The police officer remembers Melissa carrying around a rag doll. He remembers her trying to roller-skate down the sidewalk. He can still see her swinging in her back yard, ponytails flying. Years later, he arrested Melissa for selling herself for $8 and a Baby Ruth bar. But he worked to get her help, and the story is actually really sad but well written and touching. It, honestly, brought a tear to my eye like good journalism and good writing does. Link via Obscure.
Month: October 2003
What happens when you’re running on a tight sports deadline?
You make predictions sometimes — every sports department at newspapers has probably done it. But this big of a screw up is horrible. So horrible it’s funny. Friday’s New York Post published an editorial in their print edition that said:
Despite holding a 3-2 lead in games over the Boston Red Sox, the Yankees couldn’t get the job done at home; their season ended last night in the seventh game of the American League Championship Series.
The thing was, the Yankees won in extra innings. Heck, even the folks across town knew that.
The flubbed editorial is obviously not online, but the Smoking Gun is all over it.
Needless to say, the goof-up was the talk of New York, with the New York Daily News making fun of them. For the NY Post, this was a big screw up, as they make their paychecks pointing out flaws in others — and they know this, so they’re making sure it doesn’t happen again.
If Bill Clinton was a pill-popping addict, how would Rush spin it?
This column is a classic, and puts a good spin on Rush’s pain-pill-popping saga. Link via Jack’s blog.
The Top 10 signs your second kid has arrived
Leave it up to Jack Bogdanski to document what really happens when you have a 2nd kid. Like this tidbit: “6. You switch from man-to-man defense to zone.”
What’s the most used OS in the world?
Here’s a hint: It ain’t Windows. More than likely, it’s ITRON which is a real-time embedded OS that LinuxInsider.com says is used by more than 3-billion microprocessors found in mobile phones, digital cameras, CD players and many other electronic devices including even satellites.
Those whiney bastards
What happens when you take kids that have grown up in the Playstation generation and force them to play the old-school games that us older folks grew up with? You get a very funny article on Electronic Gaming Monthly. They interview the kids while they’re playing classics like Pong, Tetris, Donkey Kong, Super Mario Brother, and more. The kids are all between 9-12 years old, and the dialogue is priceless. One of my favorites is when they’re asking the kids who the girl is that Mario is trying to rescue in Donkey Kong:
EGM: Who’s that chick Mario is rescuing up there?
Brian: It’s Princess Peach.
Kirk: It’s a hooker.
Niko: She looks cut in half.
Tim: Oh wow?she’s one of those pole dancers.
And there are some other ones, too, that make me want to smack these kids. Regarding Tetris:
Tim: Which button do I press to make the blocks explode?
EGM: Sorry, they don’t explode.
Becky: This is boring. Maybe if it had characters and stuff and different levels, it would be OK. If things blew up or something or?
Sheldon: If there were bombs.
Becky: Yeah, or special bricks. Like, if a yellow brick touched a red brick it would blow up and you’d have to start over.
John: Why haven’t I won yet? I’ve paired up so many of the same color.
EGM: Don’t worry about colors.
John: I just lined up six of the same color. Why didn’t they blow up?
EGM: Nothing blows up.
This link was via Les who got it from someone who got it from someone who got it from somebody else entirely. But I think Les’s rant was the best, and sums up how I feel about these kids:
Why you snot-nosed little punk-assed brats! When I was yer age I didn’t have any of these fancy-schmancy 3D graphics and 5.1 surround sound! Why we was lucky if the games had recognizable characters and more than one plot objective AND WE LOVE EVERY FRIGGIN’ MINUTE OF IT! You spoiled little rugrats wouldn’t know a true gaming experience if it bit you right on your fat little asses! Now go fetch Grampa some more bourbon!
Well said.
Who needs Wine?
All you need is a VNC Server running on a few machines, and this little app, and you can have a seamless desktop that cycles between all your machines. I have six machines here at the office running VNC full time (so I don’t have to hike upstairs to fool with them) as well as a couple at home, and this will make working with them VERY nice and smooth.
Credit goes to Chris for the link.
Dogs have better breath than many Brits
But in case you needed a study to tell you this, here you go.
The 2000 presidential election was rigged – by God Himself
Or so says General William Boykin. That’s just one of the odd positions held by the man chosen to hunt down Saddam and Osama who comes right out and says to muslims, “my god is bigger than your god!” Man, if this hasn’t made every country in the world hate us, I don’t know what will. Link via MeFi.