Been feeling down.

I've been feeling so very down lately. Maybe it's due to overwork and a lack of sleep. Overtraining might have something to do with it as well. And as I mentioned, I'm also recovering from a cold, which is yet another source of stress.

And frankly, I haven't had as much social contact with people as I would like. Yeargh. I wish things were different.

Lab automation

I photocopied an article on laboratory automation for me to read during an upcoming flight. I sure hope that I do indeed get to read this. I might get sucked into a game of Sudoku. It's mentally stimulating, but not a good use of my time. It'd take way too long to get better at this game, and I don't think that would be an efficient use of my limited time.

Besides, I'd rather be working out. Tried to make it through a grueling hour-long intensive cardio workout, but I had to quit halfway through. This darned cold that I'm recovering from has just sapped my energy levels. Darn it.

My eyes are burning

I hae allergies. My eyes were badly inflamed last night, and my eyes were burning. They're burning today as well.

Actually, the discomfort has subsided a bit, now that I'm in an airconditioned room. Still, this whole situation stinks.

It's a problem with allergies, which makes it an immunological problem. Basically, allergens trigger an undesirable immune system response. An allergen is a type of antigen that create a spurious immune response; that is, they aren't toxics or pathogens, but they make the immune system respond anyway. Argh.

Dancing weirdo

There was this strange fella at a swing dance event last night--an older-looking Asian gent. Actually, I've seen him at a lot of these events. He's a good dancer, but frankly, I think he's a bit of a weirdo.

Oh, he's got skills. The problem is that he keeps making all these goofy expressions when he dances with a woman. It's obvious that he really enjoys his dancing, but he looks like he's enjoying it a bit too much, if that makes sense. That is, he keeps putting on these over-the-top expressions on his face when he dances, and if I were a woman, I'd feel kinda weirded out by that.

It's not just that. He also keeps putting his face right up close to the woman's face. Now, I can't speak for anyone else, but personally, I think that's just stepping over the line -- especially when he keeps making those weirdo expressions on his face.

How would I describe those expressions? I guess they're kinda like over-the-top grins. Not just a pleasant smile, mind you, but wide, open-mouthed expressions of sheer ecstasy. I don't want to judge, but I feel like tapping him on the shoulder and saying, "Criminy, fella! Calm down and get a grip on reality."

Last night, he also took this newcomer -- a gal who had only gone swing dancing once before in her life -- and lifted her into the air. She squealed, and I don't think it was with delight. That was completely inappropriate on his part. He could stand to exercise some common sense, and maybe learn a bit about dance etiquette.

Yep, he's out of control. I wish that he'd stop and get ahold of himself.

Profanity in the gym

So I was working out a few days ago, and a bunch of guys in the gym were saying "F*ck" all over the place. That really got to be annoying.

Oh, sure. I'm sure that these guys were old friends. And the probably figured "Hey, you've only got men in this room. It should be okay." If so, then they didn't realize that not all men appreciate foul language. And what if a woman were to pass by? I realize that some women do tolerate such speech, and that some of them can even swear like a sailor. A lot of them don't, though.

It wasn't just that the language was foul. It was that they kept using the word over and over and over again. Not good conduct in public. They've got to learn some basic gym etiquette.

They have got to learn to behave.

Speaking of my old apartment

The electrical wiring in my old apartment building was kinda old. The result? Circuit breakers would trip if I tried to operate my air conditioner and my microwave oven at the same time. That got to be incredibly annoying, especially as I had to trek down to the first floor laundry room to reset my breakers.

I hated it. Hated it. Hated it.

I'm sick

I am so sick and tired of this cold. I can't work out and I can't think straight -- yet I still need to get work done. It's bloody annoying.

I'm trying to be as productive as I can under the circumstances. I'm focusing on tasks that don't require a lot of mental effort. Still, it is incredibly aggravating.

And I miss being able to devote a lot of effort to high-intensity cardio work. I'd like to get trimmer, and frankly, I enjoy that type of work.

Recanting

Earlier, I was complaining about Chase Visa's customer service. Now I realize what went wrong, and I feel chagrined.

After my initial PayPal charge failed, I changed my PayPal account's primary credit card to my Costco AmEx card instead. That explains why my charge went through the second time around. I'm willing to admit when I made an error.

Still, I'm annoyed. My Visa card had not yet expired, yet they already chose to decline its use. That's annoying and just plain wrong.

Now complaining about Chase Visa

Okay, I've bitched enough about AT&T DSL. I don't want to make a habit of complaining, but now I want to vent about Chase Visa.

I got a call from Chase Visa's fraud prevention department today, asking me to confirm a PayPal charge. I confirmed it, but the customer service rep then told me that one of my other charges (for $490.40) did not go through, and that I'd have to resubmit it. I said, "What?!?! I got a receipt for that amount. Are you sure that it was declined?"

She said, "Yes, it was. You have to resubmit it." I said, "Well, it was declined the first time around, but then I resubmitted the charge last night and it went through. As I said, I even got confirmation from PayPal. Can you make sure that it did go through?" She said, "No, it did not. You'll have to resubmit it."

At that point, I felt like cancelling this credit card; after all, they had given me a lot of similar problems in times past. And of course, I wasn't about to resubmit a charge of nearly $500 without making absolutely certain that it was necessary. This customer service rep wasn't communicating very well, so in a pique of frustration, I hung up.

I decided to call back though, just to confirm that my $490.40 charge did indeed go through. I spoke to another rep, who said, "Oh yes, it must have gone through. It'll just take 24 hours before this charge is reflected in our system."

Argh.

Glad I moved

I am so glad that I no longer live in my old apartment.

It wasn't a horrible apartment, mind you. In fact, it was fairly spacious. However, there was virtually no air flow around the building, thanks to the apartment buildings beside it. That made it oppressively hot during the summer months.

I got myself a portable air conditioner, but it didn't do a great job -- and it always drove my electric bill way up.

Even now, I have to spend quite a bit on my electric bill, thanks to the oppressive humidity. I'm trying to avoid that, but sometimes, I feel like I have little choice in the matter. I need to be able to function, and it's incredibly hard to do that during the summer.

AT&T DSL -- unbelievable!

I can't stand it.

Remember my complaints about AT&T DSL? Well this morning, I woke up to find an AT&T van parked in my driveway. I asked the driver what that was all about, and as it turns out, he had been sent here to 'fix' my DSL line.

What the heck...? AT&T had previously sent me an e-mail message and left me a voicemail message, stating that they had fixed my problem. Now they sent a technician over as well? What's more, they didn't even tell me that he'd be arriving... early on a Sunday morning, no less.

People, when will you get your act together???

Learning chemistry

I love this site. It provides a lot of helpful information on chemistry-related matters. Few people would take delight in reading such things, but I do. (Okay, so the content was taken from Wikipedia. Still, I'm glad that they provide it.)

And yes, I do like reading such things. Just last night, I was watching a DVD lesson on the periodic table of elements. What does that tell you?

AT&T DSL again

Good grief. My AT&T DSL connection died. Again. Talk about tiresome.

I spoke to an AT&T tech service rep on the telephone. To be fair, I really have to give this guy credit. Instead of making me jump through a whole bunch of useless hoops, he addressed my problem promptly and efficiently. He noted that there had been a group outage that caused my previous problem, but correctly figured out that there must be something wrong with my specific hardware -- that is, the card that connected to my modem. So he issued a service ticket, telling another technician to replace the card.

That seems to have fixed the problem. We'll see.

I like his approach. During a previous call, I complained about intermittent network outages. The rep who answered my call said, "Well, you have network connectivity right now. We can't do anything unless you call while the network is down." As it turns out though, that was not strictly true. As it turns out, they could have replaced the card in question to see if this prevented my intermittent outages from occurring.

Here's hoping that this latest fix does the trick.

What's the deal with serum-free media?

So what's the deal with using serum-free cell culture media in one's immunology experiments?

I think this article says it all. Serum-containing media is loaded with all sorts of undesirable substances. This results in a high background response and more confused results. Furthermore, each serum-containing batch behaves differently, and characterizing each batch is both costly and time-consuming. Then of course, there are the infectious risks involved.

In contrast, serum-free media is cleaner and produces more consistent results. Serum does contain cell growth factors and essential nutrients, which means that developing the right substitute is a challenge. Having the right batch of serum-free media can really work wonders, though.

Another cell phone gabber

I was driving down an interstate yesterday when I saw somebody merging from an on-ramp. This person was going horribly slow, not at all matching the flow of traffic. I was forced to shift into another lane to avoid hitting her. The roads were fairly clear, which was good for me. Still, it doesn't excuse her failing to match the speed of the traffic.

As I passed, I saw that she was gabbing away on her cell phone. That explained a lot.

Unlike some drivers, I don't get furious at drivers who talk on their cell phones. I do ask, however, that they avoid slowing down horribly as they do so. Keep pace with the traffic if you plan to gab away, folks.

