The Center of the Anomaly

Happy New Year’s!! December 31, 2006

Did you miss me?  Of course you didn’t.   The handful of people who check in here have real lives.  Anyway, here’s to hoping 2007 is better than 2006.  I meant to do a lot of things in ’06 but didn’t.  I mean to actually get around to doing some of them this year.

Merry Christmas Everyone! December 19, 2006

Tomorrow I’m off to take a break from work and the usual things to spend the holiday with my family back east.  It will also mean a break with the World Wide Intertubes as well until after New Year’s Day. 

2007 – I look forward to the new start, and I hope I make better use of my time.

Alas, I Did Not Prevail… December 17, 2006

The cough is persistant and phlegm plentiful.  My throat is sore and I sound like an orc.  Finally, my nose is now chapped from the numerous blows and wipes.  I must concede the fact that I do indeed have a cold.  Nuts.  At least it is just a cold and not the flu.  I don’t have some of the nastier symptoms like fever and whatnot, and I can still function fairly well.  I hope it blows through quickly – I’m flying to Virginia this Wednesday and I’d really rather not do it while sick. 

So, how was your weekend?  Ready for Christmas?  I’m not.

Not Sick…Yet. December 15, 2006

I thought I was when I first woke up this morning with a raging sore throat and lots of wonderful phlegm getting hacked up.  My throat was sore because it was mighty dry.  A bit of water lubricated things up a bit and greatly eased my discomfort.  I dunno, I’m still coughing a bit and no shortage of sticky mucous globs, but I still generally feel otherwise okay.  Not sick, but definitely under assult.  I’m fighting back with vitamins, OJ, Zicam, and high anti-oxidant white & herbal teas.  Sorry, RG – I like garlic okay, but I’m not big enough of a fan to suck on garlic cloves.  I guess I’ll see what tomorrow brings.

Crap! December 14, 2006

I think I might be coming down with a cold or something.  I started to get a funny feeling in the back of my throat today, and I have a bit of a cough.  Which may or may not indicate anything, since as an ex-smoker I have Phlegm Management Issues (PMI) anyway.  Still, I think I may be getting a headache.  Or not.  My head seems to be debating the issue.  I took some Zicam on the way home from work today, but I didn’t read the instructions all the way through.  It says you’re not supposed to drink anything for 15 minutes after taking a dose.  I drank something right away.  What does that mean?  Did I dezicamify the dose?  Am I completely unzicammed at this point?  I dunno.  I’m not supposed to take another dose for 45 mintutes by now, so I suppose I’ll wait.  While I wait I’m fortifying my vitamin C levels right now with orange juice in the form of vodka screwdrivers.   Ha ha!  Just kidding!  No, instead I’m trying to sterilize my innards with Wild Turkey bourbon. 

I really hope I don’t get sick.  I rarely do, so I’m badly out of practice.  Plus, I have tomorrow off already and I don’t want to burn a Personal Leave day being sick.  Not only that but I have Stuff To Do, before I scoot out of town for Christmas holiday time with folks back East.  I guess I’ll know sometime tormorrow.

Important Safety Tip December 8, 2006

While whizzing around a busy interstate freeway interchange in the middle of Las Vegas at rush hour it’s not a good time to be checking out your latest video podcast downloads.  Oh, nothing happened – just a moment of clarity when in the course of a split-second of checking out a moment of “the funny” in the video I went from having plenty of room between me and the car in front to a couple of feet between me and the NEW car in front while we’re all doing 60 mph.  Yeah.  I can check out the Daily Nut later.

Grammar Quiz Thingy December 7, 2006

As seen over at The Llama Butchers a little internet quiz.

Your Language Arts Grade: 100%

Way to go! You know not to trust the MS Grammar Check and you know “no” from “know.” Now, go forth and spread the good word (or at least, the proper use of apostrophes).

Are You Gooder at Grammar?
Make a Quiz

It’s sad, really.  All of the stuff on this quiz you’re supposed to know by the 4th grade.  It brought to mind a letter I remember opening some years ago at work, though. 

At the time it was part of my job to look at all the mail we got for the day and route it to the appropriate person.  This letter was just addressed to my division in a local elementary school’s stock envelope, so I opened it up to assess it and either deal with it myself or pass it on.  Basically it was a letter requesting some general information about our organization and other stuff for some class project.  The letter itself was hand-written with appalling penmanship, but beyond that it was riddled with spelling, grammar, and punctuation errors.  It even had an incomplete sentence!  While I read this sad document I grabbed a red pen and marked all the errors I noticed.  Given the penmanship, I was generous on some words. There was hardly a single line on this one-page letter that didn’t have a least one red mark.  Most had several.  It served its purpose, I suppose.  I understood what was wanted and sent back a packet with our brochures and pamphlets that covered all the topics referenced in the letter.  Do you want to know what the saddest part of this letter was?  It was the fact that it wasn’t written by one of the students.  It was written by the teacher of the class at that school.  This happened here in Las Vegas and it’s in one of the larger school districts in the country, folks.