Mild Amusement

It's that time again, when I remind everyone that little kids are ridiculously fun to be around. Amazingly enough, this is actually the eighth installment in this "series," (if you're curious, here's the last one before this ) which means that I know a bunch of funny little kids. As always, I feel compelled to point out that I'm not actually laughing at the munchkins (I actually tend to get annoyed by people who do). I'm laughing with them, and I always take the opportunity to correct them if it's necessary. It's just hard not to be amused when one of them says something clever or unintended. So, without further ado, I present to you the latest bout of amusement that I've seen: (I am feeling sick, so I go to the fridge to get something to keep myself hydrated) Kid: "Sam, what's that?" Me: "Oh, it's juice" Kid: "Why are you drinking it?" Me: "I feel kind of sick, so I need to drink something....

I always get a laugh out of a good bet. I've been partial to a few good ones over the time that I've been blogging, so I've written about bets for finishing one's meal , running during vacation , and making it to work on a Monday morning . Win, lose, or draw, the bets have always made me laugh. Well, I made another bet that made me laugh, only this time, I ended up laughing at myself. Actually, I made a pair of bets. I was having dinner with a friend who generally doesn't like to be adventurous with food, so somehow we settled on a bet: she had to eat what I ordered for her for one meal. Remember, I'm the kind of person who will intentionally order items on menus that I haven't had before (and being able to roll with the culinary punches has been helpful on at least one occasion), so she really was taking a chance in making this bet. Ultimately, I ordered something fairly tame for her, a fish dish that she normally wouldn't have ordered. Still, it all...

I make no secret of the fact that I have geeky hobbies. I've been known to read comic books and wear associated t-shirts on occasion. I can still be goaded into a Lego competition by little kids, I keep a chess set in the office , and I have a highly developed sense of curiosity that often leads me to learn about random things like cooling a room without air conditioning . Heck, I work as a software developer during the day, so if nothing else, I've got geeky tendencies. None of this is a problem for me, it's just a part of my personality. If others want to judge me based on that, that's their prerogative. I'll happily go on doing my thing. Of course, I purposely said that it's part of my personality. As much as I enjoy doing some of those things, I also think I should try to be a well-rounded human being. The cliche of the absent minded professor is not something I aspire to, and I think people fall into the trap of using that as a crutch. Sure, everyo...

I forget who first mentioned Google Voice to me, but as soon as I heard about it, I liked the idea. It lets you have a phone number that you know will never change, regardless of which carrier you use, what country you're in, or just about any details of your physical presence. You can then have any phone you want ring when you receive calls, so it gives you all sorts of flexibility. It's entirely possible to have people call you and have it make a work phone ring, and then three hours later, have that very same phone number ring totally different number at home. Basically, it gives you more options, so I'm a fan. Well, for the most part. I don't usually mess with the call forwarding aspects of it, but I do like having a web interface for all of my voice mail and text messages. This is particularly useful when I'm at work, since I turn my phone notifications off when I'm there. I can switch over to a different tab to check in on messages when I know I have ...