The Price Family Home Companion

Workin' @625 to @958

Good friend and fellow potpourri blogger, Nate Kizer, calls my attention to the mind-blowing Swatch.beat time:

Swatch gets my vote for most ingenious, yet useless invention/innovation of the year. In order to work around time zones & the like, Swatch divided the day up into 1000 beats. The equivalency is something like this:

1 beat = 1 minute, 26.4 seconds

The Swatch website states:

Internet time exists so that we do not have to think about timezones. For example, if a New York web-surfer makes a date for a chat with a cyber friend in Rome, they can simply agree to meet at an "@ time" - because Internet time is the same all over the world.

Ingenious. My only problem is the same one I have with my walkie-talkie phone - I don't know anyone else who uses it. The Swatch site has downloads for clocks that you can put on your server, your desktop, or your webpages. I want desperately to achieve this level of geekhood. If you, faithful reader, can find it in your heart to put down your Dungeons & Dragons game for a few minutes & check this out, I would be eternally grateful. It would be like a secret code to a secret club that meets at a secret hideout that no one else cares about. If that appeals to you, let me know...

One interesting thing about the @ time is that by it's nature there's a lag window of nearly 1.5 minutes. Extending that, I'm thinking there should be an entirely different conversion for parents with children. Say:

100 beats / day means 1 beat = 14 minutes & 24 seconds

It'd be way more useful if you could be nearly 15 minutes late, but on still on beat.

@977, I'm still trying to wrap my head around the impact of such a paradigm shift.

Red: Aggressive, Insensitive

According to The Boston Globe:

A mix of red and blue, the color purple embodies red's sense of authority but also blue's association with serenity, making it a less negative and more constructive color for correcting student papers, color psychologists said. Purple calls attention to itself without being too aggressive. And because the color is linked to creativity and royalty, it is also more encouraging to students.

"The concept of purple as a replacement for red is a pretty good idea," said Leatrice Eiseman, director of the Pantone Color Institute in Carlstadt, N.J., and author of five books on color. "You soften the blow of red. Red is a bit over-the-top in its aggression."

I'm not sure whether to be more worried about ridiculous premise of the story here or the fact that there's such thing as "color psychologists."

It's a Beautiful Thing

Ask Chantell and Salem... I just about cried when I noticed the new Fry's Electronics going up near our church. Now then. I just need to work on that whole disposable income thing.

Olympic Insight

Chantell, Salem, and I have been watching the Olympics together each evening. Salem isn't too interested in the swimming competitions, but she gets a huge kick out of the gymnastics.

She repeatedly says I one do dat and he's feenish, mah turn while doing summersaults or throwing her arms up triumphantly (yes, it would be nice to have some pictures here, but our digi-cam is boken).

The best one yet, though, was during the men's team competitions, Salem said Dee doe es open. Confused, Chantell tried to figure out exactly what door it was that Salem said was open. I nearly died laughing as that's a statement Brody and I were saying just days earlier after one of the girls bobbled the dismount.

Goodbye Earl

Well, Earl is no more... The National Weather Service says it has degenerated into a tropical wave and has little chance of regenerating. Whew!

Hello Earl?

Seeing the devistation caused by hurricane Charley this week raises concern for the remainder of the hurricane season this year. There are already two more systems (Danielle and Earl). Tropical Storm Earl may be headed our way be the end of this week.

It's a little early to tell, but I was surprised at the hook the last two systems took after hitting the gulf. Unfortunately for this week, we may not have that high-pressure system in place that kicked the last two storms to the northeast. As much as I don't want a hurricane to hit here, I'd hate to see another ravage Florida either... I guess have to wait and see what happens.

Hurricane Season

It looks like the hurricane season is upon us. I'll be tracking storm systems that look like they'll strike the Texas coast. It's a little too early to tell right now, but I'm keeping an eye (no pun intended) on tropical storms Bonnie and Charley.

Bush's Hollywood Stronghold

According to Ireland On-line:

Sharon Stone blames US President George W Bush for the absence of a lesbian kissing scene in Catwoman - because of the current conservative climate in America.

I was beginning to wonder if there was an explanation for the recent onslaught of pure, holy, moral, family-oriented films coming out of Hollywood the past 3 years!

It's funny that I can't think of any right now, but never mind that. Apparently it's all because of President Bush. At this rate, I bet there won't even be any Rated R movies after Bush's next term.

Let me get this straight. We're supposed to believe:

• First, that the country's conservative climate is because of President Bush (I don't remember him electing us)
• Second, that the country's alleged puritanical streak is a bad thing
• Last, that Bush now has a stronghold on what Hollywood produces?

I'm having a hard time, um... swallowing that.

Smells Like Stink

After returning from her morning bike ride, Chantell was telling Salem how she needed to go take a shower. Salem responded "Mommy teak show-wee. Wish da sticky off." (Mommy take a shower and wash the stinky off).