Scott Adcox

“It was averted by brave individuals not because the system worked and that is not acceptable.”

Really?!?!?! That’s an interesting statement.

I’m must be really weird. I look at things a little differently. See,  I think the fact that the system failed and brave individuals did not is AWESOME!!!! In fact, I put way more faith and trust in a bunch of even semi-brave individuals than I do in any “system” the TSA could possibly devise.

But that’s just me–I’m a hopeless realist.

Are we any better off now than we were 10 years ago? Ok, just had to ask that because it seems like the thing to do. I know that for a lot of people the answer is a definite “no”. As for me, I’m infinitely better off than I was then. The last decade has been one of tremendous technological advancement, but there’s plenty to lament. Here’s my list of 10 things I had 10 years ago that I’ll probably never have access to again.

1. The ability to remember phone numbers. I still remember both of my grandmothers’ phone numbers from when I was a kid, but thanks to these fancy schmancy mobile devices, I can only remember a handful now. And if I met you in the last 10 years, you’re lucky if I can even guess your area code.
2. Mix tapes. Yeah, we could burn CDs for some of the 90s, but what the hell were you supposed to listen to in the car? Because chances are you were driving a car made in the early 90s at the latest, and it didn’t have a CD player in it.
3. My knees. This one is obvious. There’s nothing worse than tackling a young guy, hearing the breath leave his lungs as his back slams into the pitch, then watching from the ground as he trots away on his springy legs. The only thing that keeps me going is the fact that he’s going to get old too and probably won’t fare as well as I have.
4. Bill Clinton as President. As much as it pains me to type it, I’d prefer any Clinton (Bill, Hillary, Chelsey, George, any of them) to what we have now. Sure, it’s not the optimal situation, but beggars can’t be choosers.
5. My Thursday afternoon job bottling beer. One of the best jobs I ever had was helping the guys at New Knoxville Brewing Company bottle beer on Thursdays. There was no money involved, but I was promised I’d achieve total inebriation on my death bed. So I got that going for me, which is good. Fortunately, that’s yet to come to fruition, but we were allowed to carry out a couple of cases of “shorties” (bottles that weren’t completely filled and weren’t worth a label) every day. Good times.
6. Waylon Mothergrabbin’ Jennings
7. Tables. Back in the 90s, you could load a website down with embedded table after embedded table, then fill those tables with sliced images that the browser magically placed back together and no one thought a thing about it. Put just one table into a site now and you are getting beat with a USB cable.
8. When a girl could still cook, and still would. I had to throw that in there for Merle Haggard, but actually, this one happens to be the opposite for me. I don’t think I knew a girl in the 90s who could really cook. Not so now. I’m very well fed, and I look the part. But my girl couldn’t cook back in the 90s–this is a newly acquired skill. So if I could go back to the 90s version of her (the one that was over 18), I’d probably be much thinner. That’s logical, right?
9. New episodes of Seinfeld. I have some of the seasons on DVD. It’s not the same. Scott is gettin’ angry.
10. Free international travel. During the 90s I got to go to Europe and Asia to work on projects for weeks, which meant weekends on vacation in Europe and Asia. Even better–the companies I was working for footed the bill and provided per diems for expenses. Damn you Webex and remote login. Damn you straight to hell. Just kidding…except for the travel thing, Webex and remote login have made my life better in more ways than I can count.

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2009: The Year of the Failed Narratives – I love story time! I have to admit that I'm a little disappointed that none of the stuff they are trying to sell us involves dragons or unicorns. I mean, if we're going to write fiction, let's go all the way with it.

Ghetto Kool-Aid – The word "ghetto" is over-used. The word "Kool-Aid", however, is not.

The New Flight Security Rules, So Far – When you can count on showing up for a flight four hours early, not being allowed to access your carry-ons (the whole purpose for carrying things on when you have children), not being able to hold objects in your lap (try explaining that to a toddler), and not being able to go to the restroom for the last hour of the flight…why on earth would anyone fly anywhere with kids? This will definitely be changing our travel plans in the future.