At times like these, I wish I had an EMP device that I could use to blast these phones into pieces. I would use the same gizmo on people who insist on blasting their radios away at full volume. Ugh.

More AT&T DSL nonsense

So I got a call from AT&T, telling me that my DSL problem had been diagnosed and resolved. Sure enough, I found that my Internet access had been restored.

About two minutes later, I got another call, following up on my service ticket. The call said (and I'm paraphrasing here), "An AT&T technician needs to speak to you right away regarding your problem report. Please call us at..." I'm thinking, "What the hell...?"

I called, and the CSR on the other end of the line said, "But the problem report has been closed out! Has something else gone wrong?" I said, "I don't know. All I know is that I was asked to call this number."

What. The. Heck?

Thank you, Grinch

I'll never forget this one fella back in my grad school days. I sent a message out in December 1996, wishing all the recipients a Merry Christmas.

This fella writes back and says, "Please don't send me any messages that are not business related. I receive too much e-mail as it is."

Thank you, Mister Grinch.

He reminds me of another guy that I met more recently. At this second fella's company, the receptionist would occasionally send out e-mail messages saying "So-and-so will be out of the office tomorrow. Please be aware of this" or words to that effect. Well, fella #2 told the receptionist (indeed, the entire company) "Please do not include me in these types of messages. I already receive a lot of e-mail."

His motivations were good, but as you can probably see, honoring this request would create a lot of complications. So the company president wrote back, saying (in effect) "No, do not exclude him from these mailings. It only takes a few seconds to read them, and this is they kind of information that everyone should know. Besides, excluding any employee's name from these mailings creates unnecessary work for our receptionist."

That was exactly the right response.

Monk and Psych season premieres

The Monk and Psych season premieres are coming up on Friday. Yay! Two hilarious yet intellectually stimulating shows with engaging characters.

And Cybil Shephard is playing Shaun's mom on Psych. Great choice. She's a terrific comedic actress, and it's always a pleasure having her on the screen.

Review: Behind the Briefcase

I’ve been reading the book, “Behind the Briefcase” by April Scott, former briefcase model on “Deal or No Deal.” It’s actually surprisingly good. It’s admittedly a lightweight read, and it’s not a master of literature by any means; still, it’s not bad at all. It looks like Miss Scott has a real brain behind her model-like features and the 700cc of silicone that she admitted to having inserted into her body.

And heck, the book isn’t as lurid as I thought it might be. It’s a bit of a tell-all book, but it doesn’t contain any tawdry, tasteless details. What’s more, she spoke highly and tastefully of Howie Mandel, which was rather nice.

Would I recommend this book? As a lightweight bit of mind candy, certainly.

I am so sick of AT&T DSL

I am so sick of AT&T’s DSL service.

First, my home network connection keeps dropping out, often at odd hours of the night. I’ve called to report this problem, but it typically disappears by the time I get ahold of a tech support rep. Argh. They say that they can’t do anything when the problem isn’t manifesting itself, which is very frustrating indeed.

Second, whenever I do call to report a problem, they keep asking me for the model of my DSL modem. Um, hello? You folks should have that information on file, people; after all, you supplied the DSL modem. In fact, I pointed that out to one rep, and he said, “Well, I could look that information up, but it would take a couple of minutes.” This is preposterous. Obviously, whatever database they’re using is very poorly designed.

Third, when the problem would not resolve itself, they’d say that I need to let a technician into my house in order to fix the problem. This happened twice over the course of just a few months. On both occasions, I was forced to take time off from work, only to find out that there had been widespread complaints from other customers as well, indicating a problem outside my home. You’d think that they’d figure this out before telling me that I need to be home and let their technician in.

This time, I refused. I said, “Look, each time a problem like this occurs, I go through the same old rigmarole. I can’t afford to keep taking time off from work, and if past reports are any indication, it looks like the problem is something outside my home. Can’t you please check that first?” The customer service rep acquiesed – rightfully so, after all, this just makes sense.

I’m seriously thinking about looking for another ISP. This is very frustrating indeed.

Is it arrogant to claim to know the truth?

I had a very frustrating conversation with some dude recently. He kept saying that it's very arrogant for anyone to believe that they know the truth on some matter.

So I asked him, "Really? Do you believe that's true? If so, wouldn't that make you arrogant?"

And yet he kept insisting that he was right. Good grief.

That reminded me of another conversation I had with this other fella once. We were having a discussion on some religious matter, and he said, "Your problem is that you think you're right!"

Um, hello? Of course I think I'm right. Don't we all think that we're right? Only a fool argues for a position that he doesn't truly believe.

Heck, this fella thought he was right in saying that it's wrong to think you're right. Such words may sound profound, but they are profoundly misleading.

Citing articles

Okay, this guy doesn't know how to cite articles. It's not immediately obvious, but in at least some of his postings, he starts with a few sentences, and then appends an entire article that has been cut and pasted from another source. Nothing wrong with cutting and pasting an article, provided that permission is given and the proper attributations are included. Still, a good writer should make it clear that he is citing someone else's work, and should clearly delineate his own writings from the quoted section.

AAA

I'm so glad that I renewed my AAA membership. It was going to expire on June 30th, but I decided to renew. I don't regret it. It doesn't cost a whole lot, and it certainly makes life easier when dealing with annoyances such as flat tires and mechanical breakdowns. (I haven't encountered a mechanical breakdown yet, partly because I do take care of my tires. Still, it's nice to know that they'll be there.)

My only gripe is that it sometimes takes an awfully long time for somebody to respond. Darn it. Darn it. Darn it.

Education

I think that this article is worth heeding -- not just with respect to engineering, but in a great many other intellectual disciplines as well. If you want to develop mad skills in science, engineering, or computer programming, it helps to have a broad grasp of a great many other disciplines. It certainly helps when it comes to be inventive, as it allows for cross-pollination of ideas.

Ditto in the business world. Business ideas can be conceived through a grasp of sciencelliterature, or philosophy, and these skills can also help in the marketing field as well.

I'd say more about that, but I can't really spare the time right now. Hmmm.... Maybe one should write an article on this topic.

Flat tire

I'm upset. I'm upset because I have a flat tire, the second one this year. I also didn't notice the flat right away, so I drove on it and surely wound up shredding the tire.

I'm waiting for AAA to come change the tire for me. I could do it myself, but I have other things I'd rather do, and besides, it's hot out there. I'm paying for the AAA service after all, so I may as well use it.

I have to wait an your for the guy to come by. On the other hand though, he can change the tire more quickly that I would, and I can use this time to get stuff done.

But rats, rats, rats, rats, rats.

Frustrated with AT&T DSL

I am really frustrated with AT&T DSL.

First, whenever my DSL connection slows to a painful trickle, they try to diagnose hte problem remotely, then declare that they have to come into my house to complete the diagnosis. And each time, without even stepping through my door, they discover that the problem is something outside my home. Each time, the problem coincided with issues that other customers were having. Like they couldn't have figured that out beforehand?

Second, there are times when my network connection drops out for about 15 minutes or so. This gets to be truly aggravating. They can't figure out what's causing this problem though, probably because they don't have the right logging systems. They say that I need to call when the problem is actually occurring, BEFORE it gets resolved. Ugh.

And finally, late last night, when my network connection did drop out, I called them immediately and got no reply. They were out. DRAT!

Tipping annoyances

There's this one group of people that I used to have lunch with on almost a weekly basis. One of these guys was a bit of a social misfit and a control freak. For example, after eating, he would compute everybody's 15% tip down to the last penny and insist that we pay that amount.

The rest of us thought this was inconvenient and annoying. One of us said, "Look, do we have to do this every stinkin' time? The tip doesn't have to be exact. Besides, some of us will pay more, and some will pay less. We'll all pay whatever we think is right."

"But 15% is the standard. It's the correct tip to pay."

"No, it's not." we replied. "You might want to pay more for good service or less for lousy service. And maybe some of us are a bit strapped for cash and can't tip as much as we'd like to. Either way, it should be an individual decision."

"No," he said. "We have to do this the right way."


This same bozo would also complain if anybody left pennies as part of their tip. I remember the ruckus he raised one day. Another person replied, "So, what's wrong with that? It's legal tender. There's no rule that says you shouldn't use pennies to pay your tip. Besides, they can always get the pennies changed for larger coins if they need to."


This guy was a character, to say the least.

Comic book comments

Comments on some recently released comic books:

Avengers/Invaders #3: Boy, Ross and Krueger are really playing Bucky up as some sort of bad*ss, aren't they? I love it, but I do think that the way he managed to get a vital access code out of some highly trained SHIELD agents was a bit implausible. (And under 23 seconds? Puh-leez.)

JSA Classified #39: Does Mike W. Barr even know what "rope-a-dope" means? It's NOT a good strategy to use against multiple opponents! Sheesh.

