General Rambling

Jeremy Zawodny posted “A Giraffe, an Elephant, and a Refrigerator“. Funny. My replies are: 1. Open the refrigerator, put in the giraffe, and close the door. 2. Open the refrigerator, put in the elephant, and close the refrigerator. I’ve anticipated my animal storage needs properly and sized my refrigerator well. 3. If only one does not attend that implies the conference is being held in the refrigerator, given my answer to #2. My coworker Jon suggests it’s Mufasa that is not in attendance, as he is dead. 4. Though the crocodiles are attending the conference if the Lion King cannot keep them entertained it is likely they have left the conference and gone drinking. You may swim across but avoid …

Read More

I took the opportunity to see the Dalai Lama speak yesterday in the Kohl Center in Madison, WI. I know very little about Buddhism and my knowledge of Tibet mainly comes from movies, so I found His Holiness to be absolutely amazing. He’s funny, he’s humble, he’s pragmatic. He is so unlike any other world religious leaders… every day we see Christianity taking a stand against science, making Christians choose between science and religion. The Dalai Lama explicitly addressed the modern sciences, in that his religion and the findings of scientists are often in agreement, supporting each other. Wow. How refreshing to see someone saying it’s okay to question, okay to be inquisitive, that the faith can lie elsewhere, with …

Read More

Why do people think that a resumé should have a career objective? Is it just because people keep saying it should? I haven’t ever had a career objective on my resumé. Why? Most recruiters and managers I know don’t ever read it, so I think it’s generally a waste of my time to put one on there. It’s also another way for me to turn someone off to me by saying something dumb. Less is more, right? I also have no idea what I’d say. What is my career objective? To help whatever company I am working for make a bazillion dollars, get them to give me some of it, and retire ASAP. Why would I put that on my …

Read More

I took today off to catch up on my personal life, pay bills, and do some yard work. Boy, has it been nice. I bought a new lawn mower. I got my old one from a friend three years ago who wanted it out of his back yard, but it’s needed repair just about every time I’ve used it for the last year. This time one of the drive wheels’ height adjustment levers broke, and it was going to be a pain to fix. I’ve always been a Briggs & Stratton fan but this new mower has a Tecumseh engine. We’ll see how it goes. There’s a fungus (among us) growing in my front yard that nobody can identify (well, …

Read More

It’s a beautiful day in Madison, WI. I hope it is everywhere else. Have a great weekend everybody!

As of 4:21 PM CDT I will have been on this Earth for three decades. Of course, minus the time before I was born, I guess I was technically on Earth then. Wow. They say that 30 is the new 20. Game on! Anybody who is in or around Madison, WI can join me in the back room of the Big Ten Pub, 1330 Regent St., 5:00 PM to midnight. Cake and beer! If you aren’t, well, I’ll just have to drink a beer for you. It’ll be rough, I tell you.

“Cat’s Cradle” sat in my car for months before I read it. I read it in one sitting, one gloomy wintry day. Wonderful. Thanks for all the words, Mr. Vonnegut. “When the last living thing has died on account of us, how poetical it would be if Earth could say, in a voice floating up perhaps from the floor of the Grand Canyon, ‘It is done.’ People did not like it here.”

Some days I wish I had a time machine: In the meantime: Of course, I only just realized that Day Watch is available. Night Watch was good.

Okay, I got my Cingular phone problem figured out in two phone calls, with the help of three nice ladies and a really ornery *&@#^, who didn’t really help but just told me I couldn’t do what I had just done (which was get transferred to their “Porting” department to get my phone number fixed). No, really. I can. So to those of you in the Cingular Number Porting group: you rule. Thanks for starting me over from scratch and getting it figured out. To that lady that I was getting upset with: you suck. Bite me.

Update: I retract what I said, I have some weird number, and now can’t make or receive calls. Grrr. Ah, I just got my new phone from Cingular. It’s been 4 years since I’ve had a new phone, which is way too long. Mad props to LG, though, as the VX6000 I’ve had has been mostly rock-solid that whole time. Original battery, too (I regularly let the battery discharge completely, through forgetfulness). I didn’t want a RAZR, because everybody has RAZRs, but I also didn’t want a $80 data plan. You know, I just need a good phone. So I ended up with the RAZR 3xx, which has HSPDA/3G capabilities, and was $40. Maybe I’ll try the data services on …

Read More