Is cable worth it? – Not even if they paid you to watch the commercials

Top 10 Bad Things That Are Good For You – I don't set things on fire and put them in my mouth, so weed is out. Can I double down on the beer instead? And I won't need the LSD to counter the extra beer for a few years. I won't knock the maggots until I've tried them.

Obama, Left Behind – What he really needs to fix this is a new web site and a fresh Twitter account. They'll be back in no time.

Mortgage Applications Drop to 2-Month Low – I have to believe this is mostly due to the fact that people are hanging out waiting on short sale approval letters. *hint hint*

Learn to Let Go: How Success Killed Duke Nukem – Shake it baby! This is the first and only shoot 'em game I ever bought, but it was pretty good. I'm not that into video games, so I didn't really keep up with the drama that was the continual delayed release of the sequel.

Stripper For Christmas – Ho Ho Ho! Yeah, that wasn't very original.

Women linked to Tiger Woods – At least he has a better eye for talent than Bill Clinton.

Shashi Tharoor: Why nations should pursue "soft" power – If this is true, please explain to me why chicks always dig the guy who can beat up everyone else.

Surf’s up as biggest waves in five years come to Hawaii after North Pacific storm – Sick.

About Those ‘Tax Cuts for the Rich’ – I guess it's time we start paying our fair share after all. And I'm not rich.

More Regulation to Help the "Underserved"? – If a man was smart he would try to figure out where this will create a bubble, invest there, wait for the bubble to inflate, then get out before it bursts. If I man was smart…

Changes hit home for appraiser – Hooray for regulations! Increased cost to the consumer AND reduced income for the service provider! Yay!

America’s Best Bang-For-The-Buck Cities – Cool…we unwittingly moved form the #22 city on the list to #18. Look how smart we is.

Apple’s Lala Acquisition – I have high hopes for what is possible here, but my hopes for an Android app are diminishing.

An iPhone App to Track How Badly AT&T Sucks – But it works right out of the box. And if it stops working, you can pay someone else to fix it.

16 Reasons Why We Might Unfollow You On Twitter – A pretty good list here. I can't say I disagree with any of it.

Sentinels Of Freedom Golf Ball Drop – Great Idea for a great cause!

Union troubled by Eagle Scout project in Allentown – How dare you do something for free that these guys won't do for less than $15/hour!

Bernanke reassures markets on dollar – Uh-oh. The dreaded "vote of confidence." That means there's a committee already formed to find a new coach.

A phpBB to bbPress database converter « – But first you have to install 0.7, convert, then upgrade to 0.8, then upgrade to 1.02. Ironically, it seems completely worth it.

The 7 Harsh Realities of Social Media Marketing – Some good stuff here

Can the Government Save the Airlines? – What the airlines need are a few more stylin', profilin', limousine riding, jet flying, kiss-stealing, wheelin' n' dealin' sons of guns like Ric Flair!

Training the Mind to Run Right Through the Winter – Looking forward to not having this problem.

BeautifulPeople.com – I see absolutely nothing wrong with this. It's smart.

Happy Holidays: Google Offers Free WiFi At 47 Airports – Cool. I wish this were the norm, and I suspect it will be one day very soon.

VS 2010 Code Intellisense Improvements – This is really good for me. I’m still not familiar enough with the C# namespace, and I’m not in it enough every day that that will be improving any time soon.

Notes from the Road – Really nice travel/photo site. I could spend lots of time here.

UK’s streets of no shame – When I was in Cardiff, it was only the men who were acting like this. How times have changed.

Bing Twitter – Test drive Bing’s real time search of Twitter here. It’s about to get interesting.

We’re Not The Men We Used To Be – The average man was faster than Usain Bolt 20,000 years ago? Man, I miss out on all the good stuff.

35 Year Ban Proposed For Offshore Bottom Fishing – This doesn’t sound good. I thought we only had 50 days to do something about climate change. Now we’re thinking about 35 year bans?

iDrinkCoaster – “I’ve seen koalas drink faster than you”. Technology is a beautiful thing.