Quadruple-cytokine ELISPOT assays?

So they've got quadruple-cytokine ELISPOT assays now? I never heard of such a thing. Double-cytokine assays are well known, though not exceedingly common. But a quadruple-color ELISPOT assay? Analyzing those things must be a real challenge, especially when it comes to disambiguating the mixed-color spots.

Things I'm enjoying

A few things that I've been enjoying:

• The Straight No Chaser 1998 concert DVD. I especially liked their showstopping comedic rendition of "The 12 Days of Christmas."
  
• The Discovery Channel's "Boom De Yada" promo. Now that's a catchy tune.
  
• Disney's Enchanted. Great movie.
  
• Pixar movies.
  
• Heavy cardio workouts
  
• Weight training
  

Wall-E

If you haven't watched Pixar's Wall-E yet, go out and watch it right now! This movie was absolutely amazing! It was incredible to see how much emotion they could squeeze out of two robots with minimal vocabularies and scarcely any physical features.

Just consider all the different ways that Eve said "Wall-E!" and you'll see what I mean.

Biogeochemistry?

I just learned a new word today: biogeochemistry. According to Wikipedia, it is a scientific study that covers the chemical, physical, geological, and biological processes and reactions that govern the composition of the natural environment. It also includes the cycles of matter and energy that transport the Earth's chemical components in time and space.

That's a new one for me.

Incompetent C++ programmers

I love C++. I love the power that it provides. Unfortunately, it seems that good C++ programmers are really hard to find.

I'm sick and tired of programmers who think that using 'get' and 'set' functions makes their designs object-oriented, for example. Heck, it doesn't even make for proper information hiding!

I remember a grad student who tried to use the Visual C++ AppWizard, just so that he could claim to be a C++ programmer. What a ripoff. Sadly, that's how a lot of people market themselves as C++ programmers.

The Apprentice

Season One of Donald Trump's The Apprentice was released on DVD shortly after the season ended. The show was a smash hit, after all. Amazingly though, the powers that be decided not to release the subsequent seasons.

Why? Why the heck? Why? Darn it.

I'd love to be able to analyze these episodes. A lot of these episodes do offer helpful business insights, especially in the first few seasons. Subsequent seasons became more comical, though.

I want a vacation

I want to take a nice, long vacation. I want to work on some technical projects, and I also want to spend a few hours each day in intensive cardio work. I'd love that.

I'd also love to catch up on my readings. For example, I'd love to read a bunch of books on marketing techniques, philosophy, physics, chemistry, and history. I'd also love to read some poetry and plain old fiction.

And dang it, my driveway and yard need work. Dang it.

Legal advice on immigration

On more than one occasion, this certain young lady has asked me to analyze her immigration proceedings and explain what she should expect. Several times now, in fact. While I was willing to help -- up to a point, that is -- I did strongly advise her that she needs to read up on immigration law if she wants to avoid difficulties.

"Oh, but I don't want to have to do that!" she said.

"Well, if you want to avoid problems with your immigration proceedings, you're going to have to read up on the matter. You need to knwo what to expect, and you can't expect your attorney to do everything."

On the one hand, I understand that she wants to avoid the effort required. On the other hand, it seems to me that if your entire future is riding on such matters, you SHOULD do your very best to educate yourself. That's just common sense.

Trying to keep cool

Keep my head cool, that is. I'm under a lot of stress.

I find myself getting really frustrated with equipment around the house, for example. I got really infuriated at this shoddy piece of wiring used in my satellite dish service, for example. After tugging and tugging on the thing, I got really upset and pretty much blew up for a while.

Now I'm trying to calm down. Getting upset often leads to medical problems down the road, after all.

I remember getting infuriated a few day ago when a car cut in front of me on the highway during a pouring storm. I had to press on my brakes to avoid hitting him, and I started to skid a bit. I pretty much leaned on my horn to let him know that he had done something really dumb and placed me in danger.

It took me a while to calm down after that.

Love the new Discover promo

I just love the new Discover Channel promo -- the one that goes "Boom de yada, boom de yada."

I want to make up my own lyrics to this song.

"If you don't like this tune,
Then something's wrong with you.
You have no freakin' clue.
You must be dead inside.
Boom de yada. Boom de yada. Boom de yada. Boom de yada."

I'm exhausted

I'm exhausted. I'm beat. I'm really, really tired, and I'm not getting enough sleep. In part, it's because I have so much work to do AND I'm also trying to squeeze in extra exercise so that I can slim down for a change. It's tough.

If I were more attractive, then I might not be as concerned. One has to work with the hand that one is dealt, though. One has to do one's best.

Difficult people

I remember way back when I had to work with two labmates, D and G.

D was an arrogant loudmouth with a horrible temper and extremely poor people skills. Everyone was constantly concerned that he would mouth off to the wrong person and get himself fired or chewed out. (Amazingly, he was fairly popular with the ladies. This goes to show that some women do love the dominant types who don't treat people well.)

G was a racist bastard. He was active in his church, but outside of his church, he was cruel and harsh. He would continually refer to Indians as "Hadji," as though oblivious to the fact that he was uttering a racial slur. (Honestly though, I'm sure he was aware of it. He just didn't care.)

Both of them were supposedly adults, but they acted more like 14-year-olds. I'm glad I don't have to deal with them anymore.

AT&T DSL: I'm annoyed

Well, AT&T finally fixed my DSL connection. Finally. And they didn't have to enter my home to do it.

The thing is, I wish they had figured that out beforehand. It seems to me that they should have been able to do so. The customer support rep said that other subscribers had been affected by this outage, so I'm surprised that they didn't make that connection.

Of course, I don't know the whole story, so I won't say that for sure.

The AT&T junction box is across the street from me. From past experience (yeah, it's happened before), I know that the repair techs sometimes have to go to this box in order to effect repairs. Well, I saw an AT&T van right by this box yesterday morning, so I suspect that they had some idea that it was a hardware problem outside of my home. I also saw a van there this morning, right after my network access started working. Go figure.

My DSL connection

I am deeply annoyed.

A few days ago, my DSL connection degraded into a slow trickle. It was worse than dial-up... many times worse. Argh.

I called tech support, but they couldn't really help. After trying a few unhelpful tests (tests which I could pretty much tell were shots in the dark), they agreed to send a technician over in three days. (I was going to be out of town for two days; hence the delay.) Unfortunately, this required that I leave work early and wait for the guy.

Well, after waiting for over an hour, I called and asked where he was. The customer support rep didn't know, but he did ask me to wait longer. Argh.

A few minutes later, I got a call, stating that the problem was traced to some circuits outside my home. I was informed that they would not be sending a technician over after all.

Grumble. They couldn't have figured that out sooner? After all, it had been three day since I reported the problem. You'd think that they would have made the logical connection by then.

Now, I won't be hasty to judge. I don't know the whole situation after all. Still, it was bloody annoying.

Travelling alone

I wish that I had someone to travel with. That'd make all this travelling a bit more enjoyable. Flying by myself and staying in a tiny hotel room by myself gets to be pretty lonely at times.

Noisy kids on airplanes

Today I had the unpleasant experience of sitting in front of a loud, noisy kid on an airplane. This child was talking loudly through most of the flight, and was carrying on conversations with children in some of the other rows (his siblings, presumably).

What's more, he kept tapping my seat. (Remember, he was seated behind me.) On more than one occasion, I had to to turn to him and say, "Please stop hitting my seat."

Unfortunately, some parents don't bother to keep their children under control. They'll let the children talk loudly during flights, as though they were oblivious to the fact that other passengers are trying to rest or get some reading done. Argh.

Eating while on the road

Eating lean while you're on the road can be a challenge.

It's hard to find a restaurant where you can eat non-fattening food at a reasonable price. When I'm lucky, I find myself in a hotel that has a microwave oven and that's close to a supermarket. Usually though, that's not an option.

Tonight I'll be trying a seafood restaurant. Seafood offers a good number of lean, nutritious options, but it isn't cheap. I'm trying it anyway, though; after all, I went cheap for lunch. (I brought my own sandwich, thus saving my employer the cost of my lunch.) Besides, I figure that if I'm going to be travelling, I should same some of the local cuisine instead of always eating at generic chain restaurants.

Carrying luggage around

There's a certain piece of luggage that I normally use on business trips. It has wheels and an extendable handle, allowing the weary traveler to simply wheel this thing around.

Guess what? I almost never use that feature.

I'd rather carry the bag around. First, this helps build up my shoulder and forearm muscles, and it helps burn calories. This is really helpful when you've spent most of the day sitting in an airplane with no place to go.

And second, I can get around much more quickly when I carry this bag around rather than dragging it behind me. Ditto for my heavy laptop bag.

