Friday, December 29, 2006

Tree-climbing Dog

This impressed me.



On Christmas day, our dawg decided to chase a squirrel more than she should have. On this pic, she is about 8 ft above ground.

The trouble is, she got about 5 feet higher than this before realizing she can't climb backwards. I failed to take more pics cos I needed to rescue her!

Happy New Year!

Wednesday, November 29, 2006

Michigan Weather

Yesterday, there were some record temperatures recorded in Detrot . Record Highs. 67 degrees on November 28th. Today, as I was driving to a meeting at lunchtime, it was dumping some icy sleety cold stuff on me. Tonight, a fire will be necessary. Tomorrow there is a winter weather alert.

At least it keeps life interesting.

Monday, November 13, 2006

things that make me go MOFO!

When people who love their cars so much that the feel the need to BACK them into spaces, that is generally OK with me. But, when they do it in a fashion that kinda stick over my space (not the website) and makes me have difficulty opening my door.

makes me think .. nice car... pity you cant drive it in reverse. perhaps you should walk, dumbass!

Saturday, November 04, 2006

heee heee

I like this CD cover!

Saturday, October 14, 2006

GO TIGERS!!!!!

Yesterday afternoon, me and the lad went to Game 3 of the ALCS between Detroit Tigers and the Oakland Athletics.

What a game!!

What an atmosphere!!

Saturday, October 07, 2006

Oh yeah.....

I almost forgot... there was a small victory here today

GO TIGERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


contribution and commitment

I just heard a good comparison made on during a wings game and it awakened a bit of my brain

contribution and commitment:

Here's the difference:

Ever eat bacon and eggs for breakfast?

the chicken made a contribution, but the pig made the commitment.

for some reason, I like that.

Monday, July 24, 2006

Our First Ripe Real Chilli


We picked this hot banana pepper yesterday and put it in a salad. it was delicious. The bottle top is there as a scaler.

Dooooooogan the Dag


Brightest dog I know.. friends of ours belong to him.

Sunday, July 09, 2006

Words De Jour

on looking at lighthouse stuff, specifically the one on Tory island, I came upong two new words. and had to find out what they meant...
Catopric -A light which uses a concave mirror for magnification.
Dioptric -A light which uses a lens for magnification.

some old zoo pics



From Detroit Zoo in 2005... I think they are cool anyway.

Thursday, June 22, 2006

CD of the day


I guess it would have been "Album of the Day" not so long ago.

Johnny Cash - Live At Folsom Prison.

It's gotta be one of the best ever.

In fact, Johnny was a hero.

Wednesday, June 21, 2006

crazy!!!

Its been a while. There have been a bunch of things I'd written a little about, but not a lot and since it is sommertime now and I have a new job, I've not had a great dela of time to do all this blogging business.

Anyway, its stormy here and there's a tornado watch in effect. so far only a bit of rain a few flashes and a lot of rumbles, but we'll see. The rain will do the chillis and tomatoes good.

On that I must get planting the fenugreek and daikon seens my work friend (of old and now new again) supplied me with. I heve no clue how they will turn out, but cooking the fenugreek if it grows will provide the neighbors with a wonderful aroma. Well I think its good.

Anyway, I seen a crazy sight yesterday. Driving down I75. White ~early 90's thunderbird 2 cars in front of me. ikts round about 4 pm, so its the usual shuffle, 70 mph back to 10 to 70 again. Anyway, out of the sun roof of this thinderbird pops two girls. OK, methinks, they are going to stand on the rear seat.. no. The proceed to climb onto the top of the front seat backs. and stand up. Then the cars start to accererate back to 70 and they are forced to sit down. They looked amazingly unstable and one alsmost went over the side. after some gigling and wobbling the car exits. Lucky for the idiots.

IDIOTS!!! where are the cops when you need them?? Where is darwin?? In fairness its the poor driver behind then who would run over them if they got flipped off their perch who i would feel most sorry for.

