Saturday, 11 April 2009
Card trick: the marked pack
Wherever card games are played you are likely to find a pack of Bicycle League cards in use. If the game is Bridge most of the modern Bridge packs are one-way designs. Noticing this to be the case you remark that most packs of cards are secretly marked by the manufacturer and, while talking along this line, run through the cards, apparently studying the backs but really sorting them so that all the cards are one way except the A's which you leave reversed. Hand the pack to be shuffled, take it back and as you deal it face down you pick out the A's. There will be plenty of folks to offer you all kinds of money to teach them to read any cards from the backs. This stunt is quite sensational, creates good publicity and provokes a lot of favorable comment.
Withering TV
When I was a kid, I watched a decent amount of network TV. Happy Days, Laverne and Shirley, Mork and Mindy, Mash, etc. Plus Saturday morning cartoons. The TV was generally always on in the evenings. Mom and Dad watched it quite a bit.
Today, the only show that I intend to watch on network TV this season is one that I haven't watched yet: House, on Fox. I'll try to catch the replay of the debut this Friday, and then maybe watch it every Tuesday, if it appeals to me.
In my family of 6, we just don't watch much TV. We don't even have cable. The older boys will catch a Will & Grace re-run now and then, and during the weekend, my youngest sons will watch a football game during the weekend. My daughter catches Everwood on Mondays, if she's home. If the game is interesting, we might catch Monday Night Football if Bari's not vying for the TV.
I got involved in the comments dust-up at Jeff Jarvis' site over the racy Monday Night Football intro.
Jeff's in a snit because Michael Powell says that he's disappointed in ABC's decision to air the intro (a different post, here). The FCC has no business butting into this, says he.
I say: who cares?
This is about marketing and branding. ABC chose to alter the Monday Night Football brand by running an intro that offended some of its viewers. If I watch Monday Night Football, it's with my 7-year-old who loves football, and racy content isn't something he's allowed to watch.
Tony Dungy, head coach for Indianapolis, said that he used the occasion to talk to his 12-year-old son about it, but we parents don't want those occasions foisted on us. It feels like an ambush. It's like having your kid receive soft-porn email in his inbox. It's unexpected and unwelcome.
As the Monday Night Football episode demonstrated, it's not the maturity content of the show, but of the advertising and of the bumper promos, when our children watch TV that parents find objectionable. Commercials and shows should be on the same maturity level. But advertising (with orgasmic shampoo, etc) is what's killing what I watch with my younger kids, not the shows. I choose the shows, but I can't choose the ads. I would prefer it if the content providers/networks would say that everything during a given hour will be a certain level of maturity. But I don't think that will happen.
The government's answer to this is the upcoming Broadcast Indencency Act, but it's wrong because the standards for indecency are way too subjective. Government is never an answer.
Jeff has spent a life in media and critiquing TV. He calls those of us in the cheap seats who object to titillating promos "prudes."
Me, I call us "gone." I have a remote and it has an "off" button. In a period of ample choice for media and entertainment, I want control. So I'll walk from TV even more than I do now if I find it objectionable. When the content providers start bleeding money (and maybe they are now), they might change. But it'll be too late. The alternatives are too numerous and much better. They just give us an opportunity to explore those alternatives with each of these dumb programming decisions.
Today, the only show that I intend to watch on network TV this season is one that I haven't watched yet: House, on Fox. I'll try to catch the replay of the debut this Friday, and then maybe watch it every Tuesday, if it appeals to me.
In my family of 6, we just don't watch much TV. We don't even have cable. The older boys will catch a Will & Grace re-run now and then, and during the weekend, my youngest sons will watch a football game during the weekend. My daughter catches Everwood on Mondays, if she's home. If the game is interesting, we might catch Monday Night Football if Bari's not vying for the TV.
I got involved in the comments dust-up at Jeff Jarvis' site over the racy Monday Night Football intro.
Jeff's in a snit because Michael Powell says that he's disappointed in ABC's decision to air the intro (a different post, here). The FCC has no business butting into this, says he.
