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In case you didn’t hear about it (I didn’t until yesterday - quite a bit behind on the news), Arthur C. Clarke passed away a few days ago.

He was one of my favorite sci-fi writers, for reasons too numerous to list here. His influential ideas, such as the often quoted three laws of prediction, span the boundaries between imaginative story telling and real world science, theory, and philosophy.

In my opinion, he brought out the very best in the genre of science fiction by telling stories in a manner that actually inspires hope for the real-world future, and stirs a desire to challenge the boundaries of what we know and accept to be the limits placed upon us and our world.

Like many others, my fascination with his work began with the movies (2001 and 2010). I was later thrilled to spot the third book in the series (2061) in a used book store for 50 cents, and I didn’t even know it existed before that moment. I devoured it and then quickly sought out the final book in the series (3001). The latter two never made their way to the motion pictures, but are still just as interesting and thought provoking as the first two.

Here’s hoping that the generation(s) of scientists and creative thinkers he inspired will go on to discover and achieve some of the great things they have been allowed to dream about because of the stories they’ve read, and that his work will continue to foster the imaginations of people for ages to come.

So tomorrow I’m starting on a time limited program to get into better shape. I find that having a goal with a date usually helps motivate me to stick to something, so hopefully that will be the case this time as well.

Of course, having an end date also has its disadvantages, as most dieters come to realize eventually. My plan is once I get back down to a healthy level, I can move to a system of maintainable long term habits so as not to let myself get back to where I am now.

Martha and I are doing it together (it’s a couples competition kind of thing), so tonight we went out for a date night to enjoy some good Mexican food that we probably won’t be having for a while, as well as catch a movie (The Great Debaters, which was very good), and some popcorn for Martha (I’m not a big fan of popcorn).

I’m only posting this on here to increase the accountability a little bit, so that I won’t be tempted to back out of it. I’ll try to post updates fairly regularly. Wish me luck…

… is a lot easier with a laser level equipped stud finder.

In fact, the laser makes it almost fun.

Excerpt from a 37 signals chat session:

Matt L.: “Microsoft to Pay $240 Million for Facebook Stake”
Matt L.: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1193235183…
Sam S.: “Facebook, a service that lets people set up their personal Web pages,”
Sam S.: worst description ever
Jason F.: Sam: lol
Jason F.: It’s amazing how often the media just totally botches such simple shit like that
Sam S.: yeah, doesn’t give you a whole lot of faith in the things they’re reporting about outside your area of expertise
Jason F.: Good observation.

So true.

I’m seriously thinking about writing a letter to our local Albertsons regarding a problem I’ve noticed recently, explaining why I don’t want to shop there anymore.

There is a smaller Ralph’s that is nearer to my house, and I often will choose that, but occasionally I decide to go up to Albertsons, since they have a bigger selection and the self-checkout lanes, which are awesome.

However, the last several times (at least four in a row) I have gone to the Albertsons, there have been not one, but two tables set up (on either side of the doors) with solicitors. This is one of those things that really, really bugs me. The petitioners I could somewhat stomach if they weren’t so aggressive about it, but the kids selling products for companies that are not-too-subtly skirting the child labor laws (in my opinion, anyway) really bugs me. Always has, and probably always will.

I’m generally not a fan of unsolicited sales in the first place - if I want to buy something, I will seek it out, so do your best to meet me in that process. Trying to push something on me that I have not already expressed an interest in or desire for is distasteful to me.

Adding kids into the mix is just over the top, in my book. Companies that are trying to pawn off fifty cent candy bars for several dollars should be ashamed of themselves in the first place. Since there’s no way they could ever get away with that kind of markup in the real market, they have to employ kids to sell them for them, and play on the guilt factor of needing to “help out” whatever organization the kid is a part of.

Having the company scrape off a part of its huge profit margin (much less than they would have to pay “real” sales people) and give it back to the kids’ organizations should not assuage their guilty consciences in the least. If these companies were really interested in helping kids, they could start by not exploiting them for their own profit.

I’m thinking about printing up little pamphlets to give to the kids (or their parents) that talk about the kids who are exploited on one end of that transaction (the ones picking the cocoa for most chocolate makers in the world), and then asking them to please not contribute to that type of business model on this side of the equation as well.