When people don’t vote, that bothers me.
September 20, 2004, 1:05 AM
It’s amazing how so many people have internalized the notion that their vote doesn’t matter, and thus why bother voting. It really irks me, too. And more amazing is that this is after the election of 2000, where, in order to determine who would be the President of the United States, the de facto leader of the free world, people in Florida were carefully scrutinizing thousands of individual ballots to get an accurate count of the votes in a very close election.
And it’s amazing the excuses people give. My favorite one was when someone said that they don’t vote because of the electoral college system. And in probing further, it turned out that the actual reason for not voting was not the electoral college itself, but more of a lack of understanding of how it works.
For those of you who don’t know, the electoral college system, which we use for electing the President works like this. The people (you and I, for instance) vote for a slate of electors at the voting booth. These electors have committed to voting for the presidential and vice presidential candidates that they are named with. So you’re not voting directly for John Kerry or George Bush. You’re voting for John Doe, Jane Doe, Jim Doe, and Joe Doe, who will cast their electoral votes for their candidate, should their slate of electors win the vote of the state. Thus the winner-takes-all method of giving electoral votes. Then the winning set of electors casts their electoral votes some time after the general election. That makes it official who’s president, and the Vice President then officially counts the electoral votes before the Senate, who officially announces the winner of the election.
Continue reading…Categories: National politics
The bull@#$% alarm was going off today
September 20, 2004, 12:35 AM
When one works in a place where people try to pull a few fast ones, it really helps to keep your bull@#$% alarm (use your imagination to figure out what the symbols stand for) well tuned. It also helps to keep it in tune in order to rule out weak excuses from coworkers.
I think my favorite instance of the bull@#$% alarm going off at full power was back in 2003 in Potomac Hall. In retrospect it is highly amusing what happened, though a touch disturbing. At the time, I was initially surprised, and then the bull@#$% alarm went off in my head.
Here’s what happened…
At a staff meeting in Potomac Hall one time, it was brought up by one staff member about having a picnic for our residents. Wonderful idea, since it was starting to warm up outside. One person takes offense to the word “picnic”, and explains that the term “picnic” actually is a contraction of the phrase “pick a [racial slur]”. For more information about the origins of that erroneous origin of the word picnic (which is actually rather irrelevant to this discussion, believe it or not), check out this page on snopes.com.
Categories: JMU
The noise is gone…
September 19, 2004, 12:23 PM
Well, the noise is gone, which means that I can get back online again (though I’m still doing this one manually). Dad now knows about where the problem is based on what I did, so that’s a good thing. He says he doesn’t know who to call about fixing that. We’ll figure something out, I’m sure.
Categories: House
This is insane!
September 18, 2004, 11:53 PM
This is definitely an unusual journal entry that I’m writing right now. Instead of writing this directly into the Web site, I’m writing this in Windows Notepad, and then I’m going to manually add this entry into my journal online later. The time at the bottom of this entry, in case you’re wondering, does reflect the actual time of writing – not the time it was manually added in online. Wondering why I’m doing this? Let me explain…
For some time now, we’ve been having phone problems. We have two lines at the house. One line for voice (let’s call it Line 1), and the other line for Internet (which we’ll call Line 2). Lately, we’ve been getting a lot of interference and cross-talk on the two lines. If we’re on the Internet using Line 2, we’ll get bumped off periodically, or the line will go dead, leaving Windows showing that we have an active connection, but nothing will go through. No Web, no Instant Messenger. Usually I can tell when that happens when all my IM services (AIM, MSN, Yahoo) will go dead, one after the other. Usually MSN drops first, followed by Yahoo, finally followed by AIM. Web service is also disrupted, though it’s not as noticeable. There’s also the occasion where the modem actually drops the connection, with the audible “click” of it disconnecting, and the computer indicating that it lost the connection. We were quietly blaming this on Velocitus, our ISP, for some time. We figured it was a problem on their end. But not so.
We figured out it wasn’t Velocitus when we started getting cross-talk from Line 2 on Line 1. When someone was connected to the Internet on Line 2, we would hear the modem sounds in the background. Very bothersome. Then something else started happening. Whenever a call would come in on Line 1, or someone would make a call on Line 1, it would disrupt Line 2’s connection. So thus if the phones rang and my strobe started going off, it was bye-bye Internet, and the connection would either die or it would drop entirely.
