Double Meanings

I am sometimes dense when it comes to phrases with double-meanings. Take this phrase:

If I told you you had a beautiful body would you hold it against me?

I’m heard that phrase many times before, and I always took it to mean the person being addressed might take offense if told “you had a beautiful body.” Until now I never understood the second meaning: “…would you hold it [your body] against me?”

For all I know there are a lot of such double-meanings that I’m missing.

The only language I speak – barely – is American English. I wonder if other languages have many such double-meanings, or if English lends itself especially well to ambiguity.

In any case, maybe I’ll get more perceptive as I get older. I can hope.

The Brett Favre Saga

I am a Minnesota Vikings football fan. In the past, that has meant a lot of pain and frustration. The memory of the 1998 NFC Championship loss to the Atlanta Falcons still stings; the 2000 NFC Championship loss to the New York Giants was a humiliation; and the less said about the Hershel Walker trade, the better.

There have been good times, of course. Watching Adrian Peterson has been exciting, much like watching Randy Moss was exciting; the 2004-season playoff victory against the Green Bay Packers at Lambeau Field was a high point; and there are many other pleasant memories, too.

Lately for me, being a Vikings fan has meant following the sports news for the latest word about the Brett Favre will-he-or-won't-he-play-for-the-Vikings saga.

I have mixed feelings about the whole thing.

On one hand, as the long-time quarterback of the Green Bay Packers, Favre has been a Vikings nemesis for years, and I've spent those years cheering against him and the Packers. And for many years, he could do no wrong in the eyes of most of the media. Watching Packers games meant enduring slobbering announcers gushing about how great Favre was, how he loved the game. I respected him as a player, and by all accounts he is a decent person, but the division rivalry and media-worship made it hard for me to like him.

But that is the past. If Favre improves the Vikings roster, I'll welcome his addition. After watching the Vikings' painful quarterback play last season, it's not hard to think that Favre will improve the position. The Vikings' playoff loss against the Philadelphia Eagles showed the value of having an experienced quarterback in the playoffs; the Eagles had the experience, Minnesota didn't.

And as his public divorce from the Packers played out a year ago, and as he struggled through the last half of the 2008 season with the New York Jets, the media began to treat Favre as something less than a god, so I don't get as annoyed by his media coverage these days. And if he plays for the Vikings, I will be happy if he plays so well that the media raves about him. Somehow I find it easier to endure media-slobber when they are slobbering over players on my favorite teams.

But before I start day-dreaming about Favre handing-off to Adrian Peterson and throwing touchdowns, I should remember that Favre hasn't even signed with the team yet. And he might not play (and even if he does, he might fail).

The longer Favre takes deciding if he wants to play, the more nervous I get. Based on media reports, his physical condition isn't the issue. I don't know his reasoning, of course, but if he was able to fully commit himself, wouldn't he have already decided to join the Vikings? I hope I'm wrong, of course, but if Favre signs right before training camp after an off-season of "anguished" indecision, I worry that he won't be ready mentally or emotionally.

It will be a disaster if he doesn't decide by the start of training camp. The uncertainty would distract the team more than it has already. It will be bad enough either way for the quarterbacks who are on the roster, Tavaris Jackson and Sage Rosenfels, and if Favre doesn't play, how much confidence and enthusiasm will the two of them have?

Favre needs to decide already. One way or another.

Hope for the G.I. Joe Movie?

Just saw a positive review for the new G.I. Joe movie at Ain’t It Cool News.  I didn’t expect to see good reviews for this movie.  Maybe I’ll have to go see it after all.

I think the only movie I’ve seen this summer is Star Trek.  I missed X-Men Origins: Wolverine and Terminator Salvation.

I have a hard time wanting to take the time to see a movie.  I keep thinking about all the other stuff I have to do.  But maybe I can make time for G.I. Joe.

The Joy of Getting Old

I’m getting old.  Do you want to know how I know that?  You’re probably thinking, “Um, this could be bad.”  Don’t worry, the answer doesn’t involve tedious descriptions of physical ailments, and it doesn’t involve mental decline (maybe it should, but it doesn’t).  The answer is “baseball.”  I knew I was getting old when I found myself enjoying watching and following baseball, specifically the Minnesota Twins MLB team.