One of my co-workers -- a fairly tall fella -- said that he needs a small laptop. "I don't want to get tired from carrying my laptop around," he said. "That's why I need one that's very small and very light." I won't begrudge him that, but since you pay a price premium for small laptops, I'd rather own a larger one and then build up the strength needed to carry it around. Heck, my laptop is very heavy, and I carry a massive amount of other stuff in the same bag. Do I travel a lot? Not really, but I do have to carry this bag to work everyday. I honestly don't mind.

Heavy duty work

I've had a pretty intense calorie-burning weekend. It has involved heavy resistance training, shoveling mulch, tree planting, mowing the lawn, turning over compost, filling up driveway cracks, and more. Later today, I will do more lawn mowing, shovel more mulch, and get some cardio work done. A lot of that will be in the blazing sun.

I hate this.

Ten Common Copyrighting Problems

Here is another list from that book I mentioned earlier, Copy Writing For Dummies. The author's wording is a bit awkward, though. In some of these item titles, he describes the problem. In others though, he hints at a solution. The full cures for these problems are described in the book.

• Establishing focus when your message is diffuse
  
• Getting specific when your writing is vague
  
• Getting real when your copy is jargon-filled
  
• Speaking the customer's language when the tone is wrong
  
• Talking about the customer when your copy is self-flattering
  
• Using active words to fight the "flat"
  
• Being bold when your pitch is too soft
  
• Trimming text when your copy is wordy
  
• Making an offer when your conclusion is wilting
  
• Going back to the source when you have writer's block
  

It's Friday the 13th! Whoopee-doo.

It's Friday the 13th. Eaugh. You know what that means.

This entire week has not been going well for me, so I'm not exactly fazed by this omen of bad luck, though.

Ten Things To Do Before Writing Marketing Copy

The following list is from the book, Writing Copy for Dummies by Jonathan Kranz. He calls these "Ten Things You Should Always Do Before Writing" (by which he means copywriting).

• Creating the Team
  
• Clarifying the Purpose
  
• Setting the Benchmarks
  
• Gathering the Facts
  
• Resolving the Format
  
• Establishing the Copy Points
  
• Turning Features into Benefits
  
• Profiling the Customer
  
• Identifying the Marketing Challenges
  
• Setting the Tone
  

Merging in traffic

Quick! What is the most important thing to remember when merging onto a highway?

The most important thing to remember, of course, is that you should only merge when you have an opening. In other words, look in your mirror and over your shoulder for a gap into which you can merge.

The next most important thing to bear in mind, however, is that you must match the speed of the highway traffic. In other words, you should accelerate until you match the highway speed and then merge. Sadly, so many people don’t seem to understand the importance of this.

I remember being stuck behind this woman on a highway in California once. We were both on the on ramp, but she apparently decided to come to a complete halt before merging into the traffic stream. In the meantime, I was freaking out. I was yelling, “Don’t come to a complete stop before you merge, lady!” Why? Because that just makes merging more difficult. It’s also plenty dangerous, since it greatly increases the risk that someone will ram into your rear.

Made things difficult for me too, since I was stuck behind her. In other words, I had to come to a complete halt as well, even though I knew better.

Just last night, I had to keep tapping my horn at this one motorist. He was trying to merge into my traffic lane, but instead of accelerating, he slowed down practically to a crawl. In the meantime, I felt like yelling, “Go ahead and merge, already!” He apprently didn’t understand that if vehicles like mine slowed down because he was moving at a snail’s pace, then we risked being rear-ended as well.

Conversel, there was this one other fella who was trying to get off the highway. Instead of driving firmly onto the off-ramp though, he slowed down and changed lanes slowly, almost painstakingly. The result? He occuped both lanes for an obscene amount of time, so my car, as well as the ones behind me, had to slow down to dangerous speeds as well. Ugh.

Feeling irritable

I'm busy doing housework again late tonight -- laundry and cleaning. I have so much tidying to do, and I finished a good amount of yard work and digging as well. And it's warm and humid as well, which is making me feel very, very irritable. Ugh.

Gotta get ready for a business trip as well. Argh.

I am feeling so very irritable. I know I've said that, but I'm really on edge right now. I'm going to start running the air conditioner again, even though it'll drive my electric bill up. Yeesh.

Watching movies as a kid

When I was growing up, our family almost never watched movies right from the start. Rather, our parents insisted on walking into a movie midway through the story. Only once did I ever catch a movie right from the start -- an obscure Pinocchio movie that I watched on my fifth birthday. Little did I know at the time that I would never get that experience again until I reached my teens and could watch movies on my own.

I can understand missing the start of a movie once or twice, but consistently? Clearly, something is wrong.

The problem was that our family never properly appreciated the artistry that goes into a good movie. Start watching midway through, and you don't know what all the backstory is. You wind up guessing needlessly, perhaps missing some of the humor and dramatic subtleties.

Oh, and of course, you have to sit through maybe 15-20 minutes of idle time between films as you wait for the next showing. Talk about poor use of time!

Ultimately, this was all caused by poor use of time. We'd be out and about, shopping or having dinner. Well, with judicious planning, we could have taken a break from the shopping to watch the movie, and then resumed shopping afterwards if necessary. That never happened, though.

So what's the big deal, one might ask? After all, you still got to watch the film, right? True, but one is robbed of the experience of seeing the story unfold as it should. One can still enjoy the film, but one cannot savor its full experience. It's like hoping for a rich steak and settling for hamburger instead.

Sledge Hammer

Just finished watching the final DVD of the 80s cult hit, "Sledge Hammer." Now that was a clever show. David Rasche is a comedic genius who should have won an Emmy. Anne-Marie Martin was also perfectly cast in her role.

Too bad this show didn't get the exposure that it needed. I do have to give the network credit for airing it in the first place, though. That's more than what most TV suits would have done.

Take names to kick networking b*tt

The following has been excerpted from an article by Keith Ferrazzi, "The 10 Secrets of a Master Networker." It's good advice.

"I'm constantly ripping out lists in magazines. I was one of Crain's '40 under 40' when I was 30. Interestingly enough, I had been ripping out 40-under-40 lists for years and continue to do so. Those are individuals who somebody has spent enough time to identify as an up-and-comer, a mover, an intellectual, and these are the kinds of people I want to surround myself with. I rip out lists of top CEOs, most admired CEOs, regional lists. A recent book by Richard Saul Wurman lists the 1,000 most creative people in the United States. It's fantastic."

Either Ferrazzi or his assistant enters the gathered names into a database. He has call sheets by region, listing the people he knows and those he'd like to know, and when he's in town, he phones all of them. The numbers are also put into his two PalmPilots, one that has names strictly relating to the particular business he's involved in at the moment (YaYa now) and another that contains his own personal contacts. There are more than 5,000 contacts in all, some of them people Ferrazzi doesn't know yet. Those are what he calls "aspirational contacts."

He pulls out his Palm and shows me the contact information for Richard Branson, chairman of the Virgin empire. "I don't know him. But I want to," he says. Then he scrolls down and comes to Howard Stringer, CEO of Sony Corp. of America. "He was on my aspirational list once. I now know Howard," he notes.

Celebrities and money

Here's what one netter wrote about Bill Cosby and financial management. I think it's worth noting.

Bill Cosby is one of the richest men in show business now of course, but in the '70s he was a total mess (broke and deeply in debt) due to bad investments, unpaid taxes, and a thieving manager.* He talked in one interview about how he was world famous, had a hit comedy record, could dial up half of the Hollywood A-list by memory, but he wasn't able to buy one of his kids a birthday present because he had no cash and all of his cards were not just declined but seized, and how he had to borrow the money from a fan who was in the toy store (who he said he still sends gifts to on his daughter's birthday). His advice to all up-n'-comers is "NEVER EVER EVER give anybody but your wife the power to sign your checks, and only let your wife do it if you've been married a while and have kids and you 100% trust her" (i.e. not some newlywed trophy wife or Sharon-Stone-from-Casino character). This would seem a no brainer, but apparently there are people who allow their managers to just have full access to everything they make.

Sadly, many celebrities with beaucoup megabucks never learn these lessons.

MS Vista is infuriating!

MS Windows is an abominable product line, and Vista is especially horrible. Ugh!

Okay, sure. It accomplished a lot of nifty things. The problem is that the Microsoft designers, thinking like a bunch of high school students, decided to focus on superficial 'gee whiz' features to the deteriment of functionality.

When you boot up the computer, it should NOT attempt to do too many things in the background. When you call up Windows Explorer, it should come up fairly quickly, without a lot of pre-processing; after all, it's primary function is to let the user navigate through the directory structure, and that shouldn't take much effort at all. Instead though, calling this program up can be a slow and tedious process, all because Microsoft insists on doing so much stuff in the background. (What exactly? I don't know, but I'm sure that generating thumbnail images and/or picture indices is one of them. Who cares about that?!?!? You don't do that sort of thing unless you KNOW that the user will be navigating to the folders in question.)

