Mention Ponnuru kerfuffle.
End Result, tripled my (still meager) readership.
Category: 40yrs
Random Thoughts On the Working Experience
My boss looks like Patrick Stewart. Thank the Flying Spaghetti Monster doesn’t use the phrase “Make it so”.
On a telecom with the UK, I realized that I love how Scotsmen say “Schedule” (shed-yule), “Buffer” (sort of boofferr), and does (dooze).
The worst part about meetings is that they are like Sominex® to me. How do you stay awake, particularly after lunch. What I do to stay awake is to take two sets of notes one for the meeting, and one for the pretty much anything that pops into my head. It keeps me engaged enough to keep the old eyes open.
I showed up for work early one morning, and a guy out here for a week from the west coast was already here…..Talk about an early bird…..It’s 3 hours earlier for his circadian rhythm.
Every Thursday, a bunch of get chicken and potato wedges from the Amish Market…Yum.
Culinary Adventures: Chicken and Seaweed
We needed to make dinner, and my wife doubted that we had enough left over chicken to feed us all, but I had a solution.
We had a pack of udon noodles, so I got the water boiling for them, and put a about 3 cups of stock in a pot and started to boil it.
I took about 4 sheets of nori (Japanese sushi seaweed), shredded them, and put them in the stock, and brought it all to a simmer, then added the chicken and remaining gravy, some oriental vegetables (broccoli, snap peas, water chestnuts, etc.), and a few chicken wings from the freezer, which took no time at all in simmering broth..
Boiled the noodles for 8 minutes, and then rinsed with cold water to stop the cooking, and when the wings were good and done (even frozen, not that long), put the chicken and veggies on top of the udon.
The seaweed added a lot of umami* to the broth flavor, and even my son, who is a notoriously finicky eater† loved it.
*Umami, from the Japanese word or “meatiness” is the 5th flavor, along with salty, sweet, bitter, and sour. The actual taste bud receptor, for glutamates present in animal proteins, was determined in 2002, though it has been a part of oriental cookery for centuties, and the great Brillat-Savarin‘s concept of osmazome a very similar concept of meat flavor.
†Finicky eating habits is a classic symptom of conditions on the Autism spectrum
Chinese Food On Christmas
Chinese Food On Christmas, by Brandon Walker.
Not this Yid, but I am caught a movie with my kids.
FWIW, this guy is from Baltimore, and I’ve eaten in that restaurant, and I’ve shopped at that mall, it’s where the Wegmans is.
Deep Thoughts
Every so often, I have a thought that is worthy of Jack Handy, and I’m sharing this with you:
I was at my chiropractor, and I noticed the various theraputic furniture that they have in the office.
With springs, hinges, dampers and suspension, powered lifts, straps and buckles, I thought You know, a pervert could have a lot of fun with this stuff.
And then I realized, Throw in some killer eggnog with whipped cream, and you could have a really kick ass office party.
Why It’s Called The Grauniad
Corrections and clarifications | The Guardian | Guardian Unlimited
· This article was amended on Wednesday September 26 2007. We misspelled the word misspelled twice, as mispelled. This has been corrected.
And you wonder why I call it The Grauniad*
*According to the Wiki, The Guardian, formerly the Manchester Guardian in the UK. It’s nicknamed the Grauniad because of its penchant for typographical errors, “The nickname The Grauniad for the paper originated with the satirical magazine Private Eye. It came about because of its reputation for frequent and sometimes unintentionally amusing typographical errors, hence the popular myth that the paper once misspelled its own name on the page one masthead as The Gaurdian, though many recall the more inventive The Grauniad.”
Old Family Friend Gets Prestigious Award
My father met Michihiko Kunihiro in College. The Japanese foreign service had a policy of sending young diplomatic staff to foreign colleges for a year to learn the language, and to get exposure of the generation that they would be dealing with.
Kunihiro-san recieved the The Cordon of The Order of The Sacred Treasure, which was personally given to him by emperor.
At one point, he was the Chinese Ambassador.
D’oh!!!!
(Forward dated a bit, so that people will see it for a while)
Well, I just finished up at my previous job. I don’t blog about my job generally, because it is just begging to be fired.
I was working on a medical device for Becton Dickenson Diagnostic Systems, in Sparks, MD. Unfortunately, the project was canceled*, and as a contractor (temp) so was I (they had planned to keep me on for a few years).
