Civil libertarians will be pleased to know that I flew to Minnesota and back without ID. It was entirely painless, and only took an extra 5 minutes or so for a pat-down. (Erika took the carry-on) Now, I did it because I left my license at home, not because of anti-government sentiment, and I was polite and entirely unbelligerent. They could have made it more difficult out of spite. I totally would if someone loudly refused to show their ID and demanded to know what grounds they had for requesting it.
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12:56:21 PM,
Tuesday 13 March 2007
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Switched my work keyboard back to QWERTY, so as not to cause confusion and despair to whomever gets my computer. Here is what Google made of it...
Did you mean: KXTV;OQJNNNNNNLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL[0000000000000009L00000000SN]Z///[LGV
No standard web pages containing all your search terms were found.
Your search - KXTMM;OQJNNNNNNLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL[0000000000000009L00000000SN]Z///[L=\GV - did not match any documents.
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10:34:11 AM,
Tuesday 13 March 2007
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Went for a long walk around Sandy Point on Plum Island. Saw Brant, Goldeneye, Eider, Black Ducks, Horned Larks, and Snow Buntings. The larks and snow buntings were mucking about in the sandy wastes around the mouth of the river; they're arctic tundra ground birds, apparently. Some of the sand there is purple; not sure how that happens. There was also a deflated basketball, entirely buried, under about 3 inches of sand, sticking out of a little sand-cliff face where the dune grasses were being undercut. Very peculiar. And a complete tree, lying on the beach, roots scoured white.
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(1)
04:53:50 PM,
Sunday 4 March 2007
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After years of nonsense, the final Branding solution has been reached. As of last week, the MUMPH brand is no more. The progression:
MUMPH Systems
The MUMPH Group
MUMPH, an Acme Company
Acme Mumph
Acme Healthcare
It isn't that it doesn't make sense to do branding changes gradually. It's that they make no attempt to communicate the long term strategy and lie about it throughout. And the very notion of having an Acme brand is utter nonsense, a simple ego trip on the part of Lord Acme's heirs.
Gosh. Imagine a supermarket if Unilever, ConAgra, Nestle and so on consolidated their brands. That would be... kind of neat.
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11:55:43 AM,
Thursday 1 March 2007
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The one month in the past year I actually need a cell phone, and it dives gleefully out of my pocket at 15 mph, ejects it's battery out and slides happily into a puddle of salty water. One day I'll learn about zip pockets.
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(1)
06:18:34 PM,
Tuesday 27 February 2007
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Onboarding. Seen in the wild at a (old) company briefing. Makes me think of the british naval press-gangs. One of them actually says 'Onboarding human capital'.
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03:39:58 PM,
Tuesday 27 February 2007
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Good grief. So far we're 4 for 4; everyone I've talked to about leaving has preemptively networked at me, angling for a new job. I think there may be a morale problem around here somewhere.
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11:34:55 AM,
Tuesday 27 February 2007
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I have given notice! Yay flux! I will soon be working for the volcano mentioned a couple posts back. It will henceforth be known as the Volcano of Employment.
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(2)
05:48:56 PM,
Friday 23 February 2007
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I'm definitely adding civil service reform to this list of issues I keep meaning to put together for myself. The government desperately needs more and better employees, and the ability to hire them for finite periods of time. The whole system of contractors is dreadful. At least in my company, it isn't willful corruption at all, and most of us feel sick about the more egregious wastes of money we're involved in, after all, it wastes our time as well, but that doesn't make the outcome any better.
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04:44:20 PM,
Thursday 22 February 2007
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Hey! 'Slowly twisting in the wind' isn't just a TMBG lyric, it's a quote from Ehrlichmann, speaking of L. Patrick Gray. My level of cultural illiteracy is now slightly diminished.
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(2)
11:09:28 AM,
Thursday 22 February 2007
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There is a certain sort of political rhetoric; "I don't know, and what is more, I don't believe you do either" of which I am excessively fond. I think it is far better than the assumption that the truth is self-evident and the opposition malevolent. I'm a sucker for Obama's focus on goals before means, values before policy. Policy is hard, and over my head. But it can certainly be taken too far, and is particularly ugly when used retroactively, the way Clinton seems to be, by refusing to acknowledge that voting to authorize the war was a mistake. It was an understandable mistake, and one I might well have made if I had the grand misfortune of being a senator. I'm open to the notion that it may not have been a mistake of principle but rather simply of applying a good principle to bad facts. But hindsight is supposed to be easy, yes? So that makes it particularly troubling when people can't see the past clearly.
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(21)
10:26:00 AM,
Wednesday 21 February 2007
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When I left work, a great blue heron landed at the very top of the birch tree opposite. An good all-purpose omen, I think. It was later seen doing it's best gargoyle on the top of the Alewife Parking Spiral. Yesterday I saw a vole sliding around on the ice in panic, unable to find it's burrow, which was less auspicious. Today there was also a massive convocation of starlings, and two squirrels, one of whom I engaged in a lengthy debate. It didn't throw anything at me, to my great disappointment. If they throw something at you, you know you've won.
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05:29:53 PM,
Tuesday 20 February 2007
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site & script courtesy of Moss