I say: who cares?
This is about marketing and branding. ABC chose to alter the Monday Night Football brand by running an intro that offended some of its viewers. If I watch Monday Night Football, it's with my 7-year-old who loves football, and racy content isn't something he's allowed to watch.
Tony Dungy, head coach for Indianapolis, said that he used the occasion to talk to his 12-year-old son about it, but we parents don't want those occasions foisted on us. It feels like an ambush. It's like having your kid receive soft-porn email in his inbox. It's unexpected and unwelcome.
As the Monday Night Football episode demonstrated, it's not the maturity content of the show, but of the advertising and of the bumper promos, when our children watch TV that parents find objectionable. Commercials and shows should be on the same maturity level. But advertising (with orgasmic shampoo, etc) is what's killing what I watch with my younger kids, not the shows. I choose the shows, but I can't choose the ads. I would prefer it if the content providers/networks would say that everything during a given hour will be a certain level of maturity. But I don't think that will happen.
The government's answer to this is the upcoming Broadcast Indencency Act, but it's wrong because the standards for indecency are way too subjective. Government is never an answer.
Jeff has spent a life in media and critiquing TV. He calls those of us in the cheap seats who object to titillating promos "prudes."
Me, I call us "gone." I have a remote and it has an "off" button. In a period of ample choice for media and entertainment, I want control. So I'll walk from TV even more than I do now if I find it objectionable. When the content providers start bleeding money (and maybe they are now), they might change. But it'll be too late. The alternatives are too numerous and much better. They just give us an opportunity to explore those alternatives with each of these dumb programming decisions.
Wednesday, 8 April 2009
In the Pink
I wrote a while back that with advances in technology and with cheap international outsourcing that the only two things that can't be done by computers or by those in India for $5 an hour is what we create ourselves and what has to be done locally. Art and nursing care. Music and police work. You get the idea.
So I get my Wired magazine for the month and lo and behold there is an by a guy named Daniel Pink who says the same, only way better than I could:
- Scientists have long known that a neurological Mason-Dixon line cleaves our brains into two regions - the left and right hemispheres. But in the last 10 years, thanks in part to advances in functional magnetic resonance imaging, researchers have begun to identify more precisely how the two sides divide responsibilities. The left hemisphere handles sequence, literalness, and analysis. The right hemisphere, meanwhile, takes care of context, emotional expression, and synthesis. Of course, the human brain, with its 100 billion cells forging 1 quadrillion connections, is breathtakingly complex. The two hemispheres work in concert, and we enlist both sides for nearly everything we do. But the structure of our brains can help explain the contours of our times.
- Until recently, the abilities that led to success in school, work, and business were characteristic of the left hemisphere. They were the sorts of linear, logical, analytical talents measured by SATs and deployed by CPAs. Today, those capabilities are still necessary. But they're no longer sufficient. In a world upended by outsourcing, deluged with data, and choked with choices, the abilities that matter most are now closer in spirit to the specialties of the right hemisphere - artistry, empathy, seeing the big picture, and pursuing the transcendent.
- Beneath the nervous clatter of our half-completed decade stirs a slow but seismic shift. The Information Age we all prepared for is ending. Rising in its place is what I call the Conceptual Age, an era in which mastery of abilities that we've often overlooked and undervalued marks the fault line between who gets ahead and who falls behind.
- To some of you, this shift - from an economy built on the logical, sequential abilities of the Information Age to an economy built on the inventive, empathic abilities of the Conceptual Age - sounds delightful. "You had me at hello!" I can hear the painters and nurses exulting. But to others, this sounds like a crock. "Prove it!" I hear the programmers and lawyers demanding.
First, what great writing. Second, what great thinking. And not just because I agree. The title of his article is "Revenge of the Right Brain," which is adapted from his new but not yet released book, "A Whole New Mind: Moving from the Information Age to the Conceptual Age."
