President Mike Ditka

Without fanfare, I was removed from the PlanetSun.org listing today, some 70 days or so since I was laid off with 3299 others.  As Dave Attell says at the end of each Insomniac episode, "well, I still have my pictures!".  Thanks for all the fish, everyone.  
 
I mused about underemployment a few days ago, when the receipt checker at Sam's Club mentioned that he held an MBA.  His job now is to make sure the number of items in your basket equal the number on the receipt.  
 
Here's an article along a tangent: The high cost of employee disengagement talks about how workers are showing up, but not being productive. This doesn't surprise me, given my rationale for working from home the last few years. When I'd go into the office (the cube farm) I could hear 6 or so conversations at a time, and almost never about work. There were people who show up to play Fantasy Sports (online), or read the newspaper or a novel, or track their portfolio, or find and print recipes, or arrange their soccer team's schedule. But work? Not part of the game plan.  Naturally, all those slackers still have high-paying jobs; go figure. See the article about cyberloafing (if you have nothing else to do).
 
Spotted: FreeAdvice Forums has lots of good stuff regarding everyday legal issues. Recommended reading, and the price can't be beat.  It's something you can do from the office, while pretending to work (see the preceding paragraph if you missed the irony).

career change?

Now I know what a police sketch artist feels like. I tried to create an avatar of myself for the UD Agent forum (maybe there weren't enough options) but here's what I came up with:

 
Think you can do better? Go to dookyweb.com and try it yourself.

Unrelated: I updated Week 6 of the Sundry on Thursday blog for the week; please try to curb your enthusiasm.

shiny new PC

On Monday, I went to Fry's Electronics in Plano, partly just to look around, and partly intending to buy a USB hub. I ended up buying a new PC instead, after rationalizing it all. It just doesn't make economic sense to try to make a Yugo into a rice rocket.

I wanted to expand the number of USB ports on my old PC, and maybe buy a DVD burner since the prices have dropped (amazing how the 700 MB limit of a CD-R seems quaint). After thinking it over, I bought an AMD Athlon-powered box with 6 USB ports, a 160 GB disc, 512 MB RAM, DVD+R/RW burner, 9:1 card reader, pre-installed Windows XP Home Edition. The CPU is a pantload faster than my old box, and will be able to munch the UD Agent (searching for smallpox and cancer cures) much faster.

Years ago, I would've taken great delight in assembling this from parts so as to get the best of everything, but the manufacturers finally figured out how to make money by doing it themselves for a fraction of the "parts price". I kept my old monitor, printer and backup drive and skillfully dodged the salesman's attempt to sell a warranty extension. The $50 rebate is a pain, but I'll humor them and mail the paperwork tomorrow.

I used Aloha Bob's PC Relocator (includes a bi-directional parallel cable) to move my data and applications from the old Windows 2000 PC). I let PC Relocator run overnight, and it was mostly done when I woke the next morning .. pretty effortless. Some apps required reinstalling (such as the Yahoo! and Google Toolbars, and the RealOne Player), but they were in the minority. My biggest problem was the partitioning .. my old box had 2 logical drives and so did the new one, but the 2nd partition on the new box is small, containing the Windows XP media (when re-installing is needed). So, I backed up the 2nd (data-only) partition to my Acom Data (external IEEE-1394 box) and just restored it onto the new system's first partition. Firewire was much faster than parallel.

Odd stuff: most new PCs lack a diskette drive, since everyone's comfortable emailing large files (broadband becoming common) or burning a CD-R. This HP Pavilion a620n is no exception; the diskette is an optional purchase. My old PC wasn't loud, and this one's even quieter; that's a good trend. I can easily hear the clock ticking from 2 meters away. The built-in card reader is good, too, so I can dispense with the external USB card reader I've been using (for Compact Flash; Smart Media; and my Palm's SD card (not much larger than my thumbnail).

Deep Thought #38: I would not want to be in charge of plant security anywhere, if I had to track everything capable of storing the bits coming and going.

