Groggy meanderings

I'm tired and sleepy. I just had a long conversation with a friend, and I felt like dozing off during this time, even though she's a wonderful person.

Heck, I can barely type right now.

Man, I am so sleepy. I could use some rest, and I would love to hit the gym for a while. I have been overworked and I need my energy.

Came across the BioRes site. Now that looks interesting. Not flashy, but it has some valuable content.

I also like the HowStuffWorks site. Very educational.

You stink!

Tammie S, you stink! You're a liar. You have no integrity.

DM Sarge, you were a terrible human being a few years ago. I hope that you've changed your ways.

Amy T.... well, I wouldn't say that you stink, but I am disappointed in you.

David F, you're not a nice person.

Countless screaming argonauts

Gotta love those lyrics. It's humorous when someone sings about being an underperforming lighthouse and how this would have caused the deaths of Jasons and the crew of the Argo. Funny stuff.

The Da Vinci Code

I can't believe that a lot of people still take "The Da Vinci Code" seriously. Open up a history book, people! When Dan Brown says that the book is based on serious history, he's either lying or seriously deluded.

Of course, he later backed down from those claims, even though he had originally insisted that the book was based on solid historical facts. I think this shows that Dan Brown is not a very honest person. He clearly has no grasp of history.

Semirandom thoughts

I wish that I had time to watch that TV series, "Chuck." It looks like a lot of fun, and I've heard great things about it. I just need to curb my TV watching habits, though. I don't watch huge amounts of TV, but I probably watch more than what's optimal.

I do watch "Heroes," but I don't follow the sotrylines very closely. BTW, even though she doesn't appeal to me, I bet that a lot of guys go for that Hayden Panettiere gal. I would also like to watch "Pushing Daisies," perhaps while getting some work done.

I came across the 01webdirectory site. Interesting. Kinda.

Discovering the Big Bang Theory

I recently discovered "The Big Bang Theory" on TV -- or rather, on DVD. Now that is a funny show! A lot of comedic talent there.

The four male leads are all hilarious, and it's patently obvious that Kaley Cuoco isn't just a pretty face. I also loved seeing the relationships between them grow and how much Penny has become thoroughly integrated into their little group.

Funny, funny stuff. I think the humor is a little bit tasteless at times, in part because I favor more conservative humor. Still, I can't deny that the writing is clever and that the comedic acting is excellent.

Whither April?

Whatever happened to April Lerman?

Well, I found out that she did some acting in a stage production of Annie. She also did some skin flick, to my disappointment.

She was so cute as one of the children on the first season of "Charles in Charge." They revamped the cast for the following year, and I didn't like the new folks as much. This, despite the cover girl appeal of Nicole Eggert.

When HP fails to fix a laptop properly

This excerpt is from a letter that I once wrote, complaining about my HP laptop that required multiple repairs.

The fellow that I spoke to on HP’s tech support line instructed me to include a note with this computer, explaining what’s wrong with my computer. I explained the nature of this problem on the telephone, but just to be thorough:


• The computer does not power on. It is simply dead. Nothing I do causes it to turn on.

• This is the fourth time that this problem has occurred within the past year. The first time it happened, I took it back to CompUSA and the problem mysteriously disappeared. The second time, it took about two weeks to fix it. The third time around, it tooks 2½ months to effect repairs.

I am very deeply concerned about this situation. In effect, I have only been able to use it for about 75% of the past year, due to all the problems this thing has given me. Please, please get it back to me soon. This item cost me a huge amount of money, and if this continues to be a problem, then I will have to look to other companies for my future needs.

Joan Rivers needs to hear this

One Mary Kreutz posted this on Annie Duke's blog. I think that it's worth repeating.

