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.

===========================

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.

More on "The Brave and The Bold"

In my previous posting, I raved about Mark Waid's writing on the first twelve issues of "The Brave and the Bold." Now I want to talk about the artwork.

George Perez did his usual amazing job with the first few issues. If you need someone who can depict a wide array of comic book characters, while simultaneously giving them dynamism and expression, then George is your man. That's why it was so unfortunate when he had to stop doing the interior art.

Having said that, Jerry Ordway was a worthy and logical successor. He's one of the few guys who can even come close to touching Perez's work. Like Perez, he injects realism and dynamis into his art, which is one reason why I loved his old work on "The Power of Shazam" so much.

Great job, gents. Great job.

Just finished the latest "Brave and the Bold"

I just finished reading the latest issue of "The Brave and The Bold," written by Mark Waid. This is wonderful stuff! Waid has done a much better job in twelve issues than was covered in decades of the old Batman-centric B&B series.

Having this story arc center on the Challenges of the Unknown was a brilliant touch. What's more, the final scenes were absolutely touching. Waid has this uncanny ability to ask logical questions, such as "How does June Robbins fit into the Challengers, as the only member who has not miraculously cheated death?" The characterization that he provides is absolutely spot on, and the way he resolves this storyline is positively poetic.

As a testimony to Waid's genius, I never realized that the artifacts which Megistus had been creating all had transformative properties (well, except for the power battery, but that was clearly necessary for other reasons). I also loved how he worked in the likes of Firestorm and Metamorpho, both of whom were transmuters. If he could only have included Element Lad somehow...

Mark Waid, you're amazing.

More on Asians as leading men

Western society -- and the USA in particular -- isn't generally receptive to the notion of an Asian leading man. That's why in those rare instances where an Asian fella is the leading man, he still maintains a distant and chaste relationship with the female lead. (The King and I, anyone?) Asian male actors usually get portrayed as either chaste action heroes (Jackie Chan), nerds (Hiro!), or (more recently, as on 24) shadowy agents of various Asian countries.

Then there's Jet Li in Unleashed. They hint around at him and the female lead (I'm forgetting her name) having feelings for each other, but nothing happens. Jet Li is considered to be one of the more physically attractive of the Asian leading men, but even he is treated like a eunuch. Ditto for Chow Yun Fat. And of course, neither one is regarded as a Hollywood heartthrob of any sort.

Asians as leading men

Some people point to Dean Cain and Keanu Reeves as "proof" that Asian men are in demand as romantic leads. However, these guys are actually Eurasian, and their Caucasian features clearly dominate. In fact, a lot of people are surprised to learn that they do have some Asian blood in them.

Unlike, say, Tia Carrere, whose part-Asian origins are fairly obvious.

Financial planning

I'm looking for a new financial advisor.

Here's the story. I signed up with Ameriprise a while back; however, I became dissatisfied with their responsiveness after my advisor left their company. (I suspect that he was laid off, but I'm not sure.) I think I'd like to find another company to help with my financial planning.

I'll be meeting with two financial advisors at the end of the month, and maybe even a third. Wachovia handles my company Simple IRA, and our contact person there has always been pretty responsive. I like they way they handle my accounts.

As an aside, one of my colleagues found out about some guy named Keith whose credentials she liked. She was trying to pressure me to switch to this fella, as our financial officer only wants to have one person handling all the CTL retirement accounts at each investment firm. I thought this was kinda silly, of course, especially for something as simple as a retirement account. Naturally, I refused. :)

Besides, she had panicked when she found out that her retirement account lost money this year. That was just foolish.

Rancic's Lemonade Stand

I just checked out a cop of Bill Rancic's book, Beyond the Lemonade Stad, from the public library. I was disappointed to find out that it's actually a children's book. Still well-written (at least, based on some cursory skimming), but not quite what I was looking for.

Wish I had read a book like this when I was seven years old. I was much more into science than finance or business, but still... it's the sort of thing that would have helped broaden my horizons.

Do women prefer tall murderers to short, educated professionals?

I found this story from ABC news on the web. Let's just say that I found the results to be disturbing, disappointing, and unsurprising. Here's a quick excerpt.

To see if the women would go for short guys who were successful, ABCNEWS' Lynn Sherr created extraordinary résumés for the shorter men. She told the women that the shorter men included a doctor, a best-selling author, a champion skier, a venture capitalist who'd made millions by the age of 25.

Nothing worked. The women always chose the tall men. Sherr asked whether there'd be anything she could say that would make the shortest of the men, who was 5 feet, irresistible. One of the women replied, "Maybe the only thing you could say is that the other four are murderers." Another backed her up, saying that had the taller men had a criminal record she might have been swayed to choose a shorter man. Another said she'd have considered the shorter men, if the taller men had been described as "child molesters."

Wow. And people say that men are shallow. Wow.

Electronic frustrations

I'm looking for a power adapter that can provide at least 1.5A at 13.5VDC. It should also be capable of running at 240VAC. So far... nothing.

It's darned frustrating. I've spent hours looking and exploring possibilities. Nothing. Nothing. Darn.

I want to find something soon.

A FANUC employee trying to cheat his employer

I remember taken a training class in the KAREL robot programming language at FANUC Robotics. One of the other people in that class was a guy named Greg, who I knew from my grad school days. Even back in grad school, he often rubbed me the wrong way. He was coarse, vulgar, and always kinda rude.

Anyway, the class consisted mostly of visitors to the company who had paid for the class. Greg was one of the few exceptions. He was taking the class as part of his initiation as a new employee.

So anyway, the paying visitors were given free lunches -- or rather, lunch was part of what they had paid for. So what did Greg do? Every day, he would surreptiously remove his employee badge and pass himself off as a visitor.

I didn't like him back in our student days, and I especially didn't like him after that.

Creativity

Look around you, right now, wherever you are. Maybe a schoolroom or a library, maybe at home, maybe somewhere else. Take a good long look. Now as yourself, "How can this room be improved?" Are there one or two changes that you can make right now that would markedly improve the space? Why not make them? New lamps, new colors on the walls? Murals? Opening the windows, changing the seating?

Anything is fair game. There are questions and possibilities every time you turn around. You're biking home, maybe? OK, that uncomfortable little bike-helmet strap under your chin--there as got to be a better way. Figure it out. The bumper stickers on passing cars: could bikes have them too? (Where would they go? What shape would they have?) On a larger scale, how can your city be made more bikeable? (Dedicated bike trails, distinct from roads? Bike hours, when cars aren't allowed? What else?)

