Looking forward to watching the first episode of Firefly. A co-worker loaned the complete series to me while I’m off on paternity leave. I first heard about Firefly over at Reality Me and was intrigued by the concept. A western/ sci-fi, who would have thought, but it works.
As an aside, I’m not at all interested in the State of the Union Address, but I’ll watch it anyway.
Here’s a question for all you ethics experts out there.
The Missus and I bought a new car seat for lugnut. So now we have an extra seat that we don’t need. It’s at least six years old and is showing its age. On its back is printed a warning stating not to use the seat past December 2004. It still works, however and could be given to charity for somebody else to use.
So the dilema is this: Do I throw it away, or do I give it to charity?
It is very well worn. The manufacturer warns against using it any longer. It’s a potential danger, evidently. How could I lay that death trap on some family that can’t afford any better? Good grief!
(I’d also have to clean it up before I took off to said charity, if I so choose.)
Of course we’ve been using it for two years past its prime with no problems. It appears structurally sound. A good bath might do it wonders. (I’d have to bathe it. That’s the strongest argument in favor of el dumpo, so far.) Why should I make the charity’s decision for them? If they think it’s crap, let them throw it away. I’ll just be prematurely adding more junk to our overjunked landfills, if I throw it away now before all its potential is used up. Al Gore is shedding tears right now at the horror that thought. (I don’t believe he uses this internet. I think he uses internet 26 sub 7. So chances are he’s totally unaware of this unfolding moral… choice.)
Seriously, What do you all think? Should I take it off to the dump or over to charity? I suppose I could bronze it and mount it onto the hood of my truck for a makeshift hood ornament. Dude, wait a minute! A bronzed carseat would look great on a Mazada 6. Heh…
[edit: That’s Mazda 3, not Mazada 6. Those are crap cars anyway.]
This morning I woke up for my usual routine of rolling over in bed and going to work. For those not familiar with working from home, this is how its done:
5:42 AM - Alarm goes off. Cuss at it, hit snooze button. Roll over.
5:51 AM - Alarm goes off again. Ponder why snooze is at 9 minute intervals, while cussing at it. Hit snooze button again. Roll over the other way, pick up laptop, connect to VPN, pull up remote desktop connection to work computer, activate phone client, insert Bluetooth dongle (heh), roll back over.
6:00 AM - Alarm goes off for third time, but since you haven’t had a chance to go to sleep after the exertions of 5:51, just glare at it. Turn alarm off. Turn lamp on. Pick up computer, which by now has made the connection to the remote desktop. Turn on Bluetooth headset, place on ear, log into phone client, pull up work applications. Prop head on pillows, place laptop on stomach, and work.
6:30 AM - Phone rings with caller needing technical support. Realize you had been asleep. Snap awake, sit up straight. Resolve call. Go to bathroom. Start 4 cups coffee. Do 30 sit-ups. Pour cup of coffee. Enjoy. Pick out music to wake kids up to.
6:45 AM - Play music. Open kids room doors. Wake boys up, get them excited for day. Deflect complaints, arguments, cries of mercy. Probably take a call in the middle of it. Resolve call.
7:00 AM - Still working, make sure that kids are dressed, fed (but not too much, so they can have school breakfast). Ensure that MastaG has not slacked on presenting things to sign. Go on bug hunt with Pigpen. Complain at MastaG for turning computer game on so early in morning.
7:15 AM - Take break from work to take shower.
7:25 AM - Shoe children, send them out door.
7:30 AM - Lock door, load up kids, start car.
7:31 AM - Stop car, unlock door, go back inside house to get Pigpen’s backpack at his request. Note to self that Pigpen doesn’t USE backpack.
7:45 AM - Drop MastaG off at school.
7:46 AM - Commisserate with Pigpen vis a vis his not wanting to go to school. Try to cheer him up, fail miserably. Worry.
7:52 AM - Drop Pigpen off.
8:05 AM - Arrive at work.
Pretty straightforward, right?
Now, if you remove an aspect of this perfectly organizeed timeline, like, oh, say, your computer at work being dead, thus rendering you unable to work from home, it changes things to something like this:
5:42 AM - Alarm goes off. Cuss at it, hit snooze button. Roll over.
5:51 AM - Alarm goes off again. Ponder why snooze is at 9 minute intervals, while cussing at it. Hit snooze button again. Roll over the other way, pick up laptop, connect to VPN, pull up remote desktop connection to work computer, activate phone client, insert Bluetooth dongle (heh), roll back over.
6:00 AM - Realize that you’re not connecting to work computer. Call guy at the office, ask him to reboot it.
6:10 AM - Still unable to enter. Cuss. Threaten computer.
6:20 AM - Give up, go back to sleep.
6:42 AM - Wake up. Start coffee. Realize that today is going to suck anyway, forego sit-ups.
And so forth.
It ends with writing a half hearted post about how the day sucks, and realizing that there are most likely going to be 3 just like it coming right afterwards. Whee!
—
BTW, IT took the computer, and returned it saying its working, but they’re not sure whats wrong with it. Could be power supply, could be motherboard, might want to back up.
Weak.