Sunday, May 07, 2006

The Price Of Gas

It's hovering around $2.70 a gallon right now. Still mild by European standards.

Is it really a bad thing that the price of gasoline in America is rising? The knee-jerk reactions, naturally, is yes. But on deeper thinking, I'm not so sure.

I listened to an article on NPR recently (I listen to NPR a lot these days) regarding this exact subject. Let's see....

If the price of gas went up, say to $7 a gallon, what would the consequences be?

My (somewhat influenced) thoughts..

1. People would complain a lot.
• Complaining is really good. It causes people to become aware
• Somewhat the same. It causes the complainers to think about wjhat they are complaining about.

2. People would refuse to buy gas.
• ….for a little while. They then would buy it because they need it, or in other words, buy it only when they need it.
• It’s not like the energy companies would really feel the pressure.
• There would be some silly schemes like “don’t buy gas on the 13th of the month” or something. Dumb. Does anyone think that will work?

3. People will ultimately drive less.
• It’s obvious that people drive way, way too much. Is there a need to drive for 2 minutes as opposed to walking for 10?
• Because people would be “forced” to drive less, they would optimize their trips. No going to the supermarket, then home, then back to the cleaners (located next to the supermarket). Trips will be combined.
• Bikes. Think about it. I used to cycle to the supermarket when I didn’t live in America, I should really do that here. OK, it gets a wee bit chilly in the winter but a bike ride could warm me up.

4. After some worries, people might start carpooling in their daily commute. This is a big one. I do not carpool. Yet. What happens if people carpool?
• Fewer cars on the road. Less pollution.
• Get to work faster, because there is less traffic
• Statistically, you are less likely to cause an accident if you’re not alone in your car.
• Less traffic = less stress. = a better mood when you get to work. = more productive. = better for the economy. = less waiting around. = getting home earlier. = more relaxed. = a better mood. = less illness. = lower health insurance costs (yea right). = better mood. = less sick time. = more productive. ……etc.
• Carpooling = conversation with other people, usually. A good chunk of the cube farm inhabitants rarely get a chance to talk to each other.

5. There would be a greater focus on avoiding petroleum dependency.
• Self explanatory really.

6. Smaller cars will become more popular.
• There is no need for an SUV in normal suburban life. Or a Chevy Suburban.
• Or a Hummer. You live in a condo!! What do you need a hummer for? There is surgery out there to help; go seek it.

7. A good excuse for public transport development.
• Again, self explanatory.

And yes, I know there are those who rely on their vehicles to survive, particularly the seniors. Two points… Public transport can help a lot. And … A crown Vic is not an efficient car.

And on we go. The cycle continues. In my delusional normal state I can see all the above happening, and the price of gas dropping. Eventually.

That’s all for now folks. G’night,.

Monday, April 10, 2006

Profiling Trade Show Attendees.

I had cause to recently organize and man an exhibit at an automotive trade show. This was my first time on that side of the counter, and it was an experience. It was extremely exhausting, but I did amuse myself by watching and categorizing the attendees at this event. To attract people, we had a great big bowl of candy sitting on the main desk. This helped a little in forming a couple of the categories. So here they are....

The Candy Bandit.

A strange species. Will walk toward your exhibit, staring intently at the floor until the very last minute, at which point he will shift his gaze to the candy dish. He will then advance, and quickly, and grab a decent handful of the sweet items, before scurrying away. Never at any point will he make eye contact with anyone on the booth.

The Candy Trickster.

Similar in motive to the Candy Bandit, but employs different tactics. Will approach the booth, will say hello, and even feign interest in what we do. After some smiling, nodding, etc, will suddenly see the candy. And ask if he can have some. And walk away.

The Candy Thug.

These guys will look you in the eye before stealing your candy. Some will speak, and say they are not interested in what we are exhibiting, but just want candy. And then they take it. They don't care. Disagree at your own risk. There are the real hard-core ones who will take the treats, and then put the empty wrapper back in the bowl.

