scrabble, satellites, and tryptophan

i’ve just recently finished an article that i had hoped would get published over at Burnside last week, but alas, they are having server issues. So instead I’ll give you the link after this quick update and you can read it on your own time.

i’m really looking forward to this holiday weekend. Good food, family, football, playing scrabble, winning at scrabble, spending time with my kids, watching things in HD (just got it installed yesterday!), watching the parade with my kids, sleeping comfortably in my bed at 6am on friday morning knowing that there are some jokers who’ve been out there shopping for hours already.

In a totally unrelated note, i was thinking about how satellites are changing my life. And how they are changing all our lives. Every day i listen to XM Radio thanks to a satellite (and thanks to geof), and all my TV now beams in over a satellite as well. I even use satellite images when i’m getting directions from google maps. If i had a GPS, that would benefit from a satellite as well. When i was golfing with my Dad a couple months ago we had GPS yardage calculations right in our cart, thanks to a satellite. The funny thing is, i look at this huge dish a few feet off the ground next to my house and i have idea how it enables me to watch live sporting events because of something orbiting the earth miles and miles into the atmosphere. it’s ridiculous. the best thing about technology is that you don’t have to understand it to enjoy it.

last note before the weekend. I’ve updated my little area of the web here. This blog, which used to be located at bryanallain.com, is now at bryanallain.com/blog. I’ve turned bryanallain.com into a homepage of sorts that links to my blog, my photos, my writing, and some of the web work that i do. I had been meaning to do that for a while, so I’m glad to have that taken care of.

Here’s the article i wrote, which is so ridiculous, you’ll either love it, hate it, or you’ll be indifferent. It’s called Happy Tryptophan Day!