Jury nullification, part six

And the chess game continues.

Some contend that objections to jury nullification are predicated on a "slippery slope" argument, thus making them invalid. I had to think about my hypothetical resposne to that, but KoS offered an excellent rebuttal.

[N]ine times out of ten, slippery slope is a really stupid argument, and you're right to be leery of it. But the actuality, not the possibility, of jury nullification is what makes headlines, and it's rare and even then the meaning (compared to what I'll call genuine civil disobedience) is often a mystery: did the jury violate its oath because the law is unjust, or because the defendent was very like them, or because too much information was withheld, or because they were stupid, or because they were tricked, or because they wish to protest some other law, or all laws, or, just maybe, did the facts and law actually support the verdict? Let's think about this last possibility: the whole point of jury nullification is thwarted if most people assume the panel is stupid or corrupt. That alone should make you pause, shouldn't it? If they assume that it is, what's the breakdown on how many will assume that a dozen stupid and corrupt people are screwing up a trial for a noble and worthwhile purpose? You may as well try to convince them that you would have given the purse you were caught stealing to the United Way if you hadn't been caught. That in a nutshell is why civil disobedience belongs to the public at large, willing to break the law and go to prison, because only personal sacrifice stirs the conscience. Renegade jurors with uncertain motives aren't rebels, they're just (word not appropriate for Great Debates)s. And their example leads people to distrust jurors, not legislators.

So I still say that jury nullification not only blunts the impact of genuine civil disobedience, it undermines institutions that make any dissent possible.

Jury nullification, part five

I thought I'd be done quoting this guy, but I was wrong. He's very articulate in what he says and very precise in the way he argues.

The power and the glory of the jury system is not license to ignore the facts and the law, it's the power and responsibility to see that both the state and defendants adhere to them as well. Rejecting unjust laws is an important responsibility, but it belongs to all of us, and it has to be done correctly: it's not a job within the scope of a jury, and the jury can't attempt it without rejecting everything they are supposed to accomplish. If nullification were to become widespread, we'd have a race to see which, anarchy or tyranny or bloodletting, we'd get to first.

It's not a matter of letting the perfect be the enemy of the good. It's about accepting the imperfect to avoid the horrible extremes. If you feel a law is unjust, go protest it. Hell, go break it. And tell everybody you're willing to accept the consequences because your cause is right, and watch a movement grow. But don't destroy the jury system (which usually serves us well even if sometimes the cool people have to go to jail) because you'd rather take loud credit for personally setting one person free than anonymously do your part to preserve the oldest and most important democratic institution there is.

Jury nullification, part four

Okay, I just have to keep quoting this guy. The arguments he makes against jury nullification are excellent.

An act of civil disobedience against an unjust law involves (a) intentionally breaking the unjust law, preferably in such a way as to make it clear that one derives no personal benefit from it; and (b) accepting punishment, so everyone knows that the lawbreakers are not opposed to the idea of civil society bound by rules and governed by Constitutional institutions, but are merely addressing by the strongest nonviolent means the aberration of a single unjust law.

Jury nullification necessarily revolves around individual cases, making personalities rather than law the issue, and it is always an act aimed not against any unjust law but against the judiciary itself, attacking and undermining the whole idea of jury trials, proving that individual citizens can't be trusted to dispassionately evaluate facts and law in judgment of their peers. Jury nullification can't prove that a law is bad, it can only prove that trial by jury is bad -- because if you can't trust people to understand facts and abide by the law, the rest is just politics and prejudice.

Jury nullification can save individual defendants (usually, I think, to society's detriment), but it can't kill any law or institution except for trial by jury itself. Trial by jury has been the cornerstone of freedom for almost a thousand years. It should not be jeopardized because a really nice guy decided getting high was more important than the stupid drug laws.

Malthus has posited a hypothetical in which an unpopular, archaic and rarely-enforced law is used by a corrupt government to target an otherwise blameless individual. S/he (probably he, I guess, huh?) agrees that such a hypothetical has nothing to do with the case we're discussing (which is refreshing), but suggests that it is an appropriate situation for jury nullification.

