Vegas vacation. Sorry for the hiatus. Well, not really. I’m out of town and trying to not think of work or if I have a “data miner” on my computer. I have been thinking a lot about “buffalo wings” though. They are named that because of Buffalo, NY. That’s not what I have been pondering though. What gets me is that they call them “Buffalo Wings” and usually half of the platter or basket are actually drumsticks which come from chicken legs and not wings. I guess that by calling them wings they avoid confusion with buffalo (the mammal) legs which one would expect to be much larger.

If an optimist says that the glass is half full and a pessimist says that the same glass is half empty consider this…

What if the fluid is Guinness? A Guinness drinker might say the glass is half-empty but is being an optimist in looking forward to the next full glass. But if the person was a Bud Light affectionado with the same glass of Guinness in front of them they might describe it as half full because they doubt they’ll be able to finish the pint because they feel like they already ate a loaf of bread.

What if the vessel is larger or smaller than a drinking glass? Perhaps it is a Pyrex 2 cup measuring glass. The recipe calls for one cup of milk. I’m sure any cook would call the measuring cup “half full” and not say that it needs to be “half empty” – does that make all cooks optimists? I hate to be a pessimist, but i doubt it. And a baby sucking on a bottle might glance up and think “crap, the bottle of milk is already half-empty.”

These and other variables cause me to coin a term – Potentialist. You see, when i see a glass at the half way mark i don’t call it half full or half empty. It is half of what it could be.

Friendster sucked. Myspace was ok for a while but i felt like a internet stalker any time i tried to strike up a conversation with someone i didn’t know. The only friend requests i had were from bands or groups and then one guy that was just being a friend whore. It seems like whenever i try and use the “service” i get a bunch of these…

I’m done with it. I have my own domain and site. I have conversations that go on here with people that i know and like. I don’t need to be part of a online friend group to have a network of friends.

Well, the voting is over and Petersburg will be building a new swimming pool. 566 yes votes to 246 no votes. I’m still a bit stunned. I did not expect the vote to pass by that margin. Five years ago when we voted the measure passed by about 100 votes. Voter turnout was higher – but it wasn’t a special election. This larger margin will be looked upon favorably by the Rasmuson Foundation when i submit our grant request.

As a result of this election we’ll apply for Rasmuson Foundation support, continue to hope that the state revises their decision that 61% of the facility qualifies for educational funding, and when the Governor signs the state budget in May we’ll go out to bid. Then hopefully by October we’ll be breaking ground on the new facility and construction should be completed within a year. Two years from now the school, parks and recreation, and the whole community will have a new facility to use.

I have a lot of work ahead of me.

Marley gets stuffed animals from the Salvation Army second hand store as toys. She really likes teletubbies. I have caught her licking their rubber faces before tearing them open and distributing the stuffing all over the living room or the deck. Once upon a time Marley got to rip apart a Laa-Laa (the yellow one) that had a voice emitter thingy. I rescued the plastic box from certain doom in Marley’s jaws (and probably saved Marley from some bruises on her head from giving the “plush” toy death shakes). The white box sat around for a long time. I finally figured out what i wanted to do with it. This is not the actual series of events but if i write it this way it makes me seem much more organized and focused.

I opened up the white box and checked out the button and tiny circuit board. I tore a headphone jack from an old sound board from a computer and soldered connections to the speaker outputs from the circuit board. I used my dremel tool to grind out space to mount the headphone jackand drilled a hole for the plug. I then superglued the jack into place and reconnected the system. Tada! I now have an output on the annoying voice box. So for each button press i get to hear one of five random teletubby sounds. Is that useful? It is when you attach a computer speaker to the output and mount the button next to the front door. I now have the world’s first and only Teletubby doorbell.

Pictures will follow…