Rick Wiggins

Software development lifer, Clemson grad, surf fisherman. Sometimes think about other stuff, but those three things are still always running in the background.

[Rick Wiggins @tarpaw]

@cutigs1 My parents wouldn’t let me go see this movie before I was old enough to be unaccompanied by an adult because they thought I’d get too many ideas for college. But I figured it all out by myself once I got there.

[Rick Wiggins @tarpaw]

@RobertB52038791 @TigerCommenter I still miss the option and getting 4 yards per down, keeping the ball the whole game, and winning with 3 or less TDs.

[Rick Wiggins @tarpaw]

@RobertB52038791 @TigerCommenter That name sounds awful familiar, but my memory ain’t what it used to be. I graduated BS Computer Science in ‘85 and have been a software lifer and would no longer recommend the vocation.

I seem to recall a 1st half fumble recovery being the loudest human noise I’d ever heard.

[Rick Wiggins @tarpaw]

@RobertB52038791 @TigerCommenter Freshman that year too! I was there that night. What a road trip!

[Rick Wiggins @tarpaw]

@cutigs1 Pretty sure I’m 5 for 5 from that list.

[Rick Wiggins @tarpaw]

@drink_city @BowTiedTrance Lots of us do too.

[Rick Wiggins @tarpaw]

@cutigs1 Definitely not the most important in the grand scheme of things, but while you’re at it can you also throw in another surprise Tiger Natty?

[Rick Wiggins @tarpaw]

@cutigs1 I understand brother, but from the other side. My wife’s been diagnosed with both breast and kidney cancer since 2022. She’s doing well now, but I’m the only real support she’s had through it all. God thankfully wired me to always prioritize her needs, but it’s a tough job.🙏🏻

[Rick Wiggins @tarpaw]

@JonnyCarrots007 If the Falcons could use him he’d have a short commute.

[Matt Van Swol @mattvanswol]

Maybe the people saying Black people are too stupid to get an ID to vote… are the racists.

Maybe the people saying married women can’t figure out how to get a birth certificate… are the sexists.

Maybe the people who won’t name a single number they’d cap immigration at… are the extremists.

Maybe the people who claim to trust science… but can’t define what a woman is aren’t following it.

Maybe the people obsessed with “equity” while ignoring merit… are the ones holding people back.

Maybe the people calling everyone else a threat to democracy… are the ones trying to rig it.

Maybe the people who fight for the working class from a private jet… are fighting for something else.

Maybe the people who say they care about the poor… have run every major American city for 50 years and made them ALL worse.

Maybe the people calling for more gun control… travel with armed security paid for by taxpayers.

Maybe the people who demand unity while calling half the country fascists… don’t want unity, but surrender

Maybe it was never about justice, or equity, or tolerance, or democracy.

Maybe was always about power.

And maybe you can tell, because they never stop accusing YOU of exactly what THEY are doing.

[Walter Kirn @walterkirn]

Please everyone if you don't want your lives run by carnival level psychos don't watch or read the news outlets that knew exactly who he was. They think you're stupid and if you keep looking to them for anything -- anything -- they will take it as proof they're right

["Doc" Hypnosis 🧠 | BowTied Brain-Hacking @BowTiedTrance]

"If you are comparing Plan A to Plan B, you might be doing a good job of thinking. But if you are comparing Plan A to an imaginary situation in which there are no tradeoffs in life, you are not thinking."

The great Scott Adams.

[Tori_ @Toribabieegirl]

I'm really thankful i had a childhood
before social media took over.

[Rick Wiggins @tarpaw]

@BurgerKing My wife is just holding out for the return of the Yumbo.

[ThePersistence @ScottPresler]

Olive Garden implemented the SAVE America Act more quickly than the US Senate.

[Rick Wiggins @tarpaw]

Pretty much sums everything up nowadays, probably has forever.

