The Great Browser Debate

Throughout the history of the Internet, folks have debated the virtues of their favorite browsers.

Internet Explorer, Netscape, Firefox, Opera, Safari, Chrome, etc. Everybody's got a favorite and thinks you should use it, too.

I've heard all the arguments before, save one: MSN Explorer.

Today my boss, a lady who is roughly my age, had an issue loading her email on her personal computer and asked for my help. I waltzed over and stumbled a bit as I saw it: MSN Explorer. There it was, in all its colorful ugliness.

"There's your problem. You need a browser."
"What? This IS a browser."
"Nobody uses that. Try IE."
"I don't like IE."
"Usually that sentence comes from rational people. Why do you insist on using MSN Explorer?"
"It has all these colorful buttons."
"Do you have 12 cats, 16 grandchildren and an AOL account?"
"No, of course not."
"Then get rid of this garbage."
"What should I use?"
"Anything. Literally any other browser in the entire world."

I tried to be open-minded, so I ran a Google search for reasons to use MSN Explorer. The first non-Microsoft link to come up was a page detailing how to remove it. This should tell us something.

So, what browser do you use? If you use MSN Explorer and enjoy it, please defend it here. I'm genuinely curious whether it has any value beyond pretty buttons and no options.

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The Pinball Game That Is My Mind When It Doesn't Have Any Sleep I'm Tired Mary Had A Lotta Lambs

Going to the Kansas City Royals / Chicago White Sox game tomorrow. Tickets are only $10 each! So is parking! And there's a convenience fee for buying the tickets! And there's a convenience fee for the inconvenience of having to pay for parking! When our group divided the true cost up, the $10 tickets are $16 a piece. Still cheap for a major league game, but I'm feeling a bit gypped. Oh, well...there's free t-shirts (with $16 admission).

I used the word 'vroom' twice in my expense report to The Boss tonight. I'm starting to question my judgement. The strange thing is I submitted it quickly because I knew I'd question my judgement, and I didn't want to be able to back out of it. Kinda like Tyler Durden in Fight Club. Dangit! I broke Rule #1.

I may have broken the RSS feed in your feed reader. I changed the blog over to a dedicated URL (looky up there!). There's supposed to be a magic box of voodoo in the settings that combines the two feeds into one, but it appears to have broken both of them. It's like having a not-magic box of grits instead. Not awesome.


How do you get to this site? Do you have a feed reader, or do you simply bookmark it? I'd love to know how many of you I lost!
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Keeping the Sabbath Kinda Holy

When I worked at Taco Bell, I made sure my boss knew from the start I wouldn't be working on Sundays.

Our arrangement worked well until one day when we got a new boss. He immediately put me on the schedule for the next Sunday.

I pulled him aside and informed him this wouldn't be happening. He told me if I didn't show up on Sunday, I shouldn't bother showing up on Monday either. Or any other day.

I didn't show, and neither of us ever mentioned it again. We understood each other and had an unspoken truce.

But as smug as I was over that small victory, I'm as hypocritical as the next Christian when it comes to my expectations of how others observe the Sabbath.

We're ready to throw down if our boss asks us to work on Sunday. We've got pocketfuls of righteous indignation ready if he dares ask. But that same indignation gets a little less righteous when the tables are turned, doesn't it?

It's Sunday. We've enjoyed a challenging and life-changing sermon. We grab our Bibles and herd our families to the car. We remember to drive like Christians, and let folks in front of us. We smile and wave. We're proud of ourselves; we're good Christians.

We hum a hymn on the way to the restaurant. We skip up to the door, and then things turn ugly. The restaurant is closed.

How dare they? Don't they know we hurried over here with plenty of time to beat the Baptists? We're here as a family, and we're hungry!  It's not like folks who work in restaurants are Christians, you know. They shouldn't be taking Sunday off. I bet they don't have families, either. This is highly inconvenient. I bet they're at home watching football, and aren't thinking about me at all.

Well, if we can't eat out, at least we can get some shopping done. Why is this store closed too? Wow, even the mall closes early today. It's like today is special or something.

Thanks to these people, I can't get my to-do list done today. They're making me waste my weekend.

Selfish jerks!

Filtering the OOPS!

Sometimes I forget to filter what I'm thinking before it shoots out my mouth or off my fingers.


One of the bosses emailed me the other day with a simple question.


The Boss: Why does my laptop stop in the middle of my typing and then catch up 10 or 20 characters later?


I couldn't help myself. I only started hearing the warning sirens when I had clicked 'Send'.


Here was my reply:


Me: Because I'm downloading all your financial and personal information in the background.  Hold still, it'll go faster and be over quicker.  Thanks.


Some bosses have a better sense of humor then others...




What 'OOPS!' moments have you had with your boss?