Well Ms. Dixie throws one of the best Tupperware parties. She had some demonstrations. One nice fellow helped her demonstrate the use of a reverse engineered can opener. It removes the glue instead of tearing apart the can. The poor man must have been intimidated by the gay folk and lesbians, he had some trouble figuring out how to open his can of fruit cocktail. Ms. Dixie felt so sorry for the fellow that she gave him the can of fruit cocktail to take home so he wouldn't starve to death.
Ms. Dixie told us the history of the first Tuppaware Lady and the first parties. Brownie Wise was a pioneer and the first female VP of the company.
Ms. Dixie decided to get the gay folk and lesbians involved in a demonstration/competition. They had to catch and properly rim the Tupperware bowls. Well the same two gay folk that were showing affection actually won the rimming competition.
After the party was over, a couple of the straight folk decided to chat with the rimming champions. well as it turns out, the one guy was none other than the infamous Squarebear. He is like one of the city's social savants - he knows like almost everyone. Well, everyone worth knowing that is. So the straight folk thought this Squarebear person was very nice and they enjoyed Ms. Dixie's Tupperware show. I myself had to indulge in buying a couple of pieces for a house warming gift. And as Ms. Dixie might say, "Hooker, you are going to love this shit."
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Today I hit "Race to Witch Mountain" with the nephews. I'm not much of a Rock fan, but I have to admit that this was a good Disney flick. Great special effects, interesting twists to the original story line, and left open for a sequel.
I did go into the theater eyes wide open. Realizing that this was more of a kid's attraction I expected a large portion of the audience to be kids. To my surprise, no a single kid issue form anyone. There was however parent that spent most of the movie texting. I was in a perfect position to see the bright blue white glow of the iPhone. So I decided I'd rather have 1 idiot parent than several hundred rude kids. |
Since moving to the burbs at the rip old age of 4 ½, we have always had cats and/or dogs. I can’t remember one of the cat’s names. When I lived in Chicago, I had alley cats and guard dogs as pets.
On family vacations, If I could I’d buy local rock collections as my souvenir. I’d also try and get my family to visit local caves or go rock hunting. When we were in Bermuda for vacation, I convince my family to go to the Island cave. The cave was closed for the winter season.
I watched Doctor Who back in the day when they would show one 30 minute episode a day. And then on Sunday nights when they started showing complete episodes on Sunday night in the early 80’s I would stay up and be tired all day Monday in high school.
Last time I went out to the bars I was wearing my boxer shorts with bears all over them (under my jeans of course).
I had a set of teddy bears growing up – papa bear, moma bear and baby bear. I still have one of them in my toy box.
I like to collect free gym memberships. I have a Bally’s lifetime membership with no fees.
I used to do a radio show in high school. It was part of DGDWAS.
I was a founding member of DGDWAS – Downers Grove Doctor Who Appreciation Society. The club shirts were designed by DuPage artist Mary Yezek.
Just by random chance, my freshman year room mate in college had attended my high school for 2 years before his family moved to Canada. We have a number of friends in common and didn’t know it.
I was a founding member of my fraternity at NIU.
Was thrown riding a horse and did a mid-air summersault before hitting the ground. Bruised my ribs form the inside.
I have been taking pictures since I was 7. I used a picture I took for my holiday cards in 2008.
Book reading habits include Terry Brooks, Roger Zelazny, Stephen R. Donaldson, Michael Moorecock. Tolkien and John Gregory Betancourt.
Changing careers – after 19 years in the IT industry, I am going back to school for nursing. I started volunteering at Good Sam in Out Patient Lab and the ER.
I have been out of the country 3 times – Canada, Mexico and Bermuda. When trying to leave Bermuda, the taxi got a flat tire on the way to the air port. We would have missed out flight if not for the fact that the plane coming to get us developed engine trouble and had to turn around. It was a DC10 back when they were having engine trouble.
At age 6 months I split my head open on a coffee table. Broken my left arm at 2 by running into a couch playing Ricochet Rabbit. Got knocked backward into a tree at age 7 and had a compound fracture of my left arm and broke the wrist in 3 places. I also have ripped the tendons in my right ankle, broken numerous toes and broke my tooth and jaw.
My favorite saying (this week): “A friend is someone who will help you move. A real friend is someone who will help you move a body.”
I had dinner this week with a nuclear physicist.
Favorite superheroes: Starboy (bronze age version), Dr. Fate, Firestar, Magik. Favorite super hero twins: NorthStar & Aurora.
I’m not left handed, I’m not Chinese and I can’t sing.
Love to wake up to the smell of coffee and bacon in the morning.
I enjoy long bike rides. I generally pick areas where I can pick apples, black berries and bosen berries or see wild life like deer and coyotes.
