The Big Link

This Week the Big Link goes out to: http://inkslinger336.blogspot.com/

Yom Hashoah 2005

Lest anyone forget... Note: Very graphic...
Yom Hashoah 2005

Thanks: Ed Cone

Cinematical - The James Bond Photoshop Contest - Day Two

"We've already received a ton of entries to our James Bond Photoshop contest, and there's still three days left to enter! The entries have thus far run the gamut, from Al Gore"

(ahem, by yours truly ;-) ) BTW, thanks for stopping by to take a peak... Sitemeter is loving you.

Read on: Cinematical - James Bond Photoshop Contest - Day Two

My entry for the Photoshop Contest

Here's my entry for this Photoshop contest.

The Joys Of Barbecue Part 2: The Sauce

Take a minute to enjoy North Carolina based Scott Wilson's take on another part of barbecue zaniness...the sauce.
The Joys Of Barbecue Part 2: The Sauce

Like the author, I have two favorite sauce recipes. One for a Tomato-based sauce favored in Texas and Memphis. The other, a Vinegar/tomato sauce that reflects the two flavors of East and Western North Carolina Barbeque. Recipes? Don't ask.

What if Your Car Needed a Windows Update?

"Bill gates and Bill Ford Jr. addressed the Microsoft Global Automotive Summit at Ford’s suburban Detroit headquarters [...]. Gates said the end goal of any technology in automobiles is to create a car that avoids crashes."

Egads! Not a car that runs on Windows! Will it blue screen in an emergency? What about a virus? Say it isn't so. Will Auto Mechanics have to become MCSEs? This might be the career change that outsourced U.S. IT workers need.
Read more.

My Five (or so) Seconds of Fame

As promised by Lenslinger, FOX 8 delivered a Buckley Report on the Greensboro Blogosphere during their 10 o'clock broadcast last night. The usual (and much respected) Roch of Greensboro101.com, Ed Cone, Billy the Blogging Poet all had their justly deserved camera time. The piece even stopped by Shu's place Greensboro is Talking. If I'm not mistaken Lenslinger spent a little time on his own blog, too. ;-)
Bob Buckley started his blog (no link that I could find to the mentioned blog, yet) and even yours truly, the interpid author of this blog had 5 or so seconds on camera as Buckley spun the tale of the Triad being at the cutting edge of communication.

All in all a good introduction to the masses from a local station keeping ahead of the pack.

I still have 14 minutes, 55 seconds of fame left (according to Warhol's addage that "In the future, everybody will be world famous for 15 minutes." ). If you count the time I was on camera while visiting Chattanooga,TN with Action Greensboro , maybe even less.

A lot of the fine footage was shot on location at the last Greensboro Blogger Meetup. Perhaps you'll join us for the fun next time?

Some Greater Greensboro Builders Association Members Need a Review in Good Manners

This might be a symptom of all "professional" groups or declining standards of civilization I do not know. I am not an insider to the GGBA, just a guest.

Two events stuck out in my mind as an attendee at Saturday's Parade of Homes Gala function of the Greater Greensboro Builders Association.

1.) The "professional" builders who could not keep their trap shut during the introduction of the program until we reached the opening prayer. I will admit the speaker and/or the PA were a bit muted but, there was no mistaking from any distance that something was happening on the stage at the Koury Convention Center.

2.) The "professional" builder who shot "the high hard one" to a fellow professional builder in the $500,000 or more home category as he received his award. This is the kind of behavior I thought we left in High School. I guess someone in the local builder community either hasn't graduated or hasn't matured.

Great to know that we have some "real refined" professionals within the local builder organization.

It's a real shame a few turds tarnished what should have been a celebration of achievement in the local building industry.

Overall, everyone I met in person were very nice and those seated nearest to me knew how to conduct themselves.

I wasn't offended, just disappointed. Guess, I expect too much from those we entrust to build us homes.

Claritin is a Mood Altering Drug (for My Daughter)

Our two year old had signs of allergies (clear running nose, watery, itch eyes). . The Dr. said she had a cold. I'm not arguing with a Dr. but, I have been a warrior of allergies long enough to know she could have both. The Dr. gave us a prescription for Zyrtec, said it would work for both.

I dutifully took the sample home with high hopes this would be the cure. Sure enough, it wiped out the syptoms but with a side effect…. diarrhea. (Oh what a joy to have a two year old with bowels in this condition…poor kid.)
At this point the Divine Ms. N. no longer presenting cold symptoms, but still having allergy symptoms. We decide on Claritin (a.k.a. Loratadine) in liquid form which is approved for kids 2 years old and older.

We start her on Claritin and things are going well, three days pass the symptoms go away and no diarrhea. We claim a victory against the gods of pollen but, the demon Claritin will have the last laugh.

For the next two days we receive distrubing reports from school that the Divine Ms. N. was, well NOT acting divine. In fact, she was hitting classmates and not listening to her caretakers. She was not "herself" and was not responding to timeouts as she usually does. Now, you can attribute this possibly… to the "terrrible twos". We did intially but, I also recalled what a co-worker had told me about a friend's wife and the mood alterations she went through and ultimately they attributed the mood swings to Calritin.

After sharing this story with the wife, I propose an unscientific, layman's "experiment". Like my co-workers friend's wife, we stopped dispensing Clartin. THE NEXT DAY, we learn that the Divine Ms. N is in fact, back to her divine self. No altercations with classmates and according to school reports "much improved".
It's interesting to note the occurences of "agressive, moody,angry, edgy, impatient" entered here: http://www.askapatient.com/viewrating.asp?drug=19658&name=CLARITIN

(Rob's note: I made one entry for the Divine Ms. N.)