Saturday, January 25, 02003
The Assertive Introvert: "We're here, we're quiet - now quit hassling us!"
Posted at 09:36 PM EST [Link]
I'm in Easton for my cousin's funeral. I'll be back in Virginia sometime tomorrow.
Posted at 02:31 PM EST [Link]
Wave good-bye to the HOV lanes - they're being co-opted by lexus lanes.
Bah, there are pollution taxes. There should also be pollution tolls, based on the model of vehicle, and the number of occupants. Emissions sniffers could be set up at the toll booths to the tolls could be based on realtime inspections. As your car gets older and more polluting, the toll gets higher.
Posted at 09:13 AM EST [Link]
Friday, January 24, 02003
Any album that includes the line "I had to throw down my accordian to get away from the police" is OK by me. The new album is due out in a couple weeks for you Canadians. I have to wait two months for my next hobo-erotic fix
PS, Somebody should tell the Tanya's site designer not have the navigation off their main page depend on javascript. Some of us have it turned off, and are left wondering why the site consists entirely of one picture.
Posted at 01:30 PM EST [Link]
Suzuki launched a new hybrid yesterday. It's really tiny.
For those of you playing along at home, that's three Japanese companies now offering hybrids, and zero American companies.
Posted at 08:41 AM EST [Link]
Wednesday, January 22, 02003
Today's gospel is a reading from Dancing with Systems by Donella Meadows:
If something is ugly, say so. If it is tacky, inappropriate, out of proportion, unsustainable, morally degrading, ecologically impoverishing, or humanly demeaning, don't let it pass. Don't be stopped by the "if you can't define it and measure it, I don't have to pay attention to it" ploy. No one can [precisely] define or measure justice, democracy, security, freedom, truth, or love. No one can [precisely] define or measure any value. But if no one speaks up for them, if systems aren't designed to produce them, if we don't speak about them and point toward their presence or absence, they will cease to exist.
Lots of
good Meadows articles are available.
Posted at 06:36 PM EST [Link]
Tuesday, January 21, 02003
A "status conference" has been slated for Stephen Patrick Burciaga, who's been charged in the Daniel Krug murder case. As mentioned, here a really long time ago, my dad works with Krug's father.
"A lot goes on at the status conference," said the court spokesman. "They (the lawyers) discuss which direction will be taken with the trial and any new information that has come up since the felony hearing. They could even bring up breaking down to a lesser charge."
Posted at 11:17 PM EST [Link]
So yesterday I forgot my badge to get into the office at work. No big deal, I do this about once a week. I probably have my own personal temp badge waiting for me at the main reception desk. So I work until 6:30 or so, and find I can't turn in the badge because the receptionist has gone home. Whatever.
I get home, and my little badge thing I'm supposed to wave in front of the swipper thingamabob isn't working. People are behind me in line waiting to get into the garage. It's eerily similar to a recent escapade. I have to get out of the car and ask the people behind me to backup because my badge isn't working. Someone else swipes their badge for me, and it works. Whatever.
I get to the lobby and there's a sign by the mailboxes: "It's been brought to our attention that some of the badges aren't working. Please come to the office at your earliest convenience to have your badge recoded."
So I get up the next morning, and putz around a bit because the office doesn't open until 9:00AM, and when I go down there nobody there. The office is closed on Tuesdays. Un-blankityblank-believable. So not only have they not dealt with the unworking badge problem for Monday night, but they're ignoring it all of Tuesday as well. Plus, I get to work late with nothing to show for it.
Ah, yes back to that temp badge... The receptionist is in by the time I finally get to the office, and I hand in the badge. He types away at his console, activating my normal card again. Only my badge never gets activated. I have to wait for someone to walk by the door to let me in. Again at lunch it's not working. I go back to the receptionist, and they tell me some server went down and anyone who had a temp badge yesterday didn't get their badges reactivated today.
So, alas, none of my security devices are working. I had to duck into the garage behind a car like a thief to get into the building tonight. I have to go into work late again tomorrow. Hopefully someone will actually be in the office to get the apartment badge cleared up. And then when I get to work, I'm hoping the work badge will be fixed as well.
This is the longest post in ages and it all about being locked out of a couple buildings for few minutes. I am such a suburban whitebread wussypuss. Ughh.
Posted at 10:43 PM EST [Link]
Monday, January 20, 02003
Bush wants to raise that SUV tax giveaway up to $75,000, which is almost the cost of four Insights.
A lot of small businesses could buy their entire workforce hybrids for $75,000.
"This is a plan that says that if you are willing to take a risk and invest more, that there's a benefit for doing so," Bush said in unveiling the initiative Jan. 9. "And it will have a positive effect throughout our entire economy."
The only risk here is that your personal gaswagen will rollover on the way to the mini-mall.
Posted at 11:25 PM EST [Link]
"honor demands we comply with authority..."
Posted at 05:51 PM EST [Link]
Sunday, January 19, 02003
It looks like the Canadian Engineers Without Borders has two splinter groups in the US:
Engineers Without Frontiers based out of Cornell and Engineers Without Borders USA, out of Colorado.
I'm sure there's a story out there explaining the schism, but I couldn't find it.
But really, two groups like this are better than one, so who cares.
Engineers without Frontiers has a better logo, and better integration of professionals.
Posted at 09:41 AM EST [Link]
