I think the heat is getting to me. After meeting with a client today early in the day, I had very little spunk to do the other things I wanted to do. I ended up going for a short ride and eating an ice cream cone. Talk about hectic!

According to my car's thermometer, it reached over 100 degrees today — I'm not sure what the official temperature count was. I'll just say it was hot, and by all indications, there is plenty more of that coming up over the next few days.

Well, it seems that our government passed a bill offering tax credits for purchasing diesel engine-powered vehicles, since they are much more fuel efficient. Nevertheless, based on cleanliness requirements, no 2006 vehicles qualify for the credit. (Hybrids do, despite all the toxic stuff that goes into their batteries that will eventually have to be disposed of.)

Yes, that makes a lot of sense to me.

I've noticed more and more places that have complementary bottled water are branding that water with their name. This strikes me as ingenious, since typically one might carry a bottle of water around for several hours, and, in doing so, unwittingly serve as an advertisement for the company giving out the water. This seems to be a win-win situation, really, since the customer appreciates the water and the company appreciates assistance in “spreading the word.”

Ultimate Electronics use to give out complementary water, but ceased when they ran into financial difficulties. They seemed to be a bit ahead of the curve on the whole complementary water idea, at least around here. Maybe they should try again, but this time use private label water. it might just work a bit better for them.

I'm not sure if this is a good thing or a bad thing, but sometimes when I feel otherwise inclined to do absolutely nothing, I end up spending a couple of hours surfing around the Wikipedia, reading up on random topics that somehow end up being linked together. Tonight was such a night. I had some coding to do, but it just didn't happen — hopefully tomorrow I'll have more energy.

I really do like Wikipedia — I find I learn a lot by my haphazard exploration of it that I wouldn't run into just reading other sources of information. Perhaps it is the unique perspective of having enthusiasts writing the pages that helps.

Well, I guess I'll give up doing much productive for the night. G'night!

After a scorching July 3rd and hot July 4th, the weather has taken a cool turn, topping out at 85 degrees or so today and dropping to 66 presently at 11:56 in Mid America. I think I would have preferred the opposite, given that we did fireworks displays for friends and family on July 3rd and 4th, but I won't complain — at least it didn't rain!

How's the weather around the blogosphere this fine July?

I actually bought fireworks tonight. I've been collecting information on fireworks in a more organized fashion over the last two years, so maybe I'll actually start up that fireworks web site I always talk about. If I did it now, it'd be really polished by next fourth… as if I need another job to do.

I've talked about favorite fireworks in posts from last year and 2003 (I seemed to skip any such mention in 2004, when I only talked about the loss of fireworks), so to start off my discussion of fireworks this year, I would like to talk about favorite firework retailers instead. Since I sometimes get St. Louis/St. Charles residents reading my blog, I encourage you to consider patronizing these fireworks tents as you shop for the fourth of July (note: in this area, fireworks are sold in tents, save for a few permanent retailers that appear outside of St. Charles county).

• Fireworks City on Fifth St. (between QuikTrip and the abandoned Philips 66, a bit beyond several other Fireworks City tents that are closer to I-70). I don't like Fireworks City in general but I make an exception for this particular, smaller Fireworks City tent. The owner or manager of it is a genuinely nice guy who remembers me, and many of his customers from year to year. That he remembers me is surprising: they have not been the cheapest or largest tent in the past, so I haven't always bought that much from him, but that doesn't seem to matter. They have some neat fireworks — such as Pop Goes the Fountain, Nuclear Meltdown and the Reloadable Fountain — that are hard to find elsewhere, so I do buy those kinds of things there. Notably, this tent was cheaper than other tents on some items that I had looked at over the past week, which made it even better this year. Even before I realized that, I had resolved to purchase more from him this year just because he deserves the business. The fact that he has unique stuff helps in that regard.
• Bubba Fireworks (next to Citgo on the service road of I-70 in Cave Springs, beyond DAD'S and President's fireworks tents). This is a new tent with a very helpful, enthusiastic owner. Part of the key to finding good, new fireworks is helpful workers at the tent (since it is not feasible to try everything), and the lady who owns this particular tent seemed to genuinely love the fireworks she recommended. While she favored larger ones, they weren't excessive, and the tent featured some nice, smaller fireworks.
• Mr. Whalen's Fireworks (Mid Rivers Mall Drive, beyond the community college, noticeable by all the military branches' flags flying on the tent) was reasonably helpful at pointing out fireworks and pushed finding better values over bigger price tags. Notably they were one of only two tents that had Just Another Stinkin' Fountain (JASF), and they had it for only $7.00, a real bargain.
• TNT (Rte. 94 in the Walgreen's parking lot across the street from St. John's UCC) offered a better selection than the other TNT tent I've been to this year. The gentleman who was managing that tent was very good at recommending fireworks that were reasonably safe in subdivisions and was very into pointing out fireworks that had vivid, unique colors.