Great googly moogly.

Geekiness and fandom

Somebody once said the following:

Even among men, obsessions are not treated equally. Fill a room with Star Trek memorabilia and you're a geek. Fill it with New England Patriots merchandise (along with a nice expensive fathead) and you're a super-fan.

True. Unfortunate, but true.

Preparing for a layoff -- well in advance

The following bit of advice came from an article titled "Surving a Layoff." I don't know who originally wrote it, as the fella who passed this on to me didn't include that info. For this reason, I'm only posting a brief excerpt.

Get everything you've been promised in writing. Remember, you cannot be forced to sign something on the spot. Take the paperwork with you, and agree to drop it off after you've had time to review it with a cool head. Consult a lawyer if need be -- especially if a lot of money is on the line or if you were axed before a bonus, commission, vesting period, or some other important deadline. Then schedule a time to come back with questions and show off your new golf swing. If you are dismissed "with cause," however, your former employer may not owe you a cent.

Gas prices

While driving to work today, I came across a guy standing by the side of the road. He was wearing a white T-shirt with a handwritten message that said, "Fuel up only once a week!" in an obvious attempt to protest gas prices. He also held up a sign that said, "Politicians, this is your job!"

I understand his frustration and his obvious desperation. Still, that's just no solution. Fuel up only once a week? That's easier said that done. This suggestion is only marginally better than those idiotic "Boycott gas on Wednesday!" campaigns or those petitions for gas companies to lower their prices.

And in what sense is this the job of politicians? Sure politicos be doing something? Maybe; I won't debate that point right now. But to simply declare that this is the politicians' job is woefully simplistic at best.

Batman and Robin on the SuperFriends

A few weeks ago, I saw a few episodes of the first season SuperFriends on the Boomerang Channel. It was interesting to see how very differently Batman and Robin had been portrayed back then. Neither one of them ever hit anyone, in keeping with the sanitized standards of the seventies. Nevertheless, they were written in a much more appealing way than in subsequent SuperFriends incarnations.

In most of the subsequent seasons, Batman and Robin would always win battles by swinging from one place to another and wielding whatever outlandish Bat-paraphernalia happened to be convenient. (An umbrella in your utility belt, Robin? Really?) Not so in the first season. The gadgetry was kept to a minimum. Instead of using some elaborate Bat-pulley mechanism to traverse some ski lift cables, for example, they simply slid down using their batarangs.

And they were written so as to focus on their intellect rather than their gadgetry. That was great.

ICS vs. ELISPOT

Blood cells need to be killed for detection via intracellular cytoplasmic staining, (ICS) whereas they survive ELISPOT assays unaffected. These cells can thus be reused for subsequent testing in other platforms (including ICS itself) or the can be frozen for retesting. If necessary, ELISPOT assays even permit serial testing of the very same cells in different assay formats. This optional maximization of sample resources can be critical when conducting clinical trials in which the number of peripheral blood mononuclear cells available is a limiting factor.

In ICS, cells are killed at some supposedly ideal time point and the intracellular cytokine content is measured. In ELISPOT assays however, the cytokine is continuously captured around the secreting cell during incubation time. This generates the characteristic ELISPOT spots long after the secretion process has halted. This basic feature makes ELISPOT assays largely independent of the secretion kinetics of the individual cells. This is valuable because the kinetics of T cell cytokine secretion is unsynchronized even when a single T cell clone is tested. This principle of nonsychronization is even more relevant when using a potential polyclonal population of effector cells reacting to the diverse APC population.

In addition, ELISPOT assays lend themselves more thorougly to high-throughput testing. The initial phases of both ICS and ELISPOT assays are identical whenit comes to setting up the activation cultures. In addition, the subsequent processing of the cells, including the washing steps, require about the same amount of time. However, the actual data acquisition and analysis phases are much shorter for ELISPOT assays. Typically, ELISPOT footprints generated by 300,000 PBMCs per well can be analyzes from a single image with an acquisition and analysis time of about three seconds per 300,000 cells.

Habermas on Post-Modernism

A few words from philosopher Gary Habermas on post-modernism:

Postmodernism is a loose coalition of diverse thinkers from several different academic disciplines, so it is difficult to characterize postmodernism in a way that would be fair to this diversity. Still, it is possible to provide a fairly accurate characterization of postmodernism in general, since it friends and foes understand it well enough to debate its strengths and weaknesses.

As a philosophical standpoint, postmodernism is primarily a reinterpretation of what knowledge is and what counts as knowledge. More broadly, it represents a form of cultural relativism about such things as reality, truth, reason, value, linguistic meaning, the self and other notions. On a postmodernist view, there is no such thing as objective reality, truth, value, reason and so forth. All these are social constructions, creations of linguistic practices and, as such, are relative not to individuals, but to social groups that share a narrative.

Postmodernism denies the correspondence theory, claiming that truth is simply a contingent creation of language which expresses customs, emotions, and values embedded in a community’s linguistic practices. For the postmodernist, if one claims to have the truth in the correspondence sense, this assertion is a power move that victimizes those judged not to have the truth.

He is not a fan. Not at all.

This scene lacked credibility

Okay, I watched this episode of The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries on DVD. It's the episode where Janet Louise Johnson was introduced as Pamela Sue Martin's replacement as Nancy Drew. You can see some vidcaps here.

In this silly scene, Nancy accosts the Hardy boys, confronting them in disguise. She was wearing some sort of mask (which, unfortunately, is not shown in the aforementioned vidcaps). This mask covered the upper part of her face, but left the lower part quite visible.

Why is this silly? Because Ms. Johnson (now Janet Julian) has this great big mark on her left cheek, near her mouth. It's not unattractive by any means, but it is distinctive. The boys should have immediately recognized her based on this mark alone.

Proper ad English

I always cringe when I see ads that use sloppy English grammar or inelegant phrasings. I realize that not everybody has great wordsmithing skills; however, it seems to me that if you know this to be a weakness, you should solicit help from people who do have better writing skills. At the very least, have somebody check your work for grammar and style!

These shortcomings are more understandable when dealing with ad materials from overseas, especially China. That's why I was impressed with this site. These folks clearly took the effort to ensure that they used elegant wording and proper grammar. Very few companies do that sort of thing nowadays.

SuperFriends. Ugh.

Caught a few episodes of various "SuperFriends" shows on the Boomerang channel. Ugh. Ugh. Ugh. I know that the writers weren't trying to create high art, but for pity's sake, they could have avoided dumbing the stories down so much.

Okay, I'll admit that the last season ("The Super Powers Team: Galactic Guardians") wasn't so bad. And except for the use of Wendy, Marvin, and Wonderdog, neither was the first season. The rest of the seasons were simply stupid though, and the dialogue was beyond atrocious.

Ugh. Yech. Blech. Phooey.

I once read an online singles profile which said the following:

I have friends of all types, but I'm not looking for another "just friend" on here, and I don't have time for world-wide pen-pals -- even with otherwise great people. I promise I'm not a negative person, but because I am in the similars-attract camp rather than the opposites-attract camp and because there's no point wasting anyone's time by lack of full disclosure, things which are deal-breakers and complete turn-offs for me include the following: beer, liquor, smoking, chewing tobacco, gambling, lying, manipulation, cheating (on taxes, girlfriend, timecard, etc.), meanness, perversion, less-than-full-time employment or income of less than 80% of mine, long-distance (anything greater than 25 miles; Garland is on the NE edge of Dallas, TX in the USA), IQ less than 135, history of promiscuity/STDs, history of gay/bi, divorced (more than once, with kids, in the past five years, or for any reason other than her adultery or abandonment of you), shorter than 5'11", fat, under 30 or over 45, less than a full set of teeth, poor personal hygeine, not white/Caucasian, not a U.S. citizen from birth, lack of at least a bachelor's degree, poor grammar, poor spelling, living with parents/family, history of or current psychiatric meds or need thereof (that is if your psychiatrist, doctor, family, friends, coworkers, ex-girlfriends, ex-friends, or ex-coworkers think you need meds -- whether or not YOU think you do), criminal history (whether convicted or not), overall negative attitudes, lack of proven leadership experience.... That is not an exhaustive list, but is a good start. If ANY of those describe you, please do NOT write me... especially just to tell me that what is important to me shouldn't be important to me simply because it isn't important to you.

This woman is incredibly shallow. Based on her profile, she was a bright woman, and based on her photos, she was rather pretty... but I would pity any man who wound up with her.

Some of her demands are reasonable -- proper hygiene and a lack of criminal history, for example). Many of them are downright petty, though. She won't date someone who was not born as a US citizen? And she would never even consider dating someone who's non-Caucasian? Boy, this gal must have a superiority complex.

She also won't date any man who makes less than her. Well, what if that man deliberately took a moderately well-paying charity job for the sake of helping the poor? Or because this person wants to help disabled people? I guess that money matters way too much to this woman.