- Anthony West, Creativity for Critical Thinkers

Jungle Girl Bindi

So I'm watching an episode of "Bindi the Jungle Girl" on The Learning Channel. This show stars the daughter of the late, lamented Steve Irwin, and it also features his American wife Terri.

I have to commend this little girl for deciding to follow in her father's footsteps, as well as for having the stage presence to host her own show. Cynics might say that this opportunity was simply handed to her. I suppose that if she hadn't been born into the Irwin family, she wouldn't have had this opportunity. I refuse to think in such terms though, especially since it seems to me that Bindi genuinely enjoys this work and handles herself well in front of the camera. No surprise there, since both of her parents were exceptionally well-composed afront the camera as well.

Boy, I miss Steve Irwin.

A dollar store closed down

Today I found out that a dollar store near my place of employment closed down. Now that's kinda sad. I still remember when they opened their doors, as that was only a few months ago. (Two months ago, maybe?)

I feel really bad for these small business owners when things don't work out. All along that strip mall, I saw several stores (typically small restaurants) that were no longer occupied.

That stinks. I know what it's like to face an uncertain future, which is why my heart breaks over these things.

I do remember wondering if that store would manage to stay open. They had a meager amount of merchandise, and I didn't notice a lot of traffic. I really started to wonder when they disconnected the small fridge in which they kept a variety of soda cans and bottles. Hoo-boy.

Not long ago, a friend of mine was asked to compile a list of her job duties. This was on a Friday. On the following Monday, she was dismissed from her position. Yikes.

Job security is a thing of the past.

A geeky limerick

A Unix saleslady, Lenore
Liked her work, but she liked the beach more
She found a good way
To combine work and play
She sells C shells by the seashore

Ambulatory?

Okay, I'm watching an episode of the old Space Ghost cartoon series from the 60s, and I just heard the lead character use the word "ambulatory."

That was a bit of a surprise -- a pleasant one, mind you. Kiddie cartoons from the 60s aren't exactly know for sophistication or logical storytelling. That certainly wasn't true for most of the old Hanna-Barbera productions, many of which were absolutely cringeworthy. (Birdman? The Galaxy Trio? Those were utter dreck.) I'm pleased to see that the writers of this particular episode weren't afraid to use a fancy word this time around.

I just wish that Jan, the female member of his twin sidekick pair, had a bit more personality to her. As far as I can tell, she pretty much followed the lead of her brother Jace. I guess that was typical of the times. I do recall that in the brief 80s revival of this cartoon saga, both Jan and Jace had more personality. Jace was a bit naive and overly headstrong, whereas Jan was more sensible and level-headed. This was doubtlessly in keeping with the 80s trend toward more characterization, not to mention an attempt to avoid old-fashioned depictions of women on TV.

A Wendy's slogan

Saw this on a paper bag from Wendy's Old Fashioned Hamburgers:

"For Wendy's, square isn't so much a shape as a promise to not cut corners."

Clever! Witty! Now that's a clever marketing slogan. (Of course, if you're not familiar with their hamburgers, this slogan won't make any sense.)

How gullible is that?

Sometimes I can't believe how gullible people can be.

For example, there's this guy I know who repeatedly forwards every interesting story that he gets via e-mail. Time and time again, I've pointed out the inconsistencies and implausibilities in these stories as documented on Snopes.com. His reply? "Well, how do I know that Snopes.com is accurate? Anybody can come up with a website."

See the inconsistency there? He says that anybody can write something on a website, and so he dismisses Snopes in that regard. Yet he's perfectly willing to believe whatever he receives via e-mail, even though it's much easier for some malicious or uninformed hack to shoot of an e-mail hoax or other piece of misinformation.

BTW, I've given up on trying to convince people that the daddy longlegs is NOT the most poisonous spider in the world, or that its fangs are incapable of puncturing human skin.

Dang, it's cold.

Baby, it's cold outside.

With the price of gas nowadays though, I don't want to turn the heat up any further. I've already done plenty to control drafts and insulate the home. There's more that I could do, but I've resorted to darned near heroic measures already.

Typing is getting to be kinda tough in this cold. Sheesh. I wish I could build a bonfire in the kitchen, but of course, that would be bad.

Reconnecting

Hey! I tracked down someone that I knew from my grad school days. I found her name on the web -- or more accurately, her new, hyphenated name. That's right; she's married now.

Good for her! I always knew that she was a real treasure. She had a bit of a weight problem, but she was very appealing nonetheless. I'm really thrilled that she found someone.

(Why didn't I pursue her? Because we weren't compatible, that's why. Still, I always knew that she was a quality person.)

Yay! I'm happy for her.

Colds are not cool

Am on the tail end of a nasty cold. I felt like cutting off all the parts that hurt, but scarcely anything would have been left.

I even wound up taking two days off of work. This is atypical of me, as my manly ego normally compels me to show up for work anyway. We're really busy at work though, and I know that I can't risk infecting any of my co-workers.

Just spent a few hours looking for affordable motel accommodations for a business trip. Most of the affordable hotels would have required a few expensive cab rides, which made this search particularly challenging. Ugh.

Now I have yet another big pile of reading material to contend with. Boy. I could really use some sleep. That, and some time to catch up on household chores.

Somebody please give me a sabbatical.

More quotes on creativity

Here is a quote from business writer Elliott Carlisle in his book, Mac:

[I]t's almost impossible to get any real thinking done at work. Not just because of interruptions, but almost more importantly, the whole psychological and physical environment in which managers work tends to discourage contemplation and encourage activity. The higher the level in an organization, the more critical is the role of reflection and the less important that of activity, but so often we've become conditioned on the way up through the organizational ranks. How many bosses would give a word of encouragement to a subordinate if they were to come upon him sitting at his desk, chair tipped back, foot resting on an open drawer, and staring into space with an abstract expression on his face? They'd be far more likely to ask him what the hell he's doing, and if the unfortunate replied, "Thinking," he'd probably be advised to stop thinking and get back to work.

I'd also like to recommend this article on implementing creative though in the workplace.

Finally, I'd like to quote the following from Jack Foster's book, How to Get Ideas:

It is the child in you who is creative, not the adult. The adult in you wears a belt and suspenders and looks both ways before crossing the street. The child in you goes barefoot and plays in the street.