[Scott Adams @ScottAdamsSays]

2012 Dilbert Classics Week

[Sherman McCoy @wasphyxiation]

> notorious womanizer despite being fat and bald
> retires at 42 as the richest man in the colonies by building a fortune on posting
> world-leading scientist in his SPARE TIME despite little formal education
> hired by the government during the revolution to schmooze people in France
> founded the future most powerful country on earth
> died at an old age universally admired

Reminder: Ben Franklin was the biggest baller of all time

[Rick Wiggins @tarpaw]

@JonnyCarrots007 @ellalangleymsic He came to Raleigh last summer but I had to miss it because my daughter got married in VA that weekend. She had little sympathy for me.

[James Lindsay, anti-Communist @ConceptualJames]

You've probably heard this before, but it's always worth repeating. Something extremely cool about the "Star-spangled Banner," the American national anthem, is that it asks a question, and it's the question at the heart of everything in the American worldview.

"Oh, say, can you see
By the dawn's early light
What so proudly we hailed
At the twilight's last gleaming..."

So the anthem begins with a question and a scene. One man, a patriot, is asking another man, another patriot, "can you see it?" at sunrise after a long, dangerous night.

The "it" in question is going to be revealed to be the flag, our "star-spangled banner," which they had last fully recognized and honored as the sun set, daylight failed, and night crept over them the evening before.

Can you see it? Say! Can you see it?!

IS IT STILL THERE?!

"Whose broad stripes and bright stars
Through the perilous fight
O'er the ramparts we watched
Were so gallantly streaming..."

Here we find that the "it" is in fact the flag, our star-spangled banner, and we learn why the question is being asked.

The flag is described as having flown and streamed gallantly over ramparts of war through a perilous fight. All could have been lost. The flag, and even the fledgling country for which it stands, one nation under God and indivisible.

Say! Can you see it? Now that the light is back?

IS IT STILL THERE?!

"--And the rockets' red glare,
The bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night
That our flag was still there!--"

They could see it through the battle in the light of the rockets and bombs that threatened them, here and there in quick glimpses. But it was still there throughout! But now? At dawn?

Say! Can you see?

IS IT STILL THERE?!

"Oh, say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free
And the home of the brave?"

The urgency is palpable with every refrain. They have to know. It's the first thing they must know as the sun begins to light the sky, even before it rises.

IS IT STILL THERE?!

Say! Say!! Can you see? Can you see it?!

At the heart of every American beats the fundamental truth and reality that what we have here is precious, that it's worth fighting for, to the death if necessary, and that it's fragile. That at any moment it can be lost. That we have to remember to look for it because last night might have been the night in which it failed.

Every day, every year, every generation.

The American fight for freedom, to live in self-governance within ordered liberty, is ongoing and never-ending. The price of the land of the free is that it must be the home of the brave. We have to defend it, defend it, and defend it again, against all enemies foreign and domestic, because what we have is amazing, rare, fragile, and worth every cent of treasure, every drop of blood, and every risk to our sacred honor to protect it.

Our anthem is not a declaration. It is not a proclamation. It is not a statement.

It is a question.

Every time we sing our wholly unique national anthem, we as American ask the question again. IS IT STILL THERE?! Are we still America? Does that star-spangled banner yet wave?

Because it's a question, the answer is not known. It is not a guarantee. It cannot be taken for granted and isn't. And what an honor to ask and take up our part in the story, in the American Experiment, in the greatest country the world has ever known.

For tonight, the last night of our first 250 years, as the sun gave way to twilight's last gleaming and darkness overtook our land once again, the answer was still yes. We can see it even tonight in the red glare of rockets, with small bombs bursting in air, fill the sky with the noble tribute of fireworks once again.

And we all ask ourselves, will it still be flying at dawn?

This is what it means to be an American.

Happy 250th, America! Now for many happy returns!
🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸

[Merriam-Webster @MerriamWebster]

Why is it ‘cancelled’ in the U.K. but ‘canceled’ in the U.S.?

Because we gave them that L in 1776.