We Moved
Well that sucked. But we are here and in one piece.

My dog is still pissed at me though. She blames me for this because my wife and I drove separate cars and the dog was with me. So she somehow believes that I did this to her, but she won't leave my side. I think she is worried that if I go, that I'll leave her here and she will never get home. Oh well, she'll adapt. At least she is eating again.

Note to George W. Bush
Don't inconvenience me again! It's bad enough I that I don't know how to get around here. The last thing I needed was for all of the roads to be blocked off today. Grow a sack and deal with the traffic like we all do.

Moving
We are moving tomorrow and our stuff is being delivered on Saturday. I'm not sure what we are going to do Friday night. Camp in our new place? We would stay at a hotel, but we have a the dog so that makes it a little difficult.

We decided to rent for awhile, so it's back to an apartment for 6 months or so. I'm not too thrilled about that, but at least I get a break from cutting the lawn for the rest of the summer.

Maybe I'll have new Internet access established by Tuesday or so, so check back then.

Tennis Baby
So I see that CNBC is giving tennis crybaby John McEnroe a talk show. McEnroe just isn't my type of guy. I can't stand athletes who cry about every call, so I'll leave it at that. I find him amusing, so I may watch it but I have zero respect for the guy. Here is an interesting article I read awhile back. McEnroe had some words with the gossip columnist at the Minneapolis Star Tribune on a media conference call.

McEnroe never picked up on the fact that "he" was a "she" and they got into in over the whole "wood rackets" issue. Here is what the whiner said at one point:

"You're a big man, let me tell you," he said. "Friggin' loser you are, man. Go laugh all the way home. Go look in the mirror. I wish I played you on the tennis court."

I don't know about you but where I come from a test of your manhood doesn't usually involve putting on cute white shorts and hitting a ball with rackets, but maybe that's just me.

Fark Comments
The comments section at Fark is an interesting microcosm of world. This morning I read the following headline:

Austrian president dead at 71. Nation mourns by putting another shrimp on the barbie

I knew the reference immediately. In Dumb and Dumber, some women comments to Jim Carrey that she from Austria and he says, "Austria! Well, then. G'day mate! Let's put another shrimp on the barbie!"

Reading through the comments, I knew it was only a matter of time before some clueless know-it-all said, "hey its Austria, not Australia, dumbass" or something like that. Sure enough it took 5 comments before someone mentioned it.

Edwards?
Pretty boring choice, but much better than Gephardt. At least he looks better than Cheney.

Lawn Boy
I cut the lawn yesterday, and since we are moving on Friday, that will be the last time that I do it at my house here in Charlottesville. This is a relief, but also kinda sad in a way.

My yard is very hilly which makes cutting the lawn extremely challenging, both mentally and physically (mentally because it hard to get motivated to get out there). It takes about an hour and fifteen minutes to do now, but in the beginning it took close to 2 hours and it damn near killed me. I had to learn how to use the terrain as my ally. Many times I felt like caving in and hiring some guys to do it, but I decided to fight back.

Really, the only practical reason that I lift weights and run (besides vanity) is so that I can maintain the strength and conditioning to cut my lawn. But those days are now over.

The Freshman
The New York Times obituary of Marlon Brando overlooks one of my favorite movies, The Freshman. Brando plays Carmine Sabatini (aka Jimmy the Toucan) in a parody of his Godfather role as Don Corleone.

I've seen The Freshman more times than I care to admit (OK, maybe fifteen) and I still think it is hilarious. Matthew Broderick is perfect in the role of Clark Kellogg ("from the great state of Montana"), Penelope Ann Miller looks hot, and Maximilian Schell, B.D. Wong, Bruno Kirby and Frank Whaley are all impressive.

It is just one of those movies that fits perfectly with my sense of humor because it is so blatantly silly, yet the characters are playing it so seriously. Brando is perfect in this and I am surprised the Times doesn't mention it.

Bummer
Huge Brando fan. Kinda lived a weird life, but looked pretty cool when he was younger.RIP.

Saturn
NASA has this Cassini spacecraft that is currently orbiting Saturn. Here is the justification for the mission:

Scientists hope the mission will provide important clues about how the planets formed. Saturn, the sixth planet from the sun and the second-largest, intrigues scientists because it is like a model of the early solar system, when the sun was surrounded by a disk of gas and dust.

Can't we just admit to the real reason for the mission: Saturn looks cool. Why make up some bullshit justification? It's cool. Period. We want better pictures.

I recently conducted a local survey on favorite planets (sample size=2), and the result was that 100% of the females said Saturn was their favorite planet. Also 100% of the males laughed and said that their favorite planet was Uranus.

