Here's just what you need to get your geek buddies to drool: a 1 GHz laptop not much bigger than the power adapter powering your current laptop (4.9”x3.4”x.9” and 14 ounces).  It has all the goodies you'd want, Bluetooth™, 802.11b, USB, FireWire™ and more.  Dock it and it's a full PC.  It's not as small as a PDA, but it's close, and it's running Windows XP.

One problem, there are a bunch of other things I'd rather spend 2 grand on.

Visit OQO to find out more about their ultra personal computer (uPC).

I've enjoyed taking pictures for as long as I can remember.  After getting annoyed by me stealing his camera all the time my Dad gave me my first camera when I was 6.  I took pictures of everything, but mainly my GI Joe.

So, now I'm older and wiser, I don't take quite as many pictures of dolls and I'm not always happy with the pictures I take.  I was inspired by Rob's description of the picture a day challenge (PAD).  The idea is you need to take and post at least one picture every day for a year.  As you take pictures and are forced to choose your favorite each day (provided you take more than one) you will also be forced to improve (also, now that I've gone public with this I'll be embarassed to quit )

To that ends I've started my Picture a Day gallery.  You'll find that it's a little bare as I've done a poor job taking one picture every day so far this year.  I will, however, keep it up now that I will suffer public humiliation if I don't follow through.

I just found an excellent explanation of CSS positioning written by Mike Hall on his site BrainJar.com.  Mike also has several other well-written tutorials on his site.  Check them out.

Blogging seems to be seeping deeper and deeper into our culture.  Aditya posted a link to a great NYT article on blogging.

Here's the quote that got me thinking:

And while there are exceptions, many journal writers exhibit a surprising lack of curiosity about the journals of true strangers. They're too busy writing posts to browse.

Blogging is really very self-serving (except in my case, because I'm special).  People have a strong need for validation, they want to know they are liked, respected, feared, or whatever resonates best with their psyche.  When you think of blogging as simply people looking for acceptance, is there any surprise that high school kids gravitate to it?

No, I don't think it's wrong to seek validation, I think it's natural.  I wish more people recognized the want for validation as a basic human need.  You want to experiment with validation? 

Fun with validation:
People will be giving you information all day long, it's unavoidable.  Next time you get information from someone you have two choices.  You can say either:
a.  "Yeah, I knew that"
       or
b.  "Cool!"

Try it out, watch their face.  So, what did you learn? 

Choosing option “a” is really an attempt to usurp validation from the other person.  Sure, you've made it clear you already have the information, have you made them respect you?  If you short circuit their request for validation they are not going to be happy, in fact, they will be so distracted by you being a “know-it-all” that you will not get any benefit.  With choice “a” you both loose.

Choose “b” and you you'll get a much better response from the other person.  Will they think less of you?  Unlikely.  Will you feel worse?  You already know you knew the information, who cares if the other person knows you knew?  Get over yourself.

Validation isn't limited to sharing knowledge, it covers every aspect of the way people communicate.  When someone shows you their new camera they really don't want to know it was the wrong purchase, they want to hear “cool!”  There's no point in telling them they paid too much, who wins?

Okay Reeves, this sounds very touchy-feely... what's in it for me?  Validation, of course.  If people feel validated when they talk to you, they will like you.  People who like you will do stuff for you.  Pretty simple, huh? 

Now go tell all your friends to read my blog because I'm really really cool and I know stuff.

So, here I am sitting in a meeting, trying hard to focus when I get a sudden inspiration:  why not do a Google search for “Something Interesting”?

Why indeed.  Here's why:  if you click “I feel lucky” you will end up with this home page loaded with graphics, ads and completely devoid of style.  Think about it, do you really think it's easy to read yellow text... even when it's not on an obnoxious background?  And folks... please please please stop using the animated gif of a dog running back and forth!  It really is not that cute and it definitely identifies you as one of the unwashed masses.

I now have to go clear my cache.  I may even have to take a shower to feel clean again.

[shudder]

At last a soap has finally been created for the modern manly man.  If you want to be sure you aren't labeled as a metro-sexual you need to run right out and buy yourself some No Foo Foo Soap.  With scents like Pipe Tobacco, Leather, Pure Dirt, and Fresh Cut Grass no one will accuse you of being a sissy... but they might question your hygiene.

Over the past few days I've managed to go through 4 boxes of Kleenex.  I think that's a new record but I can't find any listing in Guinness.  It also got me wondering... just how much mucus does a person produce?  Inquiring minds want to know.

The net is filled with a lot of bunk, but fortunately there are some great sites for information.  Here are a couple of my favorites:

For checking up on that latest story you were e-mailed head to the Urban Legends Reference Pages.  It's a great place to find out if there really was a hook on his hand or if Richard Gere really did what you heard he did.

And, for some real-life info, the page that got me thinking of this: The Straight Dope.  People have been writing to Cecil for years asking all kinds of tough questions... including "How does my nose produce so much snot so fast when I have a cold?" 

So, The Straight Dope says 14 grams of drippings per day and http://www.curingnasalcongestion.com (a site with lots of ads and no credentials, hmmm) says 1 to 2 quarts per day.  I'm still no closer to a definitive answer... but I do have the cure.

It turns out my problem may be that I'm resenting something.  According to healingyou.com:

Resentment is stored in the mucus membranes of the body. The flower essence for resentment is Willow. Dependent upon where the symptoms manifest in the body, a person can begin to zone into what their specific issues may be that may need healing.

Now, where was my patchouli incense?

This weekend will include some serious geeking out.  I picked up a few books from the Library at work:

• Visual Basic .Net Complete
• Introduction to C# using .Net
• Creative HTML Design

First task?  Go crazy with style sheets.  I've been aching to dig into CSS since I found the CSS Zen Garden earlier this month.