Archive for the ‘2004’ Category
We’ve decided on new names for the kitties: Tux and Roberta! Tux is obvious. Roberta got her name because Vivian has always wanted a pet named BOB… Not sure why, but I took the opportunity to offer “Roberta” as a solution. She liked that. So they are Tux and Roberta now! HA! What great kitties. Roberta is evil to the core… Tux is cute to the core… Yin and Yang…
Merry Christmas everybody!
Chloe (black and white), and Zoe! That’s what they were named when we picked them up. We haven’t decided if we’re keeping those names yet, but aren’t they cute!!!???
UPDATE: Emilio is very intrigued about developments with the cats. He is absolutely near death with jealousy and well, just wanting to check them out! I held Zoe and walked around with her so he could see her. He just stood there whining, looking up at her, walking around… Zoe just hisses at him. She’s definitely not afraid of him, but Chloe is. Emilio is so funny. He loves them, but don’t call them “cats” because a “cat” is something that slinks along the front of the dude’s house across the street that he barks at. These things are just his children, sisters, brothers or whatever… He doesn’t really know them as cats. It was that way with Morton and Visa too. What a weird dog…
Yahoo! News – Mobsters Bully Terror Suspect in Prison
Mon Dec 13,10:14 AM ET
Oddly Enough – Reuters
ROME (Reuters) – International terrorism charges and allegations of ties to al Qaeda might be enough to scare away some cellmates, in some countries.
But Italian mobsters jailed on the island of Sardinia, apparently outraged by terrorism, beat up an Algerian terror suspect and threatened to kill him unless he got himself transferred to a new prison.
The same threat was made against at least one other Algerian inmate.
“You guys set off bombs and do massacres. If you don’t change prisons, you’re dead,” the criminals were reported to have told Saadi Nassim, in comments confirmed by his lawyer.
The case won prominence in leading Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera on Friday in a story headlined: “Muslim prisoners beat up by Camorra,” referring the Naples-based mob organization.
The criminals who threatened Nassim were themselves accused of murder, the paper said, without naming names.
Nassim is fighting charges of belonging to a cell linked to al Qaeda. A judge has authorized Nassim’s transfer to a new prison, and a decision in the 2-year-old case is expected sometime next year.
By Digby Smith, this is one hell of a tome! Danny Stephens got me a copy of this book a year ago or so, and as much as I loved the book I knew someone who’d love it even more – my pal Chas in California. I sent it to him for his birthday.
This is no ordinary book! You can probably tell that from the title. Digby Smith has put in years upon years researching the minutae of the Napoleonic Wars, down to the specific actions and battles, who got injured, who got killed, what color their eyes were, what their favorite passtimes were etc. Heh… It doesn’t actually talk about the color of their eyes, but there’s so much detail covered in the book it’s almost scarey…
Each action covers the location, the forces involved (both sides), the losses (both sides), comments on the outcome of the action and the sources used to provide the information. There are over 2,000 actions covered by the book! Waterloo winds up the book, and includes so much detail you’re probably wondering, “Why is that so cool???”
Because I’m a geek! I love this kind of stuff, and Danny just got me another copy of the book – for ME!!! For my birthday! Stewart just gave it to me at breakfast. Now I have a copy of it too! Thanks Danny! I love this book!
Oh, I also got a lump of coal for my birthday…
I wanted to post a very personal “thank you” to all my former co-workers at D1 and elsewhere who have been very very supportive of me since I undertook my new employment endeavor. I’m working harder than I think I’ve ever worked in my life, and I’m having to do things that are extremely undesirable at times where employees and performance are involved, but I get “congrats” and “good lucks” from a lot of you, and even some “can you get me a job” too from time to time from others… 
Honestly, I wish I could get everyone I know a job, and maybe someday I can! But don’t count on it. Anyway, thanks to everyone for the support – which is such an ironic thing to say considering I do “support!” Heh. If things go well and other jobs open up, I’ll let you all know! I’ll work your butts off in fact! I’ll pick up the pieces and mold it into something I can sell to people on eBay!
UN official warns Iraq too violent for elections. 06/12/2004. ABC News Online
With more than 90 people killed in the past three days in a spike of unrest despite the end of US-led assaults on rebel cities south and west of Baghdad, a senior UN official warned that elections could be not be held in the current climate of violence.