I would like to learn how to make my own furniture, learn to draw and paint, learn to swim like a fish. I would like to vacation at Crater Lake Oregon.
My big toes had names when I was little – Albert and George.
While checking completed and canceled projects, I saw a couple of odd things. The first job that I looked at was for 1 months work for $500. That would be $3.13 per hour assuming 160 hours, $6.25 per hour assuming 80 hours of work. Current minimum wage is $6.55 per hour. This position was located in Albany nd I had all the skills. The local grocery store pays better.
The next job I looked at was a project manager with my mainframe skill set. Time period 1 month, budget $10,000. Location of request origin - India. So this posistion was payig $62.50 an hour (low by US terms for a full project manager).
These jobs struck me funny for a couple of reasons. First, the pay rates are groslly out of whack. Who would code for $6.25 an hour and what company would want a software developer that is asking htat little. Second, now we are seeing job requests coming out of India for high end professionals. Wasn't corporate America's reason for out sourcing to India to get the high tech market cheap? If the jobs are just looped around the planet where is the savings? Average bid by US and Indian project amangers was $21,774.86. The position was cancelled due to lack of interest at the rate offered.
Here are some of the details from yet another position: we are looking for Mainframe expert in the below areas. COBOL II and above, CICS, EZTrieve, SQL, DB2, JCL, Abendaid,CA7, FileAid, ISPF, SPUFI, IBM Utilities (Idcams, Syncsort, IEFBR14). Experience in an environment using IBM Mainframe Hardware and IBM Z/OS, TSO, IMS, WIndows XP Ope .. ready to pay top $$, 30-50/hr depending on experince. project could last 6-10 hrs. involoves
teaching one person on this topics remotely. we will provide you remote teaching tools. you need to have knowledge of these subject.
So what they are looking for is to have someone come in, spend 10 hours rianing and having staff up to spead on these technolgies. First of all, i could spend 10 hours on DB2 alone and still have more to teach for an intro class. Second, 10 hours at $50 an hour is $500 for a training course. This one is best described as clueless.
So any wonder why I am thinking about switching careers?
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Cylon So I got back to my house yesterday and had a package waiting. Inside was a toaster and no note. I picked it up and still couldn't figure out who sent it. When I turned it around I saw the cyclon symbol. It took about 2 seconds to figure out who sent me my own personal cylon (AKA toaster). It's the year of the nerd gifts. I also got star trek pez dispensers. |
One person was handicapped and in a wheelchair. He needed less help than the other 4.One woman had 2 carts worth of crap and was taking forever. She and her kid were blocking most of the aisle to get out of the fast lanes. Another woman had coupon issues. Granted with about 20 or so coupons the odds of an issue are fairly high. She had so many issues her huge order suspended because she walked away and didn't see the warning about waiting too long.
With no one in front of me, it took almost 15 minutes to get thru the fast lanes. In retrospect I should have gone to one of the regular lanes (no 15 item or less since they have fast lanes).
On a separate note, Kohls has started the new holiday line system. Instead of lining up for a specific register, everyone goes into 1 huge line and the person at the front goes to the next available register. I started counting as i was walking out - 72 people in line, 6 registers open. Th people waiting to check out where blocking the main (left right) isle of the store). Makes me not want to shop at kohls. Best Buy does the same thing.
Most of the candles in my house melted and caused secondary damage. I now have a purple fridge that smells of wild berries (this was a huge candle) and my couch had the big purple wizard candle on top of it (melted from the table and fell on to the arm of the couch). All of Allyson's canles form her candle business melted.
The Tiki Cnadles became Tiki puddles. I dont even want to think what the XMAS and Halloween candle messes will look like when I finally find the boxes.
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The Dawn of Amber "Nice princes of Chaos, all torn asunder; Six Princesses of Chaos, where do they wander? Fly falcon, stout hart, and unicorn brave; Between the shadows, to escape your grave." I just finished reading "The Dawn of Amber" by John Gregory Betancourt. It is a trilogy set at the beginning of the Amber history, actually the pre-Amber history in the first book. Only the Logrus in the Courts of Chaos exists at this point. Basically the Chaos version of the pattern Amber readers are familiar with. The Logrus grants different powers than the Pattern of Amber. There are a couple of familiar characters from Roger Zelazny's Amber series. We get to met Dworkin before while he is still sane. Okay maybe it would be more correct to say less insane. We also get to see a young Oberon as a soldier in shadow unaware of his family legacy. When he does meet the family, he is crippled and much less of a threat than some of the family members originally considered. There are a number of similarities between the early family of Dworkin and the characters of Zelazny's books. And of course we have lots of intrigue and court going on's. There is also a sub plot with Oberon concerning his family, or lack thereof. From 14 years on he believed he was orphanede. As an adult he finds out about all these brothers and sisters he never knew and his his father! This book basically introduces the characters and sets the scene. It's really more of a launching point for the next 2 books of the series. This is an easy read and a reader need not read the Zelazny series to understand the book. I personally would recommend reading the Zelazny series first than the Betancourt books. That way yo won't spoil some of the mysteries in the Amber series. |
When you out source jobs, you not only take the jobs away, you also take money out of the economy, lose expertise in the jobs, and basically dumb down the jobs. I have been saying for awhile now that you also have other concerns that should be factored into a company's out sourcing. First is disaster recovery of the off shore sites. One of the buildings that my last company out sourced jobs to was right on the shoreline. Several times tropical storms would make getting to those technical hubs impossible. It's just a matter of time before one of the technical hubs is permanently taken out my nature. Another concern was location. When the executives need to do site audits, it's not like jumping on a plane and getting there in 8 or less hours. Some out sourced locations require days to get to by multiple planes and car.
