Lawnmower

After 6 months of rest my lawnmower started on the first pull this spring.

Name Game

Email from Jake The Snake.

Accounts needed on Brutus so far: Rob Laurer

Spelling and Pronounciation

How do you spell the pronounciation of the 8th letter of the alphabet?

Is it "aitch" or "haitch"?

Best of vs Greatest Hits

There should be a law against a band putting out both a "Best of" and a Greatest Hits CD. Arent these things the same? I dont mind a Greatest hits and maybe a Greatest Hits Volume 2. Where no songs overlap.

But look at the Stray Cats, one of my favorite groups. The "Best of" has 10 songs. 8 of them are also on the "Greatest Hits" I mean WTF? And they get pissed at us for downloading?

And I didnt even bring up The Stray Cats - A Retrospective. Only 2 of the 17 songs on G.H. are not on Retrospective.

And are you freakin ready for this? They also had another Greatest Hits CD come out back in 1992, It shares 5 of its 10 songs with the Best of.

Holy crap on a popsicle stick they also has ANOTHER Best of come out in 1990! And Im seeing all the same song names again with just a couple different.

And how about this. 2005. Runaway Hits: The Very Best of the Stray Cats. The VERY Best. Not just the Best. This is the real good stuff that was actually too good for the Best of. Think Stray Cat Strut and Rock This Town are on there?

And it goes on.
2001, Back to the Alley: Best of the Stray Cats
2004 The Very Best of The Stray Cats
2003 The Best of the Stray Cats
1999 The Best of Stray Cats
Heres one, 1996, Stray Cats, Archive. Song #1, Stray Cat Strut.
1997 Best of the Straycats. I assume this one was a foreign bootleg where they werent sure how to spell the band name
2004 Best of Stray Cats - Ultimate Selection. I assume that this is even better than the Very Best.
2002 Extended Versions. This is neither better nor worse that the Best of, Very Best of or Ultimate, its just extended.
2002 Best of the Stray Cats
1998 The Best of the Stray Cats
2003 3CD Box Set!!!! A box set! Finally all the Stary Cats hits in one Boxed Set! This is what we've been waiting for!
But that just wasnt enough,
2004 Very Best of Stray Cats

When will they be coming out with, The Stray Cats, Every Goddamn Song.

Golf

Resist the urge to practice irons in your yard. The correct way to play iron shots is to swing down on the ball. DOing this correctly will take a divot in front of where the ball used to sit. But since its your yard you dont want diviots all over the place. So you unconsiously either dont swing down or you pull up to not take a diviot. Either one actually hurts your swing more than helps it. If you want to practice, go to a range and rip up their lawn. Or visit your in-laws.

J-Code!

Ding! Just had to deal with some DOMINANT J-Code. An important email address was never being saved in an application, which was written some 6 months ago and the customer didn't notice until now. I don't know who is at fault anymore.

Suggestion

When buying your garbage cans, stick to those that rectangular in shape. If you get the round ones they will roll away with the wind. While this is an easy to accumulate garbage cans of your neighbors, it is somewhat awkward using then on subsequent garbage days because your neighbors will say "Hey isnt that my garbage can?" Which will cause one of 3 things to happen.

1. You will tell a foolish and easily disproved lie.
2. You will embarrassingly have to give the garbage can back.
3. You will have to hide in your garage for the rest of your life whenever you see your neighbor outside.

The rectangular ones will not roll away thus saving you time, energy and detective work tracking them down. And tell others to do the same. BOYCOTT ROUND GARBAGE CANS!!

VARCHAR2

Ok co the current limit on the VARCHAR2 is 4000. So when you have a variable amount of text, even if you expect it to one maybe a couple hundred chars long, you usually just sst it at 4000. Just to be sure.

SO what I want to know is lets say the max amount os oh 32000. What is the number you'd set the VARCHAR2 to for your basic field that you dont expect to go over a couple hundred chars but you want to make sure things dont crash. Will you stick at 4000? Use the 32000? Use 255 to maintain some some sort of backasswards Access compatibility?

Todays DONG!

I love when customers do this.
"I looked at my site and when I try to change xxx and it doesnt work. Can you fix it?"

Like the only thing I do all day is sit around and look at that one function in that one web site so I'll be able to go directly to the URL and know what input they are using that causes the error. I have written somewhere around a zillion individual webpages and yes some may have errors in certain unforseen circumstances. But how am I expected to know which one theyre talking about with that cryptic email.

American Trivia

Best/worst answer during American Trivia today: Complete the phrase, "Loose lips...". OG responds with "Loose lips lose wars".

More Naming Conventions...

From a customer...

"I talked with Jim Busby earlier today..."

