No, I am not going to rip on the prevalence of guns in the country, or about how to solve the problem of so many nutty people going out in a blaze of glory. Instead I am going to offer an observation, from my single data point, me. I have long enjoyed shooting. Got my start at 8 years old or so, I was a typical boy, so the usual “cops and robbers” and “cowboys and indians”...
My work laptop got wonky and my copy of Office 2010 was corrupted. Really weird stuff happening, but the icing on the cake was it saving corrupted files. I used all my ninja mojo, ran out of ideas, and then turned to our internal desktop support group, again to no avail. The last ditch effort before re-imaging the laptop was to try Office 2013. Office 2013 with the release of the first service...
This is the email I sent to Capitol Honda in response to their badgering me to rate my service experience excellent. I thought I would share it. I already posted it as a review on Yelp. Perhaps you should not have emailed me. Having recently moved from Arizona to California, and needing a minor service, as well as obtaining a smog test to register my S2000, I booked an appointment at your...
It almost pains me to admit it, but Microsoft has gone a long way to restoring my trust in them as a brand and a company to do business with. From the bullshit around Internet Explorer 6 (that I still have to deal with on my websites), to the piss poor security model of pre SP2 Windows XP, they had a pretty big deficit to overcome. How did they do it (in my case at least?) Yesterday, I got a...
I remember my first introduction to the works of Harry Harrison. I was in high school, getting into a heavy science fiction groove, working my way through some of the classics. A friend, Ken Rice, tossed me a copy of “The Stainless Steel Rat”, a collection of the stories about Slippery Jim diGriz, a criminal mastermind with an ethical bent. I was hooked. The story reaches out and...
I have been spoilt. In Arizona, the major dealers all competed with each other to provide awesome customer service. As there was plenty of competition with the independent service shops, many who were excellent, they needed an edge to keep customers coming back. I had become accustomed to fast internet, good coffee, fresh donuts and pastries, ample “quiet” comfortable chairs, and...
From the first time I slung my leg over that second-hand Schwinn Stingray (banana seat and all), I have love bicycling. A happy day when I was able to start bicycling to school, and then getting serious about it after I finished with college, my happiest times were when my work schedule allowed me to get in 200+ miles a week. Last year, while living in Chandler, I got back in the saddle in a...
When we first moved back to the Santa Clara area, we were put up at a newish apartment complex in Sunnyvale. When that month of free rent expired, we moved into an affordable apartment in South San Jose. This will compare and contrast these two experiences. Sunnyvale: Avalon Apartments The Avalon Apartments were built in the late 1990’s or early 2000’s. They are modern, well appointed...
A sort of gross topic today, I am going to discuss some of the oddities I have witnessed in the rest rooms at work. This is not solely my current gig, but instead it is a montage. If you are squeamish, navigate away now. The Stall Snob Most public restrooms have both normal stalls, as well as larger, handicap accessible stalls. Larger, they give you a little more privacy, and often a dedicated...
The saga continues, but some good news is in the air. About 6 weeks ago, we got the call that we had an offer for our house in Chandler. I didn’t get immediately excited, as we had been through this before without result. The offer was less than I hoped for, and they wanted a couple of unreasonable requests, so I was thinking “not this shit again“. But I played nice. We...