Blog Question Of The Day:
Should I exchange my backpack for a gym bag, to better accomodate all the stuff I like to carry around?
Saturday, April 03, 2004
Friday, April 02, 2004
Okay, when did the office turn into a god damn day care center!?!
I could see it being okay at night. You come in to work in the evening, and your child tags along because there's no one at home to look after him, and keep him out of trouble. I can even accept bringing the game console in, so he has something to play games on.
But in the middle of the day? When we are 'supposed' to be getting some work done. I gotta listen to this stupid kid screw around in here? Is this an office or a damn club house!?! I swear, if you wanna know where the real lack of discipline is in this organization, its not in the service technicians. Its in the office manager position, where she bends, breaks, and pisses on all the normal rules of decorum, for the sake of her convenience. THAT is a problem.
I could see it being okay at night. You come in to work in the evening, and your child tags along because there's no one at home to look after him, and keep him out of trouble. I can even accept bringing the game console in, so he has something to play games on.
But in the middle of the day? When we are 'supposed' to be getting some work done. I gotta listen to this stupid kid screw around in here? Is this an office or a damn club house!?! I swear, if you wanna know where the real lack of discipline is in this organization, its not in the service technicians. Its in the office manager position, where she bends, breaks, and pisses on all the normal rules of decorum, for the sake of her convenience. THAT is a problem.
For every success, there is a failure.
The place whose name we shall not speak.
I will not details the failures. It is counter-productive to invest any time in a detailed listing of all that is screwed up. We shall conclude with, its screwed up, and move on. Suffice it to say, there are more problems than solutions on the table.
On the bright side, Clarence and I got my new, High Definition satellite system up and running this morning. A couple days ago we started the project, and eventually gave up as it was too dark to see what we were doing anymore, and we needed to start over from scratch anyway. So we abandoned that for the night. I monkeyed with it for a few minutes last night, about midnight, and made some progress on a few points. I was encouraged to the point of trying again this morning.
Clarence and I went back to my house this morning, for about an hour, and monkeyed with the system. I had some ideas I wanted to explore. We followed the directions in the manual precisely, and got every response we were expecting, except for a satellite signal on Expressvu 82. We couldn't do anything that would dial in that satellite. Then I got word of another fire back at the office and we had to abandon the project.
I went hope at lunch. Clarence suggested I call the help line, and see if we were missing something. I did, including going through the byzantine phone system to get to a live person. I outlined my problem to him, and then he asked me a couple of questions. The one being, what transponder are you on? It turns out I was on the wrong one. We had Expressvu 82 dialed in when we tried before lunch. We just were on a transponder that was giving no signal. After I set it to transponder 7, it was fully functional, and we registered it, and before I came back to work, I had full digital, HDTV in my house!
That was almost enough to take the black stain off my week. Sometimes a success, no matter how minor, is enough to get your through a day. That is my enduring hope.
Toodles!
The place whose name we shall not speak.
I will not details the failures. It is counter-productive to invest any time in a detailed listing of all that is screwed up. We shall conclude with, its screwed up, and move on. Suffice it to say, there are more problems than solutions on the table.
On the bright side, Clarence and I got my new, High Definition satellite system up and running this morning. A couple days ago we started the project, and eventually gave up as it was too dark to see what we were doing anymore, and we needed to start over from scratch anyway. So we abandoned that for the night. I monkeyed with it for a few minutes last night, about midnight, and made some progress on a few points. I was encouraged to the point of trying again this morning.
Clarence and I went back to my house this morning, for about an hour, and monkeyed with the system. I had some ideas I wanted to explore. We followed the directions in the manual precisely, and got every response we were expecting, except for a satellite signal on Expressvu 82. We couldn't do anything that would dial in that satellite. Then I got word of another fire back at the office and we had to abandon the project.
I went hope at lunch. Clarence suggested I call the help line, and see if we were missing something. I did, including going through the byzantine phone system to get to a live person. I outlined my problem to him, and then he asked me a couple of questions. The one being, what transponder are you on? It turns out I was on the wrong one. We had Expressvu 82 dialed in when we tried before lunch. We just were on a transponder that was giving no signal. After I set it to transponder 7, it was fully functional, and we registered it, and before I came back to work, I had full digital, HDTV in my house!
