What I Learned This Week - 5/2/14

1.  I’ve never seen a new garbage truck. I’m not sure they exist.
2. Sipping root beer while sitting at the kitchen table eating fresh made chocolate chip cookies brings out the best conversations with my daughters.
3. My oldest needs to be one of the people that test the durability of cell phones – and all electronic devices for that matter. She can break a phone without touching it.
4. All laptop computers need to have retractable power cords.
5. Sunrises/sunsets on Mars are blue, primarily because of dust.
6. I don’t understand why TV news stations haven’t sold their helicopters in favor of a swarm of drones that can cover multiples news stories and traffic conditions simultaneously.
7. There is a Garmin type fitness device called, “Whistle” designed specifically for dogs. I doubt my dogs have a problem meeting the minimum healthy dog exercise level of 30 minutes of movement a day, but the geek in me wants the data. It would be better if it were a shock collar.
8. Microsoft offers special technology programs through schools specifically to encourage girls to become tech-geeks. The program is fittingly titled, “DigiGirlz”. I have yet to figure out why they hand out Microsoft pedometers as part of the function.
9. Due to the fact they can swim and quietly crawl through ductwork, robotic snakes are the next new trend in surveillance drones. These have now become my standard response to the question, “What’s that noise?”
10. The X-games has added the video game “Call of Duty: Ghosts” as a sport. Here come the eye-hand coordination arguments claiming gamers to be “athletes”.
11. I don’t understand how an owner can be fired.
12. The Great Atari Video Game Burial Excavation proved this week that unsold video game cartridges and other overstocked products (including complete consoles) were buried en masse at a landfill site in New Mexico by Atari in 1983. Over 728,000 cartridges of the hideous game “E.T.”  were found. Unfortunately, the majority of these cartridges are still completely functioning and “playable”.
13. Squinting actually does help you see better – just like with photography, the more you can eliminate excess light the sharper the image.
14. No matter how professional the work environment, if hot dogs are served for lunch, joking and giggling will ensue….and not just by me.