I don't know (I'll pause while archivists bookmark those three words). But I still lean toward the idea that a society which permits trial by jury is better for it, and that the only way to maintain the system is for juries to be honest and uphold their end of the bargain to hear the evidence and apply the law to the case before them. Any other course would only hasten such a corrupt society's slide down the slope toward authoritarianism.

Here is still more wisdom from King of Soup.

A fella named Diogenes (who habitually overrates his own knowledge and intellect, FTR), argued that jury nullification would be helpful in fighting anti-miscegenation laws, for example. To this, King of Soup replied,

Okay, let's imagine a world in which your point of view is the only thing that can prevent the death of a morally blameless black man under an inherently discriminatory law rooted in wrong and racist thinking. Can we also make him a virtuoso violinist and Nobel Prize-winning neurosurgeon who recently saved the governor's niece from an erupting volcano? And can we imagine that instead of being merely killed, he and his whole family and Santa Claus and a bunny rabbit are tortured to death on Christmas Eve? Now we're winning, right?

Wrong. Sorry. You are describing an unjust law and prescribing a "remedy" that destroys the only force around capable of successfully opposing unjust legislation without violence, without ever specifically addressing the law you hate. Your attempt at nullification might be defended as a single isolated humanitarian gesture, but as civil disobedience, it's bunk. It's probably worth remembering (it wasn't that long ago) that legal expressions of racism in the U.S. were mostly fought with the kind of civil disobedience that respected the judiciary and its authority and the constraints under which it works, even as it deplored and disobeyed the laws that branch is expected to enforce. This wasn't collaboration, it was equal parts courage and wisdom: the courts (eventually) led the fight against institutionalized racism, and they could never have done so had well-meaning protestors undermined their authority before the country. Essentially, your artificial (and grossly unrealistic: miscegenation laws were rarely enforced and were never punishable by death) scenario is about the same as constructing hypothetical circumstances under which each single soldier's life might be saved during the course of a war: the hypothesis collapses when subjected to a tiny fraction of the weight of reality, and does nothing to either win or lose or end the war.

Even in a society with some unjust laws, most laws work to protect the orderly functioning of a civil society. People who will never set foot in a courtroom have reason to be grateful for the branch of government created as a brake on executive and legislative authority, and would be wise to direct their protests against certain curtailments of their liberty at the offensive laws themselves, rather than at the institutions guaranteeing their right to do so.

Now it's my turn. Let's say a well-known and respected, white, outright owner of a quarter-million-dollar property who knows all the right people is on trial for an offense that is a slam-dunk conviction with prison time for thousands every year, but he has every reason to expect an acquittal because everybody knows he is just not one of those people whom everybody knows the law was designed to punish. When not dressed up on Halloween as a knight tilting at racism and the obstuction of true love, when nullification is merely another word for "enforce this law against someone else, please, we're middle-class," and when it is crystal clear that nobody is interested in bucking the system, just gaming it, in short, when the scenario resembles reality, is "saving this guy right now" nearly as attractive a choice?

Great answer. I like it.

More on jury nullification

Here is more wisdom from King of Soup regarding the folly of jury nullification. I like the way this guy thinks.

Jury nullification may be a form of civil disobedience. But I think it's almost always the wrong one.

Consider: the purpose of civil disobedience is to remove in the public mind the justification for a law by showing that ordinary decent people will violate it, not for personal gain or satisfaction, but simply because it is an unjust law. As WhyNot pointed out, the only moral force it has comes from the willing acceptance of punishment for the transgression -- a reassurance that they believe in the rule of law, and a testament to the seriousness of their intent. It's about forcing abuse of authority into the open by making it apply, publicly, to "people like us," no matter which "us" is yours.

Jury nullification, on the other hand, is an expression of contempt not for any unjust law, but for the rule of law itself. The only thing broken is the faith that a jury can be trusted to find, without fear nor favor, according to the facts and the letter of the law. However much one deplores a particular law or loves a particular defendant or hates the way a prosecutor wears her hair, this faith is not the part of the system that needs to be undermined. In fact, it's the part that needs to be preserved, at all costs, if you care about a free society.

Here's a guy who broke the law in furtherance of his own personal satisfaction, if not profit. Jury nullification in his case would not be a repudiation of the law, just of the idea that we're all equal under it, and it would decrease the chances that the law will ever be changed. The pleading on his behalf is hypocritical and shameful.