My fondness for baseball took a long time to develop.  When I was a teenager, the only baseball I would watch was the World Series.  I didn’t know the subtleties of the game; I often thought a game, especially the latter innings, took forever, and I didn’t understand why.  “Boring,” I thought.  A new pitcher comes into the game, pitches to one batter, and then they pause the game again to bring in another pitcher.  What the hell?  Do they want the game to go on forever?

I began watching baseball regularly in 2001.  I have always preferred watching NFL football.  I have a little more understanding of its subtleties, and it was a lot faster moving, making it easier to pay attention.  But starting in 2001 I begin to watch the Twins as they started to attract attention as a contending team after years of futility.  After winning the 1991 World Series, the Twins had sunk a long ways by 2000.  But during the 2001 season, the Twins started making some noise.  The Twins had a lot of young players that had been developed in the teams farm system, and those players were driving the Twins to the top of their division, surprising a lot of people.

The Twins faded that year, not making the post-season.  But I had become interested enough to follow them, and it was exciting to watch them go to the playoffs in the following years, even though they haven’t made it to the World Series.  And in that time I’ve learned enough about the game to enjoy it.

I used to think a close game – a 1-0, 1-1, or a 2-1 game – was boring.  Now, I think such a game is exciting, like a low-scoring NFL football game between two good defensive teams.  Sure, offense is exciting, but I can appreciate a good defensive battle.  And such close games are exiting in a way that high-scoring games aren’t.

What has helped me to enjoy baseball is a basic appreciation of the nuances of the game.  Even though I’m no baseball expert by any means, I can appreciate a pitcher who can shave the outside of the plate for a strikeout, or a hitter who reaches first base on a walk after being down 0-2.  I can feel the pressure when a pitcher takes a no-hitter in the late innings.  I watched Johann Santana tie the record for strikeouts in a game; that was history in the making.  I have watched Justin Morneau and Joe Mauer come up from the minor leagues and develop into two of the best players in all of baseball.  There is still a lot I don’t understand and maybe never will, and I don’t have a good sense of baseball history, but I have come to enjoy of well-played game of baseball and to savor the 160-game season.

Don’t get me wrong, baseball is often boring, almost as bad as watching paint dry.  Those pitching changes can extend the end of the game and take away some of the excitement of a close game.  And a never-ending extra-inning game is like a boxing match between two exhausted opponents that ends when one of them gets too tired to defend himself.

I rarely watch a baseball game with my full attention.  There are exceptions, but I’m usually doing something else, either reading, working on the computer, or other activities that allow me to give the game my partial attention.  I can work on something else and keep an ear out for key events in a game, like a home run or a great defensive play.

I am getting old, no doubt about it.  But liking baseball shouldn’t make me feel old.  Maybe anything that I can be passionate about should make me feel young.  If nothing else, it helps me relax after a day at work.  Not bad for a boring game.

Writing is Hard

I read a lot.  I think about writing a lot.  I look at books I like, especially a non-fiction software development book, and I think, “I would like to write something this useful.”  But then I despair because I don’t know where to start, and even if I did, I don’t know that I have all that much to write about.  That’s not to say that I don’t have any knowledge or skills; I simply don’t know how to easily unlock that information and transfer it to the page.

Sometimes I feel like I am a knowledge base without a Table of Contents or Index.  If someone asks me a question, I can search my knowledge and experiences for an answer, sometimes even a useful one.  But without the trigger of someone asking me a question, I probably wouldn’t sit down to write about that question.

I’m probably not unique in this, but I get frustrated when I try to think of things to write about; I know I have at least a few bits of wisdom and knowledge to pass on, but those bits aren’t available for retrieval until something specific comes along that needs to access them.

The human brain is not like a operating system’s file system; a file system can give you a list of everything that is contained in it.  A human brain has no such index, at least mine doesn’t.  Trying to create such an index is difficult and will never be 100% accurate, probably not even close.

Part of my problem is that I have not been organized or disciplined about communicating my knowledge and thought processes.  Professional teachers create organized lesson plans all the time, so it’s possible.  There are plenty of books and resources that show that knowledge and wisdom can be communicated in an organized fashion.  But I’m sure it’s not easy.

