It’s almost Christmas and I will be in Wyoming for all of next week, so this place will be very quiet for that period.
At work today my boss handed out Christmas cards thanking us for our hard work. Not just generic, Santa Claus and snowmen cards, but full-on Christian, worship Jesus cards. Now, he’s a nice guy and receiving that kind of card doesn’t offend me (I really don’t care), but I can’t imagine being comfortable handing those out. It may be Montana (where we have letter writers who claim that being Muslim is a sign of being on the far Left – no, I’m not joking), but I do know there are people of other religions (and no religion) who work there. It’s the same with the “Happy Holidays” vs. “Merry Christmas” thing. I wouldn’t be offended by someone saying Merry Christmas to me when I didn’t celebrate Christmas, but it seems weird to me to say it to someone if you don’t know what they actually celebrate.
Jeff Personal, Religion
It’s Thanksgiving time, so I’ll be gone through this weekend. That is, assuming I don’t slide down Teton pass and into a tree. If that happens, I won’t be back at all. Because I’ll be dead. Which would be annoying.
Happy Thanksgiving.
(note: I won’t, however, forget to remove the eyesore gracing the top of this page on Saturday.)
Jeff Blogging, Personal
Not a good weekend for my modestly expensive toys. My Xbox 360 has died and must be sent in for repair. That creates a dilemma: do I return the HD-DVD disc of Heroes I have (so I can watch No End in Sight) or not? Next, I tried to adjust the action on my guitar and stripped all the screws controlling that on the bridge, along with the little allen wrench the guitar came with. That’s what I get for buying from Fender’s knock-off line, I guess (I’m just learning, so that’s my excuse). Adjusting those screws with needle nose pliers is not fun, I’ll have you know. It’s sorta playable now, though.
Now I’m just waiting for my computer to break.
That’s my random uninteresting personal comment for the week. I hope you enjoyed it.
Jeff Personal, Tech
When I was a freshman in college (Fall 2002), I took the required public communication class. In it, I had to do a persuasive presentation about a subject of my choosing. I chose the Iraq war. I had a few modest, not particularly fleshed out arguments: WMDs (if they were even in Iraq) weren’t particularly dangerous to us in Saddam’s hands, links to al Qaeda were spurious and contrary to what bin Laden had said, and something about the no-fly zones in Iraq. It wasn’t an impressive presentation and I was out-argued by other members of the class after the presentation was over. It was an embarrassing experience for a long time. Later, I learned more, thought out those arguments and was able to answer the objections raised in that class (in my own head, anyway).
That experience has, as far as I can tell, made me somewhat neurotic in (online) political debates. Rarely do I let anyone else have the last word and I tend to chop up comments and respond to individual points fairly thoroughly (some of this has been tempered in discussions on blogs). Sometimes it’s a good thing, other times it’s overkill.
I only say this because I think it’s sort of interesting and to point out that if some upcoming posts strike you as oddly timed, something akin to that reaction is probably the cause. So in the following week or two you’ll likely see a more thorough description of why I think we went to war with Iraq and a discussion of the Democratic candidates, starting with Dennis Kucinich and continuing until I get bored.
Jeff Blogging, Personal
The company I work for certainly has its moments. I’ve seen some fairly stupid things. On the other hand, our competition appears to be doing things like this.
Jeff Personal, Silliness, Tech
It seems that I’m pulling myself out of the drudgery rewarding and challenging experience in the software industry that is quality assurance and into programming. So now programming at work will not be loosely sanctioned goofing off, but fully sanctioned and encouraged goofing off.
Actually, QA wasn’t all that bad, for anyone looking at that kind of thing. It can be fun and interesting. It’s often boring and monotonous, though.
Jeff Personal
It’s my birthday! I give everyone the day off!
Jeez, I’m a couple years shy of a quarter-century. Sounds old.
More seriously, today is Memorial Day, so thanks to all those who have fought and died for our country and those who put their lives on the line today.
Jeff Personal
So I’m in Jackson, WY this weekend visiting my parents. It’s a strange town. Very much set up for tourists and rich people.
The weirdest thing is nearly all the stores look the same; they all have this damn wood paneling. It’s very strange to see a Staples and a tire shop in a wood paneled strip mall. It’s honestly quite frightening.
On the other hand, there’s a Ripley’s Believe It or Not museum thing and I want to go see some two headed kids in jars.
UPDATE: My mom requested that I point out that my parents are neither rich nor tourists.
Jeff Personal
Hey people in the Bozeman area reading this (all three of you). The software company I work for is hiring. A lot. Specifically, Quality Assurance (my department) and Systems Administration. Linux geeks especially for SA. So check it out.
I feel kinda weird saying that. Still, we need people.
Jeff Montana, Personal, Tech
Man, this “weekend” sucked.
Also, Geddy Lee’s voice is no longer causing me to want to gouge out my eyes with a rusty spoon. I haven’t decided if that’s a good or bad thing yet.
Jeff Personal
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