I don't think it should be that people abandon their left-brained gig. But rather do both. Which is part of the reason I'm busy exploring all this painting stuff...
I once worked for 3 to 6 months at a stretch on software that I would sell. Afterwards, there was tech support to provide and upgrades and so on. My price on the software I would sell? Roughly $29.95. Depended on the software.
But I can paint and work for three weeks on a painting, the prints of which can sell for $19.95, and best of all - there is no tech support after the sale. I just need to work to be very good and I need to market it.
Smarter, not harder. And right-brained output is tougher for someone else to reproduce.
Some guy once said something like "Periods of tranquility are not periods of production. Mankind needs to be stirred up." Taking 3-6 months to produce anything, left- or right-brained, is a non-starter in our very fast world. We have to be prolific. And personal. And open, transparent, linked, a bit sensational, niched... But mostly prolific. Whatever we do, we have to do a lot of it.
So I get my Wired magazine for the month and lo and behold there is an by a guy named Daniel Pink who says the same, only way better than I could:
- Scientists have long known that a neurological Mason-Dixon line cleaves our brains into two regions - the left and right hemispheres. But in the last 10 years, thanks in part to advances in functional magnetic resonance imaging, researchers have begun to identify more precisely how the two sides divide responsibilities. The left hemisphere handles sequence, literalness, and analysis. The right hemisphere, meanwhile, takes care of context, emotional expression, and synthesis. Of course, the human brain, with its 100 billion cells forging 1 quadrillion connections, is breathtakingly complex. The two hemispheres work in concert, and we enlist both sides for nearly everything we do. But the structure of our brains can help explain the contours of our times.
- Until recently, the abilities that led to success in school, work, and business were characteristic of the left hemisphere. They were the sorts of linear, logical, analytical talents measured by SATs and deployed by CPAs. Today, those capabilities are still necessary. But they're no longer sufficient. In a world upended by outsourcing, deluged with data, and choked with choices, the abilities that matter most are now closer in spirit to the specialties of the right hemisphere - artistry, empathy, seeing the big picture, and pursuing the transcendent.
- Beneath the nervous clatter of our half-completed decade stirs a slow but seismic shift. The Information Age we all prepared for is ending. Rising in its place is what I call the Conceptual Age, an era in which mastery of abilities that we've often overlooked and undervalued marks the fault line between who gets ahead and who falls behind.
- To some of you, this shift - from an economy built on the logical, sequential abilities of the Information Age to an economy built on the inventive, empathic abilities of the Conceptual Age - sounds delightful. "You had me at hello!" I can hear the painters and nurses exulting. But to others, this sounds like a crock. "Prove it!" I hear the programmers and lawyers demanding.
First, what great writing. Second, what great thinking. And not just because I agree. The title of his article is "Revenge of the Right Brain," which is adapted from his new but not yet released book, "A Whole New Mind: Moving from the Information Age to the Conceptual Age."
I don't think it should be that people abandon their left-brained gig. But rather do both. Which is part of the reason I'm busy exploring all this painting stuff...
I once worked for 3 to 6 months at a stretch on software that I would sell. Afterwards, there was tech support to provide and upgrades and so on. My price on the software I would sell? Roughly $29.95. Depended on the software.
But I can paint and work for three weeks on a painting, the prints of which can sell for $19.95, and best of all - there is no tech support after the sale. I just need to work to be very good and I need to market it.
Smarter, not harder. And right-brained output is tougher for someone else to reproduce.
Some guy once said something like "Periods of tranquility are not periods of production. Mankind needs to be stirred up." Taking 3-6 months to produce anything, left- or right-brained, is a non-starter in our very fast world. We have to be prolific. And personal. And open, transparent, linked, a bit sensational, niched... But mostly prolific. Whatever we do, we have to do a lot of it.