Somebody tried to sell me a rapid prototyping workcell. It was pretty darned neat and it would have been a great toy, but I couldn't justifying buying such a device for our company.

Their processs involved curing plastics that were dyed in multiple colors. Great technology, but personally, I prefer the use of laminated materials. It permits the use of a wide range of functional materials such as aluminum. IT even permits the use of transparent materials such as plexiglas. Very cool.

A few notes on Abilene, Texas

I got to spend a couple of nights in Abilene, Texas, on business. A few observations:

First, their tiny little regional airport is quite nice. Because the airport is small, the check-in and security checkpoint lines are short and efficient. Parking is affordable, and despite their small size, they offer free wireless Internet access. Very nice!

Second, the taxicab service around here stinks to high heavens. Abilene is a small town, but it has a reasonably large population, so you'd think that they could manage to have more taxis. Unfortunately though, most of the taxi companies in Abilene (such as "Classic Cab") are owned by the same family, and they clearly don't have enough taxis (or perhaps taxi drivers) to around.

I've called for a cab three times over the past two days. The first time around, I had to wait a long time for the cab to arrive, and I had to share the ride with a local family. The second time, I was told that there would be a 45-minute wait. (It turned to be more than a 75-minute wait, at which point somebody else offered to give me a ride instead.) The third time around, I was told that I'd have to wait for 2.5 hours, which would have caused me to miss my outgoing flight. (Again, by God's grace, I managed to get another ride instead.)

There is another company that I could have used, but they didn't even pick up the phone. Good grief!

Clearly, the problem is not a lack of demand. I don't know what the problem is. Mismanagement? Difficulty in retaining employees? Who knows? All I can say is that I'm never going to use their taxi service again. Heck, the local airport should put up a big sign, warning everyone that the taxis here are horrendously unreliable.

My morning in a motel

So I'm sitting in a motel, waiting for a cab.

I spent part of this morning in vigorous cardio exercise within my hotel room. That was great. Thankfully, the rooms seem to have pretty good soundproofing. I like that.

I also got some reading and computer work done, but not as much as I would have liked. I also bought some frozen dinners at a local WalMart. That way, I can eat more nutriously than I would at a restaurant. I can also keep my food expenses down, which my employer would hopefully appreciate. After all, they're paying for this business trip.

I called for a cab, only to find out that there'll be a 45-minute wait. Yoiks! I'm in a small town right now, but I wasn't expecting that. Yowza.

Important ad messages!!!

I remember using the newsgroups on a local freenet way back before the Web was available. Every now and then, you'd get some wonk posting a message with a subject line that said, "Important news! Please read!" I'd open the message up, only to find that they were just shilling some sort of product -- commemorative artwork or whatnot.

These messages got to be very irritating, especially when one only had a slow network connection. I actually wrote to one guy and said, "You call that an important announcement? I call it false advertising." Yeah, I was being kinda snippy, and I could have phrased things more tactfully. I guess I was bristling at the implicit manipulation involved in urging people to read an "important" announcement about some trivial matter.

As the years went on, I discovered that many other vendors use the same tactic. We all get envelopes in the mail that are marked "Important!" , right? As far as I'm concerned, if you're going to insist that something is important, it had better be true. Or better yet, tell me what it's about, dangit!

Animal lawnmowers

I really hate the time involved in mowing my lawn. I don't mind the physical effort; in fact, I deliberately got a mower that was not self-propelled. I figured that unless you have any tall hills to climb, any halfway healthy adult male should be able to push one of these things around.

That didn't stop one fella from urging me to get one, though. His comment? "It makes things so much easier!" No, dude. I don't have any difficulty pushing a low-end mower around; I just wish it didn't require so much time.

Yet another fella was telling me to use this riding mower. "It's so sweet!" he said. Dude, unless you have a huge amount of property, getting a riding lawn mower is waste of money. These things cost $1500 or so. Why not get some exercise instead?

Which, BTW, is what makes investing this time somewhat more palatable. I just wish that it was more of a thorough cardio or resistance training workout.

The other Nancy Drew?

Does anyone remember Janet Louise Johnson -- y'know, the other Nancy Drew? She took over the role from Pamela Sue Martin back when the Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries was on the air.

I didn't get to watch many of those episodes, though. Our family only had one TV set back then, and my mother insisted on using it to watch this incredibly stupid family drama. At least, that's how it looked to my prepubescent eyes. Personally, I prefer mysteries, as I like a good mental challenge.

And no, it had nothing to do with the fact that the two Nancy Drews were both cute. In fact, I never even noticed that until many years afterwards.

The Post-It Note

From The 75 Greatest Management Decisions Ever Made:

Innovation often involveds putting two and two together and making four. A simple idea from one plice combined with a simple idea from another place can yield gold. That's the story of Art Fry and the Post-It.
...
The Post-It was invinted when Fry's colleague, Dr. Spencer Silver in 3M's Central Research Department, came up with a weak adhesive that stuck strongly enough to keep pieces of paper together than could be separated without leaving a mark. It was an invention in search of a use.

The rest, as they say, is history.

A great moment from the latest Narnia movie

There was a really great moment toward the end of The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe: Prince Caspian. I was when the bad guys saw Lucy standing alone on the other side of the bridge, dagger in hand. There was a moment where the new head baddie (what was his name again?) was stunned, then confused. Then he realized that this was all too good to be true and that something very bad was about to happen.

Then Aslan appeared, and you could see that the army was hesitant to cross. They didn't dare presume that they could simply tackle this beast, despite their numbers and armor. The Narnian army was right behind them though, so after some hemming and hawing, forward they went...

The Prince Caspian movie

Saw the Prince Caspian movie last night. They took a considerable number of liberties with the original story. I'm not complaining, mind you, especially since the original story was not as engaging as the other tales in C.S. Lewis's Narnia series. Just for the record though, the major changes included the following:


There was a James Bond-esque attempt to infiltrate Miraz's castle and take the fight to him. This ends with a battle in the castle itself and a tragic setback.

Romantic sparks between Susan and Caspian. I don't normally appreciate shoehorning a romantic subplot into a classic story, but in this case, I didn't mind. Susan was supposed to be the beauty of the Pevensie group, and so it made sense that they'd show a couple of guys responding to her in that manner.

Caspian blows Queen Susan's horn when he falls off his horse as he escape from Miraz.

The witch/werewolf scene takes place toward the end of the movie. The way this scene unfolded was changed as well.

New word: Parkour

I learned a new word today: parkour. At least one writer has referred to it as "urban gymnastics," but that's not an accurate synonym, as parkour can be used in a rural setting as well. It's all about using efficient body movements to overcome obstacles.

A recent Spider-Man issue had Spidey battling an urban gymnast who claimed to have the "parkour luck." This made Spider-Man cringe, since Spidey has often lamented the "Parker luck"; that is, the way bad things keep happening to him.

(As an aside, Johnny Storm once noted that the Parker luck also involves him dating all manner of incredibly beautiful women -- Gwen Stacey, Felicia Hardy, and Mary Jane Watson, to name the obvious standouts. But I digress.)

Lori Drew has been charged

I see that Lori Drew has finally been indicted for her role in the death of Megan Meier, a young girl who was driven to suicide through cyberbullying on MySpace.

It's about time. A federal grand jury handed down this indictment, and it's good that they did. I'll withhold judgment on whether she truly deserves to be sentenced, but it seems to me that she should be.

Peter Falk is a treasure

Peter Falk is a national treasure. You may know him as that pop culture icon, Lieutenant Columbo. Everyone loves the guy; that's why we celebrate Columbo day in October.

Mr. Falk will be turning 81 in September. Well, guess what? This means that we need to have at least one more Columbo movie, darn it! Unfortunately, ABC has not been supportive of Columbo's Last Case, thinking that Peter Falk is too old to draw a crowd.

They are nuts! Columbo is perhaps the most iconic of TV detectives, and a show that's billed as his final case would surely draw in large crowds. Would it draw the demographics that they want? I don't know, but I just have to believe that this would be a major television event.

And if Mr. Falk dies before somebody produces this movie, it'll be a horrible shame.

I hate dandelions

I hate dandelions. Hate 'em. Hate 'em. Hate 'em.

I wish that my neighbors would do a better job of keeping their dandelions under control. I swear, some of them don't even seem to mow their lawns at all. Ugh.

I hate using chemicals against them, and I also hate the tedium of pulling them up. Yeargh. Ugh. Blechh.

MFA: The New MBA

Creative skills are vastly underrated in many business circles. That's why I was pleased to see this podcast that said, "The MFA is the New MBA."

The thing is, you need creativity in the workplace. This is even true of technical types like scientists, engineers, and programmers. That's just the way it is. They might need to develop marketing materials, for example, or a clever way of presenting their ideas. Or maybe even a creative technical solution or business strategy.