When trying to find technical topics to write about at work, I’ve found it helps me to write about the questions I get asked.  In the past, I’ve written blog posts on subjects that I get asked about a lot.  Other times, I’ve written about solutions to problems I encountered that day.  Also, I’m trying to write about things I’ve learned in a day; it’s a rare day when I don’t learn something, so I should have plenty to write about.  But I also want to write about subjects that others will find useful.  I don’t want to write about esoteric trivia that no one will find useful; on the other hand, if I find some obscure bit of knowledge interesting, the odds are someone out in the interwebs will find it interesting, too.

Writing blog entries is a long way from writing a book, of course, but it’s a start.  Like with anything that you want to be good at, it takes time and effort to master it.  Practice, practice, and more practice is needed; I should write every day.  Impatience, boredom, discouragement, and lack of focus are my enemies, and I struggle mightily with those foes.

Writing in order to communicate knowledge and experience to others is hard.  I want it to be easy, but it simply isn’t, not for me.  It’s work.

Writing for myself, such as journal writing, is easier, but it still takes effort.

Both are fulfilling and serve a need.  But it won’t be easy.  Time will tell if I meet my writing goals (one of my goals to find some goals), but I’m becoming more convinced it’s possible if I keep at it and work hard.

Blog Editor

I don’t like to blog about blogging, but I’ll make an exception to talk about tools.

As I posted before, I’ve wanted to find a good cross-platform blogging client, but I’m finding that I need to reduce my expectations.

I haven’t had much success finding a good cross-platform editor; most of them haven’t been maintained in a long time. (Flock is maintained, but it is overkill for what I want to do.) ScribeFire is the best cross-platform tool that I’ve found, but at least right now on Firefox 3 on WinXP, keyboard shortcuts don’t work. I’ll keep ScribeFire around as a backup, but it probably won’t be my primary tool.

On Windows, I have to say that Microsoft’s Windows Live Writer is the best tool I’ve found. It’s easy to use, has great image-handling, and – most importantly – it “just works.” I rarely praise Microsoft, but I like Live Writer a lot.

I almost forgot about Zoho Writer; I like it, too. Its keyboard shortcuts override the browser’s shortcuts, so that shortcuts like CTRL-B/CTRL-I/CTRL-U work. And it’s possible to publish directly to Blogger, so that’s a big plus.

As for blogging from the Linux desktop, I need to do more research. Some of the “big” names in Linux desktop bloggers don’t seem to have been updated recently. Zoho Writer/Google Docs might be my best bet there, although I haven’t tested their image-handling abilities.

As I was searching for editors, I found this article very useful: 20+ Useful Desktop Blog Editors.

Discovery of the Day - WriteMonkey

I don’t know how much I’ll use it, but I find WriteMonkey to be an intriguing tool. As far as text editors go, it doesn’t get much simpler than this:

No whistles and bells, just empty screen, you and your words. WriteMonkey is light, fast, and perfectly handy for those who enjoy the simplicity of a typewriter but live in modern times.

Despite it’s simplicity, it has quite a few options, including colors, font, and sounds.

Screenshot:

I’ll have to keep this tool in mind for writing projects that call for simple text.

Quote of the Day - 7/9/2009

"I think a certain fearlessness in the face of your own ineptitude is a useful tool." - Michael Cunningham

Information Overload

There is a lot of garbage on the Internet.
     I try to avoid it.

There is a lot of dumb stuff on the Internet.
     Occasionally humorous.

There is a lot of useless stuff on the Internet.
     I spent more time than I should being entertained by it.

There is a lot of interesting stuff on the Internet.
     I try to follow as much of it as I can.

There is a lot of very useful stuff.
     I don't have nearly enough time for all of it.

Here are a couple of examples of the later category:

The Top 50 Productivity Blogs Of The Year
50 Free Resources That Will Improve Your Writing Skills

I could - and probably will - spend a lot of time looking through these resources, looking for useful information.  But I doubt I will have time to go through all of it, maybe not even close.  And even if I could take it all in, how much could I absorb and apply?

Sometimes I despair of every mastering any subjects because I spent all my time barely scratching the surface of too many different topics.

