Incredibly awesome and tasty, or too tainted by being from McDonald’s?
I’m still undecided, and usually have 2 or 3 cups of it a day…
Sophie from Shinola, Part 2
This post is part of a multi-blog, round robin, create your own chaos, short story write-a-thon. It’s sorta like Ficlets, but on a larger, less organized, slightly longer form. You can still play if you’re reading this before noon on Sunday, just go to Nathan’s blog and he’ll add you to the pool. It should be tons of fun.
Link to Sophie from Shinola, Part 1 (The story starts halfway down the page)
Sophie from Shinola, Part 2:
Objectively, Sophie knew that the real SpaceForce wasn’t all adventure and excitement, but compared to Chenolla VI, anything had to be an improvement. “Jeez”, she thought, “What’s taking so long?”
It was easy enough to take this little girl’s body over, but over the past few months, the Trageth officer had begun to sympathize with her “family” on Chenolla VI. Why aren’t these idiots preparing for the battle? Yes, the Space Force is powerful, but they can’t defend all the human planets at once. When the sterilization fleet comes to this planet, the best defense the humans will have is fishing poles!
All the preparations were made in the beryllium mine, and the accelerated decay was already spewing beryllium ions into subspace, signaling the start of the first wave. If Sophie didn’t get accepted into the Space Force, and off this planet, she would die with all the stupid fishermen.
“Why are they making us wait, Mom?” Sophie muttered, nervously.
“They’re warming up the brain remover, dear.” Said her mother, as she casually flipped a page in her magazine.
Sophie panicked, and almost suicidally released the real Sophie to avoid the torture herself. After a moment, however, she realized the mother was playing the human lying game. Some humans lied like this more than others, but Sophie’s mother was particularly evil. The past few months had taught her how to deal with situations like this, but with her current stress regarding the interview, she momentarily slipped. Thankfully, the mother hadn’t noticed.
“Shut up, Mom, they already removed my brain in school.”
“Nice, Soph. Nice.” her mother chuckled.
It was reasons like that which required the humans to be destroyed. They lied to their own nestlings! How could they ever be trusted as allies? Sophie was even more determined to get accepted into the Space Force and help destroy these evil creatures. They’re so seductive! So many times I’ve wanted to suggest a peace negotiation, and then they lie for nothing more than evil pleasure!
“Mom, what are you and Dad going to do when I go off to the Space Force?” Sophie asked.
“Oh, I think we’ll be fine, dear. The one I’m really worried about is Blink. Are you sure you don’t want him to stay here? No one is really sure if they can survive off planet, and you might not see him for months.”
Sophie from Shinola, Part 3, written by MWT.
Sophie from Shinola, Part 4, written by Eric
(More links as more parts are written!)
Chucks!
I’ve wanted a pair of Converse All-Stars my entire life. When I was younger, they were out of our price range, and then when I got to the point that I could afford them, I sorta forgot about my desire.
Then, I saw a pair at the shoe store when I was replacing my 7 year old sneakers. I instantly fell in love, and bought them, not caring what anybody else in the world thought. Can a 32 year old man wear shoes like this and not look foolish? Uh, well, since it’s me we’re talking about, foolishness isn’t really on my no-no list, so it didn’t matter. As it turns out, however, everybody seems to love them.
Oh, and I always assumed they’d be terribly uncomfortable, since they have no arch support, or fancy new-age design. I was sooooo wrong. These shoes are amazingly comfortable. More comfortable than any shoes I’ve ever owned. Ever. They really are amazing, and I can’t picture a time in my future I won’t own a pair. 🙂
My Chucks!
My Chuck Taylor, Converse All-Stars. These are the coolest shoes on the planet. I just thought you should know. 🙂
D.A.R.E.
This is Amanda. This is Amanda’s Drug Abuse Resistance Education diploma. She completed the course, passed whatever tests need to be passed, and made her parents proud.
I’d like to take this time to share my views on speaking to your kids about drugs. Do it. Often.
