You're Getting Old

Sign you are getting old:

The tunes they used to play on the rock stations when you were young, they now play on the classic and soft rock stations.

Sign you are really getting old:

The tunes they used to play on the rock station when you were young, they now play on the folk music station.

Really.

Falling Bush

Stressed out waiting for the Indictments to fall? I know how you feel. It's a stressful time for all; Democrat and Republican.

That's why you need a little something to take your mind off things, and (thanks to a pointer from Salon.com) here's a fun little game; watch the President fall through space and bouncing off large white balls as he goes. You can control the direction he moves in by clicking and dragging on him.

Not to sure what it all means, but it's a clever bit of Flash programming, and oddly satisfying to play too...

The 'Good Luck' Detour

Driving to work I got detoured because there were some power lines down and they had a bunch of power company trucks in the street working on fixing it. Police cars at each end of the block stopped you from proceeding further, but offered no suggestion as to what you were supposed to do.

This is what I call the 'Massachusetts Good Luck Detour'; they block the road, put a sign sending you off in some direction, and with a wave of the hand wish you good luck; because you're on your own. No more signs are provided to mark your way.

Where I grew up, if there was a detour, they'd carefully place a series of signs you could follow. Here, they just wave you off, or they put one sign pointing in a particular direction. And nothing more.

One time I got detoured and it was a five mile detour with three non-obvious turns. The only reason I got through it without difficulty is that there were a bunch of other cars and I just followed them.

Good thing they knew where they were going. Of course, such a strategy doesn't always work; once a friend and I got lost driving around Lowell, and my friend decided to follow the car in front as 'they seem to know where they are going.' The certainly did know where they were going and we nearly followed them into their drive way.

I wonder why Massachusetts police feel no obligation to assist you in overcoming a detour?

Fortunately, this detour was pretty simple: one block over, turn left, two blocks down, turn left, one block across, turn right, and I was on my way. The car in front knew where they were going, and it happened to be the same direction I was.

O' Canada

From the Uncyclopedia by way of Matt:

"The tragedy of Canada is that it could have had British culture, French cuisine and American technology. Instead it got American culture, British cuisine and French technology."

I like this post in another blog featuring an exchange between an MIS support person and a user:

Me: What would you like your password to be?
User: Oooh......ummmm......geeee.... How many letters does it have to be?
Me: 8 characters.
User: Oooohhhhh.... 8 huh? (under breath) 1..2...3...4...5..6..7......... Hmmmm......wow.....uhhhhh......

Dr Browns' Car

I saw a Delorean in the parking lot today when I was picking up a pizza.

It had the following license plate: DOCBRWN

Want to help?

sign on the wall at a mechanic's shop:

" Labor - $40 per hr. If you watch, $70 per hr. If you help, $150 per hr."

(I don't know if it's true, I saw it on the Internets)

Got the time?

I like watches, and the other day, when I saw this watch, I thought it was kind of fun, so I bought it as a birthday present for myself. It's a Diesel - DZ4026, and it's animated like the sonar on a ships radar.

This little animated 'hand' sweeps round and round. As the guy at the watch store said, it doesn't acutally work (!) but it's still kind of fun. I'm not sure that it even works as a time measure of any kind as it takes about five seconds (I guess) to rotate around 360 degrees.

Oh, yeah, there is actual hands, and they do tell the actual time...

Push Polling

The NRA sent me a National Gun Owner's Action Survey. They obviously confused me with someone else, as it said You have been selected to represent gun owners in your area which surprised me; did the gun owners of the area know I had been selected to represent them?

See the problem is; a) I don't own a gun, and b) I support gun laws.

I do own a couple of bows, but I just shoot at circles painted on pieces of card with them...

I did find the survey kind of interesting. A survey is essentially a poll, and as anyone will tell you, in creating an accurate poll, it's the phrasing of the question that's most important. How you ask the question is as important - maybe more important - than what you ask.

Take these examples:

8. Do you think that gun owners should be required to submit to 'safety training' by government bureaucrats before they're allowed to exercise their Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms?

Note the quote around safety training, and the term government bureaucrats. People would vote against driving tests if they were phrased that way.

Or look at this question, which combines two unrelated issues;

9. Do you think that law-abiding gun owners like yourself are in any way responsible for the actions of murderers and robbers who use guns to commit their crimes?

No question about whether the easy availability of guns increases the likelihood of crimes.

One question I had a problem with;

11. If law-abiding citizens were forced to give up their guns to the government, do you think the crime rate in your community would go up, go down or stay about the same?

My problem is that the simple answer is Yes, unfortunately, I think that the crime rate will go up (at least that's what you can conclude from looking at studies of crimes vs. guns in other countries.)

But the answer is much more complicated than that. Countries with strict gun laws tend to have slightly higher burglary rates. But the murder rate is much, much lower. (And no, it's not the burglars being murdered in the United States; it's people getting into stupid arguments and being shot accidentally.)

I guess it comes down to whether you consider life or property more important. One would think that a country that considers itself 'Christian' would be more concerned about life..

