Looping the Hen

Measure of a Man, Redux

The saga continues. I mentioned this scum-sucker briefly in a previous post. It’s only gotten worse. Mr. For Better but Not For Worse has decided to move to Phoenix to live with his girlfriend, and leave his wife in Indiana. His latest quote of ultimate ridiculousness: ‘I plan on living with Lisa [his new girlfriend] for the rest of my life.’

Well, at least until she gets sick.

I almost want to e-mail bomb him; the whole situation makes me furious, and I am not even involved.

Hooters for Neuters...

I hate political correctness, especially when people are trying to help. Sorry G, but Cali is at the top of the stupid tree sometimes.

It's Real in Its Own Way Honey

Waking up two weekends ago, I did my morning Saturday ritual: put on the coffee, check Ebay, walk around like a zombie, and feed Gruffleen. Gruff-who? That's what my lovely girlfriend (two months today!) asked me, right before she hit me with another WDYGU moment. Gruffleen is of course my Neopet, and this time the question was more 'Don't you want to spend time in the real world?'

Which of course to the tens of millions of us whose lives are spent on cellphones, working on laptops, listening to their Ipods, or watching 24 and Survivor, is beside the point. The two worlds are fused to a great extent, and inseparable. However, I thought it especially interesting as I regularly work out, run, spend time with friends, among other 'live' activities which will soon include skydiving and travelling. She felt that feeding a computerized pet was crazy, or something. I guess she has never had a Nintendog or even a pet rock.

I also thought this ironic coming from a woman who spends more time watching 24 and reading fantasy novels in a month than I do playing Neopets in a year. Escapism is escapism, no matter which poison, be it hemlock, arsenic or poisonous lollypops, one chooses. Heck, it is even big business, which several of my posts here about selling online currency supports.

So who here thinks the real world is better? Even us nerds and geeks would probably attest the real world is pretty cool, and no one I know is addicted to virtual anything. However, I would contend that our fusion of reality and 'unreality' is better than a limited existence in the corporeal world. Online I can entertain myself, learn, read, write, earn money, buy groceries, sell real world commodities, buy virtual world commodities, fight orcs, cast spells, fly enormous starships, and literally limitless other things. I would suggest access to extraordinary things is more readily available in the ether of the Internet.

Jumping out of a plane will be great, but for a 5-minute experience I will spend 8 hours driving and 2 hours training. Yes, I think it's worth it, but those type of events certaintly don't fall into place all the time, or even much of the time. And yes, I also value the 'everyday' experiences of walks in the parks, supper at the dinner table, and kissing my Honey. However, at this point, I would have a hard time giving up either aspect of my life, and I suspect much of America, Japan, and Europe feels the same.

Generally a Dollar, 1

I don't blog much about my job. I enjoy it a great deal, and never want to risk saying anything that might breach confidentiality or even suggest a hint of an ethics issue.

Today, however, a prospective vendor had me frustrated beyond comprehension, and I just have to share a little of it. For those who don't know, I supervise the Purchasing Department for a Fortune 250 company with over $8b in revenues. Basically, my department's job is to buy stuff, cheap. And we do it pretty well, reducing our annual budget by over 25% in the last 36 months, while increasing the overall amount of stuff we buy. And those are 'real' numbers, not fudged. Meaning, if I spent 10 bucks last year on something, I bought the same stuff this year for $7.50. Yes, we're cool like that!

Anyhow, since last week I have been trying to acquire an item (cheaply!) we were in short supply of at some of our facilities. We'll just call them widgets. So, our prior widget provider decided to move their plant from one location to another this month, but didn't let us know. When folks started complaining they weren't getting their widgets, I investigated and found out what happened, and that our widgets would be a month late. Not even so much as an apology. Needless to say, I was not amused.

So I started a search for an emergency provider, and almost immediately found one through Google. It is a company that has a strong rep, and has actually quoted for me before a couple years back. Big, over $300mm, reputable. Their quote came back at a great price and we issued a PO, indicating the three locations I wanted our order shipped to. And there started a migraine-inducing argument with people who apparently have no clue about their business. (Or any business, for that matter)

So say I have 1000 Little People that Tammy wants to buy from me because she loves them so much and wants to play with them. I offer her a deal at $1.00 per Little Person, and $10 for shipping and handling. Ok, so far so good. Now, Tammy, being the particular shopper that she is, decides she needs the Little People to go to 3 different locations (Bethany and Tarpy both need Little People also, apparently). Well, being that I want her business, and she told me she was going to buy 10,000 Little People from me later in the year, I want to cultivate the relationship. So I say, ok, I'll charge the same $1.00 per Little Person, and 3 x shipping and handling for $30 to cover my additional costs. Make sense so far?

