word!

The vacation was a whirlwind, but fun. Everyone says we packed in quite a bunch of things for the full week we were gone. Flew into San Fran Sunday night, and drove north through the city and Golden Gate up towards Wine Country. Next day toured Budweiser Beer & Jelly Belly factories and Wine country that afternoon. Wine country was hot and after a bit, it got boring with all the places that wanted to take your money for anything wine-related. That night headed south and met with my friend Nicole (she was the one I visited out in MI last summer). Headed to Yosemite for the next full day. Communed with nature, hoards of tourists and sickening mountain roads. Next day toured gold mining history, a current gold mine and a awesome cave. After that drove into Silicon Valley, where we saw Yahoo, Google and Apple to varying degrees. All were in office/industrial parks, with no real touristy type stores, save for Apple. We actually walked into Google’s campus and checked out their front office. Elyssa was scared about security, but we didn’t meet any until after we walked off the property! My highlight for sure.

Next two days were spent in SanFran. Did self-guided walking tour that Friday, walking a few miles from downtown/Chinatown to Fisherman’s Wharf. Good lot to see that day. Went on Bus tour the next day and out to Alcatraz that afternoon.

Was a very good trip, one I’m glad we took, even if we planned a good chuck of it on the fly!

I find it endlessly fascinating that a toddler nowadays knows more about computers than most people over 30 years of age. But in some ways, it’s fascinating to watch what draws a toddlers attention on the internet.

Of course, kids are enamored by all the cartoon characters they see on TV. They want to then play games online with these characters in them. So Nick and Cartoon Network are often top destinations.

I wonder who makes the decisions for these websites. They have so very many options that the smallest child is often at a loss for what they really want to do ~ play games. I think it idiotic to try and signup a toddler for email updates or sell them some toy or memorabilia, all from the same webpage. Toddlers and young kids don’t hardly know how to read, let alone comprehend the marketing that these companies are trying to shove down their throats.

They are kids for pete’s sake. They like the pictures they see. They want to interact. They don’t buy online, they don’t know how or even care for that matter. They don’t care about all that other jazz you’re trying to push them the same way you would for adults. That’s grownup material. Get their parents involved a different way, don’t force them to navigate your site because you can’t effectively design the sites for your target audience. Add to your image by letting kids interact with your characters in fun,educational games, but don’t market to them in the same screen.

They don’t understand and you just piss off people by having them navigate around the garbage in order to find the stuff of some value.

Be there for the kids, not the greed!

All in all, today had all the makings of a positive, productive day up until about 4:30 this afternoon. Nothing too exciting usually happens that time of day and nothing too particular. Mine usually involves heading home. So I was off of work and heading home… la te da, nothing new.

Was doing fine until I get about a mile away from home. Going the normal speed limit when I notice a panel truck pulling out of a neighbors’ driveway. The scary part is that this panel truck does not stop at end of driveway as the law requires, but continues to roll through and start to turn onto the main gravel rode.

Now normally this seem all be well and fine, but it does not take into account that this is a gravel road and that this truck driver has decided to take a big ass turn with said truck.

I’m almost in a panic now realizing what this guy is doing as I am coming at him full speed and it appears he does not see me coming. So I slam on the brakes, but realize at the speed I’m going on a loosely graveled road this is not good as I begin fish-tailing. Luckily, the truck driver stops short of his intention as I am coming closer, and I just move closer to the ditch and get by, although a tad closer to the ditch than I would ever had liked to be.

Fine, so this yahoo pulled out in front of me. The real scary part is that 19 years ago a very similar incident happened to me at this same drive way, under much the same circumstances. That time I ended up in the hospital to have a 4 inch gash sewed up from my head.

I honestly don’t know what I would have done had the truck not stopped when it did. My car was loose on the gravel so it made it hard to control, but taking the ditch might have been an option. I don’t want to think about what would have happened had I only the choice to hit the truck with my car. That would not have had a good outcome.

Not fun and having to almost relive that previous accident shook me up a tad. Damn it.

p.s. I called up the business owner that owned the truck and bitched them out. piss-poor driving I don’t need to tolerate!

Found a neat new company, Teleflip, that will actually send your email to your via a text message.

Neat thing about it is that you have control over it. You can set which email addresses you get text on your phone from. It works well with Gmail, an awesome email service as well.

I don’t have to log into my email to see what messages I’m getting, I just get them on my phone. It may also be of note that I can receive all my text messages for free with my service from Midwestwireless, which is a good thing too for the cost the messages might cost with any other provider.

So, if you’re eager to get email from certain ppl on your phone and aren’t charged for received text messages, I’d highly recommend this awesome service. FYI, it’s still in beta.

I continuously wonder at the amazement the human populous has with a well maintained turf around ones abode.

Really? What the hell does cutting grass have to do with the human condition? Does it say were not as good as our neighbor, if the retired bastard has nothing better to do with his day/life than chop off a few inches of plant matter every couple days? Does it mean were lazy or not as good as our neighbor if we don’t beat them to punch and get the yard cut before they do, again?

I wonder if it’s pointless to ask why we do it, even if no one outside the immediate members such yards belong to are the only ones to notice, unless it is not tended to in a timely matter.

Are we that far gone as a species of animals that the only thing we have to look forward to is mowing our grass?

What the fuck makes grass so fucking special?