To Joan Rivers,

I respected you before, but was so disappointed by your remarks equating or making an analogy about Annie Duke and Hitler. Those remarks are unforgivable in my view. Your remarks about Melissa being a “Wharton” grad and inferring that somehow it made her better than Annie showed even more your lack of class. I don’t really know the personal issues that caused you to show your hatred for Annie so much, but your remarks about Adolf Hitler (said over and over and even made worse by the implication that Annie was worse than Hitler), and the Wharton remark showed a real lack of class, self control and an even greater lack of caring for other people’s feelings. I know that you’ll say, “To hell with other people’s feelings,” but making money and being in the right place with the “right” people shouldn’t take away your compassion and humanity. I’m proud to say that I don’t and never desire to fit into your group. It’s a mean group. That type of group has brought America to its knees financially. You must be friends with the bankers that sit in their mansions and could care less about those that have lost their homes. Their personal greed and lack of morality seems to be your style. I’m sure you’ll continue to be their friends because they still have their mansions and money, and since ethics and morality don’t seem to be very important, they are your “peers”. Fortunately, most people that are wealthy are also ethical and moral. I’ve known many and I know that most do care and teach their children to remain responsible, caring and polite when challenged with things that don’t go their way. Few have celebrated rude, spoiled and bratty children. Their children have grown up showing those values-even those that have gone to Wharton. I teach first grade. You’re right, my students don’t fit into your group, and you may consider these 20 seven year olds not worthy. Their parents work hard, but they are just middle class, working poor and some at my school are homeless. I’ll try to continue teaching them that the words that come out of their mouths do matter, that sticks and stone hurt, but words hurt more. Sometimes, holding hurtful words is the hardest thing to do. The easiest thing is to blurt them out with no care or concern for what damage those words can cause. My kids said that being a hero means doing the right thing, when the right thing is the hardest thing to do and the wrong thing would be the easiest. My second graders gave that definition. They may never be “Wharton” grads, but I am happy to be in their world. They make me proud. They care about others and don’t judge others by how much money they make, who they know, what they wear or how pretty or thin they are. The best part is that when they do something nice for someone, it’s not done to promote themselves. I hope that you learn that before it’s too late. Your grandchildren need to know that. It’s never to late to learn. I know that I will be learning long after I am 75, God willing. The only good thing out of this show this year is that good causes will get money. Your group will get a lot of laughs and I cringe at what the young people will learn from what they’ve heard. The one thing that I know, and this is for QVC- I’ve spent thousands and thousands of dollars with QVC, but that has changed this month. I will never buy another thing from Joan or Melissa’s. It won’t mean much in the long run, but at least I’ll be able to sleep at night.

Trump and Respect

I just watched a season two episode of "The Apprentice" (episode four, in fact) in which Trump said, "People have to respect you or you cannot be a leader."

Well, after turning his TV show into a parody of its former self, after making all sorts of capricious firings, after repeatedly ignoring his own rules for evaluating his TV show candidates, and after hiring Joan Rivers in defiance of all logic -- not to mention his behavior with regard to Rosie O'Donnell -- I don't see how he can expect people to respect him.

Really.

A documentation sample

Here is the introduction to some documentation that I once wrote. The formatting is awry because I cut and paste this from the original Word file, and some of the formatting (the table, in particular) was lost.

Wafer transfers are done through the use of stations – that is, user-specified locations at which the wafers are to be picked or placed. These stations can be wafer cassettes, prealigner chucks, or any other location where a wafer might normally reside. Each station is identified by the following set of parameters which determine where and how the wafer is to be picked up or set down, and how the robot should scan for their presence.


Station Parameters
Radial (mm) The radial position (i.e. the R-axis position) at which the robot would pick up the wafer or set it down.
Theta (deg) The rotational angle (i.e. the -axis position) at which the robot would pick up the wafer or set it down.
Z (mm) The height (i.e. the Z-axis position) at which the robot would enter the station to set down the bottommost wafer. Equivalently, this is also the height at which it would retract from the station when picking up the bottommost wafer.
Z offset (mm) A parameter used by the pick/place routines for certain end-effectors. When using the ROB310 vacuum gripper, its value should be set to zero.
Pitch (mm) The vertical distance between consecutive wafers in a multi-slot station. This distance is measured between the bottom surfaces of each wafer.
Stroke (mm) The vertical distance that the robot moves when the arm is extended and picking or placing the wafer. Its value should be less than that of the pitch.
Retract (mm) The R-axis position to which the robot should retract after grasping a wafer. This is also the position to which the R-axis would retract before rotating to the station for a pick or place move.
End-effector option An integer designating the end-effector to be used (typically 0 or 1).
Slots The number of slots at the station in question.
Pick/Place Vel (mm/s) The maximum velocity to be used during the vertical stroke, when picking or placing a wafer.
Pick/Place Accel (mm/s2) The maximum acceleration to be used during the vertical stroke, when picking or placing a wafer.
Radial per Slot (mm) A parameter for compensating for stations that are tilted from the vertical axis. In most situations, this should be set to zero.
Scan Radial (mm) The R-axis position to be used for scanning the wafers. This value should be selected so as to place the wafer mapping sensor at an optimal distance from the wafers.
Scan Z (mm) The height at which the robot begins its upward scan movement
Scan Velocity (mm/s) The maximum vertical velocity to be used when scanning a station.
Scan Acceleration (mm/s2) The vertical acceleration limit to be used when scanning a station.
Scan Radial Offset (mm) A parameter which allows the robot to use two different radial positions for the upward and downward scans. This value should typically be set to zero.
Scan Theta Offset (deg) A parameter which permits two different rotational positions to be used for the upward and downward scans. This should typically be non-zero.
Scan Above (% of pitch) One of the parameters used for identifying cross-slotted wafers
Scan Below (% of pitch) One of the parameters used for identifying cross-slotted wafers
Scan Thick (% of pitch) A parameter used for identifying double- and cross-slotted wafers