To you and me, yes (I hope!), but not to this vendor. Here's how the vendor wants to play that situation. I want to buy 1000 Widgets from them at $1.00 each and $10 shipping, for a total of $1010. Then I tell them I want those widgets shipped to 3 locations. I expect to be charged a little extra for additional packaging, freight, etc., or in these terms anywhere from $1030 to $1100.

Their response? Ok, because you are shipping to 3 different places, we're going to charge you $3.00 per widget, and $10 shipping each to 3 locations for a total of $3030. Umm, huh? Iniitially I figured someone just got their wires crossed and I wrote an email asking for them to review my order. No mistake, they said. Hmm, maybe I didn't word my question very well.

Umm, Mr. Customer Service Guy...I'd like to buy 1000 of your widgets, please tell me why you are going to charge me $2000 extra dollars to put them into 3 boxes and have the UPS guy ship it to 3 places? I even wrote up some detailed examples of how this was crazy, and the Customer Service rep writes me back and says. I'm sorry, I don't understand your question. You want to ship to multiple locations, so we're increasing your unit cost.

Now, I guess I don't expect everyone in the world to get exactly why this is wrong (though I bet most do). Unit cost is based on volume; shipping and handling is the amount of effort it takes to get the order out the door. My unit quantity was the same, just being shipped to multiple locations. Not only were they going to charge me additional shipping and handling, but they were also going to charge me a higher (double actually) unit cost.

Does this make sense to anyone? If I am missing something, someone please let me know. I know Saint works in an industry with lots of freight movement...does this make any sense to you?

Summer 2006 – Fireworks, Gravity Test, Girlfriend

This summer looks to be one of the more interesting of my life! July 3 I will take my life in my hands and jump out of an airplane with a friend of mine. (And y’all thought I was kidding!). It’s a little scary, a lot exciting, though those emotions may reverse roles by the time I reach the plane. It’s going to be a tandem jump, meaning an instructor will actually be the one with the parachute and the jumpees don’t really have any responsibilities other than to fall, scream and land. Mom, you didn't hear this!

At the beginning of August G-Max I will be going to Vancouver for a week. It will be my first out of country trip, so it is also very exciting. They have a fireworks display contest that I am very much looking forward to, and we should be able to make it to two shows.

I’d also like to make it a point to run a road race in every country I visit, but the only one I can find on the dates I am there is 10k (6.1 miles, my normal races are half that), so I’ll make sure to bring a copy of Chariot’s of Fire to get me all the way through. Gibb and Serira, it looks like I will be coming into and leaving out of Seattle, so if y’all’d like to catch a drink or dinner on August 1, let me know!

I must also brag on my newly acquired Girlfriend, one of only two to ever not make me completely insane (yet? JK Hunny!). Yay! Although I must say, I think she makes me ditzy instead. I know G-Max has mentioned my legendary forgetfulness and lack of common sense here, but it mostly went away when I moved to TN. In the 2 months or so since Tammy and I have been dating, I feel like I have reverted to the old days.

Last weekend while trying to open a movie I stabbed myself with a steak knife and almost needed stitches. Mucho blood and unpleasantness. We were at the park (yes, that park) a few days later and I had just finished my run and was catching up to Tammy. I keep my car key in my inner pocket of my running shorts so I don’t lose it. Well, by the time I caught up with her I was thinking, crap, where is my key? So we start walking back the way I had run from, looking on the ground for my key. We got about a quarter of a mile and my brain was trying to tell me something, because I swore I remembered feeling my key on my run. Seems I got distracted as I was getting my key out and had dropped it in my shorts, where it was settled snugly. Ugg.

The absolute worst happened this past weekend. So I was taking a shower and umm, something (someone?) seemed to distract me. When we got out of the shower I noticed it wasn’t draining, and figured someone’s much longer hair than mine had clogged it. I had some Drano handy and poured it all in, and it didn’t work. Uh oh, I thought, bad clog, definitely not my fault! This was the day of the big Poker Tourney’s I mentioned last week, so I figured I would go out after them if I needed to. Figuring I didn’t want to take any chances, I went to Lowe’s and picked up both a plunger and a pipe snake. After over 2 hours of fiddling with both, still no dice. Part of me was thinking of a big man with a crack in my bathroom charging me $200 to fix my plumbing. I go out again to Walmart and pick up 3 different kinds of Drano stuff. Nothing could survive the upcoming barrage of flesh-eating base I was about to pour down my drain!

So I pour a big ole 64oz bottle of generic Drano in and go back to play some more poker while it works, hoping the fumes don't make it to my bedroom and render me unconscious. Two more hours go by and nothing. I was about to crack open a 2nd bottle while I was staring in dismay at my tub, the plunger, empty bottles, and my pipe snake. And something clicked, and ghastly I turned toward the faucet (Ode to G-Max). Sure enough, my drain thing was closed. I am the Stupidest. Person. Ever. Of course the drain opener stuff had carved little black holes into my beautiful stainless steel. Ugg. And ugg again I tell you! Tammy, I’d like my brain back any time now, thanks!

