February 2005 Archives

I saw her a long time ago briefly and thought to myself, "Another weight loss blog." And, like people trying to quit smoking, I never believe that they will really succeed. It seems to me that quitting smoking is very difficult to do, and this seems easy next to losing 135 pounds. As has been said, she lost a whole person. I must say that I am impressed.

A coworker just had a baby girl, and I am handling his accounts till next week. Called her Finley.

Finley's a nice name, but I wish they would pick a girl's name for the girl. I know that Finley can be a girl's name, but doesn't it just sound more masculine to you? I do not really support the unisex naming convention. Boys named Sue. Girls named James. Occasionally it is cool: Tracey for a man (but not Tracy). In different parts of the world, Shannon is a man's name, and in others, a woman's name. But generally I am not so into female Conners, Ryans or Mikes, even if the full name makes sense. A friend knows a couple called Bev and Beverly. Hetero. Bev is short for Beverly. If I were a straight guy named Beverly, I'd jump on the opportunity to marry my namesake. How many people can claim this? I sure as hell can't. (But then, I do so like having a relatively unique name. I don't think I will meet anyone with the same first name in this life.)

So Finley is the next Mike? Is there a cultural androgynization taking place? More men in skirts? Metrosexuals? I dunno. I don't feel threatened, I just find it a little silly, like the people that name their sons Dorothy and spell it XPQY. You know, to be different like everyone else.

As I have been told that I need to blogue more often, I will tell you about the story of the family genius.

Rose's daughter, Petunia, comes over to stay with us every other weekend, and Rose looks forward to it quite a bit. Petunia was supposed to be here this weekend, but it didn't happen. Why? Because Petunia may be a genius.

Rose has been very concerned with Petunia's education. She tries very hard to give Petunia what she needs to succeed without being the educational equivalent of a hockey parent. It's fortunate that the girl loves to learn, create and interact with people (in fact, she doesn't really stop interacting with people). Her father, who doesn't really seem to have the will or the time to start teaching her English, and who didn't seem overly concerned that she ever became proficient in the language, suddenly announced last week that she was going to take an exam to get into a fancy, very exclusive (20 kids a year) yet publicly-funded program. Petunia is five. In order to get into the exam, you have to have a letter of recommendation from the child's educators. It's like a kiddie master's program.

The Orifice de la Langue Française has gotten around to officially frenchifying the word "blog". Or rather, blogue. I prefer this spelling, actually. It's Frencher. I don't think I mentioned it, but I have another, temporary, French blog for a project course at the university.

I just heard a conversation between two guys at work:

Guy 1: So how's the little one?
Guy 2: He's good, he's good.
Guy 1: When did you say the other one was coming?
Guy 2: Oh, about a year. We aren't starting another one yet.
Guy 1: Yeah. The wife is ready to pop any day now, and the first one is going to be two on Monday. We wanted to wait two years before even starting another one, but that didn't quite work out.
Guy 2: Yeah, two years is a good time between them. You shouldn't start another one too soon.

Does this sound like project management to you? The conversation could have been this:

Guy 1: So how's the product going?
Guy 2: It's good, it's good.
Guy 1: When did you say the other one was being released?
Guy 2: Oh, about a year. We aren't starting another one yet.
Guy 1: Yeah. My developers are ready to go live any day now, and the first one is rolling out to another 400 users Monday. We wanted to wait two years before rolling out a single new user, but that didn't quite work out.
Guy 2: Yeah, two years is a good time between major projects. You shouldn't start another one too soon.

Maybe a lot of guys have a tendency to downplay things that are most important to them. Hmmm.

My company has tiny red thongs with their logo on it. They thought that it would be a good swag item at some conference last year. It didn't go over so well.

I will be going to Yulblog tonight, but late. If anyone wants a pair, just for kicks, let me know. ;)