The Fish

These spend time just floating around the exhibit; they like looking and may even take a brochure. When approached, they jump and move backwards, only to stealthily swim back in and look, before disappearing silently into the depths of show. (Some of these types actually do look like a fish).

The Muppet

Amongst the more annoying. Of the caliber who begs the question "did you get past 2nd grade?" These will ask the dumbest of questions, some will disagree with what you tell them in the craziest of ways. Some come out with strange random gibberish. These people are also big brochure gatherers, they tend to have multiple cloth bags filled with papers on subjects broad and complex. You know theses brochures will reside in
their basements for at least 100 years, unread.

The Done-It-All-Donkey

Theses wondrous beings will engage in conversation with you. And then tell you that whatever you are doing or selling, they have already done. Only better, bigger, and with more vigor. They've done it 10 time more than you have, many years before you have. Heck, they invented the technology. These annoyers will ask you a question, and before you can inhale the breath to answer it, they have it answered. They don't seem to get the "bored" look at all, and could continue talking for hours. These require and receive curt shortness as you inform them that you need to go guard the corner flag, goodbye. The will then wander to the next exhibit and camp there too.

The Bag Of Tat Man

A lot of companies give away goodies at these shows. Mugs, t-shirts, squeezy stress relievers, pens, notepads, mouse mats, etc (we gave away candy). There are some people who attend these shows to get as much free junk as possible. I wonder often of they are even engineers at all, or even remotely connected to the subject of the show. They have TONS of junk, and they pass a booth, scanning it to see of there is anything worth taking. That is their main interest criteria. Any junk? No? OK, next.

The Role Reverser

Beatings should be administered to these people. They initially have an interest in what you're doing, and can talk the talk. And after a good 5-minute conversation, they inform you of what they are selling and why you need it. Or what magazine they have that you should advertise in. Or why you neeed to invest in their company or country. Or whatever. My initial thought was .. Hey, you're here at MY exhibit trying to sell YOUR stuff. Go Away. These are the ultimate time wasters.

Well that's my categories of trade sow attendees. There are of course some who are serious, and could possible lead to some serious business, but it really seem to be a 1 in 50 hit rate. The other 49 fall into the above types.

Sunday, April 09, 2006

other stuff on the way

this is as much of a reminder to me as anything. i have a few categories of trade show attendees, what not to do a a concert when standing behind me and lots of half written floriduh stuff...

Tuesday, March 21, 2006

Colney Hatch Lunatic Assylum



This kinda thing interests me...
I heard mention of this place recently on the BBC and searched for some photos. It is an old mental hospital, build in the late 1840's and I used to live near it for a while many years ago. I never got close to it, and I regret that, the only views of it I had were from the gates. I read on it a bit; it was an impressive building, and apparentlyfor the most part, self sufficient. Apparently it was a "pauper lunatic assylum", which in itself is scary. Counties at that time were in charge of the assylums, and if a certain poor person was bothering the wealthier of the county, it was a relatively easy procedure to have them put into the assylum. For the most if you went into there you never came out. Ever. They had their own cemetry on the grounds. There are reports of a lot of cruelty in there, but that seems to standard procedure for places of that kind in that era. There was no emphasis on rehabilitation, just containment.
The crime of bearing a child outside of wedlock apparently could also land you in there.
An anomoly was the alleged "secret pathway", I have only heard of this from stories of people in the area, and have seen no written evidence. There is a nearby train station, New Southgate, and apparently the wealthier and noble, who had "lunatic" family members used this pathway to get the "patients" to the hospital without embarrassement. This contradicts the "pauper assylum" description, but who knows?
The place sports the largest corridor in Britian. Strangely (or maybe not), the entire complex is now a luxury housing complex, and the old church has been turned into a gym. I wonder do any of the former residents wander the halls at night?
I really regret not having got in there somehow with a camera and seen what it looked like before it had all been changed. Mind you that was pre-digital days, and anyway I didnt have any money then.

