Matthew Dicks's Blog, page 670

Deathbed regrets

I don't ever plan on dying, but if I did, I would hope to die without too many regrets. 

A palliative care worker recently wrote about the top five regrets that she heard from dying patients.  They are:

1.  I wish I'd had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.

This should not be a problem for me.  In fact, I may end up wishing that I had been willing to conform a little more often in the course of my never-ending  lifetime, but we'll see.  Either...

She must think shes married an idiot

Elysha:  You know that you shouldn't wash the whole container of strawberries at once.  Right?  If you do, they will spoil faster.  Just wash the strawberries that you're using.  Okay?

Me:  I need to wash the strawberries?

Definition by dollars

A story on NPR told of artist Justine Gignac, who packages New York City garbage into plexiglas cubes and sells these cubes for a profit. He began his venture in order to prove that the packaging of a product makes a big difference in how it is perceived. Attempting to sell garbage seemed like a good way to prove his point.

He began selling his cubes for $10, and customers initially purchased these cubes as gag gifts and souvenirs.

Sales were so good that he eventually raised his price...

Big head finally explained

Things finally make sense to me.

A survey of 1,000 Iraqi teens reveals a surprising effect of living in a war torn country.  It seems that when faced with an indirect threat to one's self or nation, human beings take action to raise their own self esteem.

Researchers from the University of Cincinnati conducted a survey that measured the self-esteem of 1,000 Iraqi teens living in ten neighborhoods in Baghdad.

All teens were exposed to news of assassinations, mortar attacks, car bombs, and...

Restaurant complaints

Elysha and I decided to share a shake at dinner tonight.

"Would you like one glass and two straws?" the waitress asked.

"No," Elysha said.  "We don't need to do that.  We're already married.  Two glasses is fine."

I was upset, having already envisioned our two smiling faces converging on the two straws in the center of the table.  It got worse when the waitress sided with Elysha, informing me that it is not the 1950s and I needed to get over my disappointment. 

Not nice.

This was not...

A reason to like the fashion industry

I can't stand the fashion industry. 

Even though I readily admit to watching Project Runway (for the creativity and problem-solving on display and not the fashion), the whole industry makes me a little sick.  The obsession over physical appearance that the industry promotes, it's use of the use of stick-thin models, and the way in which labels are plastered all over items for the sole purpose of allowing others to equate the price of the item to its perceived value is ludicrous...

The encore is stupid.

Does anyone else find this social dance bizarre and insulting?

The concert seemingly comes to an end, the band steps off stage, yet the lights in the theater remain low. There is an unspoken expectation between the band and the audience that regardless of the quality of the performance, the crowd will remain in their seats, making a requisite amount of noise in order to coax the band back on stage, despite the knowledge of all present that the musicians intend on returning regardless of the...

New words in the OED

The OED announced it's list of new words this week. 

Here are some of them, including a few thoughts of my own:

chill pill- a notional pill taken to make someone calm down chillax- calm down and relax bargainous- costing less than is usual or than might be expected; cheap or relatively cheap

I don't like it when the OED adds words that I cannot use because doing so would make me sound stupid and/or thirteen-years old.  These three words fit this category well.  They were not...

Parental fears come to life

Based on surveys collected by Christie Barnes, mother of four and author of The Paranoid Parents Guide, the top five worries of parents are, in order:

Kidnapping School snipers Terrorists Dangerous strangers Drugs

But how do children really get hurt or killed?

Car accidents Homicide Abuse Suicide Drowning

My top five worries are:

Choking on food Drowning Falling a height that exceeds my daughter's height Discovery of a previously...

Work-around of the decade

A week or so ago, I complained about the ridiculous size and placement of the Caps Lock key on the average keyboard.

Then I found this.

The answer to all my troubles.

A hotkey script that keeps the Caps Lock function from activating unless the key is struck twice.

Brilliant. The best news of the week.

Download it immediately.