They were very humane about it. They give me 4 weeks notice, which is pretty much unheard of.
It was a great place to work. Seriously. If you need to blow a goat to get in there, break out the Chap Stick.
Jobwise, things have worked out OK. Because of the notice, I finished on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, and started my new job on the Wednesday following Thanksgiving.
I would have started on Monday, but I had a medical and dental appointment on Monday, and jury duty on Tuesday.
So, I am now working about 20 miles south of Baltimore (no more detail on the blog) for a company involved in the nuclear fuel cycle. I’m involved in decommissioning and waste encapsulation.
So, I’m fat, and I’m bald (that picture is 28 years old and none of your #$@!ing business pounds ago), and I work in nuclear power.
I’m Homer Simpson.
I’ve started to grow a beard to cover up this fact.
*No details on the project…..Not sure if anything would be proprietary.
Mental Health Outsourcing
Overheard on Stellar Parthenon:
I was feeling depressed last week, so I called the mental health help line.
Like all other call centers, it has been outsourced to a third world location.
When I told the operator in Pakistan that I was feeling suicidal, he got very excited and wanted to know if I could drive a truck or fly a plane.
rimshot
I Think that it Might Be a Blasphemous Rumor*
From the prine edition of Flight International: American Airlines Vice President for Passenger Services is named Chuck Imhof.
LOL!!!
(say it quickly…out loud)
*Yes, this is a reference to the Depeche Mode song.
Jury Duty Reviews
Well, a few weeks ago, I got a summons for Jury duty, and today, I had to show up, juror number 635, so I show up to the courthouse in Towson at 9:00am. Parking is paid for, so I go up to level “L”, park, and go into the courthouse.
Taking a left after the metal detector, I then go up a short flight of stairs, hang a right, and get in line. I am given a packet with a jury badge, and $15.00 in cash for expenses.
Once we are all checked in, a woman working for the courts picks up a microphone, and explains the basics of how it works. We are to be sent upstairs by juror number, and then go through voir dire. Given my early diet of Perry Mason, it all seems pretty much second nature to me.
There are monitors arranged throughout the jury room, and they are used to show a brief, and rather cheesy video showing how it is all supposed to work. It was narrated by a judge, and showed pretty clearly just why they use actors to portray them on TV.
While we were waiting, they put a movie on the monitors to entertain us* (more on this later), but about halfway through, the paused it to call jurors 1 through 330 to court for voir dire. They then restarted the film. At about 12:20, most of jurors 1-330 (they only take twelve and a few alternates) returned to the jury room.
At about 12:50 we were sent out for lunch with instructions to return by 2:00pm. They ran the last half of the film again for the benefit of those jurors remaining from the 1-330 cohort.
At about 3:30, Judge Pat Springer came to the room, and thanked us all for our service, and we were free to go.
As a special bonus to this post, I am adding what I hope will be a VERYinfrequent feature of this blog, Jury Duty Reviews:
The movie in question was Secondhand Lions.
Michael Caine: Garth
Robert Duvall: Hub
Haley Joel Osment: Walter
Kyra Sedgwick: Mae
The film was chosen by the court staff was an attempt to find something that would not offend anyone, but still would entertain what would necessarily be an adult audience.
The film covers some fairly well trod ground, with Osmont being the 13 year old child of the feckless mother Sedgwick who is dumped off on his great uncles, Caine and Duvall.
Sedgwick has a minor roll really, and this is essentially a 3 person film, albeit one where they are played by 6 actors, because of the extensive use of flashbacks.
It is set in Texas, and Cain does his accent very well. Duvall does not do an accent, but his manner of speaking fits in well with the Texas location. Thankfully, Osmont does not attempt an accent all.
Duvall, as always, is impressive, as is Caine, who can sometimes disappoint, and Osmont does a very creditable job in playing a 13 year old.
Your kids will love this movie, and it’s entertaining for the adults.
It’s funny and…I’m sorry, but I have to say it….Heartwarming.
*Yes, I know, it’s technically a public performance in violation of US IP laws, because it qualifies as a “public performance”, but I’m not ratting them out to the MPAA.
Arkansas Politico Claims Abduction by Satanists
It appears that he ditched his old family, changed his name, and bigamously started a new one.
I guess that this beats, “My dog at my homework“.
Sapient Pearwood
Some Russians have developed a motorized, gyro-stabilized suitcase that follows you around.