Friday, March 17, 2006

Happy St Patricks Day!!!

Tuesday, March 14, 2006

And a possum behind our house




I thought these fellas only came out at night. This guy is obviously timid and harmless. Was in our back yard this afternoon.

Sunday, March 12, 2006

A bird in front of our house



We seen this bird both yesterday and this morning; I got a chance to take a couple of pics today. From far away, as it was timid. I'd like to get closer. I think it is a female pheasant. If anyone knows for sure, let me know. It requires zooming in.

Saturday, March 04, 2006

Another one.

"she wants to have her cake and eat it too"

What is that all about? What use is a cake if ya cant eat it?? "I have my cake, look at it, woo woo!" Stupid phrase. What else can you do with a stupid cake but eat the silly thing?

Granted, given my less than sweet tooth, I would not even want to have my cake, as I certainly would not want to eat it, and I know many other people who might want to instead of me.

Friday, February 24, 2006

Day 6

Day 6

Conference day 2. All good there. Nice lunch too.

After the conference, we met up and went to Epcot. We got special deal tickets where they were cheaper after 4pm. Trouble was, when we got there some of the rides were too full up. Like the one where you fly over trees and stuff. But we went to the interactive Finding Nemo thing, where all the kids got to talk to Crush, dude. It was funny. Then we done the ride through time in the big golf ball. See the pic. It is always good, and seems to be a nice way of educating the kids.

We also did a space ride, which was like one of those simulator things that throws you through a load of angles and g-forces. Nobody got sick, but the little girl was panicking as she could not reach her controls and was scared we were all going to crash. So I had to take over. Thrilling ride! But that was it as far as rides were concerned, the ridey parts were closing and there was a lot more to see in the world places.

From there we went and had some Mexican food, beer and margarita. And then the Dutch and German store, where we had more beer and wine and the kids hade grape juice, aka kid wine. We looked at some vikings, and went into the china area, looked at japan, and then went to find a spot to watch what I consider the most impressive fireworks show on earth. I guess they do it every night so they must be getting good at it. Pics below....

I also found out how to control exposure time on the digi camera. See below for results....

Thursday, February 23, 2006

I could get used to this heat in february

Day 5

Today was first day of the conference per say. It is cool here in that you can walk out yer room and get transported to your conference via golf cart. You have absolutely no way of burning off the calories form last night's burgers. But, as it was with me, I wanted to avoid sweating into the shirt I had on and would have on all day, so I took the cart. Beautiful morning, sun blue skies, and a great reflection over the lake. Naturally I had no camera with me.

On arrival at the conference area I had to return to the hotel room as I received a call that there was a problem in our office (1240 miles away) that needed sorting. Disney have charging for services all tied up. You can get net access at your room. $10/day. Or at the conference center. $more. You can't use your connection at both. So I went back to the room and sorted stuff out and back to the conference. Lots of nice warm air in between.

Afternoon. Avoided an irrelevant talk about outer space stuff although I sometimes feel I'm more on that line than most; anyway, I ran out early, quck change of clothing, got call from work, quick change back, sorted it, changed again, hired a little boat and went pedal boating with the gang. Fun fun fun. I love the water. even lake water, even manufactured lake!

From there, we all went back to the room. And then me and the boy went to the pool.where we swam and slided and swam. Nice pool. Here's today's whine. It's a repeated one. Smokers, please don't smoke especially where there are kids around. There was a bar, which is nice, but there were a lot of people standing around smoking. Maybe this is something Disney needs to sort out.

We got ourselves ready and headed back to downtown Disney, where we went and had dinner at the House Of Blues. We sat on the deck listening to a guy play guitar and sing. We bought his cd; I just cant remember what he is called. But anyway. Nice food, it just took an eternity to get to us; apparently the kitchen was backed up. And our server forgot to give me back my credit card. All in all it was ok. So that was day 5.

