Waggle Dance

I added the BlogRush widget to this site a while back. My hits when up, but almost as important, I really liked the quality of the links being associated with om site. I couldn’t help but checkout a few of the links myself (I hope this isn’t against the rules ). I have been following BlogRush’s blog as they are rolling out a bunch of new improvements, with some excitement but a little concern. Inorder to keep the quality of the links up, the BlogRush team have been reviewing allow of the site currently registered by hand, eventually removing over 10,000 blogs from the system. For some reason I thought I might be a candidate for removal since they kept talking about removing “low quality” blogs. With such a subjective metric (at least they weren’t letting on what the criteria was) I could help but worry about my low post rate (really, I plan to post more…), my lack of readership/comments/backlinks (why doesn’t anybody like my blog…), even my grammar (Hey - I am from Maine, after all…) and wonder it I would make the cut.

Well, the waiting is over, they finished the audit yesterday and I can still see my little BlogRush widget. I made the cut! I’m not sure what that means, I don’t plan on letting it go to my head, but it’s nice to know someone looked at my blog and decided it Sucked Less(tm) that at least 10,000 other blogs.

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Microsoft doesn’t really hate software pirates… when they might count toward market share for their latest Internet Explorer release. In the face of slipping numbers, Microsoft has reversed thier earlier requirement that users have a legal copy of Microsoft Windows XP or greater in order to download and install Internet Explorer 7. M$ has done their best stem the defection of users to the more secure and more standards compliant Firefox browser, but failed to prevent it’s steady climb in market share to 15% among average users, as high as 35% among some segments, such as the tech savvy and non-US users.

It seems a little desperate to me to rail against software pirates, spend millions hunting them down across the globe, then turn a blind it to them when it suits them. While I often convince people to make the switch to Firefox on it’s technical merits, I find it hard to understand why people continue to use products from a company with such a complete lack of moral and ethical backbone.

All I can say is:

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While this is a WebMD article, Math May Tell Which Marriages Last, about a book, The Mathematics of Marriage: Dynamic Nonlinear Models, written in 2002, the message is timeless: marriage is about the connection of two people being made one. According to the research, success or failure of a marriage can be predicted with a 94% accuracy based on the scoring of negative and positive cues displayed during an argument. Rolling your eyes or being dismissive gets negative points, using humor or a supportive nod results in positive points. Couples with a score of 5 positive to 1 negative points have a stable, lasting relationship, while a ratio of 1 to 1 or less is a fast track to divorce court.
The mathematics put concrete face on something most know intuitively; a marriage full of negative comments, self-interest and disrespect is an unhappy one. God’s Word is pretty clear:

Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.
Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. After all, no one ever hated his own body, but he feeds and cares for it, just as Christ does the church— for we are members of his body. “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.” This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church. However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.
Ephesians 5:22-33

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Myself and my oldest son where promptly kicked out of the house last night as a steady stream of reagally dressed teen, pre-teen, and pint sized princesses arrived to celibrate my 8 year old daugther’s birthday. As the guy’s-night-out, we ate a ton chinesse food wne went to see The Seeker: The Dark Is Rising.
What is it that attracts our girls’ to the life of a Princess or our boys’ to the mission of a hero with magical powers meant to save the world? Is it cultural or is the desire to be special build into each of us by our Creator? He sees each of us as special, unique individuals, knowing the number of the hairs on our head. In the absence of the revelation that He sees us each as princes and princesses, sons and daughters of the King, heros and warriors in His service tasked with bringing light to a dark world, we attempt to fill that built-in need with dreams of Harry Potter and Cinderella.

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Sometimes when I’m tapping away in the middle of the night, I need a snack. Not just a fill-the-belly, stop the rumbling snack, but one that brings back memories of my childhood:

1. Fried Cheerios

   Grab a medium sized cast-iron frypan, a couple of pads of butter and a bowl of Cheerios. Heat the butter until sizzling, then pour in the bowl of Cheerios. Keep stirring until they are hot and some have browned a bit. Get them off the stove and back into the bowl quickly so they don’t burn. Some people add a few shakes of salt, but I like them plain. Both my grandfather and my Dad showed me how to make these and this is usually the first hot stove top recipe my kids learn.

2. Saltines and Milk

   Another gift from my grandfather: crush about 3/4 of a stack of saltines into a bowl and add milk. That’s it. I looked for any reference to saltines and milk, or crackers and milk on Google, but apparently this isn’t all that common. My wife thinks it’s weird, too.

3. Dad’s Chop Suey

   This is one of those things that everyone says they make, but everyone’s recipe is completely different. I remember my Dad simmering a big pan full of coarse chopped green pepper chunks, onions, hamburger, sliced kielbasa, crush tomatoes, tomato paste, and a good helping of Italian spices to which he adds elbow macaroni a little while before serving. My brothers and I would wolf down bowl full after bowl full while my Dad would make cracks about each of us having a “hollow leg”.

4. Instant Mashed Potatoes

   OK, I’m likely to get in big trouble here, seeing that potatoes are one of Maine’s major crops, but, lately, I have been sneaking into the pantry and making off with portions of the dried mash potato flakes my wife keeps there for baking. Nuke a cup or two of water in a bowl, add potato flakes until most of the water is absorbed, a little butter, salt and pepper to taste… hmmmm. For all my Maine readers (and Idaho, for that matter), I’m not saying they compare to fresh smashed potatoes, but taken on their own merits, instant mashed potatoes hit the spot.

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