Categories: House
“Too big! Too small!”
September 16, 2004, 11:15 PM
I saw a commercial for Wilkins Shoe Center on CNN this evening, and it starts out with someone trying on shoes, appropriately enough.
They say, “Too large!” showing someone with a shoe that is obviously too large on their foot. Then they show one saying, “Too small!” with someone with their foot halfway in an obviously-too-small shoe. Then the announcer says, “Just right!” and shoes a person with a properly fitting shoe.
It reminds me of something I saw on Today’s Special’s “Shoes” episode. It was a scene with Jodie walking past a row of shoes, essentially gesturing with her feet at each one, before putting the last pair on. It goes like this:
Too big!
Too small!
Not right… at all! (These shoes were flippers)
Too loose!
Oh, too tight!
Ahhh… these feel just right! (Puts these shoes on)
Thus every time I see the commercial, I expect after “Too small!” to hear “Not right… at all!” Interesting, indeed.
Categories: Today's Special
I dropped a license plate and didn’t even realize it…
September 13, 2004, 12:27 AM
Seems that on Saturday, I dropped a license plate! When I left for work today, I noticed that my front bumper was bare. I look at it, and I’m thinking, oh, crap, no license plate. I’m also figuring out when I can go to DMV to get my missing license plate replaced. Then my thought process changed to figuring out when it fell away, and whereabouts it would be. I didn’t hear anything that sounded like a metallic object falling off the front of the car on my way home from work, though. And it would have had to have been at least then, since I had my license plate when I left on Saturday.
So being unsure of where my license plate fell away, and being pretty sure it wasn’t malice (I’d had to reattach the license plate once before), as I was driving to work, I was not only looking where I was going, but also scanning the sides of the road on the side I take for my return trip (US 340 is a divided highway most of the way to Waynesboro). I usually ride the left lane, so if it fell away on 340, it should be readily visible from the other lanes.
My assumptions for this quick search (object staying on the left side, and possibly being off the road after falling off of a moving vehicle at 55 mph) were probably wrong anyway, but regardless, the plate was not found, and as it turned out, I didn’t drop the plate on the road anyway. As it turned out, the plate had already fallen off by the time my van was in the area I looked in.
Categories: Toyota Previa
Something tells me that Kmart is getting desperate…
September 12, 2004, 12:10 AM
Something just tells me that the Kmart in Waynesboro is desperate for business. As I was leaving Wal-Mart this evening, I saw a row of picket-style signs stuck in the ground along Lucy Lane across from Wal-Mart. What did they say? Look at this mock-up of it that I did (it was too dark for a photo).
These signs are indeed right across the street from Wal-Mart. Seems we at Wal-Mart have been doing something right, and we’re beating the pants off of the Big Kmart down the road. The two stores are out of sight of each other, and about a mile or two away.
With all the rain we’ve been having…
September 9, 2004, 2:06 AM
I’m going to Washington DC today, and it’s probably going to be a soggy day, based on the looks of things.
Doesn’t bother me. Means I’ll get to see a lot of Mode 2 operation (Mode 2 is manual with speed protection).
Mom was concerned about all the rain. So I cited that strange dream I had back in February (according to this journal, February 19, entitled “Your assignment: Figure out where this dream came from”). It’s the one where I went Metro kayaking. I still think that’s one darn strange dream, and if I recall, at the time the people on SubTalk thought it was off-the-wall, too. And in that dream, if I recall, paddling a Breda down the water was for the less-experienced while rafting with a Rohr was the more challenging.
What’s odd, though, is how much that matches the actual trains. According to a few train operators I’ve spoken with, the Rohrs have some really weird quirks that make them more challenging to operate. Bredas are much less quirky.
Ah, well.
Categories: Television, Walmart, WMATA
It’s September, believe it or not.
September 3, 2004, 7:51 AM
I just can’t get over that this year is officially two-thirds over and that Halloween will be here sooner than you think. And then Christmas. Goodness.