There are lots of other good ones, but consider checking these ones out this year.

So, I get the latest complaint about NBC content from Don Wildmon of the American Family association:

Dear Timothy, The February 6 episode of NBC's Las Vegas contained a scene inside a strip club. The content of that scene was extremely graphic.

Ok, that makes sense so far. What follows, however, I found hard to fathom:

We have provided a video of the scene below.

NBC aired this scene during prime-time hours when they knew millions of children would likely be watching. But NBC didn't care if they exposed children to this kind of material. Please take action below and help us help our children.

[…]

Rather than trying to describe it to you, I would rather you watch it yourself. After watching the video, please follow the instructions to file your official complaint with the FCC. It will only take a couple of minutes to file the complaint. Do it for your children and grandchildren. After you file your complaint, please forward this to friends and family.

WARNING: This scene taken from the NBC program Las Vegas is highly offensive.

Most of the emphasis is mine. So the AFA found this program so offensive that they want all of their mailing list recipients to watch it? I am all for insuring people don't just start complaining to the FCC about something they have no idea about, but still, it seems very strange to essentially be getting more people to see something that is allegedly very offensive. (I did not view the link myself.)

The AFA just puzzles me a lot of the time.

Christopher participated in Monday Madness this week, and I thought I would too. It is true or false week.

I consider myself to be very organized: False. I often mean well, but am bad at keeping up. After three or four years of trying, I have recently managed to get most (but not all) of my e-mail and computer files organized (a project that I started several times, the final attempt taking over a year to complete). In paper stuff, I have a nice new file cabinet, but I'm bad about adding new file folders as often as I should. I'm also bad about properly categorizing new books as I get them, etc., etc., etc. Right now, I can't sit in my reading chair, once again.

I tend to get more done when I’m pressed for time: True. If the deadline is looming, but not so close as to drive me crazy, that is when I get the ideal amount of work done. Too far away (or non-existant) and I work on other things; too close and I merely run around like a chicken with my head cut off before madly completing the work at the cost of sanity.

Multi-tasking is something I do often: True. I didn't know any other way of working was possible in today's always-connected world.

I might be a perfectionist: True. I'd get a lot more accomplished if I wasn't. Typically, on any non-deadlined project, I will spend months (or even years) doing cathedral-building like work. I'll lay the groundwork for something far over-engineered for my purposes. The only way I end up getting a project to completion is when it receives a deadline (or I otherwise realize the necessity of finishing it up) and then I switch to pragmatic mode and nix the grand ambitions… most of the time. I can still wander off and start back to the bigger plans, at which point I have to reign myself back in. This blog's software is a good example. SAFARI originally took a year (about eleven months too long) to build, because I over-engineered it. That was 2000, and my hand was forced when we wanted to go live with a new church web site that would use it on June 1, 2000. Afterwards, I immediately started on a new version — the one this blog runs — but did not get anywhere major with it until December of 2004 when the old software for this blog quit working and I needed something ASAP.

I enjoy Mondays as much as I enjoy Fridays: True. I like many of the things I do and the people I work with, and so while I enjoy getting a break on the weekend (sometimes — often I end up working on Saturday, though), I'm not disappointed to get started again.

If I didn’t make a list (or hang a post-it note) I’d forget what it is I need to do: True. I don't make lists, and I do eventually remember, but some things just get passed by because I don't remember them in the midst of more important things.

According to Reuters, pollution is for the birds. Or something like that.

A flock of pigeons fitted with mobile phone backpacks is to be used to monitor air pollution, New Scientist magazine reported on Wednesday.

Now, let's just hope they signed up for enough Anytime minutes. Of course, if they switch to owls, Unlimited Nights and Weekends might be all that is needed.