Saturday, 21 March 2009
thanks for your kind words of support
Unfortunately I cannot think of England at this time. She's gone and I wish her well. She's pretty much the love of my life, but "todo tiene su final, NADA dura para siempre". So, I let go of her. In the very small chance that she actually comes back into my life (and I dream of this more often than I want or care to admit) there are lots of wounds to heal and lots of things to say. As it is, I don't see that day coming, but I still wish her and hers the best. Dredging up those memories don't help the healing process, but I know you didn't do it un purpose to hurt, rather to make a point in your case. Thanks.
Last night was a nightmare. I wanted to cry, kick, scream, curse, punch and I just couldn't. Vero, L. and The Good Doctor probably saw me in my worst. Lack of sleep and the J. situation took it's toll on me, but I'm still here. After a long night of the soul an hour of sleep and no internet at 3 am to work on, I managed to get it together enough so I finished all that I needed to do at 6:30 am. Then I just collapsed and slept a couple of hours. Enough so I could get up, shower eat something and head for work. I still had some residue in my head when I got to work but I heard Laika and music does soothe this savage beast. Work kept me busy and life a bit livable.
Had dinner at El Mexicano with an acquaintance then headed back for work. Feel much better now. It's an uphill battle, but it has to be done, and it will.
"I'll still be here
as long as you
and I'll walk away
in spite of you"
Bauhaus - Crowds
"Worry is what I have instead of you." - Me. No, J. that wasn't meant to be funny. Oh well.
Last night was a nightmare. I wanted to cry, kick, scream, curse, punch and I just couldn't. Vero, L. and The Good Doctor probably saw me in my worst. Lack of sleep and the J. situation took it's toll on me, but I'm still here. After a long night of the soul an hour of sleep and no internet at 3 am to work on, I managed to get it together enough so I finished all that I needed to do at 6:30 am. Then I just collapsed and slept a couple of hours. Enough so I could get up, shower eat something and head for work. I still had some residue in my head when I got to work but I heard Laika and music does soothe this savage beast. Work kept me busy and life a bit livable.
Had dinner at El Mexicano with an acquaintance then headed back for work. Feel much better now. It's an uphill battle, but it has to be done, and it will.
"I'll still be here
as long as you
and I'll walk away
in spite of you"
Bauhaus - Crowds
"Worry is what I have instead of you." - Me. No, J. that wasn't meant to be funny. Oh well.
Friday, 30 January 2009
lol
[info]jlc20thmaine
A crusty old biker, on a summer ride in the country, walks into a tavern and sees a sign hanging over the bar, which reads:
CHEESEBURGER: $1.50
CHICKEN SANDWICH : $2.50
HAND JOB: $100.00
Checking his wallet for the necessary payment, he walks up to the bar and beckons to the exceptionally attractive female bartender serving drinks to a meager looking group of farmers.
'Yes?' she inquires with a knowing smile, 'can I help you?'
'I was wondering,' whispers the old biker, 'are you the young lady who Gives the hand-jobs?'
'Yes,' she smiles and purrs, 'I sure am.'
The old biker replies, 'Well wash your hands. I want a cheeseburger. .....'
A crusty old biker, on a summer ride in the country, walks into a tavern and sees a sign hanging over the bar, which reads:
CHEESEBURGER: $1.50
CHICKEN SANDWICH : $2.50
HAND JOB: $100.00
Checking his wallet for the necessary payment, he walks up to the bar and beckons to the exceptionally attractive female bartender serving drinks to a meager looking group of farmers.
'Yes?' she inquires with a knowing smile, 'can I help you?'
'I was wondering,' whispers the old biker, 'are you the young lady who Gives the hand-jobs?'
'Yes,' she smiles and purrs, 'I sure am.'
The old biker replies, 'Well wash your hands. I want a cheeseburger. .....'
Tuesday, 23 December 2008
Here is a holiday story that you might find funny
Christmas Soup. My sister-in-law went with her father to one of his Eagles Club Dinners and they had a really good soup so she got the recipe. We were planning our Christmas "get-together" so she said she would bring this soup she got the recipe for. My sister-in-law works full time plus keeps up with my niece who is two months older than my son so she kind of harried sometimes. She started buying the ingredients for this soup which along the way should have set off warning bells but she didn't notice.
