My faithful computers, which live here without complaint when the temperature is over 80 degrees, have been in their little glory the past couple of days.
Right now, it’s a little over fifty in the house, due to a failure early yesterday of the circuit board that runs the furnace blower.
Best Employers For Over-Fifties
AARP has published its annual list of best places to work for people in their target demographic, i.e., ages 50 and above.
Lest one take too much heart from this, one needs to read the responses to Anne Fischer’s column in Fortune magazine about the AARP’s sanguine report.
Kidnapped Child Returned to Parents…
Kidnapper melodramatically drops to the ground and weeps
That’s what the headlines should have read in the case of Evan Scott, a little boy who was adopted – against his natural father’s wishes – and has finally been returned home.
Babies Don’t Keep
Spent the whole day having fun with DIL and grands.
What the heck. This is the reason I’m in business for myself. Babies don’t keep.
Sociopathy and Rules for Living
Bonnie and I were talking today about the new book, “The Sociopath Next Door”, by Harvard Medical School psychiatrist Dr. Martha Stout.
In her book, which is due out next month, Dr. Stout says that 4% of the population, or 1 out of every 25, are sociopaths: people who display 3 or more of 7 characteristics, such as deceitfulness, the ability to sham emotion and a lack of remorse.
Progress…
This morning’s frustrating experience with Microsoft MSDN notwithstanding (no one can find my subscription ID), this week is going reasonably well.
Off And Running
It’s almost the end of “normal” business hours for CapeCoder’s first day back in business, full-time.
“We” are off to a good start.
Here’s what happened:
Tsunami
Due to chronic insomnia, I’ve been watching some late-night reruns of science programs about last month’s Southeast Asia tsunami.
I’ve learned some new facts: for example, tsunamis generally come in sets, and the first wave isn’t usually the biggest.
I’ve also learned that tsunamis of 300 or more feet are possible. In fact, a tsunami can reach 1,000 feet – the height of a skyscraper.
You Can’t Go Home Again – 2005, Redux
Last year, I wrote about my annual visit to Marshfield, where I lived among hostile neighbors from 1999-2001. That particular visit, like the others before it, was a painful one, and I left with the hope that this year’s would be different.
I’m happy to report that progess has, indeed, been made.
Who’s Your Daddy
The title of this, the Fox “reality” show about an adoptee’s reunion with her natural father, is absolutely stupid and insulting, yes.
But I look with savage amusement at the type of people who are protesting this show – organizations like The Gladney Center, the adoption agency that founded and largely underwrites the National Council for Adoption (NCFA), the primary organization that lobbies against giving adult adoptees access to their records (http://www.txcare.org/atforum/gladneywknd.html).