Wednesday, February 22, 2006

still warm, at least out there.

Day 4.

I had to work. We had a meeting and there is nothing much to report that is not mundane and worklike. The meting was interesting in that there were people from all over the planet there, and possibly some extra-terrestrial representation. Nice dinner as well at the end of it.

The rest of the important bunch spent the day at the pool and playing in sand and in general enjoying the Florida sunshine. after all it is the sunshine state.

After my dinner we had dinner at the "bar"; well the rest of us did except me. nachos and the likes. I ate the kids leftovers cos it was quite tasty with nice guacamole. relatively quiet. Still tired all the same and back to the room; Not much to report really.

Tuesday, February 21, 2006

In the sunshine. bliss. Its not snowing!


Day 3

Woke up a little tired. On Sunday night, I bought some tickets to the park. Not cheap. But that set our plans for Monday, my only real day work free on this "vacation". We hit the Magic Kingdom, hard and fast. The nice thing about Disney resorts is that you can catch a bus to anywhere. But not the other way.. more on that at the end of this chapter. So we got the bus to the Magic Kingdom, got there about 9, just after opening. And this is what we seen.





As y'all can see, it's a bit foggy. And as y'all can read, I'm gettin into this sutherin' talkin stuff. Do we went and seen Mickey gettin his picture taken with a load of people, way too may for us to line up for. But we got the picture of good ol' fascist Walt with the world's most famous mouse. At least in brass.


So, we went on. We went through Mickey's and Minnie's houses. I was surprised; I woulda thought they would have been cohabitating. Maybe that is not appropriate behavior in the Big Mouse world. We then took some rides, rotating cups of tea, indy speedway (kids drove) and a mini roller coaster. And then onto the bigger rollercoaster, thunder mountain. Which was funny. Momma (see, southern again) was a long way the most scared. I have the video footage. And then onto the Island. Another story.

A friend of mine, his daughters were visiting Orlando the same time of us, with their grandmother. I spoke to him last week, he asked me to say hello to his daughters in Orlando. I replied, yea, there will be just us and them next week in Orlando, sure I'll say hi. So.. guess what.. yep, on the island, we met one of the girls. Whom I photographed and sent the pic back to her dad for proof.

So on we went. We went through splash mountain. Then the pirates of the Caribbean. Then the swiss family robison tree house. We observed the magic carpet thing and we couldn't be bothered lining up for an eternity for that, but I took this photo.

Then we were returning to wherever and passed the haunted house, which was closed due to technical problems. Then there wasn't so we got to front of the line. To the big oak door. There we waited with a gazillion people behind us. We knocked on the door, no one answered. We waited, and waited. Eventually after a lifetime, a "spooky" lady opened the door and in a deep transylvanian accent told us "hello, ve've been vaiting for you". The boy looked at her and said, "yea right, WE'VE been waiting for YOU!!" Which was funny, by her grumy reaction.

We done the Mickey's and Donald's 3-d movie, and the small small world and the sleeping beauty ride, and finally Dumbo's flying elephant ride. Flying elephants? Without drugs. Brilliant!

And then we had enough. Here, now is my issue with disney transportation. Now any report of mine would not be a report without some whine. Here it is. We had decided to go do downtown disney for dinner decisively. dd(f)dd. So, ya'd think you could get a bus from any disney resort to downtown disney. No. The center told us to take one bus, the driver told us not to. then we had to take a boat. Yep, a great big boat. Across a lake. It was nice bit we needed food, beer wine and fruit juice. After the boat, a long walk, Then a 20 min wait for another bus.

Dinner was had at Planet Hollywood. My batteries in the digi cam ran out, but it was pretty cool seein teh original Herbie, the players kits for the mighty ducks and lots more. The burger and salad was great and the beer was amazin. It would be.

Again, thereafter, bus, hotel and sleep. zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Monday, February 20, 2006

Still moving down the map...