And this month on my calendar, I have the Qwest Tower in Ballston, a neighborhood in Arlington, Virginia, just outside Washington DC. In case you’re wondering, I ordered one of the “Urban Comparison” calendars from my Online Store, and keep it up on a bulletin board above the bed. So that’s this month’s image. Last month was a billboard atop a building in Roanoke, which was nice looking. I rotated between the four areas of my Urban Comparison photo set when I did this, and so as a result, it goes Washington-Richmond-Norfolk-Roanoke and cycles through that two more times. So next month is something in Richmond (what exactly that will be I’ve forgotten), and then something in Norfolk (again I don’t remember), and finally that up-the-tower look at the First Union Tower (now Wachovia Tower).
And then this weekend is Labor Day weekend. And somehow I managed to get Labor Day off. What shall I be doing on Labor Day, pray tell? Laboring. On the Web site. Maybe I can actually get something accomplished. Since, you see, even with my checklist, I’m still falling short on actual cross-it-off accomplishments, having a lot of tasks in partial completeness. I’d rather have a few tasks that are completed than a lot of partly-completed tasks. We’ll get there…
Categories: Schumin Web meta
“THIS IS THE SERVICE DESK! STEP AWAY FROM THE RETURNS AND KEEP YOUR HANDS UP!”
September 2, 2004, 11:43 PM
Yeah, when it gets slow as the night continues on, we get a tad silly. Our scanners at the Service Desk are handheld and wireless, and are somewhat gun-shaped. And when an associate held up an item so I could scan it to find out what department it was in, I kind of hammed it up a little. Took my scanner gun, held it with both hands, aimed, and fired at the item in question. Zap.
When I saw the associate was amused, I hammed it up a little more, posing and jokingly saying, “This is the Service Desk! Step away from the returns and keep your hands up!”
Yeah, we’re nutty. Good, harmless fun. And it works even better with a telxon (pronounced TEL-a-zon), since those things have a longer business-end than our scanners do.
As you can tell, I had a really good day today. I also went over to SmartStyle (in-store hair place) on my lunch break and got my ears lowered. And just to illustrate how much hair I needed to get cut off, I now have a very neat and attractive haircut (can’t keep the girls off me!). But before lunch, I was so shaggy that I could have made great money renting myself out as a mop. I was really shaggy.
Categories: Schumin Web meta, Vintage business, Walmart
I’m looking up my old stomping grounds
August 31, 2004, 12:11 AM
I went online and did a little Rogers-hunting here. As I found out that a former coworker of mine at Wal-Mart used to live in Rogers, it was interesting to share stories, as her family knew Mrs. Carmical, the principal at Grimes Elementary at the time, Wal-Mart store #1 (though I knew it as a regular Wal-Mart, and she knew it as a Supercenter – the 1991 store was converted), Beaver Lake, and all that. That was just cool. So I went online this evening and went to Rogers.
I actually was somewhat drawn to the parks and rec pages this time around. I found a page about Lake Atalanta in there. Although that name has four A’s in it, making it “Lake At-a-lan-ta” (to break it up by syllables), the common pronunciation in Rogers was “Lake Atlanta” (like the city in Georgia). You pronounce the extra “a” in there and I think that people will look at you strangely. But anyway, they show it as two parks. You have “Lake Atalanta” and “Lake Atalanta Dam Site”. Now I’m confused. I remember there being two major Lake Atalanta recreational areas, straddling Walnut Street. The older area was adjacent to Lake Atalanta itself, which had a large playground made mostly of large wooden beams (nice to play on, but watch for splinters!). They don’t make ’em like that anymore. They also had a skating rink which closed not long after we moved there. I think I went in that building once when it was a skating rink, and I was still not comfortable on roller skates, so my memories are of falling down in there. Most of my memories of the skating rink are of it as an abandoned building. I’m told it’s since been renovated and converted into banquet space. There was and still is a pool at Lake Atalanta, which I remember as being a really cool pool. Had two water slides. A small one for the kiddies (which I used as one of those little kiddies), and a big one that was like huge (but remember I was like eight). That was cool. Then there was the bait shop. There you could not only buy bait, but also rent paddleboats. Those were fun, as I got to drive and pedal the boats with Mom. When we left Rogers, the bait shop had closed. Presumably it’s opened back up since then, since the Web site mentions it.
