Fat Gene: It Really Exists — MSN.com I don’t believe this at all. There aren’t enough genes to cover all the human frailties we’ve blamed on genetic causes. Read more →
October 2002
Overheard
The best thing about all the NBA players from Europe and Latin America is when they’re interviewed after the game, you can understand them. Read more →
World Series Recap
Two World Series tickets: $220 Parking: $10 Program: $10 Souvenir apparel: $104 Rally monkey: $15 Two hot dogs, two sodas, one pretzel: $17 Watching home team win World Series, with son, after 41 years of futility: Priceless, baby. My son is 9, a little older than I was when my dad took me to my first Angels game somewhere around 1966. Read more →
Going to the World Series
The conditions have been met. Within the hour, we’re leaving for Edison Field and Game 7 of the World Series. Read more →
Dusty Baker’s Kid
Isn’t Dusty Baker a little old to have a 3-year-old son? And if he wants to bring the kid to work, to sit him in the dugout during the World Series, couldn’t he for godsake keep an eye on the kid so he’s not running around home plate in the middle of play? I would have given anything to see that kid on the receiving end of a Ray Fosse-style collision. That would have been in my Top 10 Memorable Moments in Baseball for sure. Read more →
Tae Kwon Do
My son receives his tae kwon do black belt. Read more →
Profiles in Management
If our Director of Project Management took the time that he spends fine-tuning his goatee, his eyewear and his hair color, and put it into reading one or two of the classic software management texts, I probably wouldn’t get so squeamish every time I have to look at him. I would also feel a little better about my career if our CEO didn’t wander into product demos while stuffing his face with Cheetos from the vending machine. Thus spoke The Programmer. Read more →
Whatever Happened To . . .
Day traders? Read more →
A Couple of Quotes on Software Design
I conclude that there are two ways of constructing a software design: One way is to make it so simple there are obviously no deficiencies and the other way is to make it so complicated that there are no obvious deficiencies. A feature which is omitted can always be added later, when its design and its implications are well understood. A feature which is included before it is fully understood can never be removed later. — C. A. R. Hoare, Turing Award Lecture, 1980 Read more →
Musical Humor
Q: What do you get when you drop a piano down a mine shaft? A: A flat minor. Q: Why did the chicken cross the road? A: To get away from the bassoon recital. Read more →
Two Tickets
I’m now the proud owner of two tickets to Game 7 of the World Series, provided there is a Game 7, and provided that it’s played at Edison Field (which it will be if the Angels are the AL champs). Read more →
Donnie Moore
There’s a sad story on Donnie Moore’s daughter in the Orange County Register today . . . In 1986, the Angels were one out away from the World Series when Moore gave up a two-run homer to Boston’s Dave Henderson. The Angels lost the game, lost the next two games to lose the series, and — until this season — haven’t been in the playoffs since. Three years later, Moore killed himself with a gun. Read more →
Damn Yankees
I know all about it. But I don’t see it as magic. They have a good team. It isn’t magic. — Troy Percival on the Yankee mystique Percival’s first pitch last night was a 97 mph fastball that “accidentally” sailed about two feet inside and drilled Alfonso Soriano. Soriano had celebrated a go-ahead home run earlier in the game with a fist-pumping curtain call. Read more →
Janeane Garofalo
From an OC Weekly interview with Janeane Garofalo: OC Weekly: With war brewing, are you venturing into foreign policy? Janeane Garofalo: I can’t think of how to say something funny about how I feel about a preemptive strike in Iraq. But I am on top of all the news, and I am endlessly disappointed in the news. I am extremely angry. . . . Read more →
Geography
This is probably why geography has not really been taught since World War II — to keep people in the dark as to where we are blowing things up. — Gore Vidal Read more →