Random musings…

I’d had a few comments and observations I’d been meaning to post for a few days; normally I would put these in my Twitter, but they’re a bit more than 140 characters. ;-) So, for your entertainment, a few thoughts…

Does a bum WHAT in the park?

The following is excerpted from a conversation between myself and Jennifer on the way home from work yesterday:

Jennifer: “That’s the park where I see the guy poop. Of course, he hasn’t done it as much the past few months because the leaves are off the bush…”
Me: “Okay, I have to ask… is he REALLY pooping, or is he just squatting?”
Jennifer: “Well, let me put it this way: he’s got his pants around his ankles while he squats.”
Me: “Yeah, he’s pooping.”

Parenthood should be easier than this.

A friend of mine and his wife have been documenting their journey towards adopting a child from the Ukraine. They’ve done numerous applications. They’ve had to get CPR certified. They’ve had to get the fire marshall to do an inspection. They’re going to be undergoing a home study this week. It’s exhausting what they put potential adoptive parents through.

… on the other hand, it strikes me as kind of sad that adoptive parents have to go through all this preparation to take in a child, when Joe and Jane Idiot can just pop one out without so much preparation or a blink from the state. Don’t get me wrong; as much as I feel Scott and Lindsey will be great parents, it’s great to see that the agencies are making sure they’ll be ready for him/her. I just wish the parents of natural-born children got held to such a high standard sometimes.

(Then again, not that I consider any of my friends or anyone I know bad parents; indeed, they’ve been proving themselves to be exceptional parents or parents-to-be…)

Internet Explorer 6 is no longer welcome here.

Internet Explorer 6 is approximately eight years old. There are much better alternatives out there, including IE 7/8, Mozilla Firefox, and Google Chrome. At this time there’s a serious IE6 vulnerability (which also exists in 7 and 8, but is apparently much harder to exploit), which was behind the Google China compromise. As a result, I’ve decided to load the IE6 No More code (via a plugin) that places a banner at the top of the page if someone enters the site using IE6, telling them to upgrade their browser. Educating the user is always a good thing, especially when it comes to an outdated web browser.