Day 2

We woke up on a cool Sunday morning in Tennessee. After breakfast, we hit the road heading south. After only a few miles, we hit the Georgia state line. Georgia was on my mind. I think that must be the state slogan. It was written everywhere. There were also millions of peaches. Peaches for me. Millions of peaches. But they weren't free.

Again, there were a whole lot of nice mountains. Our stops in Georgia consisted of gas stops, bathroom breaks and a spot to get some food from the King Of Culinary Evilness, McDonalds.

It is bad, but it is easy to eat while on the road and it fills a kinda gap. OK that gap may well be an artery, but once in a while is no harm. We passed through Atlanta. Perhaps next time we will stop. Here's a pic we took. of the road. in Atlanta

Anyway, onwards and onwards. We eventually came to the Florida state line.The boy said "whay did that say welcome to Florida? Thats not right" and so on. And then seen the sign for the Florida Welcome Center. And wanted to know why it said we were in Florida when we weren't. So we pulled in and the kids were completely shocked and the boy then said "I knew it" Yea? So why are you so excited and surprised. We went into the welcome center (Which is a nice one), picked up the obligatory maps and sampled some Florida grape fruit juice.

Onwards. We stopped at another rest stop where there was this sign.

And this tree.

And we drove on. We got onto Florida's Toll Road, and hit the first traffic of the trip. Maybe that was why they were not charging tolls. We eventually got onto Interstate 4. And headed the wrong way. But with nifty co-pilot and driver co-ordination we soon were righted and back on track. 10 hours after setting out we hit our destination. Including diversions, 1240 miles.

The room at the resort was very nice, aztec looking. After settling in, guzzling a couple of beers, we headed to the on site restaurant. Which had a 2 hour wait. So we decided to head downtown Disney. Where we found similar waiting times except in some swanky looking place on a dock. So we went there. The place was not swanky. The food was overpriced and mediocre at best. But they had a captive audience, we were hungry and tired so we ate, paid and left.

BAck to the hotel, and sleep. Ahh.

Sunday, February 19, 2006

we're heading southbound...

I was sent to Florida, specifically Orlando, nanospecifically Disneyworld for a conference. As it was during the winter break, we decieded to go as a family. Except we didnt tell the little dudes about where we were going. So here is what we did. Starting today. Most blogs will be drafts till I get to properly read.

Day 1

We set out at 6:30 AM, 2 hours later than planned. The Michigan temperature was 7 degrees F. Pretty cold. Of course the kids thought we were going to a hotel in Tennessee where all that would he happening was me working and them in the pool for a few days

We made it through Michigan (which was cool, empty roads), and then into Ohio. Cruise control enabled. Ohio is way too flat. We seen Flag City USA and a few other bits and pieces. And a couple of cop cars. Nothing too interesting. Cincinnati looks like it could be fun, but the weather was nasty; light snow and all sorts of salt and stuff blowing up onto the car.

So, we entered Kentucky, and stopped at the welcome center, The weather was causing accidents on the freeway but none really affected us.Temperature 22 degrees.

The mountains in Kentucky looked very nice. Due to the nasty weather, we didnt take any photos as they probably would have looked bad anyway. So onwards we went and reached Tennessee. Welcome center again.
This is the mountains I speak of. I did not take this photo but ya get the picture

Again lots of pretty hills, now with swow on them Still dang cold and visibility was poor due to snowy conditions, I also ran out of washer fluid and had to stop off as I was totally unable to look out the window.

By now the kids knew we were near the hotel; the first one of the trip. All us parents had to do was find one. We had planned to keep going until we felt like stopping; that happened in Chattanooga. We drove downtown, seen a hotel, called it and the extortionate rate they wanted for a 1-bed room (which was all that was available) caused us to venture to the burbs where we found a really nice little basic hotel across the road from a restaurant. We booked in, had dinner which included the most delicious steak and beer I've had in a long time. By this stage my batteries were well and truly dead, so we went back to the hotel and slept.

