What I Learned This Week - 9/20/13

1.  Beer is actually an acronym standing for, "Brew, Enjoy, Empty, Repeat".
2. The cyclist, Martyn Ashton, that gave us that amazing "Road Bike Party" video last year, crashed on a trials course damaging his T-9 and T-10 vertebrae and has lost all sensation below them. I don't know him, but I'll be praying for his recovery.
3. The audio cassette turned 50 years old this week. Finally a technology that is in use today that is older than me.....oh wait.
4. I’m pretty sure extremely slow wifi is worse than no wifi at all.
5. A cry for help followed quickly by a “never mind”, is a sure sign that you will not like what you find when you enter that child’s room.
6. I’m surprisingly more motivated than I should be when someone assigns me a task followed with the statement, “get on it nerd”.
7. I’ve seen more “Tweeted from my Atari” tweets this week than can be actually possible. I’m fairly certain there are less than 10 Atari’s in existence.
8. If you line a measuring cup with plastic wrap, it’s easier to get out butter/shortening etc. and reuse it for the remainder of baking cookies.
9. I find it interesting that no celebrity has come out to start a fundraiser/benefit concert for the catastrophes Colorado has experienced this year.  I guess they figure Coloradans are Wild West tough and don’t need help.
10. After midnight, clowns in public are no longer funny.
11. The CDC admitted this week in their “Threat Report” that antibiotics cannot stop the majority of new strains of infectious diseases and the most effective treatments have been with alternative medicine.  My wife is doing the “told you so” dance.
12. With each passing week I truly hate cancer more and more. Too many truly awesome people have been taken from this world too soon. My heart is really heavy this week.
13. Rental software is coming – Adobe announced it will no longer sell Photoshop outright; it must be rented on a monthly basis. You thought the Adobe Reader updates were bad, just wait. I guess Gimp finally wins.
14. According to my youngest the main reason she’s alive is because she hasn’t died yet.  You cannot defeat that logic.
15. Bill Nye is desperate for attention and is sadly, slowly moving to the realm of creepy guy.
16. The Volvo automobile company used to make children’s books to encourage the Swedes to purchase their cars in the early 1950’s. With catchy book titles such as, “Ville Volvo Saves the World and Marries the Princess”, it apparently worked - doubling sales from previous years. 
17. There is a fine line between viewing your GPS watch locate satellites and staring at your wrist like an idiot.
18. A group of “pranksters” in New Zealand modified the plumbing in an unknowing friend’s house so that every faucet in the house dispensed beer. Only beer. Kitchen Sink, bathroom sink, showers, tub, etc – nothing but beer. Kiwis have an odd way of spelling “genius”.
19. I get angrier than I should while driving when I slow down to let someone in the lane ahead of me and they don't do the "Thank You Wave". I'm a pretty mean mumbler.
20. For two months after the movie “the Avengers” ran in theaters and then later when it was released on DVD, shawarma sales increased by almost 40% over historical averages.  Admittedly, I was part of the 40%. I love me some shawarma.
21. According to my oldest, the meanest text message I’ve ever her sent her was, “I’m eating shawarma without you”.
22. “Shawarma” is as much fun to say as “Guava”.
23. Random photos of Star Wars Action Figures posing around the house sent to me by friends - make my day. I feel a website coming on.
24. The World’s Fair still goes on today. The next one is in Milan in 2015, the last one was in South Korea in 2012. I honestly thought they died in the 80’s – but that’s just the last time they were held in North America.
25. Winter duathlon season is 13 weeks away, which means training starts next week. I never would have thought I would have liked that last sentence. Ever….but I do.
26. Air Force Chief of Staff Mark A. Welsh gave a briefing in a Captain America mask…and that is awesome.
27. After 30 years of listening to Earth, Wind and Fire’s song, “September” I still have no idea what they are singing. …..but I still like it. I’m pretty sure “Ba De Ya” is a word.
28. Where was “kinetic sand” when I was a kid or when my kids were still young enough for me to buy it for me them to play with?
29. Dog goes woof.  Cat goes meow.  Bird goes tweet and mouse goes squeak.