I'm no Lord of the Dance

I've been taking lindy hop dance lessons. I'm not doing too badly, but I'm not great either... and it'll take a while before I develop the confidenced that I need to really do this well. What a bummer.

I really, really wish that I was more of a natural dancer. I also wish that I had a more natural sense of rhythm, and that I could feel the beat of the music accurately. This is very frustrating indeed.

I've got the body strength needed to perform some fancy dance moves, and I've got plenty of stamina. I can engage in energetic moves all night long without tiring. Having said that, I wish I had more style and grace.

Maybe there's some hope. I remember when this one nice nurse gal attended a swing dance for the first time. Toward the end of the night, I asked her to dance, and after a few steps, she asked me if I was an instructor. She also said that I was the best dancer she had met that night, and asked if I could teach her more. Having said that, I do know that I'm not that great. I realize that the really good dancers must not have gotten around to inviting her to dance -- or perhaps they were so caught up amongst themselves that they failed to make her feel welcome. That happens now and then.

Dang, I wish I was better. I'd so love to master balboa, charleston, lindy, and a variety of ballroom styles. And I'll confess... I would appreciate the admiration that comes with being a great dancer. It'd make me more popular with a lot of these social dancers, for example. (Some of them think I'm very good, but I can tell that others think I'm pretty much a big goof.)

Fostering creativity

I've been reading this book, The Manager's Pocket Guide to Creativity. Among other things, this little tome discusses various factors that can hinder creativity in the workplace. Here is one of the factors that he mentioned:

"Supervisors discourage individual contemplation and creative thinking because they are not 'physical activities' (people who do them look like they are goofing off)."

Ain't that the truth! My current employer values and fosters creativity, but not all companies do the same. It's important to engage in contemplation and let ideas percolate; however, based on past experiences, I've learned that this can easily be misconstrued. Some managers just don't like that sort of thing, as it can look too much like goofing off.

My current boss knows better, of course. He knows that I'm his go-to guy for a lot of tasks, thag I work hard, and that I often step in to revitalize projects that have crawled to a standstill. Nevertheless, I also believe that it's important to avoid giving the illusion of mere goofing off, lest anybody misconstrue such behavior.

The H-1B controversy

Time and time again, I hear people complaining about how H-1B work visa applicants are stealing jobs away from hardworking Americans. They say that there are plenty of programmers and engineers who can do the job, so we don't need to be importing all these foreigners.

I think that's a naive view, though. There are plenty of programmers to go around, but there is a lack of good progammers. The problem is probably less severe in engineering, but I'm sure that it's there as well. (Why is this a problem in programming? Because people can easily convince themselves that they know how to program without realizing the need for proper software design and coding elegance. I don't have time to discuss this in great detail, but suffice to say that it's harder to develop that kind of overconfidence when it comes to circuit design or mechanical construction.)

Many also say that H-1B workers drag wage levels down. I think there's some truth to that, but that these claims are also vastly overblown. Moreover, these claims treat jobs and wage levels as though they were part of a zero sum game, which they aren't. No economist would claim that they are.

The stock market and other stuff

Man, I wish the stock market was doing better right now. Some of my investments have taken a hit, and I really wish that they were doing better.

A friend of mine invested a lot of money in a mortgage firm, and that decision proved to be overly risky. Her reasoning seemed to make sense, as it looked like this company would weather the mortgage crisis -- but it looks like that prediction will be wrong. I feel so bad for her.

I also wish that I had invested in my 401(k) account back at my old job in California. I was very much worried about my future there though, and so I held off on that. I knew that if I had to tap into those savings prematurely, I'd be taking a big hit. As it turns out though, I should have probably invested a bit more at the time.

I'd like to get more reading done. To cut a long story short though, I'm getting pressure from someone to get certain marginally productive things done. I'll spare you the details; suffice to say that it's a frustrating situation.

I'm also trying to master lindy. I'm having a hard time with this, though. I was really off my game tonight.

I got to learn more about this illumination system recently. Very slick.

Oh, and I got to meet some really nifty people tonight. That was a pleasure.

So I've got to get up really early in a couple of days. I'm already quite sleep-deprived. How am I supposed to manage this?

I wish I had a laboratory of my own. That'd be really nice. There are so many ideas that I'd like to work on. Oh, and I'd like to teach a bunch of ex-coworkers about creativity. These were the types of people who simply suppressed innovation on the grounds that it's not how they were used to doing things. Sigh.

Comment in a singles profile

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, lack of real Christian faith, and lack of regular church involvement. 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. You may like crawfish, caviar, or sushi, but I don't; likewise, the above are matters of personal preference to me. You've got your personal list of deal-breakers, too, even if you didn't post it. I'm just saving you time and energy if the above descibe you. Also, I'm going to let my subscription lapse, and will only renew it if I get mail; I will be very disappointed if I then spend (God's) money to renew it only to find mail which starts with, "I know I don't meet your requirements, but...." If you aren't the type of guy I'm looking for, please don't write me. There is somebody ELSE out there for you; may God bless you in your continued search for her."

Freedoms that I cherish

Somebody once asked me what I appreciate having as an adult that I didn't have as a child. Various freedoms come to mind.

For example, growing up, our family was not allowed to set our Betamax player. Why? Because our mother was deathly afraid that it would catch fire. Shortly after we first got the VCR, I progammed it to record one of my favorite shows. When my mother found out, she went ballistic! I was thoroughly castigated for my stupidity; after all, did I not realize how dangerous this was? She insisted that we should never set the timer -- indeed, that we should never even leave the VCR plugged in when it was not in use.

Yes, it was pretty absurd.

Now, please don't get me wrong -- I know that she meant well, and that she had the family's welfare in mind. Still, it was a pretty silly thing to be afraid of, and it was a source of frustration for me. Here we had this wonderful piece of technology that was designed to record programs for our convenience, yet we were not allowed to use that feature, lest the house burn down.

Rats.

Likes and dislikes

A few semi-random rantings here.

Stuff I like:

James Herriott Strawberry-banana yogurt Kendra Todd Mark Waid Peter David's humor Peter Falk

Stuff I dislike:

Profanity Crude comments about women Drug abuse Lester, Farley, and Rodney "Sarge" Peter David's political views Richard Dawkins and his attempts at pop philosophy Adam Sandler Adam Carolla Guys who don't treat the women in their life right

Stuff I've read

A few things that I've read recently:

• Parts of Showcase Presents: Batgirl, Volume 1
  
• Type & layout : how typography and design can get your message across, or get in the way by Colin Wheildon
  
• Advertising for Dummies
  
• A stack of articles from various trade publications on electronics and machine design
  
• This boring book on ad campaigns. I can't even remember the title.
  