Sunday, February 12, 2006

Another Week Over... Superbowls, possums, SBC, and other stuff.

Oh well. Sunday night again.

Points from the last week:

  • Ireland played France yesterday in the Six Nations. It seemed to me that, 52 minutes into the game, it suddenly dawned on the Irish lads that it was actually the game. No further messing around. The game was on. So start playing. Unfortunately they lost.
  • And so did Italy.
  • The redwings beat the Av's again today which is always a good thing.
  • The winter Olympics started. More on that one later I hope. I had a couple of observations.
  • We had lunch at the Green Lantern today. About the best pizza around. I never thought double pepperoni could taste so nice.
  • There is a possum living in our garage. He looks nice; I dunno why people hate these fellas. He made me jump when I walked in there, but he was totally timid. A certain chick then decided that talking to him and feeding him cat food would entice him out. Nope. I dunno what to do.
  • Stupid phone line went out again. Sixth time in a year and a half. And we are paying like $70 a month!! SBC man one turns up on Friday; while he is here SBC phones Superchick on her cell to say someone will be out. She said he's already here. Then they left. Did they fix the issue? No! So SBC man two, who was a nice guy turned up yesterday and told us, after playin with wires, that it was a problem between here and the office and it would take them til sometime Monday to fix it. And goes away. Then my neighbor comes in and say, "hey I see the SBC people were here, cos my phone has gone out." Yay!! Not only could they not fix ours, the broke out neighbors in the process.... Today, they fixed his, but ours is still out. .... Change-of-serviceation about to ensue!!! Grrrr!
  • Superbowl 40 has left Detroit. The game was not very good; the better team won, but the refs were all over the shop. Now it's back to business for tha D, but at least maybe the world can now see that Detroit in not all murders, shooting, gangs and muggers. Although, there still are enough suburbanites who wont venture there for a game or whatever.
  • Friday morning commute was the nastiest I've encountered in a long time. Light snow and ice at rush hour. I left the madness of 696 after seeing many bashed up cars and taking 40 minutes to travel 4 miles. Then someone in a crown vic nearly took me out by doing a 180 on telegraph. But I made it.
  • Thats all for now.

Saturday, February 04, 2006

Another thing that made me think a little. and some other thoughts.

It rarely happens, me thinking
I was listening to rugby on the net today, and someone made a refernce to an alarm.
"The alarm bells all went off"
I'm sure they didn't. I bet the alarms went ON.
Now, when the alarms go OFF, doesn't that mean the emergency is over?
When the alarms go on, is that not when you start running?
If the alarms were off, surely they would be no use.

Anyway, Ireland beat Italy in the Six Nations opener this morning. Which was good. Tough game. Italy look like they took Rugby 101 since last year. Fair pley to them. I'm hoping they beat England. They probably won't, but if they do, I'm going to drink a bottle of Chianti. More importantly, I'm looking forward to us beating them; I will be enjoying a crate of Guinness again from my English friend.
Unfortunately, Wales failed to beat England today.

On another plus, the Wings beat the Avs today. Manny registered a shutout and that made me happy too. I think we should get double points for beating the Avs. On second thought, beating them is fine by its self.

Tuesday, January 31, 2006

The ghost in the machine.

I'm annoyed.
I was trying to find an answer today. There is a symposium on somewhere soon that I need to go to, I do not know where or when, but I need to attend. So I went hunting online. Its put on by a computer hardware company. I wont say who this two-letter company is but it doensny sound like Whaech Whee. Not at all. So I got onto thier online instant-message style help. Apparently a "live" person. Maybe it was. My first mistake was a mistake by me. I confess. I got confused and called them by another name. Again, not saying who I called them but it certainly wasnt anyone sounding like Why Whee Whem. So the live help said "I'm sorry I can't help". Clever help eh? Discrimenates against compeditors.
I realized my errors and got back on track. I asked my questions. I got responses like "I'm sorry, can you repeat that" and "I think I can help" and "that's good". I got suspicious when some responses were repeated. I was also getting absolutely nowhere. I then asked my questions in a different way. Same thing. I asked her (her name was Veronica) why me ears were alight. "I think I can help". I than shared with her that my knees were hairy, and I collect acorns... "I think I can help". I think Veronica then got annoyed, cos she gave me a phone number to call. a 1-800 number.