For example, the recipe called for FOUR packages of fresh mushrooms. My sister-in-law lives about 3 miles outside a very small town so she likes to shop at the little store there as much as possible so it stays open rather than driving the 15 miles into the decent sized town my brother works in. The little store only had three packages of mushroom which was more than likely their whole weeks inventory. So she called my brother at work and asked him to pick up another package of mushrooms in town before he came home. After she got home, she noticed the recipe called for ONE CUP of pepper...another warning sign missed. She didn't have a full cup of pepper in her pepper box so called my brother again and added a big box of pepper to her list. After, my brother arrived home with the rest of her ingredients, she started to slice all the vegetables and put the soup together. Alas she read down far enough to discover that she needed two large stockpots rather than just the one she had been tossing things into. She was in trouble because she only had one stockpot so she called my mother because her mother doesn't cook much, less you count warming frozen food.
She explained to my Mother that she needed to borrow a stock pot. Mom said, "I thought you had one of those?" She did but claimed the recipe she was using called for two. Mom said this couldn't be right because you normally only need one to make soup. So she asked that my sister-in-law read her the recipe, she got to the four packages of mushrooms and Mom said, "Is it a Mushroom soup"? No, it was actually a vegetable soup. When she got to the cup of pepper, Mom laughed. "You have enough soup to feed an army", Mom said. So she was going to end up with two big stockpots of soup. Mom suggested freezing some which was a good idea, so all the freezer containers she had were filled. At the party, she kept pushing the soup..."Have some more soup!" It was really good soup but not that you would want two pots of it. Mom offered to cut the recipe down for my sister-in-law because she had no idea you could do that. *grin* Poor girl didn't have much of a cooking role model so you really can't blame her. We all went home with containers of soup as Mom brought over more containers with her. We had all had a good laugh over the Christmas Soup.
We are lucky to have her still with us because of past Christmas'. One year, Mom had made chicken livers special for my brother because he loves them and his wife won't cook them for him because they are gross. (I don't eat them either.) So my brother eat them and fed some to his daughter who liked them too, while my sister-in-law cried because he was feeding gross things to her baby. Cruel.
Another time, my father fed her pickled herring in cream sauce on a Ritz cracker. He told her was a "Slaa-ja" which I believe is the Polish name for those, as she was smart enough to ask. She rushed to the bathroom after that taste.
She's the most wonderful sister-in-law that I could have and we love her but we sure are hard on her.
For example, the recipe called for FOUR packages of fresh mushrooms. My sister-in-law lives about 3 miles outside a very small town so she likes to shop at the little store there as much as possible so it stays open rather than driving the 15 miles into the decent sized town my brother works in. The little store only had three packages of mushroom which was more than likely their whole weeks inventory. So she called my brother at work and asked him to pick up another package of mushrooms in town before he came home. After she got home, she noticed the recipe called for ONE CUP of pepper...another warning sign missed. She didn't have a full cup of pepper in her pepper box so called my brother again and added a big box of pepper to her list. After, my brother arrived home with the rest of her ingredients, she started to slice all the vegetables and put the soup together. Alas she read down far enough to discover that she needed two large stockpots rather than just the one she had been tossing things into. She was in trouble because she only had one stockpot so she called my mother because her mother doesn't cook much, less you count warming frozen food.
She explained to my Mother that she needed to borrow a stock pot. Mom said, "I thought you had one of those?" She did but claimed the recipe she was using called for two. Mom said this couldn't be right because you normally only need one to make soup. So she asked that my sister-in-law read her the recipe, she got to the four packages of mushrooms and Mom said, "Is it a Mushroom soup"? No, it was actually a vegetable soup. When she got to the cup of pepper, Mom laughed. "You have enough soup to feed an army", Mom said. So she was going to end up with two big stockpots of soup. Mom suggested freezing some which was a good idea, so all the freezer containers she had were filled. At the party, she kept pushing the soup..."Have some more soup!" It was really good soup but not that you would want two pots of it. Mom offered to cut the recipe down for my sister-in-law because she had no idea you could do that. *grin* Poor girl didn't have much of a cooking role model so you really can't blame her. We all went home with containers of soup as Mom brought over more containers with her. We had all had a good laugh over the Christmas Soup.
