2 Months
The time to get money back from the government.

Yeah.. That was it. Please excuse my brevity. WordPress Mobile

More Jobs

I love how everyone uses the “more jobs” argument.  Sure, anything that requires humans will create jobs, but does that mean we should do it?

Sustainability?

For a long time the US has been known to consume much more food and resources per capita than any other country in the World.  Why is it so hard for us to be self sufficient?  Wouldn’t it be ideal if we did not have to rely on other countries for anything?

Think about it….if we produced all products locally, we would increase the number of jobs in this country exponentially!  Just think about how many products we buy are imported?

OIL – Seriously, why are we so slow to find alternate energy sources.  We continue to be brainwashed by “Clean Coal” and other statements of job creation using finite natural resources?

Solar and Wind

Why are we not tapping solar and wind energy, truly renewable resources which have little or no impact on the environment!  Shouldn’t we invest in solar panel technology which could be used in place of Windows?  How much glass is used on the exterior or buildings these days?  In the country side, conventional solar panels could be used and wind turbines would be very effective.

Money Talks

Granted I don’t have facts to prove it, but you have to wonder how much money is being invested by companies to slow down our progress in energy efficiency and sustainability.

I have been so happy to see cyclists obeying traffic laws, specifically traffic lights!

Yay!

• More Stations
• More Bikes
• More Station Balancing

Along with the original reasons

• Zero Maintenance
• No Theft Potential
• No Batteries for Lights

The expansion of the Bike Share system has really alleviated the number of empty or full racks by the addition or expansion of stations and additional bikes.  Granted this comes in the winter and perhaps ridership is down due to the cooler temps, but recently whenever I have wanted a bike, there has been one, sometimes only one, and always a spot in my destination rack :)  Before the expansion, I was able to walk past 3 empty stations on my way to work and ended up just taking public transportation.  I sometimes will supplement my travels with a CaBi leg to additional transportation.

Go CaBi

So…hats off to d. and Bike Arlington for making this system one that will be around for good, unlike the first stab at bike shared called “Smart Bike” which was added by d. in order to give Clear Channel Communications advertizing rights on the bus stations.

Find someway to provide sanitized helmets and the system would seem perfect :)

Dilemma

While I have heard that in some languages, accent and tone can complete change the meaning of a word, I did not realize that English was one of those, but here is an example to support this.

How do you pronounce the following….

1. Lawyer and Liar
2. Sheet and Shit
3. Beach and Bitch

Firstly…. Lawyer and Liar and sometimes considered synonyms.  I am just kidding of course, but there are times when this is true.

Second…. Here is where we chucked a bit, but I was glad to help as it is certainly important to make sure these words are pronounced correctly.  The big lesson here is the vowel pronunciation.  They do have a very strong accent, so even while I explained the difference between “ee” = “eeeeeee” and ‘i’ = “ih,” the words still sound almost the same :)

Thirdly…. Basically the same dilemma as number 2.

Practice

I came up with the following sentence to help reinforce this lesson.

“Don’t take any sheets from the beach.”

Granted it is not the best, but I think you get the idea :)

Tom Cruise and Paramount?

Maybe I read the tabloids, but I thought that when Tom Cruise declared his belief in Scientology, that Paramount dropped him from all movie contracts, but several years later, back they are working together.

Technology!

While I do work in DC, I don’t work for a defense contractor, so maybe for you guys the technology is already used in the military today, but for me, real or not, it was really cool!  While more complicated than one would think, the projection screen with a camera behind it to camouflage them as they moved closer to the guard station was really nice.  Also, Apple must have shelled out a few advertizing bucks as the iPad was used quite often and they all had iPhones.

The briefcase with document printer was also really cool.  Paired with a camera contact lens, pretty cool.

Probably the cheesiest technical item were the seemingly static cling gloves.  While it did not seem that possible, the sound they made when “energizing” was truly annoying.  It was really funny when they broke after just a short time, I guess that was the realistic part :)

The Best MI Movie?

