When I was growing up the girls had Barbie and the boys had G.I. Joe. I was a short freckle-faced kid with crazy hair, I looked nothing like G.I. Joe, but I also didn’t care. I can also say that none of the girls in my neighborhood looked like Barbie. It did not offend any of us because we knew that none of them were real. Now Barbie being total unrealistic is harmful? Today we have several sizes of Barbie, which is great for Mattel who can now sell multiple sizes of clothes that won’t fit all of them. If we really want to make Barbie real her car should be a minivan and stuck to the floor of the fake car should be some french fries and skittles which get lodged in the seats, the back seat should also have a barf stain from the kids getting car sick and the windshield should come pre-cracked so as to look as real to the ones I see running around town. Have we really lost our minds so much that the shape of Barbie’s body is causing our children problems? Maybe this is a sign of me getting old but this seems stupid. To me, it seems that if she is unrealistic it makes it easier to tell make-believe from reality. I never assumed I could attach Estes rockets to the back of a plastic jeep and launch myself down the street, but I did learn that testing these theories on G.I. Joe might have saved all the neighbor kids from lighting their own butt on fire. I guess not all of us knew or still know the difference.

I think I killed it. I am looking at my Microsoft surface and it has an update bar about 95% done sitting there frozen. The fan is on full blast and it has not changed in thirty minutes. The question is what to do? should I let it sit for a while? Should I force it to power down? More to the point what will happen when I try and restart it? Computer updates should not be like Russian roulette. For as long as I have had this thing I have had problems, updates, crashes, slow responses. I am responsible for close to a thousand computers and some people have asked for these things. So I test it, and I would say I am not a big fan. People will ask me from time to time, which computer they should buy and my advice is always the same. Buy a brand you know has a good service reputation. Then buy the most expensive one you can afford from them. This will help when it needs repairs, and it will no matter the brand. Then buying one with the most memory and processor, this will help it work for you longer than the cheap one.