Archive for November, 2009

Belts

Thursday, November 26th, 2009

I went shopping for belts recently. Some things I saw just don’t make sense though. Stretchable belts for example. Why would I want a belt that stretches? Doesn’t that defeat the purpose or holding things together? Most leather belts stretch over time as it is. This is not an advantage. Although the worst thing about it is that sometimes, if you are not careful, you’ll think you are losing weight or staying the same because of the fit of the belt. Very disappointing to find out that it was just the belt getting bigger as you did.

And then there are reversible belts. I’m sure it sounds like a great idea for people who don’t really need belts. In practice though using a belt tends to make the holes different. The holes you use that is.  This can become a problem when you turn the belt the other way – things may not look right. But the other thing is that making a belt reversible makes them a) more complicated and b) more expensive. The complications adds weak spots and belts become more likely to fail there. Trust me on that – reversible belts do not last as long and belts that are not reversible. So you have added expense and a shorter lifespan. It is better just to buy two different belts. That’s what I try to do of course. But sometimes all you can find are belts that stretch or belts that are reversible. I have to wonder if the people who make an sell belts really use them.

Leftovers

Thursday, November 26th, 2009

Every so often, usually when we know things are going to get real busy, my wife and I will cook up a lot of food all at once. Several kinds of food and in large amounts. This gets packaged as individual meals and frozen for use later. Invariably when I tell people about this someone says “I could never do that because I hate leftovers.” What? These are not leftovers but precooked meals. So the first thing I don’t get is why people see this as “leftovers.” Lots of people prepare foods in advance. My wife started cooking yesterday, we made a huge amount of stuffing for example, for Thanksgiving today. Are those foods leftovers? Of course not. How is that different from what we do? The freezing?

And what is the problem with leftovers anyway? Most things reheat very well. And a great many things just plain taste better the next day. Anything with a sauce for example will usually taste better because the flavors have gotten deeper into the food. Sure some things dry out or otherwise as not as good but we don’t cook those things for later use. Rather we pick things that store well, reheat well, and taste as good or better when eaten later. Am I to believe that just because they were not cooked that day they are no good? Bah! What’s with those people?

Well I’m going to grab some left over Chinese food and enjoy myself. Later.

Cultural Slams as Sports Mascots

Tuesday, November 24th, 2009

The other day someone posted a link to an image with a number of mock derogatory racial/cultural sports icons plus the logo of the Redskins football team. Quilt by association I guess. OK I get how someone might be offended by naming a team something like the Redskins. But really if they are not also offended and upset by the Vikings, the 49ers, the Patriots, the Rangers, or Buccaneers I have to wonder.

Should I as someone of Scandinavian heritage be offended by a team naming itself after the Vikings? Not exactly the proudest era in history. If the people who are upset about the Redskins are not also protesting the Vikings why not? Why are American Indians good enough to fight for and Norwegians not?

So seriously I can’t take people who complain about American Indian mascots if  they are not also against the teams I named above as serious. Well perhaps they are serious but they are also hypocrites.

Would Be Experts

Sunday, November 8th, 2009

So I get followed by all sorts of people on Twitter. Fairly often these random followers claim to be search engine optimization experts. They also often have lots of Twitter followers. Today when one such follower showed up I decided to search for his name using my search engine of choiceBing. He didn’t even show up on the first page. I did use the other big search engine and he did show up near the bottom of the first page of that search.

But it seems to me that an expert in SEO should appear at least in the top half of the page in both search engines. Am I wrong?