I was having a conversation with someone the other day who was trying to make a point. In the process of the conversation, this person decided to back that point with a list of smaller points. It went like this: “A) Never get involved in a land war in Asia and 2)…” Well, it didn’t matter what Point 2 was, because it should have been Point B. I got distracted and stopped listening to what they were actually saying because I was thinking, “That should have been Point B. Point B!“.

If you start a list alphabetically, please end alphabetically. Same for the numerical point system. I don’t care which you use, just be consistent. If you’re extending your logic and your thought process enough to make a bullet pointed argument, go one step further and use consistent point headers. If you can’t be consistent enough to stick with letters or numbers, how am I to believe you’ve sufficiently thought out the argument you’re presenting within those headers? Just sayin’.

I’m sitting at my desk today getting ready to print out the latest project I’m working on. I hit Apple-P (Control-P for you Windows users), tap the return key and move on to my next job. Suddenly the printer icon starts flashing, so I click on it. This is the message I get: “Print Error; Intervention Needed; Printer is out of paper.”

My computer actually told me that an intervention was needed, like the printer was an alcoholic who had gotten out of control. So I gathered everyone in the office and we confronted the printer. We said we knew it was out of paper. Of course it denied the whole thing. We knew denial was the first step, so we kept pushing. An hour later, after many tears and toner spilled, we put more paper in our little HP buddy and we were good to go.

Let’s say I find bottle with a genie in it. The genie pops out and offers me a wish. What happens if I say, “I wish you wouldn’t grant me any wishes.” Is he obligated to not grant my wish? By doing so has he granted my wish, therefore negating the whole thing? Or will his head just explode?

I remember back in grade school, we had to take the ISTEP tests, which stood for Indiana State Testing Educational Propaganda or something the like. The upside was getting out of class for the day. The downside was that it was for an all day test. But I did walk away with some knowledge. Some of it I’ll never use in everyday conversation, but it makes for good B as in Blog fodder, such as: a baloo is a bear, a yonker is a young man and wuzzle means to mix. There was also a name for a three legged stool, but I forgot that one. (more…)

I’m sitting at my desk today getting ready to print out the latest project I’m working on. I hit Apple-P (Control-P for you Windows users), tap the return key and move on to my next job. Suddenly the printer icon starts flashing, so I click on it. This is the message I get: “Print Error; Intervention Needed; Printer is out of paper.”

My computer actually told me that an intervention was needed, like the printer was an alcoholic who had gotten out of control. So I confronted the printer. I told it I knew it was out of paper. Of course it denied the whole thing. I knew denial was the first step, so I kept pushing. An hour later, after many tears and toner spilled, I put more paper in my little HP buddy and I were good to go.

While my wife and I were out enjoying the Indian summer playing with the dogs at the park this past weekend, it was difficult not to notice the amount of bikers who brought their motorcycles out of the garage for one last ride.

It reminded me of when I took the ABATE motorcycle riding class a few years back. I noticed something disturbing in a “I never really thought of it that way” kind of way, yet I hesitated to bring it up at the time. The guys who taught the class had been riding for years and all had the big Harleys. However, most of them had leather tassels on the handlebars and saddlebags. The only other riders I’ve seen with tassels on their handlebars have been seven-year-old girls with the basket and banana seat on the bike. I’m not really sure what the comparision means and I sure wasn’t going to bring it up at the motorcycle class. I just found it odd is all.

It got me thinking about other products that have two completely different target markets.  I thought I’d open it up to any of our readers and see if you could think of any off the top of your heads.