I do need to watch the first 3 over again, but I do have to agree that the movie was action packed and had the actors tossed in a fair share of comical statements along the way.  I am not sure if I will spend the money on Blu-Ray when it comes out, but it certainly will be a movie I will rent for a $1 to see again.

Overall is was not a bad movie, was quite engaging, but I guess I missed the point of the movie if there was one.

And yes…IMDB was able to confirm that there were indeed vampires, well an actor that plays a vampire, in this movie. :)

Have you seen these ads?

• Mesothelioma – Asbestos exposure
• DePuy Artificial Hip – Defective causing cancer
• Used a Pelvis Sling?

Blog or Tweet your life

Be sure you document everything you eat and do as you could be awarded money years from now. LOL  I am kidding, but it is unfortunate to see the different recalls and health hazards that have come to light years later.

• Used Topomax for Epilepsy/ Migraines - Cleft palate and other birth defects

Soy?

I have not been so keen on Soy, so I started with the lactose free milk from the grocery store.  Seems to be about the same price, $8 per Gallon.  Ouch!

If you have been fortunate to have a piece of equipment work until it just gets too old for your use…probably mostly technology or energy draining appliances, you may discover it tries to survive.

My Head…My Arm….

If you don’t turn the computer off first you have to deal with the computer as it knows you are killing it.  Blinding the computer by turning off the monitor is bad enough, but when you disconnect cables, that is where the anger begins to build.  Think if the keyboard and mouse as the arms, monitor as the head, speakers as the mouth, and microphone as ears.  Disconnecting them causes the computer to go into a state of panic.  If you are using a PS2 Keyboard or Mouse, sometimes the panic is so great that the machine freezes and you have to pull the power cord to ease the pain and restore function.

“My Mind is Going…..I can Feel it”

Much like the HAL 9000 in Stanley Kubrick’s “2001: A Space Odyssey,” computers have feelings too. This is why when it was time at work to recycle 8 year old computers I got a few bumps and scrapes.

Think about it.  They have been working hard for such a long time.  They have been used, but not really taken care of.  Example: How many of you open up your computer to clean out the dust?

Dells

Desktops anyway seem very easy to get into.  While there is some dust inside, you don’t have to touch much to get the hard drive out.  Yank the power and SATA interface cable and quick release the drive and snap her closed.

eMacs

Besides being obsoleted by Apple, these Power PC machines were solid.  Both in performance and weight thanks to the all in one design with a CRT!  In order to securely recycle these machines which are no longer supported with security updates, one needs to remove the hard disk drive.   Back then these were manufactured, 2004, the only access panel was on the bottom and it contained the CMOS battery and Memory slots.  This is probably fine for most users, but eventually you will need to replace the DVD drive or Hard Drive, but that apparently is not something a user is supposed to do.

Something is up….

To get access to the hard drive you need to remove 9 screws on the outer case, which is a allen key.  Probably was a deterrent at the time, but allen keys are very easy to acquire today.  Granted it took a while to find the right one, Metric vs US, the screws were on very tight and if you did not get them just right, stripped them and then you were SOL.  Well…almost.  The cover is plastic and some of the stuck screws, usually only one on a cover, a hammer and brute force usually is enough.  The plastic is amazingly tough considering how old they are.  Don’t we get brittle as we get older?  LOL.  By this point the computer has fought a bit, but the fight is not over.

Skin Drying Dust

Once you get inside, you see all the dust and that is where the fun begins.  This dust makes you wonder what we breath in every day of our lives!  Computers don’t normally smoke, so this is everyday air!  Maybe we should wear masks :)

Wading through the dust you need to remove close to 30 more screws and finally you can free the hard drive.  At this point the computer’s memory is gone, but you need to be careful as the sharp metal parts and dust are still there fighting.  Kind of like how our fingernails and hair continue to grow when we die…or so I have been told.   Toss the extra screws inside and secure a few on the outside and viola!

Does grass have feelings too?

Okay, so computers really aren’t alive at the moment.  They do get abused and used all their life only to have us toss them when they get of age.  They can seriously hurt you since they have sharp edges, especially when you are inside of a computer trying to locate the elusive hard drive.

But….plants are alive….makes you wonder.   ;)