It seems that Jenny's way with words has gotten around. She was recently invited to be a guest blogger on one of the big mormon blogs, Times and Seasons. I encourage all to go read, comment, and heckle.
Monday, September 25, 2006
Jenny Webb: Blogger Extraordinaire
Wednesday, September 20, 2006
My First Yeast Infection
On No! Does Nick REALLY have a yeast infection? You'll have to click 'read more...' to find out.
The answer is.... no. I do not have a yeast infection, for er... obvious reasons. However, I DO have some cream that was prescribed to me last week, the tube of which reads "for vaginal yeast infections and itch". Needless to say, when my wife picked it up from the pharmacy, and it had my name on it, the pharmacist looked confused.
(All it really is is 2 small 1/2 centimeter size spots on my leg that apparently is a fungus. I thought they were old zits(ok I'll stop with the TMI personal stuff))
Monday, September 11, 2006
Where Were You?
(To those who are sick of the constant barrage of 9/11 anniversary coverage, I duely apologize. (We have no TV reception so I haven't reached overload yet))
Where were you five years ago this morning? As I rummage through old papers, I find wrinkled yellowing copies of the Daily Universe at the bottom of the box. They've got the familiar pictures on their front pages. Holding them and seeing what age has done to the paper makes that day seem so long ago, but I just watched the video archive on Foxnews of the news coverage and it feels like yesterday.
I had just broken up with my first girlfriend and subsequently met Jenny. I was finally a BYU student after several failed attempts at being (re)admitted. I had just started my first real upper level physics classes at BYU. One of them was classical field theory. The homework was due by 8:00 am that Tuesday morning, so I was up there by 7:30. I remember the TV was on in the faculty lounge, though I didn't stop to watch since I'm not exactly a morning person and wanted to get back to bed. I walked back down the hill on south campus and returned to apartment 18 in southridge (or was it 16?). I honestly don't know why, but I turned on the TV.
I remember actually thinking that maybe it would be nice to start off the day with some news for a change instead of sleeping in. I saw one of the towers of the trade center with smoke coming out of it. I thought, "Those stupid New Yorkers, what have they done now?" It looked like there had been a fire in the building. Then I heard someone mention that a plane had hit it. I imagined it was some kind of small commuter plane. It was about 7:55. Someone then mentioned that a plane had also hit the pentagon. "Now THAT's not normal" I thought. I wondered why I couldn't see the other tower. Was it the position of the camera? Was it enveloped in the smoke?
Then I saw the tower collapse. Just like that. I realized why I couldn't see the other tower since all I saw was empty space behind where the now collapsed one was. I think I yelled to my roomates upstairs to get down there. Josh and Burton came down sleepy eyed, whose faces turned into ones of wide-eyed disbelief once they realized what had happened. Somehow, when someone tells you that two 110 story buildings just collapsed potentially killing tens of thousands of people, here, in America, it takes you a second to realize what the person said, and several more to even believe it.
Now there were three of us silently watching the coverage. Before the tower collapsed, I saw footage of hundreds of firefighters running in a line towards the building. Now, they were walking slowly in a line away from it, some with there heads down, crying. That was what first welled up my tears. The sight of the collapse was too shocking for tears, but seeing those big tough firefighters cry made me lose it too. I remember seeing footage of people hanging out of windows with smoke billowing out of them. I saw a picture of people jumping. That picture made me sick. Not vomit sick, but I was literally shuddering and had to look away. Within an hour we had a good 10 people watching, and many stayed most of the day. I don't think I left, except to go to class, which I'm pretty sure was canceled anyway.
Where were you that morning?
Saturday, September 09, 2006
First Do No Harm
Although normally a content and happy child, I am beginning to believe that Lucy desires to do herself harm.
No matter how hard I try, she keeps on bumping into/falling off of/getting stuck in things. And that's with the house as babyproofed as it can get and still be used as a dwelling space for sleep-deprived adults.
Did I mention she's stopped sleeping? I think that's also part of her plan. (And a very sad one at that: you know it's bad when you got better sleep when she was three months old ...). Either she wants to be so tired that she increases her chances of hurting herself, or she want us to be so tired that our cognitive skills (i.e., our ability to recognize potentially hazardous situations) fail.
If I say that I feel like I'm on a suicide watch, can we all understand that I'm not trying to make light of suicide in general but rather take that implied metaphor as an indication of the physical and emotional drain of these past few weeks? Good. Thank you.
I better go. She's off.
(I just looked at the book that I gave her from our bookshelves to keep her occupied and the title made me giggle in a oh-I'm-tired-but-this-is-amusing kind of way: King Lear. Maybe that's trying to tell me something....)
Friday, September 08, 2006
Celebrity Wisdom
I don't know why for sure, but I found this really funny. Maybe I've read too much Eric Snider lately or something.
