Carnivorous plants, plotting my demise. Or they would be if they had a central nervous system. This is the closest I get to Ninjas hunting me in real life…PS these plants want you dead too, but I’m closer.

Unless the Ninjas are hunting you. But even that would be pretty cool.

I watched the American Ninja Warrior world competition last night and SPOILER it was awesome.

I didn’t even care who won. Sure I cheered for my favourites but watching these guys flip and grip their way through obstacles that are IMPOSSIBLE to overcome is just so amazing the competitive aspect was secondary.

(PS. Just because the Ninjas did overcome the obstacles doesn’t make them any less impossible. I’m fairly certain they aren’t real people. Or they’re using some sort of arcane magic carried deep within us all that is muffled by Twinki-fat.)

The show is great on so many levels.

• Amazing obstacles.
• YouTube worthy wipe outs.
• Abs everywhere.
• And the best part…The competitors were honest to goodness good sports. (It’s been so long since I’ve seen one on TV that I had to double check.)

Sure, they wanted to win, but there was a complete absence of trash talk and you could see the excitement on their faces when anyone did well (competitor or teammate).

Watching the sport felt like peeking through a window at a community that was all about success and achievement in the presence of others not at the expense of others.  It makes me want to be a better person…and have abs. But I think I’ll be realistic and focus on the better person part. (Pass the Twinkies please.)

Writing Exercise:  

What inspires you to be a better person? What inspires you to eat Twinkies?  Are they connected?  Happy writing.

Since when did bovines get into the oil and gas industry?

I’m not a technical person, but for some reason I’ve been put in charge of a series of very technical (to me) things at work. (The internet is technical right?) And every time I manage (through a combination of determination, research and luck) to make a project work, the powers that be are all “great, now here’s something even harder and more technical”. I feel like I’m being punked.

Today I used a dos prompt for the first time in a decade, after I followed a set of instructions that might as well have been in Latin.

I was led to that frustrating bit of nostalgic computer magic by trying to download and run a piece of non-conforming software in our testing lab. Seriously, they gave me admin rights. Who the *&$#)(&% do they think I am?

But I was determined to get the system working so I soldiered on.

Note to self: This is an opportunity for personal growth. Any day you don’t hit your computer with a 2L bottle of Diet Coke is a good day.

In an attempt to understand the instructions I did what all good, resourceful, non technical people did. I asked Mr. Google a few questions.

Mr. Google, how do I set Environmental Conditions? – Ok, that doesn’t seem too bad…but I don’t really understand all of those words.

Mr. Google, what is a ClassPath? (What? Ok, my fault wrong question.)

Mr. Google, what is a JAR and why does Java want one? (ummm)

I finally gave up when I found out that: Tar archives need to be untarred with a Gnu. I’m pretty sure a Gnu is a goat, or maybe a yak, but either way our office doesn’t have one and I’m not going to clean up after it, no matter how much tar it’s covered in.

I quit. (Well, not really. But totally for the day. Today gets to be all about writing…and the dishes…I really have to get to the dishes.)

Writing Exercise:

How would a gnu get covered in tar? Do gnus prospect for oil deposits under the Savannah (or wherever the heck a gnu is from) when we’re not looking?