chicus.com

Firefox Bookmark Management    Feb 25, 2008
I've recently started collecting links to photo galleries where friends post pictures of their children. For easy (and frequent) access I like to have the links on my bookmarks toolbar.

I only have three at this point (the Bunn triplets, Kaera Fritz, and Kate Masbruch) but plan to continue adding to it. Unfortunately, they are taking up a fair amount of landscape along my bookmarks toolbar, which I use religiously for frequented sites. Therefore I went searching and found a quick and easy way to open the links all at once which requires only one toolbar link.

Open in tabs the links you wish to include. Click "Bookmarks" -> "Bookmark All Tabs" and specify a name for the group (I named it 'kids'). It will create a folder in your bookmarks. Open "Bookmarks" -> "Organize Bookmarks" and drag the folder that was created to the appropriate position in the "Bookmarks Toolbar Folder." Close the bookmarks manager and then click the folder which is now in your bookmarks toolbar and select "Open All in Tabs". Viola, all three sites open in separate tabs.

I'm not going to pretend this is anything earth shattering but I'm tickled at the find. I'll be applying it to many other sets of links which can be similarly grouped.

Please email me privately if you have a similar site for your kids so I can include it as well!

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Access Blocked Sites    Jan 17, 2008
A few friends from a former job were passing around Youtube links this morning. I can't get on because youtube is blocked. It's no big deal, if anything I appreciate that I have a solid reason to not waste time when I get an email like the ones this morning.

I replied to all and jokingly mentioned how nice it must be to have access to Youtube and received this reply:

I learned a trick so you can go to youtube.

Open Calculator or Minesweeper, whatever.
Go to Help, then click Help Topics.
Once the Help Topics window is open, right click on the top window bar (you know, the same bar where the X and minimize are). There should be an option for Go To URL...

I love the creativity but I suspect you will draw more attention to yourself by doing this than you would if you were to just ask for access to Youtube. Regardless, I wanted to share in case any of y'all need to circumvent your corporate firewall.

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Omaha    Dec 07, 2007
Omaha. Somewhere in middle America. Get right to the heart of matters. It's the heart that matters more.

Those Counting Crows lyrics have always been close to my heart. Especially after leaving the midwest, it kind of centers me on who I am, what is important to me, and where I came from, both physically and emotionally.

Therefore, it has been a trying couple of days. Beyond the shooting in Omaha, I've experienced work and personal turmoil, which I will expand on at a later point. The only one I will discuss this evening is the shooting in Omaha.

On Monday night, as I rode the T home from volunteering, I noticed a boy who hopped on the D line shortly after me. I was standing in a doorway, opposite the doors which opened and he sat down in the seat nearest me, across the aisle. His dark-blond hair wasn't long enough to touch his shoulders but was longer than I've ever let my own hair grow, and either by design or through the wind, was a bit unkempt. His bespectacled eyes were set upon the portable video game in his hands and only looked up when he heard laughter, his pimple covered face would turn quickly and briefly to--as best I could tell--see if the laughter was aimed in his direction.

This kid, somewhere just beyond his senior year in high school, as far as I could tell, appeared to be acutely aware of the laughter, in a way which made me believe he was used to being laughed at (not with). It was clear to me the cachinnating passengers took no notice of him, yet he was suspicious.

Fast forward 48 hours, when a 19 year old who had been kicked out of his own home shortly after he turned 18 and recently broke up with his girlfriend and lost his menial job at McDonald's opened fire in an Omaha mall. Last night as I lay in bed I listened to an interview with the woman who took in Robert Hawkins and heard of how he spent much of his initial time at her home in the fetal position, chewing his fingernails. I heard about his suicide letter, where he apologized for being a burden on those whom he cared about. I heard about the life and thoughts of a kid who committed an atrocious act and...

and I haven't been able to shake that kid on the T from my mind. The suspicion with which he treated passengers seemed to show a life which was, at least in some ways, similarly tormented. I am in no way saying this kid is capable of or expected to commit such acts, I just saw the demeanor of someone who, I can say with some confidence, felt similarly driven away by society.

At the moment I saw him, prior to Omaha's events, I wondered how I could show him some kindness, a minor gesture to help him regain some self-confidence. The moment never arrived, as I said, he was engrossed in the video game and there was no opportunity for interaction.

However, since the shooting, I have wondered whether a small act, one seemingly minuscule and insignificant act of kindness, could prevent such an occurrence. Is it plausible that one kind gesture from a stranger, one minor act which is never recalled by the the one who commits it, only the one who receives the act, could provide some sense of hope to the recipient and as a result prevent a sequence of events such as what happened in Omaha?

Call me an optimist, but I believe it can.