Instant rebates

The following snippets have been excerpted from a discussion in which somebody proposed that rebates should be made instant. It's the sort of idea that people endorse because they perceive a personal benefit without considering the economics of the matter.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I am in the middle of an unsettling experience with a rebate. I purchased a $20 item thru the Internet (a reputable dealer, I think) with a $10 rebate. I filled out the forms, attached the invoice, and included the physical barcode from the retail product box as instructed.

8 weeks later, I get an email from the rebate service company. They claim that the barcode I sent was not a UPC code as the form requested, so they denied the rebate.

I have copies of all rebate forms, and the original product box. Checking the papers, I find that, sure enough, neither of the two barcodes from the box are UPC style (wrong number of digits, for one). However, there is absolutely no other barcode or UPC number anywhere on the box, any side. (It's probably a Taiwanese special "clone" product.)

So the rules say "must be original UPC barcode" to get the rebate, but there is no original UPC barcode available to the consumer. Catch-22.

I have written both to the rebate servicer and the dealer, since it appears that 100% of the claims for this product will be rejected. What a scam. Let's hope the dealer sets this right, or I will escalate it to some government authority just out of spite.

But this brings me to the OP: rebates are universally hated by consumers, regularly not redeemed, but frequently used as a sales tool when the advertisers know well that many (most?) purchasers won't get the rebate either for reasons like the example above, out-and-out fraud by the rebate servicers, or consumers who don't care for a measily ten bucks.

I am against the idea of "there oughta be a law" in principle, but in the case of fraud, laws may need to be passed to prevent it. And this situation is at least a borderline case of fraud, IMHO.

So should there be a law that all rebates must be given (or at least offered) at the time of purchase? It would make every transaction fair. The consumer would know at the register or checkout that they qualify or not for the rebate, and if there was a problem, it would be solved before the transaction was completed.

What are the implications of such a law?
Manufacturers would have to adjust the amount of the rebate offered to allow for a greater number of redemptions, and adjust for the reduced float, but see #2.
Retailers would have to work out an arrangement with the manufacturer or distributor to be compensated for the instant rebate. Doesn't sound like a big problem with electronic transfers and computerized billing. It's a lot easier for a store to do this as a composite figure for one day's sales than for each customer to do it individually. It would make the rebate centers go out of business, and perhaps the amount of rebate could be increased, since the administration cost would be less.
Does any state or country have such a law? Would it be a good idea?

...

No they shouldn't.

That defeats the point of the rebate. The rebate is a clever little ploy to make it seem cheaper. They bank on the fact that not everyone will send it in, so they get to advertise a cheaper price than they actually will end up receiving. If you make all rebates instant there won't be much of an incentive to give them out anymore. If you give out 20 dollar rebates they will only really cost you say 10 dollars, because maybe half the people don't use them.

Manufacturing WebExpo

Just wanted to plug the following event. I'm copying this text verbatim from an e-mail that I received, but somehow, I don't think they'll mind.

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2008 National Manufacturing WebExpo & Conference
Date: Wednesday, May 21, 2008
Time: 9:00 am – 5:00 pm ET

The manufacturing show that comes to your office!

The Manufacturing WebExpo and Conference brings you and your management team the advantages of a traditional trade show without any of the travel cost! Participate in a webcast, visit a trade show booth and pick up valuable literature – all from the comfort of your office.

Webcasts
Tune in to any or all of the Webcasts (including Parker Hannifin - Tube Fittings Division, Bimba Manufacturing and AutomationDirect). Ask questions. And if you have a member of your management team who missed a live Webcast, don’t worry – each Webcast is archived for 3 months.

Trade Show
Visit booths at the virtual trade show (Sealevel Systems, AutomationDirect, EFD, FactoryMation, Parker Hannifin - Tube Fittings Division, Strong-Hold Products and more) where you can learn about new manufacturing and industrial products, subscribe to newsletters and download white papers or literature.

Stay for an hour or stay all day – you decide. Without burdensome travel costs, you can invite your whole management team to view a Webcast or review product features at company booths.

What a movie reviewer does

I read the following comment on what movie reviewers do, and I thought that it was worth emphasizing.

Movie reviewers (and we're talking here about reviews, not criticism*) are just watching the movie to determine its strengths and weaknesses. They are often out of step because they have seen more movies than the moviegoing public and can recognize cliches more readily. In addition, they tend to be interested in elements like plot and characterization, which a lot of the movie audience these days don't care about, since they're interested in flashy special effects. Ultimatly, though flashy special effects just become dated, making the weakness in the story more obvious (once you remove the "bullet time" elements from The Matrix -- which has become a cliche now -- the movie is very dull and cliched)

I will say that there are very few examples of films panned by all critics, and those that are panned by an overwheming majority or critics are nearly always as bad as the critics say. When you have so many critics saying the film is bad, then those that like it are the ones who are likely to be wrong.

*A reviewer assumes you haven't seen a film and want to know whether to see it; a critic assumes you have seen the film and want to discuss its strengths and weaknesses. Most newspaper film "critics" are generally reviewers, except for occasional special articles.

I hate yard work

I hate doing yard work.

I've just spent nearly an hour mowing my lawn and laying down compost. I would much rather have spent that time reading or exercising.

Now I have to lay down some pre-emergent herbicide. Then I have to spray some more standard herbicide to kill all the dandelions and ground ivy around my place. Then I have to tend to the compost pile again.

Oh, and I planted some lilies in these oversized pots. I sure hope they turn out well.

I wish I didn't have so much lawn to take care of, and that the previous owner had taken better care of this place. I also wish that my neighbors would take care of their weeds, so as to prevent them from infecting my own lawn. I view this place as an investment, and I'd really like to take care of it.

I need to plant a couple of fruit trees in a couple of weeks. Boy. Ugh.

The first season of the SuperFriends

I'm posting this article with permission from the original author:



I'm surely in the minority here, but... I kinda liked the "Wendy, Marvin, Wonderdog" era. Sure, the stories were fairly juvenile, but no more so than the Wonder Twin episodes. In fact, there are several things that I liked about the original series. For example:

Characterization. Wendy and Marvin had distinctive personalities that were not entirely comical. Wendy was acerbic, bright and full of initiative. Marvin was not as bright, but often was insightful nonetheless. He had a typical teenaged ego problem, and entertained fantasies of being a full-fledged superhero. The Wonder Twins, on the other hand, were nothing if not comical. Zan was a one-note character -- an egotistic, bumbling boob. Jayna, on the other hand, had no character to speak of, and was blander than tap water. As for Gleek... ugh. Don't even get me started on monkeyshining, banana-craving, consistently-played-up-for-sight-gags-and-forced-laughter Gleek.

Even the villains were portrayed in a manner atypical for Saturday morning cartoons. They weren't your typical power-crazed baddies who were hungry for revenge or out to conquer the world. Rather, they had more substantial reasons for the crimes they committed -- misguided reasons,
of course, but certainly better than the standard "Must kill/steal/conquer because I'm evil" that characterized many of the later SuperFriends episodes.

Not having any powers, the Junior SuperFriends actually had to use initiative and their wits to solve the crises. This was quiet different from the Wonder Twins' approach, which was to simply use their powers -- ineffectively, at that.

We got to see more of the SuperFriends than just their powers. We saw Marvin relate the story of Superman's origin, and his early years on Earth. Wonder Woman was shown to have brains and scientific savvy, instead of merely being the resident lasso-bearer. Aquaman was more than just a man who talked to fish; instead, he was often shown to be an expert on ocean geography and marine life, and on some occasions, was depicted as having superhuman strength, in keeping with his comic book portrayal. Batman used his analytical skills as often as he used his bat-gizmos. And Robin... Robin got to reminisce about his aborted circus career, and was shown to be a vital member of the team -- not just some kid who took orders from the man in black.

Okay, so the show was hokey. Okay, so it was flawed. Still, I think there's a lot to appreciate about it, when contrasted with
the years of predictable, one-dimensional SuperFriends stories that came in its wake.

Freezing blood cells

Using peripheral blood mononuclear cells in an experiment can present a bit of a challenge. Ideally, one should use fresh blood cells; however, it's not always possible to extract this blood as needed, and it certainly won't stay fresh forever. Not to mention that using samples that were taken from different blood draws creates obvious problems, even when they are taken from the same donor.

Cryopreservation is the key. The challenge is to freeze the cells in a way that yields high recovery rates, i.e., where you don't lose too many cells. In addition, one needs to guarantee that the cells remain productive.

Specialized PBMC cryopreservation techniques are available to suit these purposes. They require the use of serum-free cell culture media, among other things, to achieve the required post-thaw productivity and viability.

"Enchanted" is enchanting

Gotta rave about Disney's Enchanted. This is one of the few live-action Disney movies in recent years that I really enjoyed. It would have made a pretty darned good date movie, too. The only other Disney live-action flick in the past 20 years that I enjoyed as much was George of the Jungle.

