My First Online Beer!

I shared my first “online” beer last Friday night. Specifically, I was able to have an Internet-hosted conference call with some great friends of mine, Andy and Scott, shoot the breeze and quaff an ale. And it was free! There is no substitute for actually having a cold one with the boys in person, but this was a close second.

Thanks to Skype and Asahi Breweries, I experienced a brief whiff of a pub night right at home in Mission Control (my computer area). Scott's here in Hiroshima and Andy now lives in Azerbaijan. Good sound quality made it seem that both were there in the room, talkin’ shit and having fun. What a great idea. Hopefully video will be the next step.

I had a “Style Free” pale ale or two during the chat. While the product name is Asahi’s wacky play on English words, for those of you that are familiar with my fashion sense, it’s fitting.

Information technology. It is both enabler of faster contact with family and friends as well as a time murderer if you get mired in endless link hopping. In this case, though, my first online beer at the end of the week felt liberating! You can communicate with people from pretty much anywhere these days…

Operation Nose Suction

Situation: Toddler streaming thick green mucus from nostrils for several days in a row. Ability to function as normal toddler compromised. Parental units concerned about near-future viability for outdoor operations. Action required to rectify the snot attack.

Mission: Clear clogged nasal passages of greenish slime and restore sniffle-free breathing.

Tactics:
1. Distract: Employ colorful Elmo sticker while Dad unit does dumb entertaining things to distract attention of targeted child.
2. Disarm: Dad holds child unit’s head and lovingly clasps little arms to suppress arm defenses.
3. Clean: Mom unit inserts suction thingy into child’s nostril, and inhales air through the other tube to suction out yucky green shit. Execute same op on other nostril with surgical precision and speed to take advantage of surprise and prevent effective resistance.
4. Extract: Pull equipment out, leaving no traces for a future enemy force regeneration.

Results: screaming bloody murder during operation, followed by an appreciative sigh of relief as normal breathing through nasal passages is restored. Mission accomplished.

From the parental perspective

From the kid perspective