Joan Rivers is wacko

Joan Rivers has conducted herself very poorly on "The Celebrity Apprentice." Frankly, she is giving us plenty of reasons not to respect her conduct as a businesswoman. She has competence and business savvy, but she does a poor job of dealing with people.

I like the following comment that someone on TWOP made about the elder Ms. Rivers:

Whether I like her or not, I have to respect her business sense. She's also a contradiction, because she often seems stuck in a different decade ("poker players are trash"...she's probably recalling her performing days in the 50s and 60s), and yet she's always been known for her crudeness & brash humor, even back when that was frowned upon for anyone, male or female. She tries desparately to be 'current' and yet she isn't.

Also the following:

The Brande arc really bothered me. Joan said that if Brande looked like Joan, she wouldn't still be sitting there... but the truth is, that if Brande didn't look like Brande, no one would have been calling her "dumb." The stereotype that a blonde woman with big boobs is dumb is offensive and unacceptable. Brande was no stupider than anyone else there! In fact, she defended herself very effectively and articulately several times. Jesse sat there like a post half the time, and no one called him dumb. Dennis Rodman needed friggin' captions to know what the hell he was talking about, and no one would have dared to call him dumb. But it's perfectly fine to throw around the word "dumb blonde" for Brande, to the point where Piers thought it would be an embarrassment for her to win? Really? On this show, THAT would be the embarrassment?

Abs

Gotta work on my abs. I am so disappointed in how weak my abs can be... and I'm in pretty darned good shape. Yikes.

Incidentally, I'm sick and tired of people saying, "Oh, take it easy with those workouts! You don't want to look like Arnold." These people have NO IDEA how difficult it is to reach bodybuilder levels. It's very difficult to do without being a full-time gym rat and without using steroids.

Ladd and the Angels

I was watching this "Best of Charlies Angels" DVD that covered episodes from the first season. Actually, I mostly skimmed through it. The women were beautiful, but the storylines were forgettable and the dialogue was positively horrible. ("I am not a yo-yo!" said Farrah. Ugh!)

Besides, I liked Cheryl Ladd best of all. Here are a few shots from a very early appearance of hers prior to her days as Kris Munroe.

Have you seen this?

Holy cow! Have you seen this? This has got to be one of the top late night talk show moments of all time -- and I remember watching it in its original broadcast.

I'm talking about the time when Debra Winger discussed her old Wonder Girl role with David Letterman. At the end of that interview, she quickly changed into her old duds and then ran out of the studio. The studio audience went wild!

And so did I.

eBay

I ordered an item off eBay, but after one month, I had not heard back from the vendor. This was despite multiple attempts at contacting them.

On my third attempt, I reminded them that I'd like to leave positive feedback if I can. I received this response:

Thank you for your purchase.

This order did not go out yet. There is a chance that it was misplaced in our inventory (we stock several thousand items on our shelves). I did personally find the order, pack it and ship it yesterday (Tuesday). You should receive it tomorrow (Thursday). It shipped via USPS Priority Mail.

I really do apologize for the inconvenience. We sell a lot of misc. surplus equipment (I have approximately 5000 listings on eBay). And stuff like this can slip by me sometimes.

