I’m always hearing about people with ADD – Attention Deficit Disorder. I never hear about my problem, ASD – Attention Surplus Disorder. My profession, engineering, is chock full of people just like me who can’t defocus if our lives depended on it. The absent minded professor isn’t absent minded, he too has a bad case of ASD and just has all of his attention focused on the one problem he finds interesting. My wife has learned that I won’t remember even talking to her if she talks while I’m looking at a computer screen (or TV). I have plenty of attention, it’s just all placed on one thing. So if you’re wondering why I don’t communicate with you anymore, it’s not that I’ve forgotten or don’t care, it’s because I’m so wrapped up in something else it’s as if you don’t exist.
Archive for category Me
My Dark Secret
Nov 29
I’m an American-American
Nov 18
Just in case anyone was wondering, I’m proud of being an American-American.
Five Years of Blogging
Oct 12
I suppose I could have titled this post 5 years down the drain, but I didn’t. I didn’t because I’ve enjoyed a lot of the minutes I’ve spent blogging. Oct 3, 2002 I joined the blogosphere with 3 posts and a design that’s changed very little over the years. 1420 posts, 629 comments, and a switch from Greymatter to Movable Type later, I’m still writing. Along the way over 110,000 different people have visited (according to eXTReMe Trackgin) and I’ve picked up two too infrequent co-authors. Eric Olsen at Blogcritics got me started in blogging, with a short run as a reviewer there. So again, thank you Eric, and may my reader(s) forgive you.
I’ve had a webpage for almost 11 years now; I started out in AOL Hometown when I put a family newsletter online, and then branched out shortly thereafter into a bloglike creation I called Stimulus and Response. In those days, I did most of my writing at the Fruit of the Murphy Loins various practices or waiting before events (for you non-parents out there, you have to get to things like concerts and dance receitals long before the scheduled start time when your little darling is in them). I continued to branch out under the umbrella of Funmurphys.com, but once the blog got going, all the rest has fallen by the wayside. In internet years, I’m so old the blog should be called Kevin 5.0.
Thanks for reading, 100 years ago I couldn’t have hoped my writing would reach over 100,000 people all over the world.
A Season For Every Activity
Sep 24
The Fruit of the Murphy Loins are just a touch older than Da Goddess’s, so I have to respond to her observation:
It doesn’t matter if I just saw her the day before or two weeks ago or whenever, the simple fact is, she’s growing up so fast. In just over a month she’ll be 15. Little Dude is going to be 11 about a week from now. Both of them are constant reminders that I’m getting older.
I hate to break it to you, but at some point you stop getting older, and you start getting old. And as much as it pains me to say, I think I’m already there. I carry a light and magnifying glass with me so that I can read the menu in a restaurant. The hearing isn’t what it once was. I look back at the days of my youth and am convinced that things were better back then. When smaller children (i.e. under the age of 25) are having fun in the neighborhood I feel an urge to go out in nothing but my underwear and yell at them from my front porch and afterwards mutter about the kids of today under my breath. OK, maybe not the last part, but I have no doubt that within a decade, AKA a blink of an eye, it will be true. And as Ecclesiastes would have it, there is a season to be a crotchity old fart, so I’m thinking that it isn’t all bad.
OA Weekend
Sep 12
If you live in the St. Louis area, you can thank me for the rain over the weekend. Yep, I went camping. The OA Fall Reunion was held at S-F Scout ranch and I was there. Friday night I had to undergo me pre-ordeal since I was unable to complete it due to broken toes at summer camp. I thought there would be maybe about 5 of us, but it was more like 80. Apparently a bunch of troops went out of council for their summer camp and were completing their pre-ordeals that night as well.
At 3 AM most of us bugged out when it sprinkled; the decision looked much better in retropspect when it poured at 4AM. It poured on us Saturday morning and Saturday evening, so we were grateful New Horizons moved up the candidate ceremonies to the afternoon so they could take place without rain. But that meant we were done by 6PM so the boys all voted to pack up in the rain and leave Saturday night instead of Sunday morning. The vote wouldn’t have been different if we were an adult led troop.
I return (again)
Sep 4
You may have noticed I haven’t been posting much around here. There are several reasons, from being busy, to not having much unique to say, to being tired of most of what passes for polical discourse these days (You’re evil! You’re eviler!! You’re evilest!!! You’re evil infinity!!!!!), and to self-imposed standard that after not posting awhile I have to have post that makes up for the time away. So I’d like to thank Carl, still desceased according to the Stanford Alumni Association, for writing a blog post that makes up for my not posting for months on end.
