The Good Life... a weblog about life, technology, and the Opera Web browser

When I was a kid, my parents always told me that thunder and lightning was God bowling--the thunder was the ball rolling down the lane and the lightning was when God got a strike (God always got a strike, of course). I was afraid of thunder and lightning then, but that fear disappeared when we moved away from the tornadoes in Illinois. I quite like watching the storms now, actually. On our porch is a nice swing. If the rain isn't coming in over the railing, it's a nice place to sit, read, and watch / listen to the storm. Albuquerque, NM has some wonderful storms during monsoon season, for those interested. I visited family out there several summers ago and was treated to daily storms.

If you're wondering where all this came from, the cover of American Gods has lightning on it.

This would be a first. I'm in Richmond, VA at a Tower Books, typing on a i-opener Internet computer. I've just read a bit of Neil Gaiman's American Gods before purchasing it. I'm disappointed in the amount of vulgarity in the book, but I guess that's something that shouldn't surprise me about Gaiman's writing.

While reading, I noticed that the song That's Amore came on in the store (what's with that--I'm trying to read and they have Dean Martin playing). Normally that wouldn't be a huge thing itself, but the fact that I'm wearing my I sing in my car t-shirt just made the moment... momentous.

Make the robot dance. (via Megan @ Scatterbrain)

Microsoft drops Smart tags

Circular Logic: see Logic, Circular

Another cool flash site: Modern Living (via the Opera Software newsgroups).

I'm sorry I didn't sound more excited on the phone
I'm sorry that after all these years
I've left you feeling unrequited and alone, brought you to tears
I guess I never loved you quite as well as the way you loved me
I guess I'll never really be able to tell you how sorry
I am

And I don't know what it is about you
I just know it's not what it was
I don't know why red fades before blue it just does
and I don't know what it is about me
that I just can't keep still
I keep thinking someday I will make this all up to you
and maybe someday I will

I guess I never loved you quite as well
as the way you loved me
I guess I'll never really be able to tell you how sorry
I am
sorry I am
sorry I am
sorry I am

-- Ani DiFranco, Sorry I Am

The archives disappeared again. I republished them again. Blogger, let's try not to do this again, shall we?

Do you have an idea how irritating it is not to have someone in my life to consistently give flowers to? My step-mother is a florist, specializing in weddings. She routinely has some of the most gorgeous flowers I've ever seen. And she routinely offers to put something together so I can cheer up someone's day. And I don't have anyone to give flowers to! Granted, I could give flowers to friends--and I do, on occasion. However, there are only certain times when it's appropriate, namely when someone needs a pick-me-up or as a gift on a specal occasion. It just doesn't seem appropriate for me to give a female (maybe I'm stereotyping, but I wouldn't give flowers to a guy, sue me) friend flowers for no apparent reason (as I would with a girlfriend). And here my step-mom has gorgeous flowers she's dying to give away to someone. Grrrr.

You have to understand that I really like putting smiles on people's faces. My sense of humor (alright, true enough that it's often groans elicited by my sense of humor, but I digress), my compassion, and my (sometimes--hmm, I need to work on this) sunny disposition are all there because I enjoy how others react to them--I enjoy other's enjoyment. When I sing like a crazy person in the car, half of it is because I like people getting a laugh out of it. Picture this: a 6'4", clean cut (relatively, anyway), (sometimes) prim, young man driving along wiggling around, conducting with his non-driving hand, and singing (quite horribly at times, I'll admit) while apparently concentrating on the road. OK, you'll either be amused or horrified--hopefully the former.

I think it's perfectly understandable that it's frustrating for me to not be able to brighten someone's day. I'm just going to deal with it now. However, if my future wife doesn't like flowers--oh, we're going to have some problems.