Some Blog Site

A cross between a Sudoku puzzle and Count Dooku from Star Wars, in case you are wondering what this is all about.

My son was interested in reading a particular book from the library. We were not familiar with the author nor the series, so I set out to learn something about it before giving our approval.

My normal source for age-appropriateness and objectionable-content reviews of books is Common Sense Media, but they did not have anything for this book. So I thought I would look up other reviews, such as at Goodreads or Amazon or other places that people review books.

One of the strengths of the internet is that anyone can join discussions and contribute things, i.e. crowdsourcing. Reviews should, and many times do, benefit from the myriad inputs.

But one of the weaknesses of the internet is that the quality of contributions vary wildly.

In this case, most of the reviews were worthless. Most of them were a star rating (mandatory), an expression of sorts (I LOVED THIS BOOK!!!), and then a plot summary (It was a very exciting book that starts with the such-and-such and then this happens and they have to figure out this thing, etc.) There were very few helpful reviews. The reviews that were helpful seemed to use the format of listing pros and cons.

An Open Letter to Book Reviewers

We recently attended Lego Fest.

Although the Lego people will tell you that the official name is Lego Kids Fest, everyone calls it Lego Fest.

(If all this sounds familiar, then you might be thinking of what I posted about our trip to Lego Fest back in 2012.)

We started out with the art this time. The art section gives you white square plates and a bunch of single-stud pieces to create your artwork. Then it all gets hung on some walls.

Gamma chose to follow one of their templates:

Read the rest of this entry »

I was playing hide and seek with Gamma the other day. I was quite amused at the result, but he was so earnest in trying to hide.

I’ll let you try to find him.

There have been plenty of parodies and covers of “Let It Go” from Frozen. The fad has, for the most part, died down, which means it’s time for me to do something before it’s completely off the radar.

Hence, today’s post.

Now this isn’t a full cover of the song. In fact, it’s barely even an outline.

It was to be the Software Programmer’s Version of “Let It Go”.

Transcript:
The screen glows white in the basement tonight
<Insert some clever wording related to computers>
…
Let it <something software related>
Let it <something software related>
…
The code never bothered me anyway.

What happened was I thought of the tagline first (switching code in for cold). Then I tried to think of changes to the rest of the song to fit with the theme.

I got the first line and was happy with that, but then I was stumped with the rest of it. So, rather than foist a complete but sub-par product upon you, I decided to post an incomplete but par product.

It’s June, the start of the summer quarter. Time for me to update the theme on this blog. This one is a theme I put together a few years ago. Slight updates, but pretty close to what I had back then.

Enjoy!

Car companies have given various names and labels to the parts of the car. Unfortunately, while those names may reflect the intended use of the part, they don’t necessarily reflect the real-world function.

Here is a handy guide that re-labels the items in a car with what they actually mean:

• Activate the high-beam switch in order to summon oncoming traffic
• Step on the gas pedal in order to induce the car in front of you to brake
• Step on the brake pedal in order to engage the tail-gating abilities of the car behind you
• Activate the turn signal in order to eliminate any spaces between cars near you

Bonus Item

• Turn off the wipers in order to cause the car passing you to hit a puddle

Any other things in your car that need disclaimers for their side effects?