Geez, I miss Calvin and Hobbes….

Calvin’s dad answering questions, quoted from various Calvin and Hobbes books by Bill Waterston.

Q. Why does the sun set?
A. It’s because hot air rises. The sun’s hot in the middle of the day, so it rises high in the sky. In the evening then, it cools down and sets.
Q. Why does it go from east to west?
A. Solar wind.

Q. Why does the sky turn red as the sun sets?
A. That’s all the oxygen in the atmosphere catching fire.
Q. Where does the sun go when it sets?
A. The sun sets in the west. In Arizona actually, near Flagstaff. That’s why the rocks there are so red.
Q. Don’t the people get burned up?
A. No, the sun goes out as it sets. That’s why it’s dark at night.
Q. Doesn’t the sun crush the whole state as it lands?
A. Ha ha, of course not. Hold a quarter up. See, the sun’s just about the same size.
Q. I thought I read that the sun was really big.
A. You can’t believe everything you read, I’m afraid.
Q. How come old photographs are always black and white? Didn’t they have color film back then?
A. Sure they did. In fact, those old photographs are in color. It’s just that the world was black and white then. The world didn’t turn color until sometime in the 1930s, and it was pretty grainy color for a while, too.
Q. But then why are old paintings in color?! If the world was black and white, wouldn’t artists have painted it that way?
A. Not necessarily. A lot of great artists were insane.
Q. But… But how could they have painted in color anyway? Wouldn’t their paints have been shades of gray back then?
A. Of course, but they turned colors like everything else did in the ’30s.
Q. So why didn’t old black and white photos turn color too?
A. Because they were color pictures of black and white, remember?

Q. Dad, will you explain the theory of relativity to me? I don’t understand why time goes slower at great speed.
A. It’s because you keep changing time zones. See, if you fly to California, you gain three hours on a five-hour flight, right? So if you go at the speed of light, you gain more time, because it doesn’t take as long to get there. Of course, the theory of relativity only works if you’re going west.

Q. Why do my eyes shut when I sneeze?
A. If your lids weren’t closed, the force of the explosion would blow your eyeballs out and stretch the optic nerve, so your eyes would flop around and you’d have to point them with your hands to see anything.

Q. How do bank machines work?
A. Well, let’s say you want 25 dollars. You punch in the amount and behind the machine there’s a guy with a printing press who makes the money and sticks it out this slot.
Q. Sort of like the guy who lives up in our garage and opens the door?
A. Exactly.

Q. What causes the wind?
A. Trees sneezing.

Q. Why does ice float?
A. Because it’s cold. Ice wants to get warm, so it goes to the top of liquids to be nearer to the sun.
Q. Is that true?
A. Look it up and find out.
Q. I should just look up stuff in the first place.

Q. How come you know so much?
A. It’s all in the book you get when you become a father.

uh oh

[Talya is shopping online for a winter jacket but the one she wants is sold out on L.L. Bean]
Kevin: You could also try EMS or Dick’s.
Talya: EMS or Dick’s? Okay, I’ll plug it in.
[Talya searches for "dicks" on Google and hits "I'm Feeling Lucky"]
[Talya realizes what she just did]
Talya: Uh oh.

thanksgiving weekend & drive from Tucson to Los Angeles

So, I had a nice Thanksgiving in Tucson. My mom made me tofurky this year and let me take home the leftovers. We saw The Fountain, which was fabulous. Go see it!!! And I got to hike and mini golf with friends; how lovely :)

The only unfun thing was the drive in and out of Los Angeles on the I-10E. This year we tallied in with a complete deadstop on the I-10 starting near Rancho Cucamonga by around 4:30pm or so. I understand it wouldn’t have made a difference if we left any earlier, but rush hour probably didn’t help. Getting out, we bypassed by taking the 15 to the 60, which in retrospect was probably a good move since it was under construction for the most part. I’m not sure if it made too much a difference going out. Indio was by far the worst for getting in on Sunday afternoon; I think it took us three hours to get from Indio to LA, which is just awful considering it’s only about 100 miles or so. Well, that’s Thanksgiving for you…I think we did better last year by leaving on Saturday instead of Sunday. If I could, I would have left Wednesday morning at dawn to avoid traffic, but it’s kind of crazy to put companies and schools under pressure to get an entire week of Thanksgiving off or something…then we’d just all have the same problem on Friday afternoon. Let’s just all not work; then we won’t be doing things at the same time and avoid having a term like Rush Hour altogether.

beware the college boyfriend

Sam: There used to be a time when if you moved your files to the Trash Can on Macs and restarted, your files would be gone. And when I was just out of college, my girlfriend at the time got in an argument with me and moved all my college papers to the Trash Can. Then she rebooted my computer. As a result, I don’t have any of my college papers ’cause of that. I was going somewhere with this, but I don’t remember where…
Talya: So the moral of the story is to beware of Kevin, who might delete my college papers?

talya traveling

Has it only been a week since my last post? Oi. Right now, I’m procrastinating Nanowrimo (am 6,000 words behind), so I better make this quick.

We’re quite busy at work since we’re making end-of-year sales, prepping for holidays, training sales reps, prepping for next year, moving to Rancho Cucamonga in two weeks, hiring new people, planning for a giant sales representative meeting in January, and planning for a Houston Office Grand Opening…it looks like I might be going to Houston one more time by the end of the year after all. I’m going to Vegas in January too…yahoo!

Anyway, I’m off to write 6,000 words or be doomed for Thanksgiving. I’m looking forward to seeing the Tucson crowd in a week or so!

best restaurant in town

Christina: Which restaurant in Los Angeles do you think has the best service all around?
John Paul: Hooters.

VOTE, damn you!

Since I couldn’t have put it better myself, I am going to pass on something that my friend wrote in an email to me:

go vote! GO VOTE!!!!

As the elections approach I continually have this visual image of Bush as the small cheerleader who is really spirited, really stupid, and the one who all the other cheerleaders hoist to the top of the pyramid, only to have all the other cheerleaders drop him at the crucial moment.

So, now you all know what to do :)

NanoWrimo icon

I am in love with my NanoWrimo icon, below the Archives calander of my blog. It just…makes me so happy because the colors are just right for my site’s color scheme.

Anyway, NanoWrimo hasn’t defeated me yet, but I keep distracting myself from my manuscript by going online and constantly updating my word count. Oh well!

Creating passionate users: Why does engineering/math/science education in the US suck?

Creating passionate users did a pretty good post about why engineering/math/science degrees need creativity as well. I urge you all to read it:

http://headrush.typepad.com/creating_passionate_users/2006/11/why_does_engine.html