We always try to avoid negative and/or neutral feedback (since eBay counts neutrals as negatives now). If you have any further issues, please contact me directly.
Feel free to call or email if you have any other questions.

This puts me in a quandry. I don't buy their excuse, since I did repeatedly contact them. On the other hand, I know that eBay is charging higher fees for vendors nowadays when they receive negative feedback. I don't want to discourage people from using eBay, so perhaps I'll just decline to offer any feedback. Sigh.

The Price is Right

I caught some video clips of "The Price is Right" on YouTube recently. The one that stands out the most is this clip from a recent Drew Carey episode where some hysterical woman apparently has trouble with basic math.

You know how four contestants are required to estimate the cost of an item without going over? Whoever gets the closest bid without going over wins the chance to compete for more prizes. Well, this lady decided to bid $1 *LESS* than the woman behind her -- the worst possible strategy, short of deliberately overbidding. What's more, when Drew called out the actual price, she went hysterical, thinking that she had won, and then proceeded to excitedly go up on stage. What an embarassment it was for her to be told that she didn't win.

I have to wonder... Did she have a mental glitch, or was she really just that bad at math?

Speaking of "The Price is Right," there's a "Best of..." DVD set with various classic Bob Barker episodes, plus some from his last week of hosting. Personally, I'd rather see some episodes with the luminously lovely Chantel Dubay, but she was only on the show for a couple of years.

Yet another Locrian example

By now, there should be no doubt that this Locrian character thinks like a six-year-old and that he has no regard for the welfare of other people. He pretty much acts like scum.

Just to hammer the point home though, here's another example of what he said:

Last year in Van Nuys, CA (little Mexico, as some call it), it was Easter Sunday. On a corner near Van Nuys Bl, there was some tie up at a light. On the corner was a man with one o' them ancient speakers around his neck with a mike attached. He was spouting in Latin American Spanish about Jesus. With each sentence, I held my horn, drowning out his distorted testimony. He got REAL angry after about five straight minutes of this, dropped his pamphlets and ran towards my car. I rolled down my window and we started arguing (me in English him in Spanish, so it wasn't really going anywhere )

A cop on a bicycle saw him run towards me and interceded, pulling the yelling gentleman away. I said, "It's alright, officer." He asked me why all the noise with the horn. I said, "I was drowning him out." He reminded me it was Easter Sunday and I replied with, "So?" He told me to just drive ahead when the lane's clear. I said thank you. (Thank goodness I wasn't in Burbank, CA, but there, the only Spanish people allowed are ones cleaning homes.) When I drove off, I did a little polite, donk-donk, with the horn and politely waved to them man who put the mike/speaker back on. He politely waved back too.

So, no fight, no tickets, no harm, no foul to either of us. I just thought if he should witness in public, I should disagree in public.

So the guy had no problem making a public nuisance of himself, and why? Just because he didn't want to hear a street preacher. This fella is a child, plain and simple.

Locrian: Is this guy for real?

This Locrian fella is almost too twisted to be real. Here's an example of something he said.

Somebody asked, "So, 'Would you please not say that around me?' is rude?"

His reply? "I really do think it's rude. Especially from an adult. 'O, wuld yooo pease not say around me?(Baby voice)' Ugh. I'd say, we're in public, rosary gripper. The best reply is, 'Then don't be around me.'"

He honestly sees no problem with pretending that these people are spouting baby jabber? And he has the temerity to impugn their maturity?

The guy is a jerk and he knows it. He just tries to take the moral high ground, even as he's fully aware that he's behaving in almost the most obnoxious manner possible.

Here is how politeness is demonstrated

Now here is an example of a polite reply (referencing previous posts). This is from another fella's contribution to that discussion thread.

This happened to me at work. I was working on a project with a guy. I said "Christ on a bike" at one point. He visibly winced, and said "please don't say that - I find it really offensive". I said "Oh sorry, didn't realise" and never said anything similar in his presence again.

Short, simple conversation.

It doesn't take much to make little adjustments to ensure we all get on in the workplace.

What is wrong with people who just don't get it? Who think that the only appropriate response is to be a grade-A jackass?

As another person said,

Of course I would. Doing otherwise would be what's called, by those of us who like this whole 'politeness' thing, 'being a raging a**hole'.