joe sak, misc.

A little origami practice in between pomodoros

I didn’t have to. None of the touted features of being a paid member are even that appealing to me.

Honestly, I was convinced by their marketing copy. They wrote that the site is their full time job, that they want the community to thrive, that they want to make it better, and release updates faster.

I did it because it felt like the right thing to do. We live in a world where we’ve come to expect our websites and online services to be free. Why? Real people work hard on them.

Real people spend years building the experience and skills to put in a lot of mental energy and very long working hours into sites like Fitocracy, Tumblr, Twitter, Facebook, etc. They contemplate several ways a person could perform the most minute tasks, how they might interact with this button or that box, or some group of form fields. What if we put this notification here? Should we add that feature? How will people keep track of this? It goes on and on.

It’s what I do, too. I build things on computers. I make websites and applications for people to sign up for and use. I like being paid for it. They should be paid for it, too. It’s why I don’t pirate software anymore, even from large companies like Adobe (I just boycott their products on my personal machine). More often than not, I pay for music, movies, and TV.

I still download the shows I could get over the air for free anyway(I don’t have a television set). I really should just start watching them on Hulu. The occasional commercial isn’t so bad, and it assures me that the people who are working very hard on something I enjoy are getting compensated, and that I’ve invested in a little bit of karma for when I want to earn good money from the things that I produce.

tomoatmeal:

At dinner, my wife Diane told me that Deb and Gary were going to stop by for drinks later and that it might be nice to put out one of the good candles.

“Oh?” I said.  “Which ones are Deb and Gary?”

“They’re our next door neighbors.”

“Are they?”

“I thought it might be nice to light one of the Yankee candles.”

“Isn’t that a little excessive?” I asked.  “It’s not like we’re sleeping with them.  At least.  It’s not like I’m sleeping with them.”

I eyed my wife suspiciously, but she remained focused on her dinner.

“I just thought we’d light it for a little while,” she said.

“And then what is our excuse for blowing it out?” I asked.  “When the time comes, what do we tell them?  How do we extinguish the candle in a way that seems casual and good-natured?”

“I don’t know.”

“What?”

“I said I don’t know.  I guess I didn’t think of that.”

“You never do, Diane.  It’s a miracle we’re not sleeping on the streets.”

We ate in silence for the next five minutes as my mind worked towards a possible compromise.  I wasn’t a monster.

“Describe their breathing habits,” I said.  “Are they excitable?  Do they breath heavily?”

“Forget it,” said Diane.  “I don’t even care at this point.”

“I just don’t want them breathing up our expensive candles!” 

“I said forget it.”

A week later, there was a fire in the locker where I kept the candles.  They melted together into one, gigantic candle.  It was too horrible to look at and so I had the firefighters put the candle into a garbage bag so I didn’t have to see the damage.

We buried it in the backyard.  Diane cried, but it was a dry cry.  There were no tears and I asked her about it.

“I guess I’m all cried out,” said Diane.

“I had a medical procedure,” I said, as I shoveled the last of the dirt onto the candle.  “Where if my heart stops beating, I explode.  I’m a human bomb.”

It wasn’t true, but if my suspicions were correct and it was Diane who had destroyed the candles, then I knew that I was next.  I needed to buy some time until I could investigate the depth of my wife’s lies, starting with these supposed “neighbors.”

That night, from their closet, I watched uncomfortably as Deb and Gary made love in their bed.  I had broken in to look for other proof and I guess they kind of surprised me.

“Okay.  Well I guess the part about neighbors was real,” I thought.  “Well played, Diane.”

THE END.

rosalarian:

Elisabeth Sandlund, editor of the Swedish Christian newspaper ‘Dagen’: I cannot find a single word in the Bible, supporting the idea of same sex marriage.

K G Hammar, former Arch Bishop of the Church of Sweden, the largest Lutheran church in the world: True, but at the same time you will find hundreds of passages supporting the idea that women shouldn’t express their opinions in public, so if I were you, I’d use quotes from the Bible far more cautiously.

(Source: selchieproductions)

rosalarian:

That is the best motivational thing I’ve ever seen.

(Source: silverscents)