Asymptomatic

There must be intelligent life down here

Hand Stamp Security
December 18, 2019
security twitter

A story I told today: Have you ever gone to a club/concert and gotten a hand stamp? And in the morning, you forget and do the typical cleaning in the shower, then as you dry yourself, you notice that the stamp is still there because you didn’t give it necessary extra attention?

A lot of people’s behaviors are like this. You shower to get clean. And the typical shower gets the job done reasonably well. But you went in there to GET CLEAN. So that you didn’t clean the stamp is a shower failure. Merely going through the practiced motions isn’t enough.

Vacation
August 05, 2019
vacation summer

Last week we took a family vacation to Toronto. We all loaded up our luggage into Berta’s new car and hit the road.

We spent the weekend in Johnstown so that Berta’s family could celebrate Abby’s graduation. There was a nice cake and pizza dinner on Saturday night. On Sunday, we stayed for dinner then headed out to Toronto.

What You Don't Know About Presenting
June 29, 2019
presenting speaking meetings

I spent a year at work as a side project learning and teaching people how to have more effective meetings. It’s always interesting to evaluate meetings (and presentations) to see where things could be improved.

To understand how to make the best improvements to your meetings and presentations, you need to understand the underlying purpose of having a meeting or giving a presentation in the first place. Meetings serve as a mechanism for communication. When you have a meeting, you’re not just deciding to communicate with others in a live, face-to-face setting; You’re intentionally choosing this mode of communication over other modes. For example, you’re making an explicit, conscious decision that email is not a better way to communicate these ideas than the meeting format.

Brewing and Blades
June 27, 2019
beer brewing smithing axes

Last night Ken and I convened at Troy’s house for a typical brew flavoring session. We had about 2.5 gallons of unflavored product that we wanted to portion and add fruit to for flavoring.

We had a lot of luck with some lemon and lime fruit juice concentrate last time, so most of what we made was with these, but one was plain and another was sweetened with black sugar. We added blueberries, blackberries, cherries, and even some dragonfruit in various combinations until we had 7 distinct concoctions. We’ll wait a few weeks to see how the flavors are progressing, then figure out how to strain out the fruit, which tends to decompose and turn to sludge if left too long.

The Mind
June 26, 2019
games cards

I watched a video yesterday of a group of people explaining and playing a card game called The Mind. I was intrigued enough to buy this cooperative game for myself, in spite of the game’s simple concept.

The Mind consists of a deck of 100 cards that are numbered simply from 1 to 100, 8 cards that are labeled as levels 1 through 8, four cards representing “lives”, and a handful of cards marked as “throwing stars”. These are the only things you need to play the game.