Wal-Mart: Your New Banker? from BusinessWeek Online
Face it. We’re all gonna be living and working for the United Planet of Wal-Mart someday
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Monthly Archives: January 2005
Non rant meme
I don’t like to rant. Well, I do, but I think it’s bad karma.
I think that ranting merely increases the blood pressure, leading to tension headaches.
So, take this, post it in your journal, and give your ideas on what ranting leads to.
(Sorry, no rants on dangling participles. It’s acceptable in the UK. )
Stolen from
Scan my interest list and pick out the one that seems the most odd to you.
I’ll explain it.
Then you post this in your journal so other people can ask you about your interests.
We popped in Video Catnip for Bluebelle – well, really our entertainment. Hee, hee.
Legal advise?
(as some of those Nigerian 413 spams spell it – interestingly enough, I just got one in French yesterday)
A good friend of mine was offered a position, requisite on background check (he’s clean as a whistle). He gave notice at his current employer. Then the offer was rescinded after a week because someone thought he was “overqualified” – which is total BS (I’ve known the guy for almost 10 years, and for the position as interviewed he was a perfect fit).
Now I do realize that it’s “employment at will” in the USA – but now my friend is in the lurch – and he already had a 6-month unemployment period in the past 2 years, and he took a 40% pay cut just to get income. But does he have any legal grounds at all?
Sidenote – he’s a network adminstrator/systems programmer, working with Unix, Windows and SNA networks over the years. He’s in his mid 40’s, married, 1 daughter; he lives in the Dallas area and would rather stay there, but is now willing to move if the company pays for it.
The answer is…
From the meme I posted the other day. It’s hard to decide specifically one or the other in some case. For example, see #1…
dominant or submissive
It depends on the situation. I would say that it’s a tendency, but there are times when I’m dominant. But in say 55 of 100 situations, I’d vote for submissive.
logical or intuitive
Duh. I’m a programmer, ferkrisesakes. *g* But what I find strange is that I think these two are complimentary. I find that in many ways programming is intuitive. I think “emotional” is a better word here.
social or loner
For the first about-25 years of my life, I was definitely a loner. I’m more social now, but I don’t aggressively seek new social contacts.
kinky or vanilla
Vanilla is the best ice cream flavor. I haven’t seen kinky at Baskin-Robbins yet, though, but if I do I’ll give it a taste. *g* Seriously, again it’s a tendency.
cute or sophisticated
A recent trend, though, within the past 6 years.
kitten or puppy
Duh, again. *g*
warm flannel sheets or sleek satin
Comfy and feeling good. Tub baths are also good – check ’em out.
leader or follower
I have said that I will probably never be a manager. I’m not good at it…I had to do it for a couple of years as a lab manager and I never want to do it agaain.
quiet or talkative
Being one of the original study children for Ritalin, that should tell you something. *g* However, when I first meet someone or a group, I’m quiet at first, to gauge the situation.
spontaneous or planned
I plan for spontaneity, though. *g*
The answers are, with partial credit as indicated, because I’m wishy-washy…
jumbach – 95, <Mr. Burns>Excellent…</Mr. Burns>, partial credit for loner
talonvaki – 80, partial credit for dominant and loner.
jelly_doughnut – 75, partial credit for dominant
jeditigger – 70, partial credit for loner and quiet.
(What’s with all the LJ friends who begin with “j” *g*)
I’m going to post something non-friends-only in a minute. Yeah, how different.
At home, abroad…
it’s not a good start to the day…
Meme of the day
jeditigger provides this excellent tidbit:
A meme:
Pick ONE from each pair that you think describes me the best & leave it in the comments. Then copy this and post it in your own journal to see how your friends view you.
dominant or submissive
logical or intuitive
social or loner
kinky or vanilla
cute or sophisticated
kitten or puppy
warm flannel sheets or sleek satin
leader or follower
quiet or talkative
spontaneous or planned
Who said Swingline never produced a red stapler?
Mainly for that Office Space fan, …
| Really – it is a red Swingline Stapler! This dates from before 1964 because of the lack of ZIP code with the Swingline address on the bottom. |
 |
Yes, that is a red one. And I can vouch for it, because this was my grandfather’s. I’m not sure when he got it – I’m guessing he probably had it when he taught at Santa Monica City College, and that was from about 1954-1968 (he was half the astronomy department for a lot of that time).
Guten abend, meine Bekannte
Ich habe nach Deutschsprachkurs leste Abend züruckgegehen. It’s gonna be fun. This is a merger of last semester’s day and night German I people who decided to go on. (Alas, one of the cute young things I sat next to decided not to go on, but her friend did. I understand, though, she did struggle through the class.) It seems that the core social group of the day class came over, and we all got along well. But don’t get me wrong – it’s gonna be tough.
I hope I do better than last semester. Although I got an “A”, going only every other night I feel hurt me as far as retaining stuff. Frau D. is making a few changes which she thinks will help better with retention.
I also signed on for my online Object Oriented Programming using C++. This will be fun. I know a bit about C++, but not enough about OO programming. The instructor says that it will be all text-based assignments, which is good, because – I plan to use the IBM C++ compiler at work for the assignments, and that’s all batch! Fun! It looks like I will be the only current mainframe-based student, although a couple of folks have stated in their welcome message that they’ve used IBM MF in the past.
Cheri’s off to class today – French II. And she signed on for her online Art class, too – I think this one is after the one she took (like past Baroque, I’m not sure).
Oh, I’ve forgotten to make coffee, and I just realized it. I’d better go make it. Yawn.
Interesting little Firefox tweak
I learned this today, applied it, and OMG w00t !! 1!!
Open Firefox, go to “about:config”
Find and change “network.http.pipelining” to “true”, “network.http.proxy.pipelining” to “true”, and “network.http.pipelining.maxrequests” to 30, meaning it will be able to make 30 requests at once.
I did, and Firefox is screaming. It really shows when I look at my friends list.
ETA – This only is beneficial for broadband.
the rantings of a mainframe assembler programmer 