calvin and hobbes

By far my favorite comic is/was calvin and hobbes. I realise that the creator, Bill Waterston, discontinued the strip in 1995, but I still get it emailed everyday.

Here is my favorite:

The juxtaposition of modern fighter planes with prehistoric dinosaurs is brilliant! I laugh every time I see it. Only the mind of a child could come up with that... wait... or Waterston!

One of the best parts of calvin and hobbes to me is the unclear nature of Hobbes. Is he just a stuffed animal and a product of Calvin's imagination? Or, as in the play/movie Harvey, is Hobbes' true (supernatural) nature only seen by Calvin? I favor the latter. In rare interviews, Waterston has been vague on the subject... which I appreciate.

Art, as in humor, loses something special if explained...

Birthday Wishes

*UPDATE* This works for Christmas Too!

With my 56th birthday fast approaching (Nov. 10th), I started to put together my yearly birthday/Christmas list for "Geeks who are hard to buy for" (I know... don't end sentences in a preposition). See, I have a theory about presents... for the most part they should be frivolous... something you wouldn't normally buy for yourself because you might feel guilty about "wasting" money on something so pointless... (and that brings you so much joy).

Please don't think this blog post is a request to get me anything... but just in case... on to the list!

First is a really cool toy that I'll never get, but we can all dream!
It's a JetCat P-60 Gas Turbine Engine. It weighs slightly less than 2 pounds and produces 13 pounds of thrust with a maximum rotational speed of 165,000 RPM. It burns REAL jet fuel (like JohnEd's car) with a max consumption of 8 oz. per minute. With a pricetag around $2,495.00 I probably won't be getting one soon... much less 2, which would be needed for the A-10 Thunderbolt II replica I want to build. Imagine the look on the kids faces at our local R/C flyins!

Back to reality...

Next up is almost anything from ThinkGeek.com. Here one of my favs:


Star Trak Working Phaser. I had one of these as a kid, but it didn't really work... This one has lights and sound! Beam me up to the tree-house, Scotty!

Here's the rest of my ThinkGeek Wish List.



This is pretty cool too. It's air bubbles suspended in Lexan in the shape of DNA.

And last, but certainly not least is my Amazon Wish List Amazon Wish List with entries to fit any budget.

Brazil Rocks!

My wife and best friends left today for Rio de Janeiro, Brazil to spread a little Jesus with the natives. We're going to try using Skype to keep in touch while they're there.

Jealous? Nah! Have a Great Time!

* UPDATE * Skype works great and it's free!

That's not a bug...

As a Professional Software Developer® I'm constantly in a battle with QA and users over things that "happen" in my software.  They call these things a "bug"... I call them a "feature".  So I ran across this picture:

LaJ Lexicon

Words I use, from time to time, that some people don't understand (in no particular order):

Carboodle (noun) - Pronunciation: kär-bü-d'l  Definition: My choice; Generic.  Example: "What do ya'll want for dinner?" "I dunno" "Okay, we're having Carboodle!"

Jibblies (noun) - a man's external sex organs.  "It was so cold I froze my Jibblies off!"

Tump (verb) - to knock something over; usually liquids.  "Aww, man!  I tumped my beer over!"

All Y'all (plural pronoun) - the plural of Y'all

Bay, Bee - nicknames for my daughter Bailey.

Harp, Harpie, Scoota-boota - nicknames for my daughter Harper.

Boo, Sweets - affectionate nicknames for either of my daughters; not requiring me to remember their name.

Z Z - nickname for my sporty, black Mazda 3.  Zoom-Zoom!

Liv - nickname for my wife's Toyota Sequoyah.  Short for Leviathan.

Nina Patina - nickname for our cat Nina.

Smojj - nickname for our cat Smudge.

Peps, Pester - nicknames for our dog Pepper.

LaJmOn - nickname my collage mates gave me after I spent many weeks writing a simple monitor program for the Commodore 64.