November 26, 2007
This years Thanksgiving Party was thrown at Sandy’s house in Kamakura, which is about a hop, skip and a jump from the shoreline. All the usual suspects, "The Brain" and more were invited to partake in the festivities. It was a lot of fun hanging with Jimmy, Mari, Justin, Ronnie & Family, Andrew and Family, Sandy and the gaggle of unknowns who arrived to get their fill of exciting holiday grubbage.
As with any Thanksgiving party, there was too much damn food; the turkey, ham, crab, side dishes and desert were far more than enough to fill even the most obese of the bunch. Overall, the festivities turnout out to be quite successful and pretty damn enjoyable!
Most everyone who showed up brought some kind of dish. All participants got their extreme grub on, drank far too much beer, got their grub on again, drank some more beer, played Nintendo Wii and ate even more. There was not a single moment throughout the day when someone did not have their hand in one of the bowls of food. With all the goodies there was no way anyone was going to let the food sit untouched! Food was constantly being eaten, up to the ending of the festivities. The turkey and string bean casserole sandwiches at closing time rocked hardcore.
It had been quite some time since we enjoyed ourselves at a party like this years Thanksgiving party. Luckily we were able to pass out at Jimmy and Mari’s house, because neither Junko or I were in any capacity to get behind the wheel of Gran Turismo 3, much less a real vehicle. We owe Jimmy and Mari for allowing us to use their home.
December is only a few short days before it is upon us. Will there be any exciting festivities to come our way throughout the upcoming holiday season? Only time will tell, but I suspect there will be something.
Happy Thanksgiving to all!
November 11, 2007
WordPress Comment Moderation Notifier is a Windows application designed to work with your Wordpress blog, notifying you that a new comment is awaiting moderation in the comment moderation queue. This nifty little application sits in your Windows system tray and displays notification popups, similar to the type that MSN Messenger uses, when moderation actions are awaiting your command on your blog.
WordPress Comment Moderation Notifier has been designed to access your Wordpress blog via XML-RPC and a small Wordpress plugin. The software is currently Windows only, but it should be cake for the right person to develop a similar application for OSX (using Growl maybe?) and Linux. Anyone up for the task?
Help keep your inbox uncluttered by using this simple yet effective method for staying on top of your comment moderation queue!
Visit site: WordPress Comment Moderation Notifier
November 5, 2007
According to a study conducted by a group of researchers, regular swearing at work may help to boost team spirit among staff by allowing employees to better express their feelings. Additionally, swearing may even go so far as to help develop and foster social relationships in the workplace. Stronger ties among the workforce ultimately leads to better morale and higher product quality.
I have worked on military bases and have been exposed to such environments for my entire career. Having worked with drunken, swearing sailors for the majority of the last 17 years, I definitely agree that “foul language” has a special way of boosting morale and building team spirit, as odd as that may sound. There is something special about walking in to the office in the morning and asking your partners, “what the fuck is going on this godforsaken shit-hole this morning,” and have not a soul blink an eye.
Surely there are better ways of expressing oneself but for some reason I find swearing to be oddly apropos around the military environment. Any one of these guys and gals may find themselves staring at death face-to-face at any moment, so there is no use in beating around the bush. It is easy for everyone to use swearing as a simple replacement for having to think about being more professional or politically correct.
What I really find the most interesting about military use of swearing is that the majority of people who swear are conscientious enough to know when to curb their language. As soon as someone needs to speak with a superior or a high ranking officer the tone becomes completely professional, with swearing generally thrown out of the door. Foul language momentarily departs while common sense and courtesy take over. It is a good thing too because management does not normally appreciate such harsh language, although that may depend on the situation.
I am really glad that such a study has been done, and that the results mirror my experiences. I am of the mind that not everyone has good command of the English language and sometimes swearing is the only means of expressing ones emotions in a manner that most people can understand.
My apologies for not posting this shit sooner. My dumb ass had originally planned to write about this study in October when the article was first published, but I forgot and ended up fucking my plans up. Such is life!
Visit site: Swearing at Work Boosts Team Spirt
