Random bits of important information and advice on life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness, parenting, and electronics.

-I, as a very pale human being of largely German descent, cannot hang at a pool with a Puerto Rican. She will turn a nice shade of brown, and I (even while wearing sunscreen) will turn into a lobster.

-One should never speak/write/proclaim anything as absolute, unwavering truth that is likely to change for them in the near future… we’ll say within a 1-2 year span of time.

-New parents should vacuum, watch an action movie at full volume, or have a dance party to dubstep every time their child takes a nap for the first month or so. Sure, this seems like a bad idea, but eventually it will mean that your child can sleep through the hissy fit you have on the phone with customer service with any of a kazillion annoying companies.

-It is possible to love babies without wanting any.

-Phone booths will never look the same to me since watching Doctor Who. Also, the whirring sound that comes from most air conditioning units and fans causes me to constantly peek around looking for the TARDIS.

-Star Wars will always hold a special place in my heart… however, Han shot first, more cgi does not always equal a more interesting scene, and taking out Darth Vader at the end of Return of the Jedi and replacing him with stupid Anakin Skywalker is lame and I’m super pissed that I know about it.

-Apple is not user friendly. I really never want to hear anyone say that it is again. Steve Jobs built an empire around being as not user friendly as possible. He wanted you to have to go have things fixed for you and explained to you in his stores. That is really uncool. You may not see how uncool it actually is, but it doesn’t change that it is. UNCOOL. (Full disclosure says I should tell you that I’m typing on a MacBook Air and that I had a conversation with an Apple “Genius” today about a settings issue where I was told, “Well, you can bring it in and I can show you how to figure things out. Once you know what you’re doing, you’ll see Macs really are user friendly. It can just take some time to understand computers.” Yeah… umm… no.)

-When it comes to blogging, the best advice I can give is to say this: Don’t expect anyone to read your blog. Do it because you want to and because you enjoy it, but don’t do it because you want internet fame and recognition. Statistically speaking, it just isn’t going to happen. Also, people are generally voyeuristic in nature. A good thing to remember is that people want to feel like they know everything about you, even if they actually do not. So, feed people enough truth that they believe they know you intimately, but hold back enough that you maintain your dignity and privacy.

-It is perfectly okay to have a milkshake for lunch and then to eat chips for dessert.

-Sunshine is overrated. Too much Vitamin D generally makes me feel icky and in need of rain.