Month: January 2004

Good Housekeeping

Today’s New York Times had an interesting article about bacteria and food-borne illness, suggesting that we should all be far more terrified of our own kitchens than of any mad cow. Expecting to find a scathing condemnation of my entire way of life, I was pleasantly surprised to find an endorsement of my own housekeeping habits (or lack thereof)

Chuck Gerba, a professor of environmental microbiology at the University of Arizona who has studied bacteria in home kitchens, said that he found that people who had the cleanest-looking kitchens were often the dirtiest. Because “clean” people wipe up so much, they often end up spreading bacteria all over the place. The cleanest kitchens, he said, were in the homes of bachelors, who never wiped up and just put their dirty dishes in the sink.

Thank you, Dr. Gerba!! No more pangs of guilt about playing horse instead of cleaning house!!

Political Rants

Rate the Candidates

Here’s an interesting survey that a friend sent me. Based on your responses to questions about issues, it rates how the presidential candidates meet your preferences. The results could be surprising. It was no surprise to me that, based on my responses, Kucinich was on top with 100% and Bush was on the bottom with 1% (although I’m not sure how he scored that high). But there were some surprises in the middle. Dean, who I consider my second choice, rated 5th with 83%; according to the survey, Al Sharpton is my second favorite with a 93% rating. Try it; see if you really like who you think you do.

Horse Play

Tasty Turnips

I guess it’s a good thing I didn’t listen to the weather forecast last night. The morning paper predicted conditions that were marginal for hunting, considering the frozen state of the ground. I hadn’t been on a horse since New Year’s Day, and I didn’t want to pass up what might be the best chance for who knows how long, so I decided the weather sounded good enough to me. When I called my brother last night to tell him he was going, he sounded somewhat dubious, but said he’d try to get all his farm chores done early enough to go.

Geek Stuff

Move Along – There’s nothing to see here

Post author By matt
Post date January 11, 2004
1 Comment on Move Along – There’s nothing to see here

Sometimes I feel the need to proclaim that to some visitors to this site, based on the searches that bring them here. This is definitely not what they’re looking for. I know I’ve mentioned this before, probably too many times, but just couldn’t resist talking about it again after a scan of my access log showed a hit from this search. I’m not sure it’s even safe to make any witty comments about it. I started to say I hope he found what he was looking for somewhere else, but maybe I’m not sure I do. At least I wasn’t the first hit on the list; I’d sure hate to be the result of clicking “I’m feeling lucky” with that one.

Geek Stuff

Linux Sucks

Considering all the other symptoms that our society is becoming increasingly moronic, I’m not sure why I’m still amazed at all the hype and attention given to Linux. I guess I still expect a few segments of society to have a little more intelligence. Sure, Linux is better than Windows, but that’s like saying Wesley Clark is better than George Bush. I’m still left wondering why people go gaga over a marginally better, but still nauseating, choice when there are real alternatives. I guess it’s mainly laziness; for some reason the media start hyping the lesser choice, starting a cycle of people jumping on the bandwagon just because they hear everybody else is going for it so it must be good, which lets the media hype it even more, etc. Meanwhile, the superior choices get lost in the chaos because nobody likes to think anymore.

Geek Stuff

Murphy’s Law

Everybody knows Murphy’s Law: “If anything can go wrong, it will”. Right? Well, maybe not exactly. Who was Murphy, anyway? Did he really exist? Did he really say that? According to an article I stumbled onto, he really did exist (there’s even a picture of him), but exactly what he said, and what the law means, is apparently debatable. Ironically, the author mentions that at one point, he thought “Murphy’s Law might be something of an urban legend — like the story about the guy who strapped rocket bottles to his car and accidentally launched himself into a mountainside”. This is ironic because the research leading to Murphy’s Law bears a strong resemblance to what claims to be the true rocket car story.

Horse Play

Happy New Year!

Unfortunately, I don’t have any immediate words of wisdom to start off the new year. I’m not going to make resolutions that I won’t keep (like resolving to update this site more often). I thought I had at least gotten the New Year off to a good start by finally getting an opportunity to hunt, after a bunch of crappy weather and illness. But since Arthur spooked at a piece of cardboard and dumped me on my back, I’m not sure that’s a good omen for the New Year. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see what happens.