Amy Adams was wonderful, of course. Totally enchanting and a real discovery. Here's hoping that she does a lot more with the creative Disney wizards.

Oh, and I did not recognize Paige O'Hara at all. She looks completely different. What the heck...?

Anyway, I loved the music, I loved the storyline, I loved the characters, and of course, I loved the Disney homages. These folks were darned amazing.

Travelling on the cheap

When I travel on business, I like to do so for cheap. For example, instead of taking a taxi to my hotel, I prefer to take a shuttle if at all possible. It's much cheaper that way, and I don't want to create unnecessary expenses for my employer. I also take cheap flights, even if this means getting up at ungodly hours of the morning.

To be sure, this is less comfortable than picky a cushy flight or a taxi cab. Still, I just can't justify spending an extra $200 or so without any really good reason.

That's not to say that I won't ever spend the extra money. Recently, for example, I picked a decent hotel over one that had a reputation for being a bit of a rat trap. Why? Quite simply, it was a question of safety.

I hope that my employer appreciates how I'm trying to save them some money.

Death to dandelions!

Owning residential land is such a hassle.

Now that I own a home, I'm forced to pay attention to the upkeep of the lawn. This includes annihilating the dandelions and other weeds whenever possible. Why? To preserve its resale value.

Sure, I don't plan to resell this place for many years. Nevertheless, unless you stay on top of these weeds, keeping them under control, they will continue to spread. I've seen the lawns of some of my neighbors, and they are practically swimming in yellow petals. Not good.

In fact, I wish they'd take better care of their lawns. After all, their weeds will eventually wind up infecting my property.

Oh, and I wish that the corn gluten I ordered would finally arrive. I ordered that stuff two weeks ago. Where is it??? It makes for a darned good organic (non-toxic!) pre-emergent herbicide, and I want it here NOW!

Watching "Bones"

I'm watching "Bones" on TV right now. Thank God for DVRs!

These guys are really inspiring. I wish I could do this kind of work. I know that I have an aptitude for it, but that's not the direction that my life took.

Emily Deschanel does a terrific job of playing a cool and sharp scientist, one whose beauty does not compromise her credibility. David Boreanaz shows more acting chops here than in his previous roles. The rest of the cast is also impeccable and stellar. Even the new addition of Dr. Sweets (what is that actor's name again) simply makes sense.

If only DeForrest Kelley were still around to make a guest appearance.

Plate reader applications

I decided to come up with a list of applications that the UV instrument listed here can be used for. It's actually a combo plate reader that uses a variety of filters and light sources such that it can be used for both visible light and fluorescent assay applications.

The applications that I came up with are as follows: ELISPOT assays, FluoroSpot assays, microbial load testing, sterility testing, bioburden testing, stem cell assays, viral plaque counting, clonogenic assays, cell counting (fluoroscent and visible light), apoptosis tests, cell viability tests, cytotoxicity tests, virus neutralization assays, genotoxic assays, and SBA assays.

Dealing with the Colombian embassy

Over the past two days, I've been trying desperately to get some information on travel requirements for entering Colombia on business. Do I need a visa, for example? What effect does my citizenship have? And so forth. Their various websites have been extremely unhelpful in this regard, and the main telephone line at their closest location greeted me with a long and unhelpful automated message.

I finally got ahold of someone this morning. The person who answered the telephone could barely speak English. Perhaps there was some reason for this, so I won't judge the situation too harshly; however, it seems to me that if you're managing a consulate within the USA, you'd want to employ people who can speak English pretty well. (Again, I recognize that I don't know the whole story here.)

She referred me to another person who had to ask around to get the information I needed. At one point, she referred me to the consulate's website -- but she had to ask her co-workers what the website URL was. Again, I thought that was a bit strange. (Unless she's a brand new employee, I find it hard to understand how someone would fail to know what their website address was.)

Investing during a recession

When a recession hits, a lot of people panic. They cash in their stock investments, afraid to play the market. I think that such fear is understandable, but counter-productive in the long run.

Here's what people should do. They should invest in defensive stocks. This means stock in companies that provide food, medicine, oil, gas, toothpaste, detergent, and the like. You know, the sorts of things that people don't do without, even when times are tough.

Of course, one should still pick one's company carefully. Some oil companies will do better than others, for example, and some food companies could conceivably go bankrupt. Still, the goal should be to invest in companies that can be expected to provide hearty, reliable returns on one's investment.

It's Free Comic Book Day on Saturday!

You heard it here, folks. This is no hoax, no urban legend.

On Saturday, May 3, comic books across the USA will be giving out special freebie comic books. This is all an attempt to drum up business and show people that comic books aren't just juvenile literature.

And they aren't. A lot of them are written at a very mature and sophisticated level. To be sure, some of them are skill kinda dumb (a lot of the fanwankish Marvel stuff as of late, for example), but some of them are pretty darned good indeed.

Oh, and while we're on that topic, go ahead and pick up a copy of this week's "DC Universe #0." It only costs fifty cents, and it's well worth more than that.

An article recommendation

I just wanted to recommend this article on stock market investing. The article talks about how the best time to buy stocks for much less than they're worth is when the economy is down. Just to drive the point home, the author likens it to the way airfare was undervalued in the wake of 9/11. What's more, the flights were actually safer at that time. (As an aside, he could have mentioned that the flights would also have been extremely roomy -- but I guess that's not really an essential point to make.)

The economy is suffering right now, but that's actually a good thing if you're playing the stock market. It's a good time to make a potential killing later down the road.

Why I discontinued using my landscaper's services

Several things made me decide to discontinue his services.

Money was a bit tight, so I asked him to mow my lawn on a biweekly basis rather than weekly. He either forgot those instructions or conveniently ignored them though, since I saw him mowing my lawn on the second week after I hired him. (I decided to pay him for that anyway, but reiterated that I wanted biweekly mowings.)

When I received my second bill, he had crossed out the name of his company and asked me to make the check out to his name. In other words, it looked like he was trying to avoid paying taxes on this service. Mind you, I don't mind having an informal gentleman's agreement, but I wasn't thrilled that he did this without consulting me first.

Finally, after a few weeks, his bills were marked "Due immediately" instead of "Due in 15 days." Again, this sudden change did not sit well with me. Don't get me wrong; I could afford the money. I wasn't thrilled that he decided to spring this on his customers without advance notice, though.

Now, I know what you're thinking. It sounds like money was getting a bit tight for this fella. If that was the case, and if he had simply explained the situation, I would have been happy to help him out. Instead though, he tried to slip these changes past his customers, and that did not sit well with me.

Movie princesses in "Enchanted"

Judy Kuhn and Paige O’Hara both had brief roles in Disney’s neo-classic movie, Enchanted. You may remember them from the exquisite vocals that they provided for Pocahontas and Belle, respectively. Disney's Ariel, Jodi Benson, had a longer and more significant role, possibly due to her closer association with the mighty mouse factory. These were all in-jokes (Easter eggs?) that they producers provided for astute viewers to pick up. Her character, the eponymous lead, was a princess of sorts, so I guess that’s kinda appropriate.

It would have been great if they could have gotten Lea Salonga, Linda Larkin, or Susan Egan to appear as well. Still, this was a real treat.

Remembering "Herman's Head"

Herman's Head was, without a doubt, one of the quirkiest and most original sitcoms of the 1990s. Too bad it wasn't one of the funniest as well.

The premise was certainly offbeat. The show centered on its protagonist, Herman, and the voices in his head (so to speak). That is, it allowed the audience to glimpse the thought processes within Herman's cranium, as represented by four different aspects: intellect, fear, love, and lust. These four aspects were depicted by four different characters with suitable nicknames: Genius, Wimp, Angel, and Pig.

There were definitely times when I would bust a gut laughing. On the whole though, it just wasn't that funny.

Dang it! Windows Vista should rot in heck!

Okay, that does it. I am sick and tired of Windows Vista. Windows in general sucks quite a bit, but Windows Vista in particular stinks. It's a horrible piece of bloatware, and whoever conceived it must have been pretty clueless. This has all the earmarks of some corporate bigwig saying "Hey, here are a whole bunch of nifty features that'd be nice to have. Let's use them!" without much regard for performance.

I'm oversimplifying a little, I'll admit. For example, the Windows Aero interface prudently foists a lot of graphics processing off onto the graphics card, as it should. Some of the UI annoyances have been improved as well. There's just way too much bloatware though, and I can't stand using a resource hog.

I dread booting my computer nowadays. The wait is agonizing. It especially stinks that Internet Explorer remains unresponsive for a minute or two after it starts. I can type a URL into its address bar, but because Vista takes forever to connect to a network, IE simply returns an error message instead of doing as it's told. Blast it.

Get rid of Vista. It's a piece of junk.