Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category

And speaking of female pop stars and wretched excess…

Wednesday, December 9th, 2009

…former CNN movie critic Paul Tatara searches for the worst pop Christmas album of all time, and says the winner is…Christina Aguilera’s “Oh Holy Night”.

“Until Aguilera’s apparently astounding soulfulness bitch-slapped me into the 21st century, I had no idea the word “night” contained 14 syllables…or that every word contains 14 syllables.”

With audio snippet good-, er badness.

As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly

Thursday, November 26th, 2009

The classic “Turkey Drop” episode of WKRP in Cincinnati, in its entirety, via Hulu.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Today’s Firefox Irritation

Tuesday, November 24th, 2009

Opening every window at maximum sizes after I already re-sized every previous one and quit.

Version 3.0.15. (And don’t tell me to go to 3.5.x; I tried that, it was ten times as annoying and it broke FireFTP, which I need, to say nothing of the default restore madness… )

Megan McArdle on Dave Ramsey on Personal Finance

Monday, November 23rd, 2009

Here’s an interesting article on Dave Ramsey by Megan McArdle. I actually hadn’t heard of Ramsey until fairly recently, but I’ve been following a lot of his ideas (have an emergency fund, pay off debts, etc.) for quite a while. I would say I’m about 70% there, for good or ill. I have a much larger emergency fund, I have a 30-year rather than 15 year fixed mortgage, I have a car loan (though mostly paid off), I pay by credit card and pay off the balance at the end of the month for most purchases rather than paying cash, and I don’t give anywhere near 10% for charity. But over all, this is pretty sound financial advice, especially if you’ve had trouble with debt in the past. I had a little, but less than 1/10th the $100,000 the author racked up in student loans…

Fire. Fire! FIRE!

Sunday, November 22nd, 2009

How not to deep-fry a turkey. Not once, not twice, but eight different frying disasters. The first one is long and lame, but the rest have varying degrees of satisfying flamey goodness. (Or, more to the point, flamey badness.)

Do not try this at home…unless I’m in your will.

Hat tip to Instapundit.

How to make sure you won’t represent me

Wednesday, November 18th, 2009

By sending out mass-shotgunned letters based on dumb keyword searches like this:

From: letters@route.monster.com
Subject: (#263-MH1392) App Support Eng. needed!!!
Date: November 18, 2009 10:01:03 AM CST
Reply-To: ashafer@sigmainc.com

Hello [firstname],

We have an Application Support Engineer need for our client located in Boston, MA. (permanent full-time engagement) We found your profile online, and thought this opportunity might be of interest to you.
–snip—
Sigma caters to more than 40 clients across the country, so hopefully we can work together to place strong candidates, such as yourself, in the ever growing IT industry.

Thank you very much for your time, and I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Alexander P. Shafer
Recruiting Associate
Sigma Systems, Inc.
ashafer@sigmainc.com
www.sigmainc.com

1. Yes, it was sent out that way, “Hello [firstname]” and all.
2. I’m a technical writer, not an application support engineer.

No, Mr. Shafer, if this the quality of work Sigma Systems does, I don’t want you representing me…

More pictures from RoadRich’s move

Monday, November 16th, 2009

Right here.

Handy Moving Tips

Sunday, November 15th, 2009

During the course of moving all one’s worldly possessions from one location to another, one may encounter certain problems. Among these problems may be: What do I do about this 200-pound stacked washer dryer unit that I have located in my second story apartment up two flights of stairs? As I have recent first-hand experience with this very issue, I thought I would use my hard-won knowledge to elucidate the most preferable options for moving a 200-pound stacked washer dryer (henceforth, “the unit”) .

Therefore, consider the following options, listed in their order of desirability:

  1. Sell the unit to someone who will come around with several burly men to move it out of your apartment.
  2. Pay professional movers to move all your possessions, starting with the unit.
  3. Sell the unit to the people who will be taking your place in the apartment.
  4. Sell the unit to a second-hand appliance dealer, with the proviso that he must come and get the unit with his own team of burly men.
  5. Save the lives of several NFL offensive linemen from a stampeding elephant, at which point they will cry “You’ve saved our lives! How can we repay you?” Then you tell them that you need them to move the unit, at which point they will bitterly realize how you have tricked them, but it will be too late.

  6. Leave the unit as a lovely gift to the new apartment inhabitant.
  7. Abandon the unit.
  8. Put up several signs around your apartment complex stating: “Warning! Do not steal my completely unattended washer/dryer unit!”, each of which includes a map and arrows pointing to said unit, the unit itself being festooned with signs proclaiming “DON’T STEAL THIS!” Human perversity being what it is, this should guarantee that the unit will be stolen in short order.
  9. Do you like blowing things up? (This is a rhetorical question. If you have a Y chromosome, of course you like blowing things up. Very much.) Well, now you have a nice solid washer/dryer unit upon which to satisfy those desires. (Warning: Owner of blog disclaims any and all responsibility for an inadvertent maiming that may ensue from following this course of action. Or for that matter, advertent maiming. But neither will prevent me from posting the videos to YouTube.)
  10. Inform the police that the previous tenant used the unit as part of a marijuana-growing, which will force them to come out and seize the unit as evidence.
  11. Imagine that there are several hundred other detailed ideas for disposing of the unit listed here.

  12. Consider the tranquil eternity awaiting you in the sweet release of death.
  13. Should each and every one of these clearly superior options, for some reason, not be available to you, you may consider, strictly as a last resort, having several of your not necessarily burly friends bring over a dolly and manhandle the unit down the stairs and out to the truck. There are, however, drawbacks to this approach:
    A. The possibility of immediate, painful death to someone below you should your grip slip. Gravity is a harsh mistress.
    B. If you are the one situated below, in addition to the possibility of immediate, painful metal death barreling down an apartment stairway toward you, you also have joy of knowing, at the end of the day, that your shoulder will look like this:

Light Blogging, Friend Moving

Saturday, November 14th, 2009

Light blogging today today while I help a friend move from Southeast Austin to less South but more East Austin.

Q: Isn’t your blogging usually light every day?

A: Quiet, you! No one likes a smart ass.

Q: If no one likes a smart ass, why on earth would anyone ever read your blog?

A: Good point.

Happy Friday the 13th!

Friday, November 13th, 2009

Today’s Magic Word: Triskaidekaphobia