Slightly Off Kilter

Surprise

In today's commentary, I consider the meaning of "surprise"

Read my commentary...

— posted by Vicki before noon on 2008_138 in commentary — Permalink

Treasures 2008_X20

Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.
-- Albert Einstein

These are my Treasures for the past fortnight.

Rich, home from a long-weekend out-of-town trip.
Toffee Banana
Long John Silvers Seafood Shoppe - now just a few miles from my house!
Positive feedback from some co-workers whose opinions I respect.

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— posted by Vicki before bedtime on 2008_137 in Treasures — Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Artichoke Nails

I cook artichokes in a pressure cooker. It takes about 15 minutes for the 6" diameter ones. But even then, the outer leaves may be a bit waterlogged while the heart is still a bit, shall we say, crunchy.

Recently, we had an idea. What if we jammed an aluminum potato nail up through the stem before cooking?

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— posted by Vicki after dinner on 2008_135 in Show & Tell — Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Twitter - Do You Get It?

Many years ago, my sister came home from school and shared a joke a friend had told her. We laughed. Then she told us what her friend said after he told the joke:

"Do you get it?! Do you get it?!
I don't get it."

More recently, a co-worker sent me a link to a question posted at YCombinator Hacker News:

Ask YC: Why should I care about Twitter?
Are many of our news.YC users also Twitter users? What do you find that you like about Twitter?

Reading the comments, I was reminded again that there are Two Kinds of People: Those who "get it" (in this case, Twitter) and those who don't. How can something so apparently simple be so difficult to understand?

Maybe because it's so simple.

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— posted by Vicki before noon on 2008_134 in WebTech — Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Twoosh

Twitter is a free social networking and micro-blogging service that allows users to send "updates" (or "tweets"); text-based posts, up to 140 characters

Up to 140 characters...

In January, @jobsworth asked “When you tweet, how does your instinct deal with the 140 limit? Do you find yourself "cutting back", "padding out" or "leaving as is"?”

I don't much care for really short posts, either to write or to read. I want some value for the tweet. Most of the people I follow post a few sentences most of the time, not just a few words. My own tweets have tended toward 100+ characters, give or take, always in complete sentences.

On occasion I've had to cut back when what I wanted to say went over 140, but most of the time, I just typed what I wanted to say and then sent it. Then I discovered tweet140.

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— posted by Vicki before noon on 2008_132 in Trivial Pursuits — Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Weekly Wrap-up 2008_19

The weather was Windy (Duh. It's May)

Rich was away for the weekend, visiting his dad. The cats and I cocooned together.

On Saturday. Bebop jumped onto the table by the couch. The table shifted, pulling the wirelss keyboard off onto the floor where two of the keys flew off when it hit. Ping ping! It took me quite a while to find the second key.

On the positive side, the floor is now cleaner behind the table. Lots of dust mice and paper balls (i.e. cat toys) removed. :) And the keyboard is now stored in the cabinet with the DVD player.

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— posted by Vicki before noon on 2008_131 in Gemisch/Gallimaufry — Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

From Microhoo to Lunch

In the wake of the Yahoo!-MicroSoft brouhaha, Yahoo! CEO Jerry Yang wrote there's a reason why we're the only fortune 500 company with an exclamation point at the end of our name, and now is the time to demonstrate what that exclamation point stands for.
To which a friend of mine responded: What about Yum! Brands? (OK, you could say that the ! is in the middle but the logo is Yum!). Yum! owns several fast food favorites, including Pizza Hut, KFC, and Long John Silver's.