Once I'm convinced that everything's migrated, I'll decide whether to keep my Sony PC around. I may leave stick it in a closet and leave it online just to run the UD Agent. Otherwise, I'll nose around the National Safety Council's website: How to Donate, Reuse, or Recycle Your Old Computer, or just take it to Office Depot for the HP recycle thing announced yesterday. Pity the recycle promotion is only offered through Labor Day (about 7 weeks away). Hmmm.

Finally ... a good use for GWB!

After more than 3.5 years in office, the GOP finally found a good use for GWB: putting his name on a ketchup bottle (W Ketchup). Rumor has it that they're trying to get this classified as a vegetable, suitable for the school lunch program. Their FAQ says that W stands for Washington, but we all know better.

unrelated: ToppleBush.com

from smallpox to peaches

Today is my one year anniversary of running the United Devices Agent (as a background task) on my PC. Every few days, I check the status display to see whether it's looking for a cure for Cancer or Smallpox (it's always one or the other). I think this is much more productive than searching for extra-terrestrial radio stations.

Completely unrelated: after breakfasting with Eric-Bob at Bic's, I went to the
Parker County Peach Festival  (in Historic Downtown Weatherford) - about 70 miles from home. One of the first things you see when entering the city is one of those ugly blue-and-grey buildings, with the yellow letters on the front. Fortunately, it returns to mid-size Texas town soon after. I basically "winged it" today .. I knew roughly where the town was, and exited at the 2nd of 3 exits from I-20, then followed the cars. There were numerous signs for "Shuttle Service" but I decided to try parking near the event (I arrived at 1pm). It was no problem finding parking about 1 block away, and then I moseyed through the exhibits, listened to some music, and sampled some peach ice cream and a peach smoothie (both were Yummy - with a capital Y).

Pon Farr

Looking back, I'm not sure what I accomplished since Wednesday. Not sure whether that's good or bad. When the highlight of your day is remembering to watch Reno 911, well ...

I did something yesterday that I do about every 7 years: Boil The Stamps. When I was a mere lad, my father instilled in me the Joy Of Stamp Collecting. To this very day, whenever an envelope arrives in the mail, I instinctively look for a stamp and then dutifully toss it in The Bag. If the stamp is unusual, I will twirl in the air and squeal like an excited gherkin. Then, every 7 years (whether related to Pon Farr or a dormant cicada inside me) I awaken and decide that it is time to remove the backing from the stamps, and sort and organize them. Yesterday, I completed most of this ritual, and will conclude it today.

It involves filling a basin with warm water and dumping a few hundred stamps, still affixed to a shred of paper from the original envelope. After a time, they will easily separate at which point I remove them from the water and allow them to dry atop a sheet of wax paper. Then (ideally) I will place the stamps -- in an order only logical to me -- in appropriately labeled glassine envelopes, and await the next cycle (in 2011). Note that I do not place them inside a Stamp Collector's Album. While I did that in my bold and unchecked youth, I no longer succumb to that instinct.

Perhaps this collection will Fund My Retirement when all other attempts at financial independence have failed me?

can't get you out of my mind ...

It's obvious Michael Moore has gotten under a lot of skins in the past few weeks. I continue to wander across blogs where it says

"Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11 movie is anti-American. I'm proud to vote for GWB, because he's a Man Of Faith! I haven't seen the movie, since that would mean I'd have to pay money which would go to Moore. But when it comes out on HBO, you bet I'll be in front of the screen!"

These ostriches are insulting to those of who listen to opposing viewpoints before making up our minds. Sadly, this is The State Of The American Voter, who have been told what to think by Rush Limbaugh and Susan Coulter and others of their ilk. They'd be quite happy parroting what's on the anti-Moore websites: MooreLies.com and MooreWatch.com, or James Lileks' The Bleat (there are many others).

I'll wager that none of these ostriches ever took an accounting or economics class in their lives. Trying to explain that Michael Moore will receive a coin or two when his movie comes out on "free" HBO is like expecting Beta The Wonder Dog to translate Shakespeare into Swahili.