Sometimes this doesn’t seem too far off….
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Farmer FAIL
Earlier this month we started planting tomato and other vegetable seeds for our vegetable garden. We got a little planter box and happily planted our seeds expecting outstanding results. After all, how hard can it be right? We grow weeds all over the backyard without any effort. Surely this can’t be much harder.
A week later the first seedlings started popping up and happiness ensued. We were on our way. This had to be the hardest part, to get them to actually surface, I thought. Another week went by and they kept growing. I was religiously putting the boxes out during daytime for maximum sunlight and taking them back inside overnight, to avoid the frost getting to them. All was great. Time was now our only obstacle. Soon enough we’d have tons of tomato plants and we were already making plans to give some of them away, once they matured some more. We did after all have so many and couldn’t possibly keep them all.
I don’t think I’ll be running to the theaters to see this one……
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Drinking the Kool-Aid
As the economy is crashing all around us and the world is imploding, I wanted to comment on a few recent public appearances by our President Obama.
As a matter of disclosure, to no surprise for anyone I’m sure, I should point out that I do like our new President a whole lot. But, I’m not really interested in commenting on any specific policy decisions, but rather more on the broader impact of the tone, attitude and image the new administration is projecting on the rest of the world.
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One feed to rule them all
I’m constantly in search of the ultimate web tool/service to aggregate all my feeds and where I can update everything in one place without having to login to each and every service I use. Well, I’m also somewhat paranoid about the information I want to be available to whoever searches Google to find something incriminating about me. Not that there should be anything incriminating, but still. Paranoia is a wonderful thing.
And, yes, I know that there are services like Ping.fm that can do the updating for you, but for some reason my paranoia is telling me not to use it. I know I’m contradicting myself here. There’s absolutely no logical reason in my argumentation. I’m painfully aware of this. Anyone with the smallest bit of web savvy can track me down in no time, as I’m splattered all over the interwebby tubes anyway.
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Office Jargon
Different professions have a different language, and software development is no exception. Over the last decade in the field I’ve run into some words and expressions that occur more frequently than others, most of which irritate me to the point where I sometimes consider self inflicted bodily harm as an easy escape route out of situations where they’re used.
Keep in mind that these phrases are mostly used by managers talking to their underlings, rather than underlings conversing with their own kind.
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Lame duck
Not too surprisingly, I passed today’s citizen test and am almost a US Citizen now. I’m in, what might be called, Citizenship purgatory, or maybe even better, a form of Resident Alien lame duck status. Either way, all the hard work as been done and I’m now awaiting the Oath ceremony where I get to hold up my right hand and swear to only do good things and always be prepared. No wait, that’s boy scouts…
To say the test was easy would be an overstatement. There were 4 or 5 questions on basic US history and government asking things like, what the capitol of California is, etc and for the English writing and comprehension I had to read this sentence: “Where is the White House?” and write “The White House is in Washington DC”. I think my daughter who is 5 could have passed that.
A short moment after the history and English test, another person went over my application with me again. I had to restate that I hadn’t overthrown any governments or joined any terrorist networks since I first filed to become a citizen. And shortly after that, I was done. Just like that. And in a month or so, if they don’t change their minds, I’ll be allowed to start my campaign to run for Governor. Move over Arnold.
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Time to take a test
So, tomorrow is the D-day for my naturalization, as I understand it. I’m going downtown to take the test to become a citizen of this glorious country. I’m still a little confused about the process. I’m not sure if I just take the test, and then leave to come back for the swearing in ceremony, or if that’s done there the same day? I guess I’ll find out soon enough. (if I even pass that is, don’t want to assume too much).
I’ve been studying for the last few days, so I think I know more about the US government than most natives of this country. Usually, when in doubt, the answer any question on the test, is George Washington. By answering that, I’ll at least get 3 or so questions right. Probably enough to get me deported.
In any case, wish me luck.
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Dagens I-lands problem
I feel somewhat inspired by the Swedish comedy show “Hipp Hipp” and have to post, probably the first of many, posts named after the sketch “Dagens I-lands problem“. This loosely translates into something like “Problems of the western world”, or “Problems of the Industrialized world”. Anyone who is familiar with the show, will know that the “problems” that they refer to are no real problems at all, at least if you compare them to the struggles to survive people go through in developing countries around the world.
With that framing in mind, here’s my “problem” I was faced with at the store yesterday:
I went up to the front entrance, and stood there, waiting for the door to swing open. It never did. As it turned out, the automatic doors were not working and, get a load of this, I had to open them myself. Can you belive that? This is almost as much of a problem as having to walk up an escalator that’s out of order. Unacceptable!
Dagens I-lands Problem.