more random ranting about Mrs. Schiavo

I'm working through lunch today, so I only have one brief conundrum gleaned from NPR last night.

Bush is in favor of Terry Schiavo staying on life support.
Terry Schiavo's life support is paid for by Medicare and the proceeds from a large malpractice suit won by her husband.
Bush is for cutting Medicare and large malpractice suits...

Hrm... Am I the only one that thinks Bush's logic is as sound as his speaking ability?

Will not rest until Osama is captured?

Oh.... I'm in a mood today - my lunch wasn't very good...

It appears that the Republican idea of running government is passing legislation for each poor vegetative person whose medical condition is under review. And they thought Hillary's plan was complicated? Ooh ooh, do I get a bill of my own if I'm physically and mentally incapacitated and Tiffany wants to pull the plug? I wonder if the right-to-life/big government fans would come protest for me, so a miracle might bring me back and I can tell them all where to get off, once again. (Or perhaps while I'm asleep for fourteen years, that pesky unpatriotic first amendment will finally be repealed, so when I wake up spewing venom about the radical right, they'll wheel my gurney right into a jail cell.)

Well, at least now that poor Terry Schiavo's medical condition has been covered by an emergency midnight session of Congress, we can get back to the important matter at hand: Do a small number of highly paid entertainers (otherwise known as Major League Baseball) use performance-enhancing drugs? (And could our entertainment in this day and age be somehow artificial enhanced? Oh, could not possibly happen! - eyes rolling -)

At least it's nice to see our president and Republican congress get back to priorities they are well suited to handle. I continue to hope and pray that nothing terrible happens to this country while our government spends four more years asleep at the wheel. (Ah.... Makes sense... George Bush's faith-based America.... I'm sure the amount of prayer has skyrocketed over the past five years. Example: Please God, save us from this incompetence. Or, better: Please God, baseball is my sole means of self-worth in this world. Please save it, or else I will have to end my sorry existence, if Congress doesn't enact a law ordering a feeding tube me inserted into me first...)

Have a nice day!

Jury Duty

A synopsis of my first Jury Duty experience yesterday, taken from real live notes:

8:27 - Arrive just in time for the deadline. 90 people already there. Filled out the form. Read short pamphlet on the importance of jury duty. Stared at people staring at other people.
8:53 - Watched short film on the importance of jury duty.
9:10 - 15 minute bathroom and snack break - Started reading the book I brought on the history of Canada. Attendant came in and says we'll start going in at 9:30.
11:28 - Attendant came in and says we'll start going in at 1:30, and that we can take a break for 2 hours.
11:53 - Finished with lunch. Walked to Blasco Library to check my email from the computer lab. Thank goodness for a sunny day in Erie. (Can't drive home, or else I'll have to pay a lot extra for parking...)
12:57 - Stopped at Starbucks for a Caffe Mocha. Yes, I would have preferred Tim Hortons, but there was none within walking distance.
1:08 - Made it back to the jury assembly room. Most people are sitting about where they were before lunch. Funny how that works.
2:21 - Attendant came in and started to file us out to be reviewed for selection. They picked me to be in the first group for review, so at least I was done waiting in the same room for five hours.
3:23 - Jury gets selected. But not me? I wondered why. After all this, I'm found myself strangely disappointed as I walked back to my car without having experienced the thrill of exercising my civic duty. (Out of 40 some people, they only selected 14, so odds were I wouldn't get picked, but still, it makes you think about their criteria... Hrm....) I also found myself in a pretty good mood. Everyone seemed to take things really seriously, and even the few snide comments about the length of time it took and some of the odd proceedings were gentle. It left me with a newfound respect for my neighbors. (Not next-door, but neighbors in the grand sense.) Huh....

Uck.....

It's day three of the conference, we're flying out of Washington National at 4, and I feel sick. It's going to be a great day.

Lots of productive work related stuff going on, but I don't post work related things. (See disclaimer at the bottom of this page...) In the snippets of free time, we've had a great time. Got to ride the metro four times. It's been eight years since I've been on the subway, small town guy that I am. Got to see parts of DC I've never been to. I just hope it's jet lag.

I'll try to post pictures tomorrow.

Wow... wireless posting is fun

Another post from the wireless "cyber lounge" at the conference I'm attending in DC. Tiffany let me take the digital camera, but I neglected to bring a way to connect said camera to my laptop to post photos. Dummy dumb dumb. So pictures will come, but later...

We saw the National Museum of the American Indian today, which was a very well executed museum. If you've never been, it's worth the trip and a small donation. Had lunch at Old Ebbetts Grill right next to the White House (a passable to good lunch - quite crowded though) and now we're planning what sessions we'll be attending at the conference.

I love Washington DC. Of all big cities, it's the one that I feel the most comfortable in. Perhaps it's because it's so touristy. It reeks of arrogance and brash attitude. It's fun to watch. I'm glad I don't live here.