Twittering

I made my first "tweet" tonight. I have been very slow to jump on the Twitter bandwagon; it just doesn't have that much appeal for me. But there are more and more people who are announcing things on Twitter instead of their blogs. So I have to pay attention to Twitter no matter if I want to or not.

Twitter simply seems like a public IM (instant messaging) system. Scott Hanselman has a good post about how to use Twitter, saying "If you make Twitter into another list of crap to read, you will be sad. The sooner you realize that Twitter is just a list of crap, the happier you'll be." He also says "[t]o really get something out of Twitter you need to follow at LEAST a hundred people of various backgrounds." Ok, we'll see if I manage to follow that many people. I already have more things to read than I have time for. And I need to reduce the number of things beeping, blinking, and flashing to get my attention; I need to focus more and get distracted less. Time will tell if I find Twitter to be worth the time.

Blogging Editors

For me, half the fun of any new undertaking is finding the right tools.  Blogging is no exception.

I've spent more time today than I care to admit researching tools for blogging - WYSIWYG HTML editors and blogging editors.  For my internal work blog, I use Microsoft's Windows Live Writer, and I like it a lot.  But for this blog, I wanted to see what other options exist; I'm especially interested in cross-platform tools because I use Linux at home half the time, so I want something that will work on both Windows and Linux.

I installed the ScribeFire Firefox plugin, and it works good; I'll keep it around as a nice cross-platform option.  Flock is a stand-alone cross-platform tool that looks interesting; it has options to interact with other social web sites like Flickr.  But Flock might be overkill for what I need.

Google Docs is an option, too, for Blogger accounts, at least.  I use Docs for some non-sensitive work material, and it works fine for basic word processing and spreadsheet tasks.

I'm writing this entry on Zoho Writer, an online word processor.  It's along the same lines as Google Doc's word processor.  I haven't used it enough to determine how they compare in features.

If I can't find a perfect cross-platform tool, I might just use the best tools that each platform offers.  I'm not sure what the best Linux-only blog tool would be.  Last time I checked, Linux's blog tools seemed immature, but that might have changed.

Speaking of Cats

I mentioned in my previous post that I had a cat in my lap, making tough to type on the keyboard.  That cat is a half-grown kitten named Bianca; she has a very loud purr, the loudest purr of any of our cats.

That got me thinking about cats and how some of them aren't as anti-social as the stereotype would have you believe.  Oh, cats are independent, and you probably aren't going to teach them to sit or stay.  And they can look dismiss you with a look and ignore you when they know you are talking to them.  They are low maintenance; you can leave them at home for a weekend if you leave them with food, water, and clean litter boxes.  They have much different behaviors and personalities from dogs.

But they also domestic animals, needing and wanting human interaction.  Our cats are mostly shy around strangers, and they are rightfully very wary of children, but when they are comfortable with a person, they make it known that they want attention.  That interaction must be on their terms, of course; many times I've picked up a cat, only to have it jump down right away, as if to say, "Did I say I wanted to be rudely picked up?  Leave me alone."  But I rarely sit on the couch without having a cat nap on my legs on the footrest, and often there is a cat in my lap.

And when we come home after being gone for the day, there are several cats waiting for attention, meowing and wanting to brush up against us.  And sometimes they still want attention, even after we've given them treats and refilled their food bowls.  Well, OK, sometimes the stereotype is true.

Blogging is Tough With a Cat on Your Lap

I've been researching blog editors this afternoon. (I'm writing this on ScribeFire.) Looking for tools is much easier than actually buckling down and writing something. And I can find other excuses not to write. For instance, until 30 seconds ago, there was a purring cat in my lap, making it very difficult to type anything. My mouse hand was free, so surfing the web was easy. I would rather read than write, even though I keep saying that I want to write. I do want to write, but most of the time I find other things that I want to do more.

Fortunately, I found a blog post entitled 7 Can’t-Miss Ways To Kick-Start The Writing Habit. One of the tips in that post is "Write ‘crap’ without feeling guilty." The point is, write crap if you have to, just write something.

Well, that suggestion helped, because I think I can easily write crap about nothing. Maybe instead of Brice's Ramblings, I should call this blog Crap About Nothing. Or maybe Guilt-Free Crap. But those titles might cause confusion about what this blog is about, so I won't change the title.