That was almost enough to take the black stain off my week. Sometimes a success, no matter how minor, is enough to get your through a day. That is my enduring hope.
Toodles!
Thursday, April 01, 2004
Wednesday, March 31, 2004
I think I'm developing an aneurysm. Can you develop such a thing, or does it just happen, all of a sudden?
Would someone, I don't care who, PLEASE line me up a date with a sexy, uninhibited young girl!?! I think a significant proportion of my stress problem is unrelieved sexual tension. And if it turns out I'm wrong about that well, it certainly wouldn't hurt the situation at all. 8-D
Would someone, I don't care who, PLEASE line me up a date with a sexy, uninhibited young girl!?! I think a significant proportion of my stress problem is unrelieved sexual tension. And if it turns out I'm wrong about that well, it certainly wouldn't hurt the situation at all. 8-D
Tuesday, March 30, 2004
Well, there went another Tuesday!
I kind of wasted my day today. I drove to Maple Creek and back. That's it, that's all. There was only minimally more than that that I accomplished. During the drive down I had AMPLE time to consider my budget situation, with respect to the project in Maple Creek. I have it some hard, analytical thought, made a couple calls to confirm things, and decided I needed $5000 to put all parties to the deal at ease. Including my own sense of comfort, at not eating too much of the cost for 'additions'. About the only useful thing I did today was come to this $5000 conclusion. Having made it, I really didn't need to drive to Maple Creek to address it. Using the phone would have sufficed. But sometimes you do P.R. just for the sake of it, and this would be one of those times. I'm learning that its often the appearance of interest that is important, and not the actual interest.
Interesting to note from the 8 hours and 800+ kilometers was the extreme police presence on the highways today. I don't think I'd be lying if I said I saw a dozen police cars, in the course of my trip down and back. One followed me for awhile, between Vanscoy and Delisle. I saw one parked in Vanscoy. I was passed in the opposite direction by a cruiser, just outside of Rosetown. Met yet another cop on the road between Kyle and Rosetown. One was parked in Elrose. (I think it was Elrose) Saw a couple on the Trans-Canada Highway, as I headed west towards Medicine Hat. Stared at another cruiser across a weird three way stop in the Town of Maple Creek. Took note of a speed trap set up by the police, in a blind spot, on the Trans-Canada Highway. They were set up to nail people heading to Alberta. (Good idea, Alberta drivers are maniacs) Saw a cop car in Vanscoy on my way back into Saskatoon, and once I got here again, sat at a red light with a police car and the Avenue C and Circle Drive intersection. I think I missed a few, in that above rundown. I have a vague recollection of another cop car in Rosetown but I can't crystallize the image in my head so it won't go on the count. A dozen or not, it was a LOT of police presence during my drive.
They didn't get me, as I'm Johnny Law-Abider. All of you that believe that, please email me. I have a real estate deal for you that you simple CAN'T pass up!
Toodles!
I kind of wasted my day today. I drove to Maple Creek and back. That's it, that's all. There was only minimally more than that that I accomplished. During the drive down I had AMPLE time to consider my budget situation, with respect to the project in Maple Creek. I have it some hard, analytical thought, made a couple calls to confirm things, and decided I needed $5000 to put all parties to the deal at ease. Including my own sense of comfort, at not eating too much of the cost for 'additions'. About the only useful thing I did today was come to this $5000 conclusion. Having made it, I really didn't need to drive to Maple Creek to address it. Using the phone would have sufficed. But sometimes you do P.R. just for the sake of it, and this would be one of those times. I'm learning that its often the appearance of interest that is important, and not the actual interest.
Interesting to note from the 8 hours and 800+ kilometers was the extreme police presence on the highways today. I don't think I'd be lying if I said I saw a dozen police cars, in the course of my trip down and back. One followed me for awhile, between Vanscoy and Delisle. I saw one parked in Vanscoy. I was passed in the opposite direction by a cruiser, just outside of Rosetown. Met yet another cop on the road between Kyle and Rosetown. One was parked in Elrose. (I think it was Elrose) Saw a couple on the Trans-Canada Highway, as I headed west towards Medicine Hat. Stared at another cruiser across a weird three way stop in the Town of Maple Creek. Took note of a speed trap set up by the police, in a blind spot, on the Trans-Canada Highway. They were set up to nail people heading to Alberta. (Good idea, Alberta drivers are maniacs) Saw a cop car in Vanscoy on my way back into Saskatoon, and once I got here again, sat at a red light with a police car and the Avenue C and Circle Drive intersection. I think I missed a few, in that above rundown. I have a vague recollection of another cop car in Rosetown but I can't crystallize the image in my head so it won't go on the count. A dozen or not, it was a LOT of police presence during my drive.
