Nobrainer’s Think Tank

• Whereas last year I began my container gardening of peppers and tomatoes from seeds, this year I opted to buy plants at Lowe’s. Hopefully my bell pepper and jalapeño plants enjoy their new home.
• I’m enjoying the fruits of some home brewing labors I undertook a few months ago. The first batch, as with many of forays into brewing with Mr. Beer, was flat and somewhat cidery. The 2nd batch, which is a Nut Brown Ale type beer is crisp and bubbly. Unfortunately it kinda tastes like club soda. Further brewing will commence after my move to DC. It will also include better brewing equipment and glass, instead of plastic, bottles.
• I’ve been enjoying some new music. Hank Williams III’s Straight to Hell is exceptionally good.
• The full length songs of Spinal Tap are not as enjoyable as the clips played throughout the movie.
• I’m reading several books concurrently. One is a PHP Cookbook. I’m just starting, but some hardcore coding education seems pretty exciting.
• I’m also working on Power System Economics. It’s an interesting read. Suffice it to say that I’ll know more about the subject that any of you within 6 months.
• I’m also reading Sowell’s A Conflict of Visions. It’s a good reminder that some people — wrongly in my opinion — simply view the world in different terms. However, juxtaposed upon current American politics, both parties pick and choose from the two visions in whichever way fits their interests.

That’s enough for now.

Nobody likes it when bad things happen to good people. Certainly bad things happen to almost everyone. But why is it when big, bad things happen, suddenly everyone it happened to was a “great guy” a “hard worker” and/or someone who “played by the rules?”

I read a similar such comment this morning about Circuit City’s plan to layoff 3,400 employees. To be clear, I don’t consider layoffs to be good news. Nor am I brutally certain that Circuit City’s plan is a good one. But I replied with this:

We are talking about Circuit City employees, right? The people who will try everything in their power to sell you an expensive and almost completely unnecessary extended warranty? Two days ago, how many Loungers would have said, “man, I just LOVE the staff at Circuit City. They are just the best, friendliest, nicest people who always make sure that I get a great deal!”

Apparently the initial comment was really about loyalty. Being the cynical person I am, I can conclude that their “loyalty” was mostly tied to their paychecks being well above market value.

After the Great Comcast Disaster of ’06, I gave my old, extra router to my girlfriend. It’s been running just fine for months and now her roommate wants to plug into it. And she wants the installation software for the router. I told her something along the lines of, “I probably have it, but you totally don’t need it to connect. I’ve never used it.”

She insisted that computers can’t connect through a router unless that router’s software is installed.

Had she not been so insistent, I might have suggested that she just needed to restart the router. But who am I to keep her from the fun of looking up the router manufacturer; finding, downloading, and installing the software; and then rewiring everything… and then restarting the router.

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