Another issue that has been sighted is security. Not just data security, but also about security of the location. The violence today has the potential to put a lot of companies into chaos. Even if the work continues to done while the hostages and deaths are dealt with, what company in their right mind is going to risk having their entire customer service division or their medical imaging department go off line for a month or two. Then add in the onsite audits. What chief operating officer is going to want to stay in war zone.
- Mood:
irate
Just glad we can't out source the military to India....yet. First we need to work on out sourcing managment to India and see if that imrpoves corporate America.
Pookie and I ran off to mom's favorite restaurant, the Bohemian Crystal in Westmont (AKA The house of Pork, Pork, and more Pork). We had this 6' plus super model type waitress. We brought home food for mom (and she snarfed down half of the order). Pookie ran off to the Bolingbrook Ikea.
Sunday, Cousin (in-law) Debbie stopped in for a visit. She brought a heavy winter coat for my mom and cooking. She's a major sweetie. She visited for about 2 hours.
And today no one has stopped by with coats or food or goodies of any kind. Monday is such a sad day.
There is a section on starting hit points. While the final play testing and brain storming on this is not yet over, there are several options for how to handle 1st level hit points. One option also includes adding hit points by your race. Frail races (elves) get 4 additional HP, humans get 6 while tough races (half-orcs) get 8.
Hit dice have changed for Bards (d8), sorcerer/wizards (d6).
Fighters now get a bonus when using armor due to their extensive training. This starts out at +1 at 3rd level and increases to +4 at level 15. At 19th level, fighters gain armor mastery giving them DR 5/-. Fighters choose weapons by groups (axes, heavy blades, etc…). For each group selected the fighter gets +1 to hit and damage. At 20th level the fighter gets weapon mastery – choose 1 weapon, all critical threats are automatically confirmed. Based on the verbiage, it looks like burst weapons automatically cause extra damage but you would still need to roll for leather affects. So my fighter’s vorpal mercurial long sword could do x4 damage but not sever the head if the roll to confirm the threat is not made.
Paladin lay on hands has changed. You get to use it (half level + cha modifier) times a day. Each use cures (level) of damage. Doing the math, a 10th level paladin with a cha of 18 gets to lay on hands 9 times a day curing 10 points each time – 90 hp of healing a day. At 12th level, the paladin can use 2 lay on hands to neutralize poison. At 18th level, the paladin can use 4 lay on hands to heal.
Sorcerers get blood lines. Now all our sorcerers can become dragon blood sorcerers and have some form of damage resistance.
Wizards become specialists…..of sorts. You need to choose a school and two prohibited schools. However, you can still use prohibited spells but just lose the benefits of your school for the day. As long s you don’t break the rules, you always have a spell to cast. In the case of a conjurer, you can cast acid dart every round (range 30’, damage 1d6 +1 / 2 levels).
Skills have been consolidated. Acrobatics = balance, jump, tumble. Linguistics = forgery, decipher script, speak languages. Each rank in linguistics gives you a new language.
Trained class skills now get a +3 bonus. If you multiclass you can gain new class skills. Once a class skill, you get the bonus. You no longer have to pay extra for cross class skills.
Cleric spells – lose cure minor. Cleric domains have been balanced. No longer does the war domain give you the weapon focus feat.
Some changes to magic items. Staves now only contain 10 charges. Spell casters can recharge these on a daily basis. Boots of elfin kind provide a +5 bonus to acrobatics. I never really like the change for elfin boots and cloaks from 2nd edition to 3rd edition. There are some name changes too (Keoghtom’s ointment is now restorative ointment).
Magic item creation no longer uses XP.
Lots of new art to look at. There also seems to be an effort that was made to provide more detail.
It's a shame Al Gore didn't invent the internet fifty years earlier. Then everyone could have watched and asked "Who's that guy? And what happened to President Hoover?"
Mabe after the election he can find some time to see to his aunt's needs.