Yes, yes, that’s a pretty common mantra, “Talk to your kids about drugs.” What I want to stress though, is that you really need to talk with them about drugs. Openly. Freely. With it being OK to joke about it, and ask questions, and be comfortable about the topic. We should discourage drug use, but encourage drug awareness.
If your child associates “drug talks” as some dark, threatening, awkward thing that must be endured from parents — your talks will do very little once your child grows “wings” of their own. Don’t let that happen. Make it so that your kids know more about drugs than the peers trying to force them into it. Let your kid be the one that confidently and correctly calls them idiots for doing drugs.
Ok, that’s my public service message. I’m proud of Amanda. She’s awesome. 🙂
Computer Generated Coupon Problems
Our local grocery store has a machine that prints coupons for you as you check out. It bases the particular coupons on the things you buy, and has a fairly good track record of choosing appropriate products. I just went to the store to pick something up for dinner for the kids. Our purchases were:
- (1) Bottle of sparkling grape juice. (The kids like to pretend its wine)
- (2) Bags of Doritos (they’re on sale buy one get one)
- (3) Kid Cuisine TV dinners.
And this is the coupon that printed out for me:
Don’t get me wrong, $2.00 off seems like a good deal and all, but I find the demographics a bit off…
The Truth About Jam
There are a couple things I want you to notice about this picture. It’s poor quality is not one of them. 🙂
1) Janiece sent me this jam, because she’s really awesome, and I am pathetically awesomely fast with comments.
2) It arrived when I was in Houston, and my family waited until I got home to open it. Which means that:
3) The missing jam has all been consumed in the past few days. 🙂
I know what you’re thinking. I’m a big pig, and I eat the stuff out of the jar with a spoon. Well, you’re only partially right. I did take a big spoonful out to try it. BUT, the majority of jam consumption was accomplished by my family. That’s significant because they normally don’t like strawberry jam. This is assuredly due to the yumminess of her creation.
Thanks Janiece!!!
Wisdom From Dr. Seuss
“Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don’t
matter and those who matter don’t mind.”
Math for Telecommuters
As a public service to the blogosphere, I will give the following advice:
6AM EST is not 9AM PST. It is, in fact, 3AM PST, and not a terribly appropriate time for an online meeting.
You’re welcome.
🙂
I Got Nothin’
I’m tired. It’s been a long week.
One funny story (well, funny for me):
I was talking with my friend Josh this evening, and he commented that Easter week is always really busy and tiring. He’s a pastor, so I’m sure that’s the case. My response was, “Yeah, it was pretty tough on Jesus too…”
To which we both laughed. It was probably blasphemous, but still, funny. 🙂
Houston.
There’s so much to say about the trip to Houston, but I’ll try to stick to pertinent information, and leave things like wearing a “Feeling Lucky” shirt at a restaurant on gay night out of the story. 🙂
Linux Journal flew me out to Texas for a meeting. I wasn’t entirely sure what the meeting would involve (I suspect part of it was just “played by ear” on their end too.) They actually flew a couple other people out as well, including Jill Franklin and Mitch Frazier. (Carlie Fairchild, Katherine Druckman, and Mark Irgang were already there.)
The specific details of the meetings aren’t terribly interesting, but part of the outcome is this:
It has officially goodness…
And I’m thankful the first 3 letters of the job title weren’t done in bold. Although that would have been HILARIOUS.
Which is, you know, pretty cool. I will continue to be the video Gadget Guy, and we might come up with other cool things for both the website and magazine. They’re all such a great group to work with, I expect awesomeness in the future.
I’m also still working full time at the school here in Michigan, and have no intentions of changing that. Who knows what the future will bring, but I really love my job at the school. I expect I’ll do some more traveling than I’m used to, but that’s actually pretty exciting. 🙂
So there you have it. Linux Journal is awesome, the people are awesome, and unless I do something really dumb, I should be working with them for the foreseeable future.
Stay tuned later for a podcast. I’ll probably talk a bit about the trip there too.