Gossip
I just wasted about an hour of my life reading through this list of celebrity gossip. A lot is seems questionable because about every other person is either gay or bi, which I kind of doubt is true. (like is James Garner really a "Friend of Dorothy"?) Also the editor of this list has it in for Conserative politicians. But some of the descriptions match what I would have expected.

Sink or Swim
Almost every purchase I make goes on my United Mileage Plus Visa so I have a vested interest in seeing United Airlines succeed. That being said, I have to agree with Kevin at Truck and Barter here that it is time for United to learn to live without government loan guarantees. Here is his summary:

If they cannot climb out of bankruptcy on their own, perhaps they don't deserve to survive. I say let 'em fail!

There would be a market upheaval if the second largest carrier failed. I'm not going to judge whether this would be "good" or "bad" in a welfare sense, but clearly creative destruction is sweeping through the airline industry.

It would be a shame if they failed, but they need to learn how to make money. As Southwest and Jet Blue have proven, you can make money in air travel.

Whose Money?
James Lileks has a funny discussion with a Kerry supporter about tax cuts. Here is why it doesn't make any sense to argue about with liberals about tax cuts. People just have completely different mindsets about who owns what. Here is the crux their discussion:

"Why should the government have given you the money in the first place?"

"They didn’t give it to me. They just took less of my money."

That was the last straw. Now she was angry. And the truth came out:

"Well, why is it your money? I think it should be their money."

You just can't argue with that logic.

Strong Kid
Did you read this story about the kid Germany with the big muscles? Apparently this kid has some kind of genetic mutation such that it "blocks production of a protein called myostatin that limits muscle growth". So the kid is really strong for his age, and could be probably be a pretty amazing athlete if it doesn't end up affecting his heart.

You know, you never really see athletic achievement that is on a completely different level from the current competition. You know like with the 100 meters, you can't be competitive unless you run under it in under 10 seconds. If there is a bell curve for speed, all of the athletes are grouped somewhere in very far right end of it: the 9.9s and 9.8s, but there aren't any outliers up there. Wouldn't it be sweet if some dude just walked in and ran an 8.2 all of a sudden? Maybe this kid could be like that.

You could argue that a Jordan or a Gretzky were outliers, but even then I think that while they were the best of their generation, they weren't all that much better than the next best player.

Bruce Should Stay Bald
Here is an article that says Bruce Willis is considering a "revolutionary treatment" to cure his baldness:

Hollywood action star Bruce Willis is reportedly planning to try a revolutionary treatment to cure his baldness.

The 49-year-old Die Hard star is said to have consulted experts about a new procedure that replaces crucial cells.

The "hair cloning" treatment has so far only been tested on rodents and has still to be approved by the US government.

"Bruce wants to make sure it is safe, but is very interested in going ahead it is available," a friend told The Sun.

I can't imagine Bruce Willis walking around with a head full of hair, but if that's what he wants, it's his mellon.

But anyway, why isn't there a real cure for baldness yet? I'm OK now, but at least compared to pictures from high school, it is clear that my forehead is growing, or something. Back then, I fully expected that this would be solved by now.

Tennis Mistakes
I think there is a little unfair piling on going on here. I saw the tie-breaker between Venus Williams and Karolina Sprem earlier today on ESPN and it was quite clear that everyone was confused. For me to expect a 19-year old speak up in front of a veteran player, seasoned officials and crowd that were equally as clueless would be a bit much, considering that at 34, I am just about at the point where I might be confident enough to do that. Even then, I would be wondering if I was just imagining things.

Here are some comments by sister Serena and Andy Roddick that probably were best kept to themselves:

"I think as a competitor and as a professional, you should be able to distinguish right from wrong," Serena Williams said, when asked what she would do if she were ever handed a free point. "I've never been in a situation like that before. But you know, I'm an honest individual. So if I were in that situation, I know I would make the right choice."

"Personally, I'd have trouble just taking a point from someone," Roddick said. "You know I've heard that no one noticed that stuff, but if it's the biggest match of your life, I'm figuring you know what the score is. I'd have a real issue just pretending like nothing was wrong and just taking the point."

The ESPN guys mentioned that this would only happen at Wimbledon, because in the US or even in France the crowd would be rumbling about it and they wouldn't be able to keep playing until it was resolved.

Packing Up
We started packing a little bit this weekend for our upcoming move, which actually isn't until July 9. My wife and I have very different styles when it comes to packing. I am of the "just throw the stuff in a box or a garbage bag, I'm sure it will fine" school, whereas she believes that everything needs to be bubble wrapped, twice.

Also, we have been trying get rid of some of our older stuff, but I am a complete pack rat and have strong attachments to stuff as silly as old receipts and ticket stubs. So the conversations around the house go a bit like this:

Her: "Why are you saving these old T-Shirts? They have holes in them and you never wear them."
Dave: "I'd sooner die than throw those away. Those are from college and are very important to me."
Her: "What about the stuff in this box that hasn't been unpacked since our last move,"
Dave: "If there was a fire in this house that box is the first thing I'd rescue."