Shades of Terry Pratchett.
Spanish cartoonists fined for royal sex mag cover
As I noted 4 months ago, a Spanish satire mag El Jueves got into legal trouble for publishing a cartoon showing the Spanish Crown Prince and his wife en flagrante delecto, the caption, “Do you realise that if you get pregnant . . . It will be the closest thing to work I’ve done in my life?” on the cover.
The two cartoonists have now been fined €3000 each. If I were them, I’d appeal to the European court of human rights.
Making fun of the royals should be a basic human right.
Silly Laws, Or Why I Need to Look For a Pet Fish In Liverpool
here:
- It is illegal to die in the Houses of Parliament (27 per cent)
- It is an act of treason to place a postage stamp bearing the British monarch upside-down (7 per cent)
- In Liverpool, it is illegal for a woman to be topless except as a clerk in a tropical fish store (6 per cent)
- Mince pies cannot be eaten on Christmas Day (5 per cent)
- In Scotland, if someone knocks on your door and requires the use of your toilet, you must let them enter (4 per cent)
- In the UK, a pregnant woman can legally relieve herself anywhere she wants, including in a policeman’s helmet (4 per cent)
- The head of any dead whale found on the British coast automatically becomes the property of the King, and the tail of the Queen (3.5 per cent)
- It is illegal not to tell the tax man anything you do not want him to know, but legal not to tell him information you do not mind him knowing (3 per cent)
- It is illegal to enter the Houses of Parliament in a suit of armour (3 per cent)
- In the city of York it is legal to murder a Scotsman within the ancient city walls, but only if he is carrying a bow and arrow (2 per cent)
- In Ohio, it is illegal to get a fish drunk (9 per cent)
- In Indonesia, the penalty for masturbation is decapitation (8 per cent)
- In Bahrain, a male doctor can only examine the genitals of a woman in the reflection of a mirror (7 per cent)
- In Switzerland, a man may not relieve himself standing up after 10pm (6 per cent)
- In Alabama, it is illegal to be blindfolded while driving a vehicle (6 per cent)
- In Florida, unmarried women who parachute on a Sunday could be jailed (6 per cent)
- In Vermont, women must obtain written permission from their husbands to wear false teeth (6 per cent)
- In Milan, it is a legal requirement to smile at all times, except at funerals or hospital visits (5 per cent)
- In Japan, there is no age of consent (5 per cent)
- In France, it is illegal to name a pig Napoleon (4 per cent)
Consider this an open thread.
What Your Dogs Really Think of You
A man put his shotgun down, and his dogs blasted hunter with his own shotgun.
Luckily, dogs do not know the difference between bird and buck shot.
Peppers of Mass Destruction
It’s called the Bhut Jolokia, and it rates 1 MILLION Scovilles*. The next hottest is a habanero at 577,000 Scovilles.
It’s grown in India.
I’m pretty sure that this would more than I could possiubly bear, and the experience 12-36 hours later might be even less pleasant.
*A measure of the spicy-hotness of peppers
Sick Product
I never knew that there was such a thing as a pencil geek, but I found one, and he shows us the world’s most disturbing pencil sharpener.
Doughy Pantload 0|/n493 (Ownage)
The Amazon entry for Jonah Goldberg’s book, Liberal Fascism, got hacked:
You can click for the full sized image (not taken by me), but the text reads “Liberal Fascism: The Totalitarian Temptation from When I Got My Advance Until I Finally Hand in the Manuscript in 2011.”
This is particularly amusing because even among the nepotism blessed children of the original Neocons, Goldberg is an embarrassment.
Looking for a Laser Printer, Suggestions Folks?
To be accurate, I’m looking for a printer that fuses toner on paper, so LED, etc would be OK, I just don’t want to get gigged on ink.
My requirements:
- It should handle B-Sized, which I use for the real (dead tree) version of 40 Years in the Desert.
- It should do color well (pics of family go in)
- It should have a print mechanism amenable to home refilling. I have a Panasonic printer where I can crack open the spent toner box, and empty it, and get 5-10x the life out of it.
Nice to haves:
- Postscript (I convert my stuff to PDFs using Ghostscript to put them on line, and at some point, I may want to offset print again).
- 2 Sided printing (not so important, I can always flip the paper).
- Can handle card stock (business cards, etc.)
Probably the hardest thing to figure out is how hard various models are to refill.