We are lucky to have her still with us because of past Christmas'. One year, Mom had made chicken livers special for my brother because he loves them and his wife won't cook them for him because they are gross. (I don't eat them either.) So my brother eat them and fed some to his daughter who liked them too, while my sister-in-law cried because he was feeding gross things to her baby. Cruel.
Another time, my father fed her pickled herring in cream sauce on a Ritz cracker. He told her was a "Slaa-ja" which I believe is the Polish name for those, as she was smart enough to ask. She rushed to the bathroom after that taste.
She's the most wonderful sister-in-law that I could have and we love her but we sure are hard on her.
Tuesday, 2 December 2008
Two Stories to Share
I have a couple of stories to share which I hope you might find some humor in. According to the story spreading through the hospital while I was there, in the recovery room as I was waking up the conversation went something like this: Nurse: Do you know your name? Me: Giving my full name. Nurse: Birthday? Me: Rattling off my birthday. Nurse: Do you have any questions? Me: Yes, Did I behave myself in surgery? I didn't cause any trouble like stop breathing? Nurse: Not this time. You did well and we got everything all fixed up. Me: Is Bush still President? Nurse: Yes. Me: Then you didn't fix everything. Nurse: I see your sense of humor survived the surgery. Me: (falls back asleep). So by the time, I was wheeled back to my starting room the story was making rounds. I heard it from a nurse myself.
Second story involves my niece who turned 11 this month. My father seems to have influenced the grandchildren as they are now eating like him. For Danny it's Mexican food and salsa on everything including his morning eggs. He likes everything as hot and as spicy as possible taking after his Grandpa who makes his own hot sauce because the store bought isn't hot enough for him.
For my niece, she has gotten hooked on sardines like her Grandpa. A can of sardines and a row of Ritz crackers and she's totally happy. Her mother won't buy her sardines because she thinks they are gross so her Dad (my brother) and her Grandpa keep her well supplied. Lately Lindsay has been even taking sardines and crackers as a school lunch. No problems with this until the day she got a can she couldn't open so had to ask a teacher to help. Linds handed the teacher the can and asked her to open it. The teacher looked at the can and said "Who put this in your lunch?", while making a face. Apparently the teacher thought someone was playing a cruel joke on the angelic blonde girl with light blue eyes. Lindsay said "I did. I love sardines! They are good!" The teacher opened the can and Linds did get to eat her lunch. The story got back to a cousin that teaches at that same school as it was told around the teacher's lounge.
Second story involves my niece who turned 11 this month. My father seems to have influenced the grandchildren as they are now eating like him. For Danny it's Mexican food and salsa on everything including his morning eggs. He likes everything as hot and as spicy as possible taking after his Grandpa who makes his own hot sauce because the store bought isn't hot enough for him.
For my niece, she has gotten hooked on sardines like her Grandpa. A can of sardines and a row of Ritz crackers and she's totally happy. Her mother won't buy her sardines because she thinks they are gross so her Dad (my brother) and her Grandpa keep her well supplied. Lately Lindsay has been even taking sardines and crackers as a school lunch. No problems with this until the day she got a can she couldn't open so had to ask a teacher to help. Linds handed the teacher the can and asked her to open it. The teacher looked at the can and said "Who put this in your lunch?", while making a face. Apparently the teacher thought someone was playing a cruel joke on the angelic blonde girl with light blue eyes. Lindsay said "I did. I love sardines! They are good!" The teacher opened the can and Linds did get to eat her lunch. The story got back to a cousin that teaches at that same school as it was told around the teacher's lounge.
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