Tag: fun

I love you, Kel.

Today marks the 8th anniversary of Lee’s 25th birthday. He’s being a bit of a curmudgeon about it, so be sure to stop by his blog and comment your birthday wishes to him. 🙂
Happy birthday, bro.

FranX points me to Jayson Stark’s latest Useless Baseball Information, a baseball statistician’s treasure trove of interesting tidbits. I’m not really a huge baseball fan, nor a statistician, but according to my wife I’m the King of Useless Information, so it helps that I can add some things to my repertoire.

Programmers like to be efficient, which is a good thing. If programmers are efficient with their code, there is less work for them and less overhead on the systems running the code. Unfortunately, there is a case of being too efficient with your coding, as the Australian armed forces learned.
(Thanks, Jason.)

1. The Titanic is big, but it doesn’t have hyperdrive.
2. Yoda could’ve used the Force to lift Titanic out of the water.
3. Leia is a princess, a senator, a freedom fighter, and Jedi material. Rose is just marriage bait.
4. Ewoks throw better parties than either first class or steerage.
5. When flying towards the Titanic, Wedge couldn’t say, “Look at the size of that thing!” and really mean it.
6. It would be much scarier to get chased around the boat by a raving madman with a lightsaber as opposed to a handgun.
7. Titanic is egalitarian by portraying poor people as sympathetic characters. Star Wars is egalitarian by promoting bug-eyed amphibians to Admiral.
8. Said bug-eyed amphibious Admiral does not lose his ship.
9. We know Cal is the bad guy because he sneers at the poor and treats his fiancee like property. We know Darth Vader is the bad guy ’cause he strangles people & blows up planets for fun.
10. Yeah, Leo can dance, but can he fly an X-wing?
11. Rose braves icy water to rescue her man. Leia braves Jabba the Hutt.
12. There are always enough escape pods in Star Wars.
13. Do you know what the Empire does to self-proclaimed “kings of the world?”
14. If Luke were handcuffed to a pipe below decks in a sinking ship, he would use the Force to get the key.
15. Nothing has the same sting as “I’d rather kiss a Wookie.”
16. Han is frozen in carbonite and turned into a wall ornament. Leo simply freezes.
17. Han Solo would’ve steered clear of that stinkin’ iceberg!
18. We knew the boat was gonna sink. But who could’ve anticipated, “Luke…I am your father”?
19. Stormtroopers blast big holes in stupid minor characters; everyone in Titanic was a minor character.
20. When Star Wars was proclaimed coolest movie of all time by half of planet earth, George Lucas did not make a fool of himself at the Oscars.
21. Titanic morals:

• gamble
• cheat on your fiancé
• pose nude for pictures
• premarital sex is OK if you’re infatuated
• let undesirables drown

1. Star Wars morals:

• fight evil
• do good
• respect all life even if it’s ugly and slithers
• rescue the princess
• save the planet

Yes, an oldie, but a goodie, back from when James Cameron’s history lesson run amok displaced Star Wars as the highest-grossing movie of all time…

So how far would you go to promote your own personal brand? Some people nab custom license plates to slap on their vehicles in their respective states. Thanks to the Acme License Maker, now you too can experiment with self-branding for your personal transport. (Please bear in mind that I do not know the rules for number of characters allowed in the states shown.)
For instance, I could get:

Michael might prefer:

Or maybe he’d like:

Jason could go with:

Brad and Mena could promote their new venture with:

I know Lee has a custom Macintosh Florida plate, but would he slap on DTPBYLEE, provided Florida allowed all of those characters?
Just some fun food for thought…

It’s been a good couple of weeks for friends of the ‘phisch. Steve landed a programming job with DirecTV’s billing company in Charlotte, NC, and Richard is now a sysadmin with Standard & Poor’s in Boston. Congrats, amigos! I hope you both have long, happy, healthy, and wealthy careers with your new employers!

The LSU baseball team is swept for only the second time in all of its College World Series appearances, and their season is over. The Tigers dropped their losers’ bracket game to South Carolina yesterday, 11-10. LSU came back from a 6-0 deficit in the 1st inning to take the lead.
But Coach Smoke Laval left reliever Jason Determann in an inning too long, and it cost the Tigers severely. The Tigers had a two-run lead going in to the bottom of the 8th, when the Gamecocks blew through a tired Determann’s pitching to take a one-run lead they held on to through the top of the ninth for the win.
The Tigers had a great run: they finish the season 45-22-1, and this loss is only their first in seven tries against an SEC foe in the CWS. They were the regular season SEC Champions, and runner-up in the SEC Tournament.

So this weekend my bride and I took some big baby steps. Furniture was purchased. Items were registered. And strollers were test-driven through the aisles of the local Babies R Us. I knew having a kid was going to be a lot of fun…