Silly things to do while travelling

I actually checked the flight status of my flight today in Pittsburgh via wireless internet on my laptop, at the Pittsburgh airport website, while I was SITTING AT THE GATE. I was too lazy to turn my neck around to read the sign.

In all truth. I didn't know the sign was there, until I laughed at myself for thinking to check it on line before actually looking around to see if there was a sign I could read from where I was sitting.

27% chance of becoming Sears

The Kmart near you has over a 1 in 4 chance of becoming a Sears Essentials or Sears Grand in the next 3 years. The closest Sears Grand being built near me is in the new shopping development in the North/Northeast suburbs of Pittsburgh.

I think that the possibility of shopping at a Kmart in 2010 is highly highly unlikely. Kinda sad, but I'm still on my Eddie Lampert theory of Kmart's jumping ship to the more robust Sears brand name, with a backup plan of pulling a silken pullstring on a golden parachute. In all honesty, the plan so far is a viable exit strategy from the tarnished Kmart image. I'm just too cynical these days to buy it still. If I were working for Kmart, I'd be hoping my store was on the conversion list sooner, rather than later.

I shall be in Washington DC next week for a conference, so don't look for too many postings. ('course if get bored enough I might be online....)

Tim Hortons is set to open on 26th Street in Erie on Saturday.... That's #2! Gotta go, I took an early lunch break today so that I could get some things done over everyone elses lunch.

9/11 Ripple Effects

Everytime the internet has problems at work, but our internal network is fine, I have a flashback:

On September 11, 2001 for me, the first sign that something was "wrong" was that the internet was really really slow, but everything seemed to be working fine on a technical level.

I was the Technical Support Manager at a local ISP.

We were getting no calls on the help line, which was really strange. Even stranger: The internet was really really slow. Most major sites would not load, but random smaller sites seemed to be working fine. Instead of trying to load Yahoo or CNN, one of the techs had thought to try GoErie.com, our local newspaper, which actually loaded all the way and had posted emergency notices that a plane had hit the WTC. Then shortly thereafter, we started hearing from enough other sources and visiting other accessible pages to see that this was the cause of the network slowness and that something major was going on. By this time, absolutely no one was calling in for tech support, so someone turned on the TV just in time for the second tower to get hit. What a day.

So my leftover nervous habit, 3 1/2 years out, is whenever there seems to be a very unusual network event, and I haven't heard for sure why it's happening, or there seems to be no immediate answer, I casually walk over to the TV and make sure it's on CNN. Not right away. But, invariably, if I have time to think about why the problem might be happening, my mind wanders back to September 11th, and I flip on the TV. Just in case.

Tim Hortons update... last for a while!

From GoErie.Com:

The second Tim Hortons, a Canadian company known for its doughnuts and baked goods, is scheduled to open Saturday at 2815 W. 26th St.

A third location is expected to open in August at the corner of East 12th and Holland streets.

My camera didn't have a memory stick in it, or else I'd have gotten pictures up for the 26th St. location. It is practically done.

Tim Hortons Grand Opening #1!

Tim Hortons WAS open on Peach Street - those dirty dirty tricksters snuck in and opened it under my nose... Well... At least it was still the grand opening by the time we got there today, so we got to get in on a little of the fun.



We got a glazed chocolate dip, a maple dip, a small box of Timbits, and two Mochas to go. The service was still a little bumpy and the coffee was overfilled, but it did not matter. They're still ironing out the kinks. The important thing is that there is Tim Hortons in Pennsylvania for THE FIRST TIME!!!!

Here is a blurry shot of the counter - the crowd was gathering even at 8am, including a couple of cops of course... The festivities included a couple of half-filled helium balloons and a couple of fancy signs outside. Way to roll it out folks.



Apparently, they have bagels at Tim Hortons. I am too busy fiddling with my coffee to notice the poster behind me.



Here is me, trying to enjoy the first taste of my overfilled Caffe Mocha. Oh, this was a long time in coming. Why do I feel like I'm in Hamilton Ontario?



Krispy Kreme? Starbucks? Buh-bye.

4 - 8 - 15 - 16 - 23 - 42

All I have to say is ABC has me totally hooked every Wednesday night at 8.

Oh... and there's a rumor one of the Tim Hortons in Erie is open today. Tiff and I are going to go check 'em out again tomorrow morning. If we come back with coffee and Timbits, I will post the news ASAP.

Simple Living

Spending Wisely is a basic site about how to live with less. I think it's the closest I've found to my personal philosophy about money, stuff, the environment, etc.... I don't agree with everything. I think practicality is a personal matter, and some of the things they suggest aren't practical for me. But the site stresses that for most Americans, even trying to be a little more conscious of their "stuff" and their money is better than nothing. That I think is the key. If buying more is the key to happiness, then we should be the happiest country on the planet. We're not. Hrmm....

On another note, I'm starting the behind the scenes work on the recipe page. I'm creating a 2nd blog to handle just recipes. More to follow!