By the way, did you know that you can read Eric Snider's columns for free now? Bonus. Now he and I can be poor together.
This is not my normal fare, but I'm trying to liven things up a bit in here.
Anyway, I saw this AP news story via Yahoo News.
My favorite quotes:
(Brad Pitt) "'Angie and I will consider tying the knot when everyone else in the country who wants to be married is legally able,' the 42-year-old actor reveals."
What do you mean Brad? Do you mean banjo-playin' cousins? How about Warren Jeffs-ites? Okay so I know he is talking about gay marriage, but it seems like he wants to take up some sort of homosexual-equality banner but is uncomfortable saying "homosexual" in public. Maybe he was trying to just be clever...I guess I hadn't thought of that. Perhaps more likely is that AP didn't do him justice in their excerpt of the interview.
(Brad again, about adopted children.) "They're as much of my blood as any natural born, and I'm theirs."
Fascinating. I assume you mean in every way but actually. I think I know what he's trying to say, but that's just a silly way to put it.
Anyway...my quest for precision in language and celebration of only people who deserve it continues.
Friday, August 25, 2006
It was the best of times, it was the blurst of times
If you need some motivation to blog...
One of these days we will create some Shakespeare or Blickens.
Thursday, August 24, 2006
Top Ten Toys
A recent discussion over children's toys has made me curious (all right, I was already curious to begin with, but now I'm curious about something as opposed to being merely odd ...).
Jon's musings on technology reminded me about our (Nick and I, not Jon and I, just to clarify) recent trips toy shopping for Lucy's first birthday. There were some great toys, but there was also a lot of crap. But in the end, Lucy really liked the toys that flashed lights and made noise when she pressed a button (luckily there's a volume control). She also liked her other more "traditional" toys: a ball, books, and puzzles. This whole experience has made me realize that I haven't paid much attention to toys since I was a kid, and that I really need to remind myself about what makes a good toy.
So my question here, after all that, is what were our favorite toys (as children)? What were the ones you always liked to play with, that your friends liked, and that you played with over and over again growing up? And, if you like, why did you like them so much?
Here's my top 10 (in no particular order):
1. Legos
2. Giant cardboard bricks and playhouse
3. Lincoln Logs
4. Wood blocks
5. Brio trains
6. Transformers
7. Cars and a "city" carpet
8. Playmobile
9. Fake food and cookery items
10. Book and record sets
I also have fond memories of our marbleworks set, my "visible woman" kit, model rockets, my hula hoop (I named it "Hulay") and playdough/clay ...
I really liked building things (I think that's clear) and making up stories about the things I built. I know I played with dolls, but they tended to be integrated into the story I was constructing (they were in the playhouse or on the city carpet--more accessory than focal point). I remember always wanting a Nintendo and a trampoline but we never acquired either. We did play a fair amount of computer games when I was a bit older on our Mac Classic: Dark Castle, Carmen Sandiego, and Brickles were my favorites.
Hope this was mildly interesting--please share!
Wednesday, August 23, 2006
Tuesday, August 22, 2006
Minas Tirith, Trampolines and Cake
Well, after one sick baby, two birthday parties, three missing trampine springs, four marshmellows, five days at the ocean, six levels of Minas Tirith, seven tanks of gas, eight hundred miles times two, nine birthday presents, and ten cousins, we're back. I am referring of course to our vacation up to Washington. It was a vacation that marked a few milestones for us: Lucy's first vacation, the first time that I really wanted to move back since I've been gone, Lucy's first times getting hurt, etc...
Like every year at the Washington coast, I built a big sandcastle with Steven, Jenny's brother. This year it was Minas Tirith:
It took us about five hours. Towards the end, we were getting tired, and this woman whose kids we let "build" with us (ie, babysit) came and helped us with the finishing touches. I wanted to make all the buildings individually and give them detail, but there just wasn't enough time unless it spilled over into the next day, and I had had enough Minas Tirith building for that week.
It was Lucy's birthday that week, so of course we had to have two birthday parties, one for each family. She got her first taste of cake which she gluttonously shoved into her face with both hands. She ate all four marshmellows on top too. She was pretty proud of herself:
As I mentioned, it was also the first time Lucy got hurt. We were on the previously mentioned trampoline that was missing three springs in a row, we turn our backs for half a second, and...whoops! There goes the baby through the hole, hitting her head on the wood boards keeping the dirt in place (the tramp is half underground), and luckily landing on her diapered bum. We were all a little distraught, I think us more than Lucy. She came through it with just a flesh wound but I think we are permanently scarred. She does really love the trampoline though:
While the ocean water wasn't really swimmable (it was colder than the high alpine lake I swam in last month), it was really refreshing to be there after the several weeks of post 100 degree weather in Utah. The weather is what made me want to move back. It didn't rain once, and it was in the 70s and lower 80s every day, with one or two in the upper sixties (and that was at the coast). And the proximity to water up there is a plus as well. And of course, Lucy seems to enjoy it:
Monday, August 21, 2006
Nurse Erin...but after this, I may consider computer engineering after all...