• Various articles on intellectual property law
  

I also read this first-hand account regarding scammer E. Sharvit, who attempted to use his moving company to bilk a bunch of people. His name comes up in several online news accounts, all pertaining to his multiple cases of fraud. These shenanigans caused him to be kicked out of the country. I guess this goes to show what greed will do to somebody.

Recently read books

Here is a partial list of books that I've read recently:

Words That Work: It's Not What You Say, It's What People Hear by Frank Luntz
Advertising for Dummies by Gary R. Dahl
Small Business Marketing for Dummies by Barbara Findlay Schenck
Jump Start Your Business Brain by Doug Hall
Showcase Presents: Batman and the Outsiders by Mike W. Barr et al

Another 'streak' of arrogance

Three years ago, I commented on a certain message board poster. She was arrogant and intolerant beyond belief of differing opinions. She also attempted to shut down anybody who disagreed with her, and she appeared to be immune to civil discourse. Yeah, she was a real piece of work.

For a while, she appeared to have simmered down. In recent months though, I've seen her old persona slip through again. I wonder if she ever truly changed at all.

It looks like she's really hit the fan again. In a current discussion, she's been hurling considerable vitriol at anybody who deigned to voice criticism -- even polite, civil criticism -- of a certain amateur TV script. People tried to explain that dissecting a writer's work is simply part of the normal editorial review process. Frankly though, such explanations should not have been necessary; after all, this is common knowledge.

I really liked what one of the more civil participants in this discussion said. Here is a sampling:

"Ruby, before I do the point by point thing, a serious question: has it
ever occurred to you that anyone, ever, might know more about literally anything
that you do? Because the breadth of subjects on which you claim expertise is
astounding."

"It is not the fact that you disagree with me that brands you an inadequate
judge. It is the fact that you can brook no disagreement with your opinion, and
have no ability to incorporate the knowledge of those with experience in the
field in question. An adequate judge would consider experienced and trained
opinions, give them weight, use them to add nuance and color to the opinions
they already have. You read a line of Dio's dialogue and say, "I think that's
great," and someone else - someone who evaluates scripts for a living (once
again, I'm referring to others in this thread) - comes in and says that X, Y,
and Z are problematic, and your response is to stick your fingers in your ears
and attack him for daring to speak. Thus does your arrogance make you an
inadequate critic, because a decent critic is capable of learning from others;
you're too certain that you know more about everyf***ingthing than everyone else
in the world to be in any danger of learning from anyone."

"And what you're refusing to address is that the people who've posted
opinions closer to mine than to yours - ie, relatively critical opinions - have
been reasonably nice about it, within the limits of how nice it's possible to be
when submitting criticism. You, on the other hand, blasted the living fuck out
of Pochacco for having the temerity to do something other than tell Diogenes how
wonderful his script is."

I get the feeling that Rubystreak can be a pretty decent person in some respects. She needs to learn how to tolerate differences in viewpoint though, and to avoid shouting down the people who disagree with her. I voiced the same observation in a previous blog posting, and so I don't think this is an unfair evaluation.

A membrane mounting system

This product announcement discusses a rather nifty system for mounting, sealing, and preserving microtiter plate membranes. I'm familiar with the hardware and techniques used, and trust me, it's a thing of beauty. It's a terrific example of finding an elegant solution that solves multiple problems at once. It provides a terrific way to protect optical patterns formed within the membranes, seal them from the elements, mount them on a flat and optically clear surface, and store them in a highly compact manner.

The way this system works with its matching plate reader is also truly magnificent.

The best engineering solutions solve multiple problems using minimal cost and a minimal number of steps and components. I daresay that it would be nigh impossible to develop a better solution that the system described in this article. I can't divulge the technical details, but trust me -- to anyone who's knowledgeable in this field, it just overflows with elegance.

I know that one other company developed a different technique for solving this problem. Suffice to say that it's a clumsy approach, and one that's practically doomed to fail, thanks to the laws of physics. Knowing something about material properties and material compliance can be truly helpful.

The old SuperFriends

I've been on a nostalgia kick, catching old episodes of the original SuperFriends show on Boomerang. A lot of people disparage the show, due to its annoying powerless junior SuperFriends (Wendy, Marvin, Wonderdog). I think that's an unfair assessment though, due to the reasons given in this article on the SuperFriends.

I was impressed at the way Aquaman was depicted as a thinking man's hero. In one episode, he was the one who figured out that a certain famous scientist/engineer had most likely faked his own death. He often used his brains to solve problems, rather than simply using his marine telepathy to call for help. And of course, his vast knowledge of marine phenomena was also of immense help.

Robin was likewise shown to be a thinking hero. He worked his way into Dr. Shamon's hideout, for example, and demonstrated his own deductive abilities. He was not just some kid who took orders from the Bat, whipping out whatever Bat-gadget would help save the day. (I hated that!)

Now that's a clever name

I came across the following name for a chimney sweep company recently: Chimney Cricket. Now that's a clever name. Dick van Dyke would have been proud.

Personally though, I wouldn't use their services unless I had some quotations which showed that their prices were comparable to those of other companies. A clever name can be attention-getting, but one should avoid making it the primary factor in choosing a company.

Ten Secrets of a Master Networker

These are from an article by Keith Ferrazzi:

Rule 1: Don't network just to network.

Rule 2: Take names.

Rule 3: Build it before you need it.

Rule 4: Never eat alone.

Rule 5: Be interesting.

Rule 6: Manage the gatekeeper. Artfully.

Rule 7: Always ask.

Rule 8: Don't keep score.

Rule 9: Ping constantly.

Rule 10: Find anchor tenants. Feed them.

Snowblower and other stuff

Up until today, I had been hunting around for a strong but affordable snowblower. The driveway in my new home is mighty long, and so it would take an awfully long time for me to dig my way out. I needed a snowblower badly.

I was balking at the expense, though. A new snowblower would cost about $349--closer to $376, with taxes. I really wasn't looking forward to that, since I've had a lot of unusual expenses lately. I had to get vinyl siding installed on my garage, and I also had my driveway resealed. On top of that, I had to get part of my flooring replaced, and my sunroom will need some foundation repair in the spring. Add to that some outrageous automotive repair costs, and these expenses really hurt.