Anyhoo, this has gone way too long! Other minor things going on include a Little People Pre-release on July 1, and my first race of the summer on Independence Day, where I will try to help motivate a friend into finishing her first race. (Spy) Other than that, I was just thinking of streaking through the park.

Why I Hate Running, Part 1

Summer In Tennessee.

It felt like nearly the longest day of the year or something, and the temperature proclaimed it. It hit 95 by lunchtime.

We had been blessed this year with the mildest spring since I emigrated here in 1999. Temperatures were moderate and sometimes cool all the way to June 6 or so; the last cool day in 2005 was exactly a month earlier if I remember right. Today there was no wind and a haze hung in the air, thick enough to breathe. It wasn't 75 yards before I was covered in sweat that couldn't evaporate and I felt like an Alaskan goose after an oil spill.

Still, I managed to trudge along for my four and a half miles without getting propositioned once! Apparently the beautiful park I run in has an, err, reputation as one of the seedier sides of town. To be honest, I've never had anything weird happen there or even seen anything weird, but I've heard this type of incident is pretty common. Doh!

Cash over Glory...

Well, was a good day of pokering!

I played in both the big Pokerstars Blogging tourney mentioned below, plus a $20,000 tourney I qualified for playing on Poker.com.

The Blog tourney ended up with their prizes being a lot of slots for other big tourneys, so when it came time to focus my attention, I ended up picking the $20,000 tourney (plus the Pokerstars GUI was confusing me; it's cool, but I just wasn't used to it). I ended up going all in in the Blogger tourney with Qd/10d with a queen on the board, flop was rainbow Q52. I shouldn't have even been in the hand, and the guy flipping AcQc showed me why. Ended up 909 of 2500 players.

In the cash tourney, I swore I wasn't going to play stupid like I had been, and cranked down on my game, only playing pockets or other premium hands. A couple of early good hands (including AA my 2nd hand, and a 55 where I hit my set a little later) put me in the top 5-10% of the 761 field for at least the first half of the tourney. Of course as the blinds start going up, even a good size holding can get eaten away fast. At the 2nd break I was sitting in at 49 of 49 remaining (well into the money at this point, which I was very happy about, but not so much about being in last place with 1940 chips, average was over 10000). Talked to my honey for about 3 mintues, and came back to a string of breaks.

On my Big Blind (800/1600 by this point) I called my last 340 in showing 6c4d offsuit versus a pair of black jacks and I figured I was out. 4 diamonds later my 4d won the day and more than doubled me up. I won 3 or 4 more all in's and ended up 10 out of 41 at one point in chip stack.

My luck ran out as I put my last 10k in on my AK offsuit and my opponent shows QQ. Still, I lost on a break point and picked up $200, ending up 20th out of 761! Not a huge amount, but it puts faith back that I really can play this game, which I wasn't so sure of when I got wrecked rapidly twice in a row last weekend by the Mafioaza crew. That puts me at +$56 lifetime online poker winnings, go me!

Tammy baby, let's get you some shoes!

To the PokerStars Folks...

I'd be happy to put this on the sidebar as y'all recommend, but it's too wide! If you have some alternate code I'd be happy to use it.

To my peeps, more Pokerblogging! I'll let y'all know how I do.

I have registered to play in the PokerStars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker!

This Online Poker Tournament is a No Limit Texas Holdem event exclusive to Bloggers.

Registration code: 1038139

Updates of old topics

I said I'd let you know if I got anything from the state of CT! After around 10 weeks or so I finally received the check from the Unclaimed Property division for CT. Not as much as I had hoped, but hey, 45 bucks is 45 bucks. Was a fairly painless process other than the waiting. Just filled out one form and poof, old money reappears! (It was actually an overpayment to the University of CT, which I attended briefly many years ago)

In another money area, my hoped for Ebay business which hadn't been doing so well (selling collectible game stuff), finally generated some bucks. Or, as my friend Allison would say, the Little Peeps finally made some Bank! I managed to sell off 2 sets of little people for around $600 bucks, or just enough to cover the infamous suit I met the Arabian Prince in. Yay!

Only problem is, after doing the math out, even if I sell all the sets or near-sets and the 2 cases I have, I will just break even with my outlay. (A little over 2k, dear Lord) Still, that will leave me with a couple hundred dollars worth of figures to play DDM and D&D with...it's what I am calling my Zero-Sum Hobby. Still, the effort required for those few hundred dollars worth of figures is probably less than I would have made flipping burgers and just earning cash. C'est la vie, live and learn; I'd much rather open little people for a living than flip burgers!