Sunni Muslim Iraqis have stepped up calls to delay January’s landmark polls, fearing the violence could lead to election results being challenged after at least 21 people, including 17 Iraqis working for the US military, were killed on Sunday.
Ok… So let’s look at what happened… Bush postponed the attack on Fallujah because the elections were coming up at that time. In fact, that assault was talked about for nearly 3 months before it happened… Why did we give the insurgents 3 months to prepare for our assault??? I don’t get it. They’ve now spread all over Iraq and we’re having a very difficult time controlling things it appears…
Not very long ago I was itching to move forward, to get a better job, to move on from Decision One. Don’t get me wrong, I had nothing but petty gripes against D1… It’s a company that you work for only for a few years max (like while you’re in school, or getting other training) – then you move on. If you don’t you may never get out. I worked there on three different occasions over a 5 year span. It was really starting to get me down. I was down about it, and that made it all the harder to be pro-active. Bascially I guess I was depressed… Others may say it was self-pity… Whatever it was, I wasn’t moving forward. I was stagnant. I’d been that way before, the last time I worked for them.
Then along came an opportunity out of the blue one day back in August – helping with email support for Mozilla! It was like the perfect opportunity. The one I would do for myself if I had the drive and the financing to do it. Only this was better because the backing was already taken care of – I just had to do the work and make the rest happen. It took way longer than I wanted for it to reach this point, but now that I’m where I wanted to be I gotta say it couldn’t be cooler. But it’s also way more stressful… Now I drive myself forward mercilessly out of fear of failure!
I’m looking forward to the “balancing out” of the two extremes that I’ve been through in the last few months. I’m already seeing successes, and things have been really good so far, so I’m starting to worry about that first big problem I can’t solve… It will eventually happen, sooner or later, and I’ll have to deal with it, but I hope it’s not a big one…
Is it better to have quality on customer service and technical support, or is quantity more important?
Let me just ask you, would you rather talk to someone that has some training and can help you out better at a higher price, or would you rather get help free and speak to someone that may have little or no training, and may work in a foreign country?
I’m not trying to be discriminatory or anything, but this has been a question in my mind for a couple of years. When I was taking phone calls in the call center I’d hear several times a day, “Wow! You speak English!” It really seems to make a difference to people. I don’t think most of them were racists either (emphasis on MOST), it was just usually a language barrier issue when Bob from a little town in South Carolina gets someone from India on the phone when he calls for help with his HP printer… Bob just has a hard time with the accent, and the level of expertise of the tech in India. After an hour on the phone he calls us even though we don’t cover the support for that product, but at least we speak English…
The Wal-Mart mentality toward “products and production” is not necessarily the best or smartest way to do things, though you might get fabulously wealthy off foreign labor producing your goods at sweat-shop prices. I personally like the slow, steady growth type mentality. It might cost more to do it the “right” way, but controlled growth is always smarter. Market to your audience at all levels, not just at the price-point…
Just wait. You’ll see. I predict many of the companies that went overseas for cheaper labor may bring some of that back home in the future.
BTW. Here’s a little something from the MozParty on Friday night. (.mov file – 1,151 KB)
I’ve heard from Simone, who’s working for Bank of Oklahoma now. I know Reese and his wife are having their baby this week. I know Chester, Amanda and maybe even others are at US Cellular, I’m working for Mozilla (not even a lot of “work” yet, but I’ve been busier than hell, and stressed to the max…). HEH!!! I miss everyone I worked with at D1.
I’ve heard from a bunch of people that D1 is now doing “hotel seating” where no one really has their own desk anymore, and the department I was in (FedWar) has been crammed into a small area of “the tower” and everyone is sharing desks, air, and space… First come, first served… I can’t imagine… Thank God I don’t have to put up with that. Working for “the Man” instead of “the man” is way better. Maybe I’ll explain what I mean on my death-bed…
Ahem… Anyway…
I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving, and I wish I could blog as much as I used to, but I can’t tell you how much fun it is being this busy! I’m working harder than I’ve worked since I was a commercial shark fisherman on the “Patricia Ann” back in 1986. It’s a “good kind of tired” at the end of the day (even though I’ll hate myself in the afterlife for killing so many fishies!!!)