iPad gets a rest, but was it in time?

(( Kids are watching Shrek 4. I think they need to watch a new MythBusters episode. ))

Me: "OK, time for iPad to rest."

Arielle: [[leaps to grab the iPad so I can't stop the movie]]

Me: "Arielle, I need to put this away."

Arielle: "But why do you need it?"

Me: "I need it to make sure my children get smart and their brains don't turn to mush, watching movie after movie"

Arielle, emphatically: "Well it's TOO LATE!"

Annika won't say where the found the doll...

[Scene: at home. Annika walks into the living room from some other part of the house.]

Annika: Look, mommy! A barbie doll!

Mommy: Where did you get the barbie doll?

Annika: Toys For Us!

<pause, and then laughter>

<for my friends overseas: We have a large toy store chain in the U.S. named Toys'R'Us>

The importance of being on top...

Actual argument among my 2 kids:

Background: The shower is over, not because they're both clean, but as usual, because they've run out of hot water. Fortunately it's not too cold to rinse them before they get out, so we do that first, and then...

Kid 1: I want the top towel!
Kid 2: I want the top towel!

Background: we have a double-towel rack where one towel sits an inch behind, and inch above, the other towel. The towels for the kids are 2 of the exact same towel. EXACT SAME.

Daddy: OK, today is Annika's turn. Here, Annika, you get the top towel.
Annika: Yay!
Arielle: [pouty face]

Daddy: [moves bottom towel to the top towel holder]
Daddy: OK Arielle, you get the top towel too!
Daddy: [hands the new top towel to Arielle]
Arielle: [takes the towel, throws it to floor.]
Daddy: [visible look of distress]
Arielle: I wanted the top towel!
Daddy: But they're the same exact towel! You can't tell the difference, except for where they hang!
Arielle: [starts crying]
Daddy: Arielle, I gave you the top towel!
Arielle: But you moved it!
[large pause while I try to think of some possible way out]
Daddy: Arielle, can I tell you a secret?
Arielle: [moves closer] OK.
Daddy: While you two were in the shower?
Arielle: Yeah?
Daddy: Not looking?
Arielle: Yeah?
Daddy: I switched the towels.
Arielle: [visible look of relief]
Arielle: Yay!
Daddy: [visible look of relief]
[drying]
[more drying]
[pause]
Arielle: [in a whisper] Can you do that every day?
Daddy: [trying very hard not to lol] Sure
Arielle: Yay! (Hugs me)

Speed walking, aka race walking

Sometimes someone says something controversial, and you see just how much of an idiot they are. Other times, someone says something controversial, and you think, man, that's definitely not PC, I'm surprised he said that. But he's soooo right.

I was watching this clip on you tube and it reminded me of Bob Costas, on Conan O'Brien many years ago:

Bob Costas: They showed a clip and I had to make a comment, so I said "having a race to see who can walk the fastest is like having a contest to see who can whisper the loudest."

Conan O'Brien: And the Race-Walkers weren't happy?

Bob Costas: ...they wanted me dead, Conan

Conan O'Brien: Well, at least they would be easy to get away from

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W3GGzq1PIqs

The Dedication of Google SecOps

It's been said over and over here, and everyone agrees: we're all proud and profoundly thankful for the dedicated security team, who've been working for weeks - without vacation and straight through the Christmas holiday season - to determine the nature of attacks on the Google internal network.

For me, what impresses me most is that while other companies I've worked for might have been able to stop the attack, Google SecOps (Security Operations) was able to analyze it, determine what it was trying to do, determine where it came from, and determine who else it was trying to attack.

For others, what impresses them is the dedication - the fact that they have been working day and night through holidays - the fact that some have cancelled their vacation plans... at a recent company meeting, someone in the crowd suggested a Hawaiian vacation for them, and Sergey's response was "that's not enough".

Me, though, I can't help but ask, "Is it really so bad?" My co-worker responds, "Jorg, they had to cancel their Christmas plans!"

So I think about my Christmas. The time spent with my in-laws. The 50 minutes in line waiting among crying children so we could talk with, and get pictures with, an elderly gentleman pretending to be Santa Claus. The 7-hour drive to see my mom in L.A. I ponder, would I really want to give that up... to spend day and night among some of the smartest people in the world, defending the world's #1 brand against attacks by a communist nation, and preserve the privacy of Chinese dissidents? That would be....

Best... Christmas... Ever.

The F-Word, revisited

So today, I'm taking Arielle to school, and, out of the blue, she mentions that one of the boys at her school thought that the F-Word was "fire truck". And she laughed.

After a pause, curiosity got to me: "Do you know what the real F-Word is?"

"Yeah. Fucker."

"How do you know?"

"I heard the boys using it."

An awkward silence followed. Well, awkward to me; I doubt she understands what an awkward silence is... But once again curiosity got the best of me.

"Do you know what it means?"

"Well, it's a fucker plane. They keep saying 'Fucker plane'. "

My mind raced, but to no end. I couldn't imagine that the boys in her class would really be talking about the "mile-high club"... So I pressed further.

"Well, that's how they use it, but do you know what it *means*?"

"Yeah. It's an airplane with 3 wings on it."

Which resulted in an unexpected teachable moment, where I explained what triplanes were, and the correct pronunciation of Anthony Fokker's last name.

Everyone is OK but the news van exploded

9:30AM email: "Just got notification that our Atlanta datacenter is on generator power. Local facilities is trying to figure out what the problem is at this point and I do not have an ETA for utility power at this time."

11:00AM email: "We are back on utility power. Georgia Power is having an issue with the second feed of the two feeders to our building. They transferred all power to the first and we came back up on utility power. More updates as they happen."

12:45PM email: "It was WSB-TV in Atlanta. Everyone is OK but the news van exploded."

From http://www.cbsatlanta.com/news/21653742/detail.html :

WSB Live Truck Drives Into Power Lines

Georgia Power Engineer: Crew Was 'Damn Lucky'

ATLANTA -- A reporter and photographer for WSB-TV miraculously escaped serious injury after driving their live truck into power lines Wednesday.

In the words of Georgia Power engineer Jeff Wilson, the WSB news crew that was in this satellite truck is “damn lucky.” Wilson said 115,000 volts of electricity surged through the truck and into the ground when the truck's mast hit these power lines.
“This is a transmission line, which means it transmits high voltage electricity from a substation out to the smaller distribution lines,” Wilson said.

At about 12:30 p.m., reporter Tom Jones and photographer Leonard Raglin had just finished covering a story at the Fulton County jail. The crew packed up their equipment, but they accidentally left their live truck’s transmission mast all the way up. The mast is basically a large antenna that sends television video and audio signals back to the station for reporters' live shots.

The truck drove out of the parking lot towards Marietta Street. Several Fulton County deputies saw what was happening and tried to stop the crew.

“I was about try to get in my vehicle and come advise the truck that the mast was still up. And just prior to me getting into the vehicle, I noticed an explosion,” said Deputy Reginald Turner.

When the mast hit the power line, part of the mast blew off. The surge blew a hole into the asphalt, rupturing a water line. There was an explosion and the truck caught fire, witnesses said. Miraculously, Jones and Raglin stumbled out of the truck with only minor injuries. They were listed in good condition at Grady Hospital.
They could have been killed.

"I've never anything like this before. I've never seen a seen this magnitude of an explosion," Turner said.