They didn't get me, as I'm Johnny Law-Abider. All of you that believe that, please email me. I have a real estate deal for you that you simple CAN'T pass up!
Toodles!
Monday, March 29, 2004
Well, that was fun.
Membrane cleaning on the latest set of membranes from Souris has resulted in yet another expense for us. On previous sets of membranes, that had been in service since November of last year, there was considerable iron deposits in the membranes. Thus, it was taking an overnight soak in pure, undiluted, acid to remove the blockage sufficiently that the membranes could be rinsed, and brought back to original condition.
On the last trip from Souris, we brought back some of the original, replacement membranes. They were only a month or so, in place. On removal, they were noticeably cleaner than the membranes that had been in since the fall.
These replacement membranes were hit with an overnight soak in pure, undiluted acid. In the morning, when they rinsed them, there was no iron washing off the membranes. So they switched to a caustic solution, and pounding on the housing to loosen attached scales, and flush them to drain.
Around 11:00 this morning Tim brought me a sample of the water that was coming off the membranes. it was an opaque, white color, with a solid white, powdery, precipitate. I spend a couple hours analyzing the water, and this precipitate, with my 20 year old toy microscope. Murray cut up a residential membrane that was being discarded, and we previewed the two, side by side, under the microscope.
To our eyes, the sample Tim brought me, with the white powder, was the same as that of an intact membrane. The conclusion reached being, they burned up the membranes with their acid soak, rendering them useless. At almost $1000 per membrane, replacement cost, and if all ten have already been soaked, we are out somewhere in the neighbourbood of 10K.
We are not amused.
Membrane cleaning on the latest set of membranes from Souris has resulted in yet another expense for us. On previous sets of membranes, that had been in service since November of last year, there was considerable iron deposits in the membranes. Thus, it was taking an overnight soak in pure, undiluted, acid to remove the blockage sufficiently that the membranes could be rinsed, and brought back to original condition.
On the last trip from Souris, we brought back some of the original, replacement membranes. They were only a month or so, in place. On removal, they were noticeably cleaner than the membranes that had been in since the fall.
These replacement membranes were hit with an overnight soak in pure, undiluted acid. In the morning, when they rinsed them, there was no iron washing off the membranes. So they switched to a caustic solution, and pounding on the housing to loosen attached scales, and flush them to drain.
Around 11:00 this morning Tim brought me a sample of the water that was coming off the membranes. it was an opaque, white color, with a solid white, powdery, precipitate. I spend a couple hours analyzing the water, and this precipitate, with my 20 year old toy microscope. Murray cut up a residential membrane that was being discarded, and we previewed the two, side by side, under the microscope.
To our eyes, the sample Tim brought me, with the white powder, was the same as that of an intact membrane. The conclusion reached being, they burned up the membranes with their acid soak, rendering them useless. At almost $1000 per membrane, replacement cost, and if all ten have already been soaked, we are out somewhere in the neighbourbood of 10K.
We are not amused.
Greetings to all on a Monday!
We will open with some pictures!
Brier Reward
Isn't that just the biggest piece of beef you've ever seen!?! That was, as I labelled it, my Brier Reward. Western Concessions provided for us, the trench grunts from the Brier, one day to be treated like royalty, in compensation for all we experienced at the Brier.
Was it enough compensation? I would answer with, absolutely! The day started at 3:00, when I arrived at the Sheraton, in Saskatoon. I checked in at the desk, and was greeted with the wonderful news that all expenses had been taken care of. All I had to do was, sleep in the bed. That's a pretty good deal.
Not long after I arrived, it was off to the water slides!
Shooting the Tube
I love watersliding. Its never more fun climbing stairs, than when you get to come zooming back down again, on a slide covered in water. I apologize for not posting to this blog all the pictures I took at the waterslides. I have to conserve my webspace, as its a finite amount, and I want to save space for continuing additions to this blog. I have the watersliding pictures, and they all turned out, so if you'd like to see them, just email me from above, and I will ship you off my collection of pictures.
