Entries from November 2008 ↓

It’s Thanksgiving, and we spent it with some of J’s long time family friends.  There are a few wayward youths in the bunch, ages 14-19.  I was talking to one, 16, and the subject of high school chemistry came up.

As you might have already guessed, I have a lingering fondness for high school chem.  Why? As you might have also guessed, it’s the only class I feel like I really learned anything practical in during high school.

So I pointed this out.  And then — perhaps a little enthusiastically — pointed out what it was.  It’s how to get ketchup out of a new bottle.  You know when you bang on the end and it never comes out?  That’s not it.  You tap on the neck of the bottle near the embossed “H”.  I figured this out during chemistry when I got a paper towel stuck deep in a graduated cylinder.  In frustration, I cupped my hand over the top while tapping down.  The paper towel moved up.   So I did it again.  And again.  And in a few taps, the paper towel was within reach.

So, in case you had forgotten, I was explaining this to a 16 year old.

Who then pointed out that almost all ketchup bottles today are the squeeze kind.

Which means, officially, I learned nothing practical in high school that I use in my day to day.

How depressing.

Jodi and I went to see “Tengan Rei” the other night.  My extremely patient and helpful Japanese tutor, Yuko Kajino, is one of it’s producers.  From the site:

Erika stars as a young Okinawan woman named Rei who journeys to America to confront two former Marines that were convicted of raping her ten years ago. Rei kidnaps Paris, the teenage son of one of the Marines, and holds him captive in a motel. As Rei prepares to face Paris’ father, Rei and Paris make unexpected discoveries about each other and themselves.

The movie is very good and I enjoyed the Q&A after.  It sounds like they’ll have another showing in Chicago — definitely worth your $9.

A side note: Since The Critter joined us, J & I haven’t spent a lot of time going out.  It’s surprising how fast everything required adds up!  Babysitter, dinner, movie, parking downtown (if applicable), souvenir t-shirts — it’s out of control.

Just kidding about the souvenir t-shirts.

Anyway: go see it.  And if you’re not in Chicago, watch for it coming to a theater near you.

One of the things I like about my job is that I can send out a quick email canceling a meeting and get a note back on assonance.  (My own rhyming crime was claiming fame for the match of “week” and “meet”.)

There are other things I like — the location, the work — but this kind of off-topic random detail highlights what I like most: the people.

After a two month hiatus, I’ve reactivated the blog.  Why?  Why did I stop it in the first place?  I needed a break.  Couple that with a flair for the dramatic and you have a blog hiatus complete with a hard reset page.

Yeah and truth be told it wasn’t quite the hard reset I might have made it out to be.  Like I said: a flair for the dramatic.

But that’s all behind me.  Look for more of the same.  Well, the same less Twitter.  I enjoyed Twitter quite a bit, but, overall, the blogging twitch that Twitter satisfies doesn’t really fit the bill.  So Twitter is out.

I’ll end this fancy re-launch post with an awkward anecdote.  About two weeks after I hit the hard reset, I was out to lunch with my boss’ boss on a sales call.  It was with a fancy Company 2.0 that you would know.  Anyway, at one point, he says to the Company 2.0 brass (and I’m paraphrasing), oh yeah Reid here — he blogs, he’s on Twitter — really gets it.

Oops.