Categories: Arkansas
HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY! The remodeling is finished!
August 30, 2004, 9:29 PM
Finally! No more hammering. No more nail guns. No more polyurethane. No more getting up at an ungodly hour to vacate so that they can do the stairs. No more! It’s DONE! And I am so pleased with that.
And it looks really nice, too. I’m going to take a final round of photos tomorrow for the Web site, and then I’m going to compile a photo set about the whole remodel for Life and Times.
It’s amazing… when we moved into this house, we had an open deck out back, and light beige colored carpeting in the entire house, including up the stairs. The only areas not carpeted were the entry foyer (immediately in front of the front door), the kitchen, and all the bathrooms. And those were linoleum. We replaced the kitchen floor linoleum with ceramic tile in 1994 (it wore particularly badly), and then in 1998 replaced the downstairs hallway carpeting and entry foyer linoleum with hardwood. Now the only original carpeting left downstairs is in the hall closet. The living room was recarpeted, and the family room and dining room got new hardwood. And the stairs are finally wood, as they should have been from the get-go. So good stuff there. And the upstairs hallway is also hardwood. The bathrooms are all still original, as are all the bedrooms. Good.
Categories: New porch and floors, Schumin Web meta
Sleep. We got some. And we’re going to get some more.
August 27, 2004, 10:02 PM
How refreshing a little shuteye can be! After working 9-6 and getting maybe eight hours sleep total over the last few days, a little sleep can be great. And I’m going to get a little more momentarily.
Because let me tell you… all this work on the stairs turned into where my butt was really dragging by the end of the day at work. And that’s not fun. I think if I had stayed any longer, I would have fallen down, I was so tired. But we don’t show that to the customers. Based on what I let on to the customers, I was fresh as a daisy. But still, after work I went home and got sleep. Ah, sleep.
And so now, nearing midnight, I’ve slept for some hours, and now I’m going to brush my teeth and then get some more sleep. And then tomorrow…
Doors closing! (ding-dong)
Washington DC. And not “Warshington DC” as some people like to say it. I’ve never seen an “r” in Washington. But anyway, though, I’m excited, especially since last time my first train of the day was not a Breda, as I usually have first thing out of Vienna. I had a CAF! (Ooooooooooooh!)
Anyway, back to sleep. Zzzzzzzzzzzzz…
Categories: Myself
Tired? You bet!
August 27, 2004, 6:24 AM
Seriously, after doing two LONG days due to the stairs (days I otherwise would have slept longer), I have a third get-up-early-for-the-stairs day here.
However, at least I have work at 9 AM today, instead of 2 PM. This is a good thing. I get off at 6 PM, and can thus go home and snooze (provided the stairs are ready) so that I can be fresh as a daisy for my planned trip to Washington DC tomorrow. I need to be fresh as a daisy for these trips, but this whole thing with the stairs has just been running me into the ground, because of the guy’s schedule (bright and early before even 8:00), and my schedule (work at 2:00). So that’s the problem we have.
Still, soon this floor work will all be over, and I’ll get my life back again…
Categories: Myself, New porch and floors
“I don’t want to feel like a fish with no water!”
August 26, 2004, 8:04 AM
At work yesterday, we were actually discussing those public service ads that run on cable TV. Like the one where the fish tank slowly loses water talking about asthma, or the one where the guy walks into the store to buy a wallet and he gets a really tiny wallet for the really tiny money he’ll be making as a high school dropout.
And then there’s one ad that, among the people in our group, that kind of creeped us all out a little bit:
Nobody likes me. Nobody. Maybe it’s because I like to attack people. Men. Women. Kids. I can leave them as stammering, confused, scared imitations of their former selves. If they don’t stop me, I just might leave them that way for life. I am a stroke.
A little creepy, because he looks like a pretty rough character there, with the wrinkled face in the shadow. But still, it’s a very memorable way to get the message across. I think we’ll all understand the seriousness of a stroke now if we didn’t before.
Categories: Greta, Television, WMATA