Arguing against jury nullification

Jury nullification is the process in which the jury in a criminal case effectively nullifies a law by acquitting a defendant regardless of the weight of evidence against him or her. It's what jurors sometimes do when they disagree with a law. For example, if they disagree with anti-drug laws, they may decide to acquit a defendant who's charge with possession of cocaine, even when the evidence is overwhelmingly against that person.

Some people applaud this as a way to stand up for what they consider to be right. Personally, I think it's misguided.

For one thing, jurors often don't have the background or training necessary to understand why certain laws are in place. Now, I'm not saying that there are no dumb laws out there. There certainly are. However, it's all to easy for a juror to dismiss a law as being dumb without understanding its rationale.

Additionally, I'm also concerned that jurors will effectively nullify a law, not because it's unjust, but because of emotional appeals or self-interest. Again, consider the anti-drug laws. One could "protest" these laws through jury nullification out of some principled argument. However, I'd wager that such protests typically occur due to sheer distaste toward the laws rather than out of principled objections.

Finally, is this really an effective way to protest? I think not; quite the contrary; it undermines the entire legal system. I like the way a fella by the name of "King of Soup" put it on one discussion board. In a thread on a marijuana possession case, he said,

Actually, I was thinking of this case as an almost perfect argument against jury nullification, especially if you think the law is unjust. People will not act to change unwise or unjust laws that are enforced only or mostly against others whom they don't know. Letting all the "right kind" of people off the hook doesn't make for a just outcome, it makes everything worse, because now you're applying the same bad law selectively, piling discrimination on top of everything else.

I'll say more about that later.

Dwelling on the positive

I was going to post something about how my jerkish cousins used to torment my brother and me when we were kids... and how the adults in our extended family pretty much stood by and did nothing. I also wanted to talk about how some of the adults would poke fun at us, make up stories, and otherwise act in an inconsiderate manner.

Yeah, I don't consider my childhood to be particularly happy.

I decided against discussing this at length, though. I want to dwell on the positive right now and avoid thinking too much about past hurts.

BTW, please don't get me wrong. I realize that in many ways, I was fortunate as a child. My family was intact, for one thing, and we weren't living in abject poverty. I do have a lot of unpleasant memories though, and there's a lot of hurt bubbling underneath. I'm just choosing not to dwell on such matters right now. I think that's just prudent.

Tony Orlando and Dawn

I picked up a deeply discounted DVD set of old "Tony Orlando and Dawn" variety show episodes at Best Buy. I had faint memories of the early episodes from my childhood, and so I decided to check it out.

Boy, those people are talented! They had a lot more hits than I realized, and they were darned good all-around performers. Okay, dancing wasn't part of their retinue, but they were excellent vocalists and they were great at hosting a show. They also had real comedic chops, and Tony was great at interacting with the audience.

Yeah, that was quality stuff.

Birds of Prey

I decided to borrow the Birds of Prey DVD series from Netflix. I heard that a lot of geeks liked it, so I decided to see what the buzz was all about.

I've only caught the pilot so far, plus a bit of the next episode. So far, I don't see what the big deal is. Don't get me wrong; it's okay, and the concept is certainly interesting. It just doesn't grab me, though.

Yeah, yeah. I know. I know that I need to give it more time.

Perhaps part of my problems is that two of the main characters have these superpowers. I think it kinda violates the original Birds of Prey comic book concept, and in my judgment, it makes the whole premise less interesting. That's just my view, though.

I'm feeling very irritable lately

I hate this. I feel like I've really been on edge as of late. Little things that shouldn't annoy me too much have been making me grit my teeth and (privately) yell out in irritation.

I've got way too much stress in my life. Too many urgent projects, too many annoying people, too little chance for diversion. Even some of the diversions that I am pursuing, such as some dance lessons, have a way of adding to the stress in their own way. Ugh.

I have got to unlax a little bit. Gotta kick back. I think I'll try to do that this weekend.

Blogger responds so slowly

Darn it. Blogger has been really sluggish today. I've had problems with its sluggishness in times past, but it appears to be particularly bad right now.