Thankfully though, I found a functional snowblower at a second-hand store today. It only cost me $78 plus change, which means that I've saved nearly $300. Thank you, God!

As an aside, somebody gave me an old snowblower last week. I was really hoping that it would work; unfortunately, it was in horribly bad condition. I pretty much gave up on it after my best efforts at getting it to work. At least the expenses that I incurred were pretty minimal.

What else can I ruminate about? Well, I wish that I could attend this conference, as it would be nice to visit Switzerland for a while. Oh, and I borrowed some obscure CDs from the public library. Why? Because the dear, departed Laurie Beechman performed on them. What a voice! What a treasure! What a shame that she's gone.

Things I'd like to learn

There are an awful lot of things that I'd like to learn about... things that I'd like to master. Here are just a few.

Balboa, lindyu hop, mechanical design, machining, how things work, cryopreservation, Japanese, German, kanji, hiragana, katakana, Latin, microbiology, cellular biology, string theory, M-theory, existentialism, codebreaking, detective work, copywriting, copyrights, intellectual property law, Don Quixote, The Canterbury Tales, Gargantua and Pantagruel, Arthurian legend, Beowulf, combat techniques, archery, fiction writing, theatre, impressionism.

Dreamcoat comparisons

I recently rewatched the DVD recording of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat which had Donny Osmond in the title role. It was pretty good, and it had numerous nice touches, such as dressing Potiphar up as though he were a modern corporate bigwig. Still, I can't help but think that it could have had a better cast. Donny was very good, but he wouldn't have been my first choice. Sam Harris might have done a better job, for example.

I also listened to the original London, Broadway, and Canadian cast recordings. It quickly became clear that the narrator, more than any other character, sets the tone and potentially steals the show. I was disappointed in the Canadian version, but I thought that the London recording was pretty good, and I think that Laurie Beechman did an excellent job in the original Broadway version. Her rendition of Pharaoh's Song was positively mesmerizing.

I hear that Jodi Benson once played the part of the narrator as well. That must have been incredible! The Dreamcoat storyline is highly secularized though, which is disappointing. It fails to mention God at all, and it ascribes Joseph's success to "a lucky break." This must not have sat well with both Jodi Benson and Donny Osmond, both of whom are known for their religious convictions. (I have real issues with Mormonism, BTW, so I'm not praising Mr. Osmond's beliefs. However, I do commend him for the parts of his convictions that I do agree with.)

Laurie Beechman

I just learned that Laurie Beechman passed away about ten years ago. What a shock. What a shame. Her cast recording of "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat" was the very first Broadway cast recording that I ever purchased, and it was worth it. I could listen to her sing over and over again.

I liked Kelli Rabke, and I though that Kristine Fraelich was quite fine as well. Both did a wonderful job as the Narrator in this play. Laurie was quite special though, and her voice is completely unforgettable. I wasn't thrilled with her CD of Andrew Lloyd Webber songs, but her performance in "Joseph" was absolutely incredible.

Here's hoping that she's in heaven somewhere. Here's wishing that we could hear her sing one more time. Sigh.

A new set of angels?

A friend and I were discussing costume ideas recently. We talked about the kinds of creative outfits that we'd like to wear at a costume party. She has a twisted sense of humor, so she prefers to add some gory details, whereas I prefer to use costumes that are understated but clever.

She belongs to a trio of friends, and we got to talking about a costume for one of her pals. Her pal is a trim blonde gal, and I suggested that she could go as Cheryl Ladd. There's nothing distinctive about a Cheryl Ladd costume though, so to make this work, we'd need to dress up the entire trio as Charlie's Angels.

Which is a bit of a problem, since the third member of their trifecta is black. Oh, well.

Helping the Third World

This is nice. A biotech company is offering to help past customers donate their used analyzers to deserving laboratories in underprivileged nations. This is contingent on upgrading to a newer model, of course, but that's reasonable. After all, it costs time and money to place these units in laboratories that are worthy of these goods.

I think about how much faster science could progress if we could get more scientific research going in the Third World. This would ultimately benefit everyone, especially as scientific progress becomes more equitable.

Weird Al comments on Paris Hilton

One of Weird Al Yankovic's lesser-known classics, Headline News, provided humorous commentary on some of the more popular (yet relatively unimportant) news stories of the mid-1990s. These were: The Nancy Kerrigan/Tonya Harding conflict, the caning of US delinquent Michale Fay, and Lorena Bobbitt's impromptu act of surgery on her husband.

During his 1997 Straight out of Lynwood tour, Al had initially modified the lyrics to describe Brittany Spear's flashing and head-shaving episodes. Midway through the tour though, he rewrote them to say:

“Once, there was this girl who got herself a DUI and wound up in jail
And when she finally got out, she did an interview with Larry King on TV
Would someone please tell me, why we give a crap about her”

Preach it, Al!

I like Al because his humor is mostly clean. On occasion, he does touch on more mature topics, but at least his language is never foul. Also, his humor is much more clean that what you'll typically hear in a primetime sitcom. (Good clean jokes can be a bit of a rarity nowadays.)

Linkdumping and random thoughts

Just a bunch of links and stream-of-consciousness blatherings here.

First, I just have to rave about this video here. The choreography is funny and absolutely clever. I positively love the interplay between the actors/dancers in this little production.

I also adore this little musical number. Boy, this 17-year-old gal has some real vocal chops. Absolutely enchanting.

Argh! For some reason, my Internet connection is aggravatingly slow today. Is somebody hogging the cable trunkline in my area? If so, then log off already, please!

Oh, and I'm buying a house. I like the place, but the seller (or rather, the seller's accountant, who's representing him) has resorted to some unethical tactics in his negotiations. What a rat! You can be sure that I'll never use this guy's services. Ever.

More Microsoft aggravations

Okay, I just have to rant and rail about Microsoft again. I've been trying to send a document via e-mail, which requires navigating to its location to load it. Once again, Windows XP slows down to an agonizing crawl. And why? Because it insists on doing so much stupidity in the background -- unnecessary operations that Microsoft feels would be "kewl." Nevermind that it sacrifices performance greatly.

The same thing often happens when you attempt to right-click on a file or a folder. In principle, there's no reason why the right-click menu should not pop up right away; however, XP uses this opportunity to say "Oooh! Oooh! There's a whole bunch of other kewl stuff I can do at this point! Let's squeeze that in!"

