on the bus to work this morning. But there was something different about her chin.

Under her chin on the left and right sides there was stubble. Like she had shaved it!

In theory there should be nothing wrong with a women with facial hair…. only in practice it’s socially undesirable. Very.

I’m not sure if HealthCare covers laser hair removal, but if I had anything to do with it, this chick would get a free ride. She was far too young to have to worry about anything like that.

I frequently change my brand of toothpaste. Virtually every time I buy a tube of the stuff I’m stuck for about 15 minutes in front of the isle determining the various features of each.

And without fail I’m left to wonder: why?

What have so many different versions to begin with. You have your “toothpaste”, but then you have whitening toothpaste. And tarter control and GOD ONLY KNOWS WHAT!

Why not place these various “features” into one damn tube and sell that. I’ll give you your different flavors, but why one would want anything other then “mint” perplexes me.

Recently I’ve been kinda loyal to one brand, Colgate Luminous. I liked this cause it’s suppose to “strengthen enamel” on the teeth and it has a nice mint freshness to it. But it’s damn hard to find in stores.

On my last trip I couldn’t find it and stumbled across Arm & Hammer’s entry into the market: “Enamel Care: Natural Whitening with Baking Soda.” It claims to use Liquid Calcium^TM! And that’s what scares me. Liquid Calcium^TM, it’s not actual liquid calcium but a product name so God only knows what it actually does. Hell, real liquid calcium could possibly be lethal for all I know.

But this is where the marketing comes in. The box makes me feel more confident in this. I look at the pretty little “artist renderings” on how my teeth will be whiter, brighter, stronger and make Julien frys and I say “Woo hoo!”.

The only downside is that it tastes slightly like medicine and I’m convinced that if I accidently swallow some of it I’m going to get kidney stones.

But I finally got my toothpaste that has everything. I’m just afraid that in the end, it might kill me.

Schrödinger’s Cat is essentially a thought game that basically states that something could be either yes or no until it is tested. It’s a little more complicated then that, but I really don’t have that good of a grasp on it to try and explain it further.

Think back to high school, before you asked that person (you know, the one you never got up the nerve to ask, everyone has that person) out they could either say yes or no. Before you look for a better job there might be one out there. Before you do anything that you really want, it might be.

Or it might not.

And sometimes, the possibility is what’s important. Some people would rather live with the fact that it’s possible then the ugly truth. The fact that it could be is worth that much more then knowing it’s not. Prolonging the chance as much as possible.

I think that’s incredibly interesting. I just don’t know why I was thinking about poor man’s probability theory while watching The Seven Samurai tonight.

“Best be silent and thought the fool, then to open your mouth and remove all doubt.”
Is that a Schrödinger’s Cat reference?