Round 2. I followed a bunch of voice prompts and I spoke to V. or was it Vee. She sounded nice. A fine Pune, or perhaps Bombay accent, and a very clean line. Now she done her best. She listened to my questions and suggested I used the live help online. I explained that I was there already, and thay knew nothing of hairy knees or symposiums. Now, Vee was nice and tried her best. Unfortunately, she did not answer my questions. But she did give me a phone number that connected to a US helpdesk. Again a 1-800 number. And then, she connected me. For free!! Such service!!

Round 3. I spoke to an American lady. She sounded like she just got out of bed and needed her cigarette. Now she had NO clue what I was after. "Sim-posin? can ya spelll that pleeese?" Maybe it was my crazeeee aceeent. So I spelled symposium. She asked me to type some url into my computer, which I did. and it did not work. why? she gave me an intranet address. No wonder! You know I think it was some lady who was delivering some ash trays and just picked up the phone. Anway, she said she couldnt help me. So she gave me a 1-800 number. Did she connect me? No, I gues she had just swallowed the phone unit.

Round 4. I got put onto some line that was for ordering parts. Voice activated. So I had enough. I said Lotus. not understandeee. I said muckspreader. not understandeee. I said Cherokee LooLaa. I got asked for the serial number. I sang my ABC. I got asked to repeat.

I had enough. I'm not going to that symposium. It sounds like too much trouble. Perhaps I'll tell my boss it is in Vegas next week. All joking aside, I'll probably learn more in Vegas that from these geniuses.

Monday, January 30, 2006

The Woes of a Kid Hockey Goalie!

The kid who lives next door to us plays hockey. He's like 5 or 6 years old. He was playing goalie for a half season or something. So I asked him did he like being goalie.

"No. I hate being goalie. Its the worst job in the world."

Why?, I asked.

"Well all you do is stand around watching everbody else play, then your team lets the other guys in and then they score on you and then suddenly it's all your fault".

Never looked at it that way!

Sunday, January 29, 2006

Another edition of things that kinda annoy me.

This time it's things people say in general conversation. For example:
When a conversation gets serious, you often hear people say, "well, to be honest...".Thats annoys me.. are you saying you've been dishonest up to now? Is it time for honesty now as opposed to lies???
There are more. After I come back I'll add on. It's raining here.
"More or less". What exactly does that mean? I know it's meant to signify "close to the same". But more or less? Which? More or less? Pick one. And then tell me how much more it is or less it is.

Wednesday, January 25, 2006

When is news not news?

Inspired in part by the incomparable wisdom of the folks at Cartalk..

When it is a local magazine show. When I turn on the "news", I'm not interested in how to lose 10 lbs, how to cook a low fat low whatever meal using a slipper, or what the latest Hollywood rich person whom I could care less about has divorced/married/sued or whatever.
What happened to TV news?

Also, Weather. A friend of mine has been pretty accurate to date in interpolating the weather forecasts on local tv. Snowstorm.. they predict, say, 4 to 8 inches. Take the lower number and divide it in half. It works.
TV weather forecasting is now more intent on scaring the bejeepers out of the audience so that we'll sit through the mind-numbing commercials to make sure we see part 2 of the soap opera that used to be meteorology.

Saturday, January 21, 2006

The image says it all!!!

Thursday, January 19, 2006

Still winter here


After a whole lotta rain, it finally snowed again. Well kinda. Here's our street.