I clicked on the "new post" button, and what happened? Nothing. At least, not for about 20 seconds or so. I found myself clicking and clicking, over and over. It was darned irritating.

To make matters worse, my post was junked. Blogger gave me some bogus message about how more that one browser was editing the post. This was a serious bug, obviously. Darn it.

By itself, this shouldn't be a huge aggravation. I have a lot of stress in my life right now though, so it's darned annoying.

Have to rant against Windows yet again

Okay, I know that I've talked about this repeated, but... I HATE MICROSOFT WINDOWS!!!! I especially hate Vista.

It is SO infuriating to start Windows up and have to wait a minute or so before you can start up Outlook or some other vital program. This isn't just a matter of having an older computer, mind you. The problem exists even on newer models.

And heck, even when you do start a program up, you might see it freezing repeatedly before it can do anything useful. I hate having to start Outlook, starting to compose a message, and then finding that the software keeps freezing while you're in the middle of typing a word.

And why does this happen? Because Windows is bloatware. It contains so much gee-whiz fluff that vital performance is slowed down dramatically. And why? Because Windows designers put way too much performance on kewlness, that's why.

Darn it.

My right ankle hurts

My right ankle hurts a little today. I sprained it many years ago, back in my high school days. Ever since then, I've never had complete flexibility in this joint.

I think this also makes it difficult for me to maintain my balance during stretching exercise and certain kickboxing moves. I wish things were different, as I'd really like to get better at this sort of thing. Darn it.

So what's the deal? Did the ligaments somehow grow too bulky?

More on electrical work

I have some more electrical work that needs to get done around the house. In particular, I need to get some additional electrical outlets installed in my three second-floor bedrooms. Unfortunately, this friend of mine says that this will take about five to six days to complete.

Ouch. I really don't like the idea of having to pay for that kind of labor. I wish that the previous owner had done a better job of maintaining the place. He was a realtor, for pity's sake, yet he displayed an appalling lack of foresight when it came to basic home maintenance. For pity's sake, he didn't even bother to get gutters installed on the garage, even though this would not have cost much. Nor did he get a cap installed on the chimney. Both of these were low-cost projects that could have vastly improved the property.

No foresight whatsoever.

What a bizarre interpretation

I swear that some people have abominable reading comprehension skills.

On one discussion board, I complained about people posting their disguised e-mail addresses on singles sites. They do this in an attempt to circumvent the system by avoiding having to pay a membership fee. I felt that this was wrong, and I said so.

One guy responded by saying, "Are you suggesting that we should all post our e-mail addresses publicly for all the world to see? That's not safe!" How in the world did he arrive at that bizarre interpretation?

That's the problem with people who post without exercising some basic reading comprehension skills. I hate to condescend, but really... it's appalling.

Electrical work

I just got an electrician friend of mine to take a look at the electrical wiring in my basement. The previous owner did a lot of "do-it-yourself" work, and he did a sloppy job. That's what happens when you have homeowners who decide to save a few bucks by doing things themselves. It's fine when they know what they're doing, but some of them simply don't.

This friend of mine is cutting me a deal, doing the work for me at an affordable price. In return, I'm giving him some tax-free income. Believe me, I'm thankful.

Hating Microsoft Windows

Have I talked about how badly designed Microsoft Windows is lately?

It stinks. It has all the earmarks of an OS wherein the designers decided to introduce all sorts of kewl features with insufficient regard for how these would impact performance. After all, why bother? What really matters is that the software should be kewl, right?

Consider this. It is common for Windows Explorer to freeze up for several seconds -- or even a minute or two -- when you open it up. Why? Apparently because it feels that it must navigate through its directory structure and see what's there. Why? Just open up whichever folder the user wants to see and ignore the rest, darnit! Don't look them up unless it's necessary!

Ah, but maybe some user would like to see a preview of whatever photos exist somewhere in the directory tree. Fine. That's a legitimate concern... but darnit, don't bother digesting and thumbnailing the photos unless it's necessary! In other words, wait until he actually chooses to look at the folder. That's just common sense.

Hercules

I've been watching DVDS of the old Hercules: The Legendary Journeys show. Boy that show was clever. Xena, Warrior Princess was also very good, and it had better acting; however, I think that Hercules was just more enjoyable.

