So I spent more quality time with the kid today than I'd planned on...
I know that I promised this wouldn't become a blog about my kid, and I'm only talking about him because he figured in more than half of my day's activities, de-railing what few plans I thought I could safely make. Thus, I'm starting off by remembering the 'good times' with the boy, like when we took his picture (left) over Memorial Day on our way back home from our family gathering. This fine establishment is somewhere between KC and Springfield, Missouri, and we decided Josh would make a good corporate mascot. Seriously, if anyone wants to provide the kid with a college fund, he'll endorse your product or service; let him help pay for what came later on after we got home...
The blog is a little rushed tonight because we had a family crisis in the form of a swallowed pair of coins. The 26 cents (one quarter, one penny) got lodged in Josh's esophagus (not his windpipe). While a concern, we found there wasn't a need for panic, at least according to the various medical personnel we talked to. Josh got a hold of a small handful of change as I was transferring my various articles between one pair of pants and another, so I saw him gobble the metal discs, which we were told is a plus; some kids go for days with coins in their food-tubes because they can't tell their parents something is amiss, and their symptoms resemble having a stomach bug of some kind. What we ran into was one of our health care system's many foibles, and even though we came armed with insurance, it was irritating at the very least. We had to cough up two exorbitant copays because we were originally told to go to an ER by one of those 'ask a doctor' hotlines (so we picked the nearest one), and then, after the first copay and some x-rays, we were transferred to Children's Mercy since we had, you know, a child. Anyway, the procedure itself involved sticking a deflated balloon past the coin, inflating it, and then hooking the currency as the balloon is drawn out. After about 8 hours away from home to deal with this, the money is now safely in a bag marked "biohazard" and will probably be brought out when Josh needs reminding that we all do dumb stuff now and again. This might seem harsh, but Josh wasn't finished with me even after he coughed up the cash (sorry). The doctor gave him some milk to make sure he could drink without difficulty, and he downed the whole carton. On the way across the parking lot, his head nestled gently against my chest, Josh's innards decided to reverse course, and it was like I was holding a punctured water balloon filled with run-off from the abandoned cottage cheese factory. I think tonight was the only time I've ever driven topless, which gave an up side to the fact that I was driving home at 2am.
But I love the little tyke, don't get me wrong. It helps to look at things like his other mug shots taken while he shilled for cheese. :)
So PBS's website was hacked after some took offense at a story about Wikileaks, and an Onion-esque story about Tupac still being alive was posted. They're not the first website to get defaced and won't be the last, but one thing we can be thankful for: For the most part, they're very obvious about it, wanting to beat their e-chests and show off how they made someone look stupid. I've often thought the most insidious hacker wouldn't be the one who wanted to almost completely replace a site with their own fun & games; the worst kind of hacker would be the one who would just change a handful of characters and leave the altered text nearly indistinguishable from what was there before. Think about how many political statements would have their context completely altered if only a few words were changed. Making Senator Bedfellow against something rather than for it just before an election, coupled with posts of the new text on the right blogs, could sway a few votes here or there. Or perhaps more damaging (at least in the short term), if one could alter this article about Steve Jobs kicking off the Apple Conference to change the numbers/direction of Apple's stock price, it could allow someone to make a tidy sum short-selling the stock before it was changed back (assuming enough people read it). I can envision a kind of steam/cyberpunk solution where the paper is printed on microfilm or some other tangible medium and run through optical character recognition on a regular basis to make sure the texts jibe. If the makers of the new "Total Recall" film want to use that concept, go nuts; It sounds dystopian enough for Philip K. Dick. And as a bonus, here's a PKD-ish gizmo that lets you alter news on the fly via wireless networks. :)
Okay, so I have to go do a whole bunch of laundry and shower the Joshua residue off of my skin. I think I'll be lucky if I don't wind up having to burn anything I wore today. Also, whenever he starts getting an allowance, it's going to be via debit card or something. If he wants metallic money, he can get it when he's eighteen. So between visits from the doctors and nurses, I did manage to use the hospital's internet to find a few useful tidbits:
- DC Comics is going to reboot its entire universe, starting Action Comics (currently at issue 900) and Detective Comics (at 888) back at issue #1.
- And until the pilot shows up as a comic convention bootleg (or other means of obtaining it are available), iFanboy has a review with photos from the Wonder Woman show that appears to be all but dead.
- There's no fashion trend that can't be killed by some old guy embracing it in what would probably be considered an un-cool way. I believe I've found the cure for baggy pants, should one care to release it.
- I seem to recall good fortune of some kind being associated with folding paper cranes. So what do you get if you fold a bunch of origami nazgul?
- zOMT is a side-scrolling unit-combat game that puts me in mind of the old "Populous" game. Get worshipers, gain mana and build dudes to take on the attacking dudes.
- Because you can never have enough Minecraft hacks, some guys have made it possible to view YouTube videos on the new in-game maps.
- Urban Outfitters seems to have other things on its mind other than allegedly swiping jewelry designs, like selling Ramen at criminal prices, even if the package has profanity on it.
- A security camera caught footage of the tornado that hit Joplin. This may be disturbing if one has a thing for trampolines.
- Even though his name has become synonymous with a naughty concept, it appears that someone found the plans for The Shocker's gloves.
- While not perfect, an algorithm for de-pixeling pixilated art comes up with some impressive results.
- A quite funny pair of webcomics about reading the whole Twilight series, and a pithy summary of each book.
- Scientists have found a way to turn skin cells into neurons. I'll take one brainskin, please...
- If there are too many ninjas than the market will bear, some will go into other professions. Ninja Painter casts you in the role of a martial-arts chromatic application technician.