More Proof That Dogs Are Great
Not that any more is needed, but here is a cool story about a puppy that saved an entire neighborhood:

A Canadian man, driving a car packed with weapons and ammunition, was intent on killing as many people as possible in a Toronto neighbourhood but gave up the plan at the last minute when he encountered a friendly dog, police say.

The middle-aged man, who police say is mentally disturbed, had planned to carry out the shooting spree on Wednesday to ensure he would be put in jail permanently.

Police say he had set himself up in an east-end park to load his weapons and then planned to drive around shooting.

He told police that a dog then approached and started playing with him.

Police say the encounter melted the man's heart, and he then went in search of police to give himself up.

Dogs really are looking out for us. If he would have ran into a cat, that whole town would be gone by now.

Be Nice To Me
I've been getting hounded by Virginia Blood services for the past three months, so decided I'd go give blood today to get them off my back. I try to give blood as often as can, but usually find some excuse or another to keep from doing it regularly.

Back when I worked for the Federal Government, the bloodmobile would come around on Friday every 2 months or so, and they would give us 4 hours of vacation time if you gave blood. What a sweet deal! So basically every couple of months I would give blood and get to take the afternoon off. Not only that, but as the nurse said today, "be careful if you drink alcohol, because one drink will feel like three". So four hours off and a cheap buzz to boot. You can't beat that.

Steroids in Track
This is kind of a bummer. Tim Montgomery, the worlds fastest man who ran a 9.78 in the 100 meters has admitted that he used steroids. He could be banned for life. It's too bad, because I was looking forward to seeing him in the 100 meters this year.

Now that he has come out, how much longer do you give his girlfriend Marion Jones? I suppose she could be telling the truth, but there looks to be a lot of steroid use around her. First her husband, now her boyfriend and also her training partner Michele Collins. When she got up last week and gave her little speech, I don't think I'm the only one who thought "the lady doth protest too much, methinks".

Olsen Twin
Not that I pay much attention to the Olsen Twins, but I did notice that one of them was looking a little too scrawny, an unhealthy kind of scrawny. So I see that she, Mary-Kate, is checking into some kind of Clinic for an "eating-related issue". Good for her.

I work out at U Va's gym and I almost every time I go there I notice at least one girl who quite obviously has an "eating-related issue". I am tempted to go up to them, grab them by the wrist and drag them to Popeye's or something, but that's actually illegal, especially when you're married. But, you know, it would be for their own good.

Moving Companies Seem Kinda Sleazy
This is the first time that we have had to hire a professional moving company to move our stuff. Every other time we've moved we just got a Uhaul, but now we just have too much stuff to do it ourselves. So I have been getting estimates from various companies and have been learning a lot about the moving industry. There is a used-car-sales feel to these estimates, so I'm glad I found this website MovingScam, because two of the moving companies that have been in contact with me are blacklisted there. I didn't realize that there were so may scam artists in the moving industry, and that it is hard to sue them if they damage or steal your stuff because of some glitch in the interstate commerce laws.

Clinton Book
I have been feeling kind of nostalgic for the Clinton era recently, that carefree decade of my 20s, and thought I thought about buying his book. But then I read some of the reviews and decided that there is no way I can make it through 950 pages of his life. Especially after seeing his interview on 60 Minutes, which reminded me why I got pissed at him in the first place.

He still just doesn't seem to get it, and has never really been contrite about lying in public. They showed clips of that whole Gennifer Flowers interview when he was running for President in '92, and he mentioned how he was pissed at Steve Kroft for asking him those questions. Of course, later we find out that he was flat out lying the entire time. You can't be indignant when you are the one who is lying.

Management
Via Businesspundit, this list called "How to Lose Friends and Infuriate People". Here are two that strike a chord with me:

1. When an employee is in your office to talk with you, don’t hesitate to answer your phone.

13. Hold lots of meetings and make sure they have an unfocused agenda. Allow the conversation to meander aimlessly, permitting one tangential comment to give license to the next. Never cut off a rambling participant and if anyone has a good idea, compel that person to assume responsibility for a new committee to pursue the idea. End each meeting with no action items.

I can't stand when I am in someone's office and talking about work related stuff and they answer their phone without even a "Oh, I better take this. Could you excuse me?" I used to just wait around and avert my eyes, as if I wasn't trying to listen in, but now I usually just walk out and let that person follow up later. It is actually a rude power play and it happens to me in interviews all the time as well.

I hate meetings, mostly for the reasons above. Some people just love to hear themselves talk. Not me. If I have to schedule one I always make sure that they over as fast as possible an on topic (unless it's a cool group and we start gossiping, that's encouraged). I used to have a boss who felt that if the meeting didn't fill the time allotted that we were somehow "finishing up early". As if the hour, or 2 hours scheduled were the actual time required to fully address the topic.