To some extent, this depends on the various software options and handlers that have been added to the system. This is one reason why a fresh XP installation will perform better than a three-year-old one. It's ultimately no excuse, though; calling up a right-click menu is such a simple operation that it shouldn't require massive amounts of computing time. The same holds true for calling up Windows Explorer. Microsoft simply made a whole bunch of foolish design calls in their efforts to make things look nifty.

And it's bloody aggravating.

Apprentice candidate Jessie

Earlier, I raved about the talented Ms. Kendra Todd. Well, I've been watching the first season of The Apprentice on a set of badly beaten-up library DVDs. I remember feeling that Jessie Connors had a lot to offer. After watching the early episodes again, I find that I still feel that way.

Jessie was a bit green, and she wasn't as well seasoned as Kendra. She was highly accomplished though, and a very impressive individual indeed. I don't know much about her, but she seems like the kind of person that I would choose to hire for my sales force (if I had one, that is).

Oh, and executive assistant Robin was quite delightful as well. I was sorry to hear that she was dismissed from the Trump organization. According to one alleged insider's report that I read though, she wasn't dismissed by Trump; rather, this was the doing of some new manager gal. Take that for what it's worth.

I'd love to see her return to the show... and I'd love to see her get more lines.

Engineering revisited

Earlier, I talked about this mighty fine piece of engineering design work. Way cool. That's what happens when people understand engineering design principles.

Not everybody does, though. Not everybody understands the principles of sound engineering. Consider the following encounter I once had.

I was telling somebody about this interesting diode-based device that I had received. Like a curious layperson, he said, "Can I see it?" I replied, "No, I'd rather not. It's a static-sensitive device; that's why it's enclosed in an anti-static bag. I'd rather wait until I have it under controlled conditions before opening it up."

He shot back, "That's nonsense! You can handle electronic devices all the time, and they're not going to get fried from a little static electricity. Not unless you have nanometer-sized transistors in their."

"It's not that simple," I replied. "It's not just a matter of device size. You also have to consider the type of device and the materials used. For example, CMOS devices are notoriously static-sensitive, whereas TTL devices are not."

He said, "You know what? I know people who handle blood samples with a lot of ceremony and ritual, whereas others don't. We just don't need to be that complicated."

"And how is that relevant?" I asked. "Blood and circuits are two different things. Let's say that those people are indeed overly cautious. How does this prove that static electricity is not a problem when handling circuits?"

"Look, our company has built hundreds of computers. We've never had a problem with static electricity."

"So what?" I said. "That's like saying that you've driven thousands of miles without a seatbelt, and so seatbelts are unnecessary. All it takes is one accident. Every competent technician knows that certain electronic devices are very much static sensitive."

"Well, you and I are both wearing cotton clothing. We're not going to generate static electricity -- not unless we were wearing synthetics."

"That's not true," I said. "Sure, synthetics might increase the amount of static generated -- but that doesn't mean that we won't build up any static charge right now."

"You're just being fearful," he said. "You need to develop some courage."

"You're being reckless," I said. What I really wanted to say, however, was "You're an idiot."

A fine piece of engineering

I've had the pleasure of seeing how this device operates. I'm not allowed to divulge any sensitive details; however, I can say that it is a mighty fine piece of engineering. Talk about an incredibly elegant design solution.

This device was required to scan a variety of visual targets. This presented multiple challenges, due to the differing geometries and optical characteristics of the objects in question. To make matters worse, there was also the problem of mounting some of these targets cheaply, in a manner that preserved them well. It was a thorny set of challenges, and they all had to dovetail together neatly.

Well, they did. To cut a long story short, the device, its accessory hardware and the mounting scheme all had to work together with great simplicity -- and they did. The choice of materials was just perfect. Just about the only thing that would make it better would be to manufacture some of these parts using certain rapid prototyping techniques, but that would not be cost-effective.

What a fine piece of design work.

Lazy writing in e-mails and on the 'net

Okay, I know that this blog has been a bit negative lately. Perhaps it's a sign of the stress that I've been under, and for that, I apologize.

Right now though, I just have to complain about all the sloppy writing that I see all over the 'net. It seems like so many people that I encounter are practically illiterate, if their message board posts are any indication. Ugh.

Now, I realize that some people have genuine difficulties with language. Sometimes, this is through no fault of their own, and I'd like to be tolerant of those people. With many others though, it seems like they just have no discipline... no sense of order. This is especially true of people who post incoherent ramblings in their singles site profiles and online resumes. In this case, I don't think that a lack of personal language skills is a valid excuse; after all, why not have a friend proofread your work? At least get some input, for pity's sake.

As an aside... on one singles site, I opined that people should attempt to provide polished, eye-catching profiles. One fella chewed me out, saying, "We're not applying for jobs here! It's up to you people to find the good in our profiles!" (Actually, what he said was more incoherent annd mighty difficult to decipher. I suspect that he got angry because he felt outraged at the notion of putting more work into his profile.)

I remember one guy on an e-mail distribution list. His signature said, "Don't complaint to me about spelling or grammar. What, do you think I have time to proofread my e-mails?" Notice the egotistical attitude there? He didn't feel that he shoud put any effort into proofreading his messages, but he felt perfectly justified in making others work harder to decipher his ramblings. Ugh.

Some people just revel in laziness and mediocrity, I guess. In the real world though, "good enough" just isn't. (And in most of these situations, their writings aren't even close to "good enough.")

Microsoft is so aggravating

AAARRRGGGHHHH!!! Once again, Windows XP is driving me nuts. Even though I have a pretty fast machine, it still takes forever to boot up and to open an Explorer window. I routinely scan my machine for malware and I have optimized the system as best I could, and yet this still happens. It's all because Microsoft insists on doing all sorts of garbage -- all sorts of unnecessary stuff. And why? Because of their dumb design philosophy, that's why.

Bloody aggravating.

On a more pleasant note, I think that Maylo McCaslin is mighty cute. Too bad she didn't really hit the limelight. I wish she had landed her own show.

Lazy, obnoxious driver

So today, I parked at a spot on the curb. This fella drives past me, then backs up and says to me, "Look, when you see that someone wants to park somewhere..." I tuned him out at that point, as he was obviously a jerk. He obviously wanted the parking spot that I took, and he was upset... upset enough to back up and complain.

I cut him off and said, "I didn't know. If you want it, you can have it." In reality though, I was thinking, "You jerk. I had no way of knowing that you wanted this spot. What am I, a mind reader?"

