TILT: (Wed) Dandelions

Dandelions.  Plague of the lawn.  Dug up another one today -- I'm sure I'll be doing this all summer.  Pests.  Deep roots.  Well, I do feel like I'm doing real death dealing when I kill them by digging them up.  It is satisfying to fix the imperfection in the yard.  It's something one person can do and you can see the difference.  

They are actually pretty in a way.  But, they breed and multiply quickly.  They need killin!  And, I'm just the one to do it to em!

TILT: (Tue) Dance lessons

My wife dragged me to my first ballroom and salsa dance lesson yesterday.  Pretty amazing to see that I can actually sort of do this almost ok, even on my first try, even without any fancy stuff.  It's not that hard.  But, I can see that getting better will take practice, and as usual I wonder if we will.  We do have a wedding coming up -- always a place to shake your booty.  But, since practice is required, I just wonder if I will.  If we will.  If not ... well, nothing ventured, nothing gained.  We'll see how it works out.

TILT: (Mon) HAPPY BIRTHDAY ME!

Today is the day -- the birthday.  Another year older.  Well, really only a day.  But, it's worth celebrating.  And, it's DEFINITELY worth the GIFTS!  I got lucky this time -- stuff from the lucky store, specifically.  Plus a nice selection of interesting music I'm listening to now.  

Speaking of which, we caught a little of Newton Faulkner at Jammin Java and he was cool last Friday.  He played an acoustic single guitar and voice version of Bohemian Rhapsody that was cool.  He got the audience singing on that and on one where he had us do different parts.  Daughter came with -- she liked it too.  So, now we have his CD -- thanks Amazon free shipping.

TILT: (Sun) Watched DC United v Colorado at pub

Well, first, United lost.  Second, the pub was HORRIBLE.  No service, then too much, then none.  How can they plan that well?  To have no one there when you DO want something and have someone there bothering you when you don't?   Funniest was one waitress who came to serve one couple in our game watching separate room who didn't ever ask anyone else what they wanted.  Apparently, she only served one person. Another waitress changed shift and left -- without telling us.  They had a staff meeting while we were there.  Not leaving a big tip there, I'll say.  Too bad - since our group will go back and I'll suffer through it again, I guess.  I thought they were trying, but ... perhaps not.  I don't like to say that I didn't get good service, but ... I didn't.  And, IT MATTERS!

TILT: (Sat) Wonderful dinner = $ down the drain?

Just ate at Restaurant Eve, a fancy restaurant in Alexandria.   Very expensive, but very good.  Prix fixe 5 course meal with I think 4 unexpected tidbits between them.  Some choice of things.  Had a wine flight to go with -- each glass came with an explanation of why it was chosen, by a sommelier.  With all that enjoyment comes the question of "is food EVER worth it?"  In this case, it was expensive -- I could have gotten a nice guitar effects box for the same money.  Is food ever worth it?  It was worth it at our wedding when there was a big party.  It was worth sitting with my daughter to hear what she's up to -- when she's in a good mood and talkative (which isn't often, nor is a shared meal in our 3 different ways we go house).  In the end, I love food best when it's really good (but, fine if it's not GREAT) and not expensive.  I guess expensive doesn't really seem worth it much on things that don't last.  The memory lasts, but not the food ... or the taste.  Am I just a poor taster, a non-aesthete?  I feel the same way about wine and beer -- so I guess so.  Good to learn something about oneself.  But, I really did like the dinner!  ?

TILT: (Fri) Weekend coming

Finishing up the week is always a nice thought.  Lots of time to myself coming.  Big dinner tonite.  So, very much a nice thing to have coming.  Sometimes I wonder in fact if the weekend isn't better in prespect rather than retrospect.  You look forward to it, but then after the fact you look back and ... did you get all you wanted?

I think I've said all this before.  Was it last Friday?  Ha.

TILT: (Thu) Memristors: The days of 1s and 0s are numbered?

From the NY Times article on the new HP memristor announcement, the thing that struck me first, was not the technology per se, but this notion: that the chip can store a "vast array of intermediate values, not just the binary 1s and 0s as conventional chips do."  No more 1s and 0s?  No more binary digitality?  Isn't this almost like going analog again?  

Just makes you remember to think: what will we be doing in 5 or 10 years?  With this technology, what COULD we do?  Sounds like a significant advance, so I'm betting on some amazing things.