Brier Bandits
Here we all are (at least most of us) enjoying the hot tub, after some exciting waterslide action. Not everyone is in this picture but this is the majority of us. Speaking only for myself, but probably encompassing everyone, it was a great time. It is hard to choose between the water sliding and the meal, for which I enjoyed the most. I'm guessing the meal, but the sliding was great too. The only disappointment was that there wasn't enough time to spend on any aspect of the night, to fully satisfy my enjoyment. I could have easily spent more time by the pool, but we had a reservation for Carvers, so the pool time had to be cut short. I suppose I could have gone back after supper but . . .
No more Cowasaurus
I ate the whole thing. And a salad, and some delicious French Onion soup. I wasn't really in a condition that was conducive to physical activity at that point. So I joined the boys in the hospitality room that was provided to us, by the hotel. That too was a nice time, if a little subdued. I think everyone was feeling much the same as I, fat and lazy. There was some cards played, and a few songs heard, along with multiple drinks consumed. Not a wild party by any stretch of the imagination, but a nice culmination to a grateful reward.
Sunday morning dawned, and some of the group went for breakfast. Chris was hogging the bathroom, and I wasn't hungry anyway, so I skipped that. At 11:00 I checked out, and sadly my Brier Reward experience was over. It was with some sadness in my heart that it came to a close. It had been such a nice time that I felt it ended too soon. Oh well, all good things must come to an end.
Was it worth it? My vote goes for yes. Thank you to Kevin, Cowan, Wendy, Al, and all that made the event possible. It was a wonderful token of appreciation. I thank those responsible.
Toodles!
We will open with some pictures!
Brier Reward
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Isn't that just the biggest piece of beef you've ever seen!?! That was, as I labelled it, my Brier Reward. Western Concessions provided for us, the trench grunts from the Brier, one day to be treated like royalty, in compensation for all we experienced at the Brier.
Was it enough compensation? I would answer with, absolutely! The day started at 3:00, when I arrived at the Sheraton, in Saskatoon. I checked in at the desk, and was greeted with the wonderful news that all expenses had been taken care of. All I had to do was, sleep in the bed. That's a pretty good deal.
Not long after I arrived, it was off to the water slides!
Shooting the Tube
.jpg){kind=link}
I love watersliding. Its never more fun climbing stairs, than when you get to come zooming back down again, on a slide covered in water. I apologize for not posting to this blog all the pictures I took at the waterslides. I have to conserve my webspace, as its a finite amount, and I want to save space for continuing additions to this blog. I have the watersliding pictures, and they all turned out, so if you'd like to see them, just email me from above, and I will ship you off my collection of pictures.
Brier Bandits
.jpg){kind=link}
Here we all are (at least most of us) enjoying the hot tub, after some exciting waterslide action. Not everyone is in this picture but this is the majority of us. Speaking only for myself, but probably encompassing everyone, it was a great time. It is hard to choose between the water sliding and the meal, for which I enjoyed the most. I'm guessing the meal, but the sliding was great too. The only disappointment was that there wasn't enough time to spend on any aspect of the night, to fully satisfy my enjoyment. I could have easily spent more time by the pool, but we had a reservation for Carvers, so the pool time had to be cut short. I suppose I could have gone back after supper but . . .
No more Cowasaurus
.jpg){kind=link}
I ate the whole thing. And a salad, and some delicious French Onion soup. I wasn't really in a condition that was conducive to physical activity at that point. So I joined the boys in the hospitality room that was provided to us, by the hotel. That too was a nice time, if a little subdued. I think everyone was feeling much the same as I, fat and lazy. There was some cards played, and a few songs heard, along with multiple drinks consumed. Not a wild party by any stretch of the imagination, but a nice culmination to a grateful reward.
Sunday morning dawned, and some of the group went for breakfast. Chris was hogging the bathroom, and I wasn't hungry anyway, so I skipped that. At 11:00 I checked out, and sadly my Brier Reward experience was over. It was with some sadness in my heart that it came to a close. It had been such a nice time that I felt it ended too soon. Oh well, all good things must come to an end.
Was it worth it? My vote goes for yes. Thank you to Kevin, Cowan, Wendy, Al, and all that made the event possible. It was a wonderful token of appreciation. I thank those responsible.
Toodles!