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News Bits    Nov 06, 2007
Two friends passed along two different news stories which were oddly in the same vein. The first to appear in my inbox was a BBC article about "semi-identical" twins. In a nutshell, 2 sperm fertilize 1 egg which splits to create two babies, each with genes from both sperm.

I get a chuckle from the "semi-identical" tag. I suppose it you could say it is accurate. Biologically they have an identical set of genes from the mother and unique genes from the father's two sperm. However, I think it is like saying a window that is halfway open is "semi-closed". It's not completely open so it's closed, right? Well, not so much. I guess it is the absolute nature of the word identical. Either it is identical or it isn't, there doesn't seem to be any middle ground.

Oh, and one of the twins is a hermaphrodite. Kind of crazy.

Later I was given a link from Boston.com. Before I provide the link I should warn you the picture is a bit...I'm not sure what word I would use. Disturbing maybe, though I hate to use that word to describe a two-year-old. Alarming is fair warning. The girl has eight limbs, a result of having a parasitic twin. Doctors in India are performing surgery to remove the limbs, as well as the spine which is fused to her own and the kidneys which remain from her twin. Pretty crazy as well.

On a completely unrelated topic, Curt Schilling signed a 1 year contract to remain with the Sox. The noteworthy part of this is the incentives in his contract. His base pay is $8 mil with bonuses for innings pitched and receiving a Cy Young vote...these are somewhat standard. However, there is a $2 mil incentive for him to report to spring training in shape and remain so for the entirety of the season. Two mil to exercise! Admittedly he will be 41 when next season begins and it has to be more difficult for him to be MLB-ready at that age. But two million bucks? Does he have enough money that $1 million is not enough incentive for him to get into shape? What is the magic amount that all of a sudden makes it worthwhile to be in shape? He says it is to show he understands the importance of being in shape but shouldn't that be a given for someone who has pitched for as long as he has? It's just kind of ridiculous.

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Odd Iowa Jack-O-Lantern Law    Oct 31, 2007
I tried to wrap my head around this last night. It's been a busy week or so (and will continue to be so through this weekend with my first video shoot) but I took a few minutes last night to look at the news in my home state. What did I find?

Evidently Iowa now taxes the sale of jack-o-lanterns. Not pumpkins, just jack-o-lanterns. It's just really odd to me. If they are of a specific variety and advertised as eating pumpkins, there is no tax. If they are of any other variety (do you know which type you buy?) or advertised as decorative, they are taxed.

In the control room today we were talking about odd laws, like one that forbids Massachusetts residents from taking a donkey to the third floor of a dwelling. That was clearly a holdover from a foregone era but then I mentioned this new law from the Hawkeye State. I think Matt said it best when he likened it to a tax on the sale of a car which would be driven over 70 mph. Would you say you were going to drive it over 70 mph if nobody was going to check up on you?

Truthfully, this is a minor issue. I think the pumpkins I bought this year (not to be eaten but for use in a pumpkin beer...where does that fall?) were about $5 each. They were reasonably sized so it would have cost me about $.75 more, assuming a 5% sales tax. Not a bank breaker. However, the part of the law I found intriguing is that you could purchase a pumpkin with food stamps and they were tax free. Perhaps it was poor reporting or perhaps it is how the law was written but it is unclear if the untaxable food stamp pumpkins must be of the certain variety that is edible and marketed as so. Does it really matter how they are marketed? I think it is safe to say a vast majority of pumpkins sold in IA are purchased from pimply-faced clerks at grocery stores. Speaking from my experience as a pimply-faced grocery store clerk, I feel it is also safe to say 98.4% (margin of error +-.03%) don't really care about new rules governing the taxation of gourds.

Anyhow, maybe this wasn't worth an article but I thought it was kind of dumb. Way to nickel and dime your residents IA. I hope you reap what you sow and everyone in border towns drove across state lines for tax-free pumpkins!

Oh, and happy halloween.

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A Few Sox Thoughts    Oct 29, 2007
Hey, I don't normally write from work but I wanted to jot down a few thoughts at lunch.

It was an underwhelming series, IMHO. There were close points of each of the last three games but the sox only trailed 1-0 for 3 innings in game 2. I don't want to say it was easy, it was close in the three final games. However, even when the Rox were gaining ground there wasn't a sense that the Sox pitching couldn't handle it. That came off totally cocky and was not my intent but whatever.

Finally I get to sleep. I was (nearly) praying for CO to blow out the Sox early so I could go to bed last night and not miss the celebration. Thanks for nothing Rockies.

I bet on the games with Stacey, a Loras friend who now resides in CO. I won chocolate chip cookie bars (she hasn't mastered teh art of baking cookies in altitude), a CO wine, and a CO beer...better not be Coors! We didn't bet on game 4, I was hoping it would change the Rockies fortune and they would extend the series.