I like this story

Police found a naked man in a Check 'n Go. I love this paragraph of the story:

"He had a charming story to go along with it though," Police Lt. Danny Watson said. "He said somebody threw his keys on the roof and that's why he was up there. He kind of got a little fuzzy on the 'taking all his clothes off and sliding in the store' part."

Annoying quotes from sales clerks

A survey involving 230 shoppers at U.S. malls, conducted by Ridgewood, N.J.-based MOHR Access found the following Most Annoying Words from A Salesperson's Mouth:

"Not my department," (29 percent)
"If it's not on the rack, we don't have it," (25 percent)
"That's the policy,"
"I'm on a break,"
"Ask the person over there,"
"I'm new here,"
"You'll have to wait your turn,"
"The computer is down."

We're not fat...

...just big boned.

Seems that the increasing weight of American's might be at fault for the boating trajedy this past weekend that claimed the lives of 20 senior citizens. In assessing the maximum number of passengers, New York assumes a 150-pound average for each man, woman and child, while the U.S. Coast Guard standard assumes a 140-pound average for each person.

Now, that might be an okay average if you have a mix of children and adults, but if you're load is entirely adults, 150 is clearly an optomistic assumption at best.

Chicken Parmesan

Subway has this 'new' Chicken Parmesan sandwich that they are pushing, and after ordering it twice I've come to the conclusion that it sucks.



The problem is that Subway has this new toasting oven thing that they use to toast your sandwich with. It must pack some punch, as they stick the sandwich in for 20 seconds and out comes the 'toasted' sandwich. And it's pretty good with some of the other sandwiches. But with the Chicken Parmesan, they seem to use it to toast the roll, but also to heat the chicken pieces that they put on the roll. Which means 'heating' it for a lot longer. The result; the bread roll seems to get thinner and tougher.

The first time I tired it, I thought maybe it was the sauce that was the problem; maybe if they added that after the heating it would be better. But after the second sandwich I've come to the conclusion that it's the over-heating of the roll that is the problem. If the chicken was already warm, or they microwaved it first, then they wouldn't have to heat the roll so long.

That's my thought; but it would make the production of the sandwich more complicated, so they probably wouldn't want to do it. I thought about writing to Subway; but what's the point....hmm...maybe they'll send me a gift certificate or something?

Oh, and watch out for that sauce. It can be damn hot. Dave burned his finger badly on it the other day...

Next Stop, Subway

For the better part of a year, Dave (officemate) and I have been walking down to the sandwich place down the road for lunch. They make some good specialty sandwiches; fancy things with fancy titles like 'Arizona Chicken', that come with fancy breads and fillings. The problem is, they're huge! And you can get them with fries!

We both decided that they were making us fat...or maybe we got bored with them. But what else to eat? There aren't many healthier choices near by.

So for about a month, we've been driving to Subway and getting lunch there. The upside; the lunch is smaller (if you get the 6" sub), cheaper (about two dollars), and healthier (less than 6 grams of fat; is that good?). The downside; we're not getting as much exercise, and we're burning more gasoline.

Life is full of difficult choices.

Subway is an interesting place. It has it's own rhythm. You definitely notice that different staff effects the efficiency of the operation. If the girl with the red hair is out, it takes a lot longer to get your sandwich. And then some days you get stuck behind Subway virgins who seem to have no idea what they want or what all the choices are, and you stand behind them and try to be patient because you remember that once, *once* you didn't know what to order either.

One of the women is particularly friendly, always saying hi and asking how you're doing. And then she says something else so totally unexpected you don't quite understand what it is she just said. You nod, and say some pleasantry that you hope won't be out of place while wondering; 'Did she really just say she's got a ruptured spleen and is going to see a doctor about it after work?' It's not that she mumbles or speaks with an accent; it's just that it isn't always comprehensible. Maybe it's the content? Maybe you just don't expect that kind of detail over a simple lunch sandwich?

And then you're stuck wondering if she's going to say something else, or for your sandwich to move along to the next phase in the process; "You want chips and a drink with that?"

Not enough time

TheTiredOne: *sits here trying to figure out how to use Acrylic*
Me: paint?
TheTiredOne: acrylic is microsoft's new venture of graphic development... can even render gui's for the new XAML format used in Windows Vista... it's a kinda cool mix of Corel and Photoshop.. I like how it's layed out, I just need to get used to it.. (and it's free)
MchGtr: never heard of it. Link?
TheTiredOne: http://www.microsoft.com/products/expression/en/default.aspx
...
Me: ohh! I think that's gonna take me a while to figure out what it's all about. why don't you finish playing with it, and tell me all about it?

Deposit

Came across an account of one persons trip back into New Orleans to survey damage to their property. I was particularly touched by their comment:

"The tenants had split leaving food in the refrig and garbage in the kitchen. This caused a nauseating mess, but nothing that can't be cleaned up."

Hmm, something tells me those tenants aren't getting their security deposit back! Damn it people! When fleeing a Hurricaine, the first thing you do is empty the fridge and take out the trash!!