So I'm standing outside my workplace smoking a cigarette, minding my own business. Here comes this hobo-looking guy in flannel that just walks up and starts talking about smokers, pollution, and aircraft. He says one flight from coast to cost produces more smokers than all US smokers combined do in a whole year. He claims he has a revolutionary airport design that will cut emissions, but that nobody at the FAA will listen to him. He gives me his name and says to go google him, since he speaks internationally.

My first thought is 'ok, crazy dude... go wander off now'. There's no way in hell someone even remotely famous is going to be in my town unless they flew in for training at my company. I go inside and google him anyway, and guess what... first hit is a USA Today article on the guy.

http://www.usatoday.com/money/companies/management/2004-01-12-starry_x.htm

It looks like he has a pretty good idea, assuming some safety factors can be worked out. He also definitely has the arrogance to keep pushing. Check out this quote from the article:

Starry says the Earth is running out of time. "I say, with total humility, I'm the only person on the planet with simple enough solutions that will make a large enough difference in a short enough period of time to save humanity from total environmental destruction."

Discuss.

This breaks the mold in that it includes personal details. Skip if you're not interested in my visit to the dentist or vaguely-stated work frustrations.

So I made a terrible mistake last week. I'd just gotten off of a 12-day work bender and decided 'well hell, why don't I just line up all my outstanding medical-ish appointments next?'. So, monday was catch-up on all the normal crap I couldn't do while my assigned project was running. Tuesday was the doctor's office for ultrasounds (wife is pregnant) and cleaning most of the house. Wednesday was the optometrist for me and my daughter. Her eyes are perfect; mine haven't gotten significantly worse. Light-blind for six hours on the 'mild' dialator drops. Thursday was the dentist's for me and my daughter. Her teeth are perfect. Mine are the opposite.

If a dentist ever mentions checking your gum pocket depth, say no. Honestly, having a blunt needle slipped in under the gums 128 times isn't as painful as it sounds. Still, avoid avoid avoid.

Friday, groceries and bills. Saturday, clean the whole house (pregnant women do not like odd smells or clutter...), cook something nice, then movies with the family. Sunday, friends over for that great geek endeavor, the D&D campaign. Clean up after them. Monday, in early for one project (8a), out sort of on time (6:30p, a miracle), then back in at midnight for a godawful mess of a software update. Nearly 3 hours later I'm waiting for a different build of Microsoft's bastard implementation of SQL to upload to a site production box so I can get them back online and reporting the news to the entire goddamn western and midwest USA radio markets. Only about an hour to go before they start freaking out; 30 minutes to go on the upload, then at least 45 minutes for the data conversion. Outlook not so good, says the 8-ball, and it is on the money.

I love my job, but there are things about it that suck. Also, never try to go back to work after having your eyes dialated. And in case you missed it the first time, pass on the gum probe. Dentist == sadist.

...

profit?

User #975618
89*29*7*3*3*3*2

so bored...

For anyone who is curious...
I tag people as friends if they make a single clear, well-reasoned post that I happen to catch. This does not mean I approve of everything else they have said. If I catch someone on my list saying something blatantly dumb or offensive, I take them off, but I don't bother to review a person's post history.