Woo-hoo, we get to deify a local sports team! Collectively that group of 25 makes more $$ than all school teachers in Boston combined and now, after winning a game, they get to roll down the street in boats with wheels and millions of people get to applaud them. Quite a reception for a group of people whom ultimately are merely a diversion from daily life. (Thank goodness the Sox won, otherwise this would sound like sour grapes.

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Kinda Sorta Running Diary    Oct 22, 2007
I'm going to run sort of a running diary for ALCS game 7. I've tried this before and always quit because it got long and boring. I'll try again, possibly dropping the quantity of posts to work on better quality.

8:03 - Sooo...Paul Byrd took HGH for a pituitary gland problem and is under the care of an endocrinologist. That does seem valid. However, can you explain to me why it was a dentist who prescribed the HGH? Didn't think so.

8:11 - The more things change the more they stay the same. Tim McCarver's mom may not dress him anymore but he's still wearing the suits from when she did.

8:15 - I was just talking with Kirsten about who the bookmakers are favoring. I found the line (over/under of 10 and -180). Then I got to google "understanding baseball betting." I feel like a big loser.

8:43 - McCarverism #1. A pitcher has a distinct advantage when there are two strikes. It's not as bad as the "A HR to start the inning creates more multi-run innings than a walk to start an inning" nugget from Game 5. I say that because he provided some stats about how only 1 player had a BA over .300 in that situation. Still, it's pretty freaking obvious.

8:46 - Sox get only 1 in the first, a bit disappointing after having the bases loaded with 1 out. I do like that we did it on 4 hits, not a solo HR, they were able to get to Westbrook. It makes me wonder if any of their relievers that threw last night are available.

8:54 - Line out, ground out, ground out on 8 pitches to set down the Tribe in the second. Not too shabby.

9:05 - Sox had runners on first and third, no out, Lugo at bat (playoff BA of .174) and the top of the lineup due. Why not have Lugo sac bunt Ellsbury to second to get out of the DP? You give up 1 out to have two in scoring position with the top of the order up. As it was, he hit into a DP that scored Tek. We got a run, so it is fine, but I kind of liked the other thought.

9:19 - Dice-K Ks Sizemore with a runner on second to end the inning. He looks intense and focused. I guess he had a conversation with Schill before the game, wouldn't you love to be a fly on the wall for that conversation?

9:36 - Hearing them say "Casey Blake went to second" reminded me of this fund raiser gone awry. It reminds me of the pub crawl to support breast cancer (the defeat of it, to be exact) that started and ended at Hooters. I should add that the crowd was quite coed, it wasn't just a bunch of dudes looking for a reason to visit Hooters twice in one night.

9:59 - The Sox ground into their 473rd double play of the series. You probably think I am exaggerating for dramatic effect but I'm not smart enough to do that.

10:17 - DiceK gets through 5. I can now say what I was thinking throughout. It's ridiculous but I was kind of trying to not jinx it. I know, it is absolutely ridiculous. He was solid through 3, good through 4, and it was time to pull him after 5. If Grady Little were the manager he'd come back out. Luckily, Grady Little was fired. And then fired by the Dodgers. Anyhow, Matsuzaka had spurts of wicked stuff tonight. He had great movement, it was really pretty to watch. He was good this year but he will be great next year. His off-season routine will change and he will be ready for MLB baseball.

10:25 - Just realized that through 5 we had as many runs as we had hit into double plays. It's kind of an ominous stat but the fact that we are up seems like kind of a positive omen.

10:37 - The Denny's commercial got me in the mood for IHOP and I had to google for the operating hours of nearby IHOPs. Their worthless site has crappy maps and no operating hours. Googling for IHOP, the second embarrassing google of the night.

10:38 - There's only 1 World Series. There's only 1 Fall Classic. There's only 1 October. Dane Cook, there's only 1 minute left in your 15.

11:49 - TAKE THAT COKE BOTTLE!! If it wasn't over after Pedroia's base clearing triple it is over now. 11-2, I now feel as though I can't jinx it. I know, it is nuts. But they did win tonight, didn't they? So maybe I am not that nuts? Eh? Eh? Nope, it is ridiculous.

11:58 - Game, set, match. Up 9 and Coco rams into a wall to chase down the final out. That's either heart or stupidity. I do feel genuinely bad for Kenny Lofton. He's been to the playoffs on 11 occasions with 5 teams and has never walked away with a ring.

Ugh. I just realized I have a five day video shoot beginning October 31. It's quite likely that after some late nights of baseball I'll be spending the the next day in a dark control room watching math problems being worked out on paper. And, at absolute worst, I will not be able to go to a parade if they should win. Poor planning on my part.

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