Sticking it to the Man...

In the tradition of the Pirate Bay, a BitTorrent site (a download concept similar to peer-to-peer), I recently logged onto All of MP3.com, a Russian music download site I saw mentioned on Ars. It is a purchase site, where you can pay by the track or the song, but it appears the entire cost structure is based on the size of the song (you can choose your music quality), not on anything resembling the recording industry's ridiculous pricing.

I am sure the RIAA says it is illegal, but it looks like a professionally run site, and there are no pop-ups, ads, or any other annoyances. Just song downloads that run 10 to 20 cents and albums between a dollar and two. It is currently the target of litigation, as well as being under pressure from the Russian Government, which is in turn being pushed by the US and the WTO to shut it down.

Not that I would advise anyone to do anything illegal or immoral or anything, being that I love the RIAA and the MPAA with all my lil heart, but you should at least check both the mentioned sites out...for informational purposes only.

For those who are into the Piracy vs. the Man debate, make sure you check out the legal threats page of The Pirate Bay, it's hysterical. (old hat tip to WCB)

BFD...Blogging For Dollars?

All Hail our new Poker Overlords!

So I was tooling around my new online poker site (Poker.com) and I found what seemed to be the perfect mix of form and function: The Blogger Poker Tour!

I have put in my application, so if any nice folks from Poker.com come by to certify me, greetings! Not alot up for June, but you'll notice a few posts down that is due to my evil computer dying! All is back to normal, nothing to see here, please move along.

Now I need to figure out how to go put in the little logo I need to have up in order to be eligible to play in free Blogger Freerolls. Doh.

We All Need Hobbies!

It sounds like someone was bored. (Hat tip to G-Max)

Giving Credit Where It's Due

I meant to post this ages ago. It is sad when Barney Franks has to point out when conservative free-market Republicans go astray.

Sheesh.

So...

A former governor, a Saudi prince and a country music star walk into a bar...

No, actually, not much of a joke. I was privileged to attend a function this past Tuesday for Saudi Prince Turki al-Faisal, ambassador to the United States. It was put on by the Strategic Alliance, a Texas-based PR firm headed by Meredith Iler, a prominent Republican. They appear to be trying to reduce the generally negative view of Saudi Arabia after the 9/11 attacks.

There were about 70 to 80 prominent members of Nashville society there (mostly Republican from what I could tell), from bank presidents to Fortune 500 board members. The food was superb and prepared by a local restaurant owner. I'm usually not much for fancy-schmancy hordeurves and such, but they were exceptional. (Although the sweet white wine I was enjoying may have contributed to my positive overall experience!)

Best anecdote: My lovely girlfriend came over and said 'I was over there and saw this woman with Crystal Gayle hair...and then she turned around and I saw her name tag. It was Crystal Gayle.' I had seen Ms. Gayle earlier in the evening but I wasn't sure it was her, as she was shorter than I would have guessed!

Other than the fact that I would have liked to argue with the ambassador, it was an enjoyable event. At one point he insisted that all Israel had to do to gain peace in the Middle East is to give up half of Jerusalem to the Palestinians. We've seen how well giving up land to terrorists has worked so far (Read: not at all, unless you count letting people shoot rockets at you from closer as a win)

Error is between keyboard and chair...

So umm...I feel a little stupid. Okay, maybe a lot stupid. Like, umm, Duh kind of stupid.

So after all the headaches in backing up my files and reinstalling XP, once I was back on line I had the same issues (Not sure if I had gotten into them in a previous post, but basically I was unable to download any files (although I could surf, which is why the whole thing was weird) and my Internet was horribly sluggish). Doh!

My next call was to Comcast. The Comcast guy was here for near 3 hours, doing all the same troubleshooting I had done over the last 3 weeks. I tried to tell him it wasn't IE related (as I had had the same downloading issue with Mozilla), but he worked through all the IE fixes I had Googled.

After all was said and done and he couldn't figure it out, I suggested switching the cable modem out, as I had started having the trouble when a lightning storm had killed the prior modem and they had replaced it. Well, this line of thought (which I should have had 2 months ago) led me to think, if the storm whacked the cable modem, could it have affected my internal wiring? (My brother set up my house to have 4 network outlets, one in each bedroom, one in the living room and one in the dining room)

So I suggested to the cable guy that maybe we should try running the CAT-5 directly from the modem to the PC. Ding, fixed. Ugg.

Anyhoo, as my brother said my computer was all sorts of kluged after having been using it for 3 solid years without a wipe, and a reinstall has been good for overall response times and the like. Still, the idea that the fix was that simple confounds me. In the last 7 years as I have gone from a technical lead position at work to an administrative one, my once-decent techie skills have atrophied to the point of non-existence.