I love the humor and the plot twists. The stories sometimes strained one's suspension of disbelief, but it was generally just good fun.

I passed on that opportunity

Five years ago, a guy named Jas tried to recruit me to his company. He knew that I needed a job, and he wanted to farm me out to this semiconductor automation company for a certain project. He assured me that they would find additional projects for me afterwards, but didn't provide any specifics.

When I asked him about the company's finances, he said, "Under my leadership, we always turn a profit." However, he offered me a salary that was about half of the going rate, which made me doubt that he was telling the truth. As a former supervisor said when I related this story, the figure he gave was an insult. Even during the economic slowdown, it was still a pathetically low figure. He sure sounded like he was lying, and not for the first time.

The worst part? He even asked me to lie to this other company about my employment status. I was on H-1B status, and it would have taken a few days to file the work authorizatio for me to work for his company. Without any hesitation though, he told me to tell this other company that I was already working for him. He was a very dishonest man, and he obviously expected that I would approve.

I don't regret turning his job offer down. It's a safe bet that when the project was over, I would have been out of work. He obviously wanted to hire me just so that he could land this project, and once it was over, I would have been out on the street. Oh, he told me that there'd be work for me afterwards, but why should I have trusted him to be honest with me? After all, he had no compunctions about telling me to lie on his behalf.

After I turned him down, he mentioned that he had another person to take my place. I know that he was still lying though, since I saw that he had reposted his job advertisement on the web. Jas, you were a liar.

War. Huh.

What is it good for?


An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile hoping it will eat him last.
-- Winston Churchill

“You may gain temporary appeasement by a policy of concession to violence, but you do not gain lasting peace that way.”
-- Anthony Eden

Want to trim down

I would like to do heavy cardio work for an hour every day. I'd like to do whatever it takes to shed eight pounds over the next month. Unfortunately, that's not a very realistic goal if I also want to focus on getting work done.

And frankly, the last few pounds are the hardest. It's a cliche, but it's still true.

Smoker's often have an easier time, but I'm not going to do that. Nor do I want to neglect my work for the sake of putting in more gym time.

I wish that I didn't have to work on my yard and my driveway. That just makes it all the more difficult. Sadly, that doesn't amount to a lot of cardio work.

What if you're overqualified?

The following has been excerpted from an article titled Fighting the Overqualified Label by Randal S Hansen, Ph.D.:

As you develop your strategy, here are 10 specific tactics to consider:

1. Let your network speak for you. Nothing you could say about yourself is stronger than a recommendation from someone who knows you and can recommend you. The ideal scenario is for you to use your network to find someone within the organization and let that person make the first pitch for you.
   
2. Focus more on skills and accomplishments than job titles. Use the employerʼs own words -- from the job description -- to show how your skills match perfectly while at the same time downplaying skills not required for this job.
   
3. Take salary off the table. Make it clear from the beginning that you are completely flexible about salary -- and that your previous salary is of no relevance to your current job-search.
   
4. Reveal financial advantages of hiring you. If you suspect salary will be a concern, use specific examples from your past experiences to show how you increased revenue generation and/or cut costs/realized increased savings.
   
5. Emphasize teamwork and personality. Demonstrate that you are a team player -- that the success of the team is more important than any of the individual team members.
   
6. Showcase current or cutting-edge knowledge. Discuss recent training or skill-building that shows that you adaptable and up-to-date -- not stuck in the ways of old.
   
7. Demonstrate loyalty. One method to attempt to overcome the fear that you will leave as soon as a better offers comes along is to point to your longevity with previous employers.
   
8. Do what it takes to get the interview. Be prepared to deal with the overqualified issue when you call to follow-up your application -- and sell the hiring manager on at least giving you a "meeting" if not an interview so that you can make your case in person.
   
9. Everything in moderation. You should illustrate how you are the perfect candidate for the position without overwhelming the hiring manager with your experience -- or your ego. Avoid intimidating a younger hiring manager.
   
10. Express interest, admiration, and enthusiasm. Nothing wins over a hiring manager more than a positive attitude and a passion for the job -- and the employer.
    

Copyrights

A lot of people still think that creative works are only copyrighted when the author files some sort of application. That's a common misconception.

