Psych

Man, I love that show.

7/7

It's 7/7 today. Do you feel lucky, punk?

Wonder Woman in the original SuperFriends TV show

So I'm watching this episode of the original SuperFriends where they have to deal with objects made of this plastic substance called FRERP. Wonder Woman had the task of creating a solvent to get rid of this substance. What's more, the villian even acknowledged Wonder Woman's scientific brilliance, predicting that she could indeed develop such a solvent.

Too bad the writers didn't treat her that way in subsequent seasons of this show. They sure dumbed her down.

Boot camp was disappointing

I was really disappointed in tonight's cardio bootcamp class. Our regular instructor is in Vegas, and I was told that this close friend of hers would be filling in. As in turned out though, another lady altogether led the class.

Some folks liked her. Personally, I thought she was mostly boring. She definitely didn't push me very hard.

The first half of the class was rather slow paced and low in intensity. She certainly didn't move as fast or as vigorously as our regular instructor. Some folks in the class probably preferred that, but personally, I didn't feel challenged.

Neither was the gal behind me, apparently. She's not a young woman, but she works out hard. The two of us agree that a boot camp class should be tough and demanding; otherwise, why call it "boot camp"? As she said, when it comes to the tough, physically demanding moves, we should say "Bring it!"

Judicious use of animation in PowerPoint

In an earlier post, I talked about how it's annoying to see someone simply re-read the text in their PowerPoint slides. I also said that trivial rephrasings aren't quite as annoying or insulting, but they do come awfully close. I also suggested that it helps if we keep the PowerPoint text brief, so that we can expand on their meaning as we speak.

It also helps if we use simple animation effects to make the text appear only as needed. It's trivial to learn, and anybody with even an average IQ can make it work.

Independence!

It's Independence Day! Don't take freedom for granted.

Manuals, dang it!

It's so annoying. So many companies don't produce decent documentation for their products. They're not interested in producing manuals that are intelligible, much less systematically written. Bah.

The problem is that a lot of techies don't develop their writing skills. What's more, a great many of them don't consider writing skills to be important. It stinks.

PowerPoint

I'll say it again -- I hate it when people give a presentation or lead a discussion by reading the text on their PowerPoint slides -- treating PowerPoint as though it were a teleprompter. It's colossally dumb and it's very annoying as well.

Now, some people don't actually read their slides. However, they will sometimes have detailed points listed in their slides, and then they'll state those points in their so-called "presentations." That is almost as annoying and almost as insulting.

A better approach would be to use a few short bullet points -- not detailed sentences, but brief phrasings. One's presentation can then expand on those phrasings.

My leg hurts

It hurts. I'm getting old. These tendons just don't take as much physical abuse as they used to. I wish that I had been a lot more physically active in my younger days. Now I'm trying to make up for that, and it's tough -- tougher now, since I can't jump and kick as much as I could have in my younger days.

Not enough time

I don't have enough time in my life, and I could really use a raise. Sigh.

Thinks I like

As I've said before, I know that I tend to rant and rail in these postings. It's cathartic. For that reason, I'll focus on some things that I like in this post.

I like frozen yogurt, strawberries, cantaloupes, reptiles, exotic animals, this obscure actress, another actress, Almond M&Ms, salt and vinegar Pringles, the website development company that I'm working with, the M sisters, some of my lindy hopping comrades, solo Charleston moves, the finale from "Hairspray," old Speed Racer cartoons, the Doc Savage movie and more.

Expenses

Argh. I have to pour thousands of dollars into some home repairs. I hate this. That's money that I'd rather not spend, especially since it's important to have a hedge against unemployment and unexpected expenses.

So much of this could have been avoided if I knew more about home maintenance, and if some of the previous owners had done their work correctly. Bah.

Stacey Williams, democrat

So I found out that ex-supermodel Stacey Williams is a supporter of the Democrat Party. Here is a photo of her which mentions her involvement in the Democratic National Convention.

I'm kinda disappointed. I prefer to think of these celebrities as being apolitical, even though I know that's not the case.

My knee hurts

Ouch. My knee hurts. I strained a tendon due to my workout routines. I tend to put a lot of energy into my moves, and I must have overdone it. Yikes. Ouch.

I'm getting too old for this.

Language

Some people are so inarticulate. So horribly inarticulate. It's very annoying, especially when they demean the value of a good vocabulary.

After King Kong Fell

I just read this classic short story by Philip Jose Farmer. It was amusing to me because of some unnamed cameos. It featured a bronzed heroic figure who was clearly meant to be Doc Savage, as well as two character who were obviously intended to be the Shadow and Margo Lane.

Tips for church secretaries

Get a load of this. There's a website that's devoted to providing helpful information for church secretaries. I'm not sure what their business model is, but I did think that this is a bit of a speciality niche.

They even have articles on the following topics, among others:

Tips to Time Management
Time Management and Planning Tips
Words Every Church Secretary Should Avoid
Ways to Become More Efficient At Work & At Home
A Habit Every Successful Church Secretary Must Have
Quick Keys to Managing Multiple Projects

The Real Ghostbusters

Been watching Season One on DVD. Loads of fun and lots of clever dialogue.

About website domains

Here's a little tidbit. If you type a domain name into your browser, you might find that no website appears. This does not mean that the domain is available, though. A lot of companies buy domain names for future use or for strategic value (for example, to prevent their customers from taking those domain names.)

So can you buy that domain name from the owner? Maybe, or maybe not. The reality is that if it's owned by a company, then they probably bought it for strategic purposes -- perhaps for some future product. They are unlikely to relinquish this domain, and frankly, it'd be foolish to assume that they have no use for the domain in question.

Whither Wendy Benson?

Whatever happened to actress Wendy Benson? She was never a big name celebrity, but I did like seeing her on TV. She also reminds me of an old friend of mine.

According to Wikipedia, she should be 39 years old by now. I wonder if she still has that sparkling youthful appearance. Unfortunately, with her fair skin, I suspect that her age will have started to show significantly by now.