Life of Dave

yesterday wasn't -that- bad

Fri, 17 Jul 2009 18:23:54 GMT

I was reminded today that my problems aren't so bad, and that there are always worse things that could happen. If I have health and happiness, everything else is irrelevant.

had a bad day

Thu, 16 Jul 2009 23:37:44 GMT

Bummer of a day today. They're posting the job of my boss' boss, and I, quite naturally, had planned to apply. Sadly, I discovered state law won't allow my salary to increase by more than a certain percentage of my current salary. This means, if I got the job, I would make significantly less than the minimum salary listed for the job. Even if they bumped me up to the minimum starting salary for the job, it would be about 20K less than I would expect to make in a job of its nature, even here. Minimum. So now I have the choice of being even more dramatically underpaid than I already am, or of passing up on a job that is much more in line with my skill set. In short, it was a very frustrating day. And revealing - I realized how much I really care about what I make. Of course, I asked the HR person if I quit my job, would I then be eligible for the higher salary? Her response seemed to indicate yes, but that it wasn't really a course she recommended, for obvious reasons (what if I didn't get it?)

buses in Conway?

Tue, 14 Jul 2009 15:35:32 GMT

The third and final public comment meeting was held by the firm tasked with coming up with a plan for a bus system in Conway, Arkansas. One of the local TV stations sent some reporters, and about a dozen other folks showed up to take a look at the proposals. There was an exciting powerpoint presentation, and at least two folks who thought the bus system should pay for itself. I've a sneaky suspicion this will move forward regardless of any opposition (and I, of course, hope it does).

Swine flu and obesity

Mon, 13 Jul 2009 01:48:02 GMT

Well now this will be interesting - apparently swine flu affects obese people more severely. According to an article on Bloomberg (via Slashdot), "obesity stands out as a statistically significant factor involved in the seriousness of the disease". Given our fear of fat, this could lead to some very strange reporting - gleeful and self righteous. While I'm not ready to believe our high fructose corn syrup overlords that there's no problem (especially with our food!), I think we've allowed some curious attitudes and beliefs to shape our treatment of the question of who is 'fat'. And this news could pull it all out into the open.

Sarah Brown, and Twitter in French

Sun, 12 Jul 2009 13:27:06 GMT

I learned vaguely useful words today, in an article in Le Monde on the subject of how Sarah Brown (the wife of British Prime Minister Gordon Brown) has become a whirlwind of Public Relations, it was explained that she was also on Twitter

Mais c'est sur Twitter qu'elle a trouv� toute sa place. Pas un jour d�sormais sans qu'elle raconte � ses presque 345 000 "suiveurs" le sel de ses journ�es. En 140 signes maximum, � toutes les heures du jour et de la nuit, elle leur dit son go�t pour l'Eurovision, commente la derni�re �mission de "Britain's Got Talent" qu'elle a pu voir, ou fait �tat de sa visite au zoo de Londres avec ses deux fils.

But it's on Twitter she has found her place. Not a day goes by that she doesn't tell her 345,000 'followers' about her day, at all hours of the day and night - about her taste for Eurovision, about the last episode of 'Britain's Got Talent', or her visit to the zoo with her two sons.

So if you ever need to explain twitter to a French person, there's the words you need!

The article also notes that she never talks politics, and, in passing, damns the Prime Minister, noting "Elle veut conna�tre les pens�es et les sentiments du plus de gens possible, aussi vite que possible, alors que son mari n'est pas tr�s bien inform� en la mati�re" - "She wants to know the thoughts of the people, even if her husband doesn't". (loose translation)

Xinjiang

Sat, 11 Jul 2009 00:01:29 GMT

Because it seems popular to be a Uighur these days, or at least it's popular to beat and torture Uighurs these days, I thought I would do a little background reading on the subject. The council on foreign relations had a nice overview of the Uighurs' situation in China. It's pretty much what you'd expect, although the levels to which China seems willing to go to integrate the region seem extreme. I did some further digging to figure out why China cared, and ran across this data sheet from the UN, which noted "Xinjiang is sparsely populated but is rich in resources" including minerals, coal and oil, and large amounts of arable land.

There seem to be quite a number of comment trolls out on this topic - it will be interesting to see if I get hit.

refinanced!

Wed, 8 Jul 2009 01:37:42 GMT

I finally managed to close on the refinance of our house. It saved us a couple hundred bucks a month (well, not counting the first few years, when we'll be paying back all the fees we had to pay to refinance), but it was an ordeal - a good percentage of all possible screw ups that could be made were made in this transaction, right up to the part where I called this morning and said 'why didn't we close yesterday - why didn't you send the documents?' and my bank responded 'oh - you didn't close yesterday?' If I thought the mortgage people dealt with the rest of my money, I'd be switching banks as fast as I could. Then, of course, the person doing the closing was working in a different building, so in addition to the proverbial run-around, I got the real thing too. I'm so glad it's done!

United breaks guitars

Wed, 8 Jul 2009 01:32:35 GMT

Spot the unhappy passenger in this music video, written about a (now deceased) guitar that flew on United Airlines. For bonus points, explain the sombreros.

my friend the spy

Mon, 6 Jul 2009 08:16:06 GMT

Bonus points to Ken Clarke for his comments concerning the new head of MI6 showing up on facebook, as reported in the The Mail on Sunday:

"I suspect that the enemies of this country do not wholly rely on The Mail on Sunday and Facebook for their information," Mr. Clarke told Sky News. "So I, personally, would get a little more calm."

From reading the article in the Times, it sounds like there may have actually been more personal information available than the head of a spy agency might want revealed, which is an interesting reflection on the age we live in. Hopefully with enough incidents like this more thought will be given to keeping private data private on these sites (though it is hard to protect people from themselves).

Al-Jazeera on Iran

Mon, 6 Jul 2009 01:39:17 GMT

Juan Cole has a handy compilation of Al Jazeera's special on Iran and Mousavi. With today's reporting that Iran's religious leaders have openly split, we could be in for a long haul, so sit back, pull up youtube (where the vids are posted) and get yourself informed.

Health Reform as seen from up North

Sun, 5 Jul 2009 12:04:27 GMT

A friend pointed me to a great article on the health care debate as seen from the Canadian point of view. Since the Republicans in congress, on a daily basis, drag Canada's health care system through the mud, it seems fair to see what Canadians have to say about it. It's a good article, with some excellent points, like noting that the people fighting hardest against reform 'represent' the people most likely to benefit from the reform.