I think the world would be a much, much better place, if every American decided to improve the lives of 20 people before they died.
That's it. 20 people each.
If every person in America made a priority of going outside of work and daily life to enrich someone else, even for a moment, this world would be so much more enjoyable.

Is there no such thing as Theater Etiquette anymore?
I just went to see 300, which is a good, not great movie, and was, as far as I could tell, one of three people in a sold out theater who
A) remained seated for the entire movie;
B) was able to refrain from speaking to my neighbor (either in the next seat or over the cellphone);
C) managed not to continually kick the seat in front of me.

One guy even got up and left during the opening credits. He had been sitting there for the duration of the previews, but was compelled to get up out of his seat, walk across the entire row, and leave to do who knows what, then come back five minutes later.

It was as if no one in the theater thought for one moment that there were another fifty or so people who had paid $8 each to see a movie, and might want to enjoy the experience.

I imagine DVD's, DVR/TiVo and the Internet Videos are to blame for this. Now the viewer is in control of the media. They decide when and where to watch. And when they go out to the movies, they think that they are still in control.

It's just plain rude.

Update

So it turns out that Patricia Dicks is an OB/GYN. Funny, not as funny as it could be.

Still using Linux, loving it. It makes me want to strip down all of the computers I use on a daily basis and start from scratch.

I can already hear that banjo music...

Today I leave for Alabama for the weekend. NAWFest '07. should be a blast.

I've been getting extra nerdy in preparation for this event. My roommate Matt has a company, WhiteWaterPlayboating.com. It's still in its infancy, but he's trying to make his millions selling the sport of whitewater kayaking. So he spent about $3000 to have some web development company make a site for him. Well, after more than a year, there was still only the 'Coming Soon' page online.

So, last September, when Matt and I were rambling about the country on another kayaking trip, I decided enough was enough, and made this version of the page. This was done in about thirty minutes, sitting in the Jeep outside of a coffee shop in Fayetteville, West Virginia, stealing their internet access, while I tried desperately to remember what little bit I could of the Hyper Text Markup Language.

Well, that worked out for a brief fix, but obviously not of a quality I would want to associate myself with, nor would WhiteWaterPlayboating.com.

So, I dusted off my web development 'skills' and put them to good use and made the page(s) you see now when you visit the site. Obviously no one needs to worry about losing their job as a web developer. (With the exception of the woman who took Matt's 3 grand and ran.)

I also accomplished all of this while working on the 'new' laptop I received from work. It's an old Sony VAIO, probably a Pentium III, 256 MB RAM, Windows 2k.

But while trying to clean all of the crap that had accumulated on it, I realized that the previous owner had partitioned the 30 GB hard drive into to partitions. And I did something I've always wanted to do: I tried Linux.

I had just seen an article online about dual-booting, and decided it was time for me to jump right in. I downloaded the latest version of Kubuntu, burned it to a CD, and went to town. And I have no intention of going back. This is great. It was easy. Almost too easy. I would never re-boot back into Windows, if it weren't for the fact that I have to use a Windows program for work. I've done a little research, and no one seems to have gotten it to work yet. So I'll just keep booting back into Windows whenever I have to. If there was only a web version of the software we use.... Oh well, can't win 'em all.

(p.s. All of this has been typed, posted, edited and re-posted on my beautiful Linux machine.)

(p.p.s. The link for this trip's travelblog is here.)

I'm 13, again

So one of the hospitals in town is named Cox Health South. And Cox Health South loves to air commercials extolling the good deeds of their medical staff. Dr. Smith coaches a t-ball team in his spare time. Dr. Jones spends her summers vaccinating impoverished children in Africa. Good ol' fashioned public relations.
Well, tonight, I caught one of their commercials applauding the efforts of one Dr. Patricia Dicks, one of Cox's Finest.
And I realized that I'm still a mid-pubescent boy when it comes to dick jokes.

Also, just watched stranger than fiction. Loved it.

Also, checked on the status of my tax refund, found this:

Refund Status Results

We found mistakes on your tax return which caused us to change the amount of your refund.

The balance of your refund, $665.44, will be mailed on March 9, 2007. You will receive a notice dated March 12, 2007 that explains in more detail the changes made to your tax return. For more information, please continue.

Which is great, because I was expecting $657. Also, I'm pretty certain I did not make a mistake. Never did cents enter into any calculations I performed while computing my refund amount. But now the $.44 has crept into the return. Don't get me wrong, I'm grateful for the extra money. I've got big plans for the $8.44. Big Plans.
Also, I like the IRS' policy of giving a person their tax refund before they send out the letter that they 'Made a Mistake,' to soften the blow that they were mistaken. That's a good policy.