Has anyone really been missing my updates to the illustrated Bob’s Ob’s? It started to get a little overwhelming with my lack of time with classes and all, even though it was still fun to do them. I’m considering not doing them anymore or perhaps picking up again in the summer. If the text version isn’t enough for you, speak up and maybe I’ll squeeze some time in to catch up.

There’s a CNN story about talking shopping carts coming to a store year you. For some reason, this gave me an idea for RFID tags, if in fact the signal from them contains public information as simple as brand, expiration date, price, etc.

Someone could create a handheld device for consumers that would read the RFID tags from items you put in your cart and automatically tell you if the price is better somewhere else or perhaps even print a legit coupon. Let’s say you buy this device and a monthly service with it which allows you to use the device’s built-in wireless (?) to reach the service site and pull the coupons, which it may have scanned from the web or newspaper for you already.

It could even tell you if the expiration date on the cheese you’re buying is frighteningly close to the current date. Push a button and it will scan the nearby shelf for one that’s in better shape.

Probably all thought of before, but it’s something to think about.

Today my wife asked me to take a look at this page, which has a very short list of some alternatives to giving candy to kids on halloween. Don’t get me wrong — I agree with the points the guy makes on the overweight problem with kids these days. I’m just not comfortable with being the “weird house on the corner” just yet. I’d like to wait until we’re at an age when people can walk away from our door saying, “they’re probably just senile.”

If I’m gonna be on board with this, I need to ask — do any of your kids get pencils and balls as halloween treats? If so, do they like them or are they disappointed? If they don’t get them, ask them what they’d think if they got those as treats and let me know.

We already have the nutcase dog on the corner. Now that we’ve terrorized the kids with a barking hound from hell, I’d rather not shove it in their face by throwing a number 2 pencil in their bag. Saturday morning we’ll probably wake up to our pumpkins looking like pencil-cushions.

My mom recently asked me to help her out by writing a character reference for her neighbor (we’ll call him David H) because he was applying for a gun permit. I guess his father had some old guns he wanted to give him, but he couldn’t keep them in his house without the permit.

Anyway, I decided to be a wise ass on my first go at it:

To Whom it May Concern –

I am writing as a character reference for David H, who has been my neighbor for the past 20 years.

There is no reason why Mr. H should not be given a gun permit — he’s already an exellent shot with his .45, and watch out when he’s sitting by the pool with his pump-action shotgun, picking off pigeons! Our garden has never looked so good, now with so few crows hanging around. Dave is even so helpful as to pick up the crow corpses for us, mounting them with care in the bunker under his pool house.

We almost never fear for our lives when David is at home, which is usually from noon until eight in the morning. There was only one unfortunate incident as a result from David’s taste for liquor and firearms, although in his defense, Buddy did bark a little too much.

David is an excellent conversationalist if you catch him before his fourth glass of gin, which is usually around ten in the morning. If I understood him clearly, he asked for this character reference. I hope this puts him a positive light, one which will help him fill the 17th spot on his gunrack once and forall.

That was fun.