Shipping estimate:October 29, 2008
Delivery estimate:November 3, 2008 - November 17, 2008
That's anywhere from 9 to 23 days from the date the order was placed. I'm all for saving money. But if it's going to take 3 weeks to get a book, they need to be telling people up front not wait a week before adding that to the order.
I looked them up and the constitution defines two major responcibilities:
1 - becoming President should the President become unable to serve
2 - sometimes acting as the presiding officer of the U.S. Senate.
As President of the Senate, the Vice President has two primary duties:
1 - to cast a vote in the event of a Senate deadlock
2 - preside over and certify the official vote count of the U.S. Electoral College.
Based on that job description, the position rocks. How often is the president going to not be able to do his job. Second, how often will you have to preside over Senate?
Aswith all poistions, there is always the assumed "other duties as assigned." This is highly dependant on the relationship between the president and vice president and the skills and expereince of each.
And while I'm at it, who cares if one party spent $150K on cloths (AND OTHER ITEMS). They didn't put together a 30 minute 4 million dollar commercial. My math might be getting rusty, but isn't 150K still less than 4 million?
I think we need a voting test similar to the math before sending email that Bryan wrote about awhile back. If you out drinking and write an email, if you can't do basic math you can't send the eamil. Let's try that with voting. Ask 10 grade level 6 math questions. Get more than 2 wrong and you can't vote.
While I was there, I did notice that I am behind on a couple of my favorite authors. So I will be adding the books below to my holiday and birthday wish list.
Stephen R. Donaldson
The Runes of the Earth (The Last Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, Book 1)
Fatal Revenant: The Last Chronicles of Thomas Covenant
Terry Brooks:
Armageddon's Children (The Genesis of Shannara, Book 1)
The Elves of Cintra (Genesis of Shannara)
The Gypsy Morph (The Genesis of Shannara, Book 3)
Update: Thursday night while filling out a job application, there were 2 interesting questions: What is the last book you read and what is your favorite book. First one is easy, "Rich Dad, Poor Dad." I have been trying to finish this book for ages. It had a very slow start. The second question is a lot harder. I went with "Nine Prices in Amber." Not sure it that's my favorite, but it's easy to remember in case it comes up in an interview.
This week, two people have told me how great the Obama tax cuts would be for the middle class. I have seen the number analysis from a couple of sources. Assuming that the data analyst didn't fib, then the following is how the numbers break out:
Up to $66,354 the Obama tax breaks help you more.
From $66355 to $226,981 the McCain tax breaks help you more.
Going up from $226,982 McCain's benefit the upper class while Obama's take more. In fact, it looks like an additional 11.5% more taxes.
Of course some people are going to scream tax breaks for the rich under the McCain plan. But this just seems to hide the details of the plans for the middle class. Middle class is what the Obama side has been talking about. I could be mistaken, but if you political party says middle class makes up to $200,000 ($250,000 for married couples), then how can you say your tax plan is helping the middle class when you actually look at the projected numbers?
The first person this week that was McCain bashing was also cutting my hair, a self proclaimed socialist. Now the same woman was complaining that she wasn't making enough money and that it was somehow the governments fault. She is making around $12 per hour plus tips. when I started talking about the break down her response was "I don't care about the people making more than me. I need more money and should be taxed less. The rich should pay more."
So stepping back, this struck me funny for a couple of reasons. First, instead of working harder and trying to improve her job situation, this woman has been doing the same job since high school. Second, if you only care about your own situation, how can you expect people that are in a better situation to want to help you. I could go on and on, but I don't have the time to go into why this type of situation is counter productive to getting yourself what you want.
Over the years I have been learning more and more about how money works, what drives the economy and how we generate more money. The more money there is circulating in the economy, the more money is generated. Yes, money is created and money can be destroyed. In times of recession, when people pull back on spending, money disappears from the economy. The more times a dollar can cycle thru the economy, the more money generates from it. If everyone pull their money out of the markets and stuffs their mattresses, the economy goes backwards and money evaporates.
There are those people that swear by "trickle down economics" and others that swear at it. Regardless of your position, think about why both sides have talked about economic stimulus packages. If each family has an extra $1000 to spend, that extra money starts cycling thru the economy and generating more money. By year end it might only have generated an extra dollar or two, but this is extra money.
Another interesting point to look at are those people that are in the upper pay ranges and what happens when they start approaching higher tax penalties. Take the guy making $600K a year. Why should he work harder and take a pay increase when that increase could actually cost him more (look at the math if you don't believe this statement).
You tax people enough and they could simply decide it's easier to retire early and wait till the economic climate is better for growth. Take the time now and go fishing and wait till the leaders actually stop trying to keep their jobs instead of doing their jobs. And for those people just sitting around bitching, do some reading and get multiple points of view on things.
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