Today

Shopping for Christmas. I already left and picked up the mower and brought it home (broken blade belt). I must go and fight the crowds. Luckily I don't have to go very far. Or maybe I do. I'm not exactly sure yet.

My oddball left hand

I am left-handed. According to popular statistical belief only 7-10% of people are left-handed and being left-handed is more prevalent in males than females (and even more prevalent in people with neurological disorders. Nice.)

What surprises me the most is why there are *ANY* left-handed people left in the world today. Think about it. As best that can be determined left-handedness is not more or less prevalent now than any time in the past. If only 10% of humans show a particular trait usually that trait will disappear over time, if you believe in natural selection. So I wonder why we're still here. What function do we lefties serve that requires our continuance in the world?

My particular case is stranger yet. My right eye (shooting, archery) is dominant so I shoot or use a bow-and-arrow with my right hand. I'm left-handed (writing, throwing, batting) but one could argue that I stuck so completely at hitting a baseball perhaps I am really a switch-hitter with no advantage shown in either stance. I'm joking in case you couldn't tell, but I do suck at baseball. All I can say to that is batting left-handed "feels" natural while batting right handed does not.

When it comes to footwork (soccer, punting a football) I'm right footed. Guess I'm just a freak of sorts.

What got me thinking about this was the fact that I use a mouse right-handed only. I can only wonder if I trained myself this way having had to deal with mice that were designed to work with right-handed people (the early mice, not the ones we have today). Grabbing a mouse and using one with my left hand just feels.. wrong. In fact I can't do much of anything correctly with a mouse in my left hand yet I can use a mouse to draw free-hand with my right. The mouse is also a first-generation invention. My father learned to use the mouse at exactly the same time I did thus providing neither an advantage of habit formed over time. Ironically we both use a mouse right-handed.

Replace a mouse with a digital pen and I'm back to left-handed again.

Still, I wonder. Why am I left-handed? My father is a lefty. Did I inherit that from him or did I learn to be left-handed by imitating how I saw him operate? If almost 90% of the people of the world are right-handed why isn't everybody?

If anything..

If anything the very real possibility of being laid off before Christmas, combined with the worse economy I've ever witnessed, is keeping us from overspending on the holidays.

The office computer I really want

I have two laptops - one for work and one for personal use. I'd greatly prefer to have just one - an Apple Macbook Pro 15". My office standard OS is Windows XP. I could load XP in a VMware slice on the Macbook and run my office "computer " in a self-contained jail of sorts and do my personal computing via the Mac.

Of course there are tons of red flags here. I would expect the security people would freak out at such a thing and just say no, or worse say "ok, but you have to load XP via Boot Camp" so I could never run the two operating systems simultaneously.

Another roadblock is the corporate lan forbids outside computers, etc, from plugging in. People, consultants and such, do this kind of thing all the time and we're in the process of setting up a guest wireless system so that rule is laregly ignored. Be that as it may I am one of the very few people who have a dedicated direct Internet connection at their desk totally outside of corporate LAN. A few of us that work in the perimeter space have access to a group DSL line for texting external applicatoins and connectivity so, in theory, I could plug my Macbook Pro (that I don't yet own) into the DSL line and launch XP on a second monitor then connect to the office LAN via the VPN.

Yeah, that isn't going to happen. Plus, dare I say, should it ever be necessary for security to confenscate the office computer it would be rather difficult to do so as the office software would reside on my personal computer, and one does not want to give up their Macbook Pro so the desktop folks can "scrub" the office data off for a few days after they walk you out the door.

So, to wrap this up, it's just not going to happen I don't think. Sad. It would be such a sweet setup.

My First Book Jacket

What do you think?

For years I've been stalked.

I have a stalker. My stalker is the reason I no longer set foot in the ocean despite spending my weekends close enough to see the Atlantic Ocean from my favorite chair. I'll walk on the beach, even walk into the surf, but I will not swim. Why? My stalker is a huge ship and he's just waiting for me to feel safe enough to venture out into the water. Once I'm in he'll get me.

But now I've finally found the self-help book I've searched for my entire life.



Thanks to John Trimmer I can know avoid Huge Ships!! Today is the start of a new life for me.

Goodbye, Plaxico!

I don't want to say "it had to happen" but it appears "Plaxico made it happen".. to himself! Plaxico Burress, another NFL millionaire wanna-be hip-hop thug managed to cost himself millions of dollars and end his season early not by shooting himself in the foot but rather the leg. For real.

For those not following the developing case Plaxico illegally carried a firearm into New York City (concealed and unregistered though me cliams he legally owns the gun in Florida) then managed to shoot himself in the leg. When something like this happens the Night Club is supposed to immedialty report the shooting. They didn't. They let Plexico leave the facility and return home. Much later, after Plaxico decided to go home for the night, he went to the hospital for treament (good idea after being shot) and the hospital declidend to report the shooting to the police. Let's just say more than a few heads are going to roll over this one.

Now Plaxico is facing 3.5 to 15 years after being indicted and laughing his way through the initial court proceedings. Hum... this somehow reminds me of that other guy.. what's his name? Oh Michael Vick. Perhaps Plaxico should ask Vick how funny his current predicment is. I'd bet it's not that funny at all.

I hope the good state of New York starts to treat this man-child no differently than any other person who would have been arrested for the same crime. For the record New York City has a habit of taking concealed weapons charges very seriously. So far Plaxico has been provided the Royal Treament by NYC Justice not having to spend time in the general "tank" with the rest of the day's indicted (he was provided a private cell) and his case was rushed up the docket so he would be allowed to spend as little time as possible in the court system. In additon Plaxico's mother was allowed to sit behind her son displacing family members of other defendants who got in early and nabbed the choice seats so she (Plaxico's mother) could be close to her son.

It's time for the NFL to end this culture of "Above The Law Gangsta Playa" that has existed in the league for so long. The NFL need not provide Plaxico any legal assistance, he is a millionaire afterall, and needs to deal with his case in the harshest of terms. In addtion contracts need to be rewritten with an "NFL Idiot Clause" that would release teams from monetary obligations to a player who knowingly engages in obvious felonious activities - once the player has been found guilty. That said bonuses and pay should be retroactively stripped from the date of infraction following conviction.

Those are my thoughts.