Signs: The most useful thing you pay no attention to. – By Julia Turner – Slate Magazine
Bad signs can send perfectly ordinary citizens into spirals of obsession. Take Richard Ankrom, a Los Angeles artist who thought the junction of the 110 freeway and the 5 freeway was badly marked. In 2001, he put on an outfit that looked like the ones Caltrans highway workers wore, climbed up onto a freeway gantry, and mounted an aluminum sign he'd manufactured himself according to state specs. The sign stayed up for nine months without anyone noticing what he'd done; when the story leaked to the press and Caltrans finally cottoned on, the agency left the sign up for eight more years (eventually replacing it with one of their own that served the same function).
via Signs: The most useful thing you pay no attention to. - By Julia Turner - Slate Magazine. (Thanks Joel!)
marchFIRST – (37signals)
Rick 02 Mar 10 In 2000, my company was gearing up for an IPO so we hired marchFirst write up our business plan (wasn’t my idea). And they did it for the low, low price of $250,000! All they did was take our existing business plan and add in some boiler plate dotcom jargon. I still can’t believe they got away with that, and even worse, I can’t believe that companies like mine were brainwashed enough to think that was money well spent.
Genius! I am going to start a business plan writing business right away. I had no idea you could charge $250k.
Jesse Schell on the future of games
This talk at the DICE 2010 video game conference is jam packed with completely mindset-altering ideas about how things like Webkinz and Farmville are going to change our society and our selves. Watch it.
via Mark Allen.
Map Attack
My second grader draws all over his homework. Draws isn't the right term, he illustrates his homework maybe. I am going to have to start a blog of purely his homework drawings.
Until then, here are a couple:
Responsibility
Luke wants to know why he can't explode a potato in the microwave. He then asked Ethan, What is the age when your parents are no longer in charge of you? Ethan answered, "Twenty-three, but you won't want to do that then. You will have responsibility. We need to do it now."
via Sandbergs: Responsibility.
Context for non-family - these are little kids, 10 and 7.
It was a fairly chilly day, and that water was cold cold cold, but Reese just walked out into it and spent the next hour or so busily building dams and ponds. Completely lost in his play.
Tweet
Mechanical problem, flight likely delayed. 3rd delayed southwest air flight in a row! @southwestair #fb
Architectural Detail: Built-in Reading Niches : Remodelista
Winter has us thinking about built-in beds, the ideal place to retreat with a book.
via Architectural Detail: Built-in Reading Niches : Remodelista.
Bed nooks will forever remind me of the beach house we rented at Seabrook. The kids loved them, with little curtains and reading lights and the rest of the room a playroom for them. Once Upon a Time Cottage Facebook page
I Love You Adrienne, Happy Adrienne Day!
Ugh, It's Adrienne Day and I am on a business trip. I woke up early with the intention of making breakfast before I left for the airport, but I realized 2 things:
- Adrienne was not going to think it was a treat to be woken up to eat breakfast at 6am.
- If I tried to make breakfast I was going to miss my flight.
I have to be honest, this Adrienne day snuck up on me. Things have been a little bit absolutely insane lately and I didn't plan for this like I should have. She should have woken up to breakfast in bed and had flowers delivered, and found a present waiting for her that I had bought weeks ago. None of that happened. Instead I got on a plane. I got on the same plane twice actually because they found a "suspicious object" and had to take us all off, do a full security sweep of the plane, and then re-board us. My bet is they found a spork on the floor and TSA swooped in to handle the situation. So I got on a plane on Adrienne day, flew a couple states away and worked all day. In fact, I am still sitting at my desk.
Adrienne, I am sure, woke up and made breakfast for the kids. Made lunch for Reese, helped him get ready for his early morning Spanish class, and dropped him off. I bet she came home and read with the girls a bit, did some chores around the house, made them lunch, got them ready for and took them to gymnastics. She probably ran some errands, did some more things around the house, made dinner for kids and is getting them ready for bed soon. A pretty normal boring day.
I wish I had made the day special for her. We will have a raincheck and I promise I'll make it up to her.
Now, all that said, I really like our not too exciting days. Last night I was walking towards the dining room for dinner and there was this perfect image, framed through the doorway, lit warmly from above. My wonderful wife and 3 kids sitting around the table talking and smiling, and I felt as happy as I have felt about anything. I couldn't be more in love with Adrienne and more happy that I get to spend my days with her, boring or not.
Also, she is hot.
Take a second and wish Adrienne a Happy Adrienne Day!
See Past Adrienne Days
Joe the Bunny
My brother Joe and his wife Michelle are watching our kids while Adrienne and I are on a trip. He just IMed me with something our 5 year old, Anna, said apropos of nothing.
"Hey, I have an idea. When you lose a member of your family, you can just replace them with a pet. And the name would be no problem because you could just name them after the person you lost. I think I would want a fuzzy easter bunny. Hey, do you think reindeer talk?"
She is so going to kill him, buy a bunny, and name it Joe.
Tweet
The free wifi in SEATAC that sends all the world's knowledge right to my hands is running slowly today and now I feel grumpy. #fb
What did you THINK we would be talking about?
Walked past the kids' room just now and heard the eight-year-old and five-year-old talking.
"Hey, what are you guys still doing up?! What on earth are you talking about?"
"Dad, Anna had never heard of Martin Luther King and I was just giving her a quick overview of who he was and his most famous speech."
"Uh, OK, carry on..."
Shopping Cart-iquette « sharbrough.net
If you find yourself absolutely unable to replace the cart, after your best effort, just ask me for help. I'm very good at putting them back. I'm kind of strong. I can push the whole row together tighter. I've practiced and I can often roll a cart into the back of the last cart in the corral from a distance of 50 feet. It's great sport, and if a cart sails wide on me, I just laugh at it while I chase it and put it back like it goes.
Glow, Little Glow Reese
Reese accidentally cracked open a little glow stick he was playing with today. He asked if he could pour the liquid out into a jar. The glow stick was labeled "Non-Toxic" so we thought that seemed like a fun idea. He got a pair of scissors out and was cutting up the glow stick so he could more easily get the liquid out when we heard him yell, "Oh no!"
When he cut the little stick the top went flying. He happened to be standing at the sink in the master bedroom. You could just barely see a couple of liquid dots on the carpet glowing faintly. That is until I turned out the lights and we saw this:
Awesome!
I don't think we have to clean it up because you can't really see it with the light on and that stuff will probably stop glowing in a day or two right?
Then Reese pointed out that he thought he might have gotten it on his face as well. If you look closely you can see, sure enough, he did.
We turned off the light again. Somehow we were so amazed by the carpet that we had missed this!
Awesome! I hope it is permanent!
The moral of the story is that if you let your kids play with strange chemicals fun things will happen.
Mom can you help
"Momkanyoohelpeikat toonmiyooklale"
Our five-year-old, Anna, left this note on Adrienne's iphone this morning.
Translation:
"Mom can you help? I can't tune my ukulele."
