Sunday, February 24, 2008

The Hockey Tree

Ever wanted a tree that could grow really funky smelling hockey gear?  Me either.  I'd prefer one that grows fresh hockey gear.

The problem with playing hockey is that your gear gets really really nasty.  It's expensive, and it doesn't wash up well.  I dare you to put a set of shin guards and hockey pants in your washing machine.  If you do something really, really silly, like leaving your bag in the car for a couple weeks you can guarantee that it will mold.  Unless its winter, in which case you get to wear frozen gear that goes instantly from cold to wet.

Since my wife and I both play, we have a problem.  Our gear needs to be dry, but it smells really bad and will probably always smell really bad.  We used to strew it around the living room overnight night and put a fan on it.  We had to stop when the neighbors across the street started complaining about the smell.  Through two sets of closed windows.

We needed a good way to dry our gear without wasting a lot of space.  The obvious solution was to buy a rack for hockey gear.  I'm too cheap though, so I made a custom hockey tree for about $10 out of 5/8" dowels and a set of 2x4s.

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The Extremists

This is prime stuff. 

Permanent Link to Clear your desk of family photos-

What's really great is that the point of the article isn't to tell people to clear their desk of family photos.  In fact, the question is posed "how many personal items should a person have in their office".  The question wasn't "Will I lose my birthday if my boss sees a picture of my wife on my desk?".  As it turns out, the suggestion is that only 1 in 5 objects should be of a personal nature.  Once again, why the "Clear you desk..." bit? 

I can only assume that it was to drum up readership.  Which it did.  It worked on me (obviously), and I want my five minutes of life back.  What reasonable person has a greater personal item ratio than 1:5?   Oh wait...I had a very nice boss who's office was nothing but personal items.  Perhaps I'll send the article to him.

Friday, February 1, 2008

Retrospective

During 2002 I gave some consideration to joining the National Guard.  Fortunately for me, it wasn't financially possible.  Fortunate not because I did not serve to protect my home, but fortunate because I would probably have been deployed to a middle eastern hornet's nest. 

Using the National Guard for a foreign war was a bad idea.  I'm sure there are plenty of people like myself who would like to make themselves available for emergencies within the United States, but are unwilling to serve in Iraq.  After all, the guard is a perfect tool for providing assistance during natural disasters.

Apparently the war in Iraq is putting such a strain on the National Guard that their supplies and equipment are running low, impeding their ability to even train new troops (http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0201/p02s03-usmi.html).  Perhaps it's time to reconsider using our reserves for initiating wars?