no sympathy

Please allow me to introduce myself
I'm a man of wealth and taste
I've been around for a long, FOUR years
Stole many a man's soul and faith

Yes, I've been watching the RNC coverage combined with some listening to lyrics of my favorite songs.

(please note most all my posts are non political but certainly not this one)

According to Wikipedia Thugs from the Thuggee cult

The Republican strategists attempts to polish up mean Mr. Mustard’s image enough to reassure swing voters that he is OK enough was on full display. In other words, asking for sympathy for the devil (more about the devil part later).

The week before I watched the DNC coverage. I watched both on the PBS channel. I enjoy the commentary. I used the mute button more with the RNC coverage.

So Trump got his name in fireworks over the Washington monument. That should be enough. Resign now it's not going get better Donny John. Oh, spelled out in fire, the devil? Oh never mine.

As I checking the lyrics to the Rolling Stone's hit song, I came across this line:

And I laid traps for troubadours
Who get killed before they reached Bombay

I had no clue to what this referenced. Thanks to a bit of clicking on the internet I found it most likely refers to the Thuggee cult in India's past. Some historians believe the British exaggerated the problem to justify some harsh laws in India. I don't know, but it had me thinking of the thugs associated with mean Mr. Mustard. I included the Thugs picture I found on wikipedia.  

The devil in the details - a favorite phrase but since I don’t really believe in the religious concept of the devil, I’m using the term more as slang. I do love deviled eggs.

another day another drain

This happened before in August 2013. I know because I posted about it. (link to old post)

As laid on the bathroom floor contemplating my next attack on the drain pipes, I thought of that old commercial showing fallen seniors not being able to get up again. For my situation I would change to the script to:

Help! I've tried some plumbing and I can't get up.

got my clovis strap working

Twisting and turning to position the tools in the small space under a sink works better on a younger more flexible body. Another idea inspired by this do-it-yourself plumbing - plumbing yoga. Plumbing yoga would increase your flexibility along with teaching common plumbing fixes.

Enough on plumbing joys and tribulations. I can move now, so I'm moving on.

Just going back to the days of the last administration did you ever imagine that tweets twittered to the world would be the subject of international news? I’m still holding out of joining the twitter world but Eric Zorn of the Chicago Tribune scans twitter for his favorites. Here’s a recent one:

“If you're sitting in public and a stranger takes the seat right next to you, just stare straight ahead and say, ‘Did you bring the money?’”

If I was on twitter (really what is the point of joining?) I would have tweeted a few days ago:

I feel like a battery short of lighting a flashlight. If I owned a fitbit it would indicate dead.

I failed to write a segue for this last thought. Do you really care? You've made it to the bottom of the post now. I found this interest story of Louie Louie on the Marketplace website.

mind if I tweet while I listen in

Been here before? If so, then you might recall I'm still a hold-out regarding smartphones. I do text a little with my flip phone but would rather just talk in most situations. I offer this background, to justify not being on twitter. Has our society reached the point where not being on twitter is something that needs to be justified? I don't think so, but tweets are very common.

no pockets no phone

I believe the following is a true story. I found it on the internet after all.

So this New York comedian guy happens to up on his apartment roof. I've only been in New York for less than 24 hours total so I assume hanging out on your apartment roof in NYC is as common as twitter.

While he up there (remember that 60's hit "Up On The Roof"? "... I go up where the air is fresh and sweet ...") he notices this couple (of course this NYC so they don't know each even though I assume they live in the same building) having a breakup. So he listens in and tweets the play-by-play.

You can find the tweets over on this page.  The whole thing is funny for everyone but the two who are breaking-up.

I got a good laugh from reading it.  Here's just three of the 48 tweets:

“I’m not looking for marriage, just what’s right below marriage” -girl  

(many tweets later)

“Look I’m not a guy who’s into labels, Rachel. You know that getting in.” -guy 

(a few tweets later)

“Are we getting pizza or what? I don’t mean to change the subject but are we?” - guy

I'm no relationship counselor but I suspect that guy is more interested in a good pizza than a good relationship.  Also if stuff like this keeps getting tweeted I might just join.

not necessary and most likely not wanted

What if your toddler could tweet before they talked?

Would you want to get tweets from your toddler?

Ok, most parents might like to try it for the novelty.  Ok for one day, but getting tweets all day, everyday that repeat from a list of phrases would be annoying.

Some of the suggested tweets:

• pooped my pants
• Breastfeeding Rules!

and

• Is Tiger my daddy?

A group at Hasselt University has won an award for their prototype toddler twitter interface called twoddler.  It was a project for an software development contest and details are given on their twoddler site.  They now have a disclaimer on their site pointing out that it is only a prototype and is not a commercial product.  But now that the idea is out there, I'm sure some geek dads and moms are busy putting another one together for their high-tech toddler.


What the team did was modify a play activity center so that if the toddler played with a piece next to a picture of mom or dad the device would send out a pre-written tweet.

It's an interesting project but I hope it doesn't become a real product.  The world doesn't need this gadget.

I heard of this on a recent 'Wait Wait Don't Tell' radio show.

Note there doesn't seem to be any sound in this clip.


Twoddler: Twittering Toddlers from Bart Swennen on Vimeo.