HBD

And here's wishing a warm happy birthday to my beautiful sister.

That was kinda nosy

Get this. I was taking some photos of a friend at a recent swing dance. Upon seeing this, one lady comes up to me and peppers me with questions. "Excuse me, but what are you going to do with those photos? Are they going on your computer?" "Are you taking pictures for a newspaper?" "Did these people ask you to take photos of them?" and so forth, and so on.

I assured her that it was common practice for people to snap photographs at events like this. I'm not sure why she was asking, but I think it was kinda nosy. If I see somebody taking a picture of someone else, I'm not about to give that person the third degree regarding what they're doing.

I'm not sure what that was about. I don't think this gal was a swing dancer. She pretty much sat in the same place the whole night long. Maybe that's why she decided to pepper me with questions. Whatever.

BioMed

I'm always interested in hearing about technological developments in less advanced countries. That's why it's nice when I stumble across websites such as this one. It's a biotechnology firm in Thailand, a decided less advanced nation.

Now, I'm not trying to say that such companies are remarkable to find. It's just good to know that they exist, and I hope that they get all the exposure that they need. The design of this company's website could use some improvement, though.

Forearms

Gotta work in some forearm exercises, too. I think I'll plan those for Monday morning. They tend to be very much neglected, even by experienced gym rats.

Workout plan

Okay, here are my exercise plans for the weekend:

Thursday: Shoulders with a bit of chest and triceps work
Friday: Noontime walk with weighted vest, plus back and biceps work in the evening
Saturday: Cardio work in the morning and early afternoon. Some core work as well.
Sunday: Leg resistance training, followed by massage, followed by chest work
Monday: Back and biceps in the morning. Core work and a little cardio in the evening.
Tuesday: Core work and cardio in the evening. Maybe some balance exercises, too.

Celebrity Apprentice

What a waste of time. Donald Trump has no integrity -- especially after the way he screwed Annie Duke over last year in favor of Joan Rivers. Ugh.

Thirty days hath April

It's the end of April. Huzzah!

Brian

There's this strange guy named Brian who attends our local swing dance events. He's been coming for two years, but he almost never does anything more than the basic jitterbug step over and over again. He does ask women to dance, but he seems to be pathetically shy, and he obviously has no confidence when it comes to trying out moves. As far as I can tell, he has no friends there either.

I've tried to chat with him, inviting him to a workshop, for example. Doesn't seem to do any good. I wonder what the deal is with him.

Human immune system cells

A bit of educational information here. Here is a brief and somewhat fragmented discussion of some of the cells of the immune system. By this, I mean the human immune system, of course. Strictly speaking, this should be stated; however, when people speak of the immune system, it's normally understood to mean that.

Yay, Elizabeth!

Congratulations, Liz!

She'll never read this comment, but I did want to express my joy and appreciation.

Batman: The Brave and The Bold

This is a darned good show. Too bad it's in reruns right now. Sigh.

'I' is a crazy woman

This lady, "I", is a complete whack job. She is shrill, annoying, irrational and just generally trouble. Her mouth operates much faster than her brain does, and it's really annoying.

MK is a dear friend, but...

More on MK...

She's a wonderful person and one of my dearest friends. She tends to be completely irrational at times, though. She reads way too much into things, which causes her to tear herself up with worry and paranoia. What's more, she calls me and seeks assurance when she finds herself in these states. I don't mind listening to her -- she is a valued friend, after all -- but she does cause herself way too much aggravation.

Here's an example of how she blows things way out of proportion. I recently tagged a whole lot of people in somebody's Facebook album. This person then posted a comment on my wall: "You've been busy. Tagging, that is."

MK says to me, "Is this guy saying that you're being a nuisance???" With barely restrained exasperation, I said, "No, no, no. I love you dearly, but you read way too much into things. This is a good example of that. He was just saying that I was busy with a lot of tagging. You don't need to read anything more into it that that." I wanted to add, "For pity's sake! You are so completely irrational!"

Don't get me wrong. She is a wonderful person. She just needs to be more emotionally secure and stable, though.

MK drives me nuts sometimes

My friend MK drives me nuts sometimes. She is so insecure, so lacking in confidence, so lacking in emotional strength.

Consider this. A friend of hers, Bridget, got married recently. Prior to going out with her groom, she had been pining over this other fella. A fella who had expressed interest in her at one point, but who didn't make enough of an effort to pursue her. Eventually, she moved on.

For weeks, MK kept asking me, "Do you think that Bridget will regret her decision." I'd say things like "I doubt it" or "Probably not" or "I don't know." Yet over and over again, MK kept asking that question, as though she was intensely worried that Bridget would still be pining over this guy.

Eventually, I told MK, "Why are you obsessing over this? Look, you're beating yourself up over a situation for no good reason. Bridget knows far more about this fella than you do, and she knows far more about her own state of mind than you do. We've got no reason to believe that she's still carrying a torch for this other guy, so why keep fretting over this? She's a grown woman, and it's her decision."

What I really felt like saying was "WHO CARES!?!?!?!? Who cares if she'll regret it or not? If you want to know if she'll regret it, then wait and see. You're not going to get an answer by asking this question over and over again."

Sheesh.

Lines of Code -- a useless metric

I am astonished that anyone would choose to measure programming experience or programming quality in terms of the number of lines of code produced. That's an absolutely stupid means by which to measure either quality or experience.

I love this quote from Bill Gates: "Measuring programming progress by lines of code is like measuring aircraft building progress by weight."

Jackass

He's a jackass.

There. I said it, and I got it off my chest.

Abusive cousins

Okay, okay. I know that this blog must sound like a series of bitter rants, and I do want to post some more positive remarks sometime. For now though, I want to get some things off my chest, even if they're from the distant past. I find that expressing these views can be therapeutic.

During my early childhood, I had a bunch of cousins who teased me and my brother mercilessly because of some innocent friendships that I had with girls my age. They did it because they took pleasure in causing us pain and discomfort. This is unacceptable behavior, since it's wrong to deliberately hurt other people just for the fun of it.

So what did the adults (my parents, my uncles, my aunts) do to solve this problem? NOTHING! Or rather, essentially nothing. Oh, they might have conceivably told our cousins to stop now and then, but for the most part, they put the blame on us. They blamed us for getting upset. What's more, they themselves frequently joined in the teasing, knowing that it made us upset.

And that's just wrong. I'm decades older now, and I'm long past the stage where I can deal with the teasing. Their approach to the problem appalls me even to this day, though. It was just wrong.

Bummed

I am so bummed. Very disappointed.

She sure does talk a lot

My friend MK sure does like to talk... sometimes on and on. She's one of my favorite people, but she tends to ask a lot of questions that she already knows the answers to. She also hopes for yes/no answers to questions where the correct answer is obviously "It depends."

A new word: exiguous

Exiguous. It means "scanty; meager; small, slender."