The Empty Soda Can

So yesterday, as I walked through Walmart, I heard a guy yelling at a crying child, in the toy department. As there didn’t seem to be any physical harm occurring, I kept going, but heard part of the conversation, as best as I can recollect: Man: “Shut up!” (child keeps crying) Man: “Shut up, [name]!” (child keeps crying) Man: “SHUT UP AND STOP CRYING!” (child gets louder) Man, slightly calmer: “Look, please shut up and listen to me.” (child softens, but keeps crying) Man: “Will you listen to me? Stop crying, and listen to me?” (child stops crying) Man: “Look, we’re here to get a toy for [other child]. [Other child] is getting a toy because she did what she was told. You did not do what you were told, right?” (child whimpers) Man: “When Mommy told [other child] to go sit in the corner, she did. That’s why she’s getting a toy.” Um… parenting FAIL?

I’ve been using AppleScript for years now, but I’ve never had the opportunity to become really good at it. I can do a few simple things, but once I get beyond that, I pretty much have to turn to the web. So it was, this morning: my office has two large windows in it, so the ambient light varies quite a bit from day to day and hour to hour. I finally decided that I’m sick and tired of adjusting the brightness on three different displays—not to mention hoping that they’re all exactly the same—on a regular basis. So as usual, I turned to the web. After a few less useful hits, I finally came to an old blog post called “ Change Monitor Brightness Using AppleScript .” It was exactly what I needed, with three exceptions: Since it’s four years old, it hasn’t been updated for Mountain Lion. It isn’t designed to change multiple displays concurrently. It doesn’t include the ability to specify the brightness level, on the fly. Having solved all three of these problems, I post my resu...

One of the weirdest things about Netflix is how my children are able to dredge up old TV shows that are off the air for a reason. Case in point: Hanna-Barbera’s Godzilla . For those who are mercifully unaware of this show, You can check the Wikipedia page , but I’ll give you my summary of the first episode. The show seems to revolve around the crew of a small ship, consisting of the following: a white man, who is, of course, in charge. If his white maleness weren’t enough to tip you off to this fact, his name is—seriously—Captain Majors. a white woman named Quinn, which, given the next character, should be particularly humorous to fans of Sealab 2021 . a black man whose name I didn’t catch, but who is obviously intelligent because he wears glasses. a white boy, probably about ten years old, with roughly the same haircut as Velma Dinkley . a small, flying, green dinosaur named Godzooky, who seems to serve the same purpose as Scrappy-Doo , i.e. comic relief peppered wit...