So let me do an incomplete speed round on while I’ve been gone:
Larry Craig – he did the right thing by resigning, and yes we should actually have police officers maintain order in public bathrooms so they don’t become nothing but tea-rooms. I’m not a fan of the put all our police in one basket theory of law enforcement for two reasons – (1) it’s the typical cry when somebody is caught doing something illegal that the police ought to be concerned with real criminals, and since there is a worse criminal for everyone except for the actual worst criminal, it’s just a cop out, (2) theory and practice have shown that you need to sweat the small stuff when it comes to keeping order which should be the main function of police work.
I don’t imagine the police like such duty, but somebody has to take out the trash.
I happened to be in an Apple store this weekend (or the Temple as I affectionately call it) and noticed two things – it was a lot more crowded than anywhere else in the mall, and the iPhone is a joy. I hate my cell phone, and if I could persuade myself, let alone the funWife, that it was worth all that money I’d own one. The interface is simply amazing and, yes, intuitive. I was able to navigate and have a ball just from having read a review.Based on sales figures, America agrees with me to the tune of making it the best selling smart phone out there. [full disclosure, I own Apple stock.]
Why doesn’t Congress provide benchmarks for all of our Government activities? And isn’t all the testing requried under No Child Left Behind benchmarks?
1998 isn’t the hottest, fourth hottest, or even 1 millionth hottest month on record. Not if the record stretches back more than 150 years, but actually is the record of our best estimate of global temperatures over the eons.
That’s all I have time for today, thanks for your attention, and tune in again next time (whenever that is).
How Much Pain Can I Stand?
Jul 23
I broke two of my toes three weeks ago. The last three weeks have been the busiest 3 for me of the year.
First off I managed to make the last three days of scout camp hobling around in my post-op shoe. Let me say one word: Ibuprofen. I was tapped out Thursday evening, which means I was selected by my fellow adults to be in the Order of the Arrow. Because of my toes, I sat out the rest of the evenings festivities and will have to make them up at a later date.
My son and I left summer camp and immediately attended my nephews wedding (Congratulations Bethany and Zach!) – and when I say immediately, I mean we drove home, showered, changed, and left again for Burnside Ill (population 75). It was a wonderful wedding, and the only mar was when somebody stepped on my toes at the reception. Fortunately they got one of the good ones on my left foot, which when examined later looked as bad as the two broken ones only with (somewhat) less pain.
We caught our breaths long enough for my son and I to then head off for Northern Tier, the Boy Scouts high adventure experience in the Boundary Waters of Northern Minnesota. I cleared my participation with the docter at the urgant care place that x-rayed my toes. He said broken toes are just a nuisance, and that my pariticipation was a matter of how much pain I could stand. When I told my wife that, she immediately remarked I wouldn’t be going (which pretty much insured I did go.) Four days of travel (22 scouts and scouters in 2 15 passenger vans), 5 days of canoeing, portaging, and camping in the wilderness. Have I mentioned Ibuprofen? I took enough for my toes that my arms never got sore from paddling. I noticed the first day in the van my post-op shoe was shot – delaminations and deep cracks in the sole. One of my co-travellers observed that shoes like that didn’t usually get the workout I was giving them.
We saw the Harry Potter movie on our return and yes we were at a book store at Midnight to pick up our reserved copy of The Deathly Hallows. My son finished the book on Saturday and was enjoined to secrecy until the whole family had finished it. I finished the book after a short break Sunday to mow the lawn and all I can say is that Ms. Rowling continues her fun and inventive ways all the way to the end. I expect that now I’ll have to read the entire series straight through from beginning to end.
The best thing is that despite the toes and the whirlwind of activity, after three weeks off from work I’m as relaxed as I ever get.
Best Laid Plans
Jul 4
This week the male Fruit of the Murphy Loins and I were to attend a week long Boy Scout camp at beautiful S-F scout ranch. One minute I was carrying my bags down the stairs and the next I was lying on the floor with two broken toes. Now I wish I had put my boots on instead of holding off until we left. Oh well. As the doctor said, broken toes are just a nuisance.
I’m constantly amazed by how people act on the internet (not just blogs) — which sadly isn’t that much different than people act in public these days — thrusting every part of themselves into the public square, no opinion held back no matter how uninformed, no emotion too raw, no passing thought too stray or pointless to be repressed, no thought about anyone else for that matter, always providing a virtual floor to ceiling window into their soul. I feel like Sally Rand in a Jenna Jameson world.
What’s That Sound?
Jan 18
There was a time I laughed at colds. Not any more. This getting old thing keeps revealing more and more downside.