What a jackass. To top it off, there were plenty of other spots along that curb. In fact, he was practically next to one, but he just had to back up and complain. That's why I chose to drive off. He was obviously a jerk, and there's no reasoning with them. You never know when they might take a tire iron to your car, or to pull a gun on you.

I wish I had taken down his license plate number... not that it would have done any good, of course. At times like this, I wish I could mentally implant some common sense into the brains of other drivers. What a lazy jackass he was.

As an aside... once again, Microsoft Windows is stalling on me. It's bloody annoying. Windows Explorer takes forever to open up. Ugh. No good reason why, mind you. Microsoft produces unbelievable bloatware, thanks to their idiotic design philosophy.

Apprentice Kendra

I remember watching Season Three of Donald Trump's The Apprentice on TV. I remember marveling at some of the business decisions that were made, as well as the class, intelligence and candor displayed by its winner, Kendra Todd. IMO, she was one of the most beautiful women on television. She didn't have the classic TV look, but she was basically nice looking, and her intelligence and charm pretty much pushed her over the top.

I was watching some youtube.com clips of her performance on the show. You go, girl! It was a delight to see the kind of thought that she put into her work, as well as her energy and dedication. She's certainly an inspiration to me.

Right now, I'm working on some tasks that are similar to what she had to deal with in Episode 14. I try to remember her work as I labor on this endeavor. I'd like to blow people away the way she did.

Singles site cheating, revisited

Earlier, I lamented the way some people attempt to cheat the system on online singles sites. I raised this issue on an online forum once, and lamented the lack of honesty and integrity in these actions. I also pointed out that such cheating reflects poorly on someone's character.

I was unprepared for the tremendous backlash that this received. People responded with tremendous venom, saying things like "Who cares? A lot of people do it" or "Why are you making a big deal of this? There are much more important things to discuss!" (As an aside, I responded to the latter by saying, "What a minute. Why are you making such a big deal over my reaction? Aren't there more important things to discuss? By your own logic, should you not abandon this discussion right now?"

One person responded, "You don't even know this person. How dare you say that this is a reflection of someone's character?" I stand by that claim, though. You don't need to know someone personally to understand that every wrongful action is a reflection of that person. It might not provide complete insight into every fiber of that person's being, but it's a reflection nonetheless. Besides, by that logic, we should have no business commenting on the character of, say, Saddam Hussein or O.J. Simpson -- not unless we know those people personally.

(As it turned out, this person was herself one of those singles site cheaters. No wonder she responded with such tremendous outrage. It wasn't a matter of principle; rather, she just didn't want to admit that her actions were dishonest, or that they reflected poorly on her.)

On a (very) tangentially related note, I'd love to meet someone who looks like a young Courtney Thorne-Smith. It's doubtful that any such person would ever require the services of a singles site, though. Besides, a person's character is much more important that one's looks. Much, much more important.

Smallpox and bioterrorism

Apparently, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) embarked a while back on the development of a safer smallpox vaccine. This is part of a preventive campaign against bioterrorism. Smallpox was nominally eradicated in 1979; however, a few samples of the live virus remain in the USA and in Russia. It is currently believed that certain countries -- both hostile and friendly -- may have samples of the virus as well. (North Korea, perhaps? Criminy.)

The classic smallpox vaccine (vaccinia) has some unpleasant side effects, and in rare cases (1 out of 1,000,000), it can even be fatal. For these reasons, its use is currently reserved for health care and emergency workers. The government has embarked on an effort to develop a safer vaccine--just in case it becomes necessary to deploy this vaccine in the populace at large.

Ideas for the next few seasons of "24"

I have a few ideas for upcoming seasons of "24":

Day 7: On December 24th, Jack Bauer has 24 hours to help Santa deliver all of his toys. In the process, he must also teach the people of Fayed's country the real meaning of Christmas... OR MILLIONS WILL DIE!!!

Day 8: On February 2nd, Jack Bauer gets to torture terrorists over and over again. Every time this happens, he gets a little bit better at it.

Day 9: April 1st. Need I say more?

Oh, and Chloe needs to have her own show. (Yes, I did just want to link to that page again. Mary Lynn Rajskub is such a treasure, and an unconventional beauty as well. If you've seen her on the cover of Geek Monthly, you know what I mean.)

Juveniles in their 20s and 30s

A female friend of mine was telling me about how horribly immature these two male friends of hers were. Frankly, I agree.

I went out with their group once, to ensure that they'd have a designated driver. We parked in a garage downtown, and as we made our way out, these two guys started kicking each other all over the place. I can imagine a couple of high school students doing that, but a pair of grown adults? I would have expected better.

We were joined by another one of their friends later. He was a bit more civil, but still not terribly mature. At the end of the night, two of these guys decided to ambush the third, take his shoes off, and thrown them into the street. What a bunch of idiots! It never occured to them that this would be an unsafe thing to do, especially at night. (Yes, they had been drinking. Still, unless you're stinkin' drunk, it should be immediately obvious to anyone that this is a terrible, mind-numbingly stupid idea. Besides, the two bozos who pulled this stunt were the least inebriated of the group, and had been drinking fairly modestly.)

To make matters worse, two of these idiots decided to wrestle on the sidewalk, right when were were downtown. Again, even if you've had something to drink, it should be obvious that that's an incredibly stupid thing to do. This cop drove by, and he agreed with that assessment; he told these bozos to knock it off. "But we're friends!" they protested. "I don't care," the cop said. "Knock it off."

What a bunch of idiots.

Mind you, I was in a hurry to get home... and what were these guys doing? They were jumping over the patio fences of nearby restaurants (which were thankfully closed), climbing up and down stairs, and so forth. Basically, they were goofing around and wasting time. I understand that they weren't in a hurry to get home, but really! More aggravating is the fact that these were just mindnumbingly stupid things for them to do. I'd expect a nine-year-old to think that was great fun, but not an adult.

How old were these guys? One was 28; the other was 35. I'm not sure how old the third fella was, but he was probably in that ballpark range. The first two guys were the worst offenders anyway, and they were a pair of morons. Grow up, kids!

Techno-whatsis?

So this company goes by the name 'M&S', and yet their website domain is unrelated to their name. In fact, their domain name seems quite unusual indeed. I wish I knew what the backstory was there.

Or maybe it's a cultural thing. The company is Japanese, after all... quite the successful Japanese company, by all indications. I dunno.

