Family and Friends

When we were four

When we were four Originally uploaded by jkauffman Once again my father has upstaged me in our computer arms race. It seems that every time I buy a computer he buys a better one. To be fair, our replacement cycles are similarly modest, he earns more money, and his computing needs are more robust… but come on dad! Give a nerd a break. Well this time he didn’t get another…
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Kitchen Sink

Wired varmin

Did you know there are rodents that will eat the wiring in your car? Eat may not be the right word. Chew may be closer to the truth. In either case, I’m a victim of such a creature. And I’m not alone. Dozens of folks at my office have suffered the same fate – some more than once. I got off lucky though. I only spent a little over $200 fixing my car. I wasn’t even having any symptoms…
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Beth

Leaving church

I reached a new low two weeks ago. My patience wore through and no amount of sympathy or understanding was going to save me. We were sitting in church and Beth’s verbal ticks were firing on all cylinders. They were loud enough that I had trouble hearing the lessons being read, so I tried asking Beth to lower her voice. We think she has some conscious control over the behavior because she…
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Politics

Senator Arlen Spector (D-PA)

I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw the news this afternoon around lunch time. I was kind of frustrated too. No one else in court was either surprised or interested. It’s not like the balance of power just shifted in the legislative branch of government. Ah, but you see: it might have. When Al Franken is seated (the likely senator from Minnesota), the Democrats will have 60 seats… a…
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Kitchen Sink

Hearing voices

I think maybe you can judge a book by its cover – a little anyway. There are aspects of covers that mislead, but I wonder if there are also aspects of my cover that tell more about me than I knew. Take my voice. My mouth is capable of producing a range of sounds, but my default leaves something to be desired. It’s wimpy. It lacks conviction. It’s hollow. But with a little bit of effort I…
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Cancer

Failing to prove a point

I’d planned this post as a bit of self-parody, after my “two thousand and something” entry last night. I was going to do one of those “a year ago on this date” posts, then admit I hadn’t posted anything a year ago. Trouble is, I did. Damn. So I checked two years ago. Double damn. Not only did I find a post, I found a pretty significant one… the kind of thing you’d actually use…
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Kitchen Sink

Betrayed by circadian rythm

I really wanted to sleep in this morning, mostly because I was up rather late last night. Trouble is, my body has developed this nasty habit of following a set schedule, regardless of context. As troubling as this sounds, it pales in comparison to a dream and my reaction to it. In my dream it was Monday morning and I was at my office. I was looking through my desk to see if I’d left my torx…
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Kitchen Sink

Another big number goes unnoticed

A blogging friend (who posts a lot more often) noted the passing of a blogging milestone a few days ago, but it didn’t occur to me to look at my own blog (I swear). I didn’t notice the number until I imported all of my stuff from the WordPress database into MacJournal this afternoon: 2023 posts. About twenty of those posts are hidden from view – saved drafts never finished, or…
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Kitchen Sink

A place for all my stuff

There’s something you should know. You are part of an experiment. Some of you may feel like I’ve violated your trust, using you without your permission. If it makes you feel any better, you’re not an important part. If you like feeling important, I’m really sorry. Just being here, reading this post, is all it took. In a few seconds you’re going to start getting tired of this post, and…
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