Under the Berne convention, any creative work is automatically copyrighted. In other words, this protection is granted even when the author or artist does not explicitly assert or declare any copyright claim.

Hence, if you were to copy someone's work verbatim, then you would almost certainly be guilty of copyright infringement. If you modify the wording though, then you might not be, depending on the nature of the original work and the nature and extent of the modifications. (Naturally, the less trivial or obvious the original work is, the more extensive the modifications would have to be.) There is also a "fair use" exception, but that can only be used in limited situations.

Unfortunately, there is no formula to determine when a modified work is too close to the original; after all, how would one derive such a formula? In all matters of intellectual property rights (copyright, trademark, and patent infringement), multiple criteria and a measure of subjectivity are involved.

Feeling down

I'm feeling very down this morning. Don't ask me to explain why. I just do.

I woke up at some obscene hour in the morning -- maybe 3:30 am or so. I just could not get back to sleep, perhaps because of feeling down. I tried all sorts of things. I ate a cereal bar, I took a bit of melatonin and a piece of an antihistamine tablet. Only eventually did this help me get back to sleep. (I didn't dare take the entire antihistamine tablet, since I know that sometimes makes me too groggy to wake up.)

I don't want to rely on these pills to help me sleep, since they can disrupt normal sleep patterns. I might have to use them for a while, though.

I think this has something to do with feeling down. That and the fact that my sleep was disrupted during my recent business trip, in which I had to stay awake in an airport for an entire day. Some guys sleep in the airport, but I just can't, and I don't think it's a wise thing to do anyway.

Reading and exercise

I used to try to get a lot of reading done on the elliptical trainers in the gym. The idea is that I wanted to feed my mind, but I also wanted to trim down and get some exercise in. Unfortunately, it's hard to read one those things, especially when reading technical matters. It's also hard to concentrate on getting an intense workout when you're reading.

More recently, I've been watching some high-intensity cardio DVDs and participating in some bootcamp classes. You can't really read while doing those things; however, they do provide more intense workouts.

Argh. If only I could do both. I want to be an information sponge, but I also don't want to become a couch potato.

Urban legends show

I'm watching this urban legends show on the Discovery Channel. I have a love/hate relationship with this show.

On the one hand, it's somewhat educational. On the other hand, there's way too much fluff in the show -- all sorts of pointless ruminations and overly drawn out dramatizations. I can learn stuff from it, but I don't think it's very good use of my time.

Speaking of making good use of my time, I'll talk more about that soon.

Frustrating relatives

Some of my relatives can be quite frustrating when it comes to little things.

For example, some of would insist on referring to carbon dioxide as "carbon." It's enough to make a chemist cry.

When playing chess, they would refer to the knight as "the horse." They'd refer to the rook as the "tower."

Oh, and playing cards with them made me cringe. Remember the old familiar suit of clubs? They'd refer to the clubs as "clovers."

Good freaking grief.

Stuck in an airport

I'm stuck in an airport waiting for my flight. I was the victim of a flight cancellation, which meant that American Airlines was forced to arrange for a new itinerary for me. Rats.

On other other hand... Mad props to AA for sending me a voicemail message, notifying me of this problem! That was a surprise. Not a pleasant one, but I have to give them kudos for alerting me to this problem in a timely fashion.

In the meantime, I've got to kill time and attempt to be productive. Easier said than done, though. I'm sleep-deprived, and I can't really nap in the airport. Also, a lot of the stuff that I'd need to be truly productive are at home and in my office. Rats.

Man, I could use some sleep. Hopefully, I can get some shuteye on the plane.

On the road again

I'm travelling again. Sitting in an airport right now... an airport that could stand to use a few more electrical outlets. Or more accurately, there are plenty of floor outlets, but most of them ahve been covered and screwed down. Not exactly conductive to travelling warriors.

I am thankful, however, that the initial leg of my flight was peaceful and quiet. It's always a relief when the people on the same flight are considerate and well-behaved. What a pleasure. I was able to get some sleep on my flight, but I could admittedly use a bit more shuteye.

I'm still struggling with the remains of my cold, though. Ugh. Still feeling slightly congested. I've stopped coughing up bodily organs, but my throat still isn't completely clear.

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!