Piffle-Be-Gone

We've all done it before - too many times, perhaps. Unless you've lived under a rock for the last 20 years, you're more familiar than you'd like to be with the ever unpopular Ctrl+Alt+Del. We've all done it, and we'll all continue to do it.

Why do we engage in this ritualistic right of passage on such a continual basis? Well, we're forced to... sometimes. The only alternative would be to shut the whole computer down and restart - but that could take minutes; so why not just shut down the bad process and move on.

I couldn't help but think that Bill Gates wanted to teach us all an important life lesson when he made the Windows operating system so unstable and prone to attack. It's essentially designed with a big banner that begs programmers to create a vast array of code and pray that it all works together. However, out of all the well-meaning programmers in the world, there's always someone that likes to program something that has only one purpose; to frustrate, destroy, and otherwise take up valuable resources.

Life is the same way. Each of us is born into this life with a clean hard disk and applications designed specifically for us so that we might have the best life possible. These applications are also designed to work flawlessly with other operating systems and their related programs, exponentially increasing our collective chance of success. It's a No-Lose situation, right? Right?!

Well, just like in "real life," sometimes we purposely or inadvertently download corrupt files to our hard drive which destroys previously written data, frustrates the user, and takes up valuable processing power. Each of us is our own personal computer with a specific amount of processing power - for now. It's that way by design. I couldn't help but think of all the processes running on my system; processes such as: apprehension.exe, worry.exe, mindlesspasttime.exe, etc...

I guess my point is - we shouldn't be afraid to perform a Ctrl+Alt+Del on the processes that are taking up valuable resources and slowing us down. I think we'd be surprised how many awesome applications we can handle when we aren't spinning our wheels with all the piffle out there.

Oh ya, And for all you Apple fans that think you're too good for Ctrl+Alt+Del - think again; Mr. Jobs just renamed it to "force quit." Same thang. See how universal this principle is?!

Home Home Home

Over the last week I've conjured up at least a million different topics I could write about - well, almost a million. More like 15 or 20 - but when you're in the teens, you might as well be in the millions. I learned that in elementary school. So, judging by that logic, I'm a quadrazillionaire!

Jodie and I just got back from a much needed, and highly anticipated romp in the cavernous jungles of southern California - aka, Disneyland! It was AWEsome. Couldn't have been better. Well, maybe if the park was open just for us and we were chauffeured from ride to ride and given free slushies - but I digress. The funny thing about our trip is that it almost didn't happen. We AAAAAlllmost chickened out. Almost. You see, Jodie and I ain't the most spontaneous filanderin branches on the tree. No blowin around with the wind for us. We like things nice and thought out - nice and comfy - nice and, well, with our kids.

You see, we decided that we're plain addicted to our kiddies. We actually went through the stages of withdrawal: the denial, the sadness, the embracing, the shakes, the wall, etc... It wasn't because they weren't in good hands. They were in the best care possible - Grandma T and Grandma Y. Doesn't get any better than THAT! Naturally, they had a blast - aside from the occasional (or so I'm told) spout of missing their mommy. I never did get told of any bouts of them missing their daddy, but I'm sure that was in there somewhere - right?

Well, as it always does, the time came for us to go home. It was the first time I've been excited to fly home from a vacation. It was almost like coming home from a mission - minus the banners and screaming and the expectation of not talking about the last 2 years of your life (because thats just SO not cool - can't you talk about your life from 0-19?). I almost got a little verklempt walkin out of the terminal. Good stuff.

Then we got home, woke up the next day, and wondered why on earth we ever missed em. Juuuuuust Kidding. Well, sorta. All in all, I'd have to say that I'm all for doing it again. We'll probably wait for a long long long long long time (or as Kalli would say "dad, that's 5 longs in the future") before we do it again - but we'll do it again. Next time, Singapore.