Spelling

It is impossible to spell "convenient" correctly on your first attempt.

Personel Inquiries

Often during the day, people pop into the office, or IM me, asking where someone is. I usually don't mind this, but it can get tiresome. For analytical reasons, I've decided to record these inquiries for the duration of the week:

Monday, 1:30 PM - P&T come in looking for Robbo
Monday, 2:05 PM - B instant messages me "Hey Og, do you know if Rob will be back in today?"
Monday, 2:31 PM - M asks "Where's Robbo at?"
Monday, 3:28 PM - Anon asks "Is this guy ever in?" while pointing at BIG!'s office

Last Wednesday

The 19th will be my last Wednesday until fall. I will begin coming in on Tuesdays starting the the week of April 25th. ALthough I will kiss Wednesdays I am excited for the upcoming Tuesdays. WIth Tuesdays of course comes the potential for the rebirth of the traditional Taco Tuesdays from The Taco Johns on Regent. My standard order will be 4 hardshells with sourcreme and a ole's. I will also require 4 packets of mild and 4 packets of hot sauce.

Injury

I think I hurt my left wrist golfing. Thing is it doesnt hurt when I swing a golf club. Just when Im typing and stuff.

POP vs POS

One's good one's bad. You figure it out.

Wednesday

Im looking forward tobeing in the office tomorrow. A couple of non-B meetings but there should be plenty time for a meeting about the "world", or maybe a meeting about some "trivia"l admin work we need to do, or even possible about growing out own "horse"radish garden.

The biggest concern continues to be lunch. Gummer? Pizza? We could even celebrate the nice weather with tacos.

DONG!!!!!

A DONG!!! signifies a misguided customer alert. I got a big huge DONG today. Somebody tried to do something we expressedly said wouldnt work and then complained when it didnt work.

My New Band

Im starting a new band. Im gonna call it "Cram It". We will be a multi-genre group. Genres we support include but are not limited to:
Rock
Country
(c)Rap
Country-Rock
Top 40
Top 50
Flamenco
Ragtime
World Music
USA Music
Babershop
Chamber Music
Firm Music
Raggae

Can anybody play any instruments?

More Bloggin....

I think we need more useless blog entries. I will starting blogging more of my everyday thoughts, questions and aspirations

The Fridge (Photo)

And here's a photo of the new fridge...

The Fridge

So we have a new fridge. After numerous soda explosions and generally faulty operation, we finally decided to get rid of our old fridge. Robbo took donations and Poles worked the Craigslist angle to get us a great deal.

Last week we moved the new fridge in and unplugged the old one. While it was already a disgusting mess, the past few days haven't been good to it. Today the movers came to get rid of it, and as they carted it down the hallway, the fridge slowly leaked it's smelly water. Now, the entire hallway smells undescribably awful. I overheard some people down the hall talking about it... luckily the B has a one room buffer, so we're safe (I hope).

I'm concerned the hallway does not have sufficient ventilation to remove the smell. It could be with us for days.

UPDATE - the building manager is mopping up the stink! I'll go investigate and see if it remains....

UPDATE - the stink has been reduced, but is still noticeable...

Things that piss me off....

Ok Im at Piggly Wiggly this morning. I have under 12 items. This means I am allowed to go in the 12 items or less line, also known as the EXPRESS line. This line is the FAST line. People who have just a couple htings use this line to pay for their purchase.

So tell me why they put the 102 year old checker who still doesnt know how to use the built-in scale and has to have a conversaiton with each person buying stuff. Look I want to get in and out. Give me the fastest most unfriendly person in the epxress lane. Move'em in and move'em out.

The B Blog

The B Blog

Big News!

The Truce is OFF!

Decoration

I was sitting in a chair that I usually dont sit in today. It doesnt face the TV so it doesnt really get any work. My wife and I (Hi Honey!) were having a general conversation. I looked at this table to the right of me. On it was this metal collandar type thing (like what you use to strain the spaghetti) It was filled with pine cones.

So I have a bowl of pinecones in my house. Im betting that it has been there for well over 3 months and this is the first time Ive noticed it. If you sit on the couch its probably 2 inches from your direct siteline when you watch TV. Im pretty much oblivious to my surroundings.

Ducks

Always remember the ducks.

Best Crazy Captain

Humphrey Bogart in The Caine Mutiny or James Cagney in Mister Roberts?

You Know What I Don't Understand?

People (and by people I mean couples) who share an email address. Like "toddandsue@charter.net". WTF? Can someone explain this to me?

DING!!! (semi)

While I didnt have to deal with actualy J-code, I did have to talk to a J-customer. It was worthy of a DING!