I can appreciate that people have different styles at work: some are talkers, some are listeners, or thinkers, etc., but don't drag down the group because you need to think out loud.

Whatever
Here is something that seems about as well thought out as the "New Coke", but maybe that's the idea:

She was born Madonna Louise Veronica Ciccone and has had many nicknames, including The Material Girl, but the entertainer, businesswoman, children's book author, wife and mother says she's ready for a new name: one reflecting her religious beliefs.

Madonna - who has for years been a believer in Kabbalah, a type of Jewish mysticism - says she has chosen the Hebrew name Esther.

Esther? OK, whatever. Madonna probably has the highest success to talent ratio of anyone ever, but I think she is running out of ideas. It might be a good idea to just slowly fade away at this point.

That Was Quick
I watched the Bachelor the last time around and I am not surprised that Jesse and Jessica (?) decided to split. I have watched most of these and this is kind of funny:

None of the previous "Bachelor" bachelors — Alex Michel, Aaron Buerge, Andrew Firestone and Bob Guiney — has ended up with the women they chose on the show.

Here is a quick recap from my understanding: Alex might be gay. Aaron wasn't ready or mature enough to be married. Andrew Firestone should have stuck with Jen, I liked her. But why was he on the show? Bob got less likeable as he became the bachelor. Jesse, again, why was this guy on the show? He is a 25 year old pro football player. Why would he want to be married?

Magazines
The Chicago Tribune has its second annual list of best magazines here. I subscribe to 3 magazines, 2 of which are on the list: Reason and Business Week at #13 and #15, respectively. I also subscribe to Fortune. I don't really read them like I used to, because it seems like I get most of my news from the Internet nowadays.

Anyway, I have been a Reason subscriber since 1996, when my buddy Geof bought me a subscription when I went off to business school in an attempt to keep me from being swayed by liberal academia. So it is nice to see them doing well, at least on this list.

Don't Drive Fast When It's Raining
Lots of rain today along I-81 this afternoon on the way back today, which meant lots white knuckle driving and accidents. I hate that ominous feeling of looking into a sky of dark gray ahead, and seeing the survivors of the storm coming with their lights on in the opposite direction. When rain really starts coming and visibility is zero, I am tempted to just pull over, but you can't really do that or you risk getting rear ended.

As we were just getting into the serious stuff I saw a truck moving a little too fast for conditions behind me and moved over into the right lane for him. A minute later, Mr. Speedy Truckdriver was jackknived in the median of the freeway. Traffic slowed in front of him and he couldn't stop in time. Oops.

Outta Town Again
I have to head on down to Knoxville tomorrow morning to get there in time for a 1:30 house inspection. The house we wanted down there accepted our offer and it is contingent upon there being no material defects in the place, so one of us needs to be there for the inspection and make sure everything is AOK. And being as that I am no longer an income producing member of our household, that job lands in my lap.

So check back here Thursday or so...

If You're So Smart, Why Are You in HR?
Craig Newmark links to this somewhat infuriating article about how the doofuses in HR try to determine a candidate's true personality. Here's a few examples of how clever they think they are:

Some interviewers have been known to call job seekers at home and pose as telemarketers to gauge how those candidates react. Are they rude? Do they yell? Or are they polite but insistent that they don't want to purchase anything?

How a candidate deals with an annoying telemarketing call tells the company something about how you would deal with an annoying client.

Let me just stop here. It does no such thing. There is absolutely no similarity between someone who calls you trying to get to you give them money, and an annoying client, who is usually someone who helps pay your salary.

Here is more of this crap:

One of Lance's favorite behavior tests is to drop her pen at some point during the interview and see how the candidate reacts. She makes sure to drop it an equal distance from herself and the job seeker.

"When they are telling you that they are customer-oriented and you drop your pen and they don't notice or they don't pick it up, it's a disconnect between how they are and what they are saying," she said.

I guarantee this has never happened and she is lying. It's a pen, not a bean bag. She can't just drop it and make sure it lands "equal distance from herself and the job seeker". There are just to many variables. Its going to be closer to one person 90% of the time. Usually if a female drops something near me I will make an effort to at least appear gentlemanly, but if it is a dude, unless it falls at my feet, I'm probably not going to move.

Last one:

Lunch or dinner meetings also are ideal settings for giving away hidden personality traits. Lance said she has heard of hiring managers who spill something on a candidate to see how he or she reacts. Some hiring managers will have a potential candidate drive them to a lunch meeting to see what kind of driver he or she is: hurried and aggressive, or courteous and careful?

If someone spills something on me and I later find out it was just a test to see how I would react, what I usually do is find that person's car and slash their tires, just to see how they'd react.