Speaking of Japanese culture, I just watch part of the Mazinkaiser saga. The anime feel to this show was quite distracting. Anime has its good points, but so much of the animation tends to be grotesque, overly dramatic, or jus wildly exaggerated. It's like the animation styles often incorporate plenty of detail for adult sensibilities, but add plenty of wild mugging as well, as though it were geared toward elementary school children. I don't get it, and sometimes, I think it's almost insulting to one's intelligence.

Not all of anime is like that, mind you... but a good amount of it is, for whatever reason. Ugh.

24's Chloe is back in form

Yes, she's back in form... and I'm not talking about Mary Lynn Rajskub's trim new look.

Chloe is finally getting more of the spotlight again in tonight's episode. she had been rather badly neglected earlier this season, especially for the last five episodes or so. Now she's finally getting some much-needed face time. She's not laying down as much snark as she used to, which is disappointing, but at least she's back in the game.

What's more, they're finally tying up some old plot lines, such as the deaths that Morris nearly caused. It's good to see that they haven't simply forgotten about all of his remorse.

And guess what? We finally got to see what happens when Chloe comes to her senses after attempting to support some of Jack's rogue operations. It's about bloody time. We all know that Chloe is generally willing to do some shady under-the-table work, almost without question, so seeing another side to her personality is refreshing.

Raving about a few things

I'm really enjoying the TV series Bones on Fox. Very clever and very funny, with some excellent acting. Emily Deschanel, in particular, is a real treasure.

I also started watching Tim Minear's show, Drive -- also on Fox. Very clever, and Nathan Fillion does an excellent job as always.

On a more scholarly note, I've been learning about Plato's classic work, The Republic. I certainly don't agree with everything that Plato seems to be saying, but I do enjoy learning about it. Learning about the pre-Socratic philosophers (Thales, Anaximenes, Anaximander, Democritus and company) has been quite illuminating, and inspiring as well.

I cannot stand Deal or No Deal, though. There's no real intelligence behind this show. One could use a simple formula to produce the most logical decision, which is why they wrap the show in so much useless theatrics and emotionality. Not good.

Rajskub on 24

I noticed that Mary Lynn Rajskub has been given second billing on the hit TV show, 24. For some reason though, they're making very little use of her this season, though. What a shame, as her character is immensely popular amongst fans -- especially among male computer geeks, I daresay.

Ms. Rajskub plays techie whiz Chloe O'Brien, a computer geek with only the most rudimentary of social skills. She does wield a mean M4 carbine assualt rifle though, and she's pretty handy with a taser.

She's kinda pretty this season too, thanks to her new hair color and a more flattering outfit. If only they'd use her more, darn it! She's good for the occasional bit of drama, and she's always good for comic relief.

Publishing papers

An acquaintance of mine was telling me about a certain paper that she found interesting. This got me thinking... I'd really like to publish more papers soon. Various obligations though -- mostly work-related -- have been preventing me from doing so.

It doesn't help that I now have to assume some new marketing-related duties. Ugh. I don't mind doing this, but it's not the sort of work that really helps me in my primary career path. It certainly doesn't help me look like a star.

I do way too much writing nowadays, and way too much documentation work. It's necessary, though -- necessary if I want to help this company succeed and become more regularly profitable. We've had some lean times lately, and I'd like to help us become more stable.

It's gotta be done. It's necessary. It's also frustrating.

If only I didn't have to work so hard at trimming down, or at educating myself on various subjects (philosophy, science, literature, etc). That'd make life so much easier. If I were naturally trim, fit and attractive, then that'd certainly give me a lot more leisure time.

Rats. Double rats.

Jodi Benson -- I want more!

I had read that Jodi Benson performed some voice work, early in her career, for the anime film, Nausicaä of the Valley of the Winds. I was disappointed to find out, however, that she only had a few lines, and that she didn't even get to sing.

Jodi is, of course, the voice of Disney's Princess Ariel, and my favorite singer of all time. I relish every opportunity to hear her sing. She also has an excellent speaking voice though, so I enjoy all of her voice work. I would gladly pay money just to hear her read the telephone book, for pity's sake.

What a talent and a treasure.

Disguised e-mail addresses on singles site profiles

I belong to a few different Christian dating service websites. These sites typically provide both paid membership accounts and free membership services with restricted rights. For example, the free membership agreements typically do not allow their users to send e-mail addresses or other contact info. (The systems automatically block e-mail addresses in such profiles. Dishonest members are thereby forced to use creative techniques for disguising their addresses.)

I noticed that there are a great many profiles that contain these disguised e-mail addresses. This bothers me greatly; after all, Christians are supposed to exemplify honesty and integrity. If Christians choose to deliberately cheat the system, thereby avoiding the need to pay a membership fee, then what does that say about our Christian character?

Just this week, I contacted a woman who seemed like a promising prospect. She immediately wrote back and said, "I'm on an unpaid membership. You can contact me at <>."

My response? "I'm sorry, but I'm really not comfortable with using disguised contact information. I think that as Christians, we need to honor and respect the rules on these sites. I believe that is what Jesus would want us to do."

She wrote back, "I did it because of finances and the lack of great matches. Proceed as you wish." That was her explanation. There was no expression of repentance or regret -- no acknowledgement that she had attempted to cheat the system, and that this was wrong.
I said, "Believe me, I'm sympathetic to your situation. I've gone through some lean times myself. At the same time though, I'm become convinced that I need to honor these rules, as a matter of Christian testimony. I would rather seek ways to exchange contact information legitimately. For example, in this situation, I would have been happy to give you MY e-mail address instead; after all, I'm a paying member, so I have that freedom."

I don't think I'll be contacting her again. It's not simply that she chose to cheat the system, unfortunate as that may be. Rather, the bigger problem was the lack of remorse in her explanation. There was no admission that her actions were dishonest, or that there were other ways that we could have exchanged contact info. Rather, she simply emphasized that it was a financial decision on her part, as though that settled everything.

What a terrible shame.

Things I like

These are a few of my favorite things:

Stephen Hawking's writings, Carl Sagan's writings (except for his pontifications on religion!), some of the old Star Trek stuff, Albert Einstein, Daniella van Graas, grasp theory, C++, object orientation, UML, design patterns, computer programming, Stacey Williams, Traylor Howard, Monk and Psych, Kendra Todd's business savvy, James Herriot, Isaac Asimov, Ernest Hemingway, classical literature, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, electronics, mechanical design, physics, zoology, naturalism, Columbo, Marv Wolfman, George Perez.