And no, Jenny, that's only a harmless placebo in the syringe.
Thursday, August 17, 2006
Why I Prefer Numbers over Words
Forgive me if I’ve already ranted about this.
Has anybody else noticed that automatic phone systems in call centers are becoming more advanced? By “more advanced”, I mean less intuitive and more obnoxious.
Let me relate an experience.
I called my phone company to cancel my long distance service a few weeks ago. I was greeted by pleasant pre-recorded voice asking me to say or enter my phone number. Since I despise talking with machines that will likely misunderstand me, I entered my phone number on the keypad. The machine soon told me something to the effect of “briefly give the reason for your call.” I said “Cancel long-distance service.” The machine replied with, “I understand you want to cancel your phone service. Are you moving?” I said “No” though I was sure that the machine had misunderstood me. I waited for precisely 15 minutes on hold before hanging up. I called right back. After entering my phone number again I said “change phone service”. The voice then said, “Our records show that you called us just a little while ago. Are you calling again because we did not resolve your issue on the previous call?” I said, “Yes” and was connected to an agent in less than 3 seconds who helped me.
Now I don’t know if the que was really just shorter when I called the second time, though I doubt that. There could be a separate “disgruntled customers” que that they send people to when they have to call back a second time. Maybe when Mr. Machine thought I said “cancel service” the first time they gave me a lower priority than anyone else and people that called after me but weren’t “cancelling service” were getting agents before me. Maybe some combination of those. Anyway, the point is that there was something going on that was much less intuitive than “first come, first served”.
There have been a few other companies/ agencies I have called that are trying this type of speech recognition technology (one was the post office). In each case it was maddeningly unhelpful and much worse than “Push 1 for your bill balance, Push 2 for … etc.”
Didn’t anyone learn anything from Jurassic Park? I thought the only moral that could be extracted from that movie is something like: “Just because we have the technology to do it doesn’t mean we should.”
Anyway, do you agree with me? Do you disagree with me?
I apologize for taking up more than my “quota” of quotation marks.
Sorry, I couldn’t resist. I promise I’ll stop starting … now.
Friday, August 04, 2006
Father Shem
Has anybody ever noticed a word that means something that they don't think it should mean?
I mean, in any language you have words that are variations of each other, and they have definitions that deal with the same subject or object. For example, the word "typical" means "regular" or "usual", the word "atypical" means "irregular" or "unusual", "typically" is an adverb meaning "usually" or "normally", "type" is a noun meaning "example" or "of a particular group", etc. These relationships between words with a common root make sense and follow a pattern similar to other words.
So here is what I don't understand. The following are entries from from Merriam-Webster.com (Please excuse the hard to read formatting.)
Main Entry: Sem·ite
Pronunciation: 'se-"mIt, especially British 'sE-"mIt
Function: noun
Etymology: French sémite, from Semitic Shem, from Late Latin, from Greek SEm, from Hebrew ShEm
1 a : a member of any of a number of peoples of ancient southwestern Asia including the Akkadians, Phoenicians, Hebrews, and Arabs b : a descendant of these peoples
2 : a member of a modern people speaking a Semitic language
Main Entry: Se·mit·ic
Pronunciation: s&-'mi-tik also -'me-
Function: adjective
Etymology: German semitisch, from Semit, Semite Semite, probably from New Latin Semita, from Late Latin Semitic Shem
1 : of, relating to, or constituting a subfamily of the Afro-Asiatic language family that includes Hebrew, Aramaic, Arabic, and Amharic
2 : of, relating to, or characteristic of the Semites
3 : JEWISH
Main Entry: an·ti-Sem·i·tism
Pronunciation: "an-tE-'se-m&-"ti-z&m, "an-"tI-
Function: noun
: hostility toward or discrimination against Jews as a religious, ethnic, or racial group
- an·ti-Se·mit·ic /-s&-'mi-tik/ adjective
- an·ti-Sem·ite /-'se-"mIt/ noun
You'll notice that even though the Hebrews are one people of many included in the term Semite, the word "anti-Semitic" seems to mean "anti-Jewish". That doesn't make sense. It's like saying that "anti-American" means you don't like Californians. The logical meaning for "anti-Semitic" is "against Semites" (including not just Jews, but all Hebrews, Arabs and other Semitic peoples). That kind of makes the thought of Ahmadinejad being anti-Semitic comical.
When people use the word "anti-Semitic" I really do think of being "against Semites", but that's not what they mean. So should I just give up, even though I think I'm right and everyone else is wrong? Am I making the classic blunder of getting too caught up in semantics?
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