Dave Mancuso dot Com

Brad Rhine introduced a new application today: Frequency. Frequency is a clean and simple app that lets you easily post writing to an online weblog site on the Internet. I tested the beta version and was impressed by its fluidity and directness. I will probably move over to it in time. I would definitely recommend it to a computer non-power user. They could update a website daily by just writing a few words and clicking one button. Hey, maybe Brad could use that for a tagline: “Frequency is one-button Internet publishing.”

I’ve been digging into my web templates and stylesheets to alter the look of my site. I’m not sure how it will end up, but it may look radically different. Feedback is welcome (at this point, you may not even notice what I’ve changed so far).

The “Tokyo Drew” post a few weeks ago engendered a few comments, one of which was my sister Lisa’s comment about the time the drapes were nearly ruined when we were children. Food was involved, children were involved, drapes were caught in the crossfire, and my parents made us write 500 times that we wouldn’t throw food, or play with food, or whatever each of our parts of the transgression was. I was of course completely blameless in what I remember as the “Spaghetti Incident,” but Lisa has a more precise memory of this traumatic event:

“Looking back, you are right about who did the throwing. It was not spaghetti, but instead a wretched stew of some sort that was likely a kitchen experiment gone wrong.

Lesson #1: A cook must be prepared to admit he/she has bungled… it is not acceptable to smile “convincingly” and serve it anyway… the mouth under the age of
10 can not be fooled.

Lesson #2: After serving such a “meal” do not leave said children under 10 unsupervised to eat alone while you check on your wallpapering project upstairs.

Lesson #3: The eldest Brother may not require the youngest brother to consume an additional portion of the “stew” or a serving spoon full may be thrown in his direction. [Editor’s Note: Lisa must certainly be remembering this part incorrectly–as you recall, I am of course blameless. –eldest brother Dave]

Lesson #4: “Stew” stains custom-made Italian draperies.

Lesson #5: After a food fight, check for damage before taking off… you can run, but you can’t hide.

Now that you’ve made me look back… I don’t remember having a role in the event yet was also required to complete the writing assignment. Sigh, I must be off to polish my halo now. :)”

Hmmmm. As I recall, I was the only one who had to write 500 times since I had just learned cursive and could actually finish the assignment. I don’t think Lisa or Joey could write much, since they were in 1st or 2nd grade at the time. I was ripped, man. But I don’t carry a grudge. Oh no. Not at all.

She’s right about the 10 year old mouths, too. Drew tells the day care folks that “Daddy’s diet food tastes like dog food.” Tell us how you really feel, Drew–don’t hold back. 🙂

Oh, and the drapes? The went to the dry cleaners and came back unstained. They lived to grace the windows for several more years and moved with us to our next house at 14 South Swarthmore Ave. in Ridley Park.

You know, I like HGTV as much as the next guy, but why do the makeovers in Design on a Dime always cost $1,000.00? That’s not really a dime to me–are there new economic rules I’m not aware of?

I was listening to Pink Floyd and a good trivia question occurred to me. Can you tell me which band named themselves after a line in a Pink Floyd song? I’ll give you a hint–it’s a line in the album Wish You Were Here.

When I used to work at Denny’s as a server and manager (and just about every other job code), we used to have several tricks of the trade that various servers or cooks liked to practive. Here’s a Denny’s “secret” for you: if a customer wanted their sausage well done, some cooks would drop the sausages into the deep fryer. In addition to cooking the sausages extremely thoroughly, it would make them crispy on the outside.

I forgot to mention yesterday, but I moved the comments system for the page over to Squawkbox, so you’ll notice the new look if you make any comments. This does mean, though, that the old comments are all gone. That’s a shame, because they were great comments, but I had to move over–my license to the old comment system ends soon.

I’d post more today, but my laptop ran out of power playing games for the kids, since I had three kids to watch who actually were angels, but they used this laptop without a power adapter, because I lent it to Brad and forgot to take the one from work home, but then I went to work at ten after Denise got home so I could plug in and make a post, but now it’s 11:34pm and I’m tired, and I went to sleep after midnight every day this week so I’m more tired, and tomorrow I have a big day with the kids and the Easter hunt at day care but probably not the day at Strasburg with Joe and Laura because things conflict despite my great efforts and I hope they’ll forgive me and we’ll get together soon.

It was actually a pretty good week, though. I made lots of progress.

(Welcome to the mind of Dave, on which six threads of thought can be running at any given time)

For the second time in a week, this weblog has moved. The first time was invisible to you (unless you tried to connect to it while it was shuffling over to the new hosting company). This second time, you’ll have to come to my new domain name, Split Focus website (http://www.splitfocus.org).

I should write more tonight, but it would be nice to get to sleep, too. I have two good war stories to tell next time around: a big one (Joan Jett) and a smaller one (Joe Way). See you then!

The pictures of Saddam Hussein’s statue being torn down were broadcast everywhere yesterday, including the Arab world. I heard a very salient interview on NPR at that time with an Arab commentator. The questions: what was the Arab reaction to the TV images of Iraqi joy? What did the Arab news media say about all this?

The commentator said that the Arab reaction was confusion. The Arab commentary said one thing (America interferes), but the images spoke more clearly than anything else to the Iraqi liberation.

I think that the Arab world cannot help but dislike the United States, but they must also feel deep down some shame and frustration. They must be thinking “How did it get this bad in the country of our brothers that the infidels became Iraq’s saviors?” I think it’s vital at this point that The US show respect for the true country of Iraq: the liberated people we saw yesterday.

On a somewhat related note, this is tremendously embarrassing for the French, Germans, and Russians (mostly for the French, but I can’t explain why–it’s just a gut feeling). They’re in the position of looking like either dunces or cowards as far as this conflict goes: they were either ignorant of the true Iraqi situation or worse yet, ignored it. Yes, I know they could have had true antiwar reasons for their stance, but somehow I don’t think so. France at least had its fingers in the Iraqi pie. We may never know the true whys and wherefores behind this conflict, but it’s good to see this signal from the Iraqi people that some good may come of this.